SERMON: Questionable Parentage (John 8:37–47)
Questionable Parentage (John 8:37–47)
Series: “John:
Life in Christ’s Name” Text:
John
8:37–47
By: Shaun
Marksbury Date:
September
10, 2023
Venue: Living
Water Baptist Church Occasion:
AM Service
I.
Introduction
My
family was talking about reality shows recently, the daytime ones which are
full of drama. A woman comes on with her
child and a man who has doubts about the circumstances surrounding the child’s
conception. There are plenty of
assurances and pleading, but in the end, a paternity test reveals whether the
man there is really the father.
It’s
sad commentary on our society that such events would form our entertainment. Such cases are common enough to provide a
steady stream of participants, and people enjoy watching it. It does provide a chance for a lesson, though:
life is far less complicated if we simply live God’s way, if we simply save ourselves
for marriage with a likeminded individual.
Thankfully, there is grace and forgiveness in Christ for those who have
fallen in the area of sexual sin.
In
this passage, we see the Jews who supposedly had come to believe Jesus list two
lines of evidence for why they believed they were okay: Abraham was their
father, and so was God. However, our
Lord issues a paternity test of sorts in both cases and shows that this is not
the case. Similarly, we cannot make
assumptions about our salvation based on our physical or spiritual parentage.
Let’s
consider what that means:
II.
Don’t assume salvation through physical
parentage (vv. 37–41a)
“I know that you are Abraham’s
descendants; yet you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. I speak the things which I have seen with My
Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.” They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our
father.” Jesus said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of
Abraham. But as it is, you are seeking
to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this
Abraham did not do. You are doing the
deeds of your father.”
The
Jews here are claiming they’re Abraham’s descendants (vv. 33, 37). Jesus affirms it physically, but He’s also
saying there’s a spiritual disconnect. He
says they “seek to kill Me,” something Abraham wouldn’t have done! As one commentator notes, they were “even now
glowering with murderous vengeance.”[1] In
v. 39, He says, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham.” They are not living like the honored offspring
of Father Abraham.
If
they were acting like Abraham’s children, then they would be treating Jesus very
differently. Back in v. 37, He says that
they reason they desire to murder Him because “My word does not have room in
y’all, as in they have no place for it.
Yet, His comment can carry the sense of progress, which is why the NASB footnote
says His word “makes no progress.” (Christ’s Word should not only find a place
in our hearts, but also change us!) Either
way, the Holeman Christian
Standard Bible’s translation is
helpful, “My word is not welcome among you.” They were not willing to receive what Christ had
to say.
Yet,
Jesus is only communicating what the Father had communicated to Him. In v. 38,
He says, “I speak the things which I have seen with My Father.” This child of
Abraham hints at His preexistence, and true children of Abraham receive the
Messiah and His word.
In
fact, Jesus challenges them by saying His Father isn’t their father. He says that “therefore you also do the
things which you heard from your
father.” He also uses the emphatic
pronoun for them, further creating the contrast; “I speak the
things which I have seen with My
Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.” They are listening to someone else.
They
do pick up on the fact suspect that He’s questioning their parentage. So, they repeat in v. 39, “Abraham is our
father.” Note that they’re still
trusting in their physical lineage!
Why
are they so concerned with being Abraham’s descendants in the first place? God made specific promises to the children of
Abraham which they’re misinterpreting. In
Genesis 17:7, God says to Abraham His is an everlasting covenant, “to be God to
you and to your descendants after you.” Yet,
God also calls each person to an individual faith, noting in chapters like Ezekiel
18 that each person bears its own guilt.
These
Jews don’t believe in Christ (as we noted last time), so they place
their confidence in their fleshly heritage.
The unfortunate reality is, as Romans 9:6 says, “For they are not all
Israel who are descended from Israel.”
In fact, there will be many sons of
Abraham which did not physically descend from him, for Galatians 3:7 says, “Therefore,
be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.” Just because they are physical children of
Abraham, it doesn’t mean that they know God.
You may know that there are some today who
think that, because Abraham circumcised his newborn sons, New Covenant
Christians are supposed to baptize our infants.
In good cases, like in many Presbyterian churches, this is only applied
similarly to how we might perform a baby dedication (only with water). We don’t do that because we don’t believe
that is how this should be applied, and moreover, some go a step further and teach
baptism regenerates the infants.
In other words, infants not only come into the fellowship, but also into
Christ through the faith of their parents.
As a sad result, many people have a false assurance of salvation, an ironic
error not dissimilar from what these Jews are displaying here. They claim they’re children of Abraham via
baptism, believing some of Scripture’s promises, but they have not placed their
personal faith in Christ for salvation.
We are saved by faith alone in Christ, apart
from any works, including baptism. Even
so, saving faith changes us, producing a consequence of good works. Jesus replies, “If you are Abraham’s
children, do the deeds of Abraham;” if they are the spiritual offspring of Abraham,
then they would act like their father.
As James said, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith
without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (James 2:18),
going on to note that Abraham demonstrated his faith by obeying God (vv. 21–24).
Saving faith would prompt them to treat
Jesus differently.
