John 8, 21-34, a sermon I've entitled, Jesus, Alien from Above, and this is what it says. Then he said again to them, I go away and you seek me and you will die in your sins. Where I am going, you cannot come. So the Jews are saying, surely he's not going to kill himself, will he? Since he says, where I'm going, you cannot come. And he was saying to them, you are from below. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you, you will die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. So they're saying to him, who are you? Jesus said to them, what have I been saying to you from the beginning? I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you. But he who sent me is true. And the things which I have heard from him, these I speak to the world. They did not realize that he had been speaking to them about the Father. So Jesus said, When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and I do nothing of my own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father has taught me. And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him. And as he spoke these words, many came to believe in him. You know, preparing for my sermon today, I visited the UF UFO Pulse website. Now, the opening page has a picture of the New York skyline and a giant space saucer in the foreground. In bold letters underneath, it proclaims, we are not alone. And then there's a quote there from Arthur C. Clarke, which reads this. Two possibilities exist. Either we're alone in the universe, or we're not. Both are equally terrifying. And at the bottom of the page, they declare this. For decades, the skies have held secrets. Mysteries buried beneath layers of classified reports, blurry videos, and whispered accounts, dismissed as fantasy. Now the veil is lifting. From jaw-dropping cockpit footage of objects defying physics to government-confirmed crash retrieval programs, sworn congressional testimonies, the evidence is mounting that we are on the brink of redefining humanity's understanding of its place in the universe. This is not science fiction. This is happening, documented and declassified, and the implications are profound as they are unsettling. Welcome to the age of undeniable truth. I did a Google News search using UFOs, and these are some of the headlines that came up. Hellfire Missile Bounces Off Mysterious Orb in Stunning Footage Shown to Congress. Or this one. Military Whistleblowers Testify to Congress About Unexplained UFO Encounters. U.S. Congress is holding UFO hearings today about restoring public trust. Now when I was a kid, stories about UFOs were found in the National Enquirer and they were read by people wearing tinfoil hats. But now even our political leaders are starting to take serious questions about what's really going on. The late astrophysicist Stephen Hawking is warned of the danger of trying to make contact with alien life forms in outer space. In an MSN article, it says this, Hawking's repeatedly warned of any deliberate attempt to communicate with beings from other worlds, especially those potentially far more advanced than us, who could prove to put humanity's survival at risk. His worry was instead of being curious or friendly, a highly intelligent alien race might see the Earth as what ripe for the taking. If aliens ever visit us, Hawkins said in a 2010 episode of Into the Universe, the outcome may be similar to when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans. I've heard people say before that if we were ever to find life on another planet, somehow that would disprove God. I don't see why. It would just mean that God created those life forms as well. But what do you think? Is there intelligent life above and beyond? Are there aliens who visited our planet from another place, another realm? According to the Bible, the answer is yes. There's a number of places that mention angels from heaven visiting humans. And more importantly, the king of heaven himself made a visit to our planet. Jesus, the alien from above. That's what we want to think about today. So let's pray and get into the text. Father God, I pray for grace and mercy. Open up our hearts and minds to see the truth of who your son is, that we might embrace him and find eternal life. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. In this section of John's Gospel, we have the interaction between Jesus and the religious leaders, where Jesus makes more amazing claims about himself. But what do we see in the text? The first thing we see is that Jesus speaks about his departure, his departure. That's verses 21 to 22. You know, there's a number of popular songs where people sing about leaving, isn't there? Some tell how they're going to leave. I'm leaving on a jet plane. Don't know when I'll be back again. That became a popular song for young men heading off to fight in Vietnam. And some songs, they tell when you're leaving. He's leaving on a midnight train in Georgia. Leaving on a midnight train. And some of the songs, they talk about being left behind. Chicago sang a song where they said, if you leave me now, you'll take away the biggest part of me. Oh, no, baby, please don't go. Gloria Gaynor, she was more angry and defiant about being left behind in her song, I Will Survive. At first I was afraid, I was petrified. Kept thinking how I never could live without you by my side. But then I spent so many nights thinking how you did me wrong and I grew strong and I learned how to get along. Inspired by the