Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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If you're able, please remain standing
and let's turn to John Chapter Eight.
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We continue in our reading of the
gospel of John, John Eight versus forty
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eight through fifty nine. This is
God's word. Let's give our attention to
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it. The Jews answered him.
Are we not right in saying that you
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are a Samaritan and have a demon? Jesus answered. I do not have
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a demon, but I honor my
father, and you would and you dishonor
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me. Yet I do not seek
my own glory. There is one who
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seeks it, and he is the
judge. Truly, truly, I say
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to you, if anyone keeps my
word, he will never see death,
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the Jews said to him. Now
we know you that you have a demon.
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Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, if anyone
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keeps my word, he will never
taste death. Are you greater than our
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father Abraham, who died and the
prophets died? Who Do you make yourself
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out to be? Jesus answered.
If I glorify myself, my glory is
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nothing. It is my father who
glorifies me, of whom you say he
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is our God, but you have
not known him. I know him if
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I were to say that I do
not know him, I would be a
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liar like you. But I do
not know him. or I'm sorry,
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but I do know him and I
keep his word. Your father, Abraham,
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rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.
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So. The Jews said to him, you are not yet fifty years
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old, and have you seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, truly,
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truly, I say to you,
before Abraham was I am. So they
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picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out
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of the temple. My God bless
his word to us. He may be
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seated. I want to begin by
remembering the reason why God has given this
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book to us, the reason that
John Records in Chapter Twenty, verse Thirty
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One. He says that these things, which would include what I just read,
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these things are written so that you
may believe that Jesus is the Christ,
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the son of God, and that
by believing, you may have life
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in his name. That's why John
wrote these things, that's why God wrote
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these things through his servant John,
that we might understand who Jesus is as
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the Christ, that we might understand
who he is as the son of God,
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but do more than understand, believe, which means not just to understand
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and agree to the truth or the
truthfulness of what he's saying, but to
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trust in it as well, to
rely on Jesus and to rely on him
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alone for our salvation and in doing
so have life, eternal life, in
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his name. That's why he gives
this things to us, and our passage
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helps us, as the others have
done, to understand exactly that. The
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passage ends with Jesus going out from
the temple. This is a significant thing
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because this is not the first time
that God has left his temple as a
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result of the sinfulness of his people. You can go back and listen to
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some earlier sermons on this, or
there are some books I can render recommend
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to you afterward, but I'll point
out that the world began with a kind
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of temple dwelling of God. The
Garden of Eden was in many ways a
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temple of the Lord, the place
where he, God dwelled with mankind and
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they were close and they were intimate. was from this place that streams of
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water flowed out into the earth.
Imagery that's picked up and built into the
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architecture of the temple in Jerusalem later
on, imagery that is picked up again
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in revelation when the streams of water
are said to flow from the throne of
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God. The temple is a place
that marks God's dwelling place with his people.
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Of course we remember what Solomon said, the one who, the king,
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who built the temple, the first
temple. He said in his prayer
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as he dedicated the temple, that
of course God cannot be contained by a
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building made with human hands. The
temple of the Lord is not a place
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where we box God in, but
it is a place where God places his
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name. In fact, there are
scriptures that point to the fact that the
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temple is simply the footstool of God
in which he reigns in heaven. Is
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Sort of one of the pictures that's
given to us. Nevertheless, it is
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a place where he puts his name, a place where he is with his
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people, and so it is a
remarkable thing in the old testament when the
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spirit of God, coming in this
form of a cloud, descends down upon
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the temple, just as it did, just as he did, rather,
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when he came as a pillar of
smoke and fire and led the people through
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the Wilderness, right where the spirit
of God led, the people followed.
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They were to be together. That
was the whole point, that God was
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saving his people, he was drawing
them together. So when the people sinned
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and in Ezekiel's vision he sees the
spirit of God leaving the temple before the
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enemies come in to destroy it's a
scary thing. This is not the way
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things are supposed to be, but
nevertheless this is the consequence. When man
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sins against God, as we read
earlier in Psalm Twenty four, who can
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dwell on God's Holyholl who can belong
and be in the presence of God,
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the one who is pure, the
one who is clean? And so when
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Israel sins against God, when Israel
does the things that God it exactly the
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things God has called them not to
do. God says he will depart from
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them, and he did. Nevertheless, God promises in the Old Testament prophets
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that something new and something greater will
come a person, a temple. I'm
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various images, these old testament images, that are promised that in the future
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these things will happen and God will
establish himself among his people in a permanent
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way, in a final way,
in a way that is not dependent upon
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their obedience to the law, but
on his on his work in us,
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on his changing on our hearts,
on his cleansing on our our eyes,
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cleansing our hearts and putting his law
in us. And this is what he
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does when Jesus comes. You remember, one of the names that Jesus is
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given is Emmanuel, God with us. You remember Jesus says that in three
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days the the temple, will be
destroyed, our right in three days it
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will be raised up again, and
he says he was referring to his body.
