If you loved Me (John 8: 12 - 59)

In John Chapter 8, Jesus will have His evidence, authority and even identity attacked by the Pharisees. As He moves through speaking to them, they become more and more aggressive as He reveals more and more about who He is, and what He has come to do in saving humanity. This is how Jesus treats those that are hard-hearted towards Him. He doesn't fight back, but instead just speaks of greater heavenly realities that are to come which their ears cannot handle because they are earthly and Jesus hears heavenly. He loves these people. He desires that they come to know Him. And even some in the crowd begin to believe in Him until He tells them that they must come to Him because they are slaves in their sins. But they rejected these words. They made up excuses for their sin, saying that they are Abraham's children or even that God is their father, instead of realizing that they need to just surrender and believe upon the Lord Jesus. It gets to such a heightened point that Jesus has to confess of those people who in Jerusalem began to believe. He had to confess that their father was not Abraham or God, but indeed it was Satan, because if you loved God, you would love Jesus. And so the arguing and bickering against Him carries on until finally Jesus has enough and He says these wonderful words, "Before Abraham was, I AM" pointing to the fact that He is not just a Prophet, a King, or a High Priest. He is God who has come in flesh to save the world. He must be respected. He must be listened to and believed upon. And at that, they wanted to kill Him all the more.