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This is going to be the third sermon in John 8. If you have a Bible with you, this will conclude John 8. This particular sermon, but not John. We got a ways to go in John. So John chapter 8, verses 48 through 59, if you brought a Bible. If not, we do have the text on the screen. Please pray with me before we begin. Jesus, as we as we interact with your word, as we go to hear from you right now, I pray that through the Holy Spirit, this word would shape us, that we would be struck with the awe of what it communicates. In Jesus' name, amen. In late 2015, a woman of middle age showed up to a psychiatric emergency room in Bern, Switzerland. Now, the reason she had come is because she had been hearing voices, audible voices. And what's more is she was hearing the voice of God. And it wasn't every once in a while, it was every few minutes, and sometimes the voice would go on for hours at a time. She was fully convinced God was speaking to her. And not only that, when she would hear the voice of God, she would report feeling a sense of deep blessing, of love and warmth and even ecstasy. Now, in our cultural moment, we have a wide agreement that if someone is has a sincere faith, if they believe something truly and it works for them in some way, they're getting something out of it. You might hear that story and say, that's weird. But carry on. What's wrong with that? Okay, it's a little different or whatever, but you know, she's getting love, she's getting blessing, she's getting direction and meaning and everything else from it. What's so bad about that? Why would she need to go to the hospital even? And who's to say it's not God, right? Well, the thing that actually had made her go to the hospital was not just the voices, but the fact that the voices were telling her to harm herself, and she had gone in with a number of deep cuts in her chest. When they started to check her out and do the requisite scans and everything else that uh that they do, they discovered the source of the voices. It was a tumor that was putting pressure on the auditory center of the brain that can cause auditory hallucinations. And when they dealt with the tumor, the voices ceased. On one hand, she was sincere. She really did believe it. She had strong faith. And that faith was resulting in blessing for her life. But on the other hand, that strong faith, would you say that was faith that connected with God? No, in fact, her faith had latched on to what? A brain tumor, in fact. We can't not reach out in faith. But but the question is, what is our faith actually in? I have an image in my head of Velcro. You know, Velcro works as the one side is hooks and the other side is loops. You're all aware of this, right? You've looked at Velcro or felt it. Well, I imagine our faith as like a like the hook side. And that hook side, like, it doesn't always just hook on to the loop side, does it? It'll hook on to all sorts of things. Your dog, your couch, your wife's hair. I've discovered this first hand, right? It'll latch on to whatever it can latch on to, but even though it's designed for one, uh a certain other thing, right? We all of us have a faith that is looking, that is searching for something to latch on to. You could see this in just looking at human history. Religion is ubiquitous. You know, you don't have a society in human history that's like that is purely secular. Even if they don't believe in a God, they believed in gods or if or lacking that. There's something beyond human experience. There's something beyond the four senses that we we reach out to and we put our faith in it and we give it our devotion. Yeah, even in the secular world, right? Like you can't help but be devoted. Like like sports fans who take it a little too far. You know what I mean? What's going on? Faith is latching on to something. You can see it in the way that people focus on celebrities. You know? Maybe they have no God, maybe they have no spirituality, but their faith is grabbing on. Those Velcro hooks are grabbing, you know, or a cause or a movement or a politician or something like that. It's always gonna find something. You can't walk around with Velcro for too long and avoid it latching on something, right? Even though it's designed to latch onto something specific. And some say, well, yeah, that's why faith is bad. And we shouldn't live by faith. And we should, we should, we should kind of put faith away, and we should be, you know, hard, rationalist skeptics and believe only what is proven by the scientific method. Faith bad, right? Like this is this is a point of view that not a ton of people hold, but a significant number. The thing is, is that you really can't get through existence believing in only things that are provable by the scientific method. I've done this before, I'll do it again just as a