The Truth Will Set You Free

John 8:30 While he was saying these things, many believed “in” him.

John 8:31-32 So Jesus told those Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are really my disciples.  (32)  And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

A believer who continues to obey the Word and commands is a disciple

What is truth? Note the order

1. Continue in my Word
2. You shall know the Truth
3. The truth shall make you Free – Spiritually free

The Scripture Phase has been misquoted many times, problem is, they leave out no. 1

Free from what:  frees from the yoke of Satan, slavery of sin, from spiritual task-masters, from fear, and fills the soul with hope

John 8:33 They replied to him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves to anybody. So how can you say, ‘You will be set free’?”

• Pharisees said they were the direct descendants of Abraham by Isaac.
• Notice, the Unbelieving Jews answered Jesus, not the believing Jews.
• Notice that Jesus was engaged in an exchange with the Pharisees and
• They trusted in their blood, rather than in obedience to God of Abraham.
• In their past the Israelites had been in bondage to the Egyptians, the Assyrians, and the Babylonians.
• At the time they spoke, Israel was under the power and bondage to Rome and most important bondage, bondage to sin.

John 8:34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, I tell all of you with certainty that everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.

1 John 3:8 The person who practices sin belongs to the evil one, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason that the Son of God was revealed was to destroy what the devil has been doing.

We on our own cannot break away this bondage of sin and must have someone else set us free, that is Jesus our Lord. We know that whosoever commits, and practices sin is the servant of sin.

Romans 8:33-34 Who will accuse God’s elect? It is God who justifies!  (34)  Who is the one to condemn? It is the Messiah Jesus who is interceding on our behalf. He died, and more importantly, has been raised and is seated at the right hand of God.

John 8:35-36 The slave does not remain in the household forever, but the son does remain forever.  (36)  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed!”

• A slave could be expelled from the house at any time;
• A son was free to come and go as he please and
• A family member, the Son {Jesus} can give family privileges to others.
• The Jews, servants of sin, would be expelled from the Lord’s House

Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 

John 8:37 “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants; yet you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you.

• The Pharisees heard the Word, but did not believe it.
• Notice Jesus said this to their face before and repeats it again
• The Pharisees do not deny they seek to kill Jesus.
• They were filled with pride, prejudice, false notions, not receive truth;

John 8:38 “I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.”

• Jesus said He had seen, but Pharisees had heard from their father.
• Jesus dwelt in the Father’s house,
• Pharisees had the spirit of Satan, and hence were spiritually, his children
• They had learned of or been taught by the devil, and imitated him. 

You Are of Your Father the Devil 

Now the conflict is very strong how Jesus denounces the way they live

John 8:39 They replied to him, “Our father is Abraham!” Jesus told them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing what Abraham did.

• The Pharisees believed that being a descendant of Abraham guaranteed them a place in heaven.
• Jesus knew they are Abraham’s children according to the flesh.
• Because you tried to kill me, Abraham never did any thing like this, therefore you have no spiritual relationship to him.

• Abraham was a merciful, charitable, and hospitable man, as well as a man of strict justice, faith, holiness, and integrity;
• Abraham feared God, believed in him, but they were not and did not have his spirit, but the reverse is true.

John 8:40 But now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham would not have done that.

• Jesus just told them that in what you are doing to commit murder and bloody purpose is in direct opposition to Abraham in rejecting the truth as Jesus Revealed it.
• Such works were not characteristic of Abraham and therefore these Pharisees were not Abraham’s Children.
• Abraham obedience made him a friend of God.

James 2:23 And so the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” And so he was called God’s friend.

John 8:41 You do the deeds of your father.” Then they said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father; God.” 

Strong words:  Jesus just said the Pharisee deeds was of their father; Satan. 

Apparently, gossip had followed Jesus for many years, alleging that He had been conceived out of wedlock. 

Psalms 69:8 I am a foreigner to my own family, a stranger to my own mother’s children;

Notice: He became an alien unto His mother’s children:  not His father’s children because Joseph was not His father.  They were half-brothers and half-sisters.   It may have been a very unhappy home. (This verse also teaches the virgin birth of Christ.)

Psalms 69:12 Those who sit in the gate speak against me, And I am the song of the drunkards.

John 8:42 Jesus told them, “If God were your Father, you would have loved me, because I came from God and am here. I have not come on my own accord, but he sent me.

• Their hatred of the Son was proof that they were not God’s children.
• The children of the same father should not kill each other 

John 8:43 Why don’t you understand what I’ve said? It’s because you can’t listen to my words.

Sin had so blinded their eyes and hardened their ears that they could not receive the words of Jesus, because Satan has your hearts.

John 8:44 You belong to your father the devil, and you want to carry out the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and has never stood for truth, since there is no truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie he speaks in character, because he is a liar and the father of lies.

