Sermon
Jesus Christ -- Liar or Lord?
November 24, 2002
Pastor Donald Sheley

We're going to stick quite close to the text here. What we're dealing with is a subject immensely important. In fact, I was noticing the other day as I was filing some of my notes and studying for the gospel of John, there's an immense amount of material which we've collected on the deity of Christ. And you're going to find that again we're coming back to that subject today, but that's quite natural because John's theme is to present Christ in such a way that people will believe that He is the Son of God and that through believing they might have life through His name. And so we come back frequently to the text of the deity of Jesus Christ, and we're going to deal with that from another aspect today.

It says in John 8:13 --
The Pharisees therefore said to Him; "You bear witness of Yourself: Your witness is not true."
Now remember last Lord's Day, the verse that precedes that, verse 12, says, Jesus stood and said, I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness. And after that statement He gets a tremendous reaction from those Pharisees who were the religious leaders of His day. They say, You bear witness of Yourself and Your witness is not true.
Jesus answered and said to them; "Even if I bear witness of Myself; My witness is true; for I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I came from and where I am going.
You judge according to the flesh, I judge no man.
And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me.
It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true.
I am One who bears witness of Myself; and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me."
Then they said to Him; "Where is Your Father?" Jesus answered, "You know neither Me nor My Father. If you had known Me; you would have known My Father also."
These words Jesus spoke in the treasury; as He taught in the temple; and no one laid hands on Him, for His hour had not yet come.
Then Jesus said to them again, "I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come."
So the Jews said; "Will He kill Himself; because He says; "Where I go you cannot come?"
And He said to them; "You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.
"Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He; you will die in your sins.

Now here's the question: did Jesus Christ ever lie? Or did He ever misstate a fact about Himself and His relationship with His Father? This was the suggestion or accusation that the Pharisees were making when they said that Jesus' testimony was not true. They said: You bear witness of Yourself and Your witness is not true.

Jesus considered who men believed Him to be of fundamental importance. In fact, so important that if they didn't believe what He said about Himself; they would die in their sins. So it's critical. The implication affects our position and destiny or eternity. Who do you say Jesus Christ is?

One of the great man of our day, of recent days, is the writer C. S. Lewis. C. S. Lewis was a professor at Cambridge University with a brilliant mind. And he was an agnostic in his younger years, but through deep study and research he became a Christian. And that brilliant mind wrote these words: "I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him [Jesus Christ]: "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 a 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."

C. S. Lewis adds: "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 up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."

Jesus Christ claimed to be God. He did not leave any other options. His claim to be God must be either true or false, and is something that should be given serious consideration by all of us. Jesus' question to His disciples, "But who do you say that I am?" is a question that He asks of all of us today. And in that He is the Lord of the universe He deserves our worship, our adoration, and our entire love.

Philip Schaff, the great church historian, his masterpiece is a four volume set entitled 'A History of the Christian Church'. A brilliant writer. Look at what Mr. Schaff says: This testimony if not true, must be downright blasphemy or madness. The former hypothesis cannot stand a moment before the moral purity and dignity of Jesus, revealed in His every word and work, and acknowledged by universal consent. Self-deception in a matter so momentous, and with an intellect in all respects so clear and so sound, is equally out of the question. How could He be an enthusiast or a madman who never lost the even balance of His mind, who sailed serenely over all the troubles and persecutions, as the sun above the clouds, who always returned the wisest answer to tempting questions, who calmly and deliberately predicted His death on the cross, His resurrection on the third day, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the founding of His Church, the destruction of Jerusalem-predictions which have been literally fulfilled?

He continues: A character so original, so complete, so uniformly consistent, so perfect, so human and yet so high above all human greatness, can be neither a fraud nor a fiction. The poet as has been well said, would in case be a greater hero. It would take more than a Jesus to invent a Jesus "

Napoleon, the great French General, said: "I know men; and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man. Superficial minds see a resemblance between Christ and the founders of empires, and the gods of other religions. That resemblance does not exist. There is between Christianity and whatever other religions the distance of infinity. Everything in Christ astonishes me, he said. His spirit overawes me, and His will confounds me. Between Him and whoever else in the world, there is no possible term of comparison. He is truly a being by Himself."

