John 8:52-59

Abraham is dead and the prophets

Abraham and Jesus

I. THE GREATNESS OF ABRAHAM:

1. The ancestor of the Jews. “Our father,” said they (John 8:53); “Your father,” conceded Christ (John 8:56). It was no small distinction to be the progenitor of so renowned a race.

2. The father of the faithful. He believed in God’s promise (Ge Romans 4:20), and became the head of a spiritual progeny who will far outnumber the natural.

3. A conqueror of death. Christ’s word (John 8:51) signified that to all His believing people, who were Abraham’s children, and therefore to Abraham himself who had kept God’s word, death was practically abolished Matthew 22:32).

4. A beholder of Christ’s day. Not an exultant anticipator, but an actual witness either prophetically from Moriah or from Paradise.

II. THE SUPERIORITY OF JESUS.

1. Of loftier calling. Abraham, a prophet; Christ, a Saviour; Abraham, the ancestor of the promised seed; Christ, the promised seed; Abraham, the progenitor of Christ, according to the flesh; Christ, the redeemer of Abraham, according to the Spirit. The Jews exulted in their physical connection with Abraham; Abraham in his spiritual connection with Christ.

2. Of nobler name. Abraham, a servant; Christ, the Son. Abraham called the Divine Being “God”; Christ addressed Him as “Father.”

3. Of older existence. Abraham was not before He came into this world; Christ was before Abraham was born.

4. Of higher being. Abraham began to be; Christ always was. Abraham was a creature; Christ the Creator, “I am.”

Lessons:

1. The Supreme Divinity of Christ.

2. The power of faith.

3. The certainty of existence after death.

4. The true secret of soul joy.

5. The one object of faith in all ages and for all peoples--Christ’s day. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)

Christ and Abraham

I. CHRIST IS GREATER THAN ABRAHAM (John 8:52). Notice:

1. The implied denial of the Jews that Christ was greater than Abraham. In this we see

(1) a sensuous interpretation, “Abraham is dead.” They took death in its mere material sense; they had no profounder idea of it than the dissolution of mind from matter. The dissolution of mind from truth, virtue, happiness, God--which is of all deaths the worst, and of which corporeal death is but the palpable--type, had not entered their carnal souls.

(2) Their ancestral pride (John 8:58). This led them to believe that Abraham was the greatest man in the universe, and themselves consequently as the greatest people. These two have always been among the greatest obstructions to the spread of truth.

2. The reply of Christ to this implied denial.

(1) He asserts that He honoured the Father, which they did not (John 8:54).

(2) He knew the Father, which they did not (John 8:55).

(3) He served the Father, which they did not (John 8:55).

3. The declaration of His superiority to Abraham (John 8:56).

II. CHRIST IS OLDER THAN ABRAHAM (John 8:58). This declaration struck them:

1. As absurd (John 8:57).

2. As blasphemous, and to be punished as such (John 8:59). (D. Thomas, D. D.)