Fr. Stephen De Young: So Jesus continues:

“I know that you are Abraham’s descendants”

He says, “Yeah, I’m aware of the fact that in terms of ethnicity, if you go back to your family tree, eventually you get to Abraham,”

“but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you.”

So why are they trying to kill him? Jesus says here, “Because my word has no place in you.” Meaning, “I’m speaking to you. You’re not accepting it. You’re not taking it in, you’re not hearing it. And because of that, you’re trying to kill me.”

I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.”

He’s segueing, right? He says, “I came here, everything I do…” he’s said this several times. He’s reiterating it. He says, “Everything I do, everything I say is what my father does and says.” This is the unity of the Trinity, that Jesus is the express image of the Father. That’s how he reveals who the Father is to us.

They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.”

Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham.”

He just set that up, right? “I am my father’s son, so I do the works of my father. If you were really Abraham’s children, you would do what Abraham did.” Abraham what? Believed. That’s the main emphasis on the story of Abraham is that he believed God, right?

Interlocutor: That he obeyed God.

And also, the idea here is going back again into the Old Testament, when Adam and Eve, Adam knows his wife Eve gives birth to a son, Cain, in his own image, that the son is the image of the father, right? Jesus is the image of his father, said, “If you were Abraham’s sons, you’d look like Abraham. You don’t look so much like Abraham’s.”

“But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this.”

When Abraham met Melchizedek, he didn’t try to kill him. But Abraham met God and the two angels at the Oak of Mamre, he did not try to kill him. So he’s saying, “Look, I could pretty much prove here you’re doing something that Abraham never would have done.”

“You do the deeds of your father.”

You do the things that your father does.

Then they said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father—God.”

So they’re going to fall back to that, right? God is our father. But notice that first phrase; we already saw that they were aware Jesus was from Nazareth. We now see that they were aware something of the circumstances of his birth, although they don’t know the truth. Because remember, Joseph was not his father. Mary became pregnant while they were betrothed. So the way this has gone around Nazareth, these average people, especially these unbelieving Jews, do not believe in the virgin birth. We’ll put it that way. So that is an accusation. That is a slander thrown at Jesus.

Interlocutor: Jesus has a reputation as a bastard, is what you’re saying.

Fr. Stephen: Essentially, that’s the accusation they’re throwing.

Interlocutor: I mean, this is following him around.

Fr. Stephen: Because Jesus has just said about three times, “I do what my father does”, and they’re getting angrier and angrier at this point. They say, “Oh, yeah, who’s that?”. That’s the accusation they throw back. But since they want to kill him, a little bit of nastiness…

Interlocutor 2: Not to distract from maybe, I don’t know at this point. It looks like he’s talking now back to the Pharisees. Again, I’m not sure. But it seems like a triple edged sword almost. It definitely could have that. It also seems to indicate to that they’re saying, “We’re true Jews. We haven’t played the harlot like the Jews who have gone after all these other gods. We do have just one God, God the Father.”

Fr. Stephen: Possibly. I think this is more oriented at taking a stab back at him at this point because I think he’s still talking to…

Interlocutor: They say. “We have one Father, God.” That’s definitely a claim to piety.

Fr. Stephen: Yes. They removed it one step from Abraham. And they said, “Okay, we’re not going to argue with you about Abraham.” And they’re aware of the fact that Jesus is claiming that God is his father. They know what he talks about his father. He’s really claiming it’s God. They know he’s not talking about Joseph. They know he’s talking about God. So that’s what part of what makes it we’re not an extra sort of slap like, “Who do you think you are telling us that God is your father and not ours?”

Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.”

“So if God were your father and you knew God as your father, if you had this close relationship with him, you’d love me, you’d know exactly who I am.”

Interlocutor: As we’ve seen several people who did.

Fr. Stephen: Right. As we’ve seen several times. Because he’s come forth from God. He didn’t come himself, but he sent him. So again, if you knew him at all, you’d know me, too.

“Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word.”

Right. Once again, “You don’t understand what I’m saying because you’re not letting what I’m saying sink in.”

