Essentials Of The Faith /
Sunday Morning Sermon Series
/
John
John 8:12-59
09/18/05
Message: ‘Walking In the
Light’
Text: John 8:12-59
Introduction: In the past 100 years,
there have been three great quests..
• the search for truth,
• the fight for freedom and
• the passion for image.
Truth: We have searched for truth
through in the sciences. We have studied and almost deified the scientific
disciplines because they promised to discover principals behind the universe
that would help us with everyday life.
We have searched for truth through the practice of Eastern mysticism...the
ying and yang, the god within each of us, meditation and yoga hoping to find
truth to make some sense of life.
Freedom: We have fought the fight for
freedom with two world wars and a number of significant military conflicts
with the hope that as we fight for freedom in other lands, we might feel
more free ourselves. Perhaps no one has defined our guest for freedom better
than FDR who said our quest for freedom involves:
• Freedom of speech, Freedom of worship, Freedom from want, Freedom from
fear.
Image: We have developed a passion
for image, perhaps like no other time in our history. The many faces of the
American individual has given way to the one face of the most popular fad.
Think about it… Flappers, bobbysoxers, hippies, yuppies, wearing certain
jeans, certain sneakers, Ipods, elective plastic surgery, I could go on. We
are willing to do what it takes to maintain the right image, at least the
right image of the moment.
The quest for truth, freedom and image is close to our prideful hearts as
21st century Americans. So what we read in John 8 should be of interest to
us. Because our quest will be exhausting and fruitless unless we actually
find what it is we are looking for.
Transition: Open your Bibles to John
8:12 (pg. 817 in the church Bibles) For it is here that we will find that
Jesus is the end of our quest for truth, freedom and image.
1. John 8:12 Walking in the light:
Life
Read: John 8:12
Bottom line, our quest is for a better life. Jesus tells the crowd that he
is the one that sheds light on the darkness of life. He is implying that our
quest for truth, freedom and image will be a journey in darkness unless we
come to him so he can light the path for us to follow.
I love how Jesus uses living illustrations, what is visibly present, to make
his point.
• At night during the Feast of the Tabernacles the Temple would be lit up
with fires so that from a great distance, even in the darkest nights,
Jerusalem and the
Temple could be seen.
• This nightly ritual was intended to remind the Jews that God’s presence
as a pillar of fire was with their ancestors as they traveled in the desert
heading to the
Promised Land.
• And that one day the Messiah would return to light the way for the Jews
to enter the Kingdom of God.
So, Jesus announces the he is the light of the world.
Transition: Jesus said that our quest
for truth, freedom and image, begins by stepping out of a life of wandering
in the darkness and stepping in to a life of walking in the light.
2. John 8:13-30 Walking in the light:
Truth
Read: John 8:13-30
In our quest for truth, real truth, we may not always like what we find…but
Jesus tells us there is always hope.
Jesus said he’s telling the truth about who he is and what he has come to
do. The Pharisees don’t like that truth because they want a truth that is
easy for them to handle, easy to accommodate into their lives, their belief
systems, and their sin.
Jesus acknowledges that his truth is hard. Unless you accept him as the
Messiah, the light that has come into the world, it is a reflection that you
do not really know God. If you don’t know God you will die in your sins…and
the dark path you have chosen to travel will not lead to heaven.
The good news is the hard truth has great hope attached to it. Follow along.
Jesus always did the will of his father and his father never left his
side, he was always with Jesus...always.
While we will never always do the will of our heavenly Father, Jesus
did.
Because he did he offers himself as a substitute not only for our sin
but for our sinning.
The promise for those who believe is that the Father will never leave us
either, never.
That means the presence of God in your life is not contingent upon your
faithfulness, but on the faithfulness of Jesus Christ…who is forever
faithful.
The text tells us that many people believed in Jesus that day…they heard the
hard truth, and believed the great hope. Their quest for truth, freedom and
image was over.
Transition: The quest for truth is
not found in some mystical religion or the sciences, it is found in the
person of Jesus Christ. What about our quest for freedom?
3. John 8:31-41 Walking in the light:
Freedom
Read: John 8:31-41
Jesus turns his attention to those who placed their faith in him. He speaks
directly to their fight for freedom. He told them they are free because they
know the truth…Jesus Without knowledge of Jesus as the truth, you will
forever be a slave…to something, specifically, Jesus says, to sin. As
Americans we will fight for our freedom…
• We fight for freedom from government interference, except where it is
to our benefit.
