As I said, we're jumping in the
middle. We'll have to try to catch up
and get our context and overall context later. Verse 51, John
chapter 8. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. Then said the
Jews unto him, Now we know that you have a devil. Abraham is
dead, and the prophets, and yet you say, if a man keep my saying,
he shall never taste of death. Art thou greater than our father
Abraham, which is dead, and the prophets are dead? Whom makest
thou thyself? Jesus answered, If I honor myself,
my honor is nothing. It is my Father that honoreth
me, of whom ye say that he is your God. Yet you have not known him, but
I know him. And if I should say, I know him
not, I shall be a liar like unto you. But I know him and keep
his saying. Your father Abraham rejoiced
to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. Then said the Jews
unto him, While you're not yet fifty years old, hast thou seen
Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then took they up stones to cast
at him. But Jesus hid himself, went out
of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed
by. Now look at verse 58 again. Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Now I've already told you. that
this is the second half of that study that we had in Exodus chapter
3 verse 14 and verse 15 two Sundays ago concerning the name of God
that he gave to Moses, I am. God declared that to be his name. for Israel to know, acknowledge,
and to worship Him, for His name is Lord, or Jehovah, as it is
in the text, and the name I Am. means to be, or it means to exist. And the name belongs to God and
to God only. None other can have it. Neither
will God share His name, nor will He share His glory with
any other. Now this name, I Am, Yehovah,
became highly revered among the Jews of olden times. So holy did they consider it
that they were actually hesitant to say it or to write it. And so, in time, they began to
substitute other names for it and thereby fell into superstition. But let's recall some points.
that we made about that study in Exodus chapter 3, that the
name I Am means to exist, and it expresses God's self-existence. and his eternality, that he has
always been and had no beginning. He had no beginning. And not
only that, but he exists in an ever-present No beginning, no
end. And this one attribute of God's
eternality is the forerunner of the other great, wonderful,
glorious attributes of our God. Some of them we name. The immensity
of God. and the immutability of God that
he changes not, the independence of God that he is dependent upon
none other, the solitariness of God that he is happy dwelling
all alone. the infinity of God, that he
is so infinite in all of his being and his attribute. Then there's the omnipresence
of God, that he is everywhere, present at one and the same time. And the simplicity of God, that
he is not corporal, but that he is spirit being, and dwells
and has his mode of existence. Therefore, our God is not material
and he is not physical with a body as we might think. He is not
in any visible form and that God made clear unto Israel. He exists as a pure, uncreated,
and a holy spirit. God is spirit. We read in John chapter 4. Now, it is important, I think,
that we have these things in our mind as we transition over
into the New Testament here in the Gospel of John and our Lord
Jesus Christ. We read here, he also declared
himself, I am. I am. Before Abraham was, I am. In John 8 and verse 58, And the
reaction of the Jew in verse 59 proves that they understood
the claim that the Lord was making when he said, I am. They understood that perfectly,
and they were willing to stone him to death on the spot. But
now let's go to John 8 and try to set our context there. It
tells us of a contention between the Lord and some of the Jew. It tells us of the interaction
between our Lord and them. And we notice something. And
that is that the name of Abraham keeps coming up in this discussion. Some eight times the name of
Abraham is mentioned in John chapter 8 between verse 33 and
verse 58. And it is mentioned both by the
Jew and by our Lord. Both recognize the importance
of the man Abraham and therefore the Jew's relation unto him. Abraham was one of the most revered
names and characters in all of Jewish history. And you can read
a very long historical account of Abraham, of God's dealings
with him, in the book of Genesis beginning in chapter 11, and
verse 26. It records there the birth of
him, his marriage in verse 29, the appearance of God unto him
in chapter 12 of Exodus. See also Acts 7 and verse 2,
where Stephen said, the God of glory appeared under our father
Abraham when he dwelt in Mesopotamia and then it records his death
and his burial by his son. Now God made a covenant with
this man Abraham and he made a promise unto Abraham of a very
special son in which his seed and would be called and would
be blessed. He was not only the father of
many, but he was the father of them that believe. And from this,
in Romans chapter 4, Paul makes Abraham the prototype of them
who are justified by faith, by believing. Now here's a fact
about Abraham that you might not consider that important,
but it is carried over unto others as well and was not unique only
unto Abraham. It was also so with a lot of
other biblical figures, and that is Abraham was given an original
name by his parents, Abram was originally the name of this man. And it seems to mean High Father. That seems to be the name. And
then God entered covenant and God changed Abram's name unto
Abraham. And that means a populous one. a father of multitude, for that's
what Abraham was to be. Genesis chapter 17 and verse
5. And at the same time, or rather
in the same way, God also changed the name of Abraham's wife. Originally, you remember, she
was called Sarieh. Hebrew meaning as Gil said Matthew
Henry said princesses in the plural and so God changed her
name to Sarah and that means princess and she was indeed the
princess of Abraham This was a common thing in the scripture
that many were given other names when they were converted, when
they were called, or when God entered into covenant with them.
