What's in a Name part 2: I AM

Last week we looked at the name and some of the titles of God that Father in the Old Testament. To recap, we discovered that God has a name that He declares Himself as. And this name is represented by four Hebrew consonants that we don’t know how to pronounce in English, and these letters are known as the tetragrammaton. English translators traditionally used the word Jehovah, or more accurately Yahweh to represent this name in English. And the meaning of this name is “I AM” God’s name is not a noun but a verb, a verb that encapsulates His Authority, His supreme being.

Exodus 3:13-14 (NLT) But Moses protested, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what should I tell them?” God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you.”
This is such a powerful name. It demonstrates how God is the centre of everything. He is the cause of everything, which is why one title that is ascribed to Him is Alpha and omega, beginning and the end. He is everything, and everything is in Him.

And we also looked at as well as being named as I AM, God has many titles that go along with that that reveal parts of His nature and who he is.

He is Yahweh Rapha, the God who heals
Yahweh Yire, the God who provides
Yahweh Nissi, our banner
Yahweh Shalom, our peace
Yahweh Tsikenu, our righteousness
And many more that we are not going to cover today.

This week we are going to move to the New Testament and look at how this ties in with Jesus. I always mention that the Old and New Testaments match up so perfectly despite having been written hundreds of years apart and in different languages from different cultures.The names of God the Father and God the Son are another example of that same continual working taking place throughout the Bible.

We’re going to start by reading from John 8.  Here, Jesus is arguing with the Pharisees. The Pharisees were convinced of their righteousness because they were descended from Abraham. But Jesus tells them that that is not enough. Although they did indeed have Abraham as their ancestor, they were actually rebellious against their Heavenly Father, who Jesus came from. Jesus explained to them that as long as they rejected Him, they were rejecting their Heavenly Father

John 8:56-59 (NLT) Your father Abraham rejoiced as he looked forward to my coming. He saw it and was glad.” The people said, “You aren’t even fifty years old. How can you say you have seen Abraham?” Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I AM!” At that point they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus was hidden from them and left the Temple.

It’s hard to get a grasp on just how powerful a statement Jesus is making here. The Pharisees are complaining that Jesus is not yet 50 years old so how could He have possibly known Abraham. But Jesus replies to them, explicitly stating his deity, staying that He existed even before Abraham. In the very beginning of the book of John it states that Jesus was there in the beginning of creation, and here He backs up that statement. But then He goes even further, and declares Himself as “I AM.” He uses the very name that God used in the Old Testament, the one that the Jewish people were forbidden to speak or even write down, the one they usually substituted it the the word “lord.” No wonder the Pharisees picked up stones and threw them at Him. They knew exactly what He was saying by declaring Himself I AM.

This incident is not the only example of Jesus declaring that He is I AM. Our next passage takes place in the garden of Gethsemane when the Romans, led by Judas had come to arrest Jesus:

John 18:4-8 (NLT) Jesus fully realised all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them. “Who are you looking for?” he asked.
“Jesus the Nazarene,” they replied. “I AM he,” Jesus said. (Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.)  As Jesus said “I AM he,” they all drew back and fell to the ground! Once more he asked them, “Who are you looking for?” And again they replied, “Jesus the Nazarene.” “I told you that I AM he,” Jesus said.

Again, Jesus identifies Himself as I AM. There was such power in this that the Roman soldiers fell to the ground as He proclaimed it. He wasn’t just casually announcing His name, He was declaring who He was with such authority, such power that it knocked people over. Can you imagine the authority He must have spoken with to knock people over. Jesus is I Am just as His Father is. As He declared:

John 10:30 (NLT) The Father and I are one.”

When we looked at God’s titles last week, He didn’t always use I AM or yahweh or Jehovah on its own, he often used it to declare more about his character, I am the one who heals, I am the one who provides etc. And Jesus did exactly the same. As well as these two examples where He just used I AM, there are seven times he went further in explaining His purpose through titles. We call these the seven I Am statements of Jesus.

1. The first of these is found in John 6:35. As we have been looking at in the Bible study, throughout John’s gospel Jesus did lots of miracles. But these miracles weren’t an end in themselves, Jesus used them to demonstrate who He is and His character. And in John 6 Jesus fed 5,000 people with just five loaves of bread. After performing this great miracles, He then turns to His followers and says:John 6:35 (NLT) Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

Yes, He performed this miracle and provided for the physical needs of His followers, but that in itself was not the point. Jesus stated that He was far more than a provider of physical needs, that in fact is He that is essential for life. Jesus is trying to get the Jews’ thinking off of the physical realm and into the spiritual realm. The physical bread that He provided will go mouldy and perish. But Jesus is the spiritual bread that brings eternal life. It is interesting to note that Jesus had his biggest following while he was feeding the people. People love free gifts, and to see miracles. But when Jesus turned this message around to make it about Him and eternal life, the Bible says that many at that point many left Him.


