WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.120 We hope that you enjoy this teaching from Christ Church. 00:00:05.719 --> 00:00:11.620 This material is copyrighted and no unauthorized duplication, redistribution, or any other 00:00:11.620 --> 00:00:15.300 use of any part is permitted without prior consent from Christ Church. 00:00:15.660 --> 00:00:22.640 Please consider donating to this work in the San Francisco Bay Area online at ChristChurchEastBay.org. 00:00:25.820 --> 00:00:26.780 Good morning. 00:00:27.440 --> 00:00:28.679 I'm Maddie Duhan. 00:00:28.679 --> 00:00:33.840 I'm a recent addition to the Berkeley Tuesday Community Group and the Women Reading Women 00:00:33.840 --> 00:00:34.179 Group. 00:00:35.159 --> 00:00:41.480 Today's scripture reading is from the Gospel According to John, chapter 8, verses 42 to 00:00:41.480 --> 00:00:43.539 59, as printed in the liturgy. 00:00:45.039 --> 00:00:52.299 Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you would love me, for I have come here from 00:00:52.299 --> 00:00:52.620 God. 00:00:53.460 --> 00:00:55.280 I have not come on my own. 00:00:55.740 --> 00:00:56.399 God sent me. 00:00:56.399 --> 00:00:59.219 Why is my language not clear to you? 00:01:00.019 --> 00:01:02.299 Because you are unable to hear what I say. 00:01:03.259 --> 00:01:08.400 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. 00:01:09.200 --> 00:01:14.680 He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. 00:01:14.680 --> 00:01:21.680 When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 00:01:22.580 --> 00:01:25.440 Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. 00:01:26.500 --> 00:01:29.180 Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? 00:01:30.440 --> 00:01:33.580 If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me? 00:01:33.579 --> 00:01:37.500 Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. 00:01:38.200 --> 00:01:41.719 The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God. 00:01:43.079 --> 00:01:48.379 The Jews answered him, aren't we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed? 00:01:48.379 --> 00:01:55.439 I am not possessed by a demon, said Jesus, but I honor my father, and you dishonor me. 00:01:56.339 --> 00:02:01.359 I am not seeking glory for myself, but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. 00:02:02.340 --> 00:02:06.859 Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death. 00:02:06.859 --> 00:02:11.659 At this they exclaimed, now we know that you are demon-possessed. 00:02:12.719 --> 00:02:14.800 Abraham died, and so did the prophets. 00:02:15.599 --> 00:02:19.840 Yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death. 00:02:20.780 --> 00:02:22.699 Are you greater than our father Abraham? 00:02:23.460 --> 00:02:25.560 He died, and so did the prophets. 00:02:26.280 --> 00:02:27.340 Who do you think you are? 00:02:29.400 --> 00:02:33.979 Jesus replied, if I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. 00:02:33.979 --> 00:02:39.379 My father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. 00:02:40.479 --> 00:02:43.000 Though you do not know him, I know him. 00:02:43.639 --> 00:02:46.819 If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you. 00:02:47.339 --> 00:02:49.780 But I do know him and obey his word. 00:02:51.539 --> 00:02:54.780 Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day. 00:02:55.319 --> 00:02:57.079 He saw it and was glad. 00:02:57.839 --> 00:03:02.519 You are not yet fifty years old, they said to him, and you have seen Abraham. 00:03:02.520 --> 00:03:09.260 Very truly I tell you, Jesus answered, before Abraham was born, I am. 00:03:10.439 --> 00:03:16.500 At this they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the 00:03:16.500 --> 00:03:17.160 temple grounds. 00:03:17.939 --> 00:03:19.520 This is the gospel of the Lord. 00:03:20.320 --> 00:03:21.740 Praise to you, O Christ. 00:03:21.740 --> 00:03:29.920 Good morning, Christ Church. 00:03:30.780 --> 00:03:35.939 It's good to see you all, and it's good to see a few faces this morning. 00:03:36.060 --> 00:03:40.280 I know it's going to take us a while to kind of get adjusted, but the idea of more faces 00:03:40.280 --> 00:03:42.980 in 2022 is, I think, a very hopeful thing. 00:03:42.979 --> 00:03:48.979 One of our kids has a birthday tomorrow, and I'll never forget the moment each of our children 00:03:48.979 --> 00:03:55.399 were born, and the first time we looked in each other's faces, just look eyeball to eyeball. 00:03:56.359 --> 00:04:03.199 And you're probably aware newborns' visual systems are not yet fully developed, and infants often 00:04:03.199 --> 00:04:06.199 have trouble distinguishing between basic shapes. 00:04:06.199 --> 00:04:13.759 But babies, even newborns that are less than an hour old, are able to see something as complex 00:04:13.759 --> 00:04:15.000 as a human face. 00:04:15.939 --> 00:04:22.259 And they can stare at that image, the facial image, much longer than any other object. 00:04:22.399 --> 00:04:28.180 And I just think it's amazing that our Creator God has built us with this capacity to connect 00:04:28.180 --> 00:04:30.539 and to attach at that level. 