The light of the world heals the blind.John 8:50 "But I do not seek My glory; there is One who seeks and judges.
John 8:51 "Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death."
/Christ is the victor over death and He’s going to prove that in vs. 52-59.\
John 8:52 The Jews said to Him, "Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets also; and You say, 'If anyone keeps My word, he shall never taste of death.'
John 8:53 "Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died too; whom do You make Yourself out to be?"
John 8:54 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';
Jesus answers and wipes out their sarcasm just as He did their logic.
/“If [3rd class condition, maybe I will and maybe I won’t] I honour myself [I could, you know], my honour [glory] is nothing.” He is making a great point here. The whole key is in the phrase “glorify self.”\
I love the third class condition here because it makes us think about the fact that He could have glorified Himself.
People try to glorify themselves and it’s all a lie. Ali said, “I’m the greatest.” People of all races and backgrounds attempt to elevate themselves and say their the greatest. All of them, sinners with flaws and weaknesses, they frantically search for someone to notice how great they are. All of it’s a lie.
/Prov 6:16-17 Here are six things God hates, and one more that he loathes with a passion: eyes that are arrogant, (Message Bible)\
Eyes that are arrogant come only from a mind that is arrogant.
Since we see here that Christ had the opportunity to glorify Himself and didn’t we see a very important truth concerning our own self consciousness.
He was deity and a perfect human being with more intelligence, more physical and mental strength, and more energy than all of us put together and He would not glorify Himself.
We who are imperfect, flawed, weak, and tired should not even attempt it. If we do, it’s just a lie, and it’s at it’s worst when you’re lying to yourself.
But He says,
/‘If I glorify self the glory that I produce is nothing.’ That is true of all of us. Self-glorification is outside of the plan of God.\
But rather, He makes a genuinely humble statement that He has already stated, but needs to be repeated, not just for them, but for us. “It is My Father who glorifies Me.”
/God the Father is the author of the plan and the plan of God calls for the Father to glorify the Son and the Son’s royal family.\
We’re not tempted to show our deity because we don’t have any. But we are tempted from our OSN to show the strength of our OSN especially around people who have a weakness in our area of strength.
Follow God and leave the glorification to Him and to His timing. He said that the greatest among you is the servant of all, which a declaration of genuine humility towards everyone. Always think of yourself as, “I am what I am by the grace of God, period.”
Then comes a little sarcasm from our Lord.
“of whom you say, that he is your God” – They say God is their Father yet they want to murder someone who has done nothing wrong.
/Whoever says they honor God must honor the Son of God – the Lord Jesus Christ. This erases the possibility of all religions being from the one true God.\
He has already stated who their father is – the devil!
John 8:55 and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I shall be a liar like you, but I do know Him, and keep His word.
/The perfect tense of ginosko means that they never knew God. But Christ uses oida of Himself which is inherent knowledge – He knew the Father from eternity past.\
Imagine that. The ones who are performing the temple services and offering up the temple offerings don’t believe in any of it.
Don’t be shocked when those who proclaim to know Jesus Christ don’t even believe in Him.
When Christ uses the word oida of Himself, this refers to the fact that He knew the Father in eternity past, He knows the Father now, and this is all packed into one – His omniscience.
He has a firm and total understanding of the Father, of His plan, which is operation grace, and all the principles that pertain thereto.
And then He calls them liars to their faces. No one has ever dared to say such a thing to these religious stuck-ups for fear of retribution.
Christ has no fear of death and no fear of them.
Now, I’m not gonna say run around and insult every unbeliever you know. You operate as a gracious ambassador to the world. But as they persecuted Him they are going to persecute you, so be conformed to Him through doctrine to have no fear of people’s opinions, what they might do, or even death when you’re standing up for the truth.
As David did in Psa 56:
/Ps 56:4 In God, whose word I praise, In God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me?\
John 8:56 "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad."
The word for “see” is to see the perspective of something. Abraham didn’t see Christ’s physical form, but when Abraham reached spiritual maturity he finally rested in God. This is showing Abraham’s maximum rest in faith rest. When Abraham offered his son Isaac he rested in God knowing and showing his faith rest that the Seed of blessing to the world would come through him.
