The Acid Test of A True Christ Follower
July 24, 2022
What is truth? 20 years ago, anyone of us could answer that question easily. Truth is what is real. Truth is a verifiable fact. It doesn’t change. The sun rises every day is truth. That’s a verifiable fact. It is real. There’s never not been a day when the sun didn’t rise. We need water to survive. That’s a verifiable fact. That’s truth. But we live in a day where truth is under attack – a day where your personal truth trumps any other kind of truth: “my personal truth is the only truth that matters” is the spirit of the age. “What you believe is good for you, what I believe is good for me.” We live in a day when you can choose your own truth – you can choose whatever you want to believe to be true. For example, over the last few years our culture has embraced a new truth that says, you can choose your own gender. It doesn’t matter that for centuries science has given us a definition of a woman as an adult female human and has verified this truth by the fact that every woman has two x chromosomes that have been passed down by her parents. We all learned this truth in middle school health class. But now what was once true is no longer true because someone decided that you can create your own truth.
We also now live in the age of fake news. It used to be that the media would verify their facts before reporting a story. We would get objective reporting that we could trust as factual – as truth. But that’s not true anymore. Now, the media makes up stories and circulates them as factual in order to promote their political biases or to slander those they don’t agree with. It’s hard to know what’s really true anymore. In fact, one of my favorite quotes that speaks of this new reality comes from Sir Winston Churchill who years ago said, “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” In fact, in our internet age, with 24 -7 broadcast news, and the advent of social media – we are drowning in a sea of thousands of opinions, fabricated stories, where even the fact checkers don’t agree on what is true.
In fact, there’s never been a time when discerning truth is as desperately needed as it is today. And there’s never been a time when those of us who claim to know the truth, need to understand and embrace our role as people of truth. For in a world where “what is true” changes daily, we have the opportunity to show the world that there really is another way to live – the way of truth. So, if you really want to embrace your place in this world as a person of truth and learn how to live by the truth, then let me encourage you to open your Bible to John 8:31-47, where Jesus gives us the acid test for what it means to be a true follower of Him. But first, let’s read verses 31 and 32 and set the context for His teaching for us today: To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32
If you were with us last week, you know that today’s encounter with the Jews is a continuation of Jesus’ teaching in the temple court where the four golden candelabras were lit every night for the Feast of Tabernacles. Last week, in the now darkened court of the women, Jesus declared He was the light of the world. He declared that He was the pillar of fire that led Israel through the wilderness. He declared that He was the very presence of God with His people to guide them and save them. And He declared at that time that, Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” John 8:12 So Jesus was not only claiming to be the presence of God with them, but that He was God their Savior, who would guide them out of their present darkness. And as we saw, that even though the religious leaders amped up their opposition of Jesus with His declaration, there were many who at that time out their faith in Jesus – they believed Jesus was the light of the world.
But Jesus also knew that many who chose to believe in Him at this time did not have a genuine faith. Sure, they wanted what Jesus offered. But they didn’t fully understand what it meant to align themselves by faith with Jesus. They were much like many in our world today. They believed in Jesus because for what they could get from him. But they really had no idea what following Jesus by faith was all about. But was their faith really genuine? Was their faith more than just wishful longing? So, Jesus, knowing that their faith could be fickle now reveals for them, and for us, the acid test of a true follower. That a true follower, one who has a genuine faith in Jesus will be characterized by these three realities. The first of which is this:
A True Follower Holds to the Truth: “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.” Jesus is straightforward here. If you claim to be a follower of Jesus, you will follow His teachings. That is, you will hold to his teachings. His word will abide in you, remain in you, and continue in you as the foundational core of your life. His teachings will become food for your soul, guidance for your paths, wisdom for your decisions, and will be the truth by which you will navigate this life. His truth will become everything for you. In other words, what Jesus is saying here is that The acid test of true follower is their commitment to continue in, abide in and persevere in His teachings.
