Quote for the Day
“…my other witness is the Father, who sent me.”
Today's Prayer
Father, we thank you for bearing witness of your Son. Today we give you all the glory for what you have done in our lives.
John 8:12 – 27
John – 27 (NIV)12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”13 The Pharisees challenged him, “Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.”14 Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going. 15 You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. 16 But if I do judge, my decisions are right, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me. 17 In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two men is valid. 18 I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me.”19 Then they asked him, “Where is your father?”“You do not know me or my Father,” Jesus replied. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” 20 He spoke these words while teaching in the temple area near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized him, because his time had not yet come.21 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.”22 This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘Where I go, you cannot come’?”23 But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins.”25 “Who are you?” they asked.“Just what I have been claiming all along,” Jesus replied. 26 “I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is reliable, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.”27 They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father.
Message
Jesus continues his dialogue with the leaders of the day, a dialogue they were very frustrated with and would not or could not accept. In this passage he tells them one of the reasons for their consternation with His words and actions. He made it clear that he (Jesus) had come at the direct request and power of the Father. Jesus had come with spiritual power and they were looking for a mere physical power. In verse 18 he states, “I am one who testifies for myself…” You can almost hear the same words the Father directed Moses to proclaim when asked how to describe to others who He was. Moses, the prophet these leaders revered with great awe, knew the “I AM who I AM” yet they could not allow this Jesus to have any part of this authority or kingdom they had set up in their comfortable world. And why could they not accept this relationship? They had abandoned their own relationship with the Father generations ago and replaced it with a man-made set of rules, rules that had come from the father of lies. This was not a pleasant accusation, and the leaders did not take it lightly. For this and other similar comments, they wanted to kill Jesus and according to their rules they had every right to because what he was saying was not true…or so they thought. Jesus is now letting them know by their own set of rules that he had the witnesses to prove who he was; they had chosen not to listen to that witness. The witness? None other than the Father himself! And then he proceeds to let them know that he has two witnesses, both the father AND himself, which held the same standing. In their minds you could not be a witness for yourself, but Jesus was trying to show them his relationship with the Father was such that he could be a witness. In verse 14 He says, “…if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going.” The leaders who were arguing with him did not even know where he came from in an earthly sense (they argued Galilee when it was Bethlehem, the exact place it was supposed to be according to the scripture they quoted) much less where he came from eternally. Our joy today resides in the fact that we know where Jesus came from and we too have a relationship with the Father because of our relationship with Jesus.