SERMON: "Honoring the Son" (John 8:48–59)
Honoring the Son (John 8:48–59)
Series: “John:
Life in Christ’s Name” Text:
John
8:48–59
By: Shaun
Marksbury Date:
September
17, 2023
Venue: Living
Water Baptist Church Occasion:
AM Service
I.
Introduction
A high sense of honor and shame is common in the ancient
world, and it still exists in many non-Western societies. We still have some sense of it in the West, though
it’s fading, with many of our contemporaries lacking understanding of the
importance of a good name and a sound reputation. It is, however, important to understanding the
Bible.
For instance, you may remember when David was on the run
from a deranged King Saul that he found help from the king of the
Ammonites. The king helped David since
Saul was his enemy. A while after Saul
died and David had become king, the Ammonite king died; so, David wanted to
show kindness to his son by sending servants to console him in his time of grief
(2 Sam. 10:1–2). That’s an expected
honor.
Sadly, the freshly-crowned son, Hanun, received bad counsel
from his princes. They developed the theory
that David had sent these men as spies, planning to overthrow the city in this
moment of mourning. In v. 4, Hanun “took
David’s servants and shaved off half of their beards, and cut off their
garments in the middle as far as their hips, and sent them away.” He subjugated them as a conquering king would,
making a spectacle of them and sending them, and then began hiring a mercenary army. David responded to this dishonor by lodging
the shamed men nearby until their beards regrew while he also raised an army to
meet this threat.
David sent men to honor a past commitment, but the people
met his emissaries with dishonor. This
is, unfortunately, how many of the people in Israel met the prophets of the
Lord, shaming and even murdering them.
Yet, God in His grace even sent His Son, knowing that, while the same
would occur, He could save many from their sins.
As we consider how the Jews here dishonor Jesus, we get an opportunity
to see how to honor Jesus. We’ll note the
word, work, and worth of the Son of God.
If you want to honor Jesus Christ, you must recognize the need to do so
in each of these areas. Let’s consider
the first:
II.
First, Honor the Word of Jesus (vv. 48–51)
The Jews answered
and said to Him, “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a
demon?” Jesus answered, “I do not have a
demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. But I do not seek My glory; there is One who
seeks and judges. Truly, truly, I say to
you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death.”
Before we go any further, let’s remember that this is the
same group that signaled belief in Jesus in v. 31. We noted there that they most likely believed
His arguments at the time rather than having a full trust in Him. Now, we can see that the fickle people are
just as quick to reject Him.
They can’t respond to Jesus’s words here, so they resort to verbally
attacking Him. This is a debate tactic known
as ad hominem, an attack “against the man,” and it’s typically the signal
of a failed position. They can’t argue
against the content of what He’s been saying to Him, so they resort to calling Him
a demon-possessed Samaritan!
What do they mean?
There are a few theories about why they called Him a Samaritan. The Jews, you’ll remember, typically despised
and avoided any dealings with the Samaritans (John 4:9). They saw them as ethnically impure, interbred
with the Gentiles, and promoters of a demonic false religion with cultic magic[1] — which
wasn’t entirely inaccurate, but the hatred for them was ungodly. Their pronouncing that Jesus a Samaritan
might indicate that they saw Him as a heretic[2] and, as the Reformation
Study Bible notes, “born out of wedlock.”
It’s a personal dishonor.
Of course, there’s no lack of clarity as to what they mean
when they say He has a demon. Possessed
people will engage in irrational behavior.
They are implying that calling them ungodly children of the devil is so
crazy that Jesus must be possessed. The
crowd said this to Jesus previously because they thought He was saying
something crazy (John 7:20), and now, they repeat the accusation.
Jesus answers their charges in v. 49. Actually, He only says He doesn’t have a
demon; He ignores their ignorant comment about Him being a Samaritan. As evidence, He says He honors His Father,
something a demon would not do. The
truth is that they dishonor Him, one who honors God, and they should feel
ashamed for it.
Jesus continues to provide more proof that He isn’t demon-possessed
in v. 50 — “I do not seek My glory.” He
didn’t say they dishonor Him because He needs glory from men, for He does not (John
5:41; 8:54). Still, those who are under the
influence of the devil are usually self-focused, wanting the world to revolve
around them, just as Satan wanted Jesus to bow to Him. Jesus isn’t displaying a demonically driven narcissism.
There’s an implicit warning with Jesus’s next words,
though. While He doesn’t seek His own
glory, God does. As Jesus says here, there
“is One who seeks and judges.” God
judges both the righteous and the unrighteous, the living and the dead. His judgement will vindicate the righteous
and condemn the wicked.
This is a kind-hearted warning. Even now, Jesus gives a word of gospel
hope. He begins with one of His “truly,
truly” or “verily, verily” statements.
Take notice, He says, for “if anyone keeps My word he will never see
death.” As one commentator notes, “Christ
unquestionably knew that some persons in that multitude were curable, and that
others of them were not opposed to his doctrine. For this reason, he intended to terrify the
wicked whose malice was desperate, but to do so in such a manner as to leave
ground of consolation for the good, or to draw to him those who were not yet
ruined.”[3] Those who would truly believe and trust in
His words will find deliverance from the wrath to come!
