Episode Transcript
[00:00:27] Speaker A: Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for you.
We are grateful for what your son has done for us.
We know how much you love us.
And, God, I pray that as we stand, as we sing songs, as we go into your word, as we hear from you, I pray that that love just continues to grow in us so that we can be this amazing example of who you are out in this world. That we can feel your love continuously flowing through us and to others who are around us.
That they may know who you are, and they may love you, too. So be with us this day in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:01:09] Speaker B: Well, good morning, everybody.
This is like the bullpen.
It's like a bull. It's like the bullpen. You get called in at the last minute, the riding come in, but it's good. I don't know how good or how well that your notes are going to be in your bulletin. As far as falling along, I'm hoping that it goes. It's a mash between what Pastor Duba had prepared, what I looked at, and then just some things that I've been reading and dealing with personally and just thinking about over the last couple weeks kind of came. I mean, God uses all these things for his glory. And so we know that it's going to be a time of hearing his word and walk away with something that we can not just hear, but walk away with something today that we can actually put into practice. Right. That we can apply something today that would bring glory to goddess in his kingdom. But they've already left, haven't they?
Yes, they have. So, children three to five, they're gone. Also, one more thing. We started gospel communities last week, and if you're still a little hesitant or, like, really, do I want to do this? A resounding yes, just do it.
The sign ups are still back in the foyer. So on your way out today, I'll be back. If you have any questions about, you know, what goes on, talk to any of the people that you see the pictures of, and again, just experience it for a few weeks, and I know that you will enjoy it. So please keep that in mind.
Let's pray, and then we will begin. Father, you are so good.
And, Lord, your word is so true, as you are true that you are the only truth. And, Father, as we read this passage today, as we see you interact with people who are blind to the truth and who object the truth. Father, how you reacted, that we would just learn from you and how we are to live and to walk each day in this world. Bringing glory to your wonderful name and to not worry about ourselves because you have us in your care. So, Lord, we thank you. Thank you for your spirit that is active and moving. And, Lord, that our hearts would be open to what we hear today. Lord, we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.
All right, so we are continuing our series on who is Jesus?
And it's really the most important question that we can ask and that people can be asked of is like. And it's a great way to start talking with anybody is like, who is Jesus to you?
And the response could be all over the place, like, who is Jesus? I don't know who Jesus is. Or he was a good man, or he lived a few thousand years ago, or you'll probably, oh, I think he turned water to wine one day. You know, he was a great guy. But we have to answer seriously, who is Jesus? And we get that answer today. And through this title that the truth is gonna be told. And Jesus is going to lay the truth out for these men who are going to object him and slander him. I mean, like, we're going to look at. I mean, it's harsh, harsh dialogue, harsh conversation. And we see how Jesus walked through this, this conversation, this interaction that has been going on all through chapter seven and eight. And we see this, that it's been there. But how he talks and deals and handles and it comes down to how he loves the people that are attacking him is really what matters.
And we'll see that today. And we may focus more on that because something that just, I don't know, has been striking me for the last couple weeks about just an idea or thought maybe you've already there, maybe new, maybe not to you, but we will look at this.
We are forced to see Jesus as he is, not as we or anyone, and may want him to be. We can't make Jesus be anything we want because he is who he is.
He is goddesse. He is the I am, which we'll finish off in this passage. He is God. And we know that with Jesus he could have avoided so much, right. If he would have just walked his life. But he had to tell the truth.
He had to proclaim who he was. He came for one reason. That was to seek and save the lost. And the truth about that, he had to be that truth every single day. And we all know that we can sometimes fudge the truth. To do what? To avoid conflict. To avoid a conflict with somebody or just a contradiction or a battle or a conversation, you know, is going to go sideways that we can kind of skirt the truth. But he's Jesus. He can never skirt the truth.
And when someone confronts him with this, he's going to have to respond in a way. And he never shied away from this. And we go back, I think what struck me is that we go back to the beginning of chapter eight and when, again, even in chapter seven, they were just trying to trip him up. They were trying to attack him and manipulate the situation that would cause him to not be who he was.
