Jesus’ Shocking Declaration
(John 8:51–59)
Since the birth and fall of humanity, Jesus made a shocking declaration in John 8:51–59. This declaration concerned something that mankind could never resolve. And what is that unsolvable problem for humanity?
First, death cannot be resolved. Science may advance and prolong life through medicine, but people still die, mostly under the age of 100. Even if one manages their body well, takes supplements, and maintains a strict schedule, it is nearly impossible to surpass 100 years. Jesus made that declaration.
Second, the problem of sin cannot be solved. Sin cannot be separated from a person’s heart or body. No cannon, gun, or any powerful weapon can remove it, nor can threats or intimidation make it go away. If you are born human, sin inevitably clings to you. Satan knows human weaknesses—the passion between men and women, the thirst for money, the desire for honor and power; he knows how to lead humans to sin. The problem of sin is utterly unsolvable. Death and sin are inseparable. How terrifying this reality is! The Bible says, “The wages of sin is death,” yet people do not realize this. They may understand it only when they die, but they remain unaware even until they reach 70 or 80 years old, at which point they face death with trembling and fear.
Third, judgment. It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment. We might wish to escape judgment, but it is unavoidable (Heb 9:27). The moment one ceases to breathe in this world, everything they believed, did, and said will be revealed. Every sin committed with the mouth, eyes, or heart will appear as clearly as scenes on a movie screen. Look at the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16. The rich man, tormented by the heat of the sulfur flames, pleaded, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue.” But Abraham replied, “There is a great chasm between you and us, so that none can cross over.” Then the rich man said, “I have five brothers. Please let me go and warn them so they won’t sin and will believe in God.” But Abraham answered, “There’s no need. They already had the prophets, the prophecies, and the Law. They did not believe them, so even if someone rises from the dead, they will not believe.”
The problems of death, sin, and judgment— these three are inseparably attached to every human being. And the Word that can completely resolve all three problems is found in today’s passage, John 8:51–59.
Jesus’ declaration that solves the problems of death, sin, and judg- ment
Jesus’ declaration to the world was truly shocking: “If anyone keeps My word, he will never see death.” (John 8:51) John 1:1–4 states, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” When the universe and all things were created, they were created through the Word. In 1 John 2:25, it is written that Jesus is “the life that is eternal and will never die.” He promised to give this life to those who believe. Because it is received through faith, we too must have faith. Do not attend church only when you feel good, and stay away when you are upset. Just as a person receives good treatment when they show respect to others, we must first have fellowship with God.
According to 1 John 1:7 and onward, death is a problem that can never be solved. However, Jesus said that if we believe in Him, He will make it so that death can never touch us. While I was praying in Jiri for three and a half years, I came to understand this Word through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, and I was so joyful that I danced with gladness. But at the same time, I also felt fear. Since the fall of the first ancestor of humankind, Adam, everyone who came into this world has died. But Jesus said, “If anyone keeps My word, he will never see death.” The One who said this is life itself, the Lord of life, the source of life, the origin of all creation in the universe. What a great blessing it is that we believe in Him, and how amazing it is that we are His children! How, then, can we find a remedy for death? In John 11:25, Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies.” This is a living hope, a blessed hope, an eternal hope. He said, “If anyone keeps My word, he will never see death.” But one must have faith in order to keep His word. If we hear the Word but do not understand it, and if we don’t even have the Word, what can we keep? A treasure must first be in the house for it to be guarded. When we believe the Word, the Word dwells in us. God’s Word is greater than any inheritance from our parents or children. The universe and all things were created by the Word, and if we have the Word, then all things in the universe are ours. For the one who keeps His Word and believes in Him, the problem of death is solved. What better and more joyful news could there be than this?
Jesus is not someone who can be understood by the human mind. He was clearly the son of Joseph and Mary, the carpenter’s son from Nazareth, yet the words He spoke were not of this earth. They were words from heaven. He asked in John 3, “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” No one believed Him. People said, “We saw you grow up from childhood. How can you lie and say you came from heaven?” And just as they were about to drive Him out with clubs, Jesus escaped. Everyone called Him demon-possessed, saying that everything He said was madness (Matt 13:54–57; John 8:52–53).
