Jesus’ Enemies
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2021 · 18 April 2021
Turn to John 8, it has been a chapter of assaults on Jesus. Ten times in this chapter, Jesus has been attacked and assaulted by the leaders of Judaism. And the same thing was going on in the previous chapter. They were making the same blasphemous accusations and the same threats to kill him. There has been nothing but conflict for the two and a half years with the religious leaders of Judaism.
This, however, is one of the most antagonistic events in that conflict. Jesus purposely antagonizes his enemies because it’s necessary. Have you noticed that it is only biblical Christianity that is persecuted in the world and in our society? People aren’t persecuting Hindus, or Buddhists or Muslims. They don’t persecute them because all false religions are a part of the same kingdom of darkness.
Satan does not persecute Satan, since he owns all false religions and he tends to contribute to their survival and their elevation. The attacks always come from the kingdom of darkness on the one category of truth, and that’s the Bible and those who represent biblical Christianity. So we aren’t surprised that Christianity is being marginalized, and that Christians are being persecuted.
And it is also true to say that the greatest enemies of the truth have always been religious because man is invariably religious, always has been religious, is still religious, and consequently his false religion assaults the truth constantly. So it doesn’t surprise me. It is a sign that we are doing something right to have the kingdom of darkness coming after us. That is the situation all over the world.
The harshest human attacks on Jesus didn’t come from the people. He got indifference from the people, but the really harsh, aggressive assaults on him came from the religious establishment and the people who were most devoted to that establishment. These self-righteous Jewish leaders who were part of an apostate form of Judaism that basically belonged to Satan like all other false religions.
All other religions are enemies of the truth, and therefore they are enemies of Christ, who is the truth. All religions claims to represent God, but they represent the devil. Verse 44 is the escalation of the conflict to its highest level. He says to these religious leaders who continually said they represented God, “For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does.”
“He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies.” You lie and you desire to kill me because I speak the truth and you are a part of the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of lies who want to stamp out the truth. That is Judaism in its most devout form, and it is Satanic.
Over these two and a half years of his ministry, this conflict has been escalating by necessity because He continues to confront their damning destructive error with the truth. It sends people to hell forever. Error must be confronted with the truth. These children of Satan see Jesus, then, as an enemy. They see Him as a blasphemer and a law breaker. They are full of fury.
Why does He exacerbate this conflict? Why does He raise it to this level? Well, because He loves them, because this is merciful. It is merciful to shatter false securities. It is merciful to strip people locked in some form of religious deception. They need to be exposed for what they are. Their false religion needs to be dealt with in a very strong confrontation that deals with the truth.
Now debates, when people are lost, deteriorate. And there is a four-level way in which this works, and maybe you’ve experienced this. Debates start on an intellectual level. Somebody says, “This is true.” And you answer, “Well, this is true.” So you have a disagreement intellectually. You say, “Well, here’s the evidence. This is why I believe it.” That’s the first conflict level.
The progression then, goes to a second level where it ceases to be intellectual and becomes emotional. This is where you start getting angry. You can’t get your point across. The other person doesn’t like what you said because they don’t like the implications of what you said. They don’t buy into what you said. And this can happen in just about any kind of conflict.
And that then drops to the third level, which is verbal abuse. When you can’t make your argument anymore, you just start calling people names. And that’s exactly what you see here. And then the final step, of course, is you start fighting. That’s the end of your discussion. You beat up the person you’re trying to convince. You wrestle them to the ground and hope you can win.
This is how most conflicts go. In John 10:19, they call Jesus insane. And then here at the end of this chapter, it descends to physical abuse and they pick up stones to try to stone Him to death. And eventually that’s why they killed Him because they couldn’t win the argument and they ran that argument all the way down the scale to the lowest possible level and nailed Him to a cross.
In the face of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Eternal One, they are really incompetent. They are exposed and condemned, and their depravity is demonstrated. They start descending to lower and lower levels until finally they pick up rocks to kill Him. They are under judgment and condemnation. They have suffered an intellectual loss and they have resorted to physical violence.
Real love destroys false securities. Love doesn’t leave people alone in their false religion. That’s why we can never see these people as the enemy. They are the mission field. People in false religions are the mission field. They may be persecuting you at work or at school. They may be messing with what’s going on in our country. They may be changing our culture. But they are our mission field.
So let’s look at these three phases in this dialog that wraps up John 8. Phase number one is in verses 48-51, blasphemy, truth, grace and an invitation. The blasphemy comes in verse 48, “The Jews answered, “You Samaritan devil! Didn’t we say all along that you were possessed by a demon?” Their reaction, rather than taking the exposure and saying, “What are we missing? Lead us to the truth,” they harden their hearts.
Why did they throw “Samaritan” in there? Well, Samaritans were people that the Jews hated because of what they had done back in 2 Kings 17, when the northern kingdom was taken captive in 722, and all the northern kingdom Jews were basically taken out of the land. The Jewish stragglers that remained there intermarried with the pagan nations that came to occupy the northern kingdom of Israel.
