John 8:48-59

The religious Jewish leaders of his day.

As we've studied since the startup, his ministry

in Jerusalem, remember now, we're getting near

the end, we're in Jerusalem

now, when, remember when he, when, really, if

you go all the way back to the beginning when he cleaned out the

temple, the assaults,

the conflict between Jesus and

the Jewish leaders, it began all the way back at that time, and it's

carried all the way through his ministry.

But have you ever stopped to notice the difference?

In how much?

Christians, and

Christianity, is

persecuted, around the

world, compared to the

people in false religions, who

do the persecuting.

Have you ever noticed that?

Those protesters in

Minneapolis didn't go into a mosque, did they?

They wouldn't dare go into a mosque.

I can promise you that.

Christianity, without question and

without debate, ranks first as

a religion that is persecuted, by

bar.

And the big picture, reason, for that, as

you know, is the root cause of these attacks comes from

the kingdom of darkness.

as we've been studying in

Ephesians chapters 5 and 6.

There's a lot going on

behind the scenes that we can't see.

When it comes to this issue

of Christian persecution.

And we really shouldn't be surprised at

all how Christianity

is being marginalized in our society,

and how it's being more and more taken

out of the public discourse

and discussion in general.

The literal, physical

persecution of Christians in foreign lands right

now is at an all time high

in church history.

There are more people being martyred right now, across

this globe than in any other time, in our

history, and the

persecution comes to most, from

people, who are in and deceived

by false religions.

In fact, the greatest enemies of the truth.

have always been religious, because

man himself is incurably

religious.

I mean, you just go to the deepest,

darkest jungle in the world, whether the tribe

has not even been seen by the outside world,

they got a totem pole to something.

And consequently,

because of this, false

religion assaults the

truth constantly.

So it shouldn't surprise us.

It's a sign, actually,

that we're doing something right to have the kingdom

of darkness coming after us like this.

And we have to accept the fact that this

is how it is for the church in the world, until

Jesus returns.

And think about just

what we've studied so far here in the Gospel of John.

The harshest human attacks

on Jesus in his ministry

did not come from the common folks, did it?

Now, they he got indifference

from them a lot, right?

And maybe even rejection, of

for sure, but the really harsh,

aggressive assaults, who did that comes from?

the religious establishment of

Israel, the religious leadership

in Israel.

Their religion was false, and all false

religion, all false religion is a part

of and backed by the kingdom

of darkness.

You know, for me to say that in 2026,

If I was going to CNN and say that, man, would

I would have to move somewhere and hide.

They would be after me, right?

All false religion.

claims to represent

God, but there's only one.

There's only one that truly does.

All the rest, all the rest, belong in the same category,

as what Jesus told the Jewish leaders, the

last time we were here in the gospel of John.

Do you remember what he told them in verse 44?

Look at it.

You are of your father, the devil.

Wow.

I mean, that is, literally, the

most volatile thing that Jesus could possibly say to

these Jewish religious leaders who prided themselves

on being the children of Abraham, right?

The children of God.

Over these two and a half years

at this point of his ministry, this conflict

has been escalating by necessity,

because why?

Well, because Jesus continues to confront their

destructive error in

doctrine with the truth.

Straight truth, lightning

bolts constantly.

He's firing at them.

At this point, he

simply can't back off, or even tone things down.

because error

is confronted with the truth,

and in the big picture, the

truth, then damns people,

eternally.

So, eternally so.

The consequences of rejecting

the truth for

every human being are incalculable.

We really don't have a grasp.

at all, at all.

of the reality

of eternal damnation.

We know it's bad.

We can understand that.

But the details of that are

beyond our simple finite human

minds to grasp.

And this doesn't ever change.

These religious leaders see Jesus,

they see him as an enemy.

They see him as a blasphemer.

They see him as a law breaker.

They are beyond outraged with

him, and they cannot contain themselves,

as we're going to see in this text, when they're dealing with him.

