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Tag: pharisees

  • The Gatekeeper & the Shepherds – the Door

    The Gatekeeper & the Shepherds – the Door

    After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said,

    “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.”

    The Revelation of Jesus Christ to the Apostle John – 4:1 NASB

    Heaven’s door

    Let’s not miss that the Pharisees’ debates with the Messiah question His authority from the Lord our God and Father. And Jesus’ signs and parables all point heavenward.

    Do you desire eternal life?

    It is a question of highest importance. And who may enter the gate or the door to eternal life in heaven?

    How can we know? Who will unravel this great mystery of eternal life in heaven and the judgment of sins punished by a sentence to hell?

    Closed doors to Scripture

    וַיַּעֲמֹ֤ד מֹשֶׁה֙ בְּשַׁ֣עַר הַֽמַּחֲנֶ֔ה וַיֹּ֕אמֶר מִ֥י לַיהוָ֖ה אֵלָ֑י וַיֵּאָסְפ֥וּ אֵלָ֖יו כָּל־בְּנֵ֥י לֵוִֽי׃

    Exodus 32:26 WLC

    Does it help you to read this Hebrew scripture about Moshe (Moses)?

    OR does the fact of the Hebrew language create a closed door to the Bible for you?

    Then read translation into English about Moshe choosing who will enter the camp of the LORD and who Moses sentences to death.

    Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD’S side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.

    Exodus 32:26 KJV

    Sometimes the Lord places a Moses or David or Prophet at a gate or the door to guard the integrity of His Own Righteousness.

    We addressed this first by our look at the gatekeeper and watchmen. But frequently religion’s wide door or misled path will turn the faithful away from Scripture.

    ἔστη δὲ Μωυσῆς ἐπὶ τῆς πύλης τῆς παρεμβολῆς καὶ εἶπεν τίς πρὸς κύριον ἴτω πρός με συνῆλθον οὖν πρὸς αὐτὸν πάντες οἱ υἱοὶ Λευι

    et stans in porta castrorum ait si quis est Domini iungatur mihi congregatique sunt ad eum omnes filii Levi

    Exodus 32:26: Greek & Latin

    Get the picture?

    Not really, if you have received the filtered view of religious teachers’ blind teaching of faith.

    In fact many in Jerusalem’s crowds depended on the Pharisees or Rabbi’s to tell them what Scripture says. Even the literate often read their Empire-wide language of Greek, but not Hebrew.

    So the symbols of Jesus’ parables create important universal pictures to those barred by the misleading of Israel’s shepherds of the gates and the door of worship of the Lord God our Father.

    Religious leaders who manipulate Scripture become barriers to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and a closed door to repentance by sinners.

    Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com

    Symbolism of a gate or a door

    Heaven must have a gate (of sorts), like a walled city.

    Not everyone gets into the heavenly Jerusalem.

    The LORD must have watchmen (perhaps angels – spirit beings who serve the King as messengers and guards in the glorious heavenly city of God).

    Who does Almighty God anoint to sit in the gate as the door to enter eternal life?

    David? Perhaps Moses? Even the great Prophet Elijah?

    No, none of these.

    And certainly not a false prophet after Jesus claiming light from the place of darkness. Not even leaders of angels such as Gabriel or Michael. And most certainly no idolatrous intercessors of mothers, antiquated saints leaving only dust in place, or Apostles long passed.

    Who then sits at the door of heaven – the gate of eternal life?

    The door IS the very Lamb of God, the Shepherd of shepherds, the Son of Man, Christ Jesus!

    To Him and no other we sinners must appeal by His mercy to enter eternal life by the grace of His Own Blood of Perfect Sacrifice.

    Are we blind too?

    Jesus the Messiah, who healed not only this blind man but others as well, clearly sheds light on the judgment for which He is sent to the world.

    But as the Lord points out, some shepherds like the Pharisees really don’t see. For the prophet Isaiah had accused:

    And they are shepherds who have no understanding;
    They have all turned to their own way,
    Each one to his unjust gain, to the last one.

