Randall Caselman
Bella Vista Church of Christ
01/05/2020 P.M.
The I AM’s of Jesus
Standing Before The I AM THAT I AM
Exodus 3.10-17
Well… Here we are starting a new series of study… The I AM’s of Jesus.
Tonight an introduction… What is this I AM THAT IAM?
Come with me to Egypt… The Children of… Jacob… Israel… Are in Egyptian Captivity… Enslaved in the Area of Goshen… Building monuments for Pharaoh in the cities of Pithom and Raamses in the Nile Delta.
Just which Pharaoh is the focus of deep debate… Depending on whether one believes in an early or late date for the Pledges and Exodus.
• The early date would be some fourteen hundred years before the birth of Jesus…
• The late date would be around twelve hundred years before the Common Era.
The debate about this date is mostly hinged upon whether or not one sees the dates on the Bible are literal or symbolic.
Today…There’s a lot of scholarly evidence and opinion supporting the Later Date. If this is so… RAMSES the Second would have been the Pharaoh of the Exodus.
You remember… As an infant… Moses was rescued by Pharaoh’s daughter. He had been raised my his mother… But as a Prince in Egypt. However… As we approach the narrative… He is living in exile… Because he saw an Egyptian attacking an Israelite… He stepped in and killed the Egyptian.
This led to his running from the Pharaonic authorities. He runs to the Desert Wilderness Area around Mt Horeb… Another name for Mt. Sinai. There Moses is hired as a shepherd by a man named Jethro… A man who would later become his father-in-law.
It must have been an ordinary day for Moses as he tended sheep at the foot of Mt.Sinai. As we join him… He’s on his way to examine a truly unique sight…A sight never before or since described by anyone… A burning bush… A bush that even though is afire… Is not consumed.
As we approach with Moses… We sense something Erie & strange about this place… Something we cannot fully explain… Can’t put our finger on it.
As we get closer… A voice begins to speak.
Somehow…Without being told… We have no doubt… It’s the voice of God.
In His presence… Our hearts begin to race… A certain... Fear… Excitement…Anxiousness… Comes over us.
Join me in reading from our text… God calls from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!... Don’t come any closer… Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. The Lord continued… “I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey”… Now to verse ten… “So now… I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” Moses said to God,“Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM… Tell the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘TheLord, the God of your fathers--the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob--has sent me to you.’ This is my name for ever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.
Moses asks God for His name… And God answers with a sentence... ehyeh asher ehyeh… (A-hay-ya A-shar A-hay-ya)
Today…We are not sure exactly how to translate the Hebrew… Possibilities include…
• I AM WHO I AM…
• I AM THAT I AM…
• I Am because I am…
• I exist because I exist…
• I will be who I will be…
• I cause to be what I cause to be.
• I will create what I will create.
We just really don’t know for sure what… (A-hay-ya A-shar A-hay-ya)… Means… But what we do know is that it has something to with… Existence…Presence… Being.
• He is a God of Being… One who ExistS… He is self-existent… Self-determining… Sovereign.
• One who is with us… And is… Alive… Active… Dynamic…
• A God who creates… Who brings things into… Being… Existence…
• Makes something from nothing… Cosmos from chaos…
• Makes a new nation from run-away slaves… Bringing them to a new and spacious land.
The New Testament says… He makes it possible for us to become a new creation.
Then God says… This is my name… Forever… For all generations.
So… Moses takes this first person sentence and turns it into a third person name… Yahweh.
Church…What we know about God’s name previously is that the titles for God are not really names… But are descriptive terms for Him.
For instance…
• In Genesis His most frequent title is Elohim…The Creator… The One who brings things into… Existence… Being!
Elohim is plural… Even though there is One God… Elohim makes room for… The Father god… Son Jesus Christ… And the Holy spirit.
• El Shaddai… The Active… Dynamic… Powerful One… The Lord God Almighty.(EL SHA DI A)… El Shaddai speaks of God’s miraculous power… His omnipotence… That enables Him to bring things and persons into being… While aiding them in their existence.
• Adonai… Speaks of His Lordship… That He is or should be our Master… Lord & King.