And all of this culminates,

at least as far as chapter 8 is concerned, in this, really, in

this text right here before.

So let's pick it up.

and start reading in verse 48,

and we're going to read all the way to the end of the chapter in

verse 59.

Starting in verse 48.

The Bible says, 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.

But I do not seek my glory.

There is one who seeks and judges.

Truly, truly, I say to

you, if anyone, keep

my word, he will never see death.

The Jews said to him.

Now, we know that you have a demon.

Abraham died.

And the prophets also,

and you say, if anyone keeps my

word, he will never taste of death,

surely you are not greater than our Father Abraham, who died?

The prophets died, too.

Whom do you make

yourself out to be?

And Jesus answered, By

glorify myself, my glory is nothing.

It is my father who glorifies me,

of whom you say, He

is our God, and you have not come

to know him, but I know him, and

if I say that I do not know him, I

will be a liar like you.

But I do know him, and keep his word.

Your father, Abraham, rejoiced

to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad.

So the Jews said to him, You

are not yet 50 years old, and you have seen Abraham?

And Jesus said to them.

Truly, truly,

I say to you, before Abraham

was born.

I am.

Amen.

Therefore, they

took they picked up stones to throw at him.

But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

He's in the temple saying these things.

So, read your Bible.

The conflict has never been more dramatic

than this passage, what we hear, right here.

Things have reached a point where they're either going to

repent and believe in Jesus or they

just can no longer contain their rage.

And again, why

does Jesus just continue to

elevate and intensify

this conflict with what he says to them.

Why does he take it all the way to

the level of saying things like you or of your father, the devil?

And the answer, which we got a little bit into last

time we were here, is because in reality,

this is mercy coming from Jesus.

He knows,

with absolute omniscient perfection,

what happens to these men standing in front

of them when they die in unbelief,

with absolute perfection, he knows.

And that is why it is a mercy,

to shatter all false

religious securities that people may have.

It is, it

doesn't seem like it, to the world, especially in the

politically religiously correct culture of our

day, where you can't say anything to anybody without them being offended

and wounded, right?

We live in the most offensive culture in the history

of humanity, most offended.

It is a mercy here to

shatter and devastate false relations,

because, you know what Jesus could have done that day?

He could have?

just left them to theirselves.

He could have just left him to

their false religion and not said anything.

But what he is giving us

an example of right here is that false

religion needs to be dealt with in a very

strong way.

He's giving us the example.

And so therefore, we should view it in the same way.

Now, I

know this from personal experience, and I know many of you do as well.

If you have friends, or especially

family, engaged in false religion.

And you confront that reality.

You know, it's

usually not going to be very pretty when you do.

In fact, oftentimes.

They can get very ugly.

And you do.

You do.

Have to go way outside

your comfort zone to do this, right?

I mean, let's just get along, go along

to get along with Thanksgiving, right?

But if you do, false

religion, family, friends, whoever, though

they do not get it or may not get it at

that moment, it is still a

mercy from you to present the truth,

and to confront the era to anybody,

who is engaged in false

religion, because think about this.

In your own circles of influence.

Family, workplace, friends,

wherever you are, Monday through Saturday,

and not here at church.

All those lives that everybody has

as circles of influence.

If you don't do it.

If you don't confront the false religion with

the truth of the gospel, who else will in their life?

How many other people do you

think in their life are even capable of doing that?

Think about it.

Now, moving forward,

let me give you some groundwork

before we get into this text in your thinking about the

subject of debates.

Debates, sometimes,

not all the time, sometimes have a four level

way in which they work.

First, debates start on an intellectual level.

Somebody says, this is true.

And somebody else says, this is

true, and you have a disagreement.

So you approach the

disagreement intellectually.

You do it on a mental level.

You say, well, here's the evidence.

Here's the proof.

This is what I believe.

