Before Abraham Was, I Am
May 28, 2023
Preached by Benjamin Vrbicek
Scripture Reading
John 8:48-59
48 The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” 49 Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. 50 Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. 51 Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” 52 The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’53 Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” 54 Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ 55 But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” 57 So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
I recently heard someone comment about what they called “May-cember.” May has all the busyness of December but without Christmas. Maybe you understand. Maybe you feel as tired as I do. This morning is our last sermon in the gospel of John until the fall. And we’ll take time look at where we’ve been, with the goal of rejoicing in Jesus. As we prepare to study this passage, let’s pray as we begin. “Dear Heavenly Father . . .”
When we began preaching through this portion of the gospel of John, I mentioned that John 8 ends roughly where it begins: with stones. First, a woman is caught in sin, and the religious leaders want to stone her. Yet, no one throws a stone. That’s the beginning. Here’s how it ends: “So they picked up stones to throw at him . . .” (8:59). Yet no one throws a stone this time either.
In this section, John 8:48–59, there are three back-and-forths, almost like a game of tennis. The Jews say something, and Jesus responds. Then the Jews say something else, and Jesus responds. Then the Jews say one more thing, and Jesus responds—and when he responds the last time, they want to smash their tennis rackets over his head. The conversation is over; they’re done playing tennis.
What happened? What did they say to each other? I’ll break down these back-and-forths with a bit more detail. First, they make a racial slur at Jesus and say he has a demon. “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” (8:48). It sounds so polite, like they are asking “Are we not right in saying you are left handed?” But they are so offensive. Jesus responds that he doesn’t have a demon but notes that if anyone keeps his word that person will live forever. Back and forth.
Then the Jews say, Yeah, now we know he’s crazy and possessed by a demon because he can’t possibly be better than Abraham because Abraham was a good guy but he died. So even great people don’t live forever, and you, Jesus, are not even greater than Abraham. Jesus says, Well, actually Abraham looked forward with the eyes of faith to my day, and he saw it and rejoiced and was glad. Back and forth.
Then the Jews say that Jesus is way too young, like almost 1,850 years too young, for Abraham and Jesus to have seen each other. Jesus says, Well, actually before Abraham was even born, I am. He doesn’t say, “I was,” meaning I predated Abraham—which would have been a special claim. But Jesus says, “I am,” meaning before Abraham, I have always been and will be. Always. The final back and forth.
And at this clear claim of his own divinity, they pick up stones to smash onto his head.
Now, if this were going to be an ordinary sermon, I would tell you that I’d probably want to pull out the microscope to see even more the details of these back-and-forths. I’d want us to see—as I think God wants us to see—what this passage shows us about our sin and our savior. Each week when we look at the Bible, there are always many things we can see, even should see. But in our preaching, we often lean hard on these two themes—our sin and our savior—because when we see our sin and our savior clearly, we are enabled to see everything else clearly.
But I used the phrase “if this were an ordinary sermon.” I actually don’t want it to be that. This is our last sermon in the gospel of John until September. All summer long we are going to preach through a different portion of Scripture, so this sermon can be different. It can be something of a summary sermon.
Yet that’s not the main reason I want this to be different. For several weeks already we’ve focused on our sin. We’ve seen the sin of the religious leaders. We’ve seen their heard-heartedness. Week after week, we’ve talked about the way the religious leaders are sinful and hard-hearted and how the religious leaders are, on the whole, categorically opposed to grace. The religious leaders wanted salvation on their own terms, on their own merits, on their own resume, and Jesus had to break them from that illusion. Church, you don’t want to come to the judgement seat of God with your resume. Instead, you want to come with God’s resume, with Christ’s resume.
And there is a helpfulness for believers in Jesus like us to see week after week after week as our own sinful tendencies displayed in the religious leaders and how Jesus lovingly confronts them. That can be really helpful.
But we’ve done that work for several weeks in a row. And there is a bigger part of a Christian, a part bigger than our sin, that wants to be reminded of how great Jesus is and rejoice and be glad. For all the junk in the world that we can’t seem to fix with boycotts and outrage, for all the junk in our lives, for all the weariness and waywardness, we need Sunday, sometimes, to be the kind of reminder of who Jesus is and who we are in him, so that we can rejoice and be glad. That’s what happened to Abraham as he looked forward with the eyes of faith to Jesus’s day. He didn’t even have all the information. But what he could see made him happy. Look at v. 56. “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”
So, this week let’s use the rest of the sermon to reflect on and rejoice over our savior. I’ll give one highlight, so to speak, from each of the first eight chapters, then we’ll close ending up back here in John 8:59.
