I Am Everything

IntroductionSo we are going through the book of John line by line, paragraph by paragraph. Why do we do that? Because we believe these words of God reveal Jesus to us.John reveals the nature of Jesus. And under this heading of the nature of Jesus, there are many interesting things BUT one main thing.The main thing we learn in the book of John is that Jesus is God, and today we see perhaps the most clear declaration of that anywhere in the Bible.Now before we even move an inch into this text, we need to stop and consider the implications of what we just said. If Jesus is God, you know what we owe him? A blank check. Whatever you want, it’s yours. Are you willing right now to do that? Whatever comes out of this message today, so long as it’s an accurate representation of what the Bible says, we all need to come with the attitude of, okay I will do it.I want to challenge you to do that right now. Do you trust God enough to commit to obey him, without knowing what he will ask of you, simply because he is God? Let’s begin this message right now by giving God a blank check.ReviewLet’s recap from last week. Last week we observed that in the genetic world, your biological parents give you your physical traits. Eye color, when your hair falls out, your height, etc. Last week we learned that the same is true in the spiritual world. We have spiritual parents that give us spiritual traits. Jesus said, based on your traits, "You’ve got one of two fathers. Either your father is the devil or your father is God.If your father is the devil you will hate Jesus. That’s the trait.If your father is God, you will love Jesus. That’s the trait.The Jews hated Jesus. They possessed the trait of Hate.The reason the religious leaders hated Jesus was because he exposed their evil deeds.How did he do this? You’ll remember from last week. He starts by telling them, “You are not free. You are all slaves of sin.”Now I want to point out something that we didn’t really mention previously. Who does Jesus say this to? Throughout chapter 7 and 8 Jesus is milling around as you would at a feast and interacting with various groups of people. It’s not a sustained interaction with one set of people. Right before our text, we are told that Jesus had just finished a message and the main point of the message was this:And then look at what is says in verse 30.There was a group of people who heard Jesus say, you will die in your sins unless you believe in me. And so they said, okay, we believe. Jesus turns to THIS GROUP of PEOPLE (these believers) and says, “You are slaves of sin.”Remarkable! What this should tell you is that there is a way to ‘believe in Jesus’ that is not truly belief. There is a way to agree around the edges and miss the center. There is a way to deceive yourself that because I am religious, I must be a child of God BUT in reality I am a child of the devil.It’s not hard to imagine that to a group of proudly religious folk, this is not flattering. Excuse me? Come again? We are the followers of Abraham! If you’re going to talk about slaves of sin, talk to the drug dealers, child traffickers, politicians, celebrities, corrupt CEO’s, people in Vegas. They’re slaves to money and sex, drugs and power. They’re into all that. Jesus, you have the wrong crowd. We’re good people. We’re moral people. We’re religious people. How in the world can you talk to us about being spiritual slaves?You want to know what his answer is. Jesus says, “The reason I know you are slaves of sin is because you don’t love me.” Now the fact that Jesus can say this to a religious people reveals a frightening truth. The devil loves playing church. The devil’s children are in the church. The devils children can be leading the church. It’s frightening.You see, the spiritual trait God’s looking for is not church attendance, it’s not bible reading. It’s not being moral and having family values. It’s not dressing a certain way. The trait that Jesus is looking for is love for him. That’s the ultimate trait.Now as the text advances, we see this tremendous clash. This collision of opposites. The Jews represent hate. Jesus represents great. We see great and hate collide. Oil and water. Black and white.Now for the purpose of today’s message we are going to paint the contrast as sharply as possible. Last week was sons of the devil - the traits of hate. This week is the son of God - the traits of being great.We’ve got six of them. You can mark it down. A historic moment where we’ve deviated from a three point outline. You can all make t-shirts, “I was present at service with a six point message.”So right after Jesus has accused them of not being able to hear God’s Word because they are children of the devil, they throw the accusation back in his face. You want to talk about devils. You are the one with a devil. You are the one who is insane.Now look at Jesus’ response.Jesus says, “I don’t have a demon.” And then he gives a piece of evidence. If someone accused you of having a demon, what evidence would you submit to deny it? He says, the evidence that I don’t have a demon is that I honor the father. In other words, the one who honors the father is great. In an honor/shame culture, nothing could be worse than not honoring your father.Now what he says next is totally unexpected. Here’s what you are to catch. Jesus is pointing to evidence.He says, “I am of God because I honor God…” and you would expect him to then say,“You are of the devil because you do not honor God.”But instead he says, “You