Who's Your Daddy

WHO’S YOUR DADDY?
John 8:36-59

The conversation between Jesus and the Jews is a little like reading a description of a ping pong match. You can imagine the heads of the people going back and forth as they watched this conversation unfold and become more and more heated with each blow from Jesus’ being rebounded by slander and scornful accusations from the Jews. The first blow from Jesus in our text is to accuse them of seeking to kill him. The reason is that his Word has no place in them. Jesus’ word is truth and truth liberates, but in order for a person to be liberated they need to admit that they’re in bondage which is precisely what these Jews refused to do.

Jesus offers and explanation for their refusal to hear the truth: it has to do with origins. Jesus, as well as his words and actions, originate with the Father: “I speak what I have seen with the Father” he says in v. 38. On the other hand, the actions of those Jews and their ability to apprehend the words of Jesus have to do with who their father is.

First they claim that Abraham is their father. “Hey, we’re sons of Abraham we weren’t born in bondage, we’re heirs of the promise and sons of the covenant. We do the works of faith, just like our Father Abraham” is what they are claiming. But the adage, “Like father like son” does not apply according to Jesus. “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham.” “You would be like him and have his faith.” Abraham paid homage to Melchizedek and one greater then Melchizedek stands before these Jews in the temple. Abraham knew that God would provide the sacrifice and now that sacrifice stands in the place of sacrifice and those Jews reject it. Abraham believed God, but those Jews slander his son.

King Solomon once lamented,
18 Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after me. 19 And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I toiled and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity. (Ecc 2:18-19).

Do you ever look at a man who is late in his life still labouring and chasing after wealth that he would never be able to spend even if he lived to be 200 and wonder why? What good is all the wealth in the world if you can’t take it with you? And look at these rich men who’ve worked hard all their lives to accumulate wealth and yet to raise children like Paris Hilton. Would you want to leave your hard earned wealth to her?

That’s what it was like with these so-called sons of Abraham claiming to be his heirs. But did Abraham do anything to earn the promise which those so-called heirs were claiming to be rightfully theirs? I was recently at a pastors’ prayer meeting where a church leader turned to me and told me that God can’t do anything in this world without man’s permission! I just about fell off my chair. I could see statement like that coming from someone who was new to the faith, but anyone who knows just a little about the lives of the great saints knows that God accomplished his purpose in spite of them.

God chose David: before David even knew he would amount to anything more then a shepherd God had planned to bring about through his seed the lineage of Jesus. Look at how uncooperative David was: multiple wives, and adulterous affair. And his sons weren’t any better: idolaters, multiple concubines, persecutors of the prophets and selling out to pagan kings. Their rebellion eventually caused them to become slaves to Babylon. It was the reason that Israel was still in servitude to a pagan king in the days of Jesus. Yet God accomplished his plan to bring about the incarnation of David’s greater son.

Another example of God accomplishing his will in spite of man is Abraham. God did not need Abraham’s permission, much less the initiative of Abraham in order to accomplish his plan to create a nation in which he would redeem people from many nations. God called Abraham out Ur of the Chaldeans presumably when Abraham was surrounded by and likely practicing pagan worship. We don’t see Abraham reaching out for God, but God first reaching out for Abraham and immediately God tells him his plan; Look at how God introduces Himself to Abraham,
Now the Lord had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country, From your family
And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.
2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you
And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Gen 12:1-3

Notice God doesn’t ask for permission? And not only that, but God makes a pretty definite claim, “I will make you a great nation… and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” And indeed we have been because the gospel has come to us through Abraham’s descendants and as a result of his seed. But did Abraham do anything to cooperate? Let me see: he went to Egypt when he wasn’t supposed to and there he pretended Sarah wasn’t his wife. He did it a second time with a Canaanite king.

The one time Abraham did try to help God accomplish his plan, it failed disastrously. Remember Hagar? Her sons have been a thorn in the flesh of Israel ever since. But God still accomplished his plan. It was the Ishmaelites who delivered Abraham’s grandson Joseph into slavery in Egypt. Remember what Joseph said to his brothers when they found him years later running the nation of Egypt: “It was not you who sent me here, but God…” (Gen 45:8) and later he said, “you meant for evil, but God meant it for good… to preserve many people alive” (50:20).

In fact, when you read the history of Israel from Genesis to Malachi, with a few notable exceptions, it has been marked by rebellion, covenant breaking, idolatry and a preference to return to bondage. “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son” (Gal 4:4). “But wait a minute”, someone might say, “the Bible says ‘Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness.’ In other words, Abraham first had to believe God in order for God to do His will.”

Well, let me say two things to that, first, God no more needs our faith to accomplish his will then did he need the faith or Pharaoh, or Balaam’s ass to accomplish his will. And second, Abraham’s faith did not originate with himself- the Bible calls it a gift! Ephesians 2:8, “ for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God…”
That should not be a difficult concept for those of you who consider yourselves Charismatics because Charisma means grace gift or grace given. What greater gift can be given then the grace gift of faith and since every perfect gift comes from God who is spirit, then saving faith must be a spiritual gift and a grace gift, a charisma! And 1 Corinthians 12:11 tells us that God sovereignly distributes His gifts according to His will (“One and the same Spirit works all these things… just as He wills.”).

So those Jews back in John chapter 8 mistakenly claim to be children of God because of their pedigree- it was their birthright. Doesn’t this illustrate what was said back in chapter 1:12,13
…as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Jesus tells them in v. 39, “If you were Abraham’s children you would do the works of Abraham.” We have already seen that the only work of Abraham that mattered was the work of faith and that was a gift. Galatians says
10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse… for “the just shall live by faith.”… 13Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us… 14that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith (Gal 3:10-14).

So the point is that becoming a child of God does not occur by birthright, it’s a matter of receiving Jesus by faith. “there is neither Jew nor Greek… you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants (Gal 3:28-29).

So what are the true origins of those who refuse to accept Jesus’ words? This is going to get me in trouble with somebody and if it was my own opinion you would have every right to be mad at me; but according to the gospel, it’s Jesus’ words and he only says what he hears from his father. If this makes you angry, you are angry at Jesus and that means you are also in the same bondage as these Jews, unwilling to receive his word and be free. Jesus says their origin is not Abraham, nor is it God the Father, “If God were your Father” Jesus says in v. 42, “you would love me…”

The reason he says they don’t understand is because their father is the devil. He’s a liar and the father of lies and anyone who rejects the truth does it because they love the works of the father of lies more.
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 (44).

Conclusion
Let me conclude here by asking you a simple question: Who’s your daddy? Do you claim to be a child of God and yet his word has no place in you? That’s a lie and it comes from the father of lies. You’re in bondage if you believe that. If you are a child of God then you have believed his Word about your enslavement to sin and repented of that sin placing your hope in what Jesus has done at the cross. If you want to become a child of God, make room for his word.