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August 13, 2023 Pastor Jeff Rice Covenant Reformed Baptist Church Tullahoma, TN
If you have your Bibles, please, at this time, open them to John chapter 8. John chapter 8, we're going to consider verses 12 through 20. If you remember, we looked at verse 12 alone last week. This week we will consider verses 12 through 20.
And this is our 46th message in this glorious gospel. Let me pray. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Yahweh, Lord, we beg you right now, in the name of Jesus, the name that is above every name, Lord, that you speak to us through your word.
Lord, I pray that my study this week was sufficient, and that you, through your Holy Spirit, that proceeds from you, the Father, and you, the Son, into me, that you will feed your people. Lord, we love you, and we understand that without you we can do nothing.
And I pray that I'm up here in meekness and in weakness. And I pray that in my weakness you will display your power. In Christ's name, amen. Let's begin with the text, John 8, verses 12 through 20. Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world.
He who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. So the Pharisees said to him, You are bearing witness about yourself. Your witness is not true. Jesus answered and said to them, Even if I bear witness about myself, my witness is true.
For I know where I come from and where I am going. But you do not know where I've come from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh. I am not judging anyone. But even if I do judge, my judgment is true.
For I am not alone in it. But I am the Father who sent me. Even in your law, it has been written that the witness of two men is true. I am he who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.
So they were saying to him, 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 Jesus spoke in the treasury as he was teaching in the temple, and no one seized him because his hour had not yet come.
Our theme for this Lord's Day is the testimony of God. The testimony of God. Ladies and gentlemen, if God is bearing testimony about you, you need no one else to speak. Jesus, in and of himself, being God, fulfills the law according to Deuteronomy 19, verse 15, which says, A single witness shall not rise up against a man on the account of any iniquity or any sin which he has committed.
At the mouth of two or three witnesses, a matter shall be established. This is what Jesus is pointing to in verse 17 of this chapter. You see, Jesus is the God-man. He is both God and man. Truly God and truly man.
And the crime that he is being looked at, being accused of, is him being this God-man, being the Christ, that he came down from heaven, and that belief in him was eternal life. And then right here in this portion, he says that he is the light of the world.
And we looked at last week that this is pointing to him being God. So to them, this is the crime. This is why he points back to this verse. This is the accusation, this verse, Deuteronomy 19, 15. And this is the call for our attention.
This is what our attention needs to be focused on right now. Did Jesus break their law by bearing witness about himself? The sin here is blasphemy. They knew when he said that he was the light of the world that he is proclaiming to be God and Messiah.
The sin is blasphemy. If he broke their law, he is not the Christ. And if he did not break the law, not only is he the Christ, he is God in the flesh. And as the Christian church, that's what we profess.
When I read the Chalcedonian Creed as we started the service, that's what that creed was professing, that Jesus is both God and man, that he is the Christ. And there is no one like him. We talk about keeping the law of God.
In order for any man to keep the law of God, they have to be deity. In order for Jesus to keep that law, he had to be truly God because man cannot keep God's law. And in order for Jesus to die on the cross, Jesus had to be truly man because the Bible is clear that God cannot die.
He had to be both truly God and truly man in order to accomplish redemption. The law had to be kept. Someone had to come and keep where Adam fell. Adam could not keep the law. And because he could not, we being his descendants are born in his curse.
We're born fallen. We're born covered in dust. We're covered in Adam. Someone had to keep the covenant. And because we were born in Adam, we're already sinful. Even if we could keep the law, we fell because we're in Adam.
Someone had to come who was not in Adam. So Jesus, the God-man, steps down from his throne and he enters into creation. He takes on flesh, born of the virgin, not having an earthly father, meaning he's not under Adam.
When he was born, you did not have to wipe the dust from him. He's not under Adam. Therefore, when he keeps the law, he keeps the covenant. Those are in him. As goes the king, so goes the kingdom. And what he is doing, he is exegeting.
He is attempting to explain to them. He is revealing himself for who he is, and he is being rejected by the people who had the promises. They had the covenant. It was handed down to them. They could go back and look at it and say, yeah, this fits, this fits.
We were looking for the prophet. We were looking for the Messiah. This is the time of the Messiah. And he fits the bill. He was born a descendant of David in Judea, in Bethlehem. It's in the temple courts.
If you would go to the temple records, you would find out this information, but they did not go to the temple to pull the information. They were judging him by mere looks alone. So in our outline today, we're going to look at the accusation versus the testimony.
Who gave the testimony? God gave the testimony. We'll see the witness. We'll see the accusation. We'll see the testimony, and we'll see the cross-examination. So point number one, the witness. Point number two, the accusation.
Point number three, the testimony. And point number four, the cross-examination. And as we transition, just by way of reminder, right, because we're having to pick up where we left off throughout, I don't know how long I've been in, probably the last two months.
We've been talking about the Feast of Booths, the Feast of Tabernacles, right? This is the day after the great day of the Feast of Booths, the Feast of Tabernacles. The same day where the scribes and the Pharisees were attempting to test Jesus concerning the law when they bring a woman caught in the very act of adultery.
According to their law, if a man and a woman were caught in adultery, they were to both be stoned to death, both. Not one, both parties were to be stoned to death. And we saw that they themselves were not in step with their law.
They were not keeping their own law because they did not bring the man. They only brought the woman, showing they really wasn't concerned about the law, the outward sin of adultery. So we're not talking about lust here, but the outward physical act of adultery takes two parties, not one.
If it's one, it's just lust. The physical act of adultery takes two parties. Adultery is sin where both parties are guilty. It's not lust. God having put an end to the penal code by them being under the rule of Rome, and according to Roman law, they were unable to carry out the penal code.
They were unable to put that woman to death. Jesus knows this. He knows their trickery. He knows they're trying to get his attention with one hand and pull something funny with the other hand. So Jesus answers them by saying, let him who is without sin among you, speaking to the Pharisees, be the first to throw a stone at her.
He's basically saying, you first, you first. You walk around here like you're holy. You first. Now what would have happened if a Pharisees would have picked up a stone and stoned her? They would have broken Roman law, and they would have been punished.
They knew that they couldn't stone this woman. Jesus knew. You first. You who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her. The scribes and the Pharisees were not particularly worried about carrying out their own law.
They were looking to catch Jesus in a trap so they could have an accusation against Jesus before Rome. This man, remember if Jesus would have said, don't stone her, she's innocent, he would have broken Mosaic law.
If he would have said, stone her, she's guilty, he would have broke Roman law. So Jesus said, let him who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her. Point number one, the witness. We see this in verse 12.
This is the witness of Jesus about himself. What does he say about himself? If you ever wonder, what does Jesus say about himself? Verse 12 here is a good verse to go to. He says, I am the light of the world.
He who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Last week we looked at this verse and we saw that Jesus was talking to the woman who was caught in adultery. As a light of the world, we are to follow him.
Christian, listen, this means Jesus first. What about your wants? Jesus first. What about your family? Jesus first. Wife, kids, doesn't matter. Jesus first. As Christians, we are to put Jesus above all things.
Though none go with me, yet I will follow, right? Jesus first. This is for the believer. This is not for the nonbeliever. A nonbeliever would not understand what I'm saying right now concerning Jesus first.
You mean you're going to put Jesus over your wants? Absolutely. You're going to put Jesus over your wife or husband? Absolutely. You're going to put Jesus over your kids? Absolutely. And that's to show you how much I love my wife.
To show how much you love your husband and how much you love your kids, that you're willing to put something so important before them that it is only for their good. Show me a man that doesn't love Jesus, and I'll show you someone who won't be faithful to you as a husband.
Or a wife that doesn't love Jesus and put him first, and I'll show you someone who will not be faithful to you as a wife. Or a parent that doesn't put Jesus first, and I'll show you someone that will be quick to abuse their child in some certain way.
He has to be first in our life. Jesus first. And here's why. Because He is God. It's the I am statement that we see. The I am statement points where it says I am. This points us to Exodus chapter 3 verse 14.
And in Exodus chapter 3 verse 14, God from a burning bush, don't let that leave your mind, God from a burning bush tells Moses His covenant name. God's covenant name is Yahweh. The Bible gives us many names for God.
His covenant name is Yahweh. And in the Hebrew text, the letters there are YHVH. If you were to take the equivalent of our alphabet, it would be YHWH. YHWH. YHVH. Which the Greek letters, you put those together, is Ego Aime.
And Ego means I am, and Aime means I am. Both are saying I am, I am. When God tells Moses I am who I am, the Greek structure to this that's found in the Greek Septuagint is saying I am, I am. Moses, you tell them my name is I am, I am.
It's YHVH. It's Yahweh. Also notice that God appeared to Moses as a fire, a light, a burning bush. Ladies and gentlemen, Jesus is the light. I made mention last week that that was Jesus speaking to Moses in the fire.
That it was Jesus who led the Israelites through the wilderness. A bright cloud by day and a fire by night. Jesus is only telling them what he's been telling them since the beginning. That he is the light of the world and those who follow him will not walk in darkness.
During the Feast of the Booths, the Jews would set tents up as a way to remember the wandering in the wilderness when God delivered them from Egypt. They would pour out water. They would take a golden cup of water from the Gihon Spring and they would take it and they would pour it out of the altar of sacrifice as a way to remember that God provided water for them.
And also, we looked, we touched on this last week, also at this feast there were these huge candlesticks. These huge candles that they would light and these candles would give light to all the courtyards in Jerusalem.
And I mentioned that if there was helicopters back then and if you were to fly over, it would be one of the most miraculous sights you would ever see. It was so bright. It was so lit up. It was so beautiful.
And that's probably what they were talking about right when Jesus started speaking about this. Or they could have been taking down the decoration, right? Like you ever, you know, Christmas comes, we set up these lights, set up these trees, whatever it is that you do, you know, whatever floats that boat that you do on Christmas.
The day after Christmas, some people take down the decorations. Like at my house, it's like we're taking them down near Halloween or something like that. Just leave them up, right? My wife's smiling. She knows it's true.
But some people, they take them down the day after. Like this could have been what's taking place. The text doesn't tell us, right? The text does not tell us. But I believe that this is something that could have happened.
They could have been talking about the lights or maybe people are taking down the decorations that were set up. You know, you had all the tents that were built and these big giant golden manures, these candlesticks.
And Jesus tells them that He is the light of the world. They did this as a way to remind them how God led them through the wilderness by way of a bright cloud by daytime and a fire by night. And those Israelites who would follow that cloud in the day and that fire by night would never walk in darkness.
They were never in darkness. When you think back to as you're reading Exodus, I want you, next time as you read Exodus, I want you to understand that these Israelites were never in darkness because they had the bright cloud by day.
And they had a pillar, a cloud of fire by night. They were never in darkness. In order to be, in order to not be in the light back then, you would have to have been left behind. And I'm not talking about a rapture.
You would have to have stayed behind. Right? Because the cloud would move and you were to follow this cloud. And in order to be in darkness, you would have to have not followed the cloud. In our text, Jesus is pointing to Himself as being the light that they should follow in order to not walk in darkness.
Now, they had a literal and a physical reality in the Old Covenant. Right? They could see the bright cloud in the day and the fire at night. Like if they could touch the fire, they'd burn, right? It was a real fire.
It was a literal reality taking place here. However, in the but in the New Covenant, it's a spiritual reality. Jesus at that time and now, so we're followers of Jesus. I don't see a bright cloud and a fire at night.
However, in the new heavens and the new earth that will come, we will see a literal and a physical reality of this. We read Revelation last week and we saw that Jesus, that the Father, that God Himself, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, will be the temple.
Will be the temple. And that Jesus, the Lamb, is the light. The Lamb is the light. Jesus is the light. And as the I Am, God, and the light of the world, they should follow Jesus. They should follow Jesus and Jesus is proclaiming Himself to be God.
So they should follow Jesus and as the light of the world, here we see Jesus proclaiming Himself to be God. And also as the light of the world, when you walk through the prophets, they prophesy about a light coming that would keep them from walking in darkness.
And we pointed that this is speaking about the Messiah. So as the light of the world, as the I Am, as the light of the world, He's not only proclaiming Himself to be God, He's proclaiming Himself to be the Messiah.
It's clear what Jesus is saying here. It's clear. People always say, Jesus never claimed to be God. Are you kidding me? What are you reading? Do you even have a Bible? And if you have a Bible, are you using your thinker?
Right? Point number two. The accusation. Verse 13. So the Pharisees said to Him, You are bearing witness about yourself. Your witness is not true. Hearing their accusation, they claim that Jesus is bearing witness about Himself, meaning that Jesus is going against their law.
I want you to think about it. This group of people, they're not seeing the Father. All they are seeing is a man proclaiming Himself to be the light of the world. To them, His confession about Himself is sinful.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you were in their position, you would probably think the same thing. To them, He was just another Jew. Nothing special about Him. Remember the one statement that I made in my interrogative was this.
If He, speaking of Jesus, broke their law, He is not the Christ. That's why our attention has to be here. And if He did not break their law, then He is not only the Christ, but He is God in the flesh.
And without a slide of a hand here, without me telling you to look at this hand and me doing something trickery with this hand, I want to say to you that that law, that Mosaic law that we were just speaking about in Deuteronomy, wasn't binding on Jesus any longer.
You say, what are you saying, Jeff? Well, yes, Jesus was born under the law. So look in Galatians chapter 4. Galatians chapter 4. We're going to look at verse 4 and 5. Speaking of Jesus, but when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that, so this is why He was sent, born of a woman, born under the law, so that He might redeem those who were under the law.
In one sense, to save those who were captured by the law, that we might receive adoption as sons. The baptism of Jesus was to fulfill all righteousness. Go to Matthew chapter 3. Matthew chapter 3, verse 13.
Marie verses 13 through 15. Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan, coming to John to be baptized by Him. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, I have need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?
But Jesus answered and said to him, Permit it at this time, for this way it is fitting for us to fulfill, listen, fulfill all righteousness. Then He permitted Him. And by this time He was baptized, He had already lived the life that you and I could not live.
This is the beginning of Jesus' ministry. He has already kept the law of Moses perfectly to the T and fulfilled the law. Righteousness equals law keeping. To fulfill all law keeping. His baptism was to fulfill all law keeping.
And in God's sovereignty He had already gotten rid of the penal portion of the law according to punishment, because Rome has enslaved the people of Israel. And listen to this, John's baptism replaced the sacrificial system.
Look with me at Mark chapter 1. I touched on this last week in a, again it wasn't in my notes, I was just running my mouth a little bit up here. And I hit on it, but I want to read it so you can see it with your eyes.
John, excuse me, Mark chapter 1, look at verse 4. John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance, right here, for the forgiveness of sins. For the forgiveness of sins. The sacrificial system was for the forgiveness of sins.
If you committed a sin that wasn't leading to death, right, I should take you to 1 John chapter 5, that wasn't leading to death, you would take a sacrifice, and a sacrifice will be made for you. John comes and proclaims his baptism.
Is for the forgiveness of sins. The sacrificial system is no longer needed. Why? Because John baptized Jesus. It was to fulfill all righteousness. To fulfill all righteousness. I would also add that Christian baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit is for the forgiveness of sins, Acts 2 .38 and 39.
Now if you watch my video that I did a couple weeks ago with the Lutheran, I pointed out that nowhere in Scripture does it teach that the forgiveness of sins equals salvation. It's not salvific. The people of God are the ones that partook in the forgiveness of sins.
The people of God in the Old Testament, if you wasn't born into the kingdom, circumcised if you were a male, and partook in the meal, and was under Jerusalem, when the sacrifice was made, that sacrifice did not count for you.
The sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins only counted for the people of God's earthly kingdom people, the Israelites. This baptism that's spoken about for the forgiveness of sins is a sign that points to what Christ did for us in his death, his burial, and his resurrection, and only those who are in Christ already, who have been born again, partake in that sacrifice.
Regeneration has to come first. Holy Spirit given to you through the word of God. That hasn't happened. Baptism does nothing. Does nothing. It's only a sign. Read the confession. It's a sign that's given to us.
It's our sign that we partake in, and that sign points to the forgiveness of sins. The baptism for the forgiveness of sins is how John the Baptist made straight the way of the Lord. Again, it was to fulfill all righteousness, and ladies and gentlemen, the kingdom of God had come to earth, and the new covenant was about to be inaugurated, and that can only happen in blood.
In blood. So when Christ Jesus was crucified, it inaugurated the new covenant. The old covenant before it was passing away, and we see its ultimate end takes place in 70 AD when Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome.
So in one sense, in our text, Jesus is not on trial for breaking the law. They are the ones that are on trial for rejecting the Messiah. They are on trial for rejecting the Messiah. Not in man's courts, not in the courts of Jerusalem, not in the courts of Rome, but in the courts of heaven, and their judgment was coming 66 to 70 AD for rejecting their Messiah, and I would also add that was a physical reality, but it was also a spiritual reality as well, that they are still under judgment.
