Light and darkness

All right, good morning.

It's Christmas is fast approaching, isn't it?

Yeah, it is.

So Christmas is fast approaching.

It doesn't matter what you think it is.

It's scary how fast it is approaching.

Oh, my goodness.

Okay.

And if Christmas is fast approaching,

then things like the trees go up,

maybe not in your house,

but the trees go up,

decorations go up,

and presents start getting bought

and wrapped and placed under trees.

I'm a gift giver.

It's one of my love languages.

If you've read that book,

The Five Love Languages,

I'm a gift giver.

And it's a good thing to know, you'd think, yeah?

Except no, it's not.

It's kind of a curse.

You see, because I'm a gift giver,

I really put a lot of value on gifts.

I will judge you on the basis of the gifts you give me.

I would judge you on the basis of,

well, how much do you love me?

How much have you actually thought about this gift?

How much have you really put me at the center

of what's going on here?

And if you haven't,

if you haven't done well,

if you haven't put that thought in,

well,

you're going to see it in my face,

because I don't,

I'm not very good at poker.

Now,

you think about this

and how my family actually functions

and what Christmas morning looks like for them,

and I want to tell you that,

don't worry, okay,

because I bought my present from Joe

about a month ago,

and she nailed it.

Of course she did.

But what do you get for someone who has everything?

What do you get for someone who has everything,

or at least thinks they do?

As we go into John chapter 8,

John 8 · chapter mention

or resume John chapter 8,

John 8 · chapter mention

David's been preaching us through it so far,

what we find is that

we have a bunch of people

who are responding to Jesus in a particular way

for a particular reason.

It's a positive response.

They're believing in him.

And yet Jesus takes a funny turn,

an extraordinary turn,

and actually challenges those who believe in him.

It's a really unexpected response from Jesus.

So what did he see in their response?

Surely they were giving him what he was asking for,

but what did he see in their response

that he wasn't happy with?

What did he see that we can't?

Why did he respond in this way?

Well, the issue is that what Jesus sees

goes right to the very heart.

It's all about what we want.

And what we want

isn't necessarily what we need.

In verse 31, let me take it up

and read the first couple of verses.

So Jesus said to the Jews

who had believed in him,

straight away,

Jesus digs at the foundation for their belief.

These believers were looking to the right person,

but for the wrong thing.

So they were attracted by Jesus' signs on the one hand,

but repelled by Jesus' words every time he opened his mouth.

Even though, as you can see through this passage,

he keeps saying,

I'm telling you the truth here.

So let's look at this.

They were attracted by Jesus' signs.

Now in John 3, verse 2,

John 3:2

Jesus has an encounter with a man called Nicodemus.

And Nicodemus says these words by means of introduction.

John 3, 2, second part of it.

He says,

Rabbi, addressing Jesus,

we know that you're a teacher come from God,

for no one can do these signs that you do

unless God is with him.

Now John, as we go through the Gospel of John,

you might have noticed,

he's a little bit more sparing

in the number of miracles he describes.

The kids listed a bunch of them

that actually aren't in John's Gospel at all.

But here's the thing.

The other writers give us a fuller picture,

and Nicodemus here just gives us a glimpse into that picture.

You see, the other Gospels tell us

that it's actually unusual

when Jesus doesn't perform miracles.

Everywhere Jesus went,

he pushed back the darkness and suffering of life.

He fed the hungry.

He healed the sick.

He restored sight, speech, hearing.

He straightened deformity,

strengthened weakened limbs,

brought comfort to the broken in spirit.

And on at least three occasions that we know of,

he brought back the dead to life.

People came everywhere for relief.

Just to touch him was enough.

Just for him to speak the words.

The normal life of Jesus' ministry

was that he pushed back darkness.

Nicodemus knew this.

Everyone at the time knew this.

But even as he pushed back the darkness,

he opened his mouth to speak.

And people were repelled by his words.

As much as they were attracted by his signs,

they were repelled by his words.

Why?

Because Jesus told the truth,

and that truth was that he demanded

that they centre their hopes on him.

It wasn't enough to enjoy the relief he offered.

These things were just signs.

Signs that he could do what they needed.

So why did the people who are expecting Jesus the most

reject Jesus the strongest?

Surely they should have been in sync here at least.

Well, the answer lies in how you define the problem.

And Jesus said,

If you abide in me,

the truth will set you free.

