iamwhoiam

Series: Vantage Point
Sermon: iamwhoiam
George J. Saylor
March 9, 2008

Last week I made a bet with my wife that if I called Jesus the "Che Guevara of Israel," folks would catch the reference. I lost. But you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about when you see the pictures:





Now it all makes sense doesn’t it!

The point is that we don’t have to look too deeply into culture to see that this man named Jesus who lived 2000 years ago transformed our world and continues to transform lives. There are as many vantage points on Jesus as their are people in the world. People have turned him into just about anything they want.

Walk through the mall and you’ll find this shirt.

Walk into a library and you’ll find countless books.
Glance over a magazine rack and you’ll find him on a cover.
Walk into a video store and you’ll find everything from Mel Gibson’s “The Passion,” to “Jesus of Montreal,” and even “Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter,” a proudly made Canadian film! (You just know that some group of students are going to rent that movie tonight!)

Last week we began with the vantage point of Peter’s confession. "Who do you say that I am?" Jesus asked his closest friends. You are the Christ, Peter said. As we look at the life of Jesus through the bible we found this one particular vantage point that dominates the view of Jesus. It is the vantage point of the Christ- that Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one, the king. And all the vantage points of Jesus revolved around this title. Some said he was a political Christ bringing a revolution. Some said he was a false Christ bringing nothing but trouble. Others began to understand him as a different kind of Christ entirely.

Last week I ended the service with what I called the “anti-altar call.” I feel the need to explain a bit more. In the strictest sense of the word, we don't believe in the need for "altars" here- as we believe Jesus is the once and for all atoning sacrifice for our sins. But, we are all about altars here in a generic sense-altars being a place where people go to meet God and give offerings- our resources, our gifts, our talents, even our lives. Sometimes we want to leave things, like pain, hurt, bitterness, anger, addiction.

What I really emphasized last week was that if you are going to lay your life down before God it ultimately has to be between you and God. It may happen at Connections, it may happen through the words we sing, or the bible stories we talk about, or in the prayers we say, but in the end it’s really between you and God, and God has to work that in you. In fact, the story last week told us that if you are going to confess in Jesus as the Christ, the son of Son, if you are going to believe in him in your heart that he died on the cross and rose from the grave to conquer sin and death, then God has to reveal himself to you. I’ve said before, we don’t want to manipulate or cajole you into faith, but we pray that you will come to faith, that God will meet you here, that God will reveal himself to you, and that you in turn will know and embrace Jesus as your Lord.

Our job as a church, our mission in this series, is to present as clearly and compellingly as we can our vantage point on Jesus. Jesus, simply put, is the best vantage point we have of the God. Our vantage point as a church is that Jesus is the Son of God, fully human and fully God. Our vantage point is that God reveals himself as a Trinitarian being- the loving Father who gave himself to us in Jesus Son, who gives himself to us in the Holy Spirit. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our vantage point on Jesus is well summarized in the words of the Apostle’s creed, and ancient declaration of the faith which states-

I believe in go the father almighty and in Jesus Christ his only son, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and buried. He descended into hell. On the third day he rose from the dead. He ascended in to heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty. From there he will come again to judge the living and the dead.

This is the academic treatment of a very personal revelation of God. A favorite theologian of mine, and the one who’s writings more than any other have helped me to grasp this triune God of grace, is Thomas Torrance. Thomas served as a chaplain in northern Italy during WW2 and was called upon by a soldier who was mortally wounded. The soldier knew he was about to die and asked Thomas, “When I meet God, will he be like Jesus? Will he be like the Jesus I learned about as a child, or will he be someone different?” Thomas comforted the young man by simply assuring him- “Yes, God will be just like Jesus.” The more clearly we see Jesus, the more clearly we see God. This is our vantage point, and the vantage point of the Bible.

In the gospel of John we read about an encounter with Jesus and the other religious leaders of his day. In chapter 8 Jesus finishes preaching to a crowd of people, while the dissertation board sat in the back critiquing everything he said. Here’s the exchange…John 8:48-59

48The Jews answered him, "Aren't we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?"

49"I am not possessed by a demon," said Jesus, "but I honor my Father and you dishonor me. 50I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. 51I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death."

52At this the Jews exclaimed, "Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that if anyone keeps your word, he will never taste death. 53Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?"

54Jesus replied, "If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. 55Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word. 56Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad."

57"You are not yet fifty years old," the Jews said to him, "and you have seen Abraham!"

58"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!" 59At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.