00:04:30.540 --> 00:04:39.140 And so I'm hoping in the next months, you know, that we'll begin to just emerge and enjoy 00:04:39.140 --> 00:04:45.040 each other's faces and all the emotion recognition, all the trust building, all the communication 00:04:45.040 --> 00:04:52.620 that God gave us faces for, and that we really need to have human connection and attachment. 00:04:52.820 --> 00:04:53.000 Amen? 00:04:54.680 --> 00:04:59.439 Well, you may have heard this text read and felt a little nervous, like, okay, are we really 00:04:59.439 --> 00:05:00.800 going to talk about the devil today? 00:05:01.620 --> 00:05:02.879 And the answer is yes. 00:05:03.939 --> 00:05:10.480 In our late modern secular age, we're people of the post-Christian West, and in our enlightened 00:05:10.480 --> 00:05:14.040 materialistic vision of reality, it's a struggle. 00:05:14.579 --> 00:05:19.120 It's a struggle to believe in malevolent spiritual beings, isn't it? 00:05:19.959 --> 00:05:25.379 After all, we're educated and cultured people with computers in our pockets, so it feels a little 00:05:25.379 --> 00:05:26.659 primitive and a little backwards. 00:05:26.660 --> 00:05:32.620 But, you know, people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, for them, it's obvious. 00:05:33.080 --> 00:05:38.080 You know, the things that are tearing us apart, that are destroying us as human beings are 00:05:38.080 --> 00:05:39.540 spiritual forces. 00:05:39.680 --> 00:05:46.080 And they kind of look at our, you know, Western secularity and all of our smug condescension 00:05:46.080 --> 00:05:48.360 and are kind of like, what's up with you guys? 00:05:49.460 --> 00:05:54.320 So I'd like to just start with a quote from a professor at Columbia University. 00:05:54.319 --> 00:05:56.500 He wrote a book in the 90s. 00:05:56.579 --> 00:05:57.719 This is Andrew Delbanco. 00:05:58.180 --> 00:06:02.500 And the title of his book is called The Death of Satan, How Americans Have Lost the Sense 00:06:02.500 --> 00:06:02.980 of Evil. 00:06:04.199 --> 00:06:04.680 He says, 00:06:04.680 --> 00:06:10.160 A gulf has opened in our culture between the visibility of evil and the intellectual resources 00:06:10.160 --> 00:06:11.040 to cope with it. 00:06:11.720 --> 00:06:17.019 We have jettisoned in the West the idea of cosmic evil or transcendent evil or supernatural 00:06:17.019 --> 00:06:17.579 evil. 00:06:18.040 --> 00:06:19.040 We don't believe in it. 00:06:19.079 --> 00:06:23.800 In fact, we don't even like to use the word evil because it implies moral absolutes and 00:06:23.800 --> 00:06:24.500 value judgments. 00:06:25.519 --> 00:06:27.480 So we use medical terms. 00:06:27.639 --> 00:06:28.860 We talk about dysfunction. 00:06:29.060 --> 00:06:30.699 We talk about pathology. 00:06:30.699 --> 00:06:32.800 We don't use moral terminology. 00:06:33.560 --> 00:06:38.779 But as the 20th century has gone on, it has gotten harder and harder to say that holocausts 00:06:38.779 --> 00:06:45.399 and ethnic cleansings and serial killings are just bad psychological and sociological adjustments. 00:06:46.180 --> 00:06:52.919 What we said 150 years ago, that all evil has natural causes, has scientific causes, that 00:06:52.919 --> 00:06:55.439 theory is wearing thin. 00:06:55.439 --> 00:07:04.699 Well, we want to avoid the twin errors of an unhealthy interest in the devil on the one 00:07:04.699 --> 00:07:11.720 hand and ignoring him altogether on the other hand because it's been said many times the devil's 00:07:11.720 --> 00:07:15.659 most clever deception is to convince us that he's not there. 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:17.740 And I think that's true. 00:07:18.680 --> 00:07:20.000 Jesus taught us that that's true. 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:25.560 In the Our Father prayer that he taught us to pray, that most famous prayer in the whole 00:07:25.560 --> 00:07:28.519 world, there are six petitions divided in two halves. 00:07:29.740 --> 00:07:34.399 God's concerns come first about his name, his kingdom, and his will. 00:07:34.500 --> 00:07:37.279 And then our concerns come next. 00:07:37.360 --> 00:07:39.160 Our biggest daily concerns. 00:07:39.300 --> 00:07:40.420 Our daily need for bread. 00:07:41.079 --> 00:07:43.920 Our daily need for cleansing from sin. 00:07:44.439 --> 00:07:46.899 And then our daily need for protection from what? 00:07:46.899 --> 00:07:49.139 The evil one. 00:07:49.659 --> 00:07:54.099 Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us not from evil, but Jesus taught us to pray 00:07:54.099 --> 00:07:55.799 from the evil one. 00:07:56.759 --> 00:08:02.459 The Gospels don't ignore Jesus' encounters with this dark power and the way that Jesus 00:08:02.459 --> 00:08:08.279 came to release people from their bondage and from their tyranny to this dark power. 00:08:08.419 --> 00:08:13.019 And so John chapter 8, Jesus is in the temple courts in Jerusalem. 00:08:13.019 --> 00:08:16.560 He's there at the festival of Tabernacles. 