The Last 3 - I Ams of Johns Gospel — Roy Hession

Now we come to the last of our series this morning. We could go on a long time yet because we have hardly touched on these glorious I Am's of our Lord Jesus. I will spare myself recapitulating what we've talked about on previous morning.

Are there any friends here who are here for the first time? Oh well, perhaps I better recapitulate. All right. Well, Wally, where have you been all this time? Anyhow, we're very glad you've come and better late than never and we can just trust that God's going to give you on this one occasion which you've been able to come all that he intends that you should have.

The Seven “I Am” Sayings and the Sufficiency of Jesus

We've been thinking together in a connected series in these morning meetings of some of the great I Am's of John's gospel. On seven occasions the Lord Jesus said, I am and then there follows a picture word which describes what Jesus is made to be to people as needy and as failing as ourselves.

And we've been seeing that Jesus Christ is made to us all we need. Alas, we haven't had time to touch more than two of the I Am's so far. There was the first message about Jehovah which means I Am. The unfinished sentence, that very name is like a blank check.

God says I Am, but what are you Lord? What you need at any given moment and grace permits us to fill up that check to the full amount of our need all the time. Alas, we don't. We try and think about our own checks and our own wretched bank balance and of course it isn't adequate but there's no limit to grace and to what that bank balance has in store for you and for me.

And then we've seen that it revealed so much in Jesus in these I Am's of his. The first one we looked at was I Am the door. We saw that there's a way back to God from the dark paths of sin. There's a door that is open and you may go in.

At Calvary's cross is where you begin when you come as a sinner to Jesus. We saw that he is the door out of all the darkness and death produced by original sin into the family of God. That's the door by which we have to enter in if we're to say to be saved and that door is Jesus himself.

I am the door. By me if any man enter in he shall be saved. He's not come to condemn you. He's not come to point a finger at you. He's come to save you and melt you to bring you to repentance and not into peace.

And we also saw that he's the door for the Christian out of every other darkness and dryness that sin brings into every other blessing that the Bible speaks of that we may have. Everything is through that door.

How easy it is to try and get into deeper blessing into the fullness of the Spirit by climbing up some other way that doesn't involve repentance rather than going through the door opened at the foot of the cross.

Jesus as the Way and the Blood-Sprinkled Life

And then we saw yesterday that that door leads us not into a palace or a garden into a so to speak static experience but onto a way. And we saw that the Christian life is a walk something present and continuous and that if it is a walk there must be a way provided for us to walk on.

We thought of those freeways we thought of those Pennsylvania turnpikes and other roads. How easily and swiftly do we not get from one place to another but how impossible would not be the journey but for those highways but for those freeways.

The pioneers must have taken months and months to take a journey which now takes us a few hours. And we have a way and we saw that that way is Jesus and his blood. I am the way. We thought it was the way of the precious blood.

It was also the way of repentance and it was the way of life. Well that was something of the ground we covered. I just had it in my mind to add a further word to what we said about Jesus as the way yesterday.

We walk with him and on him. He and his self is our way. We walk that way however with others. And if we are in fellowship with him we will be in fellowship with others on that highway. If we're not in fellowship with others if there are barriers between us and others, wrong attitudes of unlove and contempt and despising or resentment and criticism then we're not in fellowship with Jesus.

Our fellowship with himself is no better than our fellowship with our brother. And the things that come between my brother and me also come between him and me. In fact I remember years ago when our friends from Africa first came back to England to give their simple testimony what God had taught them in revival they brought with them a little illustration which was very helpful the illustration of the mosquito net.

And a mosquito net you know comes down not only one side of the bed but on the other. Of course you folks here don't need to use them but out in Africa they do otherwise they get bitten and they get malaria.

And so over the bed you see you have from the mosquito net comes down here it's tucked in under the mattress here and tucked in under the mattress there. Just before going to bed you pull out your flashlight and you look around inside see they haven't shot any mosquitoes in and then you can go to sleep at peace.

Well this is the illustration they brought that it's possible for something to come between you and your brother and for that and that thing not to be what we would call a very big thing it's only a slight barrier a mosquito net.