In John 8:45–47, Jesus said, “If you were truly of God, you would have listened to My words; but since you reject and do not accept My words, you are not of God.” Because of this, He nearly faced being beaten to death. Humans find it extremely difficult to transcend the limits beyond their own thinking. Yet Jesus is the Son of God, dwelling with God, possessing knowledge equal to God and power equal to God.
Jesus said that He is with God, sent by God, one with God, and equal to the Creator God—who would have believed that? He knew that if He called Himself God right away, the people of Israel might not understand, so He said, “No one has ever seen God; the One who is in the Father’s presence is He who has made Him known to us” (John 1:18). In John 10:28, He further angered the Israelites by saying, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand,” which, over time, angered the people of Israel. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The Greek word for “gift” means a free gift, and Jesus was given to humanity as a gift. Jesus came to destroy the power of death and to liberate those whose lives were held in bondage by the fear of death (Heb 2:14–15).
Jesus’ authority came from God. At that time, the chief priests delivered their messages based on the authority they received as leaders of the Sanhedrin, composed of seventy members of Israel’s ruling council. Jesus, the son of a carpenter from Nazareth, had no worldly authority and possessed nothing. When He spoke, people asked by what authority He spoke. He responded by asking, “The baptism of John—was it from heaven or from men?” The priests conferred among themselves and, unable to answer, said, “We do not know.” Jesus then said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things” (Matt 21:23–27). Jesus’ authority was given by God. He said, “I do not speak on My own authority, but as the Father instructed Me; I speak only what I am commanded.” Since He spoke of a conversation between Himself and God the Father, the priests could not see this, and they were naturally enraged. Jesus’ authority and power came from God, but people judged and evaluated Him by human standards. He said He was sent by God, but they could neither see God nor see Jesus conversing with God. God is Spirit, and cannot be seen with flesh and blood. Humans do not know Him, but Jesus saw and knew Him directly.
(John 8:55) and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word.
We must believe the Word beyond human understanding.
The coming of the Son of Man will have a definite time, just as it did in the days of Noah. The people of that time prided themselves on knowing God. Jesus asked, “How can you know God when you do not know the One He has sent?” He said, “To know Me is to know the Father,” and the more He spoke this, the more people cursed at Him, calling Him demon-possessed. Human life is tragically short, not passing 100 years. Yet when we speak of living without dying, there will be a moment—a day, a time—when it happens. At that final moment of faith, the body will be transformed faster than the blink of an eye. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, when the mortal puts on immortality, then death will not be able to approach the Word in each person’s heart and flee. It is at that moment that we are transformed (1 Thess 4:13+; 1 Cor 15:50–56).
Yesterday, while writing the eighth volume of the “History of Redemption” series, I suddenly felt thankful for the health God has given me. I do not commit the sin of ceasing to pray for you. Through the prophets of old, God foretold for four thousand years that He would come to this earth, and He finally came. From Isaiah chapters 7 and 9, we learn that the Messiah would come from a virgin without a man, and that He is Immanuel. He came to His own land (John 1:11), but His own people did not receive Him. They murmured, saying, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth? If Jesus comes as the son of David, He should come with authority. How could He be born into a poor, uneducated, unremarkable family?”
Simeon and Anna saw the Lord’s salvation with their own eyes. Luke 2 introduces Simeon and Anna, who never left the temple but constantly prayed. The Holy Spirit told them, “Before you die, you will see the Messiah coming to this earth, as foretold by the prophets of old.” Anna, from the tribe of Asher, became a widow seven years after her marriage and had been a widow for 84 years, making her well over a hundred years old. Look at how even she met Jesus.
According to the Law of Moses, Mary took Jesus to the temple after His birth, and the Holy Spirit immediately said to the two elderly people, “The Messiah who was promised to come to this earth is the one the woman is holding.” And though their eyes were dim, they went and took the baby in their arms, walking around the temple, praying with gratitude and joy, “My eyes have seen Your salvation.” Simeon and Anna saw the Lord’s salvation with their own eyes. If someone said, “The coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah, and this Word will soon be fulfilled,” would you believe it? If you are told the world will end tomorrow, you might think, “Okay, but will that really happen?” Hebrews 11:7 says that Noah was warned about things not yet seen, and without a shred of doubt, he believed the Word and built the ark. It was not a time of advanced science; he used axes made of stone to build the ark. No one else believed, but Noah fully trusted God’s revelation that judgment would come through the flood. Even ten years later, though the weather remained fair, Noah and his family of eight went to the mountains, cut wood, built the ark, and farmed to provide a year’s food for the animals and family. Noah’s children followed God’s command to keep the Word and only bore children after the flood ended. From this, we learn that we must believe God’s Word beyond human reasoning. Noah was warned about what he could not see, and he believed and relied on that Word. As a result, only Noah and his eight family members were saved from the judgment. It seems simple in writing, but with ordinary faith, this would be impossible.
