Before Abraham Was

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Good morning, I was remarking that whoever built this pulpit must have been tall because this was he I Understand that most of you have the New King James Bible and so I'd like for you if you have a Bible I'm going to use the one that's here I would normally preach from the ESV But I'm going to use the the one that's here this morning and I'm going to invite you to take out your Bible and turn to the gospel of John Find yourself at chapter 8 and we are going to read verses 48 to 59 Before I read I want to just say one thing For those of you who don't know me, obviously most of you don't I'm Keith Foskey I'm with Sovereign Grace Family Church.
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If you're a visitor today, I am NOT the normal pastor I think sometimes that's important to point out if you're if you're a first-time person.
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Don't let me run you away There is a Much better man than me who is normally here But he is at my church this morning and I'm grateful to have him there preaching and so we are going to Read the Word of God together.
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Do you normally stand for that brother? Let us stand for the reading of the word We're going to read verses 48 to 59 Then the Jews answered and said to him Do we not say rightly 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 And I do not seek my own glory There is one who seeks and judges most assuredly I say to you if anyone keeps my word, he shall never see death Then the Jews said to him now.
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We know you have a demon Abraham is dead and the prophets and you say if anyone keeps my word, he shall never taste death Are you greater than our father Abraham who is dead and the prophets are dead? Who do you make yourself out to be? Jesus answered if I honor myself my honor is nothing it is my father who honors me of whom you say that he is your God Like yet you have not known him, but I know him and if I say I do not know him I shall be a liar like you, but I know do know him and keep his word Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad Then the Jews said to him you are not yet 50 years old and have you seen Abraham? Jesus said to them most assuredly I say to you before Abraham was I am Then they took up stones to throw at him but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple going through the midst of them and so passed by So ends a reading of God's holy inspired and an errant word.
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May we pray? Father I thank you for the opportunity to preach the word this morning.
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I pray that you would first and foremost keep me from error For God, I am a fallible man and capable of preaching error And I don't want to do that for the sake of your people for the sake of your name and for the sake of my own conscience Father, I pray that you would open the hearts of everyone here this morning to hear your word That it would go out Under the power of the Spirit and be mixed with faith and that it would move us forward in our walk with Christ Lord for the believer who is here today that he would be drawn closer in his understanding of who Christ is and what he has done and Lord for the one who has come today and maybe many who have come today who know not the Lord that today might be the day that they bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ for we know that in this life or in the next every knee shall bow and Every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father and we pray it in his name Amen Please be seated the longer that I study the Word of God The more I realize that there is a difference between understanding something and Comprehending something Those sound like synonyms and oftentimes we use them as synonyms But they're really not to understand something means we have the idea of what it is We we get the gist of it But to fully comprehend it means we've really wrapped our minds around it and many things in the Bible we can understand But we can't really comprehend I'll give you an example if I say to you that God is eternal Eternal he has no beginning.
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He has no ending.
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Well, you understand that But you really don't comprehend it You understand what it means when I say he had no beginning and he had no ending but if I tell you to in your mind to contemplate the idea of of Anything that didn't have a starting point and we'll never have an ending point I mean, I mean you can kind of imagine the no ending point because that's kind of how you see yourself, right? Well, I'm gonna go on forever I Think young people have that dangerous in their mind.
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They think this life is going to go on forever and it is not But we do have an eternal future, but we don't have an eternal past God doesn't even think in those terms.
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He doesn't live in past present and future He is the ever-present now without beginning or ending and we just can't wrap our minds around that idea In fact, there are those who believe that if you can't comprehend it it can't be true Take for instance the the subject of God being eternal there's a group called the open theists I don't know if you've ever heard of open theism that open theism teaches that God is essentially going through time the same way.
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We are God is experiencing time the same way we do and God really doesn't know the future for certain because God Hasn't experienced it yet He knows what can be known but since the free acts of people can't be known according to open theism God really doesn't know the future.
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He's not there yet We're not there yet.
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And so he just doesn't know the future is open.
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That's the term open theism But you understand what they're doing What they're doing is they're saying I can't comprehend it must not be true You got to tie it into my understanding got to tie it into my comprehension and thus God can't be all-knowing past present and future That's wrong If we limit God to our knowledge if we limit God to what we comprehend that is going to make God like us and That is wrong.
