The scripture reading comes from John chapter 7 and 8 this week.
In chapter 7, verse 37, we read,
On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowd,
Anyone who is thirsty may come to me. Anyone who believes in me may come and drink.
For the scriptures declare, rivers of living water will flow from his heart.
When he said living water, he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him.
But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.
When the crowds heard him say this, some of them declared,
Surely this man is the prophet we've been expecting.
Others said, he is the Messiah.
Still others said, but he can be.
Will the Messiah come from Galilee?
For the scriptures clearly state that the Messiah will be born of the royal line of David in Bethlehem,
the village where King David was born.
So the crowd was divided about him.
Some even wanted him arrested, but no one laid a hand on him.
Then in chapter 8, verse 31.
Jesus said to the people who believed in him,
You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings,
and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
But we're descendants of Abraham, they said.
We have never been slaves to anyone.
What do you mean you will be set free?
And verse 48.
The people retorted,
You Samaritan devil!
Didn't we say all along that you were possessed by a demon?
No, Jesus said.
I have no demon in me.
For I honor my father, and you dishonor me.
And though I have no wish to glorify myself,
God is going to glorify me.
He is the true judge.
I tell you the truth.
Anyone who obeys my teaching will never die.
The people said,
Now we know you're possessed by a demon.
Even Abraham and the prophets died.
But you say,
Anyone who obeys my teaching will never die.
Are you greater than our father Abraham?
He died, and so did the prophets.
Who do you think you are?
Jesus answered,
If I won't glorify myself,
It doesn't count.
But it is my father who will glorify me.
You say,
He is our God.
But you don't even know him.
I know him.
If I said otherwise,
I would be as great a liar as you.
But I do know him and obey him.
Your father Abraham rejoiced
as he looked forward to my coming.
He saw it and was glad.
The people said,
You aren't even 50 years old.
How can you say you have seen Abraham?
Jesus answered,
I tell you the truth.
Before Abraham was even born,
I am.
At that point,
they picked up stones to throw at him.
But Jesus was hidden from them
and left the temple.
This is the word of God.
Great.
Ellen,
thank you so much for reading for us this morning.
And good morning, everybody.
It is good to see you,
to see so many faces,
to see a couple of people
from different parts of the world.
I see Amy Darlingan from New Zealand
and a couple of others.
And of course,
those of us in Hong Kong,
great to see you as well.
I wish we could see you face to face.
But hopefully,
we will do that sometime
in the coming weeks and months.
For the last 2,000 years,
Jesus of Nazareth
has provoked a lot of curiosity,
fascination,
for some people,
anger,
maybe even hatred,
certainly a lot of intrigue.
About 100 years after Jesus
was born and died and raised again,
there was a Jewish historian
by the name of Flavius Josephus.
And he wrote this.
He said,
There was this man called Jesus,
a very wise man,
if indeed you should call him a man.
He was one who performed surprising deeds.
He was a teacher of great truth.
He won over many Jews and Greeks.
Was he possibly the Christ,
the Messiah?
And a little closer to our time in India,
Mahatma Gandhi,
the great revolutionary leader of India,
he wrote this.
He said,
I like your Christ,
but you Christians,
I'm not so sure about you.
He said,
I've not been able to move beyond the belief
that Jesus was one of the greatest teachers
of mankind.
And then even more recently,
not sure if you'd call him a theologian,
but John Lennon,
the leader of the British pop band,
The Beatles,
he said,
Christianity will disappear.
It will vanish and shrink.
I don't even need to argue about it.
I'm right and I will be proved right.
I am more popular than Jesus Christ.
In fact,
later on,
John Lennon,
in one of his drug-induced states,
was convinced that he was Jesus Christ
for a couple of days
and tried to convince his band members
of the same.
Lots of different opinions
about who was this man,
Jesus of Galilee.
But what did Jesus himself say?
Who did he claim to be?
Well,
this morning,
we are joining with hundreds of churches
across Hong Kong,
today and for the next six weeks,
and we're going to be looking
at these seven statements
that Jesus makes in the Gospels
about his identity,
about who he is,
and why he came to earth.
And so we start in the series
called I Am.
Seven things that Jesus says
that he is.
And we start off with this
pretty difficult passage today
in John 8
that Ellen read to us.