This is why I believe it, and

that's the first level of conflict, right, in a debate intellectually.

But then the progression goes on.

It can go on to a second level, where

it stops being intellectual and it becomes emotional.

This is where you start to get angry.

You can't get your point across.

And the other person doesn't like the implications of what you said.

They don't buy into what you're saying, that heat starts

to rise, and then the debate progresses

from intellectual to emotional.

And then next,

it descends down to the third level,

sometimes, verbal abuse.

This is when you can't

effectively make your argument, and you're angry, and

you're emotional, at the same time, and you start firing

off epithets like you start calling people names.

They call it ad hominem, right?

Well, guess what?

That is exactly what we

find here in our text with

Jesus and these Jewish religious leaders.

And then there's one more step that the debate can possibly go to.

It can go nuclear.

And it can come to blows, where

you just deck the person in the jaw.

And then, of course, that's where it all ends, right?

Now, we

see this play out here with these Jewish religious leaders.

They start out with an intellectual conversation in

this text about religion, but

it starts to descend in this progression, because

it's extremely clear that they cannot win.

They are

standing there in that temple, talking

and debating, literally, with the

truth, the truth.

Okay?

No way they can win this.

Okay?

Impossible!

So what happens?

They become emotional.

They get angry, they

get bitter.

And then they go to the verbal level of

calling him things like a demon possessed Samaritan.

Chapter 10,

we're going to see they call him insane.

And

then here, at the end of chapter 8, it goes all the way to physical.

Well, we read it.

What did they do?

They picked up stones.

What did they want to do with those stones?

They want to stone him to death.

Eventually, this is why he's killed.

This is why he's murdered in unfair trials.

and illegal trials, and

unjust trials, and then murdered on a Roman cross.

And again, keep

in mind, confronting

them, in the most straightforward

way, is actually, in reality,

the most loving thing that Jesus could possibly do

for them, and they don't even realize it.

Otherwise,

judgment and its consequences are all they have to look forward to.

Unquestionably, he just left them to themselves,

that was what was going to happen.

Now, and the dialogue

in front of us, there are three phases.

First comes blasphemy from them.

And then Jesus speaks truth,

and a gracious invitation, and then secondly, it happens again.

Blasphemy comes from them, and then Jesus speaks

truth and gives a gracious invitation in response.

And then thirdly, again, blasphemy from them, root from Jesus.

And then we'll wait to see what's next later in

the message, because it changes.

in the third phase.

Love, true

Christian love, does not leave people alone

in false religion.

It's not comfortable.

And that's why we should never turn people deceived

by false religion into the enemy.

You know why?

Because they are the mission field.

That is a uniquely Christian perspective

that many Christians don't seem to grasp,

especially if that

person is in a false religion, but they're very moral.

They're outwardly just, very moral people.

And you're just tempted to say, well,

look at how they live.

I mean, at least they believe in God.

Right?

So they got to be okay.

Right?

No.

No, they're not, okay.

They're not okay.

No man seeks after God.

There's none who does good.

There none who understands.

No man seeks after the God of the Bible.

People follow all kind of religion.

especially the ones that they make up in their own mind.

in America.

But they're all the mission field.

Because if they are not

believing in the person and work of Jesus Christ,

according to scripture alone, Jesus himself,

in the gospels, makes clear, they are in eternal danger.

It's

easy to forget about that, especially if they

act right for the most part.

Our response should be

to speak truth,

and give an invitation, to

repent, and believe, and guess what?

After that, the rest is up to God.

You've done your part.

That's our part, that's our role.

As they had talked about this morning in Sunday school, being on mission

with God, that's your part.

He does the rest.

Now, let's get in our text.

Phase 1 is found

here in verses 48 to 51.

Remember, here's the deal.

We're going to see it over and over, blasphemy,

truth from Jesus, gracious invitation from Jesus.

Here comes the blasphemy, excuse me, in verse 48.