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We dare not limit God to our simple ability to comprehend It would be as if we were trying to take the entire Atlantic Ocean and put it inside of a five-gallon bucket To take all of the infinite nature of God and to put it into our finite little mind It's just foolish to think that we could And with that as an introduction, I want to turn our attention now to one of the most amazing and incomprehensible subjects in all of the Bible the subject of the eternality of Jesus Christ You see when we talk about God as eternal We know God is one being but three Persons the doctrine of the Holy Trinity states that God is one in essence But three in person and the second person of the Trinity shares all that is God He is co eternal with the father.
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He is co equal with the father and yet distinct Able to have a relationship with the father.
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We don't serve three gods We serve one God in three persons.
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And so the second person is fully God and thus he is eternal I think it's easy for people even believers To kind of see Jesus is just this New Testament character who sort of comes on the scene in Bethlehem relatively late in Israel's history Yet historically Christians have always seen Jesus the second person of the Trinity as being Pre-existent now that may be a term you're not used to using.
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I'm sure you don't use that at parties much But that's a that's an important theological term the idea of pre existence meaning that Jesus Christ the Word of God Pre-existed Bethlehem We believe that right? Okay.
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All right, just making sure I'm not speaking.
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I mean, we're Orthodox, right? That's what Orthodoxy teaches that Jesus Christ is Pre-existent This is an important distinction that we make between Jesus and us We are not pre-existent you had a time when you weren't and Then you was and now you is But you weren't Not good language, but good theology right you were you you had a time before you existed There was never a time before Jesus existed and so that's an important part of Christian theology and This is one of the proofs that the Bible provides to us that Jesus is actually divine His human nature is born at Bethlehem.
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We read that in the confession this morning from from Ligonier Ministries His human nature yes is born in Bethlehem But his divine nature is lasting everlasting and eternal These two natures are united in one person what we call the hypostatic Union or the union of two natures in one person the God-man Thus we call him truly God and truly man But how did we arrive at such a tradition? Did we arrive on that basis because of the Council of Nicaea? Did we arrive at that because of the Council of Chalcedon? Did we arrive at that because of the early church fathers? Now I submit to you that the councils and the church fathers certainly agreed with this teaching But they agreed with it not because they created it But because it's what is clearly taught in the Bible Sola scriptura is not a reformation Concept even though it's where it was articulated Sola scriptura is a Christian concept Our theology comes from the Bible Our theology comes from the word of God, Old Testament and New Testament And we learn about Jesus being eternal in the word of God Christians believe that Jesus is truly God and truly man Because this is simply what the Bible teaches Cults come and try to argue with us about this This sublime reality They pick one verse here and one verse here to try to make us question the concept of Jesus's eternality or Jesus's divinity And in doing so, they have to turn the entire Bible on its head and make it say many things that it does not And often run roughshod over the text to simply try to prove the point that they just do not want to believe what the Bible says about Jesus Time will not allow us to look at the entire chapter of John, chapter eight today Not even really the entire incident that's happening here But what I do want to do with the time that we have allowed is I'd like for us to look at verses 48 to 59 Because in this passage of interaction between Jesus and the Jews, where they are debating over what it means to be a son of Abraham And we are told in the midst of this passage about the eternal nature of Christ from his own mouth From the lips of Jesus, we are told who he is He is I am Sounds funny to say, but that's who he is He is I am So here's how we're going to outline today I don't I don't do three points in a poem If that's I don't know if that's the standard But but I what I I usually just I read and give commentary as we go That's my normal way of giving exposition, but I will give you headings if that's helpful We're going to have three accusations from the Jews to Jesus three responses from Jesus to the Jews and then one Crescendoed hate-filled response from the Jews at the end of the chapter.
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So we're going to see three Accusations three responses and then that crescendos into one hate-filled final response from the Jews To Jesus so let's begin in verse 48 It's this is the first accusation of the Jews Then the Jews answered and said to him Do we not say rightly that you are a Samaritan and have a demon? All right, the accusation has two parts one.
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You are a Samaritan to you have a demon Yet it's interesting When we look at the response of Jesus, he never responds to the first accusation He only responds to the accusation of being demon-possessed.
