John 8:39-59
39 They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, 40 but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. 41 You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.” 42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. 43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. 46 Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? 47 Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.” 48 The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” 49 Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. 50 Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. 51 Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” 52 The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” 54 Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ 55 But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” 57 So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
People say lots of things about Jesus, some good, some bad, some clear, some confused. The adjectives that might be offered for Jesus are too many to be counted. In the church, we have many: glorious, humble, majestic, meek, powerful, mild, strong. The list goes on and on. But I would like, this morning, to add another adjective, one that I believe the gospel of John has earned for Jesus: shocking.
Jesus was shocking.
If you read John’s gospel, which we have been working through for some time now, you will be unable to escape that conclusion. Jesus was shocking. He did shocking things He said shocking things.
At least, that seems to be what the religious authorities who confronted Him felt. It also seems to be what people feel today about Jesus, once they see Him for who He is. For instance, Richard Harries, the Bishop of Oxford, England, has recently argued that Christians should avoid using Jesus’ language in John 6 when speaking of the Lord’s Supper. In that chapter Jesus speaks of eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Bishop Harries writes:
“…people who are groping their way into Christianity can suddenly find themselves shocked and horrified, though they may be too polite to express such feelings, at the sacrificial, cannibalistic language of the Eucharist.”[1]
The Bishop goes on to explain that “it is very shocking imagery and needs a lot of explaining.”
To be sure, we need to make sure that people understand what Jesus said and how He said it. That is, after all, one of the purposes of preaching. But, honestly, can we hope to shield people from the shocking words of Jesus? And, more importantly, should we shield people from the shocking words of Jesus?
Shock has also been the common experience of many great believers in the past. St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest minds the church has ever seen, wrote voluminously on the nature of person of Christ. His works are still read and studied today. Yet, later in his life, Aquinas had a vision of Christ that left him dumfounded. After this vision, he wrote, “I can write no more; compared with what I have seen, all that I have written seems to me as straw.”[2]
Oftentimes, it’s what I feel concerning Jesus as well: shock. Just when I think I know Him or have Him figured out, He catches me off guard with His astounding person, His confounding love, and His amazing grace.
I am shocked by Jesus all of the time.
Jesus is the unexpected, unpredictable, shocking Jesus. In fact, the many scenes we have seen thus far in John seem to start with curiosity, or bewilderment, or opposition, but they almost all end at the same destination: shock. The scenes in John build to a kind of crescendo. The tension builds in those who come to Jesus and press Him. They seem almost unable, at first, to want to hear what Jesus is saying. When they finally do, however, they fall into absolute shock. That shock then translates into either rage and opposition or awe and acceptance.
It happens time and again in John’s gospel, and it happens here in the latter half of John 8 as well. In particular, Jesus reveals three shocking things to His hostile audience.
I. The Origins of Opposition to Christ. (v.39-47)
Jesus has been in a protracted conflict with the Jewish authorities. He has been calling them to a realization of their lostness and a realization of His true nature. They are blinded by their pride and religious blindness. This is evident in their initial claim this morning:
39 They answered him, “Abraham is our father.”
They appeal to Abraham in an effort to bolster their religious credentials. “Abraham is our father.” Translation: “We are sure of our religious heritage. We are sure of the truth. We know who we are. We’re in the club. Our card has been stamped. We’ve got the history and the name and the pedigree. We know ourselves. You we do not know. Abraham is our father.”
Do you see? They are talking about origins, their origins. Abraham is their earthly father, their earthly origin. And, since Abraham was God’s man, they assume their biological pedigree assures their right standing before God. They think they know who their father is, but they do not.
Jesus responds by calling them out on their pretension assumptions:
Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did,40 but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. 41 You are doing the works your father did.”
Ah! If Abraham was their father they would act like Abraham, and one thing Abraham definitely did was seek God’s will. If they were truly Abraham’s children, they would love what Abraham loved; they would love the things of God. They would, in other words, love Jesus, who was sent by the Father.
They respond to Jesus’ words with a none-too-subtle insult:
They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.”
Many people believe that, in saying this, the Jews were making an allusion to Jesus’ scandalous birth. This should be read with the accent on the “we”: “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father – even God.” In other words, they were suggesting that Jesus’ birth was the result of His mother being immoral. Many believe they were taking a veiled shot at Jesus, to use our terminology.