The evidence of their paternity isn’t in
their favor. As Jesus goes on to say, “But
as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth.” They have a different spiritual father than
Abraham.
Jesus highlights this by clarifying to them who
His father is: “which I heard from God.”
Remember, He’d been saying His truth came from His Father, but as we
read back in v. 27, “They did not realize that He had been speaking to them
about the Father.” Now, they understand He’s
making a greater claim of parentage than even theirs!
On
this basis, He solidifies their paternity test.
Perhaps best rendered by the English Standard Version, He says, “This
is not what Abraham did.” As one
study notes, “Abraham did not try to kill God’s messenger if he didn’t
like the message.”[2] When
Abraham met messengers of God, he received them, but that’s not how the Jews are
treating Jesus.
Jesus
drives the point home: “You are doing the deeds of your father” — they have a
different father altogether! This is an
insult to them, of course, though they’re finally understanding. They see that He’s not really saying they
aren’t Abraham’s children, but that they are acting spiritually amiss. Yet, they won’t stand for His greater claim:
They think they can likewise place their confidence in their ability to name
God as the father of their country. Let’s
consider that point next:
III.
Don’t assume salvation through spiritual parentage
(vv. 41b–47)
They said to Him, “We were not born of
fornication; we have one Father: God.” Jesus
said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded
forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative,
but He sent Me. Why do you not
understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. You are of your father the devil, and you want
to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and
does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he
speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of
lies. But because I speak the truth, you
do not believe Me. Which one of you
convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears the words of God; for
this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God.”
I
don’t want you to be confused here. Again,
the problem isn’t that they didn’t have faith, but that they were not believing
God’s Word right now. If they did, they
would believe in Jesus. So, they don’t
ultimately have faith in God, though they assume they do.
Consider
what they say. They said to Him, “We were not born of
fornication; we have one Father: God.”
There are a lot of theories as to what they may be suggesting here, and
it may be that all they intend to say is that God alone is their Father. Yet, it seems that there’s some subtext, and the
clearest connection is probably to the questionable circumstances surrounding
Jesus’s birth. Of course, the Scripture
says that Messiah would come from a virgin, but they believed that Mary was
unfaithful to Joseph (which the Talmud also suggests). So, they’re saying that they’re not
illegitimate, though Jesus probably is!
That aside, why call God their Father? The children of Abraham (specifically the
Israelites) are God’s people. Both the
Law and the Prophets attest that God is the Father of the Jewish nation (Exod.
4:22; Deut. 32:6; Isa. 63:16; 64:8). So,
they have some basis for this, and they assume their spiritual position based solely
on this physical heritage.
Years ago, I ran into this once during evangelism. We were sharing the gospel with some folks by
a lake, and I started speaking with a couple visiting some family who had (what
sounded like) thick Eastern European accents.
I don’t recall off hand what country they said they were from, but they
believed they were Christians already because they were born there. When we talked about the importance of faith,
that was a new concept to them. They
assumed a spiritual heritage, even taking the name Christian, but they didn’t
have faith in Christ.
Jesus counters in v. 42, “If God were your Father, you would
love Me.” He’s flatly denying their
claim! As 1 John 5:1 says, “Whoever
believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father
loves the child born of Him.” You can’t have one without the other. As the Reformation Study Bible notes
here, “The unity between Father and Son is so profound that no one can belong
to the Father and reject the Son.”
Unfortunately, this proves that they are not sons of God.
Incidentally, it’s sloppy when Christians refer to all
people as the children of God. It’s more
than sloppy; it’s false! All people bear
God’s image, but they do not become His spiritual children until spiritual adoption. The Jews aren’t born as God’s children, and
neither are the Gentiles. We’re all born
separated from God and need to be adopted into His family through Christ.
That’s why accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior is vital. He’s the only mediator. He says as much when He says that “I
proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own
initiative, but He sent Me.” He demonstrates
there is no one else that we can trust in for salvation; to reject the Son is
to reject the Father!
So, no, God is not their Father. Jesus asks in the next verse, “Why do you not
understand what I am saying?” He doesn’t
even wait; He provides the answer. “It is because you cannot hear My word.” They don’t hear because they don’t want to
hear, just like children don’t always hear that it’s time to clean up their
rooms! This is the doctrine of total
depravity, where sin corrupts us totally, including our hearing and our
understanding. People love their sin and
don’t want to be confronted. They’re unregenerate,
still dead in their sin and without God.
If God isn’t their spiritual father, then who is? Jesus says something that makes everyone
wince: “You are of your father the
devil.” He even says it with emphasis on
the “you.”
Remember that Jesus has been hinting about their true father
(vv. 38, 41); now, He says it. As an
aside, this isn’t that heretical doctrine called “serpent seed.” This is a teaching held mostly by white supremacists
today, one that teaches some people (like these Jews) are Satan’s physical
offspring through his adulterous relationship with Eve. I don’t want to get too deep into that false
teaching for those unfamiliar with it, but recall that Jesus doesn’t deny their
authentic Jewish lineage (v. 37). It’s
not that they’re literal descendants of the devil; they are simply demonstrating
more in common with Satan than with God.
