That is entirely unnecessary. All right. Well, good morning, and it's great to be here with you guys. It always is. I can honestly say that I would not be a preacher of the gospel were it not for Pastor Sean Harris and Berean Baptist Church. It was you guys that affirmed this call, and so you are part of this journey that I'm on, and it's a good journey. There's no other path I'd rather be on. Now, the difficult part about popping in, parachuting in, and doing a one-shot message is I'm an expository preacher, and I preach the next verse. So when somebody says, hey, we need you to preach this message, and you go, well, I got 66 books here. What do you want me to do? It really gets stressful. And this is the second one this month I've done that on. And so here's what I want to do today. Um, it's, it's the Christmas season. Uh, we have been celebrating the incarnation of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. And so this is going to be a bit of a teaching lesson in its core, but let me get some preaching out of the way at the beginning, um, that we serve an amazing God. Uh, we have, uh, the full revelation of our heavenly father in his son, Christ Jesus, who came and walked on this earth, who took on flesh and, and, and tabernacled among us. Um, and we have his full revelation in his word. And so what do I want to do this morning? I want to exalt Jesus. I want to exalt the father. I want to exalt his word. Um, and I'll tell you what studying the word does. And maybe it's, you've had this experience is the more I study it, the more amazed I get by it. Uh, the more in awe I am of this word and this God that we serve, And this narrative of redemption that was put down before the foundation of the world, it boggles my mind. I can't even put it into words sometimes when I look at this. But this is a section of scripture that I think we look at through our own eyes sometimes. And I think we get the basic truth, but we miss the real context of what's going on. And hopefully, when we get done today, you'll see that context that I'm trying to get you to see, and it'll blow your mind like it blew my mind. This is kind of a new understanding for me as well, and I guess what we always say is you don't have to agree with me, alright? I'm not infallible. You'll be wrong, but you don't have to agree. I mean, if you're okay with that, you can go with that idea. So, John chapter 8, please, if you'll open your Bibles there. And I've got a slide on this in a minute, but let me go ahead and set the context here of what's going on. In John chapter eight, it is October of in the fall before the spring that Jesus will be crucified. He is in Jerusalem for the feast of the tabernacles and he is speaking to many different groups of people. He's in the temple. And if before we get to verse 51, which is where we're going to start, I want you to look back at verses 30 and 31 so we can see who he's talking to. Who is Jesus talking to in this discourse? And in verse 30, it says, As he spake these words, many believed on him. And then in verse 31, it says, Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him. So who's he talking to? People who have believed his claims, Jewish people who have believed his claims up to this point, where he is now being much more open that he is the Christ and the Son of the living God. Those are the claims that he is making very publicly in Jerusalem, you know, making the Pharisees and the Sadducees irate by his claims. But remember that, put that in your back pocket. 30 and 31, he is talking to people who have at least claimed to believe that he is the Messiah. Now, go to verse 51, and we'll read our text for today. Jesus says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. What's he promising to his believers there? Eternal life. Will not see death. If you believe in me, you will not see death. Verse 52, Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that you have a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets, and you say, if a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? And the prophets are dead, whom makest thou thyself? Who do you think you are? Jesus answered, if I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my father that honors me, of whom you say that he is your God. What did he just claim? He's the son of God. Verse 55, yet you have not known him. We'll talk about that in a second. You have not known him, but I know him. And if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you, who said Jesus never stepped on some toes. But I know him and keep his saying. Now, follow these next three verses. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. And he saw it, and he was glad. And then said the Jews unto him, thou art not yet 50 years old, and have you seen Abraham? And Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, truly, truly, amen, amen, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am. Let's have a word of prayer. Father God, thank you for this morning. Thank you for this time that we have in your word. I pray you would bless it. I pray that your name would be glorified, that you would guide my words this morning and that it would point only to you and your glorious son. