So it's been a joy meeting out here.
Thank you guys for being patient with us during a little bit of a
crazy season. As I said earlier.
My name is Joel McCarthy. I have the privilege of serving
as the pastor for preaching and oversight here at new Eden
Church. It's been a joy to do ministry.
Alongside you all. I truly count it a privilege to
just be a part of what God is doing here even during a really
busy Chaotic season. It's also like this season of
the building Kevin and I talked about how we feel like we're in
just like a dead Sprint. Trying to get to the The end of
this and it's just kind of, you know, the thing that hangs over
everything else we do. It's also hit me during quite a
bit of a busy personal season. And so it kind of adds a little
bit of stress to an already stressful time.
Now, all of us have some way that we like to unplug and
decompress from stress. So I don't know what it is for
you. I'm one of the ways that our
modern America World American World does that is through TV
shows or movies, right? We can escape reality and enter
into another world for Little bit and just sit back and watch
that world. So that's something that I do
recently, my wife and I have been watching the show Ted lasso
together. So that's one that we won't
watch. If we can't watch it together.
We'll just watch it alongside each other.
So the other show that I kind of watch when she can be, there is
the show Lost. So, I know I'm like, I don't
know, 10 years behind or something, but I've heard people
talk about it. Like, I need a new show to
watch. I'm going to try it normally
shows, really make me annoyed like before, season, one ends,
and I give up on them, but I still Chuck with this one.
So I'm watching that show. We're not caught up on either
show. So don't come spoil anything.
I don't like spoilers. Although with lost.
I think it's unfair because I'm like 10 years behind.
So if you spoil that, that's on me, not you guys.
But so the show Lost, you know, the premise of the show.
I mean, it makes sense is called Lost, is that these people have
this airplane, wreck, and they're stranded on this island.
And so the opening scene opens with them, just scrambling
figuring out what's going on. Right?
And so you're watching the show and especially in season one.
What's your Watching is these people want to be rescued and
they not only want to be rescued actually expect to be rescued.
They're assuming that the rescue boats going to come soon.
They won't move Inland because they want to stay on the beach.
They want to send out signal fires.
So the rescue team can see them when they come.
And so as the the seasons progress, some of them get more
comfortable and kind of make this place their home, but still
like the resounding kind of theme underneath everything is
that they still want to go home. They want to Be rescued their
longing and hoping to be saved. And today in our text.
We're going to see a people who whether they fully understand it
or not. Even though they might get
distracted by life at times. Like we do ultimately, they are
longing and looking for a rescuer for a savior for a
messiah and the sad part is he's right in front of them, but many
of them refuse to believe as we do here in New Eden.
Preaching through a book of the Bible.
That's what we typically do and we're in the Gospel of John
currently and this week. We're in John chapter 8, verses
21 through 29 as you heard read a moment ago.
I have this big idea for our theme is should be on the screen
for you. This is a big idea of our text
today. Jesus is The Rescuer.
We are all looking for. Jesus is The Rescuer that we are
all looking for. So, as has been the case, a lot
recently, our text today is simply a conversation between
Jesus and a group of people. This has been happening a lot
this week. It's a group referred simply to,
as the Jews, this group of people.
Jesus is conversing with is most likely a large group of diverse
people. Probably everything from haters,
that hate Jesus Skeptics doubters.
Probably some who, hopefully believe that maybe this is the
coming Messiah and We everybody in between last week.
We saw him. He just got done talking to some
religious leaders and he said that he was the light of the
world and this week. He's going to continue these
claims of messiahship with some statements to this crowd.
So the conversation in our text, you just heard it, read it goes
back and forth in a pretty clear manner inverse.
This is like, I'm going to give you a summary of the whole text
real quick and like my own translation.
This is the way I kind of understand it.
Of condensing it for us. So in verse 21, Jesus is like,
yo guys, I'm going away soon. You're going to keep looking for
a messiah once I do, but you're not going to find them and
sorry. You're going to die in your
sins. And the Jews are like, huh?
Like what's he talking about? We're a little confused as to
what's going on here. And then Jesus responds again.
He's like, guys, I'm not like you.
Of course, you don't get it. We're not the same.
You need to believe that I am who I say I am or You're going
to die in your sins. The Jews again are like, what
are you talking about? Like, who are you?
Is what they say? Like, he's I don't know if
that's like a who do you think you are?
Or who are you? What Authority do you have to
say these things? And then Jesus responds.
