The Lord Jesus Christ
Tom Shrader continues his Christianity 101 series by examining the person and claims of Jesus Christ from John's gospel. He walks through Jesus' seven 'I am' statements, emphasizing that Jesus explicitly claimed to be God - a claim that separates Christianity from all other world religions. Shrader stresses that Jesus is the exclusive way to salvation, challenging the modern idea that all religions lead to the same God.
“Christianity is different than any of these other religions, because our founder, our rock, Jesus Christ, claimed to be God.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Christianity 101 (2004)
Recorded: 2004
Duration: 47 min
Themes: salvation, identity, claims, exclusivity, truth, deity, fundamentals, basics, new believer, questioning faith, studying basics, adult learner, seeking truth, comparing religions, needing foundations, young adult
Scripture: John 8:56-58, John 20:30-31, John 6:35, John 8:12, John 3:16, John 3:19, John 10:7, John 10:9, John 10:14, John 11:25, John 14:6, John 15:5, Matthew 7, Acts 4:12, Hebrews 13, 1 Peter 5
Theological Themes: christology, deity of christ, incarnation, god incarnate, exclusive salvation, biblical foundations, orthodox doctrine, essential beliefs
Full Transcript
We're in session four today. Holidays are going to play havoc with this, and I'm trying to figure out in my mind exactly what to do. I think I'm just going to go ahead, even though we've got the holiday break. Normally what we do is finish the series up. We're pretty conscious about that so that over the holiday there's not this gap. Then come back after the first of the year and do our "what kind of year was," in this case, 2003, "how to make 2004 the greatest year of your life."
But this is an eight-week series. We've got three. The calendar really makes this easy for us this year because we've got three. We've got the fourth and the 11th and the 18th. My suspicion is you aren't going to be here Christmas morning. So that makes it real easy. So we've got three weeks, and that'll get us through session six. And then I think what we're going to do is after the break either come back and do the year in review and then pick up session seven or eight or something in there. So I guess I'm saying hang in there with us.
It's an important series, Christianity 101. Very repetitive to many of you. And I used to get really almost paranoid about that, saying, we're just going over these same things. They've got them figured out by now. Most of the time you don't. And if you do, you need to be reminded of them, just like I need to be reminded of them. So it's really important.
The idea here is if you get this stuff wrong, if you get the six or seven things, eight things that we talk about in this series, if you get these things wrong, then you've got no chance of ever compensating for them, because they're the basics. And if these are out of place, then you're in real serious shape. And today, if you get today wrong, you've got major, major issues.
Review of Previous Sessions
Let me review real quickly. We started off by saying that Christianity is a body of doctrine. I thought, I've been saying that a lot lately. In fact, I even said at church Sunday, I promise you, I'm done with this now for a while, because I'm just saying it again and again and again. And I thought it was a relatively new thought. I was listening to a tape the other day, looking for something that I said years ago, because I can't find any notes, and in the middle of it, I made the statement that Christianity is a body of doctrine, not behavior. So apparently, it has been a point. It's been around a while.
It is a crucial point. When you talk about Christianity, we're talking about what we believe, not how we behave. Just yesterday, I heard an ad for one of the radio stations, and they're at one of the malls, and they said, you know, we've got this tree, it's an angel tree, you come, you get an angel, you buy a gift, you bring it to the... And here's what they said. Here's the sales pitch. And I laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed in the car. It was ironic, because the speed limit sign said 65, and I was completely stopped, so I was frustrated. But this made me laugh. They said, and boy, when you do this, you will feel good about yourself.
That's how sick we are. We can't even do a good act without trying to do it for ourselves. That was the whole sales point. You'll feel good about yourself. So do you understand that last Thursday, there were Buddhists and Hindus and pagans and all sorts of non-Christians who were feeding hungry people and taking turkeys to places and all that stuff? That's not what makes you a Christian.
What makes you a Christian is what you believe. It's got nothing to do, your Christianity, in terms of whether you're a Christian or not, with how you behave. Now, obviously, what I believe affects how I behave. But it's not that action of goodwill that makes me a Christian. It's the body of belief.
So we said doctrine's important. Then we said, since we need answers, where do we go to get them? So we go to the Bible. The Bible's the final authority in our life. It's the infallible Word of God. We can prove it internally, externally. We can prove it through science and archaeology. We can prove the Bible is true via what the Bible says about itself.
Understanding the Triune God
So now I go. Now, with those two things in place, now I'm ready to attack some of the major issues we face. There's no greater issue that we face than this idea of God and who's God. So that's what we started two weeks ago.