• Yehovah Raah… The Lord is My shepherd.
• Yehovah Jireh… The Lord Will Provide…
• Yehovah Shalom… The Lord is our Peace.
You see… These are not names but DISRUPTIVE terms… But here in our text… We have god’s Name… His forever and ever NAME.
And for the next few weeks… We’re gonna see… I AM THAT I AM… Become flesh and live among us… As we hear Jesus declare I AM HE… I am that I am.
There’s an interesting set of verses in Exodus Chapter six… Allow me to read inserting the corresponding Hebrew… “I am the LORD. I am YEHOVAH… Yahweh… I appeared to Abraham… To Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty… El SHADDAI (EL SHA DI A)…. But by my name… The LORD… Yehovah...Yahweh…. I did not make myself known to them.
Here we have God saying… I am the same God of the Patriarchs… But today I have a new name…A name I’ll carry for ever and ever… A-hay-ya A-shar A-hay-ya… I am that I AM… Yehovah… YAHWeH… Which is translated LORD in our English Bibles… And most often is capitalized.
You see… This name says…
• Our God is unexplainable…
• He is so set-apart…
• So absolutely different…
• So almighty…
• So holy…
• Sovereign…
That there are no human terms or titles that can explain Him.
Our vocabulary… The Hebrew vocabulary… Is INAdequate…
Hosea 11.9 says God is above all. He is free from mortal imperfections and failures.
First Samuel 2.2 declares… No one is like Him… No one is as holy as God.
Isaiah 55.8 has God saying… My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.
Listen to Isaiah again… I Am the Lord… There is no other… There is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me… That you may know from the rising of the sun to its setting That there is none besides Me. I am the Lord… and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness… I make peace and create calamity;… I, the Lord, do all these things, (Isaiah 45.5-7)
Church… I’ve gotta ask tonight… Are we awestruck with God and who He is?... Are we?... REALLY?
Listen…Our walk with God will be… less than it could be… Less Than it should be…Until we have a better understanding of His absolute SOVEREIGN Nature.
OK… As an application… How will… How Should… We respond
When we come to understand His I AM THAT I AM Name & Nature?
First…We will humble ourselves before Him.
Moses fell to his face…
Scripture speaks of Moses’ humility… But we don’t really see that humility in his life until this Burning Bush incident… At His meeting God face to face.
When we come to understand who God is…We too will fall on our face… We too will become a person of humility.
Listen… Show me an… Arrogant… Prideful… Egotistical… Conceited… Self-Centered… NARCISSISTIC individual… And I’ll show you someone who has not met GOD… OR IF HE HAS… HE DOESN’T UNDERSTAND HIS NAME & NATURE…
• Moses hides His face…
• Isaiah says… Woe is me!...
• At His arrest… Jesus ask… Who do you seek… They answered… Jesus the Nazarene…
Jesus said… IAM HE… And Scripture says they drew back and fell to the ground…Fainted at this announcement.
Church…They knew what Jesus was claiming when He said… I AM THAT I AM.
• Thomas exclaimed… MY LORD AND MY GOD!...
• Paul fell on his face in the presence of the resurrected Jesus…
• John on Patmos falls at the feet of the Glorified Christ.
Church… Have we ever fallen on our face before Him?... Interesting question… Right?
Then God instructs Moses… Remove your shoes.
In Jewish culture… The bottom of one’s sandals and feet were considered the filthiest place on the body… The Arab world still carries this thought and practice today.
God is Holy… When we see His holiness… Along with our sin flith… We are caused to fall before Him in humility.
Question?… Have you and your speaker ever humbled ourselves before the great I AM... Really?
Secondly… Seeing God for who He is… Prompts us… Compels us… To confess our sinS and worship and serve Him.
King Uzziah dies… Isaiah comes to the Temple to consult with God on how to handle this situation.
Sure enough the Lord shows up… And strange things began to happen when he arrives…
• Six Winged Seraphim begin flying through the Temple… Saying… HOLY… HOLY… HOLY… Is the Lord of host…
• The foundations of the building begin to shake…
• Smoke fills the room…
At this Isaiah said… Woe is me…I am a sinful wicked man and I have seen the Lord.