The expression, “never see death,” speaks of eternal
life. Of course, as a consequence of
sin, even believers still physically die.
Yet, the promise here is emphatic, and the Legacy Standard Bible makes
a helpful addition here: “he will
never see death—ever.” The Lord will
never turn us over to second death, separation from God and the condemnation of
eternal torment in the lake of fire.
This is for those
who honor the Word of Christ by keeping it.
In case you’re wondering, the first command to keep is to believe in
Him. Trust in Him for salvation. He pays for all your sins and gives you new
life, as we’ll study in just a second.
If you already
believe that, then follow the rest of His teaching out of thanksgiving to
Him. Show yourself to be His disciples. That is the call here — to continue in His
word — and heeding the call will help to build assurance in your hearts that He
has indeed saved and transformed you for His glory! Honor His word and His work, as we see now:
III.
Second, Honor the Work of Jesus (vv. 52–55)
The Jews said to
Him, “Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets also; and You
say, ‘If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste of death.’ Surely You are not greater than our father
Abraham, who died? The prophets died
too; whom do You make Yourself out to be?” 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’;
and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not
know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word.”
So, here we see that their previous accusation wasn’t serious
because they say, “Now we know that You have a demon.” The term means that they their experience
(their conversation with Jesus) has crystalized the concern of demon possession
in their minds. They weren’t as sure
before when they said it, but they are now.
What is so crazy in what Jesus says? They
continue, “Abraham died, and the prophets also;
and You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste of death.’ ” They have some variation on Jesus’s words in
v. 51, though the sense is the same, as the terms “see death” and “taste of
death” are interchangeable Hebrew expressions.[4] They are noting that the spiritual heroes kept
God’s Word and died. Can Jesus’s words
do more?
Of course, the fatal flaw in their thinking was
misunderstanding Jesus to mean that disciples will never physically die. They were taking His words too literally to attack
His logic. As Jesus noted several times
earlier, they are also contemplating murdering Him, meaning they don’t believe
that His words will save Himself, let alone anyone else.
They ask in the next verse, “Surely You are not greater than
our father Abraham, who died? The
prophets died too.” This is one of those
questions which expects a negative answer.
This is just like when the woman at the well asked Jesus if He thought He
was greater than Jacob (John 4:12). Both
times, the questioners expect that only demonic-driven audacity would prompt Jesus
to answer in the positive. Yet, the
irony of this for us, the readers, is that we know He is greater than all of
them!
Yet, they are blind to the truth, assuming that He’s full of
arrogance and pride like they are. So,
they ask, “Whom do You make Yourself out to
be?” The King James Version
renders this, “whom makest thou
thyself?” while the New International Version reads, “Who do you
think you are?” This goes beyond just asking
if He thinks He’s a prophet or the Messiah; since only God can give life, they may
be starting to suspect He is guilty of blasphemy.[5]
Yet, Jesus isn’t going to seek His own glory by stating He’s
greater than Abraham. He could and has
the right to do so, but He says, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing.” They wouldn’t accept His testimony alone, so
He returns to reminding them His Father glorifies Him.
Now, of course, as v. 27 says, they haven’t fully understood
who His Father is. That is, until now. He is the one they claim as their God!
This sets them in an awkward spot. If they truly knew God, then they would accept
the one sent from God. They don’t,
however, because they don’t know God like He does. In fact, there’s a contrast between their
supposed knowledge of Jesus’s possession and Jesus’s knowledge of God, and He
uses a different term here in v. 55; they supposedly know by experience, but He
knows “inherently or intuitively,” enjoying a relationship with God that they did
not.[6]
So, Jesus delivers the hard facts. He says, “If I say that I do not know Him, I
will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word.” He speaks the truth, but they’re of the
father of lies (John 8:44). His use of
the term “liar,” as one study notes, wouldn’t have been considered polite in
public speech,[7] but
it’s a justifiable accusation. They need
to understand that they have no defense for their hostility toward Him or their
claim that they are following God.
They aren’t keeping the word of God like He is. He proves that by His sinless, impeccable life,
in contrast to their unjustifiable anger and contemplation of murder. He further evidences this by the miracles
that He works, signs that God is glorifying His Son. He will further prove that He’s keeping His
Father’s word by going to the cross.
They aren’t honoring His work. Even so, those who truly know God will
recognize the work of the Son and give Him the honor He’s due. That includes honoring Jesus’s worth, our
final point:
IV.
Third, Honor the Worth of Jesus (vv. 56–59)
“Your father
Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet
fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to
you, before Abraham was born, I am.” Therefore they picked up stones to throw
at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.
Remember that Jesus granted them the claim of their physical
descendancy from Abraham (vv. 37, 39).
However, He noted that they were not doing the works of Abraham. Here, He points out that Abraham rejoiced to
see Christ’s day.
What does He mean by that? All the prophets were looking forward to Jesus’s
time (Matt 13:17; Heb 11:13). Of course,
this is a clear Messianic claim, and the Old Testament saints believed in the
coming Messiah. Still, Jesus means a bit
more than this.
