Why? Why would an entire attachment of some of the toughest soldiers in the world draw back from an indefensible man? That's not what soldiers do! Worse yet…they didn't just retreat… they fell down on the ground!

What's going on here? Did they not eat a good breakfast? Was the ground rocky and uneven? Were they having a hard time with the ole "motor controls"?

Or…. Was it something Jesus said… or did.. that knocked them on their behinds? Did He shoot out an invisible force field that overpowered them? Did he disrupt the force of gravity right under where they were standing?...

Older versions of the Bible (including the NIV) miss something here that is very, very important. When you read them you almost see Jesus shyly putting up his hand and saying, That's my name…I'm the guy you are looking for. That's not what happened here… The NLT picks up something from the original Greek that you need to see..

Notice how they capitalize the AM and …They use the word (he) to help the flow in English, but I put it in parentheses because the word is not really there)

Here's what happened: They said they were looking for Jesus of Nazareth… He looks them in the eye and says two words… I AM… they fall back on the ground! What just happened there?

I know this is old news to some of you… but I need to make sure we are all on the same page before I bring up the seven I Am's of Jesus in the Gospel of John.

When God was calling Moses to deliver Israel from the Egyptians Moses ask God to give him His name. God said his name was: _______________________

As I have often pointed out to you; every time you see the word: LORD (all capitals) in the Old Testament it is this name of God.

Jeremiah 32:27"I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?

The Hebrews wouldn't speak or write the name for fear of taking it in vain so they substituted the word Adonai (Lord) In fact, in the Hebrew Bible, the consonants for Yahweh are mixed with the vowels for Adonai and you are left with a word that sounds like Yehovah (there is really no such word) Modern Jews use the word HaShem. "The Name" rather than chance taking God's name in vain. (We, of course, freely use God's titles as curse words and in recent years the most common exclamation you hear is "Oh my God!"… In ancient Israel we would have been stoned to death for blasphemy!)

I stressed a few weeks ago how God would often, in Scripture emphasize a powerful truth and then close it out with the statement: I am the LORD…I am Yahweh like he was signing his eternal name to the eternal truth!

Ezekiel 20:7 And I said to them, "Each of you, get rid of the vile images you have set your eyes on, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the LORD your God."

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My point is…by the time we get to the New Testament… this name of God was considered so revered that nobody, spoke it, nobody wrote it… nobody put together words in a sentence that anyone else could possibly confuse with God's name.

Until Jesus!...

Not only was he loose with his sentence construction…. putting the words I and Am together in suspicious ways….Eventually he started to say stuff that whipped the heads of the religious leader around so fast they got a backlash…

John 8:23 But he continued, "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins." (NIV)

Pharisees- "What was that?.... did you hear that blasphemer?.... He's talking about being something special and using the word I am in the same sentence!"

Watch this…

John 10:30-36 The Father and I are one.”  31 Once again the people picked up stones to kill him. 32 Jesus said, “At my Father’s direction I have done many good works. For which one are you going to stone me?” 33 They replied, “We’re stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy! You, a mere man, claim to be God.”

Can't you just see the veins throbbing on the Pharisees necks? We English speakers don't quite get all the significance that the crowd was picking up that day…

I AM… the Son of God!

Let me show you one more exchange before I get to the "seven I am's" Everything I'm showing you is from the Gospel of John. He obviously loved developing this theme and carefully recording Jesus "coming out"

…. The I Am of the Old Testament incarnated as the Son of God on earth…come to pay the penalty for the sins of all mankind…

We used to have a guy coming to this church who said he was a Christian and believed the Bible but he just couldn't accept the fact that Jesus was God in the flesh.

….If you reject that Jesus is God in the flesh then you aren't believing the Bible…. Or If no one has shown you this before… then I am showing you, this morning, one of many proofs that Jesus was, in fact, God in human flesh…. Here on earth to provide forgiveness for my sins…and your sins.

John 14:10-11 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. 11 Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe because of the work you have seen me do. (NLT)

With that as background let me move you on to what I want us to see this week and next…

John carefully records seven statements that Jesus makes over several months time. When you see them you will know that there is more under the surface of these statements than there is on top the surface.

Jesus never used a single word that didn't pack an eternal punch and I want to show you that these seven phrases packed an even greater wallop than you might think at first reading.

Here are the seven statements:

You already know the significance of the I Am at the front of every sentence. Obviously, every phrase carries it's own punch but….Let's see if there is even more hidden meaning here than we might be picking up at first…

I'm giving these statements to you in the exact order John gave them to us. Even though these statement took place over several months of Jesus teaching… is there any significance to the order. Did Jesus just happen to think of one statement one day and then just happen to think of another two weeks later???

Or could it be that our all knowing God, incarnate in human flesh, was carefully laying down a pattern that we are supposed to catch on to?

Is there any significance to the fact that there are seven statements?

If you've been exposed to the Bible very much you know that seven is one of those divine numbers that God uses throughout Scripture…when you see seven of something, in the Bible… it is more significant than if there are twenty five of something…why?

Nothing, in the Bible is accidental! The fact that Jesus made exactly seven verbal statements on the cross as he was dying…. Not accidental!

Besides him saying "It is finished" as a verbal statement, on the cross, those who were paying attention also noticed that he spoke exactly seven times. This isn't voodoo or mysticism. Our American/Western minds don't tend to think this way but the oriental/Eastern minds very much did…and still do!

I don't give any credence to the "Bible code theory" ( all significant historical events are predicted in code in Scripture) but you need to know that there is far more in the Bible than you see on the surface. In Hebrew, every letter has a numerical value… When I studied Hebrew we had to learn that and count the numerical value of each sentence. The Old Hebrew text actually has a little carrot mark in the numerical center of each sentence… that is how the ancient scribes checked there work to make sure they hadn't left out a single letter. We don't see any of that in our English Bibles… the fact that there are places like in Lamentations and Psalm 119 where each verse is an alliteration of the Hebrew alphabet… we miss entirely…

Here's the point: If seven is the divine number that God often uses to signify completion… Why did Jesus make seven statements here.

Why did he make these specific seven statements in this specific order?

I have never seen this before… until this week… but I am finding it quite fascinating.

Seven I AM statements that obviously are in a specific order to take us to a completion of thought on something…what is it?

Every statement starts with I AM God in the flesh, and I think goes on to say… and here is what I as God in the flesh…have come to this earth to do for you, my creation.

For all who will embrace my teaching…. I am going to be to you… in this order…

1) I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE ( John 6:35, 41, 48, 51)

Allow me to put this package together in your life… and you will experience the completeness of salvation!... You see what I'm saying?

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O.K. Now we have to figure out what each of these statement mean!!

1) I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE ( John 6:35, 41, 48, 51)

Why does he start by comparing himself to bread? Why not ice cream or cappacino?

Who… particularly in an ancient middle eastern country did you offer bread to?

________________________________... people who are… hungry!

Let's try one more…

Who needs light? ________ people who are stumbling around in the darkness!!