You have your Bibles starting with me to John
chapter 8.
It was important to me to preach the last six
sermons in a row out of Ephesians because
of the content.
I didn't want to lose the continuity
concerning marriage and husbands and wives.
So I've been on a tear of preparation for a
bit and I went through reams of material
to condense the best I could those messages.
So this week I was ready for a break to be
quite honest with you of preparation and I
still go back through but not nearly to the
extent.
So we're back to John, it's been a while, and
as we return to John 8 we come to a very
unusual type of text and there are not many of
these, in fact really only two maybe, but
some of you are going to know this and some of
you are not.
You look here in John chapter 8 in these first
eleven verses, we have the story of the Jesus
and the woman taken in adultery and I'm sure
everybody remembers that story, the very
familiar
line, "He who is without sin among you, let
him be the first to throw the stone at her."
Right?
Well what is unusual here in this text is that
this story, which also actually embraces
the last verse of chapter 7, does not appear
in any of the oldest Greek manuscripts of
the New Testament.
In fact it doesn't appear in any of the Greek
manuscripts before the 5th century, none
of them.
Now as you know there are over 5,000 existing
manuscripts and pieces of manuscripts that
make up the copies of the original text of the
New Testament and as I've told you many
times, no other ancient text in all of
literature comes anywhere close to the
existing volume
of manuscripts that those who engage in what
is called textual criticism can lay out to
compare one with another to make sure that
what we have is indeed as close as possible
to the original text and original meaning.
The ancient text by the way with the second
most in second place of existing surviving
manuscripts in whole and pieces and parts is
Homer's Iliad and it has 1,757 copies existing
.
That's nowhere close to the 5,000 and in fact
when I studied this, first studied in
understanding
this great reality about the veracity of the
New Testament having 5,000 copies to compare
with one another.
It's one of the things that the Lord used in
order to bring me to saving faith because
I was at a point, I'm looking for evidence,
well this is one of the greatest pieces of
evidence that there is, that there's over 5,
000 that we can compare so that the translation
is not inspired but the original text of
course is inspired is what we believe and we
can
have great absolute certainty that what we
have before us is indeed the Word of God but
we get to this and the oldest of these
existing Greek manuscripts do not contain this
story
and if you look in your Bible, especially if
you have a study Bible, you will probably
find a bracket there that starts at chapter 7
verse 53 and that bracket ends at chapter
8 verse 11 and I'm sure if you have especially
a study Bible, there's a note in the margin
of the study Bible and it says something like
this, later manuscripts added this and
because of the fact that we have so many
manuscripts over 5,000, there's really little
doubt that
this particular story was added later if
something isn't in the oldest manuscripts and
it shows
up much later, obviously it was added and that
's one of the advantages of them over
time discovering more and more older
manuscripts, there's just a better and better
certainty
that what we have is the Word of God, now
there's nothing in the story here that is
un-Christ-like, there's nothing here unlike
the behavior of Jesus at all that we see in
any other parts of the Gospels and there's
nothing in this story that is unlike the
behavior
of the religious leaders for that matter.
This is a great story of forgiveness and many,
many solid, solid Bible commentators believe
that this story or something similar to it
actually did happen and it was passed down
orally from person to person and eventually
down through the centuries somebody decided
that this story ought to find its way into the
New Testament even though it doesn't
appear that the story was in the original text
, so they put it in there, in fact some
of this story is found in some manuscripts,
some in Luke, so it was a story that was
passed
down orally that somebody decided this is true
, this needs to be included and if you
remember what John says at the end of his
books, if all the things that Jesus said and
did were to be written down and we wouldn't
have enough books in the world to contain
all of these things, in fact the problem here
is this though with this text, the church
from its earliest years has known that it
really hasn't belonged in there, in fact none
of the church fathers make one comment about
it in their writings all the way until the
12th century before one of the church fathers
even says anything about it and even when
you start to find commentaries in the 12th
century the notation is made, this doesn't
appear in the earliest manuscripts, so we ask
the obvious question, why is it in here?
So number one it's here because somebody put
it in here, why is it in your Bible now?