One of the angelic being takes a coal from the alter and touches it to Isaiah’s lips… Symbolically cleansing His sin… Forgiving him. As this happened… The Lord had a commission… Whom will I send? Isaiah responds… Here am I Lord… send me…use me.
Church…When we see the I am that I am… We will not have to be begged to… Confess and Acknowledge our sins… Be Born Again in New Testament Baptism… We won’t have to be begged to come worship Him… Begged to serve in His Kingdom MINISTRY… We will be like Isaiah… Here am I LORD… use me.
Knowing the great I AM THAT I AM helps us understand that God is working on our behalf.
Understandably so… Job becomes angry at God because of his loss and suffering… So... He demands an answer to his circumstances… Asks the WHY question... Why is this happENing to me??
Then God shows up... And we hear Job say in 42.6... I abhor myself... I repent in dust and ashes... I speak no more.
Job came to know God’s help… God’s truth of Romans 8.28… We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Church… Knowing God intimately helps us understand that He is at work even in life’s tough times to… Remaking… Remolding… Reshaping… Us into the people and person He wants us to be.
Number four… We learn that we can’t blame God for our sin predicament… Our world condition.
Remember Habakkuk?... Habakkuk was a witness to Nebuchadnezzar’s carrying off the Young Princes of Judah in 605 A.D… He sees all kinds of injustices taking place around him. So he stands on the watch tower... Saying... God, I don’t like what I am seeing down here. There is injustice every place I look… And GOD you’re responsible for it. I’m going to sit right here on this wall until I hear from you... Until you come and explain yourself… Explain why this is happening… And what you’re going to do about it.
Then God shows up and Habakkuk says in 3.16... My lip quivered... My belly trembled... My bones were filled with rottenness.
We must know tonight that The I AM THAT I AM is working in our world today… He’s in control… So… Stop fretting about what’s happening in the Middle East… God will bring about His desired and designed conclusions… Amen?
We note that YAHWEH can control all things that He chooses… Including nature.
The storm was raging… Their boat was sinking in the Sea of Galilee... Master, Master, don’t you care, we’re going to drown! Jesus awoke saying three words... Peace be still...
• Suddenly the winds stopped… The sea was calm…
• The clouds gone…
• The moon is shining…
Do you know what the Bible says next?... And they feared exceedingly... Our King James says… They were sore afraid... Saying what manner of man is this?
These disciples saw something akin to what Moses & Isaiah saw... And they stood in wonderment before the Great I Am.
Interesting isn’t it…
• That the text indicates that these men were more fearful of His SOVEREIGN nature than they were of the raging sea…
• More fearful of His absolute set-apartness… Than death by drowning.
Church… Do we stand in awe & Wonderment of His nature… Do we?
They had been fishing all night without any luck. Jesus comes suggesting they try fishing on the other side of the boat. They did... And the net fills with fish to the point of breaking... The boat begins to sink. Remember what Peter said in Luke 5.8... Depart from me... For I am a sinful man.
What are you seeing Peter...
• The I am that I am...
• The absolute set-apartness of God in the flesh.
One more… When we see A-hay-ya A-shar A-hay-ya for who He really is… We’ll become different people.
Listen carefully to these verses from Revelation chapter four… Before the throne were four living creatures… Each had six wings and were covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never… NEVER… Stop saying: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” Church... Can I say this and you not become upset with me?... If in heaven those around the throne never stop praising and serving God day and night… Church… Who are we to ignore Him?
I submit tonight that when we see Godfor who He really is… We too will become… Different people… Changed people… We will never stop honoring and thAnking Him who sits on the throne.
For the next few weeks…
We’ll hold Jesus up as the I am that I am…
And How He Meets All our needs.
Listen… Is Jesus meeting your needs for forgiveness?… Is He directing your walk because He is living in you?… Do you have the Hope of Heaven?…
All of this is possible by… Faith… Repentance… And the New Birth in Water Baptism.
Maybe as His Children… We need to open our heart and eyes... To see Jesus as He really is… Worshiping andserving Him day and night.
Accept His invitation… Meet His challenge… As we stand and sing this song together.