Difficult sayings of Jesus

We live in a world, where so many people posses a very unique ability. This ability has developed in such a way that for many it cannot be controlled, it just happens. This ability that I speak of is, the ability to be offended by anything. What’s more, this culture of being offended, lacks self-awareness. We should, at some point stop and say, “Wait a minute, I get offended a lot.” We should take a moment, stop and begin to ask questions. A little insight into my upbringing, thick skin was a right of passage in our household. This was a culture in my family for two reason, first, my dad is a loving man but he expresses it through insults. His way of saying I love you is busting your chops. That does not mean he is hyper critical, but when there was a good mood and good times he would throw a zinger, and it was our responsibility to throw one back, to say “I love you” in return. It was different for my sister but for my brother and me, we had to be quick on our toes. The second way this was cultivated was, to be easily offended was seen as a weakness. The inability to control one’s response to a situation or to allow someone who is not a key person in your life to affect your mood or experience was something which was seen as a negative in my family. That is how I was raised and it still is something I uphold to a great degree. The reason why? In our society, when someone is offended, that is the trump card. “I am offended, therefore the conversation is over, you must acknowledge my offense and give penance. Preferably in the form of groveling.” I don’t say this word often but do you want to know why I hate this? It shuts down any kind of conversation, or investigation, and it shuts down the exchange of ideas. It shuts down everything. Our society see’s being offended as a virtue, not a flaw. So, we have been cultivating a society which shuts down dialogue, conversation, and the exchange of ideas. As Christians, here is why this is dangerous, Jesus is offensive. The Bible is offensive. If we put into practice what our culture says is virtuous, it means we will shut down the teachings of Jesus, we will shut down Scripture because it has offended us. Instead of investigating what Jesus said, why He said it, and why we are taking offense we just say, “No! I’m done!” There is no growth in that. We cannot grow as people, we cannot grow in our reasoning, and we cannot grow intellectually when we just shut down what is offensive, and Jesus is offensive. Paul is offensive. James is offensive. The Bible as a whole is offensive. But why? That is what we need to be asking, not shutting down the Word of God. Jesus is unique in an offensive way. Some say Jesus was a wise teacher. But, that cannot be. No wise teacher claims Godhood. No one takes the man on the corner serious who says he is god. You cross on the other side. Jesus cannot be a wise teacher because He claims to be God. For example, Jesus in Matthew 23 verse 34 Jesus says, I am sending you prophets. Wait, what? It is God who sends prophets and Jesus is saying I send them. In addition, when the prophets are sent they say, “Thus says the LORD.” They make it clear I am speaking on behalf of God. Jesus, not once says this. Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you.” CS Lewis rightly explains, “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic… or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God…”. So the question is, if Jesus is just a crazy person, why do His Words offend us? I went to a Chris Tomlin concert once with my wife and a man stood outside and said I was going to hell for attending. I was not offended, do you know why? Because that’s crazy. But when Jesus said, “If you look at a woman with lust you have committed adultery in your heart” and I got offended. Because it spoke to my sin. See the difference? This is what I propose, the reason Jesus is offensive is because we know He is not crazy. We know in our heart of hearts He is more. Today we begin a series looking at the difficult sayings of Jesus and our focus on this Easter Sunday are two separate statements made by Jesus. I touched on this last week, but these two sayings, which we are going to cover, come from Jesus’ “I am” claims. “I am” is the name of God given to Moses at the burning bush. “I am” is used by us to describe ourselves. I am tall. I am short. I am terrible at math from the pulpit. But God, just is. We do not have time to dig into this, but God is existent, unchanging, everlasting. He is “I am.” Jesus takes this name and puts it on Himself, and as a result He says some difficult things, even things which are offensive. My challenge to you today, and throughout this series is, do not shut down the offense, no, ask why. Why am I offended? Why did Jesus say this? Why does Scripture say this?

I want us to first go to John 14:1-6 “1 “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. 4 “And you know the way where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