And going back to the story of the woman brought to him and just kind of thrown down before him to be stoned because of her actions. And we always wonder, what did he write in the dirt? It doesn't matter, but I think he wrote, this is who you guys are.
You guys have all this sin in your life. And it's like, maybe there's like, on a billboard, like, you did this, this and this, like, oh, no. And they were offended by what he knew of them and that they were always on the attack and they were always in disagreement with him.
But we always see that he didn't burn any bridges either. There would be a time, right? He is the one who's going to come back and judge.
But in the moment when he knew the truth and they denied the truth and argued against him, he wasn't offended by their attacks because he had a more important thing to accomplish, and that was to die for them and to die for those who would believe.
We need to remember a key reminder here, we can never turn those who disagree with us into our enemies. Right?
It's kind of like burning bridges, isn't it?
Once you burn a bridge, it's hard to go back and restore that relationship.
And we're so quick. I mean, some of us are very quick witted, and we can burn a bridge. Like poop, it's gone.
Some of us are a little less quick. It takes us longer to do that, but eventually it happens. But we can never disagree with our enemies or turn enemies from people who we disagree with. The stakes are too high. People are why we are here and one primary reason we are given the Holy Spirit.
People are the mission field, even if that means you're hated, disliked or avoided.
We're talking about the church in Thessalonica and Bible studies. Like, they were hated, they were persecuted, they were drug out and beaten. But yet what did they still do? They still sounded out the gospel of Jesus Christ.
It did not impact their testimony.
Nothing that this world can do to us can impact our testimony.
We can continue to proclaim. It doesn't matter how or what's going to happen to us. We can continue to proclaim the devil is real and wants people to be deceived. The devil wins if we can have peace and yet be deceived, if we just go along comfortably, avoiding conflict and being at so called peace. That's what the devil wants.
By not standing and proclaiming what the truth is as he desires.
As we read through this passage, you'll notice that Jesus says a lot of thanks, and he knows that we'll get the leaders and committed jews upset. He knows what he says is going to, like, just blow their tops.
And so we're going to look at these so called crucial conversations, and we know that those conversations are hard when you know the truth and the other person doesn't.
It's hard to have those crucial conversations, but we have them for the sole reason, is because we love them.
If you're in leadership, I mean, everyone's in leadership in some way, and you see someone who is. Who is failing and who is not walking in a way that would just represent God, and you present them with the truth, that's a crucial conversation. And you have that conversation why?
Because you want them to walk in that way that would bring glory to God. Not to themselves, not to you. That would bring glory to God. And I think this is one of those crucial conversations that Jesus has with these Mendez, and it's gonna get a little nasty on their part.
And we see how Jesus responds to this. So let's read this, and we'll look at our first point. John, chapter eight, starting at verse 30 48 through the very end of the chapter 59.
Jesus answered him, and 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 did 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 50 years old, and have you seen. And you have 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.
The first point, Jesus seeks to honor his father, the judge.
He is the judge, as well as the one who brings glory to his son and to us through the love of Christ.
And we see this interaction here, and it's very fitting.
They have nothing left, do they?
When truth is presented, you cannot argue against absolute truth, correct? I mean, you can't. And Jesus is walking absolute truth. Whatever he says is truth.
And they've been trying all this time to deceive him or get him to say something that would deceive himself or lie about himself, but he doesn't. He is the truth. And we know that when you have an argument or a conversation and you have talking. I mean, we're getting political here. You have talking points, and you have an agenda, and you have policies, and you have stuff to talk about. And when you don't have anything to talk about, what do you revert to in order to win an argument?
You throw as much mud and slander at that person as you can.
The fancy term is ad hominem. You attack them.
You try to deflate them and defeat them and to make them look worse than you are. And unfortunately, that is our modern day of conversation.
All we have is. And we see is nothing but attacks. And what we see these men doing here is nothing that we don't see today. It's like the people today in our world pull the same thing. Nothing's changed.
If I can't defeat you with anything. But there's only one truth. There's nothing more you can bring to the table. So they attack him, and they do a very. It's harsh.