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Jesus is going to be the new
temple. Jesus is going to be
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the one and whom the in whom
the spirit dwells with God's people. We
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are going to be, Peter says, the Living Stones Build Bolt on this
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foundation of Christ in which the spirit
of God dwells with us. This is
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what we all have to look forward
to. But at this moment, what
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we are seeing is sort of the
same old repetition that we have in history,
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where God's people even come against God
in such a way that he has
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to leave them, even leave the
temple. Now he does this because the
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people are angry obviously they want to
kill him. They says, they picked
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up stones. That's because they were
going to throw the stones at him to
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to kill him. And it was
because of a lot of things that Jesus
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was saying, but especially there was
sort of this last straw, at least
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at this moment, where we read
in Verse Fifty Eight. Truly, truly,
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I say to you, before Abraham
was I am. Jesus is telling
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the people in Jerusalem that, before
Abraham existed, he did this is a
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very clear declaration of his divinity,
a very clear reminder that Jesus is Jehovah
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or Yah way again, thence the
claims of Jehovah's Witnesses, for example,
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who say that Jesus is not Jehovah, Jesus is not Yah Wagh, that
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he is one of the created beings. Awesome, yes, but different.
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Not The case. Jesus clearly says
that he is the I am. He
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uses this language to evoke the burning
Bush that God revealed himself in when Moses
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was called out of Egypt and was
called by God to go back to Egypt
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to call his people out of slavery. What name Shall I give them?
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Yeah, where he tells them.
However, you pronounce that Jehovah Are Yah
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Way. This is the name that
God gives to his people. This is
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how Jesus is is speaking about himself. He is identifying himself with this same
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God, the God whom they call, as he puts it, or the
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the God, the father, whom
they say he is our God. He
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is declaring his divinity in a very
clear way. Remember John, two thousand
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and thirty one that you may believe. He is the son of God,
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a different kind of son, though, not like Adam, not like Abraham,
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not like you and me, but
eternally begotten. Abraham wasn't just Jesus
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is older mother. For those of
you who don't know, the scripture is
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very well. Yet Abraham was the
father of the people of God, who
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lived about two tho years before Jesus. Imagine if I told you before John
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I was, that I existed before
the writer of this Gospel. You would
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say that guy's crazy. Right,
it's unbelievable, because humans don't live that
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long for one for another. As
they say, you're only you're not even
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fifty years old. We mean you
were before Abraham. Well, it's true.
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Jesus is not yet into middle or
even late age at that time.
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It's also true that Jesus was not
born until two thousand plus years after Abraham
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was born. Jesus did not become
human, did not take on humanity,
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until thousands of years after Abraham existed. And then that we are similar to
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Jesus and that we are exactly the
same. Life begins at conception, and
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Jesus had not yet been conceived until
long, long after Abraham was worn.
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But Jesus is different than us.
Though fully human, his conception was very
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different than our conception. He was
conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb
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of a virgin, and the he
who was conceived was not a new person.
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He was the son of God,
who had always been the son of
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God and was now becoming incarnate.
In other words, he was taking on
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flesh. Jesus did not begin to
exist in the when when he was born
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or when he was conceived. No, Jesus had always existed. Even to
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use the word had as a bit
of a stretch. Jesus operates outside of
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time, because Jesus is God,
and God is the one who has created
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time and space, and that's why
he speaks in this way before Abraham was.
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He doesn't say I was, but
he says I am, to identify
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himself with Y'all way and to identify
himself with as the one who has eternally
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existed. He is that same God
who met Abraham's one of Abraham's children,
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the servant Moses, out in the
desert and revealed this glory to Him.
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He is the same God who was
on Mount Sinai and revealed himself in this
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Glorious Way to Moses when he came
up on the mount and to receive God's
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law. And it's in those glorious
things that John also points our attention to
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by telling us about what Jesus said. That's the second thing I want you
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to notice this morning. Is Not
only does Jesus so clearly state his divinity
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and in terms of time, but
he also states his divinity in terms of
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glory. Jesus, in other words, identifies himself as not just before Abraham
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in time, but above Abraham in
importance. He helps us to understand this
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by telling us about this is one
about this one essential aspect of God's being,
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his glory. So let's spend a
few moments and talk about glories.
