John 8.21-30
21 Then He said again to them, “I go
away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you
cannot come.” 22 So the Jews were saying, “Surely
He will not kill Himself, will He, since He says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot
come’?” 23 And He was saying to them, “You
are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this
world. 24 “Therefore I said to you that you
will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you
will die in your sins.” 25 So they were saying to Him, “Who
are You?” Jesus said to them, “What have I been saying to you from the
beginning? 26 “I have many things to speak and
to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and the things which I
heard from Him, these I speak to the world.” 27 They
did not realize that He had been speaking to them about the Father. 28 So
Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I
am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak
these things as the Father taught Me. 29 “And
He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things
that are pleasing to Him.” 30 As He spoke these things, many
came to believe in Him.
The debate about who Jesus was and what He had come to do
continued to rage in the hearts and minds of the people. Many people were simply curious about who He
might be. Others were convinced that He
must be the Messiah. Many more condemned
Him as a false teacher and deceiver. The
truth about Jesus is such vital information because in not only determines who
He is but also it determines what happens to all of mankind. As men struggle to determine the identity of
Jesus, they are actually determining their own eternal destiny. Who we believe He is will determine where we
go. As Jesus talked about what He would
do, there were two responses that would be experienced by men.
I WILL GO AWAY – MANY WILL DIE IN SIN: Jesus told the people
that He would soon be going away and that where He was going, they would not be
able to go. Instead, many of them would
die in their sin. Jesus was speaking of
His ascension into heaven and His glorification at the right hand of the
Father. He would be leaving the earth
and when that happened many people would no longer be exposed to His teachings
and they would simply continue in unbelief and therefore die in their sin. Jesus was from above and those who did not
believe on Him as Messiah were from below.
They were caught up in the things of this world. He was not of this world. Man’s failure to identify Jesus as the
Messiah and refusal to believe in who He claimed to be will result in that man
being condemned for all of eternity by God.
When Jesus left, it would seal the fate of many men.
I WILL BE LIFTED UP – MANY CAME TO BELIEVE: There was
another group of people who were determined to listen to the teachings of Jesus
and carefully consider His claims. He
testified as to the truth of His teachings and how they had actually come from
the Father. He testified as to His own
obedience of the Father’s will. He
revealed that part of the Father’s will was for Him to be “lifted up.” That expression “lifted up” was a very
significant one because it was used by Moses in the wilderness to symbolize
Messiah as the bronze serpent in the wilderness was lifted up, so would the Son
of Man be lifted up. As Jesus spoke of
the will of the Father and the rejection of men, the lights went on in the hearts
of many men and they actually came to believe on Him. They understood that Messiah had to come and
suffer as it was obvious to them that Jesus was that Person. Because of that faith they were forgiven of
their sin. The same reality continues to
exist in today’s world. People continue
to wrestle with the identity of Jesus.
How they decide will determine their eternal destiny.
APPLICATION: Men must do nothing in order to die in their
sin. We must do all we can to warn them
so they might have the joy of forgiven sins.
Recognize and help others to recognize who Jesus is and what He has done
to redeem mankind from sin through His death on the cross.
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