All right, good morning.
It's Christmas is fast approaching, isn't it?
Yeah, it is.
So Christmas is fast approaching.
It doesn't matter what you think it is.
It's scary how fast it is approaching.
Oh, my goodness.
Okay.
And if Christmas is fast approaching,
then things like the trees go up,
maybe not in your house,
but the trees go up,
decorations go up,
and presents start getting bought
and wrapped and placed under trees.
I'm a gift giver.
It's one of my love languages.
If you've read that book,
The Five Love Languages,
I'm a gift giver.
And it's a good thing to know, you'd think, yeah?
Except no, it's not.
It's kind of a curse.
You see, because I'm a gift giver,
I really put a lot of value on gifts.
I will judge you on the basis of the gifts you give me.
I would judge you on the basis of,
well, how much do you love me?
How much have you actually thought about this gift?
How much have you really put me at the center
of what's going on here?
And if you haven't,
if you haven't done well,
if you haven't put that thought in,
well,
you're going to see it in my face,
because I don't,
I'm not very good at poker.
Now,
you think about this
and how my family actually functions
and what Christmas morning looks like for them,
and I want to tell you that,
don't worry, okay,
because I bought my present from Joe
about a month ago,
and she nailed it.
Of course she did.
But what do you get for someone who has everything?
What do you get for someone who has everything,
or at least thinks they do?
As we go into John chapter 8,
or resume John chapter 8,
David's been preaching us through it so far,
what we find is that
we have a bunch of people
who are responding to Jesus in a particular way
for a particular reason.
It's a positive response.
They're believing in him.
And yet Jesus takes a funny turn,
an extraordinary turn,
and actually challenges those who believe in him.
It's a really unexpected response from Jesus.
So what did he see in their response?
Surely they were giving him what he was asking for,
but what did he see in their response
that he wasn't happy with?
What did he see that we can't?
Why did he respond in this way?
Well, the issue is that what Jesus sees
goes right to the very heart.
It's all about what we want.
And what we want
isn't necessarily what we need.
In verse 31, let me take it up
and read the first couple of verses.
So Jesus said to the Jews
who had believed in him,
straight away,
Jesus digs at the foundation for their belief.
These believers were looking to the right person,
but for the wrong thing.
So they were attracted by Jesus' signs on the one hand,
but repelled by Jesus' words every time he opened his mouth.
Even though, as you can see through this passage,
he keeps saying,
I'm telling you the truth here.
So let's look at this.
They were attracted by Jesus' signs.
Now in John 3, verse 2,
Jesus has an encounter with a man called Nicodemus.
And Nicodemus says these words by means of introduction.
John 3, 2, second part of it.
He says,
Rabbi, addressing Jesus,
we know that you're a teacher come from God,
for no one can do these signs that you do
unless God is with him.
Now John, as we go through the Gospel of John,
you might have noticed,
he's a little bit more sparing
in the number of miracles he describes.
The kids listed a bunch of them
that actually aren't in John's Gospel at all.
But here's the thing.
The other writers give us a fuller picture,
and Nicodemus here just gives us a glimpse into that picture.
You see, the other Gospels tell us
that it's actually unusual
when Jesus doesn't perform miracles.
Everywhere Jesus went,
he pushed back the darkness and suffering of life.
He fed the hungry.
He healed the sick.
He restored sight, speech, hearing.
He straightened deformity,
strengthened weakened limbs,
brought comfort to the broken in spirit.
And on at least three occasions that we know of,
he brought back the dead to life.
People came everywhere for relief.
Just to touch him was enough.
Just for him to speak the words.
The normal life of Jesus' ministry
was that he pushed back darkness.
Nicodemus knew this.
Everyone at the time knew this.
But even as he pushed back the darkness,
he opened his mouth to speak.
And people were repelled by his words.
As much as they were attracted by his signs,
they were repelled by his words.
Why?
Because Jesus told the truth,
and that truth was that he demanded
that they centre their hopes on him.
It wasn't enough to enjoy the relief he offered.
These things were just signs.
Signs that he could do what they needed.
So why did the people who are expecting Jesus the most
reject Jesus the strongest?
Surely they should have been in sync here at least.
Well, the answer lies in how you define the problem.
And Jesus said,
If you abide in me,
the truth will set you free.
And they picked up on that word free straight away.
In verse 33, they answered him,
We are offspring of Abraham
and have never been enslaved to anyone.