And we, who are Christians, fundamental Orthodox Christians, would believe in a triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three separate persons united in one God. We are not polytheists, we believe in one God, we're monotheists. But that God is in fact three separate persons who come together in this one Godhead.
How can you explain that? I really can't. Just like we said from Daniel Webster, I cannot possibly explain the mathematics of heaven now. How three can equal one. I can't. But I know that it's true, because the Bible says it.
And we talked about God two weeks ago. We talked about some of the misunderstandings about God the Father, misconceptions, why there's such confusion in the marketplace about God right now. And that CD will be out probably not next week, but the following week.
Today's Dividing Issue: Jesus Christ
Today, and everybody's still okay by the way. Everybody's still okay with the discussion at that level. We do this God thing, everybody's okay. Put your faith in God, everybody's fine. Today now, we hit the dividing issue. Today we separate people today, by design.
Because what we're going to talk about is Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself did not come just to bring peace. He came in fact knowing that He would turn father against son, and mother against daughter, and brothers against brothers. He came as the dividing issue.
So what we're going to look at today is, who do you say Jesus is? And we're going to spend our entire time in the gospel of John. John's very clear, of the gospel writers, he is the most clear in terms of his purpose in writing. John chapter 20, verse 30 and 31, John said this, "Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence..."
of the disciples that are not written in this book, but these things have been written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing you might have life in His name." If you take those two verses, which are His purpose verses, John 20:30-31, those are the purposes He's writing, you'll see in there the key idea that permeates this gospel. And it's the idea of believing.
I don't remember now the specific number of times—it's stuck in my mind it's somewhere in the 50s—that that word believe or belief or some variation of that is there in John's gospel. He wants you to believe and then He's telling you that when you believe, the result is you have life. That's the point that John's making. And what He's going to tell us is, we're going to find life, and we're going to find life in Christ and Christ alone.
Jesus Claims to Be God
In John chapter 8, the Jews—and we say the Jews in this context is the Jewish leaders—they've come to Jesus, they've challenged Him. And Jesus says this to them, verse 56: "Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day, he saw it and he was glad." And the Jews said to Him, "How can this be? You're not yet 50."
Now this is kind of a side note—it's interesting to me, most of us would realize that He was probably in His very early 30s at the time, but they looked at Him and they said you're not quite 50. I would suggest to you that's the wear and tear of ministry on a person. That's how this is—it beats you to death.
And the Jews said to Him, "And you've seen Abraham?" Well help me out here, you're not 50, we're talking about thousands of years ago, you've seen Abraham? Abraham's been gone, I don't get it, I don't buy that. And Jesus says—I'm reading from the NIV here—"I tell you the truth" (some of your translations will say "verily, verily," some will say "truly, truly").
And in essence what He's doing is He's saying, "I swear to you, I'm telling you the truth." If we had Him in a court of law, we would say something like this: "Do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help you yourself," I guess is how we'd say it. Well you're swearing on the most powerful—not on a stack of Bibles, not on your mother's grave—on the very name of who He is. He said, "I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born, I am."
The Revolutionary Nature of Jesus' Claim
Now, for us, we kind of read that and go, "Okay, whatever, what's next?" Do you understand how revolutionary this is? I'll guarantee you that there are people in your life who are saying to you, "Jesus never said He was God, Jesus never said He was God." He didn't? Well look at their reaction. After this they picked up stones to stone Him. Why? Because He had committed blasphemy in their mind. What He said is, when He said "I am," He said, "I am God." That's what this is. That's what the Jews understood—they understood the claim.
And we'll say this to you a couple of times today: if you take the major religions of the world, and I know there's some goofball things somewhere, you take the major religions of the world, not one of the founders, not one of the leaders ever claimed to be God. Buddha didn't claim to be God. Confucius, Mohammed—they didn't say they were God, they said they were great prophets.
But the founder of religion, of our Christian faith, Christ—Christianity, the root word Christ—Christ said, "Listen, I'm not just a great prophet, I'm not just a great teacher, I'm not just someone who comes and you follow me, and you do as I do, and that's a great role model." All those things may be true, but those are so far down the pike. The major issue is this: Jesus says, "I am God." If you've seen me, you've seen Him.
The night before He dies, Philip comes to Him and says, "Show us the Father. Let's see the Father, we want to see the Father." And Jesus said, "Have I been with you this long, and you still don't get it? If you've seen me, you've seen Him, I am the Father are one." And if these Jews would have been there at that point, they would have stoned Him again. It's so important for us to understand that. Jesus says, "I am," and when the Jews hear that, they understand this claim to deity.
