Jesus spoke to them saying, “I am the light of the world.”… The Pharisees said to him… “Your testimony is not true.” John 8:12, 13
Try and put yourself in the shoes of a man or woman in the crowd that day. You are listening to this interaction between Jesus and the Pharisees, and you hear Jesus say that He is from above (8:23) and that unless you believe in Him, you will die in your sins (8:24). You begin thinking to yourself, “No one ever spoke like this man!” (7:46), and as you listen to Jesus, you believe.
So now you are a believer in Jesus, and in the crowd there are many who, like you, are believing. But you don’t know that. All you know is that the loudest voices are hostile to Jesus.
All around you there are loud and angry voices saying, “Your testimony is not true,” which means that what you believe is not true. “You are a Samaritan and have a demon” (8:48). Demons are harmful and destructive powers, so what they are saying, in effect, is: “What you believe is harmful and destructive.” Then the hostile crowd picks up stones to throw at Jesus (8:59), as if to say, “The world will be a better place when it is purged of what you believe.”
Maybe you are a student, venturing off to college. There will be loud voices on campus saying, “What you believe is not true! What you believe is harmful and destructive! The world will be a better place when it is purged of what you believe!” How are you going to stand up to the pressure? How will you handle the challenges of a hostile world?
Maybe you have come to believe in Jesus, but your family is committed to a different faith. They are convinced that what you believe is not true, it’s destructive, and the world will be a better place when it is purged of what you believe. How will you stand up to that?
Why do you think Jesus allows His followers to be opposed at times?