    These pharisees, rabbis of Judah confront their Messiah time after time questioning and denying His authority. They attempt to discredit Him even after another sign of Jesus. For a man born blind received his sight from Jesus.

    John 9: 24-25 A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”
    He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”

    Most of these pharisees refused to believe in the Messiah sent to save sinners.

    John 9:35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

    40 Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”

    41 Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

    Now this scene of controversy argued before the crowds of Jerusalem plays out in another parable of Jesus told against the pharisees just after the man born blind worships Jesus as Lord.

    John 10:

    “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber.

    Gospel of John 10:1 NASB – Caution to believers from Christ Jesus

    2 But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep.

    The LORD is my shepherd

    מִזְמֹור לְדָוִד יְהוָה רֹעִי לֹא אֶחְסָֽר׃

    You know the imagery of the Messiah and require no translation or interpretation of this parable connected to the sign of Jesus leading a blind man to worship Him.

    Suppose heaven is so easy to enter as a wall without the door of the shepherd who gathers his sheep.

    Can you climb over an unguarded wall?

    Of course.

    Could just any shepherd appear to lead the sheep anywhere, even to destruction?

    Even in this day they often do.

    If heaven’s chosen sheep gathered within the walls of the holy (separated) place cannot trust their shepherd as a door, will the wolves not enter and false shepherds lead them astray?

    Are the sheep not destined for the slaughter of sacrifice if the Perfect Sacrifice has not already been made?

    I AM the Good Shepherd – Jesus

    3 “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

    The Messiah, the Shepherd of heaven, gathers them to a place where He IS the door.

    Then He calls to all the sheep, even by name.

    The Lord knows them personally. He makes no mistakes and they know His voice rather than that of a false teacher or shepherd who would lead them into the pit of destruction.

    Jesus knows you. Do you know Him?

    4 “And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”

    6 Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them.

    Will the blind shepherds hear?

    Pharisees, rabbis who teach what they will, preachers who claim they can lead everybody to heaven – all these shepherds, Jesus says, are blind.

    And clearly they do not see the Scripture before them, let alone share the Way, the Truth and the Life eternal of the Gospel Good News of our Savior from death, judgment and punishment.

    All these believe that heaven has no door or they pretend to hold the only key to the gate (if indeed heaven had a golden locked gate).

    After Jesus’ resurrection, clearly heaven’s gate is no guarded cemetery or grand golden cathedral depicting idols offering prayers for your admittance.

    These false shepherds whitewash the entrance of hell with a hologram of heaven’s golden gate, through which they lead many sheep of the world to the slaughter of hell’s punishment!

    The Good Shepherd

    7 So Jesus said to them again,

    “Truly, truly, I say to you,

    I am the door of the sheep.

    We are sheep in this world of darkness being led to the slaughter.

    False teachers seek to sacrifice follower after follower into the fires of destruction!

    The Messiah Jesus accuses these of the misleading the sheep. These self-appointed shepherds over our unrighteousness deceive and destroy.

    8 All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.

    Jesus speaks of false messiahs, kings and leaders who only claim to follow the Lord, all who “do what is evil in the sight of the Lord.”

    I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.

    John 10:9 NASB

    10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

    Jesus reiterates the contrast between Pharisees and false leaders of God’s people and himself, the One Shepherd of the Lord our God.

    The Sacrifice of the Good Shepherd

    I have told you once that I AM the door.

    When you did not understand I told the crowds my clear meaning and purpose of coming here to lead My sheep.

    Now, those with ears to hear, in addition to the clear signs before your eyes here is how you can hear the Shepherd who knows you by name.

    “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

    John 10:11 NASB

    What does this mean? (For it has not yet happened?)

    Jesus gives the hearer of His voice no time to consider a wrong solution to our leading by God, but again shows the false leadership of the Pharisees who have redefined requirements for the flock to enter heaven.

