John 8:48-59 (Responding to God)

The Shepherd's Church

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Today, we're going to close out John chapter 8, and we're going to do that in a fourth and final installment into this argument that's been going on between Jesus and this crowd of Jews.

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They began as people who said that they believed and they were following him.

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And as we will see today, their end is that they pick up stones to try to murder

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Jesus. Now, that's a bad day in ministry. I was thinking about this this week, like everyone's excited, everyone's come together, and then all of a sudden, blue chairs start flying my direction.

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That would be tough. The difference between here and 2 ,000 years ago there is that they thought that they were believers.

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They had a false sense of confidence, and while everyone in this room may not be a believer in Christ, I'm not 100 % sure about that, only

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God knows, the difference is that this group definitely was not sincere believers in Christ because Jesus himself tells us that they were not.

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He gives them four key aspects of what it means to be a true believer in Jesus, and those really are the four aspects that we've been covering week by week by week.

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For instance, week one of this little look at the argument that's going on in the Gospel of John, we saw that true believers have true faith, and part of true faith is meaning that they continue in the faith.

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They have perseverance in the faith. They don't have faith and then lose it and apostatize.

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True believers continue to walk with Christ because the Holy Spirit keeps them walking with Christ.

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Jesus says of that kind of faith, you will be his true disciples, and if you're his true disciples, you will have true freedom that can never be taken away from you.

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That is what we talked about in the first week. True faith in Christ is accompanied, or being a true

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Christian is accompanied by true faith. The second week that leads us into that is true freedom.

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Jesus teaching them that they are not free, that's what we covered basically over two weeks of deep covenantal theology, and it might not have seemed like we were going anywhere, like we were just digging into the weeds for a few weeks, but Jesus is proving to them that they're not free because they're bound by the law of Moses.

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He's saying that something has to happen in order to extricate them from the law, in order for them to experience the grace that Abraham experienced, and he says that they're not going to receive that.

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He says they're going to die in their sins, this group. They had an external need that was not coming for them because Jesus even says to them, which leads us into the third week, that they were not a part of the family of God.

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So in order to be a Christian, you need to have true faith, you'll have true freedom, but you also need to be a part of the family of God.

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Jesus looks at them and he says that they're not members of God's family, they're members of Satan's family, which is about as tough of an accusation as you can hurl at someone.

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Jesus says that they will reject him, they will not believe, they cannot love him, they won't receive his word, and they will act like Satan, who was a liar and a murderer from the beginning.

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It means that they will perpetrate lies, they will not live in the truth, and they will live in a sort of God -hating violence for all of their life.

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Whether that's like this group that picks up stones to hurl at Jesus, or whether it's in your heart, that continually refuses

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Christ. That was the first three weeks. True faith, true freedom, true family.

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I couldn't find an F for this week, so we had to break the cycle. These two families, what we're gonna talk about this week is how these two families respond to Jesus.

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Those who have true faith and true freedom and are part of God's family are gonna respond one way, and those who are part of Satan's family are gonna respond another way, and underneath the surface of it, in John chapter eight, has been this theme of confusion.

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And let's just be honest, in the gospel of John, everyone is confused by Jesus. The unbelievers are confused by Jesus, the believers are confused by Jesus.

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The difference is, is that the unbelievers' confusion fuels them towards hatred, and the believers' confusion fuels them towards asking questions, towards intimacy, towards a relationship.

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Their confusion accomplishes different things in their life based on which family they're a part of.

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So if you will, turn with me as we look at John chapter eight, 48 through 59, as we explore how these two families respond to all that Christ has said.

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This is how the passage reads. The Jews answered and said to him, do we not say rightly that you are a

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Samaritan and have a demon? Jesus answered, I don't have a demon, but I honor my father, and you dishonor me.

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But I do not seek my glory. There is one who seeks and judges. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.

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The Jews said to him, now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets also, and you say, if anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.

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Surely, you are not greater than our father Abraham, who died, the prophets died too.

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Who do you make yourself out to be? Jesus answered, if I glorify myself, my glory is nothing.

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It is the father who glorifies me, of whom you say he is our God, and you have not come to know him, but I know him.

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And if I say that I do not know him, then I'll be a liar like you. But I do know him, and keep his word.

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Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad.

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So the Jews said to him, you are not yet 50 years old, and you've seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, truly, truly,

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I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am. Therefore, they picked up stones to throw at him.

