This post by christinecoltman was originally published at GRACE PLACE
Good evening! It’s a real privilege to stand up here again tonight and I have to admit when I realised I’d be giving the final talk in the series I was a bit daunted, because what a fantastic year it has been looking at the I AM statements that Jesus made about himself in John’s gospel. We’ve had so many brilliant studies and I’ve been really blessed, as I’m sure you have, to learn more about Jesus through his own words.
So, I was feeling the pressure of how you end such an amazing series, and then I realised, phew it’s all about Jesus, and he’s the most amazing person ever so I can just talk about him and let him do the impressing. Pressure off.
Tonight we are looking at Jesus’s final ‘I Am’ statement, and it’s a biggie. Quite simply, it is ‘I am He.’ I am – who? Well, we will find out!
We’re going on a three-part journey tonight starting in the Old Testament and then looking at John 8 and John 18.
Now, if you remember, in our first session, Sharon spoke to us about how Jesus invited his disciples to ‘Come and see’ who he was and how he lived – and tonight we are being invited by Jesus to come and see who he really, truly, is.
I AM – EXODUS
Hopefully you were able to look at John 4 with your study buddy partners – it’s one of my favourite conversations that Jesus has, and I find it so incredible that the very first person that he truly reveals his identity to is a socially excluded woman from the ‘wrong’ race. Jesus literally breaks every barrier to speak to her and it is to her that he first says, I AM HE’.
Now, I wanted us to take a moment to look at this odd phrase, ‘I am He’, or, ‘I Am’, that Jesus uses to describe himself, because it would be good to get our heads around it before we delve into our two main passages tonight. To do this we’re going to need to take a quick step back in to the Old Testament to Exodus 3. Last year Hannah spoke to us about finding the gold thread of Jesus that runs through the Old Testament and there are few places we find it as clearly as here.
Moses has just been commanded by God to bring the Israelites out from under the captivity of Pharaoh and Moses is terrified and looking for excuses to get out of the task. Let’s read verses 13-14:
13 Moses 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?” 14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.[c] This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
‘I AM who I AM’. What does this mean? Grammatically it makes no sense, the phraseology is odd – and intentionally so. If you met someone and asked who they were and they replied, ‘I am who I am’ – that would be weird, right – we usually have an individually appointed name given to us by our parents? So, what is God saying here – because this is his actual name?
Translated it means ego eimi, or Yahweh – the one who is. Not the one who was, or will be, but the one who is – the self-existent, eternal one. His name means that he is the only uncaused being in the whole of the universe. The one who was always there, is here right now, and will always be.
I can’t think of a more mind-blowing, incredible and yet utterly comforting and personal name for God. It’s really simple, and yet wonderfully profound – God’s name means that there hasn’t ever been a millisecond of time when he hasn’t been God and there won’t ever be a millisecond of time where he won’t continue to be God: our God. He is who he is and nothing and no one can ever change that.
BREAK OUT 1
Now, I know we’re just getting started but God’s name is going to be a key factor in tonight’s talk, so I wanted us just to split into small groups and discuss:
Why is it important that God has a name? How does God’s name help you to know Him better?
CHAPTER 8
So, we’ve looked at God’s name – ‘I AM’ – that he first revealed to Moses. And we know that Jesus revealed to the woman by the well that he was ‘I AM HE’ – the Messiah who had come to save the world.
Each of Jesus’s ‘I AM’ statements that we’ve looked at revealed that He was God and added then another dimension to that – for example, I am the Light of the World showed that he would be the one to bring us out of the darkness of our sin and I am the Resurrection and the Life told us that Jesus was the one through whom we would be given eternal life. Few of these statements were well received by their audience, so it will come as no surprise that this central ‘I AM’ statement, where he was very clearly claiming God’s name for himself, did not go down well at all. So, let’s take a look at this moment in John chapter 8 v 48-58:
48 The Jews answered him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?”
49 “I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honour my Father and you dishonour me. 50 I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. 51 Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.”
52 At this they exclaimed, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death. 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?”
54 Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. 55 Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”
57 “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”
58 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” 59 At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.”
