John 8:19-20 - Homiletics

The scornful rejoinder of the Pharisees.

"Where is thy Father?"

I. THE APPEAL TO AN UNSEEN AND ABSENT WITNESS DOES NOT SATISFY THE ENEMIES OF JESUS . They ask not, "Who is thy Father?" but "Where is thy Father?" that he may be produced before us as a witness to thy claims.

II. OUR LORD 'S ANSWER . "Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye would have known my Father also."

1 . Their ignorance of Christ ' s Divine nature was patent all along.

2 . Their ignorance of the Father was necessitated morally by their ignorance of the Son ; for it is he who reveals the Father. "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father;" "No man can know the Father, but he to whom the Son reveals him." The eye of faith needed to supplement the eye of sense.

III. THE PUBLICITY AND BOLDNESS OF OUR LORD 'S TEACHING . "These words spake Jesus, as he taught near the treasury in the temple."

1 . Therefore in the very centre of Jewish life, under the very eyes of the Sanhedrin.

2 . The Jews, though ready to destroy him, were restrained by conscience and by public opinion from " laying their hands upon him. "

3 . The hour of our Lord was not yet come.