Patricia Rice 22066268 Bible 323 (DPL) December 10, 2008

I AM Term Paper

1 The Lord used different methods of revealing Himself to His people in the Old Testament. He revealed Himself through the Old Testament prophets, He communicated with the priest in tabernacles, and He revealed Himself to Moses and allowed him to look upon His back parts. God revealed Himself, in the New Testament, to the world through Jesus Christ. There were many people in the Old Testament as there are many today that doubt Jesus is the Son of God and, therefore, they doubt His authority. The Gospel of John records Jesus eight I AM sayings. Jesus, through these sayings, boldly indentifies Himself with the God of the Old Testament. Each of the I AM sayings is connected to a metaphor that is significant to the Old Testament. I am the bread of life, in my opinion, is Jesus highest claim of authority. I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE (John 6:35) Jesus had gone out of Jerusalem and crossed over the Sea of Galilee (6:1). He was followed by a great multitude (6:2). The multitude was not seeking salvation from Jesus, they were concerned for the miracles Jesus performed, and they saw that Jesus could make them well physically. Jesus, having a tender heart towards the multitude, saw they were tired and hungry. He also, knew that where they were going there were crooked and unbelieving rulers and priest and that the multitude would not be spiritually fed. He told the disciples to seat the men. Now, it appeared as though there was no way to accommodate such a large number of people. Jesus, however, knew all along what He would (6:6). Christ will always make a way out of no way. The disciple, called Andrew, discovered a small boy that had two fishes and five loaves of barley bread and brought him to Jesus. Jesus took the fishes and bread and gave thanks to God blessing the food. Jesus told the disciples to feed the crowd. As the large group ate, the food continued to

2 replenish. Jesus told the disciples to collect what was left and there were twelve basket of food left after all was filled. In the hearts of the people they did not trust Jesus nor did they want Him as their Savior. They wanted to make Jesus their king and use Him for their own selfish purposes. Dr. Towns explains that the Jews sought Him to be their political savior from the bondage of Rome. Therefore, Jesus did not commit Himself to them for He knew what was in man (2:25). He knew they would try to take him by force and make Him a king, so He left to go into the mountains again alone. Jesus disciples left without Him and sent sail to Capernaum. There arose a great wind that caused the sea to rage (6:18). The disciple was busy rowing when they looked up and saw Jesus coming toward them walking on the sea (6:19). They received Jesus into the ship and they were immediately at land (6:21). The following day, the crowd had, again, found Jesus in Capernaum. Jesus told them that they were not interested in the miracles they had witnessed; they were only there because they had eaten of the loaves and were filled (6:26). Jesus said to worry not about perishable food, but be concerned for the everlasting meat (6:27). The crowd continually asked the Lord for signs, but Jesus taught saying, I am the bread of life: He that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst (6: 35). Christ is the manna. He came down from heaven and gave His life for the world that we might live, that is salvation. Also, He is the Bread that we are to feed upon constantly so that we might grow spiritually. (McGee) The Jews were waiting for the coming of their Messiah; Jesus Christ was the Messiah for which they were waiting for. His miracles indicated that He was God Almighty. However, they

3 were far too spiritually blind to receive Him, and misunderstood His miracles and teachings. Jesus taught, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you (6:53). It is a sign that you have no spiritual life in you if you have no desire towards Christ, nor delight in him. (Henry) Jesus was Jehovah God, the God of Israel (Isaiah 41:14, 43:11, 14). The I AM In Exodus 3:14 confirms Jesus as the creator who exists independently of His creation (Towns). Jesus provided manna for the children of Israel for the forty years they were in the wilderness. (Exodus 16:35). He said unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; (Exodus 16:4). Jesus (Jehovah) gave them bread from heaven for their hunger, and brought forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst (Numbers 9:15). Jesus was the bread of life in the Old Testament just as He is in the New Testament. Jesus has attributes that only belong to God. In Isaiah God says, There is no one like me. Jesus is omnipresent (Mt. 18:20; 28:20), omniscient (Mt. 6:21; Lk.11:17; Jn.4:24), omnipotent (Mt. 8:26, 27, 28:18), and self existent (Jn. 1:4; 14:6; 8:58). Only God has these attributes, so if Jesus has them too, He must be God. In Revelations 21:6 God says that He is the beginning and the end. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. Jesus says He is the Beginning and the End, Behold I am coming soon! My reward is with me and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Jesus is saying what only the true God can say about Himself. God is the only one who can forgive sins committed against Him. Jesus forgave sin that were committed against God, so therefore, Jesus must be God. All things have been created by Him and for Him (Colossians1:16).

4 The Gospel of John was written that we might, first, believe that Jesus was the Son of God, and have eternal life because of our belief. The Synoptic Gospels used Jesus miracles to reveal His power. In Johns Gospel the miracles are used as teaching signs (2:11; 20:30), and each one is followed by a message. Johns gospel places emphasis on the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was the intentions of John that everyone come to know God and to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

Work Cited
Henry, Matthew. Commentary on the Whole Bible by Matthew Henry. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1961. McGee, J. Vernon. Thru the Bible Radio Special Editon of the King James Version. Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1976. New American Standard Bible. The Lockman Foundation, 1960,1962,1963. The Holy Bible The King James Version. Randall House Publications, 1964. Towns, Elmer. Mal Couch, Ed Hindson. The Gospel of John Believe and Live. Tyndale Theological Seminary, 2002.