The Seven I Am Statements Of Jesus: Who Is Jesus?

Who is Jesus? Who is it really that we’re following? What did Jesus say about himself, and his identity? We talk about Him enough don’t we? Jesus this, Jesus that, but who is Jesus?

The prophet Isaiah, an Old Testament prophet wrote about Jesus, and who he was, before Jesus was even born. In fact there are dozens of descriptions in the Old Testament about who Jesus was, even before he was born into the world. Isaiah wrote:

“He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted." -Isaiah 53:3-4 NIV

Yet at the beginning of John’s gospel, which is what we’ll be looking at today, it’s also said about Jesus, that he is the Word. Which is a phrase that seems to describe Jesus as a voice of God in the world. John wrote:

John 1:1-5, 9-14 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John this guy, two thousand years ago said “We SAW HIM.” We hung out with Jesus. And we witnessed his glory day in and day out. They chilled with Jesus. They hung out with him all the time and he mentored them. Anybody here ever had a person mentor them? Support them? Spend time with them? That’s what Jesus did with the first disciples, the first Christians.

The gospel of John is by far my favorite gospel. I really think it was written down by John for just our time in history. If you’ll open your bibles to John, that’s where we’ll be looking today.

We talk about Jesus a lot. We use his name a lot. But how well do we know him? How well do we know and obey the one we follow? We’ve got to stay in the word of God, the Bible. The more we read it, the more it becomes a part of our mind. And we access Jesus through the word.

Jesus said that through the word he had given his disciples, they had been made clean. The word of God is our most direct means of accessing God and being transformed by God.

Today we’re going to specifically talk about the 7 I Am statements of Jesus in John. The 7 “I Am” Statements of Jesus are a great way to build in your mind a framework of who Jesus is and what his position as our “savior” really means. I’d encourage you to memorize one or more of these “I am” statements. And recite them in your prayers to God. And recite them to yourself when your struggling or in need.

What comes into our minds when we think about Jesus is the most important thing about us. That’s what A.W. Tozer a great Christian pastor said. And it’s true. Everything hinges on our relationship with Jesus Christ. So let us pay the most careful attention to what Jesus says about himself.

In John Chapter 6:35-40 It says: 35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”