Their accusation is false, and as we will come to see, their accusation is false as we will come to see. The question is why? Why was their accusation false? The answer is, well, I've been saying it since we started, because Jesus is God.
He is God. So point number three, the testimony taken from verses 14 through 18. Jesus answered and said to them, speaking to the Pharisees, even if I bear witness about myself, my witness is true, for 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.
You judge according to the flesh. I am not judging anyone, but even if I judge, my judgment is true, for I am not alone in it, but I am the Father who sent me. Even in your law it has been, I want you to say in your law, even in your law, it has been written that the witness of two or three is true.
I am he who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me. So here Jesus gives the testimony of God, that the Father is the second person that's bearing witness about Him.
This sequence of accusations and testimonies that we've been going through, all through the book of John, right? It seems to be a pattern that's taken place. If you remember in chapter, I mean, excuse me, John chapter 5, where Jesus made a whole man's body well on the Sabbath, Jesus in this was calling God his own Father.
He would say, My Father, and for that, for Him saying, My Father, the Jews wanted to kill Him. He healed a man on the Sabbath, He's breaking God's law, right? And He called God His own Father. So their accusation was that He broke the law, He broke the Sabbath, so, and He's a blasphemer by calling God His own Father.
And the accusation was, if you call God your own Father, you make yourself equal with God, right? He's singling out Himself, He's not including the community. We see this in how Jesus tells us to pray.
He says, When you pray, say Our Father. He wants us, when we pray, to include one another. But we see this clearly in the scripture. Jesus says, My Father, meaning that this is a unique way, this is something unique, He's not saying, He's not including everyone, He's saying, My Father, the Jews took that, which rightly so, as Him saying that He is equal with God the Father.
Let's go back and read that, because I think in this, in this, we're going to see the same thing that we're seeing here. I think it's going to answer some questions. So, John chapter 5, beginning in verse 16.
And for this reason, the Jews were persecuting Jesus because He was doing these things, this is healing a man, this is healing a man, doing these things on the Sabbath. But He answered them, My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working until now.
So right here we have the two things that are going against Him, supposedly breaking the Sabbath and making Himself equal with God. For this reason, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was also calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.
Verse 19, Therefore Jesus answered and said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son of Man can do nothing from Himself unless it is something that He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, listen to this, for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in the same manner.
And people are saying that He doesn't call Himself God. Who else can do what God does but God? For the Father loves the Son, and He shows Him all things. He's on arms, and He's able to see what the Father's doing in Heaven, showing His power that He Himself is doing.
And the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to those whom He wishes. For not even the Father judges anyone, but has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.
He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my words and believes Him who sent me has eternal life, and does not listen, does not come into judgment, but passed out of death into life.
Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. This is speaking of regeneration. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so gave to the Son also to have life in Himself.
And He gave Him authority to execute judgment because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this. An hour is coming which is already, I mean, the hour is coming which in all who are in the tombs will hear His voice.
This is speaking of a future coming. And I will come forth, and will come forth, and those who did good deeds to the resurrection of life, and those who committed evil deeds to the resurrection of judgment.
Now listen, verse 30. I can do nothing from myself as I hear, this is with His ears, as I hear I judge, and my judgment is righteous because I do not seek my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.
If I alone bear witness about myself, right here, my witness is not true. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the witness which He gives about me is true, speaking about the Father.
Here we see the same accusations and testimony being displayed in our text today. The same exact thing taking place over and over. And in our text, Jesus proclaimed Himself again to be both God and Messiah.
Their accusation is that He cannot say that of Himself. He responds by saying, Oh, yes I can. Basically, right? I'm just kind of dumbing it down. Yes, I can. He can because He's God. And God is although God is one, yet be Him three.
One God, three persons. Yes, He can. And the Father has given evidence of this. And we saw this in chapter 5. Again, verse... So if you go back to chapter 5, just look at verse 33. And He sent John, and he bore witness to the truth.
So one way that God witnessed of Jesus was that He sent John the Baptist. What was John to do? Prepare the way of the Lord. John the Baptist was a witness and also Scripture as well. If you just... If you start at verse 33 and you read down, you'll understand how John was the witness and how Scripture testifies about this.
You can go back on our YouTube channel and listen to that sermon where I walk through it. Well, not sermon. It's probably five or six sermons where I walk through that small section and we hammered it out.
