JOHN 8:12-30?? Lesson # 17
OF THE FLESH OR OF GOD
I.? Introduction:
Q? Can you tell when someone is lying?
Q? What type of speaker do you trust?? How do you know he or she is speaking the truth that is from God?
Q? Do you like someone who speaks about all their good qualities?? Why or why not?
Q? What do you think of people who claim to really be good at something?
II.? Jesus Is The Light:? John 8:12-20
>>>>? Have someone read John 8:12
Note:? At this particular festival (Festival of Tabernacles), there was a huge fire from four candelabra, that illuminated the entire city.? It is against this background that Jesus is claiming to be the light (Barclay, 13).? In addition, there was a tremendous Old Testament tradition, acquainting light with God.? Have three different people look up and then read the following three passages:? Psalm 27:1,? Isaiah 60:19, Job 29:3.
Q? What is Jesus’ promise?
Q? What does it mean not to walk in darkness?
Q? What are some types of darkness that people walk in today that you personally know?
RQ? What particular darkness would you like to be freed from tonight?
Note:? Jesus is making some tremendous claims through out this chapter, but the people He is speaking to are not open, they are self satisfied, but Jesus’ words disturb them and so they react….
>>>>? Have someone read John 8:13.
Q? What is their response to Jesus’ tremendous claims?
An = He cannot be speaking the truth because He is “tooting his own horn” so to speak.
Q? Do you like people who “praise themselves”?? Is the Jewish response a logical and fair one?
An =? In Jewish culture there is a legal tradition that on the witness of one person, a judgment cannot be rendered.? There must be two or more witnesses.? This reference and others like it are concerned with murder trials, but they point to a key understanding in Jewish legal practice, multiple witnesses are needed for confirmation of? truth claims.?
So let us see how Jesus responds to their critique….
>>>>? Have someone read John 8:14-18.
Q? How does Jesus answer the charge that He only bears witness of His identity?
An = The only one who bears witness with Him is His Father who sent Him.? The issue of two witnesses being necessary is met by the witness of the Father.? Jesus is not speaking of Himself, but is One who is sent.
Q? How does Jesus contrast Himself with the Pharisees in verses 14-15?
An = First, He knows His origin and destiny.? He knows where He came from and where He is going.? They, on the other hand, do not know His origin or where He is going.? Also, they judge according to the flesh, but He is not judging anyone in such a manner.
Q? What does it mean to judge according to the flesh?
An = Jesus sees with the eyes of His Father.? >>>>? Have someone read John 8:1-11.? Some see this as an example of not judging as they do, according to the Spirit.? Jesus judges with His Father’s heart (Jesus is not alone in His judgment but He and the Father see together), with redemption in mind.
Q? Does Jesus want us to see our own sin, that all sin, so that we do not condemn sin anymore because everyone does it?
Q? Is this not the message of today’s world?? All sin so, all sin is OK?
Q? What does Jesus ask the woman to do?
An = Go sin no more.
? >>>? Have everyone turn to Ezekiel 18:30-32.? Jesus is quite consistent with His Father.? The Pharisees wanted to judge the woman according to the flesh, God will judge, but His desire is redemption, what He really wants is for us to repent.
These men are quite willing to judge a woman according to the flesh, but do not see with eyes of the Father.? One thing they do not see is their own sin.
What we will also see is that these men judge according to the flesh, because they do see that God is right in front of them.? Notice their response to Jesus’ claims….
>>>>? Have someone read John 8:19.
Q? What do they want to know?
An = Who is Jesus’ Father.
Q? How does Jesus answer?
An = Jesus seems to say that knowledge of Himself comes from knowledge of Father and if they knew the Father they would know whom Jesus is.
Q? What does this mean?? How would you explain this to someone today, who questioned Jesus’ deity?
>>>>? Have someone read John 8:20.
Q? Why did they not seize Jesus?
An = As we noted in John 7:30, it was not His time yet (8:59).? God’s servants work as long as He desires them to.? The author is telling us though that Jesus was “walking on thin ice”.? You would think that He would now back off, but as we have seen that is not what He wishes to do right now….
III.? Dialogue About His Death:? John 8:21-30.
>>>>? Have someone read John 8:21.
Q? What is Jesus speaking of here?
An = His return to the glory of His Father, which was precisely where His opponents could not follow Him because their rejection of Him was the rejection of their own entry into God’s glory.
>>>>? Have someone read John 8:22
Q? How do the leaders interpret His saying?
An = That He will commit suicide which they certainly would not and could not do.? This is quite a slander to a Jew.? Notice how Jesus responds to the slander.?
>>>>? Have someone read John 8:23-24.
Note:? Notice that Jesus does not react to the slander but goes to the heart of the issue.? He is not worried about His reputation but their eternal destiny.? He knows who He is and where He is going, what He desires is that their destiny would not be destruction.
Q? How can they avoid dying in their sins?
An = by believing in Jesus.
Q? According to verse 23, how is Jesus different from them?
An = They think in this worldly terms and He comes from a different perspective.
>>>>? Have someone read John 8:25-26.
Q? What do they want to know?
An = They seem to want to know who He is.
Q? What does Jesus repeat for them?
An = He brings them back to the key issue, they need to listen to God.? Notice what the narrator says of these men who “judge according to the flesh” (8:15)….
>>>>? Have someone read John 8:27.
Note:? Jesus will not stop here, but will press on, He will make a prophesy of His death and continue to press a central theme….
>>>>? Have someone read John 8:28-29.
Q? What is the central theme He presses again?
An = He is speaking, not on His own initiative, but His Fathers initiative.? He has been sent.? He has not been left alone.? He is not doing His will but the things that are pleasing to His Father.
Q? Do most Christians do the will of the Father?? Why not?
An = I know for me, it is because I am often afraid.
RQ? Can we ask God to make us like His son so that we do His initiative and so that we are sent?
Note:? Let me close in prayer for you, and you pray for me.