Herbie Newell: 00:00

Welcome to the defender Bible study, a weekly encouragement to equip the body of Christ through the study of scripture and prayer to manifest the gospel to orphans and vulnerable children around the world. This podcast is a ministry of us begins by being rooted in God's word.

David Wooten: 00:26

Good morning, everyone. Happy Monday. Hope you had a good Lord's day yesterday. So, I hope it's, warm where you are. We are freezing down here in Florida.

David Wooten: 00:36

We are barely gonna get up into the sixties today. So, my friend Chuck and Ken, who are hoping for a high of zero today, y'all can have that. Okay? So Blake is, taking the day off for presidency today so I'm gonna pinch it for him in our Bible study time in the gospel of John. So if you have a copy of God's word, please open it up, turn it on, and turn to, click, or swipe to chapter eight, John chapter eight.

David Wooten: 01:09

Let me give you a couple of hacks that I think will help you as a Bible study participant. One is, to be a participant and not a spectator. So grab your Bible, whether it's electronic or old school hard copy, follow along. I think you'll, you'll get more out of our Bible study times on Monday morning if you're following along in the scriptures. And so let me encourage you to do that.

David Wooten: 01:36

A second hack would be every once in a while as we're going through, the gospel of John or as you're maybe going through some other book of the Bible and your own personal devotions. I have found it helpful every once in a while just to to zoom out and to kinda recalibrate, where you are and, just take a minute and take in the the view and the vista. So I remember when my son and I hiked Mount Le Conte in Tennessee. Mount Le Conte is the second highest mountain in Tennessee. The top of Mount Le Conte is this phenomenal restaurant, and there's a lodge up there.

David Wooten: 02:17

So we hiked up, spent the night, ate at the restaurant, and then hiked back down the next day. There are no roads that go up to the top of Mount Le Conte. So the way the restaurant gets their food is it is packed in on the backs of llamas. I'm not making that up. Okay?

David Wooten: 02:34

So that's how the restaurant gets their food. So we would hike up there, we had dinner, we, spent the night, and we hiked back down. But it was a pretty rigorous hike, especially for an old guy like me. And so as we're going up, I mean, there are parts of the trail where I'm just it's so narrow. I'm focusing on just keeping one foot in front of the other.

David Wooten: 02:52

But then every once in a while, you'll come out to this clearing that has the most incredible view, and you just take it in and you enjoy the moment and you're like, oh, yeah. That's why, that's one of the reasons I'm hiking Mount Lacan is because I wanna be able to enjoy views like this. So it's easy week by week for us to keep our head down in the gospel of John and working through passage by passage and verse by verse. But every once in a while, I think we need to just zoom out and take in the vista of what's happening here. So let me take just a minute and do that before we jump into to John chapter eight.

David Wooten: 03:29

One of the key verses of John's gospel is in chapter 20 where he tells us the reason that he wrote this gospel. In John chapter 20 in verse 30, he says, now Jesus did many other things in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that by believing you might have life in his name. In the next chapter, he's gonna say, if if we were to record all the thing this is a whooping paraphrase. If we were to record all the things that Jesus did, the whole library of the world could not contain it. And so he this is not an encyclopedic biography of Jesus in John's gospel.

David Wooten: 04:13

They are carefully curated episodes and teachings because John has a purpose in mind. And his purpose, he says, these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God and that believing you might have life in his name. That's the whole reason. That's the key verse to the whole gospel of John. That you would know that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that knowing that you would believe on him salvifically.

David Wooten: 04:43

And so that's that's kinda the big picture. And so John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, uses some literary devices that help us to, help us get a handle on the truth that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, so that we might believe in his name. So one of those literary devices are he includes seven miracles that he calls signs. Signs are something that point the direction. Right?

David Wooten: 05:12

So these miracles point the direction to the fact that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God so that as you read through these seven miracles, these seven signs, you would believe, and have life in his name. So those we've already seen, some of those miracles. We saw, water turned into wine, the healing of the official's son, the healing of the paralytic is one of those signs. The feeding of the 5,000 is one of those seven signs, when Jesus walked on the water, when he healed the blind man, and when he raised Lazarus from the dead. Those are seven signs that John includes in his gospel.