death of his friend from leukemia, Terry Jacks wrote a song called Seasons in the Sun. It's saying from the perspective of the dying man. Goodbye to you, my trusted friend. We've known each other since we were nine or ten. Together we climbed hills and trees, learned of love and ABCs, skinned our hearts and skinned our knees. Goodbye, my friend, it's hard to die. And all the birds are singing in the sky. Now that spring is in the air, pretty girls are everywhere, think of me and I'll be there. We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun, but the hills that we climbed were just seasons out of time. Well, here Jesus speaks of his coming departure in verse 21, when he says this, Now, we know what Jesus is speaking about when he's talking about leaving. He's talking about going back to heaven. But what did he mean when he said, you will seek me? You know, in Jeremiah 29, 13, God says this, you'll find me when you seek me with all of your heart. But it cannot be that that's the type of seeking that Jesus is talking about here, because he tells them that they're going to die in their sins. They aren't going to find Jesus if they're dying in their sins. Is he talking in some sort of maniacal, endless pursuit that they would have after he's gone? Would it be like Captain Ahab hunting down the great white whale, Moby Dick, who bit off his leg and destroyed his ship? No. Once they killed Jesus, the religious leaders thought their problem was over. But notice that he says of these religious leaders that they will be seeking him when or as they die in their sins. Let me give you a story I came across. A young girl. She had been raised in a Christian home. Her parents were believers, but she rejected the faith of her parents. Instead, she went out and lived for the pleasure of this world. I don't remember what it was she contracted, but it was some kind of illness, and she ended up quite sick. As a matter of fact, she was dying. She was bedridden, and her mother was caring for her. And one night, she woke up gasping for air in a panic. She called for her mom, who came in to comfort her. She said, Mother, what does Ezekiel 7, 3 to 4 say? I had a dream, and it was Ezekiel 7, 3 to 4. Her mom didn't know offhand, so she went and picked up her Bible. And she read it to her daughter. And this is what it says. The end is now upon you. I will unleash my anger against you. I will judge you according to your conduct and repay you for all your detestable practices. I will not look on you with pity. I will not spare you. I will surely repay you for your conduct and for the detestable practices among you. Then you will know that I am the Lord. She slumped back on her pillow and she died two minutes later. Years ago, we had an older woman come to our church for a while. I remember once when we were in Sunday school, for an opening question, I had this, who would surprise you the most if they became a Christian? And she said, I would have to say me. I thought that was honest. I visited her home a couple of times, laid out the gospel, explained to her how Jesus died on a cross to take the punishment of the sins of his people, and that if she repented of her sins and trusted in Christ, his death could be the payment for her sins. God would forgive her and grant her eternal life as a free gift. She listened politely, and we talked for a while. She just didn't see the need. A year later, she ended up dying. Her son told me he was there at the moment she passed. She had been comatose for, I don't know, about eight or nine hours. All of a sudden, her eyes opened wide. She looked up into the corner of the room and said she got a terrified look on her face, and she died. Isaiah 55, 6-7 says this, Seek the Lord when he may be found, call on him when he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. And let him return to the Lord, and he will have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Sometimes the seeking comes too late. The person has sinned away the day of grace. The Bible says, Today, if you hear my voice, do not harden your heart. Today is the day of salvation. Jesus had just told the people that they would die in their sins, but what they picked up on was this comment about going away. Look what it says in verse 22. So the Jews were saying, surely he's not going to kill himself, since he said, where I'm going, you cannot come. So what do you think? Did Jeffrey Epstein kill himself? We're told that he hung himself in his jail cell while his guards were sleeping and the cameras weren't functioning. But guess what? Later on they found the film. They were working. But there was a minute missing on the film. Hmm. Epstein had a friend who was recruiting girls in France for him. He also was arrested, and strangely enough, he also committed suicide in jail by hanging himself. Now, by the way, if this sermon were going up on YouTube, I couldn't use the word suicide, otherwise they would flag it. Instead, I would have to say that the person unalived themselves. Well, the religious leaders were wondering if Jesus was going to unalive himself, but no, Jesus wasn't going to take his life. Rather, he was going to give it up as a sacrifice. And the reason Jesus said, where I'm going, you cannot come, is because he was going to heaven, and they were heading for hell. Well, after speaking of his departure, Jesus next tells the religious leaders of his origin, and that's our second point. His origin, verse 23. And he