Well the answer to that is because it found
its way in and it became traditionally over
the time period of centuries a part of
Scripture and apparently Bible translators are
unwilling
to remove it, so they just put brackets and
this notation.
Now here's the upside of this, the fact that
when this does happen and it also happens
at the end of Mark 16 if you look in your
study Bible or even a regular Bible you'll
see brackets around the end of Mark 16, when
it does happen well guess what?
We know that there are additions because we
have all those 5000 ancient manuscripts so
when it pops up hey we know this is an
addition and consequently we know that the
Holy Spirit
has then enabled us to preserve the true
original text as I said earlier, but the main
issue
here is this, if the story didn't appear in
the original text then guess what?
It's not authoritative and it's not inerrant.
And while most commentators think and believe
that it actually occurred it was orally passed
down through time as what they believe there's
still no absolute guarantee that this is
accurate.
We don't have this absolute guarantee as we do
with all of the rest of the manuscripts
that we've looked at so there's no guarantee
absolutely even though we do think that it
did happen that it's without error as every
other part of Scripture is.
In addition to all this if you kind of read
along it really kind of interrupts the flow
of the story.
So we've been studying in chapter 7 Jesus
remember if you could think back it's been
a while but we're at the Feast of Tabernacles
now in the Gospel of John and it's really
obvious if you read along the sequences events
when you get to chapter 7 verse 52 that's
where we left off last time boom immediately
you can skip over to John 8 12 and see the
flow of the context is just right there and
that's what we're going to do today.
That's what John MacArthur did with the text
and I always follow his lead as you know and
he has more extensive explanation of this if
you're interested in his commentary and
you'll find that in all solid commentaries and
I will come into you and I hope maybe
when they get this finished somewhere way down
the road we will put this in our Sunday
School videos.
Wes Huff, Wesley Huff this young man who is
just an extraordinary just brilliant mind
when it comes to textual criticism.
We went and heard him at Live Oak Church about
six or seven months back.
He has been producing in Egypt video series on
can I trust the Bible with all of this
type of stuff and I'm sure he's probably going
to have this in that and so I think he's got
two parts of it done and when he gets it all
the way finished I want us to watch that
together
in Sunday School very very good bolster to
your faith to understand how the Bible is
in the air.
And now we're going to start by reading our
text starting in verse 12 and we will read
again through 21.
Then Jesus again spoke to them saying I am the
light of the world.
He who follows me will not walk in the
darkness but will have the light of life.
So the Pharisees said to him you are test
ifying about yourself.
Your testimony is not true.
Jesus answered and said to them even if I
testify about myself my testimony is true
for I know where I came from and where I'm
going but you do not know where I come from
or where I am going.
You judge according to the flesh.
I am not judging anyone but even if I do judge
my judgment is true for I am not alone in
it but I and the Father who sent me.
And in your law it has been written that the
testimony of two men is true.
I am he who testifies about myself and the
Father who sent me testifies about me.
So they were saying to him where is your
father.
Jesus answered you know neither me nor my
father.
If you knew me you would know my father also.
These words he spoke in the treasury as he
taught in the temple and no one seized him
because his hour had not yet come then he said
again to them I will go away and you will
seek me and will die in your sin where I am
going you cannot come.
Now we've already seen this conflict
throughout the Gospel of John escalating right
and it's
going to continue all the way through as I
told you before these are the final six months
here at this part of the Gospel of John of
Jesus's life until it reaches this height
when it takes him to the cross.
But that's going to happen as we're going to
see again here today on God's timetable.
And again it's the same thing that is the
things that Jesus said.
It was his words that kept escalating this
animosity of these Jewish religious leaders
and one of those statements is found here.
Look again in verse 12 where Jesus said I am
the light of the world.
Now here's what you have to understand.
They knew the Jewish religious leaders knew
exactly what he was claiming in that statement
.
This is one of the seven I am statements found
in the Gospel of John and they're trying to
get a better grip on how these Jewish leaders
received what he said here.
We need to break this narrative down into some
sub points okay we're going to start
first with the area and we need to skip down
to verse 20 to get this and then we'll go
back.
And what I mean by area is the exact location
where these words were spoken.