I'll give you some example quickly, then we move on. Jacob, you remember,
originally Jacob, or supplanter, or heel snatcher, and his name
became Israel, a prince of God, in Genesis chapter 32 and verse
28. Remember, Simon brought unto
our Lord, and the Lord said, you're Simon, you shall be called
Cephas, or Peter, a stone. We find that in John 1, And then
of course we're aware that Saul of Tarshish became Paul the little
one, the apostle, Acts 13 and verse 9. Now Abraham was a father
of a multitude and who the Jews called their father. And they
gloried constantly in their fleshly ancestry from the father of many,
even Abraham. And here in the incident in John
chapter 8, as the Jews heard the Lord speak of his father
or the father, And we'll run through that because he mentioned
it several times. It's in verse 18, 27, 28, 38,
49, and 54. In all of those, our Lord made
a reference unto our Father, all of them in those verses.
Before we proceed, let's look at some claims by the Lord to
these people that he was speaking to concerning himself. Here's
what he said in this chapter of the Father that sent me, verse
16 and verse 18 in this chapter, and twice In verse 19, he uses
the word, my father. Verse 26, him that sent me. Again, in verse 29. Verse 42,
I proceeded forth and came from God. Now, this latter is a very
strong claim. How can we know whether the Lord
is speaking of his eternal generation or of the incarnation in the
flesh? And I think that the context
likely favors the incarnation, that he appeared among them and
from having come down from the Father God in heaven. That was his claim, that he was
sent from God, sent by his Father to save his people from their
sin. And they that are of God They
know God, they hear his word, and they receive him, and they
believe it. Now, consider, the Lord makes
use of the name highly revered by the Jew, Abraham. When he
speaks of Abraham, their ears perk up. And if I might make
a comparison with another text in the New Testament, and that
one would be in Hebrews chapter 7 and verse 4, where the author
uses Abraham to prove the greatness of Melchizedek. Now consider
how great this man Melchizedek was, to whom Abraham gave a tenth
of the spoil. Abraham gave to Melchizedek a
tithe. honoring him as the priest of
the Most High God. Even so, consider how great is
the Christ that Abraham looked for his day. And he not only
saw it, but he was glad. He rejoiced, he exulted in looking
forward by faith and seeing the day of our Lord. After all, Abraham had also looked
for a city that had foundation, whose builder and maker was God. So the Lord calls forth Abraham
as a witness of his person, of his deity, and eternality. Now I can think of another time
or two in the scripture that the Lord draws testimony concerning
himself from the Old Testament scripture and the prophet. One
of them is in Matthew chapter 22, And verse 43, when he said,
David in spirit called him Lord. That's in Psalm 110 and verse
1. Secondly, in John chapter 5 and
verse 46, The Lord said, Moses wrote of me. Check the scripture. Moses wrote of me. And in Luke 24 and 44, he is
written about in the law of Moses in the prophet and in the psalms,
there are things concerning me the Lord said unto them. So,
he drew witness from the prophets of old. Well, let's go back to
John chapter 8, jumping in at verse 51, where we began our
reading, where the Lord makes a very stupendous claim, and
let's look at it. If a man keep my saying, he shall
never see death. Now, these are not the words
of the claims of a common, ordinary man, even if you were an apostle
or a prophet of God. Any common, ordinary man making
such a claim is a liar, a fake, and a fraud. to claim that. Still, some false teachers there
are who make great claims, great promises, which they cannot deliver
and they cannot fulfill. We notice in John's gospel something
unique, and that is that he records several claims of the God-man
that portend to his deity. John emphasizes the deity of
our Lord. He gives strong claims that he
came down from God. He gives strong claims such as
forgiving sin, John 8, chapter 11. John 9, also Mark, chapter
2 and verse 5. Who can forgive sin but God only? When the Lord said, Thy sins
be forgiven thee, it is a claim of his deity. In John chapter
4, 25 and 26, he tells the Samaritan woman that he is the Christ. He tells her, drink his water
and you will never thirst again. In John 6, 53 through 56, whosoever
eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. John 6 and
35, I'm the bread of life. He that comes to me shall never
hunger. John 7 and 38, he that believes
on me, as the scripture has said, out of his innermost being there
shall flow rivers of living water. John chapter 8 and verse 12,
I am the light of the world. He that follows me shall not
walk in darkness. And then there are many others,
but we forego to mention them because of the sake of time. But look at that claim again
in John 8 and 51. It evokes a very strong response