The Seven "I Am" Statements
In John's Gospel, He has seven classic "I am" passages, and they're listed there for you, and we're just going to take a look at each one. Each one gives us yet one more way to look at Jesus, understanding that as God, there's great practical application to our life as well as this extraordinary Biblical truth.
Let me say it to you again. Some of you, probably many of you, and maybe even most of you in this room are Christians. Certainly, I'm sure it's not all, but a chunk of you are. I want you to understand that you can't just blow this off. You've got to come back, and you've got to get this, and here's why. Because over the course of the next two, three, four weeks, you're going to have opportunities, if you're sensitive to it, you're going to have opportunities to talk to people about Jesus and who He is.
That's just the nature of the season. That's just the nature of where we are, whether it's family gatherings or friends. I remember as a non-believer, this time of year, I used to get pretty sentimental. I can remember sitting, throwing down the Johnny Walker Red and sitting in bars kind of by myself, just talking to people about all of these great truths. Now, I'm not suggesting that we start drinking again and go to the bar, but I'm just saying to you, people this time of year seem to be wondering.
You know this. All the counselors and most of your church guys are going to tell you that this is a tough time of year. This is the time of the year when people tend to see their life, and especially the deficiencies in their life, and they seem to be even more emphasized, exaggerated, multiplied this time of year. You can play an important role by coming along and saying, "Let me tell you what you're looking for. It's Jesus."
Let's look at them. We've got 30 minutes or so. Let's look at these 7 "I ams."
Jesus uses very common pictures. Bread, sheep, shepherd. Bread was an absolute staple in that day and age. It's interesting. In our day and age, most of us are trying to cut out those breads and the grains and all the things, at least the bread part of it, and we see it as unhealthy. It was a staple in that day and age. It was absolutely universal. Whether you were a king or you were a peasant, bread was a staple in your day. It was one of those things that everybody participated in, and they ate this daily.
Now what we're going to see here, and we're going to see it frequently in Jesus' discussion, is Jesus is speaking on a spiritual plane, and He's using these physical truths. So here's what He's talking about. He's talking about being hungry. He says this. Jesus said, "I am," so there you go, there's that phrase, "I am the bread of life. Who comes to me will never go hungry. Who believes in me will never be thirsty."
The Spiritual and Physical Hunger
Remember Jesus with the woman at the well? He said something very similar. If you drink out of this well, you'll be thirsty again. If you drink of me, you will never thirst again. Well He is mixing there the physical and the spiritual. We understand that if we eat this piece of bread that's before us, or this meal, if we eat this, we know it will satisfy us temporarily, and then we'll hunger again. If we drink this water, we will quench our thirst temporarily. But Jesus says, no, I'm talking about something deeper than that.
Let me see if I can make this point. You have in your life certain needs that can absolutely be met by a person, a place, or a thing. I've got all sorts of examples, and so do you from your life. You know, last night I needed a place to go to sleep, went home, slept there. That place satisfied that need.
I am right now, I've got that little hunger thing going. I ate like an absolute whale last week. I've been really good. I haven't had much dessert at all, and my birthday was last Friday. And I've got an ice cream that in September, October, November, Baskin-Robbins has Quarterback Crunch, which is my favorite ice cream. That's the only time of the year they have it. I like Quarterback Crunch, I like Oreo cookie, and I like chocolate mint. Well, I don't know any of this is going on, and then when I get in there, and there are like pints of all of this. And I just sat there for two days and just ate pints and pints of ice cream.
I had been off of it for six months, but I ate six months worth of it last week. So you know what happened, though, that I've never been able to do before? I said, uh-oh, on Sunday, I said, I've got to get on it. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I've done pretty well. I'm hungry right now. I can feel it in there. And when I'm done, I'm going to get something to eat, and whatever it is I get to eat will take this edge off. You see that?
The Need for Relationship
You have certain needs that can be met with a person, place, or thing. You're not meant to go this alone. You're not meant to be in life alone. You're meant to have people around you. That doesn't necessarily mean in a husband-wife relationship, you just need people around you.
You're not meant to go this alone. In fact, you can't even live the Christian life alone. The greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, and what? Love your neighbors, so I guess I need to be with other people to accomplish that. Or the Great Commission to go and make disciples, so I guess I'm going to have to have people for that. So if I'm going to live what God lays out as a Christian life, I've got to have this interaction with people.
So I have certain needs that can be met with a person, place, or thing. What Jesus is pointing out here is you and I have what one author calls a crucial longing. Again, Pascal, that's the classic God-shaped vacuum. You have this thing in you. You have this yearning in you.
