Jesus Debates the Religious Leaders and the People

Take Every Passage to Prayer - Volume 2, The Gospels
^{Sunday August 11, 2024}

John 8:12-59

Father, please give me the courage to boldly proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, even with those who will persecute me for it. Please help me to live in the light of the gospel, a light where I seek righteousness, avoid the entrapment of temptation, have understanding, I'm healed of my previous brokenness, and I serve You. Please help me to be a faithful witness, sharing my testimony of brokenness and renewal through Christ. Father, please make me a man who is whole. Help me to know who I am, where I came from, and where I am going. Give me confidence in life exclusively from the promises of Your Word. Help me to love Jesus because I love You and I know You love Jesus and what He has done for me. Please protect me from evil plots and false accusations against me so that I can touch lives for Christ.  Father, please set me free, by the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ from being a slave to sin. I thank You that, because of Jesus, I am Your child. Father, please protect me from the lies of Satan. I don't want to be deceived by Him. I want to live my life for an audience of one - You, giving You glory every hour of my life. Amen.
Father, Jesus returned to the city from the Mount of Olives. He boldly and courageously went to the temple courts knowing full well He will encounter the opposition of the Pharisees and religious leaders. The text tells us that He stood near where the offerings of the people were collected. This seemingly insignificant piece of information informs us that Jesus was looking to confront the religious leaders. Where else would these men be then where the money was collected that will end up in their wallets? Jesus has no fear of these men.
Jesus is the Light of the World
Jesus begins to preach, stating that He is the light of the world. Whoever follows Him will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.

Jesus is Accused of Having No Credibility
“Wait a minute, Jesus! Hold on there,” said the Pharisees. “You can’t make any claim about who You are without witnesses. You know the law. Where is Your second witness?”
Jesus responded by saying He doesn’t need a witness for Himself. He is convinced of the truth about who He is, and it does not matter to Him what anyone else thinks about Him. If there were no witnesses on His behalf in the entire world, Jesus would still be convinced that He is the light of the world. It is settled in His mind. It is true and it is not debatable.

Jesus was a man who did not need counseling or therapy. He knew everything about who He was, why He was here, and what His destiny was. Oh, that this could be said of me too, Father!