So notice down in verse 20 what it says.
These words he spoke in the treasury as he
taught in the temple.
Now this is important to note because this is
another compelling scenario that Jesus
captures here.
Now you're going to have to put your thinking
cap on, you're going to have to get them
all memory cells going here.
Back in chapter 7 if those of you who are here
remember when I preached this Jesus gave
that illustration of living water.
Remember when he talked about the living water
?
And he was giving that illustration in the
temple courtyard and what was the backdrop?
Well that physical water was being poured out
in the Jewish ritual into the basin as
he's giving the illustration if you remember
that of him being the living water.
So it says here that Jesus is in now a section
of the temple where the treasury existed.
One of the things that people did when they
came to the temple of course was to give money
.
And one of the huge courtyards in the temple,
remember there are several courtyards, one
was called the court of the women.
And what it had was 13 receptacles we can call
them in this, around this entire area.
The outer courtyard remember was the Gentiles.
That's where anybody could come in to the
court of the Gentiles.
And then you left that court and you went in
further to the next courtyard.
That was the court of the women.
That was for Jewish men and women only and
proselytes to Judaism who had converted to
Judaism and the women could go no further than
this, okay?
The next court in after that would be the
court of the priests.
That court inside that court think of a square
was restricted to men only who went in to
offer sacrifices with the priests and in the
court from there is the holy of holies.
You know that whole thing.
But it was in this court of the women where
they put all the places to give an offering
where both Jewish men and women could go.
And around what we could call the porch of
this massive court of the women.
There were 13 allocated places where you could
give money all the way around this court.
And each of them were trumpet shaped.
They had a wide opening, wide round opening
and that larger opening then funneled down
into where the money went down into some type
of container.
So you just walk up there and you just throw
your money in there, the big round thing and
it goes down the tunnel into the chute into
the container.
And each of them was designed of the 13 was
designed to accept a specific type of offering
like one of them was for the temple tax.
Boom.
So you put your money in that one.
Two of them were for the women to put money in
to buy two pigeons that they needed to
offer to purify themselves from childbearing
and that was a specific Jewish ritual in law.
One was where the money went to buy the wood
for the fire on the altar.
One was for the incense of the altar and on it
goes just like that for all the different
things that was necessary in the 13 different
receptacles.
Well, point being is this, this courtyard.
This is where Jesus is at this and this text.
He's in this court of the women and it was
always just packed.
Right.
The Jews would come from all around to come at
this time to this feast and we stay in
the flow.
Look at chapter seven verse 52.
If you remember the Pharisees are, are, are
talking to Nicodemus and Nicodemus, remember
he's sticking up for Jesus.
You are not from also from Galilee, are you?
Search and see that no prophet arises from Gal
ilee.
And then if you just skip the story as we
talked about, go straight to verse 12, then
Jesus spoke to them again saying, you see how
it flows.
I am the light of the world.
He who follows me will not walk in darkness,
but will have the light of life.
Now I want you to notice what he didn't say.
He didn't say, I am a light in the world.
Did he?
Now some rabbi could say maybe that he was a
light in the darkness, right, as he taught
out of the Old Testament.
Now Jesus said, I am the light.
He, and he didn't say, I am a light in
Jerusalem.
He didn't say, I am a light in Judah.
Again a rabbi could say that maybe about
himself.
But he said, I am the light of the world.
Very important.
This is exclusive.
This is all encompassing.
More importantly, this is, they knew this,
this is a direct claim on the part of Jesus
to be the Messiah.
They knew it because how did they know it?
They knew all the Messianic verses in the Old
Testament.
Look with me in Isaiah chapter 42, verses 6 to
7.
God in this passage is speaking to the Messiah
and he says, I am the Lord.
I have called you in righteousness.
I will also hold you by the hand and watch
over you and I will appoint you as a covenant
to the people.
Look at this as a light to the nations, to
open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from
the dungeon and those who dwell in darkness
from the prison.
And then also at the end of Isaiah 49, verse 6
, where again the Lord is speaking to the
Messiah and he says, I will also make you a
light of the nations that my salvation may
reach to the ends of the earth, that's way
outside of just Israel, right?
