"Three Tests of Sonship" (Salter) | John 8:39-47

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A reading from John chapter 8, verses 39 through 47.

John 8:39–47

They answered him, Abraham is our father.

Jesus said to them, If you were Abraham's children, you'd be doing the works of 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.

You are doing the works your father did.

They said to him, We are not born of textual immortality.

We have one father, even God.

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.

Why do you not understand what I say?

It is because you cannot bear to hear my word.

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.

But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.

Which one of you convicts me of sin?

If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?

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 is the word of the Lord.

Please be seated.

We're coming towards the end of chapter 8.

Just a reminder: chapter 7 and 8 have all taken place during the Feast of Tabernacles.

And it has been a volatile interaction between Jesus and the religious leaders.

Even before that, in chapter 5, they were plotting to kill Jesus.

Chapter 8 will end with them wanting to stone him.

Chapter 11 will end with them plotting to kill him.

You imagine as you just heard these words, that these were very offensive words, but they are true, and we need to hear them ourselves today as well.

So let me pray that we would hear.

Pray this in your name.

Amen.

In the spring of 1854, a young Englishman named Roger Tickborn boarded a ship off of the coast of South America.

Roger at that time was the heir to one of the oldest aristocratic titles in England, with a great house and a great fortune waiting for him at home.

But the ship he boarded went down.

And no body of Roger was ever found.

And in time, Roger Tickborn was declared dead.

But his mother would not accept it.

Year after year, Lady Tickborne placed advertisements in newspapers around the world offering a reward for any word of her lost son.

Twelve years after the accident from the far side of the earth, a butcher in the village of Wagga Wagga, Australia said that he was Roger and that he was coming home.

When he arrived, almost nothing fit.

If you tried hard enough, you might could see the resemblance.

So his mother threw her arms around him and called him her son because she wanted it to be true.

The rest of England, however, was not so sure.

And the question went to court.

And it was one of the longest trials in the history of England.

Day after day, the lawyers pressed this man on the things a true son would simply know.

And one by one those things began to give him away.

Roger had been slight, but this man weighed over 300 pounds.

Roger was raised in Paris, spoke French as his first language.

This man could not manage a word of it.

He did not know the house, he did not know the names of Roger's boyhood friends, and in the end the jury returned its verdict.

This is not Roger Tickborn.

He's a butcher named Arthur Orton, and he is now headed to prison for the lie.

What is the lesson?

Simply declaring sonship does not guarantee sonship.

The test is what brought to light what is actually true.

John chapter 8 sets us in a courtroom of a different kind.

John 8 · chapter mention

A crowd stands in front of Jesus, they are sure of their pedigree.

Abraham is our father, they say.

And then they say, God Himself is our father.

They claim the name, they claim the lineage, and Jesus gives them three tests: a test of works, a test of love, and a test of hearing.

Two fathers will be claimed.

They will both be disproved.

But a third, which is never claimed, is the one that is the verdict.

Let's dive into the test of works.

In verses 39 through 48a, what we're going to see here is this very simple premise.

Children act like their father.

What your life does reveals who you are.

This is what we're going to see, and this is so key.

Likeness, not lineage, is what's key.

Likeness, not lineage, that's what's key.

Look at verse 39.

The crowd says, Abraham is our father.

With that statement, they are not saying a simple biological fact.

They are making a claim about themselves.

We, by saying, our father is Abraham, they are saying, we are the true family of God.

We measure up to that membership.

Now watch what Jesus does.

He does not deny the genealogy, but he tests it in verse 39.

If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham does.

Abraham did.

What he's going to point out very clearly to them is Abraham, you're claiming that he's your father, and you do not emulate him.

You do not look like him.

Remember, likeness is the key, not mere lineage.

Consider what Abraham did since Jesus said, you're not doing the works Abraham did.

First of all, Abraham what?

Believed.

And it was credited to him as righteousness.

Think about when God spoke, said, Go, what did Abraham do?

He went.

When God tested him with his own son Isaac, what did Abraham do?

He obeyed God.

Remember when messengers came from God and they came to his tent?

