Everything He Claimed to Be

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This morning, we’re going to continue on with the series I started last week about some of the I am statements that Jesus made through the book of John. And I told you last week that when I when I started researching some of these, I just basically ran a search through my Bible software of all the times Jesus used the phrase I am in the book of John. And what came after, because I’ve noticed there are some some interesting ones.

And as I was doing research on some of these, I told you that some of the commentators said, well, this is number whatever of the seven I am statements that Jesus made in the book of John. And what I told you was I found a whole lot more than seven. So I’m not sure where they come up with this list of seven, and maybe you’ve heard of seven.

We’re going to, over the months of October and November, we’re going to cover nine of them that I thought were especially poignant. May not be the same seven that all these commentators have, but we’re going to look at some of the ones that I thought were particularly important. And as I was studying this week, I thought of how when you’re out among people, when you’re out among the public, you’re going to run across some interesting people, right?

Anybody work retail? Anybody ever worked retail in this room? I did.

Am I the only one? Seriously? Okay.

You meet some interesting people when you’re out working with the public. Interesting, sometimes a charitable word for that. When you’re out telling people about Jesus, when you’re out talking to people about Jesus on purpose, you really meet some interesting people.

I think of one man that I met in Norman. We had knocked on his door and when he found out why we were there, he told me and the guy I was with, he said, well, I don’t believe in organized religion. And the guy I was with said, well, neither do we.

That’s why we’re Baptists. Let that sink in for a minute. I think that was a good point.

There’s a lady I met in Quebec one time that I was trying to talk to her about the gospel and she stopped me and she said I just need to know do I have to give up beer to get to heaven well how do you answer that quickly and in a foreign language no you don’t have to give it up but you should want to the most memorable and I thought of all the things to be concerned about the most memorable experience I’ve ever had talking to somebody about Jesus was a lady in South Oklahoma City. We knocked on the door and we introduced ourselves. She told us her name.

She told us where she was from. She told us the fact that she was a Buddhist. And then when we asked her the questions from Evangelism Explosion, if you’ve not ever been through that training, the two diagnostic questions you ask is, those two questions are, if you were to die today, do you know for sure where you would go? And the second question is, If you were to stand before God and have Him ask you, why should I let you into my heaven, what would you tell Him?

So we asked her the first question, and I don’t remember what she said to the first question, but to the second question, when we said, what would you say to God? She said, well, I would tell Him because I am God. I am Him.

My wife says I don’t have much of a poker face, that you can pretty much tell what’s going on in here by what you see here. I would love to have had a photo of what came across my face that because I’ve never heard anything like that before or since you know she told me my name is whatever okay I I believe you I’m right there with you she told us where she’s from she told us she’s a buddhist I I have no problem believing that I I believe everything you’re saying right up until you pull out the I am god card you lost me I I don’t believe I don’t believe her am I wrong in that I don’t think that’s accurate She said, I am God. I was totally with her right up until that last point.

And then I no longer believed. I didn’t know what to believe of anything that she said after that point. If somebody, I’m God.

All right. Have you ever run across somebody like that who’s made a claim that you just, I can’t believe it. Anybody?

Ever made one of those claims? You know, my children will tell me stories about things that happened when I get home from the office. How was your day?

Oh, it was great. We played outside. Okay.

We had lunch. Okay. We did school.

Okay. And Charlie turned into the Hulk. Okay.

I don’t believe you anymore. At some point, you make claims that I, at some point, I get skeptical. We all run across those people that were just, we’re right up there with them to a certain point. And then they make a claim about themselves or about something they’ve seen that we just can’t or won’t believe.

And the Pharisees were that way with Jesus. My name’s Jesus. Okay, yeah, we believe that.

I’m from Nazareth. All right, son of Joseph, carpenter, all that they believe. But when he started talking about the Son of God stuff, the Pharisees were saying, no, I don’t think so.

The Pharisees got kind of skeptical. And this morning, we’re going to be in John 8. We’re going to look at another one of these I am statements of Jesus that he was dealing with this issue where the Pharisees just thought he had gone a little too far, and the Pharisees and some of the others that were around just weren’t really willing to believe all of his claims. But here in John 8, he emphasizes the importance of believing all of the claims that he made about himself. We, as those who believe in Jesus, cannot say, well, I’m with you on this point of what you said, Jesus.

I’m with you on these red letters. But when you start making these claims about who you are, I can’t go with you. All the rest of this is great, where we can pick and choose what we believe of what Jesus said.

He emphasizes here in John 8 the importance of believing all of the claims that He made about Himself. So if you would, if you haven’t already, turn with me to John 8. And if you would, stand with me while we read this morning from God’s Word together.