That's the whole earth.
So these verses right here and others also
demonstrate that from the words of God himself
,
that the Messiah who would come would be the
light of the whole world, not just Israel.
So when Jesus says, I am the light of the
world, he is claiming right there in that
courtyard, right there in the highest Jewish
leaders of that day, religious leaders, he
is making a claim to be the prophesied Messiah
that they had long read about all their life
out of Isaiah and other scriptures.
Now, we saw the start in John's Gospel and I
'll just quote it right quick.
This great passage in him was life and the
life was the light of men, the light shines
in the darkness and the darkness did not
comprehend it, there was that true light which
coming
into the world enlightens every man, he was
telling them even then, this light, this is
a magnificent metaphor.
Light is the active power that dispels
darkness.
I mean, think of the contrast, if you close
your room off to any light coming in and it's
just pitch black and you turn the light on,
wow, you know, think about the contrast that
we can just think of just a few here.
Jesus is the light of truth that dispels the
darkness of falsehood in our world, right?
How about he's the light of wisdom that disp
els the darkness of ignorance?
How about he's the light of joy that dispels
the darkness of sorrow?
How about he's the light of holiness that disp
els the darkness of impurity?
How about he's the light of life that dispels
the darkness of death?
I mean, we could go on and on with these
pictures when he says, I am the light of the
world
and he uses that phrase, I am, that's what the
ologians call the tetragrammaton, the I
am statement, the claim to be God.
The Jews knew to say specifically, I am the
light of the world.
That is to identify yourself yet again, as we
've seen so many times just in these first
seven chapters of God, this is Jesus
identifying himself as God and Psalm 271 says,
the Lord
is my light and my salvation.
In 1 John 1 5 it says, God is light and in him
is no darkness at all.
So believe me, they understood exactly what he
was saying.
Now let me give you the backdrop to what he
was saying.
Just like with the living water illustration,
when they poured the water in the basin, it's
their Jewish ritual and he's telling them,
saying, I'm the living water, we got another
backdrop here in this courtyard.
Now he could have said just by itself, I am
the light of the world and it would have made
sense to say that in this world of darkness,
but there's more going on here in this
courtyard
than just that.
Every night during the Feast of Tabernacles,
all throughout this big courtyard of the women
,
candelabras were set up and every night people
light all these candles all the way around
this courtyard.
The historians say they literally filled the
court of the women with this amazing
capability
of light, so many candles because they didn't
have any electricity of course at that time,
that it would just light up and they burned
these candles all night and the Jews actually
called it, they had a name for it, the illum
ination of the temple.
And the reason for this was, remember what
they're celebrating, where are they
celebrating
at this Feast?
They're celebrating God's protection and his
provision during the 40 years of wandering
around in the wilderness and back then, how
did those Jews, those Israelites in that
period
of 40 years wilderness wandering, how did they
know where to go?
They were led by what, light.
They were led by a pillar of fire at night in
a lighted cloud in the daytime.
So to commemorate this in the temple, in the
courtyard of the women, they lit all these
candles and burned them all night and they
actually quoted some of these verses that
we looked at from Isaiah, the light to the
nations and they was lighting up all these
candles.
Now look, of course we don't know for sure the
exact moment that Jesus spoke these words
here starting in verse 12, but like R.C. used
to say, it's okay for the preacher to take
some speculative license and just think about,
maybe it's certainly possible that right
when they're lighting these candles up in that
courtyard, imagine Jesus looking at one
of those candelabras as they're being lit and
he's looking at those Jewish leaders and
all those gathered around and saying, I am the
light of the world.
Imagine that backdrop, it's very possible.
I am the light of the world.
If you follow me, you will never be in
darkness.
You will have the light of life.
I mean, think about what a profound moment
that that would be, I mean, there'd be no
way it was a coincidence if it went down like
that, right?
And this is not a light to be looked at is
what Jesus is saying.
This is not a light to be admired.
As you're admiring this light in this
courtyard, no, I am the light of the world.
I am a light to be followed.
That's what he's saying.
He said, if any man come after me, let him
deny himself and take up his cross and follow
me.