    12 “The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away…

    Here into Jerusalem Rome has followed other conquerors and the hired hands of Herod abandon the faith of Abraham adding new requirements to the Law of Moses.

    “… then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

    I know My sheep

    Who will lead the scattered sheep sent to Babylon and Persia and again to Egypt then conquered once more by a mighty Greece? And though only a remnant returns, who will go into all the world now conquered by Rome?

    The shepherds have divided and run, returned and divided the flock.

    14 “I am the good shepherd,
    and know my sheep,
    and am known of mine. [KJV]

    15 “As the Father knows Me,
    even so I know the Father;
    and I lay down My life for the sheep. [NKJV]

    Now Jesus again states His relationship to God the Father as the Messiah and Savior of Israel. The Lord also clearly states fulfillment of Scripture concerning the gentiles or nations.

    A Savior of the Nations

    I have other sheep, which are not of this fold;

    I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice;

    and they will become one flock with one shepherd.

    The Good News of the Messiah Jesus to the gentiles – John 10:16 NASB

    Three points here in the parable of the Good Shepherd:

    1. The Messiah saves some who are not Jews.
    2. Jesus will include the chosen of the nations to ‘follow Him’ as the Good Shepherd of all sheep and they too will hear His call to the promise of eternal life.
    3. Jews who follow the Messiah and Gentiles will become one flock of the faithful with Him – the Good Shepherd of Israel.

    Sacrifice of the Shepherd for the sins of the sheep

    Would a father sacrifice his own son?

    Abraham offered to do so, believing that the LORD would do right.

    Jesus makes personal reference after personal reference to God as His Father. Would God provide the Sacrifice for your sins and for mine as the Lord did for Abraham?

    Why would a Righteous Father send His Perfect Son to a world of sinners?

    17 “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.

    “No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.

    “This command I have received from My Father.”

    Jesus clearly states after His parable of the Good Shepherd that God His Father commanded Him – the Son of God and only Good Shepherd – to sacrifice His mortal life for the sheep. AND He has the authority and power or the resurrection of life itself!

    Controversial?

    Even to this day and in every time of these last days.

    19 The Jews who heard these words were again divided. Many of them said, “He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?”

    21 But others said, “These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

    Do you see?

    Does Jesus open your eyes to the Light of eternal life? Or are you blind too?

    What shepherd do you follow?

    The One Who IS the door?

    Or have you heard so many who make other claims about heaven?

    And Jesus said,

    “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.”

  • Jesus – Siloam – “I washed and I see

    Jesus – Siloam – “I washed and I see

    “Go,” he told him, “wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So he left, washed, and came back seeing.

    John 9:7 CSB

    Sight to a blind man

    Previously we looked at John’s introduction to Jesus healing a man who was blind from birth. We left off with the Messiah sending the man to Siloam (which means ‘sent’) with mud Jesus had created by spitting on dust covering the blind man’s eyes.

    Besides being a clear sign of the Messiah’s mysterious power from God the Father, it’s important to note two things here:

    1. Right in the middle of John 9:7 at the beginning his witness of the Good News of Jesus healing a man blind from birth, time passes as the blind man leaves then returns later with sight.
    2. Witnesses would have been familiar with the mysteries of God associated with the Pool of Siloam, but also the tragic deaths of those who had been killed in this same place when the Tower of Siloam fell upon them. (Luke later records this in his Gospel.)

    John tells of this sign of the blind man healed after he washed at Siloam, but to a later audience not present his testimony is scene of what others witnessed firsthand like him. Like most miracles of the Messiah those present had to debate the seemingly impossible scene which confronted their faith. Were they really seeing a miracle?

    I am the one

    John 9:

    So he … came back seeing.

    8 Therefore the neighbors, and those who previously saw him as a beggar, were saying,

    “Is not this the one who used to sit and beg?” (Yes.)

