Notes

WHO IS JESUS CHRIST?
John 8:46-58
March 29, 2009

INTRODUCTION
Our focus now turns from Our Lord’s forty days in the wilderness toward His March to Jerusalem and the Cross. The appointed Epistle and Gospel for today have been read on this Sunday for many centuries, back to the early middle ages possibly. It is in these passages that Christ is identified as our great High Priest and as God, beyond any shadow od a doubt. In Passiontide, we are forced to Look within ourselvves and ask the question, “Who is Jesus Christ?”

I. BACKGROUND AND HERITAGE
The Scribes and Pharisees would do anything they could to trap and destroy Jesus, any and every trick in the book. So they start by attacking his background and Heritage, calling Him an illegitimate child, born because of the sinful fornication of Mary with a man. They believed they were saved because of their heritage as descendants of Abraham.
II. "ABRAHAM I OUR FATHER"
In their minds, these four words summed up everything they needed for eternal life. Abraham was heir lifeline to eternal life, their security blanket. But the Lord responds and says "no," to be Abraham's child, you have to believe and life as Abraham did. Your ancestry will not gain for you eternal life. And, Jesus says, if Abraham were truly your father, you would love Me. You say you love God, then you have to love Me. This is the first and Highest test of our faith, Love for Christ.
And secondly, says the Lord Jesus, is your response to the Word of God. Their problem was in the heart. These men were characterized by deceit. They were self-deceived into believing they had eternal life; about salvation; about God;about their own hearts. The ultimate deception is to imagine you are a child of God when you are not.
John lays out for his readers the deity of Christ in the prolog to his Gospel. The Lord Jesus speaks to His deity time and again. But here, he says it clearly and unambiguously: BEFORE ABRHAM WAS, I AM. And they are infuriated with Him, to the point of attempting to execute Him Immediately.
III. TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES
But the Lord of Glory is not easily dismissed or done away with. So you are faced with only two choices here at the opening of Passiontide: destroy yourself by fighting against Him or submit to Him and build on the strong foundation of Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone, the Rock of Ages. As they immediately attempt to destroy the Lord Jesus, He slips out of the Temple. The Glory has departed. Where do you stand today? Is Jesus Christ your Lord? He is either a Liar, a lunatic or the Lord God of Heaven and earth.Which is it?