Being Set Free

John: Know and Believe  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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Notes
Transcript
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Welcome: I want to welcome you to Hype Student Ministries. My name is Kent and I am the youth pastor here at Crosspoint. I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving break last weekend.
Transition statement: As we continue our study of John, we come to John chapter 8:21-59. This section of scripture is a continuation of the teaching that Jesus has started previously in John 8.

Introduction

Before we read our passage of scripture, we need your help to define a word that we will talk about tonight. This word is a short word and it’s one that we all have heard. Do you think you can help me with a definition?

How Do You Define Sin?

Sin is anything that is opposite of God’s commands.
What is God’s commands? (How can you summarize the entire bible into two sentences?)
Love God and love others
Another way to put it is...
Sin is failing to meet God’s standard of how to love God and love others
Transition Statement: So now that we have defined sin, we can read our passage and understand it better.

John 8:21-29

Read John 8:21-29 then stop.

21 Then he said to them again, “I’m going away; you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I’m going, you cannot come.”

22 So the Jews said again, “He won’t kill himself, will he, since he says, ‘Where I’m going, you cannot come’?”

23 “You are from below,” he told them, “I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.”

25 “Who are you?” they questioned.

“Exactly what I’ve been telling you from the very beginning,” Jesus told them. 26 “I have many things to say and to judge about you, but the one who sent me is true, and what I have heard from him—these things I tell the world.”

27 They did not know he was speaking to them about the Father. 28 So Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own. But just as the Father taught me, I say these things. 29 The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what pleases him.”

So basically what’s happening is that Jesus is telling the Jews that if they don’t believe in Him and what he says, then when they die, they will die in sin and therefore be separated from God. The Jews response to this is one that is like, “Who are you to tell us that we will die in our sin?”
Jesus then responds like, “Why are you still trying to figure out who I am, I have told you over and over again.” And then Jesus ends with this proof that the Jews will know that Jesus is who he claims to be when He is crucified and then resurrected.
There are two key truths to highlight in this section of John 8.

Key Truths

If you do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God then you will die guilty of your sins.
I want you to underline verse 28.
When Jesus says verse 28, he is referring to His crucifixion (dying on the cross) and resurrection (rising to life three days later).
The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus is the ultimate proof that He is really the Son of God. It is a historical fact in time that those things happened.
It is because of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus that we can know that He is really God the Son.
To know something is to acknowledge it’s existence. Like I can know that 2+2=4. But knowledge by itself does me no good. Knowledge must move to action for it to benefit me. I can know 2+2=4 but if I don’t put 4 down as an answer to the math question of 2+2, then the knowledge by itself is not good enough. When it comes to Jesus that action after knowledge is belief.
A logical conclusion to the truths of, if we don’t believe in Jesus then we are guilty for our sins and it is because of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus that we know that He is the God the Son then...
The result of these two truths should be that we believe in Jesus and follow what He says.
Transition Statement: Let’s continue reading to see if people do in fact move from knowledge to belief in our story.

John 8:30-47

Read John 8:30-47

30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him.

31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you continue in my word,, you really are my disciples. 32 You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

33 “We are descendants of Abraham,” they answered him, “and we have never been enslaved to anyone. How can you say, ‘You will become free’?”

34 Jesus responded, “Truly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. 35 A slave does not remain in the household forever, but a son does remain forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free. 37 I know you are descendants of Abraham, but you are trying to kill me because my word has no place among you. 38 I speak what I have seen in the presence of the Father;, so then, you do what you have heard from your father.”

39 “Our father is Abraham,” they replied.

“If you were Abraham’s children,” Jesus told them, “you would do what Abraham did. 40 But now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. 41 You’re doing what your father does.”

“We weren’t born of sexual immorality,” they said. “We have one Father—God.”

42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, because I came from God and I am here. For I didn’t come on my own, but he sent me. 43 Why don’t you understand what I say? Because you cannot listen to my word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to carry out 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 tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. 46 Who among you can convict me of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? 47 The one who is from God listens to God’s words. This is why you don’t listen, because you are not from God.”

Hold up. Did you guys see a problem with what Jesus just said?
Read v. 30 and then read the end of v. 47.

How can someone have belief but not be from God?

Didn’t we say earlier in our notes that belief was an action of knowing and we should believe in Jesus? We know that to be true to how can someone believe but not be a true follower of Jesus?
The answer is in v. 31 paired with v. 47.
Read v. 31 and v. 47
From this we can say that...
Someone with true belief follows God’s word.
This goes with what we said earlier about belief.
The result of these two truths should be that we believe in Jesus and follow what He says.
Following what the bible, God’s word, says separates true believers from false believers.
What we see in this passage of John 8:30-47 is that certain Jews proclaimed to believe in Jesus but in reality they failed to listen to his teachings as they were too concerned about holding onto their identity as Abraham’s children.
It would be like if I was a Chicago Bears fan, and one rule that I had to follow as a Bears fan was to never ever cheer for the Green Bay Packers. And even though I claim to be a Bears fan in public, what if someone came to my house and saw me wearing a Green Bay Packers Jersey cheering on the Packers. They would have said that I wasn’t a true Bears fan. I say one thing but yet choose to live a different way.
This is the same with people who confess belief in Jesus, do they actually follow God’s Word, or do they live life however they want to live?
Transition Statement: This becomes even more evident in our study as we read the last section of John 8.

John 8:48-59

48 The Jews responded to him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you’re a Samaritan and have a demon?”

49 “I do not have a demon,” Jesus answered. “On the contrary, I honor my Father and you dishonor me. 50 I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and judges. 51 Truly I tell you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”

52 Then the Jews said, “Now we know you have a demon. Abraham died and so did the prophets. You say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham who died? And the prophets died. Who do you claim to be?”

54 “If I glorify myself,” Jesus answered, “my glory is nothing. My Father—about whom you say, ‘He is our God’—he is the one who glorifies me. 55 You do not know him, but I know him. If I were to say I don’t know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I keep his word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.”

57 The Jews replied, “You aren’t fifty years old yet, and you’ve seen Abraham?”

58 Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.”

59 So they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus was hidden, and went out of the temple.,

In this last section we see even more evidence that the Jews who confessed belief were not true believers. First they claim that Jesus has a demon. and when Jesus references that He is God, they try to stone him. Pretty sure that is a clear sign of unbelief.
What we can get from a passage like this is that...
In order for belief in Jesus to be a real saving belief, it has to be centered on Jesus and what He said and how He lived.
What we see in this story is that people believe what feels good to them but when they hear something that goes against what they like and what feels good, they turned on Jesus and tried to stone Him.
It would be like if we said something along the lines of I believe in Jesus loving me and dying for me, but when it comes to being told to stop living a selfish lifestyle of retaliation, lying, making fun of people, looking at porn, being lazy, doing whatever please me. When it comes to give up my selfish desires, I’m out.
I pray and hope that we can be people, we can be a student ministry that knows the truth about Jesus, believes in that truth, and then comes to a saving belief in Jesus as we follow what He said and how He lived.
Let’s pray.
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