Did Jesus Claim to be God?

T. A. McMahon:

We are continuing our look at the gospel of John and we are concerned about salvation.  Right now we are in John 4, and we will pick up with verse 25.  “The woman saith unto him, (that is, to Jesus) I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ:  when he is come, he will tell us all things.”  And, verse 26, “Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.”  How did she respond?

Dave Hunt:

Well Tom, first of all, maybe we should talk about Messiah and Christ.  She says, “We know Messiah is come, which is called Christ.”  You remember John the Baptist when he was in prison he sent two servants to Jesus saying, “Art thou he that should come or look we for another?”  How would you know who the Messiah was when he came?  Because it had been promised that he would come, the prophets promised it.  Paul, in Romans 1 says, “This is the gospel of God which he promised before by his prophets and the scriptures.”  And so, they knew that the Messiah was coming.  The rabbis, the disciples didn’t really know what it said about the Messiah, they had their own ideas.  They thought the Messiah would be someone on a white horse with a flashing sword leading an army who would deliver them from the Romans, but the Messiah was going to come meek, lowly, bringing salvation, riding on a colt of an ass.  And, they would hail him as that and then they would crucify him.  So, Messiah was the promised One, the Savior, and in fact, the scripture said he would be God himself.  “Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, the government will be upon his shoulders…” so he must be the Messiah.  “Of his kingdom and peace there will be no end and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counselor”— you don’t need some psychological counselor out there.  One of the names of Jesus is, Counselor, let us go to him.  “His name shall be called, Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father.” That must have really puzzled these people.  They couldn’t understand that, but nevertheless, it said that the Son of God is the Father, as well.  They are One, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  So, the Messiah would be God.  Well, the Greek expression for that was, “Christos” Christ, which simply means, the anointed One.  But, Jewish people have a tough time with “Christ” because the Christians so-called, persecuted them.  They were not Christians.  No true Christian, no follower of Jesus Christ, who was a Jew, would persecute Jews, but these were not Christians who did that but they did, in the name of Christ, bearing the cross the Crusaders slaughtered Jews across Europe and so forth.  We won’t get into that again.  So, she says we know Messiah is to come and they call him the Christ because we speak Greek now “and when he is come he will tell us all things.”  Well, that was her impression.

T. A. McMahon:

Yeah, but Dave, what about this woman?  Here she is, she’s Samaritan, [and] she has some Jewish heritage but also a Syrian heritage, right?

Dave Hunt:

Some were mixed, yes.

T. A. McMahon:

But what I am getting at here is Jesus impresses her and then right away the thought comes to mind, well when the Messiah, (which is a Hebrew term) and then she talks about Christ, the Christ, the anointed One, by saying this, this is something that she had on her mind.  This is something that she didn’t just pull out of a bag, she thought about these things and here he is!  That’s what I am getting to.  Here is the very One that she had in mind in terms of somebody impressive is going to come, somebody who is really going to deliver us and is this the first time in Jesus’ ministry that he reveals that?

Dave Hunt:

He doesn’t say it like this, that bluntly, to anyone else.

T. A. McMahon:

No, and she’s a Samaritan woman.

Dave Hunt:

Tom, you have to go back a little bit to remind us, he has revealed her sin.  She’s had five husbands, the man you are living with is not your husband and she says, oh, I perceive you are a prophet.  And, she is now trying to change the subject, you know, our fathers worshipped here but you say Jerusalem is the place and Jesus says, It’s not a place, You worship God you worship him in spirit and in truth.  That’s verses 23 and 24, now this is verse 25.  Now she’s, I think, kind of changing the subject again.  I mean who are you that I should listen to you.  We’re talking about worship, we believe this is the place to worship, you say Jerusalem is the place to worship and now the Jews say Jerusalem is the place to worship and now you are trying to tell me something a little bit higher.  Well, why should I believe you?  When Messiah comes, we’re waiting for him, you know. When he comes, he’s going to tell us.  This is kind of a cop-out really and I think maybe Jewish people have that feeling today.  Well, when the Messiah comes, when the Messiah comes, we are waiting for the Messiah—don’t get too serious about this now. I mean, everything is when the Messiah comes.  So, she is putting him off again.  Well, when the Messiah comes, we know, he will tell us everything.  Jesus said, “I that speak unto thee am he!”  Wow!  And, at that point—

