John8Anch

Well, it is an honor to be with you this evening. If you would turn with me, please, in your

Bibles to John Chapter 8. John Chapter 8. This will be our text for the evening.

When I asked the brethren what they wanted me to do this evening, they said, expound the word, exegesis.

And so that's what we will do. It will not be quite as polished.

Thank you. I can read the text. It was down here in the shadows, and we forgot to stop and get many reading glasses today.

So I was going to be in a world of hurt there, but now I can. There's writing on the page.

It's great. Those of you who are younger who are laughing at me, your time will come. It will take place.

So our text this evening will be John Chapter 8, and here is how

I would like to approach it. I have the greatest freedom and feel most comfortable simply dealing with the text.

And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to read the text, and then we will go back over key issues and make application.

This particular chapter has tremendous application to many of the situations we face in the church today.

But I will tell you immediately and up front, my way of confession, that very often my initial thoughts,

I think this is true of anyone, are frequently guided by what is most heavy upon my heart.

And I look back on the back wall. There is a very large map of the world there.

And, of course, Alaska looks bigger than the entire United States on that kind of map.

So I guess a little bit of land help there. But when we look at that map, if we were to color code it in such a way where our brothers and sisters in Christ suffered this day, where they do not have the freedom to gather together, they do not have the freedom to hear a beautiful solo sung openly to where all the world can hear it, anyone walking past the open door back there could have heard singing about the cross.

There are many lands where that cannot happen this day. There are many lands where our brothers and sisters are separated from their husbands, their wives, their children, their parents, because of their refusal to deny their profession of faith in Jesus Christ.

The persecuted church is all around the world. And there are many groups that persecute the church.

We know the Olympics are taking place in a nation that persecutes Christians very regularly. North Korea persecutes

Christians very regularly. Communism does this. Hinduism, radical forms of Hinduism, are known to persecute

Christians. But the greatest persecutor of Christians in the world is, of course, the

Islamic religion. Muslim countries, where Christians do not have the freedoms to do what we do.

Muslim countries, where if you take the time to get to the right RSS feeds in your blog reading, you will discover that people die almost daily.

In fact, probably more than daily. There are testimonies of Christ. I was reading a story just this morning of a young woman who was killed by her father in an honor killing because she had confessed faith in Christ.

At first he cut her tongue out, however. This kind of thing takes place around the world with regularity.

And we as believers in the United States generally are not prepared to really deal with the issue of Islam.

Between now and the end of November, I will be doing seven debates with Islamic apologists.

Four here in the United States. Three in the United Kingdom, Lord willing. And I'm thankful to have the freedom to be able to continue to do that.

There are many lands where, of course, you could not. And so that is the background that I bring to this text.

Because I find in these words of Jesus a very clear message. And that is he's speaking to men who are no farther away from him than you are from me.

They believed he was a human being. They believed that he had special insight and understanding.

Certainly he had special and miraculous power. They would have accepted him as a prophet.

They would have accepted him as a political messiah. But Jesus did not leave it up to rebel sinners to determine who he is.

And the Lord today does not allow us to define what saving faith is.

He has defined that for us already in the scriptures. These men would not accept who

Jesus said he was. Then halfway through the chapter, we read about some people who say they believe in Jesus.

And by the end of the chapter, they're picking up stones to stone Jesus. So you have open enemies.

Then you have those who make a false profession. All of them refuse to allow

Jesus to define himself for who he is. We live in an age where such massive emphasis upon individualism gives to mankind the idea that we can in essence demand of God that he meet our standards.

That he form himself to be friendly to us.

We can demand that God be put in the dock, to use the old language. And we get to judge him.

And we actually think, mere creatures that we are, that we have the authority, we have the right to decide, well

I'm going to form Jesus in an image that's comfortable to me. In our society, even in the political system, it is very, very common for people to talk about believing in Jesus.

But then when you start doing some pushing, you start doing some asking questions. The Jesus who is so popular in the higher circles of our society is a

Jesus that bears absolutely no resemblance whatsoever to the biblical Jesus. And hence cannot save.

