SERMON TITLE: The Nature of True Faith
TEXT: John 8:31-59 Sermon (ESV)
SPEAKER: Robert Tansill
DATE: 11-23/24
Good morning, Gateway! I'm Robert Tansill, one of your pastors here on staff, and it is great to be with you this morning. I also want to send greetings to both the North Main and Bowling Green Campuses, and to those watching online. Josh reminds us every Sunday morning — “God loves you!" These words are at the heart of the gospel, the Good News that we want to share with you each time we gather as the body of Christ for worship. It is my privilege today to remind you of God’s love and His faithfulness as we explore together what it means for us to have faith in God from today’s passage in John 8.
In his book, “The Furious Longing of God", Brennan Manning writes, “The gospel is absurd and the life of Jesus is meaningless unless we believe that He lived, died, and rose again with but one purpose in mind: to make brand-new creation. Not to make people with better morals but to create a community of men and women who would surrender to the mystery of the fire of the Spirit that burns within, who would live in ever greater fidelity to the omnipresent Word of God, who would enter into the center of it all, the very heart and mystery of Christ, into the center of the flame that consumes, purifies, and sets everything aglow with peace, joy, boldness, and extravagant, furious love. This, my friend, is what it really means to be a Christian."
Strong words, right? Is this what comes to mind when you think about what it means to be a Christian? For many people, the person of Jesus is hard to figure out. Somewhat of an enigma. Whether He's talking to an old man like Nicodemus in John 3 about what it means to be “born again", to telling a group of followers in John 6:54-56 that whoever eats his flesh and drinks his blood would have eternal life, at the heart of it all is the central question that we all have to come to grips with which is, “What does it mean to have true Faith?"
For many, this is a hard question to answer. “Faith” looks different ways to different people. For some, “faith" is something that has to be conjured up, and when they have just the right amount then God gives them what they want...because He has too...out of obligation. And it’s most clearly seen in the phrase, “If you only had enough ‘faith’ then you could…” (fill in the blank). For others, faith can best be summed up by this quote from a well-known preacher, “The key to the God kind of faith is believing with the heart and confessing with the mouth. Our lips can make us millionaires or keep us paupers. Our lips can make us victors or keep us captives.” In both of these cases, the object of “faith” is faith itself.
Yet, throughout John's gospel, the author paints a picture of "faith" in the starkest way possible; a picture that is hard to grasp only because it calls us to something that is not only foreign to who we are by nature, but also because of how painful it can be at times when we truly come to understand its ramifications for our lives on a daily basis. So, with all these various definitions of "faith" swirling around out there, what does John want us to understand about the nature of true faith? If you would, turn in your Bibles to John 8 as we look at verses 31-59 together.
And as you are turning to the passage, if you’re a guest with us, something we like to do at Gateway is to let you ask questions that we answer on our weekly podcast. So if you have a question, you can text it in to the number printed on the bottom of the sermon notes sheet or you can submit it on the Gateway app.
John writes, "So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, 'If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.' 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’?” 34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. 38 I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.” 39 They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, 40 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. 41 You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.” 42 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. 43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. 44 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. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. 46 Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? 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.” 48 The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” 49 Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. 50 Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. 51 Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” 52 The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” 54 Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ 55 But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” 57 So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
In our passage, we find Jesus in the Temple in Jerusalem engaged in a conversation with the Jews about who He is, and why He has come. And at the very end of the previous passage in verse 30 we read these words, “As he was saying these things, many believed in him." Now, I want you to keep that in mind because that is the central issue to our passage. And I believe that because, as we move through our passage, watch what happens to those who “believed in" Jesus as He explains to them what the nature of true faith really looks like. So, what does Jesus tells us about the nature of true faith? The first thing He tells us is that..
Point 1: The Nature of True Faith...calls us to obey Jesus out of trust in Him. (vv. 31-38)
Look at the first thing Jesus says to those who had believed in Him in verse 31, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples." By using this word “abide”, which literally means to “remain, persist, or continue to live in", Jesus tells those who claimed to “believe in" Him that if they really do “believe in" Him they will “trust” Him with their very lives, and this trust will be reflected in their obedience to His Word. I love how the New Living Translation captures this thought with these words, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings."