was saying to them, you are from below, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. In the 1960s television series Star Trek, there was an episode called Aaron of Mercy. In it, two of the main characters, Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock, go down to a planet called Organia with the intent of making a treaty with the inhabitants to protect them from the Klingons, the sworn enemies of the Federation. When they meet the people of Argania, they're simple, pleasant people, rather primitive lifestyle. Captain Kirk explains to the situation that the Arganians are in, but these passive sheep-like people don't seem concerned at all. I mean, don't they know what the Klingons will do to them and how they'll exploit them? A little later in the episode, the Klingon commander comes down with some men to the planet. Kirk and Spock disguise themselves so as to blend in with the inhabitants. Well, if these passive Organians were not going to fight for themselves, then Kirk and Spock would have to do so. They take out a few of the Klingons themselves, but eventually they're discovered for who they are, and it's going to involve the spaceships orbiting the planet from both the Klingons and the Federation. And they're speaking to him, talking to him about what's going on down below. And as they are, they're both in the same room, the clan commander and Captain Kirk and Spock. And one of the Organians, two of the Organians from the council, come in and they announce that they have put an immediate stop to all hostilities. What? How? You see, these primitive Organians are not what they appear to be. They've evolved over the millennia to a point where they don't even need physical bodies. What they see, what appears before them, is only an appearance. And now they say to their guests, you must leave, for the mere presence of beings like you is intensely painful for us. After this, the two Organians begin to shine and transform themselves into light, greater, brighter, more intense, and then they disappear. Mr. Spock, after seeing this, says this, fascinating, pure energy, pure thought, totally incorporeal, not life as we know it at all. I should say that the Organians are as far above us on the evolutionary scale as we are above the amoebas. But Jesus is farther, much farther above us than we are above the amoebas. For as he said, you are from below, I am from above. You are from this world. I am not from this world. Now think about that the next time we sing these words. Oh, the love that drew salvation's plan. Oh, the grace that brought it down to man. Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span at Calvary. Or this one, out of his ivory prowesses into a world of woe, only his great eternal love made my Savior go. That brings us to our third point though, his warning. This is in verse 24. Look at what it says, Now this is the second time Jesus has made this statement, but notice there's a difference between this and the first one. In the first one he puts it in the singular, you will die in your sin. But here he says you will die in your sins, plural. Why is that? Well, I think the commentators are right who suggest that when he talks about dying in their sin, the primary sin he has in mind is the rejection of him as God's way of salvation. But then when he goes on to say you will die in your sins, he's talking about that they will be punished for each individual sin that they've committed. Years ago, Clint Eastwood starred in a movie called Unforgiven. And there is nothing that you should fear more than the prospect of leaving this world with your sins unforgiven. But that's the problem. People don't see, know, or care about how great, how many, and how offensive their sins are. I mean, just take the number of sins. You can sin by what you do, what you say, what you think. You can also sin by what you fail to do. Jesus said the two great commands were to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor just as much as yourself. Have you kept those two commands for a week solid in any period in your life? You see, it's not just what we do, but what we fail to do that's a problem. And even for the sins that we actually commit directly. I mean, how many sins do you think the average person sins a day? I've had people say, oh, 100. And I say, well, OK, let's go with a small number. Let's say 10. I mean, a comment you made, a thought that you had, some shortness you had towards your spouse or whatever, cutting things that you say. OK, 10 sins a day. OK, there's 365 days in a year. That's 3,650 sins. If you live to be 85 years old, that's 310,250 sins in your lifetime. And because God is just, every one of those sins has to be punished. If Jesus doesn't pay your sin debt, you have to pay it yourself. And that debt will never be paid off, and that's why sin is eternal, and hell is eternal. The only way to escape is through faith in Christ, but the Christ that you have to believe in is the one revealed in the scripture. John Gerstner tells of a time when there was a man up for ordination in his denomination. Most of the people were supporting him, but Gerstner opposed his ordination. They asked him why. He said, because this man doesn't love Jesus. So what do you mean he doesn't love Jesus? He says he loves Jesus. Who are you to say he doesn't love Jesus? Gerstner said, I don't doubt this man loves the image of Jesus that he's made up in his own mind, but he doesn't love the Jesus