Starting in verse 12, it says, Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. The Pharisees therefore said to Him, You bear witness of Yourself.

your witness is not true. Jesus answered and said to them, even if I bear witness of myself, my witness is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from and where I am going. You judge according to the flesh.

I judge no one. And yet if I do judge, my judgment is true, for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent me. It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true.

I am one who bears witness of myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness of me. Then they said to him, Where is your father? Jesus answered, You know neither me nor my father.

If you had known me, you would have known my father also. These words Jesus spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple, and no one laid hands on him, for his hour had not yet come. Then Jesus said to them again, I am going away, and you will seek me and will die in your sin.

Where I go, you cannot come. So the Jews said, will he kill himself? Because he says, where I go, you cannot come.

And he said to them, you are from beneath. I am from above. You are of this world.

I am not of this world. Therefore, I said to you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.

Then they said to him, who are you? And Jesus said to them, just what I have been saying to you from the beginning. I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but he who sent me is true, and I speak to the world those things which I heard from him.

They did not understand that he spoke to them of the Father. Then Jesus said to them, When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself. But as my Father taught me, I speak these things, and he who sent me is with me.

The Father has not left me alone, for I always do those things that please him. And as he spoke these words, many believed in him. You may be seated.

So there were some who were skeptical of his claims. There were also some that went right along with him and said, we believe all of it. We believe you are exactly who you claim to be. And what we need to understand first about this passage is that the claims Jesus made about himself, they directly challenged the unbelief of those around him, not just now, but all the time.

There are those who still today persist in the belief that Jesus himself never claimed to be God. They will tell us, they will try to tell us with a straight face that that’s something his followers made up years, even generations after Jesus left the planet. Jesus himself was constantly claiming to be the Son of God, was constantly claiming to be the Messiah, was constantly claiming to be God in human flesh.

Sometimes it was overt, sometimes it was subtle, but he was always making those claims. Why do they think he got crucified? Why do they think the Pharisees were after him to kill him? It was because of those claims. And when he made those claims, he was challenging their unbelief because they said, we don’t believe it.

And he said, whether you believe it or not, it’s still true. And I am who I say I am. And so on this particular day, he was standing in the, well, around the temple.

And history tells us it was during the Feast of Tabernacles. And what they would have done as they would have lit these lamps around the temple, these big oil basins, and they would have lit these lights to light up the temple and provide light to everybody. And as he was standing in front of that backdrop, he draws a contrast between the environment and himself, and he’s teaching them and saying, you know, you’ve got these lamps, you’ve got these lights to give you light here during this festival, but I am the light of the world.

And by the way, that’s not the I am statement we’re going to look at this morning. We’ll talk about I am the light of the world in a couple of weeks. But he tells them, I am the light of the world, and he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.

He was saying that these lamps that they were putting up as part of their worship, these lamps that were such an important part of their ritual and their religion and their service to God, he’s saying these lamps just light up the corridors of the temple. I am the light that gives light to men and keeps you from walking in real spiritual darkness. And so the Pharisees there in verse 13 challenged the trustworthiness of his testimony.

They said, why should we believe you? There’s no reason to believe you. They said, the things you’re telling us about yourself, I don’t believe it.

It’s not true. And so Jesus, we see in the next few verses, defending his reliability and telling them who he is. Now the Pharisees were skeptical and were saying, I don’t believe you.

Jesus was saying, but I know who I am. There’s every reason for you to believe me. He tells him in verse 14, I know where I’ve come from and I know where I’m going.

You don’t. Why is your opinion more important than what I’m saying about myself? I know where I’ve been.

I know where I’m going. Jesus wrote the whole story. The Pharisees didn’t know.

He said, I know and you don’t. In verses 15 and 16, he talks about how they judged based on their prejudices and their biases and their human sight where he judged based on God’s truth. And notice there he says, you judge, you judge according to the flesh, I judge no one.

And yet, if I do judge, my judgment is true. Understand there, that’s not a contradiction. That’s not a contradiction where he says, you judge, I don’t judge.

And if I do judge, I judge according to the truth of God’s Word. Jesus hasn’t suddenly forgotten at the end of His sentence that, wait, I just said I don’t judge. I don’t judge, period.

Then He wakes up in a whole new world with the next sentence, I don’t judge. It’s not a contradiction. He’s drawing a distinction between Himself and the Pharisees.

He’s saying you judge according to the flesh and I don’t judge. When I do judge, I judge according to God’s truth. What He’s saying when He says I don’t judge, He’s saying I I don’t judge like you.