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Here's the big question you often hear. Does Jesus appear in the Old Testament? And if you're like me, you've heard plenty of lessons and you've seen some verses and you've gone, yeah, that's probably Jesus. Right? We see these things and we go, we think that might be Jesus. And it gets complicated as you go through the Old Testament because it becomes the angel of the Lord and different things pop up there and we're going, well, is that God? Is that Jesus? Is that an angel? Right? And theologians kick these things around and we try to figure out where's Jesus in the Old Testament. And if he is there, then where is he? And how do we know it's him? How can we know that this is Jesus that we see in the Old Testament? I've been keeping up with you with your sermon series and whatnot And I know pastor Sean did a message a few weeks back about marrying the Old Testament the New Testament All right, they fit really well together It's like there was one author Almost right. They fit really really well together and and that's what you have to understand about this passage in John chapter 8 the Jews that are listening to Jesus speak are very well versed in the Old Testament and And the references he is making are very much Old Testament references. And you wonder, why did they get so mad? Because of what he's saying would have rang in their ears much differently than it rings in ours. We're believers. We're Christians. We believe he's the Christ, right? We don't have this difficulty with wrestling with all that if you're a believer. That comes because we've got 20-20 hindsight because we've got the full revelation of God. Let's not be too hard on some of these Jewish believers because this is a difficult truth to swallow, isn't it? I am the Christ, the Son of the Living God. If somebody came in here and told us that today, we'd be a little skeptical too, wouldn't we? So this is a difficult thing to understand. So what if I told you Did you miss these kind of things? If that's all you missed, then I'm probably doing something wrong. But what have I told you? I think we can go to places in the Old Testament and we can definitively say that Jesus is appearing in visible form as the Son, as the pre-incarnate Christ, and that's exactly what he's referencing here in John chapter 8, which is why the Jews are so irate at what he's saying. They are seeing he is claiming to be the visible Yahweh. That is scandalous and blasphemous to all levels, unless it's true. Okay? That's what we can see here. So, context matters. You know this illustration, right? Different guys touch different parts of the elephant. The one touches his tail and said, an elephant is like a rope. And one touches his ear and says, the elephant is like a sail. But they don't see the whole elephant. They see it in context. And this is often what we do with our 21st century minds. We read it in our own context and we have difficulty getting back into the Jewish context of the day. So that's my goal today. Get us back into that Jewish context so we can read it the way the Jews would have heard it, and then see how amazing these truths are that Jesus is saying. Okay, so again, we've covered all this. Let me get past all that. Here's the other context. Remember earlier in chapter eight, it says in 33, they answered him, we are Abraham's seed. Remember, we're sons of Abraham, right? And of course, Jesus is gonna turn that around and go, no, you're the sons of your father, the devil. Another bit of a step on toes moment, right? They say in verse 37, I know that you're Abraham's seed. Listen, I know you're Jews, Jesus says, but you seek to kill me because my word has no place in you. I know you're Jewish, but you're not of my father. Okay? Verse 39 and 40, they answered and said to him, Abraham is our father. Jesus said to them, if you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me, a man that has told you the truth, which I have heard of God. This did not Abraham. Abraham did not deny this truth. Abraham did not try to kill me. And I think there's an insinuation there. Of course, so, do you see? Maybe you're running ahead. Try to put this together. Jesus is claiming to have appeared to Abraham. And we're gonna read some verses today, and if you're like me, you may have read these verses a hundred times, and I don't know that you may have seen what, and this isn't me, I'm taking this from some other guys and whatnot that I've been studying, but this is really, really cool. Above all else, if you could just walk out of here going, wow, this word of God's pretty awesome, then we've at least accomplished something today. But I wanna see if we can put all this together. So again, verses 51 and 52, verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. Again, promises eternal life. Then said the Jews to him, Abraham is dead, and the prophets, and you say, if a man keep my saying, he shall never taste death. Are you putting yourself above Abraham? And there wasn't much more than that to a Jew. Abraham, Moses, right, that's top of the heap. Are you saying that you're greater than Abraham? And what Jesus will say is, not only am I saying that, I'm saying much more than