There are lots of nice links between the woman at the well passage and tonight’s passages, and you’ll notice that John 8 starts with the Pharisees calling Jesus a Samaritan, just as the woman by the well was a Samaritan.
They say, ‘Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan – and what’s worse, a demon-possessed Samaritan?’
As we looked at in John 4, the Samaritans were considered the lowest of the low by the Jews. To call Jesus a demon-possessed Samaritan was about the bitterest, lowest name they could call him. It was a slur against his mother (for the rumour was that Joseph was not his father and that he was therefore was illegitimate), a slur against his origin (that because he was so awful, his real father must have been a Samaritan, the worst of the worst), and finally it was a slur against his power (which they claimed was from demons and not from God). It’s ugly stuff.
It’s like when you’re in the playground at school and the big kids, the cool kids, take one glance at you and pick out all your weaknesses and flaws in an instant – all the things that will really hurt – and throw them back at you. I’m not sure who you were at school, but I was ‘ginger speccy-four-eyes’. Jesus here is ‘a demon-possessed Samaritan’. When the bullies threw their names at me, I cried and ran away. When they do it to Jesus, he steps forward, cool as a cucumber and replies,
‘I am not possessed by a demon. But I honour my father and you dishonour me. I am not seeking glory for myself, but there is one who seeks it, and He is the judge. Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.’
Wow. Hurt by their words? No. Thrown by their slanders? No.
‘I don’t need to win this argument’, Jesus says. ‘My father will win it and he will judge you for it. You don’t ever want to meet him as your judge so listen to my words and honour me, because I am here to save you.’
In chapter 4, if you remember, Jesus had sat and spoke to the Samaritan woman about the living water he offers that gives eternal life. She had been resistant, but then she opened her heart to Jesus. Now, this crowd is blaspheming him, throwing terrible slurs at him, and yet he still offers out the same beautiful invitation of eternal life, saying: ‘Whoever believes my word will never see death.’
Jesus of course doesn’t mean physical death here. He is saying that though his people die, yet they will live forever. In John 5 v 24, Jesus says ‘Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.’
I love the way John Piper puts it – he says: ‘There’s not a five-minute pause in the hospital. Believers of Jesus cannot die. Our bodies die but our souls do not. In death there will be not one broken millisecond of fellowship with Jesus. Eternal life never ends, it just gets perfected in the twinkling of an eye.’
So, this is what Jesus is offering: believe in him – believe he is the great I AM – and we are freed from death. But will the Pharisees listen – will we listen? Imagine meeting someone today who made this claim: if you obey my word, you will never die. It is startling. The Pharisees are starting to grasp just what Jesus is moving towards, and they don’t like it.
‘Now we know you are demon possessed’, they cry. ‘Abraham died, and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever believes your word will never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?’
Ironically, this is the very question that Jesus wants them (and us) to ask and answer: Who is Jesus? What is his real name?
Once again, we have a nice link back to John 4. When the woman at the well was shocked at Jesus’s offer of living water, she said, ‘Are you greater than our father Jacob?’ Now, the Pharisees take it to a new level by asking, ‘Are you greater than Abraham?’
You see, these men are descendants of Abraham – Jewish pure-bloods through and through. Apart from Jesus, no one is mentioned more times in the Bible than Abraham. He’s a big deal, and the Pharisees are super proud of their decadency from him. Their understanding of what it means to be God’s people is based on their lineage, not their relationship with God – which is clearly shown here in their rejection of Jesus, his Son.
Accepting for a moment their claim that Abraham is their father, Jesus tells them, ‘Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.’ The audience is shocked by his apparent arrogance, if not insanity. Surely this man is mad? Abraham died centuries ago! How on earth could Abraham have seen Jesus?
Now we don’t know how or when Abraham saw Jesus – the Bible doesn’t tell us – but I love that Jesus says that Abraham rejoiced when he saw him. There was a time when Abraham had grave doubts in God’s promises. Once he laughed cynically and unbelievingly at God’s promise of a son in his old age. But God had delivered, and now the promise of a people of faith, as numerous as the stars in the sky, descended from him, is being fulfilled in the miracle of Jesus. It’s no wonder Abraham was so happy when he saw his Saviour.