They say the Jews answered him. Are we not right in saying that you are a samaritan and have a demon?
It's like. It's the worst thing that you could call a jew would be. You're a samaritan.
It's the worst.
They were half breeds. They were nobodies. They were like the trash. They were like, you live over there on that side. No, you're no good.
And that's what they call Jesus.
And to top it off, they say, and you have a demon.
You're crazy.
What you speak is ludicrous.
And they say that because of the conviction, they are feeling for the truth that he is speaking.
And when you're convicted with the truth of who you are and you're feeling bad about yourself, what do we tend to do?
We tend to lash out.
I feel horrible because of the truth they're telling me. So I'm just gonna make you feel worse.
I'm going to call you all kinds of names to make you feel bad about yourself.
Are they fighting fair?
Does it matter? Does jesus care how they are fighting?
He doesn't care.
He does say, no, there is no demon inside of me. Sorry, but he doesn't even touch the racial slur that was thrown at him.
And they would do this to insult him to the worst.
And they would call him that he has a demon because what he is saying, the truth he is saying is because he is crazy.
Now, what got me here and what just a little bit of. Just a different path here is the question, is Jesus offended here?
Is Jesus offended?
Should he have been offended?
In our world, we say that was very offensive.
But he wasn't offended, was he?
Because it wasn't about him.
Because when we're offended, it becomes about who us and my feelings.
If I'm superior than you, I think I am, and you say something that brings me down, well, that's offensive.
But jesus knew who he was as we know who we are in Christ.
And so he wasn't offended.
He kind of deflected. He really deflect. He just mentioned, I'm just here to serve my father.
I bring glory to him.
The scriptures show many instances of Jesus causing an offense. Now, he can cause offense. Truth, absolute, perfect, divine truth can cause offense to a heart that is hard and stubborn and self righteous.
Correct.
But it does not cause offense to those who are soft hearted.
He offends his hometown crowd. He offends the Pharisees and scribes.
He is the stone of stumbling and the rock of offense. This is no big surprise to christians. We aren't shocked that the Pharisees or the hometown crowd are resentful and outraged by his superior understanding and his mighty deeds.
From our vantage point, it isn't so hard to see that when Jesus challenges their view of reality, he's always right.
We can see their blind spots and pride and how that pride makes them easily offended.
And in our own interactions, a lot of times we are offended because of our own pride and how self righteous we think we are or how good we think we are.
But it's much harder to spot the pride when we're the one being offended and when the offender is someone other than the perfect Jesus.
And you got to ask yourself, what good comes out of being offended?
What good would have happened if Jesus acted like he was offended here?
He probably would have lashed. You know, anybody else would have lashed back. And what would have happened to the relationship or opportunity to present the gospel?
It's gone.
What is the source of being offended?
It's our pride.
When we think, when our identity is in who we think we are, instead of our identity being in Jesus Christ.
What happens to the relationship when you allow yourself to be offended by somebody else?
Do we get hard hearted? Do we put up walls and barriers because we don't want people to come in that hurt?
When we turn hurt feelings into offendness, we go from vulnerable to impenetrable.
When we hurt by someone else's words or actions, it's tempting to try to protect ourselves. With what anger?
You think, well, it's just righteous anger. God says, we can have righteous anger, but who only can truly have righteous anger?
Jesus.
Because we have a tendency to take that anger just a little bit too far, and it becomes hateful to try to protect ourselves with anger or self righteousness that masquerades as having been offended.
We say that you offended me, but what are we really doing?
We're masquerading the self righteousness.
It's easier to imagine the ones who have hurt us as villains rather than own that. Our hurt often has to do with our insecurities and fragility more than with the objective sinfulness of others.
Think about this.
How successful would the ministry of Jesus have been if he were constantly offended by the words of the people?
How successful? Even his own disciples, right, his own disciples, had things to say that weren't really that nice.
And if he was offended, we wouldn't be here today, would we?
In reality, being offended really just comes down to pride, the original sin.
So instead of being offended, rather, Jesus tells them that they are dishonoring his father because they dishonor him.