And they picked up on that word free straight away.

In verse 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?

And they understood the implications straight away.

And they reacted strongly to it.

Only slaves needed to be freed.

But, they're thinking,

We're not slaves.

We're offspring of Abraham.

What do they mean?

Well, on face value,

you could say they were a kind of slaves.

They were actually under Roman occupation at the time.

And they had a long history of being slaves before that.

So Egypt, Babylon, Persia, and so on.

But in their minds,

they were privileged beyond anyone else on planet Earth.

They were Abraham's offspring.

They were the rightful heirs of the promised blessing.

They were the golden race.

Everyone else was a distant second place.

Worse, they were dirty.

I think I've told you before what my granddad used to say to me.

He was a Yorkshireman.

He used to say there are two kinds of people in the world.

There were Yorkshiremen,

and there are people that wished they were.

This was a kind of feeling they had about themselves.

They thought they were it.

Everybody else was dirty.

Now, the Jews were so convinced of this

that they would shake off the travelling dust

from other countries before they stepped back into Israel.

Can you imagine that?

It reminds me of the foot washing

that used to happen in the airports during the mad cow crisis.

I don't know if you were aware of this,

but Joe and I used to travel to England a lot.

We still can't give blood

because we were actually in England during the mad cow crisis,

and they don't trust us to not have mad cow disease

and pass it on.

But during that time,

if you came from England to Australia,

you would have to go in a special queue,

and you'd have to have your feet washed

because they didn't want you to bring anything

of the dust of England into Australia.

The Jews did this,

not out of a necessity to avoid infection,

but out of an arrogance,

a belief of who they were,

and a confidence that they were the chosen people.

To be the people of Abraham,

the offspring of Abraham,

well, in their minds,

you were truly blessed.

Freedom?

What about slavery?

What could this slavery possibly be?

Well, Jesus answers them in verse 34.

He says,

Truly, truly, I say to you,

everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

Truly, truly, or amen, amen,

is a direct translation.

Before emoticons,

this was how you would emphasize a statement.

You would say something like truly, or amen.

If you say it twice,

that's like super emphasized.

But it means something more than just,

this is important.

It means what comes next is true.

And it means that what comes next

actually applies directly to the hearers.

It has a consequence.

In what Jesus says,

there is truth on the one hand,

and there is a consequence

for all the hearers on the other.

In other words,

Jesus is saying,

you are people who sin,

so you are slaves to sin.

Now,

the concept of sin

is no big revelation in one sense.

I mean, nobody in their right mind

claims to be perfect.

But these Jews,

who were Abraham's descendants,

never thought that their sin

was threatening their relationship with God.

Never entered their minds

that that would be the case.

They just didn't see their sin as a problem.

They had the law to guide them,

and it did.

They were, perhaps,

better than everyone else around them.

But they'd missed the point of the law.

The law didn't provide the security they assumed.

On the surface,

maybe they were better than them out there.

But the law also showed them

that there were so much worse

than the holy God they worshipped.

And it showed them

the means of bridging that gap.

Sacrifice.

I think we have the same problem

when it comes to law,

when it comes to this issue of sin

and applying it to ourselves.

But perhaps for a different reason.

When we hear the words,

you are a sinner,

we hear that and we think,

yeah, but I'm a good person too.

Yeah, I sin,

but I'm a good person.

Jesus says,

no, you're not.

You're a slave to sin

and your place in God's future

is not certain.

The problem of sin is this.

Every sin has a penalty.

The same penalty,

and that penalty is high.

And every sinner is a slave to sin.

Sin is the master we serve.

And as a slave to that master,

we're not in a good position

to buy ourselves out.

Jesus goes on to say in verse 35,

as a means of illustrating this point.

The slave does not remain in the house forever.

The son remains forever.

So if the son sets you free,

you will be free indeed.

The only way to be free from sin

is through the son.

The only way to remain in God's presence

is abiding in this son.

This is a huge claim.

It represents a massive shift

in their identity too.

You think about how they've been

defining themselves up to this point

as Israel's offspring,

as Abraham's offspring,

as Israel,

Abraham's firstborn son.

Think about this.

By Sarah, that is, sorry.

Just for accuracy.

Think about this.

The way that they define themselves

has changed significantly.

I've been trying to think about

how I can actually illustrate this to you.

