Jesus, the Great I AM! - John 8:48-59

 

Who is Jesus? The Great I AM!

John 8:48-59

Introduction: Here, at the end of John 8, is a passage that powerfully responds to a key question John has invited us to consider: Who is Jesus? We have not rushed our study of this scene, at, or just after the Feast of Booths in Jerusalem. Still there is much more that could and should be said. Jesus is in a confrontation with some of the leaders of the Jews; and He had just revealed that their rejection of Him revealed that they did not know God (8:42-47) – Rather than being children of God, their unbelief exposed them as children of the Devil. The One whom they should have been waiting for, the One predicted in the Scriptures (which they claimed to believe), the One promised since the Fall was there, in their midst, and they did not know Him.  He came unto His own, and his own people did not receive Him.

       In this scene Jesus is about to reveal more explicitly who He claims to be, and they are not ready to receive the truth!  It was not enough to attribute the titles of the Messiah to Him, they needed to understand correctly what those titles meant.  As I studied this I thought, there is a lot of doctrine in this chapter, a lot of theology. But I am not apologizing, the more we know Him, the more will be astonished by the grace He has extended to us. The better we know Him, the more we’ll love Him. God has given us His Word so that we can know the Truth about Him, and what He has done and what He expects of us. Doctrine is not abstract, it is extremely practical. In the next chapter we see the setting, and the question of suffering in the first few verses. We will go through times of darkness and unexplainable suffering in life, but if we know the Good Shepherd, the Light of the World, we are not alone. If Jesus is God, the Great I AM, and He knows us, loves us, and is with us always, what do we have to be afraid of? Whatever struggle we might face, knowing the God who is, knowing him intimately, is the answer. Remember why John wrote, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, have life in His name (John 20:31; cf. 10:10b).

The Context: In Jn 8:47, Jesus responded to their unbelief by saying their rejection of His words reveals they are not God’s children: "He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God…”  They would believe Him if they were God’s children, but their unbelief reveals that their heart is far from Him.

The Big Idea: *Jesus is God, the Son, deserving of honor and worthy to be praised. His words are the Word of Life. Do you believe? We’ll see Jesus make three tremendous claims, three truths that change everything: 1) The claim that faith in Him will lead to life (48-51); 2) The claim to be the Son, greater than Abraham and the prophets (52-56); and 3) The claim to be God, the Great I AM (57-59).

I. The claim that faith will lead to life (read 48-51). First, the claim is made that if we believe Him we’ll be rescued from death, positively stated, faith will lead to life.

 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."

          The dishonor of the Jewish leaders is shown by their attempt to insult Jesus rather than respond to Him:  

     "Do we not say rightly that you are a Samaritan…” For a Jew in the time of Jesus, this was about as strong an insult as you can imagine…” It’s much stronger than saying to someone from across the river: “You are a Giant fan and come from New Jersey!” How did the Jews come to hate the Samaritans?

       The story goes back to the time of the Assyrian captivity. After the time of Solomon the kingdom was divided, Israel in the north had Samaria as its capital, and Jerusalem was the capital of the southern kingdom of Judah.  Israel had a series of wicked kings in the north, men that did not walk with God, and God allowed them to be overrun by the Assyrians in 722 B.C.  The Assyrians carried off many of the men of Israel and enslaved them, and, according to their custom, transplanted other captured peoples to the land (see 2 Kings 17:23-24).  These intermarried with some of the Jews that were left behind, so some knowledge of the God of Israel was preserved in the land.