But one way that John the Baptist witnessed of Jesus we saw in Scripture was when John the Baptist, as Jesus was coming to be baptized, John sees Jesus and he says, Behold the Lamb of God, He who has come to take away the sin of the world.
John saw Him and gave witness that the Paschal Lamb finds its fulfillment in Christ. And the other way is John the Baptist making straight the way of the Lord, Him in His baptism. And Scripture has already, as we have already seen in past messages, proclaim Jesus to be the Messiah.
One of those messages was last week. When Jesus proclaimed Himself to be God and Messiah, guess what He was doing? Guess what He was doing? Only what He saw the Father doing. That was it. When Jesus says that He is the Messiah, He is the light of the world, He is only doing what the Father is doing.
He's only saying what He's hearing from the Father, the second witness. And as we transition, I'm going to come, I'm going to skip verses 16, no 15 and 16. But I will come back when we close for 15 and 16 to put the bow on the sermon.
So point number four, the cross's emanation. We see this in verses 19 through 20. Let's begin reading verse 19a. So they were saying to Him, where is your Father? And their response to Jesus, where is your Father?
This comes from what was said in verse 16 and 18. So look real quick at 16. Jesus says, but even if I judge, my judgment is true. For I am not alone in it, but I am the Father who sent me. Verse 17, even in your law it has been written that the witness of two or three is true.
I am He who bears witness about myself and the Father who sent me bears witness about me. So right after He says this, that the Father bears witness about this, they say, where is your Father? Now the Bible doesn't say this with clarity, but historians believe that at this time the earthly Father, Joseph, Jesus' earthly Father, Joseph, had passed away.
They say this because the scriptures don't mention Him during His ministry. So they believe that He has passed away. It mentions His mother, mentions His brothers, it mentions His sisters, but it does not mention Joseph.
So it's believed that Joseph had passed away. And some people when I was looking at this commentaries were saying that they're just making fun of Jesus because His Father is deceased. I don't really travel that road, but if you do, that's fine.
But that's not what I see here. And we're not even sure if this group of Jews knew the earthly Father of Jesus. Like there's so much here it just doesn't say, right? However, it seems that they are speaking about His earthly Father.
You can say that their minds were on the earthly and not the heavenly. Jesus is speaking about God the Father, and they're going back to Him being just a man and wanting to see His earthly Father. Now could they have been saying, where is your Father, meaning where is God?
Could they? Yeah, maybe. But as we've seen so far in this Gospel, when it comes to Jesus and the Pharisees, they're never on the same page. Jesus is talking about one thing. The Pharisees are always talking about something totally different.
Jesus will go on and we're... Jesus will go on in His response to hash out this idea of His Father, and He'll explain to them, and He'll do so in such a way that I believe the universal church needs to pay attention.
Not only in this verse that we're going to be reading, verse 19, but also as we get through chapter 8. Like what He says here is something that the universal church needs to pay attention to. So let's look and read verse 19 in full.
So they were saying to Him, where is your Father? And Jesus answered, You know neither Me nor My Father. If you knew Me, you would also know My Father also. The Scripture reading that we had today from Matthew chapter 11 verse 27 says this, All things have been handed over to Me by My Father.
And no one knows the Son except the Father. And no one knows the Father except the Son. Here's the key. And anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him to. So 1 John... excuse me, not 1 John, but John chapter 1 verse 18 tells us that Jesus came to explain to us the Father.
They don't know Jesus because they don't know the Father. Again, 1 John will go on to tell us that if you don't have the Son, speaking of Jesus, you don't have the Father. Jesus here in our text made clear, made it clear to the Jews that if you don't know Him, and I would add that this is salvificly, it's not that they don't know His name is Jesus and His mother's name is Mary.
It's knowing Him salvificly, savingly, then you don't know the Father. Imagine being a descendant of Abraham, a worshiper of Yahweh, and hearing a man claiming to be God who came down from Heaven telling you that if you don't know Him, you don't know Yahweh.
You're not of Abraham. That's what He is saying. You're not of Abraham. You do not have the faith of Abraham. And I want to point out something else that Jesus is saying this in the court of the women, of the court of women.
And this is very important. Look at verse 20. These words He spoke in the treasury as He was teaching in the temple, and no one seized Him because His hour had not yet come. The treasury was the court of the women.
