Who is Jesus?

We have a beautiful day to begin our Bible study called Simply Jesus, and what I want to do today is I want to do an introduction to this Bible study with the intention of whetting your appetite for the next seven weeks. This is an eight-week Bible study, and this study is aimed at answering the question, Who is Jesus? How did He introduce Himself? How did He describe Himself? And how does He want me to respond to Him? Now, this might be your first ever women's Bible study. This might be your 50th Bible study. You might be accustomed to going through books of the Bible verse by verse, or maybe you've even been in some Bible studies that were a little bit more about you than what they were about the Bible. So I want you to know that this Bible study will simply be about Jesus, how He introduced Himself when He walked on the earth, and then, like I said, what I need to do with that information. Now in our groups, when we introduced ourselves using I am, and we were able to be fairly selective about what we shared with the ladies at our table, I can say to you, I am originally from Minnesota. I am a grandmother to five adorable grandchildren. I can say, I am a lover of Mexican food. We make choices with our words. We can pick out the most interesting aspects of our lives, or if we just want to blend in, we can be extra medium and not say anything too controversial or too incriminating or too embarrassing. But I want us to imagine for a moment if not only our carefully chosen words but also our actions were video recorded and for later playback. If someone lived with me for three years, would my words and my actions, would who I say I am, line up with what they see about me? Would they run into my grandchildren? Would they smell that I've been to a Mexican restaurant? Would they hear me say, oh, for cute, which if you don't know is a Minnesota ism. And in other words, am I who I say I am? And you know what? Jesus's words not only were recorded, but his actions also were recorded by his closest followers who lived with him for three years. And John, the Apostle John, was one of those followers who the Holy Spirit impressed upon to write down what he observed about Jesus's words and Jesus's actions. So in the very next week, when we study, I am the bread of life, John not only heard Jesus say, I am the bread of life, John watched him take bread and miraculously multiply it to feed thousands of people. And then in the next week, when we study, I am the light of the world, John not only heard Jesus say, I am the light of the world, he watched him heal a man who was born blind and give him sight and bring light into his life. And so John observed Jesus's words and his actions line up. And this study is going to take us through that video recording that was made by the Apostle John. We're not going to go verse by verse through the entire gospel, but we are going to cover about 40% of the gospel of John. I call it the interior of John because we're going to cover roughly chapters six through chapters 15. These are the parts where Jesus made his introductions, where Jesus said, I am. You know, my first title for this study was Jesus in his own words, and that's a really good title as well. It is hard to pick a title, but I just have to trust that the one that we end up with is the one that the Lord chose. So let's talk about the interior of John. What do I mean by that? And I'm going to give us some boundaries to this. You may know Jesus's public ministry was about three years, and we could say it's across three Passovers. And so the boundaries for this Bible study are from the second to the last Passover and the last Passover, where Jesus literally became our Passover lamb, the last year of his life on earth, the last year of his public ministry. Those are our boundaries for this, and the reason for those boundaries is because those are the times that seven times he said, I am. Because people were trying to figure out who Jesus really was. People were asking, who are you? And like everyone through the ages, some people figured out who he was. They applied faith to what they figured out, and they became his followers. And some people rejected him. But in seven instances, Jesus explained who he was with this phrase, I am. There was so much more going on when Jesus said, I am, than when you and I just said, I am, in our groups. When Jesus said, I am, he was basically saying, I am God. And you cock your head a little bit and you say to me, really? How do you see that in that? Because when he says, I am the good shepherd, I don't really get that he's trying to say, I am God. So I want to explain that just a little bit to us. And the way I want to explain it is, remember that we always say, yes, the Bible was written for us, but before it was written for us to read, it was written for someone else. And there was a different original audience. The original audience was descended from Abraham. They were God's special people. They were chosen to represent him, to bring forth the Messiah. They've been called Jews. They've been called Hebrews. They've been called the people of Israel. And when Jesus spoke to that audience and he said, I am, because of their shared history, they were well aware of the fact that someone else said, I am, before Jesus said, I am. It would be something like this. In our little introduction time, if one of you had gotten up and said, I have a dream, everyone in the room, because of our shared American history, would immediately know that for some reason you are trying to sync whatever you're about to say with Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., right? We all get that. That's part of our shared history. If we had a lady sitting here from Brazil, she might look at you and go, well, tell me about your dream. What was your dream about? Because she wouldn't get it. She was outside of that shared history. So it's important for us to get inside the shared history of the Jews so we can know what they thought when Jesus said, I am. And we do know a lot about the history of the Jews. We've studied it right here in Women of the Word. But just to get us in the mind of the audience, I want to back up to the days of Jacob, okay? Jacob and his 12 sons. Jacob renamed Israel and the 12 tribes of Israel. They were living in the land of Canaan before they became the 12 tribes. They were still the sons. And a famine had come upon the land. But remember, God had provided for that time in a very unfortunate situation for Joseph in that his brothers had sold him. And there he was in Egypt. But God had used that situation to preserve the family of Jacob. And Jacob's family all ends up in Egypt. Did I say Israel a minute ago? I meant Egypt. I think you know what I'm talking about. But they were preserved in the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh was very favorable to them. And he gave them the land of Goshen to live. And it was lovely until pharaohs came and pharaohs went. Over the centuries, they forgot who Joseph was. And pretty soon, this nation, the Hebrew nation, was indentured as slaves. And now their life was fairly miserable. And there was no hope for them to escape their current situation. You know this. After many years, they remembered who they belonged to. And they began to cry out to God. And I want to put it up on the screen for you here in Exodus chapter 2. It tells us the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning. And God remembered his covenant with Abraham. And God knew. Now you've studied Exodus. And you know that God raised up a leader for a divine deliverance. And how God introduced himself to that leader at that time went like this. On the backside of Mount Sinai, Mount Horeb, there was a bush burning on fire. It didn't burn up. And the Lord God spoke to Moses through that bush. And he told them, he told Moses about this deliverance that he had intended and that he had chosen Moses as the leader to deliver his people out of an impossible situation. So impossible, in fact. that Moses is listening and he's thinking, this is hard enough for me to understand. Nobody's gonna believe me. No one is going to believe this. And so he said to God, he said, they're gonna ask me who you are. Who are you? And God was gracious to answer him. Exodus 3, 14, God said to Moses,