It's quite tricky,
and the passage in particular
that we're going to look at
comes at the end
of this long dialogue,
this conversation
that Jesus has
with a bunch of Jewish people
in Jerusalem
around the year 31 AD.
But the passage,
actually the context,
starts back in chapter 7.
And I'll explain
something of what's going on here.
Around this time,
the Jewish people
were gathered in Jerusalem
for what was known as
the Feast of the Tabernacles.
It was an annual celebration.
It was seven days long.
Every year,
in the seventh month of the year,
hundreds of thousands of people
would gather in Jerusalem
to celebrate
Israel's pilgrimage
coming out of Egypt,
wandering through the wilderness
for 40 years,
and eventually ending up
in the promised land,
the land of rest.
And so every year,
they would gather
to celebrate
this pilgrimage journey.
And if you know
the Old Testament,
you'll remember
that really,
the nation of Israel,
the people of God,
are formed after the Exodus.
Up until that point,
Israel,
or the people of God,
are really the families
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
But after the Exodus,
when they leave Egypt,
they become the nation of Israel
and the people of God.
And you'll remember,
of course,
how they leave Egypt.
They are slaves there.
They are oppressed
by Pharaoh
and his armies.
And one day,
they're crying out to God
for years and years and years,
and God calls a man
called Moses
to be the great deliverer
and the redeemer.
And he calls Moses,
and he says,
he reveals himself to Moses
at a burning bush
out of the wilderness.
And he tells Moses
to go to Pharaoh
and to tell Pharaoh
that God says
Pharaoh must let
his people go.
And Moses is not so sure
about this.
And Moses says,
okay,
but who must I say
that you are?
I mean,
what's your name?
What God are you?
The problem is that
the Egyptians
are polytheistic.
They worship all sorts of gods.
There's the God of the sun
and the moon and the stars.
There's the God of the cattle,
the God of the crops,
the God of the Nile River.
There are all sorts of gods.
And so Moses says,
if I go to Pharaoh
and says,
God says let his people go,
he's going to say,
which God?
Who are you talking about?
Why should I listen
to that God?
Who are you?
What is your name?
And God answers Moses
with this very unusual
and strange name.
He gives himself
the name I am.
He says,
tell Pharaoh,
I am.
He says,
let my people go.
I am.
What does that mean?
In Hebrew,
you would say Yahweh.
And what it means
is that
I am the eternally sovereign,
unconstrained God.
I am the God
that has no limitations
and no constraints.
I have no beginning.
I have no end.
I am not just
the God of Israel
or the God of Egypt.
I am not the God
of a certain geography.
I am not the God
of a certain time
in history.
I am not just
the God
of a certain people.
I am the eternal,
uncreated,
sovereign God.
I am the supreme being
of all beings.
I am simply
I am.
Anything you put in there
to define me
is a constraint
on who I am.
I am simply I am.
And if you know
the story of the Exodus,
Moses goes back
to Egypt
and Pharaoh
doesn't want to
release the Israelites
and God,
by many miraculous
interventions,
delivers His people
from slavery
and sets them free.
And they enter
into the wilderness
and eventually
they enter
into the promised land.
And while they're
traveling in the wilderness
for these 40 years,
God miraculously
provides for them
again and again.
When they run out
of water,
He provides water for them.
When they run out of food,
He gives them food
from heaven.
When they are
walking through the desert
and it's baking hot,
there's a cloud
that covers them.
At night,
when there's darkness
all around them,
He provides a light.
God provides them
and leads them
through the wilderness
until they get
to the place
of rest.
Now,
fast forward
1,500 years.
It's Jerusalem.
And the Jewish people
have come to Jerusalem
to celebrate
the Feast of Tabernacles.
God's kindness
and God's provision.
The fact that God
is with His people
throughout this journey
from Egypt
into the wilderness
and into the promised land.
And every year
there's great excitement
but this year in particular
there's a buzz in the air.
And there's a buzz in the air
because everybody's wondering,
is that man
we've been hearing about,
Jesus of Nazareth,
is He going to be there?
That's what's on everyone's lips.
Is Jesus of Galilee
going to arrive
and be there?
And they're wondering.
So look at chapter 7
verse 12.
It says this,
The Jews were looking
for Him at the feast
and saying,
Where is He?