    9 Others were saying,

    “This is he,” (Yes, I am that man.)

    still others were saying,

    “No, but he is like him.” (Friend, you know it is me. Neighbor, you see that it is me.)

    He kept saying, “I am the one.”

    Of course any witnesses of the miraculous must ask: HOW?

    10 So they were saying to him, “How then were your eyes opened?”

    Therefore once again the man formerly blind, speaking to the crowds of Jerusalem (some who were not present before and others who were), now retells what has just happened.

    The Messiah however has moved with the crowds to other parts of Jerusalem.

    He ‘Sent’ me

    I remind us here of the context of what we already learned about Jesus, the true Light ‘sent’ to the world.

    When John writes, “Siloam” (which is translated, Sent), the Apostle uses a Greek word which should sound familiar to the Christian of this day: apostellō, ἀποστέλλω related to the word “Apostle,” ἀπόστολος – apostolos.

    The Apostle John also previously witnessed Jesus’ light hidden from the eyes of the Pharisees, using this same word for ‘sent’ and describing that He the Son was sent by God the Father.

    • 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 G649 Me. – John 8:42 (after which the Lord said: Before Abraham was, I AM.)
    • “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” G649 – John 6:28b-29 (after Jesus had feed 5000 and walked on the Sea of Galilee)

    Same word as John uses to describe Siloam as meaning sent: apostellō. You likely know it best from John 3.

    “For God did not send G649 the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

    John 3:17 NASB – Strong’s G649 = apostellō

    11 He answered, “The man who is called Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash’; so I went away and washed, and I received sight.”

    I went and received sight

    Miraculous! We know how (after Jesus sent him to Siloam).

    12 They said to him, “Where is He?”

    He said, “I do not know.”

    Confirming the Sign (of the Messiah)

    We will find no group working harder on the Sabbath than religious authorities working to enforce religion.

    Pharisees believe in the resurrection, but deny the true life through the Messiah of God. John witnesses rejection of Jesus by their works of darkness.

    13 They brought him who formerly was blind to the Pharisees. Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes.

    15 Then the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight.

    Once again, controversy like in previous debates within the crowds witnessing the miracle.

    He said to them, “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.”

    16 Therefore some of the Pharisees said, “This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.”

    Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?”

    And there was a division among them.

    The Pharisees in charge continue to prosecute the man who can see even after rendering their judgment of the Messiah Jesus as witness to the court.

    “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.”

    “He is a prophet.”

    Calling Jesus a prophet compares Him to John the Baptist, Elijah and others. Refusing his truthful answer, they call the man’s parents to the stand.

    “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?”

    20 “We know this is our son and that he was born blind,” his parents answered. “But we don’t know how he now sees, and we don’t know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he’s of age. He will speak for himself.”

    Confess, for we find you guilty

    John now gives us an earlier insight from the trial here in addition to their judgment that Jesus is not the Messiah.

    22 His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue.

    So again they call the defendant who could now see to the stand.

    Give glory to God

    “Give God the glory! We know that this Man is a sinner.” – John 9:24 NKJV

    Give God (Theos) glory (Doxa)! Nothing wrong with that.

    Certainly those in the audience riveted to the outcome of this man’s trial to determine if he may remain a part of the community of the Jews with full participation in the worship of their places of learning (synagogues) would tend toward a praise of their opening. But then these judges (of the Sanhedrin) betray who they really put on trial here.

    The Messiah, a sinner?

    “We know this man (anthropos) is a sinner (hamartōlos).”

    Is JESUS ‘devoted to sin,’ a sinner? (For this is the definition of their judgment NOT of the defendant, but of their Messiah.)

    Has the Son of Man, as Jesus self-identifies as One born of Mary, a King of the Jews in the line of David, — has He shown Himself to be “pre-eminently sinful, especially wicked,” or even a lesser violation of Pharisaic interpretation of ‘work’ on the Sabbath as a lesser accusation that Jesus is not free from sin?