that, okay? So the Jewish wheels start to turn here. Are you greater than our father Abraham, which is dead, and the prophets that are dead? Whom makest thou thyself? Are you saying what we think you're saying? Are you, yeah, who do you think you are? Are you really coming into this temple and saying what we think you're saying? Because we think you're saying something pretty blasphemous here. Is that what you're saying? Okay, and then in 55, 56, and 58, he makes three claims. He says, you have not known him, but I know him. I know the Father, that is an intimate knowledge, I know him. Verse 56, your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and he was glad. So Abraham rejoiced to see the day of Christ and he says he saw it. He saw the day of Christ. And then 58, I say to you before Abraham was, I am. And then of course in 58, what's he doing? He's claiming deity. That I am, that ego I me in the Greek is very intentional and we're not gonna have time to get into that statement but know how big that statement is as well. I really wanna focus on number two. Number two is what I wanna talk about here because this is what's gonna set things ablaze in this conversation. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and he was glad. So my question is what's the standard understanding of what Jesus is saying here? I think if you're like me, you've always kind of thought well, Abraham did got kind of a picture of what well, let me go back one What was promised to Abraham right a nation a great people number of the stars, right? We're gonna talk about those verses in a second and I think that when I read this I would understand Well, he got that promise, but he really didn't have any idea how that was gonna be fulfilled. I You know, he understood that God had made a promise to make a great nation, and he was very old, and they didn't even have a child yet, remember all that, and he trusted that promise. I think it's much more than that. I think much more went on back in Genesis for this. So, here's your Bible knowledge quiz. We're at Berean, I know you guys know your Bible. What's the significance of Genesis 12? Abrahamic covenant, okay? Abrahamic covenant. This is the backdrop for what Jesus is saying in John 8. John 12, Genesis 15 is the backdrop for what Jesus is saying in John chapter 8. So let's turn back to Genesis chapter 12. Spend a little time in the Old Testament this morning. Forgive me if I don't unhitch. Hashtag hitched, okay? All right, Genesis 12 verses 1 through 3 says this. Now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house into a land that I shall show thee. I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. There's your Abrahamic covenant, right? Very important, know your Abrahamic covenant. Now, question is, where are they when this promise occurs? That's easy to find out too. Turn back to chapter 11, just look back a few verses. and look at the last two verses of chapter 11. 31 says, and Terah, that's Abraham's father, took Abram, his son, and Lot, the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai, his daughter-in-law, his son, Abram's wife, and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan. And they came into Haran and dwelt there. And the days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran. So where are they when chapter 12 opens? They're in Haran. They're not in Ur. They left Ur the Chaldees to go to Haran. Need a map? There's Ur way down there in Babylonia. Here's Haran up north in the land of what we would say Assyria. They're almost down heading towards the Promised Land. They'd be going up the Fertile Crescent and they stop here. So, what can we say because of that? We can say that God talked to Terah and or Abram before Genesis 12, didn't they? Because who called Abram and Terah to leave her? Well, God did. So 12 is part 2. Part 1 happened before that. How do we know that? Go over to Acts chapter 7. What's happening in Acts chapter 7? Another important chapter of Scripture. That is Stephen. Stephen's sermon before the Sanhedrin. And if you want a comprehensive Old Testament history lesson, read Acts chapter 7 and look at what Stephen lays out here. It's really great. We're only going to look at a little piece of it. Give you a second to get there. Acts chapter 7 verse 2, And Stephen said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken! The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said to them, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee. Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Haran. And from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land wherein ye now dwell." So what did Stephen just confirm to us? That God appeared to Abraham. Notice that it doesn't say God spoke to Abraham. What does it say in verse 2? The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham. Really important. Keep that in your head, okay? Appeared unto our father Abraham before he left earth. So Genesis 12 is the second time God has promised these things to Abram once his father dies, and then we'll see other appearances, okay, before he dwelt in Heron. This is going to take a minute to set up, so be patient with me. It's going to get there, okay? Yahweh first contacted Abraham before he got to Haran, and it was more than a conversation in his head, which is, I think, how we often view this. We think the word of the Lord came to the prophet, and we think, well, there's this disembodied voice that was dropping the words into the prophet's head. I don't think that's what was happening. and and that the implications of that and how you're gonna read old testament appearances of god will change everything a it again mind-blowing kind of stuff so let's keep going don't run too far ahead and you'll mess up the whole thing to stay with me okay pace yourself right so the what's the point of this abraham's first divine encounter in mesopotamia involved a visible appearance of yahoo how do we know that because our inerrant word of god told us that god of the god of glory appeared to abraham in her before he left and went to her Everybody with me? Everybody following? Genesis 12 is a follow-up to that conversation. So at least conversation number two. Abraham and Yahweh had talked before and they had talked face to face. Now if you know your Bible and you know Yahweh, then why is this kind of mind-boggling? No man can stand before God. You can't see Yahweh. Remember Moses' ass and God says, no, you would die. What is everybody's reaction when they're even in front of a visible manifestation of Yahweh? We're going to die. That's the proper response, by the way, if you ever find yourself in that situation. But they had talked before face to face. So let's go to Genesis 12, verses 6 and 7. Sorry, I should have told you to hold your place back there in Genesis 12. We only have to skip ahead a few verses from where we were. We may be in the deep end of the pool a little bit today. Next week, you can go back to the easy study of Revelation that you guys have been doing. Back to that fluffy stuff in Revelation. All right. Genesis 12, again, verses 6 and 7. And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Shechem, unto the plain of Moriah. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the Lord, what? appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land. And there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him." This is a face-to-face interaction with God. Not with an angel. Go back and read it again. And the Lord appeared. Do you know what Hebrew word that is? That is Yahweh. That's not Elohim, which we could go, ah, Elohim can mean different. That's the covenant name of the Lord. It says Yahweh appeared to Abram. But I can't stand in the presence of God. How does that happen? Well, let's see if we can figure that out. And maybe, again, start putting things together in your mind as we move forward. Again, let me go back there. Well, now I'm going too far. There we go. So every picture, when I did an image search for Genesis 12, it's always Abraham by himself in a field talking to the sky. I think they're all wrong. That's my family feud acts. They're wrong. So the Lord appeared unto Abram. Now, go to Genesis 15. Let's see another meeting. And pay attention to the wording. Genesis 15, verse 1, after these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision. Did you see what we got there? What's a vision connote? Do you hear a vision? Do you sense a vision? You see. This is a visual experience. And who came to Abram in chapter 15, verse 1? The word of the Lord. The word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, this is a visual experience, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Lord God, Yahweh Elohim, calls him by his name, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is a ciliazer of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed. What is Abram attributing to the person that he's talking to? You have given me no seed. Does he know he's talking to God? Only God creates life. You have given me no seed. And lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him. Again, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bow shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad. That means he took him outside. That's fancy King James for he took him outside the tent. and said, Look now towards heaven and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them. And he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness. So this is just such an amazing passage. First, the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision. It's the word that came to Abram in a vision. Okay, verse 4, the word of the Lord came unto him. And then in verse 5, he brought him forth abroad or he brought him outside. Picture this. He brought him outside. He put his arm around his shoulder and he took him outside the tent and he said, look at the stars. Look at the stars, Abram. You want to know how many people are going to be in your family? You want to know about this nation? Talk about a God that cares about his people. But picture that. This is a visible manifestation of Yahweh. He's called Yahweh by Abram. Abram says, you're the one that can give me a seed. And he's the one that takes him outside and says, look at the stars. This is a personal interaction going on here. So it's the word of the Lord, word of Yahweh who comes to Abraham in a vision. The word here is something that can be seen. Why else would you call it a vision? Okay, in verse four we read that the word brought him outside to continue the conversation, and this isn't the kind of language one would expect to hear if Abraham was hearing only a sound. A sound can't take you outside. You might follow a sound outside, but the sound doesn't take you outside. Okay, talk about God being intimately connected to what's going on here. Let's go one more, chapter 18. 