Really My Disciples
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Intro:
Have you ever had to tell someone a hard truth? Something like, man you got a boog hanging. Or something even worse, like how we have to break up, this isn’t working out. Or perhaps it is the ultimate hard Truth, hey did you know you are dying spiritually? These can be some pretty hard truths to give to someone, but if we truly claim to love people, then we must be honest with them for their own good right? It’s what Jesus did to those who were supposed to know the Truth but didn’t as it says in John 8:39-40
They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. “But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do.
Pray
Jesus isn’t seeking to diminish them in a way that undoes their whole being and sends them into a depression, but He has to tear down in order to build them back up. He has to come at them with a hard Truth of the Gospel and that is that they are not well, they are sick and dying and serving the wrong master. But the Gospel is that, they can repent and come to know Him and know the Truth if they would but let their grip on the flesh go and cling to what is righteous in the Spirit, and it begins here in John 8 verses 30 through 32:
Hold to My Teachings
Hold to My Teachings
Even as he spoke, many believed in him. To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
A. Truly Disciples of Min
1. Possessive sentence
a. belonging to Jesus alone
b. Cannot have split loyalties
c. That is what faith is - loyalty to God’s purpose
2. Set you free
B. Never been slaves
They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
1. But they are slaves to who?
2. What are they truly slave to
a. Sin and death
b. We are seeing this a lot in the world today
Kids in school - only a demon could do such a thing
i. That’s because these people’s father is satan
ii. We have to realize there is an urgency for the people in our communities
3. If Jesus isn’t in the place something else is
“The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
a. Jesus releases us from evil
i. takes up permanent residence
ii. Nothing can overcome His Spirit within
b. But if the Spirit isn’t present, something else will come in
Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”
i. Must be filled with the Spirit, which is eternal
ii. He brings us life
iii. if not death will fill that spot
Our Father is Abraham
Our Father is Abraham
I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.” “Abraham is our father,” they answered. “If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did.
A. Claiming the flesh
1. Jesus confirms their flesh
2. But then immediately dismisses their spiritual or eternal connection
3. Just because my Daddy was something doesn’t mean I am
a. Have to carve my own path
Something parents struggle with in their kids. Trying to let them be their own person but within the confines of what they ought to be in God. Eternal struggle not to make them like me, but to make sure they know Christ as I do.
B. Your True father
“Abraham is our father,” they answered. “If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did. As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. You are doing the works of your own father.” “We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”
1. Setting them up for the let down
2. Telling them the truth in their own language
a. Using their speech against them
b. Because what they speak is not truth
3. Do the deeds of Abraham
a. Abraham had faith and it was credited to him
b. Devoted to God and His plan
Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”
c. Wasn’t just this story, but how he left and followed God no matter what
4. They lost that in themselves
a. They followed their fleshly desires not God’s word
Claim What They Do not Know
Claim What They Do not Know
You are doing the works of your own father.” “We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say.
A. Become offended and misunderstand
1. Still clinging to the flesh
a. Riding the coat tails of flesh
b. As if being related to Abraham gets you a free dinner
2. But they used this as a crutch
a. So they didn’t have to work
b. Do we do that Church?
I show up once and a while, I am associated with a congregation in town. Do we use our association in place of a true relationship? We have to test our hearts in this.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
B. Jesus proclaims their truth
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”
1. A hard teaching
a. People thought they knew God
b. They were being deceived by the flesh and by lies
2. Your father is the devil
a. Not what a person wants to hear
b. But it is a wake up call to the Pharisees
c. Their actions are proving what Jesus is saying is true
3. They accuse him back
a. But Jesus isn’t having it, he continues in the truth
b. Me vs You
i. I don’t seek to glorify myself, but they did
ii. Jesus seeks God’s will, but they don’t
c. Accusation without guilt
i. Cannot prove Him to be false
4. Listen and see what you hear
a. Do I hear God or my own voice
b. Am I testing myself against the Scripture or following my own ways
i. Who is my father?
Conclusion:
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;
What voice do I hear today? Is what I am following honoring God and the kingdom, is it leading me and my family to holiness in God, is it uplifting the body or only serving myself and my flesh? These are the test questions to answer, who is my Father. We must be willing to listen to God and give it all to Him. It will fly in the face of everything I hold dear. Sometimes the person who needs to hear the hardest truth in life is myself. Am I willing to tell myself that my father is the devil and repent or do I want to say, my Father is God and I will believe and follow Him. It will take courage to follow God because it is going to go against your flesh and the culture and people will think you are strange and weird and will think you are out of your mind, but then again the people thought that about Jesus too, which place do you want to stand in the end?