<< New text box >>

I AM

The Autobiography of Jesus Christ

 

“I Am”

John 8:58

 

A young man went into a candy store & ordered 3 boxes of candy- one large box, one medium and one small.  The owner of the candy store asked him, “why do you want 3 boxes of candy?”

 

The young man explained- “I’ve got my first date with this girl tonight.  If it’s an average date, I’m just going to give her a small box of candy.  If it’s a good date and she lets me hold her hand, I’m going to give her the medium box.  And if she’s really friendly and lets me kiss her, I’m going to give her the large box.

 

That night he went to the girl’s house to eat dinner with the girl and her family before their date.  The girl’s father asked the young man to say the blessing for the meal.  He prayed and he prayed and he prayed.

 

After dinner, the girl and the young man went on a walk.  “I didn’t know you were so spiritual”, she said.  He replied, “I didn’t know your father was the owner of the candy store!”

 

When you are not clear about who someone is, it can cause all kinds of problems.  But we don’t have that problem understanding who Jesus is.  He has told us who He is and what He can do for us with the I AM statements that He made about Himself that we are looking at.  So far we have looked at where Jesus said…..

 

I am the Bread of Life- Jesus is the only one that can satisfy the hunger of our souls.

 

I am the Light of the World- Jesus is the source of our salvation.

 

Today we come to the 3rd I AM statement.  Read John 8:58

The 3rd “I AM” statement is simply “I AM”.  At first glance, this statement doesn’t seem to say much about Jesus.  But the Jews in Jesus’ day had no problem understanding what Jesus was saying about Himself.

 

This 3rd “I AM” declaration by Jesus was in response to the Jews’ question if Jesus was greater than Abraham.  Jesus said that Abraham rejoiced at seeing His day. The Jews then said to Jesus- “You’re not yet 50 years old and yet you say you have seen Abraham?”

 

It was at this point that Jesus declared- “before Abraham was I am.”  As I said, the Jews understood exactly what Jesus was saying about Himself when He said, “I AM”.  This statement is a clear declaration of who Jesus is.

 

I AM means that….

 

1.    JESUS IS EQUAL WITH GOD

 

I AM is a name for God. 

 

When God gave Moses the mission of going back to Egypt and freeing the nation of Israel, Moses asked God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you”, and they ask me, “What is His name?”  Then what shall I tell them?

 

God’s reply to Moses was this- “I AM WHO I AM.  This is what you are to say to the Israelites:  “I AM has sent me to you.”

 

I AM is a designation for God.  It is a declaration that God has always been and He always will be.  By referring to Himself as I AM, Jesus was declaring that He is equal to God.

 

That is the testimony of Scripture.  Phil. 2:6 says:

 

“Who (speaking of Jesus), being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;”– Philippians 2:6

 

Jesus possesses the very nature of God.  In heaven, He is equal with God, but He did not cling selfishly to that position of honor.  He humbled Himself, left heaven, took on human form in order to save us by dying on the cross for our sins.

 

But it is very clear from that passage that Jesus is equal with God.  John makes this abundantly clear, as he opened his gospel by declaring this about Jesus as he calls Jesus the Word:

 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and THE WORD WAS GOD.” –John 1:1

 

The Word was God.  There can’t be any clearer statement to the fact that Jesus is equal with God.

 

We go back to the beginning of creation and we hear in the book of Genesis that Jesus is equal with God.  It says in Genesis when God created man that God said, “Let US create man in OUR image.”

 

God spoke of Himself in the plural form.  Who is God talking to in that sense?  He is talking to God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

 

Jesus- as Creator God- is illustrated by the miracles He performed.  Jesus walked on water because He had created the sea that He walked on.  Jesus turned the water into wine.  He was able to change the molecular structure of water because He had created the water.

 

Jesus was able to calm a fierce storm at sea because He had created the forces of nature.  Jesus cursed the fig tree that bore no fruit and it withered and died.  Why?  Because Jesus had created that fig tree.

 

The apostle John wrote this about Jesus:

 

“Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.” –John 1:3

 

The fact that Jesus is divinely God is affirmed by His Lordship over the creation that He made.

When Jesus made the statement I AM, it riled the religious leaders.  They knew that Jesus was claiming to be God.  To them, that was blasphemy because they did not accept Jesus as the Messiah.