18 verse 1, and the Lord, guess what word that is again? Yahweh, appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. Let's go two and three. And he lift up his eyes and looked, and lo, three men stood by him. So here come three men. He just said in verse 1 that that's the Lord. But three men are coming to him. And when he saw them, what is Abram's reaction? He ran to meet them from the tent door, and he bowed himself toward the ground, and he said, My lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant. Do you think Abraham recognizes him? He knows exactly who that is. He saw him in chapter 15, he saw him in chapter 12, and here he is again, and he's got two guys with him, and I don't know who those two guys are, but you don't bow down and worship a total stranger. You might invite him into the house for hospitality, but you don't run out and fall at their feet and beg for their blessing. Don't pass by here till you get my Lord. He calls him my Lord. He recognizes him, okay? Abraham knows that this is Yahweh. He's come to visit him again. Now he's got two friends with him this time, but he's with him. My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant. Calls him thy servant. Okay, again, does Abraham know who these men are? He knows who at least one of them is. He knows that this is God, okay? And he says, I'm your servant. You wouldn't tell a stranger, I'm your servant. I'm your slave, I serve you, don't pass by. Okay, let's read starting in verse 9. And they said unto him, where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, behold, in the tent. And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life. And lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well-stricken in age, and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my Lord being old also." So, of course, this is the idea of Sarah having the child. Long past childbearing years, she's going to bear a child. Who could come and promise a child? Who says, I will return? And there's an interesting thing here back there in verse 10. I will certainly return according to the time of life. So this isn't Jesus being conceived in the Virgin Mary, but it's about the next best thing. I will come back and I will make sure that she becomes pregnant. I will be the one that creates life in the womb of your wife who is long past childbearing years. He's claiming Godhood once again. The Lord Yahweh, and verse 13 and 14, let's read that. I'm skipping ahead. and the Lord. So back before this, verse 1, the Lord appeared. Verse 13, and the Lord, Yahweh, said unto Abraham, The words here are attributed to Yahweh. Yahweh is speaking. The man that he just talked to, same one in verse 13. The Lord said unto Abraham, wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, shall I of surety bear a child, which I am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed, I will return unto thee according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. Just in case you were confused, I'm the one that's making this happen. I will create life where there is no life. I am the only one that can breathe life into existence, because I am the life-giving, life-sustaining God. I am Yahweh. And Abraham knew that that's who he was talking to. So let's finish the chapter, starting in verse 16. And just look at the things that jump out. I want you to look at, one, the number of times Yahweh is mentioned. That's LORD in all caps in your Bible. Number two, the nature of Abraham's interaction with the Lord here. Look at these verses. And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom. And Abraham went with them to bring them on the way. Of course, these are the two angels who will deliver judgment to Sodom and Gomorrah. And the Lord said, Yahweh said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? That's Genesis 15 and Genesis 12. uh... verse nineteen for i know him that he will command his children in his household after and they shall keep the way of the lord to do justice and judgment that yahweh may bring upon abraham that which he has spoken of him and yahweh said because the scribe sodom and gomorrah is great and because their sin is very grievous i will go down now and see whether they have done all together according to the cry of it which is coming to me and if not i will know and the men turn their faces from benson went towards sodom but abraham stood yet before yahweh And Abraham drew near and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? And of course he goes down the list, right? What about 50? What about 20? What about 10? Okay, verse 31. And he said, Behold, now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord. Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty's sake. And he said, O let not the Lord be angry. I mean, why would he be afraid? Let not the Lord be angry. And I will speak yet, but this once peradventure. Ten shall be found there. I will not destroy it for ten's sake. And Yahweh went his way. As soon as he left communing with Abraham, and Abraham returned unto his place. So here's the point of all that. Genesis 12, Genesis 15, Genesis 18, one before that back in Ur. So we have three recorded instances in scripture where Abraham met God face to face, spoke with him, even ate with him in Genesis 18. even had a meal with him in Genesis 18. Now, maybe you're putting some of this together now. Maybe you're running ahead and seeing where we're going. Just talk about that. There's the running ahead part. So what gospel are we reading from this morning? John. And how does John begin? John 1 1 in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God What did we just read in Genesis 15 in Genesis 18 the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision? How cool is that? God came to Abraham in a vision. So what's Jesus doing in John chapter 8? I'm that guy Why are the Jews so upset? I'm the one that appeared to Abraham. I'm the one that blessed him with the covenant. I was there. He saw my day. Not only did he just hear about it, he saw it and he rejoiced. I made the promise to him. I'm that guy. Understand the gravity of those statements. And of course we go on to John 114. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, the unique Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. See how this Old Testament and New Testament works together? But there's more. John says something equally dramatic in our text this morning. Go back to John 8, 56. I just kind of mentioned it a little bit, but let's dig into it. And then I'm going to give you one more example in the Old Testament, just for fun, because that's really good. Again, your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. Now if he just ended there, We could make the assumption that Abraham understood that a Messiah was coming, and he looked ahead to that day, and it was gonna be a positive thing, and he rejoiced. Great, there's a Redeemer coming. Genesis 3, 15, on forward, I know that Redeemer's coming. That would be a glorious truth on its own. But then Jesus adds, and he saw it. He saw it. Now, do we have anything recorded of Abraham having a John revelation type vision? We don't, there's nothing like that going on here. It's just a promise. But Jesus says he saw it. He saw the day. He saw the glory manifested in front of him. He, and that's Jesus making the claim that I was the one that appeared to Abraham. Genesis 12, Genesis 15, Genesis 18. Okay. That was me. Jesus, the incarnate word, informs his Jewish antagonist that he had appeared to Abraham prior to his incarnation. The Jews object vehemently to this claim, whereupon Jesus utters his famous statement before Abraham was born, I am. That's the cherry on top. Are you saying you're the one that appeared to Abraham? Yeah, not only that, I've always existed. I am eternal. That's just the, I mean, jaws are hitting the floor. Audible gas from the crowd. And these are people that believed in him. And they are shocked beyond measure when he makes that claim. So again, the backdrop for these statements is Genesis 12 and 15. Since the word is clearly equated with and identified as Yahweh in Genesis 12 and 15, when the New Testament has Jesus saying, that was me, he's claiming to be the word of the Old Testament, who was the visible Yahweh. And I think John agrees, or he wouldn't have opened his gospel that way. John is making that connection from what Jesus said. That's where he's getting it from. John's not going off the top of his head. We'll just call him the word. No, he listened to what Jesus said and he understood. And imagine what kind of teaching John got in those 40 days after the resurrection. You want to talk about a seminary level education. His heart probably burned inside of him when they opened the scriptures. There was something different going on there. Look what Paul says in Galatians 3, 8. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham. Preached is an active thing. Yahweh preached the gospel unto Abraham. How? Because Jesus was there. The pre-incarnate Son preached the gospel unto Abraham by telling him, I'm gonna bless you. I'm gonna make a great nation of you. As many as the stars are in the sky. That's what your family's gonna look like. It's amazing to me how it all ties together. And if you're still not convinced, I've got one more thing to do. Let's go to 1 Samuel chapter 3. This is a little bit of a tangent, but you know, I'm good at those. 