Again? He's based like, brother.
Like I've been saying this, he's like, I've been saying this from
the beginning and he goes. He kind of makes a statement.
It's kind of funny is like I've got more to say to, but I'm
going to kind of let that go right now because I'm only going
to say what my father tells me to and the Jews.
Again, were told by the narrator of the passage that they are
confused. And then in verse 28, and 29,
the end of our text. Jesus says, you're gonna get it
soon. You're going to see the plan
when you eventually kill me and then you'll know that I am the
one you're looking for. And you'll also know that I'm
not doing this on my own that you'll see the big picture that
I'm working with my father and that's basically the
conversation of our text today. Now, some of the language in our
current understanding and the translations can be awkward and
some of this we can get caught up in the Expert.
If we kind of just look at it. As I was studying the text.
There are these repeating things.
One of the repeated themes is that these people will die in
their sins. Jesus says that three different
times in the text. He also uses the language in the
Greek. I am multiple times as we've
already seen through John, which reminds us of Yahweh, the name
of God, and so you what you're seeing and what's building up in
this text is too Stark reality between who Jesus is.
And between between who these people are he Compares himself
with them. He says we are not like each
other. You are of this world.
I am not of this world. You are from below.
I am from above and so there is this stark contrast that Jesus
is headed to perfect union. With his god.
With his father. He's on a path to sinless and
perfect Eternal Union and that humans are on this path toward
death and sin and there is this giant Gap.
And if they have eyes to see and if we have eyes to see, will
notice that we need a rescuer that we are lost.
We need someone to close the gap for us and divert our path from
one towards deaf to a path toward life.
But before we can do that, we have to be honest about death,
as Jesus Is In this passage. There are three main thoughts,
about death from this text. I want us to see which we'll all
point us to our main idea that Jesus is The Rescuer.
We are all looking for. So the first thought about death
from our passage is the reality of death.
This is something that we often don't like to talk about.
But there's no getting away from the truth In this passage about
Sin and death that Jesus proclaimed.
This is the reason we preach what we call Exposition and
Preach through the whole text because it forces us to wrestle
with things. That sometimes we would
naturally bring up. But death is a real thing.
I know some of you personally have have faced death with loved
ones close to you in the last year like death has been to me.
It's just been closer than it has in a long time.
In the last 6 months, 6 to 12 months.
We have to wrestle with sin and death.
As I was studying this text. I was struck a A fresh by the
reality. And These Warnings about Sin and
death directly from the mouth of Jesus.
This is not me bringing this to the text.
Like, let's look at what Jesus has to say to the crowd and to
us. John 8:21 says, you will die in
your sin where I'm going. You cannot come verse. 24 says,
I told you that you will die in your sins for if you do not
believe Give that I am. He you will die in your sins.
Because Jesus loves them deeply and because he doesn't want them
to die in their sins. He is not afraid to speak to
them about the reality of death. Ultimately, because of sin in
the world. There is a death that is coming
to every man and woman and none of us can escape this reality
and death stinks. Like it wasn't meant to be this
way. Like we say, death is a part of
life and there's a sense in which yes, it is now, but Julie
in the, the perfect world that God created death was not meant
to be a part of life, but sin has come into the world and we
all at one time or another will face death.
This phrase. That's repeated three times.
You will die in your sins. It could mean that it could also
mean you will die for or because of your sins.
Either way the Stark reality is that death awaits and sin is the
culprit. The other thing that should
shock us about this statement that's important for us to see
is that it's not only death, but it's also sin.
So there is this physical aspect to dying, right, but there is
also So a spiritual death. When we die still in our sins,
that every single human is inflicted with the disease of
sin. And this applies not only to the
crowd that Jesus was talking to in his day, but it is a
universal truth. Excuse me, that applies to all
of us. We will die in our sins without
belief in the Savior. Jesus Christ Our King, so he
speaks, not only of death. He speaks not only of sin, but
he also speaks of a separation. Even from their creator.
He says where I am going because of your sin.
You cannot come. I'm going to be in Union with my
father, but you can't come and this is something again.
We don't often like to talk about, but it's in the text and
we've got to wrestle with it. Sin is bad and it destroys and
not only in this age. We see the effects of it in this
age, but also and more importantly in the age to come.
And instead of getting up. That or offended at the
messenger. We might do well to heed the
truth of the message. It's one thing I have to remind
my kids about a lot and as I remind them, it reminds me of
the danger and destruction of sin when they sin and they
minimize it as not. A big deal.