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He says I do not have a demon He never really responds to the accusation of being a Samaritan Now was Jesus a Samaritan? No, could he have said I'm not a Samaritan Yes But for some reason he doesn't make the response and this has led some to conclude that this phrase is a way of saying The same thing twice that by saying a Samaritan They're saying you have a demon because they hated the Samaritans so much and so by Jesus saying I don't have a demon He's actually answering both But I think that it actually could be an attack Sorry an attack against Jesus's Pedigree, what's the conversation about the entire conversation with Jesus and the Jews here? Who's the who's your father? Our father is Abraham.
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What was the significance of being a Samaritan? Do you remember what the Samaritans were? They were hated by the Jews because they were neither Gentile nor Jew in the exile to Assyria that happened in 722 BC when the northern kingdoms were taken out and they were brought into Assyria and exiled having never really Reconstituting themselves they were spread abroad Some of the Jews that were taken intermarried with the Assyrians and created a new mixed race of people and that mixed race became known as the Samaritan people the Samaritans were hated by both sides.
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They weren't really Gentiles.
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They weren't really Jews They were and they had their own way If you remember when Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well and John chapter 4 She said we worship on this mountain.
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We we do it this way they sort of had had created their own lifestyle based on this situation that they were in and The Jews had a disdain for them But it's important to realize that Jesus Never showed disdain for the Samaritans In fact, we realize when we look at the teachings of the Gospels that Jesus makes a point to always Express the Samaritans in the positive Again I mentioned the woman at the well John chapter 4.
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She was not that she was positive.
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She had the many Many husband's issue and Jesus dealt with her but he dealt with her kindly and he he took a positive approach to this woman That others other Jewish men wouldn't even had spoken to in fact, she said why do you speak to me? You know, our people don't talk to each other and yet Jesus loved her We know that there were ten lepers that came to Jesus and were healed And when they went away one of them came back and the text tells us in the gospel of Luke chapter 17 verse 16 He was a Samaritan Jesus pointed it out.
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Is there no one who can give thanks to God except for this foreigner? And what's the model of love in the New Testament? Jesus said if you love your neighbor as yourself somebody said Who is my neighbor? Jesus said a man was going on a road and he was fallen under robbers and the robber and the priest passed by and the Levite passed by but here comes a Samaritan and he became the model for all time of what it meant to be one who loved his neighbor as himself Right.
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So Jesus always gives a positive to these people that are hated Showing our responsibility to love those who we may not want to love to reach out to those who we may not want to reach out to There's great mercy in the actions of the Lord So again, the accusation is calling him a Samaritan you're not truly of Abraham You're not truly of Abraham Why would they even care? Because Jesus said you're not really of Abraham either Well, you must be a Samaritan no Jesus not a Samaritan But he is of Abraham and He's challenging their claim To that relationship.
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In fact, he says earlier in the text you are of your father who? the devil You got to think about how hard that's going to punch a Jewish first century Jewish Nationalist person who loves the Jewish nation a Pharisee or a Jew that's very strong Think of the gut punch that is to say you're not of Abraham.
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You're of your father the devil I think sometimes people get the wrong idea about Jesus.
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Yes, Jesus loved the unlovable Yes Jesus allowed the the woman to wash his feet with her tears and dry them with her hair and Jesus did show great mercy and Kindness, but Jesus also was no pushover He would tell like it is Say it like it was and stand for the truth.
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Jesus was no weak Savior And you're of your father the devil and they said well, you're a Samaritan and you have a demon Okay, here's Jesus's response verse 49 Jesus answered and said I do not have a demon but I honor my father by the way, stop right there I think that's Jesus's answer to this Samaritan argument Because even though he says I'm he doesn't say I'm not a Samaritan He says I don't have a demon and I and I honor my father.
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See you think you're honoring Abraham You're not you're of your father the devil, but I am of my father in heaven Who's got the real pedigree? Who's got the real connect who what really matters the connection to Abraham or the connection to God? Now obviously Abraham is very important but Jesus Bypasses that you're gonna call me a Samaritan.
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I'm of my father and I'm here to honor my father's I think that's the answer by the way He said I I do not have a demon but I honor my father and you dishonor me and I do not seek my own Glory, there is one who seeks and judges most assuredly I say to you if anyone keeps my word, he shall never see death Hmm Think about that That's a bold statement You realize Abraham never said anything like that.