1 Samuel chapter 3, and I'm going to be willing to bet you're going to come away with something that you've never seen this morning. Not because of me, but because this word is so awesome. and i've got an extra credit assignment for anybody wants to know about this week but we all have time for that sport first samuel chapter three That is the boy Samuel at the tabernacle in Shiloh. Remember, Hannah prays for a son, God grants her that son, and she promises him in service to the tabernacle. Of course, Eli's in charge of the tabernacle and his reprobate sons over there. But young Samuel is at the tabernacle now, learning the ins and outs of being a priest at the tabernacle. All right, so let's look at this section again. And now that we've read those other verses, see if you can see the key words here. First Samuel 3 verse 1, and the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord, the King James says precious. If you have another translation, it probably says rare, right? The ESV I think says rare. The child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli and the word of the Lord was rare in those days. There was no open vision. Do you ever catch that before? Because again, when we hear word, what do we think? We hear spoken word. The word of the Lord was rare. God wasn't speaking to his people. That's not what verse one says. It says the word of the Lord, the word of the Lord was rare, there was no vision. Nobody saw him, we haven't seen him for a while. Now, if you read Genesis, you see this all over the place. Now, when you go back and read Genesis, you'll see so many of these, because it'll change the way you look at this. Now, where do I wanna go next, okay? So again, we should establish that. Seven to 10, let's read that. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him. He had not seen this physical manifestation of God yet. And the Lord called Samuel again the third time, and he arose and went to Eli and said, Here am I, for thou didst call me. And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child. Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go lie down, and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant hears. So Samuel went and lay down in his place. Familiar story, right? We remember all this. Go back in and listen. And every time I've ever learned this story, every time I've ever considered it, I just picture Samuel laying there listening and he hears a disembodied voice and he starts talking to the voice. Look at verse 10. Verse 10 will rock your world. And the Lord came and stood. Have you ever read that before? I don't, how did I miss that for so many years? The Lord came and stood and called it us other times, Samuel, Samuel. And then Samuel answered, speak for thy servant here. The Lord is standing at the foot of Samuel's bed. He's standing there, right? It's not a disembodied voice. The Lord comes and stands in front of Samuel. It's the same Lord that came in Genesis 12, 15 and 18. Came and stood because notice it says in verse 10, the Lord came, Yahweh came. There's no, you know, when we get to the angel of the Lord passages, you gotta do a little work. There's no work to be done here. Yahweh came and stood before Samuel, okay? The Lord came and stood. So the word of the Lord is standing before Samuel. The same word from John 1, 1. The same word from John 1, 14. That's what Jesus is claiming in John 8, 56. Okay, now, go to verse 19, skip ahead in the chapter. And Samuel grew. And the Lord was with him. Yahweh was with him. And did let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord. And then look at verse 21. And Yahweh appeared again in Shiloh. For the Lord, Yahweh, revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh. By what means? The word of the Lord. So the visible Yahweh, Jesus, pre-incarnate Son, came and visited Samuel at Shiloh. How many times? I don't know. But it says there in verse 21 that He revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the Word of the Lord. God came to visit His prophet in the Old Testament. Okay? That's Am I the only one? I think it's pretty awesome. Okay, the word of the Lord. So according to verse 21, Yahweh appeared to Samuel with regularity at Shiloh. The first verse of the chapter makes a clear association between the word of the Lord and a visionary experience. And it's the visible Yahweh in human form, it's the pre-incarnate Christ. And that's the claim that Jesus is making. And that's why the Jews are losing their minds. Because they believed in a visible Yahweh. They believed in God being able to incarnate himself. And so when he claims to be that, Again, that's a scandalous and blasphemous claim unless he's that guy, okay? The extra credit is, go read Jeremiah 1 this week and see if you can't pick out a few of those other ones too. It happens the exact same way in Jeremiah 1, okay? Don't turn there now, you gotta wait. We're almost done. So what have we learned? That there was a word of the Lord that appeared to many Old Testament patriarchs and prophets. He had a physical body, he spoke to men face to face, and sometimes he even ate. And then when we see the resurrected Christ, what's one of the first things he does when he walks into the upper room? You guys got any food? Resurrection makes me hungry. You got any fish? That word not only spoke for Yahweh, he was acknowledged as Yahweh. He pronounced truth as Yahweh and claimed divine power as Yahweh. It's very different than the angel we see in Revelation. The angel of revelation is saying, I'm talking about him. Don't worship me. I'm talking about him. This Yahweh is accepting worship. This Yahweh is pronouncing divine truth. This Yahweh is acknowledging the power of the Godhead. And it's whispering the Trinity, isn't