Before Abraham

He who is of God hears God's words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God... "Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death." ... "Are You greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? And the prophets are dead. Who do You make Yourself out to be?" (John 8:47–53)

With Jesus there is no neutral ground—His own words about Himself force every hearer to a decision.

The Question of Who Jesus Is

There are many opinions about Jesus, but the real question is what Jesus said about Himself. We began a new series a couple of weeks ago in the Gospel of John, considering the "I am" statements. These are important because they aren't merely John's writing about Jesus—they are Jesus's own statements about Himself, His self-identification and revelation of who He is in His own words.

There were many opinions in His day, just as there are today. When Jesus asked His disciples, "Who do men say that I am?" in Matthew 16, some said a prophet, others a good teacher, others a miracle worker or healer. Many people liked and respected Him; others denounced and cursed Him. In the very passage we read, they accuse Him of being a Samaritan—a racial slur—and of having a demon, calling Him a lunatic. Later in John 8 they accuse Him of being illegitimately born.

Little has changed. Ask anyone in Southern California what they think of Jesus and you'll get an opinion: a prophet, a good moral teacher, a revolutionary, even a myth. But the ultimate question is the one the religious leaders asked: "Who do You make Yourself out to be?" (John 8:53). John uses Jesus's own words to reveal His true nature.

Did Jesus Ever Claim to Be God?

People often say Jesus never claimed to be God, and when someone says that you can know for certain they've never read the Gospels—especially this passage—because that is exactly what Jesus is doing here. The broadcaster Larry King was once asked whom he would interview from all of history. He said Jesus Christ, and the one question he would ask is, "Are You in fact virgin-born?"—because that answer would change everything. We don't need a time machine to ask Jesus who He is. He answers that question Himself in these "I am" statements.

So far in our series we began in John 6, where He says, "I am the bread of life." Those two simple words meant something to His first-century hearers, because they were the words God used to identify Himself to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3: "Tell them I AM sent you." Last week Pastor Nick brought us to John 8, "I am the light of the world." There are generally seven "I am" statements highlighted in John, but the one we look at today is not usually listed among them—yet it is the most provocative of all, as we can tell by the response it gets.

Every Trip to Jerusalem Caused a Stir

John 8 sits in a larger section running from John 7 to about the middle of John 10, surrounding one of Jesus's journeys to Jerusalem. His ministry moved between Galilee in the north and Judea and Jerusalem in the south—and every time He went to Jerusalem in John's Gospel, He caused a stir.

The first time, in John 2, He went up for Passover and found a swap-meet in the temple courts. He overturned the tables of the money changers and drove them out, saying, "My father's house shall be called a house of prayer, and you have made it a den of thieves." The religious leaders did not miss what He meant by "my father's house."

A year later, in John 5, He went up again for Passover and came to the pool of Bethesda, just north of the Temple Mount. There a legend held that an angel would stir the water and the first one in would be healed—imagine a crowd of sick people watching the water for a mad dash. Jesus asked a lame man, "Would you like to be made whole?" The man replied that he had no one to put him in the water. Jesus healed him—on the Sabbath.

For first-century Israel that was an enormous offense; it's hard to find an equivalent today. John 5:16 says, "For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath day." Jesus answered, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working." The leaders sought all the more to kill Him, "because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God."

Point one: with Jesus you either love Him or hate Him. He doesn't leave much room in between.

The Feast of Tabernacles and a Divided City

About five months pass from John 5 to John 7. The Jews went up to Jerusalem three times a year: Passover in spring, Pentecost fifty days later, and Tabernacles at summer's end. During that time Jesus stayed away from Judea because the leaders sought to kill Him.

Now His family is preparing to go up for Tabernacles. His brothers James and Jude—both later authors of New Testament books—did not yet believe in Him. John 7:5 says plainly, "For even His brothers did not believe in Him." Their unbelief came out as mockery: go up and show yourself off. Jesus answered, "You go up to this feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, for My time has not yet fully come." Then He went up secretly—undercover God.

The city was filled with people divided over Him. Some said, "He is good"; others, "No, He deceives the people." In the middle of the feast He went to the temple and taught, and the people marveled: "How does this Man know letters, having never studied?" The rabbis quoted other rabbis, but Jesus spoke on His own authority—"You have heard that it was said... but I say to you."

He kept pressing: "Did not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill Me?" The crowd answered, "You have a demon. Who is seeking to kill You?"—forgetting the events five months earlier. He pointed out their inconsistency: you circumcise on the Sabbath to keep Moses' law, yet you're angry that I made a man completely well on the Sabbath. The leaders sent officers to arrest Him, but none would, because of the multitudes.