This isn’t a comparison restricted to these Jews,
either. Remember that Jesus did the same
with a resistant Peter in Matthew 16:23, where He says, “Get behind Me, Satan!” In 1 John 3:8, we read that “the one who
practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The
Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.” It’s the practice of sin that creates the
association. John also says in 1 John
5:19, “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one,” so every
man, woman, and child who is not of God is affected by the serpent’s hiss.
Note how these individuals evidence a devilish sway. Jesus says, “you want to do the desires of
your father.” Satan was a creature who
fell in his jealousy; they internally manifest envy, and externally, they will murder
just as he did. They’re just like the
one who “was a murderer from the beginning” — the serpent talked Eve into
eating the fruit which would kill her (and later Adam) spiritually (Gen. 2:17;
3:4, 17–24; Rom. 5:12; Heb. 2:14), and now, these Jews follow their father and
desire to murder Christ.
They don’t want Christ because of His truth. That’s another devilish characteristic, which
is why Jesus also notes that Satan doesn’t “stand in the truth because there is
no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a
lie, he speaks from his own nature,
for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
They’re rejecting the truth in front of them, having not truth within
them, as it is with all liars (cf. 1 John 2:4).
As Jesus says in the next verse, “But because I speak the truth, you do
not believe Me.” As Matthew Henry notes,
the devil “is a friend and patron of
lying,”[3] and they’re just like him.
Of course, this should be enough to encourage all believers
to practice truth-telling! In 1 Samuel
15:29, we read, “Also the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind; for
He is not a man that He should change His mind.” Ours is a God of truth and constancy, and we
deviate from His standard when we fail to operate with integrity. Not only is it a violation of the ninth
commandment (Exod. 20:16), it reflects the father of lies (John 8:44). As such, professed Christians who continue to
lie in an unrepentant fashion evidence that they never came to Christ, just as
these Jews are evidencing that God is not their Father.
Still, He asks them for some truth in v. 46: “Which one of
you convicts Me of sin?” They were full
of accusations throughout the Gospels, of course. As one commentary notes, “They accused him of
some of the worst of crimes—gluttony, drunkenness, blasphemy, sabbath-breaking,
confederacy with Satan, and what not. But
their accusations were malicious groundless calumnies, and such as every one
that knew him knew to be utterly false.”[4] It’s true our Lord Jesus experienced
temptation, but He was without sin or even the desire to sin. The old way of saying that is that He is
impeccable. Another commentary notes,
Second Corinthians 5:21 says that
He “knew no sin”; Hebrews 4:15 that He “has been tempted in all things as we
are, yet without sin”; Hebrews 7:26 describes Him as “holy, innocent,
undefiled, separated from sinners”; and 1 Peter 2:22 affirms that He “committed
no sin.” Only the perfectly holy One, in
intimate communion with the Father, could dare to issue such a challenge. Though His enemies wrongly believed Him to be
guilty of sin, they could not prove Him guilty of anything. At His trial before Annas Jesus issued a
similar challenge: “If I have spoken wrongly, testify of the wrong; but if
rightly, why do you strike Me?” (18:23). There, as here, the challenge went unanswered.[5]
Indeed, and they still reject Him.
Jesus says, “If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears the words of God; for
this reason you do not hear them,
because you are not of God.” He inspects
the fruit of their tree and finds it rotten.
As 1 John 4:6 says, “We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he
who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the
spirit of error.”
IV.
Conclusion
Faith alone saves,
but the faith that saves is never alone.
God’s quickening rays shine into our dark hearts and bring forth light,
helping us to see the truth of the Word.
We can’t produce salvation on our own, but a lack of willingness to come
to Christ or to keep His Word is evidence that you don’t know Him yet.
Don’t trust in you
heritage or just assume that you’re a Christian. Ask yourself — “Do I trust in Jesus Christ to
be my Lord and Savior?” Consider whether
His Words are important to you; perhaps challenging at times, but words you
want to live by. Consider whether you
think His death and resurrection from the dead are sufficient to deal with your
sins before God. Examine yourselves, for
you want to know whether you are children of God and not children of the devil.
If you are a
Christian, I hope you see just how much the Lord has saved you. You used to be under the power of the evil
one! We still must beware his tricks and
wiles, but we know that our Lord who delivers us is greater than him. When he tempts you, remember that your
strength doesn’t come from where you came from, what church you attend, or through
unapplied spiritual truth; rather, it comes through the Lord of Hosts who saved
your soul from the devil’s grasp!
[1] A. T. Robertson, Word
Pictures in the New Testament, (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1933), Jn
8:37.
[2] John D. Barry, Douglas Mangum, Derek R. Brown, Michael
S. Heiser, Miles Custis, Elliot Ritzema, Matthew M. Whitehead, Michael R.
Grigoni, and David Bomar, Faithlife Study
Bible, (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), Jn 8:40.
[3] Matthew Henry, Matthew
Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume,
(Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994), 1972.
[4] Ibid.
[5] John F. MacArthur Jr., John 1–11, MacArthur New Testament Commentary, (Chicago: Moody
Press, 2006), 372–373.