refresher. Things you can't access by the scientific method, can't explain, can't prove. Love. A world outside your own head. Literally not provable. Meaning, morality, human dignity, and the scientific method. You'd have to do without all of those. Let the contradiction sink in. And for some of us, for I would say a majority in our culture say, well, who cares what it latches onto? If it's a dog, a couch, a wife's hair, whatever, as long as it's latched, as long as it's working for you. Right? Like, if you believe in something, fair play, carry on. And if by that you mean like everyone, like, let's not have the government tell people what to do with that, great, I'm on board. Right? Um, but the thing is, is what if your faith is latched onto a what if your faith misses God completely? You know? What if it latches on to a tumor, like that one lady? Or it's latched on to a charlatan? Or it latches onto, for those of us who who believe in the possibility of spiritual beings, what if it latches on to a spirit that means you ill, what the Bible calls a demon? We all have faith, and it's in search of something to grab. But even sincere, can even a sincere, deeply held faith that's working for you, can it miss God? Can it miss what it's meant for? Now, Jesus in John chapter 8, verses uh verses 48 through 59, he's speaking to some people of very sincere faith. Let's take a look and get into the text, starting at verse 48 here. Y'all with me? Y'all on the text? Okay, great. It says the Jews answered him, Aren't we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed? So what's going on here? Jesus, this is this is the end of a long dispute that started earlier, like in chapter 7. And he's going back and forth with the crowd that is attending the festival of Booths in Jerusalem. They are standing in the temple, okay? And and and this has been escalating, and in our text, it comes to a point, a climax. And they're saying, at this point, they're like, hey, we heard we heard that you're possessed by a demon and that you're not actually Jewish. Right? As Samaritan, they were like Jews, but it's like, you know, uh, if people are having a political debate, you're really a Canadian, aren't you? No shade at Canadians. But, you know, it's like you're not really American or something like that. That's the idea there. Um, and Jesus doesn't even respond. He says, I'm not possessed by a demon. He leaves that Samaritan thing. He says, but I honor my father, and you dishonor me. I am not seeking glory for myself, but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death. So what's he saying? He's saying, I'm obedient to God, and you guys are dishonoring me with the whole demon possession thing. He's saying, uh, I'm not building, I'm not trying to get a following. I don't need your glory, I could care less. Because who's glorifying him? He says, God is, and he's the judge. There's one opinion that matters. And then he drops as a side note if you believe his word, you don't see death. That's upping the ante, isn't it? That's not just like, hey guys, listen to what I have to say. It's it's making himself the key to God's redemption. You see that? Alright, so he turns it up a little bit. And then they turn it up a little bit. Verse 52. At this they exclaimed, Now we know that you are possessed by it, the demon possessed. Abraham died, so did the prophets, and yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are? Now, there is no one higher in the Jewish world than Abraham. He's the father of the nation, he's the father of the faith, right? That this is a rhetorical question. Of course you're not bigger than Abraham. Are you trying to make yourself out to be? Right? And and uh the the uh what the NIV takes as, who do you think you are? It it the Greek is much more like, who are you trying to make yourself to be? Like what kind of reputation are you trying to build about yourself? Right? What you're building your platform, aren't you? Is that what you're trying to do? Are you trying to build a platform bigger than Abraham? Jesus replied, If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. He says, I'm not. I'm not building a platform. My father, whom you claim is your God, is the one who glorifies me, though you do not know him. I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you. But I do not know him, but I do know him and obey his word. Your father, Abraham, rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day. He saw it and was glad. So a lot in there in Jesus' response. First of all, he says, you guys claim God, and what? You don't know him. Wait. Are these like are these sort of like uh halvesy, nominal, you know, creaser kind of Jews who only show up twice a year? No, they are in the temple, they have made the pilgrimage, right? These are these are these are devout, religious Jews of sincere faith. They truly