00:08:16.919 --> 00:08:20.539 It's about October of 29 AD. 00:08:21.740 --> 00:08:28.219 And Jesus is trying to teach us about this dehumanizing power and also about a power that 00:08:28.219 --> 00:08:31.819 can rehumanize us and a power that can give us life. 00:08:31.979 --> 00:08:40.779 And so my golden thread today is this, that Jesus challenges our views on the devil, divinity, 00:08:40.779 --> 00:08:41.879 and death. 00:08:42.399 --> 00:08:43.399 That's my outline. 00:08:43.799 --> 00:08:47.220 Jesus challenges our views on the devil, divinity, and death. 00:08:47.299 --> 00:08:48.980 Just a few small topics this morning. 00:08:49.240 --> 00:08:50.220 You guys ready to dive in? 00:08:50.839 --> 00:08:53.620 Jesus challenges our views on the devil. 00:08:53.919 --> 00:08:55.120 Look at verse 44. 00:08:56.779 --> 00:09:01.220 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. 00:09:02.159 --> 00:09:05.980 He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. 00:09:05.980 --> 00:09:12.720 When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 00:09:13.560 --> 00:09:16.340 You can file this one under the hard sayings of Jesus. 00:09:17.460 --> 00:09:23.519 This sharp exchange between Jesus and his opponents is a source of potential embarrassment 00:09:23.519 --> 00:09:25.980 for us on two levels. 00:09:26.159 --> 00:09:29.320 First of all, it sounds anti-Semitic. 00:09:30.120 --> 00:09:34.620 It sounds like he's saying that all Jews in general have the devil as their father. 00:09:34.620 --> 00:09:40.139 Secondly, it sounds like hocus pocus, like Jesus really believes that there's this personal, 00:09:40.779 --> 00:09:44.460 supernatural, evil being that's alive and active in the world. 00:09:44.519 --> 00:09:47.620 And these are two huge stumbling blocks I'd like to deal with for a moment. 00:09:48.519 --> 00:09:54.519 First of all, your father, the devil, sounds like Jesus is saying that Jews in general are 00:09:54.519 --> 00:10:01.340 children of the devil, meaning that they are, like him, inveterate liars and murderers. 00:10:01.340 --> 00:10:04.700 And we instinctively recoil at that thought. 00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:09.639 And we wonder, is this the Jesus that we know and love from the rest of the New Testament? 00:10:10.680 --> 00:10:16.000 And sadly, if you know anything about history, it's hard to imagine all the hurt that's been 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:23.180 done by people who've distorted these words of Jesus into the ultimate lie that Jews are 00:10:23.180 --> 00:10:24.080 inferior people. 00:10:24.080 --> 00:10:29.780 As we know, Jesus and his first followers were Jews. 00:10:30.220 --> 00:10:34.500 And so, this cannot be an ethnic slur. 00:10:35.160 --> 00:10:37.020 And the question is, what does it mean? 00:10:37.780 --> 00:10:42.280 Well, in order to understand that, we have to unpack Jesus' teaching about the devil and 00:10:42.280 --> 00:10:43.259 seek to understand it. 00:10:43.340 --> 00:10:48.740 Jesus says in verse 44, you belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out 00:10:48.740 --> 00:10:50.379 your father's desires. 00:10:50.500 --> 00:10:51.680 And what are his desires? 00:10:51.679 --> 00:10:53.759 Jesus says he's a murderer. 00:10:55.019 --> 00:10:56.219 What does a murderer desire? 00:10:56.339 --> 00:10:59.579 A murderer desires death, not life. 00:11:00.599 --> 00:11:05.019 And we could think about going back to the past, we could think about the Garden of Eden 00:11:05.019 --> 00:11:13.519 and that killing where the human race's perfect relationship with God was slain in the beginning. 00:11:13.719 --> 00:11:17.740 Or we could go forward from this text and we could think about Golgotha. 00:11:17.740 --> 00:11:23.060 We could think about the crucifixion and how this murderer wants to destroy the person 00:11:23.060 --> 00:11:25.580 and the work of God's Son. 00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:31.379 Jesus is teaching us that the devil desires death, not life. 00:11:31.940 --> 00:11:35.279 And he also desires lies, not truth. 00:11:36.120 --> 00:11:41.659 He says in verse 44, he was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for 00:11:41.659 --> 00:11:42.820 there is no truth in him. 00:11:42.820 --> 00:11:48.300 When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 00:11:49.540 --> 00:11:58.320 This fallen angel, Lucifer, Satan, his native tongue, the language in which he is fluent, 00:11:59.080 --> 00:12:02.580 proficient, and articulate is the language of deception. 00:12:02.580 --> 00:12:10.320 And how does he use his language of lies, his language of half-truths, to kill our relationship 00:12:10.320 --> 00:12:11.280 with God? 00:12:12.080 --> 00:12:16.600 Well, if you go back to the opening pages of the Bible, the first three pages, Genesis 00:12:16.600 --> 00:12:23.180 1, 2, and 3, you read there that Adam and Eve received this special revelation. 