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Sunday Sermon Outline STUDIES IN
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN- PART 48
Chap.8,
verses 37-47- this passage is made difficult by the question of
whether these are believers (vs.30) or whether a larger group of unbelievers is
in attendance and has become the object of Jesus’
remarks. “but you seek to kill me” -this confrontation by
Jesus is bold and is done to again contrast Himself with these (vs.23). “no place” =negative of korei – room for,
free course. Again, they have
received the word initially (see in Lk.813), but refuse to allow it to develop
or impact their lives. Vs.38, Jesus contrasts His
experience with theirs; He speaks what He has seen with the Father. He intimates they have a different
“father”. Again, they claim Abraham
as their father (vs.39)—but their kinship is clearly only physical as Jesus
reveals with “if you were ……you would
do the works of Abraham”. Jesus restates that He has told
them the truth which He received from God, but they seek to kill him. The sentence “Abraham did not do
this” drives home their radical failure to act in accord with their
forefather. Now Jesus goes on the offensive
with “you do the deeds of
your father” which will be explained in vs.44. These Jews (vs.31) reply, “we were not born of fornication” with an inference
that Jesus was the bastard-child of some illicit relationship, later suggesting
the relationship was with a Samaritan (vs.48). They add an empty assertion that God is
their Father. In vs.42, Jesus begins a sobering
speech running through vs.47 where He summarizes His view of them and climaxes
with a direct “you are not of
God”. “if God were….you would love Me”- Jesus draws the straightforward
point that any affinity for God, the Father should result in a similar
attachment with God’s
Son. As God
Incarnate (I proceeded forth and
came from God), Jesus manifests God’s character;
therefore, these who love God’s character could not help but love such a
revealing of that character ( In vs.43, Jesus asks a question which He
then answers. Their failure to
grasp His words is due to their refusal to regard His words as divine- see
Jesus then (vs.44) reveals the true
source of their spiritual dullness—their hatred for Him has moved them to
replicate Satanic intent (you are of your father,
the devil…and the desires….you want to do). Jesus then connects their desire to kill
Him with Satanic murder. It is
likely that the reference to “he was a murderer from
the beginning” has to do with Satan’s lies that brought
on the spiritual death of Eve, then
Adam, which, in turn, brought physical death. These attitudes and actions are then
related to “the truth”;
Satan does not “stand in”
(NKJV) or “hold” (NIV) truth and has no truth in Him. He is the father of
falsehood, misrepresentation, lies, deception, denial, perjury,
mendacity, equivocation, perfidy, distortion, fraud,
spurious and misleading words. Page 2 In scripture, “truth” is
understood to be absolute and proceeds from God- 1)
Truth is part of God’s attributes: Deut.34:6, Psa. 31:5,
33:4, 111:7-8, 132:11, Jere.4:2, John 16:13, 17:17,
Romans 2:2, 3:4, Eph. 5:9, I John
5:6, 20, 2)The
word of God is called truth- Psa. 119:160,Dan. 9:13,
10:21, Eph.1:13, II Tim.2:15, James 1:18, Rev.21:5, 22:6,
Psalms 19:9 3)Men
must approach God in attitudes characterized as “truth”- Psa. 15:2, I Kings 3:6, Psa.51:6,
Prov.16:6, John 4:24, I Cor.5:8, II Thess.2:13, I Tim.2:4, II Tim.2:25,
Titus 1:1, I Peter 1:22, 4)Jesus
was a man of truth- John 1:14,17, Rev.19:11 5)Relations
between men must be in “truth”- Deut.13:14, Ecc.12:10, Mark I Cor.13:6, Eph.4:25, I John
3:18-19, Eph.4:15 |