And there was much
muttering about Him
among the people.
While some said,
He's a good man,
others said,
No, no,
He's leading people astray.
And so,
there's all this anticipation.
Is Jesus here?
Who is He?
What is He on about?
Is He the Christ?
Is He the Messiah?
And as Jesus goes up
to Jerusalem,
at first He stays back,
He hangs in the shadows
but eventually He goes
to the temple
and He starts teaching
and He gathers a crowd
around Him.
And if you look
at what Jesus says,
throughout this teaching,
He's picking up
on all the signs
and all the symbols
that the Jews
were celebrating
during the Feast of Tabernacles
and He's saying,
You think these are signs
showing you how God
was with your fathers
in the wilderness?
Don't you see
these are all shadows?
They are real signs
and wonders.
Point to me.
Look at what He says here.
Do you remember
how Israel got water
in the wilderness
when they left Egypt?
God opened up a rock
and from it sprang
living water
so to feed them
water in the wilderness?
Well, look at what Jesus
says in chapter 7.
If anyone thirsts,
let him come to me
and drink.
Whoever believes in me,
as the Scriptures have said,
out of his heart
will flow rivers
of living water.
Do you remember
how the Israelites
when they're walking
through the wilderness
at night time,
it's dark,
they don't know
where to go
and what does God do?
He provides a light
for them to shine
in the darkness.
Well, look at what Jesus
says in chapter 8.
I am the light
of the world.
Whoever follows me
will not walk in darkness
but will have
the light of life.
And remember
the whole point
of the Exodus was
when God delivers people,
He sets them free.
They are slaves in Egypt.
They are in bondage
and He sets them free.
Well, look at what Jesus
says in chapter 8,
verse 31.
If you abide in my word,
you are truly my disciples.
You will know the truth
and the truth
will set you free.
You see what Jesus
is doing here?
He's pointing to
all the things
that the Jews
were celebrating
about God's faithfulness
to them in the wilderness
and He's saying,
if you really want to know
that God has not abandoned you,
that God is with you,
look to me.
Look to me.
And that's why
there's so much division
going on here.
Some are astounded,
some are rejoicing,
some are trusting
that the promised Messiah
has come,
but to others,
Jesus' words sound
awfully blasphemous.
It sounds like He's saying
that He is God.
And so,
look at their response.
Look at verse 48 with me
and we come to the passage
that Ellen read to us.
Verse 48.
It says,
the Jews answered Him,
are we not right
in saying that you are
a Samaritan
and you have a demon?
In other words,
Jesus,
you've lost your mind.
You've completely
lost the plot now.
To use C.S. Lewis'
famous words,
they're saying,
either you're a lunatic
or you are a liar.
Right?
That's what they mean
by a demon or a Samaritan.
Either lunatic
or you are a liar.
But Jesus isn't finished
revealing Himself
because He wants to help them
see who He really is.
And so,
look what He says.
Jesus says four things
in this passage.
We'll look at them
very quickly.
Four things
that really rile
His audience.
The first thing He says,
He says,
God the Father,
the one that you know
as Yahweh,
He and I are totally aligned.
One and the same heart.
Look at how He says this twice
in verse 49.
He says,
I do not have a demon
but I honor my Father.
I do not seek my own glory.
There is one,
the Father,
who seeks it
and He is the judge.
Again,
in verse 54,
He says,
if I glorify myself,
my glory is nothing.
It's my Father
who glorifies me.
The one that you say
He is our God.
Jesus is saying
that God the Father,
Yahweh,
actually glorifies me,
exalts me,
lifts me up.
If you know how
jealous
Jewish people were
of God's glory,
Jesus is saying
a radical thing.
Remember in Isaiah 43,
God says,
I am God,
there is no other.
I am God,
I give my glory
to none other.
He has Jesus saying,
no, no, no,
that God,
He actually does
give His glory to me.
He will glorify me.
Notice the second thing
Jesus says.
Look at verse 51.
He says,
truly, truly,
I say to you,
if anyone keeps
my word,
he will never see death.
Now,
all Jews knew
that in the Old Testament,
God's word
was almost equated
with God Himself.
In Psalm 27,
it says,
the word of the Lord
breaks the cedars.
Then the next line says,
the Lord breaks the cedars.