Instead, those Jesuses that men form very often look very much like themselves.

That's not the Jesus that saves. That's not the Jesus of the gospel. And Jesus lays that out in these words in John chapter 8.

And before I read them, remember how the chapter ends. Men pick up stones to stone the very

Son of God, who has spoken the truth to them, who has revealed who he is to them.

And they pick up stones to kill him. Western society today has such a high view of men.

It's actually a very contradictory view of men. On the one hand, it's very, very low. Because we view men as the mere chance result of a natural, unguided process that makes us to differ not whatsoever from any other of the evolved creatures on the planet.

So on one hand, it is very, very low. And on the other hand, it is very, very high in that we look at ourselves and our philosophy and our science as the answer to all things.

And this idea that we are actually creatures of God, but we are fallen and rebelling against God, that isn't very popular.

And yet here you have religious men, men who know the scriptures.

And they are so maddened by God's revelation that they pick up stones to stone the very incarnate

Son of God. You can see the true heart of man in these words.

So I'm going to look at John chapter 8. Now let me just mention I'm starting at verse 12. The reason is that John 7 .53

-8 .11 is the second largest textual variant in the New Testament. The longest is

Mark 16 .9 -20. And then you have passages like 1

John 5 .7. But John 7 .53 -8 .11

is not in the earliest manuscripts of the New Testament. And in one family of manuscripts of the New Testament, it actually appears in Luke.

So when you have a portion of text that seems to be somewhat homeless and is wandering about, that is probably a good idea, a good recognition that it was not original.

A lot of people love the story. And every movie, even Mel Gibson's The Passion movie, managed to sneak it in somehow.

Too bad he snuck a whole lot of stuff in there. It didn't need to be there. But anyways, so we will be picking up with John chapter 8, verse 12.

This is taking place in the temple in Jerusalem, as we are told in verse 20, in the treasury room where the almsgiving would be collected there in the temple precincts.

Again, therefore, Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world.

The one following me will not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

Therefore the Pharisees said to him, You are testifying concerning yourself or bearing witness concerning yourself.

Your testimony is not true. The literal word is true. But as we will see, what it means here is valid.

Valid in the sense of being recognized by the law, as Jesus is about to explain.

You have to have more than one person testifying. By the mouths of two or three witnesses, the fact is to be validated.

So the point they're making is not that you're lying, but that your testimony is alone.

So verse 14, Jesus answered and said to them, Even if I were testifying concerning myself, my testimony is true or valid, because I know where I've come from and where I am going.

You do not know where I've come from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh.

I am judging no one. But even if I am judging, my judgment is true.

Again, same term or valid, because it is not only I, but it is

I and the father who sent me. Therefore, he fulfills the Old Testament law of the two witnesses.

In your law, it has been written that the testimony of two men is valid or true.

I am the one testifying concerning myself and the father who sent me is testifying concerning me.

Therefore, they said to him, Who is your father? Jesus answered to them. You neither know my father nor me.

If you knew me, then you would know the father. And that was verse 20.

These words he spoke in the treasury room while speaking in the temple. And no one laid hands upon him or arrested him because his hour had not yet come.

Now, we could preach all night. We could spend more than an hour on the hour had not yet come.

But I would just in passing point out that there are entire systems of theology today that simply cannot begin to understand what this means.

That is, if you do not have a God who is in control of the events of history, so much so that there is a specific hour.

We get to John 17 as we heard this morning. Father, the hour has come.

Was this hour not set from eternity past? Was this hour something God kept trying to bring about but failing to bring about and starting over again and so on and so forth?

No. And yet it is so sad that there are many today who actually preach the idea that while God wound this universe up, he had no idea what was going to come.

He had no idea what he was getting himself into. I don't know how anyone could believe in that, but unfortunately, that is what many people believe.

So we continue verse 21. Therefore he again said to them,

I am going away and you will seek me and you will die in your sins. Where I am going, you are not able to come.

Therefore the Jews were saying, he's not going to kill himself, is he? Because he says, where I am going, you are not able to come.

And he was saying to them, you are from below. I am from above.