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That we can understand what Jesus is
saying here. Remember, this is how
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this all began. They accused him
of having a demon, and he says,
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I do not seek my own glory. There is one who seeks it,
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and he is the judge. Or
notice again when he says in Verse
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Fifty Four, I if I glorify
myself, my glory is nothing. It
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is my father who glorifies me.
Of Whom you say he is our God.
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What is Jesus mean here? How
is it that he is not glorious
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but God, or is glorified but
is God? Let's let's make sure we
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understand this. First of all,
what is glory? Hey, it's a
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word you're probably all familiar with.
You might have even said it from time
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to time. A sunset, for
example. Wow, is glorious. But
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what is glory? All borrow from
reformed theologian Herman Bobbing, who puts it
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this way. He says the glory
of the Lord is the splendor and brilliance
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that is inseparably associated with all of
God's attributes and his self, revelation in
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nature and grace. The glory of
the Lord is the splendor, the glory
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of the Lord is the brilliance that
is inseparably associated with all of God's attributes.
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In that way, we're a we
are talking about as we are talking
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about an essential attribute of God.
But bobbing is saying, and it's rightly
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saying, according to the Scriptures,
that is, that glory is not something
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that is attached to God right like, as though he was something else,
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and then glory is then added on
like a plus or a benefit. No,
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his glory is an inseparable part of
who God is. But you don't,
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as we always as you want to
learn, to think of God.
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We don't think of him in parts, you know, sort of like one
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eighth glory and one eighth something else, and so on so forth. God
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is one, and so that's why
bobbing puts it in this way. inseparably
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associated with all of God's attributes,
his wisdom, his power, these things
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have his glory in them. They
are glorious. Every aspect of God is
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glorious. His eternality, his immensity, all of these things God totally in
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and him in and of himself is
glorious. But in addition to this,
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God's glory is also then revealed to
us in two ways bobbing says, in
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nature and in grace, which is
why we can look at a sunset and
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say that's so glorious, because it
has splendor, it has brilliance, it
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has an awesomeness to it, because
it is marked by the God who made
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it, the glorious God who made
it. It reflects something of his nature.
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All mankind is aware of this,
whether they ever come into contact with
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the scriptures or not. They see
the world and the things that God has
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made and they say wow, look
at this thing, this glorious world.
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Unfortunately, what Paul tells us in
Romans is that people then exchange the glory
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of the immortal God for creatures and
things. So instead of seeing that sunset
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and letting their eyes open and their
jaws drop and a breath come in and
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then go out in praise to God, they start singing the praise of the
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sun or of the clouds or of
the colors. They begin to worship the
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created things instead of recognizing that these
things are revealing the creator. This is
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one way in which God, the
Glorious God, reveals himself to us through
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nature. But he also reveals himself
to us, as bobbing says, in
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grace. In other words, he
comes into this world to reveal himself in
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a new and especial way and in
particular through his son. God has spoken
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in various times in various ways,
the author of Hebrews says, but in
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these last days he has spoken to
us in his son, who is the
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exact imprint of his nature, in
Jesusness, in Jesus, the fullness of
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God and his glory dwells, which
is how sad it is that the people
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here are causing, are acting in
a, let's say it put a repulsive
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way to Jesus. Here is the
glorious God come into the world in this
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saving way, and they are repulsing
him, they are accusing him of having
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a demon, they're tying to him
these specific negative connotations of things in this
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world, here Samaritan, when what
he is is the all forever God to
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save us. And Jesus has been
demonstrating this. He's been remonstrating hit the
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glory of his kingdom, in turning
water to wine, the healing of his
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kingdom and causing lame people to get
up and walk and causing people who are
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in death or near death to to
rise up and live. This is God,
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this is his glory, this is
our jaw dropping, eye opening,
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take a deep breath in and say
wow moments. This is what Jesus is
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doing and has been doing in his
earthly ministry, and now they're accusing him
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of having a demon. So what
does Jesus say about this glory? What
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Jesus reveals is that the glory that
God has in himself is is shared between
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the persons of the Trinity in a
way that God glorify, in this mysterious
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way in which God glorifies himself,
and Jesus gives us some ways to help
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us understand that. This is helpful
because it helps us to understand something of
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the nature of God and something of
the nature of this man who is standing
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there at the temple saying these things. The first thing he says is I
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glorify or I honor the five her
he says I do not seek my own
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glory. He then says in Verse
Fifty Four, if I glorify myself,
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my glory is nothing, and then
he attaches to that a second statement,
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which is that it is the father
who glorifies him. He says, I
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do not glorify my our I do
not glorify myself, I do not seek
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my own glory. There is one
who seeks it, and he is the
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judge, and then he later identifies
that as the father. So Verse Fifty
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Four. If I glorify myself,
my glory is nothing. It is my
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father who glorifies me, of whom
you say he is our God. So
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Jesus is saying. You're saying that
this God of Abraham, the God of
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Moses, that he is your God, and Jesus is saying. What I'm
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saying to you is that that God
that did those things is my father and
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he is glorifying me as I glorify
him. How is this work? How
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is this possible? Well, one
is it is the inner penetrating glory of
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God, as God glorifies himself,
as the three persons of the Trinity.