In this passage we see three vantage points on Jesus.
Jesus claims that anyone who keeps his words will never see death. At this the people respond pretty much like we’d respond to anyone who would make such a claim- you are demon possessed or just plain mad! The people think he’s a lunatic, a nut job, he’s got a couple of loose screws, his elevator doesn’t go to the top floor, he’s a few cards short of a full deck. You get the point. They think he’s crazy- crazy but not harmless.

Then to make the point they go right back to the father of their faith- Abraham. Abraham was basically the greatest guy in the world that ever lived. If there was anyone who was close to God, or God like, it was Abraham. But even Abraham never made such a claim. Neither did the prophets that followed him, and it’s a good thing they didn’t- because they all died!

SO Jesus goes on. Jesus says hey guys, I know Abraham, and I know you, and you are no Abraham. Actually, he says that he would be a liar if he didn’t say that he knew Abraham. And at that the people simply agree. OK then Jesus, maybe you’re not crazy, you’re just a liar. Because you are not even fifty years old, let alone 2000 years old.

But Jesus turns the table with two words. His response to being accused of being a liar- “Before Abraham was born, I AM.” At this the crowd literally tried to kill him. Can you blame them, he said I AM.

To understand this claim, and this response, we have to rewind the clock and look at this through the vantage point of a man named Moses some 1500 years earlier. Through a crazy string of events the children of Abraham, his descendants, ended up in Egypt, and ended up in slavery. But all this was part of God’s plan. The pharaoh of Egypt decides to enact a population control program because he’s concerned about the environmental degradation of the greater Nile river basin due in part to the prolific expansion of the people of God. In other words, he decides to kill their babies. One mom can’t bear the thought of killing her own son, and through an amazing course of events, that baby ends up being raised in pharaohs own household. He ends up discovering his true identity, gets himself in a heap of trouble, and runs away. He lives his life as a shepherd until God reveals his plans to free his people, and to use Moses to get it done. Moses is a bit taken off guard, he protests a bit, and comes to ask this question,

“Who shall I say sent me- what’s you name?”

Never before in the history of God’s people did they ask for a name, or did god offer a name. Until then there was God. God was God, and that’s the way it was. But in Egypt, they encountered a pantheon of Gods! The first divine buffet- river gods, rain gods, fertility gods, war gods, death gods, animal gods. The more gods the merrier they said. One pharaoh did try to convert the nation to monotheism, but it didn’t stick. Sidebar- if you know where the story goes, and the 10 plagues God sends on Egypt, it’s amazing how each one reveals a god of Egypt to be impotent over the power of our God. But I digress.

When God says his name to Moses, it is “I AM WHO I AM.” This was the most profound and personal revelation of God that rocked the world of people of God. So holy, so revered, so wonderful this name of God, that they actually stopped saying it. When thy were making handwritten copies of the Old Testament and they came upon the name of God, they would stop, pray, wash their hands, take a special brush and ink, write the name of God, wash their hands again, and then move on. In Greek, instead of saying the name of God, they would just refer to it as the “tetragrammaton,” “the four letters.” We are not even 100% sure how it would have been originally pronounced, our best guess is that it would have been “Yahweh” or “Jehovah.”

And so when Jesus is accused of being a lunatic, or at least a liar, he makes a play on words, and he says, “Before Abraham was, I am.” “Before Abraham was, Yahweh.”

Sometimes in the battle over the right vantage point of Jesus you’ll hear the argument, “Well, Jesus never actually claimed to be God.” You’ll not hear this from folks that have actually read the gospels. In fact, Jesus doesn’t just claim to be divine; he doesn’t just generically say he’s a god. Here, and elsewhere, Jesus claims in the most specific of terms possible just what God he his- he is the one who revealed himself to Moses, he is the tetragrammaton, he is the great I AM. It was the most intimate way Jesus could define himself. It was a crime punishable by death.

By the way, did you know that Christians shouldn’t watch Popeye the Sailor- yep, he was a blasphemer, saying, “I am what I am.” If I could I’d stone him!

For years now followers of Jesus, folks that believe and accept Jesus as the Christ, have loved making this argument. It was stated brilliantly by C.S. Lewis. They love it so much that they even have a title for it- the trilemma- it’s not a dilemma, two opposing views, but a trilemma, three different views. We’ve used this to draw a line in the sand- what do you make of Jesus- lunatic, Liar, or the Lord? Jesus went around saying he was I AM, he was God. That leaves us with three options- he said he was God, he believed he was God, but he wasn’t God- so he was a lunatic. Or he said he was God, but knew he wasn’t God, and so he was just a liar. Or there is a third option. He said he was God, and he really was God. He is the Lord. A lunatic to be laughed at, a liar to be loathed, or the Lord to be loved and worshipped.

