BEFORE ABRAHAM WAS BORN, I AM. JOHN 8:48-59

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1 BEFORE ABRAHAM WAS BORN, I AM. JOHN 8:48-59 Outrageous statements get your attention. Muhammad Ali announced at the height of his boxing career, "I am the greatest." Decades later, having yielded his crown and been bowed by Parkinson's disease, he still calls himself "the greatest." Willie Joe Namath, flamboyant quarterback of the New York Jets, was a 17-point underdog to the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl 3 back in He predicted that his team would win the game. When the reporters chuckled under their breath, he said, "I guarantee it." On game day the Jets won John Lennon, guitarist and songwriter for the Beatles, declared at the height of their popularity "We're more famous than Jesus." A half-century later, is there a person in the Western world who can't sing along to "Let It Be?" John F. Kennedy predicted that America would put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. At the time, America was way behind Russia in the space race. In July 1969, Americans sat in their living rooms and watched Neil Armstrong take that "giant leap" for mankind. True or not, outrageous statements get your attention. But when it comes to outrageous statements, no one can match Jesus Christ. And that s what I want to explore with you between now and Easter Sunday. Later this month, we begin the church season of Lent a six Sunday, 40 day period of time that the Christian church the world over observes prior to Holy Week. I want to consider with you a fascinating collection of sayings by Jesus Himself: His I AM statements primarily found in the Gospel of John. I m calling this series of message: Jesus Outrageous I AM Statements: How His Deity Impacts Your Humanity. I am the Door. I am the Good Shepherd. I am the Bread of Life. I am the True Vine. I am the Light of the World. I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. I am the Resurrection and the Life. All of those statements point to the fact that Jesus is God, but they also underline how His deity matters to your humanity. Now let s get acquainted with our text our Bible passage - for today. May I suggest to you that like all the rest of Jesus I AM statements, this one underlines AN INCREDIBLE FACT What s going on here? The Jewish religious and political leaders of that day and time had begun to hate Jesus. John, the author of this Gospel, uses the words the Jews as a kind of title for Jesus enemies. He s not referring to the Jewish race as a whole when he talks about the Jews, but rather this hostile group of Jewish leaders. After all, John himself was ethnically Jewish. Why were these leaders so against Jesus? Why didn t they receive Jesus with open arms and hearts? They were spiritual phonies. They pretended to know and serve God and yet they were utterly godless in reality. They were so spiritually dull they wouldn t have recognized God if He walked right up and spoke to them which was exactly what happened in the case of Jesus. Jesus didn t mince His words with these folk. He called a spade a spade. When you observe that elsewhere Jesus calls these leaders poisonous snakes, graves full of dead people s bones 1

2 and murderers of God s prophets, it s not hard to figure out why Jesus wasn t their favorite person. In this chapter, Jesus had been challenging the assumption of these leaders that because they were physically descended from Abraham; therefore, they were automatically God s children. They believed they had a spiritual relationship with God because they had a genetic, biological relationship to Abraham. It may surprise you to know that some folk still think this way. I ve met my share of people over the years who, on the one hand, indicate little or no interest in the Christian faith, but who, on the other hand, are compelled to let you know that they have some claim to spirituality, nevertheless. I ve heard, You know, Pastor, my momma bless her soul was a Baptist. That s always brought a tear to my eye! Or, I ve heard, You know, Pastor, I have an uncle who s a preacher, as if to say, You know, Pastor, there are some godly people in my family tree and you better believe God takes notice of that! But here we find Jesus suggesting that God could care less if these Jewish leaders were Abraham s physical descendants. What mattered was whether they knew, loved and served the same God as Abraham! Jesus couldn t have been more blunt when He said earlier in this chapter, You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. (John 8:44 NIV) So Jesus questions their spiritual authenticity. These leaders retaliate there in v. 48 by challenging Jesus claims about Himself: You re just one of those halfbreed Samaritans who refuses to acknowledge that we Jews have a corner on God. We alone are His children. You re the one who s from the devil! In reply, Jesus says something that must have made them think He d lost His mind. Jesus says that anyone who keeps His word will never die. Jesus is referring to spiritual life and death, but they assume He s talking about physical life and death. They re offended by what they think are Jesus grandiose suggestions that He s some kind of great, superior being. In effect, they say, Well, you must think you re even greater or more important than Abraham himself! Well, Jesus doesn t back pedal for a second! He says here that Abraham was His forerunner like the opening act at a concert and that Abraham himself looked forward to Jesus appearance on history s stage. This is beyond the comprehension of these leaders. They say, You aren t even fifty years old. How can you say you have seen Abraham? (John 8:57 NLT) No doubt, Jesus answer would have blown their sox off if they d been wearing sox! Jesus answered, I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I AM! (John 8:58 NLT) Or, to put it another way, Before Abraham existed, I existed. Why, at this point, did these leaders pick up stones to throw at Jesus? Because they knew that Jesus was calling Himself God. That phrase I AM - is a name for God in and of itself. It goes back to the Old Testament book of Exodus when God appeared to Moses in a bush that just kept right on burning. Then Moses said to God, Suppose I go to the people of Israel and I tell them, The God of your fathers sent me to you ; and they ask me, What is his name? What do I tell 2