You can talk through a mosquito net you can look through a mosquito net but it's there. A mosquito net between me and my brother me and my wife me and anybody and I'm just not loving them just resenting them I just feel wrong towards them it's sin.

But if it's such a slight thing it's little more than a mosquito net it's something underlying only. But the thing is the mosquito net comes down the other side of the bed too. And the same mosquito net that hangs between me and my brother also hangs between me and the Lord Jesus.

And I find I'm not really as close to him as I have been before. I don't know what's wrong I pray Lord I love you. So that's what's wrong and the mosquito net which began there comes right over and now between you and me.

Well do you know that experience? Sometimes it begins the other way around. Something goes wrong between you and the Lord Jesus. You start worrying about him complaining to him about something. And then when you meet another Christian you find you've got to walk towards them.

You don't warm up and get into close fellowship with them. There's a mosquito net. Well I don't know I love old Sir so he's a dear brother. What's gone wrong Lord? Ah it's done here. And the mosquito net that starts between you and me also comes down the other side.

So the two relationships go together. And then these friends of ours I remember they said but we've found that if you don't deal with that and call it sin and go to Jesus for forgiveness and cleansing and repentance the devil comes along and he turns the mosquito net into a blanket.

And there's a blanket between you and your brother and a blanket between you and God. You can't see through a blanket though you can speak some. And it's a bit thicker. And you know it isn't that you've sinned more.

It isn't that you've sinned any more. The same thing if not dealt with if not repented of thickens. The same silly little thing which you wouldn't call it wouldn't deal with a mosquito net now it's become a blanket.

You blanket it off from the Lord and blanket it off from your brother. And then if you don't deal with it then the devil comes along and he turns into a brick wall. And you're bricked off from your brother you're bricked off from from the Lord and you're a little isolated person the only person in the world who's right.

Complete martyr. Oh you know I'm thinking I think that old Saul got to that place. This terrible man who gave David such a bad time and yet he got so bricked off he felt he was the martyr. He says none of you are sorry for me that the son of Jesse has confided against me.

He was the martyr. How mad we can be how irrational. And you know you can get bricked up at your little wall so full of self-pity. Nobody worries about me nobody cares about me. No one comes and calls me no one talks to me.

I don't even God seems to do anything. And friend it's you that's wrong. It's you. The pastor ever comes? No Christian ever calls? Nobody takes any notice of me? It's you every time. And nothing separates you from the Lord and from your brothers and sisters in Christ so much as sin.

Even a mosquito net. And I say again it doesn't mean that the brick wall represents more sin. It's the same still a little thing but which I wouldn't deal with at the cross and now it's become a brick wall.

But oh thank God when you're willing you look up at last you find there's no room thank God. You know Lord I'm lost. He deals with all the lot of the barrier. Well that's how it is on that highway and you have to walk with one another.

I'm thinking of a friend of mine a preacher friend he's a dear friend he's back in Britain. And he wasn't preaching that morning he was going to attend the service and he was waiting for his wife to get ready and he was downstairs and he called up and said aren't you ready yet?

She said all right I'm coming. And so they went to church. It wasn't surprising that they were rather silent. It wasn't surprising that fellowship didn't flow very well on the way to church. And you know what happened you see he had slipped off the highway on one side and she had slipped off the highway on the other side and Jesus was left alone.

But you know as he went along as they went along the Lord Jesus spoke to my friend and he just repented he said oh Lord it's wrong. So he turned to his wife and said I'm sorry darling I shouted at you.

He said well I'm sorry that I resented you shouting at me. You see he'd gone off one side he'd gone off the other. You see Jesus doesn't shout at people he's the Lamb. And Jesus doesn't resent being shouted at but he's the Lamb.

And their necks grew stiff with one another but worst of all they slipped away both of them from Jesus. But there was a way the blood sprinkled way and he came back to Jesus and she came back to Jesus and in coming back to Jesus they come back to one another.

And I'm sure they had a wonderful service that morning and it wasn't a thing to hinder the grace of God blessing that couple. Well that's the way it goes. It's not only your wife anybody else. And oh this is the blood sprinkled way.

It isn't the way where people don't sometimes slip but it's a way that provides for failure if you will call it by its name. It's something sweet it's right down on our level. Although it's the highway the standard highest is always the standard.