The Crucial Longing
I remember Sally Field, I used to have files of quotes on this stuff, and I've lost them all. But Sally Field used to say, that ever since I was a little girl, I've had this thing, she said, I don't know how to describe it, I'll call it a yearning. I remember Eddie Murphy quote, the same thing, I've got all this stuff I ever thought I wanted, and something's missing, I have this yearning.
In our minds, here's what we think, that I can fill it with a person, or place, or thing. So when you see someone around you, who's acting in what you might say is kind of an irrational way, what they're doing is trying to fill that crucial longing, that God-shaped vacuum, with a person, or place, or thing.
So you'll see guys going from gal to gal to gal. I was talking to a guy the other day, and he said, you know what, I'm getting into my fifties, I need a younger gal. I just need a younger gal. I need a gal thirty, thirty-five, something like that. And I said, well, you know what, my suspicion would be that your wife is not going to like this.
And he said, I know that, I'm willing to pay the price for that, and I said, okay, but I want you to understand something. I've seen the previews, and these 2004 models are very, very, very expensive. And that 1982 model ain't going to go away for nothing. And you know what's going to happen? I can tell you what's going to happen, the whole thing's just going to fall apart, because he's taking his problem with him, isn't he?
The Futility of Worldly Solutions
Statistics tell you this, the government will tell you this, second marriages fail at a higher rate than first marriages, third marriages at a higher rate than second, fourth at a higher rate, and so forth, because what we're typically doing is just taking our problem with us. What Jesus is saying is, listen, you're not going to find that ultimate satisfaction in this world, you're going to find it only in me. You're not going to find it anywhere else.
You can build that building, and you can put your name on it, and you know what? I remember, I'll tell this story, about two or
Three years ago now, we had the first experience. I'm uncomfortable telling this, but it's a great illustration, and I keep it in here. We flew on a private jet for the first time, and it was pretty cool. You get on this plane, and you go. You pull up, literally, we pull up, by the time I could park the car, they've loaded it, and we're gone.
I've never done this before, it was an incredible experience. And I don't care who you are, in your little brain, even though you know that you've got nothing to do with any of this, that you couldn't afford to pay the gas to get it from here to Buckeye, even as that's going on in your mind, you're thinking you're something. Haley said, "I feel like the president." When we landed, and we taxied up, it was just a great experience. We were unloaded, there was the guy, it was everything you would imagine.
And I got to the door, and I looked back, and there was our plane. It was a small jet, I think it seated like six of us. And right next to it was this other jet, and it was a guy who was flying his family around the world. This might even appear a little gross to you, but at the time, it looked like their jet just kind of lifted their wing on our jet. It was a really magnificent moment. It was like, you know what, it isn't going to matter.
Nothing in This World Truly Satisfies
Isn't that interesting? And it doesn't matter what it is. I've had the experience. You close the big deal, and it's a big deal, and it's this huge deal, and then you pick up the business report, and then somebody closed the bigger one. Or you get this thing, you shoot a 72, and you'll never shoot better, and the guy behind you shot 71, and the guy behind him shot 68. It doesn't matter. It's just the way life is, isn't it?
And the reason is, you weren't designed to be happy with a jet, or a golf score, or this or that. That real happiness, that abundant life, comes only in a relationship with Christ. You see that? Now, salvation is not primarily about finding satisfaction. Salvation is about finding forgiveness for your sin. I hear guys talk, and that's their big testimony, "I had all this stuff, and now I find satisfaction, and here's where you'll find satisfaction too."
I got that. But I want you to understand, that's a secondary, and it's a far secondary issue to the main issue you have, which is your sin is offensive to Holy God, and you need a Savior for that, and that's Jesus. But what Jesus is telling you is, listen, when you have this relationship with me, you're not searching anymore.
People Are Searching for Answers
I'm at Borders, and Barnes and Noble, a lot. And you'll find people, and they'll be in the New Age section, or they'll be in the religion section. The Borders at 24th and Camelback is a speculation section. And you go in there, and you'll find people, literally looking for answers. And you'll hear them.
So if I go into a restaurant, and it's the middle of the day, or like it's 10 in the morning, or it's 2 the odd times, and there's lots of tables, I'll try to get a table by two people, oftentimes two women or two guys, and I'll try to sit right by them, because I love to eavesdrop and listen to the conversation. That's why I'm there. I'm getting illustrations. And almost always, there'll be somebody who's either trying to grind out a deal, which is sad, or there'll be two people who are trying to figure out life.
You should never sit down with a born-again believer who's trying to find the meaning to life. I'm not saying they've got all the answers and life figured out, but I'm saying they've got the meaning of life figured out, because they don't thirst anymore.