So, the problem Jesus is addressing here is that these would be disciples weren’t doing that. They couldn’t be genuine disciples, because as Jesus points out in verse 37, they had no place for His word in their lives. They refused to listen to His teaching, submit to his teaching or trust in His Word. And the reason they had no place for His word, is that they couldn’t even bear to hear His word. Listen to how Jesus put this in verse 43. He says, “Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word.” They did not hold to his teaching, because they could even stomach to listen to His teaching. They couldn’t bear to hear it, because it didn’t line up with what the religious teachers had been teaching them. They didn’t like His content. They were like a lot of would-be followers today, who only pick and choose what they want to hear from Jesus. But true followers of Jesus don’t pick and choose what teachings they’re going to believe, or what teachings they will obey. True followers will embrace all of God’s Word, even the hard teachings, not just some of it.
In fact, let me give you a picture of what it means to hold to all of Christ’s teachings. The opposite of holding to his teaching is that His words find “no place” in us. This expression is found only two other times in John’s Gospel. The first is in chapter 2, verse 6, when Jesus turns the water into wine. There it is written that the jars “each contained twenty or thirty gallons.” The second use is in chapter 21, “And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which, if every one of them were written down, I suppose not even the world itself could contain the books that would be written.” So the picture is that of being a container for God’s Word. Therefore, to hold to Jesus teaching means to allow God’s Word to fill us up so that we can barely contain it. It means that we are to be filled up with God’s Word so that it overflows and touches every aspect of our lives: every thought, every deed, and every interaction will be so saturated, so filled up with Christ’s teaching, that His truth begins to flow through us.
This picture, according to what Jesus is teaching here, is what is to characterize the person who says he follows Jesus. We don’t just give a little place to his teaching in our hearts; rather we are to be filled, dominated, transformed by the teaching of Christ so that we begin to live and love just like Him. A true follower is so saturated with the teachings of Jesus, that as His truth takes hold of us, every area of our lives are brought under the control of the Word of God. That’s the first characteristic of someone who has a genuine faith in Jesus. Here now is the second:
A True Follower Knows the Truth: Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth… This is the transforming reality that is available to every person who goes all in with Jesus. You don’t just enter into a learning relationship with Jesus, you enter into a relationship where Jesus now entrusts His truth to you. He wants to make known the Father’s heart to you. He teaches you what the Father is like, what the Father wants for your life. You get to learn of the Father’s love, the Father’s compassion, the Father’s mercy. An as you begin to hold to His teaching, you get to know all God has revealed. And you get to know God, the truth, who is Jesus. You get to marvel at the riches of His grace to you in Christ. You get an insiders look at God’s plan for all of history, including how He’s given you everything you need to you fit into His plan. In fact, Jesus doesn’t hold back anything from those who truly abide in His Word.
I love how he communicates this to his followers in the upper room, when he says to them, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” John 15:15
Knowing His truth gives understanding
Knowing His truth gives wisdom
Knowing His truth gives strength
Knowing His truth gives hope
Knowing His truth gives light
And as David so elegantly wrote of knowing God’s truth in Psalm 19,
The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.
The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous.
They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold;
They are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb.
By them your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward. Psalm 19:7-11
For in keeping them, obeying them, and persevering in the truth, we don’t just gain an insight to the mind of God, God’s truth renews our minds, so we will know what He is like. But even more than that, so we will know how to live in His truth, just like Jesus.
That’s why Jesus says, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” For the whole purpose of the truth is to set you free to live in the salvation God gives you in Jesus. And that is why the third characteristic of a genuine Christ follower is a whole new way of living. For
A True Follower Is Freed by the Truth: This is the good news found in following Jesus. With His truth comes freedom – not freedom to do whatever you want, not freedom to sin, but freedom from the power of sin. Freedom to live the way God intended you to live, in the security and safety of His love, as part of His family. Freedom to live the way you ought. Freedom to enjoy God’s smile. Freedom to enjoy getting to know this great Father who loves you with His tenderhearted mercy, His unconditional love, and His enthusiastic joy of seeing you become all that He created you to become.