I don’t judge in the short-sighted way that you do, the near-sighted way that you do. He says, I judge according to God’s truth. And what he’s telling them there is, your judgment’s wrong and mine’s right.

So why would your opinion about who I am be authoritative? And so he provided them, he goes a step further, and as he’s defending his reliability as a witness of who he says he is, he provides witnesses as required under the Old Testament law. There are two places in Deuteronomy in chapter 17 and chapter 19 that talk about the need for multiple witnesses.

You need two witnesses. You couldn’t convict somebody on the word of just one witness because I think the, well, I know God understood and I think the ancient Hebrews understood something that we occasionally forget that eyewitnesses are not infallible. And so you needed two witnesses at least to convict somebody.

And he says, I can testify about who I am and I can bring you two witnesses. You’ve got me and you’ve got my father. I think that’s pretty good.

What better witnesses could you have than the father and Jesus? Of course, they didn’t understand which father he was talking about because at one point they asked, where is your father? And he says, you don’t even know my father.

And that’s true for people who thought they were so close to God because of their genealogy and their religion. They were completely alienated from God the father. They had no relationship with him whatsoever.

And yet they would presume to tell Jesus what was true and what was not true about God. So he provided these witnesses in verse 18. And when they asked where his father was, Jesus said, it’s obvious you don’t know any more about my father than you know about me.

And how wrong were they about Jesus? And they got it wrong every time they turned around. They were wrong like it was their job.

And they were great at it. And he says, you don’t know any more about the Father than you know about me. Which is easy to understand when we realize that Jesus and the Father are one.

They’re not the same person. They’re two persons within one Godhead. I realize that’s a lot to try to unpack in just one short message, especially just to touch on it and move off.

But they’re not the same person, but they’re one in the sense of their nature, in the sense of their will and their mission. Jesus came at the behest of the Father to accomplish the plans that the Father had worked out in eternity past. And so if they didn’t understand Jesus, they didn’t understand the Father. And by the way, that’s still true today.

There are people in our society that have no issue if we talk about God, but they don’t want to hear about Jesus. Folks, we can’t meaningfully talk about God apart from Jesus. Without Jesus, we know a whole lot less about who God is.

Because the book of John and the book of Hebrews tell us that He has shown us exactly what the Father is like. Colossians says He is the image of the invisible God. Without Jesus, the picture of who God is gets a whole lot less clear.

So He told them they didn’t understand anything about them. And we see in several verses scattered through here that everything Jesus told them about Himself, they either doubted or misunderstood. So Jesus and the Pharisees just are not on the same page about the I am the light of the world statement and all the other statements Jesus had made.

But again, that’s not the I am statement that we’re going to focus on this morning. It’s when we get to verse 24. And in verse 24, He says, I am He.

Therefore, I said to you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins. That’s where I want us to focus this morning.

Jesus was telling them that He was everything He claimed to be, including the Messiah that God sent to save us. Now, I had not spent a lot of time focused on this statement, I am He, before, when reading through the book of John. So as I’m looking through the list of all these I am statements, I’m saying, I am He, what was Jesus saying there?

And as I begin to dig into the context, He’s talking about all the claims He made of Himself. Essentially, that He was God in human flesh. He was God the Son who was sent to live among us and to fulfill the plans of the Father, to be the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of mankind.

When He says, I am He, He’s talking about all the things He’s ever claimed to be. All the claims He’s ever made for Himself. I am the one I claim to be.

The one I’ve been telling you about I am. The one I’ve been telling you I am all along. He says in verse 25, just what I’ve been saying to you from the beginning.

Jesus’ message did not change. As I said, sometimes the message of who He was was more overt. Sometimes it was more subtle, but the message didn’t change.

He told people that He was God the Son, that He came to be the Messiah, and they didn’t believe it. I am He. We need to understand this morning, Jesus is everything He claimed to be.

He’s not a mere man. Verse 23, He says, you are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, and I am not of this world.

He I don’t see that as being a sneering thing. I don’t see that as being a put down to them. But they are.

They were mere men, these Pharisees. No matter how much they thought they knew, they were just men. Right?

Same here. No matter how much I think I know, my wife will tell me that it’s not as much as I think I know. But I’m just a person.

I’m just a human being. Right? I make mistakes.

All right. I figured she’d be a little more enthusiastic about that. No matter how important we think we are, we’re just human beings.

Jesus said, in contrast to that, you’re from below. You’re from down here. You’re from this world.

I’m from above. I’m not of this world. He was no mere man like the rest of us.

