Randall Caselman
Bella Vista Church of Christ
01/26/2020 A.M.
THE I AM SAYINGS OF JESUS
I Am He
John 4.25-26 John 6.18-20 John 8.58-59 John 18.4-6 Colossians 1.15-19
Three weeks ago… We started our Series of Studies on the I AM SAYINGS OF JESUS.
You recall… We began by standing with Moses… On Mount Sinai… Before the Burning Bush.
There we heard the voice of God say… Come now Moses… I’m sending you to Pharaoh… Saying let my People go. Moses asked… And who are You… Who will I say sent me… And God answers with a three word sentence… ehyeh asher ehyeh… (A-HAY-YA A-SHARA-HAY-YA)… I AM THAT I AM… Three words in the Hebrew… Five in our English.
Tell Pharaoh… Tell the Children of Israel… I AM SENT YOU.
God continued… I am not a different God… I am the God of your forefathers…Abraham… Isaac… and Jacob.
You remember that before THIS EVENT we knew God only by His DESCRIPTIVE TERMS…
•Elohim… THE GOD OF CREATION
•El-shaddai… El SH DI AI… THE ALMIGHTY
•Adonia… ADD O NI A… LORD & MASTER
•Yehovah Raah… THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD
•Yehovah Jireh…THE LORD WILL PROVIDE
•Yehovah Shalom… The God of peace
But now!!... God has a name…ehyeh asher ehyeh… (A-Hay-Ya A-Shar A-Hay-Ya).
Moses takes this name and forms it into a third person title… YAHWEH.
In our English would appear as YHWH.
Because Old Testament Hebrew had no vowels… This would be difficult for us to speak… A lot of the sounds have been lost as the Hebrew Language has CHANGED…EVOLVED… over the centuries to how it sounds today.
The word would be something like YA WH… Breathing IN on the YA…OUT on the HA. God’s name was pronounced more with the throat and the diaphragm… Rather than with the tongue and the lips.
Another reason we’re not for sure how to pronounce His Name is because the Jews of old thought it blasphemous to say the name of God… SO THEY DIDN’T… As a result the exact pronunciation has been lost.
Now we come to the New Testament and JESUS…
Jesus doesn’t speak Hebrew… But Aramaic… Plus… The New Testament is written in neither Hebrew nor Aramaic… BUT IN GREEK.
So for us… A-Haya A-Shar A-Haya becomes ego-eimi. (EGO A-ME)
Now… Because the Jews of Jesus’ day used the Septuagint… The Greek Translation of the Old Testament… When Jesus said I AM HE…. They knew exactly what He was saying…
• THAT HE WAS GOD…
• Yahweh…
• The God of… Abraham… Isaac… Jacob…
• The God of the Burning Bush…
• The God of The Exodus…
• The God of Israel…
And that was too much for them to stomach.
And ultimately it was this CLAIM OF DEITY that placed Jesus on the Cross.
Now church… Before we are too hard on these Jews of Jesus’ time… Think about it for a moment… We have the privilege of looking backward… Hindsight is perfectly perfect.
For hundreds of years… The Jewish Nation had been waiting on the Promised Anointed One… Messiah… King Messiah!... Deliverer Messiah.
They expected Him to come…
• Sitting on a throne…
• Wearing a crown…
• Riding a white stallion…
• With a sword in His hand…
• And with sufficient forces to overthrow Rome… And restore Israel to the glory days of David and Solomon.
AND HERE IS JESUS….
• Born in a barn…
• Coming from an area of the country that had a bad reputation…
• From a peasant family…
• Homeless…
• One who cohorted with that strange man dressed in animal skins… That never cut his hair… Eating a strange diet… Preaching baptism and repentance.
• Besides that… Jesus has only a few followers… And most of them carried only fishing knives and a rusty sword or two for what would appear to be for self-defense.
Where is His army?... His tanks…. His armored personal carriers… His GPS guided missiles… His F-16s… How can this man possibly deliver us??
Now think about it church… This man whom they knew both He and His family… Comes saying… I AM GOD… YOUR GOD… THE GOD OF ISRAEL… Jehovah… YAHWEH!
John 6.42 has them reasoning… Is this not Jesus… The son of Joseph… Whose father and mother we know? How can he now say… I came down from heaven?
