Separated By Sin
John 8:21-30

INTRODUCTION: Good morning church. In the last lesson we saw Jesus has proclaimed Himself to be the light of the world. It is the second I Am statement that is recorded in John's Gospel. Unfortunately, rather than the people recognizing Jesus to be the light that would give them life, guide their path to the Father, and restore the relationship, the people, particularly the Jewish leaders, are rejecting Jesus' testimony.

In John chapter 8, this really becomes a defining moment. They are missing out on the opportunity to no longer walk in darkness, to be led by the light, and to possess the light of life. They could come to Him and receive Jesus as their all-satisfying God, the bread of life in whom they would find their joy and satisfaction, but instead they refuse to do that. We pick up in John chapter 8, as Jesus continues to teach the people why they are not receptive, why they are not going to be in relationship with the Father, and what Christ has come to do.

I. Dying In Sins – That's the scene we look at in chapter 8. Our text today is John 8:21-30. “21. So he said to them again, “I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.”
22. So the Jews said, “Will he kill himself, since he says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” 23. He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24. I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”

25. So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. 26. I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” 27. They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father.

28. So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. 29. And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” 30. As he was saying these things, many believed in him.”

A. Let's start with verses 21 to 24, where Jesus is pretty blunt. He has been teaching the religious leaders in Jerusalem for quite a while. We've seen this for a couple of chapters, communicating to them who He is, and what He is there to accomplish.

1. In verse 21 He says, I am going away. This is not the first time that He has said that. In chapter 7 in verse 33, He told them, I'm going back to the Father, and you can't come where I'm going.
2. This is not a new revelation, yet they indicate, we don't know what He's talking about. Jesus has been very clear, saying I'm going back to the Father.

a) I'm going back to the place where I came from, to the one who sent me, the Father. What is interesting is how Jesus words it this time. He says in verse 21, I'm going away. You will seek me, and you will die in your sin. That should be a fairly shocking statement.
b) I'm going away, and you are going to search for me. You are going to seek me, but you're going to die in your sin. Think about this very interesting premise; It is possible to seek Jesus and still die in your sin, that's what He says they're going to do.

3. That should be a powerful revelation to us, but it is certainly a theme that we have seen before in this Gospel, where John is showing that there are those who have basic belief, but not true saving faith. In John chapter 2, There were many who, “believed in Him”, but Jesus did not believe in them, for He knew what was in their heart. In chapter 3, Nicodemus, Teacher, we know that you've come from God, because nobody can do the things that you do unless you're from God. Jesus then says, unless you're born of water and spirit, you are by no means going to see the kingdom of God.
4. We are being shown that there are people seeking Jesus, yet they are going to die in their sins. That is eye-opening. It is possible to have belief, to be seeking Jesus, to seem to be following Him and still – die in our sins.

B. Then verse 21, “I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.” The reason why they cannot come is sin. Sin is the thing that prevents us from being able to go where Christ has gone, to go back to the heavenly realms, to be in the very presence of God, to be in relationship with Him.

1. Sin is the problem. Here Jesus is pointing that out severely to these religious leaders of the day, people who believe they are saved. These are the people who believe that they are in relationship with the Father.
2. These are followers of God, all these Jewish leaders, religious leaders, Pharisees, Sadducees, teachers of the law. He is facing them and saying, “You’re going to seek Me and die in your sin.” You're not going where I'm going. Heavy words.

C. Rather than consider what He means by that, notice what they do, “Will He kill Himself?” How can He say that He's going somewhere that we can't go? Remember, in John 7:34 Jesus said, “You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.” They wondered “…Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks…”

1. Here they wonder, is He going to kill Himself? Is that why we can't go? There is something subtle here. I have been told the Jews believed that if you killed yourself, you would send your soul to the darkest part of Hades a place where righteous people could not go.
2. In this spiritual frame they are thinking “We're the people of God and we're going to be with God. For us to not go where you're going means you're going in the other direction. What are you going to do? Are you going to kill yourself and put yourself in the deep recesses of hell?” That's what they're saying. We're the children of Abraham. We're the people of God. We're fine and we know where we’re going. They are saying we have a relationship with God, and you don't. You're going to the darkest recesses of Hades.

D. Jesus says in verse 23, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.” Jesus ignores their cynical question and turns the focus back to their spiritual blindness, explaining that they belong to the earthly realm ("from below") while He belongs to the heavenly realm ("from above"). We're on completely different planes. You are worldly. You are fleshly. You are not of God. You are not spiritual. You are not heavenly. You are none of those things. He reverses what they are thinking.
E. This is the FIRST reason why Jesus is telling them that they're not going to be able to follow Him, and will die in their sin. It is because they belong to the world. They do not belong to God. Their life, their heart, their actions reflect that they are from below, not from above, not spiritual, but earthly. Jesus says you can't be in a relationship with the Father because you are worldly and your heart is tied to this world.