3 them? God said to Moses, I-AM-WHO-I-AM. Tell the people of Israel, I-AM sent me to you. God continued with Moses: This is what you're to say to the Israelites: GOD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob sent me to you. This has always been my name, and this is how I always will be known. (Exodus 3:13-15 MSG) So when Jesus uses that same phrase in John 8, He s claiming to be the same Person who spoke to Moses out of the burning bush some 1500 years previously. He s claiming to be God. Jesus was claiming there was never a point in time when, just like God, He Himself did not exist. He was also suggesting that there will never be a time when, just like God, He does not exist. That s the incredible fact! Did these Jewish leaders understand Jesus claim? Did they ever! That s why they started looking around for some good sized rocks! Stoning someone to death was the Old Testament punishment for the crime of blasphemy against God. There are still some people out there who will tell you that Jesus Himself never claimed to be God. It was, they say, an invention of the first followers of Jesus. Jesus was just this loving, pleasant Jewish rabbi roaming around Palestine doing good things. Nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus claimed to be God because He is God. That s the incredible fact! Well, so what? What difference does it make to your life or mine today that Jesus is God? It makes all the difference in the world! The incredible fact of Jesus deity leads to an immeasurable significance for you and me. AN IMMEASURABLE SIGNIFICANCE Your attitude towards Jesus is your attitude towards God. Jesus equated a person s response to Him with that same person s response to God. To know Jesus is to know God. To believe in Jesus is to believe in God. To ignore Jesus is to ignore God. To hate Jesus is to hate God. Jesus says here, I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. (John 8:51 NIV) Right there is something of immeasurable significance for you and me. What does it mean to keep the word of Jesus? It s to hear, believe and obey the good news about Jesus. What will happen to those who do that? They will not see death. In other words, they won t experience eternal and spiritual separation from God for all eternity. Yes, we will all die physically, but those who have kept the word of Jesus bought into Jesus hook, line and sinker, so to speak will be eternally present and alive with Jesus forever. Jesus made a similar statement elsewhere, I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life. (John 5:24 NLT) That s immeasurably significant, wouldn t you say? But there s more. This name I AM has great significance for all who are keeping the word of Jesus. If we had the time to explore the exact Hebrew meaning, we d discover that a trustworthy translation of that phrase would be He who will make things happen or He who causes things to happen. That s how 3

4 God described Himself to Moses back in the Old Testament in the midst of Moses personal struggles and the oppression of the Israelites. So, why is that important? God is not only the Almighty Ruler of the Universe high and lifted up beyond your imagination - He s also the One who causes the things of God to happen in our little, mundane, ordinary lives every day! Through that name I AM God says to you today, I AM the One who makes things happen. I will be with you. You are not alone in your struggles. I AM the Lord of the present, the past and the future. I will forgive and redeem your past; I will empower and enrich your present; I will secure and bless your future. I don t know about you, my friend, but this is good news for me in my life s journey. I appreciate good advice from anybody and everybody about how to get through life well, but even more than guidance I need power. I need power from someone, from somewhere and from something outside of myself to live successfully. Jesus is the I AM the One who causes the things of God to happen in your life. How immeasurably significant! When Jesus is operating as the Lord of your life, you can invite Him to come into your moments of fear and hear Him say, Child, have no fear, I AM. He comes in those moments of spiritual darkness, blindness and your need for direction saying, I AM the light of the world. He comes in your spiritual hunger saying, I AM the bread of life. He comes in your anxiety and stress saying, I AM the good shepherd. He comes in your doubts and uncertainties about life saying, I AM the way, the truth and the life. He comes in your weakness saying, I AM the true vine. He even comes in your experience of death itself saying, I AM the resurrection and the life. Robert Webber, professor and author, died last year. In one of his books, he tells the story of traveling on a plane from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Webber was sitting next to the window, reading a Christian book. The man next to him asked, "Are you a religious man?" "Well, yes," Webber said. "I am, too," he responded. They began talking about religion. In the middle of the conversation Weber asked his new friend, "Can you give me a one-liner that captures the essence of your faith?" "Well, yes," the other man said. "We are all part of the problem, and we are all part of the solution." They talked about his one-liner which even Webber had to concede had some truth to it. But after a while he said, "Would you like a one-liner that captures the Christian faith?" Sure," the man responded. Robert Webber said, "We are all part of the problem, but there is only one man who is the solution. His name is Jesus." That s why this study of Jesus outrageous I AM statements promises to be such a heart expanding experience. They not only tell us that Jesus is God; they tell us why it matters that Jesus is God! Each statement reminds us of who Jesus is and what He can do in our lives precisely because of who He is. It s true, we face struggles in life many set backs and uncertainties. But we have an eternal connection to the One who is the solution the great I AM. In all the years I ve known the Lord personally, I ve never faced a struggle in which Jesus and His promises were not the answer. Many times, I ve not trusted Jesus soon enough 4