And it's like saying,

you can't be Australian

unless, I don't know,

unless you're friends with David Calderwood

on Facebook

or something like that.

You know, it's just like

such a massive shift.

How do we consider,

how do we actually work out

our identity and who we are?

How do we work that out?

Whatever way you use

to define yourself,

Jesus is saying,

it's totally wrong.

Abraham has always been

their father genetically.

The DNA test would prove it,

but there's still a problem.

Yes,

they're offspring of Abraham,

but is he really their father?

Jesus says in verse 38.

I speak of what I have seen

with my father

and you do what you have heard

from your father.

Here we get the sense

that there's two fathers in play here.

And they hear the challenge,

but they can't let go

of their view of themselves.

Still.

But Abraham is our father.

They're thinking

and saying.

So Jesus raises the question,

so where's the resemblance?

You know,

this sense of resemblance

with father and children.

Ladies,

I'm sorry

if you actually resemble

your father too much.

It's something that as fathers

we don't want our children to do,

our daughters to do at least.

We don't want our daughters

to look like us.

I remember when I was a teenager,

I was pretty good at this.

I don't look anything

like my father.

When I was a teenager,

my sister used to tell

our youth group

that I was adopted.

And I looked totally different

to my parents.

I don't look anything

like my dad.

In fact,

some of you thought

he was Joe's dad

when he came and visited

a couple weeks ago,

a few weeks ago.

Now one day,

my sister kept throwing

this line out,

oh, he's adopted.

She did it in front of me

and the other kids

in the group

were horrified

that she would do that.

Actually, you know,

comment on me being adopted

in front of her,

in front of all the other kids.

And they'd call her out

on it.

How can you be so cruel?

And she was only joking

the whole time.

We don't look alike at all.

But you know that sense

where you expect

the parental resemblance,

you expect it to come through.

I can tell you now,

my dad and I don't look alike.

We have different eye colour,

hair colour, everything.

I don't look alike

to my dad.

But you ask Joe

about my mannerisms

and my habits.

She'll start with

the annoying ones,

but there are a whole bunch

of them.

I'm just so like my dad,

it's not funny.

Ask Ben,

he'll tell you too.

He's got a list of them.

You know,

we expect to see

a resemblance

from father to son,

from parent to child.

But they have this false confidence

because they've actually forgotten

what their father

is truly like.

So Jesus explains it to them

using their category

of father.

But he makes two

if statements.

If you are Abraham's child

or children,

which is wanting to move them

from that sense

of physical descent

through to an understanding

of a spiritual relationship

with their father.

If you are Abraham's children

on the one hand.

And the second one is

if God were your father

on the other.

In verse 39,

Jesus addresses the first one

as they say,

Abraham is our father.

Jesus said to them,

if you were Abraham's children,

you would be doing

the works Abraham did.

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.

Jesus

is the true son.

Have you noticed

how the Bible often

uses genderous language

at different points?

This is one of those places

where you get this

sort of father-son

type language.

And in the interest

of offending,

you know,

we try and sort of

streamline that out.

So certain passages

where it says brothers,

it actually means

brothers and sisters.

So we go,

you know,

some versions,

Bible versions

will actually say

brothers and sisters.

You know,

we try and do all that,

try and smooth things out

to not offend.

But here,

where Jesus raises

a matter of sonship,

it's really important

that we don't actually

smooth it out.

It's got something

really important

at stake here.

You see,

in the ancient Near East,

the son had a specific

role in the households.

He would serve

the will of his father.

A son would uphold

the family honour.

A son would keep

the family business together.

The son would actually

nurture the family

as a whole.

He would take part

in that keeping

the family together

as well.

The son would eventually

inherit.

The son would take

on the work of the father

in every sense.

Jesus is the son,

the true son of his father.

But they are not

true sons.

If they were,

they'd be like Abraham.

And let's be clear

at this point.

Jesus is not declaring

Abraham as the shining

example for everyone

to follow in morality

before God.

He's declaring Abraham

as the shining example

of dependence on God.

Abraham's work.

Abraham's work

was trust.

He believed God.

He believed God

and he placed his life

in God's hands.

When Abraham heard

the voice

of his heavenly father,

he believed his word.

He left his home,

his family,

his friends,

everything that was familiar.

He placed his life

in the father's hands,

literally.

Because in the ancient

Near East,

to do these things,

to move away

from these areas,

these points of security,

was literally

taking your life

into your hands.

