Jesus: Incarnate Christ, Eternal God

This morning we're thankful to be worshiping God, thankful to have the opportunity to worship with you.

It's Baptism Sunday, which means uh later in the service, we're gonna have we're gonna baptize four people.

We're so excited to be here this morning.

It's my favorite type of Sunday service.

Uh, but we're also gonna be trying to be time conscious.

And so um, we're gonna be continuing our sermon series in the Gospel of John in John chapter 8.

John 8 · chapter mention

I had this experience that I learned a long time ago that if you ever want to kill the mood in a room, if you ever want to create long, awkward silence in a room, just remind everybody that eventually they're gonna die.

See, it just worked again.

I'm 50 for 50 on that.

All jesting aside, in our passage today, Jesus is gonna talk about death.

And so that's why we're talking about it.

Christians are the kinds of people for whom death is not taboo or need not taboo.

Christians are the kind of people who can think about death, who dare to think about death, who can speak about death, who can even smile at death, can live every moment of life informed by that ultimate reality of death.

All because Jesus Christ has experienced death and he overcame it.

And our hope is in him.

As a young man, Jonathan Edwards, one of our theological heroes from the 1700s, he was around 21 years of age and he wrote these famous resolutions as a young man.

Pretty sober-minded young man, if you read those resolutions.

This was one of them.

He said, I am resolved to think much on all occasions of my own dying and of the common circumstances which attend death.

I think most people resolve to never think about those things.

His resolution to think about his own death often was part of a broader Christian tradition called the memento mori, a Latin phrase that means remember that you will die.

This does not mean that we talk or we think about death in a glib way, because death is the product of the curse.

Death is, in the words of the Apostle Paul, the last great enemy of the people of God, of all humankind, in fact, and even speaks about in Hebrews chapter 2 that by means of fear, this cruel enemy death enslaves people even while they live.

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

And yet sometimes we often don't contemplate exactly how all this can be.

How is it that we as Christians have a hope of the resurrection?

How is it that we don't believe that when we die, that's it?

Like the animals.

Sorry, animal lovers.

There might be animals in the new kingdom, in the new heaven and new earth.

The verdict's still out.

We'll have to wait and see.

But we know it's not because they have a soul.

Maybe God's going to create a whole new batch there or something.

The reason that we can have power over death, the reason that we can look at Jesus Christ and see in his face the only hope there is to offer for deathbound people is because Jesus is who he claims to be, the one with death-defying, life-giving power.

And this is the claim we're going to encounter in our passage today in John chapter 8, verses 48 through 59.

John 8:48–59

I invite you to open in your Bible or read along on the screen.

We're going to look at this text today, and we're going to follow along a sort of a three-part progression through this text.

The first thing we're going to notice in verses 52 through or 48 through 51 is the audacious claim of Jesus.

Jesus is going to make an audacious claim about himself.

Secondly, we're going to see that this progresses to a response of the crowds.

Number two, the accusing cynicism towards Jesus.

And thirdly, in verses 56 through 59, we find the Abrahamic confirmation of Jesus.

So don't be thinking with this false sense of hope that we're kind of raced through the points one and two, and we're almost done.

No, we're just about halfway at that point.

Okay.

Had to give these young people fair warning.

So the context of this passage here before we begin to read it is really interesting.

And if you've been here the last few weeks, you've heard several sermons from John chapter 8.

John 8 · chapter mention

But basically the context is a heated dialogue, conversation Jesus was having with the Pharisees and with the uh with some of the Jews in the city of Jerusalem.

It was during the week in which all these Jewish pilgrims were coming to gather for a feast in Jerusalem.

So the city was packed.

The conversation we're about to read happened in the temple, and so it was just packed with people, coming there to sacrifice, coming there to worship, a very public place that Jesus was going to claim some very audacious things about himself.

The chapter begins with the Pharisees bringing an adulterous woman, throwing her at Jesus' feet, tempting him to make some kind of crazy remark and get himself killed.

He says, This woman is caught in the act of adultery.

We're going to stone her.

What do you think?

Because he knew Jesus was a friend of publicans and sinners.

And so they bring this woman who was a sinner, caught in the act of adultery.

And what does Jesus do?

He intervenes, he forgives her publicly, grants her the dignity of forgiveness, and then he tells her to go and sin no more.