Now, let's be honest. After reading these words, is this how we would define “faith”? Do we understand it as something that calls us to obey Jesus, not because we will be punished if we don't obey, but simply because we trust Him enough to believe that what He says is true, and is therefore worthy of our obedience? For many, "faith" and "obedience" are not two sides of the same coin, but rather options we can choose.
And it wasn't until I was in seminary that I really understood this, as well as the nature of true faith itself. As I reflected back on my life, growing up in the South and going to church every Sunday, I would have said that I was a Christian. For me, and many others, the thought growing up was that all we had to do to go to heaven was to "believe in" Jesus. And if we did that, our sins would be forgiven, and we would go to heaven. How I lived from that point on really didn't matter. All that mattered was that I believed in Jesus, and my sins were forgiven.
But, after becoming a Christian in high school, it wasn't until I got to seminary and was able to take a closer look at what true faith really is, that it all made sense to me. What I learned was that the kind of "faith" that the Bible is talking about, is made up of three things; knowledge, acceptance, and trust. Before I became a Christian, I had a knowledge of Jesus, and I accepted that knowledge as true. I believed that Jesus as a real man, and even God incarnate. But even though that was the case, it had no impact on my life. Why? Because I was missing the key ingredient. Trust! Said another way, I "believed in" Jesus, but I didn't trust Him with my life. And because I didn't trust Him, I didn't obey Him, which resulted in me thinking that I could still live my life by my rules without having to give a second thought about my faith. All that mattered to me was that my sins were forgiven because I believed in Jesus and acknowledged His death on the Cross. But, to be brutally honest, even though that was the case, I was still going to hell.
As C.S. Lewis said so well in his book, “Mere Christianity”, “To have faith in Christ means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus, if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.”
This is one reason why we must see obedience, which is rooted in trust, as essential to our faith. Yet, is this the only reason? Other than because we trust Jesus, why else should we obey what He says? Look at verse 32. Jesus tells us that, as a result of trusting Him and doing what He commands, "you will also know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
This is key to our understanding of what “faith” really is because it impacts every area of our lives; what we believe, how we act, and what we value. According to Jesus, by remaining faithful to His teachings we will know the truth, and experience freedom as a result of it. But what is that truth? I think it includes a number of things. But in our passage, it primarily has to do with how our sins are dealt with before a Holy God.
What do we believe about sin? Do we believe in our hearts that we really are unable in ourselves to deal with the sin in our lives, and therefore need Jesus to take care of it for us? Or is there something in us that says, “Hey, your sin really isn't that bad. If you work on it long enough eventually it will go away, and then everything will be great between you and God again?" What's the truth?
From the perspective of the Creator, which is the only perspective that matters, any sin you have is worthy of God's wrath. That's the truth! And that's why obedience to Jesus' word, which is rooted in our trust in Him, is so important. Not only do we gain a clear understanding of the truth as God sees it, but as Jesus says in verse 36, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." By trusting Jesus and obeying what He says, not only are our sins forgiven, but we are also made "free". Free to do what? Free, by His Spirit, to live in such a way that brings glory to God as we grow more deeply in our faith (or trust) day to day.
As the Expository Bible Commentary puts it so well, “It is the truth that liberates people from the bondage of sin and sets them free to become the kind of people their Creator intended them to be." Who would not want this? Well, remember those folks at the beginning of our passage who said they “believed in Jesus"? They, for one, have a real problem with this language of “freedom” that Jesus is talking about. For them, because of their lineage with Abraham, they think their freedom from sin is already guaranteed! They don't need Jesus to do anything for them. In their eyes, they are “good to go!" But in verses 34-38 Jesus questions that freedom by essentially telling them that their lineage with Abraham guarantees nothing! They are only free if the Son, who is standing before them, makes them free. And how do they respond? Jesus knows, which He alludes to in verse 37 when He says, “I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.” Why such a shift in their attitude? Why do those who “believed in" Jesus one moment want to kill Him the next? This leads us to our second point about the nature of true faith, which is this...
