How Did Jesus Answer: 'Who Art Thou?'

April 8, 2002

Tom:

We’re continuing with the Gospel of John.We are in John:8:25, “Then said they unto him, who art thou?And Jesus saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning.I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him.They understood not that he spake to them of the Father.”

Dave:

This is a bit of a puzzling passage Tom because when we get down to verse—

Tom:

Well you notice I didn’t jump right in and try to explain it.

Dave:

When we get down to verse 30 it says, “As he spake these words many believed on him.”And yet they don’t really know who he is.They ask him, who are you?Because he has made some pretty powerful statements.

Tom:

Oh, right.

Dave:

We just covered them in the last couple of weeks.He says, “I am from above, you are from beneath.I’m not of this world, you are of this world and if you don’t believe that I am, you will die in your sins and where I go you cannot come.”Wow, wait a minute, this is heavy stuff!Well, who are you?Well, he says I am the same one I have been telling in many different ways who I am.And he says, “I am just speaking those things that I’ve heard and learned and he has said that I can do nothing except the Father instructs me.I follow his directions and they don’t understand.

Tom:

Dave this doesn’t in any way demonstrate any inferiority on the part of Jesus, does it?

Dave:

No.He says, “I and my Father are one, so he could hardly be inferior.But there is an order in the Godhead.The Holy Spirit is the one who does certain things.It says grieve not the Holy Spirit.It doesn’t say grieve not the Father.It talks about being inspired of the Holy Spirit.We mentioned that in an earlier segment.“Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”It doesn’t say as they were moved by the Father, or by the Son.Well you could say yes, but they are one and the same.Well yes, but Father, Son and Holy Spirit are a concept we don’t understand.We know that it must be for many reasons and we don’t have time to go back into that.But now Jesus is also as a man.He’s a man on this earth and as a man he is taking guidance and direction as a man would do from his Father.But at the same time he is God.I cannot explain it.

Tom:

Isaiah:9:6.He is—

Dave:

“Unto us a child is born,…” that’s the babe in Bethlehem.“Unto us a son is given,…” that’s the eternal Son of God.“And his name shall be called the mighty God, the Everlasting Father,…” so the babe born in Bethlehem was the Father because Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one God.Again, I don’t understand it, but there are many reasons why it must be.We’ve talked about it in the past, so we won’t go into that again.Verse 28, “Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, (now that was an expression that crucifixion really, when you then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.”And this is what puzzles me Tom.“As he spake these words many believed on him.”You would think he’s making the mystery even deeper who the Father is, and so forth.But what kind of belief did they have?It’s like those that we noticed way back in John 2, “Now when he was in Jerusalem on the Passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men….”And in contrast to those we see a man in the next chapter [which] begins, “There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”So right there in a few verses we see many believing in his name, but he doesn’t commit himself to his name because they apparently have a defective belief; defective understanding of who he is and are not willing to be corrected.But you see Nicodemus, who believes he is a teacher come from God—Nicodemus you’ve got to go a lot farther than that.Let me straighten you out on this.If you’re going to enter the kingdom of heaven, you’re going to have to recognize that as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, I’m going to have to be lifted up on a cross (that’s what it meant) and I’m going to have to die for the sins of the world.And now here we have—

Tom:

Dave, I think about the Ethiopian eunuch.Here he is, he is reading Isaiah and Philip then explains it to him—

Dave:

Isaiah 53 he’s reading.

Tom:

Yes, and the eunuch says, “Well what keeps me from being baptized?”And what does Philip say to him?

Dave:

“If thou believest with all thy heart.”

Tom:

“…with all thy heart.”Yes, now there is a belief.There’s a commitment.

Dave:

Right.Well he had to come to an understanding of who Christ is.

Tom:

Right and these people haven’t yet.That’s what you’re saying.

Dave:

No, it’s quite apparent.They apparently believe he is the Messiah, but they have a false idea of the Messiah—whatever it is.See Tom, I think it illustrates the fact that there are many people who call themselves Christians who aren’t.I don’t know what the latest poll is but I think something like, oh I hesitate to say it, but it seemed to me like 40-50% of those who call themselves born-again Christians don’t believe in the resurrection.Or about an equal number don’t believe that Jesus is God.Now Jesus very clearly says if you don’t believe I am, and that means that he’s the I AM, the Old Testament—

Tom:

Right, I AM that I AM.

Dave:

—you will die in your sins.Where I go you cannot come.So what this illustrates to us here again, is that there are some things that you must believe about Jesus.Oh I’m a Christian.Oh I believe in Jesus.Really?Gandhi believed in Jesus, so he said, He loved Jesus.

Tom:

Muslims claim to believe in Jesus.

Dave:

Yes, it’s a different Jesus.

Tom:

Absolutely.

Dave:

So Jesus himself says, “If you don’t believe that I’m God, you will die in your sins.You would be trusting someone less than God to save you.That’s impossible.All through the Old Testament - Yahweh, Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob says there is no Savior except me.”Now if you don’t believe—Jesus says if you don’t believe that’s who I am, I am the one Isaiah spoke of—the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father was the babe in Bethlehem—if you don’t believe that I am God you’re not really believing in me.And then it says, “He spake these words and many believed on him.”I think there are many people who call themselves Christians—well it is evident from what goes on in the next few verses, they do not have a clue as to who Jesus really is and they are not willing to learn.There are many people out there who call themselves Christians.They don’t believe in the resurrection, they don’t believe Jesus is God, they don’t know Him; they’ve never believed that he died for their sins, they’ve never been born-again.Jesus said to Nicodemus, “You must be born-again.”They don’t believe in that.Or some of them call themselves born-again Christians.Yes, I got born-again, I had a semantic conversion, you know, I saw things from a new light.

Tom:

Some people get born-again, and born-again, and born-again then lose their born-again and then have to be born-again.

Dave:

That’s not biblical.Well it’s pretty clear.He says, verse 31, “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him,…” okay?Now everything that he says from now on, I guess we’re going to have to bring this to a—

Tom:

Yes, we’re going to come back and major on the next two verses next week.

Dave:

Right, but notice that everything that he says from here in verse 31 on through verse 59 is to those of whom it said they believed on him.Verse 59, “Then took they up stones to cast at him:…”They are going to kill him.Jesus has to say in verse 44, “Ye are of your father the devil,…” wow, and yet it said they believed on him.Tom, once again I need to emphasize that there are many people who call themselves Christians and they are no closer to Christ than these people were.You can’t make up your own Christianity.You just can’t invent your own Christianity.We must follow Christ and follow his words.Now he is laying it out for us.“If you want to be a Christian and if you want to go to heaven and if you want to be with me in my Father’s house of many mansions, this is what you must believe.”It’s not what you’ve got to do.It’s not good works, but you must believe the gospel.That Christ died for your sins according to the scriptures, he was buried, and he rose again the third day according to the scriptures and you acknowledge your need of him as a Savior.You are a guilty sinner unworthy of anything except God’s judgment and now you turn to him, you believe in him [and] that he died for your sins.You are born again of the Spirit of God, but there’s no other way and you can’t be saved by believing in a Jesus who isn’t capable of saving you.That’s for sure.

Program Number:

0422d