But by the end of the chapter, in a sense of irony, we find that those same stones that they dropped that they were going to stone her with, they're picking them back up again to stone Jesus.

And so what happens between the first part of the chapter and the end of the chapter is Jesus begins to make some claims about himself that almost got him killed.

And of course, if you know the rest of the story, ended up getting him killed.

Let's begin by diving into the text.

Number one, we're going to see the audacious claim of Jesus, beginning in verse 48.

The Jews answered Jesus and they said, Are we not right in saying that you're a Samaritan and have a demon?

Whoa.

That's why you need to understand the context that they've been arguing for probably 20 minutes at this point, or maybe 30 minutes.

This is probably the lowest racial slur they could possibly give someone.

The Jews despise the Samaritans.

They looked at him as sort of half-human.

So what could be worse than a demon-possessed Samaritan?

Jesus answers, I don't have a demon.

But contrary wise, I honor my father, and you are dishonoring me.

Yet I do not seek my own glory.

There is one who seeks it, and he is the judge.

And then here's the major audacious claim here.

Truly, truly I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he'll never see death.

What on earth could Jesus possibly mean by this?

Just imagine if you were there and you saw someone who looked like you, who sounded like you, who dressed like you, who you knew ate the same food and slept at night, maybe eight hours, making this kind of claim, it would blow your mind.

It would make you possibly say things like, You're a demon-possessed son of a gun.

Which is what they essentially say.

And yet these words should weigh on our hearts because we must contemplate what does Jesus mean by this unbelievable phrase, if anyone keeps my word, he'll never see death.

What could be more interesting?

What could be more relevant to a room full of people, to a world full of people who are all marching to their graves?

If you keep the words of Jesus, you'll never see death.

Does Jesus mean by this that if you follow him, you won't die of old age or disease or an accident?

That's not what he means because elsewhere he tells his apostles that they themselves are going to one day die in the cause of Christ, and the people who kill them are gonna think they're doing God's favor.

So we know that Jesus in himself would go to the cross and die.

So he's not talking about you won't physically die one day.

What is he talking about?

To understand, really, I think at least two senses that Jesus is meaning this phrase, you won't see death, or later they paraphrase it, you won't taste of death.

We need to turn really quickly to John chapter 11.

John 11 · chapter mention

Just going to spend a couple minutes here as we think about what Jesus said to a grieving woman who had just lost her brother.

Four days prior to John chapter 11, verses 25 and 26, this woman named Mary and her sister Martha had lost their brother.

John 11:25

And this trio, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus are some of the best friends of Jesus.

Jesus had heard that his friend Lazarus was sick unto death, and Jesus intentionally stayed a couple days away so that Lazarus would die.

Seems kind of cruel, right?

Jesus, the miracle worker, why didn't he prevent that?

Well, he had a purpose in mind, as he always does when he doesn't do things like we ask.

Jesus shows up four days after, and Lazarus has already been laid in a tomb.

After four days, Mary said, He probably is putrefying, his body stinks.

Why are you even going to the tomb to see him?

In this conversation, Jesus says to her, Mary, in John 11, 25, Mary, I am the resurrection and the life.

Because she was mad at him for not showing up before he died.

He said, I am the resurrection and the life.

Whoever believes in me, and here's one of the key phrases I want us to think about.

Though he die, yet shall he live.

Keep that in mind.

Keep reading.

And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

Wait, which is it, Jesus?

Though you die, meaning you can, you probably will die, but then you'll never die.

These are two different senses of which Jesus is talking about.

Him as the resurrection of the life, granting us a sense of immortality.

First, he says, though he believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.

This obviously is speaking about the future resurrection, right?

I am the resurrection of the life.

Even if you die, I'm gonna raise you up again.

The resurrection on the last day, Jesus will raise every last man, woman, boy, and girl whoever dies, and whoever has died.

Some will be raised to the resurrection of judgment, others to a resurrection of glory, but everyone's gonna be raised.

Second sense, he means here.

Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

Just one chapter earlier, when Jesus was talking about in what's called the uh the Good Shepherd discourse, he says, I'm the good shepherd, I protect the sheep.

In fact, I lay down my life for the sheep.

I am like this, the sheep pen, and there's one door, and I am that door, and I'm the only way into that protected sheepfold, and that sheepfold is eternal life.

And if I give you eternal life, no one will take it from you.

