The Book of John considers two key questions.    Who is Jesus?  And what does Jesus do?   That is the question before this group today.   Who is Jesus, and what will he do?  What will he do for me, and for the world? Most people use second-hand opinions.   The might argue that Jesus was a great Jewish teacher.   They might argue that Jesus is a moral philosopher.   They might argue that Jesus was a communist.     This question is the most important one that you will ever ask, or answer.  When answering the question, we have to use the information we have in front of us.   As we will see, Jesus’ claims about himself made the people angry.   His claims were outrageous if they are false.   But if his claims are true, they demand our entire allegiance and our worship.

Jesus’ brothers do not take him seriously.   It’s hard to take your brother seriously!   They do not make a direct judgement about him, but their words are sarcastic.   People use cynicism and sarcasm as a defence again the gospel.   They simply dismiss the message of the gospel with a lazy statement such as ‘I’m not into organised religion’.   Many people react to Jesus without taking him seriously. They have heard the name of Jesus many times, so much that they do not stop to think.   Jesus that this because the world has trained them to think in this way.    ‘Any time is right for you’ Jesus says.   This means that his brothers fit in with the rest of the world. 

People usually do not think about Jesus.   They might react to him, but few actually consider this claims.  What stops them?

The Jewish leaders know two important things.   One is that they understand what Jesus’ claims mean.    Those claims means that Jesus is greater than the law.   He is greater than the law.   He is greater than the Sabbath, which was a part of the creation of the world.    They know that he threatens everything their position, their teaching, their jobs.   So they want to kill him.    They are being sensible.     Jesus threatens everything that they have built their lives on.    Jesus challenges everything that we build our lives on.   He claims to be Lord, and to be one with God.     He claims the right to our honour.   It is easy to see the Jewish leaders as evil.   But their position is at least consistent.  They reject Jesus so they move to get rid of him.

The crowd have many different ideas.    Some think that Jesus is a good man.   Jesus is a good man.   He is the only good man who has ever lived.   But Jesus is much more than a good man.     The reason is found in the responses of other people.   

1)   Did extraordinary things.   Here they refer to one miracle.   But there were many, many miracles.   The greatest miracle of Jesus was his resurrection from the dead.   Do you believe in this. 

2) Jesus made extraordinary claims.   He claimed to be God.   You will see that people in these chapters are trying to arrest Jesus.   They are threatening to kill Jesus.    This is because Jesus made such outrageous claims about himself.  No Jewish teacher was allowed to say the things that Jesus said.    Only God could forgive sin.   Only God can raise the dead.    Only God make people spiritually alive.   Jesus does all of these things.    

3) Jesus challenged the deepest assumptions about their world.   Some said that Jesus was demon-possessed.   They said that he was mad.   Jesus claims are so extraordinary that they leave us with three possibilities.   One is that Jesus was deceiving the people.    The second is that he was mad, and didn’t know what he was saying.   The third possibility is that Jesus was indeed a good man, sane and a truth-teller.   In this case he the Lord, God and he demands our total allegiance.

Who do you say that Jesus is?   And why?   Who is Jesus to you, personally?

Jesus tells us to make a right judgement.   He tell us not to look at simple external factors.   Look deeper.   Jesus’ teaching is pinnacle of human moral thinking.   No-one before or since taught the way that Jesus taught.   He is the wisest man who ever lived: his life was entirely consistent with his teaching.   He gave his life because he loved us.   Yet Jesus cannot simply be a moral teacher.    We cannot simply integrate his thinking into our life philosophy.   We must reject him or worship him.   Which will you do?