Jesus is Pure, Promised Life and Pre-existent (John 8:46-59)

On Tuesday, I spoke at our mid-week service and resued the same talk I gave the previous week at an aged care home, with a few little add-ons. Below is pretty much most of what I said

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Francis Bacon wrote, “Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark” (The Essays, 343). Because of the fear of death, we hope for victory over death. We hope something will happen to keep the cold, dark clutches of death from overtaking us. Is there hope for immortality? (Exalting Jesus in John Never See Death (John 8:48–59) Or is that just the thing of fairy tales? An idea to spark the imagination but we all know that talk of immortality is the stuff of dreams and unicorns. 

Remember Peter Pan and his lost boys? They lived in the magical land of Neverland, where they do not age and they don’t want to grow up. We even have ancient stories about the fountain of youth, where people go looking for the source of eternal life. It is a hopeful quest, but we all know that it’s not real.

Today, we might not believe in fairy tales, but we do sometimes believe in science fiction.

Randolfe Wicker, a man who runs a lighting shop in New York City, is also the spokesman for the Human Cloning Foundation. He wants to be cloned when he dies. He says in doing this:

"I can thumb my nose at Mr. Death and say, 'You might get me, but you're not going to get all of me,'" he says. "The special formula that is me will live on into another lifetime. It's a partial triumph over death. I would leave my imprint not in sand but in cement."(Human Cloning: Baby, It's You! And You, And You...)

Immortality sparks the imagination, and people have and will try all sorts of things to achieve it.

In our passage today Jesus comes along and says some bold things about immortality. Now, it is one thing to say something about life after death; it is another to trust what He says. Can Jesus be trusted? How do we know if He is of good character to be trusted?

Today, we will see that Jesus is Pure, Promised Life and was Pre-existant

Jesus is Pure

Our passage starts halfway into a discussion about telling the truth. And Jesus is saying that He only tells the truth. Jesus then asks a question

Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? (John 8:46 NIV)

This is a bold test. He asks for anyone to accuse Him. Jesus puts His head on the chopping block and asks anyone to take a swing. Can anyone show that Jesus isn’t telling the truth? And the crazy thing about this is that no one can prove that Jesus was guilty of sin. Jesus was pure.

Jesus wants people to know that He doesn’t lie, He is on the side of God, unlike the Devil, who is a liar. Of all those around Jesus, who have seen and heard Jesus, no one is willing to call Him a liar. This shows that Jesus’ words are true. He does tell the truth. His interlockers couldn’t find fault with Him.

But even though they couldn’t object to this claim, the funny thing is that the Jews still didn’t believe what Jesus was saying. Instead of answering Jesus' question about finding sin, they turn to calling Him names. You know the other team has lost the argument when they resort to name-calling. They call him a Samaritan and demon-possessed.

The Jews despised the Samaritans as half-breeds who had intermarried with Gentiles six centuries earlier and now followed their own version of Old Testament religion. Calling Jesus a Samaritan was a kind of racial slur with the innuendo that his real father was unknown. (Sermons from John Piper (2000–2014) You Will Never See Death)

Jesus Promises Life

Jesus denied their lying claims about Himself, saying He is not after His own glory but God’s. This is true because we have already seen that Jesus doesn’t lie. But then Jesus, the truth teller, goes on to make this crazy, astounding claim. He says:

Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.” (John 8:51 NIV)

This is a huge claim. Jesus is saying that He knows how people can avoid death and that He has the power to offer this to all people. Jesus promises Life

Jesus says when people are “all ears”, when they hear and do what He says, then Jesus says they will never see death. Jesus is saying not only that He knows the way to avoid death, but that He is the way to avoid death. This is the thing of fairy tales and science fiction.

What Jesus means by this is not that His followers won’t die, but that they won’t face the eternal death that we all face.

[Jesus means] that the sting of the first death shall be removed from the true Christian. Their flesh may fail, and their bones may be racked with strong pain; but the bitter sense of unpardoned sins shall not crush them. (Expository Thoughts on John, Vol. 2 John 8:48–59: Blasphemous Language Addressed to Our Lord,—Encouragement to Believers,—Abraham’s Knowledge of Christ,—Christ’s Pre-existence)

And this promise is free and open for all people. Jesus says, “whoever”. Jesus excludes no one from this offer of salvation. No one is excluded because of being too bad ... and no one is included because of being good enough to earn eternal life apart from Jesus. (Exalting Jesus in John Who Is This Promise For?)

Jesus offers life to all who want to follow Him, and we can experience this now and into the future. We can taste this now.

We don’t have to remain spiritually dead, awaiting that day of judgment. Instead, we can be made alive and can look forward to eternal life with God in heaven forever. Jesus came to bring spiritual life to the spiritually dead. (Exalting Jesus in John What Does This Promise Mean?)

When we become one of His disciples, when we hear His words and believe what He has said and done to save us, then we will not face eternal death. This is because we can live our lives under and in Jesus, not because we have earned favor with God, but because Jesus has won God’s favor for us and brought us into God’s family, and so have been brought back to God. We get new life now.