You are from this world. I am not from this world.

Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins for unless you believe that I am, ego,

I mean, you will die in your sins. Therefore they said to him, who are you?

Jesus said to them, what I've told you from the beginning. What have I told you from the beginning? I have many things to say concerning and judge concerning you, but the one who sent me is true.

And what I have heard from him, these things I am speaking in the world. Now they did not know that he was speaking to them of the father.

Therefore Jesus said to them, when you lift up the son of man, then you will know that I am and that I do nothing of myself, but just as the father has taught me, these things

I speak. And the one who has sent me is with me and has not left me alone.

And I am always doing the things that are pleasing to him. When he said these things, many believed in him.

But please note something. The term believed here is in a form of the original language that is not the normative use of saving faith in the gospel of John.

It is not an ongoing action. It is an undefined action, frequently just a point action in the past.

They believed in him. Now listen carefully to what happens when people who have a non -continuous faith, a faith that is but a point in time, when they are faced with the great truths of the gospel, especially the fact that we are slaves to sin.

Listen to how they read. Therefore Jesus said to those who had believed in him, the

Jews who had believed in him, if you remain in my word, truly you are my disciples, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

Same term to be used for the freeing of slaves in the slave market.

Very important to catch that element of it. They answered and said to him, we are the seed of Abraham, and we have never been enslaved to anyone.

How do you say you shall be made free? Jesus answered, truly, truly

I say to you, everyone doing sin, everyone practicing sin, is the slave of sin.

The slave does not abide in the house forever. The son abides forever.

Therefore if the son sets you free, you will truly be free.

I know that you are the seed of Abraham, yet you are seeking to kill me, because my word finds no place in you.

What I have seen from the Father, these things I speak, therefore you, what,

I'm sorry, therefore you, what you have heard from your father, you are doing.

That gets him really angry. Therefore they answered and said to him, our father is

Abraham. Jesus said to them, if you are the children of Abraham, well you do the works of Abraham.

But now you are seeking to kill a man, me, a man, who has spoken you the truth, which he heard from God.

This, this Abraham did not do. You are doing the works of your father.

Therefore they said to him, we were not born of fornication.

Some scholars believe there might be some background there, maybe a continuation of allegations that go all the way back to the virgin birth perhaps.

We were not born of fornication. We have one father, and that is

God. Jesus answered them, if God were your father, you would love me, for I have come forth from God.

Please catch those words. I have come forth from God and have now come.

It's difficult to render it in such a way as to express. It's speaking of the origin and then the arrival in this present, in this present space time.

I have not come of my own, but that one has sent me. It's unfortunate that we can't tie all this into the rest of the

Gospel of John. If you go back to John chapter 5, the harmony between the father and the son, that's what forms the background of what is being said at this particular point in time.

And then notice what is said. Why do you not know or understand what

I am saying to you? Don't let your tradition filters make you hear the rest of this sentence incorrectly.

It can happen. It's happened to all of us. It says because you are not able to hear my word.

It does not say because you choose not to hear my word. It says because you are not able to hear.

To hear what? My word. There is a deficiency.

There is a problem. There is an inability. Why do you not understand?

Because it hasn't been explained clearly enough? No. Because you are not able to hear my word.

You are from your father, the devil. And you desire to do the will, the desires of your father.

That one was a murderer from the beginning. And he does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.

When he speaks the lie, he is speaking from his own things or his own realm because he is a liar and the father of lies.

But I have spoken to you. I am speaking to you the truth. And you are not believing me.

Just make a little note there, verse 45. Trace that back to John 6. Jesus never had a problem telling people they were unbelievers.

He did it more than once. And in both instances, here in John 8, it was to people who said they had believed they were false professors.

In John 6, it was to people who just rode across a lake to listen to him speak. Most churches today, they would have been made deacons immediately.

And in both instances, isn't it true, brother? We can't get people to get up early enough in the morning to come to Sunday school.

These people rode across the lake. That's leadership material right there. In both instances,

Jesus said, you are unbelievers. Which of you convicts me concerning sin if I have spoken the truth to you?

