48 The Jews answered him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?”
49 “I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honor my Father and you dishonor me. 50 I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. 51 I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”
52 At 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. 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?”
54 Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. 55 Though 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. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”
57 “You are not yet fifty years old,” the Jews said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”
58 “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” 59 At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.
The Pharisees (and others who willfully chose to be ignorant and disbelieve) first tried to trap Jesus with the woman caught in adultery - either He would deny Mosaic law and alienate the Jews, or He would uphold it which would lead to them stoning her and then Roman law would arrest and execute Jesus. They tried to trap Him and instead they walked away in cowardice and conviction.
They tried to discredit Him by saying He had no witnesses to support His claims. Jesus told them He didn't need witnesses, and that He knew God innately, but that He and God were His witnesses.
They asked Him where His Father was and He basically told them they wouldn't recognize Him if He stood right in front of them. Which He did. And they didn't.
Then He said He was going somewhere they couldn't come. Which they misinterpreted to mean He was going to commit suicide and go to Hades and they'd never go there. Jesus told them they were from Hades and they'll go there again.
They claimed their freedom because they were Abraham's seed. Jesus said they weren't free, they were slaves to sin.
They claimed Abraham as their patriarch and God as their Father. Jesus said their father was the devil.
John MacArthur....
Every time they had taken a stand, Jesus had destroyed it. And He sums it up in verse 47 by saying, "You're not of God...you're not of God, you don't know God and you're not the true spiritual seed of Abraham either." Their two big securities...we know God and we're of Abraham. Jesus shot both of them down. He laid them stark naked. They had no defenses. They had nothing left, nothing to say.
At this point things had deteriorated so that there were really only 2 choices. And indifference isn't one of them. The choices would be either belief or fury.
the hearing of the good news of Jesus Christ and His persistent relentless claims either brings repentance and faith or it brings hardness and bitterness. And may I say to you with love in my heart and with seriousness in my mind, that if you have been saying no to Jesus Christ for very long, your indifference may one day turn into bitterness and hardness and you will be doomed because you have crystalized your attitudes and they cannot be changed. And at that point Jesus will no longer even be appealing to you, He will be repulsive to you.
This argument started off intellectual and as they were defeated it moved to emotional, then verbal abuse, then physical violence.
But the reason Jesus pushes them so far is because He loves them.
He can't offer them the miracle cure of salvation if they don't realize they have the disease of sin! And it's love that tries again and again to make them see it.
And they called Him a demon possessed Samaritan. A Samaritan was the very worst thing they could call Him, the most despised people they knew. Plus demon possessed.
Can you even imagine how that would sound and feel from Jesus' perspective? From God the Father's perspective?! They're calling God the Devil! It's shocking! They actually believe the exact opposite of the truth.
MacArthur makes a great illustration about what Jesus means when He says that if we obey and live in His Word we will never see death.
Obviously there's the spiritual element to it. We'll never die spiritually. We'll never experience eternal separation from God.
But it's even true physically!
Yes, there will be a moment when our physical bodies die. But we won't experience it. Similar to when we sleep. We don't experience sleep. We lie down in bed and the next thing we know we're awake! We sleep, yet we don't experience it. Yeah, we dream. But we don't experience sleep as a passage of time or awareness of it.
And some day when you fall asleep in Jesus, you'll experience life over here and eternal life over there, and not experience in the middle. I believe to fall asleep in the arms of Jesus Christ is to wake in immortality with nothing in between....If you're already a believer, you're already experiencing eternal life. You'll go so fast pass death, it will happen in such a flash of a split second that you won't even know it. It will be like the Rapture is, in the twinkling of an eye...like that in His presence. There's no lingering state in between. Absent from the body (snap) what?...present with the Lord. Jesus simply says, "You know Me and you keep My words, and you'll blaze pass death so fast it's a non-experience."
I thought that was a great illustration!
Tomorrow's scripture focus: John 9:1-12
1 comment:
That is a great illustration! Thanks. Good post.
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