Now, don't forget, he had

just told them in this earlier verse, you are of your father of the devil,

that's the most outrageous thing that in their minds, anybody could ever

say to them, because they thought they had all

the religious realities together in front of God.

They thought God was their God.

Right?

And after telling them, you are of your father, the devil.

Let me tell you what they could have said.

They could have listened to that, and they could have said, wait a minute, hold on.

What are we missing here?

Why are you saying that?

Why are you saying that the devil is our father?

Make us understand why you say something like that.

to us, but that ain't what they say.

Instead of that, they harden

their hearts, and they just get more bitter, and

they respond, look how they respond in verse 48.

The Jews answered and said to him, Do we

not say, rightly?

that you are a Samaritan, and have a demon?

And this is something they've been saying a lot.

This is what the Jewish leaders

have been cultivating about Jesus.

We see it in Matthew.

We see it in Mark, later in John.

Look at John 10:20.

What do they say?

He has a demon and is insane.

In Mark 3, 22,

they say, he is possessed by

Beelzebub.

That's another name for Satan.

So he's not just demon possessed.

He's Satan possessed by Satan himself.

is what they're saying about the Son of God.

They have been spreading

this word, and here in John 8:48, go back to

John 8:48, they justify it, Do we not rightly

say that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?

And why do they throw Samaritan in there?

Well, remember our study of the woman at the web?

The history of the Samaritans?

They were despised by Jews.

The Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans, and remember,

they would walk way out of their way, just not to go through the Samaritan

land, lest they be defiled on their feet.

I mean, it was a low blow.

to throw at a

Jew, you're nothing but a Samaritan.

That could come from the fact that

Samaritans like Jesus question the Jews' exclusive rights would be called Abraham's

children, but whatever it is that they mean by this, these two things are

literally the worst two things they could say at that time.

And it's outright.

Blasphemy.

to say, Jesus, you have a demon, right?

And while he

is being blasphemed,

What is his response?

Truth?

Well, first of all, look at verse 49.

Jesus answered, I do not have a demon.

Man, that's

just cool, calm, collected.

I do not have a dip.

That's the way to do it.

Then he says this, next.

But I honor

my father, you dishonor

me.

That's the truth.

And they needed to hear that.

And just think of what is

actually happening here.

Think about it, again.

They are

heaping the most monstrous, blasphemous,

insults possible on

God, the Son.

Eternal God,

the Son.

And he'd

already made clear, look in John 5:23.

Remember back in John 5:23, he who does not

honor the Son, does not honor

the Father who sent him.

Why?

They're equal.

They're both equally God, right?

Back in verse 42 of this 8th chapter.

If God, Were

your father, you would love me.

For I perceive forth and

have come from God.

So when you dishonor me, Jesus is

saying, You dishonor God, he just gives them truth.

I do not have a demon.

I honor my father, who is God, and you dishonor

him by the way you treat me, because I'm God the Son.

So you can't possibly be the children of God.

that you think you are.

Next, verse 50.

He takes it a step further.

with a deference to his what we

call in theology, his humiliation.

He starts out, look what he says.

But I do not seek my

glory.

What he's saying here is, I'm here in this temple,

as a man, in my humiliation.

I gave up my glory.

to come here to this place.

He said it a sigh.

Look at Philippians, just to remind you, Philippians 2,

6, 9, speaking of Jesus, who,

although he existed in the form

of God, but did not regard equality

with God, a thing to be grasped,

but emptied himself taking the

form of a bondservant, and being found in

the likeness of men, being found in

appearance as a man, he humbled

by becoming obedient to the point of

even deaf on a cross.

That is, the humiliation.

of God the Son.

I do not seek my glory.

He said this a number of times already.

It must have been really a regular thing

he said, I think, as he walked through the world in his three years of ministry.

Folks, this is the essence of the incarnation.

He came to give God the

Father glory if he wanted his own glory.

Guess what?

