I AM - John 8:24, 58
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Do you know who Jesus is?
It’s OK if you don’t, because I’m going to tell you who Jesus is this morning, and I want you to live everyday from this point forward knowing who Jesus is.
I didn’t always know who Jesus is. I wasn’t always a Christian and even when I became a Christian I only had a beginners knowledge of who Jesus. A beginners knowledge of Jesus and His death and resurrection will save us, but our knowledge of who Jesus shouldn’t remain a beginners knowledge.
We should come to a full knowledge of who Jesus is as the Holy Spirit instructs us in God’s Word.
That’s what I’m praying happens this morning and over the next eight weeks as we study the I AM statements of Jesus in John’s gospel. I’m praying that through these I AM statements we come to a full knowledge of who Jesus is.
If you catch hold of who He is, not only will your eternal destiny change but so will your everyday living.
John was a disciple of Jesus; He was one who learned from Jesus and followed Jesus and then was chosen as an Apostle, an authorized official messenger, of Jesus. John was witness to many amazing miracles performed by Jesus and heard many incredible teachings by Jesus, but what John remembered most is the love of Jesus. In John’s gospel, John refers to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” John wasn’t being prideful; he wasn’t saying that Jesus loved him and him alone; no, John was just astounded that Jesus loved someone like him! He was blown away by that, but he was blown away by that because John understood who Jesus is.
This is why John is a great teacher for us on who Jesus is! John knew Him and John communicates who Jesus is to us through the words of his gospel.
So, with the Word of God in hand and the Holy Spirit as our guide, let’s learn who Jesus really is.
[READING - John 8:39-59]
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, and the prophets also; and You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste of death.’ 53 “Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died too; whom do You make Yourself out to be?” 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. 56 “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and 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?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” 59 Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.
[PRAYER]
[CONTEXT] In the first part of John’s gospel Jesus is rising in popularity (chapters 1-6), but in this second part, opposition rises against Jesus (chapters 7-12).
In John 8, Jesus is in Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths, which was one of the annual religious celebrations when God’s people were to gather in Jerusalem to remember God’s faithfulness.
Jesus goes up to the celebration from Galilee, but He goes in secret. People who hate Him and people who love Him both wonder where He is, and then suddenly He appears in the temple and begins to teach, and people continue to be divided by what He teaches.
Some say He is a good man, but others say He has a demon.
Jesus cries out in the midst of that celebration claiming to have been sent by God.
On the last day of that feast, He cries out saying that whoever believes in Him will never thirst spiritually again.
Some think He’s a prophet.
Some think He’s the Christ.
And some doubt that any man of God could ever come out of Galilee.
Jesus appears again, this time claiming to be the Light of the world.
A strict Jewish religious sect called the Pharisees oppose Him, but Jesus says they will die in their sins because they do not believe in Him (John 8:24).
He says in John 8:51 that anyone who keeps His Word will never see death.
Let’s work our way through the end of John 8 beginning with v. 51…
Let’s work our way through the end of John 8 beginning with v. 51…
51 “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death.”
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Isaiah, Elijah, Jeremiah, and the rest of the men of God in Hebrew history all died.
This is why v. 51 sounded insane, even demonic to these religious leaders. Surely Jesus wasn’t claiming to be greater than these greats of the Jewish faith, was He?
But Jesus was talking about a kind of lie that physical death cannot extinguish.
52 The Jews said to 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.’ 53 “Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died too; whom do You make Yourself out to be?”
People were always wondering who Jesus is.
When Jesus calmed a storm with a command, his disciples asked, “Who is this?”
When Jesus forgave sins, His enemies asked, “Who is this?”
When Jesus rode triumphantly into Jerusalem as King a week before His crucifixion, the curious asked, “Who is this?”
I encourage you to ask of Jesus, “Who is this?”
Who is this that could command a storm?
Who is this that could forever forgive your sins?
Who is this that should be hailed as King?
I think you know, but the Pharisees didn’t.
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.
The Pharisees claimed to know the Father, so they should’ve known the Father’s Son. They should have seen that the Father had been glorifying Jesus, the Son, the whole time through the signs that Jesus performed. John shows us seven of those signs in his gospel.
Jesus turned water into wine (John 2:1–11).
Jesus cleansed the temple (John 2:12–17).
Jesus healed a royal official’s son (John 4:46–54).
Jesus healed a man who had been ill for 38 years (John 5:1–15).
Jesus fed 5,000 people with five barely loaves and two fish (John 6:1–15).
Jesus healed a man born blind (John 9).
Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11).
Earlier in John 8, the Pharisees asked Jesus, “Who are You?” (John 8:25a), and Jesus replied, “What have I been saying to you from the beginning?” (John 8:25b). In the signs He performed Jesus had been telling them who He is; He had been doing the works that reveal His identity. Jesus later said to these Pharisees…
John 10:38 (NASB95)
38 ...believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.”
Jesus performed every sign with the same divine authority as the Father.
Who do you think He is?
Jesus continued…
56 “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”
Why didn’t Jesus say, “Our father Abraham...”? I think Jesus didn’t say that because to call someone ‘father’ is to acknowledge their superiority, their greatness in comparison with yourself; and in this case, if Jesus would’ve said, “Our father Abraham...” Jesus would’ve been saying, “Abraham is greater than Me.”
But Jesus didn’t say that.
He said, “Your father Abraham...”
Abraham, the man of faith, was greater than these Pharisees, but he wasn’t greater than Jesus. In fact, he rejoiced when he saw Jesus’ day; he saw it and was glad!” (cf. Heb. 11:3).
Jesus doesn’t make mistakes. He meant to use the past tense, “Abraham rejoiced when he saw My day; he saw it and was glad.”
They must’ve scratched their heads. How could this be? How does it even make sense? How could Abraham have looked on Jesus’ day and rejoiced?
And even more to the point, how could Jesus know that Abraham rejoiced?
Abraham and Jesus lived about 2,000 years apart.
Was Jesus claiming to be 2000 years old?
Not even Methuselah lived that long.
That sort of claim would be like claiming to be eternal.
57 So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?”
They’re catching on.
But they aren’t ready for this…
58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.”
[ILLUS] We once had a guest preacher who cussed as he preached revival services in my home church.
[ILLUS] We once had a guest preacher who cussed as he preached revival services in my home church.
He was telling a story about preaching revival services in another church in Texas.
He said he arrived at that church in Texas and was immediately greeted by so many encouraging people, but one older woman in particular went on and on about how she had been praying for those revival services and about how she was so excited to listen to his preaching and see what God would do in their church.
The guest preacher was fired up and preached his first sermon that night, and afterward the older woman came up to him again and went and on and on about how wonderful it was.
The guest preacher was encouraged all over again, and as he talked with the pastor after the service, he said, “Your people are wonderful! And you know, Mrs. So and So is just so encouraging!”
The pastor replied, “Mrs. So and So is a real ________.”
It wasn’t the queen mother of all cuss words, but it was a member of the royal family, and the guest preacher in my home church said it just like the pastor in Texas said it to him, and when he did, it was like the confused quiet seconds just after a massive explosion when everyone is silent and still because they’re still trying to figure out what happened.
There was total silence in our sanctuary.
Even the air conditioner turned off.
The preacher explained that he wanted us to feel the shock he felt when the pastor said that to him, and boy did we feel the shock.
Right after the preacher said his bad word, one good ol’ boy leaned over to me and whispered as quietly as possible, “Did he really just say that?”
It must’ve been quiet for just a second after Jesus referred to Himself as the I AM. Then there must’ve been an audible gasp from these religious leaders. Their mouths must’ve gone dry; their eyes must’ve widened in shock. Time must’ve slowed as they tried to process what Jesus had just said about Himself. He went far beyond a cussword in a sermon during a revival! He said something infinitely more shocking than anything they could’ve been expecting!
He said that He is I AM.
He said that He is God.
Let’s back up to Abraham.
Let’s back up to Abraham.
God said to Abraham, “I will make of you a great nation,” (Gen. 12:2). That promise was passed down to Abraham’s son, Isaac, and then to Isaac’s son, Jacob, but the promise didn’t look promising in the generations following Jacob.
His descendents became slaves in Egypt, and there seemed to be no hope of changing that reality.
But God heard the cry of His people and called a man named Moses to lead His people out of Egypt.
Moses, however, wasn’t a confident man; he tried to put up excuses, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” (Ex. 3:11). Moses wanted assurances, and God said that He would be with Him, but Moses asked, “What’s your Name, so I can tell them who sent me?”
And God tells him.
14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”
Can I teach you some fancy theological terms?
Can I teach you some fancy theological terms?
The first term is ASEITY, and God’s Name, I AM, communicates His aseity.
The first term is ASEITY, and God’s Name, I AM, communicates His aseity.
His aseity means that He is completely independent or self-sufficient.
You and I live by contingencies or ‘ifs’ — if we have air and water and food and shelter, we will live, but if we do not, we won’t.
God, however, doesn’t live by ‘ifs’ — His life isn’t contingent upon anything.
We are because of something else.