The word of the Lord
sets captives free.
the Lord sets captives free.
In other words,
God's word
is so closely aligned
with what God does
that it's almost,
almost synonymous
with God.
But Jews also know
that God's word
in the Old Testament
is the one that creates life
and pushes back death.
Remember,
that's the problem
with Saul, right?
In the book of 1 Samuel,
he's constantly rejecting
God's word
and his life spirals
downhill,
downhill
until he's one foot
in the grave
and he is the walking dead.
Remember how Scripture
says that the world
was created?
God spoke the world
into being.
That's not a technical
scientific term
about how old the world is
or how the world
came into being exactly.
The point is
it's saying
God's word
creates life.
Look what Jesus says here.
Jesus says the same thing.
If anyone keeps my word,
he will never
see death.
Jesus is equating himself
with the God
of the Old Testament.
Jesus is saying
that if you keep my word,
if you honor it,
if you respect it,
if you cleave to it,
if you live within it,
if you surrender it,
you'll be so infused
with life.
Life in the midst
of darkness,
life in the midst
of hopelessness,
life in the midst
of this broken world.
My life will come
and reside within you.
But look at the third thing
Jesus says here
in verse 56.
He says,
your father Abraham
rejoiced at the prospect
of seeing my day,
of seeing me come
and arrive.
He was glad
and he rejoiced at it.
And what he means by that
is when God,
the father Yahweh,
made a great promise
to Abraham
that through your descendants,
one of your sons
will bless the whole world,
not just Israel,
not just the Jews,
the whole world
will be blessed
through the coming
of one of your descendants.
Abraham rejoiced
at the prospect,
the coming of a Messiah,
a king who would bring
hope to the midst
of hopelessness,
peace in the midst
of a broken world,
light in the midst
of darkness,
joy in the midst
of pain.
And he rejoiced
at the prospect
that a Messiah king
would come.
And Jesus says,
he would rejoice
at the coming
of my day.
He saw it
and he was glad.
Now,
the people around Jesus,
they hear all this
and they're taking Jesus
very literally.
They don't really understand
what he's saying.
They say,
hang on,
hang on.
Abraham died
2,000 years ago.
How can you say
that he saw you?
How do you know
when he rejoiced at?
How do you know
what is going on
in his heart?
Have you seen Abraham?
You're not even
50 years old.
And that leads to
Jesus' fourth
and final thing
he says here.
It's truly,
truly,
I say to you,
before Abraham
was even born,
before he was even
brought into existence,
I am.
Do you see
what Jesus is saying?
Jesus has been
building up the tension,
giving more and more clues
and more and more hints
as to who he is
and finally he drops
this bombshell statement,
the ultimate mic drop
of Jesus.
He takes upon himself
the self-relevatory
name of Jesus,
the name that God gave
to Moses
at the burning bush,
the name that,
where God says,
I am the eternal,
sovereign,
uncreated one.
I am,
simply I am.
With no constraints,
no limits,
I am the supreme being
of all beings.
I am who I am.
When the Jews finally say,
who are you?
When they press him,
Jesus says,
before even the greatest
religious leaders
in the world,
before Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob,
before Moses gave you
anything,
I am.
I existed.
Before your father,
Abraham,
even came onto the radar,
I've always been there.
I am the eternal,
sovereign,
and created one.
And of course,
the response from those
listening,
they know exactly what he said.
They know exactly what he means.
And so what do they do?
They pick up the stones
around him
to stone him to death.
Jesus makes a remarkable
claim here.
He's not just a great teacher,
not just a moral religious leader,
he's not just a miracle worker,
he's not just a philosopher,
he's not someone who's just
come to give us good advice
to how to live our lives.
Jesus Christ claims
to be none other
than Yahweh,
the eternal,
sovereign,
and created one.
Well,
what does this mean
for us today?
That's wonderful
that Jesus says this
2,000 years ago.
What does it mean
for us today?
Well,
I want us to very quickly
just notice five things,
mainly from this passage,
that we have to come to terms with
if we're going to make sense
of Jesus Christ at all
and his claims.
And five things,
we'll run through them
very quickly.
The data,
the consistency of Jesus,
the claims of Jesus,
the security of Jesus,
and finally,
the promise of Jesus.
So,
firstly,
let's look at the data.