David Wooten: 05:52

So as you're reading through that, every once in a while, you're gonna come upon this sign, this miracle. And it's gonna point you back to the fact that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, so that those who read this gospel would believe in him for salvation. There's another literary device that John uses as he's writing this gospel, and it's what I call the I am statements. So it's in John's gospel that that we've already seen Jesus say, I am the bread of life. In the passage we're gonna read today, he says, I am the light of the world.

David Wooten: 06:29

He's also gonna say, I am the door. I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the true vine.

David Wooten: 06:39

Then in our passage next week, just to give you a trailer and a teaser, he blows their minds because he says, in addition to all these I am statements, in the passage next week, he's gonna say, before Abraham was, I am. The reason that blew their mind is because I am was the Old Testament name of Yahweh that he gave, that he explained to Moses when Moses was at the burning bush and Moses said, who should I tell them when they say, hey, who sent you? Who should I say sent me? And he said, tell them I am sent you. And so when Jesus referred himself as I am, man, that lit their fuse.

David Wooten: 07:19

And they had it in for him and they were ready to go to battle over this man that was claiming to be the Christ, the son of God. And John is presenting this in his gospel. So I just wanted to zoom back for a minute and look at what John's trying to do in this whole gospel. He's trying to to help us to see that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God that believing we might have life in his name. He's doing that through these seven signs and through these seven I am statements, that we see.

David Wooten: 07:50

One of which, the second of which we see today in John chapter eight. So John chapter eight beginning in verse 12, and I'm gonna read through verse 30. Again, Jesus spoke to them saying, I'm the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. So the Pharisees said to him, you are bearing witness about yourself.

David Wooten: 08:16

Your testimony is not true. Jesus answered, even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I'm going. But you do not know where I came from or where I'm going. You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one.

David Wooten: 08:35

Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I am the Father who sent me. In your law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. I'm the one who bears witness about myself and the father who sent me bears witness about me. So they said to him, therefore, where is your father? And Jesus answered, you know neither me nor my father.

David Wooten: 09:00

If you knew me, you would know my father also. These words he spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple, but no one arrested him because his hour had not yet come. Verse 21, so he said to them again, I'm going away and you will seek me and you will die in your sin. Where I'm going, you cannot come. So the Jews said, will he kill himself?

David Wooten: 09:24

Since he says where I'm going, you cannot come. And he said to them, you are from below, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. I told you, you would die in your sins for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. So they said to him, who are you?

David Wooten: 09:45

And Jesus said to them, just what I've been telling you from the beginning. 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've heard from him. They did not understand that he'd been speaking to them about the father. So Jesus said to them, when you've lifted up the son of man, then you'll know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the father taught me. And he who sent me is with me.

David Wooten: 10:15

He's not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him. And as he was saying these things, many believed in him. So when you take a minute and zoom out, see why John is writing this, and then you zoom back into this passage, it all makes sense exactly what Jesus is saying. He's explaining who he is so that when they know who he is, they could believe in his name, and many did believe, verse 30 says. And so, the first thing I want you to see in this passage that we're looking at together today in John chapter eight is the claim of Jesus.

David Wooten: 10:49

Jesus is claiming to be God. When he says, I'm the light of the world, when he says, I come from the father, They knew what he was claiming. And so it's almost, I get in my mind the picture of a courtroom when I read certain passages in John's gospel. And different witnesses are called to the stand. We've already seen in John chapter five that John the Baptist was one of those witnesses.

David Wooten: 11:19

In John chapter five and verse 31, Jesus said, if I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. In In other words, Jewish law said, you couldn't just have one person testify. You had to have at least two witnesses that could would corroborate each other's testimony for it to stand up in court. For Jesus just to say stand up and say, I'm the Messiah, I'm the Son of God, they had to have two witnesses. And so he says in in chapter five verse 32, there's another who bears witness about me and I know that the testimony he bears about me is true.

David Wooten: 11:56

You sent to John, John the Baptist, and he has born witness to the truth. Not that the testimony I receive is from men, but I say these things so that you might be saved. And then he goes on to talk about the the testimony of John the Baptist and and saying that he was the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and and the son of God. So he had the the witness of John the Baptist, and then he lines up all of these other, witnesses in presenting his case to the Pharisees in in John's gospel. Now, you and I know that all that was needed for his identity to be validated was for him to say who he was.

