Man's Escape from Death
Notes
Transcript
Did you hear about the houses that fell in love? It was a lawn distance relationship.
Why did SPider Mans evil twin fail his drivers test? He was bad parallel Parker,
Jesus is about to really make some truly audacious claims while he is arguing with these Jews, he is about to tell them that no one has to die, that we can in fact live forever, and it will definitely not settle right with those who are listening.
48 The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?”
So right off the bat they go at him with two deep hurtful insults, and it may be a little hard for our western ears to make out what is going on here, because we don’t think they same way they do, so what is wrong with being called a Samaritan…
-remember… Not of god… half bloods… leftovers from what came before… not fully jewish and not worshipping the true god… made their own temple since they werent allowed to worship with the other Jews, and they figured they were right… so to Jesus they are saying you are a part of that group…
you obviously don’t worship the real God and that is why you are saying these things, and building up the false religion that the Samaritans have and not the true religion. You are so full of heresy… and we have to realize its a true insult they are trying to hurt him a little bit and not honor him at all… for Jews this would have been the worst thing that could be said about you…
This is like looking a UK fan in the face and saying he is a Louisville fan… Its not something that would have been held in the highest esteem…
Secondly, they tell him he obviously has a demon that is possessing him… Its really an interesting question to me… I doubt it was a true question they wanted an answer to, it was more of a bold statement they wanted the rest of the crowd to hear… because if he did have a demon do we think he would have answered truthfully to this question, the probability is probably slim that he would have been like, well of course I do… but what they are trying to get at and what they want people to hear is Jesus is full of this evil spirit whose goal is to lead people astray and not to the true god.
The implication here would be that the evil spirit would be out to destroy true religion and the people who follow it. It would not be enough for it to lead just one astray but what the spirit was trying to do was to lead even more people astray and have them end in the wrong fate as well.
So Jesus answers them, in a three-fold manner
49 Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me.
50 Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge.
Jesus says that his purpose was to honor his Father. He’s saying look I know you want people to believe I have this demon inside of me that is out to destroy our religion and lead our people astray, but the exact opposite of that is true, I know exactly what I am saying and doing, and my purpose of living is to honor God and have people turn back to him…
Secondly, he goes on to say, I Know that you think I am the one that does evil toward God by dishonoring him, but the truth is it is you that is dishonoring God, because you are dishonoring me, and by dishonoring me you are in fact dishonoring God.
Thirdly he said, look I am not seeking my own Glory, but instead I am seeking to Glorify God, and my goal is to lead men to God for his glory, and in the end, God will show those who did show his Glory, and those who did not and he will Judge those based on that.
And here Jesus is about to make the most audacious statement of them all
51 Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”
52 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.’
And I can just imagine the leaders looking at one another and being aghast with anger at what he had said and also thinking, we finally have him, this is great, and they go on the offensive
3. Note the phrases see death (theorese thanaton) and taste death (geusetai thanatou, v.52). The meaning is that a genuine follower of Christ will …
• never experience death nor see death
• never know death nor partake of death
• never face the condemnation of death
• never experience the terror, the hurt, the pain, and the suffering of death; never experience the anguish of being separated from God and from the glory, beauty, perfection, and life of heaven
And in a moment when we die we walk from this life into the next great judgment of Jesus, all together wondrously. And the reason we may never see or taste death is because Hebrews 2:9
9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
And we have to KEEP his word he tells us in verse 51 if we want not experience Death, it is conditional upon us keeping his word… just like a few weeks ago…
52 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.’
53 Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?”
And they are like, see… we knew it, you must have a demon… who could ever talk like this, there is no one sensible enough to believe what you are saying, everyone knows you can’t escape death, I mean look at Abraham, he died… and all the prophets you claim that you are following all of them Jesus, they’re dead too… surely you cannot make yourself out to better than any of those people is that what you are trying to tell us is you are better than father abraham had many sons… and many sons had father abraham… come on Jesus… who do you think you are…
They are very irate by his claims of his pedigree and who he claims to be at this point… and Jesus isnt about to back down from teh truth, instead he is going to dive in even deeper to his claims…
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.’
And Jesus is making four claims here…
1. He is claiming that He was honored by God… He wasn’t trying to honor himself… if anyone does that it wouldnt mean much of anything… When we see people talking about and honoring themselves it doesn’t mean much good, you don’t think much of the man who claims all the good stuff about himself… Oh look at me and how great I am and how awesome I am Aren’t I the greatest… we would all just roll our eyes and not htink much of it… when people honor themselves we jsut roll our eyes because it isnt an attractive measure when someone is blowing their own horn… and this is what Jesus is saying… he is saying it is the father that Glorifies him, not himself… and he is telling us we should honor
He goes on to say that his father is the one they claim to be their God…
2. His second claim is that he personally knew the God they claimed, and actually obeyed his word. Jesus claimed that He personally knew God and obeyed God’s Word.
55 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.
And this is how you would see that also goes with scripture in John 7:29
29 I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.”
and John 10:15
15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.
And he is looking and the fact here is most men lie when they claim to know God, these men are claiming to know God but they really don’t. And we see that in today’s society as well, people who claim to know God but dont and I say all the time this is one of my biggest fears…
And Jesus is saying he doesn’t have to lie about knowing God… everything that he is saying is because his knowledge of God and he can speak directly of it.
3 Jesus claimed that He was the One that Abraham hoped for and actually saw.
56 Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”
57 So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”
And they knew Abraham as the father of their Nation… and God appeared to abraham and challenged him to leave everything and follow him and if he followed him he would make him the father of many nations… and his decendents would be large… and GOd send him out not knowing where he was going but he saw the promise being fulfilled
1) When Abraham was on earth he saw the Messiah’s day by faith. He was hopeful and he rejoiced as much as any Old Testament saint.
13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
2) When Jesus was born, Abraham was alive in heaven, living in the very presence of God Himself He saw the Messiah’s coming to earth and rejoiced with all of heaven. Salvation, the vindication of faith, was now to be secured by the Son of God Himself.
Note that the Jews misinterpreted Jesus’ words. Men usually do. They saw Jesus as a mere man, a man who lived upon earth only for a few years. How could He possibly see Abraham, a man who had died hundreds and hundreds of years before?
4 Finally he claimed to be the great I am
• to be preexistent, always existing, to have been living when Abraham was born (Greek aorist tense, “came into being”)
• to be above and beyond time
• to be eternal
The point is striking. Jesus was there when Abraham was born. He is God Himself, the great “I Am” standing upon earth and in a human body. Why? Note the question is not how. God can do anything, even stand upon earth in a human body if He wills. Therefore, the question is never how, but why. Why would God come to earth as a Man? The answer is clearly stated: to bring the message of God to the world, the glorious gospel (Jn. 8:31–32).
However, note the reaction of men to God’s presence. They rejected and opposed Him and tried to get rid of Him. They wanted nothing to do with Him, lest His claims lay hold of their lives and they be forced to change the way they lived.