But he did these things

without knowing

where he was going

or what was ahead of him.

Man,

when we come to Jesus,

it's easy to have an idea

of what should be ahead of us.

An expectation

that's so strong

in our minds

that we are crushed

when we don't get it.

Angry with God.

Disillusioned

in our belief.

Spiritually content

when we get what we want.

And then wanting

to kill Jesus

when he demands

too much of us.

Jesus said

in verse 40 to 41,

this is not

what Abraham did.

You are doing

the works

your father did.

To paraphrase,

this is not

what Abraham did,

but I do see

another father

you resemble.

To the Jews,

Jesus is saying

that physical descent

isn't enough.

It's not enough

to be ethnic Israel.

It's not enough

to be born

of the right parents.

It's not enough

to be legally blameless.

We need to be clear here.

Jesus is not saying

that we need to be

doing more to be saved.

Jesus is saying

that we need to come

to him to be saved.

We understand,

as Catherine spoke earlier,

we understand

the sense of consequence

in terms of punishment,

don't we?

The consequence

in terms of doing

something good

and we get something back.

doing something bad

and we get something wrong.

What Jesus is saying

here is

doing something bad,

yeah,

does get you punishment.

But trying to do

something good

doesn't get you

out of that punishment.

You can't balance

the scales like that.

We can't do more

to be saved.

We need to come

to him

to be saved.

In our hearts,

there's a desire

to be self-sufficient,

to be worthy

rather than dependent.

And it can be hard

to spot

when it creeps

into our lives.

Recognising this

works-based approach

to God

is really difficult.

Let me give you

this one way

at least

of trying to spot it

as it does creep in.

How do you feel

when someone

criticises you?

See,

if you're a religious person,

someone who actually

is basing your relationship

with God

on what you do

and someone points out

a sin in your life,

you will be crushed by it,

embarrassed,

ashamed

by the exposure

of that sin.

It represents

a chink

in the armour

of righteousness

that you're trying

to create

for yourself

or I'm trying

to create

for myself.

But perhaps

we're not quite

along those lines.

Perhaps we're thinking,

oh man,

God is a God

of love.

How can he

possibly reject me?

You have the God

of justice

and you understand

this issue

and you try

and produce

a life of righteousness.

Or you have this concept

of God

as a God of love

who will never

turn you away.

And you're offended

personally by the suggestion

that you're a sinner

in any way.

Don't put me

in that category.

Yeah, I sin

but I'm not a sinner.

No, I'm not perfect

but I'm far

from unworthy.

Anyway,

God is love.

If that's the kind

of pathway

you're going down,

then that pathway

fails to take

sin seriously.

Both paths

fail to take

sin seriously.

But God

does take

sin seriously.

And all of history

has been leading

to this one point.

Jesus

as its fulfillment.

And Jesus

is saying

listen to me.

Come to me

and be saved.

It's a call

for an all-in

Abraham-like

trust

in Jesus.

If Abraham

were your father

you would be

living like Abraham

toward God.

The Jews

are stung

by the implications

of Jesus' words.

Jesus is not

suggesting

but saying

that they are

illegitimate children

of another father.

And they respond

to this

in verse 41.

They say to him

we were not born

of sexual immorality.

We have one father

even God.

Now it's possible

at this point

that the Jews

might even be

having a dig

look at the legitimacy

of Jesus'

own birth.

It's possible

that they're

actually saying

you're the bastard son

not us.

But one thing

is definite

and that is

that they recognize

the spiritual nature

of what Jesus

is saying.

They argue

if we're talking

spiritually

then God

is our father.

And they have

reason to do this

because in Exodus

4.22

for example

God calls Israel

his firstborn son.

But again

Jesus questions

their argument.

In verse 42

he says

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.

If God

were their father

well Jesus

would expect

to see two things.

He'd expect

to see love

and understanding.

Love

Jesus said

if God

were your father

you'd love me.

In other words

when Jesus

calls us sinners

and tells us

he's here to save us

we should be

overwhelmed

with relief

with gratitude

with love.

He's the only one

telling the truth

to us

in all of creation.

He's trying

to bring life.

He's here

to save us.

We should overflow

with love

for this Jesus

who comes

from the father

not a desire

to kill him.

love

and understanding

in verse 43

Jesus says

these words.

Why do you

not understand

what I say?

