Deliverance of the believer from death.
The dialogue now takes a new turn.
I. THE BLESSED PROMISE MADE TO THE OBEDIENT DISCIPLE. "If a man keep my Word, he shall never see death." he evidently now addresses those Jews who believe in him.
1. The character of discipleship. It
2. The blessed destiny of discipleship.
II. FRESH MISAPPREHENSION OF THE JEWS. "Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? whom makest thou thyself?"
1. The Jews argued that Abraham and the prophets had kept God's Word, yet were not exempted from the bitter experience of death. Therefore the declaration of Jesus seemed to prove his utter self-delusion.
2. Their question "Art thou greater than our father Abraham?" implies that they refused to regard Jesus as the Messiah, or as the Son of God, or even as a divinely sent Prophet.
III. JESUS DECLARES THERE IS NO COMPARISON BETWEEN ABRAHAM AND HIMSELF. "If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God."
1. The question of the relative dignity of himself and Abraham is not due to any personal ambition on his part, but in obedience to the will of his Father.
2. His higher dignity was due to his complete knowledge of his Father, and his perfect obedience to his will.
3. The true relation of Abraham to Christ. "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad."
(a) to himself,
(b) to the Jews,
(c) to the world.
4. The joy of Abraham contrasts strangely with the hatred and malice excited by the visible presence of the same Redeemer among Abraham's descendants.
IV. A FRESH MISAPPREHENSION OF OUR LORD'S WORDS. "Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?"
1. The Jews did not believe in Christ's preexistence. He was only the Son of Joseph and Mary.
2. His allusion to his age exaggerates the actual years of his life, probably because, as "the Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief," he had aged fast in the hard stress of daily anxieties, caused by the increasing signs of Jewish hostility.
3. Our Lord's answer is an explicit revelation of his Divinity. "Before Abraham was, I am."
V. EFFECT OF THIS DECLARATION UPON THE JEWS. "Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple."
1. The Jews at last understood the meaning of our Lord's words.
2. Their attempt to stone him implied their definite rejection of him.
3. Jesus placed himself at once out of their reach, as "his time was not yet come."
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON