Who Is Jesus? - [John 14:6]

Well, I would invite you to open your Bible to John chapter 14. It's kind of interesting, you know, if I were to ask how many Muslims there are in the world, I might get various, you know, a billion, I don't know, somebody might say 10 billion.

The answer, by the way, there's only 7 billion plus in the world, so 10 billion would be wrong. The answer is 1 .7 billion Muslims, which is quite a bit. So I looked it up here. Who is Jesus is the theme of this, right?

Who is Jesus according to the Muslims? Well, according to the Muslims, he was born of the Virgin Mary. So far, so good. By the will of God, so far, so good. But not by the work of the Holy Spirit. Not good.

Secondly, Jesus was a prophet. But they would draw the line there. I mean, we would agree that he's a prophet. But what about the whole God part? Well, they don't agree with that. And we'll get to that in a second.

But he was a prophet, listen, who came to call, these are direct quotes, who came to call people to obedience to Islam, which is submission to the will of God. The third point, every miracle that Jesus performed was by God's permission, being no indicator whatsoever of Jesus' divine status.

His first miracle, they say, speaking as an infant. Not recorded in the Bible. Didn't happen. Maybe it happened, but it's not recorded in the Bible. So number four, Jesus did not actually die on the cross.

That's a real problem, right? Do they believe in the same God we do? No. Number five, Jesus did not ever claim to be the Son of God, God himself, or any part of a divine trinity. Jesus was created by God.

And that created by God is something that many so-called Christian cults also profess. Now, moving from Islam to the Roman Catholic Church, teaches many truths about Jesus. In fact, when you read what they say about Jesus, about the Trinity, you go, wow, that sounds really good.

There are a few issues, though. For example, salvation comes only, according to Rome, through the Catholic Church. By obedience to its teachings, by baptism, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. In other words, by works.

About Mary, they teach that in addition to being the mother of Jesus, she intercedes with him. She is the mediator between us and Jesus. That is not found anywhere in the scripture. Thirdly, Jesus did not atone for all the sins of believers, only those that they have confessed.

So what does that mean for believers? Even those who have trusted in Christ. They have to go to purgatory, where they pay for their unconfessed sins. So when Jesus said it is finished, it wasn't really finished.

Jesus in the Upper Room and the Five P's of John 14:6

Now, in the Chronicles of Narnia, C .S. Lewis asked these questions about Jesus. Is he safe? Is he good? And one of the animals, you know, I mean, we're talking about a children's book, right? Says safe.

Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn't safe, but he's good. He's the king, I tell you. Now, that's an allegory, right? Aslan is the lion. He's the king. And the idea is, of course, that Aslan, Jesus, is good and he can be trusted.

But we have, if I could go through a myriad of cults, false religions, et cetera, and they would all have different ideas about who Jesus is. Well, who can we trust to tell us who Jesus is? How about if we let Jesus do that?

Sounds like a good idea. John 14, verses 1 to 6. Let not your hearts be troubled, the Savior says. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going.

How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Now, John 14, part of the upper room discourse, part of the so-called Last Supper, and the disciples didn't know it at the time, but this is the last evening they would spend together with Jesus until after the resurrection.

And by the way, here in chapter 14, Judas has already left to go betray Jesus. Everything's all set. Jesus has even already prophesied that Peter's going to deny him three times. Now, this morning, what we're going to do is we're going to look at, as I said, who is Jesus.

We have five Ps, five words that start with P, that will give us who Jesus is from his very words. I'm going to let the Lord speak for himself. Five attributes, five truths about Jesus from one verse.

And I'm going to give you a little lead in here. First, our first P, he is powerful. Jesus is powerful. Jesus said to him, again, Thomas, but all the disciples are there, I am. And we're going to pause right there for a moment.

And, you know, I remember when I first started this, just thinking, so what am I going to do, you know, do one of these three-week series on I am? No, you know, we could, because it's that powerful. There are seven I am statements throughout the gospel of John.

And they all point to his deity. They all point to his deity, and we'll explore that a little bit more. But let's turn for a moment to Exodus 3, verses 13 and 14. And if you recall, God has called Moses to go to the Israelites and to convince them, or Moses is going to go to the Israelites to convince them that he should be their spokesman.

He's going to go before Pharaoh. Moses doesn't really care much for this idea. And he makes excuses, et cetera, you know. So let's read verses 13 and 14. Moses, the reluctant prophet. Then Moses said to God, if I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, what is his name?

In other words, who's this God who has sent you? What shall I say to them? God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, say to the people of Israel, or say this to the people of Israel, I am has sent me to you.

And this passage and all the references to it throughout scripture are statements of God's self-existence, his aseity. Merriam-Webster defines aseity this way with regard to God, specifically the absolute self-sufficiency, independence, and autonomy of God.

That's not bad. I mean, when you find something like that in the dictionary, the absolute self-sufficiency, independence, and autonomy of God. In other words, God needs nothing. He's dependent on nothing.

He's completely self-sufficient. And some may hear that said of Jesus, this idea that he is self-sufficient, and they'll say, well, wait a second. He's a created being, to which we say, false, right?

And somebody might say, well, what about Colossians 1 .15? By the way, you can go back to John. What about Colossians 1 .15? He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of God. Of all creation.

He says right there, he's the firstborn. You just have to think about it for a moment to realize how to undo that, right? If he's the firstborn of creation, well, what does that say about Cain? I mean, in other words, that can't mean that he is the first created being.

That's not right. So what does it mean? What is the Greek word prototokos? What does it mean? It means, it's defined this way, the firstborn of a new humanity, which is to be glorified as its exalted Lord is glorified.

If you think about it this way, what is Jesus? You know, if we read through 1 Corinthians 15, he is a first fruits of the resurrection. He's the first one to be raised from the dead, right? He is not created just because it says he's the firstborn.

It gives us the idea of being preeminent. He is the beloved son of the father. As I said, the first fruits of the resurrection and firstborn sons are given special privileges. We can look at it this way.

Jesus is the only begotten of the father. The Bible tells us some will say to be begotten is to be created. And again, not so. Theologians say Jesus was eternally generated by the father and the accent needs to be on eternally.

I've been thinking a lot about eternal things, about time and space and heaven, what it means to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord, all those kinds of things. I think our ideas of this life and this time really are too grandiose, right?

And I think if we look at it from heaven's perspective, if we think about those who've gone to heaven, if they could see us, they would realize or we would realize how really, it seems difficult to us, but this is really just, it is a vapor.

It is a moment. It is gone. All of our sufferings pale in comparison to what is to come. But let me go back to the topic at hand. Matthew Barrett said this in May of this year, Table Talk Magazine talking about eternal generation.

And again, that's the idea. Jesus is not born. He's not created. Well, he is born. He's not created. He's eternally generated. And to us, that's just a mind boggling concept. What does that mean? Let's see if this will help.

When the concept of generation is applied to the son of God, as it is so often by the authors of scripture, it means in its most basic sense that he as the eternal son is from his father. To clarify, to be from the father does not mean or does not refer to the incarnation.

In other words, not when he comes into this world and takes on physical form. To be from the father refers to the son's origin in eternity, before time existed, apart from creation. Generation is between father and son, an eternal act, and not between the Trinity and creation as if it were a temporal act.

In other words, something that occurs in time. The son is generated, begotten by the father before all ages, apart from the world, irrespective of creation. He is son, whether or not he is ever sent into the world.

In other words, if Jesus stayed in heaven forever, he's still the son. He is the eternal son from the father, whether or not he ever becomes incarnate. But thankfully, he does become incarnate. That's good news for us.

So what does it mean that he's eternally generated? Well, the basic thing that we need to understand from our perspective is his origin is from the father. The spirit's origin is from the father and the son.

It describes their relationship. Now, how does that impact us? I'm glad you asked. Here's the key. The key is everyone who says Jesus is not God, everyone who says he's not eternal, everyone who says he is a created being is...

I'm not going to be nice. They're lying, because that's not what the Bible teaches. Stressing the eternal nature of God, John in John 1 -1 said this, in the beginning, which means what? It goes back to Genesis 1 -1.

Well, when we read Genesis 1 -1, what do we understand? That there's nothing, right? There's absolutely nothing. There's no space. There's no time. There's no anything. That's in the beginning. John says, in the beginning was the Word.

And we later learn that Jesus is the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. Not a God, but God. Eternally God. Now, did Jesus claim to be God? I had a... For those of you who don't know, I used to work on the Sheriff's Department in LA County.

And I had a trustee, somebody who did work for me. And he saw me reading my Bible in the middle of the night. One night, he came up to me and he says, you know, Jesus never claimed to be God. He was Muslim.

And I said, really? So I turned my Bible to John chapter 10. And I'm going to read that for you. John 10 verses 27 to 33. Listen, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish.

And no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all. And no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. And listen, here's the key. I and the Father are one.

Now you can read that in a number of ways, right? We can have our own interpretation. Some say it's one in purpose. Some say, you know, it's just one in unity, whatever they want to say. But what's the original response?

Does the original audience factor into this? And I think it does. John chapter 10 verse 31. Their response to this, the Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them. I've shown you many good works from the Father.

For which of them are you going to stone me? Listen, the Jews answered him. It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, for telling an untruth about God. Because you being a man, make yourself God.

They understood exactly what he was saying. He didn't say, I'm a created being. I have, you know, a special way with God. No, he said he was God. Jesus is powerful. It's evidenced in his self-existence.

It's evidenced in the fact that he's the creator, which we didn't even go into. And it's evidenced by the fact that he claims to be deity. And he, in fact, is deity. Secondly, peacemaker. Second P, peacemaker.

He says, I am the way. Now, there are plenty of people, if you ask them, you know what? Do you need an advocate? Do you need help with God? No, I'm good with God. Me and God have no problems. You ever heard that one?

I mean, after all, why do I need a peacemaker? I'm not angry with God. He's not angry with me. I'm a pretty good person. But biblically, we know that's not right. What does Romans 5 say? It says we're enemies.

I'm going to turn there for a moment. Romans 5, verses 6 to 10. Listen. For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one would scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would even dare to die.

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Not for himself, for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

We need salvation from the wrath of God. Why? Because we're sinners. Verse 10 puts it all in a nutshell. For if while we were enemies of God, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

We were enemies. Christ died for us. Why? To reconcile us to God so that we wouldn't be enemies any longer. And here's a little pro tip. We can't reconcile ourselves to God. There's nothing we can do to make ourselves right with him.

And by the way, nobody is ever neutral. Although they'll profess neutrality, nobody's ever neutral with God. Nobody's ever unbiased about God. It's like there's a big on-off switch. It's a digital programming issue, right?

We're either a one or a zero. We're either on or off. We either love God or we hate God. There's no in-between. Now, talking again back in John chapter 14, talking about a way. Well, what is a way? If I say, what's the way home?

Each of us has a different way, right? We all go to our different homes. Some of you, you know, might think, well, I'll just go home with Pastor Steve and we'll solve that. A way, a way, generally speaking, is a connection between two points.

It's how you get from point A to point B, right? We understand that. So how is Jesus being a person the way? And it's interesting because in verses four and five, he's using that word, right? It's used again and again.

You know, how will we know the way, Thomas asks? How can we know the way? We don't even know where you're going. Jesus answers them and says, I am the way. And there's only one way to be right with God.

One way to be forgiven and one way to enter heaven. And that way is Jesus Christ. He is a bridge, as it were, between God and men. Paul put it this way. First Timothy 2 .5. For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

And if you think about it, you know, who uses mediators? I mean, you use it when there's a dispute between two parties. Maybe it's an athlete and a team. Maybe it's a union in the hospital. I don't know.

There are all kinds of people that use mediators, but there are two parties that are in disputes. Well, who would be qualified to settle a dispute between God, a holy and righteous God, and sinful man?

Well, it had to be somebody who was both God and man. Truly God, truly man. That's Jesus. Bible tells us he was born of a virgin, that he grew in knowledge and stature and wisdom, that he hungered and thirsted, that he was tempted in every way as we are and yet never sinned.

This is a fully human man, but one who never sinned. Only he can be the mediator. Only he could die for us. Only he could establish peace for us. That's our third, or second P, powerful peacemaker, third, perfect truth.

Again, in verse six, and the truth. Some people have claimed over the centuries to be enlightened. I mean, there's a whole religion about that. Or others have claimed to present the truth, but Jesus says he is the truth.

He is truth personified. Well, what does that mean? At its simplest, he's simply saying that any religion, any guru, any so-called spiritual advisor who's not telling you about Jesus is lying to you.

So Muhammad, lying to you. Confucius, lying. The Watchtower, lying. Rome, lying. Salt Lake City, lying. A random atheist on Facebook, duh. Lying, right? We get into all these spiritual arguments with people who don't believe in Christ, and my response to you would be, well, why don't you just preach Christ and trust the Holy Spirit?

Arguing with them about the truth is not going to work. You have to present the truth, and they can reject it if they want. I'd apologize for being blunt, but I won't. I'm tired. I'm cranky. So I'm going to be...

Listen, Jesus said he is the truth. That rules out every other possible truth or truth claim. It reminds me, really, of Genesis 3. Satan comes into the garden and says, Has God really said... Is this really...