This is likely. No doubt rumors of Jesus’ shocking birth went ahead of Him wherever He went. And no doubt many made subtle and not-so-subtle accusations concerning what they considered the unseemly nature of Jesus birth.
Undeterred, Jesus takes the issue of origins to the next level by revealing to them the true nature of their father and, consequently, of their thoughts concerning Him. What He does is, to put it mildly, shocking.
42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. 43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. 46 Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? 47 Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”
I defy anyone to deny that these words are immeasurably jarring: “You are of your father the devil.”
He is speaking to the religious leaders of the land. He’s speaking to those who were considered to be the most godly, the most orthodox in their theology, the most doctrinally sound. This is what people thought of these leaders. It also happens to be what they thought of themselves.
And Jesus, the shocking Messiah King, walks right through the awe they were accustomed to eliciting and the politeness they were used to receiving and says something that was staggering in its offensiveness.
“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s will.”
Their minds must have reeled in horrified sickness at the very thought that Satan, the devil, was their father. After all, they have just reminded Him that Abraham was their father. Their objections to Jesus arose, therefore, from His, Jesus’, supposed divergence from the Abrahamic faith of the Jews. Their objections, in their minds, arose from their careful study of the Word of God, from their awareness of the rules and what they saw as Jesus’ violation of them, from their status as the religious gatekeepers. Their objections to Jesus arose, in their minds, from God Himself. They were, they thought, God’s men and this Jesus, they thought, was from the devil.
Jesus has the audacity to say to them that their true father is the devil, that they have been blinded to the truth of God, and that their minds are ensnared by the “father of lies” to such an extent that they can no longer hear or stand or abide by the truth?! Jesus dares to say to these religious upper-crusts that what they think is the truth of God concerning Jesus is really a lie from Satan concerning Jesus?! Jesus actually says that these men who live, eat, sleep, breath, study, work, talk, sing, and pray God “are not of God”?!
This is mind-boggling. Not only have these men misunderstood the nature of the origins of their disbelief, they are, in fact, completely wrong about it. They saw the origins of their disbelief as emanating from God. Jesus told them that their disbelief came from Satan himself.
Of course, we are tempted to applaud this bare-knuckled approach of Jesus. “Get ‘em, Jesus,” we cry. “Get ‘em! Let ‘em have it! That’s right! They are of the devil. They oppose you because the devil is their father! Get ‘em!”
Before you gloat, though, consider: Jesus’ words mean that all opposition to Jesus, all failure to believe and follow Jesus, all hesitancy to walk with Jesus is from the devil Himself. This means that the truth concerning the origins opposition to Jesus applies not only to the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, but also to us when we do not wish to follow Him.
Of course, we have profoundly subtle ways of getting around opposing Jesus. None of us would say we oppose Jesus! But do we not struggle to really believe Jesus? Do we not struggle to follow? If we are honest, are there not times (more frequent than we would care to admit), when we ignore this or that part of Jesus’ teachings, when we fail to follow Him in this or that part of our lives?
If the Jews were following Satan when they refused to follow and believe, who are good Baptist people following when we fail to follow and believe?
“Ah,” we say, “it is not the same thing. No, I’m not a perfect follower, but my sins are different from the sins of these men. Their sins were diabolical, wicked, evil and Satanic. My sins, though, are just mistakes, oversights, occasional errors.”
Unfortunately, the words of Jesus will not allow these kinds of evasive tactics. He has ripped the polite veneer off the horrifying reality of all sin, all disobedience, all refusals to follow. He has revealed a stark, startling and, frankly, simple truth: at any moment, on any given day, regardless of who you are, you are either following the Lord Jesus or advancing the cause of Satan.
What an unsettling but potentially life-altering truth! What if we could see all of our actions as resting in either one of two spheres of reality: Jesus’ or the devil’s?
The Jews who opposed Jesus needed to see the reality of the origins of their opposition to Jesus, and so do we. The hard truth is this: our opposition to Jesus is not because we lack this or that gift that would enable us to follow this or that aspect of His teachings. Our opposition is not because we simply make mistakes. Our sins are not mere errors. The hard truth is that the devil himself is always vying for our affections, and we, in our foolishness, to avoid the uncomfortable aspects of Jesus, often grant Satan our affections.
Be aware of the shocking truth concerning the origins of our often-subtle opposition to Jesus.