He would have stayed where he was.

That's

why, in his high priestly prayer, we're going to study it later, maybe

in 2028, I guess, here in John.

Look what he says.

Well, no, I don't have it on the screen, but listen to what he says,

Father, I have finished the work you gave me.

Now restored to me the glory I had with you before the world began.

He could have just stayed there.

But he came in

humiliation, to die

as a substitute for sinners, to

bear the wrath of God, the Father, upon himself,

forever sinner in human history, who

would ever repent, and believe, and to die,

a criminals execution on a cross.

That's the ultimate humility.

And once that was done,

The father highly exalted

him, right, and gave him a name above every name, and

even in his trial, he didn't

defend himself.

He was silent.

So Jesus here in verse 50.

I do not seek my own glory and then nook what he says next.

There is one who seeks, and judges.

So he's not seeking

his own glory, but there is one who does seek his glory.

The Father seeks his glory.

All over the Old

Testament that they knew.

It's clear that the Messiah

will be highly exalted, and

honored, and elevated, and, again, Philippians make

clear that he will be given a name that

is above every name that at the name of Jesus, every

knee would bow, and every tongue would

confess.

That's every tongue, and every knee of every person who

has ever existed in human history, is what we're talking about.

That Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Amen.

So there is a vindicator in this deal here.

But also, there is a judge.

Look what he says again in verse 50.

There is one who seeks, seeks his glory, and judges.

In other words, you know he's telling them?

He will give the final verdict on me.

Not only that, there's

one who seeks and judges, and he's going to give the

final verdict on you.

Jesus

is saying, I'm not here to seek honor from men.

God

will give me glory in due time.

But God will also judge

you.

You need to honor him now.

Right now, or

you're going to face him in judgment.

So Jesus responds

to the blasphemy by them with the

absolute truth, and then next comes,

from Jesus, in the middle of

all this blasphemy, a gracious invitation.

Look in verse 51.

How does it start out?

Truly, truly.

Remember, we've talked about this before, the weight of that phrase.

It occurs 25 times in the gospel of John.

This is something, hey, Jesus says,

letting us all know throughout church history.

Right here, you need to sit up and really pay attention to what I'm saying right here.

Truly, truly,

I say to you, if anyone keeps

my word, he will never see death.

Now let me tell you something, is that not,

the most gracious invitation

to a group of men that just called him a demon possessed Samaritan, huh?

Have some grace.

And remember our progression.

Blasphemy from them, then truth

from Jesus, then gracious invitation from Jesus.

And notice, notice he uses the word anyone.

That also includes them

standing right there in front of him.

who were literally blaspheming

God in human flesh to his face, if anyone.

He just told them judgment is coming.

And it's coming to those who don't honor God, and

God is the judge, and if you don't honor the Son, you don't

honor God, so truth, 101, you

are facing judgment and death.

But

know this, if anyone

keeps my word,

My logos, my message, my gospel,

he will not see death.

The

Greek word for C, right here means

to fix on, to gaze at.

This is not a glance.

You won't glance at it as it goes by.

It's saying, you won't be caught in it as an experience,

so what death is he talking about?

Well, we know he's not talking about physical death, right?

Because everybody physically dies.

Even Jesus physically died upon the cross.

He's talking, of course, about

eternal death.

But the book of Revelation,

called the second death.

If you

keep Jesus' word, you will not experience eternal death.

That's what he's saying straight to him.

So this is clearly an invitation, and this is how

we should handle people who are

antagonistic towards the gospel that we get.

You know, I've heard it.

I've heard celebrities.

Man, Christy Hannity, that's a fairy tale for low IQ

people who live their lives clinging to their guns and their Bibles, right?

That's all that it is.

How do you respond to that?

Give them the truth, no matter what.

And tell them, whether you

believe it or not, what I'm saying to you, you will be judged.

And that's the truth.

But also, just

like Jesus, follow his example.