David Wooten: 12:39

That's all we need. If Jesus said it, then it's true. Right? But these skeptics, these unbelievers, these Pharisees demanded a legal second witness. And so, he calls, John the Baptist as one of those witnesses.

David Wooten: 12:57

He goes on in that passage in chapter five and talks about the works that he's done. So in verse, 36, the testimony I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the father has given me to accomplish, the very works I'm doing, bear witness to me that the father has sent me. So the second witness, John, you may step down from the stand. The next witness are we're gonna call the miracles of Jesus.

David Wooten: 13:22

And the fact that, he is doing these miracles is a witness to his identity. You remember in John chapter three when Nicodemus said, teacher, we know that you are, we know Jesus, we know you're a teacher sent from God for nobody could do these things that you're doing unless they were sent from God. So the works that he was doing were also a witness on the witness stand that he is the Christ, the Son of the living God so that believing we might have life in his name. And so, let's go back to John chapter eight and in verse 13, the Pharisees say, you're bearing witness about yourself and your testimony is not true. I mean, you could say anything about yourself.

David Wooten: 14:05

I could say anything about myself. I could tell you today in this Lifeline Bible study that my true identity is I'm Batman. Okay? I could testify to you that I am Batman, but I could also say that I'm Julius Caesar. Right?

David Wooten: 14:20

I mean, just the fact that I say something doesn't necessarily make it true make it true. That's not the case with the Lord Jesus who cannot lie, but they're saying one witness, just you telling us that you're the light of the world, that you're the Messiah is not enough. We need corroborating witnesses even though he'd already called John the Baptist and even though he'd already called his miracles to the stand. And so, he says in verse 14, even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from, where I'm going. You don't know where I came from.

David Wooten: 14:53

You don't know where I'm going. And so he is telling folks that he is the eternal son of God. He came from heaven where he always existed. He's going back to heaven where he'll always exist. He is the eternal God.

David Wooten: 15:08

In verse 13, when he when they say you're bearing witness about yourself, that word witness in the Greek is Martareo. We get our word martyr from it. Jesus was in fact the first Christian martyr, wasn't he? Now Stephen was the first martyr of the church in the book of Acts, but Jesus was the first one who gave his life, lost his life for the cause of Christianity. So he was the first Christian martyr, and every unbeliever is an unbeliever because they reject the testimony of Jesus.

David Wooten: 15:43

And they're saying what you say about yourself is not true. I do not believe it. And so every unbeliever rejects Jesus' testimony about himself. So his claim is, I'm the light of the world. I'm the son of God.

David Wooten: 15:58

I am the Christ. And the basis of his claim is where he came from and where he's going. Verse 14. You don't I know where I came from and I know where I'm going. You don't know where I came from.

David Wooten: 16:09

You don't know where I'm going. And so the basis for his claim is that he is the eternal son of God. He came from heaven where he lived before. He was the incarnate son of man. And after his ascension, he will return to heaven.

David Wooten: 16:23

And in verse 15, he tells him, you judge according to the flesh. They saw him as Mary's boy. They saw him as Joseph's boy. They did not see him as the son of God. That's why in verse 19, they they're gonna say, where is your father?

David Wooten: 16:44

You know? And, and so they didn't understand that he was he was, or they kinda understood, and they were trying to trap him. Are you saying are you in fact saying that you are the son of God? We just know you as as Joe and Mary's boy. And so the basis of his claim was you're judging me according to the flesh, because you don't know where I came from and you don't know where I'm going.

David Wooten: 17:10

I don't judge by the flesh is what he says. When he says in verse 15, I judge no one. He means, what he's saying is I don't judge people according to the flesh. So when I look at somebody, I don't judge them by their pedigree, by their family tree, by their bank account. I don't judge them by their church membership, by their denominational affiliation, by the title on their business card, by the balance on their financial portfolio, by the neighborhood that you live in.

David Wooten: 17:43

I don't judge based on the flesh. You judge based on the flesh. But I came from heaven. I am going to heaven. And the way that I will judge is do you believe that I am the Christ, the son of the living God, and having believed, do you have life in my name?

David Wooten: 18:00

And so, he has two witnesses. He has himself set off, he has, in this passage, he has the father, look at verse 16, yet if I do judge, my judgment is true for it's not I who judge but I and the father who sent me. In your law, it's written that the testimony of two people is true. I'm the one who bears witness about myself and the father who sent me to witness about me. So I'm not his father Joseph, but the almighty God is his father.

