10.18.2020 I Am Who I Am John 4:1-26
Notes
Transcript
From the Beginning to the End
From the Beginning to the End
Last week while we were in Branson, MO, we went to a Sight & Sound production of Noah. We’ve seen two other productions at the same theater - Samson & Moses. All three of these productions reminded me once again that the Word of God contained in these Scriptures of the Old and the New Testaments are inter-related and tied together with one message - the message of God’s grace freely poured out on wretched sinners through the one who is at the center of all the Scriptures - Jesus Christ.
Over the next few weeks leading up to Thanksgiving & the Advent Season we are going to consider this one who came to seek and to save those who are lost as He reveals himself through a series of “I Am” statements found in the Gospel of John.
These 7 statements explain in Jesus’ own words who he is and why he has come…These “I Am statements include....
1. I am the bread of Life which came down from heaven (6:35,41,51)
2. I am the light of the world (8:12; 9:5)
3. I am the door of the sheep (10:7,9)
4. I am the good shepherd (10:11,14)
5. I am the resurrection and the life (11:25)
6. I am the way, the truth, and the life (14:6)
7. I am the (true) vine (15:1,5)
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READ: John 4:7-26
PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION
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“I AM...”
“I AM...”
When someone says, “I am…,” it reveals something about their identity - who they are.
What follows that “I AM” reveals something about the core of their being - About what is most important to them and about them.
For example, when I say, “I am a Christian,” I’m making a big, bold statement that my identity in Christ is what’s most important to me.
So when Jesus says, “i AM...,” we should pay close attention. He’s pulling back the curtain on his glorious character. He’s telling us something profoundly important – something we don’t want to miss.
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It’s All About Jesus...
It’s All About Jesus...
Teaching a worldview class - sophomore’s in high school - if in doubt, the answer is: “Jesus”
We say at the center of our Bibles is God, i.e., that the Scriptures are Theocentric. The crimson cord that ties all of these words together is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The Scriptures are also Christocentric.
The Scriptures are not separate stories about Bible characters, but interconnected narratives and words that all point us to Jesus Christ, the only redeemer of God’s people who has come to save those people from their sins.
The Westminster Confession of Faith Study Book: A Study Guide for Churches Appendix 3: The Shorter Catechism
A. The only Redeemer of God’s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ,1 who, being the eternal Son of God,2 became man,3 and so was, and continueth to be, God and man in two distinct natures, and one person, forever.4
Jesus explains to two of disciples as he walks along the road to Emmaus who he is and how we are to understand who he is...
27 Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.
In order to totally understand what Jesus is saying about himself with these “I AM...” statements, we have to dig a little further into the Old Testament
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13 Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” 15 God, furthermore, said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations.
The mighty God of the universe calls Himself I AM. In Exodus 3:14, the Bible says, “And God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM” (NASB). Moses had said, “When I go down to Egypt and the people ask me who sent me, what shall I tell them” (Cf. Exodus 3:13). God said, “You tell them that I AM sent you.”
Exodus 3:14 (BHS/WHM 4.2)
14וַיֹּ֤אמֶר אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר אֶֽהְיֶ֑ה וַיֹּ֗אמֶר כֹּ֤ה תֹאמַר֙ לִבְנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה שְׁלָחַ֥נִי אֲלֵיכֶֽם׃
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“I AM” has sent me to you...
“I AM” has sent me to you...
God identifies himself to Moses as “I am who I am…I am has sent me to you...”
In Jewish tradition the phrase I Am becomes synonymous with the name of God. LORD in our Bibles. Often translated and spoken as “Yahweh” - Jehovah - Adonai
The Septuagint is the oldest surviving Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, traditionally believed to have been written by 72 Jewish scholars sometime during the third century BC.
Since Greek was the common language of the Roman Empire, the Septuagint was popular among Jews living under Roman rule.
This name “I AM” יְהוָ֞ה (Yahweh) is translated in to Greek as Ἐγώ εἰμι = the first person singular pronoun “I” + the 1st person singular form of the verb to be “I + I am”
Exodus 3:14 (Logos LXX)
14καὶ εἶπεν ὁ θεὸς πρὸς Μωυσῆν Ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν, καὶ εἶπεν Οὕτως ἐρεῖς τοῖς υἱοῖς Ισραηλ Ὁ ὢν ἀπέσταλκέν με πρὸς ὑμᾶς.
