Who Is Jesus? - [John]

Well you've heard of 20 questions before. This morning I ask you 7 questions, not 20. Here are the 7 Christmas Eve morning questions. 1. How can you find true satisfaction and fulfillment? 2. How can you find guidance in your life?

3. How can you be certain of the right religion? 4. How can you have your sins forgiven? 5. How can you find hope in death? 6. How can you grieve with hope? 7. How can you have a vibrant relationship with God?

Good questions. I wonder what the answers to those questions are. Where would we look to find such answers? I guess you could Google the answers and look on the internet. Maybe you could find them in some time machine or go back in time somehow.

But as you know, this morning we celebrate a baby in a manger. And that's where it all starts. Today we're going to look at not just the birth of Jesus, not just what He came to do, which was die on the cross for sinners and be raised from the dead, but also what did Jesus say when He was on earth?

Jesus was not just a king. He was a king, but not just a king. He was not just a king and a priest, although He is a priest and a king, but He was also a prophet. He came to speak. He came to preach. And I love to ask people, who's your favorite preacher?

And sometimes they'll say Martin Lloyd-Jones or Conrad Mbewe or someone like that. And I say, well, you think maybe your favorite preacher should be Jesus? And then they go, oh yes, that's right, Jesus is my favorite preacher.

So we've been going through the Gospel of Jesus according to Luke, but we've been looking at the birth narratives of Jesus, so I thought we'd do something different this morning. If you have your Bible, turn to the Gospel according to John, the Gospel of Jesus according to John, and we are going to answer those seven questions that we started off with through the words of preacher, prophet, Jesus Himself.

The baby came to die, that's true, but He also came to proclaim truth, to tell us what God expects, and to tell us who Jesus Himself is. Matter of fact, when I preach, I'm supposed to preach about another person, the Lord Jesus.

When He preached, He preached about Himself. And so this morning, the outline simple in the Gospel of Jesus according to John, we're going to look at those seven questions, and we're going to find out that the answer to every one of those questions is the Sunday school answer, and that is Jesus.

Jesus is the answer to every one of those questions, that if you're a thinking person, you should be asking, you should say to yourself, what will happen, for instance, when I die? How can I have fulfillment in this life?

How can I have guidance in this life? Etc. So we're going to look at the seven I am statements of the Lord Jesus. He would say things like, I am the bread of life. We'll look at those seven I am statements that will give us the answer to the questions that we started off with.

And maybe you have not read the Bible much before in your life, but this book, the Gospel of Jesus according to John, is exciting. And it's full of truths that you just read and think, there's no one like Jesus.

And it's been called even God's love letter to the world. So much in here that's full of truth and encouragement and exaltation of Jesus. Martin Luther, the reformer, said about this book, quote, this is the unique, tender, chief gospel.

Should a tyrant succeed in destroying the holy scriptures and only a single copy of the epistle to the Romans and the gospel according to John escape him, Christianity would be saved. In other words, if you'd like to know exactly what's happening in the world and about Jesus, if you could have Romans and John, you would be saved.

So we're going to look today at this book called the Gospel of Jesus according to John. And my purpose is pretty simple. I want you to hear Jesus' words. So that if you're a Christian, you keep believing.

And if you're not a Christian, so that you might believe. Matter of fact, John chapter 20, at the end of this gospel, the whole purpose of the book is revealed, that you might believe. That you might believe that the Lord Jesus is the Savior.

It actually says in John 20, verse 31, these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And that by believing, you may have life in His name. Probably 100 times the word believe is used, so that you are focused on believing the Lord Jesus Christ.

And certainly He did things on earth. He, in this gospel, turned water into wine. He walked on water. He raised the dead. But today we're going to look at the most profound preacher in all the world. And what did he say, and why was it important?

Of course it's important that he was born, and that he died, and that he was raised. But it's also important to say to ourselves, what did he say? Well, why don't you turn to chapter 1, and let's just have a quick introduction before we get to one of those 7 IM statements that answer the questions we posed at the beginning of the message.

John chapter 1, verse 1. In the beginning was the Word. The Word is a name for Jesus. And the Word was with God. So we have the Son with the Father. And the Word was God. To make sure you understand, He's not a created being.

He's nothing less than God the Father.

Jesus is God.