Point 2: The Nature of True Faith...exposes the “idols" we have erected in our lives, and the sin behind them. (vv. 39-53)
Now, what do I mean by “idols”? Listen to how Tim Keller explains it in his book, “Counterfeit Gods”. He writes, “When anything in life is an absolute requirement for your happiness and self-worth, it is essentially an 'idol,' something you are actually worshiping. When such a thing is threatened, your anger is absolute. Your anger is actually the way the idol keeps you in its service, in its chains." This, I believe, is why those who supposedly “believed in Jesus” ended up wanting to kill Him. They were fine with Jesus as long as He was doing miracles and impressing them with His eloquent and authoritative speech. Like me before I trusted Jesus, thinking that I still "believed in" him, they thought the same way.
But when Jesus decided to expose the “idol” that was keeping them from fully placing their trust in Him, it made them angry. For them, Abraham was that “idol”, and when he is first mentioned back in verse 33 it is done as their response to Jesus regarding their need to be freed from their sin. For them, their relationship to Abraham was what made them righteous. This is why they made the point so strongly that they are from Abraham's lineage, and now in verse 39 reiterate it by saying, “Abraham is our father." They are trying to squash any thought that they are slaves to anything having to do with sin.
But look at what Jesus does. He goes after their “idols”. Like a skilled surgeon exposing a cancer that has metastasized, Jesus goes right at them with these words, “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.” Now, what does he mean by, "This is not what Abraham did"? What did Abraham do? Genesis 15:6 tells us in the New Living Translation, “And Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD counted him as righteous because of his faith.” How was Abraham made righteous? By trusting the Lord! And this is what Jesus is trying to get His hearers to see. But they can't because their “idols” are getting in the way. They are trying to find their “righteousness" in something other than what Christ is offering, and it is preventing them from seeing the truth, and gaining the freedom that He promises to give them.
Now, before we think that we are immune from this ourselves, let me remind you that we are not. Like the folks in our passage, Jesus is constantly calling us to understand the nature of true faith; a faith that is reflected in complete trust and reliance on Christ, and what He has accomplished on our behalf by His death on the Cross. Yet, let me ask you a question? Where does your “righteous standing" come from? Does it come from Christ alone, or from somewhere else? Maybe you find your self-worth coming from your job, or your kids, or the good grades you make in school. Maybe it's wrapped up in the car you drive, the house you live in, your retirement portfolio, who people have told you are, or something else? If, as Tim Keller said, “any of these things in life are an absolute requirement for your happiness and self-worth, it is essentially an “idol", it may be hindering you from trusting completely in Christ.
But we have to ask, “Where does this idea of manufacturing our own ‘righteousness' even come from?" If, as the Westminster Confession suggests, “the chief end of man is to glorify God, and enjoy Him forever”, why do we strive so hard to glorify ourselves, even as Christians? If you want to know where this idea comes from, look at verses 43-44 of our passage. Jesus makes it clear when He says, “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."
For Jesus, the idea that we can find our righteousness and self-worth in anything other than Him comes from one place, Satan. And guess what? This is nothing new. It's been this way since the beginning of time when our first parents way back in Genesis 3 were told they didn't need to trust God, but rather could become like Him themselves. And this same battle rages day in and day out as we struggle to not listen to the lies of the Evil One, to find our sufficiency in Christ alone, to not create idols to take His place, and to trust Him fully with our lives. This is the nature of true faith! Not only does it seek to obey Jesus out of trust in Him, and expose the “idols” we have erected in our lives and the sin behind them, but there is one last thing John shows us which is that...
Point 3: The Nature of True Faith...acknowledges Jesus for who He really is, and as our only hope for eternal life. (vv. 54-59)
For the one's in our passage who at first “believed in” Jesus, but who now want to kill Him, at the heart of what drives their plan is their inability to see Jesus for who He really is. Instead of the man they were initially enamored with because of the miracles He could do and the message of hope that He preached, their view of Him has radically changed. And one of the biggest hurdles they are having a hard time getting over in their minds is Jesus' testimony of Himself. After hearing Jesus' words in verse 51 that, “If anyone keeps My word he will never see death," they respond with these words, “Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?"