He isn't saying, al, you hurt my feelings. And he trash talks them back, says, well, if I'm a samaritan, then you're, you know, he doesn't. That's what we would do.
We're a culture of trash talk.
We're a culture of making you look worse than you have just made me.
And that gets us nowhere. In relationships.
He brings all glory to the father who deserves the glory.
He later tells them, and has already have many times, that their God is his father. But they don't get that when they dishonor him, they dishonor and treat contempt of their God. And we can think about that and hold on to that truth. That when we are serving and we are living and walking in a manner that brings glory to God. And someone just slanders you for that. It's not you, and we know that it's God they were slandering.
If you are representing God with your life and you're modeling Jesus Christ with your love and compassion for the world, and people hate you for that, so what?
It is God who they will have to face because of that, not you. You can't do anything besides get angry and just get hateful again.
That gets you nowhere.
Jesus isn't seeking to glorify himself, but God the father does. And God's desire and pursuit matters since he is the judge. The Jews agree that he is the judge. Of course.
In verse 50, we see Jesus tells the people that God seeks Jesus glory. We see this clearly. Again. Turn to Philippians chapter two. I mean, through all of this, what does Paul tell us to do in our lives?
Philippians chapter two. Start in a verse for familiar passage. But this, Paul just emphasizes this, and we see this here, that we have the same attitude when we interacted well, serve. In verse four, it says, let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this in mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ jesus have this attitude, who though he was in the form of God, he was God. He did not count him equality with God. He humbled himself.
It's a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servante. Being born in the likeness of men and verses eight through ten, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at that name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth, and every tongue would confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God forever.
None of that would happen if Jesus acted offended to their slanders, because he wouldn't be humbling himself, would he? He would be elevating himself above God as he emptied himself of that position. He emptied himself to be like us so that we would have an example how we could live and do the same thing each and every day.
His goal, why he came, is to focus on the work that God put before him. His goal was to seek and to save the lost. His goal was to seek and to save those who would hate him, those who would reject him, those who would be offended by him. He came to seek and save the lost.
His goal is not to gain the praise of people.
God the Father will take care of ensuring Jesus gets the glory.
Jesus doesn't need to work to that end.
So what does that mean for three things that we can take away from just this point here?
Live all life to honor God by magnifying his desires over your own.
That's why we're here.
And when we mold and we allow our heart to be molded in the shape of God. And when the psalmist says that when we delight in God, he will give you the desires of your heart, when our heart is molded around who he is, then he will give you the desires of your heart, which are basically his, but not our own selfish flesh fleshly desires.
It doesn't mean we ignore our desires, but it does mean we seek out his desires first. If we seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness first, then he will give you what you need.
Second thing, remember that God is a judge. Yes, he is a God that loves, but in a perfect God, he's also a God who judges.
You have to teach and preach both sides of God, that he is a God who loves and he is a God who judges.
We see Jesus walking that balance perfectly, as he calls God his father and judge in the same breath in this verse.
This is key. If we want to live a life that honors God, speaking the truth can be difficult.
Standing firm on the foundation of Jesus Christ is difficult. And we will come up against conflict and persecution. He tells us that it's going to happen. And the harder and the stronger we stand on the truth, the more difficult and severe the persecution is going to be.
We may not experience that on a daily basis here, but you think about you going back, and it's why we have churches like Thessalonica and we have books of martyrs and we have news of churches and places where, like, how do they even survive? Is because it's by the grace and the spirit of God that they do survive.
And that encourages us to have that same faith at all times and not to waver back and forth and just to have faith. When it's easy to have faith, but to have faith and to be committed in loving God, even when it's not easy.
And we see that in the life of Jesus, it wasn't easy for him to stand there and to take these slanders and this ridicule and to look at them and look at them with love.
And that we, too, as we look at people, we look at them as God sees them as his creation and need of reconciliation.
And we can't do that if we're angry.
We can't do that if we're offended by what they say.
We can do that if we love them.
And if we see that they, too, as we were sinners, they need salvation as well.
So what does he offer them instead? The next point, jesus gives them words that offer eternal life.