• We fight for freedom to love as and whom we please
• We fight for freedom to do it our way, even if that means keeping
others from doing it their way.
• We fight for freedom to produce, market and distribute whatever want,
no matter how offensive it may be to others.
• We fight for freedom to challenge what the Bible says rather than let
the Bible challenge how we live.
Society has fought for and won most of what I have just mentioned, yet are
we any more free?
Jesus uses the metaphor of son vs slave to talk about the hope of true
freedom.
• A son, one who believes Jesus died for their sins, has a permanent
place in God’s kingdom…they will never be evicted because they will always
be a child of
God.
• A slave has no security, no promise of a future. You may look like part
of the family by living in the house (attend church) but if you have not
accepted Jesus as
your Savior, you are still a slave to sin and have no claim on heaven.
Jesus says believe in me and I will set you free. When I set you free, you
will be free indeed, never to be enslaved again, always to be a part of
God’s family.
The Jews are thinking physically again and claim they are not slaves but
free sons and daughters of Abraham. Jesus challenges that claim by stating
they don’t resemble Abraham in their faith or actions. He will speak more
about that in the next section.
Unlike FDR’s definition of freedom, Jesus is saying that by believing in
him, by accepting the truth of who he is, you have true freedom,
freedom from the fear of death,
freedom from the lack of purpose in life,
freedom from judgment and hell
freedom from the power and guilt of sin
freedom to truly live as your were created to live...in relationship
with your God.
Transition: The quest for truth and
freedom finds fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ. But what of our
final quest, the passion for image?
4. John 8:42-47 Walking in the light:
Image
Read: John 8:42-47
Basically what Jesus is saying here is ‘Like Father, like son’. That is, we
resemble our parents.
The Jews thought their biological ancestry was the basis for their
relationship with God. Simply put, they thought that being Jewish meant
being saved and therefore entitled them to all of God’s blessings, including
heaven. But Jesus told them there may be a biological connection between
them and Abraham, but there was no family resemblance.
Abraham was justified, made right with God, not because of who he was, but
because he believed what God said and did what God told him to do. Jesus
implied that if you were sons of Abraham, you would bear his image, you
would act like Abraham acted…they would have faith in him and would do what
he said. Instead, Jesus said, you are trying to kill me and that’s the kind
of behavior of your true father, the devil. You think you bear Abraham’s
image but by your actions you resemble the devil.
The Jews were passionate about obtaining the right image but were going
about it in all the wrong ways. Sound familiar? We do the same thing when we
think
a particular job,
or kind of car we drive
or style of clothes we wear,
will satisfy our quest to maintain the ‘right’ or ‘hip’ image.
The only image that really matters is that which is spiritual. Do we
resemble Jesus? Do we bear his image? The answer is a matter of life or
death.
Transition: When we have found the
truth, become free and or image is based on a family resemblance to Jesus,
where do we go next?
5. John 8:48-59 Walking in the light:
Obedience
Read: John 8:48-59
The Pharisees say Jesus is demon possessed. Because they don’t understand
what he meant when he told them if they would keep his word, do what he
says, they would never see death. Again Jesus was talking spiritual they
were thinking physical.
Dying and death are two different things in Scripture. Jesus didn’t say if
you keep my words you will never die. Everyone dies.
What Jesus promises is that those who believe in him, who keep his words,
will never see death.
This means they will pass from life to glory, no waiting in purgatory or
anyplace else.
When Christians die they immediately go to heaven to be with
God…forever.
How can Jesus promise this? Because he is God, lookt again at vs 58. ‘Before
Abraham was born, I am.’ Jesus was saying he is the God of Abraham , the
God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Just as God the Father described himself to
Moses at the burning bush. Jesus was implying that because he is eternal,
when we die he has the power to make us life forever with him.
The Pharisees understood this claim of eternal deity and picked up stones to
kill him. But he escaped, as it was not yet his time to die.
Conclusion
Let me ask…
Are you seeking for truth?
Are you fighting for freedom?
Are you passionate about bearing the right image?
Then look to Jesus.
If you want to find fulfillment in your quest for truth, freedom and image,
you must walk in his light.