(Hebrews 11:7) By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the sal- vation of his household, by which he con- demned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
The prophets of old foretold that the Messiah would be sent. In John 1:11, we see that the Messiah came to His own land, but the Israelites who had been waiting for Him did not recognize Him nor believe in Him. How could the son of Joseph, a carpenter from an unknown town called Nazareth, be the Messiah? To the human mind, this was preposterous. So they ignored and ridiculed Him, and treated Him like a madman and drove Him out of their towns, saying, “We know your parents and watched you grow up from childhood, how dare you say you came from heaven?”
The human mind cannot know God (1 Cor 2:6+). Jesus said in John 8:56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” People became angry, saying, “Abraham lived two thousand years ago, and you are not even fifty years old—how could you have seen our ancestor Abraham?” They could not believe that Jesus existed before Abraham, and that He was the One who sent Abraham. Abraham also waited for the time of Jesus and rejoiced, for only when Jesus comes and fulfills His purpose can Abraham be resurrected. Therefore, Abraham absolutely cannot precede Jesus. When Abraham received the command to go to Mount Moriah and sacrifice Isaac, the long-awaited son he received at the age of 100, his heart did not waver. At the very moment it seemed he might actually strike his son, God said, “Abraham, Abraham! Do not lay your hand on the boy. Now I know that you fear God.” God acknowledged Abraham’s faith. We must live with a faith like Abraham’s. How great a man was Abraham! He believed the Word and obeyed it. As seen from Genesis 12:4 and onward, Abraham believed the Word and followed it in obedience.
Jesus demonstrated the solution to the problem of sin by resurrecting.
God sent the Messiah, who is God, to this earth to solve the problem of humanity’s sin, and He transferred the sins of humanity to Jesus. Who could see that humanity’s sins were placed on Jesus? This was God’s work, but because we could not see it, our understanding is limited to human reasoning, and therefore we struggle to believe. For our sins to be destroyed, they were imputed to Jesus, and He was made to die on the cross (Rom 8:3; 2 Cor 5:21). If we can grasp this spiritual reality, we can only be grateful. We were destined for hell because of sin, enslaved to death, and unable to escape it. Yet, the problem of sin was solved, death was abolished, and the blessing of eternal life was restored, demonstrated through the resurrection. He broke the power of death and proved it to humanity through His resurrection. He solved the problems of sin, death, and judgment—yet people still did not believe. Who saw that Jesus rose again? Not being able to believe this shows how depraved humans are. God had Jesus bear all the sins of humanity on Mount Calvary, offered Him as a sacrifice on the cross, and laid Him in the tomb. The sins of humanity died with Him, and then He resurrected. Because He broke the power of death and rose, the problems of sin, death, and judgment were completely solved.
There is no resurrection without the cross. He broke the power of death and was resurrected. At the same time, God declared to humanity, “I loved you, even to the point of giving up My Son to die for you” (Rom 8:5). John 3:16 shows God loved the world beyond limit, beyond any possible further point to go. This limitless, infinite love is agape love. Agape love cannot be measured or calculated. Parents who have raised children understand this: who keeps a record of exactly how much allowance they give, on what year, month, day, hour, or minute? A father’s and mother’s love for their children cannot be calculated. On top of that, God’s love is unconditional agape love. Even if one sins a hundred times, His agape love will overlook it, cover it, and conceal it. Therefore, receive the Word well while you are healthy, record it faithfully, and even if you cannot give your children other inheritances, pass on God’s Word to them. I sincerely bless this upon you in the name of the Lord.
God is unchanging throughout all ages, and Jesus is eternal. There is no death in Him, and He cannot be measured or calculated. Jesus Himself is eternal, the Creator, the One who governs both the past and the present. He has existed eternally from the time of Abraham until now. His world is a place where one can transcend space and time just by thought. If dirt is common on earth, gold is common on the streets of Heaven (Rev 21). Everywhere you go, there are diamonds and glittering jewels. It is a place without weariness, pain, or death (Rev 21-22). Please sincerely believe in that world, and believe that the toil and labor you have endured for the Lord until now will be rewarded with grace and blessing.