For what reason do you not believe me? What's the answer to that question?

Again, watch your tradition filters. The one who is from God, same terminology used when

Jesus said, I am not from this world. You are from this world. I am not from this world. Here it is.

The one who is from God is hearing the words of God.

For this reason you are not, and the word is not believing, it is hearing.

For this reason you are not hearing because you are not from God.

Why would we need to be careful of our tradition filters? Because most people hear that the reason you are not believing is because you choose to not be from God.

But let the text stand as it stands and see if it makes sense. Those were hard words.

The Jews therefore answered and said to him, this gets pretty nasty pretty quickly.

I know this isn't an insult today. You're demonized, but it was an insult in that day.

Have we not well said that you're a Samaritan and you have a demon?

Now to us that might not sound overly serious. But in that context, those were fighting words.

That was about as, from a religious perspective, as deep an insult as you could possibly come up with and generally would not be spoken by someone who was not getting a very red face and spitting while pronouncing the words.

You're a Samaritan, half -breed. You have a demon. That's how you do all the stuff you do.

Jesus answered, I do not have a demon, but I honor my father and you dishonor me.

Please know that that's a very certain terminology that Jesus used in John chapter 5. He said that all men are to honor the son even as they honor the father.

Here are men who are dishonoring both the father and the son.

He says, I am not seeking my own glory. There is one who is seeking and who is judging.

Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.

Therefore, the Jews said to him, now we know that you have a demon.

Abram died and the prophets and you say if anyone keeps your, my word, they will never taste death forever.

You're not greater than our father, Abraham, who's died and the prophets who died.

Who are you making yourself out to be? Jesus answered, if I'm glorifying myself, then my glory is nothing.

My father is the one glorifying me whom you say he is our

God. And you do not know him, but I know him.

And if I said I didn't know him, then I'd be a liar like you. But I know him and I keep his word.

Abraham, your father, rejoiced that he might see my day and he sought and was glad.

Therefore, the Jews said to him, you are not yet 50 years old.

You do not yet have 50 years and you've seen Abraham? Jesus answered them, truly, truly,

I say to you, before Abraham came into existence, I am.

Therefore, they picked up stones they might cast upon him, but Jesus hid himself and went out.

Well, there is so much we need to look at in this text and so little time to do so.

Let's pray the Lord will give us a clear understanding and a clear focus upon His word this evening.

This encounter takes place in Jerusalem at a time when a feast is taking place where there was lights involved in the feast.

And so Jesus begins by saying that He is the light of the world.

And every time He would make these claims, there were those who were following Him. We seem to gather from the

Synoptic Gospels that there were Jews from Jerusalem who were specifically assigned with the task of tailing

Jesus. They were probably provided with funding from the treasury in which

Jesus is speaking here just so that they might follow the man around and seek to trap

Him in His words. We can see this in John 19 and many false witnesses have brought forward, but they can't get their stories straight.

When they attempt to bring accusation against Jesus. And so He encounters them in dialogue.

And He is speaking about who He is and He continues the theme that He has struck earlier in John chapter 5, concerning the relationship of He and His Father in giving witness.

And it is important for us to recognize that the theme throughout the Gospel of John is not solely the deity of Christ.

But there is also a concern on John's part that there would be those who would see Jesus as in essence a competing deity.

That you have the Father over here and then you have the Son over here and the

Son is getting glory for Himself and detracting from the Father. Those words of John chapter 5 when

Jesus says, I do nothing of my own. I only do that which I see the Father doing. Is often misused by people to try to deny the deity of Christ.

When in reality it is an emphasis upon the unity that exists between the

Father and the Son. We only worship one God who has manifested Himself in three divine eternal persons.

The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And so you are not detracting from the one when you see the glory of the other.

In fact I have a quote in front of the Forgotten Trinity in light of the presentation just this afternoon.

I have a quote from the Institutes of the Christian Religion where Calvin points out that the balance of Scripture and the teaching of Scripture on the doctrine of the

Trinity is such that you cannot but think upon the glory of the one without being drawn to the glory of one person without being drawn to the glory of the one

Godhead. The Bible is so balanced in its presentation of this divine truth.

