Amen. For the preaching of God's Holy Word, please turn to the Gospel of John. John 8, verses 21-30. John 8, verse 21-30. This is the Word of the Living God. Then Jesus said to them again, I'm going away, and you will seek me and will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come." So the Jews said, will he kill himself because he says, where I go, you cannot come? And he said to them, you are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.' Then they said to him, Who are you? And Jesus said to them, just what I have been saying to you from the beginning. I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but he who sent me is true. And I speak to the world those things which I heard from him. They did not understand that he spoke to them of the father. Then Jesus said to them, When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of myself, but as my Father taught me, I speak these things. And He who sent me is with me. The Father has not left me alone, for I always do the things that please Him. As He spoke these words, many believed in Him. Congregation, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever. Amen. Please be seated. Beloved congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, dear children, We are continuing our series through the Gospel of John. And as we are in chapter 8, still we are in Jerusalem in the year 29 AD, shortly after the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Booths. Jesus had two verbal clashes already with the Jewish leaders in the temple, and now they were trying to kill him. But they couldn't because, as it's said, His hour had not yet come. In his first encounter with the Jewish leaders, Jesus had revealed himself as the living water, and that whoever believed in him out of his heart, too, will flow rivers of living water. But they, of course, didn't believe him and wanted to arrest him. And the second encounter, which we looked at last time, he revealed himself as the light of the world that defeats darkness. And the Jewish leaders again wanted to arrest him, but they couldn't because his hour had not yet come. And this morning we will be looking at the third clash with the Jewish leaders that Jesus had with them in the temple. And this one is even more intense than the ones before. You can see the tension is rising between the leaders and the Lord Jesus Christ. And it begins with these words in verse 21. Then Jesus said to them, again, I want to turn your attention to the word, Again, and let me remind you what we saw last time. How Jesus, although sincerely threatened by the Jewish leaders, still came back to the temple to teach. That he did not give up, that he did not run away, that he was not intimidated, but he kept preaching the truth. And now he comes back to teach in the temple for the third time in a row, knowing that the Jews were out to kill him. Beloved, in the same way, we also have to be persistent and continue to teach and to live the truth, no matter how loud the lions may roar or how intensely sabers might rattle. We have to stand firm in the battle and not run away. I was always puzzled when Christians so much longing for retirement, especially when I hear this from pastors, of course, I can understand this, that some callings are more intense than others, and that people are worn out at older age, but I cannot understand a mindset of looking forward to having to do nothing anymore, just to play golf, or something like that. This is not the Christian mindset. The Christian mindset is what we see here with the Lord Jesus Christ. This word, again, should also drive us. What does it mean for us? Again, well, of course, to teach and gossip and live the truth without stopping. To have this mindset, to expand the kingdom of God. This is why we are here. And this is what many Christians don't seem to properly understand. I have to admit that for many years in my own Christian life, I was still half a humanist, thinking that, well, everything is for my good. I mean, we know that all things happen together for our good, but not in the way as the world thinks. The world thinks everything must please us at all times. But the Christian life is only for the glory of God. We have talked about this constantly. So therefore a mindset that, oh, am I happy if I don't have to work again, or when I can take off this robe and just lie in the sand, that is not the Christian life. The Christian life is work. It is not work in order to be saved, but work because we have been saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Work because we have been bought with a price, and now He owns us. And He doesn't own us for us to enjoy life, but He owns us for us to serve Him, to bring glory to His name. We have to begin to change our thinking slowly but steadily. that this life is not about being a winter bird one day, and being half you here and half you in Florida, driving around with your golf cart. This is not the Christian life. The Christian life is work. It is constant work. It is being driven by the zeal for the glory of Christ, the Christ who saved us. Of course, this is not popular to say, and to be honest, I'm not always so happy to hear it because it applies to me as well. Rest, joy, eternal bliss is on the other side of death. This life is to expand the kingdom, to bring