John 8:48-59
Notes
Transcript
Last week we went through verses 39-47.
Jesus tells these religious Jewish people WHY they don’t believe the words of Christ.
It is because their father is the devil. And the devil
was a murderer from the beginning
he does not stand in the truth
there is no truth in him
he lies and he is the father of lies
And because their father is the devil their own WILL is to do the will of their father, the devil.
The reason they don’t understand Christ is simply because Christ tells them the truth…and like their father, they hate the truth and refuse to believe the truth.
And that brings us to our section this morning… “Before Abraham Was, I Am”
What we are going to see this morning is just how blind people are who cling to tradition instead of God’s Word.
And don’t forget what Jesus says in verse 31-32:
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Lets read God’s Word
John 8:48-59
John 8:48–59 (ESV)
The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” 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.’ But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
PRAYER:
John 8:48 (ESV)
The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?”
Like we mentioned last week…when reasoning ends, name calling begins.
When the argument is lost…slander begins.
Remember verse 41… “We were not born of sexual immorality...”
Here again we see them turning to personal attacks and slander instead of dealing with God’s Word.
But...Why would they call him a Samaritan?
Who are they? What is a Samaritan?
Samaritans believed they were the true descendants of Israel. They believed that the Temple in Jerusalem and their priests were illegitimate.
So…because Jesus tells them that Abraham is their father they turn to lie about him and say that he must be a Samaritan…another lie they would rather believe…because their father believes lies.
but they already have told on themselves...
they know he isn’t a Samaritan
Remember John 6?
John 6 42
John 6:42 (ESV)
They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
They just refuse to listen to The Word of God…The Word of God, standing right in front of them in the flesh...
You know what we can learn from this?
That if you stand solely on God’s Word…the same might happen to you.
Our message doesn’t make sense in this world...
People don’t like to hear about how sinful they are.
There is nothing you can do to make things right with God…it takes the Son to set you free...
This message is not received to well from religious people…it never has been!
Lets look at how Jesus responded:
John 8:49-51
John 8:49–50 (ESV)
Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge.
Look at these verses for a second and let them marinate.
Let’s just be honest with ourselves here…and this is what the religious can’t do…they hate the thought of it...
But if we want to see how good God is…we have to see just how BAD we are...
Jesus first answers their accusation by saying, “I do not have a demon...”
then he goes on to say, “but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me”.
These religious elites dishonor Christ…that is easy to see in this text.
But here is what we do not want to become: self-righteous
Just because you are now a Christian, just because I am a Christian…doesn’t mean that we don’t dishonor Him.
We dishonor him and the only if we acknowledge that we still dishonor Him in so many ways can we truly repent of dishonoring Him.
In what ways do we dishonor Him?
so many ways but here are a few that come to mind...
loving our wives husbands
teaching our kids and loving them
by what we watch
by what we look at on our phones when no one else is looking
by how we talk to our husbands
by where we spend our time and money...
We can’t look at this and think we have “made it”…we still need God’s grace to reveal our sin and his grace to grant us repentance and His Spirit to continually draw us closer and closer to Christ.
I want to read you what Paul said in Philippians 3.
Philippians 3:7–16 (ESV)
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.
Now…lets look at the rest of Jesus response in verse 50
Look at how he responds to the slanderous accusations
Christ does not seek His own glory…AND THAT IS NOT A NATURAL THING.
Most people seek their own glory...
Look at me…Look at all I have done for God...
Not Christ…He doesn’t see His own glory.
And this is how the Christian fights against slanderous accusations...
If Christ was seeking His own glory then He would have to compromise the Truth in order for the masses to accept Him.
If we try to seek glory for ourselves we are going to have to compromise Truth in order for the masses to accept us.
Christ did not seek glory for Himself but stood firmly on God’s Word
We must not seek our own glory and we have to stand firm on God’s Word.
Look at verse 50…Jesus says, “Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge”.
Christ doesn’t seek His own glory but…BUT…there is One who seeks it....
God, His Father, seeks to glorify the Son…Christ doesn’t have to because the Father does it for Him.
Philippians 2:10–11 (ESV)
so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Jesus was not worried about the glory that comes from man…he only sought to give glory to God....It made no difference to Him what the people of this world thought of Him.
And we need to have this same attitude…not looking for the approval and glory of men but of God.
People will mock you, ridicule you, and slander you for standing firm on Gods Word…and it will get tuff sometimes…but remember the words of Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit:
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
Look at verses 51 and 52
John 8:51–52 (ESV)
Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’
Again, we see what the religious elites do when presented with the Word of God…they exaggerate what is being said…they twist it ever so slightly...
Jesus never said that the people who keep his word will never “taste” death…He said they will never “see” death.
