Sermon Tone Analysis

This Advent season, we are going to camp out in the theme “Name Above All Names.”

Now, we always try to make much to do about Jesus here.

As has been said here before, if you ever come to our church and you don’t hear us talk about and worship Jesus, then something is seriously wrong!

But during this time of year, we like to take a special emphasis on the incarnation of Christ.

Of course, that theme comes from Philippians 2, where we find that Christ is highly exalted, given a name above all names!

And that one day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is Lord.

In order to look at this, we have decided to choose five of the names that we find for Christ in the Scripture.

Every name of Christ is powerful, specific, and is packed with meaning that tells us who he is.

Today we first have chosen to look at the name “I Am.”

In John’s Gospel, there are 7 I AM statements.

These are significant not only because they each tell us something unique and important about Christ’s person, but they are significant because Christ’s Use of the very special term “I AM” goes back to the book of Exodus.

When Moses was to explain his vision and his charge from God to the people, this is what God told Him to say.

It is because of this tie, and the obvious implications, that the name “I AM” for Christ is possibly the most controversial, and garners a vicious disdain from his enemies.

Here in our passage today, we find just that - Christ in controversy with his enemies.

If we were to back up, we would see that the passage begins with the well-known story of the Woman caught in adultery.

The Scribes and Pharisees erupted into one of Jesus’ teaching sessions, dragging with them this woman who was caught in the very act of adultery.

They clearly had no interest in resolving this actual case, nor did they have any compassion or inerest in seeing the woman come to repentance.

No, they brought her before Jesus to test Him - to see what he would do.

He did not do as they would have wished he would have, so in their eyes, he failed that test.

The situation further exasperated when, in his continued teaching, Jesus made the statement “I am the Light of the World.”

Upon hearing this, the pharisees immediately accused Jesus of lying, saying that his testimony about himself was not true.

In verse 18, Jesus says something that really sets the rest of the chapter up.

The Jews know what he means by this, but they continued the conversation.

The remainder of the chapter is wrapped up in this dispute of origins.

Jesus’ claim to have come from God is met with objection after objection, although some did believe.

For those who did not believe, we see in this chapter that they make many references to Abraham as their Physical father and their Spiritual father.

Here Jesus does not hold back.

He certainly does not deny that they have ancestral ties to Abraham as Jewish people, but he denies that their claim goes any deeper than that.

He contrasts what he sees and does according to His father with what they do according to their father.

As we pick up the chapter in verse 39 and following, what we will find is their insistence that they are superior to Jesus, that they have a greater pedigree, that they have a purer history, and that Christ should be put to shame, in their eyes.

But what they are missing is that their simple tie to Abraham in the flesh is not enough to make them right with God.

And not only that, but their simple tie to Abraham in the flesh does not hold a candle to the origin of the one they are speaking to.

They do not understand that the one they are speaking to does not just claim ancestry back to Abraham, but claims origin from before Abraham.

They do not understand that they one which they seek to slander is perfect, sinless, righteous, and Holy.

They do not understand that the one they seek to destroy both physically and logically is the Eternal, Omnipotent, Omniscient one.

So as we look into the rest of their encounter,

Let us worship our Savior, who has a Name above all names, and a Name before all names.

1.

The Crowd’s Appeal to Abraham - Vv. 39-47

“Abraham is our father” - When the Jews repeated this, they failed to grasp the importance and meaning of Jesus when he said that they do what they heard from their father.

In their eyes, they were following perfectly in the footsteps of the father of the nation of Israel.

In their eyes, they were safely wrapped up in their tie to Abraham.

We see their claim in a couple different forms:

A. A Claim to be Abraham’s Children

Its as if the Pharisees here were speaking directly past what Jesus was telling them.

They kept referring back to their ancestral ties to Abraham, but Jesus was telling them that their Spiritual tie to Abraham was broken.

“If you were Abraham’s children...” Jesus is asking for the proof of their pedigree, and not in a birth certificate or a blood test, but in a “proof is in the pudding” sort of way.

Jesus is saying that while they may be Abraham’s physical children, they do not bear the marks of Abraham’s spiritual heritage.

Paul tells us here that what marks an individual as Abraham’s spiritual descendant is not their bloodline, but their faith.

Abraham was the father of faith, He believed God when he told him to flee his country and family and to go to a place he would tell him.

He followed God by faith, knowing that the promise was made and the proof was in God himself, not in the circumstances.

These people, though, who were making such strong claims to Abraham, were relating to the wrong part of him.

They find no advantage to having Abraham as their father if they do not have his faith as well.

In contrast to Abraham who was justified by faith, Jesus’ enemies here were clinging to their works and their physical heritage to justify them.

To quote John MacArthur here, “Salvation is not based on legalistic effort, religious affiliation, or ethnic background.

Rather, it comes solely through faith in Jesus Christ.”

Jesus knew that these people were seeking to kill him.

If they had been Abraham’s spiritual children, they would have followed in his faith and they would have believed the words of Christ.

But rather, Christ again tells them that they were following in the steps of their father.

B. A Claim to be God’s Children

It seems that they finally caught on to what Jesus was saying about their father.

Their response was to do what many people do when they are confronted by someone - they slander the accuser.

Their best rebuttal of what Jesus had to say was to try to destroy his character.

“we were not born of sexual immorality.”

Though we have the clear record of the Virgin birth of Christ, his enemies in that day were convinced that he was simply an illegitimate child, which would mar him in their eyes and preclude him from any great standing before the people.

Out of one side of their mouth came slander and gossip, while out of the other side of their mouth came the claim that not only were they Abraham’s children, but then accordingly they were God’s children as well.

Now, they were right inasmuch as God is the father of the Jewish people.

He did call them out as His chosen ones, and He does refer to Israel as his children.

But as we’ve already pointed out, it is not the physical tie to a heritage that gains one a standing before God! May none of us ever think that we have entrance into the kingdom simply because we have a spiritual heritage.

May none of us ever think that we have entrance into the kingdom because we have a religious background, a baptism, a grandfather who was a preacher, etc.

None of these things will stand up against the wrath of God on account of our sin - it must be faith and faith alone.

Jesus did not accept their claim to be God’s children.

Look at verses 42-43

Jesus contrasts their claim with what he knows is reality.

He begins with the clause, “if God were your father.”

He doesn’t allow them to assume even for a minute that they have him fooled.

They may have had themselves convinced, but they could not convince the one who actually mattered in this case.

Rather, he again reveals to them who their true father was - the devil - and this time he does not speak in unclear terms.

Vs - 44

Jesus unpacks the character of satan himself, and he does this to reveal the character of his attackers.

A murderer, no truth in him, a liar and the father of lies.

These are sharp and devastating accusations against these people, but they are not slander.

And before we get too comfortable in our seats, may we not forget that in this story, we were in the place of the pharisees.

Their spiritual deadness was our spiritual deadness.

Their father the devil was our father the devil.

Their guilt before God was our guilt before God.

The only difference is faith.

Vv. 45-46

Jesus contrasts their lying a deceptive character with His truthful character.

While their case is built upon falsehoods, Jesus’ case was built upon a bedrock of truth.

Vs. 47

In one fell swoop, Jesus destroys their claim to be God’s children.

This is a principle that is true of people in all ages - not just these religious people.

Whoever is of God hears the words of God.

Jesus would reference a similar topic in John 10.

These people had no real claim of relationship to God, for they clearly rejected the one standing before them who was not just speaking the words of God, but he was God himself.

Religious ties to Abraham, or to Israel, had no bearing on their actual standing before God.

Their religious activity without faith only furthered them in their rebellion against him spiritually.

An application here is this - any person who claims to know or have a right standing before God but rejects the Son of God is a liar, and they are doing the works of their father the devil.

Whether that person be a cultist like a Jehovah’s witness, or a Muslim, or Jewish - if they claim to know God but reject the clear teaching and revelation from God about Christ, then they have no part in God’s kingdom.

Christ’s ability to take an argument like this and use it to teach profound, amazing truth is staggering.