Sunday Gathering - John 8 : 31-59 - Mike Healey - Sermon Only

So, it's good to be speaking. I'm feeling a bit underprepared actually. Nick asked me

about being able to preach some months ago and we'd arranged the date and the passage

and so on and I was preparing everything and looking at my notes and praying and thinking

about what I was going to say and I was just looking at the PowerPoint I'd done and thinking

well is that the right colour scheme and does it need a bit of, and then I happened to look

at the service outline and I realized I've been preparing the wrong passage. That was changed so

there's no PowerPoint I'm afraid but I have got some visual aids so truth and very good I'm glad

they're legible. Now I know something similar happened to Erica when she preached last week

she was talking about how she'd been hoping to be preaching on a different passage and she ended up

preaching very powerfully which was a blessing to all of us so now you'll see the other way it can

go. You won't because Nick's prayed over me so I'll be fine. So we're still in John chapter 8

and we're following directly on obviously from the passage that Erica preached on

last week and if you heard Erica's sermon you might remember that the passage she was preaching

on finished with a verse that said as Jesus was speaking many believed in him many but not all

so I'm going to take on this passage in in three chunks just because it's quite a long passage this

takes us to the end of chapter eight so this passage starts to the Jews who had believed in

him jesus said so he's not talking to the people who were rejecting him he's talking to the people

who had accepted him on some level who believed in him either because of what he said or because

of who he was or because of the signs he did we're not entirely sure but it's interesting that

jesus just keeps pushing you know we we get we get somewhere with jesus and he starts that's great

now try the next bit and it can be a challenge because Jesus wants us to be perfect and the

good news is that through the power of his spirit he can make us perfect but that does mean

that sometimes we're challenged to move on to develop to grow but to the Jews who had believed

in him Jesus said if you hold to my teaching you are really my disciples then you will know the

truth and the truth will set you free they answered him we are Abraham's descendants and we have never

been slaves of anyone how can you say that we shall be set free which is it's a bit of an odd

response I mean in chapter 7 the previous chapter of the gospel according to John we've just had the

festival of booths the festival of tabernacles why were they in booths they were remembering

their time in the wilderness as God's people now why were God's people in the wilderness

anyone yeah they'd been freed from slavery and we're not all up to speed with the festival of

booths, but the big Jewish festival, the one that constitutes God's people in the Old Testament,

in the Hebrew scriptures, is the Passover. Why were they having a Passover? Because God was

freeing them from slavery. That's what it is to be a Jew, to be one of those people who remembers

being freed from slavery in Egypt. But these people, so Abraham's descendants, we'll get on

to that a little bit later, and have never been slaves of anyone. It's as if they don't like the

idea of the status of a slave. Well, I've never been a slave. But the whole point of being God's

people is that we have been freed from slavery. It's not that we were never slaves. God doesn't

pick the people who don't need saving Jesus said I came to to find sinners not the righteous

healthy people don't need a doctor God frees us from sin and death and he does it partly by making

us perfect and that can be a real challenge and a real struggle but what we should never be doing

is looking at ourselves and saying yeah i'm i'm not surprised god picked me i'm worth picking

they answered him we are abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone

how can you say that we shall be set free jesus replied very truly i tell you everyone who sins

is a slave to sin this is a kind of slavery that the passover and the passage through the red sea

and the 40 years in the wilderness couldn't save God's people from because it happens to each

individual person we each need individually to be freed from sin by God by the power of his spirit

very truly I tell you Jesus says this is a bit of a catchphrase of Jesus's he all the gospel

writers record him saying truly i tell you amen is the word we translate truly um probably the

same word as the amen we say at the end of a prayer and it means true truth so when you start

a saying with amen it means that this bit's true pay attention and when someone else says something

and you say amen you're saying yep so be it i agree so say we all very truly i tell you everyone

who sins is a slave to sin now a slave has no permanent place in the family but a son belongs

to it forever so if the son this is the son of man the son of god sets you free you will be free

indeed I know that you are Abraham's descendants yet you were looking for a way to kill me because

you have no room for my word I am telling you what I have seen in the father's presence and you were

doing what you have heard from your father so spoilers for the next bit when he says your father

he doesn't mean Abraham. He's challenging this idea of being children of Abraham. So

Jesus is telling the Jews who believed in him, and Jews, by the way, everyone in this story is a Jew.