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But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. Lord, we are gonna see an explicit response from your word today on those who are not members of your family.

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We're gonna see confusion, we're gonna see rejection, but Lord, we're also gonna see implicitly underneath the surface of this text, and from other texts that we will consider together that those who are members of your family will be forgiven of their rejection, they will be healed of their confusion, and they will be brought into as faithful, upright members and good standing of your family, the family of God.

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Lord, I pray that we would hear the warnings that are here for the family of Satan.

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Lord, I pray that we would hear the passion and our hearts would be led to praise based off of everything that you have done for us as members of the family of God.

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Lord, I pray that ultimately, in all things, you will get the glory, in Christ's name, amen.

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Confusion in the Gospel of John fuels a response. Family of Satan are eternally and permanently confused by Jesus, and they do not turn to Jesus.

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They become harder and harder and harder as they go. Whereas members of the family of God, their confusion causes them to run to Jesus, to be converted by Jesus, to, they propel him, not to reject

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Jesus, but to accept Jesus. Because if you are chosen by God, and the

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Bible describes the fact, we've talked about this before, that we are chosen before the foundations of the world.

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That's in, we read that verse earlier in Ephesians. Chosen before the foundation of the world to be conformed to the image of Christ.

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If that's true, God's promises cannot fail, so if you're part of the family of God, you will end up coming to him.

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You cannot outrun him. He came to seek and to save his lost, and if you are a part of his lost, he will find you.

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That's if you're a part of the family of God. Now as we look into chapter eight, the sermon's gonna basically exist in three parts in this particular passage.

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We're gonna see how their confusion leads them to be confused about Jesus, be confused about what a relationship with God looks like, and to be confused about what kind of behavior would be consistent with that relationship.

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They don't understand any of that. That confusion is gonna fuel them to wanna murder Jesus. That's the second part, and then we're gonna end with how diametrically opposed that is to the believer.

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Because of Christ and Christ alone, you will not reject him.

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You will run to him, and all of the confusion that we have will be healed over the course of our lifetime.

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We will grow in knowledge of God. We will grow in desire of God. We will grow in passion for God. We will grow in understanding of the things of God.

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And all of that is not of your own doing. It's a gift from God to you.

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So more than anything, we're gonna deal with some harder truths, but what I want us to do is I want us to end with thankfulness and gratitude for all that Christ has done for you and I.

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So let's dive in. We're gonna first begin with their confusion about who Jesus is, the unbelievers.

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And the first part of that confusion is they're confused about Jesus. Who is Jesus? John 8, 48 says, do we not rightly say that you are a

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Samaritan? Which is a pretty fascinating claim because they know he's not a

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Samaritan physically. They know where he was born. Well, at least they think that he was born in Galilee, so they have the right country.

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They don't think he's physically a Samaritan. They don't think that he's genetically a

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Samaritan, so what are they talking about here? They're claiming that Jesus is not a physical Samaritan, but a spiritual

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Samaritan. They're comparing and contrasting the current leadership that they've been sitting under for all this time, the

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Pharisees, who are at the height of the Jewish religion, who are at the pinnacle of truth and exegesis and all of those things, and they're comparing

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Jesus with that and they're saying that our leaders are better than you and you are like a

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Samaritan dog. That's what they're saying. They are challenging his authority here. They're saying that we don't have to listen to you because you're nothing better than a

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Samaritan. They're challenging his authority. They're comparing the sum of his teaching to Samaritan mythology.

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And we have to understand that this is probably one of the most awful sort of public comments that you could make at this particular time.

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Now, there's nothing wrong with the Samaritans. There was something wrong with the Jews. They had a racial hatred for the

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Samaritan people. They had jokes, they had slurs, and this particular thing that they say of Jesus was a racial slur at the time that this text was given, and they're using it to undermine his authority.

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Now, we see this all throughout the world today. I was thinking about examples that I could give. I ain't using

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Trump as an example, but it's a good one. He looked at Elizabeth Warren and he called her Pocahontas because of her ancestry .com

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results that she's 116th Indian. That's him attacking her character. That's him attacking her as a person and saying she's not worth listening to because of this.

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Do you see how he's, it's an ad hominem attack. He's attacking her character in order to undermine the validity of what she's saying.