and rebuke from the Jews who heard it, such as verse 52 again. Now we know, they said, this
removes all doubt. Now we're sure. We have been
right All along in our assessment of you, you have a devil. You are mad. You are out of your
mind. We go back to verse 20 of chapter
7. Thou hast a devil, they said
unto him. John 8 and 48. Say we not right, you are a Samaritan,
and have a devil. Now what are they doing? They're
putting him in the category of the Samaritan, whom they consider
to be reprobates and apostates from the faith. Mongrels, they
consider them, half-breeds they were, not fit for a Jew to deal
with, and they had no dealings with them. They continue throwing
the case of Abraham up against the claim of our Lord. In verse 51 saying, in verse
52, Abraham and the prophets are dead. The Lord said, he that
hears my word and keeps it shall never see death. And they said,
looky here, Abraham's dead. The prophets are dead. These
have all died. And they add a pointed question,
demanding it of our Lord both before and after. Are you greater
than our father Abraham? And then who are you claiming
to be? You greater than Abraham, what
is your claim? And they think they tear down
his claim by the experience of Abraham and the prophet who are
all dead. And their point of emphasis is
these are dead. Now could the point of the Jews
be, who was more faithful to God than Abraham? Who obeyed
God more than did Abraham? He heard God's word. He believed
it. He obeyed it. He was a friend
of God. And yet, he died. And that's
a good point. Keep it in our mind. He died.
Been dead some 1800 years when the Lord made this statement
and they made their answer. And then there's the prophet.
The prophet. They received their words from
God. They received from God by direct revelation the word of
God. They went out and they faithfully
declared them to the people. They preached the word of God,
and yet they died. They are dead. Faithful to the
end, faithful all of their life, and yet they died. Now, of course,
the Lord did not speak of physical death here in this particular
place, just as he did not speak of physical water in John chapter
4, or physical bread in John chapter 6, or his physical body
in John chapter 6, to drink my blood and to eat my body. F.F. Bruce said of these Jews
that they suffered from, quote, crass literal mindedness. While the Lord spake of spiritual
or eternal death, also called the second death, they only understood
it of physical death and of the death of the body. If you look
at verse 54 and 55 of John chapter 8, verse 54, the one who honors
me is my father, The same one that you say is your God, and
the emphasis is, or the implication, and you've not obeyed Him. You
claim He's your God, but you haven't obeyed Him. Verse 55,
yet you have not known Him, but I know Him. They knew not the
God that they claimed. was their God. They did not know
Him. That is, they did not know Him in a spiritual and a saving
way. They did not know the God that
they claimed to worship. And you know, it's not much different
today. There are a lot of people like
that today who claim that God is their God and Christ is their
Savior and that they don't know them. Now look at verse 56. The Lord brings Abraham back
in the conversation. Your father, Abraham, rejoiced
to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. So now, let's underline
the words, your father. Abraham, he means. The one you
claim and revere, and yet you are acting very unlike Abraham. See John 8, 39 and 40. How did
Abraham act toward me is the question of our Lord. What was
Abraham's view of me? What was Abraham's attitude toward
me? The answer, he rejoiced to see
my day. He saw it. He was glad now in
Hebrews chapter 11 the chapter on faith verse 8 through 10 verse
17 through 18 Abraham is mentioned we hit we read that by faith
Abraham Responded to the call of God Dwelled in the land of
promise looked for a city with foundation offered up Isaac and
received him again from the dead in a figure." How wonderful,
in Hebrews 11. Now this was not unique to Abraham. That is, that Abraham looked
for the day of the Lord. looked for it, and by faith looked
for it and enjoyed in it. This others did too. Matthew
13 and 17. Many prophets and righteous have
desired to see and to hear the mighty glory of Christ the Messiah
and have not seen it. Hebrews 11, 13. These died in
faith, having seen the promises of far off and were persuaded
and embraced them. There's a man in Luke chapter
2, verse 25, Simeon, just and devout, quote, waiting for the
consolation of Israel and had the assurance that he would not
die until he had seen the Lord's Christ. In Matthew 15, 43, waited
for the kingdom of God did Joseph of Arimathea. They waited for
the kingdom of God. So there were others that looked
by faith down through the ages to the day of Christ. In John
8, 57, the Jews respond to that, look, you are a man not yet 50
years old. You're not even 50 years old.