I want us to look at this statement in 3 ways: the way, the Truth, and the Life. Jesus says, “I am the way.” This word in the Greek translates, way, road, path. Th early Christians were not called Christian apart form it being used a slur. I like that the church has taken a slur and made it a badge of honor. But the early Christians were once called, “The followers of the Way.” For Jesus to call Himself the way it brings light to something else Jesus said in Matthew 7:13-14 “13 Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Jesus says, I am the way, I am the path which leads you, the only way I can phrase it according to John 14, home. CS Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthy pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.” What are you after? How many roads, how many path’s, how many ways have you taken to find yourself either lost or yet again dissatisfied? Your not alone in that. I have been there. Just keep busy and don’t think about it, but we cannot escape those quiet hours. We lay in bed dissatisfied, and yet we know there must be something, or might I propose, someone who satisfies. Even in the face of hardship, suffering, and struggle there must be someone who satisfies, otherwise why do we feel this? Why do we know it? Jesus says, “I am way.” Peter and John knew this and when they were brought before a court and they boldly testified, Acts 4:11-12 “11 “He [Jesus] is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief corner stone. 12 “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” That’s offensive. Salvation in no one else? It is at this time, we propose questions, “Well, what about them? What about these people? What about...?” We do this, why? Because its offensive. Paul wrote to Timothy a young pastor in Ephesus, 1 Timothy 2:5-6 “5 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.” How can Jesus be the only way? I am going to address this more here in a moment, but we see once again Scripture bumping into a post-modern worldview. Post-modernism says, “There can’t be more than one way.” But even in that inclusive statement you are still making an exclusive claim. How do you know there is more than one way? What are those ways? Every faith makes its own claims which contradict one another. They cannot all be true, but we will take such a feeble stance because, Jesus being the only way is offensive. But, if Jesus is who He professed to be, God, then how can there be another way? God became flesh, He spoke, He lived, He died, He rose again. If anyone can make such a remarkable claim would it not be Him?

“I am, The truth.” I have made this point before, in a post-modern world this is offensive. How can there be only one truth!? They will say, there is no objective truth, only subjective. In other words, there is no such thing as absolute truth. Well, that itself is an absolute statement. Even those who profess such a view still live under non-negotiable truth’s every day. Don’t change the oil in your car, your car will stop working. Or let’s take morality, we have truth claims in our morality, across the board. It is always evil to rape. No debate. You step out into traffic, the objective truth is, a truck is coming, no subjective truth will change that if you do not not move you’re gone. This is what is at stake, Jesus said, John 8:31-32 “31 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” If Jesus is, “The Truth” then it does not matter what anyone else says. It does not matter what other religions say. If Jesus is the Truth then what He says matter’s, regardless of our feelings.

“I am the life.” This is true in two ways: 1. Right now. Life in Christ now, is transformative. 2 Corinthians 5:17, “17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” Romans 12:2-3 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” There is life to be found in Christ now, no doubt about it. He will change us for the better. There is another way this “life” affects us, eternity. Jesus in the passage we are looking at in John says, In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. Every single person on this planet lives and functions as though this life matters. We live as though this life has purpose. Any honest naturalistic thinker will say, “What we do does not matter. We live, say we create a cure for cancer, this earth will burn up eventually and that cure is ultimately meaningless. Yes it will help life as the earth permits it, but, the cure will not prevent the end of the world.” Here is the irony, even in this thinking, the atheist lives the opposite, though there worldview cannot support it. We know that this life has meaning and purpose. This truth is ingrained in our hearts. We know our lives are bigger than just here and now. Yes, in Christ our lives are affected here and now but there is a greater life which is given to us through Christ. If Jesus is the way and the truth then in Him alone is life. John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

That being said, we come to another one of Jesus’ “I am” statements. This claim made by Jesus directly affects the eternal life we have. Jesus receives news that Lazarus has died and so Jesus and His disciples go to see Him.

John 11:20-27 “20 Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet Him, but Mary stayed at the house. 21 Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 “Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.” Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Again the name “I am” describes the existence of God that in Him is resurrection. Yea? Prove it. “I am the life” meaning in Him is life. Prove it.

First, Jesus approaches the tomb of Lazarus and in this moment we see something happen to Jesus. He is moved with emotion. He faces the same things we face when we lose someone we love. He weeps and He experiences anger. Jesus faces these emotions in a very real way. The text says that he stood before the tomb and He was deeply moved. This expression is one which communicates a sort of anger standing before the tomb. Jesus in His flesh experiences the loss of a loved one, the affects of death upon mankind, and in His deity He does something about it. He tells them to roll away the stone and I like how the KJV puts it, “Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh…”

Jesus calls out to Lazarus to come out of the tomb. This man who was once dead is now alive because of Christ. This is also true of the souls of mankind, Ephesians 2:1 “1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins...” We were not drowning. We were not in a coma. We were not just hanging on. We were dead. Every single person who comes to Christ is resurrected. This is one of the beautiful pieces of symbolism with baptism, that were are buried with Christ. Romans 6:4 “4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” We were like Lazarus, dead and in need of a resurrection.

I want to close with this, everything I just said about Jesus is either true or its an utter and complete sham. Jesus either is or He is not. We are given no other choice, though we want to existence in the between state, having not taken a firm stance. We want to be inclusive to Jesus’ exclusivity. Jesus either is, or He is not. Can I tell you why, i believe He is?