Sermon for Lent 5, Judica, April 3, 2022
Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus
our Lord. Amen.
John 8:46-59 46Who of you can convict me of
sin? If I am telling the truth, why
don’t you believe me? 47Whoever
belongs to God listens to what God says.
The reason you do not listen is that you do not belong to God.” 48The Jews responded, “Are we not
right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” 49Jesus answered, “I do not have a
demon. On the contrary, I honor my
Father, and you dishonor me. 50I do not seek my own glory. There is one who seeks it, and he is the
judge. 51Amen, Amen, I tell
you: If anyone holds on to my word, he will certainly never see death.” 52So the Jews said to him, “Now we
know that you have a demon. Abraham
died, and so did the prophets. Yet you
say, ‘If anyone holds on to my word, he will certainly never taste death.’ 53You are
not greater than our father, Abraham, are you?
He died. And the prophets
died. Who do you think you are?” 54Jesus answered, “If I glorify
myself, my glory is nothing. It is my
Father who glorifies me, about whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ 55Yet you
do not really know him, but I do know him.
If I said, ‘I do not know him,’ I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I hold on to his word. 56Your father Abraham was glad
that he would see my day. He saw it and
rejoiced.” 57The Jews replied,
“You aren’t even fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham?” 58Jesus said to them, “Amen, Amen,
I tell you: Before Abraham was born, I am.”
59Then they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus was hidden and left the temple
area. (EHV)
Believe the One Who is
Truth.
Dear friends in Christ,
Liars are tough people to argue with. Liars often commit themselves so fully to
their deceptions that they deceive themselves, which then leads them to assume others
are lying, instead. Therefore, they refuse
to believe even what their own eyes can see.
Our sermon text this morning is the account of one of the interchanges
between the truthful Son of God, and the lying sons of the devil that the
Jewish leaders had become. The point for
us is that we must avoid their rebelliousness and Believe the One Who is Truth.
Because of their mistrust of the truth, the
Jews of Jesus’ day didn’t even believe what they saw with their own eyes. Though they observed Jesus fulfilling all
that the Old Testament prophets had predicted about the Messiah, the leaders of
the Jewish people kept their minds closed to the truth that Jesus is the Son of
God, who had come to save the world.
Responding to their skepticism, Jesus asked the
Jews, " Who of you can convict me of sin?
If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me?” It must have been frustrating for the one Man
who never, ever, told a lie to have to deal with those men who refused the
truth. The leaders of the Jews wouldn’t
accept the truth about Jesus even though they could find nothing false in
Him. Their hatred for Jesus grew so
intense that all they could think about is how to destroy Him. They tried time and again to find some fault
in Jesus with which to accuse Him. Yet,
even as they led Jesus to trial before Caiaphas, Pilate, and Herod, the Jews
couldn’t find even two witnesses who would agree on some charge to use against
Jesus. So, they invented what they
couldn’t prove.
Jesus asked those educated men why they
wouldn’t believe the truth. They claimed
to be following the Scriptures: all of the Law, Prophets and Psalms, but when clearly
confronted with the fulfillment of God’s Word, they trusted only their own
opinions. In one of His meetings with
the Jews, Jesus said, “You search the Scriptures because you think
you have eternal life in them. They
testify about me! And yet you do not
want to come to me in order to have life.” (John 5:39-40) Based on their
professed dedication to God’s Word, when Jesus said to them, "
Whoever belongs to God listens to what God says,” they should have believed
Him. Yet, they continually rejected
Jesus. Not wanting any to be lost, Jesus
warned them again, “The reason you do not listen is that you do
not belong to God.”
Of course, those self-righteous Jews took Jesus’
words as a slap in their face. In their
arrogance, they couldn’t believe any man would have the audacity to challenge
their authority or to question their integrity.
So, they did what we humans so often do when offended with the truth,
they attacked with imagined allegations and slander. The Jews responded, “Are we not right in
saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?”
I’m sure they thought that was a major slam to
use against Jesus. The Jews considered Samaritans
worse than stray dogs, but Jesus never flinched. He didn’t stoop to their vile tactics, either. Instead, He merely stated the obvious truth
that He didn’t have a demon and ignored their attempt to put Him down. You see, Jesus didn’t find the Samaritans
particularly offensive. To Jesus, the
Samaritans were exactly like all people; they were sinners in need of His
salvation.
Instead of sinking to His enemies’ level, Jesus
gave the Jews another chance to repent and believe. He replied, "I do not have a
demon. On the contrary, I honor my
Father, and you dishonor me. I do not
seek my own glory. There is one who
seeks it, and he is the judge.”
Pride caused the Jews to reject Jesus.
They were too proud of their own assumed obedience to admit that they
needed forgiveness.
Here we see human nature at work. Man still imagines we can be like God. The devil put that temptation before Adam and
Eve in the Garden of Eden, and he continues tempting us today with the tease:
“Be like God! Do the works you think
will save you!” In contrast, the very
Son of God, who laid aside His divine glory to rescue you and me “did not consider equality with God as a
prize to be displayed, but he emptied himself by taking the nature of a
servant. When he was born in human
likeness, and his appearance was like that of any other man, he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:6-8)
Through our Savior’s words, we learn that God’s
Word is truly more valuable that all the silver and gold in this world. Jesus said, "Amen, Amen, I tell you:
If anyone holds on to my word, he will certainly never see death." He was talking about eternal death—the
punishment of hell, set aside for the devil and his evil angels. Those who trust the promises of the Lord will
never experience that torment. On the
flip side, however, those who put their hope in their own obedience to gain
heaven will be severely disappointed for their disobedience will condemn them
to hell.