Jesus Is the Light of the World
Boy, we spent a lot of time on that. Here's the second one. Jesus said, "I'm the light of the world." When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, "I'm the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." Jesus said, "I am the light of the world."
In John chapter 3, verse 16, He said, "For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." And then Jesus continues, and He says this, "And this is judgment, that the light has come into the world. John 3, verse 19, Men love darkness rather than light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who hates light does not come to the light, lest their deeds should be exposed."
That's what Jesus does. Jesus comes into the world. He says, "I'm the light of the world."
Light Serves as a Standard
What does light do? Well, it does all sorts of things. It's a standard. We talk about light-years. When the astronauts first went to the moon, they put a little device up there. We shot a beam up, caught it back, captured it, knew how long it took, and the speed of light is a measurement. We knew exactly the distance between the moon and the earth. It's a standard.
Jesus is a standard. Jesus' standard is perfection. You and I love to compare ourselves to one another. That's why I was convinced certain guys like to hang around with me, and guys like me, is because they could always point to us and say, "Well, I'm not as bad as him. I may be bad, but I'm not as bad as him."
My daughter used to do it all the time. It's a classic. I'd say, "How was the test today?" She said, "Oh, it was hard. It was so hard." Here's what she'll say: "Nobody did well." I'd say, "Well, how many kids are in the class?" She'll say 28. And I would say to her, "Do you understand that I don't care about 27 of them? I hope they get a zero. I couldn't care less. Zero, 100, I don't care. What did you do?"
"Nobody did well." And she said, "It's not fair. It wasn't fair." I said, "Really? Was there anything on the test you didn't have in the class?" No. "Was there anything on the test that wasn't in the book?" No. "Did he tell you you were going to get a test?" Yes. "What wasn't fair?" It was fair. But isn't that the way we are? And we laugh at that illustration, but now
We come over to God and we do the same thing. "God, this isn't fair. You can't expect me to not do this and not do that. Everybody does this." He's a standard.
Light gives life. It energizes. When I'm born again, that's what I must be. I need to be reborn. I need life. Jesus said, "I am the light of the world, you're going to find life in me." You must be. Just before He said, "For God so loved the world and gave His only begotten Son," He says what? "You must be born again."
Light Reveals Truth
But the other thing that light does is it reveals. Isn't it interesting? Jesus says, "Evil men, they don't like the light because their deeds are evil."
I was getting gas the other day. I come around the corner. I'm sitting at the corner. I'm waiting to get onto the street. Next to me is an adult bookstore. And in this adult bookstore, or at this adult bookstore, was everything I've ever seen in an adult bookstore. And by that, I mean this: there was not one window in the joint. I've never seen one of these things that has big old picture windows so you can see who's going in and who's coming out and what's going on and everybody waving and having a cup of coffee and let's talk. What I see are a lot of guys with their heads down, coming out.
We like the dark. I was made, I mean in the old days, I was made to be in the bars. I loved them. There were so many things I liked about them. They were dark. I loved the dark. They were cold. There were lots of sports going on. And everybody's lying to each other. It was a great place to go. But I'm talking about a bar now, not Friday's. Friday's isn't a bar. I'm talking about a real bar. When you go to a real bar, there's no light in there.
Jesus said, "I'm the light of the world. Here I am. Here's the standard. Here's where you find life. And here's where you're going to understand reality. You're never going to understand this world or the next world. You're never going to understand yourself. You're never going to understand anything apart from me." That's what He's saying. Here's the standard. Here's the revealer.
The Gate
Here's the third "I am." And you see it there in John chapter 10. He says, "I am the gate." Therefore Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth." There it is. Verily, verily, I swear to you. "I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved. He who comes in and goes out finds a pasture."
The imagery was rich to them and it will be to you in about two minutes. Understand what they would do. They would herd these sheep together, oftentimes during the day. So you'd have five, six, seven herds together. And then at night, they would take their individual herd and they'd put them in a pen. The pen was usually, oh, maybe a stone wall, maybe three, four feet high. But what was unique about each one of these pens is that there was one single gate. One gate that allowed you to go in. One gate that allowed you to go out.
Here's how they'd do this. See if this doesn't just bring this to life. At the end of the day, they had to separate the herds. You know how they'd do it? The shepherd would simply stand there and call. "Here you go." And the sheep would hear His individual voice and come to Him. And Jesus said, "I'm a good shepherd. My sheep hear my voice. When I call out, come to me, not all of the sheep in the world are going to come to me, but all that are mine will come to me. And I'm the gate. I'm the single way in. I'm the single way out."