    Jesus has already accused them (not the man formerly blind on trial here):

    “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?

    John 8:44-46 NASB – Jesus the Messiah on Truth

    The Apostle John has already laid the foundation of Truth behind the accusations against the blind man who now sees and the Pharisees who convict out of the darkness.

    Conclusive evidence: Now I see

    25 He then answered, “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”

    “Now I see,” the man truthly states ONLY the facts. One thing further he does in which the court fails, he judges rightly that he cannot know if the man who healed him is a sinner. You see the evidence, I see. (Why ask me about another man, even the One who healed me?)

    “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?”

    “I told you already and you did not listen; why do you want to hear it again?

    (Perhaps a pregnant pause, as the audience hears his indisputable evidence.)

    Then a more personal question to the Court which certainly must have brought silent smiles to some witnesses of this precursor of a trial yet to come before them.

    You do not want to become His disciples too, do you?” (We can only imagine the uproar, but their reaction is severe.)

    You are His disciple?

    Their next accusation, false at this time because the blind man had never known Jesus’ teaching, draws the line of the Pharisees by which they held tightly their religions authority.

    But first for the crowds, they restate their tenuous authority.

    “We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He is from.”

    Now the answer from the man who repeatedly said, “now I see” that offends most.

    “Well, here is an amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes… (Again, now I see!)

    Witness of the man who now sees

    The man who was once blind continues. John concludes with his witness and expulsion from the religious Jewish community.

    31 We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him. Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.”

    Guilty of witness of the Messiah

    34 They answered and said to him, “You were completely born in sins, and are you teaching us?”

    And they cast him out.

    It’s not just that the Court of the Pharisees ‘cast the man who witnessed ‘now I see’ and the sign that Jesus IS the Messiah; he would now be excluded from Jewish culture as well and subject to further persecution.

    The New King James Version of John’s Gospel emphasizes the gravity of the Court’s predetermined verdict:

    The Pharisees Excommunicate the Healed Man

    John will continue his Good News of the Messiah Jesus with yet another encounter with the blind man who witnessed, ‘I washed and I see.’

    What must you do?

    On a more personal level I ask you, as the man once blind asked the Pharisees, ‘Do you want to be His disciples too,’ what will you do with the mud covering your eyes?

    Siloam – Sent by the Messiah

    … but have you washed?

    Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?”

    I said to him, “My lord, you know.”

    And he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

    The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John: 7:13-14 NASB
    To be continued...

  • Before Abraham was, I AM

    Before Abraham was, I AM

    “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.

    Exodus 3:6 KJV

    13 And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?

    14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

    Who sent Jesus to us?

    Moses relates one of the most remarkable encounters with the LORD which results in his leading God’s chosen from slavery to the promised land. Exodus records for us not only the genealogy of Israel, Isaac and Abraham, here we learn the Lord’s own Name:

    הָיָה הָיָה

    I AM that I AM – that is: the LORD IS the Existing One!

    As we learned previously in Who May Judge Sin?, Jesus answers questions of the religious leaders of the Temple. They asked Him to judge a woman accused of adultery, but relented from stoning her when Jesus showed her mercy and challenged their motives.

    They question Jesus legitimacy as the Messiah of God. Do you?

    Essentially they want to prove that Jesus is not sent from God, even though this Son of Man has given many signs of His power and Authority from God.

    These rabbis will go to any length and make any false argument against the legitimacy and authority of Jesus.

    So what does the Messiah Jesus claim?

    Jesus spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world.

    John 8:12a CSB

    What does this mean? It depends if you have ears to hear.

    Who sent Jesus to the world twenty-one centuries ago is a matter of faith – also our question of who to believe.

    So Jesus now speaks to two groups of Jews:

    1. Followers of Jesus – those called by faith, which includes some Jews who believe their Messiah; and also
    2. Those who judge Jesus, refusing to believe the very Word of God! These include some but not all of the Pharisees from the Court of the Jews.

