{"id":14376,"date":"2021-02-23T21:00:09","date_gmt":"2021-02-24T04:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/john_8_12-20-copy\/"},"modified":"2021-02-21T16:40:19","modified_gmt":"2021-02-21T23:40:19","slug":"john_8_48-59","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/john_8_48-59\/","title":{"rendered":"The Most Important Question You Will Ever Answer"},"content":{"rendered":"

John 8:48-59 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is John 8:48-59.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

John 8:48-59 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n48\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The Jews answered him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?”
\n49\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honor my Father and you dishonor me.
\n50\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge.
\n51\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”
\n52\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0At this the Jews exclaimed, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that if anyone keeps your word, he will never taste death.
\n53\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?”
\n54\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me.
\n55\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word.
\n56\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”
\n57\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“You are not yet fifty years old,” the Jews said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”
\n58\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”
\n59\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 48-59:\u00a0\u00a0Here in these verses Jesus makes some incredible claims:<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Jesus claims that if you obey his word, you will never die (v51)<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Jesus claims that he has special knowledge of who God is (v55)<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0as a man in his 30s, Jesus claims that he has seen Abraham, who lived many centuries before Jesus\u2019 time and even pre-existed Abraham (v58)<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Jesus refers to himself with the words \u201cI am\u201d (v58), which is another name for God (Exodus 3:14)<\/p>\n

If Jesus was not the Son of God, his critics would be justified in thinking that Jesus was crazy or a pathological liar.\u00a0\u00a0That is why Jesus\u2019 critics call Jesus a Samaritan and demon-possessed (v48), thus revealing their prejudicial bias against people from Samaria as well as their lack of compassion for people who struggle with demon possession.<\/p>\n

But the reason Jesus has no trouble making these incredible claims is not because Jesus is a professional liar, demon-possessed or crazy, but because these claims are the truth.<\/p>\n

This brings us once again to the dilemma C.S. Lewis wrote about: either Jesus is lying, crazy or telling the truth.\u00a0\u00a0Each one of us needs to answer this question for ourselves.\u00a0\u00a0The question of \u201cWho is Jesus?\u201d is the most important question you will ever answer in your lifetime.<\/p>\n

Jesus, thank You for being so bold in saying who You are and never wavering.\u00a0\u00a0I believe You are who You say You are: the Son of God.\u00a0\u00a0Before Abraham was, You are.\u00a0\u00a0You are the great I AM.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is John 8:48-59.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

John 8:48-59 (NIV)\u00a0
\n48\u00a0\u00a0The Jews answered him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?”\u00a0
\n49\u00a0\u00a0“I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honor my Father and you dishonor me.\u00a0
\n50\u00a0\u00a0I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge.\u00a0
\n51\u00a0\u00a0I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”\u00a0
\n52\u00a0\u00a0At this the Jews exclaimed, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that if anyone keeps your word, he will never taste death.\u00a0
\n53\u00a0\u00a0Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?”\u00a0
\n54\u00a0\u00a0Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me.\u00a0
\n55\u00a0\u00a0Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word.\u00a0
\n56\u00a0\u00a0Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”\u00a0
\n57\u00a0\u00a0“You are not yet fifty years old,” the Jews said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”\u00a0
\n58\u00a0\u00a0“I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”\u00a0
\n59\u00a0\u00a0At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.<\/p>\n

On verses 48-59:\u00a0\u00a0Here in these verses Jesus makes some incredible claims:<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Jesus claims that if you obey his word, you will never die (v51)<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Jesus claims that he has special knowledge of who God is (v55)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14378,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14376"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14377,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14376\/revisions\/14377"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}