      In 586 B.C. the southern Kingdom also fell to the Babylonians, and they were taken into exile.  Eventually, king Cyrus issued an edict allowing some of the people, under Ezra and Zerubbabel to return to the land.  Now when they got there the Samaritans offered to help rebuild the temple and they were rejected – Ezra 4:1-3  tells the story,

“…Let us build with you, for we, like you, seek your God; and we have been sacrificing to Him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here."  ³ But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of fathers' households of Israel said to them, "You have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God; but we ourselves will together build to the LORD God of Israel…"    

And so it started… The animosity grew over the centuries. By the time of Jesus, it was a given that “the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans…”  (as we saw in the shocking encounter of Jesus with the Samaritan woman in John 4. There she was, and Jesus spoke to her, and revealed himself to her as Messiah and Savior!).  The Samaritans were despised, and a Jew would go out of their way to avoid contact. (This is what made the parable of the “Good Samaritan” so shocking). Calling Jesus a “Samaritan” was not a compliment, it was intended as a provocative insult. Jesus doesn’t even respond to that part of their intended insult. They also said:

          “…you have a demon…” This insult was even more serious from the perspective of Jesus. He wasn’t a respecter of persons, so there was no sense in which He shared the hatred of the Jews against the Samaritans. But saying He had a demon?   He is the Son of God, and his human nature was sinless, He was living and acting always filled with the Holy Spirit. His teaching came from the Father and all that He did was to honor and bring glory to the Father… and they accuse Him of being possessed by a demon.  They perhaps were not really saying they believed him to be demon possessed, but they were trying to be as strong as they could be in their insults.  At the very least, it was their way of saying, “Are you out of your mind? You’re crazy!”

       Jesus’ answer is straight forward: “I don’t have a demon” and he essentially says that their dishonoring of Him, when the Father honors Him and seeks His glory, reveals that they are children of the devil.

       He then makes a statement that intensifies their anger and escalates the situation, v. 51, “…if anyone keeps my word he shall never see death…”  The word order here is emphatic, the one who “keeps” his word, “…DEATH, by no means [double negative for emphasis] will he experience forever!”  He clearly cannot be saying that a believer will never experience physical death. Lazarus dies in just a couple of chapters, in the book of Acts we see believers being martyred and throughout the ages Christians have died just like unbelievers. He makes a similar statement at the grave of Lazarus…

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.  ²⁶ And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die…"  (John 11:25-26).

It’s clear that He is saying that for the believer in Jesus, death does not have the last word, it is nothing to fear, the believer will not experience ultimate and final separation from God. We have eternal life—that’s a promise from Jesus, God the Son, the One deserving of honor and worthy to be praised.   His words are the Word of Life.

II. The claim to be the glorious Son; greater than Abraham and the Prophets (52-56).

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?"  

       First, we see the theme from the previous context reinforced here, they completely misunderstand what Jesus is saying.  They are focused merely on physical death—how can Jesus say a believer will never die where all the prophets died? Jesus is talking about spiritual life and spiritual death.  We’ve seen this theme of “misunder-standing” frequently in John’s Gospel.  Nicodemus didn’t understand when Jesus spoke of the new birth, “How can a man be born when he is old?”  The woman at the well was confused about the water Jesus offered, “Give me this water that I may drink…”  The people wanted “bread” from Him when he offered the “Bread of Life,” they didn’t understand.  Here he speaks of spiritual life and spiritual death, and they don’t get it.

Their question (v.53c) is really at the heart of the matter: “…who do You make Yourself out to be?"  Who do you think you are?  That’s the biggest question any of us can ask ourselves about Him, who do you believe He is? Or, do you really believe that He is who He claimed to be? We see Jesus’ answer in the following verses…

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."

       Jesus is saying, The God you claim to follow is my Father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Moses glorifies me. And look a v.55, “You do not know Him, I know Him.”  If you believed His Word you would believe Me!

       Jesus shocks them when he says in v.56 "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad."  He may be speaking about more than just Abraham, but rather all the faithful of the Old Testament. Just as we look back on the coming of the Son of God and look ahead to the promise of His return, those who believed the prophecies and took God at His word were looking for the coming of the promised One, the Messiah, their Rescuer.  Just as we have a sure hope, a blessed hope that we know is coming, the return of Christ, their hope was sure that the promised when would come in accordance with God’s Word, and the hope of His coming was cause for rejoicing. It made them glad!  If you know the God who created the universe, you have reason to be glad as well.  Whatever the circumstance, whatever trials you might be passing through, “…if God is for us, who can stand against us?”  For those who had eyes to see and ears to hear, fix your hope in *Jesus, God the Son, the One deserving of honor and worthy to be praised. His words are the Word of Life!