I have to get on their level and I say, look what you don't
understand right now and you will someday, is that sin will
hurt? Not only you, but everyone
around you. And ultimately and I tell them
that your sin will lead to death and separation from God and I
don't want that. For you and then I asked him,
you know what that means? You need someone to rescue you
from since grasp and then we have a conversation about Jesus.
But if we don't acknowledge the reality of death and sin, if we
simply get upset at the truth of the diagnosis, then we will
never get to the Cure. The message and the reality of
death is a consistent. True and authoritative message.
Jesus says that in verse 25 and 26.
He says I've been telling you this from the beginning.
It's a consistent message. When Jesus first began his
ministry. He said, hey, come to me.
If you don't, you will find Death.
If you do, you will find life. It's been consistent.
It's been true because it's backed by the authority of the
father, its authoritative. In a culture that devalues and
distrust of authority and maybe sometimes rightly.
So this is an authority that you can't afford to distrust.
You can't afford to ignore this authoritative message.
Jesus is not just trying to be the bearer of bad news.
He cares deeply about these people and he cares deeply about
you. So he shares these truths about
the reality of death. But I love the way Jesus
interacts because he doesn't just share about the reality of
death. He gives the explanations, he
shares as well about the reason for death.
And that's the second thing. We'll see.
The reason for death, see death, ultimately awaits.
All of us because we are both Sinners by circumstance and
Sinners by choice. And we need to understand this.
We are all on one level, both the victims of sins, grasp, and
the perpetrators of sin, and we can't minimize either reality.
They both need to be dealt with in verse 23.
Jesus. Plainly tells them.
It should be on the screen. He says, you are from below.
I am from above, you are of this world.
I am not of this world. This is their identity, their of
this world. Now, these people have any
control over the fact, whether or not, they were born into sin,
conceived in sin as David said, in Psalm 51.
No, they had no control over. This is, was the circumstance of
sin that was around them. But Jesus doesn't mince words
that this is their reality. They were born to do the will of
sin and bound to its powerful. Way.
And these are the circumstances of sin that all of us find
ourselves in. They were also centers by choice
multiple times. These people had been given
options to repent and turn from their sin, and Trust in this
Messiah, but they refused to do so, because to do so meant to
give up their life and lose their own way of thinking.
You see it in verse 24, 25 and 27, that they don't know the
father, because they're rejecting Jesus, and you can't
know the father without coming to Jesus.
And so, my hope for us is that we don't either minimize the
grasp of sin over us or others because we can do that to the
point that we don't show love and compassion.
We make it all about the choice of sin and we show no love or
compassion when people are caught in sins, powerful grasp.
Even God himself sees our frame and remembers that we are simply
dust and he has compassion and love toward us when he sees us
caught in sins grass. And so may we not go to that
extreme, but may we also not make excuses and pretend that we
are just the victims of sins grasp.
When the reality is we all on one level or another have chosen
sin for our own purposes and selfish Pleasures ignoring the
destruction that it's caused around us.
And so the reason for death that Jesus gives is both the
circumstances of sin. We find ourselves in but also
the choices of sin that we have all willingly made and it's a
vicious cycle. but even in the midst of a dark passage such as
this one, even in the midst of the Stark, reality of death, we
find glimmers of Hope. As we always do see the bad news
with Jesus. The bad news never stays bad for
long because there is always a rescue for those who admit that
they need one. Look at verse 21 again.
When he starts this, he says to them again.
I'm going away. You will look for me and you
will die in your sin where I'm going.
You cannot come. Jesus says that when he goes
back to his father. So this is after he dies and
rises again in a sense to the father that they will be looking
for him. Now, this phrase can seem a
little weird, but we've got to place ourselves in the minds of
the Jewish audience ever since the days of the prophets.
The Use were longing for a messiah, like, figure one who
would come and redeem both the cosmos the circumstance of sin,
and the hearts of his people, the choices of sin.
And so, they're longing for this Messiah.
This rescue are the Savior, and Jesus has told them multiple
times. That's me.
You're looking at him, you're talking to him.
They've heard this message, but they've rejected him.
And so what Jesus is saying here is, hey, you're still We're
going to be looking for me, meaning the Messiah once I'm
gone and you're not going to find them and because you're not
going to find them. Because you rejected him.
You're going to die in your sins.
And you can't come to the place of beauty where I'm headed.