5 or for long enough, but that was my failure not God s. Part of my ministry is the holy task of listening to people and their struggles in life. Truthfully, there has never been a need, a sin, a broken relationship or a problem that Jesus couldn t heal or solve. The issue is always this one. Will I allow the One who causes the things of God to happen in my life to be Lord of my struggles? Will I invite the great I AM to be the solution? An incredible fact. An immeasurable significance. Is it surprising, then, that the great I AM the One who causes the things of God to happen in our lives always presents you and me with AN INEVITABLE CHOICE You can t be honestly indifferent to Jesus. As C.S. Lewis pointed out, He is either the greatest liar who ever lived, the greatest megalomaniac who ever lived or He is the One who He claimed to be. When you understand who Jesus claims to be you re faced with an inevitable choice. You either fall at His feet like the disciple Thomas did after seeing the resurrected Jesus and confess, My Lord and my God! or you pick up stones to drive Him away like those Jewish leaders did because you can t deal with the awesome implications of who He is. Have you made that choice? There is no middle ground! If you re a follower of Jesus today, you have indeed made that choice. But isn t it true, Christian, that in order to live your life in an overcoming way, you have to in a sense choose Jesus again every day that you live? You choose to live in conscious dependence on the great I AM every day. You choose to let the great I AM matter in your daily decisions, choices, plans and activities. You bring your triumphs and trials before the great I AM every day and ask Him to make sense out of them. Why is that sometimes difficult to do? Why do you find yourself as I often find myself - resisting the One who alone can cause the things of God to happen in your life? I think one reason is because we can get disappointed in Jesus. Not rightly disappointed, not justifiably disappointed, but disappointed just the same. Jesus hasn t spared me every painful event in my life. The great I AM hasn t met every expectation, because many were just dumb. Life is about Him, not me. So we hold Him at arm s length. We re afraid of what will happen to us if we draw Him close. What will He do with us? What will He change about us? I believe there s a second reason. Even as Jesus followers, we find that there are still parts of our inner lives that we just don t want to bring under the Lordship of the great I AM: our finances our relationship to our spouse, our kids or our parents our sexuality our attitudes towards the poor or people of different races. We want to hold on to our favorite resentments, our career ambitions or our materialistic desires. There is something in each of us today that says, in effect, Jesus, I give you this and that, but I want to keep and hold on to this right here. When that happens, it s as if we pick up stones and try to drive Jesus from our presence just like those leaders did in John 8. Good luck! Jesus is not so easily gotten rid of. It s impossible to scare off the Rock of Ages. Someday, 5

6 sometime, somewhere, you and I must come to terms with the great I AM Jesus the One who causes the things of God to happen in each of our lives. In college, Michelle Akers had become an All-American soccer star, earning ESPN's woman athlete of the year in 1985 the same year the United States formed its first women's national team. Michelle was a starter. In 1991 the U.S. team won the first-ever Women's World Cup and Michelle scored 10 goals in five games, including the championship game's winner. She signed an endorsement deal and became the first woman soccer player to have a paid sponsor. She played professionally in Sweden. Michelle's drive and tenacity were beginning to pay off. She even tried out as the place kicker for the Dallas Cowboys: her longest attempt reached 52 yards. But just as her star was rising, Michelle's health was declining. By 1993, she found her life unmanageable. She suffered from Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome. When it was really bad, she couldn't sit up in a chair, eat or brush her teeth. The migraine headaches stranded her at home. For the first time, Michelle s physical strength and ability to work hard failed her. When her marriage of four years broke up in 1994, Michelle had reached the end of herself. But God had a purpose in her circumstances. Michelle said, "I was forced to spend a lot of time thinking about who I was. I didn't like what I saw." Michelle had put her trust in Christ as a high-school student, but ignored God in college and after graduation. Now sick and alone, Michelle reluctantly accepted an invitation from a strength coach to attend his church. Although she couldn't articulate it at the time, looking back Michelle says she knew she needed to get things right with God. "I think God was gently, patiently tapping me on the shoulder and calling my name for years. But I continuously brushed Him off, saying, 'Hey, I know what I am doing. I can make these decisions. Leave me alone.' Then I think He finally said, 'Okay,' crossed His arms and looked at me sadly because He knew I was going to make a lot of mistakes by ignoring Him. He knew I would be hurting in the future. It took total devastation before I would acquiesce and say, 'Okay, God. You can have my life. Please, help me.'" You know what that is? That s surrender. It happens the first time you come to Jesus. It needs to keep happening often. Frankly, it needs to become a way of life, Christian. Each and every day, Jesus comes to you and me and wants to know if we will allow Him to be the solution to be the One who causes the things of God to happen in our lives. Jesus said, Before Abraham was born, I AM. That s the incredible fact that has immeasurable significance and that presents you and me daily with an inevitable choice. 6