• Any unkind reflections or words on the people of God is doing the devil’s work.
• Anyone doubting the actual existence of Satan should try opposing him for awhile.
• Look at what our leaders of government, news outlets and movies people are saying about Christians, are doing the Devil work.

John 8:45 But it is because I speak the truth that you do not believe me.

John 8:46-47 Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me?  (47)  The one who belongs to God listens to the words of God. The reason you do not listen is because you do not belong to God.”

He points to his sinless character as a proof that there can be no falsehood in his words.

Before Abraham Was, I AM

John 8:48 The Jews replied to him, “Surely we are right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon, aren’t we?”

• The conversation between Jesus and the Jewish rulers had become very heated.
• On the Pharisees’ part, emotions were running high, and reason was being set aside.
• Of all men the Pharisees hated the Samaritans most.

Pharisees next accuse him, not of having a devil, but of being possessed with a demon, or evil spirit.

John 8:49 Jesus answered, “I don’t have a demon. On the contrary, I honor my Father, and you dishonor me.

Jesus shows this cannot be true, for he honors his Father, which a demon could not do; and yet the Jews dishonored him, while he honored the Father.

John 8:50 I don’t seek my own glory. There is one who seeks it, and he is the Judge.

• The Father will seek Jesus’s glory and judge those who dishonor Him.
• Followers of Satan will: If facts and logic don’t work; they will resort to ridicule. 
• Remember, the Jews consider Samaritan; children of the devil, and have nothing to do with them.

John 8:51 Truly, I tell all of you with certainty, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”

• Jesus held out to the Jewish leaders the promise of forgiveness and eternal life.
• Death meaning spiritual death resulting in eternal separation from God.
• A sleep they will never wake up from, 2^nd
• If anyone: means Jew or Gentile, male or female, bond or free. 

John 8:52 Then the Jews told him, “Now we really know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets, but you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’

Jesus was claiming not that He would prevent physical death, but that He could give eternal life.

John 8:53 You aren’t greater than our father Abraham, who died, are you? The prophets also died. Who are you making yourself out to be?”

• The Jews that heard the word of God are dead, and shall they who have heard you not die?
• Was this question said in scorn and contempt.  

Pharisees just said, you are carpenter’s son, a Galilean, a Nazarene, and yet makes yourself greater than Abraham, or any of the prophets and to be God.  The prophets and Abraham are dead and faithfully delivered the Word of God.

John 8:54 Jesus answered, “If I were trying to glorify myself, my glory would mean nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’

The Father, who honors and glorifies Jesus, will settle that question by Jesus resurrection from the dead and now sitting at the right hand of the Father.

John 8:55 You don’t know him, but I know him. If I were to say that I don’t know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him and keep his Word.

Hebrews 5:8-9 though He {Jesus} was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.  (9)  And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him,

Notice what Jesus is telling the Pharisees He will bring His wrath.  Remember, just before Jesus extended mercy to the woman taken in adultery. 

John 8:56 Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day, and he saw it and was glad.”

Abraham looked for the One {Jesus} who would fulfill all that was promised to him: promises that included blessings for all nations. 

Galatians 3:8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.“ 

John 8:57 Then the Jews asked him, “You are not even 50 years old, yet you have seen Abraham?”

• Jesus said Abraham saw Him before as God. The Jews turned the words around by saying, Have you seen Abraham.
• Jesus was around 33 at this time, but the Jews said 50 probably designed to prevent the possibility of a reply.

John 8:58 Jesus told them, “Truly, I tell all of you with certainty, before there was an Abraham, I AM!“

Jesus was not just claiming to have lived before Abraham; He was claiming eternal existence, always the present. He was claiming to be God Himself.

Why were the Jews so upset

• The words rendered “was” and “am” are quite different.
• The “was” means, “Abraham was brought into being”;
• The “I Am.” means The statement therefore is not that Jesus came into existence before Abraham did,
• but that He never came into being at all,
• but existed before Abraham being born;
• Jesus, in other words, existed before creation, or eternally {John 1:1}

John 1:1-2 In the beginning, the Word existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.  (2)  He existed in the beginning with God.

Jesus now claims to be the, I AM, which prompts the Jewish Leadership to seek His life. 

Exodus 3:13-14  Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?”  (14)  And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ “

John 8:59 At this, they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the Temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by. 

This time the Jewish leaders understood that Jesus was claiming to be God, so they took up stones to stone Him for blasphemy.

Jesus withdrew himself from them directly, and made himself invisible to them, by holding their eyes, or casting a mist before them, or mixed with the people, that they could not see him and probably went out by one of the gates.  Jesus passed by those who were there to hear His teaching.

Again, The Pharisees always come to our rescue: Whenever we might not understand the context, they make it clear for us!

“Took up stones”: The proof that they understood; stoning for blasphemy.

It reveals how blinded to the truth they were. 

The Greek word could (cast, throw) implies some may have began to cast stones.