John 8 (4)
Who is Jesus?
- Read John 8:31-58
A debate was going on about who Jesus was. The Jews claimed they were children of Abraham. Jesus told them, “If you were really children of Abraham, you would believe Me. But you’re not. You’re children of your father the Devil.
Perhaps just in self-defense, or perhaps, as an attack on Jesus’s parentage, because there was some question about who the father was, they answer back, “We are not illegitimate children.” Jesus replies, “If you were children of Abraham, you would glorify Me, because that’s what he did.”
Now we know you haver a demon. You’re not yet 50 years old and yet to claim to have seen Abraham?” Jesus answers, “Truly I tell you, before Abraham was, I AM”.
And they picked up stones to kill Him.
Why did they pick up stones? Why did they want to kill Him? For a number of reasons, but primarily here, they did it because they understood Jesus was claiming to be God. And I have to admit, if He wasn’t who He claimed to be, I might be right there with them.
I AM, that’s a title with a sacred history. When God called Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, Moses asked what he should say to the people God sent him to and they asked, “What is His name?” In one of the great moments of revelation in the Old Testament, God replies: “I Am who I am” and instructs Moses to tell them that I AM has sent me to you”.
It is a title that signifies the eternity of God. The Hebrew word for I am is in the “imperfect” tense, meaning I was, I am, and I shall always be. It also signifies that God is complete in Himself. He is the source of all being and all other attributes are contained in this title that represents the eternal and mighty nature of God. (100 Portraits of Christ, 1987, SP Publications, Wheaton, IL, 45).
And here, in a debate with the Jews, Jesus does a wordplay and tells them, “Before Abraham was, I Am”.
To repeat myself, if I had been there with the Jews, I might have been tempted to pick up a stone myself.
There are few things more important than a person’s soul and their eternity. There are few things more important than a person’s eternal destination and their relationship with God. For a person to come along and mess with that, for a person to come along and lead people astray to where they end up separated from God for all eternity, there is no lower a person in the world than that. I tell you, such people really are what Jesus called these Jews. They are children of the Devil, and worthy of condemnation.
And while I’m on the subject, I want you to know that parents who fail to teach their children about the Lord, or who sow seeds of doubts in their minds, one day they are going to pay a terrible price for what they have done.
As the Israelites were first heading into the promised land, God gave them a command we read beginning in Deuteronomy 6:1.
> Deuteronomy 6:1-9 These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you. Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
God promised He would bless their land if they loved and served Him, and He told parents to teach their children about Him as they were rising up and as they were going out. As they were lying down and as they were getting up.
He said, teach your children about Me all the time. Don’t let them forget, or it’s going to mess your children and your country up.
Perhaps that’s what we’re seeing a taste of in our country right now. Perhaps we’re seeing the fruit of generations of parents failing to teach their children, marching up and down our streets, burning, looting, and fighting against everything their parents have built.
And if you’ll let me digress for a minute, there is no place in the world where socialism has lifted people out of poverty. They tried socialism and communism in this country when it was first founded. The first off the Mayflower decided that they would share all things in common. They would have a common garden, and share the harvested food as each family needed.
And do you know what they found? They found that if you share everything in common, that people are more likely to call in sick. To stay home with that child who has a runny nose, and our founders nearly starved to death. But, when they gave each family their own plots of ground, and allowed them to keep what they harvested, all of a sudden production went up. People were more likely to show up to work, and that runny-nosed child came to the field with it’s parents, and played as the parents worked.
Industry, thrift, saving for the future, taking care of family, looking out for those less fortunate, respect for human life; these are all things taught in the Bible and modeled by Jesus.
I do not understand parents who don’t want to teach their children about God and who do not regularly teach about the importance of a relationship with the Lord. “I want to let them decide for themselves when they grow up.” What kind of thinking is that? You don’t let them decide about whether or not they want to brush their teeth, because by the time they are old enough to decide that it is important, it may be too late and the teeth may be gone. You don’t let them decide whether they want to eat well or not, until they are older, because by the time they are old enough to decide that they may need to eat some vegetables, their health may be shot, and if we do not teach our children and grandchildren about the Lord when they are young, you can rest assured that the Devil and the world will teach them about everything but the Lord and by the time they hear and understand, their hearts may be hardened to the point where it is almost impossible for them to become believers.