There is a grace we will receive at the end.
There is a grace that we will receive at the end. Just as parents deposit money in the bank and save it for their children, God has also prepared and stored blessings, and this is the grace we will receive at the end. Even though in Noah’s time, sin was widespread, and men and women were doing whatever they pleased and committing evil, Genesis 6:8 says, “Noah found favor (grace) in the eyes of the Lord.” Similarly, for believers in the last days, God will distribute this stored-up grace.
If you receive just that, all the suffering you endured in the world will seem like nothing. Store up much prayer through a life of continuous prayer. Believe that these prayers will not be lost but will certainly bring about a great work. There is a living hope for those who fully desire and long for the grace that God has stored up (Ps 31:19, 1 Pet 1:3-5, 13).
(Psalm 31:19) How great is Your goodness, Which You have stored up for those who fear You, Which You have wrought for those who take refuge in You, Before the sons of men!
(1 Peter 1:3-5) Blessed be the God and Fa- ther of our Lord Jesus Christ, who accord- ing to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imper- ishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
(1 Peter 1:13) Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Through God’s grace, you will surely be able to meet God and all the prophets of old. At the end, the people of the world will come to the saints and worship them and wait for them, because without us, those people cannot be made complete.
(Hebrews 11:39) And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised,
(Hebrews 11:40) because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.
Completion cannot be attained without us.
You are the last of the runners. Just as in a relay race where the baton is passed and the final runner must cross the finish line first, tens of millions of saints have already run. When the saints of Pyungkang, who have received the final baton of the Word, finally arrive in that Kingdom, all the prophets, starting from Abel, will welcome us. How precious are you that completion cannot be attained without you! You are not just one person; you are built on the foundation of the prophets. Believe that the problems of death, sin, and judgment are completely resolved, and you will live with God forever and ever in His blessed Kingdom.
There is no one in heaven or on earth but Jesus. It is Jesus who has resolved the problem of sin. No matter what sins we have committed, Jesus took them all upon Himself and died on the cross; the sins of the past have been completely wiped clean. So do not dwell on the past sins you may have committed knowingly or unknowingly. Rather, repent sincerely and with a burning heart before God. When we sin, our conscience tells us, “This is wrong,” and we cannot silence that voice because God Himself placed that conscience within us. I pray in the name of the Lord that you may repent for all that has burdened your conscience, and may each of you boldly enter into the kingdom of heaven, hand in hand with your loved ones.
Last night, while I was praying, I was once again amazed and thankful that God has given me health. How grateful we should be that we can meet together now in His grace! Be thankful while you are healthy— be thankful each time you see your spouse, your children, your friends, and your coworkers. When sickness comes, you may no longer be able to see them; even drinking a sip of water will become difficult. Imagine a son or daughter lifting a spoonful of water to the lips of a bedridden father— when he drinks it, the whole house is filled with life and joy. In the same way, when we receive the Word well, God rejoices. Let us always give thanks that He has completely destroyed sin and death and has given us the hope of resurrection and eternal life.
Let us pray.
Lord, You have promised to give the living hope of transformation, to never taste death, for those who earnestly long for and trust in Your grace in the end times. Through today’s message, we have come to understand the glory and joy of meeting the returning Lord while still alive, like Enoch. Please grant this blessing to all the Pyungkang members. May we be a people who can receive the Word with all sincerity and concentrated effort, who can sing, pray, and give offerings with genuine hearts and zero falsehood. If there are any among us who are sick in body or spirit, please lay upon them Your hands that are stained with Your continually flowing, cleansing blood. Grant us freedom from all disease and affliction, so that we may give glory and thanksgiving to You. Guard every home with a firewall of the Holy Spirit so that darkness cannot break in. Block and drive out all evil forces with the Holy Spirit. Help us to be alert, to read, hear, understand, and not be lazy in evangelizing Your Word. Fill us with the fullness of grace and the power of the Holy Spirit. Until the day we enter Your Kingdom, may gratitude never leave our hearts. We offer this prayer of thanksgiving in the holy name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Thank You, Lord.
August 22, 2012, Wednesday Service
Sermonby Rev. Abraham Park
Loving My Country, Loving My People
