Counter-Culture Quotes of Jesus – I Am

Burning Bush Blogs

Equipping Men with Biblical Knowledge and Leadership Skills

Category: Personal Study

Thread: Counter-Culture Quotes of Jesus

Post Topic: I Am

Post in Thread: #1

Scripture: John 8:54-59; Exodus 3:13-14

Key Verses:

⁵⁸“Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I Am!”
John 8:58

¹³Moses said to 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?”
¹⁴God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I Am has sent me to you.’”
Exodus 3:13-14

Summary

Of all the counter-culture quotes of Jesus, the statement I AM got him in more trouble than any other. The Jewish leaders clearly understood his claim to be God. This was blasphemy to them. And it goes against today’s cultural misconception that Jesus was nothing more than a moral teacher.

Observations

Today’s culture says:

Jesus never claimed to be God. There are many ways to God.

Jewish Culture said:

“I Am” is a term reserved only for the eternal Holy Father. Any human using such a term committed the worst form of blasphemy.

Context

Exodus 3 contains the account of the Burning Bush, where God appeared to Moses. This scene in the Bible is the symbolic heart of this blog.
In John 8, Jesus was having another of his battle of wits with the exasperated Pharisees.
They were mad at him for performing miracles on the Sabbath, when they believed any form of work was prohibited.
They were looking for an excuse to kill Jesus.
This final exchange followed a long back-and-forth about Abraham and who Jesus was.

The Claim and the Reaction

Jesus used God’s words to Moses at the Burning Bush: “I Am.”
- Moses was in excuse mode. Knowing the Egyptian culture worshipped many gods, he feared the people would ask the name of the one who sent him.
- God told him “I AM WHO I AM. Tell them I AM has sent you.”
Jesus’ words were a blatant case of blasphemy to the Pharisees.
The Pharisees were so angered they attempted to stone Jesus.

Interpretation

Setting

This account seems to have taken place on the temple grounds in Jerusalem. This is the only place where a stoning was legally allowed to take place.

Genre

Historical narrative.

Author

John, the beloved disciple, was an eyewitness to the exchange.

Imagine…

You’re one of the twelve disciples. You know quite well how God described himself to Moses. I Am. And here is your Rabbi, uttering those words about himself. You barely have time to process them, when the stones begin to fly. Jesus disappears, and you dash for the exits.

You manage to lose yourself in the crowd, unscathed. You notice Phillip, crouching in the shadows, a spattering of blood on his cloak. He’s pressing his palm against the side of his head. You make eye contact. You can tell he’s thinking the same things you are.

Takeaways

I AM – God’s eternal name for himself is a statement that he has always existed and always will.
Talking about my younger brother, I’d say “Before Tim, I was,” as opposed to “I am.”
Jesus was equating himself with the “I Am” title God provided from the burning bush.
Jesus’ words elevate himself above Abraham and all the prophets.
The fact that the religious leaders immediately tried to stone him proves that they knew exactly who Jesus was claiming to be. They knew he was claiming to be God.

Dig Deeper – Develop your Interpretation Skills

In the book of John, Jesus uses the term “I am” seven more times, but each one is a specific metaphor about his purpose on earth. When you have time, read the context of each of the references, and then determine why he used each of these metaphors to describe himself. List the metaphor, the context, and what it teaches us about Jesus.

John 6:35
John 8:12
John 10:7
John 10:11
John 11:25
John 14:6
John 15:1 and John 15:5

Note – Subscribers can download a free chart with the author’s answers for this exercise. In this case, the freebie contains a bonus column – Old Testament correlations for each metaphor.

Correlation

John 10:30 – Jesus states: “I and the Father are one.”
Colossians 1:15-17 – The Son is before all things, and all creation is through him and for him.
John 14:6 – Nobody comes to the father except through Jesus – in Jesus’ own words.

Application

Generic Applications

Other religions may believe that Jesus was real and a good man, but not God. They’ll say he never claimed this for himself. Given how God named himself to Moses in Exodus, it is clear that Jesus did indeed claim to be God.
Jesus is eternal and self-sufficient. We can rely on him to protect us, the way Moses relied on God to bring his people out of Egypt.

Personalize it

Do others dispute your belief that Jesus is God? Do you sometimes doubt too? It’s normal to doubt. But the Bible clearly supports that Jesus claimed equality with God.
Do you trust that Jesus is God? Do you believe him when he said in John 14:6 that no man comes to the father except through him?

Bible study methodology adapted from Searching the Scriptures with permission from Tyndale House:

Swindoll, Charles, Searching the Scriptures. Tyndale House Publishers, 2016.

Daniel P Warner