There may be also a rumor that the Jews had concocted that Mary, because she was not impregnated by Joseph, had an affair with a Roman soldier and Jesus was an illegitimate child born to a Jew and a Gentile pagan. So there are those kind of falsehoods in the Jewish Talmud tradition as an explanation. But whatever it is that they mean by this, this is outright blasphemy.
Notice His response in verse 49-50, “No,” Jesus said, “I have no demon in me. For I honor my Father—and you dishonor me. 50 And though I have no wish to glorify myself, God is going to glorify me. He is the true judge.” He didn’t respond with the same dishonor they gave Him. In John 5:23, He said, “He who doesn’t honor the Son doesn’t honor the Father who sent Him.” By dishonoring Me, you dishonor God.”
In verse 50, He takes it a step further. “I’m here in humiliation.” I gave up my glory in Philippians 2:6-8, “who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”
That’s the essence of His incarnation. Jesus came to give God glory. If He wanted his own glory, He would have stayed where He was. That’s why in John 17, He prays, “Father, I have finished the work You gave Me. Now restore to me the glory I had with You before the world began.” He came to receive humiliation. He came to love sinners, expose their evil, bear their sin, feel their shame, and die their death.
Read in Isaiah 52:13-15, how God has designed to exalt Jesus and to elevate Him. This is all over Scripture that the Messiah will be exalted, elevated and honored. And in Philippians 2:9-10, given “a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow” everywhere in the universe. So here God the Father has declared the glory and supremacy of Christ.
But there’s more in that. There is One who seeks and judges and will give the final verdict on you. I’m not here to seek honor from men. God will give me glory in time. But God will also judge you. And Christ will also judge you. You need to honor Him now or you will face Him in judgment. That’s the truth. Jesus responds to their outrage, and verbal abuse with the absolute truth.
And then comes the third phase, an invitation. Verse 51, “Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death.” That’s a gracious invitation to some blaspheming, angry, abusive and hypocritical leaders. This is a model, of how we should live. Blasphemy will surely come. So how should we respond? With the truth and with a gracious invitation. Notice the word “anyone.”
What death is Jesus talking about? He’s not talking about a physical death, because even He would die. He’s talking about the second death, what Revelation 20 and 21 calls “the second death,” that is eternal death. What are you going to say to people when they attack the gospel? You’re going to give them the truth and then you’re going to say, “You’re going to be judged for this attitude.”
Verse 52 - 53, “Then the Jews said to Him, “Now we know that You have a demon! Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word he shall never taste death.’ 53 Are You greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? And the prophets are dead. Who do You make Yourself out to be?” That’s what false religion will do to you, it reverses everything.
Jesus is talking about spiritual truth and they’re talking only on a superficial physical level. He responds with the truth. Verse 54, “Jesus answered, “If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing. It is My Father who honors Me, of whom you say that He is your God.” You keep claiming God is your God and you dishonor Him by dishonoring Me. There was ample evidence that God had affirmed Christ.
The Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled through John the Baptist in His words and in His miracles. You do not represent God if you reject Jesus Christ. Because God is affirming Christ as His Son and the only Savior. Verse 55, “Yet you have not known Him, but I know Him. And if I say, ‘I do not know Him,’ I shall be a liar like you; but I do know Him and keep His word.”
And then a gracious invitation, verse 56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and He saw it and was glad.” Well, what does it mean? Abraham was given a Messianic promise. In Genesis 12, he was told that through his family, God would bless the world, bring salvation and blessing to the world. This was the Abrahamic covenant. Abraham believed that through him would come the redeemer, the savior.
Now we come to phase three. Verse 57, “Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Full of sarcasm. Jesus responds with the most shocking truth. Verse 58, “Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” Because He’s an eternal being, there’s no “was.” He always is. “I AM” is the name of God, Yahweh.
This is more than they can handle. One thing is to call them children of Satan, but to say He is ‘I AM’? They are incredibly angry. They have just been told the truth. They could have said, “How so? Sir, how are we to understand that?” Instead, thinking they were activating Leviticus 24:16, which called for the stoning of a blasphemer, they pick up stones to throw at Him.
Verse 59, “Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.” There comes a time when even the best have to walk away. Jesus doesn’t advocate standing there and letting people kill you. You can reach other people on another day. God is still in charge and His plan of reaching people cannot be stopped.
But when Stephen was preaching, remember in Acts 7:54, the people, “were cut to the quick and began gnashing their teeth at him. 57 So they scream with a loud voice, covered their ears, rushed at him with one impulse. 58 When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him. And one of them was “a young man named Saul.” This unbelief reaches that point where you either get stoned or you escape.
If you will obey His message, the gospel of salvation, repentance, and trust in the One who died and rose again to provide salvation, you will never see the second death. You will go through physical death with no understanding of that reality itself and wake up in the glories of heaven. That’s still the promise of the gospel. While that promise is given, you need to respond now. Let us pray.