I AM the Bread of Life - Part 1 — Stuart Briscoe

Great pleasure for my wife and me to be back here in the United Kingdom. Both of us were born here hundreds of years ago. I was born in Cumbria, although it was called Cumberland in those days, and my wife is from Liverpool.

We lived the early years of our marriage in Manchester, and this has caused considerable strain in our marriage ever since because she coming from Liverpool and I being in Manchester United fan, we have found great difficulty in deciding who really are the anointed teams.

But I of course know she needs help in this regard. Are you understanding me so far? Give me some indication. That's very encouraging, otherwise I might have needed an interpreter or an interrupter. I have lived in America for the last 50, excuse me, it seems like 50, for the last 30 years pastoring a church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and sometimes I have difficulty remembering which is the English English and which is the American English because I'm now completely bilingual.

My accent is true mid-Atlantic, and I find often I'm standing with my feet firmly planted in the middle of the ocean, but I trust that you'll be able to understand me okay. Well now, this is what we call the Bible reading.

The Authority and Relevance of Scripture

Let me just make a few preliminary remarks about the necessity of spending time in the Bible. I find a lot of people try to manage without the Bible even though they say they believe it. I find it's immensely helpful if in addition to believing it, you know what's in it.

I've met people who say they believe it from cover to cover, which I suppose includes the index and the maps, but I am sometimes concerned that they don't spend time in God's Word. In fact, we have a rule in our church back home in Milwaukee, and that is never put your head on the pillow at night.

If you haven't had your nose in the book during the day, I think that's a pretty sound rule, and I'd like you to say that after me. Never put your head on the pillow at night if you haven't had your nose in the book during the day.

I did say after me, but we won't be too picky about that. Just so long as you remember it. Never put your head on the pillow at night if you haven't had your nose in the book during the day. The reason, of course, that we take the Scriptures so seriously is that the Scriptures claim to be unique.

The Scriptures claim to be eternal truth, and I find that very, very exciting indeed. Let me explain why. If the Scriptures are truth, that means rather obviously that they are true. If the Scriptures are truth and are therefore true, it means that they are true for everybody.

Now, try to imagine the encouragement that this is for a preacher who finds himself in situations or finds herself in situations where he or she does not know the people, doesn't know where they've been, doesn't know where they've come from, doesn't know what they're up to, doesn't know what their burdens are, doesn't know what their sins are.

In fact, knows very, very little about them at all, and yet has to stand up and say something significant to them. In fact, one occasion in between our Sunday morning services, a small boy came up to me and said, Good morning, Stuart.

Do you have anything significant to say today? Well, I knew what the conversation had been on the way to church in the car. How is the preacher, how is the Bible teacher expected to say something significant to large groups of people that he or she doesn't know?

And the answer is, if he or she simply expounds the truth, then it is true for everybody. If the Scriptures are not only truth, but eternal truth, that means that they will be relevant at all times. We're always concerned about being relevant.

We hear much about being contemporary at the present time. The great thing about the Scriptures is that they are not only true for everybody, but they are relevant for all times. And so the exciting thing about having the Scriptures is it doesn't matter when you are opening them, to whom you are opening them, or where you are opening them.

One thing you know, that the Word will be true and relevant to everybody whenever, wherever, whoever they might be. Now, it's with that in mind, of course, that we find it necessary to encourage people to open the Scriptures on a regular basis.

Three Questions for Studying the Bible

It is necessary for us to know how to approach the Scriptures, and there's a very simple set of rules that I like to adhere to in my approach to Scripture. I ask the Scripture three very simple questions, and I would like to encourage you to approach the Scriptures this way, too.

The first question is very simple. It is simply, what? That means, what exactly is the Scripture about? What does it mean? I believe the way we discover what the Scriptures mean is to discover what the Scriptures meant when they were written by the person who wrote them to the people who received them.

This means that we have the opportunity to study the Scriptures in such a way that we can discover what they meant at the time they were written and what they are intended to mean at the present time.

That would answer the question, what? The second question is, so what? In other words, what is the application of this truth? So, I've read certain things. Jesus, for instance, said, I am the bread of life.

That's what he said. He said it. He said it under these circumstances. He said it to these people. So, what? They were on the shores of Galilee 2 ,000 years ago. Here I am on the shores of the North Sea with the beautiful weather sweeping in from the North Sea in the year 2000.