    Let’s dissect Jesus’ words as heard by each group, both then and now.

    John 8:

    1. Followers of Jesus

    Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”

    The promise of Jesus – John 8:12b CSB

    14 … “My testimony is true, because I know where I came from and where I’m going.

    I judge no one. 16 And if I do judge, my judgment is true, because it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.

    29 The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what pleases him.”

    30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him.

    31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples. 32 You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

    36 So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free.

    42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, because I came from God and I am here. For I didn’t come on my own, but he sent me.

    49 “I do not have a demon,” Jesus answered. “On the contrary, I honor my Father … 50 I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and judges. 51 Truly I tell you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”

    Then the teachers of the Jews will follow with a question, the answer which divides the faithful from the deceitful.

    But first let’s go back to the beginning of this testimony of the Gospel to stand beside Jerusalem’s religious elite who question the Messiah of God, determined to kill Him and preserve their own temporal glory among men.

    2. Court of the Pharisees

    Hear this same Messiah of Israel through ears refusing to listen to truth. These Pharisees feed the crowds of Jews they teach with their own dismissive words and questions of resentful doubt.

    13 So the Pharisees said to him, “You are testifying about yourself. Your testimony is not valid.”

    Jesus replied, “… But you don’t know where I come from or where I’m going. 15 You judge by human standards.

    17 Even in your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. 18 I am the one who testifies about myself, and the Father who sent me testifies about me.”

    19 Then they asked him, “Where is your Father?”

    “You know neither me nor my Father,” Jesus answered.

    21 Then he said to them again, “I’m going away; you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I’m going, you cannot come.”

    22 So the Jews said again, “He won’t kill himself, will he, since he says, ‘Where I’m going, you cannot come’?”

    23 “You are from below,” he told them, “I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.”

    Who are you?

    25 “Who are you?” they questioned.

    28 So Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own. But just as the Father taught me, I say these things.

    33 “We are descendants of Abraham,” they answered him, “and we have never been enslaved to anyone. How can you say, ‘You will become free’?”

    34 Jesus responded, “Truly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. 35 A slave does not remain in the household forever, but a son does remain forever.

    Jesus, speaking to the Jews to whom He was sent, warns in the same manner He told many parables. The Father, His Father in heaven sent the Son to redeem them of their sins. He will become the Sacrifice God provides, just like the substitute for Isaac the Lord sent to Abraham.

    A sinful man must sacrifice to the Lord because of man’s sin.

    The Son remains in the Father’s house because He will inherit all that the Father owns. But a slave, even a chosen slave freed from Pharaoh, only lives freely if his sin does not shackle him to death once more.

    Abraham believed God; but unbelief binds one to die as sacrifice only for yourself, a sentence of death for your own sin.

    Descendents of Abraham

    37 I know you are descendants of Abraham, but you are trying to kill me because my word has no place among you.

    … so then, you do what you have heard from your father.”

    39 “Our father is Abraham,” they replied.

    “If you were Abraham’s children,” Jesus told them, “you would do what Abraham did. 40 But now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do this.

    41 You’re doing what your father does.”

    “We weren’t born of sexual immorality,” they said. “We have one Father—God.”

    Your father, the Devil

    43 Why don’t you understand what I say? Because you cannot listen to my word.

    44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to carry out 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 tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.

    47 The one who is from God listens to God’s words. This is why you don’t listen, because you are not from God.”

    48 The Jews responded to him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you’re a Samaritan and have a demon?”

    Demons and Samaritans

    Do not dismiss quickly their accusation of demons. Many will accuse Jesus of having a demon or evil spirit, even though the Messiah has done no evil.

    And later, confirming the signs of the Messiah some Jews ask, “Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? ”

    The Pharisees knowing from scripture that the Messiah will come from Bethlehem only know the Son of Man as ‘Jesus of Nazareth,’ and we know their contempt as Judeans for Samaritans (and Galileans as well).

    49 “I do not have a demon,” Jesus answered.

    51 Truly I tell you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”

    [How can that be, anyone must wonder. Never see death?]

    52 Then the Jews said, “Now we know you have a demon. Abraham died and so did the prophets. You say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’

    A Convicting Question

    53 Are you greater than our father Abraham who died? And the prophets died. Who do you claim to be?”

    Who could be greater than David, King of Israel a thousand years before Jesus?

    In the new traditions of the Pharisees of a rebuilt temple certainly Moses, who was given the Law and brought them out of Egypt, would be revered most.

    Some prophets like Elijah might be seen as great because of great signs they performed, along with Jacob and Abraham as first fathers of the promise of the Lord to the Hebrew people.

    So the question of the Pharisees to Jesus comparing Him to Abraham and the prophets is meant to convict.

    Who do you claim to be?

    Note that they do not ask, “who are you,” but “who do you claim to be.” Jesus’ unequivocal answer will claim His very deity!

    Jesus’ Glorious Answer

    Even before Mosheh (Moses)

    Returning to Scripture as these rabbis would well know as background:

    וַיִּשְׁכֹּ֤ן כְּבֹוד־יְהוָה֙ עַל־הַ֣ר סִינַ֔י וַיְכַסֵּ֥הוּ הֶעָנָ֖ן שֵׁ֣שֶׁת יָמִ֑ים וַיִּקְרָ֧א אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֛ה בַּיֹּ֥ום הַשְּׁבִיעִ֖י מִתֹּ֥וךְ הֶעָנָֽן׃

    The glory of the LORD rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; and on the seventh day He called to Moses from the midst of the cloud.

    Exodus 24:16 WLC; NASB

    The context of the hearers, fellow Jews like Jesus, connects their question to Jesus’ answer. (You must know scripture (Old Testament) as they knew scripture. The Torah of Moses includes the Lord’s promise to Abraham’s descendants.

    And to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the mountain top. Moses entered the midst of the cloud as he went up to the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

    Exodus 24:17-18 NASB

    Their Hebrew forefathers witnessed the glory of the LORD more than once.

    John 8:

    Now, returning to the Gospel, Jesus gives witness to a glory which preceded Moses who received the Law directly from the LORD.

    54 “If I glorify myself,” Jesus answered, “my glory is nothing. My Father—about whom you say, ‘He is our God’—he is the one who glorifies me. 55 You do not know him, but I know him…”

    And now the Son of Man, who must say only truth, does so even though the depth of Jesus’ words do not immediately sink in.

    “… If I were to say I don’t know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I keep his word…”

    Jesus the Son knows the Father unlike ANY son of man, even the Prophets, any of the fathers of Israel or Moses.

    “… Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.”

    The Messiah Jesus to Rabbis of Judah – John 8:56 CSB

    Think of the context of Jesus’ witness of Abraham in the timeline of centuries before the Son of God – the Word – coming to a manger in Bethlehem of Judea.

    57 The Jews replied, “You aren’t fifty years old yet, and you’ve seen Abraham?”

    Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.”

    Witness of the Messiah – John 8:58 CSB

    “before Abraham was, I am

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

    Other places in the Gospel add explanation to this.

    Why did religious officials determined to kill this man claiming to be God not successfully seize the Lord Jesus and stone Him to death?

    For his time had not come.

    • So then they tried to seize Jesus, but no one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come. – John 7:20 NET
    • (Jesus spoke these words near the offering box while he was teaching in the temple courts. No one seized him because his time had not yet come.) – John 8:20 – a small detail of the Gospel we have just read

    When, then, would the time for Sacrifice of the Messiah for sin occur?

    Do you see the significance of the substitution of the acceptable sacrifice to the Father?

    For the LORD provided a sacrifice in the place of Isaac for Abraham, an early sign of what must take place to fulfill God’s plan of redemption of sinful man.

    No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

    I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

    John 6:44,51 KJV
    NEXT: More Signs