Who is Jesus?

world

prayer Heavenly Father we thank you for How you do provide for our every need? Lourdes OB think of all those listed here and Lord we all probably know family members and friends that are dealing with other struggles in life. Others in our church family that are facing challenges and Lord. We just left them all up to you. Knowing that you are the great I am that you are the creator of Heaven and Earth. and everything in between And Lord you created each and everyone of us and you know every cell within our body. Are Chino the healing that we need? Not just physically but emotionally and spiritually and Lord. We just pray that you would bring that healing. Lord give us the patience in the faith to

wait when we have to wait for that healing. The Lord we want everything to happen in our lives according to your will according to York timetable. Lord said that and it all you may be glorified. What I pray today is we listen to your word That You Will Reveal Your Truth to us. It's in your name. We pray amen. Jared's going to play a short video. That's kind of a intro to the whole series. I'm doing so Jared if you want to go ahead.

I am the bread of life.

I am the light of the world.

the Good Shepherd

I am

what's in a name?

All right, so that videos a little introduction and I thought it'd be nice to have it come with a quiz. Right, I gave you all the answers there. So what are the seven? I am statements. Connie has them all represented in some way up here on the stage. All right. So who can guess I am the bread of life. Which one is that? That's probably the easiest one so Pat, do you want it?

It's the bread. Good job Pat. I gave you the easy one. So I am the light of the world what represents that. They can do a good job. I am the door.

The window. Yes the Good Shepherd.

We have a ram but yes, that is our sheep to be the Good Shepherd the resurrection and the life.

Think about it. There's something up here. There's actually two.

Across yes, they represent and the hammer and the nails. the way the truth and the life

What do you think represents that? the truth the Bible. Yep, and then the True Vine. This is another easy one. The Grapes, yes. So there you go. That is the seven I am statements that we're going to be looking at but before we jump into those we have two other I am statements that happened in the Gospel of John that we want to look at that talked about Jesus before we jump into the other 7. So we're going to take a quick look at those. The first one is in John 8:58. Where's his very truly I tell you Jesus answered before Abraham was. I am now in this chapter if you look at it and John chapter 8 it recalls a very lengthy conversation between Jesus and those who oppose him. You know the first part of the discussion and debate is okay. Who is Jesus who is this guy? Because his opponents are trying to figure out you know, how is he doing the things he's doing? How does he have the knowledge? He has just who is he?

But then I love it that Jesus fires right back at them questioning who they are. And who they belong to and who's? their father I mean essentially he calls them the spawn of Satan right? I mean he says that they their father is The Devil Himself by the way, they are acting. But then we also see in this chapter some of the claims that Jesus has met Jesus makes when he starts with the i m stuff but you know in this verse the core thing that we're looking at it is an identity issue. Because any time we think about who Jesus is. It should also. Make us think about Who We Are. Where is our identity rooted and I really think that was the larger point that Jesus was trying to get at in this discussion with those who were opposing him. You know, he wanted to show them that who they belong to or their ancestry had a lot more to do than with just who was in their blood liner. You know how their DNA was made up. There was a larger spiritual factor that he was wanting them to consider something much more important than their flesh and blood lineage. Whose were they spiritually? That's what he was trying to push them towards.

But his opponents not totally understanding that, you know, they try to play the card that they think there's no way he can beat it. So they play the Abraham card, but you know Abraham was one of their descendants cuz they're like, okay, there's nobody greater than Abraham. So if we throw that out there But Jesus totally trumps them by saying before Abraham was. I am

and to us that sounds kind of like an interesting statement, but make no mistake about it when his opponents heard that they knew exactly what he was claiming. Because like we talked about last week, you know. That was the name that they had been told to call God, you know Yahweh I am. So they knew that Jesus was saying that he was there with God before Abraham was even called. So he's saying that he coexisted With God all the way back then.

And you know, this wasn't just something hard for them to comprehend that you know, they were talking to someone who wasn't Eternal being or that he was claiming to have been there with God, you know, yeah, it's hard to comprehend hard to accept. It's all of that but to their ears what they were hearing him say was just straight-up blasphemy.

you know John's gospel doesn't waste any time with speculations about who Jesus is and that's why that book starts out, you know, pretty much throws Down The Gauntlet in the very first chapter when you know, it says this is the word made flesh come to dwell Among Us and the whole rest of the book goes on to unveil and unpack the huge implications of this truth

in one of the examples that comes to mind is the scene where Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at the community well, And the second I am statement comes in that story, which is in John Chapter 4 verses 1 through 42. You know Jesus sees this woman come to the well to draw water and he wants to help her he wants to reach out to her and help her to know that God loves her.

But as he tries to interact with her she resists him and you know, she makes excuses.

The other thing is as you look at her excuses, if you kind of split them apart and dig into him their familiar excuses. Once we all too often make or here. the first excuse is why would God be interested in me?

John 4:9 the Samaritan woman said to him you are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?

For Jews, do not associate with Samaritans.

