Disciples Abide (John 8:30-33)
2025-05-25
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3E869GCGC4

Father in heaven, thank you for Jesus and for grace. Thank you for your continued faithfulness through life and ministry and in the work of your church. We just ask that you'd be with us this morning as we spend some time together in your word, that we would not be disciples in name only, but that we would be true followers of you, that we would truly be your disciples. So I ask that you would make things clear for us, that you would help us. To see the depth to which we are called, that you would encourage our discouraged or our struggling hearts this morning, that we would see your goodness. We thank you that you don't just show us where we should be, but that you bring us to where we need to be. Thank you for Jesus. It's in his name we pray. Amen.

We're going to pick up in these verses, and it just says this. It's a little bit of the context of John chapter 8. Jesus has been in the temple. It's sort of the big celebration time in terms of Passover and the feast. Jesus has declared earlier in the chapter as they light all of these candles and lights in the temple and a glow illuminates out through the city of Jerusalem. He says, "I am the light of the world." People began to talk to him. They began to question him. Some argue with him. Some believe in him, and this is where we end up. As he was saying these things, many believed in him. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

And what you find in these words is Jesus is laying a very clear boundary. He's drawing a dividing line. And I was thinking about this as we were writing with our kids earlier this week, that our kids have it pretty easy when it comes to road trips. They have screens, they have minivans, in some cases third row seats in the SUV. They can spread out. Now, in my day, and I risk sounding old by talking about back in my day, we had a Chevy Caprice Classic, three kids in the back, right? And so one of the things, like we didn't have iPads, like our entertainment on a long road trip was annoying our brothers and sisters. And one of the things you find if you're three wide in a bench seat, in the back of a Chevy Caprice Classic is you have to have a dividing line, right?

This territory has to be firmly established, right? You can't cross over into my territory. You can't cross into your sister's territory. You can't look out my window. I mean, we still get that complaint. They're looking out my window, right? You have to delineate the space where you are. And what Jesus does in these verses is He's doing that for discipleship, especially the picture of discipleship that is true rather than false or maybe real rather than counterfeit. And what Jesus is doing is drawing a very clear line, but it's not a line that you can't cross, but it's a line He's calling you to be on the right side of. Look at what He says. Jesus said to the Jews who believed in Him, "If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples." We tend to think of the world, especially the Christian world, as sort of divided into two groups of people.

On one side, you have Christians, disciples, followers of Jesus. On the other side, you have non-Christians, non-followers, non-disciples of Jesus. But notice what Jesus says here. Because He draws the line differently than we would. He says, "You are truly My disciples." And the fact that Jesus says that there are true disciples means that there are some who claim the name of disciples who are not true. That they're not disciples. And what Jesus is showing us, and what we see not just here, but throughout the Gospels, is that there is a non-Christian, but that there is a non-true, non-real disciples. And for us, that may be a little bit uncomfortable. Because we might begin to question and say, "Am I a true disciple? Am I a real disciple?" And for some, it may sound a little bit judgmental.

And in a time and a place in the world where we like to choose our own titles and our own identifiers, to hear somebody say that there is a line, one side is truth and the other side is truth, can feel to us like it's very true. So rather than making this argument with my words, let's listen to what Jesus has to say, and then we'll take a look at what John records about the ministry of Jesus. In John, Matthew chapter 7, this is in your handout, not on the screen. Jesus will say this, "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father." And while they're uncomfortable, what Jesus says is that dissualling Him goes deeper than the words we say.

He says, "There are people who are saying right now, and will say to me, Lord, Lord, who will not be in the kingdom of heaven." But Jesus goes a little farther. In verses 22 and 23, He goes, "Discipleship goes beyond the appearance of sort of religiosity." Between looking religious. Because these people who have been turned away will say, "Jesus, we cast out demons, we did things, we prophesied about you." And Jesus will say, "I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness." And what Jesus is describing there is a kind of disciple who says sort of the right things. Maybe does some of the right actions, but it's only in outward appearance that inside it's a heart full of lawlessness. He describes the Pharisees like that. A cup where the outside is spotlessly clean, but the inside is deeply dirty.

Or a tomb that has been whitewashed and looks beautiful, but inside is full of decay and bones. And what we begin to find is that discipleship and following Jesus is more than just knowing the right words and verbally acknowledging them. It's more than even going through some of the motions, and these people specifically have built upon something other than Jesus. Jesus will talk about this in Matthew 13, and we won't go there, but he talks about how there is a crop planted, and the enemy comes in and throws seeds that, especially in their infancy and the middle time of their growth, look exactly like the seeds of wheat, and it's only at the end, when they're separated, you see what's true and what is false. And so this dividing line between true and false disciples is not just an intellectual exercise or a possibility, right?

