Today we are going to look at two words that go together, I AM. In John 8:58, Jesus made a startling announcement about Himself in these verses. It was an announcement that really rocked some of the Jewish leadership.
John 8:58 says, “Jesus said to them, “‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.’” It is very instructive to note here that He didn’t say that before Abraham was born, I was born, or I was around or whatever. He says, I am. That was a very important terminology for the Jewish people because they understood that was a reference to God Himself. As a matter of fact, the Jews were upset and we see their reaction in John 8:59, “Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.” They knew exactly what Jesus was referring to and it very much upset them. So much so, that they tried to kill Jesus.
I want to go to Exodus 3 and look at the passage of scripture that the Jews knew very well, and they knew exactly what Jesus was trying to say. Jesus was not claiming to be only pre-existent saying He existed before Abraham. That was true, but there is more to it than that. Jesus is claiming to be God and the Jews knew what He was talking about. In Exodus 3, Moses is at the burning bush and God is commissioning him to go into the land of Egypt and virtually pull of the Exodus. Moses would be God’s representative. He would be going from where he was living in the wilderness into Egypt and confront Pharoah and the Egyptian army and nation. As Moses would go into Egypt, he had to have a message. He was deeply concerned that as he went into Egypt and presented the message God wanted him to present to the Jews that they would reject it. So, he wants to know who he should say is sending him . . .
