{"id":30957,"date":"2024-05-06T22:00:37","date_gmt":"2024-05-07T05:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/john-8_12-20-copy\/"},"modified":"2024-04-16T14:11:47","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T21:11:47","slug":"john-8_21-32","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/john-8_21-32\/","title":{"rendered":"How You Learn the Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"

John\u00a0 8:21-32\u00a0 \u00a0(CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

\n

Today\u2019s passage is John 8:21-32.\u00a0 I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help, then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

John 8:21-24 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n21\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Once 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.”
\n22\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘Where I go, you cannot come’?”
\n23\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.
\n24\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I 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.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 21-24: \u00a0Pop culture today and many world religions teach that if you\u2019re a good enough person, you can earn your way to heaven.\u00a0 But Jesus teaches something completely different and totally politically incorrect<\/strong>: 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.\u00a0 \u201cWhy is that?\u201d you may ask.\u00a0 \u201cIsn\u2019t that so bigoted and narrow-minded of Jesus or Christians to say?\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s 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.\u00a0 The Bible says that our sins separate us from God.\u00a0 As Isaiah 59:2 says, \u201cIt\u2019s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.\u201d \u00a0Whereas 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\u2019 sacrifice we gain what we could have never earned.\u00a0 That is why Jesus is unique and why believing in Him is so crucial.<\/p>\n

John 8:25-27 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n25\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Who are you?” they asked. “Just what I have been claiming all along,” Jesus replied.
\n26\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“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.”
\n27\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 25-27:\u00a0 \u201cWho is Jesus?\u201d\u00a0 This is the question Jesus\u2019 hearers were trying to figure out, and it\u2019s a question we must answer as well.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 As C.S. Lewis writes in his classic book\u00a0Mere Christianity:<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u2014on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg\u2014or 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)<\/em><\/p>\n

John 8:28 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n28\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So 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.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 28:\u00a0 What does Jesus mean when he says, \u201cWhen you have lifted up the Son of Man\u201d?\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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\u2019s will.<\/p>\n

We often point to Jesus\u2019\u00a0resurrection<\/em>\u00a0as proof that Jesus is who he claims to be.\u00a0\u00a0Interestingly here Jesus points to his death as what will lead people to know who he is.\u00a0\u00a0If\u00a0<\/strong>you want to know who Jesus is, take a good look at the cross.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

John 8:29 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n29\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 29:\u00a0 From this verse I learn a number of things:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \n
  1. Though Jesus was heavily criticized and everyone would eventually desert Jesus, Jesus remained secure because of his relationship with the Father.\u00a0 He hung onto the truth that the Father is always with him and never left him alone.\u00a0\u00a0When you know that God is with you, it gives you strength, peace and hope even when others speak ill of you or desert you.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. \u00a0Notice the reason Jesus gives for why the Father did not leave Jesus alone: \u201cfor I always do what pleases him.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, because\u00a0Jesus was perfectly righteous and pleasing to the Father<\/strong>.\u00a0 He did everything that the Father required, so the Father\u2019s presence never left him.\u00a0 We, on the other hand, didn\u2019t always do what pleases the Father and thus the Father\u2019s holy presence left us because of our sin.\u00a0 Because of our sin, we are separated from the life of God and destined to die both physically and spiritually.\u00a0 So to bring us back to God\u2019s presence, Jesus assumed responsibility for all of our sin, experienced separation from the Father on our behalf, and died in our place.\u00a0 That is why on the cross Jesus cried out, \u201cMy God, my God, why have you forsaken me?\u201d (Mark 15:34)\u00a0 Jesus experienced separation from God so that we wouldn\u2019t have to.\u00a0 Now when we place our trust in Jesus as God\u2019s perfect sacrifice for our sins, the Father restores us to His holy presence.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    John 8:30-32 (NIV)<\/strong>
    \n30\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him.
    \n31\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.
    \n32\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”<\/em>On verses 30-32:\u00a0 Interestingly, Jesus says that if you want to know the truth, start by holding to Jesus\u2019 teaching, that is, applying what Jesus says.\u00a0\u00a0The mindset of most people is: \u201clet me understand this Christian thing first and if I find it to be true, then I\u2019ll do it.\u201d But Jesus says it actually works the opposite way: do what Jesus says and then you\u2019ll find it to be true.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s because truth is more than abstract theory.\u00a0 Truth is a life filled with God\u2019s peace.<\/strong>\u00a0God\u2019s truth isn\u2019t just learned by studying it, but by doing it.
    \nFinally, whereas lies keep us in bondage, there is something about the truth that sets people free (v32).\u00a0 Jesus doesn\u2019t just tell the truth, but He\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0the truth that sets us free from bondage.
    \nLord 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.\u00a0 Please give me courage to do what You teach, and as I do it, may I know the truth that sets me free.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    Copyright \u00a9 2022 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

    Today\u2019s passage is John 8:21-32.\u00a0 I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help, then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

    John 8:21-24 (NIV)
    \n21\u00a0\u00a0Once 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.”
    \n22\u00a0\u00a0This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘Where I go, you cannot come’?”
    \n23\u00a0\u00a0But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.
    \n24\u00a0\u00a0I 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.”
    \n\u00a0
    \nOn verses 21-24: \u00a0Pop culture today and many world religions teach that if you\u2019re a good enough person, you can earn your way to heaven.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30959,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30957","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\/30957","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=30957"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30960,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30957\/revisions\/30960"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}