glory to our God in this world. So we see this in Christ again and again and again. And we see this in the apostles and disciples. They go back and preach. They don't listen to man. They listen to God. They obey God. We see this throughout history, the early church fathers. We see this in the Reformation. You might kill me, but I will still do what is right. What is right before God. And the best example for this is the Lord Jesus Christ. He goes back and preaches again, although they want to and eventually will kill him. But the word again also refers to something else. It not only refers to how insisting he is in preaching the truth, but also to the content of it. It means that once again he prophesied the Jews their doom. I mean, you cannot over-appreciate what is written in the Word about Jesus Christ to whom He speaks here, and what He speaks. He's speaking, this would be like speaking today to the leaders, to the most famed leaders that you know in the evangelical world, and basically preaching to them that they are doomed, not that they are, but that that's what the Lord Jesus Christ is doing. Not only were these men religious... Superstars in Israel. They were also religious authorities. They had a lot of authority. And here's Jesus telling them, you're doomed. You're on your way to eternal destruction. So he was very bold in his preaching. And he had already told them in chapter 7 that they were doomed when he told them, you will seek me and you will not find me. And where I am, you cannot come. And now he's doing it again when he says in verse 21, I'm going away and you will seek me and will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come. So there are two things that we can learn from this one word again, that little word in verse 21. First, that Jesus does not only budge in continuously coming back and preaching, but that he also is bold in the content of this preaching. I wonder, we are a different generation of preachers these days. We're easily intimidated, and we are not that bold to begin with. I wonder if that is a judgment, a beginning judgment on the church in the West. How easily are we intimidated? As soon as somebody complains or writes a strong-worded email, we pull back, we ask for forgiveness, instead of like lions roaring the truth. Now, don't misunderstand me. Sometimes we are wrong. Sometimes we are unnecessarily harsh. But I would say that's not our main problem today. Our main problem is the opposite one, that we hold back out of fear. And I find it almost amusing if it wasn't that sad, that congregations complain that they don't have good preaching or that they don't have bold preachers. Well, dear brothers, dear sisters, if you keep intimidating them, it won't happen. You're contributing, and I'm not only you, I'm speaking to an exemplary audience here. If you don't stop intimidating and criticizing them, you're making it just harder for them to be bold. Not that it is an excuse for them, but you cannot complain about your preachers about the weakness of preaching if you don't support the preacher. God will not bless the preaching that is timid and it doesn't preach the whole counsel of God. And therefore, there's so much weak preaching around. Some don't want it any different because they don't want the preaching to object or to offend. They don't want to change. They just want to be affirmed in their ways. But how easily are people offended even by the preaching of the core gospel, by the preaching of the Word of God? Martin Luther said, the gospel cannot be preached without offense and tumult. It cannot be preached without offense and tumult. But how often do preachers give in to these pressures by rubbing off the edges of their message, as it were? in order not to offend people. But let us ask now, what does Jesus mean when He tells them that they will seek Him? I don't know if you have seen this or noted this phrase, that they will seek Him. Does it mean that at some point they will indeed turn to Jesus Christ and seek salvation, seek their redemption in Him? Well, that cannot be the case, because He then says that they will die in their sins. So if they really sought Christ in repentance, they wouldn't have to die in their sin, would they? But to what is Jesus referring here? Might he be referring to the year 70 AD when Jerusalem was besieged and destroyed by the Romans and 1.1 million Jews died in horrific ways as a judgment for rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ? Is that it? Will they seek Him then and not find Him? It is not that either, because even then, in their utmost desperation of misery, the Jews didn't turn to the Lord Jesus Christ at all. They became defiant. No, Jesus is referring here to something else. He's referring here to the hour of their death. You see, in the course of their lives, people can wonderfully deceive themselves that they are good and that they are okay with God. Or they can pretty much avoid the question altogether about the state of their souls and rather keep themselves busy and distracted about it. It's always great when you have something to look forward to. And when certain questions creep up, you just don't think of them. You think, oh, tomorrow's Monday, tomorrow I will do this, or soon is my birthday, or soon is this, or vacation. And you can always distract