Who Do You Make Yourself Out To Be?

Before Abraham Was, I Am: The Question That Decides Everything

Someone once said the two greatest questions you need to answer are who am I, and where am I going. Those are good questions. But there’s a question that trumps both of them, one that decides your eternal destiny before either of those other two even matter. It’s the question a group of religious men asked Jesus in the temple, meaning it as an insult: who do you think you are? And it’s the same question I believe every person in this room, and every person reading this, has to answer for themselves.

In John chapter 8, verses 48 through 59, the Jews are attacking Jesus, accusing him of being a demon-possessed Samaritan, and Jesus answers them not with revenge but with a claim so staggering they picked up stones to kill him for it. “Who do you make yourself out to be?” is the title of this message, because that’s exactly what they asked him, and it’s exactly what I believe our text answers. Jesus is the Son who honors the Father, the Lord who conquers death, the joy Abraham longed to see, and the eternal I Am.

Jesus Is the Son Who Honors the Father

When they slandered him, calling him a Samaritan and demon-possessed, Jesus didn’t defend his reputation. He defended his Father. “I don’t have a demon, but I honor my father and you dishonor me.” He didn’t even address the personal insult. Just because people say things about you doesn’t mean you need to address everything they say about you, but when they dishonor your Lord, you ought to say something.

And then he says something that ought to stop us in our tracks: “yet I do not seek my own glory.” I told the story of missionary Henry Morrison, coming home from Africa discouraged, watching a fanfare on the dock that turned out to be for President Roosevelt, not for him. His wife simply said, “honey, we’re not home yet.” We do what we do, folks, not for our own glory, not for the glory of our name, not for the glory of our church. We do it for the glory of God.

Jesus Is the Lord Who Conquers Death

Jesus makes a promise here that only God can make: “if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” Not physical death, since people obviously still die, but the death Romans 6:23 describes, the wages of sin. The gift of God is eternal life, and I want to be clear how you get it. Not through the Baptist church. Not through baptism. Not through trying hard, being sincere, doing your best. “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.” It’s not a prayer that saves us. It’s a person. I was fifteen years old when I cried out to the Lord, but it wasn’t my prayer that saved me. It was Christ. He was the object of my faith. Is he the object of yours?

Jesus Is the Joy Abraham Longed to See

When they pushed back with “are you greater than our father Abraham,” Jesus didn’t back down. “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” Abraham had faith looking ahead, at the altar with Isaac, trusting that God would provide the sacrifice. We have faith looking back, at the cross, understanding what Jesus did. Genesis 22 says Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide, and on those same hills, God provided the Lamb.

Jesus Is the Eternal I Am

This is where it all comes to a point. “Before Abraham was, I am.” Not I was, but I am. Abraham had a beginning. Jesus did not. This takes us straight back to Exodus 3, when God told Moses, “I am who I am.” Jesus wasn’t being vague. He was claiming to be Yahweh, standing in the temple, and they understood exactly what he meant. That’s why they picked up stones.

But look what he does next. He hides himself and walks out of the temple, because his hour had not yet come. And then, in the very next verse, John 9:1, “he passed by. He saw a man blind from birth.” The Lord moves on from hearts that reject him to find someone who will receive him. Augustine said it this way: as man, he fled from the stones, but woe to those from whose stony hearts God has fled.