1. Jesus is making this powerful distinction. If you belong to the Father, you do not belong to this world, if you belong to this world, you do not have a relationship with the Father. The reason you can't go with Me is you're of this world. Your focus is worldly.
2. Again, we have this reminder that we can have belief but that is not saving faith. It can look like we are followers of Christ, but if our heart is tied to this world, we are not followers of Him, and not truly His disciples. Instead, we belong to this world and Light does not mix with darkness. The distinction is very stark. We are called to be strangers, and we are told to live like foreigners while living on this earth in 1^st Peter 2:11.

F. We need to keep this warning in mind and seriously consider what consumes our time, our minds, and our desires. Answering these things helps us to identify where we reside. Stop and ask; What occupies my time? What is most valuable to me? What means the most to me? What consumes my mind? What do I focus on? What are my goals? When we identify things that prevent us from saying we are in a relationship with the Father and see we are tied to this world, then we need to pray for help to let go of worldly things.

1. Jesus is warning them they cannot follow Him to the Father because of their focus. Remember in John 6:26-27 the crowds were coming to Jesus because He had just fed the 5,000. Jesus warned them and taught them, you’re not coming to me because you love me. You're coming to me for the signs. You're coming to me for a meal, for what I do for you.
2. These leaders are not following God because they have this deep sense of devotion and love for God. They are just enjoying the things that God has given them. They sit back and say, “We’re the children of Abraham. We're the people of God.” We'll do whatever we want to do. They don't have a heart for God, are not seeking Him, pursuing Him, focusing on Him. They're focused on the world, their position and their worldly life. All the while claiming to be the people of God.

G. Think about us this morning. See the glorious privilege of being called the people of God. How could we dare turn our focus on worldly things? That is exactly what Israel did, and why Israel was stripped of that privilege. That is why prophets spoke of a time where there will be a true people who will follow God from the heart, those who will follow God because they love Him. It won't just be ritual and routine. It will come from deep faith within them. Those are the true people of God.

II. Verse 24 drives that point home even further. “I told you that you would die in your sins…” Why? “For unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.” This is the second reason. The first reason of why people can't go where Jesus is going, why they cannot be in relationship with the Father, is they are from below. They are worldly, earthly, not spiritual.

A. The SECOND reason is; You must believe that I am he. Jesus is saying you must believe that He is who He claims to be. So, what is He claiming to be with this statement? Many of the major translations render this as “I am he.” You will note though most place the word “he” in italic. The reason being, according to people who know Greek, is that this is an implied predicate. That's why all the major translations do not read “I am” but read “I am he” and that is what is intended in the language.

1. I suggest that is important for our understanding. First – is Jesus claiming to be deity? We can see that He has been trying to get them to see that all along but there is more here. He said, “I am the light of the world” and He is linking dying in sin to unbelief in Him.
2. Taking this context into account you will recall we referred to Isaiah and the section on the suffering servant, for example Isaiah 49:6 “I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” Let’s look in Isaiah again and consider the phrase “I am he”.

B. Isaiah 43:10-13, “10. “You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.
11. I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior.
12. I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and I am God.
13. Also henceforth I am he; there is none who can deliver from my hand; I work, and who can turn it back?””

1. Notice what the Lord is saying in Isaiah 43, He is the only Savior. There is no other deliverer. That's an important thing that He is teaching and fits so well. I am God and there is nobody else to deliver you. I am the one that you need and there is no other.
2. You must recognize I am the prophesied one. You must recognize that I am the only one who will come to save. You must recognize I am sent from God. You must recognize my deity. Isaiah is binding all those concepts together in that prophecy. That is an important message.
3. The first thing then is it is possible to seek Jesus and still die in our sins because of worldliness. The second thing is it is possible to seek Jesus and die in our sins because we do not fully believe that He is the Savior. We have not fully turned our lives over to him.

C. We need to ask ourselves this question. What do you believe, or who do you believe, is your functional Savior? There is an easy way to answer that. When things go wrong, when disaster strikes, when we do not understand what is going on, -- where do we turn? What do we think is our everything and if we don’t have it, we think our life is in ruin? That is, what we put our hope and trust in.

1. Will you believe that Jesus is the only Savior? He is all that you need. That there is nowhere else to turn. It is important that we see Him as the only thing that we need, and that will radically transform how we live our lives. It is then I begin to understand that I don't need the things in this world. All I need is God.
2. Don’t get me wrong, the blessings we receive are wonderful! But that is what they are, blessings. Reminds me of the song we sing, #204, “Jesus Is All The World To Me”. Those are just temporary blessings. Just give me Jesus. That's what Jesus is telling these Jewish leaders.