00:12:24.080 --> 00:12:29.780 The inspired word of God was given to them, telling them who God is and all of his power 00:12:29.779 --> 00:12:34.740 and holiness and his wisdom and his love. 00:12:35.899 --> 00:12:40.699 This revelation was telling them who they are and their identity and to whom they belong 00:12:40.699 --> 00:12:44.740 in their relationship and what they're here for and their meaning and their purpose and 00:12:44.740 --> 00:12:50.179 how they're to live in their morality and what they're to do and not do in their ethics. 00:12:51.439 --> 00:12:54.220 And God gives them this great gift, and then what happens next? 00:12:54.220 --> 00:13:00.120 The devil makes his first appearance in Scripture in the form of a serpent, and what does he 00:13:00.120 --> 00:13:00.440 do? 00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:08.399 The voice of this dark power asks a simple question, and if you want to turn in your pew Bibles, 00:13:08.519 --> 00:13:12.240 you can to his first words in Genesis 3, 1. 00:13:14.180 --> 00:13:15.460 And what's his question? 00:13:17.200 --> 00:13:19.080 Did God really say? 00:13:20.300 --> 00:13:22.519 Did God really say? 00:13:22.519 --> 00:13:24.439 He's shrewd. 00:13:25.139 --> 00:13:26.299 He's crafty. 00:13:26.360 --> 00:13:32.120 He uses speech to introduce confusion and distort God's words. 00:13:33.240 --> 00:13:39.220 This adversary comes and he speaks like a winsome, angelic theologian, right? 00:13:39.379 --> 00:13:45.240 Smoothly maneuvering us into what appears to be a sincere theological discussion. 00:13:46.240 --> 00:13:52.500 And in that discussion, he distorts our perspective and he subverts our obedience by the 00:13:52.500 --> 00:13:53.320 by doing what? 00:13:54.100 --> 00:14:01.039 By emphasizing God's one no and minimizing God's 1,000 yeses, right? 00:14:01.139 --> 00:14:08.200 He emphasizes God's prohibition, this one thing they can't do, and he totally ignores the 00:14:08.200 --> 00:14:10.820 many, many things that God has provided. 00:14:11.820 --> 00:14:15.480 And he's reducing God's commands down to a single question. 00:14:15.480 --> 00:14:17.740 Doubting God's sincerity. 00:14:18.600 --> 00:14:19.980 Defaming God's motives. 00:14:20.820 --> 00:14:23.759 Denying the truthfulness of God's consequences. 00:14:24.759 --> 00:14:27.480 If you look there at Genesis 3, 5, it says, 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:32.580 When you eat the fruit, your eyes will be open and you will be like God. 00:14:33.600 --> 00:14:34.800 That's the first lie. 00:14:35.220 --> 00:14:37.960 At least in human history, it's the first lie. 00:14:37.960 --> 00:14:46.540 And what this tells us is that the devil desires to sow doubt about God's revelation and about 00:14:46.540 --> 00:14:47.780 God's word. 00:14:47.960 --> 00:14:51.080 He wants to make us word ignorers. 00:14:52.259 --> 00:14:54.460 He wants to make us people who are word adverse. 00:14:55.740 --> 00:15:01.100 Or if we do read God's word, he wants us to deconstruct it with that question, did God 00:15:01.100 --> 00:15:02.600 really say? 00:15:03.659 --> 00:15:06.540 He wants God's word to appear harsh. 00:15:07.220 --> 00:15:11.040 Like God is restricting us from our full humanity. 00:15:11.920 --> 00:15:19.800 He wants it to seem like if we build a life based on our own autonomy and our own independence, 00:15:20.659 --> 00:15:22.779 that that will not bring shame and pain. 00:15:22.960 --> 00:15:25.600 That will actually bring enlightenment and progress. 00:15:27.580 --> 00:15:29.740 This is what Jesus is building on, right? 00:15:29.740 --> 00:15:32.659 This is why he says in verse 42, 00:15:32.840 --> 00:15:36.200 If God were your father, you would love me. 00:15:37.139 --> 00:15:40.120 If God were your father, you would love me. 00:15:41.060 --> 00:15:45.019 What is the lie that the devil most wants people to believe? 00:15:46.060 --> 00:15:50.620 The lie that Jesus is not who he says he is. 00:15:51.320 --> 00:15:53.860 The lie that Jesus is not sent from the Father. 00:15:54.000 --> 00:15:57.159 He's not the one who speaks the truth of God. 00:15:57.220 --> 00:15:59.639 He's not the one who brings the life of God. 00:15:59.740 --> 00:16:05.779 When Jesus says here that you either belong to God as your father or the devil as your father, 00:16:06.360 --> 00:16:12.840 strong words, he's basically restating Genesis 3.15 where God declares this, 00:16:13.840 --> 00:16:20.500 I will put enmity between you, the serpent, and the woman, and between your offspring and hers. 00:16:20.500 --> 00:16:25.179 He will crush your head and you will strike his heel. 00:16:26.120 --> 00:16:35.720 That mother promise at the beginning of the Bible, that first announcement of God's grace declares that there are actually only two humanities, two families. 00:16:35.720 --> 00:16:45.240 One humanity bears the identity deriving from that lesser and limited power which denies the truth and destroys life. 00:16:46.180 --> 00:16:57.340 The other humanity bears an identity that derives from that transcendent and infinite power of the living God who will send the seed of the woman to save us. 00:16:57.340 --> 00:17:09.380 You see, even here in paradise, this conflict between these two humanities, these two families is announced. 