What did Abraham do?

He welcomed them.

He showed hospitality.

Well, now the messenger of God sent from heaven stands in front of this crowd telling the truth he heard from God, and these children of Abraham will soon be reaching for stones.

Not exactly the same kind of hospitality Abraham showed when messengers showed up to him.

So Jesus says in verse 40, you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God.

This is not what Abraham did.

You are doing the works your father did.

And with that, Jesus leaves open, we have not arrived at the verdict of who your father is quite yet.

But this first test is the test of works.

Children carry their father's image.

Where that image, that likeness, is missing, the descent may be called into doubt.

The person's descent may be called into doubt.

These men bear Abraham's name in their claims, but the family likeness of Abraham is nowhere to be found.

They have the pedigree, but none of the deeds.

This is not only about them.

This should be about us as well.

To be Abraham's child was to them to be safe with God.

It was their birth certificate, their heritage, their badge of membership.

And Jesus says a birth certificate is not sonship in my kingdom.

What's your birth certificate?

In our circles, it may be I was baptized as an infant.

I was catechized as a child.

I'm God's people.

Not necessarily.

That's what Jesus is saying to us and to them.

You can be baptized, you can say, I have the birth certificate, I'm of the church, and be very distant from Jesus, even wanting to get rid of him.

In the film Gladiator, the aging emperor Marcus Aurelius must decide who will follow him on the throne of Rome.

He has a son of his own named Commodos, his flesh and blood, the natural heir.

But it's the general Maximus, who is no relation to him at all.

But it's the general the old man trusts.

Why?

Because the general Maximus shares his heart for Rome.

He shares what he loves.

And so the emperor looks at Maximus and tells him, in effect, you are the son I really have.

The boy who has the bloodline, but not the character, is not the one who's the true son.

It's Maximus who bears the likeness and loves what his father loves.

You see, one man carries the emperor's blood, none of his likeness, the other carries his likeness and none of his blood.

That's what Jesus is getting at.

Jesus is pressing that same question.

You have Abraham's blood.

Where's his likeness?

That question presses in on us too this morning.

Where do I rest my standing with God?

My inheritance?

My background, my membership in a church?

Where do you rest your standing with God?

Jesus is not asking whether they have Abraham's blood in them.

He's asking, do you have Abraham's faith?

Are we trusting the one God has sent?

And is that spirit-given faith now working itself out in a life where you increasingly are looking more like your father?

Let me say that again.

Is that spirit-given faith?

This question is not counter to grace.

The faith is a gift by the Spirit.

But if you've been given the faith, you're going to start looking like your father.

Not perfectly, incrementally, increasingly.

That's the point.

That's the test of works.

It's not a gospel of works, it's a test of works to see if the gospel of grace has hit you.

If Abraham's not their father, then surely they think we can claim God as our father.

I mean, we're the covenant people.

And so Jesus takes them to the test of love.

And what we will see in verses 41 through 42 is that children of God love the Son of God.

Simple premise.

You cannot claim God as your father and refuse his son.

Watch this.

Verse 41, the second half.

We were not born of sexual immorality.

We have one father.

Even God.

This is a very proud claim.

With a dig.

Born of sexual immorality is a sneer at Jesus.

At the rumors about his own scandalous birth.

That, oh, well, you have two dads, don't you?

We've heard of the scandal with this man named Joseph, and now you say you have a father who sent you.

That's not us.

We're people of God.

We're covenant people of God.

We have one father, one God.

The irony runs so deep.

The people claiming pure paternity, as it were, cannot recognize the Son who the Father sent.

They insult the man in the room who was born in the deepest sense from above.

They are not wrong that God calls himself a father.

He says to Israel, You are my firstborn son.

Yes, that is true.

Jesus is not arguing the text, he's applying a test.

What is this test?

It's the test of love.

Verse 42.

If God were your father, you would love me.

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.

They claim Abraham.

He says, your works don't match him.

They claim God.

And he says, your love is not shared with the Father.

The Father loves the Son, and if you would claim God the Father, you would love the Son.