One of the things
that we can easily do
and misunderstand
who Jesus is,
is by simply misunderstanding
the data that's available.
I don't know if you noticed
the first passage of Scripture
that Ellen read to us
this morning,
back in chapter 7,
it says this,
it says,
some people said,
this is the prophet.
Others said,
this is the Christ.
But some said,
isn't,
is the Christ
that comes from Galilee
hasn't the Scripture
told us that the Christ
comes from the offspring
of David
and therefore comes
from Bethlehem?
So,
there's a division
among the people
over him.
So,
some people are looking
at Jesus
and they're astounded
by his teaching,
they're astounded
by his words,
they're astounded
by the impact
and the influence
he's had in history
and they're thinking,
surely this is the Christ.
But the others that say,
yeah,
it looks like the Christ,
but there's a problem.
The Scriptures have told us
that the Christ
must be born in Bethlehem.
But we've all heard
this guy comes from Galilee,
so they write him off.
Do you see how
they write him off?
They say,
he can't be the Christ
because they haven't
done their homework.
They haven't gone
to the source material.
If you know
the Christmas story at all,
you know that Jesus
was born in Bethlehem,
but Herod wanted
to persecute him
and so his family
fled from Bethlehem
down to Egypt
and a few years later
returned to Galilee
and he grew up in Galilee.
But here are some people
that they're writing
off Christ the Messiah
simply because
they haven't done
their homework.
They haven't gone
to the source material.
They're relying
on second-hand
information about him.
Now friends,
if you're a spiritual seeker
this morning,
have you made
the same mistake?
Maybe you find yourself
interested in faith
and Jesus and religion.
You've read a couple of books.
You've read,
you know,
Christopher Hitchens
and Richard Dawkins.
You've read Jonathan Haight
or Jordan Peterson.
You've read some stuff
about faith and science
and you think,
ah, it can't be.
It can't be.
Friends,
don't make the same mistake
that these people did.
Here are some people
and they're writing off
the most influential,
the most astounding
human being
who has ever lived
because they don't go
to the source material.
They've heard
second-hand information.
Friends,
if you're not a Christian
this morning,
you've got to go
to the source material.
You've got to read
the Gospels for yourself.
You've got to go
and see who does Jesus
say that he is.
Find out what he says
about himself.
Don't miss Jesus
because you misunderstand
the data.
Secondly,
the consistency of Jesus.
Now,
you could say
the integrity
and not,
I don't,
by that I don't mean
the moral integrity
of Jesus.
I mean the,
the integrated wholeness
of the New Testament
and the Old Testament.
The consistency
of the claims
of who God is
between the Old and New.
You know,
some people say,
I like Jesus,
I like his teachings
about turning the other cheek
and forgiving your enemies
and loving those
who persecute you
and all that stuff.
But all that stuff
in the Old Testament
about God
and enemies
and people dying,
I don't know,
I don't know about that.
Surely the God
of the Old Testament
and the God
of the New Testament
are two separate gods.
I can follow
the God of the New Testament
but the God
of the Old Testament,
I'm not so sure about that.
Friends,
you see what Jesus Christ
is saying here?
He says that
you can't make
that distinction.
Jesus doesn't allow us
to make that dichotomy.
Jesus says that
the same God
who overcame
the Egyptians
through the blood
of many lambs
is the same God
who will overcome
our great enemy
through the blood
of the Lamb,
Christ,
the one who died
on the cross.
Jesus says that
the same one,
the same great I am,
the one who says,
I am who I am,
who commanded
his people
to take out their enemies
so they could enter
into their rest
is the same great I am
who will take out
our great enemy
as he dies on the cross
and we can enter
the rest of salvation.
Friends,
Jesus says that
the same God
who demands holiness
and obedience
in the Old Testament
and the one whose temple
is resplendent
with glory and holiness
is the same great I am
who one day
every knee
will bow down before
when we see him
in his glory.
Jesus says that
the I am of the Old Testament
is the same great I am
for whom we will worship
and adore in heaven.
It's the same God.
It's one and the same.
The consistency of Jesus.
Jesus doesn't allow us
to dichotomize
and to place him
in a box
and say,
I'll take this aspect of you
but not that.
Jesus is the consistent one.