yourself. But in the hour of your death, when you're facing the end, there's nothing to look forward to in this life, then it's only you in eternity. Then you will think. And, as we can read here, even the Pharisees, even the Jewish leaders, at that point, started to think. You see, sadly, many people in churches are like that. They don't think much about their salvation, they don't think much about whether their life really represents what they claim to be. After all, and I've heard it in this city, Don't ask me about my salvation. I'm in the church, am I not? That's the answer. Or others, when you ask him on the deathbed, you ask him, are you right with Jesus Christ? An answer that I have never heard so often than in this city is, well, pastor, I hope. Well, my question is, what do you mean by I hope? I went to Christian school, I was baptized, I did profession of faith, I went to the church most of my life. And then I have to say every time, that's not what I'm asking. I'm asking, how do you know that you're right with the Lord Jesus Christ? And then they are confronted sometimes with the gospel for the first time in their life. With the true gospel. Although they have grown up in conservative reformed churches. This is a very shocking reality because this city is full with people like that. And we have to find them, and we have to bring them the gospel. Ridiculing them and condemning them doesn't help anyone, least of all the kingdom. We have to find them and confront them with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we can distract us from these questions. We can distract us a whole life. from these questions. But what if somebody would tell you that the day of your death was today? What would change? Would you now suddenly start thinking, am I really right with God? I bet you would. I will always remember an event in my own life almost 30 years ago when I faced sure death. One of several occasions in my life. I was driving on a beautiful spring day, and there were not many cars on the road. The road was wide open. I was driving fast in Austria, fast through a turn, and as I come around this turn, it was a fast, it was not an autobahn, it was a fast lane there. And suddenly, after the corner, there were two cars in the middle of the road that apparently had some fender bender or something. And I was fast, there was no way, no way I could stop before those two, and the road was not wide enough. So I slammed my brakes, and then the seconds go very slow. That is a phenomenon that psychologists have even defined. And I had only one question. Am I ready? Am I ready? Am I ready? And interestingly, this was the second time I had a situation like this, almost at the same spot. Time suddenly, two or three seconds become very long. And then you wish you had more time to think. I slammed the brakes and just kept asking myself if I'm ready. Next thing I know is I open my eyes, I'm on the other side of this accident. No idea how I got there. I was trembling. Fact of the matter, I was so confused, I went back to the two gentlemen who were standing there, took my wallet, whatever money I had, I gave them and said, I'm sorry. Sat in the car and drove away. I learned a valuable lesson in situations like that, in those two or three seconds, who knows how long it was that I slammed my brakes, that eternity is much more important than the here and now. I was on my way to something. I was on my way to something exciting. I don't even remember where I was going. My mind was already there. Driving was just a way to get me there. And I was distracted. It can end in one moment. It can end today. You see, the Jewish leaders in our text had convinced themselves that they were holy men and they were doing God's will. But the time of their death eventually must have come, and suddenly everything else lost its significance. Their success, their reputation, their money, their pleasure, their standing in society, everything lost its significance. And there was only one question left. Am I ready? Have I put my trust in the right place? I wonder if some of them thought, could this Jesus have been right? This Jewish clergyman hadn't put their trust in the right place, and this fact must have become horribly clear to them on their deathbed. As Jesus said, you will seek me and you will die in your sins. I have heard testimonies of the death of very, very openly mockers of the Lord Jesus Christ, who died and would cry out, now I want to come and I can't. Maybe it was such a situation. But I have to ask you, dear friend, are you ready? Are you really in Jesus Christ? And I don't want to upset the timid souls among us. I want to upset those who are far too complacent in their standing as church members. And I don't mean anyone specific. I mean those whom the Holy Spirit means. I have encountered far too many of those in very conservative churches, who go through the motions, who play the game, but who have never really bowed their knees before the Lord Jesus Christ. Young people, don't be deceived by all the exciting things that are happening in your life, by your youth, by your bright future, by your beauty, your health. In one moment, all these things can be gone. When I was a child, once I almost drowned. It was a horrible experience. I was happy on vacation. I was going into the