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If you keep my word, you will never see death even Moses would have said Keep the Word of God Keep the law of God Jesus puts it on himself if you keep my word You realize if you read the Gospels Over half of the material in the in the Gospels first four books of the New Testament Over half of the material is just the words of Jesus He is called mighty in what word and deed right, he Speaks God's Word.
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He is God's Word and when he says to these people if you keep my word You shall never see death that is a it's a claim to divinity.
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I couldn't say that you couldn't say that Sometimes cult leaders say that kind of craziness No one who is not divine could make such a claim that Jesus is divine again It's a claim to divinity so he says If you keep my word, you will never taste death The death here, of course is not death of the physical body.
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It is the second death.
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Do we know what the second death is? hell hell Revelation chapter 21 verse 8 but as for the cowardly the faithless the detestable and for murderers and sexually immoral Sorcerers idolaters and all liars their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death He who is born again What what is it he who is born twice will only die once he who is born once will die twice If you're born again, you die in the body, but you will live in the spirit If you're not born again, you'll die on the body and die again in hell and by that I don't mean by just to clarify.
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I'm not talking about eternal.
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What's it called? Sleep where people think you just vanish away annihilation ism.
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No, I believe in eternal conscious torment I think that's what the Bible talks about when it talks about hell just in case there's no I don't want to make it be unclear No, hell is eternal conscious punishment The apostle paul tells us that because of the work of christ we need not fear death you realize that What's the greatest enemy of man? Death, what are we always fighting against death? We we we we spend time nourishing our bodies exercising our bodies Well some of us and we do a lot of work to try to make ourselves healthy And and and then we go and we get medicine and earlier What did we do? We prayed for people who are sick and who need medicine who need help because we know that death is an enemy What does the bible say about that enemy first corinthians 15? When the perishable puts on imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality then shall come to pass the saying that is written death Is swallowed up in victory.
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Oh death.
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Where is there your victory? Oh death.
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Where is your sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law But thanks be to god who gives us victory through our lord.
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Jesus christ.
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We have victory over death through him Amen, i'm glad I yeah, that was I didn't have to ask for it.
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Thank you amen So that's the first accusation.
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You're a demon.
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You have a samaritan.
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Jesus said i'm not a demon I i'm of my father.
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I glorify my father if you keep my word you will live now They respond to that the second accusation verse 52 Then the jews said to him now we know that you have a demon Abraham is dead.
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The prophets are dead and you say if anyone keeps my word, he shall not taste death Are you greater than our father abraham who is dead and the prophets who are dead? Who do you make yourself out to be? Now for the jews, there's no spiritual No ability to spiritualize this term Death for them means death and they look at jesus.
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He says if you keep my words, you will not taste death They look at him and they say wait a minute now abraham died the prophets They died You're telling us that if we keep your word We're not going to die That means you're better or greater than abraham Yep I mean, I mean, yeah, I mean, yeah That's the answer Yes, jesus is greater than abraham Now that's an amen Jesus is greater than the prophets Jesus is greater than moses Every one of them would agree with me and every one of them would say yes, and what we said pointed to him He is the great one And so they say what? Now we know you have a demon Now we know Because only a demon-possessed person would ever say he's greater than abraham or the prophets And you know what in one sense? They're right now Clarify that I don't mean they're at all right about jesus But what I am saying is that if anybody else said what jesus said he would be absolutely blasphemy If any other person said what jesus said who wasn't jesus he'd run how many of you know cs lewis's? Yeah wrote the line the witch in the wardrobe, you know narnia and all that stuff now I understand cs lewis has some uh, some theology that's a little Out there, but he said some good things One of the things that he said in his book mere christianity when defining The the idea of who christ is He said christ made great claims and he claimed to be the lord of all If anyone else made that claim he'd either be a liar or a lunatic He'd either know he was lying if he said it Or he'd be a lunatic who thought it was true, but it wasn't and and we we know what that means So when we come to jesus christ, we have to have to ask ourselves is jesus christ a liar a lunatic or the lord He is the lord There's no other answer some people who come along and say well jesus isn't god in the flesh, but he's a good teacher No, he's not if he's not god in the flesh.
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He's not a good teacher If he's not god in the flesh, he's not a good rabbi Jesus isn't like buddhist buddha confucius or any of the rest.