And that's what every false religion does. Well, I know that's what the Bible says, but is that really true? You know, don't you really have to add something to it? Can you really just believe in Christ and go to heaven?

Yes. John 17, 17, in his high priestly prayer, Jesus said this. He said, Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. Now, what do you mean by that? He meant all that God has revealed. The Bible is true.

What does that say? Or what should we infer from that prayer about other so-called holy books? Well, they ain't holy. Other so-called scriptures, well, they ain't scripture. We want to believe, in our heart of hearts, that everyone proclaiming those different religions is sincere.

And maybe they are. Maybe they're just sincerely wrong, right? You can be sincere and be sincerely wrong. But there are two major disadvantages these other religions have. Number one, they're unable to discern spiritual truths.

Why? Because they don't have the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 2, 14 says the natural person, the unsaved person, does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. In other words, you present these truths to them, they reject them.

Why? Because they don't have the Holy Spirit. It says, for they are folly to him. Present the gospel to an unbeliever, he'll reject it. And he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

In other words, they have no discernment. Secondly, there are demons behind their false teachings. Demons behind these false teachings. These are not neutral teachings. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 10, for though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war.

There's a spiritual warfare going on. It's not between, you know, some kind of angels and demons fighting and clashing in the background. It's a war of ideas. It's the truth against error. We are not waging war according to the flesh.

He says, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds, which is to say false teaching, doctrines of demons. We destroy arguments in every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ.

This is what we do. This is why we proclaim the truth, right? We trust the Lord. We put forth the truth in this war, and we trust the Holy Spirit to use that truth as he will. Paul wrote in 1 Timothy chapter 4.

Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times, some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to, listen, deceitful spirits and teachings of demons. This is what's going on all the time. Why do people believe all these different things?

Because they want to believe them. Right? They're dead in their sins and trespasses. They don't love the truth. They love error. So they cling to some different error. And when they're wrong, it's not some innocent error, right?

If you're wrong by an inch, in other words, if you have the wrong Jesus, if you have the wrong scripture, if you have the wrong gospel, it means spiritual death. It means eternity in hell. The New Testament, the Bible speaks about Jesus being truly God and truly man.

The gospels, acts, the epistles and revelation all have one theme, that Jesus is the son of God who gave his life to redeem his people from their sins and then rose on the third day. And Jesus says that the Old Testament does the same thing.

In Luke 24, 47, he says, and beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself and himself. In other words, we have 66 books in our English New Testament, and they testify to the singular truth that Jesus Christ saves sinners.

So one powerful, two peacemaker, three perfect truth, four provider of eternal life. Again, verse six and the life and the life. Jesus alone gives eternal life. John 10, 28, I give them his sheep believers, eternal life, and they will never perish.

And no one will snatch them out of my hand. Eternal life is short for eternity in the presence of Jesus in heaven. Those who die go immediately into his presence. Well, who else could say that? Who else could give that?

Who else could give eternal life? But God, but the one who was the way, the one who made the way for us. So why do we say sometimes once saved, always saved? Why do we talk about either God's preservation of the saints or the perseverance of the saints?

Why do we do that? Because the God of the universe, Jesus Christ declares it. No one will snatch them out of my hand, which means once you are a Christian, once you are in Christ, once you are a believer, you cannot be unsaved.

You cannot lose your salvation. We have Christ's promise. We have the father's choosing of us. And we would see that in a number of places, Romans 8, Ephesians 1. And we could go to a number of places and look at that.

And we also have the Holy Spirit's seal. The Holy Spirit regenerates us and then places his seal on us. The triune God has promised to keep us. Nothing we can do if we are saved, nothing we can do is going to lose that salvation.

On the other hand, to not follow Christ, to not be in Christ is to not have eternal life, right? Again, it's that on-off, it's that either-or, it's that zero-one situation for all you digital people.

You either have eternal life or you are en route to eternal torment, which we call hell. Now, if we think about religion and about religious zeal, the Pharisees were very religious. In fact, they were certain they knew what kind of life pleased God.

And they established rules beyond Scripture. And you can... How many of you have been to Jerusalem? A few. There are markers in your tour guide when you went there, or if you go there, and I would recommend it.

He should point out to you, which is, there are markers on the outside of Jerusalem which show how far you can walk on a Sabbath day without violating the Sabbath. If you go into a building, you can't push...

There are a lot of things you can't do. You can't push an elevator button because that's work. Don't ask me why. So on the Sabbath, the elevators stop at every floor. There are a bunch of rules that have only gotten worse over time, right?