Not that you struggle to attain those standards but you simply repent when you don't. And you find Jesus there to meet you, restore you, forgive you, cleanse you and to put into your heart that which just wasn't there before.

And you find a love that isn't yours and a sweetness that also is yours. And you say well this is the real Christian life at last. This is the way. This is that old original primitive way of the primitive church.

The way of the blood. I must need go home by the blood sprinkled way. There's no other way than this. Well now we move on quickly to think where does the way lead? Now will you turn to John's gospel again?

Jesus Is Both the Way and the Destination

John's gospel chapter 14. Verse 4 the same few verses we read yesterday morning. And whither I go ye know and the way ye know. Thomas said unto him Lord we know not whither thou goest and how can we know the way.

Jesus said unto him I am the way the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the father but by me. If he had known me he should have known my father also. And from henceforth ye know him and have seen him.

But it says show us the father it suffices us. Jesus said even to see me have seen the father. Now let me just expound that little scripture first and you will see what is the theme we get a touch upon.

Jesus said whither I go you know and the way you know. Thomas said you're wrong Lord we don't know whither you're going and we don't know the way. Jesus said you do know the way. How's that Lord? For I am the way and if you'd known me you would have known the way.

No man comes unto the father but by me I am the way. Well then if we know the way we certainly don't know the whither. Oh yes said Jesus in effect you know the whither too. Well how's that? Well this way as I just told you leads to the father no man comes unto the father but by me.

But we haven't seen the father says the Lord that said Philip yes you have said the Lord. For he that has seen me has seen the father. I and the father are one. And so we see that day Jesus not only claimed to be the way but himself to be the whither.

You don't come to Jesus and find in the way to something else or someone else. He is the end he is the whither. He's both the way and the end. The way and the whither. And so we see here then that Jesus is saying virtually I am the end.

I am the door I am the way I am the end. Now the question we want to ask ourselves is Jesus the end to us? And I would suggest that unless you're very unlike me very often Jesus is not the end. Something else is the end.

Now someone may say these meetings have been a tremendous help to me. I've seen the way of repentance the way of bowing my neck the way of brokenness. It's costly but I know it's the only way. To what?

It's the only way to revival. It's only when we will bend our necks that revival can come. Jesus is the way to revival. This is the only way which I'll ever be used. I can't expect the spirit of God to use me to the winning of others unless I'm willing to go on the blood-sprinkled way of brokenness and repentance.

And therefore for such the end is to be used. For some the end is revival. The end is to be used. There's another. We preachers are very much inclined to say I can't expect God to work in our church and to bring the people unless I myself am willing to be the first to be to get right with God.

By the way that's a great advance for a preacher. Most people think it's a preacher who thinks everybody else has got to repent. It's a great thing when the preacher says I've got to be the first. That's a great advance.

We evangelists and preachers we are very slow. David said why are we the last speaker were to bring back the king. And we who are in the leadership sometimes want everybody else to break and then perhaps we'll be the last.

It's a wonderful thing when God shows us as he does that we've got to be the first. Only so can God work in the church and bless the people. The end in such a case is God working in the church bringing the people.

The thing beginning to lift up and spiritual success to come. And a man may say to him this is hard to bend my neck but my one isn't going to be worth it. And he has a mental picture of spiritual prosperity, of the people coming, of everything going well.

Others of us may say it's power that I need and this is the way to power. This is the way to power. The way all the saints of God went. You can turn the biographies. There was always an hour in every man's life when if they got power at all they had to be broken at the foot of the cross.

Therefore for this great gift of power I have prepared if necessary to God to deal with me however he likes and power becomes the end. Others of us feel well now this is the only way to a peaceful home.

I know I've been very much to blame in my home. My husband is very little difficult but that I've been difficult and I can see very very clearly that I will be the first to repent then I can expect him to repent too.

And we shall have a wonderful happy home. And the tension which we've been so unhappy to bear will be resolved. And therefore a happy home is the end. And very often we do take certain steps of brokenness cost whatever they may be but with an eye on the hope that that will prevent the other person to do the same.

Very often we'll say sorry hoping the other person will say sorry. We'll get right with them in the hope that that will help them to get right. They might they will get right with us and that would be just too lovely for words.

