Sermon Tone Analysis

Ok, I am going to play a little game.

I am going to make a statement about someone from the story’s surrounding Jesus’ birth.

From the statement I want you to tell me who I am talking about.

The first one is, I am the one the angel called “the favored one,” who will be the mother of Jesus.

I am the one the angel told to stay married to Mary.

I am the angel who spoke to Mary and Joseph.

I am the one the angels announced the birth of Jesus.

All of these people have great description about who they are each one begins with I am.

But there is One who doesn’t need anything else to follow the I Am.

Kids are now dismissed and they will learn about the I Am from mrs.

Lynn.

This morning we begin our series on Knowing Him by Name.

This goes along with the advent calendars you can download from focus on the family.

It is interesting how many names Jesus has.

He has His birth name which is Jesus, the Lord Saves.

This is a name God himself has given Him.

As you go through the week you will also find many other names, like, “The Word,” “Son of David,” “the true Vine.”

All of them are powerful and all have meaning.

There is only One name though that caused the religious leaders of the day to really take notice of Jesus.

There is only One name that stirred them up to the point of wanting Him dead.

We find this name in John’s gospel.

John 8:58-59 reads, “Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.”

Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.”

What is the name that caused the religious leaders to pick up stones and though at Jesus.

It was the name “I Am.”

What is so significant about this name, why would this cause such anger and distress.

Names have a lot of meaning and this name has some very significant meaning.

First of all, I Am is Eternal.

I Am is Eternal

When we look at Jesus saying I am we only have one thought about this.

It is a pronoun “I” with a verb, “am.”

In normal everyday English this is how we would we describe ourselves, “I am” a pastor.

“I am” a father.

Each time we use the phrase in English it is just to point to our function or title.

In fact when we use the phrase I am there is no power in it at all.

The power is in the noun that comes after it.

If I were just to say ‘I am’ (short pause) you would all sit there in suspense to know what I am going to say next.

When Jesus says “I Am” here, there is no suspense, they know exactly what He is saying.

He is telling them He is God.

The argument that comes up here is that Jesus has told them in verse 51, “truly, truly I say to you, if anyone keeps My words he will never see death.”

In verse 52 they respond to Jesus in an unbelieving way.

They try to demean Him.

“Now we know that You have a demon.

Abraham died, and the prophets also; and You say , ‘If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste of death.’”

Do you see what they are doing.

The revere Abraham and the prophets as men of God and these men died how can Jesus, who is born out of wedlock, have words of eternal life.

This is followed up with their statement in verse 53, “Surely Your are not greater than our father Abraham, who died?

The prophets died too; whom do You make Yourself our to be?” Basically they are saying to Him, who do you think you are.

Our father Abraham who God chose to be the patriarch of our people has died, those who God spoke through to bring warnings of impending judgment to the nation they have died and you think you are greater then them.

You think you have words of eternal life.

How can that be possible?

So Jesus responds and His response doesn’t point to Abraham as the response of the others.

His answer points directly to God.

Look at verse 54, “Jesus answered, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, He is our God’; 55 and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word.”

Do you see what Jesus has done here, He has flipped things around on them, called them out on their hypocrisy.

The religious leaders of the day say God is their God, the God of Israel.

Still, they say this but they don’t know God at all.

Jesus on the other hand knows God, knows God so well, He calls Him Father.

If He were to say He didn’t know God then Jesus would be a liar.

He qualifies knowing God by saying He does know Him and He keeps His Word.

The Jewish people say they know God and they know God’s word but they don’t keep it, nor can they.

Then He tells them something they have a hard time grasping.

Verse 56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”

Notice the contrast Jesus provides.

Jesus calls God His Father, but He calls Abraham their father, not His own.

Abraham is not Jesus’ father because Jesus is the God of the universe.

He is the Lord of Abraham.

Abraham trusted that God would bring Salvation through His offspring.

Abraham trusted that God would Save the World and Abraham looked forward to the day when God would do this.

He didn’t understand how God would do it but he know God could.

So he rejoiced for the day when Jesus would come.

This is faith, not needing to see the day but trusting God at His word that He would bring this day about.

This is that day, the Messiah is walking the earth and the promise of all nations being blessed through Abraham is about to be fulfilled in and through Jesus.

The religious leaders could except what Jesus was saying.

So the questioned Him one last time.

Verse 57, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Abraham has been long since dead, by this point in history it has been about 2000-3000 years since Abraham walked the earth.

That is why they say you aren’t even fifty, they are being sarcastic.

How could you have seen Abraham.

Well the only answer to that question lies in Jesus’ full name.

Verse 58, “Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born I am.”

Notice how Jesus tells them here , ‘before Abraham was born, I am.’

This can also be read before Abraham existed, I existed.

English I am is just to point to what we are or what we are going to do.

In the Greek there is a word for that, it is ego.

If you were to say I

See when we look at Jesus saying this in English it just looks like He is saying I am.

The thing is when we look at the Greek there is a lot more to this then we realize.

See in the Geek the word that is used here for the Am, emie.

When you translate the word in its original form the first person pronoun is already built into it.

So what you would get when it is translated is I Am.

Well that is great but what happens here in the Greek is they took the word for “I” or “me” because they do have that.

It is the word Ego.

When you have the words together they are emphatic.

When the religious leaders heard Jesus say here I am, ego eimi, they heard Him say I have always existed.

This is the same phrase God uses of Himself in the book of Exodus.

Moses wants to know God’s name and He wants to know how to respond when the nation asks who has sent him.

God simply tells them, I AM Who I AM.

The one who exists, The eternal has sent me.

Yahweh in the Hebrew and ego eimi ho own in the Greek.

God’s covenant name is the One who exists.