John #26 The Supremacy of Christ
That You May Believe and Have Life#26
John 8:38-59
The 3rd week in January represents two historic remembrances one positive and one negative … one we seem to be making slow progress and one that I’m afraid we may be moving backwards
This week represents the remembrance of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., born 79 years ago, January 15, 1929; and remembering the decision by the U.S. Supreme court effectually legalizing abortion on demand, 35 years ago, January 22, 1973.
Word came out this week that in the last year there were fewer abortions than in the last 29 years. While there are still thousands a day, and it is still legal, it would seem that progress is being made.
But I have to say that as I look around, and as I remember the words of Dr. King’s Dream, I have to wonder if we are not moving backwards in many ways in regards to racial reconciliation.
We hear cries about justice and injustice
We see people turn away from injustice in regards to the unborn and say “I am more important” …. Either in word or in deed
We see people turn away from injustice in regards to elderly and say “I am more important”
Injustice in regards to racial concerns and people say “I am more important” …
You see I realized something this week
That often injustice is only injustice if it happens to me
We lose our sight of injustice when we lose our ability to see things from someone else’s perspective and when we lose sight of what really is supreme.
Injustice happens when I think that I am Supreme
Injustice happens when I think that I COME FIRST
In Dr. King’s message “Just about Midnight”, he gives examples of “midnight” and he says
“some are tempted to revise Jesus’ command to read ‘Go ye into all the world, keep your blood pressure down, and lo, I will make you a well-adjusted personality.’”
And then he points out that at midnight everything “…loses distinctiveness and becomes a sullen shade of gray. Moral principles have lost their distinctiveness. For modern man, absolute right and wrong are a matter of what the majority is doing … we have unconsciously applied Einstein’s theory of relativity, which properly described the physical universe, to the moral and ethical realm.”
It’s amazing to me that we can talk about the right to choose, but give that baby in the womb no right to choose.
Women say “it is my body” but what about the child’s body.
Why is it a fetus if we don’t want to keep it and a baby if we want it?
We take the life by choice and it’s legal, but if we are expecting a baby and a injury or assault takes the life of the child, then we then call it murder.
How can this be?
It comes back to who’s supreme.
Supremacism is a belief that a particular race, religion, gender, belief system or culture is superior to others and those who hold that view seek to dominate or control those who are NOT in their group.
The word “supremacist” today makes us think of those who follow Hitler. The nazi party had fundamental principles that believed that the European or Aryan race was superior to every other.
But, they are by far NOT the ONLY supremacists
Some Former Confederates formed a secret society called the ku klux klan. They grossly misused scripture and taught an anglo protestant supremacy.
But don’t think for a minute that this is simply an anglo problem.
Japan’s military leaders in World War II told their population that they were a superior race, destined to rule the East.
Rastafarianism coming out of Jamaica preaches a supremacy of the African race and a return in Exodus form to Africa, Ethiopia in particular.
Nation of Islam teachings stem from the Yakub doctrine that Allah is the original supreme black man and that all black men are part of this God-race; and that the race is divine and superior to all other races
There are Radical Muslims that teach supremacy as well as radical Judaism and on and on.
There are scientific supremacists and educational supremacists who believe that their way of thinking is the ONLY way to think and all others pale in comparison
Generally those with a supremacist mentality have a Triumphalism. That is a belief that a certain culture, doctrine, social system should triumph over every other.
But Romanism didn’t triumph forever over all things
Marxism didn’t triumph over everyone for all times
Nazism and Klanism didn’t survive in grand scale didn’t triumph and now is left to only the ignorant few filled with hate and extremist views
Science and Education will not be the Triumph of humanity because we ultimately can’t know everything
Geneticist Francois Jacob wrote, “science cannot answer all questions, it can, give some indications, exclude certain hypotheses. Engaging in the pursuit of science may help us make fewer mistakes”
I don’t even believe in Christian Triumphalism in regards to saying that those who call themselves Christians are superior and will triumph politically …
I DO however believe in the Triumphalism of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ WILL Triumph, his CHURCH, a TRUE Church, His Bride WILL reign WITH, but NOT here in this life, but for a millennium and for eternity with him in a New Heaven and New Earth
Because I believe in the Supremacy of Jesus Christ
The way to defeat racism, classism, elitism, educationalism, evolutionism, the abortionist, racist, and on and on is to understand the Supremacy of Jesus Christ
Remember in last week’s text Jesus said “if you are Abraham’s children, you would do as Abraham did …” and “…If God were your Father, you would love me for I came from the Father”
So we pick up in John 8:48 in this 26th message from the gospel of John
These may not be popular words today, but as Dr. King said in that famous message I quoted earlier “if the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.”