And that phrase, I am here, carries weight of an arrival, the coming of God in person.

God has not sent a message now.

God has not sent a mere prophet.

He has come in the flesh and he is standing in front of him, and they do not love him.

Love for Jesus is not some warm feeling with a distant relationship.

It is allegiance.

It is welcome.

It is glad obedience to the Son who you love because the Father loves him who sent him.

You see, the bond between the Father and the Son is so close that you simply cannot have one without the other.

To refuse the Son is to prove the Father was never yours.

To refuse the Son is to prove the Father was never yours.

That's like claiming I'm God's people, I've been baptized, I go to church.

But you have nothing to do with Jesus.

You don't love him.

You don't pledge the allegiance of your entire life to him.

In George Eliot's novel, Silas Marner, there's a bitter solitary weaver who takes in this abandoned baby girl.

Her name's Epi.

And this solitary weaver raises this little girl as her own, not her blood.

But her whole life now.

He's the only one who has loved her.

He's the only one who has fed her.

He's the only one who sat up with her and gave her his life.

And in the book, years later, her wealthy natural father who had let her go comes to claim her.

With the blood and the name and the fortune.

And Epi will not leave.

Why?

She looks at the one who loves her.

At the one who raised her.

And she says, in effect, he is the one who is a father to me because of his love.

You see, blood made the claim, but love proved reality in that story.

We cannot just claim we're God's people and refuse Jesus.

Jesus tells the crowd that the love they withhold from the Son is the proof that God was never their father.

And this is where the test finds us.

Is my love for God something I profess while I keep his son at arm's length?

That's the test.

What is love for Christ?

It is delight in him.

It is a trust that leans the whole weight of your life on him.

It is wanting his presence more than his gifts.

It is receiving his words even when they cut you to the bone.

That's love for Christ.

And the grace in the test of love is this: we don't manufacture that love.

We love him because he first loves us.

Do you claim God even as your father?

And yet refuse his son.

They have now claimed two fathers, Abraham and God, and they've been refused both claims by Jesus.

But there's a third father in this passage, one they never claim, and Jesus is about to name him.

And to tell them whose children they really are.

It's the test of hearing.

What you see in this last test is in verse 3043 the reason you do not hear is that you are not of God.

The reason you do not hear is that you are not of God.

That's verse 47.

Their listening proves their lineage.

Did you hear that?

Their listening proves their lineage.

Your father is not Abraham.

You don't look like him.

Your father is not God because you don't love the son.

So, this should have been the title of the sermon.

Who's your dad?

So who's your daddy?

It's not Abraham, it's not God.

Verse 43 says, Why do you not understand what I say?

Jesus asks and then answers himself, it's because you cannot bear to hear my word.

The trouble is not that Jesus is unclear.

The trouble is in the hearing of the heart.

They can't bear to hear.

To hear in the Bible means you heed, you obey, you bend your life towards the one who is talking.

And these hearers will not.

And then at last, boom, verse 44.

You are of your father the devil.

And your will is to do your father's desires.

You think it was a little tense?

In the temple at the end of the Feast of Tabernacles?

People who claim Abraham and God as their father, and Jesus says, You fail both those tests.

Your father's the devil.

Jesus lays down three marks of the devil.

And what's interesting is each is the photographic negative of Jesus.

Each is the photographic negative of him.

Look at verse 44.

He was a murderer from the beginning.

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 gives life.

The devil takes life.

Jesus is the truth.

The devil is the lie.

He's a murderer.

He's a liar.

He's the father of all lies.

Go back to the garden.

God said, You shall surely die.

What did the serpent say?

You will not surely die.

The master of lies.

And that lie he told in the garden was a murder weapon.

Because he taught our first parents to distrust God's word, and with that he killed humanity at the root.

And his children, Jesus is saying, carry the same trade.

Cain did it first, right?

These men descend from Abraham by blood, but by nature they descend from the murderer and the lies.

What's the proof?

They are itching to kill Jesus.

You're not doing the works of Abraham.

You're not loving the son.

Your father's the devil.

Why?

Because he's a murderer.