Who you decide Jesus Christ is must not be an idle intellectual exercise. You cannot put Him on a shelf as a great moral teacher. This is not a valid option. The evidence is clearly in favor of Jesus as Lord, the Lord of the universe, and because He is Lord, He deserves our worship and our love. Now this conclusion was totally rejected by the religious leaders of Christ's day. They said that His witness about Himself was untrue. Jesus has made His claim to be the light of the world and the scribes and the Pharisees reacted with hostility. His claim was that He was the Messiah! And even more, he claimed to do the work that only God could do.

The word 'light' was specially associated in Jewish thought and language with God. David wrote, The Lord is my light. Isaiah wrote, The Lord will be your everlasting light. Job said, By His light, I walked through darkness. And Micah the prophet said, When I sit in darkness the Lord will be a light to me.

So when Jesus claimed to be the light of the world, He was making a claim than which none could possibly be higher. Jesus Christ was God in human flesh. Here is the issue that the religious leaders of Christ's day wrestled with -- Did Jesus possess the attributes of God? Let's think about it, but there's another question. Why would He, why would God become man?

The writer to the Hebrews answers the question with these words: "Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood; He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham. Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren", like us. Why?

"That He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted." So the only way that God could meet the need of mankind was to take upon the likeness of our flesh in the person of Jesus Christ.

In Josh McDowell's book, 'The Evidence Demands A Verdict', he makes the following argument:
If God became man, then we would expect Him to:
(1) Have an unusual entrance into human existence -- the virgin birth of Christ.
(2) Be without sin -- even His worst enemies couldn't accuse Him of sin.
(3) Manifest the supernatural in the form of miracles -- He did that; calmed the sea, raised the dead, heal the deaf.
(4) Have an acute sense of difference from other men -- in the presence of people demon possessed, it was the demons that cried out and said You are the Son of God, and He had to silence them. He was different than any other human being..
(5) Speak the greatest words ever spoken.
(6) Have a lasting and universal influence.
(7) Satisfy the spiritual hunger in man.
(8) Exercise power over death in His resurrection.
So when all these factors are considered extensively, we can only conclude the Jesus Christ fulfilled them all. He was not a liar. He is the Lord.

You ask, where did you get the title? Well Josh McDowell in his book, 'The Evidence Demands a Verdict', one of his chapters is entitled: Jesus Christ, lunatic, liar or Lord. He's saying He is either a lunatic, or He lied, or He is the Lord of the universe; but we've got to make the decision.

In the text that we are studying from John 8, it is obvious that the opponents of Christ were in total disagreement. Jesus had just told them that He was the light of the world, but they changed the subject. They do not concern themselves with light and darkness; indeed, these two great concepts are not mentioned again in the rest of the chapter. Instead the Pharisees turn immediately to the question of the rules of evidence.

They said that Jesus is not to be believed because He is talking about Himself. Of course, when a man talks about himself, his detractors will always think that he is biased and that what he says must be weighed carefully. But these Pharisees go further than that. They simply reject Jesus' whole testimony because it came from Him personally. "Your testimony is not true," they say. By "true" they seem to mean "valid"; it is testimony that does not conform to the rules and therefore is not to be accepted.

Their point is that self-testimony is not valid testimony and cannot be accepted when anyone is trying to establish a point in a court of law. It was Jewish law that any statement must be founded on the evidence of two witnesses before it could be regarded as true. Deuteronomy laid down that premise, "A single witness shall not prevail against a man for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed; only on the evidence of two witnesses, or of three witnesses, shall a charge be sustained."