If anybody believes anyone,

anyone believes the truth of the gospel, they will never see

the second death.

And that's all that we can do.

is tell them the truth, deliver the truth.

Now, all

of this activates the next phase of the conversation.

And here we get the same thing.

As I told you, blasphemy, cruise, gracious

invitation, they respond to Jesus in his gracious invitation

in verse 52.

Where do they respond?

The Jews said to him, Now, we know that you have a demon.

There's no progress there with them, is there?

Now we know you have a demon.

They believe he

was demon possessed, and they were God possessed.

That's what false religion does, folks.

It reverses everything.

It reverses everything, especially the ones in Jesus' name.

All the definitions are different.

The terms are the same, all the definitions of the terms are different.

They were so self deceived,

they thought that God was speaking when Satan was speaking, and they thought

Satan was speaking, when God, in human flesh, was speaking right

in front of them.

That's how self deceived they were.

All of false religion does just that.

Look at verse 52 and 53.

The Jews said to him, Now we know that you have a demon.

Abraham died.

And the prophets also, and you say, if

anyone keeps my word, he will never taste of death, surely

you are not greater than our Father Abraham, who died,

the prophets died too.

Whom do you make yourself out to be?

Who in the world?

Carpenter, do you think you are?

You are an

insane demon possessed man, is who you are,

saying these things to us.

In their blindness,

notice, they have no

real interest in getting to the core of

what he is saying with their responses, and

we've seen this before, here in John, where he's

talking about spiritual truth, and they are

only talking on a superficial physical level.

Who do you think you are?

You don't have power

over death?

Abraham didn't have power over death.

How do we know?

He died.

The prophets didn't have power over death.

How do we know?

They die.

How can you possibly

be saying this?

These were all the great heroes of the

faith, and every single one of them died.

Only, only a demon possessed person would say that

they have the power over death.

How does Jesus respond?

With truth.

Verse 54.

Jesus answered, If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing.

It is my Father, who glorifies

me, of whom you say, You

say, he is our God.

You keep claiming

God is your God, and yet, guess what you're doing.

You are dishonoring him by dishonoring me.

And don't

lose sight of the fact that there

was ample evidence, that

God had affirmed Jesus in the Old Testament

prophecies, ample evidence through

the preaching of John the Baptist, ample

evidence in his continual breathtaking

miracles throughout the whole time of his ministry,

God has affirmed

me, he's saying to them,

You know it, but you reject me.

I don't glorify myself.

My glory is nothing.

Do you?

I know that.

If I try to glorify myself as nothing to you.

He said that before.

And really, what he's saying?

I'm not banking on my own claim here.

I'm not glorifying myself.

It's my father who glorifies me.

Of whom you say he is our God.

And this is

what religious people and people in false religions need to be reminded of.

You do not represent God

if you reject the Jesus of scripture alone.

You do not.

And the truth is verse 55.

What does Jesus say next?

And you have not come to know him.

But I know him, and if I say that I

do not know him, I will be a liar like you.

But I do know him.

And keep his word.

And again, that's just, straight up truth.

I know him.

You don't know him.

If I said I didn't know him, if I agreed with your assessment

that I don't know God, I'd be a liar

just like you.

In the Greek, you're all liars.

Hmm?

That's what you say.

You are liars to their face.

You're living a lie right now, in your religiosity.

Matthew 23 says you're creating sons of

hell, is what he told them.

And that's the truth.

They were.

But then he

comes with another gracious invitation.

Verse 56.

Your father, Abraham, rejoiced

to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad.

Your father, Abraham.

He's saying, Hey, I'll concede that.

You did?

You did...

You descended from Abraham's line, physically.

Abraham was glad to look ahead and see

my day, and he saw it.

And he was glad.

Wouldn't you like to be glad like Abraham?

Wouldn't you want to trade

in this bitterness that you're having with me right now for some joy?

Wouldn't you like that?