believe these things. Right? You can see the amount of energy they're putting into this dispute with Jesus. They're saying, oh, you must be demon-possessed, because you know, you're you're you're claiming things even Abraham didn't claim. And then when he says, Abraham rejoiced to see my day, like that is quite that is quite a claim, and they they respond in verse 57, turning it up further. You are not yet 50 years old, they said to him, and you've seen Abraham, meaning you must be crazy. Now we now we don't think you're demon-possessed, we think you're just nuts, right? You're just delusional here. How is that possible? And by the way, I I I know people say, Well, was he almost 50 then? Right? Not not in his 30s, like the like others say, it's not the point. Just don't get hung up on that. It's just a nice round number. 50. You know. Maybe he had a big beard, it's hard to tell his age. They're like, we don't know. He could be 30, he could be 40, but not 50, we know that much. Um, and then here comes sort of the imagine the tension has been rising between them, and then Jesus absolutely breaks the tension. He absolutely tops it with what he says next. Very truly, I tell you, Jesus answered. Before Abraham was born, I am. Some of you guys may be familiar with this statement. Jesus says, I am. What does that mean? What's going on here? How is it an answer to what they're accusing him of? Okay, so we're gonna dive in just on I am. In Greek, the words are ego e me. Ego means I. E me is what's called a state verb. Okay? Now, state verbs can be used for everyday things. I am hungry, I am tired, right? I am in a state of. But he doesn't add anything to it, right? He just says, I am. It's I exist. Right? I you see what I'm saying? Now, if all he was trying to say is that he was around before Abraham, which would still be quite a claim, he could, it would be much clearer to say I was, before Abraham was, before Abraham was born, I was. He doesn't say that, it's a present tense, it's I am. What is going on? Why does Jesus say I am instead of I was? Well, for that, we have to dig into the Old Testament all the way back at Exodus chapter 3. I have it on the screen, those of you who have a Bible with you, take a moment to flip there to Exodus chapter 3. I should have marked it. My I didn't take a wana, whatever that was. I hear people sword drill. Get to the paper quicker. Alright. So in Exodus chapter 3, Moses has fled Egypt. The Israelites are enslaved, he's out tending sheep, and he sees a burning bush. Okay, so let's just check out to get context. Exodus chapter 3, starting at verse 11. God had, God from the burning bush speaks to Moses saying, You're gonna liberate the Israelites. And Moses says this. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain. Moses said to God, Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, What is his name? Then what shall I tell them? God said to Moses, I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites, I am Has sent you. So, in the Greek Old Testament called the Septuagint, are you following me? There's a very important book. All of the Jews of Jesus' day, their main Bible was the Greek Old Testament. Do you know that when God says, I am, how it's rendered in the Greek Old Testament? Ego emi. It's the same thing Jesus says here in response to their question about how how can Abraham know about you? How could you have seen Abraham? And the answer is Ego Emi. What's he doing? He is claiming to be the same God who spoke to Moses out of the burning bush. He is claiming to be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Not only that, when God says I am to Moses, the point is, is that he is like, he's the fundamental truth behind reality. You know, he's something that goes beyond, he's something that's greater, that's bigger, he's like the bedrock, he's like the foundation that all things are built on. That's the point of I am. And Jesus is claiming that for himself. And in case you're wondering, is that what he's really saying? It was not lost on the people he was having an argument with. Look at verse 59, 859. It says, at this, they picked up stones to stone him. But Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds. So all these people that have been having a debate all through John chapter 8, when he says this, there's no discussion. No one says, get in. They know what to do. Why do they pick up rocks? Because the the penalty for blasphemy was what? Picking up rocks and throwing it at your head until you die of having rocks thrown at your head, stoning. Okay? That's what they try and do to Jesus because they recognize exactly what it is that he's doing. He is claiming. He's claiming to be the one true God. He is claiming to be the I am. Let me ask you this. Was Jesus opposed to Abraham? Was he anti-Abraham? No, not at all, right? So he's not saying, you