Jesus completes the statement that was given to Moses as he uses the words “I am” to describe himself
The reason this is so significant - in John’s gospel, this phrase would have been familiar to those who had ears to hear. The Septuagint becomes the Scriptures of the common people. Most people in the first century spoke Greek. Just like the Hebrew phrase יְהוָ֥ה had become a substitute for the LORD - covenant keeping, promise keeping God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - the one who spoke to Moses, so the Greek phrase had the same significance and the first century people who would have heard the "I AM” phrases and would have understood their meaning and its association immediately.
All of these “I AM” statements point us to who God reveals himself to be and drawing a firm connection between Jesus identify as the second person of the trinity, very god of very god.
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Jesus is the “I AM”
Jesus is the “I AM”
26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
Jesus speaks here to a Jewish woman in Samaria…He finds this woman, at about noon at the community well getting water.
3 separate times she tries to engage him in an argument so that she would no longer have to talk with Him.
The first time in verse 9 she reminds him that she is a Samaritan women and he is a Jew…talking together as one man to a women in public was a social faux pas, but even worse the Jews hated the Samaritans and yet this didn’t stop Jesus.
Then she tries a religious view point, by asking are you greater than our father Jacob. The Jews didn’t really believe that the Samaritans were rightful descendants of the line of Jacob, but this did not stop Jesus from talking with her and showing love and compassion toward her.
In verse 20 she tries again with religion by mentioning where they ought to worship, with anyone else this would have been enough to drive them away, but Jesus stays.
In verse 25 she says that the Messiah is coming and He will tell them all things, and Jesus says In verse 26 I, I am he who speaks to you!
John 4:26 (NA27)
Jesus says to her, I, I AM - the one speaking to you
26λέγει αὐτῇ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Ἐγώ εἰμι, ὁ λαλῶν σοι.
He is drawing that connection between Yahweh - I AM to himself, the I AM, I am divine, I am the Messiah - “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30)…this is huge!
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27 At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why do You speak with her?” 28 So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to the men, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?” 30 They went out of the city, and were coming to Him.
The disciples walk up and see Jesus talking, they hear him say those words “I AM” - they still don’t really realize what is going on, but the women responds by running to town, this women, who was a social outcast, who was at the well during the heat of the day to avoid everyone else, the women who everyone in town knew - who had been married 5 times…can you just imagine the gossip, the lies, the things spoken about her behind her back…to her face, but when she hears these words she runs and tells everyone in the town who Jesus is, look again at verse 28-29…
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28 So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to the men, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?”
She leaves her waterpot, she literally drops everything, and goes into the city to tell the men, the village what had happened and the whole city comes out to see Jesus.
This woman had met the Lord, he identified himself to her as Messiah and Lord in this short dialogue.
The Samaritan Women responded by leaving Jesus filled with great courage, no longer ashamed and telling all who would listen that she had met the Messiah - the Christ. She must have been pretty successful because everyone comes to see what she was talking about. No longer was the woman who had had 5 husbands, now she was the Woman whom had met Jesus.
She has been changed.
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“I AM” Calms Fear
“I AM” Calms Fear
16 Now when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea, 17 and after getting into a boat, they started to cross the sea to Capernaum. It had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18 The sea began to be stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. 19 Then, when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat; and they were frightened. 20 But He said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” 21 So they were willing to receive Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.
The storm is blowing the disciples are 3-4 miles away from the shore and they see Jesus walking on the water and verse 19 they were afraid. He said to them “I, I AM Ἐγώ εἰμι do not be afraid.
Again here he is drawing together that association of the God who spoke to Moses to himself - I, I AM
I am in control over the storm, over the universe…Look what happens, they willing receive him and Immediately they end up where they were going.
When the disciples HEAR this divine proclamation, they responded by receiving him.
But there was one disciple who took it a step further.
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Look at Matthew 14:28. In Matthew’s account of this story, one disciple had a different reaction.
28 Peter said to Him, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.”
Peter hears Jesus say I, I am…I am the I am, do not be afraid and his response is Lord let me join you! I want to do what you are doing! No one else in the boat responds this way…they receive him…yes…but Peter says Lord let me come to you…he gets out of the boat and walks on the water approaching Jesus.
But something happens - he gets distracted. He takes his eyes off the one who makes all things possible. He sees what is going on around him and becomes frightened and begins to sink and doubts as his attention shifts from focusing on Jesus to focusing on the things of the world and he begins to sink.
The sea of Galilee is not a small lake. This lake is over 600 feet deep and they were in the middle of this lake in a small boat fighting a fierce and terrifying storm and Peter decided to join Jesus in the lake.
Peter is the only other person in the history of the world to walk on water! He is the only person to say Lord let me join you in doing the impossible! We don’t know how far Peter walked, just that he walked…just that he was willing to go where no one else was willing to go.
Everyone else was still gripped with Fear and Peter walks with Faith.
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"I AM” is before all things...
"I AM” is before all things...
56 “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” 57 So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” 59 Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.
This may be the most divine declaration Jesus made to Jews at large. They were in the temple listening and questioning him. Jesus doesn’t back down, he keeps at them, they call him a Samaritan…claiming he is not a proper Jew.
They claim he is demon possessed, but Jesus clearly refutes them and tells them that he is greater than all the prophets and Abraham.
He says, “before Abraham was born, I AM.” So Jesus is saying before Abraham was, I am…the I am who I am, but also, I am and always have been.
Jesus is saying that he has no beginning, unlike Abraham who was born, who had a specific start and end…Jesus saw Abraham’s day. Jesus is clearly showing his Lordship and divine nature to the Jews.
The Jews in the temple responded by first rejecting him and then trying to kill him.
Turn one more time a little further in John, John 18 verse 4
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“I AM” is powerful yet willing to surrender...
“I AM” is powerful yet willing to surrender...
4 So Jesus, knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth and said to them, “Whom do you seek?” 5 They answered Him, “Jesus the Nazarene.” He said to them, “I am He.” And Judas also, who was betraying Him, was standing with them. 6 So when He said to them, “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the ground. 7 Therefore He again asked them, “Whom do you seek?” And they said, “Jesus the Nazarene.” 8 Jesus answered, “I told you that I am He; so if you seek Me, let these go their way,”
The power of the name…the power of Him saying I am He, Ἐγώ εἰμι causes them to fall back…those that came to arrest Jesus, fall back because there is power in their name!
The I Am had spoken…Jesus is the Lord and here even though he is surrendering himself…the power and authority of the Name of God!
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"I AM” is the author and perfecter of faith...
"I AM” is the author and perfecter of faith...
As Jesus reveals himself to all these people there are several responses to his revelation of himself.
Do we respond like the Samaritan Women, leaving everything and telling all we see that We have met the LORD and invite others to join us? Finding our new identity in Him?
Do We respond like the disciples by receiving him and watching all his glorious power or like Peter, joining him in the miracles that He is doing all around?
Or are we like the Jews of that day? If Jesus were to walk into these doors today, speak the words “I AM” would we recognize him? How would we react to hearing him say Ἐγώ εἰμι I am who I am.
Do we receive him like the soldiers? Impacted by his words, by his power…they felt the Power of God, looked at God incarnate, at Jesus in the face, proclaiming his divinity and yet they still arrested him and turned him over to be beaten and killed.
They saw the power yet they did nothing….
Personally I want to be more like Peter, running after God stepping out into places where it seems humanly impossible to go, thinking about nothing else…in the middle of a storm…in the middle of the lake, wanting to go after Jesus, or the Samaritan woman dropping everything and telling everyone about the one who came to seek and to save those who are lost - even me - whom came to sins and change my lives.
2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
1. I am the bread of Life which came down from heaven (6:35,41,51)
2. I am the light of the world (8:12; 9:5)
3. I am the door of the sheep (10:7,9)
4. I am the good shepherd (10:11,14)
5. I am the resurrection and the life (11:25)
6. I am the way, the truth, and the life (14:6)
7. I am the (true) vine (15:1,5)