Here's what he's talking about here.

The soul, when it's born again by the Spirit of God that comes and indwells a fallen human like you and me, we are granted eternal life, and that eternal life never, ever ends.

In fact, in John 10, he says, and you will never perish.

You're kept in my hand, and then the father's hand is over me, and no one will pluck you out of my father's hand, because no one is greater than he.

So here's two senses in which the believer has immortality.

One, yeah, you might die physically.

If Jesus doesn't come back, you're gonna die physically.

But you will be raised absolutely.

Second sense, if you have eternal life, even if you die physically, your soul doesn't die.

Nothing will strip eternal life from you if you belong to Jesus Christ.

And so what's interesting and amazing in our text in John chapter 8 is that Jesus is claiming to have the power and the authority to effect both of those senses of the promise.

John 8 · chapter mention

Truly, truly, he says, if anyone keeps my word, they'll not taste death.

We may understand that as basically saying, Death will not win.

I have overcome death.

And though though death may threaten you, though you may walk through the valley of the shadow of death, though you may die in some painful way, you'll be raised again.

And that which death can do to your body, it cannot do to your soul.

In fact, Jesus would say, Don't fear in in Matthew chapter 10, don't fear those who can take your body, who can even kill your body.

Matthew 10 · chapter mention

Fear the one who can take your soul and cast it into Gehenna, into hell.

In other words, the soul and the body are not the same thing, and the soul always lives on, and at the day of resurrection will be reunited with the body.

Our physical bodies, the dust of our physical bodies being reconstituted into flesh and bones on that final great day.

So Jesus in John 8.51 is speaking about these same truths.

I am the resurrection and the life, I have authority over death.

And if you follow me, if you trust me, if you obey my words, death has nothing on you.

Amazing words.

But to this, the Jews respond not in faith, not in humble submission, falling at Jesus' feet, saying, Wow, finally we have someone here who has bested death, who has the power of death.

No, they don't do that at all.

They begin to sneer and to mock and to threaten and to dare, and this is how they respond.

In John 8, 52 to 55, they say, the Jews said to him, Now we know that you have a demon.

If we were in any doubt that you were demon-possessed, now there's no doubt.

Why?

Well, because he had said something.

He had sort of, he'd sacrificed one of their sacred idols, namely this.

Abraham died, they said, as did the prophets.

Yet you, Jesus, are saying, if anyone keeps my word, he'll never taste death.

What are you saying about Abraham and the prophets?

That they didn't keep God's word?

That they were pagans?

That they were unbelievers?

That they were not the faithful?

Here we venerate Abraham.

He was the father of the Jewish nation.

The prophets were the people that all the Jews looked to.

And of course, in Jesus' day, they venerated the prophets.

There were none greater than the prophets.

But supposedly, if you keep Jesus' word, okay, you'll never die.

Well, they died.

What does that say about you, Jesus?

Either it says that you're making this up, or you're saying that they are pagan unbelievers.

So they think they have Jesus cornered.

This is the third time in chapter 8 alone they mention Abraham.

They're really obsessed with Abraham because he was their point of pride.

Because they drew their lineage back to Abraham, because God had chosen Abraham, they were his biological descendants, they were better than all non-Jews.

They were better than the Samaritans, which are sort of half-Jews.

And they're basically, well, there's another subplot in the chapter.

Because Jesus was born of a virgin, right?

Meaning his earthly father, well, meaning his mother got pregnant before his parents were married.

Now, apparently that story had gotten leaked out a little bit.

You never know why.

But in John chapter 8, they make a really interesting phrase.

John 8 · chapter mention

They insult Jesus, saying, We're not sure who your father is.

We know who our father is.

Our father is God, and we're the children of Abraham.

And Jesus says, No, actually, your father's the devil because you look just like him.

Jesus was pretty quick.

They keep mentioning Abraham because he is sort of their claim to fame.

He is their source of eternal life.

As long as they're walking in the steps of Abraham, so they think, as long as they're keeping Abraham's word, then they'll be saved.

Their argument is simple here.

If even Abraham, the friend of God, the father of the nation of Israel, if even he succumbed to death, how on earth could Jesus, seemingly a mere Jewish man in the first century, how could he claim to keep anyone from dying?

This is preposterous.

If Jesus had power over death, he'd be greater than Abraham.