How is it that you say you will become free?
And they understood the implications straight away.
And they reacted strongly to it.
Only slaves needed to be freed.
But, they're thinking,
We're not slaves.
We're offspring of Abraham.
What do they mean?
Well, on face value,
you could say they were a kind of slaves.
They were actually under Roman occupation at the time.
And they had a long history of being slaves before that.
So Egypt, Babylon, Persia, and so on.
But in their minds,
they were privileged beyond anyone else on planet Earth.
They were Abraham's offspring.
They were the rightful heirs of the promised blessing.
They were the golden race.
Everyone else was a distant second place.
Worse, they were dirty.
I think I've told you before what my granddad used to say to me.
He was a Yorkshireman.
He used to say there are two kinds of people in the world.
There were Yorkshiremen,
and there are people that wished they were.
This was a kind of feeling they had about themselves.
They thought they were it.
Everybody else was dirty.
Now, the Jews were so convinced of this
that they would shake off the travelling dust
from other countries before they stepped back into Israel.
Can you imagine that?
It reminds me of the foot washing
that used to happen in the airports during the mad cow crisis.
I don't know if you were aware of this,
but Joe and I used to travel to England a lot.
We still can't give blood
because we were actually in England during the mad cow crisis,
and they don't trust us to not have mad cow disease
and pass it on.
But during that time,
if you came from England to Australia,
you would have to go in a special queue,
and you'd have to have your feet washed
because they didn't want you to bring anything
of the dust of England into Australia.
The Jews did this,
not out of a necessity to avoid infection,
but out of an arrogance,
a belief of who they were,
and a confidence that they were the chosen people.
To be the people of Abraham,
the offspring of Abraham,
well, in their minds,
you were truly blessed.
Freedom?
What about slavery?
What could this slavery possibly be?
Well, Jesus answers them in verse 34.
He says,
Truly, truly, I say to you,
everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.
Truly, truly, or amen, amen,
is a direct translation.
Before emoticons,
this was how you would emphasize a statement.
You would say something like truly, or amen.
If you say it twice,
that's like super emphasized.
But it means something more than just,
this is important.
It means what comes next is true.
And it means that what comes next
actually applies directly to the hearers.
It has a consequence.
In what Jesus says,
there is truth on the one hand,
and there is a consequence
for all the hearers on the other.
In other words,
Jesus is saying,
you are people who sin,
so you are slaves to sin.
Now,
the concept of sin
is no big revelation in one sense.
I mean, nobody in their right mind
claims to be perfect.
But these Jews,
who were Abraham's descendants,
never thought that their sin
was threatening their relationship with God.
Never entered their minds
that that would be the case.
They just didn't see their sin as a problem.
They had the law to guide them,
and it did.
They were, perhaps,
better than everyone else around them.
But they'd missed the point of the law.
The law didn't provide the security they assumed.
On the surface,
maybe they were better than them out there.
But the law also showed them
that there were so much worse
than the holy God they worshipped.
And it showed them
the means of bridging that gap.
Sacrifice.
I think we have the same problem
when it comes to law,
when it comes to this issue of sin
and applying it to ourselves.
But perhaps for a different reason.
When we hear the words,
you are a sinner,
we hear that and we think,
yeah, but I'm a good person too.
Yeah, I sin,
but I'm a good person.
Jesus says,
no, you're not.
You're a slave to sin
and your place in God's future
is not certain.
The problem of sin is this.
Every sin has a penalty.
The same penalty,
and that penalty is high.
And every sinner is a slave to sin.
Sin is the master we serve.
And as a slave to that master,
we're not in a good position
to buy ourselves out.
Jesus goes on to say in verse 35,
as a means of illustrating this point.
The slave does not remain in the house forever.
The son remains forever.
So if the son sets you free,
you will be free indeed.
The only way to be free from sin
is through the son.
The only way to remain in God's presence
is abiding in this son.
This is a huge claim.
It represents a massive shift
in their identity too.
You think about how they've been
defining themselves up to this point
as Israel's offspring,
as Abraham's offspring,
as Israel,
Abraham's firstborn son.
Think about this.
By Sarah, that is, sorry.
Just for accuracy.
Think about this.
The way that they define themselves
has changed significantly.
I've been trying to think about
how I can actually illustrate this to you.
And it's like saying,
you can't be Australian
unless, I don't know,
unless you're friends with David Calderwood
on Facebook
or something like that.