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We see that all the time. Think about in marriage where maybe you're really sick this time, husbands, and your wife knows your sensitivity to sicknesses, and she doesn't believe you.

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She doesn't believe you! Attacking your credibility as a man. You felt the worst you've ever felt in your entire life.

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You're on death's door. She just doesn't get it. She's using a character flaw to undermine your credibility.

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It happens all the time. The Jews are doing this here to Jesus. They're saying how in the world could

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I possibly believe you because you're a Samaritan? They don't want to believe.

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It's not like they're trying to believe and they're just coming to some sort of conclusion, oh gosh, he really is of Samaritan birth, we can't believe him.

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No, they don't want to believe. They're coming to this as people who don't want to believe and they're using this as a way to justify their preconceived conclusions.

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It gets even worse though. They say in verse 48 at the end of that verse, do we not say rightly that you're a

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Samaritan and have a demon? So they're not only assigning to Jesus the lowest place on earth in their opinion, they're also assigning him the lowest place in hell.

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And this is astounding. Jesus has literally healed the sick right in front of them.

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He has literally given sight to the blind. Next week in John nine, we're gonna talk about that. He has healed people of demonic possession and yet they look at him and they say, the one who is attacking

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Satan is a soldier of Satan. That makes no sense.

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It's because they don't want to believe in him. So they, because they don't want to believe to him, they have resulted to the ridiculous in order to justify themselves.

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This is an appeal to authority. They're casting themselves on the side of God so that they can say that Jesus is on the side of the enemy.

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They view Jesus as this sort of out of touch, redneck Galilean who has nothing at all that he could say to the elites of Jerusalem.

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He can't speak truth because they know better than him. And yet here you have, and we've pointed out this irony frequently, you have the

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God that they claim to serve standing right in front of them and they're so foolish.

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Now the question is, why are they so foolish? Is it because they just didn't study theology enough?

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Is it because they didn't go to the right seminary? Is it because that they didn't pay attention well enough to what Jesus is saying? Or is it because they were prohibited from seeing the truth?

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That their eyes were blind in a way that they could not circumvent? That's the first way they're confused.

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They're confused about who Jesus is and his authority. The second way they're confused about who

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Jesus is is they don't know what kind of honor that is due Jesus. They believe that he's just someone that they could overlook and dishonor.

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He's not, this is what they say. Or Jesus answered, I do not have a demon. I honor my father and you dishonor me.

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Think about the point underneath the surface of all of this. He's talking about I honor my father

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Yahweh. I am the son of God and yet you dishonor me.

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We think about basketball sometimes. I do, maybe you don't.

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My wife, one of the sweetest presents that she ever bought me is she got me tickets to see the possible thousandth victory of coach

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Mike Krzyzewski. So we traveled down to New York. Isn't that God's providence? Maybe.

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But he had 999 victories and he lost the game where he could have won in a state that I couldn't have gotten to.

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And then he comes to Madison Square Garden. And I'm like, this is amazing. I don't say anything though.

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My wife bought the tickets. We went down to New York. After the game, they won. They really frustrated me and almost lost, but they did win.

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After the game though, Shannon was gonna be a little late so I'm like, I'm gonna go to the tunnel and see if I can see coach

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Krzyzewski. So I'm standing there and he walks out and I'm like, that's him.

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And he comes right up to me and he says, you're Kendall Lankford, right? No, he didn't. He didn't even see me.

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But I reoriented my entire life around a basketball coach. I went and waited patiently and did everything that I could possibly do just to see this man.

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How much more so should we reorient our life around God? How much more so should we give honor to him?

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And yet they are the ones who dishonored him. That's what the text says. Jesus a couple times in this passage has even claimed that he's

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God. So again, how much more should we honor him? He says in verse 12, I'm the light of the world, which means that he's saying that he has the power in order to illuminate the entire globe.

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He says down in verse 23, you are from below, I am from above, you are of this world, I am not of this world. He is claiming not only to be the light of the world that gives illumination to us spiritually, but he is the one who is from God.

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He is God. It's not explicit, but it's an implicit claim to his deity. And he's looking at the people who've dishonored him and he's saying, why are you doing this?

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Again, we see under the surface why they're doing this. Jesus knew why they were doing this. It says in John 2, he doesn't entrust himself to them because he knows what's in their heart.

