We conclude our look at Jesus’ teaching at the Festival of Booths. Tonight we explore salvation, lineage, obedience, and ultimately  the identity of Jesus.

Encounter Jesus – John Week 11

I AM…the I AM

John 8: 31-59

AUDIO

Lecture Handout

John Week 11 – I AM… The I AM Handout

Lesson Notes

The Truth Will Set You Free (John 8: 31-38)

  • Verse 31 – Jesus now talks to those who “believed”
    • If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciple
    • Real belief means abiding belief, ongoing belief, not just some quick altar call response and you’re done
    • We need to know  God’s Word if we’re going to abide in it
    • But we need to live it once we know it! Otherwise we aren’t really disciples
    • We’re saved by faith, but a life of obedience should be the result
  • Verse 32 – If you’re truly a disciple, living and abiding in Christ’s word, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free
    • Once again, Jesus is badly misunderstood!
  • Verse 33 – as descendants of Abraham, they claim they’ve never been enslaved
    • What does Jesus mean?
    • These aren’t going to be true believers – they’re choking on Jesus’ teaching!
    • They argue they’re spiritually free, they know they haven’t always been politically free
    • Ultimately they can’t admit their slavery to sin and death
  • Verse 34 – Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin
    • We can’t escape sin’s power on our own life!
    • Sin controls and dominates our lives without Christ -> worse than any king or dictator
    • Christ set us free from slavery to sin
    • The Son remains in the house forever – the assurance that comes through faith in Christ -> freedom and a permanent place in God’s house
    • If the Son (Jesus) sets you free, you’re truly free
  • Verse 36 – Genuine freedom, freedom that matters comes only from the Son
  • Verse 37 – You’re sons of Abraham, sure, but that doesn’t matter much
    • They still are sinners, wanting to kill Jesus
    • The Word finds no place in their hearts
    • Their spiritual condition prevents any impact from Jesus’ words
  • Verse 38 – Jesus speaks of what He’s seen with God -> they do what they’ve heard from their Father (who in verse 44 is identified as the devil)

Their Father the Devil (John 8: 39-47)

  • Verse 39 – they draw identity and confidence in salvation from Abrahamic descent
    • If they truly were descendants of Abraham – in the spiritual sense of his faithfulness and legacy – they’d do what he did
    • Be willing to uproot everything they knew to follow God in obedience!
    • That’s what Christ was asking them to do, that’s what real faith looks like
    • Verse 40 – Instead they try to kill Jesus for telling truth from God
  • Verse 41 – Jesus redirects the conversation to the father they truly represent
    • Jesus says they do what their REAL father does
    • “We were not born of sexual immorality”
      • Unclear whether they think Jesus is accusing them of something (multiple fathers) or whether it’s a hint of rebuke toward Jesus for His parentage
    • Our father is  God!
  • Verse 42 – If God were your Father, you’d love me
    • Jesus came from God and is standing right there! God sent Him!
    • Jesus and how we respond to Him is the test of our patrimony – children of God respond to Him in faith and obedience
  • Verse 43 – What’s at the heart of all the misunderstanding we’ve seen through the gospel?
    • They can’t stand what Jesus has to say
    • The message of God’s grace, mercy, redemption, and judgment upon those who reject it
    • Here and following “hear” = “hear and receive” or “hear and obey”
  • Verse 44 – You’re children of the devil –> you do what he desires
    • Murder and lies – the lies and bringing of death into the world with the Fall
    • Exactly what they will do when they arrest, try (falsely), and execute Jesus
  • Verse 45-46 – Because I tell the truth, you don’t believe me
  • Verse 47 – If you’re of God, you hear (receive) the words of God
    • They don’t hear because they aren’t of God, they’re of the devil

Prayer – For us and those we speak with to hear the truth of Jesus and truly receive/obey it

I AM (John 8: 48-59)

  • Verses 48-49 – Insults escalate
  • Verses 50-51 – Critical truths are packed into these verses
    • Jesus doesn’t seek His own glory -> God is seeking the glory of Jesus
    • Through the cross!
    • It’s God will that Jesus the Son be crucified, raised, and given all authority
    • So anyone who keeps His word – the true disciples described in verses 31-32 – will have eternal life – never see death (know the truth and be set free)
  • Verses 52-53 – You’re nuts! Everyone dies, even Abraham and the prophets
    • The setup to the ultimate point of this encounter!
    • “Who do you make yourself out to be?”
  • Verses 54-55 – My Father is God
    • He glorifies me
    • You don’t know God, but I do, you liars
    • I’m not crazy – I know God and keep His word
  • Verse 56 – Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day
    • Abraham knew Christ was coming because of God’s covenant – Genesis 12: 1-3
    • Galatians 3: 16
    • Hebrews 11: 8-13
    • Jesus is the fulfillment of Abraham’s prophetic hopes and expectations
  • Verse 57 – You’re young, how could you know Abraham?
  • Verse 58 – Before Abraham was, I AM
    • Speaks to Christ’s eternality – that Jesus existed more than 2000 years prior
    • More than that, instead of “I WAS”, it’s “I AM” – the eternal presence of God
    • Claiming the name of God for Himself – Exodus 3: 14-15
  • Verse 59 – They now know what He means, and they want to kill Him for blasphemy
    • This was the most horrifying thing a Jew could hear a man say, unless it were true
    • They assume it isn’t true and prepare to stone Him
    • Clearly those who “believed” in verse 30 still didn’t really believe – they turned away at the hard teaching of Jesus

Prayer – For people to not rest comfortably on identity, ethnicity, etc., but to truly accept Jesus as the I AM

Next Week: Sign #5 – Healing a Man Born Blind (John 9: 1-41)