Interlocutor: But I think it’s important to remember here that earlier in the Gospel we’ve seen people like Photini who didn’t have any particular reason to be expected to understand him immediately and understand who he is. And so we have to have that contrast in order to understand who these people are.

Fr. Stephen: Right. That His word has no home in them.

Interlocutor: But there are people who grab it immediately.

Fr. Stephen: Who it does. Right. And so you are not those people you claim to be. You are not the children of God because you do not do this. But there are those out there who are the children of God who His Word does find a home and who believe and who love Him.

“You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”

So he lays it out pretty clearly there when he’s been hinting at so far, right? And what makes them children of the devil? The fact they’re children of the devil is that they do what again, they’re children of Abraham. They do what Abraham did, their children of God. They do what God does. They’re showing the devil because they do what the devil does. And what does the devil do here specifically? He’s a murderer and a liar. He’s a murderer because he brought death into the world through sin. And now they’re trying to kill Jesus, who is the life of the world. And Jesus is coming and telling the truth and they’re saying it’s a lie, which means they’re lying, which is what the devil does. The devil comes and says… what was the first thing the devil did in the book of Genesis? He came to Adam and Eve and he said God was a liar. He said, “Did God really say that if you ate this…” that’s the first thing he did was tell him that God was a liar. He says, “You’re his children because you’re now here saying that God is a liar.”

“But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me?”

So he gives them two arguments. Number one, “Which one of you can stand here and testify that I’ve sinned, that I’ve done what is evil? Because if I were a liar, if I were a child of the devil, I would do what he does, so I would be a sinner. So who here is going to stand up and convict me of sin.”

He says, “If I’m then not a liar, if I’m not a liar. If I’m telling the truth, why don’t you believe what I’m saying?” So he’s saying, “You only have two options. You can either stand up and testify somehow that I’m a liar, and if you can’t do that, which you can’t, then you have to believe what I’m saying to you.”

“He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”

Notice how he phrases that? He doesn’t say “Because you do not hear, you are not of God.” He says, “The reason you don’t hear what I’m saying, the reason you don’t understand what I’m saying is because you’re not of God already.” So again, we’ve talked about this, it’s one of St. John’s major themes. The people who are of God, whose heart is drawn close to God, who are striving after God, they recognize Jesus immediately and hear what he has to say and become his disciples and love him and believe in him. And those whose heart is far from God, when Jesus comes to them, they reject him.

And we’re finding out over the course of the gospel that the people who most folks think are close to God, like the Pharisees, are actually pretty far from him. And a lot of the people who people think are far from him, like the Samaritan woman, are actually the ones who are very close to God and who receive Jesus.

Then the Jews answered and said to Him, “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?”

Okay, so now they’re just name calling. They can’t even back this up. I mean, there are probably rumors about Jesus’ birth with the last one, but this one, the Samaritan thing, I mean, they’ve got nothing.

Interlocutor: But this is a beautiful irony, because both of these are obvious lies that they would have known were lies. They’ve just proven that they are the children of the devil, because they lie.

Fr. Stephen: Right. This is just pure slander. It’s just pure name calling, right? “You’re a Samaritan, and you’re demon possessed, and you’re a cheap date and a lousy tipper…” and just throwing out everything, right? Insulting him.

Interlocutor: You’re ugly and your mother dresses you funny [Laughter].

Fr. Stephen: Yeah.

Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me.”

He says, “What I do honors my father. You are dishonoring me. You’re slandering me. So what does that mean in terms of what you’re doing to my father?” He’s giving them a warning here. “You start slandering me. You do this name calling with me. You’re really slandering God. You’re really slandering my father.”

“And I do not seek My own glory; there is One who seeks and judges. Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death.”

So he, other than that warning, responds in a positive way. I don’t seek my own my glory. Jesus says, “I don’t have anything to prove to you. I’m not here to try to get all of you to love me. It’d be nice! I want all of you to come and find salvation, but I’m not going to sit here and argue with you and try and… God is the one who seeks. God is the one who judges. And so God is the one who… you don’t want to believe me, okay, don’t believe me. But we’ll see who is proven right when God judges.”