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They dishonored him. The third thing that they don't understand about who

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Jesus is, is his eternal existence. John 8, 52 through 53 says, truly, truly,

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I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. The Jews said to him, now we know that you have a demon.

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Abraham died and the prophets also. And you say, if anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.

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Surely you're not greater than our father Abraham who died. The prophets died too. Who do you make yourself out to be?

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They believe he's just a man. They don't even think he's 40 years old yet in his existence and physically, we know he's probably 33 years old.

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But Jesus is claiming here that he predates Abraham who lived 15, 2000 years before, 1500, 2000 years before.

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He's claiming that he predates Abraham, but yet from the very beginning of this gospel, we see that he predates even time and space.

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It says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. They had all the available knowledge that they needed to be able to understand that this man was not just a man.

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He was not just claiming honor and glory for himself. Inappropriately, he is

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God and authority, power and glory is already his. And they're mocking him.

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They're saying, you're not greater than Abraham who died, are you? The irony of that statement is astounding.

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They're confused about Jesus's authority. They're confused about how to honor him. So they dishonor him.

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And then they're confused about his eternal existence. And because they're confused about him, they don't have a relationship with God, which means they're confused about relationship with God.

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That's the second point. They don't understand how to do it.

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John 8, 55 says, and you have not come to know him. That's the father.

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So they don't have a relationship with him. They don't have a relationship with God. They think they do, but they don't. Jesus says, but I know him.

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And if I say that I do not know him, then I'd be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word.

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They have no idea what it means to be in relationship with this God. First, they've denied

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Jesus the way, the truth, the life, the only way to come to God. So they have no idea what a relationship with God even requires.

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Jesus says they have no relationship. All of their effort, all of their religion, all of their pride, all of their self -righteousness, smugness, laws, religion, temple, sacrifices, none of it has been effective to get them an inch closer to an infinite

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God. And Jesus, of course, would know that because he's talking about his father.

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He knows what it's like to be in relationship with God because he always has been in relationship with God.

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Jesus knows that they have no honor because they do not honor him.

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That's the second reason how they don't understand a relationship with God. They don't understand that a relationship with God requires holy living.

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Now, let me tell you this. This is how the Jews got it mixed up and confused. They thought that holy living would get them into a relationship with God, whereas a relationship with God will produce holy living.

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Do you see the difference? They have a fruit versus a root problem. They're making the fruit the root of their faith instead of the other way around.

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They have no character. Jesus even says, if I say to you that I don't know the father and that I'd be a liar like you,

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Jesus is saying you have no character. You have no obedience to God. The most basic fundamental element of being a believer is living in the truth, and they're not doing that.

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They're liars. So confused, in fact, that they don't even realize that they're broken.

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Jesus says, I do know him, the father, and I keep his word. So they're not only liars.

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Jesus is saying that they have no ability. He's saying that they have not come into relationship with God because they can't, and this point has been proven time and time again.

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And I think this is important to point out. The Pharisees actually would have heard this as a very striking point because they did believe that they could come into relationship with God.

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They did believe that they could, through their effort and through their study and through their religion, they thought they could be in relationship with God that way, and you have to remember that the

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Pharisees came into being after the book of Malachi but before the book of Matthew, and they had seen all of the idolatry that was present throughout all of the

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Old Testament. They knew how the people had worshiped idols. They knew how the people had fallen in love with other gods and had been destroyed by their gods, so they created a religion so that they could never, ever, ever worship idols again, and they made an idol out of their obedience.

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They became so severe in their rigidity that they lost the love of God, they lost perspective on God, and they became lovers of self, they became lovers of their own obedience.

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Scholars call the Pharisees an eschatological group. That means that they're an end times focused ministry, which is very fascinating to me.

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The reason that scholars call the Pharisees that is because they believed that if they could obey the law perfectly for an entire day and if they could lead all the people of Israel to obey the law perfectly for one whole day, then they would usher in the kingdom of God, that Messiah would come and he would sit on the throne of David and he would lead them into everlasting peace and joy and all of those things.

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So if you really believe that, you can imagine why they're so severe with the people. Anytime someone sins, they're ready to kill them.

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They're like, you are the one, not you. Indiscriminately someone in the distance, you are the one who's causing the

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Messiah not to come. Think about the pressure that they were putting the people under. Is it any wonder that Jesus says in Matthew 23, you shut out heaven from the people.