And so we see it here. Jesus is testifying to these individuals that there is another who is witnessing concerning Himself.

He is not just out on His own. The words that He speaks are heavenly words.

They come from the Father. This continues the theme that you see at the very beginning of the

Gospel of John. In that prologue of John which is given to us as a lens through which we are to view all the rest of the

Gospel of John. And that prologue tells us that the one who exegetes, the one who explains the

Father whom no one has seen is the unique God, the only

Son who is God, John 1 .18, who has entered into human flesh as Jesus Christ.

He explains Him. He makes Him known. And so what

Jesus teaches us is in perfect harmony with what the Father Himself would say had it been the

Father who became incarnate. But it was not the Father. It was the Logos, the eternal Son of God who became incarnate as Jesus Christ.

And so He says His judgment is true. His judgment would be true because He knows where He's from and where He's going.

He has divine knowledge beyond that of mere human beings. And may

I just point out in passing, as I will point out a number of times, I would ask you to do something for me this evening.

I would ask you to join the ranks of Christian believers who do not fall into the trap of failing to defend the deity of Christ because we give far too much land, shall we say, to our opponents.

What do I mean by that? There are so many texts of the

New Testament that teach the deity of Christ, and yet most of the time we're just arguing about a very small number. When I say there are so many texts, when, for example, tomorrow

I'm speaking on the subject of Jehovah's Witnesses to you, when those individuals knock upon your door upon a

Saturday morning and wake you up with fitful sleep, putting you in a perfect mood to witness to them about Jesus, when they do so and you get into conversations with them, normally the conversation is about one text here and one text there, and almost never do we force them to follow the same standards that they want to apply to us.

That is, we should make sure that they define very clearly who

Jesus Christ is. As you'll see tomorrow in Watchtower Theology, Jesus Christ is Michael the

Archangel, the greatest and first of all of God's creations, but he is a creature. He is the first thing and the only thing

God created directly. And therefore, as a creature, a vast gulf exists between himself and the eternal creator.

And so we should ask them, does a mere creature, does

Michael the Archangel say the words that Jesus says? You may be like myself.

You may have grown up in a Christian family. Far back as we can trace, on my father's side, back to Scotland, we were ministers.

And some of you Presbyterian brother, we were Presbyterians in Scotland. Got to Kansas, Presbyterians wouldn't ordain,

I believe my great grandfather fast enough, so he became a Baptist. Not quite three years to become a

Baptist, but hey, it worked. So anyway. You may not have grown up in a

Christian family where you had the word of God being preached to you on a regular basis. We hear

Jesus in a Christian context. These words don't strike us as odd or strange because that's what

Jesus says because he's God. But you see, that somewhat cripples our apologetic for the deity of Christ.

We need to hear these words as they would have been heard by the original audience. What mere man, what creature says the words that Jesus says?

Not just in this text, but think of John 17 earlier today. Father, glorify me with the glory which

I had in your presence before the world was. The Jews knew prophecy of Isaiah.

353 consecutive sermons. Isaiah chapter 45, I bet you

John Calvin managed to mention the fact that there Yahweh says,

I share my glory with none other. What kind of a man, knowing those words, in prayer says glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the world.

You see, there's tons and tons of evidence of the deity of Christ to be found in the recognition that no mere creature can ever speak as he speaks.

And you see it right here. The Father sent me every word that I speak.

I have been taught from him. There is this idea of absolute perfection in the means that he provides of revealing

God. No errors. None whatsoever. I mentioned the issue of the

Muslims. The Muslims believe that Jesus is a great prophet, virgin born, a worker of miracles, that he could open blind eyes and he could raise the dead.

In fact, they'll even tell you that they believe Jesus did more miracles than you do. Because the

Quran says that Jesus formed birds out of clay and then breathed on them and they became real birds and flew away.

Now, of course, the problem is that particular story is found in the Proto -Gnostic Gospel about the second century.

And that's how it ended up in the Quran. But they believe Jesus did mighty miracles.