So, what? Well, that means that we have to take the Scriptures now and make application of them to our particular situation. But it is possible to answer the what and the so what and still do nothing about them.

Simply mark them in our Bibles or take notes concerning what was said. We need, therefore, to answer the third question, which is, now what? What, so what, now what? Now what do I need to do? Now that I understand what they say, now I understand how they apply, what possible difference is it going to make in my life?

What am I required to do in terms of obedience, for instance? What am I required to do in terms of belief, for instance? What should I do in terms of relationships? So, whenever you study the Word of God or you listen to the exposition of the Word of God, always be asking those three questions.

What, so what, and now what? Now, as far as the study of the Scriptures is concerned, there's another basic rule, and that is never interpret a text out of its context. If you take a text out of its context, you're left with a con.

And that, of course, is not particularly helpful. There are many con artists around. You can just about make Scripture say anything you want to say if you take a text out of its context and then string it along with others that are totally unrelated to it.

Let me illustrate this for you. There's a lovely story of a man down in the southern states of the United States, and on one occasion he was walking along a country road with his dog and his mule. And a pickup truck came around the corner too fast, knocked them into the ditch.

Sometime later, the old man sued the driver of the pickup truck. The attorney, the lawyer defending the driver of the truck was cross-examining the old man, trying to show that in actual fact there was no basis for the suit at all, that he wasn't hurt, that there was no problem at all.

And so he asked the old man, as he sat in the witness stand, did you tell my client that you were all right? The old man said, me and my mule and my dog. And he said, answer the question. Did you tell my client that you were all right?

The old man insisted, me and my mule and my dog. And so the attorney turned to the judge and said, Your Honor, would you please instruct him to answer the question? And the judge said, no, let him say what he's trying to say.

Thank you, Your Honor, said the old man. Me and my mule and my dog were coming along the road. This gentleman came around the corner in his pickup truck and knocked me and my mule and my dog into the ditch.

He then jumped out of the cab holding a shotgun. He went to my dog that was bleeding profusely and he shot it. He went to my mule that had broken its foreleg and he shot it. He came to me and he stood over me and he said, are you all right?

And I said to him, I've never felt better in all my life. So the moral of the story is this. Don't take a text out of its context, for if you do, you may finish up with a con. So much then for our approach to Scripture, so much for why we would take time to have a Bible reading and to spend time looking into God's Word.

Jesus’ Sayings and the “I Am” Statements

Now, we're going to be looking into some of the sayings of the Lord Jesus recorded for us in John's Gospel. And there's a whole cluster of them that begin with the words, I am. We will only have time to look into four of them during the four morning sessions.

Let me say just a word, first of all, about how important it is to study the sayings of Jesus. Jill and I came over to the UK on Monday from Pennsylvania, and we've had a couple of days in London looking around and we were able to visit somewhere we'd never been in our lives before, even though we grew up in England, and that was the British Museum.

And it was fascinating to go there and also to the Science Museum, the kind of weather we've had, ideally suited for museums and little else. And one of the things that was fascinating, looking in the Science Museum particularly, was to see how we moved from an agrarian society to an industrial society to an information society.

And of course, it's in the information society that we live at the present time. The results of this information society or this communication society is that we have at our fingertips such an amount of data that we are totally overwhelmed by it.

Now, the way that we cope with this overwhelming flood of data is basically to tune a lot of it out. That being the case, the people who are particularly anxious to communicate their message to us will go to a lot of time and money and effort devising all kinds of spectacular, sometimes even shocking ways of getting their message across.

The result is, in our communications and information-saturated age, we are being bombarded by sensational, shocking, spectacular communications that very, very often lack substance. Sensational, yes.

Shocking, yes. Quite dramatic, undoubtedly. Substantive, very, very often they have little to say. The result of this, of course, can be rather obviously that our attention may be grasped by that which is totally lacking in significance, whereas that which is profoundly significant, because it is not being communicated to us in spectacular ways, may conceivably be overlooked.

I believe that in this generation in which you and I are living at the present time, there's a very real danger that our attention may be arrested by all manner of communications, giving us all kinds of less than substantive and significant information, whereas that which is deeply substantive and profoundly significant may not be heard.

This is certainly the case as far as God's Word is concerned, and I believe that one of the voices that is being lost in the cacophony of noises at the present time is the voice of Jesus Himself. What better thing could we do in this information age than to avail ourselves of the things that Jesus had to say?