Death has lost its finality. Nothing can sever the life-giving relationship we now enjoy with God (Exalting Jesus in John What Does This Promise Mean?)

Romans 8 starts and stops with saying

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, (Romans 8:1 NIV)

and nothing can "separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:39 NIV)

This is good news.

Jesus, the truth teller, has said that whoever listens to Him will not taste death. We can trust Him, for even back then, no one could find Him to be a liar.

Jesus is Pre-existent

The Jews, however, think that Jesus’ claim about avoiding death is crazy talk. They said Abraham didn’t even speak like that. They ask Jesus, “who do you think you are?” Does Jesus think He is better than Abraham? And Jesus says “yes”. Yes, He is better. Jesus says that, in fact, Abraham looked forward to seeing Jesus’ day. They ask how can this be? Surely Abraham had no idea about Jesus. But then Jesus, the truth teller, makes another crazy and astounding statement.

“Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”(John 8:58 NIV)

Jesus says He was before Abraham, that before Him, that He was, He is the I am. That He was pre-existent. Jesus has gone too far. He is using the title “I Am” for Himself. This is the phrase God used to tell Moses what His own name is. In Exodus, we read

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ “This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation. (Exodus 3:14–15 NIV)

and Jesus is saying that was Him. That before Abraham, I am.

J.C. Ryle said:

"if language means anything, they teach us that our Lord Jesus Christ existed long before He came into the world. Before the days of Abraham He was. Before man was created He was. In short, they teach us that the Lord Jesus was no mere man like Moses or David. He was One whose goings forth were from everlasting,—the same yesterday, to-day, and forever,—very and eternal God" (Expository Thoughts on John, Vol. 2 John 8:48–59: Blasphemous Language Addressed to Our Lord,—Encouragement to Believers,—Abraham’s Knowledge of Christ,—Christ’s Pre-existence)

The Jews knew what Jesus was saying, that Jesus was claiming He was the Lord Almighty. This was too much, so they tried to kill Jesus, but He got away. They couldn’t believe this truth teller, it was too much to believe.

But Jesus says, we can trust in Him. Jesus is not simply a Jewish teacher or a miracle worker; He is the great I AM. That is His character, that is why we can trust Him. He is God. Jesus tells the truth, even if His claims are huge and almost unbelievable. But we should follow the evidence where it leads, and the truth is that Jesus is the truth and the way to eternal life.

We need to see Jesus as God, because this is true, and the truth will set us free. Let us believe His claims that he is God, and believe that if you put your life under Him, you will not taste death.

Saved from fear and death

I know death isn’t a pleasant topic to talk about. Louis XV, King of France, ordered that death was never to be spoken of in his presence. We don’t like to think about death, usually because of fear.

"We really fear two things: death’s uncertainty and its significance. When we receive the life that Jesus promises, the uncertainty is gone." (Exalting Jesus in John What Does This Promise Mean?)

If we are in Christ, we can have hope for the future.

At the end of the passage, the Jews wanted to kill Jesus. Eventually, that did happen. Jesus would be killed on the cross, and in doing so, that brought about our own rescue from sin. By dying in our place, taking on all our wrong-ness and giving us all His right-ness, it means that we don’t have to face the second death.

This means, if we hear His voice, even today, we can be saved from death. Jesus is the answer. He is trustworthy. He is God, and He offers life.

"Let us continue leaning on Him without fear. The Lord Jesus Christ is the true God, and our eternal life is secure" (Expository Thoughts on John, Vol. 2 John 8:48–59: Blasphemous Language Addressed to Our Lord,—Encouragement to Believers,—Abraham’s Knowledge of Christ,—Christ’s Pre-existence)

The story goes that one day, Saint Francis was hoeing in his garden when a friend said, “What would you do if you knew you would die at sunset?” He replied, “I would finish hoeing my garden.” (1000 Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching Beyond the Sunset)

Francis was not worried about dying, for He knew, then he would be able to see His savior face to face, so he could live his life in peace and without fear.

A few years ago, when we put on the Mark Drama here, I invited an old workmate from ANU. After the play, we went and got something to ea,t and we were talking. He was telling me he had a great fear of death. He would wake up at 3 am, worried about dying and what is on the other side. He then said, “But doesn’t everyone?” in a way that seemed to suggest that this was a normal experience. 

I was surprised. In Jesus, I think the problem of death is solved. I was like, “I don’t know anyone who is worried about life after death.” All the Christians I know think the same as me. Because Jesus has conquered death. He died but He also rose again. Because Jesus walked out of the tomb at Easter, we too will get a new body and be with God forever. And my friend sort of looked at me and said something like “I wish I had that certainty”. And the fact is, anyone can, if they hear and respond to Jesus.

So let us trust Jesus and His truth-telling words. He is God, "So that when he says, “You will never see death,” [it means] you will never see death. God has spoken. And his word never fails." (Sermons from John Piper (2000–2014) You Will Never See Death)