I'm

. Are you a faithful disciple of Jesus or a fickle follower?

We're beginning a new series on Truth for Life, where we'll take a closer look at some of Jesus, truly, truly, I say to you statements.

Today, Alistairbegg opens our study with a passage in John Chapter 8 to help us understand

how we can be sure we're true disciples.

Jesus answered them, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. Now, as we study this passage today, I think there are a number of questions that are both

raised and are answered.

One obviously is, what does it mean to be a true disciple?

Another is to consider the question, is it possible that the practice of religion may prove to blind us to our real need?

And then thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, where then is true freedom to be found?

Now we begin with, and I have a heading of my notes, if this is helpful to you.

Jesus in verses 31 and 32 provides instruction for those to whom we might refer as aspiring

disciples.

Verse 30, which we didn't read, tells us that as Jesus was teaching in this way, there

were many who believed in him. And as we've already seen in studying John, the level of belief,

the significance of that belief varies, and it is in the context of the wider context that we discover just

what that actually means. Certainly, there were numbers of people who were professing a belief

in Jesus. But when we read on in the chapter, we discover that when push comes to shove, verse 43

of your Bible is open, these same individuals, Jesus says to them, you are unwilling to hear

God's word. Now, this is it. He's speaking to the same people who are described at the end

of verse 30,

and those who are now, to whom we are now introduced, the Jews who had believed in him.

...