When you are a worker of sin. See the thing is even if we're
not willing to admit it yet. All of us.
Need a rescuer and it's God's grace that sin destroys us to
the point where we're willing to look up and say help, I can't do
this. We all need someone or something
to save us from the circumstances of sin around us
and the choices of sin that we have made with our own hearts.
And, you know what, we try to do, we try to patch this This
this destructiveness. We try to fix it with things of
this age, with our own ways of thinking, maybe we look for the
solution. If I just had more free time in
a better schedule. I would my life would be better.
Maybe if I was in a higher income bracket, maybe if I had a
car that didn't break down, then I would not have stress in my
life. Maybe if I found that therapist
that was more in tune with me. Maybe if I found this this calls
to live for, in this purpose, to live for and post about on
Facebook, then like, My life will be fulfilled.
Maybe if I had that perfect relationship, that perfect
person who would complete me. Then I would be okay.
Maybe if I voted a different president in the power.
It might save me. Maybe if I watch the news
Channel that I agreed with more. I would be okay.
And let me say clearly, none of those things are bad in and of
themselves, but they can't save you.
They can't save me, they can be gifts from the father, good
things, but they can't cause you to pass from Death to life.
They can't take a cold dead heart, that loves sin, and
replace it with the heart that beats with the Rhythm of Life
and joy of the spirit. They might patch the problem for
a minute and cover the wound. So no one can see it from the
outside looking in, but that wound is still there.
And yes, Jesus said that without him, we could not go to where he
was going, but he came to us. We've seen the reality of death,
the reason for death. And lastly we see the good news,
the rescue from death. As I mentioned, there was this
looking and longing for a rescuer one who would come and
save the world from sin and death.
This this idea is referenced throughout the entire Old
Testament, but I want to look at one specific example, Isaiah
chapter 43, It should be on the screen for you.
Going to read a few verses from that chapter.
This is a prophecy about what Yahweh is going to do for all
his Covenant people. It says, in the first verse of,
Isaiah 43. Now, this is what the Lord says.
I want you to notice these verses, the one who created you.
Jacob, the one who formed you Israel do not fear for I have
redeemed or rescued. You I have called you by your
name. You are mine.
Fine. When you pass through the waters
of this life, the circumstances of sin, I will be with you and
the rivers, they will not overwhelm you.
When you walk through the fire. You will not be scorched and the
flame will not burn you. In verse 10.
He says you are my Witnesses. It's the Lord's declaration.
He's the one saying this you're my witness is you're my servant
whom I have chosen. Why?
So that you may know and believe
and understand that I am he Unless you believe that I am, he
you will die in your sins. He was gonna say no, God was
formed before me, there will be none after me.
I am the Lord, besides me. There is no savior.
You can't find The Rescuer anywhere else.
I alone declared saved and proclaimed.
Not some foreign. God among you.
Now, some God, you fashion with your own hands that we still do
to this day. You are my Witnesses and I am
God. Also from today on, I am, he
alone. None can rescue from my power.
I act. And who can reverse it.
The rhetorical answer is no one. There's this prophecy of this
chosen servant these Witnesses, which is what Jesus is
fulfilling that. These people may know, and
believe that I am, he this name, we've seen it over and over in
the Gospel of John. On this name.
I am that. Yahweh declared himself to Moses
at the burning bush that this Lord alone is the one who can
save from the power of sin. And in our passage today.
Jesus is again, making it explicitly clear that he is The
Rescuer. He's the Fulfillment of this.
Look, again at verse 24. I told you you will die in your
sins. For, if you do not believe that
I am, he I can hear Jesus pleading with them.
I am the Messiah. I'm the one I've been saying
from the beginning. You will die in your sins.
Jesus is honest about the reality of death in the reasons
for death because he himself stands as the rescue from Death.
He lived the perfect life. He's the only one who didn't
succumb to the circumstances of sin around him.
As the tempter told him to choose Earthly power over the
path that the father had chosen for him.
He remains steadfast. He was not tainted.
He was not conceived in sin. Verse 23, he reminds us that
he's from above, he's not from below.
He's not of this world. As we're told in verse 29.
He always did what pleased, his father.
He's the only child who's never disappointed their parent.
But even though he lived a perfect life, he showed that he
had power over both the circumstances and choices of
sin. He still allowed himself to walk
into the death that our sin deserved.
Even though he warned us of dying because of our sin.
The reality is, he died because of our sin, he became sin on the
cross. That's what he refers to.
