John 8.48-59
48 The Jews answered and said to Him,
“Do we not say rightly 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 “But I do not seek My glory; there is One who
seeks and judges. 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, and the
prophets also; and You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word, he will
never taste of death.’ 53 “Surely You are not greater than
our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died too; whom 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 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. 56 “Your
father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and 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 born, I
am.” 59 Therefore they picked up stones to
throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.
As Jesus continues to discuss His identity with the Jews in
the temple, we conclude this section with the Jews utterly rejecting Christ and
fulfilling exactly what He said they were seeking to do but they denied: kill
Him. Jesus came to offer eternal life to
man through faith in the provision that God had promised. In order to receive eternal life, it is
essential to understand who Jesus is, trust in what Jesus did to save us from
sin and choose to follow how Jesus says to live. Jesus is the Son of God, Creator of heaven
and earth and Messiah that was promised by God.
He gave His life as a sacrifice and substitute for our sin when He died
on the cross in our place and then God raised Him from the dead and exalted
Him. He calls us into a relationship
with Himself where He reveals His will to us through His Word and His Spirit
and we follow Him. The Jews rejected
this on every level.
THE JEWS REJECTED THE POWER OF GOD IN JESUS: Jesus had done
multiple miracles and revealed Himself to the Jews through His words and His
works. The reason He did these things
was to demonstrate to the people just exactly who He was. He repeatedly told the people that He was the
Son of God, the Messiah and that He had been sent by the Father. He attributed all of His power to the Father
and presented Himself as one with the Father.
We must understand that, Jesus is God.
The Jews came to the conclusion that He was a daemon possessed
Samaritan. Jesus was a Descendant of
David and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
To be identified as a daemon possessed Samaritan was a complete
rejection of Jesus as to His human heritage and His divine nature. Satan wants man to believe anything about
Jesus except the truth. Many Jews
believed that Jesus was a devil. Some
believe that He was a prophet. Others
believe that He was a good man. Satan is
absolutely fine with anyone identifying Jesus as any of these things because as
long as men believe in any of these things they continue to be enslaved to sin
and Satan. The only way to be free from
sin is to identify Jesus as the Son of the living God.
THE JEWS REJECTED THE PROMISE OF GOD THROUGH JESUS: Jesus
came to fulfill the promise of providing eternal life to sinful men by paying
the price for sin through the perfect sacrifice of Messiah. The price of sin is death and that price must
be paid for each person. Since we were
all condemned by the sin of Adam, we can all be forgiven by the substitute of
one perfect sacrifice. Jesus fulfilled
the promise of God and made a way for man to have eternal life. Man must believe in what Jesus did on the
cross to pay for our sin in order to be forgiven of our sin. The Father accepted the death of Jesus as the
sacrifice for sin and demonstrated that by raising Him from the dead. The Father accepts us as His own children
when we trust exclusively in the death and resurrection of Christ as our only
hope for salvation. Jesus came to save
man from sin and give Him eternal life.
The Jews rejected that He had this power. They saw Him as being inferior to Abraham and
since Abraham was dead it was impossible that Jesus could offer eternal
life. God fulfilled His promise to
provide a means of salvation. Now man
must trust in what He did in order to receive that wonderful gift. Since the Jews rejected Jesus as Messiah,
they rejected the promise of God for eternal life. He is the only means by which man can be saved.
THE JEWS REJECTED THE PURPOSE OF GOD FOR JESUS: The purpose
of God is that Jesus be glorified in all of the earth. He is to be the object of our worship and the
source of our hope. I will be the first
to admit that I have a hard time understanding exactly how the relationships
within the Trinity function. God’s
overall purpose for all that exists is His own glory. The Jews were giving glory to Abraham and
were at odds with Jesus for claiming to be greater than Abraham. Jesus sad that Abraham rejoiced to see His
day. This created great confusion because
in their mind Jesus was only a few decades old and it was impossible for
Abraham to have rejoiced to see His day.
When Jesus responded : “Before Abraham was born, I am.” This was a clear claim on the part of Jesus
that He was God. When Moses asked God
who he should tell Pharaoh and the children of Israel had sent him, He said to
tell them “I am”. When Jesus said these
words, the people picked up stones to kill Him just like He said they
would. We are here to glorify God and it
must be our highest aim to spread the fame of Jesus to all peoples for the glory
of His name.
APPLICATION: Trust in the power of God and do all we can to
know more and more about who Jesus is.
Knowing Jesus is the most important pursuit on the face of the
earth. Take hope in the eternal life that
we have through the Lord Jesus. Live for
the glory of God and to help other do the same.
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