He was in the beginning with God. So we have the Eternal Triune God. God the Father Eternal. God the Son Eternal. God the Holy Spirit Eternal. And He's also the Creator, Jesus is. Can you imagine, Jesus created everything, verse 3.

All things were made through Him. And without Him was not anything made that was made. And by the way, that includes you. You were made by the Eternal Son, Jesus. And if you skip down to verse 14, we see what Christmas is all about, the Incarnation.

And the Word, the Eternal God, Jesus, became flesh and dwelt among us. That's language of put a tent up, put a tabernacle up. And He dwelt among us and we have seen His glory. Glory of the only begotten Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

And so, John helps us with a little genealogy. People love to study genealogies and ancestral trees and where did I come from. My son Luke and my daughter-in-law Hannah are now in England kind of exploring Kim's heritage.

They'll soon go to the Netherlands to explore Hannah's heritage. And then off to Germany to explore mine. We love to learn about genealogies. Well, here we just read the divine genealogy. Not the human genealogy where Jesus comes from Mary, Spirit of God hovering over, etc.

No, this is the divine genealogy. And Jesus comes to rescue and to save sinners because He loves sinners. And we are unresponsive because of sin. We're spiritually dead and blind and we're ungodly. We're rebels and we're unable to come to Christ.

So, He has to come rescue us. He's the initiator. So, this morning, let's look at question number one. How can you find true satisfaction? Found in John chapter 6. So, now let's jump ahead to John 6. Asking questions to learn about Jesus, the greatest preacher alive, and what He said on the way to Calvary.

Question one, how can you find true satisfaction? And the answer is going to be Jesus is the bread of life. And when you're looking for satisfaction, all you have to do is look around the culture and you find what I describe as a hungry culture.

The culture is hungry for satisfaction and fulfillment. Things are fleeting when it comes to true satisfaction. And so, people try to find it over and over and over. From friendships on social media, to business relationships, to music, clothes, sex, etc.

But at the end of the day, those things are fleeting and they are indeed very empty. My background with music, somehow you just get musical lines stuck in your head and they just keep repeating over and over.

And I sometimes still haven't found what I'm looking for. And I can't find no satisfaction. I mean, those lines are just there and they echo, do they? Not the culture, right? The culture knows that they're needy.

They just don't know where the answer is found. They can't find fulfillment. And so, Jesus, with this first I am statement, says I'm the bread of life. I'm true nourishment. I'm true fulfillment. If you're looking for that desire to be quenched in your life, where you can say, I have spiritual fulfillment.

It's through Jesus, the bread of life. Let's pick it up in John 6, verse 8. And basically, what I'm going to do today is just read seven sections of scripture in John, so that you can see from scripture itself that Jesus is the answer to all these problems and all these questions.

Pretty much anybody could preach this sermon. Just get up and read seven sections of the gospel of John. And the power is in the word of God. And I want you to see that very thing. The Bible teaches that Jesus is the prophet, priest, and king.

And here in John 6, he is going to give true fulfillment.

Verse 8.

One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, There's a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many? Jesus said, Have the people sit down. There was much grass in the place, so the men sat down.

About 5 ,000 in number. So that's counting the men, so we have children and women, most likely. Probably 10 ,000 people sitting down to have a meal with five barley loaves and two fish. I guess we're really going to have to divide those up.

It's going to be like a little tiny bit of food, almost like a communion, sacramental meal maybe. Let's find out. Jesus took the loaves, verse 11. And when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated.

So also the fish. As much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, Gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost. So they gathered them up, filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.

And the people saw the sign that he had done. They said, this is indeed the prophet, the preacher, who has come into the world. Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

Jesus feeds supernaturally all these people. And then they thought, you know what, we should keep this man around. And we could just have him dispense food any time we need him. So they tried to grab him, as it were.

And here we have the supernatural miracle. The compassionate shepherd feeds 10 ,000, could be up to 20 ,000 people. He walked on water next in the segment. And then we realize, down in verse 24, something else is happening.

John 6, 24. So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, the city on the Sea of Galilee, seeking Jesus. And when they found him on the other side, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here?

Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes. And you can see the turn here from physical to spiritual.

You can see what Jesus is doing. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.

They said to him, what must we do to be doing the works of God?

This is the work of God.

Not just for those men, but for everyone in this congregation today. This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. So they said to him, then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you?

What work do you perform?