Jesus is a Jew, his disciples are Jews. When John talks about Jews, it's not entirely clear who he

means. He might mean Judeans, Udioi is the word in the Greek that we translate as Jews, as opposed

to Galileans, so southerners. You know, like people sometimes talk about Brussels when what they mean

is the mechanisms and the decision-making bodies of the European Union. Now, that doesn't mean

everyone in Brussels is responsible for what's going on. You know, Jean-Claude Van Damme isn't

responsible for what's going on. What they mean is the decision makers of the EU. And similarly,

when John writes, you die, Jews. John was a Jew. Jesus's first followers were Jews. It's not

entirely clear who he's talking about, but he is talking about the people who weren't quite on

board with Jesus. Jesus says to them, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free,

which is great news it's not only good news it's amazing Jesus is offering eternal life

he says later on that eternal life is this to know the only true God and his son whom he

has sent and that's in the same passage where he calls himself the truth what he's saying is I

offer you this knowledge that is eternal life and when he says you will know the truth he's not

talking about a kind of head knowledge a kind of intellectual understanding he's talking about

the knowledge that informs your whole life if you hold to my teaching not if you read it or hear it

and think yeah that sounds good but if you actually begin to live by it and try to grow

into it that truth will set you free you will come to know the eternal truth that is eternal life

but these people who were they're not the people who who were already against him they're the

people who sort of took his side in the previous bit, they don't like the idea of being set free

because being set free means you weren't free before. I read somewhere, I've read it more than

once but I read somewhere, I can't remember where, that the difficult thing about learning to do

something is it starts with realising you can't do it or you could do it better and that can be a

blow to the ego. That can be difficult to think, oh, I'm rubbish at this. And the stage of doing

it in a rubbish way can be difficult. Oh, I'm not very good at this, but I need to keep practicing.

And that's kind of like what these people are saying here. We've never been slaves. We don't

need to be freed. We don't need what you're offering because we're already fine. And Jesus

says very truly I tell you listen to this bit everyone who sins is a slave to sin the slave

has no permanent place in the house if you're a slave you're not really part of the family

but the son is and if the son sets you free you will be free indeed and he agrees with him you

are Abraham's descendants yet he says you were looking for a way to kill me this isn't a

surprise to these people chapter 7 I think Andy preached on some of it and Micah and Cornelius

preached on some of chapter 7 weeks and weeks ago but you can still go and look at the videos

if you're thinking well I don't remember hearing that bit but that's got a lot about Jesus saying

you're trying to kill me and the people he's talking to are saying no one's trying to kill you

is this the guy they're trying to kill so it wasn't a secret that Jesus's opponents wanted

him dead. And he's saying to these people, you're trying to kill me because you have no room for my

word. I'm offering you freedom and you're saying we don't need freedom. I'm offering you truth and

you're not listening. You have no room for my word. I'm telling you what I have seen in the Father's

presence, in the throne room of God, in heaven, in the presence of the uncreated light that the

Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem temple is meant to be a symbol of, the place where no one goes

except God and his best angels. I've been there, I've spoken with him, this is what I've heard,

and you're not listening you're doing what you've heard from your father so then on to the next bit

we're by the way we start at verse 31 of chapter 8 if you're following along we're on to

verse 39 Abraham is our father they answered if you were Abraham's children said Jesus

then you would do what Abraham did now Jesus isn't contradicting himself here he said I know

that you're Abraham's descendants and now he says if you were Abraham's children. In the Greek it's

two different words. The word that's translated here descendants is sperma, literally seed. You

are the offspring of Abraham, the descendants. And the word for children in this verse is tekna,

children. If you were Abraham's children then you would do what Abraham did. Now being someone's

child is often used, was often used in the ancient world and in the scriptures to indicate a kind of

character. So Barnabas, Paul's colleague, was known as, Barnabas wasn't his real name, that was a

nickname, Barnabas, son of encouragement, because he was such a great encourager. Jesus called

himself son of man to indicate that he's a human being he's the most human being even though he's

the one who's not just human and here these people are claiming to be the children of Abraham and

Jesus says well you can't claim that you can't be children of Abraham the Abraham is mentioned a few

times in the gospel books, John actually only mentions Abraham in this passage. Jesus talked

about Abraham but John only records it in this passage. Luke is the gospel writer who mentions