I'm at the top of page 4. Jesus answered that His own witness was enough. He was so conscious of His own authority that no other witness was necessary. Jesus points out that He is qualified to talk about Himself whereas they are not. He's aware of His heavenly origin and His destiny, but these Pharisees know neither. The testimony of Jesus is grounded in His unity with the Father, from whom His revelation is derived.

So in answering the charge that His testimony concerning Himself was invalid, Jesus makes three points in the text that we have read today. Point #1: that in terms of the kind of matter to which He is testifying, only a person with a superior source of knowledge can qualify. And Jesus is simply saying when I speak I'm speaking eternal truth. I know where I came from, and only I can qualify to speak as My witness on this matter.

Number 2: Jesus defended His right to give testimony about God and man on the basis that His testimony is impartial. This is what He meant when He said, "You judge by human standards." The human standards in this verse stand for all that is human in man as opposed to that which is of God; it involves the limitations of being human. As humans we're biased and prejudice. We don't have all the knowledge and therefore it is an absolute impossibility for us to make a perfect judgment. We can't do it. We're imperfect beings.

Jesus declares that His judgment is not limited as theirs is, moreover it is also sinless. For being of "human standards" in biblical language also implies being sinful; and this, too, Jesus is denying. He is the sinless One. So the distortions of sin do not enter to invalidate His testimony.

Thirdly, the Lord Jesus Christ also pointed out, as He had done earlier in His ministry, that in the final analysis His testimony did not stand alone but actually was supported by the Word of God the Father, thereby satisfying the rabbinical requirement that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word should be established.

Now see, here's the point -- Jesus is standing before them in the temple. He's made the declaration 'I am the light of the world', and by that He's implying He is the Messiah; He's God. And they say what You say about Yourself is not valid because even our law requires that there be two witnesses to a statement. And therefore You stand here alone and where is Your other witness? Therefore Your witness is not valid.

So Jesus does not disagree with the Jewish requirement of two witnesses. He simply replied that His testimony was true even if no one else bore witness, but there was another One bearing witness-His Heavenly Father. The Father who sent Jesus was with Jesus, so that the Son was not alone. Because they did not know Jesus' divine origin and considered Him to be no more than a pretender to the Messiahship from Galilee, they did not understand that the Father and Son lived in each other (in what theologians call co-inherence) and were with one another.

Therefore, even though the Son came from the Father and was sent to earth by the Father, He was not separate from the Father: "The Father who sent the Son came with Him and provided testimony to Him!" Look at what Jesus says in John 14, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father?' Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves. I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me."

Now here's what He's saying, I and the Father are one. If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father. There are two witnesses. Two witnesses established the truth, and here were two witnesses, the Father and the Son, and yet they rejected the truth.

Then said they unto Him, Where is your Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know Me, nor My Father: if ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also. How the Light revealed the hidden things of darkness. Christ had appealed to the testimony of the Father, but so obtuse were these Pharisees, they asked, "Where is Your Father?"

And when they said "Where is Your Father?", it's raising the question by the Pharisees, they are assuming another formal legal position -- if a person appeals to the testimony of a witness, that person should be able to produce the witness. So they're saying, all right Sir, You stand here and say that Your Father witnesses to the truth of Your statement. Produce Your witness. Where is He?

And thus Jesus' reply is direct and radical. It's not a simple misunderstanding needing to be cleared up that is at issue. What prevents them from accepting Jesus' words as true and legally valid is that they know neither Jesus nor His Father. They're in spiritual darkness.

For John, "knowing God" was a key theme of Jesus' ministry. Understanding the nature of God is not something we can do on our own. Each individual must be given the ability to recognize Jesus as God.

As your pastor, Sunday after Sunday, as we go through these great text and these great truths of Scripture, with all my heart I try to present Christ in the most biblical light that's possible, and yet I'm fully aware that there has to be a divine process that goes on within our service. And that divine process is the Holy Spirit taking the truths that are spoken, revealing those truths to the mind and to the heart, only then can a person know spiritual truth and become a follower of Christ. I know that. And you know, that should be one of the prayers as you make your way to church each Sunday, dear God, may the presence of the Holy Spirit be so real so amongst us today that truth will be revealed to minds and hearts that don't understand.

