BELONGING

John 8:41b-47

He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.

Here Jesus makes it clear to His enemies to whom they belong - You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire.

According to the Teacher, everyone belongs to one side or the other in the cosmic battle between good and evil.

On the one side is God who desires our good. Opposed is the devil who desires our destruction.

Jesus says the devil was a murderer from the beginning. This looks back to the first murder on earth when Cain killed his brother Abel. Jesus says the devil was influencing that evil deed.

The devil enlists humanity to fulfill his evil desires through lies - When he lies; he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

The devil has to lie, for if people knew the truth in advance about all the pain and heartache living a life his way brings they would never choose the wrong path. People who live lives opposed to the truth of God are deceived because they simply don't know the truth.

Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!

The stark reality is that everyone chooses between the truth and the lie and so belongs to God or to the evil one.

Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you?”

Do we understand Jesus' language? Becoming a student of Jesus is a serious decision - a choice between life and death.

To whom do we belong?

SET FREE!

John 8:31-41a

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Ignorance enslaves! Truth liberates!

Universities charge students thousands of dollars for a good education. Yet, Jesus offers truth from heaven free of charge - I am telling you what I have seen in the Father's presence.

Every autumn, thousands of students vie for acceptance in the best colleges and universities. It is a wonder so few seek to enroll in the University of Jesus.

It was the same when Jesus walked the earth. And the reason is the same. People are ignorant of their need to be set free.

Here’s what the Jews said to Jesus – We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?

Jesus leads His students to freedom. Freedom from the final penalty of sin through His death on the cross! Freedom from death by His resurrection!

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

Being a disciple – a student of Jesus - means living in the light of His teaching and experiencing increasing freedom in life. A freedom to become the person our better nature desires to be. Increasing freedom from the restraints that vie to keep us from pleasing God!

To be a student of the Teacher is to be Set Free!

PLEASING GOD

John 8:21-30

The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.

Jesus didn’t live a very successful life if judged by the standards most people use to define success.

Jesus didn’t have much money. He didn’t have a wife and family. No house. Not many honors during His lifetime.

Yet, today this Teacher stands head and shoulders above every other person who ever lived.

And here, He gives His students the secret to His most successful life.

He always did what pleased the Father!

This is the kind of life the Teacher lived and the kind of life He wants to help His students enjoy.

This is a successful life because in pleasing God we are satisfying the One who created us. We are fulfilling the purposes He had in mind from the beginning when He created us.

The most successful life – by the world’s standards – is really a complete failure if it does not please God. Does not meet with the approval of heaven!

Does it really matter? How much money one accumulates, how many accolades, how many accomplishments – if at the end of life - our Creator is not pleased with how we lived.

But he continued, "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.”

This is why Jesus is the Teacher. He alone lifts our lives above and beyond earthly concerns to the heavenly. Students of this Teacher learn how to live a life that is pleasing to God.

LIGHT OF LIFE

John 8:12-20

I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

From every perspective, our Teacher is the light of the world.

The fact that Jesus made the sun, moon and stars should remove all doubt about His power to give light to guide life's journey.

Here He promises to illuminate everyone who follows Him with the light for living life.

This is the work of the Teacher. He shines the light of God’s Word into our hearts and powerfully changes the direction of our lives.

Everything changes. Confusion and darkness flee. The path forward becomes clearer.

The work of a student is simply to walk with the Teacher and earnestly seek to walk in the light of His Life and Teaching.

To keep focus on Him and desire to live as He lived, think as He thought, and keep the priorities He displayed every day.

Doing this naturally leads every student to closer relationship with the Heavenly Father. This is what Jesus’ life was all about.

“You do not know me or my Father," Jesus replied. "If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”

The Light of the World leads us to more than an intellectual belief that God exists. The Teacher says if we get to know Him we actually get to know the Father also.

And getting to know God – the Source of all life - is real life. Eternal life!

CASTING STONES

John 8:1-11

If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.

Here the teachers of the law and the Pharisees bring to Jesus a woman caught in the act of adultery.

They want to put Jesus on the spot. What will He advise to do with this woman when the Law of Moses called for death by stoning? Probably they know He will react with grace instead of demanding the letter of the law.

After all, they know Jesus has been showing grace instead. At the very least they hope to demonstrate Jesus’ disregard for the Law and so have reason to accuse Him.

At first Jesus ignores their question, but they keep pressing for His answer. Finally, He utters this famous and gracious judgment - If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.

Perfect! He doesn’t show disrespect for the law. He doesn’t say what the woman has done is not deserving of severe punishment. Instead, He invites anyone who is not also worthy of similar punishment to go ahead and be the first to cast a stone at her.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left with the woman still standing there.

Here in one scene is the mission of Jesus revealed.

He has not come to earth to condemn people for their universal failure to keep the God's Law, but to extend grace and forgiveness. He will go the cross to show the extent of His commitment to be merciful.

He will personally take the punishment of every sin of every person who ever lived. Including the sin of this fallen woman!

“Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" "No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

LIVING WATER

John 7:37-53

If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

This is highly symbolic language. The Teacher is making a radical claim. Just as water is essential for physical life, Jesus is claiming to be the source of spiritual life.

He makes this announcement on the last day of the annual Jewish Feast of Booths in Jerusalem. A day when water was carried by the priests from the Pool of Siloam and poured out on the altar as a sacrifice to God.

This symbolic act commemorated God’s provision of water for the Israelites in their sojourn with Moses in the desert after their deliverance from Egyptian slavery.

Perhaps Jesus chose the very moment the priests poured out the water on the altar to emphasize His claim to also be the difference between living or dying - Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.

What is He talking about? Jesus says the life-giving water He is talking about is the Holy Spirit - By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.

Jesus says the Living Water - the Holy Spirit - will flow within those who believe in Him!

Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus lives in those who believe in Him. And through the work of the Spirit in our hearts, the Teacher changes us to become more like Him.

Only by God’s supernatural presence in our lives can students of the Teacher have the kind of life the Teacher talks about.

This is the shared life with the Spirit of God!

ONLY A NAZARENE?

John 7:25-36

But we know where this man is from; when the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.

The people made a critical error in judgment. They thought Jesus was only a Nazarene, a person from the city of Nazareth.

True, Jesus’ hometown was Nazareth. But before He lived there, heaven was His hometown. This the people did not know. Did not take time to find out!

Today, many make the same kind of mistake about Jesus. They think He is just another teacher. Merely another wise philosopher or moral teacher in a long line of wise men of history!

They do not realize He comes from heaven.

Jesus attempts to expand their thinking about His origins – I am not here on my own…because I am from Him and He sent me.

Our Teacher is more than He appears. Students of the Teacher have come to understand this. He is not just a Nazarene!

He is the Teacher sent from God.

Jesus said, I am with you for only a short time, and then I go to the one who sent me.

Understanding who Jesus really is, where He comes from, changes everything. Suddenly this Teacher becomes greater than anyone who ever lived.

The realization grows that being a student of Jesus is the greatest opportunity a person will ever have in life.

Listening to the voice of Jesus! Hearing the voice of God! This is wisdom for living from the One who created everything.