are of the devil because you do not honor me.”Now you have to be able to open your ears to hear the strangeness of this.Here’s an example that might help you hear it: My dad’s birthday is coming up on July 24th. And I say to you, “Hey you really ought to honor my dad. I’m honoring him by giving him a gift. You know, he’s a great guy. You ought to honor him as well. Why don’t you stop by my house and give me that gift as a way to honor him.” That’s the logic Jesus is using.What you need to realize about John 7 and 8 is that Jesus is crescendoing in his clarity about who he is claiming to be.I am the living water.I am the light of the world.He’s taking these highly charged symbols and applying them to himself. But there’s ambiguity.Now he looks them square in the face and says. I am of God because I honor the father. You can evidence being of God if you honor me.Now that crescendo is going to grow. Why is Jesus great? First because he honors the father, second he doesn’t seek his own glory.Every good Jew knows that we are not supposed to be glory hogs. Glory BELONGS to God. Now we all feel the temptation to take it for ourselves but we all know we are NOT supposed to do it. So Jesus points to this as evidence of greatness.I don’t seek my own glory. Now there’s a really well known passage in Philippians 2 called the kenosis passage. Here’s why it’s called that. Kenosis is the Greek word for empty. Paul is speaking to the Philippians and says, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit.” That word conceit is actually a compound word in the Greek.It’s the word keno doxia. Keno(sis) means empty and doxia means glory. So he’s saying when you try to seek your own glory, when you are conceited, it’s empty glory. Why? Because it comes from you. That’s what Jesus is saying. I don’t seek empty glory…glory that comes from me proclaiming myself.So what’s the way that Jesus received glory? He says someone else is seeking it for me. In Philippians 2 we see in verses 6 and 7 it says that Christ did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself.There it is again. It’s the word kenosis. Empty.To be exalted, Christ had to condescend. To be elevated he had to be crushed. You want to know the greatest evidence of greatness? It’s emptying yourself of glory. What was Jesus like before he came to earth? How beautiful was he? Not one of us has a clue. Whatever we imagine it to be, it was billions of times better than that. And he emptied himself of all that glory and became a man.That’s the evidence of greatness. Jesus does not seek his own glory. Then he says, “But there is one who does.” Implied. God seeks it. And that’s exactly what we see happen at the end of Philippians. After Jesus was crucified, the ultimate emptying…Okay, that’s the principle. And we see it now in retrospect. But for the people in the story, this hasn’t happened yet. Jesus simply says, “I don’t seek my glory. There is one who seeks my glory (implied God).”The shocking part of Jesus’ words is not that he doesn’t seek his own glory (they all would have agreed with this) but that God is seeking it for him.Consider this analogy: During a wedding, who’s supposed to be the center? The bride. You’d be an absolute moron to stand up in the middle of a wedding march, run into the aisle and take a selfie. People would just gasp at how inappropriate that would be. Why? Because how dare you try to become the center of attention during a wedding. You’re not supposed to seek your own glory. Why? Because in that moment, the bride is to receive all the glory.Jesus says, “I seek the glory of the Father. I would never obstruct people’s view of the Father.” Jesus says, “The one who truly honors the father won’t steal the glory show.” That makes sense. But what does not make sense is what he says next. And you want to know what the father is going to do with the honor I give him? He’s going to honor me with it. Imagine the bride walking down the aisle and stopping midway and turning to her bridesmaid and saying, “The real person we should be honoring here is my bridesmaid.” And she uses that moment to spotlight her friend.That’s what Jesus is saying, “I’m honoring the father, but the Father is seeking to honor me. There is one who seeks my glory.” It’s no wonder they accuse him of madness. Now if that wasn’t enough (again we are crescendoing) look at what comes next.Now I’m not sure you can make a claim of greatness larger than this. I mean, this is so over the top. I mean this is so lofty you get high altitude nose bleeds just thinking about it.Okay, now we are getting serious. I picture some bending down to pick up stones at this point. I picture them fingering those stones with white knuckles.You will never see death? Never taste death? Now we are clearly into the territory of blasphemy. God is the author of life. Only God can raise the dead. This is outright ridiculous. And they just blurt out their retort.I had a friend once that was accustomed to exaggeration and it really bugged me. He was boasting about these tall cliffs he was jumping off. He said, “Man, I just launched off this 250’.” And I said, "Really, so it was taller than the golden gate bridge? ’’ I was decently certain my freshman roommate didn’t just break the world record for highest cliff jumping ever. I just called him out in front of all his friends.This is how the Jews are responding to Jesus. Jesus, stop it. You are being ridiculous now. Nobody can beat death. Not one great person we know that has ever walked the earth has conquered death. We can point to all their graves.We’ve been to the grave of Abraham. He died.His son Isaac. Right by his side.Jacob, Joseph. Piles of bones carried from Egypt.David? Bones.Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel…Pick a prophet. Bones.No matter how great, no matter how honored by God, no matter how holy, godly, favored. Bones.No man has power over death. Are you greater than Abraham and all the prophets and every human being that has ever lived? WHO IN THE WORLD DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?Jesus says, ah, now you are finally asking the right question.Look at his response.This issue on the table is glory. Jesus says, “I’m not seeking glory for myself.” We all know that God alone is due all the glory, all the honor, all the praise.It’s wrong for men to seek their own glory. That part is expected. The part that is totally unexpected and totally horrifying is the next part.My Father glorifies me.We can find all sorts of places in the Bible where it talks about God loving us. God listening to our prayers. God being compassionate toward us. But where can you think of, where it says that God glorifies us? Nowhere.Why? Because God doesn’t share his glory with others. He’s made that point rather clear in Isaiah 42.Now, keep in mind the context. Jesus just claimed to have power over death. And in response to that claim the Jews say… Wha-wha-what did you just say? Who in the world do you think you are?Jesus says, “Well let’s let the one whom you say is God answer. Who am I? God himself says I’m a co-glory sharer with Him.” He’s appealing to an authority they respect.It’s like a guy saying, “I think I’m a pretty good writer.” And his friends say, “No you’re not.”"Oh yeah? You say that C.S. Lewis is the greatest writer of all time. C.S. Lewis himself said that there was no writer greater than me.That’s the idea. You claim that YHWH is your God? You claim that YHWH calls the shots and is Lord of all things? Great. YHWH validates who I am. YHWH shares his glory with me. He glorifies me. I mean you can picture the bulging veins, the red necks, the steam just coming out the ears.Now he takes it a step further.Jesus says, the ultimate trait of being great is knowing God. And that’s what makes you so problematic. You don’t know him.In English we have one word for know. But in many other languages there is more than one so that a distinction can be made between knowing ABOUT someone and truly knowing them.I know about Elon Musk. I do not know him. Jesus says, “you know about God. You do not know God.” What’s the difference? What really makes a relationship such that it moves from knowing about God to knowing God.There’s a closeness of relationship where it’s no longer about facts and ideas or even opinions. It’s about feelings and emotion and longing and connection and love. There’s been times when it’s been my wife’s birthday or our anniversary and someone will say, “What did you get Lisa for her birthday or what did you do for your anniversary?” And I’ll say, “Well, I got her a vacuum and we went tent camping.” And people look at me like I’m the worst husband ever. Why didn’t you buy her flowers and take her downtown to a hotel. And I can say with confidence, “You don’t know my wife. You think that’s what my wife wants? You don’t know my wife.”The Jews say we don’t know a lot but we know two things:“We know that we love God.”“And we also know that we hate you.”Jesus says, “Well, then you don’t know God.”Now I mentioned the crescendo here: Here’s where it’s all heading.You want to know how I know him? You want to know why it’s impossible to say you love God and hate me? Because I am the God you claim to love.Now the way he reveals this is spine-tingling.Everything culminates here: We said all of chapter 7 and 8 is crescendoing. Here’s the climax. Here’s the cymbal crash. There’s been all this talk about spiritual parents and lineage. We are children of Abraham. Blah. Blah. And Jesus cuts through all of it and he says very directly, “Abraham rejoiced to see my day.” Now of course, the claim is so audacious, it is disorienting. It rocks the listener on his heels. What is he really claiming here?What is Jesus claiming when he says this? “Abraham rejoiced to see my day” What day is he referencing? Abraham just like every other warm blooded Jew was looking forward to a Day. Every prophet foretold of it. It’s what the prophets refer to as the Day of the Lord or sometimes just day.What is that day? It’s the day the Lord comes back. It’s a day of both judgment and blessing. And for Abraham, that promised blessing would come through an offspring of his son. So Abraham thinking about this future day of blessing was thinking about his great, great, great…grandchild Messiah.The Jews are just picking their jaws up off the ground. Is he really claiming what I think he is? The answer is yes. Jesus is literally saying, I’m the fulfillment of all of Abraham’s hopes for salvation. Jesus is saying, "I’m what Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets looked forward to.