You know, it's just like
such a massive shift.
How do we consider,
how do we actually work out
our identity and who we are?
How do we work that out?
Whatever way you use
to define yourself,
Jesus is saying,
it's totally wrong.
Abraham has always been
their father genetically.
The DNA test would prove it,
but there's still a problem.
Yes,
they're offspring of Abraham,
but is he really their father?
Jesus says in verse 38.
I speak of what I have seen
with my father
and you do what you have heard
from your father.
Here we get the sense
that there's two fathers in play here.
And they hear the challenge,
but they can't let go
of their view of themselves.
Still.
But Abraham is our father.
They're thinking
and saying.
So Jesus raises the question,
so where's the resemblance?
You know,
this sense of resemblance
with father and children.
Ladies,
I'm sorry
if you actually resemble
your father too much.
It's something that as fathers
we don't want our children to do,
our daughters to do at least.
We don't want our daughters
to look like us.
I remember when I was a teenager,
I was pretty good at this.
I don't look anything
like my father.
When I was a teenager,
my sister used to tell
our youth group
that I was adopted.
And I looked totally different
to my parents.
I don't look anything
like my dad.
In fact,
some of you thought
he was Joe's dad
when he came and visited
a couple weeks ago,
a few weeks ago.
Now one day,
my sister kept throwing
this line out,
oh, he's adopted.
She did it in front of me
and the other kids
in the group
were horrified
that she would do that.
Actually, you know,
comment on me being adopted
in front of her,
in front of all the other kids.
And they'd call her out
on it.
How can you be so cruel?
And she was only joking
the whole time.
We don't look alike at all.
But you know that sense
where you expect
the parental resemblance,
you expect it to come through.
I can tell you now,
my dad and I don't look alike.
We have different eye colour,
hair colour, everything.
I don't look alike
to my dad.
But you ask Joe
about my mannerisms
and my habits.
She'll start with
the annoying ones,
but there are a whole bunch
of them.
I'm just so like my dad,
it's not funny.
Ask Ben,
he'll tell you too.
He's got a list of them.
You know,
we expect to see
a resemblance
from father to son,
from parent to child.
But they have this false confidence
because they've actually forgotten
what their father
is truly like.
So Jesus explains it to them
using their category
of father.
But he makes two
if statements.
If you are Abraham's child
or children,
which is wanting to move them
from that sense
of physical descent
through to an understanding
of a spiritual relationship
with their father.
If you are Abraham's children
on the one hand.
And the second one is
if God were your father
on the other.
In verse 39,
Jesus addresses the first one
as they say,
Abraham is our father.
Jesus said to them,
if you were Abraham's children,
you would be doing
the works Abraham did.
But now you seek
to kill me,
a man who has told you
the truth that I heard
from God.
This is not
what Abraham did.
Jesus
is the true son.
Have you noticed
how the Bible often
uses genderous language
at different points?
This is one of those places
where you get this
sort of father-son
type language.
And in the interest
of offending,
you know,
we try and sort of
streamline that out.
So certain passages
where it says brothers,
it actually means
brothers and sisters.
So we go,
you know,
some versions,
Bible versions
will actually say
brothers and sisters.
You know,
we try and do all that,
try and smooth things out
to not offend.
But here,
where Jesus raises
a matter of sonship,
it's really important
that we don't actually
smooth it out.
It's got something
really important
at stake here.
You see,
in the ancient Near East,
the son had a specific
role in the households.
He would serve
the will of his father.
A son would uphold
the family honour.
A son would keep
the family business together.
The son would actually
nurture the family
as a whole.
He would take part
in that keeping
the family together
as well.
The son would eventually
inherit.
The son would take
on the work of the father
in every sense.
Jesus is the son,
the true son of his father.
But they are not
true sons.
If they were,
they'd be like Abraham.
And let's be clear
at this point.
Jesus is not declaring
Abraham as the shining
example for everyone
to follow in morality
before God.
He's declaring Abraham
as the shining example
of dependence on God.
Abraham's work.
Abraham's work
was trust.
He believed God.
He believed God
and he placed his life
in God's hands.
When Abraham heard
the voice
of his heavenly father,
he believed his word.
He left his home,
his family,
his friends,
everything that was familiar.
He placed his life
in the father's hands,
literally.