But this is beyond the grasp of the Pharisees. No one can make such a claim about their founding father – it’s outrageous! So, they throw their final sneer at Jesus: ‘You are not yet fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham?’ Jesus doesn’t miss a beat, replying: ‘Before Abraham was, I AM.’
The words thrill me to my core. Grammatically, they make no sense! But if you’re like me, to our hearts, they make perfect sense. Before anything in this world existed, Jesus did. When everything on this earth has ended, Jesus will remain. He is unshakeable, he is eternal, he is I AM. It sends tingles down your spine, doesn’t it?
They say names have power and this one certainly does. Let us thank God if it is tingles of awe that we feel, because for the Pharisees it was shivers of hate.
Because they knew as well as we do – or better than – that his words came from Exodus 3 v 14, the passage we’ve just looked at, and it enraged them more than anything else could. This humble carpenter from Nazareth was declaring himself to be the God of the Old Testament: Yahweh. And to the Jews that was the ultimate blasphemy. And so, in line with Leviticus 25 where it says that stoning is the capital punishment for blasphemy, they picked up stones, to stone him.
This is a good reminder for us that religious privilege does not guarantee a right attitude to the things of God or salvation. Jesus here deals a death blow to the privilege the Pharisees held dear. They believed that as they were directly descended from Abraham, that by merit of his life, he passed salvation on to all those descended from him. They believed that everyone of that line was automatically accepted into heaven, but they were wrong.
We might not be descended from Abraham, but we might come from a long line of Christians or be comfortably settled into our church-going life, serving on every rota going. So, it’s a good reminder
from Jesus that it only faith in his name – the Great I AM – that can unlock the gates of heaven and let us in. It’s a good reminder to us to turn our focus back to him, and him alone, for his is the only name that can save. It’s the name that is above every other name – above Jacob, above Abraham, and even above the angels. And he says here that if we obey his word and believe in him, then we are his forever.
2nd BREAK OUT
The Pharisees ask Jesus: ‘Who are you?’ When he replies that he is God, they respond in unbelief and anger.
How do you respond to who Jesus says he is? How does belief in Jesus’ name – the Great I AM – shape your life today?
CHAPTER 18
Jesus had made it very clear to the woman at the well that he was the Saviour of the World, sent to redeem his people. And he had made it very clear to the Pharisees that he was God. She had accepted him; the Pharisees had not.
We are now coming to our final passage tonight; in fact the final passage of our whole series. It takes place during the last few hours of Jesus’s life before his crucifixion. And as we read it together, I’d like us to think about how Jesus conducts himself in this final stage of his ministry, because it is of the greatest importance.
All his previous I AM statements hinge on what happens now, as his behaviour here either validates or invalidates his life. Because you can make bold claims about yourself, but when the pressure comes, you either crumble or you stand firm. So, let’s find out what happens in John 18 v 1-9:
When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was a garden, and he and his disciples went into it.
2 Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. 3 So Judas came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons.
4 Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?”
5 “Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied.
“I am he,” Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) 6 When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground.
7 Again he asked them, “Who is it you want?”
“Jesus of Nazareth,” they said.
8 Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. If you are looking for me, then let these men go.” 9 This happened so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled: “I have not lost one of those you gave me.”[a]
Throughout his gospel, John been asking us to behold our God (which, incidentally, is the title of our series!) – so let’s do that here and look at the details.
Jesus has just finished teaching his disciples in his famous upper room discourse, part of which is the ‘I am the Vine’ section that Hollie spoke to us on last month. Together, they leave the quiet fellowship of the upper room for Gethsemane, the beautiful garden to which they would routinely go to at the end of a busy day.
To get to Gethsemane, they would walk down from the city of Jerusalem, which stood on a hill, and pass through the Kidron valley. John is careful to set the scene for us chronologically and geographically, so that we might be under no mistake as to what is taking shape here. To an outsider it might seem like Jesus is being trapped by his enemies, but John paints a very different picture.
