John  8:21-32   (CLICK HERE FOR BIBLE VERSES)

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 8:21-32.  I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help, then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go!

John 8:21-24 (NIV)
21  Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.”
22  This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘Where I go, you cannot come’?”
23  But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.
24  I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am [the one I claim to be], you will indeed die in your sins.”

On verses 21-24:  Pop culture today and many world religions teach that if you’re a good enough person, you can earn your way to heaven.  But Jesus teaches something completely different and totally politically incorrect: which is that unless you believe that Jesus is who he claims to be, you will die in your sins, meaning that you will not go to heaven unless you believe in Jesus.  “Why is that?” you may ask.  “Isn’t that so bigoted and narrow-minded of Jesus or Christians to say?”  It’s because, no matter how good we think we are, all of us have sinned; all of us have run away from God and ignored His rules for living.  The Bible says that our sins separate us from God.  As Isaiah 59:2 says, “It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.”  Whereas every other religion, faith and philosophy is based on the premise that you can earn your way to the divine, Jesus, who came from heaven, did for us what no other religion can do: Jesus paid the price for our sins so that through Jesus’ sacrifice we gain what we could have never earned.  That is why Jesus is unique and why believing in Him is so crucial.

John 8:25-27 (NIV)
25  “Who are you?” they asked. “Just what I have been claiming all along,” Jesus replied.
26  “I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is reliable, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.”
27  They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father.

On verses 25-27:  “Who is Jesus?”  This is the question Jesus’ hearers were trying to figure out, and it’s a question we must answer as well.  As we have seen throughout the gospel of John, Jesus makes incredible claims about himself that would suggest that he is either lying, crazy, or telling the truth.  As C.S. Lewis writes in his classic book Mere Christianity:

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 55-56)

John 8:28 (NIV)
28  So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am [the one I claim to be] and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.

On verse 28:  What does Jesus mean when he says, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man”?  Jesus is referring to his crucifixion (see John 3:14), how Jesus would be nailed to a cross and lifted up for all to see his suffering, humiliation and death.  Jesus is saying that because of his crucifixion, people will know that he is who he claims to be and that he was not acting and speaking out of his own will but his Father’s will.

We often point to Jesus’ resurrection as proof that Jesus is who he claims to be.  Interestingly here Jesus points to his death as what will lead people to know who he is.  If you want to know who Jesus is, take a good look at the cross. 

John 8:29 (NIV)
29  The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.”

On verse 29:  From this verse I learn a number of things:

  1. Though Jesus was heavily criticized and everyone would eventually desert Jesus, Jesus remained secure because of his relationship with the Father.  He hung onto the truth that the Father is always with him and never left him alone.  When you know that God is with you, it gives you strength, peace and hope even when others speak ill of you or desert you.
  2.  Notice the reason Jesus gives for why the Father did not leave Jesus alone: “for I always do what pleases him.”  In other words, because Jesus was perfectly righteous and pleasing to the Father.  He did everything that the Father required, so the Father’s presence never left him.  We, on the other hand, didn’t always do what pleases the Father and thus the Father’s holy presence left us because of our sin.  Because of our sin, we are separated from the life of God and destined to die both physically and spiritually.  So to bring us back to God’s presence, Jesus assumed responsibility for all of our sin, experienced separation from the Father on our behalf, and died in our place.  That is why on the cross Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34)  Jesus experienced separation from God so that we wouldn’t have to.  Now when we place our trust in Jesus as God’s perfect sacrifice for our sins, the Father restores us to His holy presence.
John 8:30-32 (NIV)
30  Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him.
31  To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.
32  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

On verses 30-32:  Interestingly, Jesus says that if you want to know the truth, start by holding to Jesus’ teaching, that is, applying what Jesus says.  The mindset of most people is: “let me understand this Christian thing first and if I find it to be true, then I’ll do it.” But Jesus says it actually works the opposite way: do what Jesus says and then you’ll find it to be true.  That’s because truth is more than abstract theory.  Truth is a life filled with God’s peace. God’s truth isn’t just learned by studying it, but by doing it.
Finally, whereas lies keep us in bondage, there is something about the truth that sets people free (v32).  Jesus doesn’t just tell the truth, but He is the truth that sets us free from bondage.
Lord Jesus, I believe You are who You say You are: the Son of God, the One who died to pay for my sins, the One who rose again to give me life.  Please give me courage to do what You teach, and as I do it, may I know the truth that sets me free.  In Jesus’ name, AMEN!

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