III. The claim to be God, the Great I AM (57-59). 

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.

       Here we see that the Jews still don’t understand what Jesus is saying: “The Jews therefore said to Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?" You’re not even an elder, not even half a century old, how can you have seen Abraham who lived centuries ago!

       In 8:58 Jesus makes a powerful, unambiguous statement as to who He claims to be: “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I AM."  We’ve seen hints of this in the “I AM” statements that occurred up until this point in the Gospel, echoing through the pages, ten times already before this: “I AM He, I AM (It’s me walking on the water!); I am the Bread of life, the Living Bread, the Bread from heaven, I AM the Light of the world, I am the true witness, I AM the One in whom you must believe, when the Son of Man is lifted up, then you will know that I AM, finally here, “Before Abraham was, I AM…” The repetition leaves no doubt what He is saying: He is God, who spoke to Moses from the burning bush, the self-existent One: I AM THAT I AM!

          We see their reaction in v.59, “And they took up stones to stone Him…” They knew what He was saying. If Jesus had simply said “Before Abraham was, I was…” He would have been claiming to have existed before Abraham, and that would have been an amazing claim. But He says, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” Their immediate reaction leaves no doubt that they understood that He was identifying Himself with the God of the Old Testament, the God who spoke to Moses out of the burning bush in Exodus 3, “I AM that I AM, tell them I AM has sent you…”  

       Their reaction is a climax to this part of John. It is a powerful example of what was stated in the opening of the Gospel: “He came unto His own, and His own people did not receive Him…” Even as they took up stones to kill Him, “He was hidden from them…”  Jesus didn’t hide, but He was hidden from them, and passed  safely out of the Temple area. He would not be killed by stoning. God had another plan. And the hour had not yet come.  He would not die at the Feast of Booths, He came to be the Lamb, and Christ, our Passover, would be sacrificed for us… His blood would be shed at another Feast… The Big Idea is that emphasized here is that *Jesus is God, the Son, deserving of honor and worthy to be praised. His words are the Word of Life.

What would God have me to do in response to this passage?

1) Do you believe that Jesus is who He claimed to be? He claimed to be God. He claimed that as the eternal Son He came to save. Is He a liar, a lunatic, or Lord? He said on the cross, “It is finished,” i.e., the debt is paid, the work is done. He, the Good Shepherd, laid down his life for His sheep. The price was paid and the offer extended and our response reveals whether or not we belong to Him.  His sheep hear His voice and He knows them, and gives them life, eternal life. Do you hear the Shepherd’s voice?  Could it be that the Spirit is prompting you to believe, to trust Him? Admit your need and put your hope and trust in Him as the Savior and Lord of your life!

2) Believer, be assured, whatever circumstance or trial or tribulation you might be passing through, He has promised to be with you always, to never leave you.   Just as He came to the disciples on the lake, and said, “Fear not, I AM!” He is with you. Always.

3) My hope is that our series in John, though incomplete, has encouraged you to continue to read and study this gospel, because to know Him better is to love Him more. The questions we’ve referred to frequently can help you uncover John’s message for your personal study, and can also be a tool for you to use in reading John with a friend or family member: 1) Who is Jesus? 2) Why did He come? And 3) What does it mean to believe in Him? After Thomas’ confession of faith in John 20, the Gospel writer says, “Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples that are not written in this book, but these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you might have life in His name.”

4) We’ll end today with Communion, a time to remember and reflect, and to worship, as we share in the elements that visually express the Gospel… God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son… Soli Deo Gloria. Let’s partake with thankful hearts… Amen.