And see, there are people today who will tell you, well, it’s fine if you want to follow Jesus’ ethical teachings, but believing that He’s God or that He’s the Son of God, you know, he’s just a man, but he’s somebody okay to listen to. Jesus himself said, I am no mere man. That’s part of who he claimed to be.

In verse 24, we see that he asserts this authority over their eternal destinies. He said, unless you believe, unless you meet this criteria as part of God’s plan, you will die in your sins. If I were to tell you today, I’ve got a list of things that I think you need to do and if you don’t fulfill my list, you’ll die in your sins.

Boy, what must I think of myself, huh? Jesus was claiming to have authority over where they were going to end up. He says, this is God’s plan.

This is God’s criteria. And you know it because I’m telling you. He didn’t need to base it on somebody else’s authority.

He had the authority that the Father had given him. And so when he says, if you don’t believe in me, you will die in your sins. He was claiming what’s God’s prerogative.

He was claiming authority over where they were going to spend eternity. In verse 26, we see that he claims to be our teacher and judge. He says, I have many things to say.

In other words, many things to teach them and many things to judge concerning you. He has the authority to teach and to judge. In verse 26, we see that he was sent by the Father, but he who sent me is true.

And I speak to the world those things which I heard from him. He was sent by the Father and He speaks and He acts on behalf of the Father and He speaks with the authority given to Him as the only begotten Son of the Father. We see that in verse 26 and we see it again in verse 28 when He says, When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, again, that I am all the things that I’ve claimed to be, and that I do nothing of Myself, but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things.

And we see in verse 29 that He’s sinless. He’s claiming to be sinless and to enjoy a perfect fellowship with the Father. He says, and he who sent me is with me.

The Father has not left me alone. The Father is with me. For I always do those things that please him.

Could you or I honestly say that today? I can’t. I cannot honestly say I always do the things that please my Father.

Jesus said it and he meant it. And it was true. And there in verse 29 also, he calls himself the Son of Man.

Now a lot of times we think of that as just a humble thing. He’s not claiming to be the Son of God. He’s claiming to be the Son of Man.

There is a sense in which He may be indicating His humanity because it’s important that the Word was made flesh. It’s important that God the Son became a person and dwelt among us so He could die on our behalf. But also I think all these times He called Himself the Son of Man.

You see the Pharisees got upset about that too. I think it’s because they understood that it was a reference to the book of Daniel 7, where the Son of Man comes to judge on behalf of the Ancient of Days, who’s God the Father. And so when He called Himself the Son of Man, if you tie that back with Daniel 7, Jesus is claiming to be the Messiah.

So He made all these claims, and He said, when I’m lifted up, when the Son of Man is lifted up, all the world will recognize Him for who He is. So there will come a day when all the world will finally recognize and will finally believe that I am all the things I’ve claimed to be. And what we need to take away from this this morning is the point that He made to the Pharisees there in verse 24.

Well, starting in verse 21 and then in verse 24 again, that’s without believing in Him and what He claimed to be, we will die in our sins. It’s not just true for the Pharisees. That’s not just a special deal He worked out for them.

It’s true of all mankind. If we do not believe in Him and trust in all the things that He claimed to be, we will die in our sins. That’s not my opinion.

That’s not the position of this church. That’s not some denominational edict. That is the word that Jesus Christ spoke.

If we do not believe, as He says, I am He, then we will die in our sins. We can doubt His word, but it doesn’t change whether it’s true or not. Well, I just don’t believe Jesus was God.

Well, He said it. My belief or unbelief in that statement doesn’t change it. You know, some things are true whether I acknowledge them or not, right?

I could refuse to acknowledge that the material world is real, but I could walk out into the middle of gore and get run down by a bus, and it’s true whether I acknowledge it or not, right? We hear this in the political world. Obama’s not my president.

Trump’s not my president. Well, they were elected, so whether you acknowledge it or not, they’re in the White House, right? Well, I don’t believe Jesus is all he claimed to be.

well that’s that’s your right to to disbelieve it if you want but I think he backed it up pretty well with the resurrection and all the other signs he gave us and if it’s true it’s true regardless of my opinion and I don’t say that to be mean to anybody I’m just I’m just telling you how I see it there are times that there have been uncomfortable truths I didn’t want to acknowledge but I had to come to terms with them because they were true whether I liked it or not they weren’t changing just because of my vote we can doubt his word but it doesn’t change whether it’s true or not And so because of their doubt, Jesus told the Pharisees in verse 21, you will die in your sins. Now this had to be incredibly offensive to them because they were such religious people. They were the best people they knew.