water. My sister and I were dealing with one of those inflatable little boats and then she turned the boat around and I almost drowned. I couldn't find my way up again. It can end in one moment, it can end today. You must be ready because you have to put your trust in Jesus Christ. Do you have Jesus Christ, or will you die in your sin? Take heed of the parable of the rich young ruler, of the rich fool, I should say, in Luke chapter 12. who also relied and was looking forward to a great and wealthy future for himself on his riches, his fat retirement account. But God said to him, fool, this night your soul will be required of you. Then whose will those things be which you have provided? So Jesus makes it abundantly clear in our text to these Jewish leaders that they are not of God, but of the world, that they cannot go where he was going, but that they will go to the place of everlasting perdition. They are condemned, that they are reprobate clergy. What a scary phrase, reprobate clergy. But they do exist and they have always existed. And accordingly with these Jewish leaders, the answer is not an answer of faith and an answer of repentance, but one of defiance and mockery, as they say among each other, will he kill himself? Because he says, where I go, you cannot come. So now they're accusing him of one more sin, the sin of suicide. These men are doing what people often do when they are confronted with the truth. They are resorting to mockery. They are resorting to sarcasm. They had done the same thing in chapter 7, when he had said to them, you will seek me and will not find me, and where I am you cannot be. And they mocked him, it says, by saying, where does he intend to go that we shall not find him? Does he intend to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks mockery? This is what we often see in people when we confront them with the truth. They make fun of us, they mock us. Some people even do this professionally. Just look at the Bill Maher's of this world. Comedians, they call themselves. But what they really do is professionally provide mockery and sarcasm, ammunition for those who try to dodge God's claims, just like the Jewish leaders in our passage. So the Jews mocked Jesus saying, will he kill himself because he says, where I go, you cannot come. Beloved, Jesus was of course not contemplating suicide, rather the opposite. He was talking about his death as a ransom for many and of his return to the father thereafter. And he explains to them why they cannot go there. He is going, but then he says in verse 23, you are from beneath, I'm from above. You are from this world, I'm not of this world. You see, by their answer, the Jews have revealed who they really were. That they are not really these holy religious people and leaders that they pose to be, but they're just the opposite. Unbelieving mockers and sons of hell. That's what they were. And Christ shows them this absolute contrast, this antithesis between Him and them, that He's from above, He's from heaven, and He will go back from heaven. But where He's going, they cannot come because they are of this world. They are from below, and they will go below. They will die in their sins because they do not believe in Him. Beloved, as frightening as Christ's words here might seem, they also bear a great hope for us. You see, Christians are sometimes, or some Christians are sometimes troubled by doubts, whether they've understood the gospel correctly, and they might ask, maybe, what if I really have to add works, or this, or that, or the other, am I missing something? In these two verses, you will find all the comfort you need concerning the gospel, which we received by grace alone. Look again at verse 24. Look exactly what Jesus is saying here. I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins. He's telling them that the Jewish leaders will die in their sins because they do not believe, not because they do not do any works, they do not believe that He is who He claims to be, the Son of Man, the only begotten Son of God, the third person, the second person of the Trinity, God, the Messiah. And He's telling us that if we do believe that Christ is He who He claims to be and put our trust in Him, we will not die in our sins, but have everlasting life. So I ask you again, are there any works necessary for salvation? No, not one. Will a true salvation bring forth works? Yes, of course. Beloved, faith in Christ is the only instrument that God has appointed for the salvation of sinners. But if you're sitting here this morning and you do not trust in Jesus Christ, then repent of your sin and turn to Him right now and receive forgiveness and everlasting life. But there's something else in verse 24 that is quite explosive. And of course, the Jews must have caught it. As it literally reads, For if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins. This I am is the I am of Exodus chapter 3 verse 14, for example, where God revealed himself to Moses from the burning bush. Moses had asked God for his name and God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I am has sent me to you. Let me read to you once again what Jesus says in verse 24. For if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins. He's also the I am of Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 39. Now see