The Narrow Gate
Matthew chapter 7. We talked about this on Church Sunday. It's interesting how much overlap there is between the two lessons this week. And that's certainly not by design. Jesus, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, says, "Look, enter by what? The narrow gate. Because there is a wide gate, it's an easy way that's heavily trafficked, but it leads to destruction. There's a narrow gate, a hard gate, a difficult gate, with very few who find it that leads to life."
Now, by definition, that's very narrow, isn't it? That's very exclusive. What Jesus is saying is, "Listen, there's a whole bunch of religions here that are marked highway to heaven." He says right after it, in John 7:15, "Beware of false prophets." Who are the false prophets? Those are the men, women, people who are standing before you, whether they're in a pulpit wearing a tie, whether they've got the Bible, whether they're wearing robes, whether they have Bible studies, whether they're just people who are freelancing religion, I don't know. And other people are saying to you, "Just go down that broad, easy way."
False Teaching About Many Ways
I went to a talk here in town years and years and years ago, and there was a guy, and he was invited to speak because, and it's like oftentimes is the case, these really high profile people usually have very little to say and don't say it very well, and he was certainly no exception to that rule. He had nothing to say, and he said it poorly. At the end of this, he said, and this is his illustration, "If I'm in Atlanta and I want to go to New York, I have lots of options. I've got Delta, and I've got American, and I've got United, I've got U.S. Air sometimes. I've got lots of different ways to get from Atlanta to New York." And then he paused, a dramatic pause, and he said, "And that's the way it is with God. There's lots of ways to get to Him. They may look different, they may be different, but all of them lead to the same God."
No, they don't. The president made this comment last week, and obviously he's dead wrong. He said, "We're all worshiping the same God." We aren't. I assume he knows that. They baited him with the question. He's absolutely screwed with the question, because the question was, "Are the Muslims praying to the same God we are?" And he copped out and gave what is the politically correct answer, but I assume he understands it's not the right answer. It's not the right. They're not praying to the same God. And I assume he knows better, but he doesn't have
I guess there wasn't any choice. Which raises all sorts of secondary and tertiary level questions, because answering that question correctly is more important than getting re-elected, one might think. But who am I? I'm just a little fat guy here.
But you see that? And you see why, when you really say this—I know this is a home game for me. I'm here. This is my turf. It's a home game. But I understand, if you're somebody who's here and this is new to you, you're sitting there fighting every inch of this because you're thinking how arrogant that sounds. And I know it sounds arrogant. Anytime you say "I know the truth," I don't care what the issue is, it sounds arrogant. So our challenge is to deliver this truth, but to deliver it with some sense of humility, and some sense of saying, "but I can't change it."
Jesus as the Good Shepherd
Jesus says, "I'm the gate." Look at the next one, just a little bit later. John chapter 10, verse 14. He said, "I'm the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and they know me." Hebrews 13, He's identified as the great shepherd. First Peter 5, He's identified as the chief shepherd. "I'm the good shepherd."
Let's spend a second—let me check time. It's getting late—a little bit about sheep. Sheep essentially are stupid animals. They're dirty animals. They're virtually defenseless. They've got a herd mentality. They are—here's a term—they are high maintenance. You're described, and I'm described, as a sheep. We're high maintenance. We need a shepherd.
What the shepherd would do at night, by the way, as they came in under that gate, is they would have to come under his inspection. In the course of a day, if there was something that happened to that sheep, and they could not fend for themselves, that shepherd would take care of them—mend a wound, provide an ointment, heal the best he could. Not a goat. Doesn't say goat here. Goats are kind of feisty little animals that are fairly smart and somewhat self-sufficient. We're a sheep, and we need a good shepherd.
And He says this: "I know my sheep and my sheep know me." The word "know" there has this idea of intimacy with it. "I know my sheep and they know me. They hear my voice." So if you're here today and this doesn't make sense to you, there's always the possibility that I'm doing a poor job. But what we do know for sure is that you're not one of His sheep. Now you may be—you can be. Come to Him in repentance and faith. Acknowledge Jesus for who He is. He said, "I'm a good shepherd. I take care of my sheep."
Jesus as the Resurrection and the Life
Here's the fifth thing—we've got three more. He said, "I'm the resurrection and the life." John chapter 11, verse 25. This is a magnificent story, and I'm not sure we always think of Jesus this way. He was a single man. We don't think of that much.
I was thinking last night—I don't have an answer for this. When Jesus was in the womb, and He's still fully God, was He fully consciously God? What happened when He was—I don't know. That just popped into my mind last night. I don't have an answer for that. Hopefully it'll screw you up the way it did me and you'll waste tonight's sleep thinking about it, because I don't have an answer. One of you will, so will you email it to me please? Which is a nice way of saying I don't really want a dialogue. No, I'm just kidding.
