At the time of Jesus, many (or most) Jews believed in a messiah who would be a deliverer for the people of Israel. He would be another King David who would bring the nation back to prominence in every way. As well, he would be victorious over all their enemies (like the Roman Empire) and then judge the nations of the world. In other words, he was a political, economic and military hero who would bring them back to their former glory. We all seem to want that, don’t we? He would be a Jewish deliverer but the Gentiles would not be included except as second class citizens. This was to be a return to glory for Israel but not for others.

Nothing could be further from the roots of God’s promise as far back as Abraham. In Genesis 22:17-18 God says, “I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” The blessing is for all nations – not just Israel. Again, in Exodus 19:5 God says, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” The blessing is for a purpose. Being holy has a goal – to bless the nations. Again, in Deuteronomy 26:18 God says, “And the Lord has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands. He has declared that he will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations he has made and that you will be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.” Finally, in Isaiah 42:6-7 God says, “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.” In other words, in all of the the purpose is universal and not limited to Israel. Even though that had been lost it was always the purpose of Jesus to deliver, restore, redeem and save the world – not just Israel.

For the balance of the lesson, I am taking almost everything from Dr. John Stott’s classic work, “Basic Christianity”. I’ll be using his four points about the claims of Jesus. What were those claims? John puts them in four categories: self-centered teaching, direct claims, indirect claims and dramatized claims. Let’s look at each one.

1.  Self-centered teaching. Jesus says “I am the way, the vine, the gate, the good shepherd, the resurrection and the life.” While he does not ever use personal illustrations from his life, he always centers his teaching on himself. He does not say as so many other teachers have, “I know the way or I can point you to the way” but “I am the way”. He does not direct people to anyone but himself. The great question early in his ministry was not, “What do people believe about my teaching?” but “Who do people say that I am?” Believing who he was is central – not what he was teaching. He did not invite his disciples on a search for truth or meaning. He invited and even commanded them to come to him. He clearly saw himself as the fulfillment of prophecy and that all the prophets had desired to see this day. Luke 4:21 makes it clear that he was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy about the anointed one and the Messiah. Jesus claimed the supreme love and total loyalty of people. He was not unclear about who he was. “If you have seen me you have seen the Father.” “No one comes to the Father but by me.” “Leave the dead to bury the dead.” John Stott calls this “breath-taking egocentricity” and it is in the best sense of the word. He said, “If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto myself.” He did not say he would draw them to truth or to God or the church or to anything other than himself. Sometimes we want to draw people to Christian teaching or a Christian way of life or a particular truth or church or way of looking at things. Jesus was totally “self-centered” in that he worked to draw people to himself alone. He didn’t ask them to join a group – only to follow him exclusively. There is no doubt that Jesus believed he was the anointed one, the fulfillment of prophecy – worthy not just of our loyalty and following but of our worship.

2.  Direct claims. Jesus did not see himself as a prophet or a signpost pointing to someone else or just a deliverer of Israel. He is the Christ. The Son of God. He is God. He was the fulfillment of prophecy and even more than they understood. For him to be who they were expecting would have been enough. Even for Peter it would have been enough to be the deliverer and the savior of Israel but Jesus claimed more than that for himself. He claimed an eternal relationship with God. “Before Abraham was I am” and that was blasphemy unless it was true. “I and the Father are one.” is the worst kind of heresy unless it is true. But he claimed these things for himself. Not only that but he claimed that whatever their attitude was toward him was counted as their attitude toward God. If you love him you love God. If you know him you know God. If you see him you have seen God. If you receive him you receive God. As Paul says in Colossians 1:15, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible….all things created by him and for him…For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things…” If we want to know anything about God we look only to Jesus. There is nothing more to know about God than what is revealed in Jesus. Point people to Jesus.

3.  His indirect claims. Jesus claimed to forgive sins which only God could do. He claimed to bestow life which only God could do. He claimed to speak truth through his own authority. He did not speak “for” God but as God. His pronouncements were personal commands and not lessons drawn from others or life experiences. The destiny of every person depends on our response to his words because he will one day sit on the throne with his angels and he will judge. He will judge Israel and the entire world based on their relationship to him. In other words, this is the most important relationship in the world.

4.  His dramatized claims. The whole book of John is built around seven signs or miracles of Jesus. The miracles were not simply a response to circumstances Jesus encountered. They were intentional wonders and designed to reveal something about the nature of the Messiah. They each illustrate a different aspect of the Messiah. They endorse who he is and they are proof of his divine nature.

“We cannot any longer regard Jesus as simply a great teacher if he was completely mistaken in one of the chief subjects of his teaching – himself.” John Stott.

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” C.S. Lewis

Was he deluded and intent on deluding us or was he telling the truth? There is no in between. He is, as Lewis says, either who he says he is or he is a lunatic and an evil man. He cannot be evil and still a good teacher admired by the world. It will not do. Why would we follow the teachings of one who was so wrong about himself? How could we not follow someone so right? The choice is ours. It is not a matter of choosing a Christian ethic or a Christian political party or a Christian lifestyle. It is about choosing a relationship with the Christ, the Son of Man, and the visible image of the invisible God by whom and for whom all of creation – including us – exists.