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.