 

Still today, there are those who do not accept the Deity of Jesus.  They do not honor and respect Him as the Son of God and, in essence, as God.  They may honor Him as a good teacher, a prophet, but in the end, they say He is only a man. 

And even though the evidence is to the contrary, they do not respect Jesus as God.

 

Their denial of the deity of Christ does not change the fact that Jesus is equal with God and that we are to honor Him as God.  Jesus said:

 

“The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.

 

 He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent Him.” – John 5:22-23

 

We honor God the Father as we honor God the Son by acknowledging that Jesus is God.  If we truly want to know God, then we must know that Jesus is our God.  He is God the Son, one of 3 persons of the Trinity.

 

Jesus was God in human form.  John 1:14 declares this about Jesus:

 

“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.” – John 1:14

 

In predicting the birth of Christ, the prophet Isaiah said that the Messiah’s name would be- “Emmanuel, which means God with us.”

 

GOD WITH US!  That’s the good news of Christmas that we can rejoice in year round.  God with us in the person of Jesus means that Jesus was fully God and fully man.  This means that God has fully identified with us.  There are 2 amazing applications of this.

 

THE FIRST IS THAT GOD CAN RELATE TO US.   God can relate to us because Jesus came and lived among mankind.

 

Jesus knew what it was like to be hungry after fasting for 40 days.  Jesus’ physical body grew tired.  He required sleep.  He would withdraw at times to solitary places for some R & R.

 

Jesus knew what it was like to be discouraged.  When many of his disciples deserted Him because they would no longer accept His hard teaching about being a disciple, Jesus- and I think this perhaps shows some discouragement on His part, turned to the 12 apostles and asked them- “you do not want to leave too, do you?”

 

And I love Peter’s answer- “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

 

Jesus also knew disappointment.  I think there were times when Jesus was disappointed with the 12 apostles when He said to them –“O you of little faith.”

 

Jesus, as God in the flesh, knew what it is like for us to be tempted because He Himself was tempted.  The writer of Hebrews wrote:

 

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,

 

but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin.” – Hebrews 4:15

 

Jesus also knows what it is like to die.  Hebrews 2:14 & 15 says:

 

“Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy Him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil

 

“and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” – Hebrews 2:14-15

 

God knows what we go through in our lives.  That’s because Jesus endured life as a man.

 

The 2nd application of Jesus being God in human form is this- WE CAN RELATE TO GOD.  We can relate to God through Jesus.

 

Most people who meet my son Todd remark how much he looks like me.  After he was born, Dawn was holding him and she said, “Dennis, Gillian looks like you but Todd really looks like you.”  He is one lucky guy!

 

Jesus looks just like His Heavenly Father.  Hebrews 1:3 says:

 

“The Son reflects God’s own glory, and everything about Him represents God exactly.” – Hebrews 1:3

 

The nature of God showed up in Jesus.  Have you ever wondered what God is like?  I think we all have, at one time or another.  You don’t have to look any further than Jesus to see what God is like.

 

We see the wisdom of God, when as a boy of 12, Jesus was in the temple, confounding the religious leaders with His Q AND A session that He had with them.

 

We see the judgment of God when Jesus cleared the temple of the animal traders and money changers.

 

We see the compassion of God in Jesus feeding the 5,000 and healing the sick.

 

We see the mercy of God demonstrated when Jesus forgave the woman caught in adultery rather than condemning her.

 

And because Jesus died on the cross for our sins, we now know, beyond a shadow of a doubt that God loves us.  And when Jesus arose from the dead, we understand the awesome power of God that is available for our lives and will one day resurrect us from our graves and give us victory over death!

 

Jesus told His disciples- “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father.”   Through Jesus we can see what God is like and we can know God and have a personal relationship with Him.

 

When Jesus said I AM He was declaring equality with God.  The second thing that Jesus as I AM means is this:

 

2.    JESUS IS ETERNAL GOD

 

I AM is a statement that attests to the eternal nature of God.  By saying I AM, Jesus was saying that He is eternal.

 

Jesus said, “before Abraham was, I am.” Abraham had lived centuries before Jesus’ earthly life.  But Jesus stated that He existed before Abraham was even born.  This is a testimony to Jesus being eternal God.

 

Jesus is timeless.  He said- I AM not I was.  There never was a time when Jesus came into being and there never will be a time when He will not be in existence.