Because in the ancient
Near East,
to do these things,
to move away
from these areas,
these points of security,
was literally
taking your life
into your hands.
But he did these things
without knowing
where he was going
or what was ahead of him.
Man,
when we come to Jesus,
it's easy to have an idea
of what should be ahead of us.
An expectation
that's so strong
in our minds
that we are crushed
when we don't get it.
Angry with God.
Disillusioned
in our belief.
Spiritually content
when we get what we want.
And then wanting
to kill Jesus
when he demands
too much of us.
Jesus said
in verse 40 to 41,
this is not
what Abraham did.
You are doing
the works
your father did.
To paraphrase,
this is not
what Abraham did,
but I do see
another father
you resemble.
To the Jews,
Jesus is saying
that physical descent
isn't enough.
It's not enough
to be ethnic Israel.
It's not enough
to be born
of the right parents.
It's not enough
to be legally blameless.
We need to be clear here.
Jesus is not saying
that we need to be
doing more to be saved.
Jesus is saying
that we need to come
to him to be saved.
We understand,
as Catherine spoke earlier,
we understand
the sense of consequence
in terms of punishment,
don't we?
The consequence
in terms of doing
something good
and we get something back.
doing something bad
and we get something wrong.
What Jesus is saying
here is
doing something bad,
yeah,
does get you punishment.
But trying to do
something good
doesn't get you
out of that punishment.
You can't balance
the scales like that.
We can't do more
to be saved.
We need to come
to him
to be saved.
In our hearts,
there's a desire
to be self-sufficient,
to be worthy
rather than dependent.
And it can be hard
to spot
when it creeps
into our lives.
Recognising this
works-based approach
to God
is really difficult.
Let me give you
this one way
at least
of trying to spot it
as it does creep in.
How do you feel
when someone
criticises you?
See,
if you're a religious person,
someone who actually
is basing your relationship
with God
on what you do
and someone points out
a sin in your life,
you will be crushed by it,
embarrassed,
ashamed
by the exposure
of that sin.
It represents
a chink
in the armour
of righteousness
that you're trying
to create
for yourself
or I'm trying
to create
for myself.
But perhaps
we're not quite
along those lines.
Perhaps we're thinking,
oh man,
God is a God
of love.
How can he
possibly reject me?
You have the God
of justice
and you understand
this issue
and you try
and produce
a life of righteousness.
Or you have this concept
of God
as a God of love
who will never
turn you away.
And you're offended
personally by the suggestion
that you're a sinner
in any way.
Don't put me
in that category.
Yeah, I sin
but I'm not a sinner.
No, I'm not perfect
but I'm far
from unworthy.
Anyway,
God is love.
If that's the kind
of pathway
you're going down,
then that pathway
fails to take
sin seriously.
Both paths
fail to take
sin seriously.
But God
does take
sin seriously.
And all of history
has been leading
to this one point.
Jesus
as its fulfillment.
And Jesus
is saying
listen to me.
Come to me
and be saved.
It's a call
for an all-in
Abraham-like
trust
in Jesus.
If Abraham
were your father
you would be
living like Abraham
toward God.
The Jews
are stung
by the implications
of Jesus' words.
Jesus is not
suggesting
but saying
that they are
illegitimate children
of another father.
And they respond
to this
in verse 41.
They say to him
we were not born
of sexual immorality.
We have one father
even God.
Now it's possible
at this point
that the Jews
might even be
having a dig
look at the legitimacy
of Jesus'
own birth.
It's possible
that they're
actually saying
you're the bastard son
not us.
But one thing
is definite
and that is
that they recognize
the spiritual nature
of what Jesus
is saying.
They argue
if we're talking
spiritually
then God
is our father.
And they have
reason to do this
because in Exodus
4.22
for example
God calls Israel
his firstborn son.
But again
Jesus questions
their argument.
In verse 42
he says
to them
if God
were your father
you would love me
for I came
from God
and I am here.
I came
not of my own accord
but he sent me.
If God
were their father
well Jesus
would expect
to see two things.
He'd expect
to see love
and understanding.
Love
Jesus said
if God
were your father
you'd love me.
In other words
when Jesus
calls us sinners
and tells us
he's here to save us
we should be
overwhelmed
with relief
with gratitude
with love.
He's the only one
telling the truth
to us
in all of creation.
He's trying
to bring life.
He's here
to save us.