III. Who Do You Think You Are, Jesus? – In verse 25 “So they said to him, “Who are you?...” The Greek phrase, egō eimi, which we read as “I am [he]” can be (and often is) just a phrase of affirming you are the one identified. It is literally "I am he" but can be expressed as… "it is I" or "that's me". In John 9:9 for example the blind beggar who was healed says the exact same phrase and it is translated variously as “I am the one” or “I am he”.

A. Their response of, "Who are you?", might indicate that they have understood the saying in John 8:24 in that way. However, as in other places in this Gospel, they have misunderstood Jesus' meaning. In this case, I suspect it is because they have failed to detect the allusion to Isaiah. It is only later after Jesus makes it abundantly clear in John 8:58 that they grasp His intent and seek to stone him.

1. It seems unlikely to me that they are saying; “please tell us who you are. We're really confused about this.”
2. I suspect they are more likely saying; “WHO do you think you are? Who do you think you are to tell us how to live our lives? Who do you think you are to say we're going to die in our sins? We're the people of God. You can't tell us that. You can't tell us how to live our life.”
3. I say that because it is a common response. We have a very arrogant view of where we stand before the Creator to think that we have a say in the matter. We do not like to be told the way we have been living, the way we think things are – is wrong. People do not want to hear their view has errors. They do not like to be told there is only one way to the Father.

B. Continuing in verse 25, “… Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. 26. I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.”” Jesus has been telling them all along who He is. As the Son of God, He could justly expose, condemn, and pass judgment on their sins. However, His immediate mission is not to condemn the world, but to save it. In them unbelief was embodied and this must be exposed, for he that sent me is true. Jesus has been telling them that He came to do the Father’s will and the things I heard from him, these speak I unto the world.

1. We notice that by stating that He speaks these things "to the world," Jesus signals that His message and divine truth are meant for all people, extending far beyond the narrow questioning of the religious elite.
2. Verse 27, “They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father.” To us that seems very hard to believe. The phrase "they did not know" or "did not understand" points to a deeper, stubborn failure to grasp Jesus' divine identity. These people are still in darkness and are blinded by their sins and desires.

IV. Pleasing The Father – Verses 28-30. “28. So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. 29. And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” 30. As he was saying these things, many believed in him.”

A. You do not understand who I am or what I am doing. There will come a time when you understand who I am. You will understand that I do everything that is pleasing to the Father. That will be when I am lifted up. Anytime Jesus speaks of His glorification or being lifted up. He is speaking about the cross.

1. In John 3:14 He makes that parallel. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,” The same language is used here. ‘When I am lifted up’. Also in verse 28, we are told who is going to do it. Here is His prophecy. When YOU do it. “When you have lifted up the Son of Man.”
2. That will be the defining moment for the world to know that Jesus is the savior sent by the father, who has come to deliver the world. You will understand then. Then all will turn their eyes to Him and see Him as the savior. That is what the cross should do for us. I submit to you that is why we have the weekly memorial as a reminder to us of who Jesus is. That is the day of glorification, Jesus dies and rises from the dead. That is a powerful statement, and it defines and fully discloses who Jesus is.

B. Something else Jesus says here about Himself and no one else who has ever walked the earth could say these words. “I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” That is a staggering statement. This sets Jesus apart from everybody else who has ever lived. Everything that Jesus has ever done, is pleasing to the Father.
C. Let’s look again at the whole verse 29 “And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” That means “I have never been separated from the father. He has not left me alone.”

1. There is only one reason why we are ever separated from God, sin. Sin is the barrier and the thing that separates us from God. There is only one person who has never had to be separated from God. That is Jesus because He always does what is pleasing to the father. I suggest what Jesus says here is a tremendous example and life goal for us.
2. Jesus in this text is saying. I am the light of the world, and if you believe in Me, you do not have to die in your sins. You do not have to be separated from the father. He is the remedy for our separation. He makes us right before God through His death and resurrection.
3. What Jesus is saying is, you need to understand who I am and what I have accomplished for you. Without Christ you can mount up all your good moral deeds, your righteous acts, and you are no closer to God than anybody else. There is only one way to come to the Father, and it must be through the blood of Christ. Unless you believe that He is the savior you will die in your sins.
4. They stood on their merits. We are Israel, the people of God, children of Abraham. We are teachers of the law; we possess the oracles of God. Jesus says you are going to die in your sins. You need Him to save you.

CONCLUSION:
We have a choice. We can either live to please ourselves or we can live to please the Father. There is no third option.

In Romans Paul elaborated in chapter 3 that no flesh can be justified by the Law. In chapter 5 Paul shows the temporary nature of the Law and in chapter 6 he declared Christians were not under the Law at all but under Grace. In chapter 7 he demonstrated why no flesh could be justified by the Law.

Then in chapter 8 Paul breaks from reflections of man under the Law and says; “1. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4. in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

Whatever your need we invite you to come while we stand and while we sing.

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Reference: Brent Kercheville, James Burton Coffman