It seems minute doesn’t it?
What is the difference from “seeing death” and “tasting death”.
To see something is to be a spectator…to know the existence of it, to experience it. It is to be in a place where you can perceive:
to become aware of, know, or identify by means of the senses
to recognize, discern, envision, or understand
See, the one who keeps Christ’s Word will never SEE death!...
you will not be aware of it…know it...
But you will “TASTE” IT...
Christ said the believer will not see it…but we will taste it…but thats all. But here they are again trying to twist His Word and exaggerate what He says...
Look at verse 53
John 8:53 (ESV)
Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?”
Oh…here we go! They just cannot understand can they?
but man…they think they are convinced they know God, the God of Abraham....
His whole point is that he is nothing like them or the people of this world who look to seek glory for themselves…always lifting themselves up...
He is not trying to make himself out to be anyone to them…he is just telling them who He is...
A brand new in Christ understands SOOO much more than these “wise and understanding” religious elites who think they know...
What Jesus continues to say to them makes no sense to them...
AW Pink:
“No matter how simply and plainly the truths of Scripture may be expounded, the unregenerate are unable to understand them. Unable because their interests are elsewhere. Unable because they will not humble themselves and cry unto God for light. Unable because their hearts are estranged from Him. Christian reader, what abundant reason have you to thank God for giving you an understanding”
Look at Jesus response to this:
verse 54-56
John 8:54–56 (ESV)
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.’ But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”
Christ again tells them that he did not come to promote himself…to seek glory from anyone but to glorify God the Father.
I keep hitting the point that Christ did not come to glorify Himself because this is what this text keeps saying...
And the takeaway for us, Christians, is that we can not try to promote ourselves…we can not look to bring glory to ourselves but ONLY SEEK TO GLORIFY GOD…TO GLORIFY CHRIST...
Anything else is pointless and worthless...
Let me show you something…YOU SEE WHAT HE IS SAYING HERE IN VERSES 54-56...
NOW LOOK AT HEBREWS 5:5-6
Hebrews 5:5-6
Hebrews 5:5–6 (ESV)
So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him,
“You are my Son,
today I have begotten you”;
as he says also in another place,
“You are a priest forever,
after the order of Melchizedek.”
TAKE ALL THAT IN...
AGAIN WE READ THAT CHRIST DID NOT EXALT HIMSELF…BUT WAS MADE A PRIEST IN THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK...
NOW…LOOK AGAIN AT JOHN 8:56-57
John 8:56–57 (ESV)
Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”
We saw last week in Gen. 18 that Abraham saw the preincarnate Christ at Mamre...
I want to show you something else…remember, Christ is a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek...
turn to Gen. 14.
Look at verses 17-20
Genesis 14:17–20 (ESV)
After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) And he blessed him and said,
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Possessor of heaven and earth;
and blessed be God Most High,
who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”
And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
Who exactly was Melchizedek?
Some believe it was a preincarnate Christ...
Some believe that he was a “type” of Christ… what is called a typology
— For those who believe it was a ‘type’ of Christ…
they get that because of Hebrews 7.
Hebrews 7:1–3 (ESV)
For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever.
But we see in
Gen. 15 that the LORD came to Abraham...
Gen. 17 the LORD appeared to Abraham...
Gen. 18 the LORD appeared to Abraham...
Back to John 8…look at verse 57-58...
John 8:57–58 (ESV)
So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”
He is saying… “people…you have NO IDEA who you are talking to do you?”
You think you know the Father…you don’t!
You think you are looking for the Messiah…your’e not!
You think you are right with God…your’e not!
I AM…I AM…God in the Flesh
I AM…the Second Person of the Trinity...
I AM … the Savior of the World...
Before all creation…I AM...
And look what they did…our last verse this mroning....
John 8:59 (ESV)
So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
Jesus hid himself…and left…
After these self-righteous but very religious people continue to mock and argue the words of Christ…he hid himself and left them.
These people in chapter 8…who didn’t see themselves as being slaves to sin but thought they could do this on their own....
These people who claimed to know God but and know the Scriptures....although they didn’t…they were blinded and actually followed their father the devil and their will was to do his desires...
They believed lies and refused to listen to the Word of God...
Jesus’s response was to finally hide Himself from them and leave.
Don’t be like that! Come to Christ and live!
He avoided avoided their stones…by hiding himself from these people who refused to believe His Word.
For those who refuse to believe His Word still today…he will flee the heart of stone.
If you have not come to Christ…acknowledged your desperate need for a savior…
Beg Christ to take out your heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh this morning.
come talk to me this morning or someone else here. Find me, Jason, Bryan…talk to Bobby or your community group leader...