Jesus makes the point that He does not come to these conclusions on His own. That is what we humans do. Each one of us considers ourselves to be experts in all matters, able to judge ourselves and others without shame or hesitation. We think of ourselves as all-knowing and all-wise, as if we are gods ourselves, and we judge everything under the sun.
Jesus comes to these conclusions about Himself for one reason only – He has listened to You, Father, and You are guiding Him, and You told Him the truth about who He is. If You told Him what to believe about Himself, such as Him being the light of the world, He has total confidence that what You told Him is true and right. Jesus said that He satisfies the command of the law to have two witnesses – the Father has told Him who He is and Jesus Himself knows who He is.
The Pharisees were thinking that the “Father” that Jesus referred to was His earthly father. “Where is Your dad? We’ve got to speak to him about his crazy son. We will see if he backs up what You are saying.”
“The fact that you ask this question is evidence that you don’t know the Father,” Jesus replied. “If you knew the Father, you would recognize Him, and His influence and blessing on my life, by what I do and say.”
Anyone who claims to know the Father should reflect and mirror the character of the Father. That is what Jesus does.
The crowds wanted to seize Jesus. It was not merely the religious leaders who were furious with Jesus. It was the lay people as well. From their vantage point, Jesus was a mere human claiming He was superior to everyone else. However, the text tells us that Jesus was protected from harm because it wasn’t His appointed time to die.
Jesus told the crowd that they wouldn’t have to contend with Him much longer. He said people won’t be able to find Him where He is going. Where was Jesus going to where the people wouldn’t be able to find Him?
Heaven.
How do we know Jesus meant He was going to heaven? In Jesus next statement, He tells the people that they will die in their sin and because of that they will not be welcomed into the place where Jesus is going. 
“He’s suicidal,” the people conjectured amongst themselves. “He’s going to go someplace and kill Himself.”
Father, Jesus ignored the suggestion that He was suicidal. It was ludicrous. He was sent on a mission by You to die on the cross for the sins of the world. If He had taken His life, He would have rebelled from You and allied Himself with Satan. Instead, He loves the people, and His heart is broken that they are destined to spend eternity in hell. His purpose is to bring them to faith in Him.
“Your eternal destiny hangs on whether you believe I am from the Father. I am warning you – the fact that you don’t believe in Me means you are worldly and on the path to hell.”
“Who do you think you are, Jesus?” they asked with sanctimony.
The truth? Jesus knew that He was their judge. Philippians 2:10-11 tells us that every knee will bow before Him. Every person confronting Jesus at that moment would one day kneel before Him. Jesus told them that they will be praising the Son of Man and they will see that He is Jesus. There will be no question at that time that Jesus did and said everything You told Him to do and say and that You were with Him in His earthly ministry. You are always with Him, even as He stands accused by this very crowd. Jesus is confident that He is pleasing You. Father, He knows that is true because He is in continuous fellowship with You.
Referencing His authority as the judge of the human race, Jesus said there were many things He could judge them for. He knew the voluminous details of their sin and rebellion from You. However, at that particular moment, He was not acting as the judge of the human race. On the contrary, He was to receive Your judgement for the sin of the world. Jesus was to die on the cross for the very rebellious arrogance of people like the Pharisees.
The Truth Will Set You Free
The text tells us that many did accept that truth and came to faith in Him. However, the text also informs us of what we know to be true in the 21st century. The person who claims to come to faith on Sunday rejects the faith by Thursday. The person’s “come to Jesus” moment was not genuine or authentic. It was a spontaneous “me too” decision that was not grounded in genuine sorrow for sin and desire for repentance. The person quickly falls away from the faith and returns to their worldliness. Jesus said that His true disciples are those who don’t turn away from their belief.
“Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free (NIV).” John 8:32
This “bumper sticker” verse has been misunderstood by the world for generations. It has been misapplied to all kinds of contexts it was never intended for. An environmentalist will use the verse to encourage a climate denier to embrace the truth of global warming. A counselor might encourage a client to embrace the truth that their divorced spouse will never get back together with them, and that truth will set them free to move on with their life.
However, I am convinced Jesus had only one intended meaning for the phrase “the truth will set you free.”
“Freedom from sin comes only from accepting the truth that Jesus is the Son of God sent to die on the cross for the sins of mankind.” That alone is the truth that sets people free. There is no other use of this verse that has merit in the 21st century.
Jesus tells the crowd that those who remain faithful to the truth of the gospel will be set free from their sin and enjoy the blessings of peace and joy.
Father, I remember back to the days when I trained people how to use computer applications. There was that woman who simply couldn’t grasp how to maximize a window in Windows. Despite the many different ways I tried to explain it and show it to her, she left the classroom at the end of the day unable to perform this most elementary of tasks. Her perspective was that technology was something to fear and, therefore, even the simplest of tasks must be more frightening than it appears.