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He's not like muhammad.
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He's not like any of the rest because jesus made claims That if they were not true They were too outlandish To be good So they must be true He is lord And that's what they're saying here.
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They're saying are you saying you're greater than abraham? Yep Because I am So jesus's second response jesus answered and said if I honor myself my honor is nothing It is my father who honors me of whom you say he is your god yet You have not known him, but I know him and if I say I do not know him.
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I shall be a liar like you But I do know him.
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Yeah, I know that's great, isn't it? But I do know him and keep his word Your father abraham rejoiced to see my day and saw it and was glad Their accusation was jesus.
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You are a liar.
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You're making yourself out to be greater than abraham So jesus said no if I were lying i'd be like you I mean think about this if I were lying i'd be like you Because you're a liar you say abraham's your father.
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You're not it's it's the devil I mean just think of the response very bold And jesus points them to a sublime reality He said abraham Knew that I was coming Abraham longed to see my day Now here's the thing about that text verse 56 your father abraham rejoiced to see my day And he saw it And was glad that's a pretty powerful statement because The text doesn't explain What it's saying it just says it And the things that it says simply one abraham rejoiced to see jesus's day Two he did See jesus's day And three he was glad That's the three things jesus said he rejoiced to see the day.
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He saw the day and he was glad now Here's I think translating it slightly different helps I think the phrase my day here could be translated the time of my coming And so if you think of it that way your father abraham Rejoiced to see the time of my coming and he saw the time of my coming and was glad I think that Fits a little better with what jesus is saying because we know that abraham didn't live to see jesus That's the whole point right is there's not a physical connection in just a minute They're going to say you're not even 50 years old.
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Well, of course, they didn't have a physical sight of one another But abraham rejoiced at the coming of jesus and he saw it in types and shadows In fact, I would give you the probably the most significant type and shadow in the life of abraham was the day That he took his son up on the mountain Remember when he took his son up on the mountain as a father of five I I I try to read that passage Existentially, you know as if I were abraham and try to understand it as abraham.
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I can't Take thou son thy only son whom thou lovest And make a sacrifice of him.
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I I don't understand abraham arose early in the morning and that amazing I always think about the fact that I think I would have slept till lunch I wouldn't or I would have not I wouldn't have got up early.
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I wouldn't have wanted to get he was he got up and went And his son said father, where is the lamb? jehovah jireh the lord will provide That was the answer the lord will provide the lamb They get there he binds his son he's laying in there his hand comes up He's ready to plunge the dagger into his son and behold the angel says stop Now, I know that you trust me and he looked and behold there was a ram caught in a thicket And the ram became the substitute For isaac 2 000 years later the substitute for our sins would be nailed to a cross As the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world Abraham rejoiced when he saw that ram because he knew god had provided How much did abraham really understand about jesus? I think he knew that there was a savior coming I think he knew that ram pointed forward to that savior how he understood it and what he understood I don't know, but jesus said he saw my day coming and he rejoiced and was glad So now the accusation the third accusation verse 57 Then the jews said to him you are not yet 50 years old and yet you have seen abraham Notice, they turn his words around jesus didn't say he saw abraham.
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He said abraham Saw me he saw my day, right? So that's sort of turning that around a little bit But the point of it is is you're not 50 years old How could this be true? But jesus wasn't saying they saw each other in the flesh He wasn't making some type of a crass literal understanding He was saying that abraham knew he was coming and was glad that he was coming Because he was the fulfillment of the promise by the way You know what the abrahamic covenant is that god is going to bless the nations You know how the apostle paul translates that and in his writings He talks about the abrahamic covenant is fulfilled in christ because through christ all the nations of the world shall be blessed Not just israel, but the gospel goes out to every tribe every tongue and every nation Jesus is the fulfillment of the promises to abraham and thus abraham looked forward to jesus and rejoiced in him So now we have the final response of christ verse 58.
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Jesus said to them most assuredly I say to you before abraham was I am This is the apex of the conversation.
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This is the grand conclusion Of the argument.
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Are you saying you're greater than abraham? Yes.