This might happen, or this could happen. Look at the ministry of Jesus in John 2:23-25. Now, when he was in Jerusalem for the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus, on his part, did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people, and he needed no one to bear witness about man, but God looks on the heart. Jesus has done wonderful and miraculous things, and they're believing in Jesus, but Jesus knows their heart. He doesn't need an external reference, because he sees their heart. And there are some who follow Jesus, or seek to be disciples of Jesus, not because they truly believe Jesus, but because they're curious, or because there is excitement. Notice that's what comes with these people as they saw these signs and the excitement about what Jesus is doing. But what happens when

the curiosity is gone, and the excitement begins to fade? And curiosity and excitement are not bad, but discipleship has to go deeper. It has to reach the depths of our heart. And then there are others who follow Jesus simply because in the moment it's comfortable or beneficial. Another way of saying this is because they get something. Think about this with our puppy all the time, right? If your dog only comes to see you when you're holding a dog treat, that dog doesn't love you, it loves the treats, right? Beginning to see that reality, especially with the puppy. What you find in John chapter 6, there's a large crowd following Jesus. And they're following him because he heals. And then he feeds 5,000 men, not counting women and children. And they keep following him. And there's curiosity and they're excited. But the

reason they're following Jesus is because they have comfort and they're getting what they want, right? They're sick, are healed, and there's plenty of food. And so they say, "You know who would make a good king?" The guy who keeps you from dying by healing you. And the guy who can feed you with some little boy's lunch. And in verse 26 of John chapter 6, Jesus will just simply say to them, "You're here only because you want bread." And then he begins to teach them about the bread of life. And look what John says. When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This is a hard saying. Who can listen to it?" Right? They've been comfortable. They've been fed. Their needs have been met. Six verses later, you find these words. After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. That Jesus has gone with a crowd

that some historians estimate. Not just at 5,000 men, right? That's what the Gospels tell us. But if you add women and children to that, somewhere between 12,000 and 15,000 people. And in the moment, the dividing line between comfort and getting what I want separates the true disciples, because the only people left after this sermon are the 12. Everybody else, the thousands and thousands, have left. You see, curiosity, comfort, ease, food, healing, all of these things are wonderful, and they're good gifts from God, but what happens when things get difficult? There's a tendency to simply walk away. And there are many who believe, and that's what you find in John 8:30, but their belief is shallow, and it seems like it's under attack. And so in John 8, what we're seeing is John 2 and John 6 all over again.

A lot of people are believing, but Jesus this time is going to draw a line and say, "Here's the difference between a disciple who is true and a disciple who is untrue." And so what we find is this difference lined out. 8:31, Jesus says this, "If you abide in my word, you're truly my disciple." The difference is this abiding in his word. And you say, "Well, what does that mean?" The word abide just simply means to stay or to continue, to dwell, to endure. And the picture here is what happens when the bread stops. What happens when it's not as exciting, when your friends have to go home? Where do you go when the excitement fades, when things get a little more difficult, when you're called to follow Jesus, rather than just simply taking hold of the bread that he offers?

And the question is, will you abide? Do you stay? Another way of determining the difference between a true and an untrue disciple is this: Do you stay with Jesus? It's the simplest thing, because disciples stay. And Jesus here is not just talking about in this moment in John 8:31, it's a picture of the future. In fact, the tense he uses in Greek is that those who are staying, continue to stay, who at the end are still with him. And you have this picture of the disciples. And maybe another way to think about it for us is the difference between a true and untrue disciple, is what's the difference between visiting somewhere and living there? Right? In visiting, you may come and you may go, eventually you go home. But if you move somewhere and you live there and you put down roots, you're a true disciple.

It's not somebody who's just visiting Jesus, but somebody who is living there. And here's the thing, abiding, it's easy to say, but it's so much harder to do. And our new puppy is a bundle of energy, but he is insanely smart. And so over the last couple months, he's like five months old, we've learned he can spin. He'll sit down, I tell him to spin, and he spins in circles, lay down. Sometimes he even comes back when we call. But what we've been working on, especially over the last couple weeks, is trying to get him to stay, to sit and to stay. And you can get about two steps away, and what happens? The puppy comes tearing after you immediately. So I talked to our kids, I said, "Hey, we really need to teach him to stay."

And so you know what they taught him? They taught him to speak, right? Because what we need is a dog who barks more, right? And who barks now, not just when he wants to play, but when he wants to treat. The sound just barks at you, because he thinks that's when he gets a treat. It's hard to stay. And I understand the dog's perspective, because it's a big world, he's full of energy. There's birds to chase, cats to play with, squirrels to try to climb the tree with. And everywhere he looks, there's something he wants to run after. And the same is true for us in our faith. We live in a world that intentionally seeks to distract us, and to pull us, and to drive us away from Jesus. And the way, ultimately, that I get Ranger to stay is I try to keep his eyes fixed on me.