And to Abraham, this made him glad or happy and he celebrated.
As always the irony in the word of God is thick but easy to spot if you have eyes to see.
/Abraham saw Christ through faith at spiritual maturity and rejoiced. The unbelieving religious folk are seeing Christ face to face and desire to murder Him.\
Do you remember the three tenets of religion? Murder, hostility towards doctrine, and deceit.
John 8:57 The Jews therefore said to Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?"
This has two meanings.
/To the Jews if you weren’t fifty you were still inexperienced. They had great respect for age. They were denouncing Christ for His youth.\
They’re basically telling the Ancient of Days that He’s not old enough to talk sensibly about God.
They were saying here, in effect, ‘You have no right to be saying these things, you have not arrived at the proper age.’
“and hast thou seen Abraham?” This brings out the sarcasm. They took this as a literal seeing, but it is more than that.
John 8:58 Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am."
“Truly, truly” means point of doctrine. Then in the present tense He says; “I keep on saying to you.” He emphasises this again, that He is from eternity past as God.
“Before Abraham was” – the word for was is ginomai. In other words, before Abraham came into existence as a human being, and in the aorist tense, Christ is saying that Abraham was born in a point of time, however that was not so of Christ in His deity.
/“I am” – ego eimi, present tense: “I always existed.” He came right down to the issue, the point of doctrine: “I am the Great I am – God.”\
And in verse 59 we have the final, ultimate rejection.
John 8:59 Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the temple.
They can’t meet words with words. Jesus has used in His discourse logic, sarcasm, and doctrine. They cannot meet any of them. So when they can’t they resort to rocks! They want to shut Him up, destroy Him.
“but Jesus hid himself” –
/ The word hid doesn’t quite mean to hide. Krupto means He just faded out of that area. He just turned around and walked out of the temple and no one followed.\
It’s not like Star Trek. He didn’t beam out. He just turned around and walked past them while they were picking up stones. He didn’t hide and He kept right on walking out of the temple. No one threw a rock at Him and no one followed Him to stone Him.
It was not His time to die, nor the manner in which God had planned.
The plan of God called for crucifixion bearing our sins and the Father was a wall of fire around Him to protect Him so that the plan of God could be accomplished.
/When God has a plan for your life the devil himself can’t kill you. And that means, like it did for Christ, no fear of death.\
And we reach chapter 9. Christ is still in Jerusalem but He is outside of the temple and therefore outside of the religious.
And just after being accused of being a fraud, a liar, being demon possessed, and being a sinner, He heals a blind man who has been blind from birth.
This is the first time in all of human history that a man with congenital blindness has been healed.
John 9:1 And as He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth.
John 9:2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?"
John 9:3 Jesus answered, "It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him.
John 9:4 "We must work the works of Him who sent Me, as long as it is day; night is coming, when no man can work.
John 9:5 "While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
John 9:6 When He had said this, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and applied the clay to his eyes,
John 9:7 and said to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which is translated, Sent). And so he went away and washed, and came back seeing.
There is a contrast between chapter eight and chapter nine:
In chapter eight we have Jesus in the temple; in chapter nine Jesus is outside. Outside He has a greater ministry than inside.
In chapter eight He is the light of the world; in chapter nine He communicates light. There is a person who has been in darkness since birth and he is going to see for the first time.
In chapter eight Christ is rejected and heckled in the temple; in chapter nine, outside of the temple, He is received and worshipped.
In chapter eight Christ walks away from the religious crowd who think they see; in chapter nine He reveals Himself to a blind man.
In chapter eight inside of the temple Jesus is called demon possessed; outside of the temple Jesus is called Lord.
Basically, this is a fabulous chapter because it takes Jesus outside of the temple, breaks as it were from the whole religious structure, and there He performs something that focuses attention on Him for every generation as long as the world exists.
/Outside of the lies, deception, antagonism, and overall wet blanket evil of religion, Christ’s truth breaks free and releases many from bondage, and no one can stop it.\
The Pharisees can’t stop it and neither can satan and the KOD stop it.
/Know this, nothing can stop the truth; so get it in your souls and become unstoppable.\
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