What Jesus is talking about here is the freedom of Sonship in God’s family. Something that these Jews didn’t really know. Listen to their reaction to this blessing of freedom that Jesus announces:They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” John 8:33
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:34-36 Jesus is talking about spiritual bondage Sin causes spiritual enslavement: controlling us, dominating us, and dictating our actions. It manifests itself in self-centeredness, rebelliousness, possessiveness, dysfunctional love, and addictive behaviors. Jesus is telling them that this is what they are enslaved to. They are so possessive of their spiritual heritage, that they can’t even see their sin. They prove this by declaring: “We have never been slaves to anyone.”
Jesus responds to their claim by clarifying the nature of their bondage: It is a bondage to sin, which only Jesus, as the eternal Son of God, is qualified to break. So he spells out their bondage: He tells them their true father is not God but the devil (44). He proves this by pointing out that they have no place for Jesus’ word (37); that they are ready to kill him(37; 40); that they have no love for Jesus although He has come from God (42); That they are unable to hear what Jesus is saying to them(43); and that they refuse to believe in Jesus although they cannot prove him guilty of any wrong-doing (45-46). Then he brings the hammer down by proving without a doubt that they are indeed slaves to sin, because they bear the twin characteristics of the devil: “lies”- they are living according to lies, in that they reject the truth of Jesus. And “murder” – they hold murder in their hearts, in that they seek the death of Jesus. So, they demonstrate clearly that they do not belong to God. They are slaves not sons. They are not part of God’s family. For a slave has no permanent place in a family. A slave has no rights, no security, no inheritance.
They object: Abraham is our father,” they answered.
“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did. As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. You are doing the works of your own father.” John 8:39-41a
“We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God Himself.” John 8:41b
Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. John 8:42-43
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! John 8:44-45
Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” John 8:46-47 This encounter is sad and scary. These religious men thought they were doing fine spiritually. But they’d been deceived. They’d put their hopes of salvation in their national heritage, as sons of Abraham, but now Jesus has destroyed their false form of redemption, declaring that they are not sons of Abraham, but the offspring of the evil one. He’s shown them their need for salvation – that to be delivered from their deception and their sin, all they have to do is believe He is the Son, and He will set them free. But sadly, they chose to trust in their national heritage, rather than trust in God’s Son. And they seal their own fate, for they refuse to listen to God’s Son, proving that they really do not belong to God.
Sadly, that is still how many people respond to Jesus today. They don’t have a genuine faith in Jesus. And the reason why, is that they’d rather trust in some other form of redemption, some other form of salvation – whether that be their family heritage, or their good works, or their religious background, rather than trust in Jesus who has come to set them free.
Jesus wanted to set them free, but they refused to listen. Jesus wants to set you free, but are you listening? Do you want to be free? Do you want freedom from sin? Do you want the freedom to enjoy a relationship with God? Do you want freedom to live by the truth in a world that’s opposes the truth? Then become a true follower of Jesus. Become a person of truth. Fill your container with His truth, so that His truth impacts every part of your life. Then you will know the truth, you will know Jesus, and Jesus will set you free.
A true follower holds to the truth. A true tollower knows the Truth, and a true follower is freed by the truth… to enjoy God and live a new life bathed in the truth. So let me encourage you this morning. God’s Spirit has been speaking to you throughout this message. For some of you, He’s saying, it’s time to stop coasting, time to stop getting by, it’s time to start filling up your heart with the truth of Jesus so that every area of your life can be brought under the control of God’s Word. Hold onto His teaching until His truth takes hold of you.
For others of you, perhaps He’s prodding you to draw close to the Father and get to know Him again like He knows you. You are His beloved, and perhaps you need to renew your love for Him. To seek Him in His truth till you find Him. And rest in His love.
And still for some of you, it may be that the Holy Spirit is drawing you to freedom today. You’ve been enslaved by sin, you’ve tried controlling your life and it’s not working. You’ve been possessive of your religious heritage or your good works as your from of salvation, but now He’s showing you that it’s Jesus alone who has come to set you free. If that’s you, then today is the day you must listen to His voice, turn from your sin, and start following Jesus. He’s calling you to not simply believe in Him, but to trust Him completely, to surrender your life to Him and let Him reveal to you a whole new way to live – the way of truth and life with Him. If that’s you, turn to Jesus and let Jesus set you free.
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