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What an indictment. They believed in salvation through obedience and through works.

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Because of that, they didn't know anything at all about what a relationship with God is all about.

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So they didn't know who Jesus was. They didn't know what a relationship with God was all about. They also didn't understand what a relationship with God would require of them.

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Verse 51 says, truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.

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Again, they don't understand that obedience is required, but it's godly obedience.

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It's not religious obedience. It's not iron -fisted, white -knuckling obedience like the Pharisees were doing.

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It's relationship with God that leads to mercy and grace and joy and hope and all of the things that the

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Bible talks about. Jesus says, if you love me, you will obey my commandments. Not obey my commandments in order to get me to love you.

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They didn't understand right obedience. They didn't understand how to glorify

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God. John 8, 54 says, if I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. He's indicting them here.

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He's saying, if I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. That's what they were doing. They were glorifying themselves.

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They were putting themselves on a pedestal in front of the people and saying, look at me. Look at my obedience, look at my faithfulness.

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You better shape up or ship out because we're trying to bring in the kingdom of God here. They're not pointing to God.

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They're pointing to them. They're giving glory to them. No wonder

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Jesus is so angry at them and indicting them. They didn't know how to worship.

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John 8, 56 through 57 says, your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day.

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And he saw it and he was glad. So the Jews said to him, you're not 50 years old. How have you seen

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Abraham? They have no idea that Abraham, when he met

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Jesus, and if you look back into the Old Testament, Abraham met Jesus. The one who came to Abraham's tent and Abraham bowed down and worshiped him.

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The one that Abraham spoke to and negotiated the downfall of Sodom with. And he says, 50 Lord, 45.

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And Lord, would you please excuse just 10. That's Jesus. God in the flesh speaking to Abraham and Abraham rejoiced at the day of Christ.

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And he saw the day of Christ. And he looked forward to all the promises that God was gonna give to the family of Abraham because of Christ.

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And here his kids, the people who attribute their lineage to him are despising the one that he loved.

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They don't know how to worship. They say that they're children of Abraham, but they don't do the things that Abraham did.

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They look more like their father, the devil. They don't understand

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Jesus. They don't understand relationship and they don't understand worship. Not because they're not smart enough.

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Not because they're not spiritual enough. Not because they don't work hard enough. It's because they're not members of the family of God.

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And that confusion fuels them towards murder. Now again, we said, confusion is handled by different groups, different ways.

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If you're not a member of the family of God, confusion leads you to rejection. Leads you to hatred.

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It leads you to ultimately here, murder. But if you're confused as a lost sheep, as someone who eventually will come to Jesus, that confusion doesn't lead you to ultimate rebellion.

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It doesn't lead you to ultimate rejection. It leads you to Christ. Over the course of our life, if you are set apart by God for election, then your confusion will propel you to somewhere to hear the gospel.

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Maybe you'll stumble into a church one day or a Bible study. You're not a believer yet. Maybe you'll have a conversation with a friend.

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Something will happen that will propel you towards Jesus. And when the gospel hits your ears, it will wake you up.

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Their confusion over Jesus is fueling them towards rejection. And it really, really bubbles over the surface when

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Jesus makes the most provocative claim that he's ever made in his ministry in John 8, 58. Jesus has made some provocative claims.

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He said they're children of the devil. It's kind of provocative. He said that none of them were gonna be saved, like their ancestors who were left littered across the wilderness.

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He's saying that he would destroy the temple that took them 40 -something years to build and he would build it back again in three days.

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They didn't understand what he meant. He said some provocative things, but he's never said anything like this. In John 8, 58, this is the point where they pick up stones to kill him.

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Everything before this has been ideological hatred. It's been emotional hatred. This is where they want him dead, right here.

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He says in 8, 58, truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born,

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I am. Do you know what that means?

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He's not only saying that he existed before Abraham, he is using what theologians call the tetragrammaton, which is the four -letter word for God.

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In grammar, especially in Greek, you can say I am a bunch of things. You can say I am a slave, I am, my name is

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Kendall, I am Kendall. None of that is a claim to godhood. If you remember in grammar, if you don't, that's okay.

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An equative verb with a predicate nominative. Predicate nominative is the object. I am Kendall. I'm the predicate nominative in that situation.

