American Loon

We finished our last week’s bible study with this statement from Christ, “Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.” (John 8:47) Spend time pondering this, if you will. These words are from our Savior, Redeemer and King. If you go back to John 1: 1-5, you’ll find that this God-man created us. He was sent down to us by the Father, to redeem us from our sins. Something that which the law, given unto them through Moses, could never redeem them, only shows them what miserable sinners they actually were. Christ was sent to us as the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29) So when He tells these Jews who question how He got His knowledge and keep demanding that He show them a sign of who He really is, “you question Me this way because you are not of God.” Christ speaks with authority. Which all who heard him found to be the case. 

So, how much authority does Christ have in your life? This book I am teaching from tells us that Christ has been given dominion over all, (Daniel 7:14, Matthew 8:27, Mark 1:27, John 3:35, Ephesians 1:22, 1 Peter 3:22) does He have dominion over you? I ask this because for the longest time, I did what was right in my own eyes. Just like Judges 17:6. Just like a majority of people you meet in your day to day life. Then I became accountable to Him. I was watching someone on the computer, somebody who claimed to be a healer, because that is how I entered into this whole “waking up and finding Jesus” thing. I had just found out that I had ALS and I wanted it cured. While this guy never claimed to be able to do that, I was interested in what he was doing. This particular time, he went through the scripture, I don’t even remember which scripture, but when he got done, he said to the camera, now that you know and understand that, you are now accountable. (Matthew 12:36, Romans 14:12, Acts 17:30, Romans 3:19) 

It’s a funny thing about how God uses people and other things, to convey a personal message to YOU. Those words hit me like a ton of bricks. I truly became accountable at that point. These Jews heard words that should have caused them to be accountable, but their hearts had been hardened by their devotion to the Law of Moses and being of the line of Abraham. Neither of which did they follow, what those two individual men of God had taught. Head knowledge, not heart knowledge, and that is a real problem today, we all know a bit of something about the bible and church, but for most that as far as it goes. There are people out there that have read the whole bible and can quote it to you, but they still do not believe or submit to the one that redeems us. These Jews knew what they knew, what they had been taught in the temple, but their heritage and tradition and the hate they had in their heart for others not of the Jewish lineage, kept them from hearing what Christ said. 

This was evidenced by how they responded to Christ:  “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” They had seen countless signs and wonders from this Son of Man, yet it was not good enough. Also, here is seen the hate they have for those that are not of them. Samaritans, yet it was among the first of Christ converts, a Samaritan woman who happened to be a harlot and her village. (John 4:1-42) If they knew that He had chosen them first, instead of these Jews, that would be a deal killer. 

Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” (vv. 49-51) 
The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’  Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” (vv. 52-53) They were trying to use His words to convict Him. Many people do this today. Using scripture to validate their claims and you have to wonder, who are they serving here, themselves or Christ?

Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” (vv. 54-56) These Jews had all the proof they needed standing before them. Everything the Old Testament pointed to. We have the whole scripture, all of the Good News and there are still many in this nation who do not believe. Some even call themselves Christians, as I did, but until you are accountable and live in obedience to His word, that is not the case.

 So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” (v.58) Matthew 13:14 quotes Isaiah 6:9, Seeing they will not Perceive, Hearing they shall Not Understand! As true now as it was back then. And there are those that think this dusty old book could not possibly have anything of use to them, when in fact you could predict their entire life with the information contained within. That is true for all of us.

When the people heard what Christ told them, they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. (v. 59)

From Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Concerning John 8:54-59 Christ and all that are his, depend upon God for honour. Men may be able to dispute about God, yet may not know him. Such as know not God, and obey not the gospel of Christ, are put together, 2 Thessalonians 1:8. All who rightly know anything of Christ, earnestly desire to know more of him. Those who discern the dawn of the light of the Sun of Righteousness, wish to see his rising. Before Abraham was, I AM. This speaks Abraham a creature, and our Lord the Creator; well, therefore, might he make himself greater than Abraham. I AM, is the name of God, Exodus 3:14; it speaks his self-existence; he is the First and the Last, ever the same, Revelation 1:8. Thus he was not only before Abraham, but before all worlds, Proverbs 8:23; John 1:1. As Mediator, he was the appointed Messiah, long before Abraham; the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, Revelation 13:8. The Lord Jesus was made of God Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, and Redemption, to Adam, and Abel, and all that lived and died by faith in him, before Abraham. The Jews were about to stone Jesus for blasphemy, but he withdrew; by his miraculous power he passed through them unhurt. Let us steadfastly profess what we know and believe concerning God; and if heirs of Abraham’s faith, we shall rejoice in looking forward to that day when the Saviour shall appear in glory, to the confusion of his enemies, and to complete the salvation of all who believe in him.

As you’ve just witnessed, Matthew Henry was a much more eloquent writer than I, but he’s dead and I’m here, so you go with what you got. It was made clear to those malcontent Jews that by His claim, Jesus was Christ and all that that meant. To their dead ears and shriveled hearts that was blasphemy. When you think of yourself as righteous, anything that besmirches that will cause your indignation and anger. They, without even having a trial, picked up stones to stone Him with. I get the strong impression that in all areas of habitation, there were piles of stones placed about, on the off chance of someone suddenly needing to put down some heresie or such. They, the Jews were always demanding that He show a sign of who He said He was, and they got one. The scripture tells us: “but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.” (v.59) It does not say that Christ disappeared miraculously, but He was standing amongst them, about to be stoned and then He was gone. We are left to draw our own conclusions. Here we are at the end of John 8 and will start chapter 9 next week.

