After trying to take matters in his own hands, Moses had to flee the comforts and pleasures of Egypt and lived in the wilderness for forty years as a lowly shepherd. The bible tells us that he became the humblest man on earth. One day God visited him in a burning bush and introduced himself and gave Moses a mission, to lead God’s people to freedom. God said to tell them, I Am sent you. His name meant “whatever you need- I Am!” He was showing Moses that it’s not the bush that’s important but the “fire” that illuminated the bush. He could have used any old bush or any ole man. It’s not the man, but the God in the man.
Fifteen hundred years later, Jesus would introduce himself as I Am also, using seven I am statements found in the Gospel of John. He began by saying I am the Bread of Life, meaning I am your sustenance for your very life. Without Jesus in our lives, our lives are temporary at best. He next explained that he was the Light of the World! He was the very illumination that exposed the deeds of wickedness and darkness in the world in which he was born into as well as the world we live in today. Without Jesus, one lives in spiritual darkness.
Thirdly he said I am the door! Not a regular door, but the entrance for his sheep. A door provides safety for those inside but also keeps others out. There was only one door on Noah’s ark. Not only was he the door to the sheep pen but he also declared I am the Good Shepherd. He explains that unlike hirelings, false shepherds, he would lay down his life for his sheep, which is exactly what he did on a cross at Calvary. He was not finished because at the tomb of Lazurus he declared that he was Resurrection and the Life, not only in the age to come but in the here and now as he demonstrated that day by raising Lazurus from the dead.
One of his most important titles is his introducing himself as the Way, the Truth and The Life. It’s very important that we realize that Jesus is not “a” way, truth or life but he is the very way to heaven, the truth in a world of lies, and the life in midst of a culture of death. Those without Christ follow a wide but wrong path, governed by lies which ultimately ends in death, apart from God. Finally, he declared himself to be the True Vine. As the true vine, only those branches that are attached to him will have life. Branches on their own wither and die, they never produce fruit. Vines, unlike other plants, are unique in the fact that each and every one of its branches have a intimate and direct connection to the vine. 1Timothy 2:5 declares that Jesus is the only mediator between us and the Father. Our relationship with God must be personal, it doesn’t go through other men or religious organizations. He wants to show each and every one of us that he is our Great I am! Join our group of believers as we study God’s word together each Sunday at 10 am at the Duchamp Opera House.