It's just to go from that transition, to go from that interaction where they just trashed him to whatever degree, and he comes back and says, listen to me. Listen to me. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. So it's an offering again.
They just tore him down in their own mind. They did nothing to him. We know that.
But what does he come back with?
An offering of eternal life.
To me, that's the pivotal point in this passage, because in our own world, we can never do that on our own.
To be attacked and then to respond with love, that's what jesus did here.
He was attacked, and he's gonna respond in truth. And when truth is spoken with love, great things can happen.
And that's what he does. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.
He says, just listen to me. And this is not the first time, and it may be one of the last times. He kind of, like, grabs him and said, just listen to me, please.
I, the God who say that you worship and you follow, this is me. Truly, truly, just listen to me and do what I ask you to do. Just keep my word.
And the word keep is a very strong word.
And it's not just. It's for everyone, the jews and gentiles alike.
And in the midst of this interaction, this conversation, Jesus is still offering salvation.
It's a military word. It's used to guard watching a prisoner in custody. It means to watch over, to preserve and to protect. And it carries the idea of embracing the responsibility of something.
We're embracing the word of God. We're embracing what he has asked us to do.
We're embracing the two things that he commands us to do, to love him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourself, and to love one another even even more so. We just read in one John that we are to love one another to that degree.
Jesus wasn't describing the condition here to become his disciples. You didn't have to do this first. There was no way we could do it perfectly to be saved, but rather the result of our genuinely believing in him, that this is how we would live, that we would keep his commandments, that we would obey him and abide in him and love him as he's called us to do, to keep his word.
Those who truly believe in him abide in or keep his word. We know that it doesn't refer to perfection, but to a direction of life. There's no way that we could love him and keep his word perfectly. We cannot do that. I hope you know that. We cannot keep his word perfectly, and it's impossible. Jesus did for us something that we can never do.
This new direction of a person who truly believes in Christ is to keep his word.
You say, well, what does this really look like?
What does this new direction look like for someone who is a new creation?
It's a response.
It's not something we have to do to earn favor with goddess, because only Jesus found favor with God. This is what we do out of our love and adoration of God.
I found this an old commentary. I think one of the first commentaries I ever read was back 20 years ago, and it was like.
I forget the name of it. Henrietta mears. I should have wrote it down, what the Bible is all about, right? A great read. And she kind of focuses on a book and she pulls things out. And one of the things she focused on in two corinthians is chapter 13, verse five, where it says we are to evaluate to see if we are of the faith.
And it hit me, as it struck me here, is that. What is it? How do we abide? What does it look like to keep the word?
What does it mean? What does it look like to keep the commandments of God?
And she had this little self evaluation, and you could write these down to see how. Again, it's not perfectly, but is this our direction? We gotta get the difference here.
We will one day be perfected in this, but today we are moving towards this direction. This is what identifies us. This is who we are. And these are five, six really easy questions to think about. The first one is, do I love thinking of Christ?
Is that my direction? Now, again, it's just part of those two great commandments to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Do I love thinking of Christ? Do I love thinking of heaven and things above?
Do I love thinking about doing things that glorify Jesus?
The second thing is, do I love to pray?
Is it something that you just crave and you can't wait to do? And again, it's very convicting, but it's not if I'm perfect at it. Is that my heart and my new direction?
Is this how I'm kind of pattern, my life pattern is around this? Do I love to study or read God's word?
Again, all part of these two great commandments.
The next two are.
The next three are the relational thing. Do I love people?
Not just the people who love me, but do I love people? Do I see people and look at them as Christ looks at them?
Do I love them to the point where I want to see them reconciled to goddess?
Do I love the church to be here, to look forward to, to expect the interaction and the fellowship and the encouragement and the spurring on to continue to do the good works? Which is the next one? Do I love to serve Jesus?
If that's our direction, as Paul says, as we are to evaluate, and as Jesus says, that if you abide or you remain in me and you keep my command, you keep my word, then you will have eternal life. And this is something that we keep, that we hold close to.
That's something that we make part of our life and try to every single day.