But he was not the son of God. He was a mere Rasul. A Rasul is an apostle, a sent one.

And so all the Muslims say, oh, we teach people to love and follow Jesus. But he was not the son of God.

He was the Messiah only for the Jewish people. He did not die upon the cross of Calvary.

There is no resurrection. And so the Jesus of Islam, the

Jesus of Islam only says a few words in the Quran. One time he speaks from a recognizable historical context.

In Surah 19, he speaks as a baby from the cradle. That's the only time that Jesus of the

Quran speaks anywhere where you can identify. Other than that, he's a disembodied voice and he's arguing for monotheism in the

Prophethood of Muhammad. Now, Jesus of the Quran is not a person.

He's an argument. And no one could ever love him. Everything we read in the

New Testament that Muslims believe has been corrupted and does not represent Jesus' own words.

And so in many ways, the words of John chapter 8 are some of the best words to apply to Muslims, to explain to Muslims.

And 99 % of the world's Islamic population has never read the

New Testament. One of the best things you can do is to get them to read.

I remember doing an interview with a man who was born on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. A missionary came through before he was ever born, left the

New Testament with his father for some reason. His father never destroyed it. And then his father did something that all of his fathers have done, which demonstrates that fathers are not infallible.

His father said, don't read that. You would think we would have figured that out by the time we become fathers.

If he had said, now you read every word of that, it never would have been touched. But he told him never to read it.

And of course he did. And solely through the instrumentality of word and spirit, that man was gloriously brought to faith in Christ.

Imprisoned, beaten, running for his life, but he was brought to faith in Christ by simply reading the

New Testament. It's powerful. Introduce folks to it. So keep that in mind as we look at the rest of what happens here in John 8.

Keep in mind, could a mere creature say these words? Notice what he says.

Verse 23. You are from below. Look, if he's just one of you and I, isn't he too?

You are from below. I am from above. You are literally out of this world.

This world is your origin and source. You derive your stuff from this world.

I am not from this world. Now this is not a denial of the reality of the physical nature of Jesus.

The word became flesh. Sarks, this is the very same writer, John, who wants to make sure we understand

Jesus wasn't a phantom. He had a real physical body. If he didn't have a real physical body, there's no redemption.

He was truly a man, and yet he was the logos who became flesh, and that logos had eternally existed,

John 1 .1 tells us. And so he says to the

Jews, there is a difference between us in origination. You are from below.

I'm from above. You're from this world. I am not from this world, and that's why I said to you that you will die in your sins.

I hope that helps you see that what we're talking about here isn't just speculative theology. It's not just mere opinions.

Dying in your sins is a serious thing. There isn't some second chance.

There isn't some next life to get out of those sins. These men knew exactly what

Jesus was saying. If you die in your sins, you die under the wrath and judgment of God, the holy

God that they themselves, they knew Isaiah 6. They knew the temple vision of Isaiah where Yahweh is sitting upon the throne, holy, holy, holy, surrounded by the cherubim and the seraphim.

When you die in your sins, there is no hope for you.

Therefore, I said to you that you will die in your sins for unless, and I hear if there is any room for all the works of men's gospels, unless you were to crawl up stairs on your knees, unless you do all these religious deeds, give this particular money, go on a crusade to the holy land, here's where you'd fit it all in.

But the Lord leaves no room to fit it all in. You will die in your sins unless you believe.

Unless you believe, but it doesn't stop there. We do no one any good when we just say believe.

Because you see, Christian faith always has a very clear object.

Believe what? There is content to saving faith.

It's not just a feeling, it's not just an emotion, it's not just an attitude. When Abram believed

God was reckoned to him as righteousness in Genesis 15, 6, what was Abram believing in?

God had given him promises. And he's the first one who was identified as a believer.

Because he believed in promises given to him by God. So if it stopped right there, we'd have a problem.

You will die in your sins unless you believe. Believe what? That I am.

Ego I am me. Ego I am me. Now you might have one of those cool study

Bibles. I've never figured out a study Bible. I really haven't.