We should overflow
with love
for this Jesus
who comes
from the father
not a desire
to kill him.
love
and understanding
in verse 43
Jesus says
these words.
Why do you
not understand
what I say?
It is because
you cannot bear
to hear my word.
In a sense
they do understand
and we do too
and it's a hard
truth to live with.
I am far worse
than you could know.
I am far worse
than I could know.
I need
the salvation
he is offering.
I need
the Lamb of God
to take away
my sin.
But more than that
in the extension
of what Jesus
was teaching
in chapter 6
I need
God
to open
my eyes
to hear
this truth.
Without
God's intervention
we will remain
the children
of the devil.
We will
accept the lie
that he speaks.
More than that
we will live
that lie
actively.
In verse 47
Jesus says
these words
whoever is
of God
hears the words
of God
the reason
why you do
not hear them
is that
you are not
of God.
This ability
to understand
is based on
whether God
has called us.
Now man
you may be
asking yourself
this and it's
a fair question
if you do
and it's good
if you do
as well
because I'm
going to
answer it
and that is
how do we
know if he
has called us
how do we
know if we're
in that category
how do we
know if we
are of God
well
let's just
turn this
passage around
and look at
how we
respond to
Jesus
how we
respond to
the Son
and how
we respond
to the Father
that's how
we know
you see
do we
respond to
Jesus
with recognition
of who he
is in our
eyes
and love
in our
hearts
or with
offence
in our
eyes
and murder
in our
hearts
do we
accept him
as the
one come
to save
and just
receive him
with gratitude
or do we
want to
kill every
thought of
him in
our lives
how do we
respond to
the Son
how do we
respond to
the Father
do we
respond to
our Father
with love
and gratitude
or do we
measure his
goodness as a
Father by our
own desires
and how well he
does at meeting
them
is God
the Father
that we run
to with arms
wide open
because this
is the Father
who longs to
welcome you
because of
Jesus' death
on the cross
his arms
are open
wide
he is that
loving Father
who longs
to draw you
into his
embrace
we're going
to sing the
truth of this
in a song
now it's
called
come to
the altar
so I
invite the
music team
to come
up
just to
recognize
and to
meditate
on the
relationship
between what
the Father
and the Son
are doing
and what
they long
to do
in sharing
that relationship
with us
it's called
come to
the altar
and I can
tell you now
as Christians
if you are a
Christian
then coming
to the altar
is something
that we continue
to do
not in the need
to be converted
again
to become
a Christian
again
but in
recognition
that we will
continue to
struggle with
sin
and that we
have a safe
place to come
to because
we are not
relying on that
sin for our
salvation
we are trusting
in Jesus
he is our
righteousness
and if you're
not a Christian
then as we
sing these
words
ponder them
and think
through what
the foundation
of our faith
is
it is not
how we live
that is not
the foundation
of our faith
our foundation
of our relationship
with God
Jesus is
and I hope you
see it through
these words
let's stand
and sing
1, 2, 3
are you
having a broken
wind
overwhelmed
by the weight
of your sin
Jesus is calling
have you come
to the end
of yourself
Do you thirst for a drink
from the well
Jesus is calling
Come to
the altar
The Father's
alms are open
My forgiveness
was bought
with the precious
blood of Jesus
Christ
Leave behind your
regrets and mistakes
Come today
there's no reason to wait
Jesus is calling
Bring your sorrows
and trade them for joy
From the ashes
A new life is born
Jesus is calling
O come to
the altar
The Father's
alms are open
Life forgiveness
Our open life
forgiveness
was bought with
the precious blood
of Jesus Christ
O come to
the altar
The Father's
alms are open
Life forgiveness
was bought with
the precious blood
of Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ
Oh what a Savior
Isn't he wonderful
sing hallelujah
Christ is risen
Oh what a Savior
Isn't he wonderful
sing hallelujah
Christ is risen
Oh what a Savior
Isn't he wonderful
sing hallelujah
Christ is risen
For he is Lord
for he is Lord
of all
sing hallelujah
Christ is risen
For he is Lord
Christ is risen
in the Lord
of all
sing hallelujah
Amen
Oh come to
the altar
The Father's
alms are open
Life forgiveness
was bought with
the precious blood
of Jesus Christ
Oh come to
the altar
The Father's
alms are open
hope and wide
For forgiveness
was bought with
the precious blood
of Jesus Christ
May you cross as you wait for the crown
Tell the world
Tell the world of the treasure you've found