I guess they're not really impressed with the feeding of the 5 ,000, yes, 10 ,000, maybe 20 ,000. What are you going to do? And you know what's in the background? The Jews knew the background that for how many years did God feed the Israelites manna in the wilderness?

It was a lot more than one day. If you calculate it out, it's probably about 14 ,600 days that God fed Israel in the wilderness with a bread-like thing that came down out of the heaven. And it was called manna.

You know what Hebrew for manna means?

What is this?

And I've told you before that when I go to West Boylston, we have a little restaurant called the Manor. M-A-N-O-R. And if you're not careful, you order food from the manor and you don't know what it is.

And you're like, what is this? It's the manna. It's the manna in the manor. I mean, Moses fed us for 14 ,000 days plus. One day, if you're going to be the king, show us. If you're going to believe on you, show us.

Give us a sign.

Verse 32,.

Jesus then said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. See how Jesus is moving from temporal to spiritual?

It's not really about bread, is it? The bread is just an idea of nourishment and sustenance. You're going to need spiritual sustenance, not just temporal, not just earthly. It's going to be Jesus himself.

He's come from heaven. Remember in John chapter 1, we read early on that Jesus was the Word and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. This is all just a spiritual illustration by the great preacher.

Verse 33,.

For the bread of God, let's make it very specific, is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. The real bread from God is not the manna that's floating down six days a week. It's God himself, the Son.

That's the real bread. That's real fulfillment, real nourishment. And they said, give us this bread then always. And here comes the first I am clearly stated.

Jesus said to them,.

I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger. We're not talking about calories here, fat and protein. You see the spiritual connection. Shall not hunger. And whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

That is Jesus making himself perfectly clear. As bread is able to satisfy your stomach and your craving for physical food, so too the Lord Jesus satisfies in a spiritual fashion. And you might ask yourself the question, why do I have that longing for meaning?

Why do I have that longing for transcendence? Why do I have that longing for belonging? Because you, dear friend, were made in the likeness and image of God. And you have a desire for something that is not just on this earth, for something that's greater and bigger and more grand.

Did you know the Bible teaches that God has put eternity in your heart? Because then you can have everything on earth and still not have everything. You're to be searching for something that's not just with your eyes and with your senses.

There's something more and that is obviously the Lord Jesus.

Verse 36,.

But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. Thankfully though, God the Father is involved. And even though stubborn human hearts might reject Jesus, the Father is going to do a great work.

And it says in verse 37,. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. Jesus' mission will come to completion. There will be success in this rescue mission.

Verse 38,. I've 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.

This is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son, you too, dear congregation, and believes in Him, should have eternal life, and I will raise Him up on the last day. Do you see it down in verse 47?

It's the same thing.

Truly, truly, I say to you,.

Whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. True nourishment. Real satisfaction. Simply by believing. Bread.

Sustenance.

Bread, a staple of life. Bread, something to eat that's a basic element for life. And how much more now?

The Lord Jesus.

Spiritual bread.

Not Moses. Not religion. Not trying to be good. I just have this yearning for something more. Well, the answer is, the Lord Jesus, the bread of life. How can you find true satisfaction?

The answer is the Lord Jesus.

Number two, how can you find guidance in life? How can you find guidance in life? I mean, it's kind of a confusing world. You can find some guidance in life, I guess, online. But it's difficult. Who's telling the truth?

Who can guide me in this dark world? One of the things I have done in my life is I've sold Duracell batteries, and we also sold flashlights. So I like flashlights in every room. You probably do too. You don't even have to work for Duracell.

You could work for Energizer for all we know. By the way, we had a war between Energizer and Duracell when the two sales reps came into the same store, and I saw they were Energizer people. I'm thinking, oh, this is a battle royale right now.

Flashlights everywhere. Why? Because I need to see. Now I need to put reading glasses in every room with the flashlights because one doesn't work without the other.

And just imagine walking in the dark.

And stubbing your big toe. And you're just like...

I mean, that's the world, by the way.

Running around in spiritual darkness, stubbing their proverbial toes because they have no idea where to go,.

Who's right,.

And they heap up teachers after their own desires. They want certain things, so they find teachers who teach those certain things, and they have, in their mind, a nice marriage.

I think it's fair to say that this world.

Is a world of spiritual ignorance. Just look at the news. Look at the Middle East.