So, I don’t take teaching lightly and I don’t take someone leading folks astray lightly. I’d want to slap the taste out of their mouths.
Jesus Himself said in
> Matthew 18:6-7 “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!
So, if Jesus was standing there claiming to be God, I’d be quick to pick up a stone as well, unless, unless, He is Who He claims to be.
Is Jesus God?
I. IS JESUS GOD?
What evidence do we have that Jesus is God?
1. Jesus and God are eternal - Our Bibles begin in Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God.” God has always been. He has no beginning and no end. He is eternal.
> Deuteronomy 33:27 The Eternal God is a dwelling place. .
> Job 36:26 Behold, God is exalted and we do not know Him. The number of His years is unsearchable.
> Psalm 102:12 But You, of Lord, abide forever. And Your name to all generations.
> Isaiah 40:28 Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable.
God the Father is eternal. What about God the Son?
- John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
> Isaiah 9:6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
> Colossians 1:17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
> Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
> Revelation 22:13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
God the Father and God the Son are both eternal. There has never been a time when Jesus was not.
2. Jesus and God are both involved in creation
> Genesis 1:1, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
> Nehemiah 9:6 “You alone are the Lord.
You have made the heavens,
The heaven of heavens with all their host,
The earth and all that is on it,
The seas and all that is in them.
You give life to all of them
And the heavenly host bows down before You.
God the Father is the creator. How about God the Son?
- John 1:3 All things were created through Him, and apart from Him not one thing was created that has been created.
- John 1:10 He was in the world, and the world was created through Him, and yet the world did not recognize Him
> Colossians 1:16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.
Now, Jehovah’s False Witnesses will tell you that Jesus is a created being. How in the world can He be created if He created everything?
God the Father is the Creator. God the Son is the Creator.
3. God the Father and God the Son are both all-powerful
> Jeremiah 32:17 Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.
> Job 42:2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
> Luke 1:37 For nothing will be impossible with God.
God the Father is all-powerful. Now, think of some of the things Jesus did.
- Remember when Jesus and the disciples were in the boat traveling over the Sea of Galilee when the storm came up? Jesus was asleep. The disciples were frightened. They woke Jesus up and He spoke to the wind and the waves and the storm stopped. The disciples looked at one another and asked, “Who is this that even the wind and the waves obey Him?” He’s God the Son. That’s Who He is.
Do you remember what happened when they got to the other side of the sea? A demon-possessed man, a man who had killed folks and whom the Romans had unsuccessfully tried to chain up, came and threw himself at Jesus’ feet. The demons inside the man cried out, “Son of the most-high God. In God’s Name don’t torture us.” And according to Luke 8, they begged Jesus not to send them into the abyss.
The demons know there is coming a day when Jesus will judge them and they will be sent to that fiery furnace.
- Remember when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead? Remember how He healed countless people? He gave sight to the blind and made the lame walk. He multiplied bread and fish.
Who but God can do such a thing? Elijah couldn’t. God had birds carry bread to him. King David couldn’t. He took bread out of the temple.
4. God the Father and God the Son are holy
God the Father is holy. Isaiah saw God high and lifted up and heard the creatures crying holy.
God the Father is holy. He is without sin.
God the Son, Jesus is holy and without sin.
- John 8:46. How among you can convict Me of sin?
Imagine, some of these people have been with Jesus almost continuously for 3 years. Many of the others have spent significant amounts of time with Him. And yet, none of them can point to a time when he sinned. None of them can point to a time when He gossiped, or cursed, or was jealous, or anything like that? You wouldn’t have to follow me very far or very long before you’d see me slip up. But none of these could talk about Jesus?
No my friends, Jesus is God. He is the second person of the trinity. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Now, think for a moment of what He has done.
II. WHAT HAS JESUS DONE?
1. He left the glories of heaven.
- Philippians 2:5-11
The other day I got to watch a sermon by E. V. Hill. In that message he recounted how he had once discussed heaven with a professor of his. They were talking about the passage in Revelation where the elders fall down before the throne of God and cry out holy, and the 4 creatures continually cry out holy. And Dr. Hill admitted to his professor that he thought he might get tired of that. His professor told him, no you won’t, for 2 reasons.
