Here we are approaching Easter on March 27th. It’s hard to believe that almost ¼ of this year has nearly past; most of the time we celebrate Easter in April. History shows us the most frequent date is April 16th. The time and dates are not nearly as important as the event.
The title
I AM has been going through my mind a lot lately. I was going to put it off for another time and focus more on Easter until I thought what Jesus experienced just prior to the crucifixion and how He nearly died for speaking those two words. Let’s see why the statement I AM
stirred up so much anger in the ones that heard it that day.
Before we zero in on Jesus’s words, we need to see if
I AM appears in other places of the Bible prior to Jesus being on earth and what the significance of those words were then. Some of my friends read the Old Testament, but not the New and some read the New Testament and not the Old. Could it be that each side is missing something? Today we are going to see if I AM
appears in both, if so are they referring to the same person? By gaining some clarity, perhaps we can get a bigger picture and begin to see the total revelation of the Bible.
Since none of us can predict future events, no one living then, or now, can see what might happen ahead of time. Like looking through the lens of an old camera, it is fuzzy at best. New cameras today give us much more detail. It has been said, the Old Testament concealed is the New Testament revealed. By comparing the two we have a better chance of understanding it all.
In
Exodus, the second book of the Old Testament, we can enter into a conversation that took place between God and Moses. In chapter 3:13-15, Moses was questioning God what to tell the Israelites about His name. In verse 14, “God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM”. and He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.” In the New Testament the book of John 18:5-8 when Jesus asked who they were seeking, in order to arrest Him, He said, “I am He”
. They then drew back and fell to the ground. If someone would ask us who we are, although we could say ‘I am he,’ no one would fall to the ground. You might think those three words are not a valid conclusion. Keep in mind we have just gotten our camera out of the box and are adjusting our lenses. Let’s see if we can gain a better focus as we proceed.
In
Psalms 78:23-25, “God opened the doors of heaven, and rained down manna on them to eat, and given them the bread of heaven. Men ate angels’ food; He sent them food to the full.” The feeding of the 5,000 was written about in John 6:1-14. In verse 35,“Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life”.
Psalms 95:7, “For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Today if you hear His voice”. John 10:11, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.”
Deuteronomy 32:39a, “Now see that I, even I, am He, and there is no God besides Me”. Isaiah 48:12b, “I am He, I am the First, I am also the Last”. Revelation 22:13, Jesus said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last’. So if these verses are correct and Deuteronomy says there is no God besides me, referring to Jehovah in the Old Testament, and Jesus in Revelation 22:13 which says, “I am the First and the Last;” we have to conclude that Jehovah in the OT and Jesus in the NT are both one in the same. Jesus also made this statement in John 10:30, “I and my Father are one”.
In
John 4:23-26, Jesus is speaking to a woman at a well, He tells her, “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). When He comes, He will tell us all things”. Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He”.
So Jesus told her plainly He is the Messiah.
I Timothy 2:5, 6, “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all”.
Ransom is a payment to redeem a prisoner, or slave. In Christianity it is redemption from sin and its consequences. We don’t think of ourselves as prisoners, but the truth is we are all prisoners or slaves to sin. We were born in sin and can’t redeem ourselves. So it is necessary for Jesus Christ to take our place by dying on the cross to save us from our sin. By placing our trust in what He has already done, we through faith, will receive eternal life and live with Him for all eternity. This is what the purpose and essence of Easter is all about. The focus is to be totally on Him, to praise Him and thank Him for laying down His life to redeem us and then demonstrating that power through His resurrection.
In the second paragraph I mentioned that Jesus used the words
I AM and almost died for saying it, so let’s discover why. The passage is found in the book of John chapter 8, let’s begin in verse 37, “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father”. They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.”
Let’s skip down to verse
54-56 of John chapter 8, “Jesus answered, if I honor Myself, My honor is nothing. It is My Father who honors Me, of whom you say that He is your God. Yet you have not known Him, but I know Him. And if I say, I do not know Him, I shall be a liar like you; but I do know Him and keep His word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day and he saw it and was glad.”
Verses 57-59, “Then the Jews said to Him, you are not fifty years old and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM. Then they took stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by”.
When exposed to the truth, they didn’t want to hear it. First of all they didn’t want to believe Jesus was their Messiah. They certainly couldn’t believe He was God. They discounted the fact that He could have known Abraham because He wasn’t 50 years old yet and Abraham died some years before. We know Jesus knew Abraham because He knows all things. He was since the beginning of time. He was in the flesh for this period of time to demonstrate who He was through many miraculous miracles and soon to be His upcoming death, burial and resurrection.
God can only reach down to us; we lack the power and will to reach up to Him. For some reason we believe we must do something ourselves to receive eternal life. Yes, many are zealous to do things they believe will please God, but He knows our hearts and our sin places a barrier that can only be penetrated by His forgiveness of our sins. We can only receive that through our faith and trust in Him. It’s at that point He welcomes us into the family of God and that sin barrier is broken.
Rather than looking for a Messiah who would set them free from their sin, they were looking for a Messiah that would free them from the oppression of the Roman Empire. He didn’t present Himself as a King or Commander who could carry that out. Unless Jesus Christ is your Savior first, He cannot be your King. Jesus came first to die for the sins of the world which includes you and me. For those who have accepted Him as their Savior, He will return and become their King and they will be with Him for all eternity. I look forward to that day and you can too.
Pride and thinking you can somehow contribute to your own salvation are what keeps many people from trusting in Christ. So when He said before Abraham was
I AM, knowing the I AM’
s that they heard from their fathers, they rejected who He was. Had they been open to some truth, I’m sure He would have shared more with them, but their hearts were hardened. Until we are willing to get ourselves out of the way, we won’t be open to His way.
There are other
I AM’s I could have brought up from the Bible. Probably the most direct one and yet very controversial is found in John 14:6, “Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through Me”.
For a long time I had difficulty sharing why He said that; especially to my friends who elected a different belief system. Today it’s not that difficult because I understand why He said what He did.
Although Christ died to take away our sin and save us from our self, God the Father is Holy and Just and cannot accept anything less than a perfect sacrifice for our sin. The only one who lived a perfect life is Jesus Christ. He met all the demands of the Father so He is the only one able to forgive and take away our sin. If he died and was buried like any other person, we would still be in our sin. His resurrection from the grave is what gives us the hope of forgiveness. The resurrection not only demonstrates His power, but authority since He was the one that created life in the first place.
So we are made righteous through His shed blood on the cross. Even though we deserved to be there instead, He took our place and suffered and died for us. That is the real meaning of Easter. We would love to have you worship with us this coming Easter as we celebrate Christ’s resurrection. If you have questions about any of what was written or you want to know how you can have the assurance of going to heaven, come by and we will be glad to help you with that.