To cross the Kidron valley, Jesus would have to walk through a stream which ran down the centre of it. Into this stream ran the temple sacrificial system where the blood of the sacrifices was drained off. It was the time of Passover and over 2000 lambs would have been offered to atone for the sins of the people. Across this scarlet stream where the blood of the Passover lambs flowed, walks Jesus, the lamb who would take away the sins of the world, with his own blood about to be shed. It’s a striking image.
They walk from this valley up to the garden, and while the other gospel writers tell us it is called Gethsemane, John just calls it a garden, because he wants us to remember another garden where our forefather was tested and failed. The first Adam in the first garden messed up, as we would have done, and brought the curse of sin and death upon us. Since then, we have needed a Saviour – a Saviour, that Jesus revealed to the woman by the well, has now arrived – and now in this second garden, he is going to triumph.
John wants us to see that Jesus is in control even in the symbolism that surrounds him in his final hours. Jesus has chosen the place. This is his hour. Darkness closes in and he shines all the more brightly. Jesus is getting us ready to behold him as the great ‘I AM’.
So, Jesus has taken his stand in the garden, and now from across the valley, the disciples would have seen the waning lights of Jerusalem late in the night where Judas was meeting the cohort of soldiers and officials, carrying their swords and clubs. Jesus and his disciples would have watched the line of torches coming down from the holy city and heading for them across the valley. It would have been a terrifying sight for the disciples.
And so, in verse 3, here Judas comes: the disciple who was so dreadfully lost, who disappeared out into the darkness from the upper room, now becoming the guide. John doesn’t let us miss the irony here. And Judas doesn’t even show up bravely on his own. He must have considered it much safer to be at the head of a crowd than trailing at the back of the twelve disciples.
John tells us he was leading detachment of soldiers which sounds modest, but would actually have been anything between 300 and 1000 men. 1000 men with weapons! Imagine them coming towards you with their swords in that dark, remote garden, with just one man to protect you. I would have been cowering behind Jesus with my knees knocking.
Holding their lanterns and torches high, they begin to look for Jesus; they expected a struggle and are fully armed. John is keen again to highlight the irony that they have brought lanterns and torches to arrest the Light of the World; they’ve brought clubs and swords to attack the Prince of Peace.
‘Let’s hunt him down,’ you can almost hear them saying to one another, ‘Let’s ferret him out’. After all, no one gives themselves up to an army, or walks out to their death, do they? Jesus does.
‘Excuse me, are you looking for someone?’ he says in verse 4, walking boldly out into the torch light.
It must have been a bit unnerving, right? Isn’t he meant to be hiding, terrified of being caught? And yet he is confronting them? Verse four reminds us that Jesus knew all that was going to happen to him. He is the one in control here, not the army before him. I was reminded that previously when the crowds wanted to force a crown upon him, he disappeared. Now when they want to force a cross upon, him he steps out.
I think it’s fair to assume that it is not for his information that Jesus asks the question, ‘Who are you looking for?’ – he knows the answer, but he wants them to really think about it, just as with the Pharisees in chapter 8. Who is it that they want? Why have they really come? Have they really come to arrest the Son of God?
But out of their mouths they spit that they have come for ‘Jesus of Nazareth’, once again emphasizing the disreputable origin of his parenthood and denying his claims to godhood. Jesus replies calmly:
‘I am He.’
Three little words. One man before a thousand. And what happens with these three little words? He knocks each, and every one of them, on their backs.
Let us not underplay verse 6 in our minds. Jesus has just declared that he is the great I AM, the self-existent, living God, and an entire army of burly, experienced soldiers are sent crashing to the ground. Imagine the noise and the tremors beneath your feet as they fell.
There is a miracle here that cannot be rationalised away. These men didn’t just fall over in surprise. Sure, you can imagine that there was a majestic bearing to Jesus’ whole demeanour; a powerful tone to his voice; a look in his eye. But even that is insufficient to explain what happens. This is another miraculous sign that John gives us, telling us who Jesus really is and revealing his glory. With the very utterance of who he is, he cast them all to the ground by the power of his name.
Tim Keller says, ‘This is Jesus flexing himself a little bit. Before he gives himself up, lays his glory aside and goes to the cross, he shows who he really is and even just a glimpse is enough to knock an entire Roman legion flat.’