Chapter 1: Rejoice in the good news that Jesus is no mere man.
We spent several sermons in the famous opening to John’s gospel. Let me read a few of the verses. In vv. 1–3 we read,
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Jesus was and is God, and not a mere man. He is what we sometimes call the God-man. Look how the god-ness of Jesus is contrasted with being a mere-man in vv. 6–8.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
Think about what this is saying. There’s the One who is the light, and then, in contrast, there is a man who was sent from God. It’s like saying there is the moon, and there is the sun. The moon looks bright, but it ain’t the light. And any light or heat or life the moon has comes from the sun. We can rejoice, that Jesus is no mere man.
Chapter 2: Rejoice in the good news that Jesus is clearing everything in our way so we can worship him.
The chapter opens with a story about Jesus turning water into wine. It’s the first miracle or sign he does in the gospel. Then Jesus goes into a temple, where he sees the commercial circus that his temple has become, and he cleanses his temple with a whip.
13 The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
Rejoice, church, in the good news that Jesus is clearing everything in our way so we can worship him. You can rest in the truth that if you are in Jesus, you do not simply have to manufacture your own purity of worship—we should try to be pure. But Jesus is passionate, even more zealous, that nothing gets in the way of worshiping him. This is how you should view your life. That God is doing everything necessary to clear a way so you can be happy in him forever.
Chapter 3: Rejoice in the good news that Jesus is giving himself for the world.
So many wonderful things happen in chapter 3. The passage begins with the night-time conversation between Jesus and the religious leader named Nicodemus. Nicodemus wants to understand what it means to follow God. And Jesus has a conversation with him. Then, we come to the most famous verse in all of the gospel, John 3:16.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Church, rejoice that if you believe in Jesus, you will never perish. Here, Jesus means something similar to what he means in chapter 8 when he speaks of “never seeing death.” It’s not that those who believe in Jesus will never die. We will. But the kind of death a believer dies is more like going to sleep and waking up in paradise. Church, rejoice that God so loved the world that Jesus is giving himself for the world. You may parish but you will never parish in the ultimate sense.
Chapter 4: Rejoice in the good news that Jesus is looking for the worst sinners to make his friends.
In school, you grab your lunch tray and look for who to sit with. Is there any open seats with people you know or at the “cool table.” Jesus goes looking for the least likely to be his friend. We see this in chapter 4 as we come to the long passage of Jesus meeting with the woman at the well. She’s there in the hot middle of the day, presumably because she doesn’t want to be around others, and they don’t want to be around her. No good Jewish person wants to be around her, either, because she was a Samaritan. She’s from the wrong part of town. And Jesus loves her. And befriends her. Look at vv. 11–14.
11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
This friendliness toward Samaritans is perhaps why in John 8 the religious leaders accuse Jesus of being a Samaritan himself. Maybe he’s one of them, they suppose. Except he’s not one of them. But he not only befriends the worst of sinners, he, on the cross, becomes the worst of sinners. Rejoice in the good news that Jesus is looking for the worst of sinners to make his friends. There is no one you know, including yourself, who is outside the reach of God’s grace. Some of you have children or relatives or other friends and don’t know how to reach them. Maybe they even moved away from you so that geographically speaking, you can’t reach them. But Jesus can.
Chapter 5: Rejoice in the good news that Jesus is giving life to the spiritually dead.
In chapter 5, Jesus heals a man who hasn’t been able to walk for nearly forty years. He heals the man on the Sabbath, which causes problems because the Jewish leaders had rules about the Sabbath and when you could and could not heal someone. And into this context, Jesus gives a speech. And he says essentially, Do you think it’s a big deal that I healed this man? I’ll rise to spiritual life anyone and everyone who hears my voice. Look at vv. 25–29.
25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
Rejoice, church, that you don’t have to clean yourself up before you come to Jesus. Jesus is giving life to the spiritually dead.
