{"id":30965,"date":"2024-05-08T22:00:14","date_gmt":"2024-05-09T05:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/john-8_33-47-copy\/"},"modified":"2024-04-16T14:33:20","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T21:33:20","slug":"john-8_48-59","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/john-8_48-59\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Did Jesus Hide When Attacked?"},"content":{"rendered":"

John\u00a0 8:48-59 \u00a0(CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

\n

Today\u2019s passage is John 8:48-59.\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 8:48-50 (NIV)<\/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.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 48-50:\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 critics castigate Jesus.\u00a0 They call him a Samaritan, in turn showing their prejudicial bias against people from Samaria.\u00a0 They also call him demon-possessed (v49), revealing their lack of compassion for people who struggle with demon possession.\u00a0 In response, Jesus says that what he says is not because he is demon-possessed (v49) or because he is seeking glory for himself (v50), but because Jesus honors his Father (v49).\u00a0 It\u2019s ironic that while Jesus tries to honour the Father, Jesus is at the same time dishonoured by his critics (v49). But Jesus doesn\u2019t get too wrapped up in what his critics say.\u00a0 Instead, Jesus finds comfort in the thought that his Father seeks to honour him (v50) and that his Father is the judge and no one else (v50).<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0When you seek to do God\u2019s will, there will be those who misunderstand you and even insult you.\u00a0 But like Jesus, don\u2019t worry about them and what they say.\u00a0 Seek to honour God, and God will honour you in the end.\u00a0 God is the only judge and His assessment of you is the only one that counts.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

John 8:51-58 (NIV)<\/strong>
\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!”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 51-58:\u00a0 Here in these verses Jesus makes some incredible claims:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Jesus claims that if you obey his word, you will never die (v51)<\/li>\n
  • Jesus claims that he has special knowledge of who God is (v55)<\/li>\n
  • As 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)<\/li>\n
  • Jesus refers to himself with the words \u201cI am\u201d (v58), which is another name for God (Exodus 3:14)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\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 However, 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

    John 8:59 (NIV)<\/strong>
    \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 verse 59:\u00a0 I find it surprising and odd that Jesus would be ducking, dodging and hiding so as to avoid his attackers?\u00a0 As the Son of God, couldn\u2019t Jesus do the Superman stick your chest out pose and let the stones hit him and \u201cping\u201d off of him to show how Jesus is made of steel and impervious to pain?\u00a0 But that\u2019s the incredible humility and humanity of Jesus.\u00a0 Jesus chose to humble himself and to \u201ctabernacle\u201d in a fleshly body just like ours, which means that despite being God, Jesus could also be hurt, he could bruise, he could bleed, he could die.\u00a0 That is why Jesus needed to hide himself in this instance.<\/p>\n

    Jesus, thank You for being so bold in saying who You are and never wavering.\u00a0 I believe You are who You say You are: the Son of God.\u00a0 Before Abraham was, You are.\u00a0 You are the great I AM.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\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 8:48-59.\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!
    \n\u00a0
    \nJohn 8:48-50 (NIV)
    \n48\u00a0\u00a0The Jews answered him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?”
    \n49\u00a0\u00a0“I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honor my Father and you dishonor me.
    \n50\u00a0\u00a0I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge.
    \n\u00a0
    \nOn verses 48-50:\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 critics castigate Jesus.\u00a0 They call him a Samaritan, in turn showing their prejudicial bias against people from Samaria.\u00a0 They also call him demon-possessed (v49), revealing their lack of compassion for people who struggle with demon possession.\u00a0 In response, Jesus says that what he says is not because he is demon-possessed (v49) or because he is seeking glory for himself (v50), but because Jesus honors his Father (v49).\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30967,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30965","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\/30965","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=30965"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30968,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30965\/revisions\/30968"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}