Look at overseas.

Look at different wars.

Look at public policies. People are ignorant spiritually. Probably ignorant in other ways too, but spiritually, we need guidance. And so if you go to John chapter 8, not only is Jesus bread, sustenance, fulfillment, He's also the light of the world to shine in spiritual darkness.

And again, we're not talking about literal light. We're talking about as literal light gives guidance,.

As literal light shines,.

As literal light exposes, so too Jesus in the spiritual fashion does the same thing. Verse 12 of John 8,. Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.

Now, we have certain festivals in America that we celebrate, and the Jews had festivals that they celebrate too, including something called the Feast of Booths. And in the Feast of Booths, they had certain things that they would do according to the Bible.

And as tradition went on, there would have been large menorahs near the temple in Jerusalem. And these large menorahs, of course, would light up the night sky. And most likely, Jesus is standing before one of these super large menorahs.

Anybody know what a menorah is? It's like a candlestick. How many lights does a menorah have?

Who said that?

What young person just said eight?

Oh, he did.

All right, good job, parents.

Wow, see, they listen.

By the way, as soon as you can get your children to sit through sermons, it's a good idea for them to do that, right? And we just train our children to sit at home on the couch, and we start with one minute, we work to 20 minutes, we work to 30 minutes, and then we work to, like my sermon today, 90 minutes, and they can...

Can you imagine? It's night, it's during this festival, there's all these people,.

And Jesus says,.

Well, yeah, there's big menorahs there lighting up the night sky. The festival's going to go out, and they're going to be extinguished, but there's a light that's not going to go out, and I am the light of the world.

And even when he talks about who follows me, you can see the illusions, can't you? You know what's going on, as the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud.

Led Israel through the wilderness,.

And they followed the pillar of fire, they followed the pillar of cloud. Just like that, you follow me, you're going to have guidance. John 1 .4, For in him was life, and the life was the light of men.

This is a religious metaphor.

Light.

1 John 1. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaimed to you, that God is light, and in him there's no darkness at all. The Jews associated light with God's presence, with God's creative power, with God's guidance, with God's protective nature.

Just imagine Jesus standing there, and saying, I'm the light of the world. I love Revelation 21, the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb, that's Jesus.

The menorah will be extinguished, but the Lord Jesus won't be.

Matter of fact,.

Sometimes people even called God, in those days, light. John the Baptist shows up and says, this Jesus, the light, he's going to give you guidance for your feet. Guidance for your path. John chapter 9,.

Jesus said it again,.

I'm the light of the world. This is coming from the Old Testament, Isaiah 42, I will lead them spiritually, I will lead the spiritually blind, by the way they do not know, in paths that they do not know, I will guide them.

And here Jesus says, he's the light of the world, essentially saying he's God. How did the Jews respond? John 8 .13. So the Pharisees said to him, you're bearing witness about yourself, your testimony is not true.

Mocking Jesus.

That's not true.

You're not saying the right thing. Skip down to verse 23. He said to them, John 8 .23,.

You're from below,.

I'm from above. You are of this world, I'm not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe,.

There it is again,.

That I am He, that I'm God, you will die in your sins. That's true for everybody here as well.

So they said to him, who are you?

Jesus said to them, just what I've been telling you from the beginning, I have much to say about you, and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world that I have heard from him.

They did not understand, they had been speaking to them about the Father, so Jesus said to them, let me just make it clear in other words, when you have lifted up the Son of Man, that's crucifixion language, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me, and he who sent me is with me, he has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him, and he was saying these things as he was, many believed in him.

And verse 31,.

You know this passage, verses 31 through 33, so Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed him, if you continue in my word, then you're truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free, and they answered, we're Abraham's descendants, we've never been enslaved to anyone, while they're under Roman occupation,.

P .S. How is it that you say you will become free?

So what Jesus is doing,.

He makes a statement of deity, I'm the light of the world, and I light up spiritual darkness as it were, and as you see the fire on top of Sinai, that's God, that's me, and you see the pillar of fire in the wilderness, who's a representative of God,.

That's me,.

And you think I'm just bearing witness of myself, it's the father who sent me. I love verse 46 of the same chapter, which one of you convicts me of sin?

If I speak the truth,.

Why do you not believe me? And at the end of the chapter, they pick up stones to throw at him. If you need guidance, dear one,.