Place yourself in their shoes… What would we be thinking?… How would we have reacted?... Similarly I’m sure!... Especially in light of how we sometimes react to His coming today… Right?
I mean... It is hard to… Recognize Jesus… Hard to recognize God… When he refuses to show up in the way we expect… Doing what we don’t expect Him to do.
OK… Did Jesus really say He was God?... If so… When and Where?...
Where in Scripture?… And what were the circumstances?...
Here it is… The Gospel of John is organized around a series of… SIGNS… MIRACLES... Each culminating in an ego-eimi… (EGO A-ME) statement reminiscent of the Yahweh declaration made to Moses… For instance…
• When He fed 5000… He declared… I am the bread of life.
• Giving sight to a man blind from birth… He announced… I am the light of the world…
• Later… I am the Good Shepherd… The Door of the Sheepfold…
• At raising of Lazarus… I am the Resurrection and Life…
• I am the Vine… You are the Branches…
• Perhaps His most disruptive statement in 8.58 & 59… Before Abraham was I AM.
• In John 10.30… I and the Father are ONE!
• I am the way… The truth and the life… There is no access to God except by Me.
Possible modest statements if applied to an ordinary person… But Jesus spoke in the first person… As did God at the Burning Bush… I AM… He was claiming to be God!!
Indeed!!…These Jews knew very well what Jesus was saying…
I AM THAT I AM were five of the most memorized Hebrew words… No Jew three to five years old had not memorized them.
We know this because… At times… They would pick up stones to kill Him… Or try to throw Him off a cliff… But Jesus would miraculously slip from their sight.
In the Garden… At His arrest… Jesus asked… Whom do you seek… They answered Jesus of Nazareth... Jesus said… I AM HE… (EGO A-ME)
Actually…The pronoun HE is not found in the original Greek… Jesus really said… IAM.
When the soldiers… Temple Police… Jewish Hierarchy… Heard this they fell to the ground… WHY?
Church… Because there is no mention of ANY MIRACULOUS POWER being involved here… I believe they simply FAINTED AT THE ANNOUNCEMENT.
Fainted at being told that they had come to this Garden to arrest YEHOVAH GOD…YAHWEH... THE I AM THAT I AM… How would we have felt?
Indeed… JESUS WAS GOD IN THE FLESH…
John testifies to this… In the beginning was the Word… And the Word was with God and the Word was God.
It was Paul who wrote… He… Jesus…Is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross… That’s Colossians 1.15-20.
Seven times in John’s Gospel… Jesus claims to be IAM… Reinforcing His Deity.
This same John records this affirmation in the opening chapter of Revelation… I am the Alpha and the Omega… Says the Lord God… Who is and who was and who is to come.
Listen church… Jesus was not just a God-like man… He was God… God in the flesh… And each time He said… I AM… Those in His company understood He was claiming to be THE GOD OF THE BURNING BUSH… THE I AM THAT I AM… YAHWEH… EGO A-me… Our LORD and God.
I pray that we here tonight can go home seeing Jesus just as He is… God…Who is deserving of both our faith and worship.
Now in application…
Let’s look at two occasions when Jesus said I AM HE…
And what that meant to those in His audience… AnD to us…
The first is found in John chapter four… JESUS MEETS THE WOMAN AT THE WELL…
In John 4.25-26… She says… I know that when Messiah comes He will tell us all things… And Jesus says… I AM HE!
Listen…
• Here’s a woman in need…
• She is a rank sinner…
• Thrown her life away on lust…
• Has had five husbands…
• And is living with a man not her husband.
She is such an outcast… That no other ladies of the Village will associate with her.
She’s…Hurt… Lonely… Lost… Unsure of how to worship God correctly… Sound familiar?... Any of us been there?...Any of us relate?... Of Course!
Church…We need to stop looking down our nose at this lady… We are the Woman at the Well… Just as sure as we are the Prodigal Son… Amen?
• We need to personally meet the I AM…
• We need a personal encounter with Jesus
• We’re in need of His living water…
• We need to know how to worship Him in spirit and truth.
Listen as this same Jesus says… Unless you believe that I am He... You will die in your sins… There is no access to the Father except by Me.