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This has no predicate nominative. He's saying I am that I am. He's going all the way back to the covenantal name of God that was given by God to Moses when

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Moses went and he had to take off his sandals because it was holy ground and he walked into the presence of God.

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He said, who do you want me to tell them that you are? He says, tell them that I am that I am. Because I am means pure existence.

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It means that he's not dependent upon anyone else for his substance, for his existence, for any of that. He exists independent of us.

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He has aseity, which means that he always exists. Never had a beginning, never had an end. He is the

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I am. That name means I am who I am. It can mean I will be who

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I will be. He is the one who is, the one who was, the one who ever will be. And Jesus says, that's me.

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And at the sound of his name, when he revealed it to them, they didn't repent.

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They didn't look at him and say, I'm so sorry. They picked up stones to kill him because they were fueled by their satanic madness.

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Jesus says of this people who believed that this name was sacred, whenever they would write this name, scribes who would copy the

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Bible, when they would write this name, they would put the pen down when they came to the word Yahweh, I am that I am.

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They'd put the pen down. They'd go and wash their hands and purify themselves before they came back to write the word.

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They would grab a new pen and they would wash their hands after they wrote the word. They would never speak this word out loud because they wanted to have sacredness and honor.

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Jesus says to that group of people who were so consumed with their traditions, he says in Matthew, you hypocrites.

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Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you. These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

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They worship me in vain. Their teachings are merely human rules.

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All of their traditions were worthless in getting them to know the living God. Their confusion led them to rejection.

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Their confusion led them to hatred. And here you have the one claiming to be

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God, I am. It's an explicit claim to deity.

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If anyone ever tells you that Jesus never claimed to be God, that's a foolish argument. Here it is.

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Point him to John 8, 58. He says that he is Yahweh. And instead of honor and worship and reverence, it invoked hatred and rejection.

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John 8, 59 says, therefore they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

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Jesus is not running in fear like a coward here. Jesus, by his divine power, is shielding them from being able to find him because his hour has not yet come.

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They picked up stones to throw at him. This was capital offense territory. In Judah at this time, they were not free.

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So doing this could have cost them everything. The Romans could have came in and obliterated them right there in that moment because they wanted to execute capital punishment, but the

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Roman government did not allow them to do that. They're risking everything in order to kill Jesus. And who do you think is the one committing the actual true blasphemy here?

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They want to stone Jesus because they think he's committing blasphemy, that he's claiming himself to be God. Who's blaspheming

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God by picking up stones to kill the Son of God? Confusion hardens some and it softens others.

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That's the point of what this passage is teaching us. The Puritans used to say it like this. The same sun that hardens the clay melts the wax.

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This group is being hardened in their rejection of Jesus. The Christians, the believers, the ones who are gonna come to know

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Jesus will not be hardened in their rejection against him. When Jesus says, I am that I am,

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Christians will spring to life and they will worship God. When they hear the gospel, they will spring to life and they will worship

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God. The same sun, not S -U -N, S -O -N, that hardens some softens others.

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And that's where I want us to land our plane today. I want us to understand that while this group is hardened in rejection against Jesus, that for anyone who is here who is in Christ, that same

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I am will soften you and will work on you and will forgive you of your rejection.

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He will forgive you of your confusion and he will lead you for a lifetime. He says, I am that I am, but that's not the only time he says

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I am. Seven times in the gospel of John, Jesus says, I am. And I want us to go through those and see what

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Jesus has done for us. First, he rescues us from our rejection. Look at John 14, six.

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The one who says, I am that I am, says, I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life.

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No one comes to the Father, but through me. To the family of Satan, there is no path forward for you because they can't come to Jesus because they will reject

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Jesus. But for us, he's the way. He's the only way. There's no salvation under any other name than Jesus Christ.

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For all of us who cry out to him, he will save us because he's the way, he's the truth.

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We're not gonna live in ignorance and we're not gonna live in lies like the family of Satan. We're gonna live in the truth of God because the spirit of God is with us and he's teaching us the truth over a lifetime.

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We don't look to the world to define us. We look to the word to define us and the spirit of God is writing that word on your and my heart.

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He is the way, he is the truth, and my friends, he is the life for us.

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The reason that Jesus is the life for us is because he died for us in our place.

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We get life because Jesus got death. We get forgiveness because Jesus got wrath. All of that is why you and I can stand and we can say that, praise

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God for Jesus. I wanna explain something here just for a moment.