T. A. McMahon:

Dave, I remember, in the garden when Jesus would be arrested, he said, I am he and boom! they go down, overwhelmed by it.  I know it was a different circumstance.

Dave Hunt:

Yeah, but he wasn’t saying he was the Messiah then.

T. A. McMahon:

No but, in other words, the phraseology is the same.  He is declaring something that is absolutely stunning, which is what I think you are getting at.

Dave Hunt:

Right.  He said that he is the one they are seeking, in the garden.  Yes, I am Jesus of Nazareth, but he didn’t say it that way.  He says I AM.  That’s the name of God, the I AM, and when he said it they fell backward, which again, is a bit interesting Tom, because we have a lot of people who get touched in some meetings and they fall backwards.  That was in judgment.  When you fall on your face before the Lord in worship, that’s something else.  But anyway, if he has made a statement that—well, he scarcely has been able to convince his disciples of this and he is revealing this, as you say, to a Samaritan woman, a sinful woman:  “I that speak unto thee am he…”—and upon this came his disciples and marveled that he talked with the woman, yet no man said, “What seeketh thou or why talkest thou with her.”  Well, she takes off at this point.

T. A. McMahon:

She’s got to be excited.

Dave Hunt:

She’s convinced this is the Messiah.  It’s like in John 1 Andrew, he runs and finds his brother Peter and says, I think we found him, I think he has come.  But Jesus didn’t say to Andrew, I am the Messiah.  It was John the Baptist who said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who bears away the sin of the world.”  Anyway—

T. A. McMahon:

Dave, I want to back up to that because you know, sometimes we think, we don’t have all of the background in terms of what’s presented in the Bible.  For example, the thief on the cross, you mentioned earlier, one got converted right there and you look at his words and you see, wow, here is a confession of faith.  Now, this woman knew some things about the Messiah and when Jesus said, “I am he,” she believed him.  To say—well, she was converted right there—again, we don’t know all the ways that God had already prepared this woman in terms of her understanding of the Messiah—looks pretty strong here.

Dave Hunt:

He meets her criteria.  Remember, verse 25, “When the Messiah comes he will tell us all things.”  And now she runs—well, it says verse 28, “The woman then left her water pot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men.”  She wasn’t on very good terms with the women, but I don’t think we need to read too much into that, but she sure knew the men.  And she says, Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did.  Well, isn’t he the Messiah?  He’s got to be, he must be the Christ because we know that when the Messiah comes he will tell us everything and here is a man that told me everything.  He knows everything about me, he must be the Messiah.  Now you would say is that the way to preach the gospel?  I mean, because she believes that does that mean she is saved?  Well, she certainly has believed that Jesus is the Christ and the scripture says he that believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.  Now, she has very little understanding but she is going to grow in that understanding and she is already a missionary.  She’s already telling others.

T. A. McMahon:

Dave, that’s a really good point.  We’ve mentioned that in programs, earlier programs, sometimes looking from our perspective of having walked with the Lord, having a better understanding, I can look back at my own salvation and think about what I believed and what I trusted in and it was very simple.  It was not complex, but I had a lot of other baggage that you could say well, you believe this and you believe this but my conversion was true in my growth, I mean, I knew what I believed and now my understanding of what I believed has grown and grown and I have been able to jettison a lot of the baggage.

Dave Hunt:

Well, Jesus said, when we get to it, John 17, “This is life eternal that they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.”  And, Jesus is introducing her to the true God and to himself.  She has some glimmer of understanding and she is going to grow.