Jesus is a single man. I think we miss that. He's hanging out with Mary and Martha and Lazarus. Lazarus gets sick, remember? The message comes: Lazarus is sick. Jesus doesn't do anything. That's a strange response. Many of you have people who are very good friends, and if you heard today they're sick and they're in Dayton, you're going to get on a plane and go to Dayton. That's just the way it is. That's a strange response.
Here's something even stranger. Now they come and they say Lazarus is dead, and Jesus says—remember—"Lazarus is dead and I'm glad." What's that? That's weird, isn't it? Why? So all of a sudden, He now goes, He said, "Alright boys, let's go back." So away they go.
The Power Over Death
He is confronted by one of Lazarus' sisters who said, "You know what, I wish you could have been here, because that would have been significant. I know you could have healed him." And Jesus said to her, "Don't worry, he'll rise again." And her doctrine was solid. She said, "I know that, but we're going to miss him now."
And Jesus says this, John 11:25: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe?"
You remember the account? Jesus goes out to the edge of town. They buried him. He says, "Roll away the stone." Somebody says, "Hey, wait a minute, he's going to stink by now." They said, "That's alright, roll away the stone." He says, "Lazarus, come forth," and out he comes.
I want to focus on this, because this can look a little bit like a fortune cookie here, John 11:25 and 26, but it's easy to understand. Remember: spiritual, physical. Whoever believes in me will live spiritually, even though he dies physically. Whoever lives and believes in me will never die spiritually.
Understanding Death and Suffering
Paul tells us that Jesus came and was raised from the dead, and that put an end to the agony of death. That does not mean physical death, does it? Don't you know people—people that you love desperately—who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, who've died some excruciatingly painful deaths? You've watched their bodies be eaten away by a cancer, by a virus.
We have a girl at church right now, and she is absolutely incredible, who literally—they're just cutting her body off, apart, taking off toes and fingers, and then it will be hands. She's just got this nerve disease, and there's nothing they can do about it. And she's got the best attitude in the world, and yet I know that she's in extraordinary pain.
We've got a little girl at church who Monday had her first bit of solid food since Memorial Day. And she's been in constant, constant, constant pain for almost six months now, seven months. Really cool, they said—
This is your first meal, you can have whatever you want. You know what she asked for? Peanut butter and jelly. I would have raised the bar a little bit there somewhere, but she's probably afraid. He said, "I'm the resurrection and the life." If you believe in Me, you're going to suffer physically, you're going to die physically, but you'll never be separated from Me, because the minute you're absent from this body, you are present with Me. See it?
The Way, the Truth, and the Life
Two more things, very quickly, we've got five minutes. He says in John chapter 14, "I am the way, the truth, the life, no one comes to the Father but through Me." This in our mind conjures up a picture very similar to what Peter said in Acts chapter 4 verse 12: "There is salvation in no one else." This gets back to this again. This is a very narrow way. There are not many roads that lead to God. There are not many roads that lead to salvation. There is but one way, and again, I don't make the rules here. Jesus said it. Your beef is not with me, your beef is with Him.
He said "I am the way." When I was educated in grade school, we had the nuns, and they were harsh. I never once remember them asking, "Tony, how does that make you feel?" I don't remember them asking me that. I remember them saying, "I'm going to make you feel something," and then they'd hit me, but I don't remember anything. They did a lot of things that at the time didn't make any sense to me. Part of them was English. I just never thought, how am I ever going to use this stuff?
I am grateful, even though it was a pain, for the diagramming sentences and for teaching us some basic English, including the use of what is known as a definite article. When I introduce a definite article into the sentence, I'm now eliminating other possibilities. So if I say, if I'm Jesus, and I'm speaking, and I say, "I am a way," that's very different than saying, "I am the way." See, one says, well, there's lots of ways. I'm a way, and try that, and try that, and try that, and try that. There's lots of ways. Do your best, knock yourself out.
But Jesus doesn't say that. He says, "I am the way." And Jesus doesn't say, "I'm a truth," and, well, there's a lot of truths out there. He said, "I am the truth." He doesn't say, "I am a life." He says, "I am the life."
Now lest you and I didn't get the nuns to train us and we missed it, in the next sentence He says, here's the clarifier: "No one can come to the Father except through Me." So all of these long, arduous debates that we're having about whether somebody apart from Christ can be saved are easily answered by Jesus Himself, because He said no. This isn't going to happen. Either Jesus is telling us the truth, or He isn't. And that's very important for us to understand, and for us to remember.