It reflects an important biblical teaching: that no one can stay on their feet in the presence of God. Whenever someone sees even just a glimpse of God in the Old Testament the glory of God knocks them flat, and they fear for their lives. Isaiah cries out, ‘Woe is me, for I am unclean!’ when he sees God. In Luke 5 when Peter realises who Jesus is, he says, ‘Go away from me Lord; I am a sinful man’. They knew that the glory of God was too much for them – just as it would be too much for us. Because the reality of God as sinful people is not warm and wonderful. It is traumatic. We cannot stand before his glory.
Alistair Begg commented that it was an act of great mercy that Jesus let these men fall on their backs and not down into hell. After all, they had come to kill the son of God! But these men are us, aren’t they? When we wish we didn’t have to be Christians because it’s not socially acceptable; when we don’t want to follow God’s commands anymore because they are costly; when we curse God inwardly and just want to go our own way. We need the same mercy that Jesus shows these men.
Ian Holmes reminded us recently in his sermon on Exodus 3 that we must not trivialise God. If we were to meet him without the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus, we would die on the spot. If we do not fall down before him now, we will be forced to bow down before him on judgement day because in the presence of God, no one can keep their footing. So, there is in fact deep graciousness here when Jesus knocks these men over. With the utterance of his divine name, he gives a loving warning. ‘Look at who I am,’ he is saying. ‘Behold your God.’
I wonder how it was for Judas as he struggled back to his feet. Was this when he started to realise what he had done? Judas had thought this was his moment of glory. He has an army following and listening to him – he is the one in control at last, or so he thinks… Until Jesus knocks them flat.
But there’s a message of great encouragement for us here too. When you feel you are in the minority, hold fast. The disciples felt in the minority that night, but Jesus has more power in three little words than 1000 swords. The officials, chief priests and Pharisees came with torches, lanterns, and weapons. Nowadays those who say Christians are hateful and intolerant rule the media, and seem to have the loudest voice, but their reign and rule is short before the reign and rule of Jesus who even here, in the face of the most daunting and trying circumstances is calmly and unmistakably establishing his deity.
3rd BREAKOUT
If you had taken your stand with Jesus in the garden, how would you feel at this display of his power?
If this same power is for us, right now, how does that encourage you today?
So here we are at the final three verses of tonight’s passage. Jesus has shown his power. The crowd have stumbled back to their feet, but their target has not run away and strangely Jesus now repeats his initial question:
‘Who is it you want?’ (verse 7).
Why does he do this, I asked myself? They’ve already answered this question, and their reply is the same as before – they want Jesus. Jesus replies:
‘I have told you that I am he. If you are looking for me, then let these men go.’
Now if the previous verses send a shiver down my spine at the power of Jesus, these ones make me want to cry at his kindness. All the disciples are in mortal danger here. The protocol of the Roman soldiers was to arrest the followers and then they would never be heard of again. Jesus here is protecting his own. The mercy he has just shown his enemies in sparing their lives is now matched by the devotion he shows to his followers. Quite simply, he asks them twice who they want so they can show their concern is with the shepherd and not with his sheep.
This section reminds me greatly of John chapter 10, which by the grace of God, was the passage I was given to speak on last time. Jesus doesn’t abandon his flock here like the hired hand, or let the wolves attack them. Just like the loving shepherd we considered a few months ago who tirelessly cares for his flock, Jesus here fulfils his role to the full.
He has had no sleep. His face is marked by the drops of blood that he has just sweat out in horror of what he is about to go through for us. The finality of his Father’s voice is still ringing in his ears telling him, ‘This is my will’, walk in it – and yet Jesus is filled with concern and compassion for his disciples.
What makes it even more amazing is that Jesus doesn’t just know all that will be done to him by way of crucifixion and separation from God, but he knows all that his followers will do. He knows they will desert him, deny him and turn away from him. They are literally moments away from bolting to save themselves from the possibility that they might have to undergo the same suffering as their master.
If I were Jesus, I’d be tempted to say, ‘take them into custody, they’re a bunch of cowards’, and then I realise that I can’t condemn them for running, because I would probably have done the same. I know what it is to deny and forsake Jesus and flee. But Jesus says let them go; forgive them and take me.