00:17:09.380 --> 00:17:20.260 And all of us belong to that former family until by the new birth, by the Holy Spirit coming into our lives from God, 00:17:21.540 --> 00:17:28.460 we're transferred into the family of God, having God as our father. 00:17:29.380 --> 00:17:30.420 Does this make sense? 00:17:30.420 --> 00:17:32.680 Jesus says in verse 42, 00:17:32.800 --> 00:17:35.980 If God were your father, you would love me. 00:17:37.240 --> 00:17:41.560 And you know you have God as your father if you love Jesus. 00:17:41.720 --> 00:17:48.300 For love of Jesus is the mark of someone who belongs to God in the family of God. 00:17:49.740 --> 00:17:53.580 Unfortunately, some people think that they are a child of God, but they don't love Jesus. 00:17:54.519 --> 00:17:58.940 They don't love Jesus with all their heart as of paramount importance for their lives. 00:17:58.940 --> 00:18:04.220 But when the Holy Spirit comes into your heart, he gives you this love for Jesus. 00:18:04.360 --> 00:18:07.320 And that's why Jesus is begging the question, 00:18:08.740 --> 00:18:09.480 Who's your father? 00:18:10.759 --> 00:18:11.759 Who's your daddy? 00:18:13.580 --> 00:18:14.960 Whose child are you? 00:18:16.380 --> 00:18:17.740 To whom do you belong? 00:18:19.140 --> 00:18:22.720 Do you belong to this one who from the beginning has brought lies and death? 00:18:22.720 --> 00:18:29.160 Or do you belong to the one who sent his son to bring truth and life? 00:18:29.779 --> 00:18:30.620 That's the question. 00:18:31.660 --> 00:18:35.319 So Jesus is challenging our views of the devil. 00:18:36.360 --> 00:18:38.460 But it gets more interesting than that. 00:18:38.640 --> 00:18:43.079 He challenges not only our views of the devil, he challenges our views of divinity itself. 00:18:43.299 --> 00:18:44.940 When he says in verse 58, 00:18:45.059 --> 00:18:49.720 Very truly I tell you, before Abraham was born, I am. 00:18:49.720 --> 00:18:52.539 And you're like, okay, Jesus, that's bad grammar. 00:18:53.279 --> 00:18:54.539 It should be I was. 00:18:54.860 --> 00:18:56.740 Before Abraham was born, I was. 00:18:56.839 --> 00:19:00.400 And even if that's good grammar, that's logically impossible. 00:19:00.600 --> 00:19:01.100 Is it not? 00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:04.980 Abraham's the father of Israel, the people of God. 00:19:05.380 --> 00:19:08.759 And again, we get to that story in Genesis chapter 12 to 22, 00:19:09.140 --> 00:19:13.480 where God made promises to save the world through the family of Abraham. 00:19:13.480 --> 00:19:18.579 And through his descendants, through one particular descendant of Abraham, 00:19:18.920 --> 00:19:22.500 all the nations of the world would be blessed. 00:19:23.759 --> 00:19:29.920 Now Abraham lived roughly as long before Jesus as Jesus lived before us, about 2,000 years. 00:19:30.099 --> 00:19:32.319 So what is Jesus getting at with this statement? 00:19:33.240 --> 00:19:35.140 Well, we'll look at the context in verse 54. 00:19:35.339 --> 00:19:35.720 He says, 00:19:35.720 --> 00:19:54.299 And then Jesus says this. 00:19:54.299 --> 00:19:54.680 He says, 00:19:54.680 --> 00:20:05.620 Jesus is suggesting that Israel's God, 00:20:06.720 --> 00:20:10.980 the one whom these Judeans claim to worship and know and serve, 00:20:11.079 --> 00:20:16.380 is operating now in and through Jesus in a decisive and unique way 00:20:16.380 --> 00:20:22.000 to summon Israel and to summon the whole world back to a genuine knowledge and allegiance to God. 00:20:22.759 --> 00:20:26.779 And that Abraham, entrusting God's promises, 00:20:27.700 --> 00:20:30.700 that through his family, all the peoples of the earth would be blessed, 00:20:30.700 --> 00:20:37.940 Abraham was actually looking ahead to that day when Jesus would bring God's promises to reality. 00:20:38.460 --> 00:20:44.480 And so Jesus is claiming that he is at last embodying what the one living God, 00:20:44.620 --> 00:20:49.660 Abraham's God, had envisaged and promised all those years ago. 00:20:49.660 --> 00:20:57.720 They've already mocked Jesus as a Samaritan half-breed and as demon-possessed. 00:20:57.800 --> 00:21:03.200 So how do they respond to this claim that Abraham was actually rejoicing in Jesus? 00:21:04.660 --> 00:21:05.880 Well, verse 57, 00:21:05.880 --> 00:21:11.800 They laugh at him. 00:21:12.840 --> 00:21:13.800 You knew Abraham. 00:21:13.900 --> 00:21:15.440 Have you been traveling in a time machine? 00:21:15.940 --> 00:21:18.420 Did you get like three wishes and a lamp or something? 00:21:18.520 --> 00:21:24.720 Like, you're not even 50 years old, much less 500 years old, much less 2,000 years old. 00:21:24.820 --> 00:21:26.240 Jesus, you're talking nonsense. 00:21:26.240 --> 00:21:33.440 And of course, Jesus, as usual, is talking on another level altogether. 00:21:34.660 --> 00:21:37.259 And that's why he says in verse 58, 00:21:37.380 --> 00:21:42.039 Very truly I tell you, before Abraham was born, I am. 00:21:43.220 --> 00:21:47.120 To understand this, you have to go back not just to the first book of the Bible in Genesis, 00:21:47.339 --> 00:21:50.620 but to the second book of Exodus at the burning bush, 00:21:50.940 --> 00:21:53.299 where God reveals himself to Moses, 00:21:53.299 --> 00:21:57.879 and he gives him this call to deal with the problem of getting Israel out of Egypt. 