as he's revealed in the Bible. This man didn't believe that Jesus was the incarnate Son of God, equal with the Father. Look, Orthodox Jews consider Jesus to be a false prophet. Muslims do much better. They consider Jesus to be a true prophet. But they certainly don't believe He was the Son of God who died on a cross. Mormons say that they love Jesus, but they believe He's the spirit brother of Lucifer. Jehovah Witnesses say that Jesus was the firstborn and the greatest of all the creations that God made. They'll even agree that He's a God with a little g, but not that He's God Almighty. Jesus says to all these devout and dedicated people of other religions, unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins. At the burning bush, when Moses asked God, when the people asked me, who sent me, what should I say? God said, I am what I am. Tell them that I am sent you. Jesus is telling us here that unless you accept His claims to be God incarnate, Jehovah God of the Old Testament, you will die in your sins. This is stunning claims. It brought one question to the mind of his listeners. We find that in the first part of 25, which is our next point, their question. Look what he said. So they were saying to him, who are you? Three most important questions you can ever ask and answer in your life are these three. Who is Jesus? What has he done? And do I believe it? The way you answer those questions will determine where you spend eternity. Now they had no category for Jesus, not surprising because he's the monogenes, the unique and one and only son of God. But to these religious leaders, Jesus was an enigma wrapped in a riddle inside of a black box. Unable or unwilling to process what he was saying to them and come to grips with his claims, all they could do is stand there and ask incredulously, who are you? But Jesus wasn't the Riddler from Batman. He wasn't a coy boy trying to hide his true identity. He again lays out for him his claims in the next part, which is his answer, and this is 25b-30. It says, What have I been saying to you from the beginning? I have many things to speak to you and judge concerning you. But he who sent me is true, and the things which I heard from him, these I speak to the world. They did not realize that he had been speaking to them about the Father. Jesus was sent from heaven as an envoy, the messenger of God the Father, the true God who speaks to the world concerning the truth, which is exactly what he's doing here. You know, there used to be a television show called Man from Uncle. There was a movie called Man from Snowy River. There's a musical called Man from La Mancha. Jesus was the man from heaven, the alien from above who came to the earth to bring salvation to humanity. Verse 28 says, So Jesus said to them, When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing of my own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught me. And He who sent me is with me. He's not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him. Notice Jesus' unity with the Father. He speaks only what the Father taught Him to speak. The Father is with Him. He never leaves Him. And He Himself, unlike us, always does the things that are pleasing to Him. But what do we make of the words where Jesus says, when you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He. When Jesus speaks of being lifted up here, He's speaking about His crucifixion. He seems to be saying that when they hoist Him up on the cross and He's hanging between heaven and earth, that's when the reality of who He really is will come home to Him. Do you remember what happened? The earth went dark, the sun refused to shine, little ironic, considering Jesus was the light of the world. When he gave up his spirit, the earth quaked, the tombs broke open, and the veil of the temple split from top to bottom. And one Roman centurion, who was standing at the foot of the cross, correctly summed up and surmised the situation, and drew the right conclusion when he said, surely this man was the Son of God. That was that man's conclusion about Jesus. What's yours? Who do you believe Jesus to be? Do you believe his claim of being the Son of God, the Savior of the world, and the judge that you personally have to face on that last day? Do you deem him trustworthy when he tells you that he's the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but by him? Do you believe him when he says, I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly? Do you believe him when he says, whoever comes to me, I will in no means cast out? Do you believe? Do you believe? Do you believe? Whether or not you believe in UFOs, it doesn't really matter. But whether or not you believe Jesus is the alien from above who came to be savior of the world matters. It's of eternal significance. And God give you the grace to believe in his son. Let's pray. Our Father in God, is it really that simple? We sinned, we're in rebellion, and yet you've offered a full pardon and amnesty for anyone who would lay down their arms and swear allegiance to your son. You've provided a way for salvation, and it's a glorious way. Lord, the hearts have to be open, and only you can do that work through your Spirit. We pray for those who are here this morning who don't know you, and we pray for those who are going to be listening over the radio and the internet, that you would open up hearts and call in Christ's flock. So bless us that end, for we ask now in Jesus' name. Amen.