Of course, He said many things on many, many topics, but surely one of the most important topics would be what Jesus had to say about Himself. And that brings us, of course, to John's Gospel. And as I mentioned a moment or two ago, the number of occasions on which Jesus referred to Himself and described Himself in some rather dramatic ways.

However, you may remember a few moments ago, I reminded you, don't take a text out of its context. Now, trying to adhere to my own rule, therefore, I want us to look into John chapter 6 and see what Jesus had to say about Himself there under the general heading, I am the bread of life.

But we must see it in its context. Now, John chapter 6 is a very long chapter, and I don't propose reading it to you. I will tell you the story of the first part and then refer you to other sections as we go along.

There are parallel passages in the synoptic Gospels, that is, Matthew, Mark, and Luke to the account we have in John's Gospel concerning these particular events. And I will occasionally refer to the other accounts of these events.

Compassion, Ministry, and the Feeding of the Multitude

Suffice it to say that on one occasion, Jesus received some very disheartening, disconcerting news. It was concerning His friend and His relative and His colleague, John the Baptist. John the Baptist had been imprisoned, you remember, and he had been very, very outspoken concerning the marital status of the king at that time.

And this, of course, did not please the king's consort, and she had had him beheaded. John the Baptist had been brutally murdered. When Jesus got this news, He needed to get away, presumably to do some quiet private mourning.

At the same time, we learn from one of the other synoptic Gospels that the disciples had just returned from a busy evangelistic tour. And they were all excited about what they had done, and Jesus decided that what they needed was a break as well.

And so, with His own personal grief in mind and the need for His disciples to have a time of relaxation, they went away to a quiet place. And when they got there, it was not particularly quiet because 5 ,000 families showed up uninvited.

When the Lord Jesus saw these people, He noticed that they were like sheep without a shepherd. And we are told that He was moved with compassion toward them. The enormity of the human need was very, very powerful as Jesus looked upon them.

He immediately put on one side His own personal grief, and He called His disciples who were looking for a little time off, and He got them engaged in ministering to the people. Now, there's a very simple application that can be made at this point.

It is not unusual in our churches today to find people who are in the churches basically to get their needs met. If we suggest to them that perhaps the only way that people's needs will be met will be if there are plenty of need-meeters, and we need them to be a need-meeter rather than just a need-consumer, very often the response will be, well, I really can't do anything because I haven't had my own needs met.

I would suggest to you that very, very frequently we have discovered that people really find their deepest needs met not when they spend time being absorbed with their own needs and with a search for a solution, but not infrequently we have found their needs are met when they find other people in need and learn to minister to them.

You're probably familiar with the old Chinese proverb which says, I grumbled when I had no shoes until I saw a man who had no feet. It is the people without feet whom the people without shoes need to recognize.

And in our churches we need to understand the modeling of Jesus here, who despite His own grief and despite His own need for quiet and recuperation, when He saw the enormity of the human need, was willing to put His own needs on one side in order to minister to the others.

He ministered to them and became so absorbed in His ministry that the passing of time did not occur to Him and eventually His disciples came and suggested that He should send these people away. I suppose their thinking was, this crowd of people came here uninvited.

They've really been a bit of a nuisance. They came ill prepared. There's no place for them to stay. There are no restaurants open. There's no food for them. They are in a fix and it's a fix of their own making.

These really are rather stupid people. They are not our problem. Send them away. There's a rather simple application of that to the modern church as well, isn't there? That often we look at people and we see the mess that their lives are in and we know exactly why their lives are such a mess.

We know what they did. We know what that led to. We know the results of what that was led into. And as a result we say they are in this fix and it is their own stupid fault and it's not our problem. The Lord Jesus apparently thought otherwise.

He begged to differ and He said to these disciples, You give them something to eat. This, I have no doubt, was a great shock to the disciples as they had not come prepared to feed 5 ,000 families either.

It's rather interesting to notice that whilst we have no indication of what the majority of the disciples did, we do have information concerning two of them. Andrew. Andrew immediately begins to be extremely active.

He realizes that something needs to be done. Now, he doesn't just therefore refer it to a committee who can refer it to a subcommittee which is usually what happens when somebody says something ought to be done.

He actually started rushing around himself and began to describe what we now call moving in evangelical circles. And as he rushed around, he came across one little boy with five loaves and two fishes.

He corralled the little boy and took him back to Jesus. Now, my wife, Jill, has a talk on this particular passage of Scripture entitled, I've got a hunch he wants my lunch. And this, of course, was a very accurate insight as far as the little boy was concerned.