Here's what Paul says to the Romans. I'm down at the bottom of page 5. "But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him."

Now let me pause there. Most of us hear that verse only at funeral services. The implied is now that he's gone, he's received his eternal reward, and what he never dreamed heaven to be like now he's experiencing all the glories of heaven. This has nothing to do with that kind of death, and it really doesn't fit necessarily into a funeral service. Paul is saying something very truthful. It's beyond the human capacity as a natural man thinking without the touch of God's Spirit he doesn't understand -- Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for them that love Him.

That's the limitation of the sinner. But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been given freely to us by God.

What happens when the Holy Spirit begins to open our hearts and minds? All of a sudden those things we did not understand, God by His Holy Spirit makes us to understand. We call that the moment of the new birth; the moment when divine truth becomes real to us.

These things we also speak not in words of man's wisdom, but what the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things. But the natural man, that's the man who's the sinner apart from God, that man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.

That's why it's difficult oft times for Christians to give their testimony to the nonbeliever. You tell what joy and the lifting of the burden of sin and the guilt of sin that's all gone, and the sinner's sitting there and saying, what are you talking about? Right? They don't understand, because they don't have the ability to discern spiritual things.

It's when we say, Jesus, I put my trust in You as my Lord and my God. I invite You by Your Holy Spirit to come live within my heart and life. (Snaps fingers) It's then the Spirit of God comes, and all of a sudden the spiritual lights turn on. Amen?

Verse 20 in our text today says: These words spoke Jesus in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one laid hands on Him, for His hour had not yet come. John identifies the location of where this conversation is taking place. Remember it's in the temple. The temple -- we described it last Sunday, it's in courts. You have the outer court of the Gentiles, the court of the women, the court of the men, the court the priests, and then you have the inner court. But in the outer court, the court of women, that's where the treasury was. It was interesting. There were 13 very large shaped vessels that looked like the bell on a trumpet. They had a small neck and they were beautifully gold, and there were 13 of them in this treasury.

The first one, when you went in, you put in your temple tax. Then you went to the next offering plate and you put in your offering for the priests, and then the offering for the poor. And you had these 13 different offering plates. Wouldn't that be something to come to church and have 13 offerings? So you put in your offering in each one and it's a very, very busy place. But right behind the wall where these bell shaped offering plates are was where the temple guard was housed, and they hated Jesus.

So what He said was in the ear shot of His worst enemies. And old John says they never laid a hand on Him. Why? Because God is the God of history, and history marches to His tune, and He has set it in the councils of eternity and when God's timing is right, it happens, and there's no man on earth that can change God's plan. Amen?

Now we come to verse 21: Then Jesus said to them again, "I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sins. Where I go you cannot come." Now the crowd is getting a very solemn announcement. Christ here addressed these Pharisees as the representatives of the nation, and looked forward to the sore trials before them. In a few years, Israel would suffer an affliction far heavier than any that they had experienced before; and when that time came, they would seek the delivering help of their promised Messiah, but it would be in vain.

Having refused the Savoir, they would die in their sins. Having refused the Light, they would continue on in darkness, and having rejected the Son of God, it would be impossible for them to come where Jesus went.

One of the amazing studies in history is to study the history of the Jewish people. Jesus is standing there and He's saying, look at, I am the Light of the world, but you reject Me. You will die in your darkness and you'll die in your sin. You know that 35 years approximately after Jesus said that, the Roman army was so put out with these Jewish people they walked into Jerusalem and literally took stone for stone and left that city desolate. The destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 -- and we're told that over one million people died in the streets of the little city of Jerusalem; and a nation died.

For 2000 years they were a race chased around the world, hated, and persecuted by all; a race without a nation. Max Dumont, the great Jewish historian, writes a book entitled, 'Jews, God and History', and one of the lines I shall never forget is a line where he being a Jewish man said: the Jews are the spiritual castaways of history. One of the great tragedies is that Jesus came to His own, but His own received Him not. What a price is paid to reject Jesus Christ. What a price they paid.