I had one. In fact, as long as no one promises to throw anything at me, starting when

I was about 16 years of age, I had what today is still the best leather

Bible. I mean, I've dragged that off my shelf. On certain nights when it's very quiet, you can still hear that Bible go.

I mean, it is the best leather Oxford New Schofield Bible ever created.

And that's what I had. And I fell in love with that Bible. And I learned that Bible.

And I read that Bible. And it had all those wonderful little footnotes down at the bottom.

Now today, I look at some of those notes and go, what? You say, what? How many dispensations?

Well, never mind. But anyways, I love that Bible. And there are so many study

Bibles today. I mean, you've got the green -eyed, left -handed person's study Bible. And you've got the

CSI freak's study Bible. It's just unbelievable the number of study Bibles. I've never figured it out.

Why don't you just get a Bible and then buy commentaries? Then you don't have to carry around all the time. It seems to me the best way to do it.

But anyways, obviously you're all sitting in the study Bibles and you're very angry with me now, so I'll move on. But you might have a note in your study

Bible next to this phrase that might explain to you or might direct you to such passages as Exodus 3 .14

or at the burning bush, Abraham asks, how will I identify you?

And God's response is, I am that I am. The problem is the

Hebrew there translated into the Greek Septuagint. The Greek Septuagint is the Greek translation of the

Old Testament. It says, Ego Aimi, it's there, Ego Aimi Ha -Om.

I am the being, the one existing. And so the operative phrase is Ha -Om, the being. And so I don't think it's best to just jump straight from here or maybe verse 58, we get there.

Straight to Exodus 3 .14. I think it's a valid connection, but you got to go someplace else first. That is, this is the very phrase that is used not only through the

Gospel of John, but it goes back to the book of Isaiah. If you're taking notes, you will find this phrase,

Ego Aimi, used in Jesus by himself. In John 8 .24, 8 .28,

8 .58, when he says before Abraham was, I am, they pick up stones to stone him. It's used in John 18, verses five through six, where when the soldiers come to arrest

Jesus, he says, who are you seeking? We're seeking Jesus of Nazareth. Ego Aimi. And what happens? They fall back upon the ground.

The soldiers generally don't do that. When people say, that's me. And Brother Mitch here is a police officer.

And Brother Mitch, when you go to arrest somebody, has anybody ever said, that's me, and you just fell over backwards, or just sprawled out like that ever happened to you?

No, he's looking very embarrassed now. He's gonna get me later on. I don't think that's ever happened.

I bet you've never seen it happen to anybody else either. They fall back upon the ground.

Jesus, once they get up, and sort of dust themselves off, repeats his question. And then he goes with them.

Maybe some point, having been made in the process. This phrase is used by the

Apostle John. But then it's also used in John 13, verse 19. And right as Jesus begins to explain to his disciples what's gonna happen in the future, he says,

I'm telling you before it comes to pass, and when it does come to pass, you may believe that ego

I am. I remember one night, many, many moons ago, sitting in front of a compact portable computer.

This was about 1985, 1984. So a compact portable computer weighed about 47 pounds.

It had a little green screen, but yay big, and two floppy drives, and no hard drive.

That's what I was working on at the time. And I was looking at this text.

John 13, 19. I was looking at it in Greek, and I was going, I've seen this. I've seen this somewhere before.

Where have I seen this? And my dear wife was already asleep in bed in the other room.

I was using one of those little lamps to see stuff by, and I remember pulling down off my shelf my copy of the

Greek Septuagint, and I opened it up to Isaiah 43, 10. I knew Isaiah 43, 10 because I was witnessing to Mormons so much, and Isaiah 43, 10 is a text we use with Mormons all the time.

The last part of the verse says, Before me there was no God formed, and there shall be none after me.

That cuts the Mormon eternal law of progression right down the middle. But the interesting thing is,

Isaiah 43, 10 is the verse where Jehovah's Witnesses get their name. Because the beginning of the verse says,

You are my Witnesses, declares Yahweh, or as they slaughter in English, Jehovah. And my servant, whom

I have chosen, so that you might know and believe and understand that ego

I mean. And when you look at the Greek of John 13, 19, and you look at the

Greek of the Septuagint, there's no way that Jesus could not have been purposely applying to him the very words that Yahweh spoke of himself in the very same context of prophecy in Isaiah 43, 10.