And even the venerated Jewish prophets who all lived and died.

Jesus' claim was unthinkable.

And so in verse 53, you'll notice they throw down the gauntlet with the mocking and daring question: Who are you making yourself out to be?

This is a theme that happens through the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and also through John, where the apostles, as they write the Gospels, they intentionally have the crowds ask this question.

Of course, the crowds did ask the question, but they want the reader of the Gospels to ask the question as well.

Here you find John has done it several times already.

He did it in John chapter 1, like, who is this?

John 1 · chapter mention

Who is he the Christ?

Who is Jesus?

Is John the Baptist the Christ?

All these questions about the identity of Jesus.

Here it happens again, but from the lips of the Pharisees.

Who are you making yourself out to be?

And this is meant to prompt you to ask the question: who do you think Jesus is?

Who do you think Jesus made himself out to be?

This is a question that all of us must ask ourselves.

And if Jesus is claiming to be the only one who has power over death, and you're gonna die maybe today, maybe tomorrow, maybe 30 or 40 or 50 years from now, if death is literally looming over every single head in this room and every single heart, there could be nothing more relevant than to ask the question, who is Jesus?

And further, the question, what would have to be true of Jesus for him to be telling the truth?

Because honestly, the Pharisees, I mean, are responding maybe like I would have if I were in that day.

This guy who's dressed like me, and I mean I was I saw him eating at the local cafe the other day, and here he's standing here telling me he has power over death.

We're gonna run him out of town on a rail.

They called him demon-possessed, and in fact, maybe he would have been, because no man in his right mind would ever claim something so preposterous unless he was telling the truth.

And so Jesus answers, and I think gives us ample cause to believe his words in the third and last part of our text, verses 56 through 59.

The Abrahamic confirmation of Jesus.

Jesus' answer is powerfully revealing.

Verse 56 says this your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day.

He saw it and was glad.

That was Jesus' response.

They ask him, Who are you making yourself out to be?

Who do you think you are?

You're ridiculous, you're demon-possessed, you're mentally ill, you're evil.

Who are you making yourself out to be?

Jesus' response, well, since you mentioned Abraham, and you're asking who I am, Abraham saw my day.

He saw that I was going to come into the world, and when he saw it, he rejoiced.

That's a strange answer.

In fact, it may even seem like Jesus is dodging the question.

Are you making yourself greater than Abraham?

But Jesus is not dodging the question.

Jesus is not backing down.

Jesus is doubling down on what he said.

Because you got to remember, when he says Abraham rejoiced to see my day, he saw it and was glad, you remember, what does that mean?

It means that the patriarch Abraham had received promises from God about receiving a son in his old age, about inheriting a land called Canaan, and about having a nation one day.

A nation that would be a special nation dedicated to God, that through that nation all the nations of the earth would be blessed.

This is part of the Jewish charter that Abraham, son, land, nation, and then through that nation, Messiah, and through Messiah all the nations are blessed.

This is why you read all these Christmas sort of prophecies that we like to read in Isaiah chapter 7, Isaiah chapter 9, that are talking about Israel being a light to the nations.

Isaiah 7 · chapter mention Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

Here Jesus is saying, Am I greater than Abraham?

Is that your question?

Who am I?

Is that your question?

I'm the fulfillment of everything God promised Abraham.

I am that promised Messiah that would come in the lineage of Abraham, and through me all the nations of the earth would be.

They were intimately aware of all the promises God made to Abraham.

They were looking for their fulfillment.

Here Jesus says, Yeah, Abraham was looking for me.

He saw me, and it thrilled his heart.

Jesus is quite possibly making the greatest and clearest claim to being the Messiah in all the New Testament.

But the plot thickens.

Because not only is he here in this text going to lay claim to being the Jewish Messiah, to being the ultimate Isaac, the ultimate seed, the ultimate Israel, the ultimate nation blesser, but he's going to claim to be divine.

Whole nother level because they didn't even think Messiah would be divine.

They just thought he'd be a messenger from the Lord, a powerful prophet, let's say, a prophet, priest, king figure.

But Jesus is going to blow their minds.

Nothing up until this point could have prepared them for the words Jesus is about to speak.

Abraham rejoiced to see my day, he saw it and was glad.

There are several stories in the life of Abraham that we could point to.

In fact, commentators sort of disagree on exactly what point in Abraham's life Jesus is referring to.