II. The Future for Believers in Christ. (v.48-51)
That is not all. Jesus next reveals the shocking truth about the future of believers in Christ.
They respond to Jesus’ assertion concerning the diabolical origins of their disbelief by trying to turn that table on Jesus:
48 The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?”
Once again, Jesus moves to the heart of the matter. In doing so, His words continue in their incendiary vein:
49 Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. 50 Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. 51 Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”
“You are the devil!” they cry.
“Not so,” Jesus answers, in essence. “I am of God, and whoever comes to me will never die.”
“Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my words, he will never see death.”
They have only just managed to pick their jaws up off the ground after Jesus’ last revelation, and now this. Not only does He deny their accusations concerning His alleged demonic origins, He tells them that Satan is their father, that God is His Father, and that whoever keeps His word will have eternal life. A cynical man might almost think Jesus was trying to incite them, but that is not the case. The fact is that the truth of Jesus is simply shocking and the carnal mind cannot receive it.
The Jews argue that their salvation is in their past. Jesus reveals that our salvation is secured in the present and set for the future.
If you will come to Jesus, you will live forever! You will never die!
III. The Identity of Christ. (v.52-59)
Thus far, Jesus has revealed something shocking about those who oppose Him (their father is the devil) and about those who come to Him (they will never die). He saves the most shocking revelation for the end, and it concerns His own person.
The Jews begin to see the implications of Jesus’ words, and they scoff at Him.
52 The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?”
There it is: “Who do you make yourself out to be?” That’s the question that keeps recurring. It’s also the question that Jesus has already answered countless times in a myriad of different ways. They are completely unprepared for His answer:
54 Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ 55 But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” 57 So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”
Jesus has offended. Jesus has startled. Now, to the ears of His audience, Jesus has blasphemed.
“Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”
“You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”
“Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was…I am.”
I love how Eugene Peterson puts this in The Message: “Believe me,” said Jesus, “I am who I am long before Abraham was anything.”
Their reaction is unmitigated rage:
59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
Jesus says, “Before Abraham was, I am,” and they immediately try to kill Him.
It is the most shocking thing Jesus says in this episode. It is one of the most shocking thing Jesus ever said.
Abraham, the patriarch of the faith, the father of the Jews, the greatest of the greats, had been dead for many years. His name was revered. His memory was sacred. To use a weak analogy, but one that might help, think of how we feel about the name “George Washington”…but then multiply that times a million. To take this further, imagine if I had come in today and started my sermon like this: “George Washington was thrilled to see the day that Wyman Richardson was born.” Well, that would sound absurd, and, in fact, that would be absurd.
Again, you must take that situation and magnify it times infinity to get close to understanding what is happening when Jesus says, “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad. Before Abraham was, I am.”
In saying this, Jesus was making two astounding claims. First, He was claiming to be pre-existent. “Before Abraham was, I am.” In its simplest form this meant that Jesus claimed to exist before Abraham.
Let us be clear: Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but Jesus did not begin in Bethlehem. There has never been a time when Jesus was not. He is the pre-existent, eternal, always-there Jesus. He is “the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end” (Revelation 22:13). Jesus never began. He is the beginning. So Jesus could rightfully say, “Before Abraham was, I…”
But added to this statement of pre-existence is a radical claim of divinity: “Before Abraham was, I am.” This “I am” is the name and title of Yahweh God. In Exodus 3, Moses haggles with God over God’s commission for Moses to go to Pharaoh on behalf of the Israelites:
13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.'”
God told Moses that His name was “I am.”
Jesus tells the Jews, “Before Abraham was, I am.”
It is a flabbergasting couplet of claims: pre-existence (“Before Abraham was…”) and divinity (“…I am.”) The two together constitute a massive and shocking claim. It enraged these Jews and they tried to kill Him for saying it. It enrages people still today.
Even so, others hear these truths and come to Jesus. They are no less shocked by them, but they see the logical progression:
1. Outside of Christ we are enslaved to the devil.
2. If we come to Christ we will be set free and will live.
3. Christ is able to do this because He is the pre-existent divine Christ who has the authority to pronounce forgiveness and give life.
Jesus is the God-man who frees us from the power of the devil, of sin, of death and of hell by defeating the devil on the cross and in the empty tomb. Jesus lays down His life for His sheep and He grants life and hope and joy and forgiveness to all who will come.
Will you come?
Come.
Come to the shocking Savior.
Come to Him and live.