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Are you saying that you existed before abraham? Yes There is no ambiguity here Abraham was That is abraham existed That's not in dispute There was a time before abraham existed And jesus was there Before abraham was But notice jesus didn't say before abraham was I was By the way, that's the that's sort of the understanding that you get when you talk to uh, somebody from the Jehovah witnesses because they you know, they don't believe jesus is eternal, but they do believe he he was at creation, right? They believe he was part of creation They believe he's that archangel michael that he that he helped create the world, but that he's a creation of god Right and so when they look at this passage, they'll say well what jesus meant was before abraham was I was You know, I was just I was there before abraham That ain't what it says eggo amy and greek I am Now I think you probably know why that's significant, but just in case maybe you don't In exodus chapter 3 verses 13 and 14 when moses Meets the lord It says this then moses said to god if I come to the people of israel and say to them the god of your fathers Has sent me to you and they asked me.
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What is his name? What shall I say to them? God said to moses.
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I am who I am and he said say to the people of israel.
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I am Has sent me to you God defines himself as I am You understand why because that phrase Is a statement of self existence It's a statement of absolute independence if I say I am I always have to qualify that with something like I am I By the way, the word am there is a is a present tense of the idea to be its existence And so if I say I exist I have to add the qualifier.
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Well, I exist because I have enough air I exist because I have enough food.
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I exist because I have enough water.
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I exist because i'm in the right atmosphere I'm just far enough away from the sun where it's nice and warm not too close from you know Not too far away that i'm freezing to death, you know, I am because of so many factors that keep me existing God says I am period I need nothing I am And it's a statement of his own self existence Jesus says before abraham was I am And I gotta tell you the jews Did not miss what he said And by the way, this isn't the only time jesus said this Just to point this out to you the terms I am jesus often said I am this or I am that i'm the bread of life I'm the bread come down from heaven.
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I am the sheep gate, you know those he uses that term But there's also other times where he simply says I am you remember when jesus walked out on the water And he says behold it is I That's not what he said The original language behold I am amen And here he says before abraham was I am Jews didn't miss for a second what he meant Because as soon as he said it there their answer was Get a stone boys And why would they do that verse 59? It says then they picked up They took up stones to throw at him But jesus hit himself and went out of the temple going through the midst of them and so passed by why did he do that? Because it wasn't his time But why did they do that? because of leviticus 24 Leviticus 24 says this whosoever blasphemes the name of the lord shall surely be put to death all the congregation shall stone him What did they hear when jesus said before abraham was I am blasphemy Was it blasphemy? It would have been if it weren't true But it was It was true.
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So it wasn't blasphemy But they reached down to pick up stones because they believed that it was To fulfill this law in leviticus But god protected jesus because this was not yet his time Now as I draw to a close I want to make A final point I want to just point your attention back up one second to a verse that we didn't even look at Go back up with me to verse 31 And this is how we're going to close Back in verse 31 is when this whole conversation begins And verse 31 says this Then jesus said to those jews who believed in him If you abide in my word You are my disciples indeed By the way, i've read through this context and I cannot see anywhere where the group of jews changes From this group to another group He said why is that significant because it says at the beginning he's talking to people who said they believed in him I'm never I'm never I never cease to be amazed by how many people say they believe in jesus until they start hearing about who jesus really is And how quickly people's attitude change when they get to know the real jesus These people began the day As quote-unquote followers Began the day as quote-unquote believers Kind of similar to what happened in caesarea philippi when jesus fed the 5 000 You remember that story when jesus feeds the 5 000 and all these people follow after him and then he starts preaching to them And he starts preaching hard words in john chapter 6 and at the end of john chapter 6 what happens it says they all left Even though they said they believed in him earlier in the chapter they all departed he looks at the disciples.
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Will you leave too? To lord to whom shall we go for you have the what? words of life If we're not willing to hear the words of jesus Are we really believers? If we're not willing to heed the words of our savior, are we really his? Many people identify themselves as believers Until what it means to be a believer actually comes a calling It's easy to say the words But following christ is more than just words.
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Amen Amen Following christ is a life that have that has been changed The jews in this narrative ended the situation with rejection and hatred of the savior My friends we too Have to make a conclusion about the savior We have to consider all that the word says about him And we have to decide this are we going to pick up a stone to throw? Or are we going to take up our cross? And follow him May it be that we take up our cross and follow the savior.
40:57
Amen, may we pray Father I thank you so much for your word.