Because as technology comes, they have to add more and more rules to keep up with it. But what did Jesus say about those who practice such righteousness? In other words, in and of themselves, they look at the way they're keeping the Word.

You know, God said to keep the Sabbath day holy. So they pile up all these rules to keep the Sabbath day holy. What does Jesus say about all their rules? Matthew 23, 15. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte. In other words, to get a convert. You'll go to the ends of the earth to get somebody to follow you. And when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of heaven?

No, twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. Why did he say that to them? Because they were counting on their righteousness, on their works, on the sufficiency of their merits. It can't be done. Eternal life is only available in Jesus Christ.

And so when we think about the fact that he was raised from the dead, that he was resurrected, that he raised himself, should that surprise us? He's the creator, we've said. He's the source of life, we've said.

We've seen that from the scripture. How could the death or how could death hold him? How could the tomb hold him? In Acts 2, 24, Peter says the exact same thing in his sermon on Pentecost. He says, God raised him, Jesus, up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him, for Jesus, to be held by death.

I mean, when you think about it, it was kind of a foolhardy idea. Let's just put Jesus, we'll kill him on the cross, we'll put him in the tomb, and we'll be done with him. Well, there's one issue with that.

He's from eternity past. He's always existed. How do you kill that? And you can't. It was not possible for him to be held. He had to come out of that grave. Not only because he promised it, and the Old Testament promised it, but because he is the source of life who could not be defeated by death.

He defeated death. In fact, in Revelation 20, I mean, he defeated death at the resurrection, but the ultimate defeat is what? In Revelation 20, where Jesus is going to throw death into the lake of fire, and death will be no more.

The Only Way to the Father

Okay, our fifth P. Jesus is the particular path to heaven. You know, I struggled to get that P, but, you know, I could say the only path to heaven, but then I've got an O there, you know, so it's four Ps and an O.

So I just went with particular path. Look what he says there in verse 6. No one comes to the Father except through me. Again, very black and white language. Not a lot of mushy talk here. No one, not one person is going to the Father, but through me.

It's like almost a different way of saying, I am the way. People say, well, there are so many religions that promise paradise or nirvana or clear or whatever it is that they're promising. Why should you trust Jesus?

As I've said, no one else can pay the price for your sin. But how about this? If we're talking about the only way to the Father, well, how about someone who actually knows the Father? That would be a good way to make sure you get to the Father, right?

Nobody knows the Father like Jesus does. In John 17, in his high priestly prayer, he's praying for the remaining disciples, not for Judas, but for the 11 and for those who would believe in him. By the way, that's us.

According to their word, we believe because of what the apostles did. Listen to John 17, 20 and 21. I do not ask for these only. That is to say these disciples, but also for those who will believe in me through their word that they may all be one just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they may also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Who talks like that? Does Muhammad ever say that the Father's in him and he's in the Father? No, no person talks like that except for the eternally begotten Son of God. Also, no one else reveals the Father to us.

He knows the Father like no one else. He reveals the Father like no one else. John 1, 18 says no one has ever seen God, right? You can't see God because he's spirit. The only God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

Jesus has revealed him to us by coming to earth, by taking on a body of flesh and bones, by becoming like us. And finally, no one else can promise to bring us to the Father. Who else could do that? If no one else knows the Father like Jesus, no one else reveals the Father like Jesus, who else can bring us to the Father except Jesus?

In John 6, Jesus said this, for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

Again, talking about election, the Father gives to the Son, and the Son says of all that he has given me, that I have in my hand, I will lose nothing. But instead, raise them on the last day. He's going to bring everyone of his elect home.

I started with C .S. Lewis, among others, but if you think about it, Lewis said that Jesus is good, but I say to you, he's also safe. In fact, there's no one safer. If we just think about the promises of Jesus, nobody can take them out of my hand.

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will raise them up on the last day. Those promises are sure. He is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me. Now, what does it mean to come to Jesus?

What does it mean to trust in Jesus? People say, well, I believe in Jesus. Okay, I was reading, I've seen this meme from Sinclair Ferguson several times. You know, people say, well, Jesus will come and meet you where you are.

Well, that's true. But if he's in you, does he leave you where you are, or does he change you? I think the answer is pretty clear. Jesus changes people. He changes their desires. If a person says he's a Christian, and there's no difference whatsoever before and after, there's something wrong.

To trust in him, to trust in his promises, means there's a change of mind. We call that repentance. And it shows up in what we do and how we think. Not perfectly, but it changes how we think about things.