Abraham saw my day, he rejoiced to see my day, he saw it and was glad.

Well, maybe that was in Genesis chapter 12, but we're introduced to Abraham.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

Genesis 12 and verse 3, God promises this older man of 75 years old, didn't have a kid.

He promises, hey, I'm going to give you a son in your old age.

Your wife is already past a minute, she's in you know past minute pause.

She can't have a child.

I'm going to bless you guys with a child.

And then that child is going to turn into a nation, and that nation is going to bless all the other nations.

That's Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

Chapter 15, more years go by.

Still no son.

Where's God?

God shows up in chapter 15 and says, Hey, Abraham, I'm still looking out for you.

I'm your shield.

I'm your reward.

Stop looking for the kid.

Turn to me.

Chapter 18, God reiterates the promise again.

A child A land, a nation.

Bless all the nations of the world.

And Abraham's still waiting for the son.

Twenty-five years go by, and his wife conceives.

This is if God wanted to wait even longer.

Abraham was uh was a hundred Sarah, was eighty five years old, and she conceived.

Elsewhere in scripture, it said that Abraham knew that his body was as good as dead, and his wife's body, her bearing, was was far past bearing children.

And so God blessed him with a son.

But the story I want to focus on, because you could say that any one of those points or all of those points is what Jesus is talking about.

But in Genesis chapter 22, I think there's a very unique experience in the life of Abraham I want to think about.

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

Abraham was a Jewish patriarch who lived about 1800 years before Jesus, almost 2,000 years before Jesus, almost 4,000 years ago, relative to us.

He was a wealthy and powerful man whom God chose out of Ur of the Chaldees.

He was a pagan.

He wasn't a Jew, he was a pagan.

God created the Jewish nation from Abraham.

God promised him a son in his old age named Isaac, whom God gave when Abraham was 100 years old.

But as the story goes, even though Abraham had waited for 25 years for the fulfillment of this promise of a son through whom there would become a nation.

He even took him out in Genesis 15, it says, Look at the stars.

You can't even number them, right?

Right, Abraham?

That's how your descendants are going to be.

And he told that to a barren man, an infertile man.

A man whose he and his wife couldn't have a child, and God promised the stars.

So God finally gives the son, but in Genesis 22, we read where God says, Abraham, I've given you the promised child, but here's what I want you to do: I want you to take Isaac, your son, your only son, the son whom you love.

And I want you to take him onto a mountain called Moriah, and there I want you to kill him.

Now, earlier in Abraham's life, there's no way he could have passed that test.

I mean, this is the same guy who he had a really beautiful wife named Sarah when they were younger.

They went into Egypt for a little while, and the king was like, Hey, how you doing, right?

And and he was like, Yeah, she's my sister.

Hey, sis, what's up?

He did that twice.

He was afraid of dying because his wife was really pretty.

But here you have him, whereas before he was trying to save his own skin.

Now, he says, God, even if it means killing my son, I'm gonna obey you.

Wow, this is mind-boggling how God had matured him in his faith.

It says he rose up early in the morning, he took his son with him, and they strike off to go about three days' journey to a little mountain range called Moriah.

As they're walking at Moriah, this mountain, Genesis 22 records that Isaac, this little boy, old enough to know better, was like, Father, I see the wood we're carrying, and I see the torch of fire, but where's the lamb for the sacrifice?

And Abraham responds, Son, God will provide a lamb.

They get up to the top of the mountain, and Abraham, you can just imagine every step, he's just hoping maybe God's gonna intervene.

He promised a son, he promised a nation, he promised descendants like the stars in the heavens, he promised Messiah through me.

Gets up to the top, there's nothing.

So he builds an altar, he puts some wood on it, he binds his son, he puts him on the altar.

God's not intervening.

He takes his knife, he raises it up, and he's gonna bring it down.

And an angel out of heaven cries out, Abraham, Abraham, don't hurt the boy.

And you can imagine him dropping the knife and staggering back.

That was close.

He almost went through with it, trusting God.

What's amazing is that Genesis chapter 22 and verse 13 and 14 says this that after he was told to not kill his son, and God intervened, it says, And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns.

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

So Abraham, like he had told his son, Abraham called the place the Lord will provide.

God had provided a lamb.

Now, this story is moving in and of itself.

It's one of the most moving stories in the Bible.

