Jesus declares himself to be the Master and Lord of his disciples, emphasizing that true discipleship involves submitting one's life to his authority. This is contrasted with the "I Am" statements made to those outside the faith, such as "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." The sermon highlights that accepting Jesus as Master means allowing him to direct one's life, akin to Paul's declaration, "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." The ultimate test of discipleship is whether Jesus is the master of one's life or if one lives solely for self-pleasure. The sermon concludes by urging listeners to yield their lives to Christ's direction for a fruitful and eternally satisfying existence.
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same time revealing himself, his identity, as the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Savior, and the Lord and Master. And in this chapter, after he had taken a towel and washed the disciples' feet, he says in verse thirteen, Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say, Well, for so I am. Here he is saying, the great I am, as master and lord of the disciple. I am the door was uttered to those who were not his disciples.
I am the way the truth and the life was uttered to those who had not known the way, who had not received him as Savior, who had not believed him on him as Savior. I am come to seek and to save that which was lost, was uttered to those who had not come, who had not received them, who had not believed in them, who didn't know their sins were given, who were not born again. They had not ever come in contact by faith with the Lord Jesus Christ. So those I am, I am the light of the world, and so on, those were great I am... for those folk who have not trusted Christ as Savior, who have not believed on Him.
Now here's one now for the disciple, for those who have trusted Christ, those who know what it is to have their sins forgiven through faith in the Lord Jesus as Savior, who died upon Calvary's cross so many years ago. Those who follow and who profess to live for him, who profess to try to live like he did and to live as God would have the followers of him to live on this earth. A Christian life, a true life, a true believer's life. He says, I am your master. You call me master and lord.
And you say, well, for so I am. Yeah. He is the master of the Christian's life. And here's one way of determining whether or not in your own soul you can say, I am a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, to the saving of my soul. Is the Lord the master of your life, or do you run your life just to suit yourself, to please you, to do what you wish to do, to do what you think is best to do? Or do you say, if the Lord wills, Do you say, I wonder if the Lord wishes me to do this? Do you look into the Scriptures to find out what the will of the Lord really is, and if whether your life measures up to what is in the Scriptures about how a believer should live?
One who claims that the Lord Jesus is the master of their life, and not they themselves. We've committed our life over to him, such as Paul could say, so that I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. Ah, yes. The submissive vessel, the pottery in the potter's hand. He does the making of the vessel. He does the directing. He molds and forms and makes it useful the vessel. And like manner, we who profess to be Christians, we who profess to has said as the Apostle Saul of Tarsus did before he became the Apostle Paul, he said, when he was stricken by the light from heaven on the way to Damascus, on the roadside, he said, Lord, he addressed them as Lord.
Ah, yes, conversion had taken place. He knew it was the Lord that was speaking to him. Oh, my friends, when of you have? of confrontation with the Lord Jesus. When have you directly dealt with the Lord Jesus by faith, and you have accepted His work on the cross for you, you have accepted Him as your Savior, for salvation in reality is a person, and that person is the Lord Jesus Christ, the only one who could die on the cross for your sins, the only one who could put your sins away, and mine also. Now that you are saved, is he your master?
Do you give him the reins to your life? Do you ask him to lead and guide you every day, every way, everywhere? Paul said, Lord, what will thou have me to do? And that's what we must do when we claim him as our Lord and master. We let him direct our lives. We let him choose what we're going to do. And we let him give us the strength and ability to go ahead and do that work that he leads us to do. So the disciples here have an I am from the Savior. I am your Master and Lord.
And if we let the Lord, He'll direct our path. He'll direct our life. He will use our life. for His honor and glory, and we'll be all the happier about it. We'll be delighted with it. It'll be the most useful, fruitful life that's possible to live, a happy life, a satisfied life, a gratifying life. Oh, yes, to see the Lord using you as an earthen vessel in this life down here, to be a blessing to mankind, to carry the gospel to them. to testify to others in a personal way, and to show them above all by your life and manner of conversation and so on that you have been with Jesus and learned of him.
And then he goes on to say down in verse nineteen, Now I tell you before it comes that when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he. Yes? Yes, he was telling them here that there was one going to betray him in verse eighteen. I speak not of you all. I know whom I have chosen, but that the Scripture may be fulfilled. He that he is bred with me has lifted up his heel against me. And so he's telling them that one of the numbers that was Judas, of course, was going to lift up his heel against him.
And I'm telling you this, he says, so that when it comes to pass, ye may believe that I am He, who, the Lord and Master, the one who is going to be put on the cross, the one who is going to be rejected and reviled by man, his creature, and the whole world turned against them. And he says, now, I tell you beforehand, so that when it comes to pass, you'll know... that I am He. Oh, yes, there's no mistake about it. No one else would have taken the cross. No one else would have submitted themselves to be taken by the angry mob. Everyone else would have run, and everyone else would have sought to hide.
Oh, yes, there would be no comparison, no comparison at all. There would be a contrast entirely to Lord Jesus did not run. When the multitude came to them, and he said, To whom seek ye? And they went backward and fell to the ground, and they said, Jesus of Nazareth, and he said, I am he. He didn't try to hide his identity. He didn't try to elude them. He didn't try to get away from them. He submitted himself to them. And they took them. They took them as a prisoner, and they bound them. as if he would run away. And he says, now when it comes to pass, you'll know that I am he.
I'm the meek and lowly Jesus. I'm the one who came to be the Savior. Born this day in the city of David, a Savior which is Christ the Lord. Yeah? The one who is the master of all those that believe in him to the salvation of their own souls. I am He. O friend, have you believed on Him? This says, I tell you beforehand that when it comes to pass, ye may believe that I am He. I am He. Yet through the Word of God now, God reveals to us the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit of God takes the Word of God, the living Word of God, and reveals to the soul that wants to be saved, reveals to them the Savior, who loved them, who went to the cross, who died for them, and who now has risen and is alive forevermore.
He's alive in glory. But His Holy Spirit here takes the Word of God and shows you what the Lord Jesus did just for you as an individual, and for me as an individual. Suffered, bled, and died. He didn't look like the Master then. No. But in order to be your master and your Lord and mine, he had to die to put your sins and mine away, and to give us forgiveness, and to give us salvation, and to give us his Holy Spirit to indwell us, and to be the bread of life to us, and so that we might be blessed not only for time, but for all eternity, because he's the great I am of past, of present, and of future, the one who will never pass away, the one who will not ever cease to be, the eternal Son of the eternal God, Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, my friends, have you had a relationship established by your faith in the Lord Jesus for your own self, that he died just for you. Have you ever made him yours by your acceptation? As many as deceived him, to them gave him power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Blessed Father, we thank thee for the Lord Jesus, the great I am of time and eternity, the one who will ever live forevermore. We praise thee for all who have trusted him. And we pray thy blessing upon others that they will accept them, they will meet them by faith, and receive them into their heart, to change their lives.
And he become the Master and Lord, and they be the obedient, humble followers, the happy followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray for our President. We pray for our country, and for all who are in authority. We pray our Father, for the Cabinet, the Congress, and the Court, and the governors and the mayors. We pray the Lord for the mayor of our great capital city. The Lord undertake for these great men. In the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.