The Jews followed the pillar of fire and cloud
and they were led to the promised land, but
that whole generation died, didn't they?
Only the next generation of Jews was able to
go into the promised land.
But Jesus says, if you follow me, this light
will bring you all the way to the full
promised
land and the full promise of eternal life.
He was telling them then he's telling all
people right now in 2025 in the United States
of America today, I know the way out of
darkness, follow me and I will lead you out of
the darkness.
I know the way out of the darkness of
ignorance.
I know the way out of the darkness of sin and
sadness and sorrow.
And I even know the way out of the darkness of
death.
The only way out of the darkness of death,
follow me and I will lead you to the light
of eternal life.
And what does it mean to follow?
In the Greek it's used to describe a soldier,
I always love that illustration, a soldier
following his commander, a slave following his
master and that is exactly how every believer
is called to follow Jesus all throughout the
New Testament, right?
So here in verse 12, Jesus is claiming not
only to be the IM, not only to be God who
is the true light, but to be the Messiah proph
esied long before that all these Jews knew
about.
So let's go now from the area courtyard of the
women next, let's go to the assertion
and you can tell how well, you can tell how
well these leaders understood him because
we see next in verse 13 immediately,
immediately their response is antagonism.
Look what it says.
So the Pharisees said to him, you are test
ifying about yourself.
Your testimony is not true, which is as we
often say in football games when a penalty
happens, you can't do that.
That's not how it works.
They accuse Jesus of an invalid claim because
he's making this claim for himself by himself.
You're just boasting Jesus.
Why should we believe you?
And their point is there's no witnesses around
you to confirm what you're saying.
So this is another calculated attack.
They're saying this is an illegal claim that
you're making because you can't claim anything
unless it's confirmed by two witnesses.
That's biblical law, which Jesus is fixing to
point out in just a minute.
We forgot to get there.
You have to have two witnesses.
You can't possibly think that just because you
say it, Jesus of Nazareth, that it's true,
it's invalid because there are no other
witnesses.
And that's exactly how unbelief operates.
They've never, ever, ever, ever, ever has
enough proof, right?
They already had overwhelming evidence at this
point with just six months left in Jesus'
life on earth.
I mean, he done raised a man from the dead,
and they all saw it, and they all knew the
man was dead and was thinking, right?
They had all the evidence, but none of that
mattered to them.
They were in ignorance because of their unbel
ief.
They didn't process anything that he said.
They didn't connect any of the incredible ev
idences that he produced, almost banishing
sickness
in Israel.
They just wanted him trapped, and they just
wanted him dead.
That's what they wanted.
The ignorance, the sheer ignorance of unbelief
is a frightening place to live out your life
on planet earth.
That's a frightening place to be.
It never ends well, right?
If you stay there.
So next, we go from the antagonism to the
answer.
I always love Jesus' answers, and verse 14, he
starts out, "Jesus answered, and said
to them, 'Even if I testify about myself, my
testimony is true.'"
Now, the passages in Deuteronomy that talk
about two or three witnesses, who are they
for?
Well, they're for liars.
Right?
I mean, that works for us because we're all li
ars, right?
We all live in a world of lies and deception.
Just go on and turn your TV on.
We have to confirm things down here in
responsibility land with several people and
witnesses hoping
to get to the truth.
But that doesn't apply to God, does it?
When Jesus said, "Even if I testify about
myself, my testimony is true," he was saying,
"Hey, guess what?
Guys, I'm not subject to those laws.
Those laws right there are meant for a world
of liars."
And then look what he says next, "For I know
where I came from and where I'm going."
What's he saying?
He's saying, "I'm eternal," that's what he's
saying.
He's saying, "I am transcendent," that's what
he's saying.
The law was made for man, not for God.
The Sabbath was made for man, not for God.
So the answer is, first of all, my claim is
valid of who I am and where I'm from and
where I'm going.
And as we know, he came from the Father.
He's going back to the Father, look next in
verse 14, "But you, you do not know where
I came from or where I'm going."
In fact, really, I said, "Jesus of Nazareth a
minute ago," they didn't even know what
town he was from.
