Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Dial In - John 8:31-47 (Ep. 24)

Episode Date: April 30, 2020

Dial In is a devotional series with the intention of helping followers of Christ understand God’s word and love Him more. Jonny seeks to communicate the profound depth of scripture in a digestible and condensed format each weekday. The goal of the podcast is that our “minds would be renewed” as we behold who God is in His word. In this series, Jonny is walking sequentially through the Gospel of John.In this episode, Jonny covers John 8:31-47 where Jesus describes a true disciple. Verse 30 stated that “many believed” in Him, yet in verse 44 Jesus tells the same group that they are of their father the devil. How can this be? How can someone profess to know God and yet still be in their sin? How can we know if our faith is true? Jesus tells us in this very passage. Watch VideosVisit the Website Follow on InstagramFollow on Twitter

Hey guys, my name is Johnny Artavanis, and this is Dial In. Today we're in John chapter 8, verses 31 through 47. These are the words of God. Let's view them as such in Dial In. John chapter 8, verses 31 through 47. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, If you abide in my words, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. 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? Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever. The son remains forever. So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are offspring of Abraham, yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my father, and you do not know what you have heard from your father. They answered him,

Abraham is our father. And Jesus said to them, if you are 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. 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. 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. 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 of his own character for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. Jesus says in verse 31 that if you abide in my words, you are truly my disciples.

There is a condition attached to those who are truly Jesus' disciples. This statement could keep us busy for an extended period of time, but I'll do my best to keep it clear and concise. Jesus continues to say, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Today we're going to talk about what a true disciple is according to Jesus's definition, and then we will talk about the true freedom that Jesus describes. We saw previously in verse 30 that following Jesus's proclamation that he is the light of the world, many people believed in him. But here in the same passage to the same group of people, he tells them in verse 44, you are of your father, the devil. Now, how can it be that the people who believe in him in verse 30 are also called the children of the devil 14

verses later? Well, we see before that when Jesus is teaching in the temple in chapter two, that many believed in Jesus because they saw his works. But it says in that same chapter that Jesus did not entrust himself to them because he knows what is within all man. He knew that their faith was not real. It was superficial. It was shallow. So what we see over and over again throughout the scriptures is that there is a belief that is not a saving belief. We read that same idea in Matthew 7, 21, and I've mentioned this passage before. Many will say, Lord, Lord, you know us. Remember all that we did for you? We know the answers. We served in ministry. I'm a part of this family. And Jesus will look at them and say, I don't know you. Hell is full of people who thought they knew

Jesus. That's not my opinion. That's what Jesus said. We will see in John 12, when Jesus comes to Jerusalem during the Passion Week, the people went crazy. They're going nuts. They're throwing palm branches at his feet. Tens of thousands of people are crying out, Hosanna, Hosanna. And by the end of that same week, they're shouting out, crucify him, crucify him.

After Jesus' resurrection, when he goes to the upper room, there are only 120 believers there. The hype is everywhere. Professions are common, but possession of saving faith is much less common in the gospels. That is why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 13 that we need to examine ourselves to see if we're in the gospels. That is why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 13 that we need to examine ourselves to see if we're in the faith. Many people will meet God face to face and say, I raised my hand, I walked this aisle, I prayed a prayer. Doesn't that make me a Christian? The answer is maybe, but it's not a profession that saves. It is a possession of true, genuine, saving faith and being born again that makes us right with God. We must possess what we profess or else we end up being what Jonathan Edwards

describes as an almost Christian or what J.C. Ryle calls the half Christian. J.C. Ryle says, the most dangerous spiritual condition any person can ever be in is when you're halfway to Christ, inclined to Jesus, inclined to the truth about Jesus, wanting what Jesus provides and wanting what Jesus offers, but not willing to give in to the full demands that he lays out on the sinner. This is the most dangerous spot in the entire world, knowing the answers, knowing the truth, but no willingness to submit to the demands of Jesus Christ. So the question you might be asking is, how can I know then if my faith is real? How can I know if I have genuine saving faith? Jesus tells us in verse 31, he says, if you abide in my word, you are my true disciples.

Abiding is what describes a true disciple. So then the question you might be asking still is, well, how can I know if I'm abiding? We just need to look three verses later. It is by what we practice. Jesus says in verse 34, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. Romans 6 says that you are slaves of the one that you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness. We aren't saved by our obedience, but if we don't have obedience, we haven't been truly saved. You are slaves of the one that you obey, Jesus says. First John 1.6 says, if we say we have fellowship with him, yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. So this is the clear teaching of the Bible. Paul says to examine ourselves and

to gauge our spiritual condition, not by asking what we profess, but asking ourselves what we practice. What are we slaves to? Are we slaves to Jesus Christ or are we slaves to sin? Verse 35, Jesus says, the slave does not remain in the house forever. The son remains forever. Now listen here. Jesus defines sonship, not in terms of biology, but in terms of obedience. You are children of the one that you obey. And if you are a son of God, you will remain in obedience to God. What does that mean when Jesus says to remain though? It means that we will persevere.

It means that we have a godly endurance through God's spirit and through God's strength. The same gospel writer John will say in 1 John 2, 19, that they went out from us, talking about people who once professed to know God that left. He says, they went out from us, but they were not really of us. For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us, but they went out from us so that it would be shown that they are not really of us. True disciples stay and remain with Jesus Christ. Remaining shows us our true condition.

And if we remain in the truth, the truth will set us free. Matthew 24 verse 13 says that the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. Jesus says in John 15 10, If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. Did you catch that? How do we know that the son loved the father? Jesus says, because I obeyed the father and did what the father commanded me to do. Verse 14 of that same chapter, you are my friends if you do what I command you. Now I want to encourage you, this does not mean

that our lives are perfect. You may fail and sin and stumble, but you hate the sin and you hate the stumbling and you're motivated by a love for Jesus Christ to endure and remain in him. So the mark of a true believer is not just a profession. It is not some past event. It is a continuing obedience because you love Jesus Christ and want to do what honors him. You obey him because you love him. Obedience can never be separated from love. Jesus says that if we obey the truth and remain in the truth,

we will know the truth and the truth will set us free. The Pharisees did not understand this. They're saying, how can we possibly be set free from anything? We're not in prison. Doesn't that presuppose that we're in bondage to something? But Jesus isn't talking about an earthly prison. He is describing the human condition. He is telling them that you are slaves of sin. No one is forcing you to commit these sins. You sin because you are a slave to sin. You want to sin. That's what you crave. You have a moral bondage and you don't come to me, Jesus is telling them, because you have no taste and craving for God.

But then how can we have this freedom that Jesus describes? How can obeying Jesus feel like freedom and not rules? How can we want to do what we ought to do? Number one, we need to be born again. This is what Jesus details in Nicodemus. God has to take our heart of stone and our love for sin and transform that into a heart of flesh and a love for the holiness of Jesus Christ. And number two, we need God's spirit to renew our minds. Positionally, we have been set free from bondage to sin. But in our everyday life, how can we want to do what we ought to do? How can obeying God feel like freedom?

2 Corinthians 3.17. This is a game-changing passage for me. Paul says, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Okay, so I have freedom in Jesus Christ, but how can obedience be freeing? How can obedience be liberating? The next verse says, but we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. Here's what this means. We are born again and made new in Christ.

Then as we continue to behold God in the face of Jesus Christ, as we drink deeply from his word and are filled with the spirit, God's spirit, listen here, transforms our minds and desires so that what we want to do is obey Jesus Christ. And when we are commanded to do what we want to do, obeying and serving and submitting and following Jesus Christ is true freedom. Amen and amen. Stay dialed in.