He says that Abraham saw this day. Perhaps Jesus is referring to a Christophany,
an Old Testament appearance of the Son of God to the saints. There were opportunities for this, like when
the Lord appeared to Abraham with two angels to announce the coming birth of Isaac
in Genesis 18. The Lord may have also
appeared to Abraham on the mountain with Isaac, where Abraham said, “The Lord
will provide” (Gen. 22:14). Yet, the
text doesn’t say, and that wouldn’t fully explain how he saw Jesus’s day.
So, its possible that this refers to a revelatory vision of
the future. The rabbis believed that the
Lord had showed Abraham redemptive history at some point,[8] including the coming Messiah. As one resource notes, they “disagreed on how
it happened,”[9] but
this verse gives credence to that theory.
While the text doesn’t say specifically, Jesus says that Abraham somehow
saw His day and was glad.
These supposed children of Abraham respond differently! Being unbelievers, they challenge Jesus again,
asking how it could be possible for Jesus to possibly be present to see Abraham. They note that Jesus wasn’t even fifty
(probably closer to thirty years old, Luke 3:23), choosing “the standard
retirement age”[10] to
demonstrate the large a gap of time between Jesus and Abraham. They are likely mocking Him.
Jesus replies with a most stunning confession in v. 58. He begins again with the emphatic “truly,
truly” statement. Drawing them in with
this, He says, “I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.”
The first thing to notice about this is that this is a play
on words. We see this in the English
translation. There are two verbs of
being — was and am. One is
past and one is present. In response to
the question of how He could have possibly seen Abraham, Jesus says that He
exists before Abraham even came into being.
That verb play may be confusing, as we might expect Jesus to say, “Before
Abraham was born, I was already,” but the present tense communicates a timeless
quality and self-existence.
This also speaks of the presence of the Lord. He was there with Adam and Eve, He was there
with Noah, He was there with Abraham, He was with the children of Israel in the
Exodus, He was there in Roman-occupied Jerusalem. He also remains with His people today!
Of course, there’s only one being that could make such claims:
God Himself. Before the beginning,
before Genesis 1:1, God is. This is why
God revealed Himself to Moses as “I AM” (Exod. 3:14). There’s no denying that Jesus claims a divine
identity here.
As such, we read next that “they picked up stones to throw
at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.” In a twisted sense, they think they are
fulfilling God’s word, which commands capital punishment for blasphemy (Lev.
24:16). Since the temple was still under
construction, they likely had a ready supply of stones nearby,[11] but
as another study notes, stoning was “supposed to be the result of a calm
judicial decision.”[12] In their sinful state, they succumb to mob
violence.
However, we read that Jesus was hidden. That is supposed to be a passive statement,
that He “was hidden,” mistranslated here.
The Father who glorified His Son does so again by veiling Him from the
vengeful eyes of the mob, allowing Jesus to slip away from the temple. This further evidences the worth of Christ.
V.
Conclusion
It’s interesting that many unbelievers today still attack
Christian teaching by pitting Jesus’s words against it. The assumption is that Jesus is a good
teacher who would allow far more than Christians believe He would. However, some people still attack Jesus as an
immoral teacher, pointing out His clear teaching. We should expect this to be a cultural shift. Today, like before, there will be more people
willing to dishonor Jesus.
The question is how we will react. Will we honor the word, work, and worth of Jesus
Christ? Will we accept His claims as
true, trusting in Him? Or will we follow
the world in rejecting Him?
Understand that Jesus didn’t come to condemn, and He doesn’t
here. He offers a word of good news for
those who will hear it. If you receive
and keep His words, He promises eternal life with the Father He knows
uniquely. Call out to Him today for the salvation
only He offers; don’t put it off. As He
warned earlier in this chapter, “Therefore I said to you that you will die in
your sins; for unless you believe that I am He,
you will die in your sins” (John 8:24).
[1] Gerald L. Borchert, John 1–11, The New American Commentary, (Nashville: Broadman &
Holman Publishers, 1996), 25A:307.
[2] Edwin A. Blum, The
Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, 1985, 2, 306.
[3] John Calvin and William Pringle, Commentary on the Gospel according to John, (Bellingham, WA: Logos
Bible Software, 2010), 1:356.
[4] A. T. Robertson, Word
Pictures in the New Testament, (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1933), Jn
8:52.
[5] Ronald Trail, An
Exegetical Summary of John 1–9, Exegetical Summaries, (Dallas, TX: SIL
International, 2013), 469.
[6] Blum, 306.
[7] Robertson, Jn 8:55.
[8] John D. Barry, Douglas Mangum, Derek R. Brown, Michael
S. Heiser, Miles Custis, Elliot Ritzema, Matthew M. Whitehead, Michael R.
Grigoni, and David Bomar, Faithlife Study
Bible, (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), Jn 8:56.
[9] James Montgomery Boice, Foundations of the Christian Faith: A Comprehensive & Readable
Theology, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1986), 262.
[10] Barry, et. al., Jn 8:57.
[11] Trail, 477.
[12] D. A. Carson, The
Gospel according to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary, (Leicester,
England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans, 1991), 358.