And you are picking up stones against the beloved son.

And there's a reason they will not believe.

Verse 45.

But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.

Please notice that.

He doesn't say, but although I tell the truth, he says, because I tell the truth.

In other words, if your father is the devil, the truth will repel you.

It's because I tell the truth that you don't believe me, because you cannot hear me, you will not hear me.

Why?

Because your father is the master of lies, and you love lies rather rather than truth.

And then the sinless one steps into the dock and says, a matter of fact, verse 46, which one of you convicts me of sin?

Silence.

And the verdict comes down plainly.

The three tests are finished, verse 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.

Please hear the order of that sentence.

Please hear this.

Hearing does not make you God's child.

Being God's child makes you able to hear.

That's the proof of new birth in John 3.

Until you are born again, until we are born again, we will be of the devil.

Loving lies, murderous hearts, rebels.

Hearing does not make you God's child.

Being God's child makes you able to hear.

If hearing were something we produced ourselves, that would be of works.

John has already told us how anyone hears at all.

Remember in John?

No one comes to Jesus unless what?

The Father draws him.

Hear me very clear this morning as we're doing these tests.

Grace does not reward hearing.

Grace opens the ear of the heart to begin with.

So later, this scene stuck with John.

Because in 1 John chapter 3, it's as if he, when he's writing, he's thinking of this scene.

1 John 3 · chapter mention

Listen to this, verses 7 through 10.

Little children, let no one deceive you.

Whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous.

But whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil.

For the devil has been sinning from the beginning.

And then John says, the reason the Son of God appeared was to do what?

To destroy the works of the devil.

And by this, John says, it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil.

Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

Do you see how this affected John?

I mean, he basically writes a version of John 8 in 1 John 3.

Consider for a moment a baby, a newborn baby in a room full of voices, and then something remarkable happens.

The baby turns its little head to one voice in the room.

Whose is it?

It's the mother's voice.

Because the baby was born.

Because the baby was born, it can hear and notice the mother's voice, even when it can't focus its eyes, even when it can't hold up its head, it knows her voice.

And that's the test of hearing.

That's what Jesus means.

True children know their father's voice because the father's voice sounds like home.

Because they've been born.

So will you let this verse search you?

Does the word of God sound to you like your father's voice or like the voice of a stranger?

Is there a word of Jesus you cannot bear to hear?

Not because it's unclear, but because it's too clear.

How you answer says more about whose child you are.

How you answer says so much about whose child you are.

We began the sermon this morning in an English courtroom where a man claimed a father's name and the claim was not enough.

And then we've entered a courtroom in the temple.

And the same question is put to every one of us now.

Whose child are you?

Do you pass the test?

Not whose name you claim, not what church raised you, whose child are you really?

And so I invite us as we close.

Look at your works.

Do they carry the family resemblance?

Look at your loves.

Is Jesus the Son precious to you?

And look at your hearing.

Does the word of God sound like your precious father's voice?

And if there are honest answers that frighten you, I want to point you to the gospel.

In that first courtroom we open up with today, no one could earn that name.

It was a declarative moment.

He was either the son, Mr.

Tickborne, or he was not.

But if you fail the test this morning, I have good news.

The Father can still give you new life and make you born again.

He will take your false claim.

And if you'll repent, he's the one who will say, I forgive you.

I love you.

And now you can call me your father.

Because I've worked in you through the work of my son.

That kind of love must be changing our works.

Must be changing our loves.

Must be changing our hearing.

Let us pray.

Father, in many ways, none of us probably like tests.

But these are clear tests this morning.

And no one here who doesn't believe probably enjoys hearing that their father's the devil.

And yet, all of us who are in you, that's who we were.

So, Father, I pray that you would come as the one who is true.

And by your Spirit, lead those who have failed the test this morning to be born again and come into a saving knowledge and faith of you.

And for those of us who have passed the test in measure, which is a good thing, praise the Lord.

But let us not have any pride.

Let us not have any presumption.

Let us not have any arrogance.

For it is you who work your work.

It is you who work your love.

It is you who made us here.

Praise be to God.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.