You know in their time and their culture that was just a well-known fact. And also it was very strange for a man to interact with a woman that was not his family. So that was a very peculiar thing to so this woman is struggling against the racial and gender stereotypes of her culture. That's part of what causes her to question is.

But the truth is it could be anything.

Cuz the truth is if we all are honest, we all struggle with self-esteem issues on some level.

and the enemy loves to exploit that you know, he loves to fill our heads with thoughts like oh if they really knew who you were. Are who you are? Or if they knew what you have done in your life.

and when he whispers those lies to us it often starts to fill our heads with thoughts like I failed too many times. There's no way God could love me. I'm damaged goods. I'm never going to be good enough. I'm too far gone. I'm not worthy.

And well, none of us are worthy. But here's Jesus engaging with this woman talking to her. John 4:10 Jesus answers her after she makes her excuse. If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asked you for a drink you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

She just didn't know what was being offered to her.

So then she kind of goes into a second excuse.

My problems are physical not spiritual.

John Chapter 4 verses 11 through 15

she replies to Jesus again. sir, the woman said You have nothing to draw water within the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well and drank from it himself as did also his sons and his livestock. Jesus answered everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life. The woman said to him sir. Give me this water so I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.

You know when you read that you just got to think bless her heart. She still thought it was talking about water.

And you know, the funny thing is I don't know if we would think any differently if we were having that conversation with Jesus because

so much of our thinking and our society and our culture now is that you know the solution to our problems. Come somewhere in the physical world somewhere in material things. That's where all of our solutions to our problems are found. You know, we tried to completely ignore the spiritual side of things so often when we're experiencing tough times. You know when we experienced problems, like, you know, we think well, my problem is money. I just need more. That's a physical world issue right nothing to do with spirituality. My problem is my job. I hate it. Again, we think that is entirely a physical issue not a spiritual one.

We're sadly enough. Sometimes you hear. My problem is my marriage. I married the wrong person. They just don't understand my needs. They just don't meet my needs.

you know all too often we think every Problem can be answered apart from God, but they can't. Main every conceivable product from Cars 2 underarm deodorant offers contentment and fulfillment in life if you use their product, right?

When I looked it up and advertisers spent seven million dollars for one 30-second commercial during the Super Bowl to convince you that your life would be better with their product.

I mean I saw some of those stupid commercials.

They paid 7 million dollars for that is all I could think after I looked up that fact, but they did because they're trying to convince you that man if you just buy this thing. Life is going to be sweet.

You'll wake up feeling refreshed and everything is wonderful because

Whatever their product is because you now have it life is complete.

An external Solutions never fix an internal problem. That's what we have to understand. That's what Jesus is trying to get out with this woman.

So she gives the third excuse.

One that all too many of us may have used it one time or another I'm not interested in religion. It's just a bunch of rules.

Well, the thing is. This proves. She obviously didn't know who she was talking to cuz Jesus was not interested in religion. He was not interested in just a bunch of rules.

But you know, it's not surprising that she responds in that way because this comes after you know, she's kind of starting to question who he is and Jesus pretty much lays it out to her in such a fashion that she understands. He knows every juicy detail about her scandalous past.

You know, he says to her about the husband you have now and she's like I don't have a husband. He's like, yeah, I know that in fact, you've had five husbands in the man you're living with now is not your husband.

So that's when she's like, oh, I don't need religion. I don't need those rules. I think for all of us all too often that happens because

When God begins to poke around in our hearts and really show us what's going on. We don't want to accept it. So what was her response? John Chapter 4 verses 19 and 20. She says sir. The woman said I can see that you are a prophet our answers sisters worshiped on this mountain but you the Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.

Blame shifting 101. That's what she just did right there. You know she went from he's telling her this is what you need in your life to her say, well, I can't be interested in that because you Jews tell us that we have to Worship in Jerusalem, and that's not where I live. So it's not my fault, right?

You Jews cause the problem. And you know this excuse does have a little more bases. but the truth, is she still trying to divert the conversation away from the real issue away from what her real core issue is That's because Jesus hit a little too close to home when he told her some details about her life details that she probably didn't want everyone to know but he did. And you know, the problem is I I still hear people using the religion excuse today. You know, I hear people say like what Catholics believe one thing Protestants say another who's right? Or why do we have so many different denominations? You know, which one of them is, right? I've been here people go so far as to say things like well all religions lead to the same God right? No.

Or I think a favor and a lot of times as you know religion is a private matter. No one should tell others what to do.

But you know. That is not what Jesus called us to do. And like I said, Jesus wasn't interested in religion, either. You know, Jesus is trying to show her that he is the way the truth and the life. That she simply needs a relationship with him. And all things will be set right in Jesus kind of dismisses her excuse by pointing out the nature of true worship in the versus the follow John Chapter 4 verses 21 to 24 Woman Jesus replied. Believe me a time is coming when you will worship the father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has come now when the true worshippers will worship the father in the spirit. And in truth for they are the kind of worshippers. The father seeks God is spirit and his worshipers must Worship in the spirit and in the truth.