It is because

you cannot bear

to hear my word.

In a sense

they do understand

and we do too

and it's a hard

truth to live with.

I am far worse

than you could know.

I am far worse

than I could know.

I need

the salvation

he is offering.

I need

the Lamb of God

to take away

my sin.

But more than that

in the extension

of what Jesus

was teaching

in chapter 6

I need

God

to open

my eyes

to hear

this truth.

Without

God's intervention

we will remain

the children

of the devil.

We will

accept the lie

that he speaks.

More than that

we will live

that lie

actively.

In verse 47

Jesus says

these words

whoever is

of God

hears the words

of God

the reason

why you do

not hear them

is that

you are not

of God.

This ability

to understand

is based on

whether God

has called us.

Now man

you may be

asking yourself

this and it's

a fair question

if you do

and it's good

if you do

as well

because I'm

going to

answer it

and that is

how do we

know if he

has called us

how do we

know if we're

in that category

how do we

know if we

are of God

well

let's just

turn this

passage around

and look at

how we

respond to

Jesus

how we

respond to

the Son

and how

we respond

to the Father

that's how

we know

you see

do we

respond to

Jesus

with recognition

of who he

is in our

eyes

and love

in our

hearts

or with

offence

in our

eyes

and murder

in our

hearts

do we

accept him

as the

one come

to save

and just

receive him

with gratitude

or do we

want to

kill every

thought of

him in

our lives

how do we

respond to

the Son

how do we

respond to

the Father

do we

respond to

our Father

with love

and gratitude

or do we

measure his

goodness as a

Father by our

own desires

and how well he

does at meeting

them

is God

the Father

that we run

to with arms

wide open

because this

is the Father

who longs to

welcome you

because of

Jesus' death

on the cross

his arms

are open

wide

he is that

loving Father

who longs

to draw you

into his

embrace

we're going

to sing the

truth of this

in a song

now it's

called

come to

the altar

so I

invite the

music team

to come

up

just to

recognize

and to

meditate

on the

relationship

between what

the Father

and the Son

are doing

and what

they long

to do

in sharing

that relationship

with us

it's called

come to

the altar

and I can

tell you now

as Christians

if you are a

Christian

then coming

to the altar

is something

that we continue

to do

not in the need

to be converted

again

to become

a Christian

again

but in

recognition

that we will

continue to

struggle with

sin

and that we

have a safe

place to come

to because

we are not

relying on that

sin for our

salvation

we are trusting

in Jesus

he is our

righteousness

and if you're

not a Christian

then as we

sing these

words

ponder them

and think

through what

the foundation

of our faith

is

it is not

how we live

that is not

the foundation

of our faith

our foundation

of our relationship

with God

Jesus is

and I hope you

see it through

these words

let's stand

and sing

1, 2, 3

are you

having a broken

wind

overwhelmed

by the weight

of your sin

Jesus is calling

have you come

to the end

of yourself

Do you thirst for a drink

from the well

Jesus is calling

Come to

the altar

The Father's

alms are open

My forgiveness

was bought

with the precious

blood of Jesus

Christ

Leave behind your

regrets and mistakes

Come today

there's no reason to wait

Jesus is calling

Bring your sorrows

and trade them for joy

From the ashes

A new life is born

Jesus is calling

O come to

the altar

The Father's

alms are open

Life forgiveness

Our open life

forgiveness

was bought with

the precious blood

of Jesus Christ

O come to

the altar

The Father's

alms are open

Life forgiveness

was bought with

the precious blood

of Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ

Oh what a Savior

Isn't he wonderful

sing hallelujah

Christ is risen

Oh what a Savior

Isn't he wonderful

sing hallelujah

Christ is risen

Oh what a Savior

Isn't he wonderful

sing hallelujah

Christ is risen

Christ is risen

For he is Lord

For he is Lord

for he is Lord

of all

sing hallelujah

sing hallelujah

Christ is risen

For he is Lord

Christ is risen

in the Lord

of all

sing hallelujah

sing hallelujah

Amen

Oh come to

the altar

The Father's

alms are open

Life forgiveness

was bought with

the precious blood

of Jesus Christ

Oh come to

the altar

The Father's

alms are open

hope and wide

For forgiveness

was bought with

the precious blood

of Jesus Christ

May you cross as you wait for the crown

Tell the world

Tell the world of the treasure you've found