John tells us the significance of this in v9: ‘This happened so that the words Jesus had spoken would be fulfilled: ‘I have not lost one of those you gave me.’’ Isn’t this the most amazing encouragement? That even at his most extreme moment when he is being betrayed, Jesus is thinking about his disciples; about his flock, that we are part of.
Because, as we looked at in John 10, it is not just physical protection that Jesus provides for his people. ‘If you are looking for me, then let them go,’ says Jesus in verse 8 – there is a substitution taking place here, foreshadowing that which will soon take place upon the cross. He stands forward now as his flock’s substitute and Saviour. The great I AM is going to the Cross to have all the punishment, the judgement, everything we deserve fall on him.
So, I found myself asking, what would it mean if we believed down to the bottom of our hearts that Jesus took our judgement day early so that on judgement day, we can stand with our sins forgiven? Because if we know that we can stand before God on judgement day and not lose our footing, this should mean we will not lose our footing now. If we name Jesus as our King, we stand on the side of the great I AM, forevermore, and nothing and no one can shake us. I need to get this into my head because it is life changing.
CONCLUSION
So here we are, at the end of our studies in John for this term.
Has anyone else fallen more in love with Jesus through them?
John says in chapter 20 verse 31, that his purpose in writing his gospel is that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ and that by believing we might ‘have life in his name’. In His name, which is the great I AM, the everlasting God. The name which is above every other name, at which every knee will bow (or be knocked flat) and every tongue confess him Lord.
That Jesus is God – the I AM – is a big claim, and we’ve come time and time again to the claims of Jesus in this gospel. Do we accept them? And if so, what does that mean for our lives? I wanted to just quickly recap the claims we’ve heard Jesus make this year:
· In our very first session, Sharon spoke to us about how Jesus invited his disciples to come and see who he was and how he lived. A human, gentle invitation to witness with their own eyes who he really was, the lamb of God.
· Then he told his disciples that he was the Bread of Life, and to come and see how he would completely fulfil them.
· ‘Come and see that I am the light of the world,’ Jesus told the people, ‘Follow me and you will never walk in darkness.’
· ‘I am the good shepherd – come and see how I care for those I love’.
· ‘I am the resurrection and the life’ – come and see me raise Lazarus from death’.
· ‘I am the way, the truth and the life – come and see that I am the only way to live’.
· ‘I am the true vine – come and abide in me and see how your life will change’.
· And now, ‘I am He – I am the Great I AM – I am God incarnate here to save you. Come and see me in the garden, knocking flat an entire army with just the smallest glimpse of my power. Come and see how I love you. Come and see what I have done to win you back again. Come and see me on the cross’.
Can we see in these claims – really see – behold – Our God, who was and is and is to come?
Because the claims Jesus makes are staggering claims. They should shake the very core of our lives. If this man is our King, then we are free beyond measure, blessed beyond measure, secure forever. When life hits, we must repeat these claims: My Saviour is the light of the world, He is the truth, He is my good shepherd, He is the eternal God. This meek man standing there in the garden is the one who caused galaxies to explode into being, the immense Red Sea to part, epic cities to crumble into dust; he called down fire from heaven, and can raise dead, cold bodies back into warm, breathing life. If we say we trust Jesus – if we say we trust I AM – this is who we say we are trusting.
And the good news is that because of Jesus’ sacrifice for us, he is really, truly, completely here for us as our Saviour, who we will see face to face in all his glory in heaven. And we can thank God that that meeting will not be traumatic, as it was for the soldiers, and the Pharisees, but glorious and completely fulfilling.
I just want to finish with a passage from Revelation chapter 1 verses 17-18 when John sees Jesus for himself:
Rev 1 17-18
17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he (Jesus) placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and hell.’
Jesus himself tells us that we are not to be afraid of anything. As John Piper said: ‘In Jesus we have already entered life and passed out of death. We have moved around judgement and passed into life with God. It cannot be ended; it cannot be interrupted. So, what are you afraid of? The world needs the Christ, and the courage of Christians who know they will never die.’