 

Now Jesus was not saying that He always existed in human form.  We know that Jesus was born into this world through the Virgin Birth.  His incarnation placed Him in human form.  But what Jesus is saying is that He has always existed- as eternal God- in heaven.

 

In the Old Testament the eternal nature of God was a source of great comfort to God’s people.  He read in Psalm 90:

 

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.

 

  Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” – Psalm 90:1-2

 

From everlasting to everlasting you are God.  The people needed someone greater than themselves to rely on.  God, the eternal God, who always was, always is and always will be, was their great security.

 

In Jesus, we have an eternal God that we can rely on.  Hebrews 13:8 states that…

 

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” –Hebrews 13:8

 

Jesus is timeless and changeless.  Since Jesus is timeless, He is the God of our past and He can forgive it.  He is also the God of our present and He can help us live it.  He is also the God of our future who already knows what is ahead of us and He will be there for us to help us navigate through it.

 

Since Jesus is eternal, He is able to offer us eternal life, which is what we hope for.  The Bible says that God has set eternity in our hearts.  Within each of us is a longing for eternity and a curiosity about life after death.

 

Mankind has always hoped that he could become immortal.  That hope is what motivated Ponce de Leon to search Florida for the eternal fountain of youth.

 

Some people believe in the falsehood called reincarnation.  But even that misguided belief is a futile cry of desperate people who long for immortality.

 

In the movie, Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade, everyone is searching for the Holy Grail, the cup of Christ.  The belief was that if you drank from it you would have everlasting life.

 

All these illustrations point out mankind’s hope for eternal life.  Man has a hope for eternity but all too often people look in hopeless places for it.

 

The Eternal Jesus is the ONLY One who can give us Eternal life.  Through His death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven Jesus provides us with a passageway to heaven. 

 

Eternal life is ours when Jesus is our Lord, which leads us to the 3rd truth about Jesus as the great I AM:

 

3.    JESUS IS THE EXALTED GOD

 

In the Old Testament, the phrase I AM is derived from the name of God that stands for His Lordship.  So, by saying of Himself, I AM, Jesus is declaring His Lordship.

 

That is a title and a position that God the Heavenly Father has bestowed on Jesus.  Philippians 2 says:

 

“Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus EVERY knee should bow,

 

 in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and EVERY tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” –Philippians 2:9-11

 

Jesus is Lord.  That is an indisputable fact.  A person’s disbelief doesn’t change the fact that Jesus is the Lord of life.

 

One day EVERY person will bow on their knees before Jesus and acknowledge His Lordship in a supreme act of worship to God.  Even the atheist will one day bow before Christ and acknowledge Him.

 

Jesus is Lord. That’s the reality.  But here’s the real question- is Jesus your Lord?

Earlier in John 8, Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in Him:

 

“If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples.” –John 8:31

 

Jesus is your Lord when you place your faith in Him and hand over ownership of your life to Him.

 

The New York Times once asked the founder of McDonald’s what he believed in.  “God, my family and McDonald’s hamburgers, “ he replied.  But then he added, “and when I get to the office I reverse the order.”

 

His apparently facetious remarks mask an ironic truth for many Christians.  God has first priority on Sunday mornings but life goes on without much thought of God or commitment to Him the rest of the week.

 

We must do more than give Jesus lip service.  We have to give Him life service.  We must let Jesus have priority over every area of our lives.

 

A picture shows a woman standing before a statue of Christ.  In her hand she is holding a crown.  The caption reads- “who will wear the crown?”

 

That’s the question each of us has to answer.  Jesus is Lord.  But is He your Lord?  Is He Lord over your life?  In every area of your life?

 

As we come to our commitment time, as Christians, let each of us examine our hearts and honestly answer this question, am I holding back on Jesus?  Is there an area of my life that is off-limits to him?  I want to challenge you to use our commitment time to commit that area of your life to the Lordship of Jesus.

 

Maybe you need to say yes to Jesus for the first time in your life.  To make that initial surrender to His Lordship; to receive him as your Lord and Savior.

 

As we sing our commitment hymn, I invite you to walk forward and say yes to Jesus; to say yes, I surrender to the Lordship of Jesus so that he can give you eternal life in heaven.

 

Maybe you need to say yes to church membership today.  We invite you to come forward as we sing.