Notice thirdly here,
the claims of Jesus.
The claims of Jesus.
Now,
as we go back
and look at this passage
and the rest of John's Gospel,
one of the things we see
is that the entire narrative arc
of the whole Scripture
focuses in
on the person of Jesus Christ
and his claims.
Go back and look at the four things
that Jesus says about himself
in this passage.
He says,
I honor my Father
and my Father honors me.
If anyone keeps my word,
he will never taste death.
Jesus says,
Abraham rejoiced at my day.
He saw it and was glad.
Finally, he says,
I am the great I am.
I am Yahweh.
And it's not just in this passage.
In fact,
every passage in the Scriptures,
particularly in the Gospels,
Jesus is going to say
the same thing about himself.
He's going to say,
it's all about me.
Look at Luke chapter 4.
This is a famous passage
when Jesus starts out his ministry.
He says,
he comes to the temple
and he gets the scroll
of Isaiah the prophet
and he opens it up
at Isaiah 61
and he says this,
The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me
to proclaim liberty
to the captives
and recovery of sight
to the blind.
To set at liberty
those that are oppressed
and proclaim the year
of the Lord's favor.
And at the end of that,
Jesus gives the scroll
back to the attendant.
He sits down and he says,
Today this Scripture
has been fulfilled
in your hearing.
Jesus says that
the whole Old Testament
is actually pointing
towards him.
He's saying that
God's word,
the Scriptures,
is not good advice
about how to live your lives.
It's not good motivation.
It's not just good teaching.
It's a proclamation
of good news
that Jesus is the Messiah King.
Do you see that?
And this is one
of the remarkable things
about Jesus.
Jesus stands apart
from every other founder
of world religion
because he says
it's all about me.
Every other founder
of the world religion
says,
Don't look to me.
Don't worship me.
Follow my teachings.
Follow my Dharma.
Do you remember
what Gautama Buddha said
on his deathbed?
He's dying.
He turns to his disciples
and he says,
Let my Dharma
and the disciplines
that I've taught you
be your teacher.
See what he's saying?
He's saying,
Don't follow me.
Don't worship me.
But follow my teachings.
Follow the disciplines
that I've taught you.
Muhammad said the same thing.
He said,
Don't follow me.
Don't worship me.
Follow the words
that I give you.
But Jesus Christ
stands alone
from every founder
in the world religion
and he says,
If you follow my teachings,
if you follow my wisdom,
if you follow my words
apart from me,
it's meaningless.
You have to come to me.
Remember,
Jesus says the same thing
in Matthew 11.
He says,
Come to me,
all you who laban
or heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you.
Learn from me.
I am gentle
and lowly in heart.
You will find rest
for your souls.
My yoke is easy.
My burden is light.
Jesus makes this remarkable claim
that you can search the scriptures
and be an expert
in religious study.
You can know the scriptures backwards.
You can seek to follow
everything the scriptures say,
but if you do not come to him,
you miss it all completely.
The radical claims of Jesus.
Notice fourthly what Jesus says here,
the security of Jesus.
Now,
one of the problems
that many people raise
against Christianity
is that you say,
Jesus Christ
must have been
one of the most insecure,
self-centered people
to have ever lived
if he needed
all this praise
and worship.
Right?
Michael Prowse
was a columnist,
American columnist
for the Financial Times
of London.
And he turned away
from his faith
because he said,
only tyrants
puffed up with pride
crave adulation
and approval.
Right?
C.S. Lewis,
before he became a Christian,
he complained
that God's demand
to be praised
and worship
sounded like a vain woman
who wants compliments.
The words of C.S. Lewis
in the 1940s.
But look at what
Jesus says here.
Jesus doesn't need
our praise
and our worship.
He doesn't need
anyone's glory or honor.
The people of his day
are mocking him.
Soon they're going
to spit on him.
They're going to smash
a crown of thorns
into his head.
They're going to
write him off
as a lunatic,
as a renegade.
They're going to crucify him.
And Jesus is not perturbed.
And the reason is
because he says,
I didn't come
for people's approval.
I came to seek
and to save the lost,
to lay down my life
as a ransom
for many.
Jesus Christ,
look what he says here
in verse 50.
He says,
I do not seek
my own glory.
There's one who seeks it
and he gives it to me.
He is the judge.