Notes of interest:
Feasts for which all Jewish males were required to travel to the temple in Jerusalem.

*Passover (One day) Leviticus 23:5
Nisan (March – A ru)
Reminder of deliverance from Egyptian bondage;
Need for lamb without blemish; OT (Exodus 12) NT Significance(1 Peter 1:18-19)

Unleavened Bread
(Seven days) Leviticus 23:6-8
Nisan (March April)
OT (Exodus 13:1-10) NT Significance (1 Corinthians 5:7-8)

Firstfruits
(One day) Leviticus 23:9-1 4
Nisan (March- April)
OT(Leviticus 23:10-11) NT Significance (1 Corinthians 15:20-22)

* Pentecost (Feast of Weeks) (One day) Leviticus 23:15-22
Sivan (May-June)
OT (Lev. 23:15-16 & Deut. 16:9-10) NT Significance (Acts 2:1-4 & 41b)

Trumpets
(Rosh Hashanah) (One day) Leviticus 23:23-25
Tishri (Sept. October)
OT (Lev. 23:24 & Num. 29:1-6) NT Significance (1 Thess. 4:16-17 & I Cor. 15:52)

Day of Atonement
(Yom Kippur) (One day) Leviticus 23:26-32
Tishri (Sept.- October)
OT (Leviticus 23:26-32 & 16:20-22) NT Significance (Hebrews 9:7 & 28 & Gal. 3:13)

* Tabernacles (Booths)
(Seven days) Leviticus 23:33-43
Tishri (Sept.- October)
OT (Leviticus 23:40-43) NT Significance (John 14:1-3 & Rev. 21:1-3)

Link to The Feast of Booths information: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/feast-booths/

We ended last week’s bible study with Jesus telling these Jews “I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.” (John 8:38) This can also be seen in Matthew 3:7, when John the Baptist encountered Pharisees coming to his baptism, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” I confess to this verse being one of my favorites. So we have the herald to the Lamb of God, and the actual Lamb of God Himself, 2 uncompromising men, speaking the unvarnished truth to these righteous appearing Jews. Which those Jews rejected angrily. Then, like in Matthew 3, their claim, piously made, was to be sons of Abraham. (v. 39)

Jesus countered 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. You are doing the works your father did.” (vv. 40-41)

Have you ever been so sure you are right about something and then somebody comes along and tells you, no, the sky is in fact blue. How does that make you feel? Nobody likes being told they are wrong, and if you are prone to being full of yourself, an authority on the very subject you’ve been told you’re wrong about, that might very well blind you to the actual truth and entrench your wrong headed ideas all the more. We see it today in many areas of our current culture. Call it the chicken little syndrome, shouting to all that the sky is falling.

We see it 2 millennia ago when an entire people were sure that being of the direct line of Abraham, how could they not go to heaven? They follow the law, sacrificing as the law demands, certain of them endowed with extra special righteousness, wrote many more rules to be obeyed, in a sense putting a fence of protection around the Law, that none may sully it. Now, this rabbi that consorts with tax collectors and other low lifes, is telling them they have got it all wrong, you are in fact doing the work of satan. That might irritate you and your friends enough to make you think you should maybe do something about this irritant, like kill this rabbi that speaks to them this way.

That’s exactly where these Jews were, when Christ was talking to them. They responded to Jesus, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.” (v. 41) Jesus said 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. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.” (vv. 42-47)

There it was, right out in front. If they were truly claiming God as their Father, they would love Him. Because instead of loving this Son of Man, they were plotting to kill him. The very law they upheld with such reverence, convicted them. We see a reference to it Galatians 4:4
“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,”. They followed the letter of the law, but not the true intent of the law. Verse 44, You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.

Does it shock you that while you walked in sin, your father was satan? None of us have stepped outside the bounds of sin, however there is a redeemer that took our sins, past, present and future and shed His blood over it to cover it, so that we that believe, will truly be sons and daughters of the Father and have eternal life. Does that mean we can go about life as we please, because of Christ’s sacrifice, we are free to live life as we see fit? No, we are now accountable to our Father and because we are no longer slaves of sin, we do our very best to obey and love Him and give Him the glory of all that we do. Repenting daily our sins: Acts 3:19
“Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;”

This book I am getting my bible studies from, given to us by our Father, you might ask yourself, is it required of me to read? Yes, I would say so. You are interested in what the Father is doing, are you not? But that is an old book, things have changed since then. I would counter that God does not change, nor does His law, only we who sin and make excuses do. Maybe you don’t like to read. Fine, there are audio versions of the bible available or maybe somebody could read it to you. But, you say, you’re too busy trying to live… Note what is said about excuses up above. Are you speaking the words of your father? The Pharisees did and were not prepared to listen to anything told to them differently. None can drag you to the cross and make you believe. Either you repent, believe and obey He who created you, or listen to the words of your father, who “does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.” (v. 44) Examine yourself and see who you are accountable to. If you are not happy with the answer, there is One who is always available to hear your prayers and a book to read. Repent, Believe, Obey and Continue.