know, Abraham bad. What's he saying? He's saying that that what you're looking for in Abraham, that velcro you're sticking on Abraham, where does it actually belong? It belongs on him. He is what their faith is seeking. He's not the opponent of their faith, what is he? He's the fulfillment of what their faith seeks. This is actually one of the main themes of the book of John. If you remember from the other IMs, he says seven im the book of John. What did we look at before? He's at this festival, the festival of booze, where they light up all of Jerusalem with these huge lights to symbolize the light of God's truth, right? And what does he get up and say? He says, I am the light of the world. He's saying, this festival that you're celebrating, look at your faith reaching out. Look at it reaching out. You know what it's looking for. It's looking for me. When they're at the same festival and they're they're doing the celebration with the water, right? To celebrate the fact that God is the life giver. He gets up and he says, What? Anyone who's thirsty, come to me and drink. He's saying the thing that your faith is seeking, he's not the opponent of it. He's not the opponent of their search, he's the fulfillment of it. And it's not just for Jews. The book of John was not written to an exclusively Jewish audience, it was a mixed audience of Jews and Greeks, and to them that was everybody. Okay? How does the book start? Does anybody remember John chapter one? It's quite Famous, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, the word was God. The word for word, Lagos. Okay, to the ancient Greeks who were into philosophy, the Stoics, the Epicureans, so forth, Lagos meant something like the rationality behind the universe. The principle of the universe that makes it all make sense. What's it saying? It's saying what you're looking for in your Greek philosophy. He's not the opponent of that search, he's the fulfillment of it. He's the Lagos, right? Are you getting it? We attach to a lot of things. That Velcro sure is sticky. Jesus isn't the opponent of the Velcro, guys. He's the hooks, or he's the loops, right? He's the intended object of that faith that is seeking. And, you know, for some of us, I know that this can trip us up. Because we all have friends who are of a different religion or or no religion, but they have, you know, they're very sincere in what they believe. And and it's just this intuition in us that, like, well, they're very sincere. They believe it with their whole heart. It's it seems to do good things for them. Who am I to say my faith is better? You know? You ever struggle with that? Like, how could I, you know, say, oh, well, that's not, you know, your your Muslim faith or whatever. Like, you know, mine's better. Well, the thing is, is their faith might be a lot better than yours. Like, in terms of their Velcro hooks, might be so much stronger. Yours is all kind of like it's been on couches and carpets and whatnot, and there's dust and sand in it. It might be stronger faith than yours. The problem isn't with their faith, right? It's totally sincere. The problem is with the object of it. What's it latching to? And the fact that it's not latching on to Jesus, that's the issue. There's nothing wrong with their faith, just where it has landed. Because Jesus is the one, he is the fulfillment of what our faith seeks. Um, now another question that might arise for you is like, well, do I need to question my internal experience of God then? The answer is, yeah. Of course. It has to line up with the revealed word of God. Do you know the things I've heard people say, the God in your heart, like people, well, in I heard God say to me inside, I heard him say, uh, ignore, I've literally heard someone say this, ignore everything in the Bible except the words of Jesus. I've had someone say tell me that God, God inside told them that. Jesus himself quotes Scripture as the word of God, like the rest of the Bible. Right? I've heard people say, well, God told me in my heart, I'm sure of it, I need to abandon my wife and family and move to Nashville to pursue a career in music. I've heard this multiple occasions. Yes, we need to question our internal experience. Not to totally devalue it, not to say that it's impossible, it does happen, I think it's real, but it also has to line up with the word of God. Because otherwise, if we are not listening to God, where does our faith end up? You know, it could end up anywhere. It could end up on a tumor, a charlatan, a demon, whatever. What is our faith seeking? Our faith is seeking someone to love us and someone to love. When you look at what faith is searching for, that's a common thread. We want to put our faith someplace that that includes us in a relationship, in a family. You know, um I I secretly uh keep an eye on QAnon. Because I mean, you gotta hand it to them. Even