Chapter 6: Rejoice in the good news that Jesus is food from heaven.
In chapter 6, we read about several miracles. He feeds the five thousand with just those few fish and the few loaves from the child. Then they cross the Sea of Galilee at night in quite dramatic fashion. Then comes a long exchange back and forth about manna and food. Look at how Jesus talks in vv. 47–51. No one talks like this.
47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.
Rejoice, church, in the good news that Jesus is food from heaven.
Chapter 7: Rejoice in the good news that Jesus is living water.
Jesus goes down to Jerusalem again. And in Jerusalem the Jews are celebrating the feast of booths, as we’ve said, basically the festival of camping where they celebrated the way God watched over them as they left Egypt. This festival is in the background of both chapters 7 and 8. Two summers ago I hiked for four days with friends in the Adirondack mountains. And it wasn’t even a desert climate, but we spent more time than I would have realized looking for water, fetching water, and purifying water. We need water to live. And Jesus is saying that he is like water that for us. Look at his words in 7:37–38.
37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
Rejoice, church, in the good news that Jesus is living water.
Chapter 8: Behold the good news that Jesus was, is, and is to come.
Now we come back to chapter 8. (1) Not only is Jesus no mere man, (2) not only is he clearing everything in our way so we can worship him, (3) not only is he giving himself for the world, (4) not only is he looking for the worst sinners to make his friends, (5) not only is he giving life to the spiritually dead, (6 & 7) not only is he food from heaven and living water and in chapter 8 the light of the world, (8) but we see that he is the one who was, is, and is to come. He is the “I am.” Look at vv. 53–58.
53 Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” 54 Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ 55 But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” 57 So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”
When you press into the commentaries for help to see when it was and how it was specifically that Abraham saw the day of Jesus, no one is sure. Some people offer better guesses than others. Maybe it was a specific event, like the promise of a special son, and in those special promises Abraham saw something bigger than just mere children (Gen. 12:3; 21:8).
Maybe he saw the day of the Messiah through the types of experiences where he learned about the power and grace of God, like when he meets a priest-king blesses Abraham and shares bread and wine with him (Gen. 14) or when there as a lamb that died in the place of his son Isaac (Gen. 22).
Or maybe Abraham actually met with and had a meal with Jesus. That sounds weird because this is the Old Testament, but hear this view out. In the Old Testament there is this cryptic phrase that shows up often called “the angel of the LORD,” and sometimes he’s referenced with such holiness it seems as though he is not actually an angel but maybe the Lord himself, that is, Jesus. In Genesis 22, the angel of the Lord tells him to put the knife down. In another place he has a meal with heavenly beings (Gen. 18). So maybe that’s how Abraham “saw the day” of Jesus. We can’t be sure.
But we can be sure of this: when Abraham saw it with the eyes of faith, when he experiences all that he experienced with God, and he understood his own sin and his need for a savior, he rejoiced. He was glad. Contemplating the day of the Messiah made him happy.
The religious leaders, however, were not so glad. They were filled with murderous rage. But they would not kill Jesus yet. John 8:59 says, “So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.” His hour had not yet come. That would come later. And it did. Jesus gave his life for the life of the world; he perished so no one who believes in him would perish. Even here in this passage, we behold the extent of his grace in the word “if.” To people who wanted to kill him, he says that to even them, if they believe, they will never see death. It’s a good promise; he’s a good savior.
I’ll close in prayer in just a moment, but I will mention that there was some thought to where we ended our sermon series here in John. We plan to pick up again in the fall. But this summer we are going to the book of Genesis to study the life of Abraham. Each week we’ll look at this life of faith. We’re calling the series, “Toward the City with Foundations” based on what the author of Hebrews says of Abraham.
The author of Hebrews, looking back at Abraham’s journey to the promised land describes it in this way:
9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. (Heb. 11:9–10)
The idea is that we’re all looking for that city that is the better city, the true and greater city, the city that actually has foundations, the city that has life the way it was made to be and will be one day.
But that starts June 11. Next week, Ron Smith, the pastor we’re hoping to hire, will be preaching to us.
I’ll invite the music team forward so we can have a time of response through singing. Let’s pray. “Dear Heavenly Father. . .”