Abraham most and he talks about things like the bent over woman who Jesus healed in chapter 13

of Luke he calls her a daughter of Abraham should she not be freed having been bound by Satan

should she not be freed on the Sabbath and Zacchaeus Luke records Jesus calling him a son

of Abraham in other words children of Abraham are God's people being a child of Abraham means

you're in. You're part of God's people. And obviously what Jesus is challenging here

is the idea that these people he's talking to are claiming that status. And the way he's

challenging it is by saying, Abraham didn't behave like this. If you want to be a child of Abraham,

that means behaving like Abraham. And Abraham was a man of faith. Abraham was a man who sought God.

abraham was a man who sought the truth he was a man of obedience he heard what god was saying to

him and he did it so jesus says if you were abraham's children then you would do what abraham

did as it is you were looking for a way to kill me a man who has told you the truth that i heard

from god abraham didn't do such things you were doing the works of your own father so he's he

keeps pushing this idea that they have a different father it's not Abraham it's someone else and they

say we're not illegitimate children in other words well we know who our father is and they might be

having a sly dig at Jesus here because of course Joseph married his mother Mary but didn't claim

to be Jesus's biological father if if he had there'd be no scandal at all if you just know

yeah we got a bit carried away but now we're married so it's fine he didn't claim that so

there was you know there was gossip about Jesus's parentage they're saying we are not illegitimate

children the only father we have is God himself so they're raising the stakes a bit and again

they're not they're not saying something outrageous the Hebrew scriptures refer to God's

people as God's child. In Exodus 4 when God is telling Moses to go to Pharaoh and ask Pharaoh

to set his people free he says you know Israel is my firstborn son these are the people who I've

chosen my son and so these people are saying our father is God himself they are raising the stakes

but they're talking quite conventionally you know as Jews as children of Israel we are children of

God but Jesus accepts that raise in the stakes and says if God were your father you would love me

for I have come here from God if you were Abraham's children you'd do what Abraham did

if you were god's children you'd love the son of god you'd love the one he sends i have not come on

my own god sent me why is my language not clear to you because you are unable to hear what i say

you belong to your here it comes you belong to your father the devil and you want to carry out

your father's desires he was a murderer from the beginning not holding to the truth for there is no

truth in him when he lies he speaks his native language for he is a liar and the father of lies

it's a wonderful turn of phrase when he lies he speaks his native language but Jesus isn't just

calling the devil a liar he's calling the devil a murderer and it's interesting that he says he was

a murderer because there's no truth in him as if lies and murder go together when he lies he speaks

his native language for he is a liar and the father of lies if we're talking about whose children you

are let's look at how you behave and let's look at who the father of that behavior is he's the father

of lies so you liars are his children yet because I tell the truth you do not believe me. In other

words they're not just people who are sometimes economical with the actuality, they are people

who are lost because of lies. They're so into lying that when someone tells the truth they

don't believe it. Because I tell the truth you don't believe me. Can any of you prove me guilty

of sin he says. If I'm telling the truth why don't you believe me? Whoever belongs to God

hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God. So Jesus is

really hammering this idea that these people are trying to kill him. He says you're trying to kill

me, you're looking for a way to kill me because you have no room for my word. You're not open to

the truth because you've committed yourself to a lie. You were looking for a way to kill me,

a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. And by the way, that's nothing like

the way Abraham lived his life. And then he says, your father, the devil, was a murderer from the

beginning. In other words, you're looking to kill me because you take after your father. He's a liar

and a murderer and that's what you are. And the reason you do not hear is that you do not belong

to God. So this is heavy stuff. This is Jesus really laying into these people and these are

the people who believed him in the last passage. So there really is a challenge here that he's

saying look at what you're doing. He's saying if you want to claim this status as children of

Abraham maybe think about who Abraham was how he behaved and maybe the thing about being a child

of Abraham is to live like him not just to to tick it off the list say yep I'm a child of Abraham so

I can behave how I like and when they escalate by saying well actually our father is God himself

Jesus says no he's not your father is the devil because murder and lies those are in his department

God doesn't do that stuff so then the third section I'm not really dividing these sections