you guys know what QAnon is? Everybody? No? Okay, it's it's it's a conspiracy theory that um Hillary Clinton eats babies, and a bunch of other people traffic and eat babies, and um, and that Trump, first-term Trump, was going to execute all of them before he was out of office. So when he was out of office, it it really was hard for them. And my heart went out to QAnon because they really were sincere. They were like, this is really gonna happen. And and whatever you think about it, I I don't agree with them, obviously. But the thing is, is there was a sense, these were a bunch of disparate people, these were isolated people who had been bound together by something. You know, they had a slogan. You know what their slogan was? Where we go one, we go all. That faith ended up in the wrong place, didn't it? What did they want? They wanted to be part of something, they wanted to be in community, they wanted love. In a very odd way, they searched for it. But that's what they were looking for. Jesus isn't the opponent of that search, right? He is the fulfillment of it. Jesus made us. Jesus truly knows us. Jesus died for us. He calls us to be part of his people, to be part of his family. When we place our faith in Jesus, he fulfills that search. Another common thing that we're all searching for with our faith, we want to put our faith someplace that answers the big questions about what does it all mean? What is my life about and what is the world about? You know, it's like um, you guys know what the Rorschach test is? It's those random ink blots. You know why it works to the degree that it works? It's because human beings are hardwired to find meaning. That's why when you look at a cloud, it'll resolve into a face or a turtle or whatever. You are built to find meaning, unlike other creatures. Our faith is always going to be looking for what it what does the world mean? What do I mean? What's it all about? How should I live? And this is really it's one of the indicators of how lost we are in our cultural moment. Because the most frequent answer you get, and you see this all over the place, is well, if you want to know the meaning of your life or the meaning of life, what do you do? You you decide what it is, you make up your own. It's up to you to just to determine the meaning of your life. We've all heard this, right? Some of you might think it. Guys, that that means you're lost. You know, okay. Imagine we're on a hike and we have lost the trail, as has never happened to me or Sharon. Ever. Alright, you truly have no idea uh where your car is or anything is. You're completely disoriented. Which direction is the right one? No way to know, right? So what do you do? Choose any direction. When is any direction as good as any other? When you're lost. When is it, you know, like, hey, determine whatever meaning. Just make up your own meaning. It's it's when you don't know what it is. It's when you're completely lost with regards to meaning. When we, when our velcro lands on Jesus, it absolutely solves that. He is the bedrock of reality. He's the one who answers the question of what does it all mean? What's it all about? And not only that, what are you about? What purpose do you have? He's not the opponent of the search of our faith, he's the fulfillment. And and another really common, uh, and important, crucial question that that we're trying, that we're seeking to answer with faith is what's wrong with the world or me, and what can make it right? I don't know if you guys have been following um the shenanigans of Peter Thiel, the uh, what's he, he invented like PayPal or something like that? He's like a multi-billionaire who invests in uh tech startups. And he has some very dubious readings of the book of Revelation, in which he is saying that the opponents of AI are the legionnaires of antichrist. Has anyone heard of this? Yeah, it's a real thing. Look it up. Okay, so that tells you a lot, doesn't it? What does he think is wrong with the world and and what's what is salvation? Well, if those who oppose AI are the anti-Christ, what therefore is the Christ? We all got there, right? Okay, good. Not only that, he is investing multiple millions of dollars in anti-dying technology. Right? He's a big anti-death activist. Now, I am all for what the medical folks do and the innovations, and if they could come up with something that you don't throw out your back while you're on the toilet, I am for it. That's great, that's godly. But the idea that they are gonna be the ones who defeat death. And mainly for them, by the way, they really don't care about the rest of the world. Right? Like, what does Peter Thiel think is wrong with the world? Not enough tech or whatever. What's gonna make it right? More tech. But it's not just, I mean, we all rightly look askance at that. But there's all sorts of answers out there that we might be partly