And the same is true for us as Christians. In fact, it's the picture that runs throughout the New Testament. If you look at the picture of the Christian life, it's the picture of building a house. And in fact, Jesus, after he's talked about those disciples who are in name only, and whose actions are superficial, the very next words out of Jesus's mouth is, "Two men were building a house, and one belted upon the foundation of my word." And through the storms and the struggles, that house remained firm. Paul talks about how we are anchored, not tossed around by the wind and waves. Hebrews says we have this hope and anchor for the soul. And in Scripture, the picture of this abiding is dwelling, building, throwing your anchor down and holding fast. And in these disciples and in our lives, the difference is, will you stay?

There's a difference between abiding and walking away. There's a difference between living and just visiting. And the question is, what are we to abide in? Or we might say, where are we to abide? Listen to what Jesus says. "If you abide in My Word." And it's interesting, Jesus doesn't say, and it's intentionally in the Greek singular, He doesn't say, "Abide in My Word." He says, "Abide in My Word." Jesus is saying something wonderful here. And John helps us to see that. Listen to this. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. And all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life. And the life was the light of man,

and the light has shone in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." A few verses later, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. "And we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." Two verses later, "For from His fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, and grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father's side, but He, Jesus, has made Him known." In His Gospel, John describes seven times where Jesus will say, "I am." We went through these last year. Where Jesus will say, "To those who are hungry, and dissatisfied, and empty by everything they've chased, He says, "Come to me, and you will find something to fill you."

He is the light of the world, that in the midst of your darkness and brokenness, Jesus is the way, that He's the door, that He calls you through. And in John 10, and this is so precious, it says, "I am the good shepherd." I want you to think about that for a minute. Because this idea of the shepherd is one of the most precious in those dark moments of life, right? Almost everybody, religious or not, knows the 23rd Psalm, right? "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." And we learn that He leads us beside the still waters into the green pastures. And what's so remarkable about the 23rd Psalm is that the psalmist in the beginning, as he sees his shepherd, and as he sees the green pastures, and he sees the still waters, the nourishment and the peace, he talks about God.

Do you know when the psalmist talks to God? "Even when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff will comfort me." That the place where the psalmist David truly sees and knows God is not in the green pastures or the still waters. He loves those and he appreciates them, but where he talks to God directly is even in the valley of the shadow of death, "I will fear no evil, for you are with me." And then here is Jesus in John chapter 10 saying, "You've heard about the shepherd?" Maybe you sang the song of the shepherd from David in the 23rd Psalm. "Well, I am that shepherd." At the side of a tomb, Jesus will say, "I am the resurrection and the life."

And in John 14, He says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." And in John 15, very similar to our text today, He says, "I am the vine and the branches. Abide in Me." You see, when Jesus says that we're to abide in His Word, we're called to be with all of who He is. His entire identity. What He has said, what He has done, what He has taught. He is calling us to be with Him. We can sum it up like this, to abide in Jesus, the vine. You see, there's good news in these words, that out of the darkness and the fear and the brokenness, we come to Jesus, where He anchors us and bells us and causes us to dwell. And Jesus is not just saying there's a dividing line, but it's an invitation to be near and with Him. And then there's a problem,

almost immediately. You see, it's in this moment that there is a calling. And it wouldn't seem that way, because Jesus has just said, "Abide in Me. You'll know the truth. The truth will set you free." There is this wonderful calling to be a true disciple, and immediately there's conflict. Look at what happens. He was saying these things. Many believed in Him. Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in Him, "If you abide in My words, you are truly My disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." And here is where conflict comes, because pride has brought its head up. They answered Him. We're the offspring of Abraham. And we have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say you will become free? What is the immediate response to this call

to this call to abide in the freedom that Jesus promises? We don't need any help. We've never been enslaved. Jesus is far more patient than I would have been like, "Oh, really?" So you weren't enslaved in Egypt? You weren't enslaved in the book of Judges as you're tormented by every nation that surrounds you? Oh, you're not enslaved when Babylon comes and takes you out of your land? You're not enslaved when Syria comes. You're not enslaved now as you're not talking too loud because there's Roman soldiers walking down the road? And some commentators say, and I think probably rightly, that these guys mean spiritually enslaved. They're not talking about political freedom, but they're saying, "Spiritually, we're children of Abraham. We've never been enslaved." Really? Three minutes after you leave Egypt, you're in the Promised Land. Moses goes up on the mountain to hear from God, and you melt down all your jewelry and make a false God.