This, too, is a gracious invitation.

Why don't you join in with Abraham's joy?

right now.

That's what he's saying.

And we went over Abraham's joy last time

when we were here in John.

Abrahamic covenant.

And Abraham believed it, and it

was counted to him for what?

Righteousness.

The problem was, he

was going to have a whole nation, remember?

Promised, and he didn't have a son, so you know the story.

And God said, well, okay, I'm gonna give you one, you know, you're gonna be really old, but watch this.

And when Isaac came into the world.

He was the first in that line.

The son of promise that looked toward

a future, Messiah.

Start of human history.

There was the promise of a seed who would bruise

the serpent's head, right?

Right there at the beginning.

Listen.

Abraham, Sarah, they

saw through the glass dimly, but

they saw enough, and they believed enough that

there would one day come a redeemer, a savior.

And the promise started to be fulfilled in

that miraculous birth of Isaac, and then Jacob, and

then on from there, and Abraham saw down

the path to the Savior, and when he saw

it, when he saw the promises being fulfilled, he believed it.

It was credited to him for righteousness, and he believed it with joy.

Jesus is saying, and now, here's

Jesus saying, I'm here.

Messiah's here.

I'm Abraham's joy.

You're looking at him.

Why don't you want to

enter into that joy?

Look at Hebrews 11:13 after talking about Abraham and Sarah.

Look what it says.

All these died in faith without receiving the promises, but

having seen them and having welcome them

from a distance.

Abraham,

like I said, and Sarah and all them, they saw what

God revealed as a dim, distant

reality, but even then,

even that brought Abraham, joy.

And Jesus is saying to them, Don't you want some of that joy?

Again, a

gracious invitation in the middle of all this

heinous blasphemy towards God, the Son.

Why would you want to scorn that which the prophets

of the Old Testament saw with such joy?

How do they respond?

Same.

Verse 57?

Now sarcasm.

So the Jews said to him, are you are

not yet 50 years old?

And you have seen Abraham?

How in the world

do you know what make Abraham happy?

I mean, who do you think you're kidding, man?

You ain't never met Abraham.

You know what Abraham's joy is.

How do you know what Abraham saw?

You're not even 50 yet?

So they just mocked Jesus.

What a joke for him to say that.

Right?

Well, get ready for the turn.

And Jesus responds with

a high voltage shock of

one million volts of absolute truth in this

next verse, 58.

Jesus said to them, Truly,

truly, I say to you, before Abraham

was born, I am.

Immediately, with no confusion.

They know.

He's claiming to be God.

For Abraham was born.

I mean, if ever there was need for a truly, truly verse.

This is it, before Abraham

was born, I am,

not I was, I am.

Amen, because he is the only eternal being.

There is no loss.

He always idiots.

There's nobody else like that, ever.

I am.

That's the name of God.

These people who claim that Jesus didn't claim to be God.

They don't have brains when they read.

Yahwei!

I am the tetragrammaton from Exodus 3:14.

That's God's name.

You remember what?

He said to Moses?

What did I tell the people?

What's your name?

Say, I am, that I am, sent sent you.

Remember?

That is the grade I am.

Amen.

Remember, this is what John started out in

John chapter 1, communicating to us.

In the beginning was the Word, and

the Word was with God, and the Word, what

was God, verse 14, and the

Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.

I mean, how clearer do we need to be about who this person is?

And for sure.

For sure, now, at this point, as he says this,

this is way more than they can handle.

This is way over the top.

I mean, it's one thing to call them children of the devil.

But to call yourself, I am, to call yourself,

Yahweh, God, now they are without restraint.

But I want you to notice.

They've just been told the truth again.

Now, think

of how they could have responded to that.

They could have said, how so?

Sir, uh,

how are we to understand that?

what you just said.

Instead, thinking

that they were activating Leviticus

24:16, which called for the stoning of a blasphemer,

look at their response, verse 59.