The Lord Jesus gives the guidance,.

And he gives it through his own words, and through the words of his apostles, and prophets,.

And teachers.

How can you find true satisfaction? The answer is Jesus. How can you have guidance in this world? The answer is Jesus. Third I Am, answering the question, how can I be safe in this world, is found in John chapter 10.

What we're doing this morning, is simply going through the gospel of Jesus, according to John, and picking out the I Am statements. You could pick out his miracles, or you could pick out other things, we're picking out the I Am statements, because I want you to hear from Jesus himself, how he preaches.

I'm supposed to preach Jesus Christ and him crucified, and that's exactly who Jesus preached, himself and him crucified. The third I Am statement, how can we be safe in this world? This is kind of a dangerous world.

Did you lock your doors today, by the way? Did you set the alarm? You're just looking at me. Yes, there are rhetorical questions, except Peter might say,.

I did.

How can we be safe in such a world?

Not just physically, but spiritually.

Did you know there are invisible forces, called demons? Did you know Satan is real? Did you know Satan is marching back and forth, as it were, seeking to devour people?

How can you be safe?

John 10 answers the question. Truly, truly, verse 1, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in another way, that man is a thief and a robber. Now, if you go watch shepherds in Israel, even today, you'll notice that they have a lot of sheep, and at night, they need to guard those sheep.

And so they have some rocks, that they could put in this little, kind of semi-circle, and they put all the sheep in there, and then the open area of the semi-circle, it's tighter than a semi-circle, but the open area, they would lay down, across there.

They don't have a door, they're the door. And they would protect the sheep. That's what's going on. One of my favorite things to do as a Bible student, is to get books on manners and customs, because otherwise, without understanding what they did 2 ,000 years ago, I wouldn't know.

But now, I would even see that today in Israel, and what they did back then, they would have these sheep pens. Could be brick, could be rocks, and the sheep would go in there at night. And there would be thieves and robbers, animals, predators, and they would have to go through the door, the person,.

To get to the sheep.

Verse 2,.

He who enters by the door, is the shepherd of the sheep. So you've got a guard, you've got the real shepherd, to him. The gatekeeper opens,.

The sheep hear his voice,.

He calls out his sheep by name, and leads them out. When he's brought out all his own, he goes before them,.

And the sheep follow him,.

For they know his voice.

A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.

This figure of speech,.

Jesus used with them,.

But they did not understand what he was saying. Jesus is going to say in verse 7,.

Truly, truly, I say to you,.

I am the door of the sheep. See, I protect them, I guard them, I close them in. All who came before me, are thieves and robbers.

All those false teachers,.

In it for themselves, in it to get rich, in it to get more sheep for themselves to devour, all of them were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I'm the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved,.

He'll be safe, he'll be secure,.

He'll be protected,.

And will go in and out and find pasture.

The thief, Satan,.

And his men, and his hordes, and his emissaries, comes only to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I came that they may have life,.

And have it abundantly.

Jesus, the only Savior,.

Protects his own.

Don't you love Psalm 23? In times of trouble where you think, I just need someone to guide me, I need someone to protect me, I need someone to watch over me.

That's what shepherds do.

And Jesus is the door.

Jesus is the guard.

And you say,.

Wait a second,.

I know where that is going, Mike. I know where that's going, Pastor Mike. That means there's no other ways to get into the sheepfold of God. There's no other way to heaven, it's only Jesus. That's the right deduction to make.

That's so arrogant of Christianity, that Christianity says, there's only one way to heaven? Well, would it be more humble.

If Jesus said,.

I'm wrong?

Are you looking for humility.

Of people to say,.

Oh, there's many ways. No, no, there's only one way, because the Father sends his only Son, and his only Son is the way. He's the only one qualified to protect, to save. It's not arrogant to be exclusive.

How can you be safe in this world?

Jesus protects.

And right on the heels of that, we have the fourth I Am.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd,.

Which answers the question, how can you have your sins forgiven? Which means you have sins to be forgiven. I've sinned. You've sinned. God's holy. What are we going to do about it? We're going to need help, because we can't get ourselves.

Out of the situation.

We can't extract ourselves out of sin's grip. Jesus, the Good Shepherd. Read verse 10 again, or I will. The thief comes only to steal and to kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Here we have it, verse 11.