When you live in the darkness, how can you tell what’s true and what’s a lie? What you really need is for someone to shine a light into that darkness and show you that truth. Thankfully, Jesus says he is the Light of the world. Join Dave as he explores what Jesus means in John 8.
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Transcript
G'day and welcome to stories of a faithful God for kids.
Speaker:Shout out to the Taylor family who have been listening every week.
Speaker:Great to have you with us.
Speaker:Hope you keep enjoying the stories.
Speaker:I want to tell you about something exciting coming up.
Speaker:As far away as it may seem, Christmas is coming, and the lead up to Christmas is called
Speaker:Advent.
Speaker:Years ago, when our kids were very young, my
Speaker:wife wrote an Advent calendar.
Speaker:Every day on the first 25 days of December,
Speaker:wed snuggle in as a family and learn more about the goodness and faithfulness of God
Speaker:through Jesus.
Speaker:It kept our hearts and minds focused on Jesus.
Speaker:We looked at Old Testament promises about Jesus coming the first time.
Speaker:We looked at what Jesus did when he arrived and how hes coming again.
Speaker:After wed read some bible passages, our kids got to create the artwork that would go along
Speaker:with each day as a reminder of what wed learned.
Speaker:Now, in association with Youthworks Media, were having that Advent calendar published.
Speaker:We want lots of other people to enjoy learning from the Bible from beginning to end.
Speaker:Itll be a digital resource when it comes out, so youll be able to buy it and download it
Speaker:from pretty much anywhere on the planet.
Speaker:The details are still being finalized, but I
Speaker:wanted to let you know now so you can start getting excited.
Speaker:Now.
Speaker:On with the show.
Speaker:Imagine you're walking through a dark, mysterious cave, a cave so dark you can't even
Speaker:see your hand in front of your face.
Speaker:You hear the drip, drip, drip of water as you
Speaker:feel your way along the wall.
Speaker:After a while, the path splits in two ways.
Speaker:You hear a voice coming from one direction.
Speaker:It says, come this way.
Speaker:I'll save you out of here.
Speaker:Then you hear a voice from the other
Speaker:direction.
Speaker:No, don't listen to him.
Speaker:If you follow him, you'll die.
Speaker:Come this way.
Speaker:Then the first voice says, no. That voice is leading you to certain death.
Speaker:Don't be tricked.
Speaker:Follow me.
Speaker:And they keep arguing like that.
Speaker:How would you know which one was telling the
Speaker:truth? How would you make a decision?
Speaker:If that's all there was to it? Then it would be too hard.
Speaker:But what if, what if one of the people says, hang on, I have a torch?
Speaker:They turn on their torch, and suddenly the light shows you everything.
Speaker:The person with the torch is leading the way to safety.
Speaker:Now, you can see that if you'd followed the other voice, you'd fall off a cliff.
Speaker:Hearing those different voices, that's a bit what it's like with Jesus.
Speaker:He says he's from God and can lead you to life.
Speaker:Other people say he's a liar and wants to take you away from the good life.
Speaker:Who's right? Who's wrong?
Speaker:Well, it turns out someone has a light.
Speaker:Someone can show us the truth.
Speaker:Get ready for our next episode of stories of a faithful God for kids.
Speaker:At the end of our last episode, Jesus was in Jerusalem for a big festival.
Speaker:He had spoken lots to the crowd.
Speaker:Some of them, including the guys who were sent
Speaker:to arrest him, think he's really great.
Speaker:He's telling the truth, and we need to hear
Speaker:more of it.
Speaker:Most people, though, were getting angrier and
Speaker:angrier.
Speaker:They thought Jesus was lying and tricking
Speaker:people.
Speaker:At this festival, they light four huge fires
Speaker:on massive columns way up high.
Speaker:It's like having four olympic flames.
Speaker:And at night, the light from them can be seen all over Jerusalem.
Speaker:As everyone is thinking about that light, Jesus stands up in the temple and calls out in
Speaker:chapter eight, verse twelve, I am the light of the world.
Speaker:The person who follows me will never live in darkness.
Speaker:He will have the light that gives life.
Speaker:Woah.
Speaker:Remember that story about the cave? Darkness keeps things secret.
Speaker:In the darkness, you can't work out the truth of what's up ahead, but when the light comes,
Speaker:you're safe.
Speaker:Jesus is saying he's the greatest light, the
Speaker:light that shows the whole truth, the light that gives life.
Speaker:Lots of people don't believe him.
Speaker:They think he's a liar.
Speaker:They argue with him for a while.
Speaker:Eventually, in verse 31, he says to the people
Speaker:who do seem to believe him, if you continue to obey my teaching, you are truly my followers.
Speaker:Then you will know the truth.
Speaker:And the truth will make you free.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:The truth will make you free.
Speaker:Free from what? Does that mean that if you don't know the
Speaker:truth, you're not free in any way.
Speaker:How can you know if Jesus is telling the
Speaker:truth? The best way to know is by looking at the
Speaker:other things that Jesus has said and done, as well as what others have said.