And so we're prepared to obey the Lord but there's always an eye on their end. Well now these ends sound fine. As you've listened to me you aren't quite sure whether I'm saying they're right or wrong have you?

Well you see in many ways they are right in some way but don't you see they are ends other than Jesus. And I'm using Jesus and the cross and his precious blood as a means to an end other than himself.

And that's the reason why we don't get those ends. Make them the end you never seem to get them. You know I've known groups of people from churches and they and nobody could have humbled themselves more than they did.

They were prepared to repent and put things right in the hope of revival. They had all night prayer meetings the hope of revival never came. Because revival was the end and not Jesus. And gee God is not going to give us any end than his own dear son.

Jesus as the End of Every Christian Desire

And very often a person tries to get right with the Lord in the hope that somebody else will get right with the Lord. And they humble themselves and they eat a humble pie and the other person just wipes their feet on it.

Well isn't that all right? Did you want it anymore? Are you worth it anymore? If we have our people wipe their feet on it isn't that what they deserve? They did it to the Lord Jesus. Well you see I thought something wonderful was going to come.

And very often that end isn't achieved. Because that was the end. And even our repenting can be if you understand the phrase repenting under law. With another end in view. And invariably you don't get the end.

You don't get the power and you don't become used. And you do all this and all the other and yet God doesn't bring the crown. And you get discouraged. But God never does promise to give us those ends.

The end of the way is the same person as the way. He's the end. And what he wants us to do is this. To let him show us sin. To let him help us bend our necks at the cross. To let him help us be broken.

What for? That you might have revival? No. That you might have power? No. That you might be used of God to win souls? No. What for? That you might have me? Oh Lord I thought I was going to heaven. So I wasn't the one you really wanted.

And deep down that's how it is. It's power or being you. Become a soul wither. Or spiritual success. Or it's an easing of a situation. And we are repenting and dealing with things for that end. Whereas what God hoped would have been the end.

What that you might have Jesus. You see sin has caused you to slip his hand. That peace with himself has been disturbed. The vision of his loveless face has been obscured. And he did hope that you would have loved him so much that for no other end than to be back in fellowship with him again you'd be willing to go to the cross.

But so often it's some other end. And that's one of the reasons of many many frustrations in our Christian life. We're panting after some other end. We pay a big cost for that end. But that's the end.

And so often in the shadows around us there lurk subtle selfish motives. We want power. You want to ensure it's God's glory. Haven't you got a mental picture of yourself being some great one? You want to be used amongst the other women.

Is it only that you might serve them and help them? Are there not other motives? Being fallen men and women that we are of course there are. No no. The end is Jesus. And I'm to get right with God for no other reason than I've got wrong.

No other reason. If it doesn't ease the situation I'm not greatly bothered because that wasn't what I was after. I was after Jesus. I wanted to have Jesus with me by my side filling my heart. In the very situation if it continues till kingdom come I can bear it if I've got Jesus.

But if in that situation I've got wrong with him. I've got resentful against others and the most heather nets have come. I'm of all men most miserable. And because I want him that I go to the cross. Not because I want to be used.

Oh the evangelist I know from my own experience is in great danger of this. I find that when meetings are coming up I get very careful. I do a lot of little extra repentance. A strange little thing that I might say to my wife in the wrong tone of voice I apologize for.

It's all striving. It's all tense. I'm more particular then than the other times. And somebody doesn't bring me anywhere. But oh I can walk with Jesus. You I want Lord. Meetings are lonely things. If you went into your arm of what you did and I thank you for your grace restores me so quickly to you when I repent.

And I tell you this about this end. You always get this end. I can't promise you get those other ends but I can promise you that the blood of the Lord Jesus is the way to Jesus the end. Jesus is the river as well as the simple easy way to that river.

And you need never no frustration. You may find that which you desire every time. And it's the Lord Jesus himself the lover of your soul. The comforter of your weak heart. Lifting your burden being to you what you need in that hour.

And even if nobody else repents. Even if they might wipe their feet on you. You've got what you hadn't got before. Peace with him. Not only your way but your end. And there comes a sweet restfulness into your heart.