They were the best people anybody knew as far as being religious and doing the right things. But even the goodness of the most religious person is not good enough to meet God’s standard of absolute perfection. Jesus pointed to those same Pharisees who were so religious, who were doing all the right things as far as people were concerned.

And he told the people that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter into the kingdom. So it wasn’t just enough to be, it wasn’t enough just to be as good as these really saintly individuals. At least from an outward perspective, they were saintly and righteous.

It wasn’t enough to be as good as the best people anybody knew. It would be better than that because God’s standard is absolute perfection. they thought they were good enough for God but even they fell short of God’s standard and this morning it doesn’t matter how good you think you are it doesn’t matter how good I think I am we have fallen short of God’s standards there’s not one of us in this room or one of us watching online there’s not one of us this morning who is good enough for God on our own because we are sinners we are still no matter how good we try to be or how good we try to portray ourselves we are still stricken with sin and we’re unable to save ourselves.

And that’s why the faith in Jesus, that’s why the belief in Jesus is so crucial because He’s the only one who can do anything about our sinful condition. You know, if I go out and try to live sinlessly from now on, it’s not possible. But if I were to try to live sinlessly from now on, if I were to succeed at that, I’m still only doing what God’s law requires.

I don’t get extra credit for that. And at my previous church, I loved giving this example because we had a judge who was a member the church. And I would point him out and say, if I were to stand before you accused of murder, and my defense was to say, but look at all the other people I didn’t kill.

Right? Do I get extra credit for that? No.

I mean, I’ve never been on trial for murder, but I don’t think that’s how it works. There’s not enough good I can do at this point that I can get the extra credit I need to undo the wrong that I’ve done. My sin separates me from God.

Jesus is the only one who can do anything about it. He’s the only one who can purchase the forgiveness of our sins. He’s the only one who can give us the righteousness we need.

And so we need to trust Him in order to receive the salvation that He provides. That’s why He said, unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins. It’s not Jesus saying, just for spite, if you refuse to acknowledge who I am, you’re not getting into heaven.

It’s Jesus saying that unless you believe that I am your Savior, unless you that I am the one and only sacrifice for your sins, unless you believe that I am God the Son who took on human flesh to become one of you, to die in your place, unless you are willing to believe in me as that Lord and Savior, unless you are willing to trust in my ability to forgive sins, you will never come to the point where you are able to receive the salvation I offered because you just won’t believe it. If we’re drowning in the ocean and somebody comes and throws us a life preserver and we don’t believe that life preserver is real, we’re not going to reach out and take it. If we’re in some hallucinatory state and we think that life preserver is a shark, we’re going to swim the other way.

If we don’t believe that Jesus is our Savior, if we don’t believe that He’s all the things He claimed to be, we will not reach out and receive that salvation that He offers so freely. Where they were, they just thought, I’m good enough. He said that idea of being good enough and that rejecting the sacrifice that was made for you, rejecting the Savior who came for you, rejecting the one and only means of escape from God’s judgment, you pass that up, you will die in your sins.

There is no plan B. If you don’t believe that I am who I say I am, and you’re not willing to trust that I can do for you what I say I can do for you, then there’s no other chance to be saved. Now, we need to be very clear.

He didn’t give this or any of the other I am statements that we’re going to study. He didn’t give any of these I am statements just to satisfy our curiosity so that we could walk out of church on Sunday morning and say, well, that was interesting. I learned something about the lights at the Feast of Tabernacles or I learned something about the history of the story.

Now, he gave us these I am statements for us to believe. He was making claims about himself that demand a verdict on our part. We hear those claims and they are serious claims and we have to take them seriously and we have to decide, do we believe them or not?

Do we believe that Jesus is all the things that he claimed to be or do we not? Now this morning you can walk out of here and say, well, I don’t believe He’s the things that He said He was. And you have every right to do that.

There are plenty of intelligent people who come to those conclusions based on people’s arguments and things that others have said. But I look at what Jesus said about Himself. I look at the evidence that He presented with the way He lived and the way He taught.

I look at the miracles. And by the way, at some point we’ll do a presentation on the reliability of the Gospels if you say, well, how do you know He did all those things? But I look at the life He lived and the signs He performed, and I look at the ultimate fact, the ultimate sign from ancient history, the resurrection, the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. And I can’t come to any other conclusion for myself than that Jesus was everything that He claimed to be.

And this morning, He calls us to believe that He is all the things that He claimed to be. Most importantly, that He was the Son of God, sent to die in our place to save us from our sins. and this morning he’s calling you to believe that he’s the savior he says he is and to believe that he can save you from those sins to believe that he is the only means of escape from the judgment of god that we all