I'm just rolling through but anyway up to verse 48 verse 59 is the end of the chapter by the way

up to verse 48 the Jews answered Jesus here we go aren't we right in saying you are a Samaritan

and demon possessed Jesus said I am not possessed by a demon but I honor my father and you dishonor

me I'm not seeking glory for myself but there is one who seeks it and he is the judge very truly I

tell you whoever obeys my word will never see death the second very truly I tell you in this

passage there's there's several of them in in the there's a number of them in the gospel books as I

say it was like Jesus's catchphrase and John the other gospel writers record Jesus saying truly I

tell you amen lego human John records him saying very truly I tell you amen amen lego human in the

King James translation I think it's verily verily I say unto you it's like listen up whoever obeys

my word will never see death so we've had everyone who sins is a slave to sin and now we've got

whoever obeys my word will never see death at this they exclaimed now we know that you were

demon possessed they've gone from asking look is there something wrong with you have you got a

demon to say well now we know you've got a demon because you're saying that people who follow you

people who obey your word don't die and here we go this is what we call or what biblical scholars

call what I read in books what we call Johannine irony these people are telling the truth now

without meaning it and we're in verse 52 Abraham died and so did the prophets yet you say that

whoever obeys your word will never taste death are you greater than our father Abraham well yes he is

but they don't know that he died and so did the prophets who do you think you are well we know the

answer to that of course and if we'd read the previous passage the one erica preached on last

week uh still in the same chapter chapter eight um we would have heard or read who jesus says he

is the same thing i told you from the beginning but don't worry he's going to tell them again

who do you think you are? Jesus replied, if I glorify myself, my glory means nothing.

My father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. Though you do not know him,

I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar, like you. But I do know him and obey his word.

your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day he saw it and was glad so

there's a lot there including that wonderful burn I would be a liar like you are but I do

know him and obey his words and Jesus says Abraham saw this he saw this coming now it was commonly

believed apparently that Abraham was granted visions of the future by God so you know no one's

surprised by that but the idea that Abraham was granted visions of Jesus and rejoiced I think that

might be a bit strong medicine for these people and they say you are not yet 50 years old and you

have seen Abraham very truly I tell you and this is the third one in the passage very truly Jesus

I tell you Jesus answered before Abraham was born I am and this is John records Jesus saying

I am like that seven times in in the whole book he has him saying I am something I am the bread

of life I am the light of the world I am the gate of the sheep I am the true vine I am the way the

truth and the life all these there are seven I'm not sure I can't remember seven anyway I'll have

to look them up but there are also seven times in John's gospel book where Jesus just says I am

because it's the secret covenant name of God

and because what it says about God is that God is.

He tells Moses, I am what I am.

I will be what I will be.

Tell them that the I am has sent you.

And Jesus says, before Abraham was born, I am.

It's a big claim.

but it's totally in line with what Jesus has been saying. Jesus has been saying, I'm telling you the

truth, listen to me and you won't face death. My truth can set you free from the slavery of sin.

I'm telling you what I've heard in God's throne room. Who do you think you are? Well, I am. Not

last week but on a previous occasion when Erica was preaching, these things stick in my mind

sometimes. She said, Jesus is saying, before existence existed, I existed. At the beginning

of his gospel book, John talks about being, and he says, in the beginning was the word.

And he uses a different word for creation. He says, creation came into being. The world came

into being. God is. He has eternal existence. He is the one who is self-sufficient. He is the one

who exists and we find that difficult to get our heads around sometimes. Sometimes we're tempted

to think well there's the world, there's the universe or whatever and then God is maybe in

there somewhere or maybe he's outside it but he's kind of an addition to the universe but actually

it's the other way around. Julian of Norwich, who's one of my favourite writers, who was writing

maybe 700 years ago, she had a vision that she wrote about where Jesus was there holding

something in his hand and she says it was like a nut, it was the size of a nut, but it was blue

and she asked him what it was he was holding and he said that is everything that was made.

in other words there's a universe and here's Jesus God is the thing the one who exists

and the universe is kind of an add-on because we we derive our existence we exist because

something happened I exist because my parents met and fell in love I exist because I can continue

to get air and water and food and shelter and so on, the necessities of life. I exist because

God keeps me in existence by his mighty word. But God, God just is. He's on a different level.

