Due to the behavior of the priests, scribes and Pharisees, of not believing that Jesus was the son of God and sent for a great mission, Jesus tells them: You are of your father the devil.
When Jesus listens to these men say: We are children of God and our father is Abraham, he answers them that they are not children of Abraham because Abraham did good works and knew the will of God. That is why Jesus calls them children of the devil and leaves them with these withering words:
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
John 8:44