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But JESUSS has, I think,
in some something more specific in mind,
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and it is this that he has
laid aside certain aspects of his glorious nature
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to take on humanity, and not
just to become human, but to take
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on our side of the Covenant,
to take on the responsibilities that man owes
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to God. He becomes under God
in a way, not according to his
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essence, not according to who he
is as a person, but as he
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takes on the obligations of the Covenant
and on the other obligations of obedient to
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make himself a servant, to make
himself obedient, even to the point,
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Paul says, to the point of
death, death on a cross. Jesus
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humbles himself in this way he becomes
not glorious, and that's a contrast that
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people struggle with. You are alive, they say right now. You're not
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yet fifty years old, and yet
you're saying that you but were before Abraham.
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Right they have. They've struggle to
see how this man, how,
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this one who doesn't seem very glorious, he is as glorious as he says
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he is, that God is glorifying
him, or that you can imagine,
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even at his birth, the great
contrast of the angels, the heavenly host
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singing glory to God and praise in
the highest peace on earth, and down
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below is a human baby in a
cattle stall. Not Very impressive. Right.
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Where is the robes and where the
horses and the chariots and the great
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incoming of the Messiah? That's what
Christ means. The anointed one, the
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Messiah, but Jesus is that one. John is telling us. Jesus is
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the promised coming one that God's promised
to send to bring about the final conclusion
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of all of these things. And
what God's plan is, and what Jesus
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is helping us to understand, is
that he has become humble, not because
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he's not glorious, but to save
us. Jesus has become humble, he's
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taken on human flesh so that God
might glorify him, because because of his
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obedience, where mankind was supposed to
obey, was supposed to fulfill the righteous
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requirements of the law and live with
clean hands and a pure heart and obedience
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before the Lord, with God forever
together. And man failed at that and
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instead brought separation, got kicked out
of the guard and got separated from God.
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God now becomes men to bring man
and God back together again. Now
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that's not glorious, I don't know
what is. If the all glorious God
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and King comes into the world becomes
one of us to save us who are
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rebellious and sinful and despicable and don't
deserve to be anywhere near this glorious God.
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But yet he becomes Immanuel, God
with us, to save US and
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draw US near to him. If
that's not a jaw dropping, eye opening,
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take a deep breath in and say
wow, kind of moment, what
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is? But this is what God
has done, this is what God has
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done, this is what God is
doing here, and that's why God glorifies,
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that's why the father glorifies Jesus,
because he has done his will.
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He has done he has completed this
that he is, he is in the
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process of completing and will complete this
covenant that existed before creation was even made,
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that God would elect a people for
himself, that he would save them
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out of wrath and out of darkness
and draw them into his glorious light,
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that he would make sinful creatures like
you and me glorious, shining, radiant,
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worthy of belonging in all the splendor
and Brilliance of Heaven, worthy of
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dwelling on God's Holy Hill. How
does that happen? It happens when we
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are made glorious in Christ and that's
why picking up stones to kill Jesus is
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exactly the wrong thing to do,
right. But nevertheless, in God's amazing
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grace, he uses this to ultimately
bring the events of the world to a
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point where his son would die on
a cross outside of the temple, in
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order to establish a new temple,
a new dwelling place for God that is
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permanent and forever, one that we
belong in, one that we are a
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part of, as he dwells in
us. And so, instead of picking
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up stones to throw them at Jesus, instead of repulsing Jesus or being repulsed
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by Jesus, instead of separating ourselves
further from God, our reaction ought to
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be to do as Abraham did,
as he says. What does Jesus say
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about Abraham? He says, your
Father Abraham, rejoiced that he would see
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my day. He saw it and
was glad. Now, how did Abraham
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see Jesus's Day from two thousand years
away? By faith. By faith he
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believed, that scriptures say, he
believed the promises of God, and those
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promises by and that, through believing
in those promises, the righteousness of God
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was imputed to him. He believed
God and through faith God gave him the
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Gift of Heaven. And the promises
were to Abraham that through his offspring,
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all the world would be saved.
Praise God, let's Pray
