I AM the Resurrection and the Life

Perhaps no other claim is as important as this—that we must believe all life is derived from God.  In John chapter 11, we find that Jesus purposely delayed his return to Bethany when He was informed of Lazarus' illness.  Two days after hearing the news, Jesus and the disciples left for the two-day trip to Bethany.  The Lord already knew that His friend was dead (v.14).

As many of us would be, Martha (who came to meet Jesus on the road) was confused with a mixture of both grief and faith.  On one hand, she seemed to understand who He was and what He was capable of doing, yet her belief had limitations—she believed in healing—but resurrection from the dead?

Jesus told her, "Your brother will rise again."
"Yes," Martha said, "he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day."
Jesus told her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in Me will live, even after dying.  Everyone who lives in Me and believes in Me will never ever die.  Do you believe this, Martha?"

In Strong's concordance, the Greek word for resurrection (pronounced an-as'-tas-is) can be interpreted also as standing up again; recovery of truth; and raised to life again. 

The crowd, including Martha & Mary, Jesus and the disciples, and a group of mourners then proceeded to the grave site, where Jesus instructed them to roll away the stone.  Martha protested that it had been four days, insisting the smell would be horrible, once again forgetting that Life itself was in her midst.  It makes me wonder what she thought Jesus was planning to do once Lazarus' body was revealed.

Jesus responded, "Didn't I tell you that you would see God's glory if you believe?"

The emergence of Lazarus from the tomb was a picture of the resurrection of the Lord soon to come; it was also proof of all that He had said to Martha that day.  With this incredible miracle Jesus sealed His reputation and His fate, as the religious leaders sought to arrest Him from that day on.

These passages tells me a few things:

• Jesus was intimately involved in the lives of His friends, since they felt they could call on Him when they needed comfort (v.3)
• Jesus had a plan that would bring glory to His Father (v.4)
• Jesus used the situation to teach the disciples who He really was (v.15)
• Jesus was patient with Martha even when her faith stumbled (v.21-29)
• Jesus was not a passive, ethereal presence on the earth, but quite the opposite.  He was angry over sin that caused death (v.33) and wept over the loss (v.35)

In a setting of grief and sorrow, we find the Lord ministering healing and life to those He loves.  That is you and I.  When we face difficulty and uncertainty, we can rest assured that the very LIFE of God is within us.  In what part of your life do you need resurrection power?  It may be time to stop grieving and mourning over the past, or worrying about the future, in order to fully embrace God's plan for right now.  We can take a cue from Martha, who ran up the road to meet Him, knowing we can trust Him in our time of need.

The Gate

The Thief
Breaking glass, picking locks and sneaking through windows are ways that a thief usually gains entry into forbidden places.  Most people lock their doors, set alarms or take precautions against intruders, however, we've learned through other people's misery that those measures don't always work.

Using a door or gate as an entrance is the standard—the robber has no approved access so he must figure out another way.  That's why when a neighbor sees someone climbing over walls or through windows, he can be pretty sure that something illegal is underway.

The Blind
In John Chapter 9, Jesus healed a man who was blind from birth.  When the man was questioned by the Pharisees about what had happened, he admitted he didn't know how Jesus had done it, but that he must be some kind of prophet, since no ordinary man was ever able to do such things.  The man was dismissed by the leaders as a fool and a sinner.

When Jesus was informed, He tracked down the man and simply told him who He was, and asked if he believed.  The man proclaimed his belief and worshipped Him.  Jesus used this opportunity to point out that the spiritual blindness of the religious was far worse than physical blindness.  And then, He proceeded to use the imagery of shepherding to make sure everyone in earshot understood what He was about to say...

The Truth
"I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber! But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.  The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him.... I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep.  All who came before me were thieves and robbers... Yes, I am the gate.  Those who come through me will be saved... the thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy but I came to give them a rich and satisfying life."(John 10:1-10 in part)

When Adam and Eve were banished from Eden, God stationed at the entryway, a mighty cherubim with a flaming sword to guard the Tree of Life.  Eternal life was no longer accessible to man.  But now Jesus has placed Himself at the gate, thus opening the way again.  Those who claim there is a way other than through Jesus, are warned in the passage in John 10 that they are mistaken.

The Thief
We often hear this verse applied to satan as the thief, and although the attribute fits, I think there is a more widespread implication.  Jesus said anyone who tries to circumvent the true way is a thief and a robber.

The Blind
Anyone pointing to another way in is doing the opposite of what Jesus does.  I believe He was making a judgment call on the Pharisees (who believed they were immune to condemnation by virtue of their positions) who were already scheming and planning His arrest.  This is what He meant in this exchange:

Some Pharisees who were standing nearby heard Him and asked, "Are you saying we're blind?" 
"If you were, you wouldn't be guilty," Jesus replied, "but you remain guilty because you claim you can see." (John 9:40-41 emphasis added)

The Truth
The gate is there for a purpose, to keep out those who seek to do harm to the ones inside the fold.  The sheep follow their shepherd to the place of safety and well-being, knowing instinctively his voice and his intentions toward them.  By laying down His life, Jesus is both The Good Shepherd and The Gate.