it? Right? We see it because we got the full revelation, but we can see the Trinity in force right there. And so a Jew that comes to Christ should have this amazing picture. You know, I kind of get jealous of those early church people that, you know, they say, remember in Acts, Paul comes upon those men, and they're like, well, we were law followers, we were Jews, and then we were disciples of John, and then they tells them the gospel and they get saved and become followers of Christ. I mean, can you imagine that religious experience? You go from the law to John to Christ and get that full picture of redemption? That's what these Jews are challenged with, and so many of them won't accept the truth that's right there in front of them. So back to John. John identifies the word with Jesus in 1.1 and 1.14. He says that the word was God. So again, not the word was a God, not the word was an Elohim, the word was God, the word was Yahweh. And in John 8.56, Jesus claimed that Abraham saw him in Genesis 12 and 15 and that he rejoiced when he saw Jesus. Again, I'm that guy. So again, how is this gonna change the way you read some of these narratives? When God walks in the cool of the evening in the garden, Jesus, they interacted with the visible God in the Garden of Eden. Enoch walked with God. Noah walked with God. That's not a metaphor. I think they walked with God. The visible Yahweh walked with them, just like he did with Abraham and said, look at the stars. And he walked with Noah and said, here's how you got to build this boat. Right? That's what he did. And then Abraham the three times. We've got Jacob, Genesis 32, when Jacob wrestles, of course, this is the angel of the Lord that he wrestles with. Do you remember what he names the place when he's done? Jacob names the place Peniel, which means I saw God face to face. What's Jacob saying? I just wrestled with God. That was Jesus. So Jesus is a heck of a wrestler too. Did you know that? Okay? He could dislocate your hip like that. Okay? Go back and read the Exodus story. You guys will come across some of these as you're going through Exodus. And look at the way Moses encounters the glory of the Lord on Mount Sinai. Go back and read the burning bush story. It says the bush is burning, and then it says the angel of the Lord was in the bush. Yahweh is in the bush. Like, there is not just a flame. I think Yahweh appears as the visible Christ there as well. And then, of course, Joshua 5, when they're outside Jericho, he runs into the general of the armies of the Lord. And what does Joshua do? On his face. Who are you with? I'm not with you or them, I'm with me. I'm with our cause. Our cause, okay? You couldn't make this stuff up. This is why it's so infuriating when the skeptics get out there and go, oh, this is just an ancient Bronze Age book and they just threw these stories together. That's not what we got going on here. How intricate is this? How sophisticated is this? Who could make this up except a God who is sovereign? Except a God who knows his narrative, who knows the end from the beginning? who declares what's right, who declares what just. And so as we close here, what a word we have. And what a word we have. Again, that is, don't ever get over that. Don't ever let this word become ordinary because it's happened to me and it's probably happened to you and the drudgery of your everyday life and quiet times get a little bit tough sometimes. Fight against that. Don't let this word become average. Don't let it become mediocre, because it's not. If it ever does, that's a you problem, not a word problem. Stay in this word. It's so amazing. It's so amazing. And I'm not saying I don't have days where I struggle with it. If it was easy, everybody would do it. This is the place you want to live. This is the place you want to stay. What did Jesus say? If you abide in me. Not if you hang out with me. Not if you do some of the things I tell you. You gotta live in me. And that's the word we're dealing with. That's the word that came and took on flesh. That's what we're celebrating in the Christmas season. The fact that God came to this earth and lived a sinless life and died on a cross and was buried and rose again on the third day and now sits on the right hand of the Father. That's what we're celebrating. And it starts back in Genesis and we go all the way through. Yeah, you can give him a hand all you want. Let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for this morning. Thank you for your word. Thank you for the word that took on flesh and dwelt among us, Lord, and died for our sins. I pray that our faith is there. I pray that our trust is there and nowhere else, because salvation can be found in no other. There is no salvation in any other name. Lord, we praise you for that. We thank you for that. I thank you for this church. I thank you for this place that lifts you and your name and your truth high and glorifies your name. And I pray that we would continue to do so. I pray that the gospel would go forth. I pray that it would never become ordinary. That it would drive us to action. It would drive us to glorifying you with our very lives. And we thank you for it, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.