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Transcript
1401-19P 1 TWO FATHERS (John 8:39-47) SUBJECT: F.C.F: PROPOSITION: I. WE MUST BE ABOUT LOVE. A. I know it sounds so simple, and who could disagree? If the two great commandment are “love God and neighbor,” if the first-fruit the Spirit INTRODUCTION: produces is love, then clearly we must be about love. A. Have you heard the saying, “The apple And this is affirmed by our Lord. “42 Jesus said to doesn’t fall far from the tree”? This is not an them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, agricultural observation. Rather, it’s referring to the for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my similarity between children and their parents—like own accord, but he sent me.” father, like son. And most commonly it points not to So the chief evidence of the new birth, of our a physical similarity, but a moral similarity, and that having God as our Father, is that we love his Son. usually in the negative sense. The statement implies And that is not merely to feel affection for his Son, that the moral or character defects in children can but also to believe in him, which includes submitting often be traced back to their parents. to him and obeying him. And this highlights a distinction made in our B. I find this to be one of the particular text. The people insist that they are the descendants pleasures of being a Christian. Though we experience of Abraham, and so therefore Abraham is their father, the full range of affections, yet we are called to love and, by extension, God is their Father. In verse 38, supremely. Yes, we are to hate evil and injustice. Jesus has implied that God is his Father for whom he Yes, we often grieve and mourn the brokenness in the speaks, but that they have another “father,” whom world, and especially the way it hurts and affects they follow to a different end. others negatively. Yes, we are to be upset when those B. Here we have the explanation of something who profess to know Christ live in ways that deny it. we found at the beginning of our study in the But the bottom line is love: love for Christ because prologue in John 1: “11 He came to his own, and his we know his Father and his Father’s love for him, own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who and love for neighbor, because we know of God’s did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave mercy for sinners in distress. We must hate the sin, the right to become children of God, 13 who were but we must even more love the sinner. born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of C. Even in times when we must engage in the the will of man, but of God.” One’s natural descent is “tough love” of discipline, that discipline is an not what matters; rather, one’s moral or spiritual exercise of love. We need to be clear in the descent. distinction between disciplining or chastening and Now since Jesus is addressing those who are punishment. Punishment is interested in exacting not morally or spiritually descendants of Abraham or justice. A rule has been violated, a law has been of God, the entire discourse is in the negative. They broken, and the situation must be rectified, made reflect the character of their father, the devil. But right. A judge need not love an offender—the since the opposite is true, we can turn this around and offender’s best interest is not the chief concern when point out the characteristics of the true sons and it comes to punishment. The judge cares only about daughters of God. And these will be common themes justice: punishment is penal, it inflicts an appropriate from John, common to us, but worth exploring. penalty, and once the fine is paid or the sentence is C. It may not be the case naturally speaking served or restitution is made, then justice is restored. that the apple falls not far from the tree, and we have Period. all known examples of that. But it certainly is the That’s why I would always urge parents to case morally and spiritually speaking. If we know dispense with the language of punishment when it God, if we are born of him, if we are sons and comes to their children. The parent’s chief concern is daughters of our heavenly Father, we will do the not that justice be served, but that the wellbeing of works of our true Father. the child be ensured. When a child breaks a rule or hurts a sibling, it is out of love for the child (and the sibling) that the parent inflicts a corrective, painful discipline. It is to train the child to know what is right ____________________________________________________________________________________________ 1401-19P and to walk in righteousness. But what happens all too often is that the parent becomes angry and acts out of that anger, to make the child pay, and can do so because the parent is bigger and stronger. And, unfortunately, the church often behaves the same way. We become angry because of some wrongdoing in the church, and rather than acting out of love, we re-act out of that anger, and nothing good comes of it. In fact, James warns that anything that is accomplished out of anger is not from God and will not truly last: “the anger of man does not produce the righteousness that God requires.” (1:20) Or