David Wooten: 18:29

And then we have the witness of his father in verse 18. I'm the one who bears witness about myself and the father who sent me bears witness about me. Down in verse 27, they didn't understand he was speaking to them about the father. And so he said, when I am lifted up, then you'll know that I'm he and I do nothing of my own authority but speak just as the father taught me. In the other gospels, we've seen God give testimony.

David Wooten: 18:52

We saw at Jesus baptism that the heavens opened, the spirit descended like a dove on Jesus, and God the father spoke from heaven and said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Similar thing happened at the Mount Of Transfiguration where God's voice said, this is my son, listen to him. Nicodemus gave testimony in chapter three, we know that you're one sent from God. And so, he's called to the witness stand John the Baptist. He's called to the witness stand his miracles.

David Wooten: 19:27

He's called to the witness stand his own testimony. And he's called to the witness stand the testimony of his father. Well, at this point in the trial, it is time for cross examination. And so the Pharisees step up in verse 19 and they say, where is your father? Where is your father?

David Wooten: 19:49

And Jesus says, you don't know me. You don't know where I came from. You don't know where I'm going. And the truth is we cannot claim to know God if we don't know Jesus. And, we we cannot claim to know Jesus if we deny that he really know Jesus if if we deny that he and the father are one.

David Wooten: 20:14

Right? And so that's what Jesus is saying. He the original gospel. Signs point to that. The I am statements point to that.

David Wooten: 20:24

The witness of Jesus and the witness of the Father and the witness of the miracles and the witness of John the Baptist all point to that fact and then he says in verse, he says in or it says in verse 20, these words he spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple, but nobody arrested him yet because his hour had not yet come. We see that phrase several times in John's gospel. My hour has not yet come. My hour has not yet come. And then I think it's chapter 12 where he says the hour has come.

David Wooten: 20:54

And so, we'll get to that in a in a few weeks. In verse 24, we see this theme again of John's gospel. I told you that you would die in your sins for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. The fact is everybody's gonna die. Right?

David Wooten: 21:11

The latest statistic is that one out of every one people die. And so, you're either gonna die in faith, believing that he is the son of god and believing, having life in his name, or you're gonna die in your sins. And that's what he's saying in verse 21, you'll die in your sin. Where I'm going, you cannot come. In '24, you'll die in your sins unless you believe that I am he.

David Wooten: 21:40

Unless you believe I am he, you will die in your in your sins. Praise the Lord that that day, many people heard what he said and believed. Verse 30 says many believed in him that day. Praise the Lord that through the work of Lifeline and through the work that you do, many this year may come to faith in Christ because of your sharing the gospel with children, moms, and families, and others. So thank you for the work that you're doing to be another witness that comes to the witness stand, to declare that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, so that believing, they might have life in his name.

David Wooten: 22:22

I've been on the planet long enough to know that even in a nonprofit ministry like Lifeline, it is possible for there to be somebody on our staff that doesn't truly know the Lord. And Satan would just as soon send somebody to hell from a nonprofit Christian ministry than he would from the gutter. And so my exhortation to you today is to examine your own heart. Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God? And have you believed savingly, that is have you put your faith and trust in what he has done in living a sinless life and dying a substitutionary death for your sin?

David Wooten: 23:04

Have you put your faith in that so that your sins are forgiven, you've been made a child of God, and then one day when you die, you'll have a home in heaven? And so it's important for us to examine our own heart when we come to a passage like this. It's important to realize that the work we do is carrying on the gospel of John in helping people to see Jesus as the Christ, the son of God, and calling them to faith in Christ, calling them to come to Jesus so that believing they might have life in his

Herbie Newell: 23:36

name. Thanks again for joining us for the Defender Bible Study. If you enjoy making this podcast a part of your weekly routine, we'd love for you to take a moment to subscribe, rate, and review the Defender Bible study to make it easier for more people to find. For more resources and information on how you and your church can partner with Lifeline, please visit us at lifeline child dot org. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter by searching for Lifeline Child.

Herbie Newell: 24:01

You can email us directly at info@lifelinechild.org. We look forward to seeing you again next week for the Defender Bible Study.