All right, that was the conversation. When God introduced himself into the life of the Hebrew people and revealed himself to Moses. Now the name was a bit odd, don't you think? I am who I am. In English, it doesn't sound like a name. It handles awkwardly grammatically. The tense seems weird to us. It's hard to define, hard to explain. It maybe wasn't any better in Hebrew. The setting was odd. We have this bush that is burning. Now that could potentially happen. We have this phrase called spontaneous combustion. That could happen. It's like a hundred year flood or something that that would happen. But what doesn't happen is that it continues to burn. Have you ever taken your old Christmas tree out into the orchard and thought, I'm gonna just light this and get rid of it. And it burns up in about 90 seconds. And then the fuel is gone and all you're left with is a smoking black charred trunk of your Christmas tree. But in this case, the shrub continued going on and on. It was a self-sustaining fire. It didn't even seem to need fuel for it to burn. It kept on burning like it was alive. And maybe this odd setting was intentional as God was declaring to Moses who he was saying, I am. In that moment, he was saying, I am self-sustaining. I am self-maintaining just like the shrub that seems like it's alive with fire. And he was saying, I am self-evident. I have been all the way from the beginning. I will be all the way to the end, just like the name that I am now declaring to you. I don't need anything or anybody outside of me. I am God. I am enough. And the response that God was looking for from Moses, and I think for the most part, he got it from Moses, was one of faith that said, yes, you are enough. He wanted a response that said, trust that I am here. Trust that I am sufficient. Trust in the God who is enough for you, even in the impossible situation that you are in right now. And we all face, each day and week of our lives, situations in our lives in which we feel like this is an impossible situation. This is just as difficult as bringing this two million people out of the land of Egypt. It seems impossible. And God is telling Moses in the time, put your faith in me, put your trust in me, that I am who I am. Now we'll come back to us in a minute, but first I wanna fast forward from Moses' day, about 2,000 years to the interior of John, okay? And Jesus used the same phrase that we just heard God declare to Moses seven times, I am. And Jesus did go on to give more revelation about himself because each time he would say things like, I am the good shepherd, I am the true vine. But make no mistake, each time he used the phrase I am, he was intentionally trying to catch their attention. He was sinking with their shared history. He wanted them to know, I am here with the same name as my dad. I am also self-sustaining and self-maintaining. I am enough. Now, you might remember when Moses was in front of God, Moses asked him, who are you? Who can I tell them has sent me? In that final year of Jesus' ministry, the Jews were asking the same question of him. Well, let me just put it on the screen, John 8, 25. They said to him, who are you? And Jesus said, just what I've been telling you from the beginning and what my father has been revealing to you from the beginning. And in that chapter, in John chapter eight, Jesus and the Jews had a lively conversation about life and death and truth, and they accused Jesus of being demon-possessed because of what he was saying. I want us to skip down to verse 51, and I want to see how this conversation concludes in this moment. Look at John 8, 51.

