The Word of the Lord comes to us for this evening's message from the Gospel of John, chapter 8. We begin reading with the 31st verse. What you're about to hear is God's Word. Let us listen with attentiveness and respond with obedience. John 8, beginning with verse 31, God's word as follows. To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, If you hold my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. They answered, We are Abraham's descendants, and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free? Jesus replied, I tell you the truth. Everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So, if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know you are Abraham's descendants, yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word. I am telling you what I have seen in the Father's presence, and you do what you have heard from your father. Abraham is our father, they answered. If you were Abraham's children, said Jesus, then you would do the things Abraham did. As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. You are doing the things your own father does. We are not illegitimate children, they protested. The only father we have is God himself. Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you would love me. For I came from God and now I'm here. I have not come on my own, but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God. The Jews answered him, Aren't we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed? I am not possessed by a demon, said Jesus, 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. I tell you the truth, if a man keeps my word, he will never see death. At this the Jews exclaimed, now we know that you are demon possessed. Abraham died and so did the prophets. Yet you say that if a man keeps your word, he will never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, so did the prophets. Who do you think you are? Jesus replied, If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. Though you do not know him, I know him. And if I said I did not, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him and keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day. He saw it and was glad. You are not yet fifty years old, the Jews said to him. And you have seen Abraham? I tell you the truth, Jesus answered, before Abraham was born, I am. At this, they picked up stones to stone him, because Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds. May the Lord's Spirit bless this reading of this dramatic dialogue between Jesus and the Pharisees to each and all of our hearts. Dear friends in Christ, Abraham is a very prominent figure in the entire Bible. As a matter of fact, it's rather difficult to think of someone who is more prominent, except Jesus. Because Jesus is the reason for the writing. You've heard of Jesus as the reason for the season at Christmas time. Well, Jesus is the reason for the revelation of this scripture. He is the reason this scripture is given so that he can be revealed to us. But apart from Jesus, it's rather difficult to think of anyone more prominent than Abraham. Is Moses? David? Any of the prophets? Abraham is mentioned 213 times in the Old Testament. I counted them in an exhaustive concordance. And maybe I missed one or two here, but you can count on it. That's pretty close. That's the Old Testament. And Abraham is mentioned 53 times in the New Testament. Well, Abraham was an important figure in the Bible. And he was an important figure in Jesus' day. In fact, all of these antagonists of Jesus claimed to be descendants of Abraham. And Jesus was a descendant of Abraham. But oh how they differed between themselves as to what that descendants from Abraham meant. And so, Abraham was a controversial figure in Jesus' day. And I don't have to tell you that Abraham is still a controversial figure today. As a matter of fact, out there in the Middle East, There are many descendants of Abraham who hate and are terrorists against other descendants of Abraham. For both the Jews and the Arabs trace themselves back to Father Abraham. I still have a high regard for Anwar Sadat of Egypt, who said that one of his motivations for making peace with Israel, one of the few countries there that has, is because both Jews and Arabs were descendants of Abraham. Why can't we get along? And you know, it cost him his life because terrorists assassinated him for making a compromise with the Jews who were also descendants of Abraham. Well, this dialogue that we have here really covers the entire chapter. I just read verses 31 to the end of the chapter, but it's in a dialogue throughout between Jesus and the Pharisees. There were several religious groups in Jesus' day. There were the Herodians, who thought that Israel would establish itself if it simply compromised with King Herod and the Roman authority. And then there were the Sadducees. They were the liberals of Jesus' day. They didn't believe that there was any life after death. They didn't believe in miracles. They didn't believe in anything that the conservative Pharisees believed in. They were the Sadducees. There were also the Essenes. They're not mentioned in the New Testament because they were sort of off in their monasteries. And Jesus, of course, went from city to city. He dealt face to face with people. And so he didn't go to these enclaves of people who meditated most of the time. But then there were also the Pharisees. They probably had the best reputation for being pious people in that day. But oh, how antagonistic they were to Jesus. Where we picked up the reading in John chapter 8, verse 31, the dialogue is over the question of bondage and freedom. Of course, you have to remember that to the pious Pharisees, Freedom meant freedom in the knowledge of the truth. It didn't mean political freedom. It could hardly mean that. Because they say, look, we have never been in bondage to anyone. Because, you see, they had the truth from