Verse 54.
If I glorify myself,
my glory is nothing.
It's the Father
who glorifies me.
Jesus Christ
is the most secure man
who ever lived.
Do you remember
what Philippians 2 says?
It says,
even though he was God,
he equated equality
with God,
something not to be grasped.
Jesus had it all
and he gave it all up.
He rather took on
the nature of a servant,
humbled himself
to the point of death,
to rescue and ransom
people like us
who need him.
Jesus Christ,
the most secure man
who ever lived
because he had
all the affirmation
within the Trinity.
He had the approval
of God himself.
And so why does God
command us
to worship and adore?
I mean,
you're saying,
Jesus doesn't need
our worship, Kevin?
Okay,
so why should we worship him?
Why does God command us
to come before him
and to praise him,
to tell him
that he's the greatest,
that there's no one like him,
that he is God
and that there is no other?
Why do we sing songs
and glorify his name,
declare that he is God?
Why do we do these things
if Jesus doesn't need it?
And the answer is,
not because he needs it,
but because we need it.
John Calvin said
that the human heart
is an idle factory,
always creating things
to clasp
and to deify
and to worship.
Things in which
to find our significance,
our security
and our fulfillment.
Friends,
you see,
Jesus calls us
to worship and adore him,
not because he needs it,
but because we need it,
because he's calling us
to set us free
from the false gods
that promise the world
but only enslave us.
Jesus doesn't need our worship.
He has all the security
and the significance
in the whole world.
He has all the fulfillment
in the world.
He's God.
But he calls us
to worship him
because we need
to bring our lives
to him
and to truly be set free.
And then notice,
finally and fifthly,
the last thing is,
notice the promise
of Jesus.
Look again at verse 51.
Jesus gives this
remarkable promise.
He says,
Truly, truly,
I say to you,
if anyone keeps my word,
he will never see death.
Jesus makes a promise
that all who come to him
will experience fullness
of life
and life in abundance.
Jesus is making
the statement
about his divinity.
Yes, that's true.
Jesus is equating himself
with God,
with Yahweh,
the great I am.
That's true.
But Jesus is making
more than a statement here.
He's also making
a promise.
He's making a promise
that those that feel hopeless
can come and find hope in him.
He's making a promise
that those who feel restless
can come and find
their rest in him.
He's making a promise
that those who feel
like they're grasping
in the dark,
trying to make sense of life,
not sure where to go
and how to get through
the entanglements of life
can come to him
to find light
and to find life.
And the word that Jesus
uses in the,
the word that Jesus
and John use
in his gospel,
one of the most
common words he uses
is that everlasting life,
eternal life.
Jesus came and said,
I've come to give you
eternal life.
And when John and Jesus
use that word,
he's not just talking about
one, when we die,
we'll experience life,
although that is true.
What he's talking about
is the life of heaven,
the life that Adam and Eve
were meant to experience
in the garden of Eden
is infused into our life
even now as we live.
What Jesus means by that
is a life fueled by hope
and courage and confidence,
a life that's free of shame
and despair and guilt,
a life that is marked by peace,
the kind of life
you can only dream
and hope that heaven
will be made of.
Jesus says that I will come
and give that kind of life
to those who follow me
and trust me.
Jesus doesn't just say
that those who trust him
won't die of cancer
or COVID or something else.
He's saying that when death
comes knocking at our door,
it'll be a transition
from one form of life
into the next.
Well, these are the claims
of Jesus.
And so the people
of Jesus' day,
they know that
they may not have known
who Jesus was,
but they knew one thing
for certain.
They knew that Jesus' words
demand a response.
They knew that those kind of words,
you can't remain neutral.
And so what do they do?
They pick up the stones
around them
to stone him to death.
Jesus knows that his words
don't allow you
just to give him
a simple applaud
and say,
nice sermon, teacher.
Jesus' words don't allow us
just to nod our head
and say,
very interesting.
Jesus says that
either you take him
as word,
you take him
as what he claims to be,
and therefore you never
taste death,
or along with the crowd
in today's passage,
you reject him
as a lunatic,
you reject him
as a liar,
and you reject him
as someone worthy of death.
But Jesus doesn't allow
us to be neutral.
He doesn't give us
that option.
He says,
come and see me
for who I really am.