In a similar fashion, the Pharisees and the people in the crowd still don’t understand who Jesus is or what He has been talking about. He has done everything He could to try to help them to understand who He is. Their refusal to embrace His message is not indicative of their intelligence. It is indicative of their stubborn rebellious hearts that absolutely will not humble themselves before Him or You, Father, even if the destiny of their soul depends upon it. They don’t understand what Jesus is saying because they choose not to understand what Jesus is saying.
Their willful ignorance continues.
“Hey, Jesus, what are you talking about freeing us from something? We aren’t slaves. We are Jews. How can you set us free?”
They have no clue that they are slaves to sin. They don’t understand they are slaves to the worldly lusts for fame, power, influence, wealth, and pleasure. They are slaves whether they acknowledge it or not. Jesus warned them that only members of His royal family will be welcomed into heaven. Anyone who accepts Jesus as their Savior is adopted into Your family as sons or daughters of the King. They are freed from their life of slavery. Everyone else remains a slave to sin and slaves, Father, and do not enter Your palace.
Which Father Belongs to Whom?
The Jews appealed to the royalty that comes from their being Jewish. However, Jesus said that doesn’t matter if they have no room in their heart for His Word. Jesus noted that You, Father, don’t entice the Jewish people to reject and kill Your Son. It is some other father that they are listening to, implying in verse 38 that the crowd is listening to their father Adam (worldly focus) and to their father Satan (enemy of Christ).
The people responded to Jesus by saying that righteous Abraham is their father. Jesus disagreed, suggesting that Abraham had faith that Jesus, the long-promised Messiah, would come to save the world from sin. Father, Abraham didn’t try to kill Your messengers and he would certainly not be standing with those who are against Jesus. Once more Jesus implied that Satan is their father.
The tension continued to escalate. With their line of argument about being the children of Abraham derailed, the people now said that You were their father, and they were not illegitimate children. Jesus once more contradicted them. Father, Jesus suggested a simple test, useful throughout the church age, as to whether someone is one of Your children: do they love Your Son, Jesus Christ? If they do, then You are their father. If they do not, then You are not their father. There is nothing more important to You than the mission that Jesus was given to save the world from its sin. Those who know You would know this and embrace it.
Jesus zeroed in on the core reason the people are against Him. It was not a language problem wherein somehow the people didn’t understand the vocabulary or sentence structure that Jesus was using. The people had been lied to by Satan, who told them that Jesus is not the Messiah and savior of the world, and they believed that lie. Satan is the father of lies and that is all he does 24/7/365. Not only did the people believe the lie, but they are now doing Satan’s work propagating that lie. Satan is not only a liar, but he also kills, just like the people wanted to do to Jesus.
Jesus then says that He tells the truth. He gives evidence that He tells the truth because no one can charge Him with any sin. He challenged the people to find any deceit in Him. I can almost hear Him saying, “Go on. Take a few minutes. I’ll wait. See if you can find any deceit in me.” The text does not record any accusations against Jesus.  He made His point that people with integrity of heart and mind are people who tell the truth.
The crowd has been continuously losing this debate with Jesus. Now, in an act of desperation, they resort to the accusation they have used before, that Jesus is possessed by a demon. Jesus responds with another useful test throughout the church age. How can we tell if someone is following God or Satan? It’s easy. Identify whose glory they are seeking. If they are seeking Your glory, Father, they are Your children. If they are seeking their own glory, they are following Satan. Jesus shares how He is seeking Your glory and not His own. The more the people attempt to derail Jesus’ ministry, the more they are trying to deprive You of glory.
Father, Jesus warned the people that You will be the judge of whose glory each person has sought. However, even in the midst of the people attacking Him, Jesus has love for them. He gives them hope that, if they follow Him and obey His commands, they will never see death. Jesus is referring to spiritual death, the everlasting death of a relationship with You and all the misery that comes with that.
However, the people assumed Jesus to mean literal physical death. They reminded Jesus that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel et al have all died. This was such a basic and elementary fact of history that Jesus must be demon possessed not to know this. The people, obviously believing Jesus was a mere man destined to die of old age one day, if not before then, accused Jesus of being so arrogant as to believe He was better than Abraham and all of these old testament patriarchs and prophets who had died.
“Who do you think you are, Jesus?”
Jesus responded by saying once more that He is not seeking His own glory. The pursuit of fame, power, and influence means nothing to Him. All He cares about is that You, Father, glorify Him. Jesus lives His life for an audience of one: You. Jesus said it doesn’t matter if the people deny that He is from You. He knows that He is from You and that He obeys You. He would be lying if He said otherwise. He knows that Abraham rejoiced that one day Jesus would come into this world to save the people from their sin. Jesus, who was not even 40 years old, had just suggested He had a personal relationship with Abraham , a man who lived about 1,800 to 2,200 years before Jesus. Jesus then said, in verse 58, that He existed before Abraham.
This was the last straw for the people. They reached for rocks to throw them at Jesus. Thanks to the text, we can clearly envision a chase scene of as much intensity as anything Hollywood can produce. We can imagine Jesus hiding behind a wall or ducking behind a cart and then running away from the crowd and exiting the temple grounds without being injured. When He saw no one was chasing after Him, He finally stopped and caught His breath. Amen.