The Lord was probably in his early 30s. But you're not yet
50 years old. You're telling us that you've
seen Abraham, Jesus. being about in his 30s, and I
want to believe that the Lord chose Abraham because of his
position and the high esteem that the Jews had, their father
in the flesh and in the spiritual realm, and what concerned Abraham
got their attention very quickly. They are startled at the words
of the Lord when he says, Your father Abraham rejoiced to see
my day and he saw it and was glad. And then comes the bombshell
from Christ. Before Abraham was I. I am in verse 58. This is not bad grammar on the
part of the Lord but it is a declaration of his deity and of his eternality
and of his everlastingness. Now this is the same name which
Jehovah used in Exodus 3 and 14, when he sent Moses to deliver
Israel. Say to the children of Israel,
I am has sent me. And the Lord said, I am. J.C. Ryle said, he applies to
himself. the very same name God used when
he redeemed Israel out of Egypt, unquote. And for what it is worth,
in verse 59 of John 8, prove that the Jews understood this
to be the meaning of the man Jesus of Nazareth, a Jew, the
son of a carpenter, the son of Mary, whose brothers and sisters
they knew. the son of a carpenters, how
they knew him. Verse 57, was claiming to be
the eternal fellow of God. Verse 59, they took up stones
to stone him, a clear sign they considered his claims to be blasphemy
and against God and a fraud and untrue. And their law prescribed
stoning for blasphemers, and you'll find that in Leviticus
24 and 16, when blasphemers were brought before the public gate. and were stoned to death for
blaspheming God. And that's what they thought
they'd heard. And so they were ready to stone the Lord when
he went among them and delivered himself miraculously. The Lord said in John 10 and
verse 30, I and my Father are one. You know what happened?
Verse 31, the Jews took up stones again, it said, to stone him. And why? Because in John 10 and
verse 33, they said, we're stoning you for blasphemy because that
you, being a man, make yourself out to be God. That's why we're
stoning you. Not for your good works, not
for your good deed, but for the blasphemy of making yourself
equal with God. Now on this note, in the beginning
It is blasphemy, rather, for a mere mortal man to claim to
be God, or for a mere mortal man to stand up and say, I am
Jesus. And such should be shunned and
avoided by the people and by the churches of our Lord. But
let's look again at verse 59, what F.F. Bruce called, quote,
the shattering statement Unquote. I am. I and my father are one. Now that would be utterly blasphemy
from any other mouth or from any other tongue but that of
Christ, who Paul calls God, manifest in the flesh. 1 Timothy 3.16. Might we remind ourselves it
is John that lays the heaviest emphasis on the deity of Christ
of all of the four Gospels. While the Gospel establishes
the churches in the doctrine of Christ's deity, It also exposes
the church of the heresy of some of the early apostates like Ubian
and Cyrenthius and others like them who early on began to deny
the deity of Christ. They taught that he was only
a Jewish man. They taught that he did not exist
before his birth of Mary. In fact, John opens his gospel,
if you remember, with the Word in the beginning was God, and
the Word was God, and the Word was with God, and that Word indeed
was Christ. John 1.14, the Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us. John 1.18, full of grace and
of truth. Hence the Lord's declaration.
