Who is Jesus? - Week 2

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Scripture Reading by Lady Pepper

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Thank you Lady Pepper for the announcements and the reading of God’s Word.

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Title of the series

What’s In a Name?

Title of the message this Morning

Who is Jesus?

Let’s pray together.

Big Idea:

John’s gospel is written to answer one question:

Who is Jesus?

But he is not interested so much in the man, Jesus of Nazareth, like the other three gospels, as he is in the exalted Christ.

The distinction is echoed by Peter in his Pentecost sermon, “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”(Acts 2:36) He is Lord.

He is, as the demons say in Mark 1:24, “The Holy One of God.”

Prayer:

“Father, we want to see Jesus, in all his glory.

Lift the veil for a few moments this morning and let him be transfigured before us even as he was for Peter, James, and John on the mountain.

Give us a fresh vision of the exalted Christ, the Savior of the World.”

Scripture: John 8:58, John 4:1-42

Introduction

We’re in the beginning of a 9-week sermon series called What’s In a Name, and so far, we’re still getting acquainted with the path.

Last week we talked about the name of God, and how it develops over the bible to an ultimate point in Christ…

And today our focus will be on the seven “I Am” statements of Jesus in the Gospel of John.

It’s these statements that give us further clarity about who Christ is and what it means to those who follow Him.

You might be wondering at this point, “What are the seven statements?” (check single slide presentation)

Remember the number 7 in the bible is the number of completion.

I am the bread of life. (6:35)

I am the light of the world. (8:12)

I am the door… (10:7)

I am the good shepherd. (10:11)

I am the resurrection and the life. (11:25)

I am the way, the truth, and the life. (14:6)

I am the true vine. (15:1)

In Greek the phrase is “Ego eimi,”—I Am—but we saw last week that the history of the phrase goes all the way back to Moses at the burning bush.

When Moses asked God’s name, he was told Yahweh, I Am, in Hebrew.

The background is important for understanding the impact of Jesus’ repeated use of the expression in John’s Gospel.

But before diving into them, we need to spend a little time getting to know John and the account he left us of Jesus’ life.

The first thing you notice about John’s gospel is that it is different from the other three—very different.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the Synoptic Gospels because they are so similar.

Those other three contain a lot of shared material, almost verbatim in some cases.

Scholars believe Mark was written first, and that Matthew and Luke each borrowed sections from Mark to fill out their account.

John was written much later, and contains no shared material from the other three.

Matthew quotes a lot of scripture, Mark lists miracles, and Luke reels off parables.

Each has their own special focus, but the one thing they all have in common is to say something about the time Jesus lived on the earth.

John, on the other hand, seems to have something else in mind, and an uninformed reader would hardly guess that his Jesus and the Jesus of the other three Gospels are the same person.

John has no account about when or where Jesus was born.

He says nothing about his baptism.

There’s no record of the wilderness temptation in John, or the Mount of Transfiguration; and nothing about how Jesus told people to eat bread and drink wine in his memory.

There is no mention of Jesus’s ordeal in the garden the night he was arrested, or how he was tried before the Sanhedrin as well as before Pilate.

There’s nothing in John about the terrible moment when Jesus cried out that God had forsaken him at the very time he needed him most.

Jesus doesn’t tell even a single parable in John.

So what, then, according to John, does Jesus do?

He speaks words.

Lots of them.

And John seems to know that when God speaks words, things happen.

When God speaks, John says, creation happens.

And when God speaks, what comes out is not ancient Hebrew or King James English.

Rather, “The Word became flesh,” John says, which means that when God wanted to say what God was all about, and what life is all about, it wasn’t a sound that emerged, but a person.

His name was Jesus, and he was the Word of God.

In John’s gospel, even when Jesus works miracles—which John calls “signs”—it seems he’s thinking less about the human needs of the people he’s working them for, than about something else he wants to say about who he is and why he is here.

So, when he feeds a crowd with a little boy’s lunch, he says, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” (6:35)

When he raises his friend Lazarus from the dead, he says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” (11:25-26)

“I am the gate,” he says. “Whoever enters by me will be saved.” (10:9)

“I am the good shepherd,” (10:14)

“the light of the world,” (8:12)

“I am the way, the truth, and the life,” (14:6) and

“I and the Father are one.” (10:30)

One way to think about the difference between the

Synoptic Gospels and John’s Gospel is this:

the other three are introducing us to Jesus;

John is showing us the Christ.

But that’s just the point, of course—John’s point.

It’s not the Jesus people knew on earth that he’s mainly talking about, perhaps because John—writing much later than the other three—had had time to reflect on these matters decades longer than the other writers.

Jesus, for John, is the Christ he knew in his own heart and the one he believed everybody else could know too—even you and me.

He is the Jesus John loved not just because he had healed the sick and fed the hungry, but because he had saved the world.

Main Teaching

As we get going today, there are two additional “I Am” statements in John that we need to look at before we get to the other seven.

Before Abraham was, I am. (John 8:58)

This chapter (John 8) records a lengthy conversation between Jesus and his opponents.

