WWUTT 877 Jesus Judges No One?

Jesus said to his critics, you judge according to the flesh, I judge no one. Because the first time that Jesus came, he came as Savior.

But when he comes a second time, then it will be in judgment when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

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Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. Not a lot of improvement on my voice. It's still about as weak as it was yesterday, but we'll see how far

I'm able to get today. Looking at John 8, starting in verse 12, and reading through verse 30.

The Apostle John wrote, Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world.

Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

So the Pharisees said to him, You are bearing witness about yourself. Your testimony is not true.

Jesus answered, Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true. For I know where I came from and where I am going.

But you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh.

I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true.

For it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.

In your law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the

Father who sent me bears witness about me. They said to him, therefore,

Where is your father? Jesus answered, You know neither me nor my father. If you knew me, you would know my father also.

These words he spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple. But no one arrested him because his hour had not yet come.

So he said to them again, I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin.

Where I am going you cannot come. So the Jews said, Will he kill himself? Since he says,

Where I am going you cannot come. He said to them, You are from below, I am from above.

You are of this world. I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.

So they said to him, Who are you? And Jesus said to them, Just what

I have been telling you from the beginning. I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world that I have heard from him.

They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father. So Jesus said to them,

When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the

Father taught me. And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.

As he was saying these things, many believed in him. So we come back to verse 12, and today we're going to pretend that chapter 7 verse 53 through chapter 8 verse 11 don't exist.

So we're going to continue with the narrative as this section continues from where we left off in chapter 7.

So at the end of chapter 7 verse 52, Jesus is speaking at the end of booths, end of the feast of booths, and that's where we're picking up here.

Still this discourse at that particular feast. The Pharisees sent some officials to go and arrest

Jesus. They didn't arrest him. They came back to the Pharisees empty -handed. So Jesus is speaking again in the temple, and it says in verse 20 he spoke in the treasury.

Not that he was necessarily standing in the treasury itself, but may have been over by the treasury, which is a section of the temple that's adjacent to the court of women.

So that's the approximate location Jesus was. It wasn't as public a place, because remember when he came to the feast, when he came up to Jerusalem, he was trying to be incognito.

He didn't want to be recognized, and for the first part of the feast he wasn't, but then he went into the temple to preach, and then the people recognized who he was.

And so the Pharisees sent these officials to go and arrest him, but when he spoke the way that he spoke, they said, we've never heard anybody speak like this man.

So they went away confused and went back to the Pharisees and empty handed, and the

Pharisees rebuked them for that. So here the Pharisees are now among the people as Jesus continues to teach.

Verse 12. I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

And this should be reminiscent of another famous verse talking about walking in the light that may have come to your mind.

1 John chapter 1 starting in verse 5. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin.

This is similar to a very popular Christian song that came out in the 90s from DC Talk.

It was written by Charlie Peacock. I want to be in the light as he is in the light. I want to shine like the stars in the heavens.

Oh Lord, be my light and be my salvation because all I want is to be in the light.

It's taken from 1 John chapter 7. So we walk in light, meaning that we know the truth and we can discern truth from falsehood.

We can discern right from wrong. We can discern the way of righteousness from the way of unrighteousness.

This is what we have in the light of Jesus Christ. This is what his light illuminates for us.

And how do we come into this light? How do we discern this truth? It's according to the word of God, what we have in the scriptures, what is written for us in the

Bible. As David said in Psalm 119, your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

So we know the way that is pleasing to God, the way to God, when we read his word, when we understand the words of Christ.

So Jesus says, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life, the way to eternal life.

Verse 13, So the Pharisees said to him, You are bearing witness about yourself.

Your testimony is not true. And Jesus answered, Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true.

Of course it is, because he's the son of God. He is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets.

The voice has been spoken from heaven about Jesus Christ. This is my beloved son, in whom

I am well pleased. And in fact, as I quoted to you already from 1 John 1,

John references that there at the start of his first epistle. He said, The life was made manifest and we have seen it and testified to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the father and was made manifest to us that we have seen, that which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you so that you too may have fellowship with us.