Speaker:What have we seen from Jesus? We've seen him heal sick people, turn water
Speaker:into wine, walk on water, make food for thousands.
Speaker:These are all things that only God should be able to do.
Speaker:But we've also heard people talk about Jesus.
Speaker:John the Baptist talked about him.
Speaker:God talked about him in the Old Testament.
Speaker:And all of this shows us that Jesus really is
Speaker:telling the truth.
Speaker:So what about the people who are angry with
Speaker:him, the ones who call him a liar? Do they have things that suggest that they
Speaker:know the truth? Let's find out.
Speaker:Jesus has just said how he can help you know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Speaker:And the people respond in verse 33.
Speaker:We are Abraham's children and we have never
Speaker:been slaves.
Speaker:So why do you say that we will be free?
Speaker:Whoa.
Speaker:Far out.
Speaker:Did you hear that? Massive, whopping great big lie?
Speaker:Not the bit about being Abraham's children.
Speaker:That just means they're in Abraham's family,
Speaker:even though he lived a long, long time ago.
Speaker:No, they said they've never been slaves.
Speaker:But if you know anything about Exodus, the book we looked at in our last series, you'll
Speaker:know that the Israelites were slaves for a very long time.
Speaker:To be in Abraham's family is to know that God rescued you from slavery.
Speaker:So these people are believing a lie.
Speaker:It's Jesus who tells us the truth.
Speaker:It's Jesus who we can trust.
Speaker:Now, even though their family had been slaves
Speaker:in Egypt, Jesus wants them to know about a much bigger slavery, a much more dangerous
Speaker:slavery.
Speaker:It's slavery to sin.
Speaker:Jesus says in verse 34, I tell you the truth, everyone who lives in sin is a slave to sin.
Speaker:What does that mean? Well, a slave can't do whatever they want.
Speaker:They have to do whatever their master wants.
Speaker:And so if you're a slave to sin, you have to
Speaker:keep sinning.
Speaker:People think that if they ignore Jesus and
Speaker:ignore God, then they're free.
Speaker:But it just isn't true.
Speaker:We need Jesus to show us the truth and set us free from sin.
Speaker:Jesus wants to show the people just how bad their slavery is.
Speaker:Theyve said theyre Abrahams children.
Speaker:Well, Jesus is going to tell them that they
Speaker:actually have a much worse father than Abraham.
Speaker:Heres what he says in verse 37.
Speaker:He says, I know you are Abrahams children, but
Speaker:you want to kill me because you dont accept my teaching.
Speaker:I am telling you what my father has shown me, but you do what your father has told you.
Speaker:They're totally confused.
Speaker:They're like, how father is Abraham?
Speaker:What are you talking about? But the fact that they want to kill Jesus
Speaker:shows that they don't really belong to Abraham.
Speaker:Abraham loved and trusted God, so he'd love and trust Jesus.
Speaker:He'd be really excited to meet Jesus.
Speaker:That's why Jesus says to them in verse 39, if
Speaker:you were really Abraham's children, you would do the things that Abraham did.
Speaker:I am a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God.
Speaker:But you are trying to kill me.
Speaker:Abraham did nothing like that.
Speaker:So you are doing the things that your own father did.
Speaker:But they said, we are not like children who never knew who our father was.
Speaker:God is our father.
Speaker:He is the only father, we have.
Speaker:Hang on, hang on, hang on.
Speaker:They just said Abraham is their father.
Speaker:Now they're saying God is their father.
Speaker:You know what's horrible about that?
Speaker:Back in chapter five, that's exactly what they wanted to kill Jesus for saying that God is
Speaker:his father, making himself equal with God.
Speaker:They don't seem to want to punish themselves
Speaker:for saying the same thing.
Speaker:The truth is, they don't know the truth.
Speaker:They're just saying whatever comes into their mind.
Speaker:That sounds good.
Speaker:If you want the truth, you need to listen to
Speaker:Jesus.
Speaker:And now Jesus tells them a truth that's really
Speaker:hard to hear.
Speaker:He's going to tell them who their real father
Speaker:is.
Speaker:It isn't Abraham, and it certainly isn't God.
Speaker:In verse 42, Jesus says, if God were really your father, then you would love me.
Speaker:Then later he tells them, your father is the devil.
Speaker:You belong to him and want to do what he wants.
Speaker:He was a murderer from the beginning.
Speaker:He was against the truth, for there is no
Speaker:truth in him.
Speaker:He is a liar, and he is like the lies he
Speaker:tells.
Speaker:He is the father of lies.
Speaker:But I speak the truth.
Speaker:That is why you don't believe me.
Speaker:All the evidence shows that Jesus is telling the truth.
Speaker:The reason they don't believe him isn't because he's lying.
Speaker:It's because they've believed the lies of the devil.
Speaker:They don't understand the truth.
Speaker:They're not willing to hear the truth.
Speaker:They're slaves to lies and the devil and to sin.
Speaker:Because they don't want to hear the truth, they start insulting Jesus.
Speaker:They ignore the evidence and just start calling Jesus names.