If that happens, we know that we will never see death. And when the beauty of this is you guys, is that we don't do this on our own effort or merit.
It's all because of Christ. It's all because the Holy Spirit he's given us that. Paul says that the work that he began in us, what does he do?
He continues that work in us through the Holy Spirit.
Because we can't muster up these five or six things by ourselves, it's impossible.
He's equipped us with every spiritual blessing to bring glory to him.
And this is nothing new. That we have life for those who believe. And when we believe, we become new creations. And when we become new creations, this is what we do.
As a matter of fact, this is who you are now.
The word of Jesus is the identity of the person, person of Jesus. It represents his authority.
To keep Jesus word is to live under his authority. And we don't like authority these days. Culture doesn't like authority.
Some children aren't raised to respect authority.
They don't know what authority means anymore.
And then they're throwing out, well, you got to live under the authority of Jesus. Well, I've never been an authority in my whole life. I really don't care what authority is is.
But again, that's part of being a new person.
The eternal life Jesus is speaking of allows us to no longer live out our life trying not to die, but rather to live with a greater purpose, to experience abundant life in Christ without fear of death, and to help others experience the same life.
This has been true of thousands of Christians for thousands of years, that we are to live this life, that we know that we will not die.
And they didn't get this. They're thinking physical death.
Jesus was talking about spiritual death.
Everyone's going to die, right? We all know that.
But we will not. As believers and children of God, we will not experience or see that second death.
We will be resurrected, and we will have eternal life.
That's the point that Jesus was making here.
But we live in a physical world. We live in a world where people are afraid of death.
They'll do anything to escape death.
They'll do anything to add years to their life, because they're thinking, this is it. This is all I've got.
But Jesus is explaining a life that supersedes this death, a spiritual life, and one day match with a new physical body. The beauty of the resurrection that we have that promised to us.
Third point, Jesus knows the father. Unlike the Jews, 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.
That's a harsh. That's truth in its face. But I do know him, and I keep his word.
And it's a great thing that Jesus did keep the word. Right?
Good for us. He did it perfectly.
Many people enjoyed Jesus signs, but they rejected him still as savior today. Many people enjoy when they have prayers answered, but reject jesus as the sovereign one.
We were talking about it, and I was saying this morning, like, crisis really brings people to church, right?
We look back, you know, two years from tomorrow or whatever, years back, two days and ten years. How far are we? 20 years. 20 years. 20 years. No, 23 years. That the churches were just flooded with people, right?
They came because of crisis, and. And they tasted the physical comfort of a church.
They experienced the welcoming of people. They experienced, you know, the patriotism of what was going on, and they welcomed that. And it felt good, but they just tasted it.
And when the crisis was gone, what happened?
There was no longer a need for this physical comfort.
And what Jesus is offering is a spiritual comfort. That will again transcend any physical crisis.
That's what brings people to church, is that peace, that spiritual peace we have, knowing that we have hope after this life.
And they didn't know that.
They didn't know him.
They didn't know the person, the God that was standing before them.
The people didn't know him.
They liked all the physical comforts of the miracles. And being fed when they were hungry. And seeing their loved ones healed, that was a beautiful thing.
But Jesus was offering eternal life rather than temporal comforts.
Fourth point.
Jesus presence brings joy to the seeking and saved, but not to the lost.
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 50 years old. And have you seen Abraham? Well, in fact, he did, didn't he? He talked with Abraham.
Abraham worshipped him at that time and gave to him.
Jesus said to them, truly, truly again, 14th time I say it 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.
Your father. Since we've been talking about the lineage and origins, they're talking about the father now.
And this inference here that Abraham saw him.
I glorify myself. If I glorify myself. My glory is nothing.
It is my father who glorifies me.
If you say it is. He is our God.
Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day.
Speaking of himself as God.
He saw it and was glad.
There's debate on what took place here, why or who Abraham actually saw or what he believed in.
If you turn to Hebrews, chapter eleven, verses 17 through 19.
The moment when Abraham had taken Isaac up. And as the whole time up there walking the path, Isaac carrying his wood to sacrifice himself or be sacrificed. On that, Abraham had faith and people. What did he have faith in? What was God going to do there?