I AM the Light of the World

The ancient Hebrew festival of Sukkot, or as we know it, Feast of Tabernacles (or Shelters or Booths), was a 7-day commemoration of the time their ancestors wandered in the desert and relied on God for everything.  While living in tents for a week, attendees would observe a daily ritual of pouring out water to remind them how God provided water in the desert, and a solemn lamp-lighting ceremony recalling the pillar of fire that accompanied them at night.

Like every Jew, Jesus participated in the traditions of His people. With this festival providing the backdrop, He makes the next claim that will shock and anger many of the people who hear it:

"I am the light of the world.  If you follow Me, you won't have to live in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life."

While the people understood the LORD God as light, especially in the context of the festival, this statement made it plain that they needed to accept that Jesus was the One they should have been looking and waiting for. Why did they not recognize the reference to the light from heaven?  Their own prophets spoke of the light which would one day come, even pinpointing it to a particular city, yet their hearts were never ready to recognize what God was doing right in their midst.

Isaiah 9:1, 2: "Nevertheless, that time of darkness and despair will not go on forever... there will be a time in the future when Galilee of the Gentiles... will be filled with glory.  The people who walk in darkness will see a great light.  For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine."


Here is a direct reference to the miracles that Jesus was performing, prophesied 700 years before His birth:
Isaiah 42: "Look at My Servant... My Chosen One... I have put My Spirit upon Him... (He) will be a light to guide the nations;  (He) will open the eyes of the blind; (He) will free the captives...

In the beginning of the gospel of John, we find this statement:

"God sent a man, John the Baptist, to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony.  John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light.  The One who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world."

Without the light, we cannot discern the hazards, pitfalls or nefarious characters that are hidden from sight under cover of darkness.  Think about when a storm knocks out electricity—the first thing you go for is the flashlight, which will help you recover some sense of safety.  Jesus is not only the light of the world, but our own intimate light, which dispels the personal darkness we may face on a daily basis.

Let Him be your guide, for that's the only way to see things clearly.

I AM the Bread of Life

My love affair with bread is genetic, of this I am sure.  That percentage of me which is Italian has dominated the larger Irish to create an insatiable desire for bread, pasta and olives and any combination thereof.  Yes, I know that too many carbohydrates are not good, yet there is something akin to euphoria that rises in me along with the fresh loaf of bread.

Why so many references to bread in both the Old Testament and the New?  Bread is a symbol of what sustains life, both physically and spiritually.  Nothing high-tech here:  Gather the grain, pulverize the wheat with mortar and pestle in order to make the flour, add the simple ingredients of oil, water, salt and leaven to form dough, knead with vigor, let it rise and bake.

Bread of the Presence, or showbread in the Holy Place within the Wilderness Tabernacle and later in Solomon's Temple, was baked and set before the LORD each sabbath as an offering from Israel.  When the new bread was presented, the old was eaten by the priests and their households as they were consecrated and set apart for the Lord.

It's interesting to see the similarity in our taking bread as communion, that through salvation by grace we have become a holy nation of royal priests, belonging to God (1 Peter 2:9). Jesus established the bread and wine communion with the disciples in the midst of the Passover meal, itself a commemoration of the Mosaic Covenant, and proclaims prophetically the New Covenant that is about to ensue. Imagine the influence His words had on these men as they sat suspended between the old and new covenants about to witness and experience the deliverance of God through His Son.  Do you think they had a recollection of His earlier reference to being bread?

Jesus, the Bread of Life
In John Chapter 6, on the day after He feeds 5,000 from a few loaves and fishes, Jesus proclaims Himself the Bread of Life.  The crowds had followed Him across the sea because they were enthralled with the miracle of the feeding, but they basically came looking for more, asking Jesus to show them another sign that He was who He claimed.

At that Jesus discerned their priorities were wrong, so He challenged them to make the leap of faith—to believe that God had sent Him from heaven to become the "true bread of life" by which they could obtain eternal life.  In order to do so, they would have to eat the bread of heaven.

Because of the difficulty they had understanding all this, many disciples parted ways with the Lord at that time.  We have the benefit of the knowledge of the full gospel and can see the implied reference to Jesus as the showbread (offering) and the most perfect manna.

As the bread of life, He has become the way to heaven and eternal life; as we partake of Him, our souls are nourished and His living word becomes our daily manna.  I've decided that there is nothing inherently wrong with loving bread, since God instituted the making of it and deemed it important enough to discuss; and besides that, it makes me happy.  Eat and be satisfied.

I AM

I AM

“Tell them I AM sent you.” I AM (in Hebrew, YHWH) was the name God revealed to Moses in Exodus, and although the name had been used throughout Genesis, its true meaning had never been explained for Israel. The Hebrew people knew the name as a sound but didn't know what it meant. In Hebrew the name is spelled with four Hebrew consonants, which in English would look like this: YHWH. When vowels are put to it then it is 'Yahweh'.  

The name for God was not a special name that was not part of the Hebrew vocabulary, but was actually one of the words they were already familiar with. In other words, God declared who He was through the use of the Hebrew language. He was trying to portray who He was—the "self-existing one." Yahweh is the personal, covenant name of God, and that name is a perpetual testimony to his faithfulness to his promises.

In this next phase of the Philippians 4 Project, I will be studying the phrase, I AM, in a different way—the I AM statements that Jesus made.  These are the very words that Jesus said of Himself in order that we would understand who He is and what He means to mankind.
I hope you'll join me in discovering the truth as we begin with the next post on John 6:51: "I am the living bread..."