2. The Second “I Am” statement comes from John 8:12 (NLT) "Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”

By declaring Himself the light of world, Jesus is saying that He is the source of truth. The darkness that Jesus refers to in the passage is a spiritual darkness.  When can’t see the truth of God we walk in darkness, unaware of the correct purpose for our lives, we stumble blindly, being led by our own desires or our own reasoning. But Jesus is an illuminating truth. His words and His Spirit lead us into what is good and what is right. The light of His truth illuminates the correctly for us, and provides a light for us to follow.

3. Jesus third I am statement is found in John 10:7-9 (NLT) “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them. Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved."

Jesus often used the analogy of people being sheep is because sheep are a helpless creature. They easily become lost, they are not aware of their surroundings and are very susceptible to predators. Sheep need a pen where they are protected and looked after. By calling Himself the gate for the sheep, Jesus is saying that He is the way into the sheep pen. He is the way into the protection of our Heavenly Father. By contrast he calls others who have tried to lead the sheep thieves and robbers, They are people who have tried to rob the sheep and lead them away from God. But He is THE way into true sanctuary, the only way into the sanctuary of God.

4. Jesus’ fourth I am statement continues the same theme: John 10:11-13 (NLT) “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don’t belong to him and he isn’t their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. The hired hand runs away because he’s working only for the money and doesn’t really care about the sheep."

Again, He uses this same analogy comparing us to sheep, people who are helpless and in need of care and direction. Jesus declares Himself the good shepherd, a shepherd who loves and cares for His sheep do much that He will lay His life down for their sake. He also talks about hired hands, those who are paid to look after the sheep. I was having a debate with someone on an online forum for pastors. And he was talking about a pastoral job that he had been offered, but he wanted to make it very clear to the board who were hiring him that he only worked certain hours, and out of those hours he would not be available for ministry.
I debated with him on the forum, pointing out this verse and that a true shepherd, Jesus obviously being THE shepherd, but also pastors who continue His role should lay their lives down to look after and to take care of the sheep. If the wolf attacks after 5pm, then that is when we are needed for the sake of the sheep.
Do you know everyone else on the forum, all of whom were pastors disagreed with me. They all saw being a pastor as being hired hand, but I believe it is much more than that, it is a calling to lay your life down for the sheep, and that takes it far more from being a job, but a lifestyle of care and protection.

5. The fifth I am statement: John 11:25-26 (NLT) Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. This is another I am statement that came with a demonstration.  Jesus said these words to Martha as her brother Lazarus was lying dead in his grave. When He first met Martha after Lazarus’ death four day earlier, she was upset that He had not been there earlier to heal Lazarus. But Jesus knew that He hadn’t needed to be earlier, because even death submits to Him. He doesn’t just give life, He is life. This is why John wrote:

1 John 5:12 (NLT) Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life.


6. John 14:6 (NLT) Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.

This next statement is similar to His other I am statements. We have just seen how Jesus is the life. We also saw how His light is truth. When he proclaimed Himself the gate, He made it clear that He is the way. Jesus is the source of all these things.  He is the only way to God the father. There are no other prophets, messiahs or schemes that bring us close to Him. There is no truth outside of Him, there is no light outside of His truth. He is the only source of life. That is why He was involved in creation at the very beginning.


7. John 15:1-2 (NLT) “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.

This is Jesus’ final I am statement. He says it to His followers shortly before he is to be led to His death, in fact it is a part of one of His last messages to the disciples. His point was this, that even though He was going to die, we can still remain in Him. And not only can we remain in Him, we must remain in Him. Outside of Him we can do nothing. Only by remaining in Him can we produce fruit. We cannot produce fruit by our own works, our own strength or ideas. And if we do not remain in Him, we will not produce any fruit and will be cut off, while those that do remain in Him will be pruned in order to produce more. Jesus makes it even more clear when He said, 

John 15:5 (NLT) For apart from me you can do nothing.

Conclusion

We did not look all the title son God the Father last week, but we can see how closely Jesus’ I am statements correspond to the Father’s statements. The most important being that they are both I am. But they are also both the source of all life, all goodness, all strength, all mercy and peace.