First, you’ll have a new body. The only reason we get tired, or weary now is because of this tent we have to drag around with us. The only reason we get tired, or weary, or sick now is because of this body that is carrying around our spirits. When we get to heaven, we won’t be trapped in these anymore. We will have new bodies.
The second reason we would never get tired of crying out holy, and by the way, that’s not what we’ll be doing all the time. And we won’t be sitting on clouds strumming harps all the time either. The Lord has jobs for us to do.
But, secondly, you wouldn’t get tired of it because of the greatness and majesty of God. You’d look at God and see something mighty He just did and you’d bow your head and cry out holy. And by the time you pick your head up He’s done something else majestic and you’d bow your head ands cry out holy. And by the time you pick your head up, He’s done something else.
Now, imagine. Jesus was in that environment. A place with no pain, no suffering, no ugly, no sickness, no death. A place where He was worshipped. A place of gold and jewels, of light and plenty.
And one day justice says, “You know, they’ll all have to die. God, You said it yourself. You told them in the Garden, If you touch it you will die.” And since then, there hasn’t been one righteous, no not one. And you said, “The wages of sin is death.”
The justice of God says, “They’ll all have to die.”
Then the love of God speaks up and says, “I’m not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
Then there has to be some way to satisfy the justice of God. There has to be a way to pay the penalty for those sins. There has to be a way where the justice of God can be satisfied, while the love of God is fulfilled.
So Jesus says, “I’ll go. I’ll do it.”
I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I would have done it for you. To finally be in heaven, to see all of the glories of heaven and to come down here to take on the sin of mankind. A sinless God come to earth to die for thankless people.
No wonder the angels came and announced to the shepherds in the wilderness. In Luke 2 we read, An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
No wonder the angels came and made an announcement. No wonder they came and sang, for during all the time of creation, they had never seen anything like this. God the Son, coming to earth and taking on flesh. And He wasn’t put up in Ritz Carlton. He didn’t stay in any 5 star anything. He stayed in a no star stable. He didn’t get a sleep number bed, with sheets with an 800 thread count. He got a cow’s feeding trough with hay. He wasn’t dressed in the finest, silken, glowing robes. He was dressed in swaddling clothes.
> Philippians 2:7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
He left the glories of heaven.
2. He died for our sins.
- Isaiah 53:1-12
III. WHAT IS YOUR RESPONSE
What will your response be to Jesus?
1. Reject Him and throw stones at Him.
You can reject Him and throw stones at Him. You can ignore the sacrifice He made for you.
2. Accept Him as your Lord and Savior
ABC.
- John 8:31
CONCLUSION
Friday afternoon, after finishing up a couple of other jobs, I went to a collision center in Debary to look at a roof . . .
Yesterday morning. I got there early, pulled my truck and trailer to the back, drug all of my equipment out, got on the roof and went to work. I had my headphones on and was listening to the Z and singing some as I was working.
About an hour and a 1/2 later, I’m carrying my tools over to the ladder getting ready to get down, when I see an 80 something year old lady standing at the bottom of the ladder and looking up at me. I took my headphones off , and look down at her. She says to me, “I’ve been trying to get your attention for 20 minutes. I’ve been hollering. I’ve been banging on your ladder. I said, Ma’am, what can I do for you.
She said, I want to talk to you about a car up front. I said, “Ma’am, I don’t work here. I’m a roofer. You need to go to the office around front.
I say that to say this, some of you are just like that lady. You’ve been looking up the wrong ladder trying to find salvation, trying to find joy. Perhaps you’ve tried other religions. Perhaps you’ve tried being good or helping others or whatever. Let me tell you my friend, you will find no way to heaven except through God the Son who left the glories of heaven and came to die for you. Will you call upon Him today?
Others of you, you’re just like me on that roof. You’re busy working. You’re busy singing. You’re busy living and you have never stopped long enough to hear that still small voice, to answer the call of the Holy Spirit on your life.
Well let me tell you, He will not call forever. Some day He’ll quit calling. Some day He’ll quit banging on your ladder. He’ll say, “My Son did all of this for you and you’re not listening. Well, it’s too late.
