John 20:30-31; 21:25, Staking the Claim

Sometimes people mistakenly say that Jesus was not clear about His Messianic claims, including the claim to Deity.  Concerning what I just said, remember that the OT prophecies of Messiah included His Deity.  This can be seen in the imagery of Gen. 22 (Abraham with his “only beloved son” Isaac on Mt. Moriah).  Messiah is “Mighty God, Everlasting Father” (Isa. 9:6).  Messiah, the Branch, is “the LORD/Jehovah our righteousness” (Jer. 23:5-6).  When Messiah enters the Eastern Gate it is “the LORD God of Israel” who has entered (Ezek. 44:1-3).  And so forth.

But now, coming back to those who mistakenly say that Jesus was not clear about this, what follows is taken from John’s Gospel, chapters 1-10.  It is probably incomplete, but it reminds us of Jesus clarity.

First, several people acknowledged Jesus as Messiah and were not discouraged by Jesus in their confession.

·       John the Apostle in the prologue (1:1-18).

·       John the Baptist (1:29-34).

·       Andrew (1:41).

·       Philip (1:45).

·       Nathaniel (1:49).

·       The Samaritan Woman (4:29).

·       The crowd (6:14).

·       The man born blind, who worshiped Jesus (9:38).

Jesus sounded like and looked like Israel’s Messiah.

·       John 2:16-17: He had a Messianic zeal for His Father’s house, the temple.

·       John 3:13: He had applied a Messianic title, “Son of Man,” to Himself (Dan. 7:13-14).

·       John 4:25-26; 9:35-37: To both the woman of Samaria and the man born blind, He “introduced” Himself as Messiah and Son of God.

·       John 5:46:To the Jews He claimed to be the fulfillment of Messianic prophecies made by Moses.

·       John 8:58: He claimed to be the “I AM.”

Jesus frequently pointed to the miracles as miraculous signs of His Messiahship (3:2; 5:36; 10:25).  John, led by the Spirit, chose miracles that manifested qualities of Deity in Jesus (e.g. creative ability, omniscience).  When He turned water to wine (2:1-11, a miracle of creation) John said that Jesus “manifested His glory” (2:11; i.e. His deity, the glory He had had with the Father, 17:5).  Healing the nobleman’s son (4:43-54) displayed omniscience.  You see it in all the miracles in John because, as John himself said, these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God (20:31).

How do we know that the Jews understood what He was claiming?  We know it by their reactions.  On several occasions they sought to kill Him (John 5:18; 7:1,25; 8:59; 10:31).  Furthermore, the crowds were regularly arguing about who He was, among each other and with the leadership (7:40-44; 9:16; 10:19-21).  When you read these exchanges you will see that there were people who were getting the point about Jesus because they were seeing and hearing the things we are talking about here.  In other words, our point today: there was clarity in Jesus claims.

Now of course, the issue of clarity is not the bottom line.  The bottom line is: do I believe Jesus so that I have come to believe in Him?