Rivers of Living Water

Understanding the feast helps. Tabernacles ran seven days, commemorating God's provision during Israel's forty years of wilderness wandering. God gave them food and water; when they had no water, Moses struck the rock and water came out, and Scripture says that rock followed them. In Leviticus 23 God instituted that the people live in booths—lean-tos of palm branches—reminding their children of God's provision.

Each morning of the feast, as the sacrifice was offered, the priests went in procession down to the pool of Siloam, drew water in a silver pitcher, and carried it back up to the Temple Mount amid rejoicing crowds, pouring it out as an offering. They circled the altar once each day—and on the seventh day, seven times. The echo is Jericho: under Joshua (the same Hebrew name as Jesus, Yahushua) Israel circled the city once a day and seven times on the seventh day, and the walls fell.

It was on this great last day that Jesus stood and cried out:

"If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." (John 7:37–38)

John explains this referred to the Spirit. Many said, "Truly this is the Prophet." Others said, "This is the Christ." But some said, "Will the Christ come out of Galilee?" So there was division because of Him.

Point two: the true identity of Jesus causes division. Our culture struggles with anything that draws a clear dividing line; we prize tolerance and coexistence. But Jesus does not allow us to stand somewhere in the middle.

"When You Lift Up the Son of Man"

I don't have time to walk through the opening of John 8, but I encourage you to read it. It's contested—the first verses don't appear in some manuscripts—but I hold that they belong, and it's an amazing story: a woman taken in adultery is brought to test Jesus. If He releases her He seems to violate Moses; if He condemns her He offends the people who wanted tolerance. They thought they had Him, and as always, He got out of their trap.

Then in the temple the leaders interrogate Him, and their anger swells into murderous malice. So Jesus pushes their buttons even more:

"When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things." (John 8:28)

In many Bibles you read "I am He," but "He" is italicized—it isn't in the original. Jesus predicts His crucifixion, predicts it will be at the hands of these very leaders, calls God His Father, and identifies Himself as the great I AM.

Point three: the real Jesus is provocative—sometimes antagonistically provocative. I like that about Jesus. Those words are provocative, but they're true.

"You Are of Your Father the Devil"

The leaders seize on His calling God His Father: "Abraham is our father." Jesus answers that Abraham would never seek to kill Him. They shoot back, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father—God"—again accusing Him of illegitimate birth. Jesus responds:

"If God were your Father, you would love Me... You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning... for he is a liar and the father of it." (John 8:42–44)

Those are fighting words. Point four: the real Jesus speaks hard, confrontational truth. He doesn't do it in anger or for effect, but to bring conviction, repentance, and salvation. Some were pricked to conviction—Nicodemus among them, who later asked, "Does our law judge a man before it hears him?" But level heads do not always prevail.

"Before Abraham Was, I Am"

"Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad." Then the Jews said to Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?" Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM." (John 8:56–58)

They knew exactly what He meant, because verse 59 says, "Then they took up stones to throw at Him." Point five: the real Jesus is greater than all who have come before and any who shall come after. When you read His self-revelation, it becomes clear He professed Himself greater than anyone past or future—and that brings us to a decision point: either we reject or we accept it.

Liar, Lunatic, or Lord

C.S. Lewis, the great apologist, said it on the BBC in the 1950s:

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level of a man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon, or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us."

This is Lewis's trilemma: liar, lunatic, or Lord. "I am the bread of life." "I am the light of the world." "Before Abraham was, I am." We cannot say He was merely a good moral teacher, because He did not leave that open to us.

This is why these "I am" statements matter so much in a divided culture. Our divisions show up as political, but that's only surface. Dig down to the bedrock and you reach this question: who is Jesus? He is the defining individual of human history, especially in the West, and we must come down to who He is. He left no room for "just a prophet" or "just a good moral teacher." He is either a liar, a lunatic, or He is Lord. That is what we're left with.

Closing Prayer

Lord, it is obviously my conviction that You are Lord. But I recognize that as I look around the culture—Southern California, North America, Western Europe, wherever we go—there are multitudes of opinions about who You are. Yet we are left with what You said about who You are, and how You backed it up: You spoke these powerful things, promised that You would be crucified and rise from the dead, and hundreds of witnesses attested to Your resurrection.

So as we think back on these things, I pray we'd never find ourselves in that middle place—"He's a good moral teacher, but I don't know that He's God"—because You didn't leave that available for us. Give those of us who do believe boldness to share the reality of who You are with those we meet this week, and not be ashamed. Just as they called You a lunatic and a fool, they may say the same of us. But Your life, Your death, and Your resurrection have changed the world, and changed many of our lives as we stand here today. Help us to walk in the boldness of knowing that You are the Christ, the Son of God. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.