They thought that he was born in Nazareth.
They never bothered to check the records to
see he met the Messianic credentials of
being born in Bethlehem.
Their unbelief confined them to a willful,
willful ignorance.
They never looked at the records of his
lineage.
They would have, they would have saw that he
was in the land of David on both sides
of the family.
Their denial of his testimony, again, willful
ignorance, ignorance in the face of clear
evidence is something folks that is deadly.
Next, verse 15, "Jesus goes on, you judge
according to the flesh."
Their judgment was superficial and they judged
everybody according to the flesh.
Then look next in verse 15, "I am not judging
anyone," what he means right there, right
behind the previous verse, "I don't judge in
the flesh."
That's not how I judge.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians, "I judge no man in
the flesh."
And he means there this, "I don't judge people
superficially."
As a Christian, any judging that is to be done
is to be done spiritually, not superficially.
The Pharisees judge superficially.
That's what he means by "in the flesh."
Jesus said, "I don't judge that way."
And then look next in verse 16, "But even if I
do judge, my judgment is true."
And by the way, he will judge back in John
chapter 5, look in verse 22, "For not even
the Father judges anyone, but he has given all
judgment to the Son."
One day, King Jesus, this very Jesus who spoke
these very words to these religious leaders
over 2,000 years ago, that day in the
courtyard of the women, one day he will raise
all the
dead of all human history and he will judge
them either to a judgment of eternal life
or a judgment of eternal death and condemn
ation in hell.
It also makes clear in verse 30 of that fifth
chapter that he will judge in perfect harmony
with the Father.
Who judges all people?
Only God does.
Jesus is God.
And that's in line with what he says here in
verse 16.
After he says, "My judgment is true," he says,
"For I am not alone in it, but I am the Father
who sent me."
Now, so far in answering what they said, you
are testifying about yourself.
Your testimony is not true, what they said.
Think about what he said so far.
Jesus has made clear to them this, "Not only
because of who I am from heaven going back
to heaven, sent by God going back to God in
perfect harmony with God, not only all that,
he goes further and exceeds their expectations
as he always did."
And look what he says next in verse 17, "Even
in your law it has been written that the
testimony
of two men is true."
He's saying, "I'll give you that.
You're right.
That's biblical law."
So then watch this in verse 18, "I am he who
testifies about myself and the Father who
sent me testifies about me."
You want to?
There's you to.
God the Father, God the Son, God.
And here again, another claim that had to have
sent them into complete apoplexy at that
moment right there in front of Jesus and
anybody else that was sitting there watching.
Like the things he said back in chapter five
that made them want to kill him.
The Bible says he was making himself equal
with God.
Of course he was.
Let me tell you something.
I say this all the time and I cannot say it
enough.
There's a lot of things that people can say
about Jesus.
But with any honest reading of the New
Testament, one thing that you cannot say is
that he
never claimed to be God.
He claimed to be God on just about every page
of the Gospel of John.
He makes that claim clear over and over and
over again.
You just have to read the book and understand
what it's saying just in this text today.
What does it we see him say?
"Judge, judge and my Father judges.
I judge and my Father judges equally."
We both judge.
Who's equal with the Father in judging?
God the Son.
I judge it.
No one else.
I testify and my Father testifies.
What he's saying is we equally testify because
I'm God the Father, God the Son.
And of course, their response is now very
predictable, verse 19.
So they were saying to him, "Where is your
Father?"
I mean, that's just straight sarcasm, right?
Ridicule.
Look next, Jesus answered, "You know neither
me nor my Father.
If you knew me, you would know my Father also.
You don't know me."
Guess what?
That means you don't know God, leaders of
religion in Israel.
You don't know God.
He said something similar.
Look in John 5.23.
That can John 5.23, he said this.
"So that all will honor the Son, even as they
father honor the Father.
He who does not honor the Son does not honor
the Father who sent him."
Did he say that about Peter?
Did he say that about Paul?
Did he say that about any other human being?
No, it's not possible.
Later, he actually says to the disciples, "
What?
If you've seen me, you've seen the Father."
I mean, how much more clear could Jesus
possibly be?