And, once again, this raises an issue for us all. However we choose to live our lives, a key question that we must all answer is, “Who do we really believe Jesus to be?" People have different opinions on this. Some view Him as a good man who was nice to people, and did good things. Others view Him as a great teacher who was full of wisdom. Some view Him as a prophet who helped people better understand God. And some, like deceased atheist Christopher Hitchens, view Jesus simply as, and I quote, “Santa Claus for Adults".
But who is Jesus...really? For John, the author of this gospel, there is no doubt about who Jesus is, and why He has come because Jesus Himself makes it clear. Look at verse 54. The first thing we learn about Jesus is that He is the Son of God who has come to satisfy God's wrath on account of our sin. Where do we see that?
In the words, “It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, 'He is our God.’'' Referring to His impending death and resurrection, Jesus shows why He is worthy of our trust, and therefore our obedience, by revealing to his audience that the one Abraham waited for, and the One in whom true faith is found, is standing before them. This is Jesus, the Son of God who satisfies God's wrath. But not only that. Jesus is also the One in whom our righteousness alone is found. Look at verse 55 where He says, “but I do know him and I keep his word."
Don't miss what He is saying here. Yes, Jesus does “keep God's word". But unlike Abraham, Moses, and the prophets before Him, Jesus keeps God's word perfectly! Jesus has done what no other person on earth could do which was to fully obey God's commands and to do so without sin. And because of that, His perfect righteousness now becomes the righteousness of all those who trust Him as Savior and Lord. Jesus has done for us what we can't do for ourselves, and because of that we stand before God now in Christ's righteousness and are given the gift of eternal life.
But there is one last thing about Jesus that we need to see if we have any hope of understanding the nature of true faith. In verse 56-58 the text says, “‘Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.’ So the Jews said to him, 'You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?' Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.'"
In these last two words in this passage, “I Am”, Jesus once again definitively states who He is. Referring back to Exodus 3:14 where God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”, Jesus uses these same words to make it clear to all that He is God in the flesh, co-existent with the Father, creator and sustainer of all things, and the One who would bring salvation to God's people. This was why Abraham was glad. He anticipated the day that the Promised Messiah would come, and that day has arrived. Jesus has come. But for those who previously said they had “believed in Him”, they don't see it. In fact, they can't because of their sin, the idols that blind them, and the lies of the Evil One.
But what about You? What are you going to do with this man Jesus? Are you going to say you "believe in" him simply because you acknowledge his existence, and the things that he said and did? Or are you going to trust Him with your life; not just for eternity, but now and in the days to come? Will you trust Him with your job, looking to Him for wisdom, even though work is incredibly hard at times, or the fear and anxiety of possibly losing your job feels overwhelming? Will you trust Him with marriage, even though your partner may not be living up to all the expectations you had of them in mind when you first got married? Will you trust Him to protect your kids, even though they have walked away from God, and all the values that you tried to instill in them? Will you trust Him with your aging parents, who are looking to you for help as their final days on this earth are quickly approaching? And finally, will you trust Him with all those questions in life that seem to have no answers, and which make no sense even though it might call into question the goodness and mercy of a loving God? How we choose to answer these questions will tell us the true nature of our faith. If Jesus is not the object of our faith, then it’s not true faith!
As C.S. Lewis once again said so well in his book, “Mere Christianity”, “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to." Let’s pray together.
Father, my prayer for us all is that you would expose the “idols” in our lives that hinder us from trusting you fully and prevent us from resting completely in the finished work of Christ. Show us those things that we think give us a false sense of self-worth and help us to put them in their proper place in our lives. For those who are here or who are listening online who know about you, but don't know you, I pray that your Spirit would reveal Yourself to them, and they would profess Jesus as their Lord and Savior. That He alone would be the object of their faith. Father, thank you for all that you have done to redeem us, and for the work that you are doing in us even now to conform us into the image of Your Son. Strengthen our hearts when we doubt, help us to obey out of trust in You alone, and protect us from the Evil One who seeks to destroy us. And give us what we need on a daily basis to trust You. Give Us Jesus! For it is in His name we pray. Amen.
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