going for. Yeah, it's not answering the big questions, but you know, that lifestyle influencer who get these adorable vases, arrange them in your house like this, paint birds on them, and then you know, you kind of have a perfect life because you're vases or your abs or what have you. Get to this dream destination, right? Curate your world into perfection, make your life perfect, even if you can't do anything about the world at large. There's, I mean, increasingly, politics has become our religion, hasn't it? Increasingly, people are looking to candidates or political tribes or policies as the answer. What's wrong with the world? It's that my party, my point of view isn't in power. I'm really hearing people say, well, well, we we just need more extremism. This is true. Like, like the old moderate kind of milk toast stuff, that's gotta go. And what's wrong with the world is is we don't have we don't have enough Marxism. It's like, wait, wait a second. But they tried it. Oh, that wasn't that wasn't true Marxism. It's like, really? Mao and Pol Pot and Lenin and and all that. That wasn't Marxist enough. You want more? That wasn't extreme enough. We need to go further that direction? Or you know, we don't we don't have true capitalism. Yeah, yeah, we got a little, but if we went true, we if we want more extreme. It's like really Gilded Age wasn't capitalist enough for you, huh? You want more capitalism than that? Really? Extremism. That's that's the hope. Count me out. But Jesus is not the opponent of this search for making the world right. He's the fulfillment. When we place our faith in Jesus, we attach ourselves to the one who is healing the world. We attach ourselves to true hope for the world, to the one who defeated death itself and promises to make all things new. You know, a great example of this, this faith finding its object. It happened a few years ago, a couple of years ago. Um, the uh the writer Ayan Hirsi Ali, you guys heard of her? Ayan Hersia Ali, I was aware of her for a while. I heard her in debates and that sort of thing. So she grew up in Somalia in a heavily Muslim society, right? And um, she even attended a Marxist school while she was a kid. That's kind of that's kind of a lot. Um and when she was in her 20s, she was going to be married off to a much older man against her will. And so she just fled. She went to the Netherlands when she was supposed to be getting on a train elsewhere, and she just loved her freedom in the West. You know, she went to university, she served as a member of parliament in the Dutch parliament. Um and she, because of her experience with religion and a certain explanation of God, she became one of the new atheists, you know, with like Richard Dawkins, Chris Hitchens, and those folks. Her book, Infidel, um, about her journey away from faith. She was one of the people who said faith bad. Um, it was an international bestseller. To this day, it remains quite popular. And uh, you know, she she was doing great in her career, she found a great guy to marry, had kids, and she found herself horrifically depressed and turning to alcohol increasingly. And so she went for the scientific solutions and she went to psychologists and psychiatrists and all this stuff, and and uh and nothing was really working, not the meds, not anything. She eventually went to an inpatient rehab center for her depression. And someone there said, You know, I think you're spiritually bankrupt. And she was like, What? And and they said, uh, have you considered God? She's like, How can I do that? Look at what my experience was.

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Look at my book.

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And uh and the the counselor that was at this rehab center said, Well, I understand, but if you could make a God that you'd want to believe in, you know, go go make a list of the attributes. And she said, so I sat down and I started to write, you know, compassion, redemption, that sort of thing. And she said, before I was halfway down the page, I realized that this was Jesus I was describing. That what she had been looking for all along, what her faith had turned out to be seeking, was fulfilled in Christ. We all have faith, and our faith is seeking something to believe in. Let's not, let's, let's not latch onto the couch or whatever. Right? Our faith has one true object, and it's Jesus. We need to turn our faith on our Savior. Please pray with me. Jesus, you are the great I am. You are the object of our faith. I pray that our faith would be strongly attached to you. Show us, Lord, where we are trusting in, functionally believing in, all these other things to give us love, to give us belonging, to give us redemption, to give us meaning. That we would remove the remove the the attachment of our hearts from those things and firmly place it on you, Jesus. Amen.