Sermon by Pastor Brent Kompelien
February 12, 2023
INTRO
John series “Full of Grace and Truth”
Recap of chapters 7-8 — Feast of Tabernacles, “dwelling,” growing division. Our text this morning is Jesus’ most clear proclamation of his divinity yet in the gospel of John. And its going to ruffle some feathers! It is another dividing line.
ILLUST — Story of Brandon and me at Covenant Seminary last summer. He said with tears in his eyes, “I’m here because your grandfather decided to invite my grandfather to church.” For each of us, for each generation, there is a dividing line. Jesus or not?
ASK — I want to approach this text by asking a question: Can you be neutral toward Jesus? Can you be apathetic toward him? Can you pretend like he doesn’t matter or doesn’t exist?
PROP — If Jesus is truly God himself in the flesh, then there is no neutral; how you respond to him reveals whether you know God at all.
READ John 8:31-59.
ORG SENT — Four questions I want to ask as we examine this text.
What is a genuine disciple?
Jesus lays out exactly what he desires in a genuine disciple. READ v. 31.
The verb “hold” is the word meno, which means “to abide, to remain” (SLIDE 2b)
It is the same word that we see in John 15:5 — “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
(SLIDE 2c) Abide = our daily reliance upon Jesus and his truth specifically as we persevere in the daily struggles of living in this broken world.
ILLUST — Pastor and theologian Don Carson said, “Perseverance in obedience is the mark of true faith, or real disciples. A genuine believer remains in Jesus’ teaching no matter what sin, cultural forces, or darkness you encounter. It is when we find Jesus and his teaching better, more precious, and more compelling, precisely when other forces flatly oppose him!”
APPLY — The world’s view on Jesus’ truth: results in narrow-mindedness, rejection, stunting your career, and make you laughable in the public square.
But the glorious promise of sticking with Jesus and surrendering to his truth is that you will find freedom! (SLIDE 2d) Two aspects of this:
(SLIDE 2e) The path to life is dying to self. There is freedom is surrendering and repentance!
(SLIDE 2f) The truth of the gospel opens up an entirely new worldview!
ILLUST — I can’t walk outside and see the world the same anymore! Once I surrendered to Jesus and the truth of the gospel gripped my heart, it was like my eyes were opened and I was awakened to a different reality!
IMPORTANT — Jesus is never interested in gaining followers who are not genuine believers, and he therefore repeatedly asks his followers to count the cost! Jesus would rather have a few with genuine faith than many with false faith!
APPLY — The same goes for the church today. We must always call people to genuine faith, to truly die-to-self, to fully surrender to Jesus.
Listen carefully: to Jesus, half-way faith isn’t really faith at all. Half-way surrender isn’t really surrender at all. Half-way belief isn’t truly belief. One foot in God’s kingdom and one foot in the World means you don’t really know Jesus!
What is our deepest problem? (SLIDE 3a)
Sin! — The Jews can’t understand that they are enslaved (v. 33)
(SLIDE 3b) You are either a slave to sin or you are child of God (v. 34-36). You can’t be neither and you can’t be both!
ILLUST — Carson, “Life before Jesus is nothing but pitiful slavery!”
Put differently, you belong to some lineage or some family…either Satan is your father or God is your father! (vv. 37-47).
IRONY in verse 41 — we are not illegitimate children, the only Father we have is God himself.
A few things to know about Satan (v. 44): (SLIDE 3c)
He was a murderer from the beginning. (SLIDE 3d)
There is no truth in him. (SLIDE 3e)
He is a liar; lies are his native language. (SLIDE 3f)
ILLUST — Screwtape Letters — helpful illustration of the “native language”
KEY — There is no such thing as neutral.
We are sinners or we are blood-brought children of God. There is no in-between!
ILLUST — What would you say to someone who declares, “It is not fair for a loving God to send people to hell!”
This assumes that we are morally neutral.
The fact that anyone is saved is an act of pure love and grace!
What do we truly need? (SLIDE 4a)
Jesus! (vv. 50-51) (SLIDE 4b) — “whoever obeys my word will never see death”
The people think he is crazy! (vv. 52-53). (SLIDE 4c)
Jesus is the perfect manifestation of God, the revealer of his glory (vv. 54-56). (SLIDE 4d)
ILLUST — I just was reminded at our Theology Conference from Dr. Fred Sanders:
Blessedness (SLIDE 4e) = God eternally rejoicing in the fullness of his own perfections.
Glory (SLIDE 4f) = God’s eternal perfections shining forth.
Verse 54 — The Father glorifies the Son.
In other words, the eternal perfections of God are shining forth in Jesus.
If this is true, then your greatest need is Jesus!
How do you approach Jesus? (SLIDE 5a)
Look again at what happens — READ vv. 56-59.
Background — God coming down to rescue Israel; he reveals his name… (SLIDE 5b)
Exodus 3:7-8 (SLIDE 5c) — The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt…So I have come down to rescue them.
Exodus 3:14 (SLIDE 5d) — God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
KEY — This is the name of God, the “I AM”
Jesus claiming that he came before Abraham, using the exact name “I AM” means that he is claiming divinity, that he is God himself!
John’s gospel is full of symbolism.
Here is Jesus at the end of the Feast of Tabernacles, which symbolized God’s dwelling with his people while they traverse the wilderness toward the Promised Land.
And at the end of this passage, Jesus symbolically leaves the temple. (v. 59) (SLIDE 6a)
It harkens to Ezekiel 10 where God’s glory leaves the Temple.
Ezekiel 10:4 (SLIDE 6b) — “Then the glory of the LORD rose from above the cherubim and moved to the threshold of the temple. The cloud filled the temple, and the court was full of the radiance of the glory of the LORD.”
Ezekiel 10:18 (SLIDE 6c) — “Then the glory of the LORD departed from over the threshold of the temple”
Remember how Jesus said that the Father is glorifying him? That he is the glory of the Lord, the very presence of God himself in the flesh, standing there in the temple courts revealing God’s truth! Yet these people reject him. They pick up stones to try to kill him!
ILLUST — The great 4th century theologian Augustine once wrote, (SLIDE 7) “As Jesus flees from the stones, woe to those from whose heart of stone God flees!”
APPLY — If YOU are confronted with who Jesus is, how will you respond? Will you pick up a stone? Or are you going to be soft hearted, bearing fruit in keeping with repentance? (SLIDE 8, blank)
ILLUST — Gentleman who came to the conference just to tell people off. He was a subordinationist. He believes that Jesus is inferior to God the Father.
Two challenges:
We have friends, co-workers, neighbors, and others who need to be confronted with the reality of who Jesus is. How will they react? Jesus is a dividing line! You’re either must surrender fully to him as God and as your only Savior, or you are going to pick up a stone to try to destroy him. There’s really no middle-ground.
But we also need to look in the mirror. How do we react when we are confronted with Jesus in the face of our choices, our sin, our daily struggles, our reaction to things in the world around us, or whatever other challenges we face? Are we going to soften our hearts, surrender fully to Jesus as Lord over everything, and “hold fast, abide” in him and his truth?