And indeed, our fellowship is with the father and with his son, Jesus Christ.

That which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life, this is what we proclaim to you.

So the father has spoken from heaven. He has said, This is my beloved son in whom

I am well pleased at the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist and the witnesses who were there who heard the voice from heaven.

Jesus says, The father who sent me bears witness about me. The father testifies about me.

If I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true for I know where I came from and where I am going.

But you do not know where I come from or where I am going. So yesterday, one of the things that I mentioned, talking about how

John chapter 8 verses 1 through 11 is kind of a break in the action. There are things that Jesus says in John chapter 7 which he repeats in chapter 8 because we've seen him do this over the course of the gospel of John so far where Jesus will say one thing that people won't believe him.

He'll say the same thing again but slightly different or he'll add some more words either to show the people that they do not understand or to help them understand, his disciples in particular.

And this is one of those statements where he says that I know where I come from and where I am going but you do not know where I come from or where I am going and where I am going, you cannot come.

He's going to say that later in verse 21. I am going away and you will seek me and you will die in your sin and where I am going, you cannot come.

He has said this previously in chapter 7 verse 33.

Jesus said, I will be with you a little longer and then I am going to him who sent me.

You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am going, you cannot come.

And he's speaking to those who do not believe. The Pharisees in particular in this case here in chapter 8, he's saying to them, you cannot come where I am going because you do not believe.

You do not believe in me and you do not believe in him who sent me. Where I am going, you cannot come.

You do not know where I come from or where I am going. That's chapter 8 verse 14. You judge according to the flesh,

Jesus says, I judge no one. Now, that verse is often ripped out of context.

See, Jesus is saying here that he doesn't judge anybody. So, he is not your judge.

There was a statement that was made recently by Judah Smith of Church Ohm.

That ridiculous online church that he's created that he calls Church Home, but the way that it's spelled.

Trying to be creative, trying to be catchy. I tell you what, sometimes these guys just really overthink this seeker sensitive, seeker friendly stuff.

And it just looks ridiculous. So, Church Home, but it only has one

H and it's all run together. So, it looks like Church Ohm. Anyway, Judah Smith, who's the pastor of this thing over on the

West Coast, he has said in a recent tweet online that Jesus is not your judge.

Well, it's usually verses like this that leads a person to say something like that.

That Jesus is not your judge. You judge according to the flesh, I judge no one.

Well, the thing about that statement, John 8, 15, that's a judgment. So, clearly

Jesus is judging here. The kind of judgment that he's talking about when he says,

I judge no one, is final judgment. In his first advent, his first coming, when

Jesus first came to earth, which is, of course, what we're reading about here, Jesus did not come as judge.

He came as savior. He came to save, to seek and save the lost.

The son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to lay his life down as a ransom for many.

This is the reason for Jesus' coming. Or as it says in 1 John, he came to undo the works of the devil.

The cling of sin and the effects of sin that were upon humankind.

But now all who believe in him are freed from the bonds of sin and death and we have been transferred from the kingdom of this fallen world into the kingdom of his eternity.

We get to be fellow heirs of that eternal kingdom with Christ for all who believe in him.

So that's what Jesus came to do. He came to save. He came to lay his life down for his people that all who believe in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

When Jesus comes the second time, his second advent, it's going to be in judgment revealed from heaven.

As it says in 2 Thessalonians 1 starting in verse 7, revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know

God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the

Lord and from the glory of his might when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed because our testimony to you was believed,

Paul says to the Thessalonians. That's what's going to happen with Jesus' next coming. That's his second coming, his second advent.

He will come as judge. When he came the first time, which again is what we're reading about in the gospels, he came as savior.

So that's the context of you judge according to the flesh, I judge no one.

Jesus is saying you can't know who I am because you judge according to the flesh.

As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2, the naturally minded man can't discern spiritual things because they are spiritually discerned.

And so the natural man cannot understand that Jesus is the son of God.

