The Light We Need
May 21, 2023
Preached by David McHale
Scripture Reading
John 8:39-47
39 They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, 40 but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. 41 You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.” 42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. 43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. 46 Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? 47 Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”
A little less than 10 years ago I was preparing to move into a new house with several friends. It was not glamourous by any stretch of the imagination, but it was enough. Before we moved in, we noticed that there were several lightbulbs missing – and when I say several, I mean 18. We changed all of them. When we did, the not-so-great looking house seemed to magically turn into pigsty. The additional light exposed all sorts of goodies left by the former tenants. The walls went from a dimly lit white to a peculiar grey coated with soot from the wood stove. The kitchen was a nightmare. We thought, “It’s a wonder what a little light can do.” Light reveals what was formerly in the dark. And the brighter it shines, the more it shows.
In John 8:12, Jesus says,
1“I am the light of the world.” Jesus is the Lord of light, who lights up the darkness of sin and death with the truth of his word. In verse 32, Jesus says, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Jesus offers freedom in the truth, but sometimes the truth hurts before it heals. The truth that frees us is a truth that exposes us – and sometimes the pain of seeing ourselves laid bare can be too much to bear. Sometimes we don’t like the truth that Jesus offers. When we don’t like the truth, we often don’t want it – even more, we deny it or worse, fight against it (FCF). True belief in Jesus is costly. To believe in Jesus means letting go of who we think we are, facing who we really are, and surrendering ourselves to his word of grace and truth (BI). As we reckon with and receive his truth, we find freedom in the light of his loving gaze.
Let’s let the Lord shine the light of his truth on us this morning. Let’s ask for his help.
When Jesus comes to the Jews in our passage this morning, Jesus presses them toward true belief. And He does the same with us. This morning, as we look at Jesus’ interaction with the Jews, we are going to see two ways that Jesus presses us toward true belief. (1) Jesus opposes who we think we are and (2) Jesus exposes who we really are.
Jesus opposes who we think we are.
So, we are coming to the close of our pastoral search. The search team sifted through many applicants who applied for the position. All of them had at least one thing in common: they submitted a resume. It is customary that when you apply for a job, you provide a resume. I did so now three years ago when I applied to be a pastor here at Community. In my resume, I included where I went to school, my GPA, my perceived skillset, my work history, including a detailed list of my responsibilities. I submitted the information of three people who would offer a reference for me. I even wrote a cover letter with a more detailed explanation of my passions, my hopes, and my goals. In John 8, we might say that the Jews try to offer Jesus their resume, who they think they are, and Jesus calls it into question in a way they were not expecting.
Before we jump in, let’s remember the context in John 8. Jesus is preaching good news, specifically, of freedom from slavery to sin. He offers a word of promise to all those who would believe. But the Jews are offended by the truth of this promise of freedom because it implies that they are in bondage – it implies that they are worse off than they think they are. They believe their condition is not as dire as Jesus claims it to be. They believe they are free. So, they go argue with Jesus.
33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”39 They answered him, “Abraham is our father.”
The Jews argue their freedom by calling upon their family tree – their ethnic bloodline. Abraham is their father. Who was Abraham? Abraham was the father of God’s people. He was initial recipient of God’s covenant with the people of Israel. In Genesis 12, God says to Abraham,
“1Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
God promised to bring blessing to a broken world through Abraham’s descendants. The Jews claim to be Abraham’s offspring. They believe they have the freedom of being full members of God’s household.
Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did,
What was the work that Abraham did? He believed. In Genesis 15, God continues his promise to Abraham.
1And [God] brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
God chose Abraham to be his own, the father to his people. Abraham welcomed God’s word of grace. He believed the Lord. He was made a Son by grace through the promises of God. Jesus is saying, “You claim to be a child of Abraham, but you are nothing like him. He took God at his word, yet you argue with him. He believed in the Lord’s grace, yet you cling only to your religious privilege.” Rather than lobbying that they are like Abraham, they ditch Abraham and claim to be sons of God.
“We have one Father—even God.” 42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.
Jesus opposes who they think they are by confronting them with who he is. Abraham received God’s good word of promise that through his offspring the world would be blessed. Jesus is saying that he is fulfillment of that promise. He is the good word of promise that has come from God to bring light to the world. If God was truly their father, they would love Jesus. Why don’t they love him? Jesus says in verse 43,
43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word.
The gospel is deafening to the Jews. It pains their pride. So they plug their ears and shut their eyes to the light – for to believe in Jesus means letting go of who they think they are. It means letting go of their religious pedigree, accepting that they are in deeper need than they realize.
Jesus also opposes who we think we are. One pastor said, we too are “inclined to believe the best about ourselves not the truth about ourselves”[1] We want to cling to the fact that we are okay on our own – that because of what we’ve done, who we know, where we’ve been, we can claim a place in God’s family. We bring our resumes to Jesus. “Yea, I am a Christian. My great-grandmother was a Christian. I grew up in the church. My dad was a pastor. I went to a Christian college. I worked at this or that ministry. I write sermons and lead worship at my church.” None of these things say anything about whether you are a son or daughter of God. Just because you come to church, doesn’t mean you are free. “Okay, but I also don’t swear. I don’t drink too much. I don’t look at pornography. I give more than 10% to the church. I read my bible and pray for an hour every morning.”
These things will not get you a seat at the Father’s table. You can do all of that and remain blind to the Light of the world. You can be close to all the right people and have all the right religious accolades and still be enslaved. You can be enslaved to your empty religious performance. This was true of the Jews. The very thing that the Jews looked to for their freedom was the very thing that left them in bondage. You can be free. It will cost you. Let go of your own religious privilege and performance and believe that though you are in need, Jesus is enough. His resume is more than sufficient to usher you into the family of God and keep you there.
Jesus exposes who we really are.
In the backyard of my childhood home, we had an apple tree. It was huge (at least it seemed that way when I was six). It produced a lot of apples – too many. I remember running through that portion of the yard like it was a minefield – watching my step to keep from smushing a rotten apple that had been there for a few weeks. If a stranger would have looked at the ground underneath the tree, they would have known that (1) we were poor harvesters and (2) it was an apple tree – not an orange tree, a mango tree, or an olive tree for that matter. You can know a tree by its fruit. An apple tree cannot produce a pineapple. A tree is identified by its fruit.
The same is true with people. If you want to know a person, their deepest beliefs, allegiances, desires, look at the kind of fruit they bear. In John 8, Jesus exposes the true identity of the Jews, by holding up the fruit they bear. Jesus says in verse 37,
37 I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. 38 …you do what you have heard from your father.” 39“If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, 40 but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God….41 You are doing the works your father did.”
Not only do the Jews fail to believe Jesus, they oppose him. Not only do they deny the truth, they set out to destroy it. The truth is too much to bear. They are not simply apathetic about Jesus – they are against him with a lethal tenacity. In their hostility, they show who they really are. Jesus says in verse 44,
44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Jesus is calling them evil. What do you think is evil? The hidden corruption of those in power, the trafficking and abuse of the vulnerable, the blatant perversion of what is holy, the slandering of the virtuous, the celebration of wrong, the distortion of the truth, the slaying of innocent life. Maybe there are things that come to mind that you would rather not even name out loud, let alone ponder.
As I listed off these things, what came to mind? News headlines? Memories? Experiences? Past or present relationships? We feel these things viscerally. Yet, sometimes we read Jesus’ words to the Jews as less than appropriate. Sure, they were prideful, but demonic? Sure, they questioned Jesus, but are they really as evil as those who make the headlines today?
Yes, and then some. They are deceivers, manipulators, slanderers, abusers, distorters of the truth, celebrators of their own perversion, and ultimately, murderers. They have called God a liar and named the greatest good, the Redeemer of the world, an evil man worthy of death. They proved themselves to be of the devil who delights to twist the truth and hates the life that God has made. Jesus exposes who they really are by naming the evil of what they have done, what they are doing, and what they will do. But rather than surrendering to Jesus, they harden themselves even more. The more he tells the truth, the more they are cemented in unbelief.
45 because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. 46 Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? 47 Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”
Jesus exposed the true identity of the Jews by showing the fruit they bore. This is what Jesus does with us. In love, he tells us who we really are. He shines his light on our deepest heart by exposing the discrepancy between what we claim we believe and what our lives say we believe. For it is what we do in the day to day that reveals what we truly love. We say that we love Jesus, but what does the fruit of our life say? What do you believe is worth your time, energy, and imagination?
What does your internet search bar say about what you love? What do your conversations naturally drift toward? Are you more excited by the word of your favorite cultural commentator than you are of a word from Jesus? Who do you identify with most significantly, is it Jesus? Or is it your political party, your family, your career, your academic pursuit?
It is what you do that says what you really love and trust – what you truly believe is worth paying for. Don’t blind yourself to what your life speaks. Do you say you are a Christian and you really don’t care much for Jesus at all? Pay attention. Attend to the word of God this morning. Don’t presume on your identity as a Christian if someone could look at your life and see the same thing as they would in the life of someone who is uninterested in Jesus.
Now, if you are in Jesus Christ, we can receive the revealing love of Jesus as his kind conviction. Even in Jesus Christ, we have caves of unbelief in our hearts. We don’t believe Jesus is enough. We resist submitting to his authority as the Lord or trusting him as the Light of our world. But Jesus wakes us up to our hypocrisy. He says, “You say you love me, but your life says that you care much more about your own success, approval, comfort, and place of power.” Just a note: I hope you know that your pastors also war with the unbelief in our hearts. With you, we want to let Jesus expose who we really are so that he might make us what we’re not – namely, like Him.
Regardless of who you are, you can know that the light of Jesus is not meant to sear you, but to save you. He shines his light on you not to ultimately harm you, but to heal you. For if we step back and look at this conversation in John 8, we can see that even as the Jews rejected and opposed Jesus, Jesus loved them enough to speak the truth. Jesus knew who they were and what they would ultimately do, yet he still loved them. He loved them enough to subject himself to their evil.
In the cross, Jesus shows us who he really is by what he was willing to do, what he was willing to give to make sinners his own. In the cross itself, Jesus confronted them with his grace. He does the same to us. He shows us who we really are. As one pastor said, “We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.”[2] In Jesus Christ, your place in God’s family could never be gained by what you do and what you do could never cast you out.
[1] Mike Bullmore in “The Truth Will Set You Free,” a sermon on John 8
[2] Tim Keller, The Meaning of Marriage
Sermon Discussion Questions
Why is the truth sometimes hard to hear?
Why do you think you are in God’s family?
What does it take to be in God’s family? What does true belief cost you?
What is freeing about knowing the truth about yourself? How does Jesus respond to who you really are? How do you respond to him?