“My coming is the ultimate coming.My day is the ultimate day.I bring the promised salvation.I am the promised fulfillment."And the Jews can’t believe it. Is he really saying this? So they ask a clarifying question? Oh really, so you knew Abraham? Did you? Oh, that’s very cute. And I think at this point they would expect him to back down. No of course I didn’t literally know Abraham. Of course I couldn’t have literally known him because I’m only 30 years old. I’m speaking metaphorically. That’s what they would have expected. But instead he says,Before Abraham was I am. Now notice the grammar here is totally incorrect. He doesn’t say - Before Abraham was, I was. That’s what you would expect.The tenses are all wrong. It’s like saying, before my parents got married, I am eating. What are you saying? It’s the most nonsensical answer unless it has another meaning… which of course it does.Now they understand this alternate meaning perfectly because they absolutely erupt in rage and pick up stones to crush in his head. Why? Because they know what he meant. He’s claiming to be God.We talked about this a few weeks ago. Do you remember this slide?When Jesus said earlier, unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins, the word he is implied. It’s just EGO EIMI. I am.Back in verse 24 it was a little ambiguous. Is he saying, “I am the light of the world. I am Messiah” or was he saying he was the great I am of Isaiah 40-45? But now here, it’s obvious. He clarifies beyond a shadow of a doubt what he meant in verses 24 and 28. When Jesus says Before Abraham was, I AM, their minds immediately race back to Exodus 3, where Moses met God in the burning bush. Moses says, “Who are you? What is your name? Who should I say has sent me?” God says, “I AM THAT I AM.”That was the name of God. The consonants of that phrase I am that I am are consonants YHWH which is where we get the word Yahweh, the name of God all through the Bible. What does it mean?When you say, “I am” and then just stop… Your mind can’t stand that. Your mind just longs for an object. You are what? That’s the point.I just am. I am uncaused. I am the cause of all causes.I’m not just beyond time. I am time.I’m not just beyond space. I am space.Before the universe was, I am. I am self-existent.Unlike the gods of Egypt or Mesopotamia or Asia, I simply am.I have no need. I have no lack. I have no want.And as it relates to you I am EVERYTHING you need.I am the light of the world.I am the bread of life.I am the living waters.I don’t exist. I am existence. I am everything. Jesus, without question, in the most clear and concise and direct possible way is claiming to be YHWH God.To our American mind at first blush it just feels like strange grammar and we shrug our shoulders and move on. But I’m telling you, this is just chilling. It’s either a moment of utter blasphemy deserving the full force of the stones in their fingers or it’s a moment of utter worship. Take your pick.ApplicationNow that’s where the passage ends. I feel like this passage deserves a round of applause. It’s so incredible. But now it’s time for us. The cross hairs move from the Jews to us.If Jesus were here today, I think he would look at us and say, “You claim to believe. You are here at church. Do you?” And to some in this room, he would definitely say, “You claim to love me, but you don’t know me.”Let me explain how I think this could be possible that Jesus could say this very same thing to people coming to this church. You don’t know me.Christian Smith was a sociologist at Notre Dame who did this giant research project to try to pin down what was happening to the teenagers that were coming out of the church 20 years ago.He wrote a book called souls in transitions where he made the claim that a generation was thinking about Jesus in a new way, a way that was different than had been conceived for the past two thousand years. And he put a name to it. He called it moralistic therapeutic deism.moralistic - Christianity gives you values and prevents you from being evil.therapeutic - it helps me with my problemsdeism - God is out there but isn’t personalNo longer is the idea that Christ is my king I will surrender to him and he will be enough regardless of life’s circumstances. That idea is driven out and been replaced instead by a belief system that has Jesus’ name on it…it has the Christian brand but the intent and purpose of your life has to do with therapy…making you feel better.If you are coming here today because you want to fix your marriage or you want your kids to be happy or because you want to be a better manager of your money or you want God to heal your pain and that’s the only reason you are coming, then you don’t know God. You are a moralistic therapeutic deist.You want to know what the main problem was for these people in the passage who ‘believed’ in Jesus? They were using Jesus to get what they wanted. They didn’t love HIM.They loved the fish.They loved the bread.They loved the idea of him overthrowing Rome.They loved him roasting the self-righteous Jews.But they didn’t love him. How is it possible in today’s church to be a Christian who believes but really doesn’t believe? By thinking God is really just a means to an end rather than the end itself.What Jesus is demanding in this passage is total surrender. He’s demanding that he be LORD of all. That means Lord of your time. Your money. Your relationships. Everything. What do you love more than him? Give it up. God will not share his glory with another. He won’t tolerate idols.Maybe for you it’s money, house, cars, property, hobbies, sports, things…Maybe it’s your family, career, power, image,Remember that blank check? God wants that thing that you love too much. He wants it. We started this message by asking, “Without knowing, would you be willing to submit to whatever the implications of this message are?” Well here it is. God wants you to love him and nothing else.