Christians may become concerned about the breakdown of society or the loss of a so-called “Christian nation.” And out of anger, we may protest or boycott or condemn instead of lovingly, patiently winning peoples’ hearts through the gospel, and we have accomplished nothing. For a long time I followed the work of the Focus on the Family institution. I recall at one point the head apologizing for talking about politics so much, but he said that survey after survey (and contribution after contribution) revealed that that’s what the audience cared about most. And several years later, around the time of his retirement, I recall James Dobson lamenting that all of their efforts to try to restore a “Christian” nation or go back to biblical morality, for all of the millions spent, seemingly had no effect. D. The bottom line is that we must be about love. Yes, love must be tough. Yes, love must tell the truth and confront. But love must be motivated in the best interest of our target. Again, I find it liberating to know that whenever I must get tough or confront, I am required to do so only out of love, with a clear conscience, and if I am prompted by mere anger or annoyance, I must step back until those evil motives have been overcome first. 2 father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning….” B. Who is the greatest killer in history? People jokingly point to Cain: by slaying his brother, Abel, he killed a quarter of the world’s population. But who comes to mind? Hitler? No, he gassed only six million Jews. Pol Pot in the killing fields of Cambodia? No, he only killed two million (only!). Stalin starved 20 million of his own excess population. But the worst of all was Chairman Mau in China—about 70 million. Notice that Marxism, the philosophy that is supposed to be the champion of the common person is responsible for murdering more people than any other worldview. (Although we must remember that America has ended the lives of some 50 million inconvenient, unborn children through abortion.) But biblically speaking, the first man, through his disobedience, Adam, brought death into the world, effectively killing all of his descendants. And the devil is the one who deceived him into doing it. This most likely what Jesus was referring to when he noted that the devil was “a murderer from the beginning.” And so, in their desire to kill Jesus, they are proving themselves to be, not the offspring of Abraham, nor of the Lord God, but of their “father,” the devil. C. And we must be about life. You can see the close connection between love and life. The angry impulse so quickly degenerates into hatred, and hatred is the root of the death desire. Our Lord Jesus noted in the Sermon on the Mount: “21 You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”And the next thing Jesus talks II. SECONDLY, AND I HARDLY NEED TO about in that context is going to be reconciled with SAY IT, WE MUST BE ABOUT LIFE. your brother. If you allow that unjust anger and A. Satan’s way is the way of death. God’s hatred to fester, you are operating in the realm of the way is the way of life. Listen to how our Lord Jesus one whose way is murder, who was a murderer from describes their father, and the effect their father has the beginning. on them. “39 They answered him, “Abraham is our C. That’s why we take the call of Christ to be father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s peacemakers with utmost sincerity. Jesus said, children, you would be doing what Abraham did, 40 “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the children of God.” You see the connection. The the truth that I heard from God. This is not what children of the devil love to foment bitterness and Abraham did.” And verse 44: “44 You are of your anger, conflict and hatred. The children of God love ____________________________________________________________________________________________ 1401-19P to bring peace and reconciliation to others. We must be about life. III. AND WE MUST BE ABOUT LIGHT. 3 rational reasons. He notes Karl Marx’s famous indictment that “religion is the opium of the people.” People turn to religion for the same reason that addicts turn to drugs, to escape a painful reality. He quotes a French Atheist Michael Onfray, “God is a fiction invented by men so as not to confront the reality of their condition.” (266) But if atheists can allege inferior motives for Christian belief, what about the atheists themselves? Is there any hidden benefit to unbelief? Are there ulterior motives for rejecting God’s existence and claims over us? You’d better believe there are! D’Sousa writes: A. The devil’s way is the way of lying and deception, darkness, ignorance, and error. “43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. 44 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 has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. 46 Some atheists even acknowledge that they Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the would prefer a universe in which there were no truth, why do you not believe me? 47 Whoever is of God, no immortal soul, and no afterlife….On God hears the words of God. The reason why you do the possibility of life after death, [atheist] H.L. not hear them is that you are not of God.” Mencken wrote, ‘My private inclination is to Their error about Jesus is culpable, not hope that it is not so.’ In God: The Failed excusable. They do “know better.” It is not simply a Hypothesis, physicist Victor Stenger confesses mistake. They have a vested interest in the outcome. that not only does he disbelieve in God, he They sense how costly it would be to them to side doesn’t like the Christian God: ‘If he does with Jesus and surrender to him, and so we see as we exist, I personally want nothing to do with have often in John’s Gospel, this convenient kind of him.’ And philosopher Thomas Nagel recently ignorance. “43 Why do you not understand what I confessed to a ‘fear of religion itself.’ As he put say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word.” it, ‘I want atheism to be true….It isn’t just that They have chosen not to understand him. I don’t believe in God….I don’t want there to B. Listen to the pure logic of our Lord’s be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like reasoning with them: “45 But because I tell the truth, that.’ (267) you do not believe me.” His truth is so inconvenient, and they are so devoted to deception, that they will But why? The atheist’s universe is a terribly not believe. So he challenges them: “46 Which one of dull and dismal place. We exist for no purpose, we you convicts me of sin?” “Prove me wrong!” But have no future, and there is no justice—none of the they cannot. And if they cannot refute him, then the wrongs of this life will ever be righted in the next implication is that he is telling the truth. “If I tell the life, because there is no next life. Why would anyone truth, why do you not believe me?” Theirs is not a hope that something so abysmal is true? mental problem but a moral problem. The fact is that many atheists find all of this When someone is highly resistant to the faith, to be quite liberating. In what way? D’Souza quotes we need to remember that it is often because they do the noted atheist, Aldous Huxley: not really want to believe. They may know the truth full well, but they also sense the price that embracing I had motives for not wanting the world to have that truth will entail, giving up self: and they are meaning; consequently I assumed that it had unwilling to pay it. none, and was able without any difficulty to In his book, What’s So Great About find satisfying reasons for this Christianity (Tyndale House, 2008), Dinesh D’Souza assumption….For myself, as no doubt for most takes up the question of why atheism, the belief that of my contemporaries, the philosophy of there is no God, is so attractive. He notes that many meaninglessness was essentially an instrument modern atheists attack Christianity by alleging that of liberation. The liberation we desired Christians believe for purely psychological and not was…liberation from a certain system of ____________________________________________________________________________________________ 1401-19P morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom. (270) After citing several other examples, D’Souza charges: “It is chiefly because of sex that most contemporary atheists have chosen to break with Christianity. ‘The worst feature of the Christian religion,’ Bertrand Russell wrote in Why I Am Not a Christian, ‘is its attitude toward sex.’ [Atheist Christopher] Hitchens writes that ‘the divorce between the sexual life and fear…can now at last be attempted on the sole condition that we banish all religions from the discourse.’ When an atheist gives elaborate justification for why God does not exist and why traditional morality is an illusion, he is very likely thinking of his sex organs. It may well be that if it weren’t for that single commandment against adultery, Western man would still be Christian!” (273) In other words, “We wanted sexual freedom. We thought that would make us happy. But God and his law stood in the way. So we reasoned God out of existence.” Or, as the Apostle Paul declared long ago: “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.” (Romans 1:21-22) 4 39 They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing what Abraham did, 40 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. 41 You are doing what your father did.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.” 42 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. 43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. 44 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 has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. 46 Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? 47 Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.” Beloved, I urge you to know that the truth is on our side. We have nothing to hide. There are no secrets we must withhold, and there are no skeletons in our closets, no dirty laundry. The devil’s way is the way of deception, ours is the way of light. We have nothing to fear from the truth. CONCLUSION Ours is the way of love, and life, and of light. That’s probably not news to you, but it is good news to all of us! What a wonderful hope and life we have received in Christ! ____________________________________________________________________________________________