Week 1 – I Am

In the beginning of John chapter 8, we find Jesus at the temple gates where, once again, people had gathered around him to hear what he had to say. See, by this time, word had spread. People were starting to realize that this Jesus of Nazareth was different. He had done miracles – turning water into wine, healing a lifelong cripple, restoring sight to a blind man and feeding 5000 people with nothing more than a kid’s sack lunch. There was something different about the way this Jesus fellow spoke and loved and moved through the world. And lemme tell you, the people’s curiosity were piqued. People were getting the hint that maybe this guy wasn’t just some charismatic teacher or prophet -there was more to him.  He was special.

Likewise, there’s something special about the gospel of John. Written by John, one of the original 12 disciples towards the end of his life, between 70-100AD, the gospel of John is infused with a passion for reaching the very hearts of the Jews and Gentiles in the larger Greco-Roman world. John, the one “whom Jesus loved” has one main goal in this book: to establish Jesus as God’s son, the Holy incarnation of our great Creator. And his writing is crafted in such a way as to make God’s people feel that truth all the way down to their bones. One way he does that is hidden within the scripture we are studying. There we find two important words that are sprinkled throughout the Bible. Words that Jesus used in explaining who he was and is, over and over. 

Those words are “I am”.  

Our scripture quotes Jesus as saying “I am the light of the world”.  He uses multiple other “I am” statements throughout the book, as well.

So let’s think about his use of “I am”.

Do these two words ring a bell?  Perhaps a very old bell going all the way back to the Old Testament?

Think way back to Exodus, the 3rd book of the Old Testament. Here, God instructed Moses to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, Moses asked God what to say when people asked who was sending them.  Do you remember God’s response?  He said to tell them “I am has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14).  

I am. 

Not I can, or I have, or I will.  But I am. Think about the significance of those words. There is no beginning and there is no end, there is no qualifier about what God is, or what he can do. It’s just the absolute declaration of all that is and will ever be.  I Am.  He is complete, he is is all things. The Alpha and the Omega, without beginning and without end. He is the Great I am.

And we find Jesus using those same two little (big) words repeatedly throughout the book of John almost like a subliminal message to those who would have known their scriptures. It was no accident that Jesus used the phrase I Am repeatedly – he was intentionally forming an unmistakeable link from God to himself.

In the scripture we are currently studying, John 8:12, when Jesus says “I am the light of the world”, he is certainly declaring that he is the goodness, the beauty, the joy and the hope to this sinful and fallen world.  But he’s saying more. His deliberate use of the words “I am” means that he is God incarnate. He is more than just a messenger of light, he IS light because he is God’s son. He is not a mere mortal, but is deity, like his Father, who Moses knew as I Am.  Jesus too, is without beginning and without end. As he states in the beginning of the book of John

John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

Throughout the book of John, Jesus makes many more “I am” statements. 

I am the Bread of Life (John 6:35) 
I am the Light of the World (John 8:12) 
I am the Door (John 10:9)
I am the Good Shepherd (John 10:11-14) 
I am the Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25) 
I am the Way and the Truth and the Life (John 14:6)
I am the Vine (John 15:1)