So essentially Jesus once again says to her nice try but no. Your excuse is invalid.

Just a little tidbit for you. What Jesus is alluding to there is when Jesus was crucified on the cross what happened in the temple?

The veil ripped right that meant that you could now see the holies of holies that was meant to represent that now everyone had access to God. Not just the priests who were allowed to go behind the curtain but everyone and I think that's what Jesus is alluding to with her when he's saying there's going to come a time when you don't have to go to Jerusalem to worship.

And you know the whole thing is.

She's just making excuses. So then finally her fourth excuse after Jesus's put the other ones away. She kind of makes the excuse. So of course, I believe in God, but how does that help me right now?

John 425 the woman said, I know that Messiah called Christ is coming when he comes he will explain everything to us.

You know by her statement she kind of proves that she has this otherworldly view of Christ in his kingdom. You know one that you know, that's a really nice idea. I can appreciate what you're saying. And yeah, I know what you're saying. The Messiah is going to come one day.

But that's been that's there. That's not here now. Nina sadly that's an excuse a lot of people use today. you know, it's okay to believe in God, but the reality is they think that he's almost totally totally irrelevant to Modern everyday life. And God is just something to do on Sundays for an hour, right? They don't see that it has anything to do with their situation. Because the problem is they think that you're how is a distant God going to change their circumstances.

And I know that's what this woman is thinking remember she sells things he's talking about water in the well.

She doesn't see how he's going to get any cuz he doesn't have anything. So imagine her shock at Jesus's words and John 426. It says then Jesus declared. I am the one I the one speaking to you. I am he

if you translate the Greek, literally it is I am speaks to you.

Now during that day and age. She would have had no doubt about what he was claiming. I mean he would have been using the Greek words that we talked about last week for Yahweh. I am you know, this is the word of God made flesh.

So I mean It probably starts to click in her head now, doesn't it? Oh, he's not talking about water. He's talking about something else. That's how he knew all these things about my life. That's how he could give me some of this advice. It all starts to click. but I think what we need to take from this is

You know which excuses? Have we been using to divert God's work in our own lives? When we all do it. but you know, Jesus is the one who Can make things happen in our lives that are truly. our greatest needs there's four life-changing truths that I just want to mention here that because Jesus is The Great. I Am. We need to understand these things. The first one is God knows me better than I know myself.

A lot of times we think we know what we need.

We think that new cars going to make us feel better. It will for a little bit till I get the first payment, right? But no it's not going to solve the problem. I've tried a lot of different underarm deodorants out there and none of them have changed my life in a significant way.

The second truth is that the one who knows me best loves me the most.

I think we understand that.

Jesus is the only reliable diagnostician of our real needs. I tried to find other words that fit their better, but I think that's a good word because we need to realize. Kind of ties into that first one if he knows us better than we know ourselves.

Swiffer really wanting and honest opinion of what needs fixed the best person to ask is Jesus of what solution is really going to change our circumstances that is really going to Change us.

That leads us to the fourth one. Is that as much as we need forgiveness for our past? We also need hope for our future.

And sometimes I think when people just see the Christian faith is religion. They think that that's all it's about. The being a Christian just means you've confessed all your sins. You've been forgiven.

But that's just part of the story. That's a very small part of the story and that it is also about the hope that we have in Christ. Hope that we can overcome our circumstances hope that we can be a better person that we can be happier. That things will be better that one day. We can spend eternity with him in heaven.

And I guess you could almost call it a fifth truth from there that you know, we need to know our true self. A transformed self that can actually be a new creation going forward.

You know, we all know those Bible verses but I think we doubt it sometimes. Can God really change me? You know we go back to all those lies that Satan Whispers in our ears and that fills our head of men. They don't know what you've done. I don't know how bad you really are. Do you really think you can change?

but you can't that's the hope that we have going forward. And once you fully Embrace that once you let Christ fill you with that hoe. It changes everything. And next week we're going to start to dive into the first of the seven. I am statements.

And I'm even trying to think how to work one of those into the annual meeting. So we'll see if I figure that out between now and then but I have an idea for that. But will die Vince those in truly begin to explore who Jesus is. in the promises that we can know for sure. Please pray with me.

father we want to see Jesus and All His glory

Lord we know that you tore the veil that separated us from the holy of holies when we can now see Jesus we can now see you. And Lord we pray that you will just draw us to yourself. That you will give us a Clear Vision of Jesus Christ Our Savior. And Lord, I pray that. As we move through this series that these truths will just become a reality for us and that they will become a part of our daily life. and Lord

in the places in our lives that we use these excuses. To resist what you're trying to do in our life. Lord I pray that you will just let it bother us all week. Lord that you will make it apparent to us. Where we've been trying to block. Your Love

But Lord, I also pray that when we see that when we acknowledge it that you will encourage us and challenge us.

to truly put it at the foot of the cross. And cling to our Savior. We pray the song your most. Holy name. amen