Therefore, they picked up stones to throw at him.

to stone him to death.

Now, they're

at the bottom of that, the steps of

the progression of debate that I took you through earlier that it

sometimes descends to.

They gone from emotional, intellectual discussion,

emotional fervor, verbal abuse,

and now they can't contain themselves.

They pick up rocks, desiring to

crush out his life.

Now, at this

point, there can't be any more gracious invitations, folks.

Look next in verse 59.

And you can skip by this, but I want you to think about it for just a minute.

But Jesus hid himself

and went out of the temple.

Well, how did he do that, brother Philip?

I have no clue.

Neither do you.

All I know is 12nd he was standing there.

And they were picking up rocks running to stoning

to death and then he hit himself.

This is what the Bible says.

Then he went out of the temple and

he's not in front of him anymore.

But let's think about it from a practical level.

Okay, get past that, right?

Let's think about it practically.

There comes a time when even the best

has to walk away.

from this type of discussion.

Jesus doesn't

advocate just standing there and letting people kill him unnecessarily,

for him or us, and he

proves that with this action right here.

For sure.

Now, it's a noble thing to be a martyr, if there's

no other way out but for you to be a martyr.

That's a noble thing, but if you can escape, escape,

get out.

Why?

So you can live another day to tell more people the truth.

and live for God's glory.

This is another example of

understanding divine sovereignty while at the same time,

at the same time, and nobody understood divine sovereignty better than Jesus, right?

At the same time, acting in responsibility.

even Jesus, right?

The Jewish leaders

hate Jesus so viciously.

And we're only going to see this ramp

up, here in the Gospel of John as

we get closer and closer to Calvary.

And again, there is no gracious invitation here.

In fact, if you go down a little further and look at John

9, the next chapter 39, verse 39.

Jesus gives a little explanation of this.

He says in verse 39, For judgment, I came into this world.

Well, wait a minute, brother Philip.

I thought he came to seek and save that which was lost.

Well, he did.

Remember back in John 3, I didn't come to condemn

the world, but to save the world, right?

He said that.

He did, but... there comes a point.

When for some folks,

continually rejecting, it's over.

Jesus

has to antagonize

his enemies this way.

He has to antagonize these people

who are trapped in

false doctrine, in false religion.

He has to, but it is an act of mercy.

Don't forget that.

It is an act of love.

But when the final response

to these repeated efforts to

bring them to the truth, to bear becomes deadly?

Folks, that's some hard,

hearty rejection, wouldn't you say?

That's why Jesus can also say,

For judgment, I came into this world?

And he says, next.

Next there, in John 9:39,

same verse so that those who do not see,

may see, and

that those who see, may become

blind.

Wow.

That's judgment, which means people who think

they see are really blind.

And they're going to feel every ounce

of judgment.

For

all people living and breathing God's air this very day.

The gracious invitation.

is extended.

Repent.

Believe the gospel.

You will obey his gospel, repent,

and believe that saving faith.

You will never see the

never ending second eternal death.

You go through physical

death, unless Jesus returns, before

that happens, but you, if everything remains

as normal, you'll go through physical death, but you

will be instantly transported, straight,

to the presence of the key, straight.

Just like that.

That's the promise of the gospel.

May God grant

all of us the grace to be more

like Jesus in dealing with those

who are so deceived by

the many false religions in our world.

He's our example.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this.

The greatest example giver who

ever has or ever will live, and

that is Jesus himself.

We thank you for inspiring

the apostle John to give us the very words,

we can just open the book and read and

go straight back to the 1st century and be right there

in these interactions.

with Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders, and I never

tire of doing it, and I never tire

of preaching it.

Thank you for taking such an unworthy vessel to

do this work and allowing me to preach to your people on your day.

I pray you'd give all of us ears to

hear, and that we would act accordingly from what we

hear today, for your glory.

In Jesus' name, we pray, amen.