I have no knowledge how my wife got alongside the little boy and found out what he was thinking. Anyway, I've got a hunch he wants my lunch was a correct hunch, and Jesus took the five loaves and the two fishes from the little boy.

Some of the older versions of our Bible say that he blessed it. Now, this is not a good translation. He didn't bless the food. He blessed the Lord. I don't know if you've noticed, but sometimes when we say grace or give thanks before a meal, which I trust that you do habitually, sometimes we ask someone else to bless the food.

That often happens to me when I'm the pastor visiting one of the families. Would you bless the food, please, pastor? Never quite sure what they want me to do. Here's this very ordinary looking food, and they want me to bless it in some way, presumably so that after I bless it, it will become super food.

And we can then serve it to these very ordinary people and create some super Christians. That is a misunderstanding. We don't bless the food. We bless the Lord. We bless the giver. We give thanks. It's rather interesting to notice that that's what Jesus did.

It is also interesting to notice that we are told in the account that Jesus knew what he was going to do. So he's got poor Andrew rushing around in evangelical circles, and he lets him go. And he says, that's fine.

It's good for him. He needs the exercise, but I know what I will do. Meanwhile, Philip, we have some information on dear Philip. Philip was essentially practical, and he checked out what the going rate for bread at wholesale cost was.

He then made some quick calculations as to how much money they had, and he arrived at the determination that if they spent all that they had and bought and spent it all on wholesale bread, they would have just enough to give everybody a little.

And so poor old Philip, he's essentially practical and utterly powerless, whilst dear old Andrew is highly active and desperately apologetic, for the best he can say is, there's five loaves and two fishes here, but what are they among so many?

Well, the Lord Jesus soon shows them, you know the story. He broke the bread and the fishes. He began to distribute it, and everybody ate, and ate, and ate, and ate. In fact, Jesus, referring to it a little later on, uses a very graphic word to describe how they ate.

He says in the vernacular, you stuffed yourselves like pigs, but that of course is what people do when they're given a free lunch. And so then the Lord Jesus said, we need to start a campaign here called Keep Galilee Tidy, and He sent them around to gather up all the fragments that remained.

Twelve baskets, twelve disciples, one basket per disciple, and they go down the mountain carrying a basket full of bread, knowing full well that they went up without any bread at all. And the message is being pounded into them every step they take.

Miraculous Signs and the Purpose of John’s Gospel

Now then, what's the point of all this? That was the what. But they saw what? You say, oh, how interesting. So they went off. Jesus had some grieving to do. They needed a break. Five thousand families show up, nothing to eat, five loaves, two fishes.

Everybody stuffs themselves like pigs, and they're told to gather up the fragments, keep Galilee tidy, and they go home carrying a bag of bread. So what? Well, I'm glad you asked that. If you check towards the end of John's gospel, chapter 20, I'm going to read to you two verses there.

We'll get the answer to the so what. This is John, the author of the fourth gospel's description of why and how he wrote this gospel. This is what he said. Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.

But these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. Now, notice the expression many other miraculous signs. What the disciples have just observed is a miraculous sign.

Jesus did lots of them. John has selected some of them. His objective in selecting these miraculous signs is twofold. Number one, in order that people observing these miraculous signs would come to the conclusion that Jesus of Nazareth truly is the Messiah, the Son of God.

And number two, as they come to put their trust in him, they will experience a quality of life that only Jesus can give. Now, that is what the disciples had been exposed to. The tragedy is this. They totally missed the point.

We know this to be true because Jesus now allows them to go into another experience and he allows them to go into it precisely because they had not understood the miracle of the loaves. Now, when we think in terms of miraculous signs, this is a critical term if we are to understand John's gospel.

What we need to understand is this, that the Lord Jesus did perform miracles. A miracle would be a divine intervention in human affairs, in the affairs of this world. I personally don't have a problem with that if it's God's world and he invented it and he upholds it until in the end he will terminate it.

Always remember that God is the originator and God is the perpetuator and God, not Arnold Schwarzenegger, is the terminator of all things. If he is the originator, perpetuator and terminator of all things, he is certainly the one who has every right and ability to intervene and perform his miracles.

But he did not just perform miracles in order to put on a spectacular so that people would wonder. This is the second word that is linked to miracles and signs. The people would wonder at these miracles.