The restfulness even in your repentance. I've been in groups where there's a sort of tension about it all. There's a certain striving. I've been in that state myself. But how lovely when you're in a restfully repentant group who come because they want Jesus and they're enjoying him.

And they're sharp on anything that hides his precious face from them. And the amazing thing is this. That when he becomes the end. Not only do you get that end but he delights in throwing all sorts of extras with it.

You might find yourself being used. Hmm. You probably will. But that's not the end. You'll go to another person not with a trap but with a testimony about something the Lord's done for you. And you'll be surprised how it just makes that person so hungry.

Well look I haven't got what you've got. And it's the easiest thing in the world to show him Jesus. Because he's the end not being you. You might find yourself endowed with powerful and high. I'm quite certain you will be a little incidental though.

You won't be worried about it. It's Jesus you're walking with. But there's grace and glory resting upon you more than you realize. And revival. Oh my friend if that isn't revival in your heart please tell me what is.

And your testimony of joy and peace in him is going to make somebody else very hungry. And they'll go I'm coming on the same ground too. How lovely. But if it doesn't work out that way it's all right on you.

Though of course you long for their good. But you see it wasn't this spectacular revival that you read about was the end. It was Jesus. And you've got Jesus. And with him God delights to freely give us all things that are in his will for us.

And he can give. He can give what to spare your life. And he opens up more than you expect. It is wonderful. You see. But the thing is when anything may subside on the circumference of our world we're not down.

The thing we've been after is Jesus. We're still walking with him. And I tell you if there's in any church and in a group of people where revival's going on. Where they're walking repenting and rejoicing and finding Jesus precious.

Revival goes on that church even if there are variations on the circumference of it. There will be. Don't worry about it. You go on. You go deeper in the center. And he'll take care of the rest. And the winds of God will blow again and work again.

And then maybe there'll be a drying off. Doesn't matter as long as revival's going on in the center. And revival is Jesus. Not an end. Not a spectacular thing. It's you walking with Jesus and finding him all you need.

Wisdom. Righteousness. Power. Holiness. You know what power is? Power isn't a chunk of something that's given to you. Power is simply letting Jesus work. Do you know what wisdom is? It's simply letting Jesus guide.

It's not a chunk of something. Do you know what holiness is? It's letting Jesus live. Let him be what I can't be. It's Jesus. And a couple of people are finding that and in fellowship with one another on the highway.

That's too precious for words. And all I can say if you want something more than that I do that's precious. And I know that God will want to spread to him the next person and the next. That life of his son that we're enjoying.

He's got to have a door all the way but it's the end. And he hardly reminds you of Solomon who didn't ask for riches or the life of his enemy. He asked for that understanding heart. And God said because you're so you didn't ask for those other things.

You wanted that understanding heart the better to serve me with. I'm giving you it. And I'm going to give you the other thing for which you didn't ask. Extras. Oh how generous he is when we see that Jesus is the end to us.

All our end. You've got no idea what else he's going to throw in. More than you've ever thought. You're going to be rich and wealthy indeed. And what would you make being rich and wealthy? Spiritually at the end.

Jesus himself. And you'll know when you need to get right with him when you've missed his presence. The peace of God will be like a referee in your heart. And when that peace is broken it's like a referee in a game who blows the whistle.

And the game stops until there's a penalty kick whatever it is you have over here. And it goes on. And that peace is broken. That whistle blown. And you've got to stop. I'm going to show you. And because you love him although it means bowing your neck and a type of costly acknowledgement of sin.

It might mean putting something right with another. Because you want Jesus you're willing to do it. And you find him. For his blood cleanses you and grace reaches you. Very quickly there are another sort of end.

Christ as the End of the Law and the Source of Righteousness

I like to think of ends such as I've mentioned as ends which are short of him. It is however possible to be seeking ends beyond him. Now there are folks, bless their hearts, those right of them to feel it that the only way to be filled with the spirit is to go to Jesus and let him deal with them and cleanse them.

But having been cleansed, that blessing they need is still something beyond. I've known people who say we can't expect revival unless we're cleansed. They go to the cross but the revival they need is still something beyond.