The Book of Judges, false God after false God. The kings, good, God-following kings are the exception, not the rule. Most are leading the people into spiritual slavery. If you look at the Old Testament, specifically the Old Testament prophets, like this section of the Bible is written to people who are spiritually enslaved because they've run after false gods, and even these people enslaved their own pride and their own self-righteousness. And here's Jesus going, "You're enslaved." They're like, "No. No, we're not." You see what happens? Our pride minimizes our brokenness. It maximizes our strength and goodness. And so what our pride does is tells me, "Oh, I'm not that bad, but also I'm really, really good." And so when Jesus shows up with this dividing line, and not a line intended to push people away, but rather to call people to himself, they go, "No thanks. We're all good."

So if you've seen Monty Python search for the Holy Grail, right? It's just a flesh wound, right? 'Tis but a scratch, right? No arms, no legs, flailing around on the foreheads going, "I'm fine." That's what our pride does. And until you and I see ourselves in the light of the truth of Jesus, it's never going to be okay. Because our pride doesn't go down without a fight. You know what happens in the rest of this section? They begin to accuse Jesus of terrible things. At one point, they go to him, "No, at least we know who our dad is." Right? A reference to the fact that Mary was pregnant with Jesus before she was married to Joseph. A little bit later, these same people who have been following and are referred to as disciples of Jesus are like,

"Well, maybe you have a demon. You're probably a Samaritan." And do you see what pride does? It doesn't just say, "I don't need any help." Pride says, "I'm going to actively attack the one who is trying to save me and to help me." And part of the reason I think we see in our world so much anger directed at Christianity is because it's hard to admit that we're wrong and that we need help. And when someone shows up and says, "You're broken and you need help," we go, "No, I'm not." And our pride causes us to attack. Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples." I want you to know that in the hard words that follow these as Jesus goes back and forth,

with these religious leaders, he's not doing it to try to put them in their place, but hard times and hard hearts require hard words. And even these religious people, Jesus pursues. And what you find is he calls us to this freedom. And not freedom that we accomplish on our own through our own goodness or our own ability, but freedom given to us by Jesus. And Jesus comes with freedom from sin. Listen to what it says in Isaiah. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And by his wounds we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. And all have turned, every one, to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. That in Jesus, there is a freedom from sin.

Because Jesus has stepped into our place. And all of your sin. And all of your brokenness. And all of your wrongdoing. And all of those things that you're ashamed of. And you're terrified that somebody would know and find out. Jesus comes and he dies in your place for your sins. And there is freedom in Jesus for your sins. But he also transforms your heart. For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they will be my people. And what you find fulfilled in Jesus is that not just we're given a list of rules like the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone. But that he writes those on our hearts.

And he changes our desires from running after this to running after him. Jesus, as a disciple, someone who abides in him, there is freedom from our sin and the wrath of God. There is freedom in those desires as God's word goes to work on us. And what we see is that it changes how we live. But now you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God. What you get leads to sanctification, becoming more and more like Jesus and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. There is freedom. I've shared this illustration with you before. For some of you, it will be familiar. But it fits so perfectly with our pride and our desire to say we can do it ourselves.

I was in college. I had a flat tire. My roommates were like, "Hey, we're going to do Brandon a favor while he's in class. We're going to change out his tire." The favor they did me was they stripped out the lug nuts on my wheel so I couldn't get the tire off. Everybody went home for spring break. I was planning to stay at college anyway. So I'm out there in a completely empty college campus. I've got my dorm room. That's it. The car has a flat tire. The lug nuts are stripped out. I'm out there with a drill I borrowed, trying to drill those studs out to switch the lug nuts out. And I had almost all of them off. And I'm sitting there, and maybe this is like the influence of my grandma Nelson, but I was just like, "God, I just need some help."

Ten seconds later, a guy in a car pulls up, "Need some help, man? No, I'm okay. Thanks for stopping." And he drives off. Like, "There it is!" That's exactly what's happening in this text. "You know my words. If you abide in me, the truth will set you free." And so many times our reaction. And then immediately what happens? I'm sitting there just kicking myself. Little I know, God was preparing me to be a preacher. He gave me a great sermon illustration to start out. Like, it all worked out. Here's the thing. When we're corrected by the Word of God, it's so easy to just seek our own strength and our own power. When you're tired and you're broken and you're hungry and you're in the darkness and the struggle in the valley of the shadow of death,

the call for the disciples of Jesus is to run to Him. To know that He is the one who frees you from your sin, who transforms your heart, gives you the strength to live in righteousness as you walk toward eternal life. Let's pray. Father, help us not to be blinded by our pride. May your Word soften our hearts. May we, like Lydia, have our hearts open to understand the Scripture. May you help us to see your goodness. And as disciples in you that we are called to be near you and with you, to dwell with you, to be close to you. So help us to see your goodness so clearly.