Then Jesus said to them again, “I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come.” So the Jews said, “Will He kill Himself, because He says, ‘Where I go you cannot come’?” (John 8:21-22)
In the next few lessons, we will discover exactly what the Pharisees and Jews in Jesus hometown of Galilee really thought about Him. The implication in the above statement, "Will He kill Himself" goes back to them accusing Him of being from Satan. (Matthew 12:22-30; Mark 3:20-27; Luke 11:14-23) Basically their saying if He's going somewhere they can't go, He must be going to kill Himself and spend eternity in hell with Satan, because that's the only place He could go where they cannot come. How arrogant and self-righteous of them. Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him. (Proverbs 26:12)
And He said to them, “You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” Then they said to Him, “Who are You?” And Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning. I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I heard from Him.” They did not understand that He spoke to them of the Father. (John 8:23-27)
Jesus says I am He and He who sent Me is true. They respond with, “Who are You?” This argument is getting to the point of ridiculous, but don't we have the same problem today? We go over and over again what God clearly states in His Word, trying to disprove what has been proven. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. (Hebrews 5:12-14) Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, ... (Hebrews 6:1)
Then 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 of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things. And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him.” (John 8;28-29) Jesus' use of the phrase lift up would have significant meaning to the Pharisees and Jews. Remember when Nicodemus, a Pharisee came to speak with Him privately, Jesus told him, And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. (John 3:14-17)
The children of Israel were attacked by serpents because ...the people spoke against God and against Moses... (Numbers 21:5) and many of them died. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. (Numbers 21:8-9) That experience was ...a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things,... (Hebrews 10:1) Just as the children of Israel were saved from the serpents bites when they looked to the serpent on the pole, we now are saved from the Serpent's bite of sin, when we look to the Savior on the cross, Christ Jesus.
As He spoke these words, many believed in Him. Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:30-32) There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. (Romans 8:1-2, 11) AMEN
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