And so there are a number of places where this phrase appears in the Old Testament, the Hebrew phrase is anahu, translating to ego

I mean. Jesus uses this here, and notice what he says, Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.

Now here are people who believe Jesus was a man. He's standing right in front of them. They wouldn't have had any problem believing

Jesus was a prophet. They wouldn't have had any problem with a political messiah.

But they could not accept Jesus for who he said he was. He violated their ideas of what the messiah was supposed to be.

What do you mean you're the I am? Notice what

Jesus hinges upon, that faith. It's eternal life.

It's forgiveness of sins. Now let me ask you something. How many people, seriously, in the quote unquote mainline denominations today actually believe that Jesus is the

I am? How many people teaching in seminaries in the quote unquote mainline denominations today believe that Jesus is the

I am? Or how many would, believe me, I teach in seminary. I've been there.

Done that, got the t -shirt and the diploma. And I pretty much know where people come from.

And here's the idea. Well, you know, this gospel's very late. And it shows a lot of development of theology over time.

And so the writer here is placing upon the lips of Jesus a very developed and high

Christology. Eschatology too, I suppose. And a very high Christology. And it reflects the understanding of the early church, but it's a later generation of the early church, you see.

And this Jesus, who was just simply a Palestinian peasant, became exalted to the highest levels here in these later generations.

But certainly we can't really believe that He was the I am that entered into flesh, can we?

And yet has that not always been the Christian population? Has that not always been the scandal? We believe something really radical.

We believe God entered into His own creation. And today that's just as much of a scandal as it's ever been.

And if you want to be accepted by the world, if you want the world's applause, if you want the world's acceptance, you can't present a radical

Christian. You have to try to fit in. You don't want to challenge anybody. Jesus couldn't, none of them.

Unless you believe the I am. You will die on your sins.

You mean it's not enough to believe that Jesus was just a great guy? It's not enough to believe that Jesus is

Michael the archangel? Great prophet, but not God? No, you will die on your sins.

He makes Himself the standard by which the very grace of God will or will not be given.

Those are hard words, but they're the words of Jesus. Joseph says in verse 28, when

I am lifted up, when you lift up the Son of Man, you will know that I am that being lifted up.

As they say in John 12, I will be lifted up, I will draw a man for myself.

That's the context of that verse. The Greeks have come seeking Jesus. Philip comes representing them because he has a

Greek name. Probably came to him because they recognized that. Have you ever noticed Jesus never meets those

Greeks? Time hasn't yet. But he's speaking of the fact that there will be a time when

He is lifted up. The Jews, Gentiles, bond -free, every tribe, tongue, people, nation will be drawn to Him by the

Father effectively and perfectly. We know the cross is the skin of the most repulsive stench of death in the nostrils of those who perish it.

Why is it not to us here this evening if you are a believer in Christ? There's only one answer.

It's the Word of God in your heart. But notice once again, you may have sort of forgotten the challenge.

Could a mere creature say these words? It would be blasphemy in the mouth of anyone that he who is the eternal

Logos made flesh. But then notice something. Verse 30,

I mentioned it as I translated through. Jesus said these things and many believed.

Now when we talk about true saving faith in the Gospel of John, it's almost always one phrase, haphazd yul, the one believing.

It speaks of an ongoing action, the one believing, the one trusting. Don't hear me wrong.

I'm not saying that the reason I'm believing after more than four, well, right at four decades of following Christ is because I'm somehow better than somebody else.

The reason the saving faith abides is because it is the work of the

Spirit of God. That's why it abides. Otherwise, I'd be better than somebody else.

I worked up a better kind of faith or I'm more holy or something. The difference does not lie in who

I am. The difference lies in my Savior and the accomplishment of His purposes.

And so that's not the word that's used here in verse 30. There are many who believed.

No reference to ongoing nature. It's an undefined action, normally a point action in the past.