If you just read it and you try to put yourself in its position, and once you become a daddy, it makes it even more powerful.

But what if I told you that Mount Moriah, according to 2 Chronicles 3 and verse 1, was later to become the location of the city of Jerusalem?

And that the peak of Mount Moriah, the top point there that the Jews would later call the Temple Mount, was where King David would purchase from a man who owned the land, and he would he would dedicate that land to be built for a temple to be built by his son Solomon on top of the top of Mount Moriah.

And what if I were to tell you that that archaeologists and historians generally agree that the place where Jesus of Nazareth was crucified in Jerusalem in the first century, Galgotha, this hill on the outskirts of town, was visible from the Temple Mount.

Temple Mount, Galgotha.

It could be visible for a Jew in that day.

So, in the very same sense that Abraham, as he was about to kill his only son, God intervenes and then he looks up and he sees a lamb caught by his horns in a thicket.

You can imagine how this foreshadows God sending his own son, his son, his only son, his beloved son.

And instead of sparing the knife of God's justice, God puts his own son on the altar in your place and mine, and Jews could lift their eyes up and see the Lamb of God taking away the sins of the world.

So the knife of God's justice would not plunge into your heart and mine.

You see, Abraham rejoiced to see the day of Christ.

He saw it, probably on more than one occasion, and it thrilled his heart.

There's one layer deeper I want to go with this.

Because Abraham's faith in God was not merely trusting that God, all things are gonna turn out okay and trusting that God's gonna save me in the end.

Abraham's faith in God that allowed him to raise the knife to take his son.

This, I mean, rock, solid, powerful faith, was specifically faith in the resurrection.

We're told this in Hebrews chapter 11, and this is why Jesus telling this story is so relevant to the life of Abraham.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 17 says, By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

And he, Abraham, who had received the promises, was in the act of offering up his only son.

In other words, this wasn't a bluff.

He was going through with it.

Of whom it was said, Isaac, through Isaac shall your offspring be named.

He considered that God was able even to raise Isaac from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

So you have not only in this story of Isaac on the mountain, despairing of God's people by means of Messiah and that sacrifice of a lamb, you also have a beautiful picture of the resurrection because his son was as good as dead, and he received him back to life, so to speak.

In terms of Abraham's faith, that's what happened.

And God raised him again.

And so in John chapter 8 and verse 56, when he says, Beh before, when he says, Abraham rejoiced to see my day and was glad, he is trusting that by faith he didn't just see the day of Messiah in some generic sense.

John 8 · chapter mention

He saw, as it were, through the eye of faith, the only human being in all of human history who had the power over death.

And in the closing part of this chapter, we see exactly why Jesus had that power over death.

In Jesus' final words in verses, in uh verse 58.

Because once Jesus claims that Abraham had seen him and rejoiced, the Pharisees jeer at him.

They say, You're not even yet 50 years old.

You are crazy.

How is it that you say you knew Abraham?

And here's Jesus' mic drop moment.

Probably the clearest claim Jesus ever made to divinity in all the New Testament.

Because he doesn't just say I'm God, and you can say, Well, maybe he had a different definition of God.

What he says here, there's no mistaking it.

John 8 58, Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.

Now, if I had written that as a fifth grader in school or something, my teacher probably would have smacked my hand and said, No.

Before Abraham was, you were.

Grammar lesson, right?

But Jesus had the right grammar.

Before Abraham was, he came into time in a point in time, he died, his body is still on the ground, his soul is with God.

But there's never been a point in time, whether past, present, or future, in which I am not.

Jesus is calling our attention back to a powerful story, namely the Exodus.

And I'll tell this one last story, in which God appeared to a man named Moses who was an Israelite from birth, but he was raised in Egypt, raised in luxury, and after 40 years, God says, it's time for you to get yourself into the desert, and you're gonna deliver my people from Egyptian bondage.

In that desert, God appears to him in a burning bush, when Abraham was 80 years old, in fact.

And Abraham, excuse me, Moses, is a reluctant leader.

In fact, he comes up with all these objections.

I'm not, I can't speak Hebrew very well because he was raised in Egypt.

Um I'm not eloquent in the Hebrew tongue.

Uh, people aren't gonna follow me, they're not gonna believe me.

If I go to if I go to uh the most powerful man in the world at the time in the ancient world, um, Pharaoh, and say, hey, we need to let your slaves go free.