You can't expect holiness, sanctification of the real living experience unless you're willing for God to bring you to the cross in repentance. But having come to the cross that's only a preliminary. Now I can go and play in sanctification.

So whatever the blessing is we feel we need it's in a sense beyond the cross. Now that's another variation of the same thing of seeking ends other than Jesus. What we've seen of this way is not the way to a blessing that lies beyond the cross.

It's quite common to say you go to the cross and from the cross on to Pentecost. I don't believe that's true. What you need does not lie beyond the cross. It doesn't lie beyond Jesus. And that's the reason why sometimes people talk of certain blessings and experiences as it in the Christian life.

You haven't got it. Friends it isn't you haven't got it. You haven't got someone hasn't got you as he ought to have. It's someone. And the precious thing to see is that when I've come to Jesus as a sinner I've come to what I need.

He is an insuccessive act of repentance and adjustment with himself at that point what I need. He is found again at the cross my revival. He is there my holiness. I only know Jesus as my holiness living in me as I'm progressively willing to repent of my under holiness.

And in repenting of my under holiness as it manifests itself I've not then got to him now I'm going to wait for the blessing. Now I'm going to carry it. I've got all the hindrances out of the way. I've been to Jesus for the cleansing power.

Now I'm ready for whatever else there is. In Jesus to whom we come as sinners dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and when we are cleansed in that precious blood we are complete in him. And he becomes in insuccessive acts of repentance what you need.

You repent of your resentment. Jesus in that very act when he cleanses you that he becomes that love for that other person which you haven't got. You repent of that deceit along a certain line. You judge it.

He cleanses you and he becomes your victory on that line. Not having been cleansed now I've got to go on to something beyond. But Jesus I come to as a sinner in himself. All I need and I don't need to go any further.

Do you know that wonderful verse Romans 10 for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Philip this translation has it this way. Christ is the end of the struggle for righteousness to everyone that believes.

We're struggling to be right with God. If I can do this or do the other I'll be right with God. If I could pray more or give more I'll be right with God. Friend Christ is your righteousness and he's the end of your struggle for righteousness.

When you come as a sinner again say that you may be. Christ is made to your righteousness and you can't be any more right with God than what Jesus becomes for you when you repent. But he's the end of the struggle for everything else.

The end of the struggle for peace. The end of the struggle for rest. The end of the struggle for revival. He is my revival and in finding him in that simple way that the weakest of us can find him I found him as what I need.

I may have to go deeper in him. I certainly will. I shall never have never come to a place where he may may not have to show me sin. We have to show me deeper underlying things. We'll have to go into deeper brokenness.

But I'm not going anywhere else. I found my rest is in Jesus. Tell me not of a baptism. Tell me not of a second blessing. Tell me not of a third blessing. Tell me not of a gift of healing. Tell me not of a gift of casting out demons.

Tell me not of any of these things unsettling. Tell me of them all there. I remember when my wife was so ill and the doctor said she only had a short time to live. My first thing was to go think about a healer who's going around our country preaching and healing.

I'd have taken her to the end of the country. Then the Lord checked me. He said why not come to me? Come to me. And was I the one that he received? Well I'll tell you why I didn't go to him was this. I couldn't go to Jesus with an unsubdued will about the matter.

I'd have to be broken. My cram and what I wanted in the matter would have to be broken. I could go to a healer and that unsubdued will could be absolutely untouched. But I did go to Jesus and he did do what was needed.

I don't need a maid to insist that on the other. I could make you Jesus and as things arose I got Jesus. Isn't he enough? One illustration um some years ago I went with several friends of a little team to Alsace on the borders between France and Germany.

The Alsace Testimony: Revival as Seeing Jesus

A country which by the way has changed hands five times in people's lifetime in the two world wars. Sometimes it belonged to Germany sometimes it belonged to France. And we have a good friend there at the conference center and one or two from Africa and one or two of us from England went as a team to take those meetings.

And we spoke by interpretation. Proved to be a very wonderful time. And as the sessions went by we were we had several days together with several hundred people there. We knew that at one particular session God had really begun to melt the people.

Not that we asked for any invitation but you see it in people's faces. You see that softness coming all over their faces and we knew. And of course they began to tell us. And on we went and on we went.