Peter tells us in 4.12 of Acts… Salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.
Paul writes in Second Corinthians 5.21… He made Him who knew no sin… To be sin for us… That we might become the righteous of God in Him.
You tell me if we need an encounter with Jesus.
Here it is… Like with this woman… Such an encounter will change our life…
• We’ll have our sins forgiven…
• We’ll know how to live the abundant life…
• We’ll know who and how to worship…
• We’ll have the hope of eternal life…
• We’ll find our Kingdom Ministry… Sharing Jesus with others.
Question church… Have we encountered Jesus… REALLY?
The second narrative we consult is that of JESUS WALKING ON WATER.
John six tells us that the Apostles are three or four miles out in the lake… It was night!... They were too far to swim to safety… Their fate is set… They’re gonna lose their life… But all of a sudden… They see their salvation… They see Jesus walking on the water. He says… FEAR NOT… IT IS I… EGO A-ME.
Listen to what comes next… Scripture says… When Jesus got into the boat they were… Suddenly… Immediately… at their destination… Something miraculous is going on here.
First… Jesus always shows up when we need Him most…
His promise was I will be with you always… I will never leave you or forsake you.
Listen Church… There are… no accidental… No chance… Encounters with God…
• Jesus was deliberately at this well on that day at noontime…
• He was purposely walking on the Sea of Galilee during this storm.
I do hope you can testify of the times he has shown up in your life… Not once but repeatedly!
Secondly… An encounter with Jesus can calm life’s storm.
Listen…If He can calm mother nature’s storm on the Sea of Galilee… He can calm any storm in my life or yours.
Then… With Jesus in our boat… We can accomplish our Spiritual Goals.
I don’t totally understand what’s gone on here… But something miraculous.
I mean… Jesus steps in the boat… And Scripture says… All of a sudden… Imminently they were at their destination.
Church… I hope you believe today that Jesus is… Working in us… Enabling us… Empowering us… To accomplish our task… Our ministry… Arrive at our destination… Whatever that might be!
Jeff’s big point in his study of Acts is this… that the early church expected God… to do something… To work in their life…And He Did!… And He Did!!
These narratives tell us that Jesus’ intent is to deliver us from the chaos of our sin… And bring us safely to our destination of Heaven.
God is at work in our life today!... We need to believe this… Amen?
This is interesting… I want you to listen to the words of David in Psalm 107.28-30 as he seems to describe this Sea of Galilee occasion verbatim… When he wrote…
They cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
And He brought them out of their distress.
He stilled the storm to a whisper;
The waves of the sea were hushed.
They were glad when it grew calm,
And he guided them to their desired haven… (Their desired destination)
Ego A-me… Incarnation… What a concept!!…
The Great I AM THAT I AM… Yahweh… Yehovah God…
• Becoming flesh and dwelling among us…
• Becoming a servant…
• Living as we lived…
• Feeling our pain…
• Understanding our weaknesses…
• Being acquainted with our grief’s…
• Being tempted in all points as we…
• Carrying our sin burden…
• Dying as we die…
• Experiencing Hell on our behalf.
In Jesus… Our greatest needs are met because He has walked our walk.
Reminds us of the little boy who visited the pet shop to select a new puppy.
The shop owner shows him what he has… The little boy looks them over… And carefully makes his choice… He picks a puppy with a misshaped leg.
The owner tries to help… Pointing out that the puppy is not a good choice because he’ll never be able to… Stand correctly… Play… Run… Fetch… Anything like that… Why don’t you pick another!
The little boy pulls up on his pant leg revealing a prosthetic leg… Nope he replies… This is the one for me… I’ll be able to help him!
Incarnation… The I AM THAT I AM… Becoming flesh so that… He can help us… Forgive us…Dwell in us… Save us.
So… The Question Becomes… What Do We Need To Do Tonight
to insure His presence and power is at work in our life???
• Perhaps we need to name Him as our Lord and God by… Faith… A changed lifestyle…A fresh start and new beginning in the New Birth of Water Baptism.
• Maybe…We need to genuinely make Him the Lord and King of our life… Allowing Him to… Guide… Rule… Direct… In every arena of life.
The invitation is ours as we stand and sing this song together.