Often this trillema is given as an argument or apologetic for Christianity. Personally, I don’t know anyone who came to faith through this apologetic, or even through logic for that matter. But this helps clarify our vantage point on who Jesus was, who Jesus claimed to be. This is simply, and clearly, who Jesus thought himself to be. This is who billions of Christ-followers understand him to be. This is who I believe Jesus to be.

I was raised in a Christian home where going to church, prayer, and Jesus talk was a regular thing. I really have no idea when I became a Christian. Honestly, I just kind of always was. Sorry, I didn’t do drugs and kill folks, I didn’t have a blinding light shine down from heaven, I was actually quite the momma’s boy. I remember coming in Kindergarten discovering that not all families, not all people, went to church or even believed in God. I remember being baptized in middle school when the whole Jesus thing started to makes sense. I remember some very specific prayers being answered in miraculous ways. I also remember when I got this whole idea of Jesus being the Lord. This goes beyond the logic of saying, Jesus is Lord, to really starting to understand what it means to say he’s my Lord. Because up until this point I would have said without a doubt that I believe Jesus is Lord. But I hadn’t yet got what it meant to make him my Lord.

I was a freshman in college studying art and environmental science. I was having dinner with two girls (pretty much the norm for me!) They started to talk about Jesus in a way that I really didn’t get. They started to talk about Jesus in more personal terms, they started talking about the joy of knowing Jesus. They talked about the sense of direction they had in life. The sense of purpose. This sense of peace. They started to talk in very practical terms about the difference that Jesus made in their life.

Then one of them said, and I’ll never forget it, “You know, even if I didn’t believe in eternity and heaven, Jesus is so good I’d still follow him, I’d still give my life to him.” I must have looked at that girl like she was the one who was totally nuts, or just a liar. I said, “You mean to tell me that being a Christian, following Jesus, is worth it, even if there’s no heaven?” And she said that’s exactly what I’m saying. I said you are crazy. If there’s no afterlife and no consequence to my life here and now, I’m going to start living very differently. I said if there’s no afterlife then it’s about time and that I start living it up way more than I am right now, because I’ve been the good guy my whole 17 years of life (I can’t believe that was half my life ago). I said if it wasn’t for my belief in an eternity, I’d party like a rock star!

I’m so thankful those girls didn’t ridicule me. But gently challenged me to say, you know George, that’s kind of sad, because you are missing out. They encouraged me to look deeper into Jesus, to look deeper into his life and love. They didn’t have the theological training to put the words on it, but what they were saying is that I needed to learn, or more importantly experience, what it means to make Jesus not just a savior, but my Lord.

And once I did that, things started to fall into place. Not over night, and not even now do I have it all figured out. Because when you go from thinking of Jesus just as your "get out of hell free card," when you get past just the comfort of thinking, I have a savior, once you start making him your Lord, you enter into the life long relationship with him, into the relationship that makes it all worth while right here, right now, no matter what.

I can stand before you now and tell you with complete sincerity- Jesus is worth Lordship over your life. Jesus is worthy of giving your entire life to right here, right now. Jesus is worth your career. He is worth your money. He is worth your family. He is worth your hopes and dreams. He is worth everything. Once you get a taste of him, once you get a sense of him, once you get to start knowing him, you can’t get enough of him.

A pastor named John Piper coined the phrase, “Christian Hedonism.” Meaning that because knowing God through Jesus Christ is what we were made to do, because Jesus is the true Lord of all, choosing to make him Lord isn’t just the best thing to do with your life, it’s the most pleasurable thing to do. We end up being the most joyful, the most fulfilled, and the most purposeful people on the planet!

Jesus said whoever loses his life for my sake will gain it. Jesus said I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly. Jesus says, as he started our passage, if you keep my word you will never see death. The fact is we get the best of both worlds in Jesus, and we don’t have the right vantage point until we start to get this in sight- Jesus is Lord now, and always. Jesus wants you life now, and always. Jesus is worthy now, and always. And it really comes down to this-

If Jesus is not worth it here and now, he's not worth it for eternity?

If you don't want to make him your Lord for the few years we spend on earth, would you really want to make him your Lord for all eternity?

Is he worth it? From my vantage point- yes. From the vantage point of millions- yes. From the vantage point of the bible- yes.