And Jesus is telling these people very plainly, I am. Those things you say about God, how he's

uncreated he's he's all glorious he's eternal that's me before Abraham was born I am and at

this last verse of the chapter at this they picked up stones to stone him but Jesus hid himself

slipping away from the temple grounds so chapter eight I know that the chapter divisions in the

bible they weren't put in by the original writers john didn't put the chapter headings in that was

put in uh much later on uh around the 12th century i think so after over a thousand years of having

the bible as a book people put the chapter breaks in to make it easier to read but this chapter

is a passage that starts with people trying to stone the woman caught in adultery you remember

of the story. They caught a woman doing adultery all on her own, which tells you what you need to

know. And they were going to stone her, but Jesus stopped them. He said, look, if you want to stone

this woman, you better make sure you don't have any sin. And they all slunk off. And Jesus said,

well, I don't condemn you either. Go and sin no more. And now the chapter ends with them trying

to stone Jesus but he hid and ran away because it wasn't his time because that wasn't the plan

but we see the violence that goes with the lies and this is the big difference this is I've not

really been using these I should have done a powerpoint but we see the big difference between

truth and lies. Lies need maintenance. Lies need enforcement. You sometimes read online that Saint

Augustine said the truth is like a lion. I don't think he did. I've read around it a bit. I think

it's probably Charles Spurgeon who said that, who said the Bible is like a lion. Let the lion go and

it will clear itself of all its enemies. If people have objections to the Bible, the answer is the

Bible. Show them the Bible. But truth will out. That's the thing about truth, because truth

is what there is. And in this passage, Jesus is diagnosing what's wrong with these people

and their lies. He tells them, you have no room for my word. If we want the truth,

we need to be open to the truth it's one reason why i find it so sad when people who love science

and people who love jesus are at odds when people say well science and christianity they're against

each other they're not they're different they ask and answer different questions but all truth

is god's truth you have no room for my word because you've bought into this lie and that

gets in the way of truth thinking of science the uh the nazis who ran germany and started the

second world war they couldn't be doing with einstein because even though he was a brilliant

scientist he was a jew and they were like well we can't have jewish science we need to make up a

different science that's not the same as that but he was right so the only way they could do

something different was by being wrong. The only alternative to the truth was a lie. But Jesus says,

you're looking for a way to kill me because you have no room for my word. And again, he says,

why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You've decided

what you want to believe and so you can't hear someone telling you even if they're telling you

straight from God you know I've been in God's throne room this is what he's saying you can't

you can't accept it because you're not open to the truth because you want to decide what's what

whoever belongs to God Jesus says here's what God says the reason you do not hear is that you do not

belong to god and when he has his um his burn about belonging to their father the devil

he says there is no truth in him he was a murderer from the beginning not holding to the truth

the lies and the violence go together if we want to believe a lie we have to enforce it

if we want to be the arbiters we have to use violence we have to say right i'm going to make

this be this way i'm going to make the world fit my views that's that's the huge difference

between truth and lies because the truth is out there as we used to say the truth is what there

actually is and what we need to experience the truth is to be open to the truth to listen to

learn to find out more to develop and as Jesus says then if you hold to my teaching if you live

according to what I'm telling you then you will know the truth you will come into this greater

awareness it's greater understanding and the truth will set you free i've gone way over time

whereas if you want lies you get violence just one last thing i've realized i've overrun really

sorry but um i used to be in charge of supervising some preachers and it's difficult to believe but

one of them was really um she wouldn't preach what the bible says she wouldn't preach the christian

faith she would preach her own opinion and it wasn't it wasn't really a christian opinion

um and i worked with her for quite a long time and met with her and talked with her

and she said to me at one point because i said to her well when you were licensed as a preacher

you had to say you believe the bible why did you say that and she said well i was told by the people

who were guiding me through the process that it was okay to lie and i had to say to her those

those people who told you it's okay to lie they were lying and that's the choice we have

we can be open to the truth or we can close it off with lies but lies aren't harmless lies aren't

just an alternative way of looking at the world lies are what leads to violence and murder and

force now I'm just thinking I've overrun already I think I've said what I need to say

but I think we need to be aware that Jesus is the truth that one of the great I am sayings

he gave to his followers is I am the way and the truth and the life and that doesn't mean

he's a different kind of truth or we can ignore other truth and look at Jesus instead

no he is the truth and everyone who is on the side of truth listens to him amen