Gospel of John [16:28-31]. Implications of the glorification of Christ [part 7]. Joh 8.
length: 63:11 - taught on Nov, 26 2014
Class Outline:
Title: Gospel of John [16:28-31]. Implications of the glorification of Christ [part 7]. Joh 8.
"Any good cause can be subverted for a wicked purpose. The more noble the cause, the more ignoble will be its subverters." [1916]
JOH 8:23 And He was saying to them, "You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.
He descended in such a manner that others may ascend with Him. All who believe in Him are given the light of life which is from heaven.
He brought that life to the world and ascended in order to lead the way to that life through His victory. Those who go on living on the lower plain, in due time, die there.
JOH 8:24 "I said therefore to you, that you shall die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins."
Here sins is plural as the sins that accompany unbelief are in view. Those who reject Christ have to accept something else and in this there is a whole battery of sins in the realm of self-reliance, self-deliverance, creature centered philosophy.
"If you don't believe that I AM [ego eimi], you will die in your sins."
This name was told to Moses at the burning bush. The I AM is Jehovah. Here it is obvious from our vantage point that Jesus is saying something important about His person.
The disciples here this. Remember Philip's statement, "show us the Father and it will be enough for us."
The Lord uses this phrase for Himself in several instances in the gospel of John.
"I am [ego eimi] the bread of life
"I am [ego eimi] the light of the world
unless you believe that I am [ego eimi] He, you shall die in your sins."
"When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am [ego eimi] He,
"Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am [ego eimi.]"
"Truly, truly, I say to you, I am [ego eimi] the door of the sheep.
"I am [ego eimi] the good shepherd
"I am [ego eimi] the resurrection and the life
When God commissioned Moses to go back to Egypt and tell His people that the God of their fathers was about to deliver them, Moses asked what name to give God.
EXO 3:13 Then Moses said to God, "Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I shall say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' Now they may say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?"
EXO 3:14 And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
In the Septuagint God's reply to Moses is: "Ego eimi ho on (I am the One who is) … tell them that ho on (the One who is) has sent you."
One might therefore expect Christ to call Himself "ho on" just as much as "ego eimi."
Yet, ego eimi, echoes "I am He" (ani hu; Hebrew) which is repeatedly affirmed in Isa 40-55 and translated "ego eimi" in the LXX.
"Who has performed and accomplished it,
Calling forth the generations from the beginning?
'I, the Lord, am the first, and with the last. I am He.'"
"You are My witnesses," declares the Lord,
"And My servant whom I have chosen,
In order that you may know and believe Me,
And understand that I am He.
Before Me there was no God formed,
And there will be none after Me.
"Even from eternity I am He;
And there is none who can deliver out of My hand;
I act and who can reverse it?"
"I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake;
And I will not remember your sins.
Even to your old age, I shall be the same,
And even to your graying years I shall bear you!
I have done it, and I shall carry you;
And I shall bear you, and I shall deliver you.
"Listen to Me, O Jacob, even Israel whom I called;
I am He, I am the first, I am also the last.
"I am" of Isaiah: caller of peoples, like no other, all powerful, wipes out transgression, unchanging deliverer, the first and the last.
The last stanza of the Egyptian Hallel (Psa 113-118), sung at Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles, and Dedication (Hanukkah), "He has given us light."
This was sung at the feast at which Jesus is now speaking. The I am, Jehovah Elohim, at the end of this Hallel is said to have given light.
PSA 118:22 The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief corner stone.
PSA 118:23 This is the Lord's doing;
It is marvelous in our eyes.
After telling the parable of the landowner who planted a vineyard to the chief priests and elders in the temple, in which, the vine growers killed the owners slaves and then his own son, the Lord quoted this.
MAT 21:40 "Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?"
MAT 21:41 They said to Him, "He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers, who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons."
Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures,
'The stone which the builders rejected,
This became the chief corner stone;
This came about from the Lord,
And it is marvelous in our eyes'?
PSA 118:24 This is the day which the Lord has made;
Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
PSA 118:25 O Lord, do save, we beseech Thee;
O Lord, we beseech Thee, do send prosperity!
PSA 118:26 Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord;
We have blessed you from the house of the Lord.
The crowd chanted this when He entered Jerusalem for the final time.
And those who went before, and those who followed after, were crying out,
"Hosanna! [yesha(save) + na(now)]
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord;
PSA 118:27 The Lord is God, and He has given us light;
Bind the festival sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.