When he says, you'll know, when I am lifted up.
He's talking about his death on the cross.
When he talked about going away, they said, is he going to kill
himself and the irony of this statement?
Because it was not going to be him killing himself.
It was going to be the Jews, placing him on a cross.
And as he does, this Jesus deals with the reason for death sin,
and he stamps it out and he puts it to death.
He deals with both the choices of sin.
We make in our heart and the circumstances of sin around us
the cosmos. And the gruesome reality of the
Cross. As we dwell on it, lets us never
forget the destructiveness of sin, it tore apart.
The son of God's flesh and skin. It pierced his side, it whipped
his back and nailed his hands and his feet to this bloody
Roman torture instrument called the cross.
And he willingly did that to rescue us.
But verse 21 reminds us that Jesus did not stay in the grave.
He said I'm going somewhere and that somewhere was not to the
Grave. His going away was not
ultimately to death. It was going through death and
resurrecting to sit at the right hand of his father in the place
of authority. And even though he says that we
can't join him there. John will later clarify, that
that's the only true for those who die in their sins.
That for those who believe that he is the one for those who
repent from trusting in the Most Rescuers of this age, when we
turn to Jesus. We receive his life.
Death, burial. Resurrection.
And we like, we have to understand this reality of
Union. You are made one with the father
when you trust in Jesus. And there's a sense in which
that's not fully accomplished yet, but it is just as good as
done. And it's a reality.
No one can take that away. The one who acts no one can
reverse it. And when Jesus makes you, his no
one can take that away. Away.
And because of the work of Jesus, all that's left for you
is to Simply believe. And if you've not trusted him
yet, like fully trusted Jesus, we want you to believe that he
is the I am or you will die in your sins.
And for those of us who have trusted in him, may we be
reminded again of the good news? And turn to the only one who can
save to turn again from false Rescuers and false Idols that we
think can fulfill and save us and turn again to Yahweh.
The I am Jesus. The Messiah who came and died
for your sins while you were still a sinner.
We can smile when facing the fires of death and the torrents
of Destruction. We don't have to fear because in
Christ Yahweh is with us. We don't have to have
reservation when God acts to destroy sin, because we have
been rescued from it, and our sin has already been destroyed
on the cross Christ, has, exchanged his righteousness for
our sin, and given us his, the smile of the father.
Now, now in Christ, you're the kids who never disappoint their
parent. You guys know what, it's like to
have the critical father over you or mother over you.
We can even be that constantly critiquing because we don't want
our kids to embarrass us. Like Hebrews tells us that God
is not ashamed to be called yours.
But he's not a shame that you bear the family name, no matter
how many times you messed it up, but he's not ashamed of you.
What in the world? God knows your frame.
He knows you're simply dust and he's provided a rescuer who is
gentle and lowly in heart. And when we begin to grasp this
and we turn to him instead of other things, it actually
transforms us, like people can actually change through the
power of the spirit, like transformation is possible. and
it doesn't happen perfectly until Jesus comes back, but it
does happen just like Jesus burst into Earth his likeness
burst into our hearts in the Here and Now eternity the new
creation breaks forth and we begin living More like Christ
slowly formed into His Image. So what are the implications of
this? We become a people who are not
of this world. Just like Christ was not of this
world. Now, we are in the world.
We're in the muck and the mire, and the mass.
And we get dirty just like Jesus did.
But our identity is clearly an obviously markedly different.
Our homeland is not of this age. We seek a country.
That's to come one, whose maker and Builder.
Is God the one where Jesus sits on the Roan not any Earthly.
Ruler. And just like Jesus and we did
look at it much, but he said he was sent to speak, only what the
father told him and just like us and powered by the power of the
spirit. We don't say too little and we
don't say too much. We just speak truth and
wholeness and beauty and life pointing everyone to Jesus where
hope can be found. Like, that's my hope for me
because I get convicted about this.
Is that my conversations and my newsfeed might be filled more
with the truth and beauty of Jesus and politics or sports or
any other false Rescuers, the world tries to offer us.
And we can have those conversations But ultimately
Jesus is where we place our hope.
And it doesn't mean we don't talk about the reality of death
and Brokenness, but we don't grieve as those without hope.
Yes, we're living in a Land of death.
So we grieve but death does not have the last word.
There is a reality of death. There's a reason for death and
there's also a rescue from death and that rescue is a person and
his name is Jesus repent and believe the good news of the
Gospel. Or let's pray.