“Most assuredly, I say to you”, he repeats what he said originally. “If you keep my word, if you abide in me, you will not see death.” Why? Because you’ll be set free from the power of sin, and the power of sin is death.

Then the Jews said to Him, “Now we know that You have a demon! Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word he shall never taste death.’”

So they say, “Ah, we got you now, right? We got you now, because look, Abraham and the prophets, they kept God’s word, they were righteous, and they’re dead! So, see, you’re wrong.”

“Are You greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? And the prophets are dead. Who do You make Yourself out to be?”

“So you’re better than Abraham now?  You’re better than the prophets now?

Jesus answered, “If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing. It is My Father who honors Me, of whom you say that He is your God.”

“You claim he’s your god. You claim you worship just Him, but he gives honor to me, and you don’t give honor to me.” The idea being, “So how can you say he is really your God.”

“Yet you have not known Him, but I know Him. And if I say, ‘I do not know Him,’ I shall be a liar like you; but I do know Him and keep His word.”

He says, “I know him. I can’t lie and say I don’t. You don’t know him. Not only do I know Him,” what is the sign that Jesus truly knows Him? He keeps his word. Remember what he said earlier? “Who here can convict me of sin?”

“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”

So he says, “This day, when I would come and stand among you is what Abraham was hoping for. It’s what Abraham was hoping for.” Remember, we saw this all the way back in the prologue of St. John’s Gospel, it was a sort of poetic prologue, remember where he established not only that Jesus had existed from before the beginning, with God, but that Jesus had been active all through Israel and the Old Testament. This is more testimony to that, that Abraham… Jesus is saying Abraham not only knew his Father, but Abraham knew Jesus. Abraham accepted Jesus, which is how we know that he truly knew God. Related to his point to them. The reason you don’t accept me is because you don’t really know God. Abraham knew.

Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?”

They’re like, “Uhhh, Abraham was a couple of thousand years ago. Pretty sure you’re not that old. You’re still a young man.”

Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”

So this is about as clear as you get to Jesus saying he’s God.

Interlocutor: Yeah. Well, “I AM” is capitalized.

Fr. Stephen: Yeah. They don’t put the “he” on this. Right.

Interlocutor: I also wonder, in the original Greek, would they have capitalized it, or did they have a way of setting this?

Fr. Stephen: Not really. The earliest Greek manuscripts are what are called uncials are written in all capitals and there’s no punctuation and no space between words. And many of them go, there’s a fancy word for it, Latin word for it, but they start out left to right, and then they go right to left and then left to right and then right to left down the page, to boot. They sort of go back and forth. So it’s not… but it’s very clear here what he’s referring to. Notice Abraham was. He doesn’t say, “Before Abraham was, I was.” He says, “Before Abraham was I AM.” So he directly says, spills the beans, right? “Yes, I knew Abraham. Because I am the God who Abraham knew.”

Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

So, they understand what he’s saying here [Laughter]. We’ve seen that a couple of times now where Jesus just sort of walks through the middle of a crowd. Why? Because, again, it’s not time for us to lay his life down yet. So they can’t kill him. As much as they want to.

Interlocutor 2: It’s unfortunate that they use that word “hid”. It’s unfortunate that it has such so many different meanings.

Interlocutor: It has a cowardly…

Fr. Stephen: Yeah. Literally, in the Greek, it means something more like he was concealed. He was concealed. Sort of like they lost sight of him somehow and he walked out through their midst. The idea being this is a semi-miraculous occurrence, that he’s able to just sort of walk past them and they sort of lose track of him. Even though he was standing right in front of them, talking. So that’s the idea. Yeah, it isn’t that he ran off somewhere and hid and then snuck out later, as the English here kind of could be interpreted.

Interlocutor: Yeah, I think I always did when I was young.

Fr. Stephen: No, this is a keeping with St. John’s theme, as we’ve seen. They keep wanting to kill him, but they can’t because it’s not time yet. When he needs to just walk through a crowd, He just walks through the crowd and they can’t harm him because there’s no sin in him. So since we hit the end of a chapter, this is a good place to end tonight. So thank you everybody.