Jesus said, you'll die if you do not believe that I am who I say I am; you'll die in your sins. What does it mean to die in your sins? It means to leave this world and to go into eternity totally abandoned by God, and to go to hell. That's what it means.

Altamont the great infidel, cried out in his last words as he was dying: "My principles have poisoned my friend, my extravagance has beggared my boy; my unkindness has murdered my wife. And is there another hell? Oh, thou blasphemed, yet most indulgent Lord God! Hell is a refuge if it hides me from thy frown." And he died in his sins.

A newspaper article referred to a striking story in an anonymous book of memoirs published not long ago -- the writer met the woman who nursed the great agnostic professor T. H. Huxley through his last illness. And she said that as he lay dying that great skeptic suddenly looked up at some sight invisible to mortal eyes, staring a long while then he whispered, so it is true, and he died in his sin.

Quoted from Newsweek is the story of Svetlana Stalin, Stalin's daughter. She wrote the story of her father's death. This is the way she wrote it, and it was recorded in Newsweek magazine: 'My father died a difficult and terrible death...God grants an easy death only to the just...At what seemed the very last moment he suddenly opened his eyes and cast a glance over everyone in the room. It was a terrible glance, insane or perhaps angry and full of fear of death...Then he lifted his left hand as though he were pointing to someone above and bringing down a curse on us all. The gesture was full of menace...The next moment...the spirit wrenched itself free of the flesh." And he died in his sins.

Jesus said, you reject Me and there's no other alternative for eternity but hell. That's the issue. But to die forgiven is a totally different story. When you put your trust in Jesus Christ and experience the forgiveness of sins, and His love, and His mercy, and grace, to die is a different story.

Dwight L. Moody was conducting a service, the great preacher from Chicago of yesteryear, a great man of God, in his service was Fanny J. Crosby the blind hymn writer; a godly lady. And Dr. Moody said, Fanny, would you give your personal testimony to the people tonight. And she hesitated and quietly she rose and she said there's one hymn I have written which has never been published. She said I call it my soul's poem. Sometimes when I am troubled I repeat it to myself for it brings comfort to my heart, and then she recited this poem that was yet to be put to music. Everybody in the crowd was crying. She said:
Someday the silver cord will break,
And I no more as now shall sing;
But O the joy when I shall wake,
Within the palace of the King!
And I shall see Him face to face,
And tell the story saved by grace.

To die forgiven is to arrive in the presence of Jesus Christ and to experience the glories of heaven for all of eternity. There is a Christian tribe down in the heart of Africa and they never say when someone dies that they die in the Lord, or that they have departed. That's not a part of their language. Speaking, as it were, as from the vantage point of heaven, the just simply say, he just arrived.

When I go, don't you say he passed on, you just simply say he has arrived. Amen? Because we know where we're headed because Christ is there waiting for us, our wonderful Lord. Amen?

Lord Jesus, we put your trust in You. We've loved You, and we are looking forward to spending eternity with You. Maybe there's someone here today who wants to make that decision. You're here today and you're now confronted with the person of Jesus. He's not a lunatic and He's not a liar. He is the Lord of the universe and He deserves your love and your worship. If you've never opened your heart and said, Jesus come in to it now, just raise your hand to God. And what you're saying is, God, today I made the decision, I've invited Jesus to be my Savior.

Lord Jesus, I pray that by the work of Your Holy Spirit you will now make Yourself very real in a wonderful personal way to all of these folks who raised their hand. Somehow in Your great grace and in Your mercy just envelop them with Your love, the sense of Your peace and Your forgiveness, and fill them with Your precious Holy Spirit. Thank you Jesus. And Jesus, we bow our hearts before You and we worship You, our God, our Lord, and our Savior. And everybody said, amen. God bless you all. God bless you. © Copyright 2002 Church of the Highlands