It was called the court of the women because only, it was the only courtyard in the temple where a woman could be in. A woman could only be in the court of the temple. I mean, excuse me, the court of the treasury.
Why, you ask? Because that's where you gave your money, right? And in the court of the women, they had 13 reciprocals. And these reciprocals were shaped, were trumpet-shaped. So it would have a large opening, and it would narrow down.
And it would be a sign on each one as to which offering or which coin they would receive. And I won't bore you with all that information, but you can look it up. There was 13 reciprocals, and it would only be in the treasury, the treasury which was called the court of the woman.
The treasury, being in the court of the woman, was for the purpose, which I gave earlier, so that everyone would be able to give. A woman wouldn't be able to say, well, I couldn't go into the other courts, and that's where the money was given.
So the reason why I didn't give was because I couldn't go into that court. No, they had the giving to where everyone, so in the court of the women, women could go, but it wasn't just for women. And you might remember the story about the widow who gave the two coins.
It's called the widow's mite. This is where that would have taken place. This would have been the same place where the scribes and Pharisees would have brought the woman caught in the very act of adultery.
Jesus did not judge that woman. He did not pick up a stone and stone her. Now look at the end of verse 20. It says, He was teaching in the temple, and no one seized Him because His hour had not yet come.
Because His hour to be punished and to be put to death was six months away. They could not arrest Jesus. As we've been going through chapter 6, chapter 5, chapter 6, chapter 7, chapter 8, that's been another repeatable thing that's been said.
How they could not lay their hands on Him. And the reason being is because it's not His time. If God has not willed it, you can't seal it. The Pharisees are looking at the statement made by Jesus in verse 12, and they are judging Jesus.
They're judging what Jesus said by mere appearance. Because by looking at Jesus at this time, Jesus was not walking around transfigured. He is not this radiant light even though He is the light. He's not walking around glowing.
The chaconne of glory was not radiating off of Him. And although Jesus being judged by mere appearance, Jesus Himself was not judging them by mere appearance. He didn't judge the woman. Jesus would be the only one that could throw the stone.
Jesus comes in here today and if there's any unbeliever in here, Jesus could throw a stone at you. Because you're guilty. You're not covered in the righteousness of Christ. But instead of throwing stones at you, He has commissioned men and women all over the world to be witnesses of this light that has come into the world.
You deserve justice. He gives mercy. In His first advent, His coming in the flesh was and still is the judgment. He didn't come to judge by way of physical things taking place to you like throwing stones.
His coming itself was the judgment. And real quick, let's read about that and we'll shut it down for the day. John chapter 3, the beloved verse, verse 16 is where we'll start. John chapter 3, verse 16.
I want you to pay attention as I'm reading this. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
He who believes in Him is not judged. He who does not believe has already been judged because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment. Before I finish down, do you remember Jesus in the book of Acts?
Jesus is the light of the world. And if you follow Him, you will not walk in darkness. Now this is the judgment that light has come into the world. And men love darkness rather than light for their deeds were evil.
For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not want to come into the light lest their deeds be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light so that his deeds might be manifested as having been done by God.
For the Christian, if you believe in Jesus, you will not be judged. You will pass from death to life because you have, present tense, eternal life. For the non-Christian, you who refuse to believe, you are already judged.
No need to throw a stone. You're judged. You're judged because Jesus has come into the world and He exposes your evil deeds. And instead of coming to Him and trusting Him for your salvation, you use darkness the same way that Adam and Eve used fig leaves to cover themselves.
The same way that Adam and Eve, when they heard God coming into the garden, this light coming into the garden, they hide from Him in bushes. You don't come to Him because you're using darkness for your shelter.
And so that's why the call has always been repentance and faith. To turn. To turn from yourself and to turn to God. And the New Testament tells us that that is to Jesus Christ. You want to please God?
Trust in Christ alone for your salvation. Leadership here is available to anyone who wants to talk. If you need prayer, whatever it may be, let's pray. Our God and Father, Lord, we come to You in the name of Jesus.
Lord, we worship You. We love You. We thank You. Lord, I pray that this message Lord, was able to feed Your people Lord, I pray that You will use it to grow us in holiness as well as when we partake in Your supper, Lord.
That You will use these means of grace to those who have been baptized. To grow us, to conform us into the image of Your beloved Son. Lord, we pray that You do that this day. In Christ's name. Amen.