Sadly, when Jesus promised, “if anyone keeps My word he shall never see
death," the Jews thought He was nuts, and they reacted with disgust,
saying, " You are not greater than our father, Abraham, are you? He died.
And the prophets died. Who do you
think you are?"
We see, in those rebellious Jews, what happens
when men choose human reason over God’s Word.
The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “An unspiritual person does not accept the truths taught by God’s
Spirit, because they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them,
because they are spiritually evaluated.” (1 Corinthians 2:14) Even though
they had God’s sure Word, the Jews had abandoned its message to trust their own
ideas. Thus, they were no longer
children of God, but followers of Satan.
“Jesus
answered, ‘If I glorify myself, my
glory is nothing. It is my Father who
glorifies me, about whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ Yet you do not really know him.’” The Jews had all
the advantage that goes along with possessing God’s Word, but they no longer
understood it, so they no longer knew the true God. The Spirit had departed many of the Children
of Israel, because they had rejected the God who had loved them throughout
their history.
Still, continuing to reach out to those
unbelievers, Jesus confronted them with truth, “You do not really know him,
but I do know him. If I said, ‘I do not
know him,’ I would be a liar like you.
But I do know him, and I hold on to his word.” Jesus held the Word of our God as His most
precious possession. It was His comfort
and joy. His human nature was also
strengthened by God’s Word just as it is intended to do for you and me. But more than that, Jesus was, and is,
faithful to all of God’s promises in the Word.
Jesus was walking on this earth to make everything God had promised for
our salvation come true.
But, how do we know that He accomplished
everything that was promised? Because He
rose from the grave on the third day just as He said He would. Every promise of the Old Testament prophets
concerning the Messiah hangs on the truth that Jesus rose from the dead. In the Revelation to St. John, Jesus is
called, “Faithful and True,”
and “the faithful witness, the
firstborn from the dead.” (Revelation
19:11&1:5) Jesus’ resurrection on
Easter morning, confirmed by the testimony of both His friends and His enemies alike,
proves that Jesus is the true and faithful Savior. So,
Believe the One Who is Truth.
The final straw for
the Jews came as Jesus continued His testimony revealing His true nature. He told His opponents, "Your father Abraham was glad that he would
see my day. He saw it and rejoiced.” The Jews replied, “You aren’t even fifty
years old, and you have seen Abraham?”
Jesus said to them, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Before Abraham was born,
I AM." That was more than the Jews could take. In their self-righteousness, they considered
themselves defenders of the faith and of their God. However, if they truly had been children of
God, the Jews would have rejoiced to know Jesus. Instead, they took up stones to throw down
upon Him and kill Him.
An old proverb says, “Actions speak louder than
words.” The Jews’ actions speak for
themselves. Those men were not believers
in God nor His Word. They were followers
of the liar who has been lying to the human race since his fall from heaven. The
devil keeps trying to convince people to push God out of the picture in order
to feel good about themselves. The
trouble is, when you leave God out of the picture, the result is only pain,
sorrow, and death, because apart from Jesus there is only eternal condemnation.
Now, in the course of
our lives, you and I will face many people like those Jews. It is a sad fact that many continue to reject
Jesus as the Son of God. They reject the
truth as they reject His Father’s Word. Just
like the Jews who opposed Jesus thought they were pleasing God with their works
of obedience and the sacrifices they offered at the temple, their faith is tied
up in themselves. Jesus’ enemies, then
and now, feel no need for God’s help. In
fact, they refuse to have anything to do with God, for they walk in the way of
the devil and this world.
Our Lord Jesus had, indeed, met Abraham. In fact, the
Lord met Abraham at his tent to announce the birth of a son to fulfill
God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah. As
the Angel of the Lord, Jesus had also stopped Abraham’s hand as he raised the
knife ready to slay his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice to God. There, Jesus told Abraham, “Now I know that you fear God, because you
have not withheld your son, your only son, from me." (Genesis 22:12)
In all honesty and
truth, Jesus could not deny Himself. He
had to tell the Jews that He is God in the flesh. They didn’t believe Him, of course, but that
doesn’t change the truth that is Jesus is God’s Only begotten Son, who came
into the world to save sinners like you and me.
Jesus declared, "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.” (John 14:6)
Dear Christian
friends, put your trust in Jesus
alone. He is the only One who has kept
all of God’s Word in its truth and purity.
He is the only One who obeyed all of God’s Law. He is the only One who could die to pay for
the sins of the world, and in His love for all of us, Jesus went to the cross
and laid down His life as the final sacrifice for all people. Thus, Jesus is “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29), just as John the Baptist recognized. The open grave on Easter morning shouts out
to the world that Jesus truly did take away all your sins and set you free from
the control of sin and death.
Therefore, faith in
Jesus is better than all the gold and silver in this world, because through
that faith, Jesus has dressed you in the righteousness He lived on our behalf
and by faith He grants you life everlasting in His Father’s home in
heaven. Believe the One Who is
Truth, the One who loves you forever
in word, deed, and truth. Amen.
Amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanks and
honor and power and might belong to our God forever and ever. Amen.
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