Author: Jeff Englund

John 8: 33

” 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?’”

Imagine for a moment that you personally are standing in the Temple courtyard during the time of Christ. You have been celebrating the Feast of Booths with your family and neighbors. Suddenly you hear a commotion in another part of the courtyard. You walk towards the crowd to see what is going on and you hear someone say in a loud voice, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Before you can react to what you have heard, someone near the center of the crowd, near the man who had spoken yells angrily, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” Others around him yell supportively, “Yeah, who are you calling slaves?” The reaction of the crowd surprises you. Could the man who caused all of this be the one they call Jesus?

An older man next to you at the back of the crowd turns toward you and you prepare for more anger. Instead, he half-whispers, “I wonder what all of the fuss is about?”  Continue reading “Fire Starter”

John 8: 31-32

“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.’”

So far the past three days we have looked at the teaching of Jesus in this passage, what it means to be his disciple, and what it means to know the truth. Today we will look at the final promise in this passage, the promise that knowing the truth will set you free. As we will see in the next passage, the Jews assign a very literal meaning to the word, “free.” You and I, on the other hand, have the advantage of a perspective that comes from reading the whole of John’s gospel.

Jesus didn’t mean “free” in the sense of being freed politically or judicially. The freedom Jesus talks about applies to all people wherever they are in life: Slaves remain slaves, prisoners remain prisoners, draftees remain drafted. People in bad situations remain in those situations. Jesus does not change where we are or who we are in the physical sense.  Continue reading “Set Free”

John 8: 31-32

“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.’”

I confess that I am curious about your thoughts on yesterday’s post. Do you love to argue or do you argue that we should love?

Regardless, Jesus challenges us with yet another pair of promises. If we hold to his teachings and are really his disciples, we, “…will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” What “truth” is Jesus talking about? Do you know?

A lot of people these days make conflicting claims about the nature of truth. Some say there is no absolute “truth” and others say truth is relative, meaning, I suppose, that truth is what you want it to be or feel it should be or possibly that only what a relative says is truth.  🙂

My old Webster college dictionary defines truth as, “the state or character of being true.” Obviously defining truth can be a challenge. My personal definition is that truth is what really is. For example many people these days say that there is no God. Others say there is. While we might discuss or argue the points in favor of either point of view, the indisputable fact is that all life born on earth will die, and when we die presumably the truth will be obvious to all because we will no longer be subject to deception in the matter.  Continue reading “Knowing Truth”

John 8: 31-32

“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.’”

So what did you decide it means to “hold to the teachings of Jesus?” One of the questions that come to my mind is whether or not my salvation is dependent on my ability to hold to the teachings of Jesus. Jesus does not say, however, that if you hold to his teaching you are saved. He says instead that if you hold to his teaching you are a disciple.

Can the power of Christ on the cross save someone who is not able to hold to the teaching of Jesus? I hope so! Like Paul, in his writings to the Romans (chapters 7 & 8) I find that “Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.” (Romans 7: 21) He then adds, “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7: 25a) Jesus himself says, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” (John 3: 14-15) Continue reading “Being Discipled”

John 8: 31-32

“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.'”

I appreciate this opportunity to walk through the Gospel of John with you. Each time I sit down to look at the next passage, whatever it is, I find myself challenged in new ways. In this passage we see Jesus setting out a causal statement ending with three promises. He begins with, “If you hold to my teaching…”

What does it mean to hold to the teachings of Jesus? What does that look like? I suppose this question could be considered the essence of Christianity.  Continue reading “Holding On”

John 8: 27-30

” They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father. So Jesus said, ‘When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.’ Even as he spoke, many believed in him.”

They did not understand…

How often has this phrase been repeated? How often was it true? Is it still true today?

Christianity can seem complicated if you are getting your information from one of those who likes to impart rules on others. Christianity can seem offensive when a person is accosted by a practitioner of the faith who demands your obedience. Christianity can seem irrelevant in a world where there are so many other things to occupy our time.

Yet, at the moment when we are faced with our own mortality, whether it is one of those “near misses” or it is at the end of our life, we are confronted with the question, “What next?”  Continue reading “Plans”

John 8: 25 – 26

““Who are you?’ they asked.

“Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,’ Jesus replied. “I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.'”

If you have ever seen the movie, “Princess Bride,” you probably remember the part where the Spaniard Inigo Montoya is fencing with The Man in Black. At one point Inigo asks him, “Who are you?” The Man in Black defers and refuses to answer. Inigo asks again, “No really, I must know!”  Continue reading “Who Are You? (II)”

John 8: 21-24

“Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.’

This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, “Where I go, you cannot come”?’

But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.”

 

Once again Jesus gives us a clue to the dual existence that we all lead. We obviously have a physical body, but the body is not all we are. We are also spiritual in nature. When the body dies, the spirit continues. The difference for Jesus was that he had come from the place called Heaven before being born on earth, and he knew where he was going after his body here stopped working.  Continue reading “Duality”