00:21:58.139 --> 00:21:59.039 And Moses says, 00:21:59.139 --> 00:22:03.619 Well, God, how am I going to tell the king of Egypt what kind of God has sent me? 00:22:04.059 --> 00:22:05.079 And what does God say? 00:22:06.519 --> 00:22:08.319 I am who I am. 00:22:09.619 --> 00:22:13.980 Go tell them that I am who I am has sent me to you. 00:22:15.019 --> 00:22:18.359 The God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 00:22:18.359 --> 00:22:24.879 The holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come has sent you. 00:22:25.719 --> 00:22:32.559 The self-existing, self-sufficient, eternal, ever-present living God who is outside of time 00:22:32.559 --> 00:22:36.759 and existed before Abraham and exists today and will exist ever afterwards. 00:22:36.839 --> 00:22:39.740 Go tell them that he is the one who's sent you. 00:22:39.740 --> 00:22:44.920 When you read on in Exodus, you get to the center of the Torah, 00:22:45.440 --> 00:22:49.440 the center of God's great revelation to his people in Exodus 34. 00:22:49.779 --> 00:22:54.339 And God reveals himself to Moses again out of the fire on Mount Sinai. 00:22:54.400 --> 00:22:55.220 And what does he say? 00:22:55.579 --> 00:22:55.980 He says, 00:22:55.980 --> 00:23:11.720 God is revealing all of who he is. 00:23:11.720 --> 00:23:20.180 And Jesus takes this most holy name of Yahweh, of I am, and he says, 00:23:20.720 --> 00:23:22.000 That's me. 00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:25.779 Not before Abraham was, I was. 00:23:25.880 --> 00:23:29.339 Before Abraham was, I am. 00:23:30.039 --> 00:23:37.579 The greatest and highest expression of divine self-reference, Jesus applies to himself. 00:23:37.720 --> 00:23:37.960 He says, 00:23:38.079 --> 00:23:39.279 I am uncaused. 00:23:40.259 --> 00:23:42.440 I am self-sufficient, self-determined. 00:23:42.539 --> 00:23:44.819 I depend on nothing and no one. 00:23:45.019 --> 00:23:48.119 All that exists depends on me, in fact. 00:23:48.839 --> 00:23:50.380 I have no beginning. 00:23:50.380 --> 00:23:53.080 In fact, in me, all things have their beginning. 00:23:54.060 --> 00:23:57.120 That sounds a lot like the first line of this gospel, doesn't it? 00:23:57.680 --> 00:24:03.920 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 00:24:03.920 --> 00:24:17.320 If you were to go to city arts and lectures in San Francisco, and the presenter gets up on the stage and steps to the microphone and says, 00:24:17.600 --> 00:24:19.820 I am ultimate reality. 00:24:20.600 --> 00:24:22.320 I have always existed. 00:24:23.140 --> 00:24:24.680 I created the world. 00:24:24.680 --> 00:24:28.920 I'm, in fact, in this moment holding every single one of you together. 00:24:29.580 --> 00:24:33.660 And at the end of time, your relationship with me will determine where you spend all of eternity. 00:24:34.860 --> 00:24:37.620 What is the conversation going to be like after that talk? 00:24:38.180 --> 00:24:40.560 Like, man, she was a really great speaker. 00:24:40.559 --> 00:24:46.579 She had some strong beliefs and really some interesting insights, you know, on life. 00:24:47.419 --> 00:24:50.980 No, everybody would conclude this woman, this guy, is deluded. 00:24:51.679 --> 00:24:52.759 This guy's deluded. 00:24:53.440 --> 00:24:56.720 And how do we know that Jesus' opponents understood what he was saying? 00:24:57.119 --> 00:24:59.819 In verse 59, they picked up stones to stone him. 00:25:00.679 --> 00:25:05.059 They didn't pick up a rope to hang him or a sword to behead him. 00:25:05.059 --> 00:25:06.480 And why did they pick up stones? 00:25:07.059 --> 00:25:20.079 Because in the third book of the Torah, Leviticus tells us that death by stoning is the capital punishment for anyone who blasphemes God's name and claims to be God. 00:25:21.599 --> 00:25:28.960 And so these folks attempt no further investigation to do what God's Word tells them to do in this situation. 00:25:30.700 --> 00:25:32.940 Jesus is not difficult to understand. 00:25:32.940 --> 00:25:45.240 They knew perfectly well what he was saying, that he was claiming divinity, and that is absolutely intolerable if you're just a human being. 00:25:46.580 --> 00:25:53.600 I think I've got a streak now going in all these sermons in the Gospel of John of quoting C.S. Lewis, so I'm just going to keep it up. 00:25:54.680 --> 00:25:57.940 But if you've never read this book, Mere Christianity, it's great. 00:25:58.080 --> 00:26:01.519 He's an Oxford professor, and he says this. 00:26:01.519 --> 00:26:07.319 He says, I'm trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him. 00:26:07.819 --> 00:26:14.220 Quote, I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. 00:26:15.319 --> 00:26:17.500 That is the one thing we must not say. 00:26:18.559 --> 00:26:23.759 A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. 00:26:23.759 --> 00:26:31.519 He would either be a lunatic on a level with the man who says he's a poached egg, or else he would be the devil of hell. 00:26:32.319 --> 00:26:33.799 You must make your choice. 