Son of God or Demoniac

Judica (Lent 5) Sermon| John 8:46-59; Genesis 22:1-14| Pastor James Preus| Trinity Lutheran Church| April 6, 2025

Jesus is either the true Son of God, whose teaching gives eternal life, or He is a demon possessed imposter, whose teachings should be rejected. Some try to play the middle ground and say that Jesus was a good teacher, a good man, but He is not God and is not the Redeemer of the world, and a person does not need to believe in Him to be saved. They want to reduce Jesus to His teaching, “Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you.” (Matthew 7:12) And if that were the case, Jesus could be praised by any person of any religion, but no one would need to trust in Him as their savior. But Jesus cannot be reduced to His teaching of the golden rule. The golden rule teaches us how we ought to live with one another. Yet, we cannot ignore what Jesus teaches about Himself. Jesus says, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” Now, the student of Scripture knows what Jesus is claiming with these words, as did the Jews who picked up stones to stone Him. In Exodus chapter 3, Moses asked God at the burning bush what His name was, so he could tell the people who sent him. God answered, “I AM WHO I AM. Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:14) By saying, “before Abraham was, I AM,” Jesus claimed to be God Himself. So, no, we cannot say that Jesus was a good teacher, but not the Savior. Jesus is either the Savior of the World, or He is a lunatic with a demon. You either should hold fast to all of Jesus’ words, or you should ignore Him.

Yet everything Jesus says is true, so He cannot be a servant of the father of lies. And since He rose again from the dead, He proves that everything that He said about Himself is true. And since Jesus’ words are true and He is the Son of God who gives life to those who believe in Him, you cannot be lukewarm about Christ. You are either a child of God who believes in Christ’s words, or you are a child of the devil who opposes them. You either are a free disciple of Christ, or you are a slave of Satan. This is clearly what Jesus is teaching these Jews who refuse to believe in Him. In this chapter Jesus says to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of My own accord, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear My Word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convict s Me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.” (John 8:42-47)

And so, the contrast cannot be greater between those who believe Jesus’ Word and those who reject it. Those who believe Jesus’ Word are children of God. Those who reject Jesus’ Word are children of the devil. Those who listen to Jesus’ Word are Jesus’ disciples. Those who refuse to listen to Jesus’ Word are disciples of Satan. Those who keep Jesus’ Word will live forever. Those who do not keep Jesus’ Word are already dead in their sins and will endure eternal death in hell.

And this is not the opinion of some radical preacher. This is the teaching of Christ Himself. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my Word, he will never see death.” Now what does Jesus mean by death? In this chapter, Jesus speaks of death in two different ways: spiritual death and eternal death in hell. Earlier in this chapter, Jesus said, “unless you believe that I AM HE, you will die in your sins.” (vs. 24) Here, Jesus speaks of spiritual death. Spiritual death is unbelief. This means that you do not believe that Jesus is your Savior. If you do not believe that Jesus is your Savior, you are dead in your sins. It means that your sins are bound to you, unforgiven and that you are spiritually dead, incapable of believing in God or doing anything to please Him. Jesus told the Jews who did not believe in Him that they were still dead in their sins.

The second type of death is eternal death in hell. Jesus says that those who keep His Word will never see death. That does not mean that their bodies will not die. But the death of their body will be temporary, like going down to sleep. But those who keep Jesus’ Word will not experience eternal death, which is not sleep, but rather being eternally separated from the source of life, Jesus Christ. Eternal death is punishment in hell.

Jesus’ opponents mock Jesus’ claim that if anyone keeps His Word, he will never see death, because Abraham and the prophets died. They laugh at the idea that Jesus is greater than Abraham and the prophets and that He could have seen Abraham. But they are wrong on two counts. First, Abraham and the prophets are not dead. Yes, they died bodily (except for Elijah). However, they lived spiritually and now live forever, as Jesus elsewhere explained, “But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to Him.” (Luke 20:37-38)

Second, they are wrong about Jesus. Jesus is indeed greater than Abraham and the prophets and He has seen them. Every sacrifice offered in the temple foreshadowed Christ’s sacrifice for our sins. The Levitical priesthood, which lasted for just 1500 years was only a shadow of Christ’s priesthood, which lasts forever. Likewise, everything Abraham endured was done to show us Christ, even as everything God did to Abraham was for Him to see Christ and rejoice in Him.