Christianity's Unique Claims
Let me get back to what we talked about at the beginning. Christianity is different than any of these other religions, because our founder, our rock, Jesus Christ, claimed to be God. Either He was or He wasn't. If He was, we'd better drop everything else and follow Him. If He wasn't, He's a nut. What are we doing up? Bring on the booze, let's have a ball, let's stay home.
Here's another thing. I understand it's narrow, but that isn't the issue, is it? The issue is, what? Is it true? It's not important whether it's narrow or wide. There's nothing inherently virtuous about being open-minded.
Sarah and I are going to leave a week from tomorrow, we're going up to Sea Ranch. We didn't get up there this summer, so Sarah and I are going up for three or four days by ourselves, so it'll be great. And we've got a United flight out on Friday morning early. And here's what I hope, and I hope this every time I get on a plane: I hope we've got a narrow-minded pilot. I really do. I hope our guy's hung up on landing with the wheels down. I hope he's hung up on saying, when they go vector, x, y, z, cube, b, he goes vector, a, b, whatever it is.
I don't want him going, I don't want them from the tower saying, "Go down here, it's runway two, and you land there, and then get off at b." I don't want him going, "You know, that doesn't work for me. That just doesn't work for me. Never liked runway one. I'm going to use three, the one with the big transport plane sitting right now. No, I'm just going to, we'll see what happens. It'll be exciting." You see that? I don't know why, when we all of a sudden come to God, we think, oh, He has to be this broad open-minded. No, He's God.
God Pursuing Man
I'll give you one other thing about Christianity, different than every other religion. Every other religion is man pursuing God. Christianity is God pursuing man. It's the hound of heaven hunting us down. Different than every other religion. Every other religion is man pursuing God.
I watched the other night a show, five people making this trip to Mecca for the holy day. It was incredible. I mean, it was incredible. Did any of you see that? There's no way. There are, within the building there, there are a million people, and they're moving in one mass, and it just looked like a horde of ants. It was incredible to watch these people, but all I could think of is, look at these people pursuing God. But Christianity, at its initiation, not our Christian life now, at its initiation, is about Him pursuing us.
Bearing Fruit in This Life
Here's the last point, and it sets up next week perfectly. He says this in John chapter 15, verse 5, "I'm the vine, you're the branches, a man who remains in Me, and I in him will bear much fruit, apart from Me you can do nothing." All of a sudden, I can be so focused on the next life that I miss this life. If all Jesus wanted to do was get us to heaven at the moment of death, He would have taken us there. Or at the moment of conversion, He would have taken us there.
But He left us here for a reason. Why? To bear fruit. To be His hands, to be His feet. To fulfill the great commandment: Love God with all your heart, love your neighbor as yourself. To fulfill the great commission: To go and make disciples.
Apart From Him, We Can Do Nothing
Do you sometimes feel like you just can't do it? There's so much and you can't get it done? Or you're just spinning your wheels and you're doing it. I'm talking now about your Christian life. I'm not talking about Christmas shopping here. I'm talking about your Christian life. I'm talking about the idea of loving God with all your heart and all these things. And now the responsibility to love your neighbor as yourself. And now to forgive. And now all these things come in and you're saying, I don't know if I can do all that.
Let me help you out. You can't. That's His point. Apart from Him, you cannot do one thing. But with Him, you are now indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Here we go. Doctrine is important. Where I find the truth in the Bible, all of a sudden I discover who God really is. Now I see Jesus.
The Door Has Shut
Did you feel the door slam and shut today? The options are gone. It's Christ. He says it. You're either for me or against me. There is no spiritual Switzerland here. You can't be Larry King. Larry King says he's an agnostic. That's just somebody who simply doesn't have the courage to be an atheist. Wants to camp out here and think I'm okay. No, you're an atheist. That's what He says. You're for me or against me.
You may be deeply religious, but that doesn't make you a Christian. You may go to church. You may go through whatever your prescribed remedy for sin is. You may go through all of this ritual. That does not save you a lick. You're saved by grace through faith. That's it. And it's in Christ. There is no other way. Jesus said it. And it was reiterated by Peter, by Paul, by Jude, by all the New Testament teachers.
The Holy Spirit's Work
But now you're in the kingdom. Now you're His. All of a sudden, now you have this thing called the Holy Spirit. When I was a kid, it used to be the Holy Ghost. And it seems to me there may be few things as controversial, maybe even divisive in the body of Christ as this idea of the Holy Spirit. Next week we look at that. Who's the Holy Spirit? We'll go to the Word and see what it says.
Father, thank you for this truth. Thank you for these people. God, thank you for all that you give us, do for us. We pray to you in Jesus' name, Amen.