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The family of Satan versus the family of God. There is no passages in the

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Bible that talks about the family of Satan being converted into the family of God. There is no passages that talk about goats becoming sheep.

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There is no passages that talk about tares becoming wheat. There is no passages talking about wolves becoming lambs.

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There is a simple idea here that there are two families of God and that you don't move out of one family to the other and you might be asking yourself, but I was in darkness and now

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I'm in light. I was an orphan and now I'm a child. What does that mean? If you're a part of the family of Satan, you do not come out of that family according to the

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Bible. If you're a part of the family of God, you were born looking like the world.

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You were born looking and loving sin. You were born living as though you're blind.

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You were born living as though you're dead. An example of this, this is a human example, so forgive me and it's anecdotal, forgive me for that as well.

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Imagine that you're born into a dungeon and there's millions of people there and it's totally dark.

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You can't see a thing. From your perspective, you're blind. Your eyes don't work.

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But around you are people who are actually blind, people who will never be able to see because their eyes are milky white and they're totally blind.

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Your blindness problem is because you've never seen the light as a child of God.

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You live in rejection of Christ because you've never been awakened to the truth of Christ. Eternally, he has put his seal on you if you're a

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Christian. And you're not waiting to go to hell, you're waiting until the spirit of God awakens you to the truth of the gospel.

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So then the light turns on and you see the light and you cry out to your cellmates around you and you say, look, there's light.

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And they said, what is this thing called light? You're crazy. They don't understand it because they can't see it.

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If you grew up in a family that had no Christians in your family and you come to Jesus and you start trying to explain that to your family and they're like,

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I don't understand, I don't get it. You're crazy. It's because your eyes were made to see the glory of Christ and theirs weren't.

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For the Christian, if you are in Christ, before the foundation of the world, you will see the light of Jesus at some point in your life.

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I don't care if it's today or if it's at the end of your life and it doesn't depend on skillful preaching. It doesn't depend on skillful expositions of the gospel.

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You can talk to someone who barely can spell gospel and when you hear the message that Christ died for you if you're a

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Christian, when the spirit of God puts that message inside of you, you wake up. Your body may be knocking on heaven's door physically but when you hear the gospel, your spirit is alive and eternally well.

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That's the difference. The family of God will come to know

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God because God has ensured it in his word. And what a glory that is.

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You and I have no semblance of pride, no ability for pride, no desire for pride if we really understand this rightly.

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We were not picked by the Lord because we're somehow wise or righteous.

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He says, I chose the foolish things in this world to shame the wise. We're not chosen because of our ability.

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We have none. We're not chosen because of anything other than the grace of God and God alone.

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We are trophies of grace in his trophy cabinet to point to the world how gracious he is because when we sinned, we should have died.

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And the fact that he saved anyone is a glory to his grace.

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He is the way, he is the truth, and he is the life for those whom

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God has given to Christ. The second I am statement, he is the door. Jesus says in John 10, seven through nine, truly, truly

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I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers but the sheep did not hear them.

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I am the door. If anyone enters through me, he will be saved and he will go out and he will find pasture.

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Notice that Jesus does not go chasing the thieves and the robbers and saying, come back.

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He lets them go. His word repels them. The sheep do not hear them.

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But when the precious savior Jesus Christ speaks, children of God hear and they follow and they love.

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For the children of God, he draws them and they run to the gate and they spend their life feasting on the graces of Christ in his pasture.

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What a blessing that Christ has given to us that we hear his voice and we run to him and we love him and we follow him like little sheep.

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He makes this even more clear in John 15. This is the fourth I am statement. I am the true vine.

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My father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away and every branch that bears fruit, he prunes it so that it makes, so that may bear more fruit.

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You are already clean because of the word which I've spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine.

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So neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me will bear much fruit for apart from me, you can do nothing.

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You see what Jesus is saying? In the Old Testament, Israel was called the vine. Israel was the one that the nations were supposed to come to and get life and get nutrients and bear fruit through.

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But they were not the vine that God had called them to be. They were poisoned. They produced fruit out of Sodom and Gomorrah, not fruit for God.

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So Jesus comes as true Israel and he cuts the faithless branches off the vine and he connects you and I to him.

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No vine can produce fruit or no branch can produce fruit on its own, but praise God for you and I who are part of the family of God that we bear fruit, that we have health, that we have life, that we have all of this because of Christ.

