I Am

John 8:20-24,58 – He spoke these words while teaching in the temple courts near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come. Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.” This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘Where I go, you cannot come’?” But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.”… “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”

John 17:14 – I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.

John 12:31 – Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.

John 1:7 – He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe.

John 6:35 – Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

Exodus 3:14 – God 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.’”

Application:

• ·         “The world” is the world that is hostile to God and God’s people. “Not of the world” means they do not have the mindset of the world, i.e., hostility to God, for they have been “born of the Spirit” and are “children of God”.
• ·         Jesus was certainly in the world, but He was not of the world.
• ·         People were not to believe “in” John the Baptist but “through” him.
• ·         Jesus did not say “I was” but “I am”, expressing the eternity of His being and His oneness with the Father.
• ·         “I AM WHO I AM” was the name by which God wished to be known and worshiped in Israel—the name that expressed His character as the dependable and faithful God who desires the full trust of His people.
• ·         Jesus applied the phrase to Himself; in so doing He claimed to be God and risked being stoned for blasphemy.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV