Sermon Tone Analysis

*"I AM" – The Way to Life*

*April 23, 2000               Gospel of John*

* *

*Introduction:*

 

Not many, if any of us, are all that sure of ourselves.

The whole world, it seems, is struggling for an identity.

We are witnessing a phenomenal resurgence of tribalism, nationalism, and factionalism on a global scale.

Our city is blanketed with youth who have no sense of belonging, no moral compass, no vision beyond a short-sighted future.

The paper Friday reported the high truancy rate among a number of the city's high schools in poorer neighborhoods as high as 49%.

The stated reasons are drugs, teen pregnancy, and no confidence in any ability to succeed.

Little seems to make sense when we read about a man who kicked his pregnant wife's unborn child to death and was charged with murder.

Not that that doesn't make sense.

But when we compare it to the premeditated killings of unborn children by the abortionists, it makes us wonder how we justify life and our own existence beyond the whim of society.

What can we hold on to when we are making a national effort control guns and the feds storm in with guns drawn to take Elian into custody?

How can we justify family life when we have openly homosexual teachers in kindergarten justifying their same-sex marriage lifestyle before such innocent minds?

Who can we trust and what can we believe?

I have the answer for you.

He is the One we have come to worship this morning because he is alive from the dead, the firstfruits of those who sleep.

/1 Corinthians 15:20  But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep./

He is the eternal and everlasting One who is resurrected in righteousness and lives in everlasting light.

We can follow him and believe in him because of who he said he is.

His words were not vain, they are victorious.

/When you know who you are, you don't have to impress anyone.

When Jesus was taken before the high priest, who asked, "What do you have to say for yourself?"

Jesus was silent.

Wrong question.

/

/   When the high priest then asked Him if He was the Son of God, Jesus said, "I am."

Right question.

/

/   Before Pilate, who asked, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus replied, "Yes, it is as you say."

Right question.

/

/   In the Luke account, Herod asked Jesus question after question, but there was no reply.

Wrong questions.

/

/   When you have discovered your identity, you need to say little else.

Toyohiko Kagawa, the Japanese Christian who spent his life working with and for the poor, was speaking at Princeton.

When he finished his talk, one student said to another, "He didn't say much, did he?" /

/   A woman sitting nearby leaned over and murmured, "When you're hanging on a cross, you don't have to say anything."

/

/   Stanley Mooneyham -- James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) pp.

298-299./

John wrote his gospel later than Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

Those are called the synoptic gospels because they have similar content and context.

But John wrote to a different audience – an emerging church in a hostile environment that he wanted to encourage in their own faith as well as encouraging them to win others to that same faith in Jesus.

/But these are written that you may believe (continue to believe) that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

(John 20:31 NIVUS)/

 

So the Gospel of John has some unique features.

Among those features are seven "I AM" statements by Jesus.

Those statements tell us unequivocally and descriptively who Jesus is that we might believe – so that we might have hope – so that we might have an identity in believing the truth about him.

/God is not affected by our mutability; our changes do not alter him.

When we are restless, he remains serene and calm; when we are low, selfish, mean, or dispirited, he is still the unalterable "I Am" - the same yesterday, today, and forever, in whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

What God is in himself, not what we may chance to feel him in this or that moment to be, that is our hope.

/

/   Frederick William Robertson (1816-1853)/

 

So what are these seven great "I AM" statements?

 

*I.

I AM the bread of life.

(6:35, 41, 48, 51)*

 

          Refers to physical life.

Spoken after the feeding of the 5,000 (6:1-15)

 

/Read the label on the last loaf of bread you bought.

More than likely you'll discover that it has been vitaminized, fortified, and pulverized.

Bread is not the simple thing it once was.

But how can you improve on the bread of life?

More than that, it is unique.

You can make physical bread from wheat, rye, rice, barley, corn, even potatoes.

Bread for the soul can come from only one source.

Jesus said, "I am the bread of life" (John 6:48).

/

/   -- Robert C. Shannon, 1000 Windows, (Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard Publishing Company, 1997)./

/After renowned missionary Johnathan Goforth (1859-1936) had spoken in a chapel in southern China, a man asked to talk to him.

He said "I have heard you speak three times, and you always have the same theme.

You always speak of Jesus Christ.

Why?" /

/   The missionary replied, "Sir, before answering your question, let me ask, 'What did you have for dinner today?'" "Rice," replied the man.

"What did you have yesterday?"

"The same thing."

/

/   "And what do you expect to eat tomorrow?"

"Rice, of course.

It gives me strength.

I could not do without it.

Sir, it is --" the man hesitated as if looking for a strong word.

Then he added, "Sir, it is my very life!"

The missionary responded quickly, "What you have said of rice, Jesus is to our soul!

He is the 'rice' or 'bread of life.'"/

*II.

I AM the light of the world.

(8:12, 9:5)*

         

Refers to spiritual life.

Spoken before and after the healing of the blind man (9:1-12)

 

/Among the Jews of Jerusalem, the dawn of the Day of Atonement was eagerly awaited.

A watchman stood on the walls watching for sunrise.

When he saw the first rays he would shout, "Light!

Light!

I have seen the light!" /

/   -- Robert C. Shannon, 1000 Windows, (Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard Publishing Company, 1997)./

/I believe in Christianity as I believe the Sun has risen, not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else.  /

/   -- C.S. Lewis in The Weight of Glory.

Christianity Today, Vol.

34, no.

13./

 

/A poor little boy once heard his Sunday School teacher say Jesus was the light of the world.

He took her remark quite literally.

After class, the boy said to his teacher, "If Jesus really is the light of the world, I wish He'd come hang out in my alley.

It's awful dark where I live."/

*III.

I AM the gate for the sheep.

(10:7, 9) *

 

          Refers to the way to salvation.

Spoken after the error of the Pharisees.

(9:40-41)

 

/A few years ago we studied the Gospel of John in a Sunday school class.