Sermon Series Blog: The Truth Hurts Pt.4

The Truth Hurts: Who’s Your Daddy?

John 8:37-47

 I recently came across a story of a young woman who told of how her mother, shortly after marrying her father, was brutally attacked and sexually assaulted. It was, of course, devastating to the young couple, but when they found out that the woman was pregnant as a result of the rape, it was almost too much to bear.

 The young woman’s deep Chrisitan faith and conviction that the child did nothing wrong motivated her to move forward with the pregnancy and nine months later, she gave birth to a baby girl.

 After 12 years growing up in her idyllic Christian family, the girl’s parents felt the need to share the circumstances of her birth to avoid her hearing rumours from second hand sources.

 The news devastated the young girl, and threw her into an emotional tailspin. Over the next many years, she spun out of control and into a lifestyle of drugs and promiscuity.

 Thankfully, as a young woman, she recovered and returned to the Lord. But the thing that strikes me most about this story is how this young 12-year-old was so emotionally jolted by the fact that the man who had raised her was not her biological father.

 She was left wondering, “Who’s my daddy?”

 In the 8th chapter of John, Jesus and some Jewish religious leaders had a debate that surrounded the same question, as the religious leaders based their claims on their ethnic and religious heritage. Jesus counteracted by pointing out the hypocrisy of their claims and that their real problem is that they did not accept and listen to him.

 The Jewish Leaders Believed They were of the Right Race

 As the descendants of Abraham and God’s chosen people, they believed that Israel was the group of people that were acceptable to God, and all others were more or less “undesirable.” They failed to realize that God chose the Jewish nation in order to be a blessing to the world and a light to the nations.

 Jesus counteracted their attitude by saying that he had a different Father than they did.

 John 8:37-47

“I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. 38 I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”

 The Jewish Leaders Believed They were in the Right Religious Group

 As orthodox Jews who saw Abraham as their spiritual father, they believed that following the right practices and religious traditions made them acceptable to God.

 This is a common idea, even today. You might be comfortable with the idea that God will accept you into heaven because your mom is a Christian or your grandfather was a deacon in the church. You’ll get to heaven because you’re part of a Christian family.

 Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that. Jesus once told one of these Jewish leaders that it’s a personal relationship with God that has nothing to do with anyone in your family.

 John 3:6-7

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’”

 Ultimately, God wants YOU to know HIM … and have a personal relationship with Him.

 Jesus made it clear to these religious leaders in John 8 that they weren’t living their lives like Abraham did. They were actually more like their other father, the devil. Their actions and behaviour were a dead giveaway.

 We can’t just say, “Yes, I follow Jesus” and then turn around and lie and cheat and hate people and be filled with resentment toward them. How is THAT following Jesus? If God is our Father, then our actions should reflect that.

Ultimately, the Jewish Leaders Rejected Jesus

 John 8:41

They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father — even God.” 

 These religious leaders respond with an underhanded slam against Jesus, suggesting that his mother, Mary, was sexually immoral and had sex prior to her marriage to her husband Joseph. And it came out in this ugly, underhanded way as it revealed the other thing that these Jewish leaders believed … “The only father we have is God himself” – “We don’t have immoral roots (like you)”

 This was their ultimate sin … to deny Jesus – His virgin birth, his authority, and who He is as the Son of God.

What do you believe about your spiritual heritage?  But more importantly … what do you believe about Jesus?