They would say, oh, ah, wow, did you see that? And it would go no further. But you see, the point of a divine intervention which would cause people to wonder was that this intervention was indicative of a sign or a significant truth involved.

Here is the problem with the disciples. They had seen the miracle. They had no doubt wondered what had gone on, but they had totally missed the significance. They did not grasp who Jesus really was. So, that leads us into the second story here.

Jesus’ Authority Over the Storm and the Sea

The second story comes about immediately after the feeding of the 5 ,000. The people want to make Jesus the king. That is not surprising. Anybody who can offer you a free lunch and promise not to raise taxes will get elected.

No problem there. And they want Jesus to be king, and Jesus suspects that his disciples may rather like that idea too. Because if Jesus is king, they will probably get a good job in his cabinet. And so, Jesus gets them into the boat and he wants to send them off across the lake.

Go home, fellows. Get a good night's rest. We've got a busy day tomorrow. But I'm going to stay here and have some quiet time on my own. Now, we're told in one of the accounts of this story that Jesus compelled them to get into the boat.

Note that word carefully. Jesus compelled them to get in the boat. Now, that word compelled is all the excuse that a preacher needs to use some sanctified imagination. The preacher is always given freedom to determine the degree of sanctification of the imagination.

And you can check on it yourself if you like. But here's some sanctified imagination as to why Jesus compelled them to get into the boat. He compelled them to get into the boat because they didn't want to get into the boat.

That's a reasonable assumption. Now then, why did they not get into the boat? Here's the conversation. All right, men, get in the boat, row hard, get home, get yourself a good night's sleep, and we'll have a busy day tomorrow.

And Peter says, I don't think that's a very good idea, Master. And Jesus said, I beg your pardon? I don't think that's a very good idea. I don't recollect asking you if you thought it was a very good idea, Peter.

Nevertheless, Master, I'm going to tell you whether you ask me or not, with all due respect, and a considerable amount of respect is due to you, no way are we getting in that boat. Oh, pray tell me why you are choosing not to get into the boat.

The reason, Master, is this. You are a superb carpenter. You're very good at fixing plows. Your preaching is coming along magnificently. And your miracles, I mean, they're great. They're great stuff. They're great stuff, Master.

But when it comes to boats and weather and fishing, leave that to me. Man and boy, I've spent my life on this lake. Master, I suspect the mother of all storms is about to break. Jesus replies, that may well be true, but the father of all the universe is still on the throne.

Get in the boat. Master, I really would prefer not to get into the boat. Get in the boat. Excuse me, I really didn't mean to disturb your wife there. This is to make a point, folks. Compel to get in the boat.

That's what the word compels. Get in that boat. And they jump into the boat, even knowing full well what they're heading into. I think sometimes we need to remember that Jesus is Lord of all, not just saying it.

And remember that when he says, get in the boat, you just jump. When he says, jump, you say, yes, sir. How high? He is Lord and Master. And once in a while, he puts his foot in his voice. Get in that boat.

Off they go. Jesus has his quiet time. In the middle of the night, he says, I think perhaps I'd better go and see how the boys are doing. He takes a short cut. He walks straight across. Very interesting thing happens.

As they see Jesus walking on the water, they think it's a ghost. Now, let me explain something here. Have you ever used the expression or heard the expression used, seeing is believing? Have you used that expression?

Yes, I thought you had. Seeing is believing. How about believing is seeing? Let me explain. These men rowing in the boat do not believe in people walking on water. Now, I'm not criticizing them. They did not believe in people walking on water.

They did, however, believe in ghosts. Now then, when in the middle of the night they see somebody walking on the water, which they don't believe in, they do believe in ghosts. Guess what? They see a ghost.

Because what they believe determines what they see. The thing we need to understand, and I'm just throwing in this another little sermon at no extra charge, but the thing we need to understand here is this, that our presuppositions will determine our conclusions.

The things that we believe will, to a very large extent, determine the things that we will see. We need, therefore, to be very much aware of this when we're talking to people. Don't get into an argument about conclusions.

Get into an exploration of presuppositions. But anyway, that's by the way. So, Jesus comes walking on the water. It's rather interesting. If you check in the Psalms sometime, you'll read on two or three occasions.

I don't have the reference at my fingertips here. Two or three occasions, it says in the Psalms that God is the one who walks on the waters and does not leave His footprints. As Jesus comes close to the boat, He says, Now don't be afraid.