that even I am He and there is no God beside me. It is also the I am of Isaiah chapter 43 verse 10 where he says, you are my witnesses says the Lord and my servant whom I have chosen that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after me. It is therefore great blasphemy that the Jews now respond mockingly in verse 25, asking, who are you? And Jesus answers just what I've been saying to you from the beginning. You see, the great I am is He who has always been and who will always be from eternity to eternity. The great I am is the living God. I am He. I am the God from the burning bush. I am the creator of heaven and earth. I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. The Jewish leaders knew exactly what his claim was, and that's exactly why they hated him so much. Darkness hates the light, and those from below hate the one from above. I had a very funny, sadly funny discussion years ago with a so-called Orthodox Jew. Because they keep claiming that Jesus never said he was God. And you have to answer them, you have to tell them, your ancestors in the New Testament understood better than you did what Jesus was saying. He was constantly claiming to be God. You just have to know the Bible. in order to understand it. But Jesus doesn't allow them to sidetrack him, and he continues with his charge in verse 26. "'I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but he who sent me is true, and I speak to the world those things which I heard from him.' Well, this is a charge against them, saying that one cannot serve the Father in any way while rejecting the Son. The judgment for rejecting Jesus will come from them both, the Father and the Son. And therefore, and this is an important application that dispensationalists seem not to understand. Therefore, so-called Orthodox Jews today are not saved believers because you cannot claim to serve the Father while rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ. If you do not believe that I am He, you will die from your sins. At the beginning of verse 27 sounds all too familiar. They did not understand that He spoke to them of the Father. How often had Jesus told them that the Father was his sender, but they did not understand it. And so he explains it to them once again in verse 28. When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of myself. But as my Father taught me, I speak these things, and He who sent me is with me. The Father has not left me alone, for I always do those things that please Him. Beloved, we must be careful here not to misinterpret the first clause of verse 28 to mean that eventually the Jewish leaders will honor or exalt the Lord Jesus Christ and lift His name up. That's not what it means. The lifting up here means something much more literal. That they will physically cause Him to be lifted up by crucifying Him. And then it will be suddenly clear to them who He really is. The Lord Jesus Christ had used the same language in chapter 3 when he talked with Nicodemus. He referred to the fiery serpent in the desert that Moses lifted up. And he said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. And that fiery serpent that healed repentant people when they beheld it by faith was a type of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Beloved, there is no other way to receive healing. There is no other way to find salvation than beholding the Son of God who was lifted up for our sakes on that cross at Golgotha. When I think about this Jesus being lifted up in crucifixion like the fiery serpent was lifted up, it reminds me of the verse of Isaiah 45 that God used to convert Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great English preacher, where it says, look to me, or you could translate, behold me and be saved all you ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other. Christ being lifted up must be beheld. Our hope must be put on Him and Him alone. That is salvation. And it seems as if many of those who witnessed the conversation between the Jewish leaders and the Lord Jesus Christ had their hearts opened as we read in verse 30. As He spoke these words, many believed in Him. Sometimes we debate mockers. only for the elect to hear it and to be saved. You see, those with whom he spoke, they did not believe, they just hardened themselves. But the bystanders who heard it, the Lord used the word to open their hearts and to give them faith. They believed it because they came to understand who Jesus Christ really is. And here, beloved, in closing, we see once again the purpose of this Gospel of John beautifully displayed, which is that these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. Oh, may we all see him and live for him, for the glory of his name. Amen and amen. Let us pray. Lord God, we thank you that the Lord Jesus Christ was indeed lifted up for our sakes, and that looking unto him, putting our trust in him, is enough for our salvation. Yes, it will bring forth fruit, but it is the Christ who has been lifted up that will be the driving force. O Lord, may we always be found in him. glorifying Him, living for Him, worshiping Him, because those who worship Him worship you in the Holy Spirit. We thank you, living God, for this word, and may it grow roots in our hearts even more. For we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.