READ John 8:48-59
Are you greater than our Father Abraham?
Jesus said “Before Abraham was I AM”
Oh many of the Jews of that day were supremacists for sure. They believed they were the greatest, the only ones acceptable to God.
But they missed their calling
Yes! They were chosen especially by God for his purposes
Yes! They were loved by God
But it was NOT for the exclusion of the rest of the world but to REVEAL God to the world
Isaiah 49 shows us that God would work through Israel to redeem the world to be a light to draw and reveal.
And they say “you aren’t as great as our Father Abraham”
And Jesus says …
1. Before Abraham
Now Abraham was a great man.
But Abraham was a great man because his faith was in God Almighty
Abraham was a great man but Jesus was BEFORE him
Even more so, we need to know today that before the Racist … Jesus was here
Before the Abortionist Jesus was here
Before the Supremacist, Jesus was here
Before the White Supremacist
Before the Black Supremacist
Before the Asian Supremacist
Before the Legal Supremacist
The national Supremacist
The Scientific Supremacist
Jesus says … I was here long before they were
Lloyd Benson got off one of the best political one liners ever when Dan Quayle was referring to Jack Kennedy and Lloyd Benson said “I knew Jack Kennedy, Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine, and you are NO Jack Kennedy” … what was he saying … he was saying … I was here long before you were.
Well Jesus was saying a similar thing here
He was saying, I knew Abraham, Abraham was a Friend of Mine, and you my friends are no child of Abraham
Jesus was Before Abraham
In the Beginning God … created the Heavens and the Earth
In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
Jesus could have said “I had lunch with Abraham as recorded in Genesis 18 … before I destroyed Sodom …”
Oh I believe we should fight against the abortionist, the supremacists, but I am not afraid of them because
Jesus was here before
Jesus has seen it before
Jesus has heard it before
Which delivers the second thing …
2. Abraham Was
Abraham was a great man … But Abraham was
The Covenant and the Law given by God through Abraham were great things … but
JESUS IS HERE …
Oh, the Good Old Days …
The Jews in Jesus day were longing for the good old days before Roman Rule, holding to the Law, … but Jesus is here
Ever heard anyone long for the “good old days” …
Let me tell you something that ALL the “Good Old Days” have in common … they have Passed …
They WERE …
Abraham WAS …
Life moves on
I think of the racist, I think of the abortionist, the evolutionist, the hatemonger, the radical atheist, the dictator, oh they may have their moment, but their day will pass.
What happened to Nebuchadnezzar?
He WAS
What happened to Caesar?
He WAS
What happened to Napoleon?
What happened to Stalin?
What happened to Chiang Kai-shek?
What happened to Hitler?
What happened to Idi Amin?
What happened to Ceausescu?
One day we will say what happened to that Racist?
He was
What happened to that Abortionist?
She Was
We need not fear any man, as Psalm 56 says … What can mortal man do to me?
How can I say with such certainty … that their time will pass?
Look at our text
Before Abraham was BORN …
Abraham WAS because Abraham was BORN …
It is appointed for man ONCE to DIE
Everything that is BORN will have it’s death
The Abortionist
The Supremacist
The Atheist
The Racist
They will all die because they all were born …
And that evolutionist can try discuss science with Jesus … But Jesus will say … “you have rejected my hand, rejected that you were made in my image, rejected that you were responsible to me … now you would not come to me so depart from me I never knew you”
The racist and the abortionist share one thing in common … they reject that certain parts of God’s creation are equally created in God’s image and have equal rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness …
But their time will pass because just like Abraham they were born and they will die …
Jesus said that UNLIKE Abraham who was Born
Jesus said BEFORE Abraham was BORN …
3. I AM
Jesus does not use words flippantly or by accident
He says I AM … notice the difference as he says “Abraham was born”
In Greek, Abraham ginomai /ghin-om-ahee/ - to become, to come into existence, to begin, receive being
But about himself he says “I Am” eimi – to be, to exist, to happen, to be present”
When Abraham became, I already existed
When Abraham received his being, I happened to be present
Abraham was BORN at a fixed moment in the past
I AM, Have Been, Will Be, forever
Oh but it goes deeper …
In Exodus 3:14 … in response to Moses’ request for a name by which to know God … God calls himself … “I am who I am”
A Full Translation of that phrase in the Hebrew means “I Exist as Whoever, Whichever, Whatever, as an indefinite Entity, in an indefinite state, whenever, wherever, because of myself”
I AM who I AM
And as Jews began to speak Greek, they came to use this Word
“Eimi” to define God as he defined himself in Hebrew to Moses
Jesus Said
Before Abraham was Born
I was and will be GOD
Before Abraham was Chosen
I was and will be God
Before Abraham Settled in Canaan
I was and will be God
Before Abraham Became the Father of Isaac, Grandfather of Jacob, Patriarch of Israel
I was and will be God
Before the Racist was born, before his mind formed that hatred birthed in the heart of Satan, before he ever acted on that hatred
Jesus was, is and will be God long after he is GONE
Before the Abortionist learned to abuse his God given call to heal abandoned the best interest of ALL his patients,
Jesus was, is and will be God
It’s a threefold proclamation in the original that means was, is, and will be
The Greek rendering of WAS in John 1:1 is the same was, is and will be
And that idea is in Revelation when those in Heaven worship the one “who was, and is and is to come”
Jesus is The I AM
The ONLY thing that will defeat Racism
Will be to Realize the Supremacy of Jesus
The ONLY thing that will cause people to care for every human, born or unborn, young or old will be to realize the Supremacy of Jesus Christ
We become and we Die
HE is the I AM
In John 6:35 Jesus said I AM the Bread of Life – no need to be hungry
In John 8:12 Jesus says “I am the Light of the World” … no need to walk in darkness
In John 8:58 – Jesus says before Abraham was I am … that means every man is born and dies, every way of being starts and finishes but I am
In John 10:7 – Jesus says I Am the Gate for the Sheep – the only way to enter in to God’s fold is through Jesus
In John 10:11 – he says I Am the Good Shepherd – he will guide and protect his sheep
In John 11:25 – he says I Am the Resurrection and the Life – he who believes in me will never die
In John 14:6 – he says I AM the way, the truth, and the life … I have been … I am now, and I always will be … that means he still is today in 2008
In John 15:1 he says I Am the True Vine – we can’t produce fruit, good fruit, lasting fruit, anywhere else but from him
In John 18:6 he says “I Am He” …
What are you looking For?
Jesus says “I AM HE” …
What are you going to do with that?
What you do with that truth determines everything
You can’t take Jesus statement of I AM, lightly. Eternity rests on what you believe about Jesus
John 8:24 – I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins
Before Abraham was born I Am
There is no other name like Jesus
There is no other man like Jeus
There is no other god like Jesus
Oh there have been great generals and conquerors … name one and I’ll name another, name another and so will I
Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Pershing, Eisenhower, Schwartzkoff.
Oh there have been great artists, name one and I will name another, and another, Michelangelo, da Vinci, Picasso, Monet, or Rockwell
Oh there are great musicians name one and I will name another and another, from Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, or Berstein, Gershwin, Nat King Cole, Smokey Robinson,
Oh there have been great athletes, name one and I will name another and another … Eric Liddell, Jesse Owens, Jim Thorpe, Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Joe Dimaggio, Terry Bradshaw, Joe Montana, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, LeBron James.
Geniuses name one we can name another Einstein or Edison if there’s Jobs then there’s Gates
Oh But there is a Name …
A name that is above every name
Oh Jesus stands alone in history …
You list the great teachers and none can stand up against Jesus …
Oh Buddha was a great teacher, you might say, but Jesus was taught ABOUT in hundreds of prophesies hundreds and thousands of years before he came
Before Buddha was Jesus says I AM
Oh Mohammed born lived and died for his beliefs
Confucius born lived and died for his teachings
Gandhi born lived and died for his cause
But JESUS lived was born lived died, and came back to life and LIVES TODAY …
Before Mohammed was Jesus says I AM
Before Confucius was Jesus says I AM
Before Gandhi was Jesus says I AM
He is the Supreme being to ever walk the face of this earth!
Abraham was born – he had a beginning … he will have an ending
But Jesus …
Oh, you were born, you will have an ending … but because of Christ, you can change your destination …
Isaiah 45:22-24
Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. 23 … before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear. 24 they will say of me, ‘in the LORD alone are righteousness and strength’ All who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame
So what will you do?
Jesus IS Lord
When we bow to Christ
No Hatred can exist
We will love everyone
We will respect every life
Jesus is Lord
Bow before him
Or be shamed by him
There is none like him
He alone is worthy
There is None Like You
No One else can touch my Heart
like you do
I could search for all eternity long
and find there is none like you