It falls into three sections:

1. Vs. 21-30 A dispute over who Jesus is.

2. Vs. 31-47 A dispute over whose children Jesus’ opponents are.

3. Vs. 48-59 Jesus’ claims about himself.

The crux of each issue involves claims about identity: Who is Jesus, and who are we?

Where is our identity rooted?

Strictly in our human ancestors and DNA?

Or are there larger, spiritual factors that are more important than mere flesh-and-blood lineage?

The whole conversation comes to a head when his hearers play the “Abraham card,” but Jesus trumps them by saying, “Before Abraham was, I am.” (v. 58)

Make no mistake; they got the message.

Jesus was claiming to be co-existent with Yahweh before Abraham’s call.

This wasn’t just hard to comprehend or accept—it is all of that—but to their ears it was blasphemy!

This lowly carpenter from Nazareth was claiming that he was the pre-existent God!

John’s gospel doesn’t waste a lot of time with speculations about Jesus’ identity.

There is no lengthy buildup of slow realization on the part of the disciples.

John throws down the gauntlet in the very first chapter:

This is the Word made flesh, come to dwell among us.

Then the whole rest of the book unveils and unpacks the astounding implications of this truth…

One example that comes to mind is the scene where Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at the community well.

The woman at the well (John 4:1-42)

This is the most “modern” sounding of all Jesus’ encounters with people.

This woman sounds like she was plucked right out of 2024 and transported back through time to 1st Century Palestine.

Jesus wants to help her—to reach out to her with his love.

But she resists him,

First: Why would God be interested in me?

v. 9 – “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

In this case, the woman was struggling against racial and gender stereotypes. (explain)

But it could be anything.

Most of us struggle with self-esteem issues at some level.

1.You don’t know who I am.

2.You don’t know what I’ve done.

3.You don’t know what I’ve been through.

4.I’m damaged goods; I’ve failed too many times; I’m too far gone; I’m not worthy.

But here was Jesus, talking to her. “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

Second: My problems are physical, not spiritual.

vs. 11-15 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep.

Where can you get this living water?

Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.

Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

She still thought Jesus was talking about H2O!

The modern solution to problems is to trust in physical and material things, and completely ignore spiritual issues.

1. My problem is money—I need more.

2. My problem is my job—I hate it.

3. My problem is my marriage—I married the wrong person; they don’t meet my needs.

4. My problem is my weight—I need to lose 25 pounds, then life would be great.

5. My problem is my appearance—I need a complete makeover.

6. I’d rather be fishing.

7. I’d rather be golfing.

8. I’d rather be sailing.

9. Every conceivable product offers contentment and fulfillment in life, from cars to under-arm deodorant.

Third: I’m not interested in religion—it’s just a bunch of rules. (This comes after Jesus exposes her sordid past.)

v. 20 – “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

This excuse has a little more basis, but she is still trying to divert the conversation away from her real problem.

Jesus has hit a little too close to home.

The “religion” excuse today:

- Catholics say one thing—Protestants say another.

- Why so many different denominations?

Which one is right?

- Besides, don’t all religions lead to the same God anyway?

- Religion is a private matter.

No one should tell others what to do.

Jesus dismisses this excuse by pointing out the nature of true worship: “Believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” (4:21-24)

Fourth: Of course I believe in God, but how does that help me today?

v. 25 – “I know that Messiah (called Christ) is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

She still has an other-worldly view of Christ and his kingdom.

Pie-in-the-sky-by-and-by.

So do a lot of people today.

“It’s OK to believe in God, but he’s almost totally irrelevant to modern life.

I’ll just muddle through the best I can, and hope I’ve covered my bases when it’s time to die.”

Imagine the woman’s shock at Jesus’ words: “I who speak to you am he.”

The actual rendering of the Greek is “I Am speaks to you.” Ego eimi.

The Greek words for Yahweh!

I Am!

This is the Word of God about himself! The Word made flesh!

Conclusion

Which excuses have you been using to divert God’s work in your life?

We all do it.

But Jesus is the One who makes things happen according to our greatest needs.

Five life-changing truths that follow because Jesus is “Ego eimi,” Yahweh, the Great I Am:

1. God knows me better than I know myself.

2. The One who knows me best loves me the most.

3. Jesus is the only reliable diagnostician of our real needs.

4. As much as we need forgiveness for our past, we also need hope for our future. We need to know our true self, a transformed self that can actually be a new creation going forward.

5. We can receive power in our spirit to accomplish this work of transformation.

Let these truths move you this week.

Let them bother you, encourage you, and challenge you.

Next week we take a deep dive into the first of seven I AM statements from Christ.

Let’s pray together.

Salvation:

The Word of God says in:

John 3:16 NKJV

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Romans 10:13 NKJV

For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

If you’d would like to receive Jesus today, please pray this prayer with all of us:

Lord I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He died On the cross for my sins and His resurrection from the dead gives me eternal life. I ask forgiveness of my sins, and I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Amen.

Pastor [e-mail]

Church Office: 909-922-8090

And I will send you a Bible & a Free Book on how to begin your first 21 steps with Jesus (show the book)

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Benediction

“I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26)

Have a Great Week! Goodbye!