Speaker:In verse 48, they answer, we say, you are a samaritan.
Speaker:We say, a demon is coming to you.
Speaker:Are we not right?
Speaker:It's like if your teacher tells you you've got question five wrong, and they want to explain
Speaker:why you've got it wrong and how it can be better, but you just say, yeah, yeah, well.
Speaker:Well, you got question five wrong, and you smell.
Speaker:So ha.
Speaker:It's not a very good way of finding out the
Speaker:truth.
Speaker:So Jesus says, I don't have a demon.
Speaker:And then he invites them to the truth.
Speaker:He invites them to believe the truth.
Speaker:Believe him.
Speaker:In verse 51, he says, I tell you the truth.
Speaker:If anyone obeys my teaching, he will never die.
Speaker:That's a pretty amazing truth.
Speaker:He's not saying our bodies won't stop.
Speaker:It's just that for a believer in Jesus, it's like sleep, and he'll wake us up when he
Speaker:returns.
Speaker:Jesus is offering life while they're wanting
Speaker:to kill him.
Speaker:He's wanting to give them new life forever.
Speaker:Life, real life with God.
Speaker:Free from sin and the devil.
Speaker:They think that Jesus is talking nonsense though.
Speaker:They think it's craziness for him to suggest that he can give life.
Speaker:They say, now we know that you have a demon in you.
Speaker:Even Abraham and the prophets died.
Speaker:But you say whoever obeys my teaching will
Speaker:never die.
Speaker:Do you think that you're greater than our
Speaker:father Abraham? Abraham died and the prophets died too.
Speaker:Who do you think you are? This is when things get really serious.
Speaker:Jesus is basing everything he's saying on who he is and who he's come from.
Speaker:How come he can offer life and freedom from sin?
Speaker:How come he can invite people to live forever? If they believe in him?
Speaker:It's because he's come from God the father.
Speaker:God the father has given Jesus, his son the
Speaker:right to say all these things.
Speaker:The reason they don't understand Jesus is
Speaker:because they don't know God.
Speaker:He says to them in verse 54, if I give honour
Speaker:to myself, that honour is worth nothing.
Speaker:The one who gives me honour is my father.
Speaker:And you say that he is your God.
Speaker:But you don't really know him.
Speaker:I know him.
Speaker:If I said I dont know him then I would be a
Speaker:liar as you are liars.
Speaker:But I do know him.
Speaker:And I obey what he says.
Speaker:Your father Abraham was very happy that he
Speaker:would see my day.
Speaker:He saw that day and was glad.
Speaker:Now theyre really confused.
Speaker:Abraham lived almost 2000 years before this.
Speaker:So they say in verse 57.
Speaker:What?
Speaker:Youve never seen Abraham? You're not even 50 years old.
Speaker:Jesus answers by telling them something that John told us right at the start of his gospel.
Speaker:Something amazing.
Speaker:It's the most wonderful truth about who Jesus
Speaker:really is.
Speaker:He says, I tell you the truth.
Speaker:Before Abraham was born, I am.
Speaker:Don't panic if you think jesus has really bad
Speaker:English.
Speaker:It's not that he should have said before
Speaker:Abraham was born, I was.
Speaker:No, he means to say I am because he's saying
Speaker:his name.
Speaker:He's saying who he is.
Speaker:Where have we heard that name before? I am back in Exodus when Moses was at the
Speaker:burning bush and God said I am who I am.
Speaker:Tell the Israelites I am.
Speaker:Sent me to you.
Speaker:Jesus is saying he's that God.
Speaker:The same God that rescued them out of slavery in Egypt has arrived on earth to save them
Speaker:from slavery to sin.
Speaker:The people listening to Jesus knows that's
Speaker:exactly what he's saying.
Speaker:And they hate it because they're slaves to
Speaker:sin.
Speaker:They don't want the truth.
Speaker:They don't want to listen to God, even though they say they do.
Speaker:So they pick up rocks to throw at jesus to kill him.
Speaker:But Jesus hides himself and slips out of the temple.
Speaker:You know, lots of people are going to say, don't follow Jesus.
Speaker:Don't believe him.
Speaker:Believe us instead.
Speaker:But all the things they've seen in John's gospel show us Jesus isn't lying.
Speaker:He's telling us the truth.
Speaker:And if we believe him and trust him, he'll
Speaker:show us the truth.
Speaker:And the truth will set us free from sin and
Speaker:death.
Speaker:Jesus is about to meet a man who he's going to
Speaker:set free.
Speaker:And even though everyone thinks of this guy as
Speaker:bad and dumb and not very important, he's going to show that he can see the light and
Speaker:truth better than almost anyone else around.
Speaker:But that's a story for next time.
Speaker:I want to say thank you so much to people who have come on board as financial supporters.
Speaker:I can't keep doing this without more financial support.
Speaker:So if you've been thinking about it, if you want to keep hearing stories of a faithful God
Speaker:for kids, go to the website faithfulgod.net.
Speaker:start donating today.
Speaker:Keep trusting Jesus.
Speaker:Bye for now.