What was God going to provide by faith? Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac and he who. This is from Hebrews, chapter eleven. And he who had received the promises was in the act, the act of offering up his holy son. I love Hebrews. How it just commentates on things we don't see in Genesis. We see that in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said the word Isaac, that God had promised through Isaac, shall your offspring be named.
So you get the conflict here. He's getting ready to sacrifice his son, but it was this son who would be the offspring of his people.
Verse 19. He considered that God was able to even raise him from the dead.
So even then, at the point of him sacrificing, there was this idea, this knowledge, this faith, that even if he did this, that God would raise him from the dead, I that there would be hope in the promise.
And we see this idea of resurrection, of God being able to do this, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
So Jesus is using this point in this interpretation to make the point that they too should rejoice, since the Messiah is standing before him, and he would be the death and resurrection for their hope that through his resurrection, through his sacrifice, the substitution, the penalties, our penalties on him, that he would be raised again, that we too would have the same life.
Salvation is both the same Old and New Testament.
In the Old Testament, salvation is by grace alone through faith.
Those in the Old Testament were saved because of the faith he had in God and in the promise of redemption that would come.
They didn't have the details we do now.
So was their faith greater than ours? I don't know. They had faith.
They had faith in the promise.
They had faith in how God kept his promise.
With this example of Abraham and Isaac, the faith he had in God and the promise of redemption that would come, they looked forward to the forgiveness that was purchased at the cross of Jesus Christ.
New Testament salvation is by his grace alone through faith. Same thing, which includes the faith that we have in the gospel, are saved because of the faith we have in God and the promise of redemption that did come.
We do have the details about Jesus and the suffering and death he endured.
And as we put our faith in him, we express the grace of God for the forgiveness of sin.
We look backwards to the forgiveness that was purchased at the cross as they look forward to the forgiveness of the cross. We have that we know that our faith now is knowing and waiting for his return for us and our reuniting with him in heaven.
So the question is now, what is your response to the truth?
Your response of having so far in the book of John, Jesus proclaiming that he is the son of God, proclaiming that he is God, that he is the I am.
He wasn't after Abraham. He wasn't after he was before Abraham. He is eternal.
That's who Jesus is.
Some points to think about.
How have you responded to the truth of Jesus to offer a way out of experience. The second death.
Do you fear this first death of not knowing for sure of what happens next?
How is your relationship with God changing you?
Does your heart and actions align with the statement of faith? Those six, seven questions is your faith, is your relationship with God changing how you look at him and think about him, how you interact with each other, how you interact with the people around you, how you interact and respond to people who offend you or so called shouldn't offend you?
Is your life a living testimony of the greatness of God?
Do you find joy in your time with Jesus?
Do you find joy in bringing Jesus to the lost? If not, spend some time praying when God says you have not because you ask not. It's not about the physical really. It's really about the spiritual. First.
If you want this type of hunger and relationship with God, if you ask for it, he's going to give it to you.
The spirit's going to lead you in that direction.
Last thing, have you been believing a lie because it's easier that way?
Do you need to accept the truth, no matter how painful it is, so that you can experience the joy and healing Jesus wants for you?
The truth is in front of us when we read it.
And if you're here and you haven't experienced that truth, the response is yours.
And our prayer is that you would embrace that truth and want that truth and really want that hope in Jesus Christ alone. Let's pray.
Father, thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to come together to read through your word.
Father, I know that your word is powerful and the words that I said don't really mean nothing compared to your truth.
And I know your truth will not come back void.
Father, I pray for the hearts of all here as we either contemplate the strength of our faith, the deepness of our love for you, the greatness of our testimony, Lord, that we can ask and you will provide for that.
And Lord, there are some here who are just listening, maybe for the first, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th time hearing the gospel, hearing the hope that we have in the life of Jesus Christ and not our own, they would just receive that word.
Knowing, Lord, that the seed that has been planted today that you will bring to harvest one day.
We thank you for that promise.
So, Lord, now we just want to say thank you and our praise and offering up to this worship.
We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.