I am. Relax. Notice the word I am in the middle there. We're going to see in just a moment the significance of this term, I am. But notice it in this particular setting. Notice that Jesus, by walking on the water, has been demonstrating something that the Psalms say only the Almighty can do.

Now He makes this stupendous claim. You remember, of course, that one of the other versions of this story tells about Peter going for a little excursion on the water, that he gets a bit nervous, loses sight of Jesus, begins to sink, and he forgets that Jesus strides over what we sink under.

Never forget that. That if we hold on to Jesus who strides over what we sink under, we'll find ourselves striding over what habitually we sink under. Jesus, however, gets them ashore, and when He gets them ashore, sends them home, get dry, have a meal, get a good night's sleep, or what's left of the night, and I'll see you in the morning.

In the morning, the people come and gather together. And they start quizzing Jesus. They don't know how He got there. They don't understand how everything is working out, but there's a group of skeptics and cynics in the crowd.

And they start to quiz Jesus, and it's really quite fascinating what they say. They say to Him, Why don't you give us a sign? Now, can you believe that? Why don't you give us a sign? What has He just done?

Well, granted, they don't know about Him walking across the lake, but they do know about Him feeding the 5 ,000 families with five loaves and two fishes. They are singularly unimpressed. Some people, once they get a taste for miracles, just want bigger and better ones all the time.

Manna, Moses, and the Bread from Heaven

Well, actually, that isn't the issue here at all. You see, in those days, the rabbis used to teach quite rightly, When Messiah comes, He will do greater things than Moses did. Now then, Moses, you'll remember, led the children of Israel out of Egypt and in the wilderness for 40 years before Joshua took them into the Promised Land.

Now then, the restaurants and the hotels in the wilderness were very scarce indeed. Moses had led tens of thousands of people out there. The result was there was nothing to eat. Fortunately, they were fed every day with bread from heaven.

Now, another word for this bread from heaven, the popular word for it, was manna. Manna means simply, what is it? So every morning they would go out and collect, what is it? And as they sat down for breakfast, the kids would say, what is it?

And mother would say, what is it? And the kids, I just said, what is it? She said, what is it? And dad chimes in and says, eat you, what is it? And the kid says, what is it? He says, what is it? And for 40 years, they never figured out what it was.

What is it? Manna, bread from heaven. Now here's the point, here's the point. The rabbis were teaching when Messiah comes, He will be greater than Moses. So what the people are quizzing Jesus about is simply this.

We know that Moses fed tens of thousands of people day after day, month after month, year after year for 40 years in the wilderness with bread from heaven. What have you done? Come on, give us a real sign here.

All you have done is feed 5 ,000 families with five loaves and two fishes. Big deal. Do us a real one. If you are who you claim to be, why don't you do us a real sign? Now it looks as if Jesus is in a real fix at this moment.

Because the rabbis were teaching correctly and the people were understanding rightly that when Messiah comes, He will be greater than Moses. How does Jesus handle the situation? He says, basically, you're absolutely right.

You are absolutely right. That when Messiah comes, He will do greater things than Moses. Moses fed you with bread from heaven. Listen, Jesus says, I am the bread from heaven. Which leads me to my text that was all introduction.

Remember, text in context. They haven't understood the feeding of the 5 ,000 families. So He's rubbed it in by letting them go through the storm and see Him walking on the water. They still haven't grasped who Jesus is.

That's the whole point of the miraculous signs. In order that they might believe that He's the Son of God and then begin to experience life through His name. Their eyes are still heavy. They cannot grasp who He is.

So Jesus now begins to give them a teaching on the significance of the sign that they have seen. Now then, notice first of all that Jesus, as recorded in John's Gospel, made a number of statements concerning Himself, beginning with, I am.

Actually in the Greek it is, I, I am. A strong emphasis at this point. Now you'll remember that in John chapter 8, or perhaps you won't remember, but let me remind you anyway. In John chapter 8, Jesus said, if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins.

That's a pretty straightforward statement. If you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins. Then He said, when you've lifted up the Son of Man, you will know I am. A little later in John chapter 8, they got into a debate with Jesus about His age.

Some of them said, you're not yet 50 years old. In actual fact, He was in his early 30s. Jesus answered, I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born, I am. The response to that was they picked up stones to stone Him.

Why? Presumably because of His abysmal grammar. How in the world could anybody get away with this kind of English? Before Abraham was, I am? We can't have Him talking like that. Stone Him. Well, no, that wasn't the reason.