I Am Almighty
The Study of the Seven I ams of John’s Gospel
Prologue
Not that long ago I was in Ireland and had the opportunity to go out door to door witnessing with the local believers who were trying to make an outreach to their community. It was a cold January day and I remember very shortly into the trip wishing I had brought a bit more warm clothes to stave off the cold. After knocking on several doors and finding that most people were not to interested in standing in the cold to talk about God we were surprise to come to one door and get a chance to talk to a polite middle aged gentleman that claimed to be a professor at on the local colleges. Immediately we began talking about Jesus to which he agreed that he enjoyed talking about God as he was a professor of religion. Everything was going fine until we mentioned the resurrection of Jesus. That is were things began to break down. He then began to try to tell us that the Bible does not say that Jesus was divine simply that was a trick of the “Church” to control us. I recommended that he re-read the gospel of John because Jesus was very emphatic about his being God almighty. The Jews in Jesus’ time certainly did not have a problem understanding him as every time he mentioned his divinity they erupted in anger and sought to kill him.
So often we as humans even those of us that call ourselves Christians completely ignore the Divinity of Jesus Christ; the refutable fact that Jesus is God Almighty. Maybe this is why John when he wrote his gospel he showed such strong evidence to the divinity of Christ. Jesus being God Almighty deserves complete command of our lives. So often we, as Christians mind you, are completely content to accept Jesus in almost every way except God. We love him as a baby innocent and harmless, and we know he is a great teacher. Some of us might go further and recognize him as a great king and a powerful figure of history. But to let him into our lives and actually tell me what to do is a thought that most of us find repulsive at best. In fact I think we as modern man are quite used to governing ourselves in general. So much so that we even find this God thing a little hard to imagine. Our governments, although we in the western world complain about oppressiveness, are really not that intrusive in our lives. The thought of slavery, to most of us, is so old fashioned and out of date that most of us would have little idea what it looks like or feels like. The reality is that the very thought of some one else including a god telling me what to do is so far from the western mindset it takes much focus and thought for us to even consider the idea at all. How do we love this Jesus who wants to be God? How do draw close to some one that wants to control our lives? We are going to explore these and other questions in this book as well look closely at the passages where Jesus in no uncertain terms calls Himself Jesus. You might be surprise at the definitiveness of His statements and how they have a deep and real impact on how we think of our relationship with Jesus Christ Lord God Almighty.
I this book we will be discussing the 7 I Ams of the gospel of John. They are as follows including John 8:20-59 as an introduction to the thought process.
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was I am.” John 8:20-59
“I am that Bread of Life John 6:48
“I am the Light of the World” John
“I am the Door” John 10:9
“I am the Good Shepherd John 10:11
“I am the Resurrection and the Life” John
“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” John 14:6
“I am the True Vine” John 15:1
These statements are also the very words of Jesus describing himself and that is why they have so much power in revealing the character and person of Jesus Christ. They are explicit direct quotes which should off the divinity of Christ but also His deep personal care for souls like yours and mine. God bless you as you read this book.
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