I AM is because He is I AM.
The second fancy theological term is IMMUTABILITY, and God’s Name, I AM, communicates His immutability.
His immutability means that He is constant or unchanging.
You and I aren’t constant because we aren’t perfect, so we grow, make mistakes, mature, make corrections, and so on.
God, however, doesn’t grow or mature. He doesn’t make mistakes. He is the same perfect being yesterday, today, and forever.
We change because we are imperfect.
I AM is immutable because He is I Am.
The third fancy theological term is ETERNALITY, and God’s Name, I AM, communicates His eternality.
His eternality means that He is forever or everlasting.
You and I have a birthday and a date with death.
One day we will all have tombstones that say when our life on earth began and when it came to an end.
God, however, is, was, and always will be. He has no beginning and will have no end.
We are, but one day people will say of us, “They were...”
I AM is eternal because He is I AM.
The fourth fancy theological term is DEITY, and God’s Name, I AM, communicates His deity.
His deity means that He is God and there is no other.
I AM is the one true living deity because He is I AM.
This means that when Jesus called Himself ‘I AM’ in John 8:58, He claimed to be the uncaused, unchanging, unending God!
Although He is God the Son, in the transcendent mystery of the Holy Trinity, He is I AM.
He is fully God.
[ILLUS] Arius was a false teacher in the fourth century A.D. who set his teachings to music. He was perhaps hoping to get his error-riddled song stuck in peoples hearts, but his teachings are best forgotten no matter how catchy his tunes may have been. Listen to one his lyrics…
The uncreated God has made the Son
A beginning of things created,
The Son is not equal to the Father,
Nor does he share the same substance.
The members of the Holy Trinity
Share unequal glories.
In his song, Arius denied everything that Jesus claimed about Himself when He said that He is I AM.
Arius denied the aseity of Jesus.
Arius denied the immutability of Jesus.
Arius denied the eternality of Jesus.
And Arius denied the deity of Jesus.
And Arius would’ve certainly denied that Jesus ever really claimed to be I AM.
But the religious leaders in John 8 didn’t misunderstand Jesus. They knew who He was claiming to be, so in response to His supposedly blasphemy…
59 Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.
His time had not yet come.
And because of the unbelief of His people, I AM left His temple once again.
But so what? What’s the big deal if these religious leaders, or Arius, or even we today don’t believe that Jesus is I AM?
But so what? What’s the big deal if these religious leaders, or Arius, or even we today don’t believe that Jesus is I AM?
Well, listen to Jesus…
24 “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”
We are all sinners. We’ve all rebelled against God—breaking His laws, disobeying His commands—and the price for that sin—big or small—is death, which is eternal separation from the kind presence of God; it is eternal torment in the fire of God’s holy wrath.
Because God is life, when we rebelled against Him, we chose death, but God became flesh and dwelt among us in Jesus of Nazareth.
He had no sin and was perfectly righteous, and therefore could take our sins upon Himself as the perfect sacrificial lamb without spot or blemish or defect of any kind; He paid for our sins on the cross and covered us in His perfect righteousness, a perfect righteousness that is proven by His resurrection from the dead.
Having paid the full price for our sins and having no sins of His own, Jesus rose from the dead because death could not hold Him.
Now, only God has perfect righteousness, so if Jesus is not God, we have no salvation.
But I believe that He is God.
I believe that He is I AM.
What do you believe?
The church responded to Arius with the Nicene Creed, which says that Jesus is “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father.”
In other words, the church said, “You’re wrong Arius. Jesus is God. He is I AM.”
But what do you say?
What do you believe about Jesus?
How do you understand Him?
Do you understand Him fully?
To help us understand Him as we should, John gives us seven more I AM statements in his gospel.
They reveal to us the real Jesus.
“I am the bread of life.”
“I am the Light of the world.”
“I am the door of the sheep.”
“I am the good shepherd.”
“I am the true vine.”
“I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
“I am the resurrection and the life.”
Over the next seven weeks we are going to learn who Jesus is through His I AM statements.
I am praying that you see Jesus as I AM; I’m praying that you see Jesus as your salvation.
In Exodus, I AM sent Moses to redeem His people.
In Jesus, I AM came in the flesh to redeem us by way of the cross.
Conclusion
Conclusion
[ILLUS] We were a bit confused. Perhaps we were all wondering the same thing as our 9th grade Sunday School teacher went on and on. Finally, a friend of mine spoke up and said, “Wait. I’m confused. Is Jesus God?”
Please do not be not confused this morning. Don’t leave here wondering.
Jesus is God.
He is I AM.
He is your salvation.
[PRAYER]