00:26:33.940 --> 00:26:39.339 Either this man was and is the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. 00:26:40.279 --> 00:26:42.000 You can shut him up for a fool. 00:26:42.619 --> 00:26:45.000 You can spit at him and kill him as a demon. 00:26:45.559 --> 00:26:49.200 Or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. 00:26:49.200 --> 00:26:55.840 But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. 00:26:56.360 --> 00:26:57.940 He's not let that open to us. 00:26:57.980 --> 00:26:58.980 He did not intend to. 00:27:00.480 --> 00:27:01.779 Professor Lewis goes on. 00:27:01.860 --> 00:27:04.279 He says, we are faced then with a frightening alternative. 00:27:05.299 --> 00:27:11.860 This man we're talking about either was and is just what he said, or else a lunatic or something worse. 00:27:11.859 --> 00:27:24.240 Now it seems to me obvious that he was neither a lunatic nor a fiend, and consequently, however strange, however terrifying, however unlikely it may seem, 00:27:24.699 --> 00:27:34.240 I have to accept the view that he was and is God, that God has landed on this enemy-occupied world in human form. 00:27:34.240 --> 00:27:41.920 I think this is maybe the most challenging statement in John's gospel, at least so far. 00:27:42.759 --> 00:27:46.259 And I think Jesus is challenging us to get off the fence. 00:27:47.140 --> 00:27:50.079 He's saying, you can't stay neutral about me. 00:27:51.160 --> 00:27:53.599 You either need to crown me or kill me. 00:27:55.039 --> 00:27:57.079 You know, say that I'm Lord or say that I'm a demon. 00:27:57.079 --> 00:28:03.339 Center the whole of your life around me as if everything else pales in comparison. 00:28:03.619 --> 00:28:06.379 Or stamp out the memory of me forever. 00:28:06.720 --> 00:28:11.480 Those are kind of the things that Jesus wants us to wrestle with. 00:28:12.539 --> 00:28:15.699 Before Abraham was born, I am. 00:28:16.960 --> 00:28:20.639 Jesus challenges our views of the devil and of divinity. 00:28:20.919 --> 00:28:22.919 And I want to say a last word about death. 00:28:22.920 --> 00:28:27.380 Because you may have noticed this other provocative statement in verse 51. 00:28:28.700 --> 00:28:32.440 Very truly, I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death. 00:28:33.640 --> 00:28:34.200 What? 00:28:36.560 --> 00:28:39.259 Death is this wide and this deep word. 00:28:39.620 --> 00:28:43.680 And I think Jesus is speaking on two levels, as he often does. 00:28:43.680 --> 00:28:53.220 If we think that this is a denial of the literal death of the body, it probably does confirm our suspicions that Jesus is mad. 00:28:54.080 --> 00:28:58.420 But he can't mean physical death, like if you keep my word, you're not going to die. 00:28:58.460 --> 00:28:59.960 Because all of his disciples died. 00:29:00.060 --> 00:29:05.100 In fact, only John, the apostle, didn't die a violent death as a martyr. 00:29:06.180 --> 00:29:07.380 So what does Jesus mean? 00:29:07.380 --> 00:29:13.760 Well, the first level of meaning of this word death, I think, is a reference to that ultimate disaster. 00:29:14.980 --> 00:29:19.480 When you die and you go out into eternity and you're unprepared to meet God. 00:29:20.580 --> 00:29:22.940 And you die without the forgiveness of Jesus. 00:29:23.660 --> 00:29:25.240 And you meet God as your judge. 00:29:25.240 --> 00:29:30.299 And you enter the other side and you realize there's no more hope. 00:29:30.380 --> 00:29:33.859 And that God is going to dismiss you from his presence. 00:29:34.019 --> 00:29:41.920 And that you will then live forever in a state of eternal spiritual death without God who is life itself. 00:29:42.859 --> 00:29:44.220 That is a chilling thought. 00:29:45.039 --> 00:29:46.620 And that, I think, is the teaching of Jesus. 00:29:47.539 --> 00:29:49.220 But look at what Jesus does. 00:29:49.319 --> 00:29:50.680 Listen to his gracious offer. 00:29:50.680 --> 00:29:58.279 To these people who are dishonoring him, blaspheming him, calling him a Samaritan half-breed, calling him demon-possessed. 00:29:58.440 --> 00:30:02.660 People who are in danger of themselves of the judgment of God. 00:30:03.019 --> 00:30:06.120 He holds out this gracious gift in verse 51. 00:30:06.480 --> 00:30:11.180 Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death. 00:30:11.180 --> 00:30:16.140 If you obey my word. 00:30:17.180 --> 00:30:26.180 If you believe what I have to say about myself and my Father and the Holy Spirit and the great salvation that we've come to accomplish. 00:30:27.279 --> 00:30:28.799 You will never see death. 00:30:29.980 --> 00:30:36.980 If you obey the word of him who's going to taste death on your behalf on the cross. 00:30:36.980 --> 00:30:41.799 If you obey the word of the one who's going to lay down his life as your substitute. 00:30:42.759 --> 00:30:46.220 To triumph over sin and win a victory over death and the resurrection. 00:30:46.460 --> 00:30:52.460 If you embrace and cherish and abide in or are transformed by the reality of my word. 00:30:52.700 --> 00:30:56.779 You will not have to come to that ultimate disaster. 