The Jews said to him, well, now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, if anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? Who do you make yourself out to be? There's the second time, who are you? Who do you make yourself out to be, is what they're saying. So then Jesus begins to tell them plainly. We're gonna scoot right down to John 8, 56.

Well, then the Jews said to him, you're not yet 50 years old, and you have seen Abraham?

Well, because of their shared history, they knew who he was sinking with. You can tell, because look what the narrative says. So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. Interesting. Now, we would ask a question today. One question we might ask is, who did Jesus say he was? Super easy question to answer, God. It's a Sunday school answer. Everyone who comes to a women's Bible study would say Jesus is God, good. And then we move on to a little bit of a deeper question, and we ask ourselves the question, but is he enough? And now we have to pause a little bit and really dig down to answer honestly. Is he enough? Yes, Jesus is God, but is Jesus enough for me? Is he enough for the perplexities in my life, for the difficulties going on, the impossible situations, just like Moses was facing? Can I add faith to that? Well, we can connect the dots logically, and we say, God is enough, Jesus is God, so Jesus is enough. Jesus is enough to forgive my sins. He is enough for my salvation. He is enough for my day-to-day sustenance. And I think that God has wired into all of us deep questions that we naturally ask, if we'll only from time to time, like simmer down on the loud din of the world around us, we ask questions in our heart and in our mind. We ask, is God there? Does he care, or am I alone? Am I alone in this world? Those are some of the things that I think he created us to want an answer for. You know, Acts says that he's not far from us. He's made it easy for us to find him, and this Bible study should help us to do just that as we go through these seven ways that Jesus introduced himself. I hope that it will help us, not only wrestle with the questions, but find satisfying answers. Yes, he is there. Yes, he cares. And no, I am not alone. He is enough. I am not alone. And that's truly what this study is about. I wanna encourage you to hang with this Bible study all the way to the end, to the eighth week, because I believe that the final I am is the best one. To me, it is the best, and so I want us all to finish the final lap together. You know, Matthew recorded a time when Jesus said to Peter, he looked at Peter and he said, who do you say that I am? And Peter said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. You are enough. Well, he maybe not have said that in part, but the implication is there. And I want us all to get to that same reservoir that Peter had in that moment. So I'm gonna shift gear here and tell you how we're going to study this. You are gonna need your Bible. You are going to need this study guide. There's some available here at group meetings in our bookstore. If you go to our website, you can order them or download them. This is a four-day-a-week study. Sometimes I've done five days and sometimes I do four days. This is a four-day-a-week study. Also, sometimes I have done. and studies where we write out the narrative by hand in a journal. And I chose not to do that this time because I felt like it was a little bit too much. So I was out picking raspberries one day, and I thought, I said, Lord, I want to do something. If we're not writing, if we're not journaling the passage, what can we do? And just this thought came into my head that I should call our friend Liz Pettinger, who used to live in Ontario and now lives on the coast, and ask if she, she's an artist, asked if she would do adult coloring pages for each of the I Am's of Christ. And she was delighted to do that. And so that's why you have coloring pages on each of your weeks. So think about how you can use that. For me, I think I would go through my four days of study, and then I would take that fifth day, and I would just bring up the Bible app, and I would listen to it being read to me while I just did the detailing and the color and just have another approach, or maybe listen to it in a different translation than what you just studied. However you want to use it is just fine with me. And the last thing I want to share with you is that we will be marking quite a little in our Bibles during this study. It's going to start slowly, but it will increase to where we get to the last week. It will be a lot of marking. So if you are the woman who likes to have all of your notes right in your Bible that you use all the time, then you're in business. It's going to be great. If you don't really care to mess up your reading Bible that way, I want to tell you now and encourage you to get in the habit then of printing off the text for each week. I'm going to be teaching from the ESV, so that would be the most convenient for you to print off. Double space it, print it, and then you can mark to your heart's content, and it'll be just fine. So I'm just going to pray here as we close and bless you on your journey to simply studying Jesus. Father God, I do pray that you would bless us on our journey. Lord, we can't do any of this. We can't learn about you intellectually. We need you to open up our spirits so that we learn about you through our spirit and then into our mind. And so, Lord, that's what we ask as we launch into these next eight weeks. Would you illuminate us through our spirits? And would you show us things, each one of us, that you want us to know? And Lord, would you bless our time together? Help us to be a blessing to one another in each of the groups that we're in, Lord. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.