Before Abraham was, I am. Now note, he doesn't just say,
before Abraham was, I was. He doesn't say that. Before Abraham
was, I am. It would be true, of course,
but that's not what he's saying. Christ uses, I am. And this means the same as coming
from Jehovah in Exodus 3 and verse 14. I am that I am. I will be what I will be. I am
having my being or having my existence. Not a beginning has
God, but without beginning. God can't have. beginning as
no one can become own or by themselves. They can't become on their own
and they can't give themselves being or existence. So there's
a great difference between the was of Abraham and the I am of
Christ. Abraham was by being born of
his mother. and he was not for all admit
that he died. None claim that Abraham did not
die. Christ I am is the declaration
of his eternal everlasting existence without beginning of days or
without end of life, the Lord. I agree with J.C. Ryle on John
chapter 8 and verse 58 This famous verse, he said, can only have
one interpretation, unquote. This is the Lord declaring both
his eternality and his divinity. And the name signifies, I am,
continuous being. having, existing, being, one
said, irrespective of time. He is an eternal one. The I am
of the Lord's Christ signifies the same thing again as the words
of Exodus 3 and 14. It is the permanent, uninterrupted
being of the Godhead as an eternal being. And the name Jehovah,
as we saw, implies immutability and unchanging being. Malachi 3, 6, I'm the Lord, I
change not. As if to say, my name declares
my being always one and the same. Hebrews 13 and 8, Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday, and today and forever. Now in the end let's
look if we might quickly at some of the I am's of the Lord Jesus
in the gospel of John. Several of them are there. We
need not miss them. John 6, 51. I am the living bread. Now attach the I am to it. I am the living bread. John 8
and 12, I am the light of the world. John 10, 11 and 14, I
am the good shepherd. John 11, 25, this is my favorite,
I am the resurrection and the life. John 15 and verse 1, I
am the true vine. And the point is that in each
one of these places, the word I am is exactly the same two
words as in John 8 and 58, where the connection is with Exodus
3 and 14. I am is my name. This is my name forever. This is my memorial to all generations. as God said there in Exodus 3.15. Christ uses, therefore, the same
name as Jehovah used to Moses and to Israel, meaning the eternal
God, true divinity, has neither past nor future, but only a constant
present. All of these I Ams, Let's focus
on that one in John 11 and verse 25. I am the resurrection and
the life perhaps the crowning Miracle of our Lord of all things
that he did now by comparison Peter the Apostle Peter in Acts
9 40 through 41 Paul in Acts chapter 20 Elijah in 1st Kings
17, 21 through 23, and Elisha in 2nd Kings chapter 4. All of
them raised up others from the dead. All of them performed the
wonder of raising the dead. But not one of them, beside Christ,
claimed, I am the resurrection and the life. They were instruments
of God. They raised the dead by God's
power, working with them and in them. And these were credentials
of their calling, that they were indeed of God. And they, of course,
were to the glory of God in their day. But the God-man And I mean
the Lord Jesus Christ leads Martha deeper. And in John 11, she professes,
I know my brother shall live again. When Jesus said, thy brother
shall rise again, she said, yes, I know that he will rise again
in the resurrection in the last day. And back in verse 21, 22,
her utterance is, what do you ask? Whatever you ask. God will
give it to you. Perhaps hope in her heart that
the Lord would bring back her brother. But God will grant it,
she said, whatever the Lord asks. Now the Lord's words are, I am
the resurrection and the life. So that resurrection is not just
an event, but also a divine person. He is the resurrection and the
life. He has power over death, and
he has power over the grave, and he proved it by his own resurrection
from the dead, when he actually raised up himself. from the dead. He took up his
life again, as he said in John chapter 10 and verse 19. I have power, authority to lay
it down and authority to take it up again. Jesus said in John
chapter 2 verse 19, destroy this temple and in three days I will
raise it up again. Spoke not of that temple in Jerusalem,
but he spoke of his own body. To kill me, said three days,
I will live again. Put me to death. Put me in the
grave. And in three days, I'll take
my life up again. I will live again. He's not just
a teacher of the resurrection or an instrument of the resurrection,
but claims full and absolute power over death, whether spiritual
or physical. Our Lord has that power. He is the conqueror of death
and the savior of the body. At least four times, In John
chapter 6, wonderful chapter with some things concerning the
sovereignty of God, but at least four times in that sixth chapter
of the Gospel of John, the Lord says this, I will raise it slash
him up in the last day. Four times he says that. Verse
39, 40, 44, and 54. And I, will raise it up in the last
day. So as John Brown wrote, the whole
power to impart and maintain and even restore life resides
in me, the Lord said. I am the resurrection and the
life. God has life in himself. The
Son has life in himself, and therefore he is the resurrection
and the life. Though he were dead, yet shall
he live. And though Christ die, yet shall
he rise again. Because the great I AM Christ
is one and equal with God the Father. The name is equally appropriate
to Christ as it was to God. I am the resurrection and the
life. Before Abraham was, lived out
his little span, I am. Eternality that's what it stands
for These folks who say that Christ only is a created being
first creation of God or that he had no being until he was
born of Mary or heretics They just destroy the eternality of
our Lord therefore destroy the person of our Lord He is an eternal
one having been always with no beginning, and therefore can
have no ending.