The Gospel of John Lesson 26 (3-17-2013)

The Gospel of John Lesson 26(3-17-2013)

Lesson 26 – John 8:12-20

In v. 12 Jesus resumes His attempt to disciple those who will follow Him. This is the third attempt to do so recorded since the end of the Feast of the Tabernacles. He was calling those who would to come and follow Him following His lead adopting His example and lifestyle and implementing His teachings in their life benefiting practically by His teachings, shedding light on a better and more beneficial way to live. As a matter of fact He refers to this in v. 12 by saying that He was ‘the Light of the world’ and as such He would shed light on the right way to live and those who follow Him would not walk in dark ways and darkness any more.

But, each time here that He attempted to teach the people something got in the way preventing Him to do so freely.  Oddly enough it was the religious leaders that got in the way of Him when He was helping the people find God and learn His ways. The very ones that should have been helping Jesus in His work and actually bringing people to Him were the ones that got in the way attempting to confuse the people. It is a wonder that Jesus ever got anything done. It seemed that He spent most of His time debating those who were antagonistic to Him.

However, it also seems that God had His purpose in it, the people did benefit by these public debates exposing these religious leaders and learning some of the behind the scenes motives and actions in the process in essence freeing the people to chose the light if they were looking for the truth. Bucking the current system and hierarchy was hard to come to if one did not understand some of the inner workings of the high council. In having these debates Jesus got to proclaim His side of the account and when the opposing side opened their mouth they only exposed and made known their error and subtle craftiness. They, however, were no match for Jesus in a debate. He frequently used these debates to proclaim publically important principles and doctrines presenting a clear choice. But, still these discussions were not without confusion. These religious leaders did have clout and influence.

In making His statement in v. 12 we find in v. 13 that they find fault in Him because they claim that He is touting His own horn. It was clear that they were fishing for just about anything to point a finger at Him for. They were frustrated because there was not much that they could find on Him that they could use to discredit Him or what He was saying. As a matter of fact, so far they could not find a thing… So, in v. 12 they did not debate Him on His premise, but chose the only thing that they could find and chose to criticize His method when He witnessed of Himself.

This was a weak approach to use to discredit Him. It is true that Jesus had brought this up in an earlier debate, Jn. 5:31, where He tells them that if you are the only one witnessing of yourself that one should question that person’s motive. But, in that same encounter, Jn. 5:30-47, Jesus goes on to finish His reasoning why His testimony is the true one.

Jesus’ statement in v. 12 was about like someone that was famous or had some notoriety just mentioning their name as to who they were, or like a plumber announcing that they were so and so the plumber or a king announcing his name as king so and so. He just happened to be the Light of the world, but they were not willing to receive this truth.

 Jesus’ statement in v. 12 was not made for self glorification. Jesus did not need any praise from men. He tells us this in Jn. 5:34 telling those present that He did not need praise from man to validate Himself. But, they had nothing else to use against Him so they took what they could and made an attempt to discredit Him. We see Jesus again, however, reply in an appropriate manor and use this encounter to proclaim more of the truth.

In v. 14 Jesus begins His reply based on Jn 5:34 in essence saying that He is the Authority and that all He needs to do is to make His reply based on the facts that He knows to be true that they are ignorant of. Sometimes we make the mistake of viewing these encounters from a human perspective as they were asking Jesus to prove Himself when in reality the only reason that He takes any time to prove anything to us is because He loves us. Essentially He tells them in this verse that His Presence and Testimony is the only proof needed for He is sure of where He came from and who He is and any questioning concerning what is true and what the facts actually are should be directed toward them their being ignorant of God’s truth, truths that He has already stated.

He tells them in v. 15 that the basis of their judgment of what is right or wrong is based on fleshly principles such as being a smoother talker than the next guy looking only to win the argument not truly looking for the truth. They were judging Him because He was a threat to them, not because in essence He truly represented false doctrine.

However, Jesus only sought the truth in the matter and would have easily and unreservedly embraced them if they had spoken the truth. But, there was no truth in what they said. This was a turf war. To them it did not matter concerning right or wrong only that they came out on top.

In vs. 16-18 He gives them reasons to back up what He was saying and that these reasons are founded on principles that even they were aware of and should have respected being found in the Law. He brings up the validating of someone’s witness by a second witness testifying of the same thing. However, His second witness that He brings forth is one that they could not refute. It was true that they will end up not receiving the witness that He brings forward, but Jesus gave them the option to judge Him according to what was supposed to be in essence their rules. But, again they were not looking for the truth.

In v. 18 He makes it clear the two witnesses that He was setting before them, Himself, which was perfectly legal to do so and according to the rules of the Law counted as one valid witness, and His second witness, the Father God Himself.

At first one might bring up an objection as they did to this and say that Jesus’ second witness is only based on Jesus’ here say and not on the actual verbal testimony of the witness Himself. This is what they do in v. 19. But, if we remember, God did speak, and He spoke audibly and publically recorded in the various Gospel accounts some of them there quite possibly being present when that happened, Mt. 3:13-17.

But, in v. 19 they forget these facts and ask for Him to tell them the whereabouts of His Father asking Jesus again to prove Himself, (remember in Jn. 5:34 what Jesus said?). They had claimed to know God the Father, but Jesus’ replies back to them that all of their supposed religious foundation was indeed shaky saying to them that their stated foundation on God the Father could not be true because if it was founded truly on Him then they would know Him and they would not be having this conversation.

V. 20 By now Jesus’ opposition was getting a little hot and as we have seen in the past that their habit was that when they got angry they started seeing blood, but Jesus’ time had not yet come and no man could lay a hand on Him.