What does it mean to keep Jesus’ Word? Father Abraham shows us. It means not only to listen to Jesus’ Word, but to believe it and trust in it against all trials. God made a certain promise to Abraham concerning the Christ. “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” Which offspring? The offspring through which all families of the earth would be blessed. But God told Abraham to kill this same Isaac. He did this to test Abraham to see if he loved Him more than his own son, which Jesus teaches us still today, “Whoever loves father and mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” (Matthew 10:37) Yet, He also did this to see whether Abraham trusted that God would keep His Word. And Abraham passed this test with rejoicing.

Abraham believed that God would fulfill His promise through Isaac, even if he killed Isaac, because he believed that God could even raise Isaac from the dead (Hebrews 11:19). We know that Abraham had this faith, because he told his young men, “I and the boy will go over there and worship and we will come again to you.” And in this story, we see a wonderful testament of Christ Jesus. Isaac carried the wood of his offering up the mountain, just as Christ labored under the burden of his wooden cross. Isaac willingly permitted himself to be sacrificed, as he surely was strong enough to overpower his elderly father, and so Christ Jesus prays to His Father, “Not my will but Yours be done,” before willingly going to the cross. For three days Abraham walked to that mountain mourning the death of his son, although he would not die. And for three days, Jesus lay dead in the tomb for His followers to mourn His death, although He said He would rise. And Abraham received Isaac back alive, just as God the Father received His Son Christ Jesus alive and well after He obediently went to the cross.

The ram too foreshadowed Christ to Abraham’s eyes. Abraham prophesied that God would provide a lamb for the offering, and here He sees a ram caught by his horns. The word horn in Hebrew is synonymous with power and strength. Yet, this ram is caught by a thicket by his horns. Christ Jesus is the Lamb of God caught by His horns, that is, by His strength and power. Christ’s strength and power is His love for His Father and for us, which brought Him to do the greatest deed of selflessness for our salvation. Abraham would have cut the ram out of the thicket, leaving a crown of thorns on its head as he brought it over to be sacrificed. And so, our Lord Jesus wore a crown of thorns as He was sacrificed on the altar of the cross for our sins.

Abraham saw all these things. And being a prophet and a preacher, the significance was not lost on him. Rather, he rejoiced at seeing God’s promise of a Messiah, as God Himself declared to Abraham, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the sea shore. And your offspring shall posses the gate of His enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” Here God spoke to Abraham about Christ, the Offspring of Abraham and the offspring of Abraham who are Abraham’s children through faith in Christ (Romans 4:12-16; Galatians 4:7).

Not only did Abraham see Jesus’ day through faith when he believed God’s promise concerning Him, but Abraham still lives and rejoices in the Gospel in heaven. So do all the prophets. God glorified Christ in the eyes of Abraham, by revealing Christ’s death to him. And God glorifies Christ in our eyes by revealing the suffering of His cross to us. The unbelieving Jews hated this. They wanted only the shadow without the fulfilment in Christ. They wanted a dead Abraham and dead prophets, not those who rejoice from beyond the grace. And the world we live in feels the same way. They are happy if we celebrate a man who teaches us to love our neighbor. They do not want us to celebrate a man who died for our sins. They want Jesus’ glory to be an uncontroversial guy who offends no one. But Jesus’ glory is His suffering and death for the sins of the world, which offends everyone who does not repent of his sins.

Good Friday is almost hear. Next Sunday we will remember Jesus marching to Jerusalem for the last time before He is crucified. Jesus reminds us today that His glory is found in His cross, because there He won for us everlasting life. The Jesus we worship is the Son of God who died for us, as all the prophets foretold. This is the word we keep in our hearts, so that we may never see death as Jesus promises. Amen.