He's not gonna do that for me.

Even the people of Israel are gonna look at me and say, You're a you're a you're an Egyptian, you're a fraud.

Why should I trust and follow you?

And so here we break into this context of God calling Moses to deliver Israel out of Egyptian bondage in Exodus chapter 3, verse 13.

Exodus 3:13

And this is where God reveals something very special about himself to Moses.

Then Moses said to God, If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, they're gonna say, Yeah, what's his name?

Do you even know God's name?

What shall I say to them?

And God said to Moses, Here's my name.

My name is, I am who I am.

And he said, Say this to the people of Israel, I am has sent me to you.

The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of the patriarchs, who were the forebearers of the nation of Israel.

That is who I am, and he, it is me, who has sent you.

This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

This is the first time God had ever made himself known by this designation.

I am who I am, the great I am.

It's taken from the Hebrew verb Hayah, which means to be.

It is the best way they could describe God's nature.

Pure being.

A being that owes its existence to nothing else.

He's the uncaused cause.

He is the first mover that nothing first moved.

He is the one that has always been and always will be of his own power.

He is pure being.

The Jews then took the verb Chiya and they turned it into the phrase or the word, the noun, Yahweh, which later became known as Jehovah in the Latin.

This is the first time God called himself by this name.

He is saying of himself that he is the ultimate being, the source of all existence, the only one who alone has power of life in himself.

And so when Jesus is questioned, how can you claim to have power over death, that you knew Abraham?

His answer is, I am.

Before Abraham was, I am.

I am the incarnate God.

I am Yahweh, eternal, almighty, unchangeable, omnipotent, in human form, standing before you, promising you life because I'm the only one that can give it.

Thus, Jesus is claiming, before Abraham was I am, he is claiming to be the one who appeared to Moses in the burning bush.

He's claiming to be the God of Abraham who appeared and promised the seed.

And it is the same God who became that seed to bring about redemption and resurrection.

That's who Jesus is.

So, what must be true about Jesus for him to make the claim?

If you obey my words, you'll never see death.

It's Yahweh, the only one in the planet, the only one in the universe that could make that claim.

And that's exactly what Jesus claims about himself.

Christians from the beginning of the church have embraced and asserted, as Hebrews 13, 8 says, that Jesus Christ is the same.

Yesterday, today, and forever.

Death has no claim on him.

The death that he died was only in our place.

He rose and he'll never die again.

And of course, when Jesus revealed himself in a vision to John the Apostle in Revelation chapter 1, verse 8, this is how Jesus self-identified then.

Revelation 1:8

He said, I am the Alpha, the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and the Omega, the final letter in the Greek alphabet, says the Lord God.

Says Yahweh, I'm the Alpha, I'm the beginning, I'm the end, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

And the question you and I asked today, the question that this baptismal pool is seeking to affirm our answer to, the question is, who do you think Jesus made himself out to be?

Four people this morning are going to be baptized and profess in front of all of us, maybe a live stream audience, that I believe Jesus is Yahweh in the flesh, that he's my only hope in life and in death.

Because only Jesus, the incarnate God man, has life in himself.

And he took my place on the cross, on that sacrifice, on that altar.

And today I lift up my eyes.

I behold him.

I receive the sacrifice that was made for me by faith.

And I know that that eternal life can never be taken away from me.

It's my my prayer this morning.

But some of you, we've got a room full of people that I don't recognize because Baptism Sunday, family, friends, etc., we're so thankful you're here.

We love Baptism Sunday and celebrating professions of faith.

It's possible that someone in this room walked in an hour ago, a walking corpse, a human outside of the sheepfold, someone who doesn't possess eternal life, who's alienated from God in Christ, and this morning you hear the words of Jesus.

You're gonna die.

But Jesus has power over death, and he's the only one.

And so it is my prayer this morning that you will have a miracle, a resurrection, that Christ will speak his words into your soul and make you realize not just as a get out of hell free card, not Jesus is like a spare tire you take out whenever you need him, but Jesus becomes your Savior, your Lord, and your only hope in life and in death, knowing that when you die, you'll rise again, and when you die, your soul lives on forever and ever in his presence.

May Christ this morning sustain the life that only he can grant, and may he grant the life that only he can sustain.

And all the people said, Amen.

Let's pray.