Abraham and Moses and all the prophets. They were possessors of the truth which they thought set them free. They knew in their own history that their forefathers were never really politically free. Why they were in bondage to the Assyrians and then the Babylonians and then the Persians and then the Hellenists and then finally the Romans in Jesus' own day. So when Jesus says, the truth will make you free, they say, hey, we're already free. They didn't realize that unbelief is ignorance. And refusing to accept Jesus and his message is bondage to falsehood. And they refused to be set free by our Lord. And then, of course, they make this great claim that they are descendants of Abraham. They are the select of the elect. They are God's pampered favorites, so they thought. And Jesus says, well, spiritually, physically you may have descended from Abraham. Spiritually you're a long way off because you reject me. And that's an indication that you don't really live as true spiritual descendants of Abraham. And then the dialogue gets more and more bitter. In verse 48, the Pharisees say, Say we not well that you are a Samaritan and have a devil? Do you know what a Samaritan was? A Samaritan was a half-breed Jew. One who had one pagan parent and one Jewish parent. Everyone knew that Mary was Jesus' mother. So the Pharisees are subtly suggesting that this unknown father, to which Jesus would not admit, was not even part of the covenant community. He was not a physical through a father line, descendant of Abraham. of course, Jesus responds by saying, Hey, I know Abraham. Because before Abraham was, I existed. And their response is, Now look, are you greater than our father Abraham? He's dead and gone. And you say that if we believe in you, we will know what it's like to have life in its full abundance. To which Jesus responds, Abraham, whom you call your father, rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and was glad. The theme for our message tonight is Abraham's hilarious joy. There are two words in this text, verse 58, where Jesus indicates that Abraham was so happy that Jesus finally, the Messiah of promise, was born. Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day. he saw it and was glad. That's the hilarity of faith. But Jesus had said before Abraham was, I am. And how that offended these Pharisees. Jesus frequently used the word I am and then described some metaphor. For instance, he said, I am the light of the world. Light as a source of truth. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the door. I am the way, the truth, and the life. All of these are metaphors. But now when Jesus says, before Abraham was, I am, He's taking upon Himself a divine designation. You see, that's the term God used to identify Himself to Moses at the burning bush. When Moses said, whom shall I say sent me? When he was sent to Pharaoh, the Lord says, tell him, I am sent you. Because I am is an eternal presence without beginning and end. The word that no pious Jew would take upon his lips for fear of using the word in vain. And now, Jesus says, before Abraham was, I am. Which they recognized as a claim that he was the eternal Son of God. And that's why they call it blasphemy. Isn't it interesting? Jesus' enemies recognized his claim. They didn't believe it. But they recognized that Jesus claimed to be the eternal Son of God. And then rejected it. And you wouldn't believe how many in our day, prominent theologians, reject that claim and still claim to be a friend of Jesus. But what does it mean that Abraham rejoiced to see Jesus' day? Well, there are two aspects of Abraham's joy. And the first aspect recognizes that the full promises of the covenant given to Abraham can now be realized because Jesus has come. Remember what God said to Abraham? I will be your God. What a promise. The God of providence. The God of salvation. Everything that the term God means, He promises to be to Abraham. He further says that Abraham would be the father of many people, so many that they would be uncountable since you can't count the sands on the seashore or the stars in the heavens. So you'll never be able to count the number of those who are spiritual descendants of Abraham. That's made clear by the Apostle Paul in Galatians 3. Listen to these words. Galatians 3, verse 6. Consider Abraham. He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Understand then that those who believe are children of Abraham. And then the last three verses of Galatians 3. You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. That old distinction is over. Slave nor free. Enslaved to ignorance and freedom and the truth. Gone. Male nor female. Doesn't matter. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Paul makes it abundantly clear what Jesus' intention was when he says that all the promises of the covenant are fulfilled that were given to Abraham. There are 2.1 billion people in the world today who identify themselves as Christians. Only God knows how many are genuinely sincere But that's just today. In past ages, there were others. And as long as Jesus tarries, there will be many to come, numberless as the stars, through faith in Christ, spiritual descendants of Father Abraham. So, the real descendants of Abraham are believers. The Pharisees thought that they were God's pampered favorites. And they were proud of their physical descendancy from Abraham. Jesus says, no, you've got to believe in me in order to be a true child of Father Abraham. A further reason why Abraham was so happy is because cynical unbelief has now ended. These Pharisees were cynical in their unbelief. But you know, there was a time when Abraham had grave doubts about God's promises too. Abraham didn't always rejoice in God's promises. As a matter of fact, there was a time when he laughed, cynically, unbelievingly, when God promised that there would be a descendant through whom all families of the earth would be blessed. Listen to Genesis chapter 17, verses 15 and following. God also said to Abraham, as for Sarai, your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai. Her name will be Sarah, which means mother of a multitude. I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations. Kings of peoples will come from her. Now listen, Abraham fell face down. he laughed and said to himself will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? He was ninety-nine at the time and he knew it would take almost a year. Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety? Abraham doubted. He laughed. It says he fell face down. He was doubled over with laughter. Ha, ha, never will happen. Oh, I know that initially Abraham believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness. But that was 14 years before. That's in Genesis 15, verses 5 and 6. He took him outside, that is, the Lord did, and said, Look at the heavens and count the stars, if indeed you can count them. Then he said to him, So shall your offspring be. Abraham believed the Lord, and he credited to him his righteousness. But that was fourteen years before, when Sarah was only seventy-five. It struck me while I was preparing this message that Sarah, at the time of the initial promise, was exactly my wife's present age. And it gave me a new appreciation for Abraham's faith. He believed God and accounted to Him for righteousness. But that was 14 years before. And one year followed another year and nothing happened. And he began to doubt. And he began to be concerned that he was too old. And especially Sarah was too old. Ridiculous. You know, sometimes long life is simply slow death. And sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is the headlamp of an approaching train. Disaster ahead. And so Abraham provides his own solution. That's also in Genesis chapter 17, verse 18. There we read, And Abraham said to God, If only Ishmael might live under your blessing. Ishmael was a strapping young boy about 13 years of age when Abraham was 99. And he said, Lord, let Ishmael be the one through whom your great promises will be fulfilled. That's something I can believe in. That's rational. That's understanding. Understandable. No, says the Lord in verse 19, your wife Sarah will bear you a son and you will call him Isaac. You see, God is always risking his credibility by promising too much. At least promising more than we can sometimes believe in. Sometimes it just seems too good to be true. And so we doubt. The human tendency is to cut down God's promises to the humanly believable level. And that's what Abraham is doing here. What that Ishmael, he's already born, he's 13 years old. Why can't he be the one through whom the promises will be revealed? You know, commentators are forever trying to tone down God's promises in his word. In the Interpreter's Bible, for instance, some of you may be familiar with that. It's a rather common commentary. I see it in church libraries. The Interpreter's Bible says that when Jesus is reported to have walked on water, He probably was really walking along the edge of the beach where the water lapped the coast. And the disciples in the boat were looking toward the shore and they saw Jesus' reflection in the water and it looked like he was walking on water. Cut down God's miraculous word to a human believable level. My prominent theologian, New Testament scholar of the previous generation, Bultmann, says, in this electronic age of space travel, we know that miracles don't happen. Scale down God's claims to the level that I can understand and I can believe. Did you know that Sarah joined Abraham's initial cynical laughter of unbelief? Listen to chapter 18, verse 10 and following. Then the Lord said, I will surely return to you about this time next year. And Sarah, your wife, will have a son. Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years. And Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed and said to herself, after I am worn and my age is past and my master is so old, will I then have pleasure of a child? So she laughed. And of course, the Bible goes on to say, why did Sarah laugh and say, will I really have a child now that I am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son. And then Sarah makes some excuses. Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, I didn't laugh, but she did. The cynical laughter of unbelief. But God's promise was fulfilled. Isaac was born in spite of his parents' doubts and really cynical laughter. And when he was born, they named him Isaac, which in Hebrew means laughter. What a name to bear. Can you imagine when he was a little lad playing in the backyard and Sarah went out and said, laughter, it's time for lunch. And when it was time to go to bed, he said, come on, laughter, it's time to go to bed. Laughter, laughter, laughter. Why? As a constant daily reminder that when God makes a promise, don't laugh. At least, don't laugh in unbelief. Unless, of course, your laughter is the hilarious laughter of joy, which is what Abraham did when he rejoiced to see Jesus' day. Because when that happened, then the hilarity of faith replaced the cynical laughter of unbelief. So, why is Abraham so happy? Because the miracle of the seed of promise, beginning with Isaac, was fulfilled in the miracle of Jesus. Jesus is the true Isaac. And the miracle of your salvation and mine is the final result that makes Father Abraham so happy. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank You for the wonder of Your grace, the fulfillment of Your promise. You are the God of promise and we can trust in You fully. Forgive us, Father, when we doubt. have mercy upon us when our faith is weak. But keep us firm and strong because we are in your hands and you won't let us go. We thank you for Abraham's joy and we thank you that he rejoices that we now know Jesus, the fulfillment of your promise, Our Lord, we bring us this prayer in His name. Amen.