He was just a great teacher, right? A great teacher that lived a long time ago. Got a bunch of people to follow him.

Maybe he did some things that looked like miracles, so then people wanted to deify him and say that he is

God. That's the way the critics, the skeptics, will view this whole story of the gospel.

They'll view it as just something that over a period of escalation eventually raised Jesus up as this deified figure, but it wasn't ever who

Jesus was or even who he claimed to be. He was just some great teacher who did some amazing things.

And that's the Jesus they say that they believe in. So they'll call themselves Christians because they believe in the great teacher

Jesus, but not in the son of God Jesus. And so they judge according to the flesh.

Jesus is saying, I judge no one, yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not

I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.

All authority has been handed over to Jesus. So remember what Jesus said before he left his disciples and ascended into heaven.

In Matthew 28, on a mountain in Galilee, it says, Jesus said to his disciples, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Now, therefore, go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father and of the

Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And lo,

I am with you always to the very end of the age. It's the close of Matthew's gospel. It's the section that we refer to as the great commission.

And Jesus says, I and the Father are one. The Father who sent me has given me this authority.

But at this particular time and place, Jesus is not judge. He is Savior. He has come as Savior.

He goes on to say to the Pharisees, verse 17, In your law it is written that the testimony of two people is true.

I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.

Now, I want to remind you once again that John highlights seven witnesses of Jesus as to who he is, the

Son of God, over the course of the gospel of John. John the Baptist being one of them. Jesus' own works testify to who he is.

God the Father has said from heaven, This is my beloved Son. The scriptures, especially

Moses, and here Jesus makes another reference to that again. The law. In your law it is said that the testimony of two people is true.

That's in Deuteronomy, where it says that there must be, every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

So Jesus is saying, The Father testifies about me. I testify about myself. There's your two witnesses, and he uses the scriptures to support that.

The fifth witness to Jesus is himself. The sixth is the Holy Spirit, and finally the disciples, especially

John as he is the one who is writing. Verse 19, They said to him,

Therefore, where is your father? And Jesus answered, You know neither me nor my father.

If you knew me, you would know my father also. These words he spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple, but no one arrested him because his hour had not yet come.

So Jesus says, You don't know me, you don't know the Father. If you knew me, you would know my father also.

A reference that I've made back to this before when Jesus had said something similar in John's Gospel is in Matthew chapter 11 where Jesus says,

No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the

Son, and everyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. So we come to know

Father and Son, and even Holy Spirit who testifies to the truth because it has been revealed to us by Jesus Christ.

He is the one who shows us the Father. If you don't know Jesus, you don't know the Father either.

So you think about these anti -Trinitarian groups, especially among some Pentecostal groups that deny the

Trinity, that God is one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Well, they're not

Christians because they deny an essential doctrine to the Christian faith, especially this saying that Jesus has made here, you don't know the

Father unless you know the Son. So if a person does not acknowledge the

Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, it is because they don't know the Son, and therefore they don't know the

Father either, therefore they also don't have the Holy Spirit, which is quite an indictment when you consider this is largely very

Pentecostal groups that will believe something like this, and they don't know God. They are not

Christians, denying this essential doctrine of the Christian faith. It's a very serious thing. And so those who deny such a doctrine need to be evangelized.

They are not considered brothers and sisters in the faith. They need to know the true

Christ who reveals to us the Father. We know God through Jesus Christ, the

God -man who came as Savior to die for our sins. Let's close with prayer.

Jesus Christ, we thank you for the goodness that you have shown to us by your death on the cross and resurrection from the grave so that all who believe in you will not perish, but will have everlasting life.

Knowing this truth, I pray that we find practical application for us throughout our day.

There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We have a hope and peace in the blood of Christ.

We have something to look forward to, an eternal kingdom that has been promised for us if we endure to the end.

So whatever comes our way today, may we count it all joy, for we know that this is producing in us a steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect until the day of Christ comes, when

Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead. Find us faithful, O Lord our

Savior. Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand The Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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