In this couplet, the giving of light is coupled with the blood sacrifice. To those who were chanting vv. 25-26, they coupled light with the establishment of an earthly kingdom in which they would rule over their enemies.
Yet in the same psalm we have an indication of deliverance from all nations that surround Israel, which has occurred in the sense that she has not been completely eliminated like all other kingdoms, but will occur at the second coming of the Messiah.
PSA 118:10 All nations surrounded me;
In the name of the Lord I will surely cut them off.
PSA 118:11 They surrounded me, yes, they surrounded me;
In the name of the Lord I will surely cut them off.
PSA 118:12 They surrounded me like bees;
They were extinguished as a fire of thorns;
In the name of the Lord I will surely cut them off.
PSA 118:13 You pushed me violently so that I was falling,
But the Lord helped me.
PSA 118:14 The Lord is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation.
Therefore, what they thought was light was a future light that would descend from heaven a second time, after the victory of the cross, which would set all free from the darkness of sin and death. What is the point of cutting off ones earthly enemies if his true enemy, sin and death, are still master over him? Therefore, what many of them think is darkness because they do not understanding the scriptures, and our disciples are struggling with this same problem in their own souls. Yet Christ, in His first advent, made this distinction clear. He was the bread of life from heaven, the giver of the living water that flowed from within. Unless a man be born again, He cannot see the kingdom of God. All who believed in Him would never perish, but have eternal life. Over and over again He clarified this confusion in Israel, but people want what they want. They wanted evil in independence from God's plan and purpose and so they hated the light.
Imagine them and Christ singing the Hallel together. And since it was sung at the Passover, not only did they sing it with Him at Tabernacles, in which it was sung all eight days, 6 months before His death, but they sang it with Him the night before His death. I wonder how much the meaning of these words changed in this time?
And after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
PSA 118:27 The Lord is God, and He has given us light;
Bind the festival sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.
PSA 118:28 Thou art my God, and I give thanks to Thee;
Thou art my God, I extol Thee.
PSA 118:29 Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;
For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
So when Jesus refers to Himself as ego eimi He is referring to His deity, and in a way, His humanity in hypostatic union, in that He is the link binding God and his people together.
JOH 8:24 "I said therefore to you, that you shall die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins."
JOH 8:25 And so they were saying to Him, "Who are You?" Jesus said to them, "What have I been saying to you from the beginning?
"Who are you?" is a natural response to verse 24, unless you believe that I am. To us "I am" means the world but to them, as earthly thinkers of this realm, it is ambiguous. The next phrase by Jesus is a difficult translation. I will spare you the work of getting to the right translation for the chance that it may bore you, and plus, the NASB gets it very well.
After quite a bit of effort by expositors of the Koine Greek language we arrive at:
"I told you at the beginning that which also I am speaking to you (now)."
This is confirmed in our hearing this past week of Bible study. He has stated who He is many times and in many ways.
JOH 8:26 "I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world."
The Father is truth and so the Son is truth. He is co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and, in His humanity, has brought the truth and salvation to the world.
John the Baptist had already said it so well to his disciples:
JOH 3:31 "He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.
JOH 3:32 "What He has seen and heard, of that He bears witness; and no man receives His witness.
JOH 3:33 "He who has received His witness has set his seal to this, that God is true.
JOH 3:34 "For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure.
JOH 3:35 "The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand.
JOH 3:36 "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
As God is true, the message which He delivers to the world by the agency of His Son is the truth, whether those who hear it find it palatable or not.
JOH 8:27 They did not realize that He had been speaking to them about the Father.
This is hard to believe but it's true. They just simply did not know who He was speaking of because of the hardness of their hearts. Is it no wonder that He sent His Spirit into the world to convict the world after His work was complete?
JOH 8:28 Jesus therefore said, "When you lift up the Son of Man [on the cross], then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me.
Being lifted up on the cross is the beginning of His journey back to heaven and the beginning of His exaltation and glorification.
JOH 12:31 "Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world shall be cast out.
JOH 12:32 "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself."
The temple curtain was torn in two which opened the divine glory to anyone who would believe in Him.
At the cross, a thief would believe in Him and a centurion would believe in Him. This was just the beginning.
"Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!" And He said to him, "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise."
And when the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, "Truly this man was the Son of God!"
"Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation."
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