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Because we're connected to him, he does something in us that we could not do for ourselves. There's no difference in our effort versus the effort of an unbeliever.

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We all are trying to figure out life and everyone is, they're probably working harder than we are. The only difference is that we're connected to Jesus Christ.

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That's it. And he gives us life and he gives us sustenance and he gives us growth. And he says, we will bear fruit.

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What a challenging statement. The next

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I am statement, the fifth one, is he's the bread. John 6 .35,

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I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger and he who believes in me will never thirst. He's not talking about physical hunger here.

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None of us, and I'm being tongue in cheek, stopped by Jesus' house and got a hot pocket on the way to church this morning. That's not what he's talking about.

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Hot pockets are really good, especially the pizza ones, but that's for another day. He's given us food that matures the soul.

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Christian immaturity is antithetical to what the Bible says about us. We're not meant to be depraved or deprived.

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We're not meant to starve. We're not meant to be hungry. We're not meant to be famished. We're not meant to stay as toddlers in the faith.

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We're meant to grow up. We're meant to have maturity, and he's given us the exact appropriate food, his body, his blood, to produce maturity in you and I.

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He's the way, the truth, and the life. He's the door that brings us in. He's the bread that feeds us.

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He's the vine that connects us. It also says that he's the light, John 8 .12. Jesus spoke to them saying,

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I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have light.

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The great I am, Jesus, is also the light of the world, and it's not a physical light.

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It's a spiritual light that leads us, that matures us, that defines us. There's areas of your life that his light has not shined on yet if you're a

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Christian, but it will. Over the course of your life, he is refining you. He's shaping you. He's shining his light on areas of your life where you don't want him to shine his light on, but he will.

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There's rooms of your life that maybe you've hit off from him and you're like, not there, Jesus. But he will, because he is the light of the world and his light will shine in places that there are still darkness.

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And he is faithful to do that to you until the day that you die so that you, as a Christian, are made for maturity.

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You're made for growth. You're made for repentance. You're made for laying down yourself and giving it over to Christ and celebrating.

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Christians are not people who begrudgingly repent and say, oh, not again. Christians are people who say, this hurts.

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I don't like this, but I have joy. Almost like a cancer patient who does not stop the knife from cutting out the cancer.

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They do it joyfully. They hurt, they ache, it feels bad. They walk funny for a couple of weeks because the stitches, but they rejoice in the scalpel because it cuts out the disease.

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As Christians, we rejoice in the scalpel of the spirit of God because it cuts out our filth and it makes us look more and more like him.

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He's the good shepherd. He says in John 10, 11, I am the good shepherd.

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The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. John 10, 14, I'm the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.

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He's died for us. He's forgiven us of our rejecting him over many, many years of doing that.

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He's healing our confusion. He's maturing us. He's giving us good things so that we can walk with him.

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Jesus Christ has done everything for you and I, everything. And that's what

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I want us to focus on as we end. He's the way, the truth, and the life that directs you.

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He is the life who will resurrect you. He is the door that will accept you. He is the vine who will connect you.

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He is the bread who will feed you. He is the light that will lead you. He is the shepherd who will keep you and he is the

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Lord who has freed you. Lord, we've done nothing and you've done everything.

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This passage shows us. Lord, by our power and our will and our intellect and our will, we would be standing right there with the group that was accusing you and calling you a demon.

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We would be cheering crucify, crucify as you walk by with the plank across your back.

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Lord, we have no goodness in us. We're astounded by your grace and that's the point.

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Unlike the Pharisees who found increasing glory in themselves, we are meant to find increasing bewilderment that you would ever love anyone like us.

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The more we find out about ourself, the more shocked we are at the gospel. The deeper our sin goes, the more we chase it down and repent of it, the more nuanced it is, the smaller and more delicate and more intrinsic to our character we find out that our sin is, the more shocked we are that you would ever save such a wretch like me and like us.

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And yet in that amazement and in that wonder, it propels us to worship. Lord, I pray that we would be a people of true worship, a people who are truly awestruck that you would save wretches like us in this room, and a people who through that bewilderment have nothing left to do but cry out in celebration for you.

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You are that good that you could save us. You are that kind that you could save us. And while we don't understand everything, we understand that you love us and that's enough.