00:30:57.660 --> 00:31:00.259 Of eternal spiritual death. 00:31:01.960 --> 00:31:03.200 That's pretty good news. 00:31:03.200 --> 00:31:07.480 But Jesus I think also has a second level of meaning. 00:31:09.920 --> 00:31:14.180 Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death. 00:31:14.740 --> 00:31:18.840 I think what he means is that death can go through you. 00:31:19.759 --> 00:31:25.380 And you can go through death without it making any difference. 00:31:25.380 --> 00:31:36.100 Of course it will make a massive heartbreaking difference to all those people you're going to leave behind in a wake of pain and grief. 00:31:36.240 --> 00:31:38.940 But what about your personal experience of death? 00:31:40.160 --> 00:31:43.640 I had a pastor pal, long time church planter in Boulder, Colorado. 00:31:43.780 --> 00:31:45.200 Just passed away last night. 00:31:45.460 --> 00:31:49.220 What about his experience of death last night? 00:31:49.360 --> 00:31:52.500 Jesus says you will not see death. 00:31:52.580 --> 00:31:53.940 You will not notice death. 00:31:53.940 --> 00:31:55.900 You will not pay attention to death. 00:31:56.220 --> 00:31:58.299 Though physical death will happen to you. 00:31:58.960 --> 00:32:01.220 Because of what I'm doing inside of you. 00:32:01.279 --> 00:32:02.820 It will not matter to you. 00:32:03.740 --> 00:32:05.400 It will be irrelevant to you. 00:32:05.580 --> 00:32:07.380 And you're looking at me like you're crazy. 00:32:07.900 --> 00:32:09.600 And that's how they were looking at Jesus. 00:32:12.440 --> 00:32:15.680 I read these words last year during lockdown. 00:32:16.860 --> 00:32:18.660 J.B. Phillips was a friend of C.S. Lewis. 00:32:18.799 --> 00:32:22.640 And he wrote a great modern English translation of the New Testament. 00:32:22.640 --> 00:32:26.259 And he also wrote a little book called Your God is Too Small. 00:32:27.300 --> 00:32:30.440 And a section of that book is called The Abolition of Death. 00:32:31.320 --> 00:32:34.960 And I know I've had very long quotes in the sermon. 00:32:35.060 --> 00:32:35.780 But here's one more. 00:32:35.779 --> 00:32:39.200 He says, 00:32:39.200 --> 00:32:42.740 We find Christ teaching an astonishing thing about physical death. 00:32:43.119 --> 00:32:46.420 Not merely that it is an experience robbed of its terror. 00:32:47.059 --> 00:32:49.779 But that as an experience it does not exist at all. 00:32:50.779 --> 00:32:55.299 It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the meaning that Christ intended to convey. 00:32:56.000 --> 00:33:03.460 Was that death was a completely negligible experience to the man who had already begun to live life of the eternal quality. 00:33:03.460 --> 00:33:10.980 Once it dawns upon us that God, incredible as it may well sound, has actually identified himself with man. 00:33:11.740 --> 00:33:16.759 That he has taken the initiative in effecting the necessary reconciliation of man with himself. 00:33:16.759 --> 00:33:26.839 And has shown the way by which little human personalities can begin to embark on that immense adventure of capital L living. 00:33:27.059 --> 00:33:28.940 Of which God is the center. 00:33:29.259 --> 00:33:29.660 Death. 00:33:30.519 --> 00:33:37.819 The discarding of a temporary machine adapted only for a temporary stage may begin to seem negligible. 00:33:37.819 --> 00:33:46.740 It is only in Christ, in the representative man who is also God, that death can be safely ignored. 00:33:47.379 --> 00:33:55.899 And heaven confidently welcomed for those who have a grip on the timeless life of God. 00:33:55.900 --> 00:34:08.039 When you guys come together for my funeral, I don't know, it's going to be soon or it's going to be a long time from now. 00:34:09.619 --> 00:34:11.559 I don't know if you believe this, but I do. 00:34:11.660 --> 00:34:16.940 So make sure you say, Jonathan St. Clair is not dead. 00:34:16.940 --> 00:34:28.079 He became, he became a partaker of the life of God himself. 00:34:28.740 --> 00:34:33.800 A life which death has no power to destroy. 00:34:35.139 --> 00:34:36.519 Make sure they say that. 00:34:37.720 --> 00:34:38.720 You say that. 00:34:39.280 --> 00:34:39.920 Okay. 00:34:41.480 --> 00:34:42.940 Friends, you don't have to die. 00:34:42.940 --> 00:34:49.480 And if we think out the implications of our deathlessness, it's astonishing. 00:34:50.840 --> 00:34:59.820 What the world needs is not cautious Christians who are afraid of death like everybody else is in the world. 00:35:00.559 --> 00:35:10.460 What the world most needs is the Christ of free and fearless Christians who know and live like we're never going to die. 00:35:10.460 --> 00:35:10.500 Why? 00:35:11.300 --> 00:35:12.940 Because that is the truth. 00:35:14.860 --> 00:35:20.119 If you obey my word, you will never see death. 00:35:21.340 --> 00:35:23.220 Who wants to be that kind of Christian? 00:35:24.760 --> 00:35:25.480 I do. 00:35:26.860 --> 00:35:31.139 May God give us the grace and the mercy to live like that. 00:35:31.800 --> 00:35:33.860 In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 00:35:34.699 --> 00:35:34.920 Amen. 00:35:34.920 --> 00:35:35.059 Amen.