And again, what he says to him here in verse
19, "It really is the most insulting thing
that he could possibly say to the Jewish
religious leaders, 'You don't know God.'
You make your living on religion and knowing
God.
You don't know God at all."
It's a devastating state.
That is the primary characteristic of the
religious leadership of Judaism in the time
of Jesus.
They didn't know God.
And it's still true of those who reject the
King today.
And those who say that they believe in Jesus,
but He's not God, they believe in a Jesus
that doesn't exist.
He doesn't exist.
He's a figment of their imagination and false
religion.
You can say, "Jesus all day long," if you want
to, with your lips.
If you don't believe He's God, you're not
believing in Jesus, period.
Then verse 20, which we already looked at, "
These words he spoke in the treasury as he
taught in the temple, and no one seized him,
because his hour had not yet come."
Three times, just in John 7, they had tried to
seize Jesus, cried to seize him unsuccessfully
.
And again, the Bible says that they can't,
because his hour had not yet come.
He's on this divine schedule, and I read this,
and I just have to think about this.
I have to wonder, did any one of them, of
those religious leaders, ever stop and think
and find it strange that, although every
single one of them desperately wanted to kill
him,
somehow it just mysteriously kept not
happening.
I mean, somebody in that group had to think
like that.
If I'd have been in that group, I can tell you
that's what I'd have been thinking.
Somehow we want to do this, and somehow it
just, he keeps living, and he keeps preaching
in the temple of all places.
Well next, we come to the final statement in
our text, which is really, it's just
breathtaking
to think about verse 21.
When he said to them, "I go away, and you will
seek me, and we'll die in your sin.
Where I am going, you cannot come."
Think about that for just a second, to have
Jesus Christ, the God-man, tell you, you are
going to die in your sin.
There's nothing more terrifying than that.
There's no Hollywood movie that can come up
with anything more terrifying than that.
Earlier, he remember, he was telling them, "I
'm not going to be around much longer."
You remember that?
He was kind of telling them, "Hey, there's
still a little time here.
You guys can understand what's happening here
."
Now, as we get to this point, shortly six
months away, he's basically saying, "You're
in your ignorance is confirmed.
It's willful.
It's the product of your unbelief in the face
of clear, direct revelation and evidence.
You are still rejecting me.
You will seek me."
And remember from last time, we said, "Hell is
where you finally know who you need and
you seek, but you will never find it.
It'll be too late."
That's why there's weeping and gnashing of
teeth, Jesus says in hell.
He says, "Where I go, you cannot come and you
will die in your sin."
Absolutely devastating.
And every single one of them right there in
that group that didn't repent and believe
and died, they've been in hell ever since.
They're there right this moment.
And you can better believe it never escapes
their thought this moment right here.
What a sad reality.
It's no different with people today who reject
Jesus.
He's the only light of the world.
And you can walk in the light during this one
and only lifetime on earth that you get.
Or you can experience darkness forever, both
now and forever.
There's no middle ground.
I can't say it enough.
It's all or nothing when it comes to Jesus,
when it comes to believing Jesus and his
gospel.
And you only get one lifetime to get this
figured out.
And as we saw with Bodhi Bakam, same age as me
, you never know when your last day would
be.
Let's pray together.
Father, we thank you.
This is just amazing that we, through the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we get to be
right there
in the courtyard of the women with this
exchange, this great exchange of words between
Jesus
and these Jewish leaders.
How good are you to give us this word, to give
us this revelation of what happened when
Jesus was here?
And Lord, we know it's of a truth that nothing
has changed about Jesus' claims.
Nothing has changed about the fact that he is
the only light of the world.
And so right now we want to pray for all those
in our family and friends who have not bowed
the knee to King Jesus, the biblical King
Jesus.
Lord, we pray for you to draw them effectually
to yourself.
We pray that if there be anybody in this room
that hasn't done that, you would do the same.
Bring them as you brought us.
Wipe the scales off the eyes so we can see the
light clearly of the only way of salvation.
And we pray that all that we've done today has
been done in such a way to bring you maximum
glory. Jesus' name we pray. Amen.