Big Idea: We worship in awe and wonder because the great I AM – the wholly other one – has become the great I AM - wholly one of us.
Introduction - Exodus
Well this was new. He had seen lots of bushes in the past on the landscape of the desert, even ones that were on fire, burning up. But this one… it was different.
Was he seeing things? Had he been out in this desert tending his father-in-laws flock too long? This bush wasn’t burning up. So he said to himself, “I will go over and see this strange sight – why the bush does not burn up?” What a strange sight indeed!
But that strange sight was nothing compared to what happened next: a voice!
What? Was Moses seeing things? Hearing things now? Exhaustion leading to hallucination?
Seeing things and hearing things are not a good combination! NO, in Moses’ case, they were a GREAT combination.
Why? For in that moment, as we read about in Exodus 3, the God of Moses’ forefathers: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob called out to Moses, getting his attention, charging him with the task of going back to Egypt to lead Israel out of slavery to Pharaoh and into the promised land.
It’s the story we call “The Exodus.” If you haven’t read about it from the Scriptures, you might be familiar with the story thanks to either Charlton Heston OR Dreamworks’ Prince of Egypt.
It’s a story in which we often refer to Moses as a reluctant leader because he bargains and even argues with God about this call.
But he ultimately says yes to it (this call of God). And in all of that dialogue with God, there is an important moment when Moses asks God a question – a question that turns out to not only be of importance in their conversation, but incredibly important to the people of God for all time. Moses asks 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. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” Exodus 3:13-14
“I AM has sent me to you.”
In this moment God introduces to His people, His divine name – The Divine Name of God: “I AM”.
The Divine Name – “I AM”
Now, why do I say His name? Stick with me here for a moment. A brief bit of linguistics:
“I am who I am” in Exodus 3 is literally the Hebrew “to be” verb. You know, the “to be” verb of English: “I am, you are, he is, etc…”
The “to be” verb is just that: it is. It exists. When you say “I am” about yourself, it is a statement that you are who you are… you exist in the fullness of who you are. You are “I am”.
And so here it is similar. In this moment with Moses, it is understood that God’s use of this verb is God’s statement about God’s self – that God is the uncreated Creator who is completely independent of any other force, idea, or being. That God is who God is – that God will be who and what God will be: namely God.
Now at other times in the OT, this divine name is amplified by a descriptor, descriptors that make the “I AM” statement particularly personal regarding who God is to His people. Some examples:
· “I AM…’El-Shaddai’ (God all-powerful)” – Gen. 17:1
· “I AM… God of your fathers Abraham and Isaac” – Gen. 28:13
· “I AM…your healer” – Ex. 15:26
· “I AM…your salvation” – Ps. 35:3
But here, God is making a statement beyond even these names – you might even say God is making a summary statement that includes and goes beyond these other “I AM” uses with their descriptors.
Here in this moment with Moses, God is making it clear that this name “I AM” is God’s all-encompassing name for God’ self – the divine name – the truly personal name of God revealing that God is (the) Self-Existent, Set Apart, Wholly Other, Singularly Transcendent yet Personal (being).
There’s “I AM” and then everything else which is dependent on “I AM” – the creation and all created beings completely and totally dependent even for existence on the great “I AM” – the eternally self-existent God of all who is in all and through all and transcends all and is near to all.
With such meaning, it is clear that ONLY God could have this name.
TRANSITION
But you might be thinking, that’s great to know about God – a nice linguistic lesson for the day - but I thought this series and these messages were about Jesus and His names?
You are right – we are talking about Jesus today; but the significance of what I am about to tell you about Jesus would be lost without this Exodus story.
John 8
Jesus – I AM
Jesus is talking to Jews – Jews who would have known all of this about the Divine Name of God from Exodus 3– Jews who would never have spoken the unspeakable divine name of God – Jews whose father was Abraham and who believed that they were God’s people simply because they were “Abraham’s children.”
But Jesus challenges this claim in John 8. He tells these Jews that though they think they are children of Abraham, because they want to kill Jesus and do not see him for who he is, they really are children of the devil. They are NOT sons of God through Abraham. Look at vs. 42:
42Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. 43Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. 44You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. […] (jump to the last part of vs. 44) …he is a liar and the father of lies. 45Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!
This of course angers the Jews so they accuse Jesus of being demon-possessed, an accusation that they believed was affirmed when Jesus indicates that he is one greater than Abraham – pick up at vs. 8:51 with Jesus speaking:
51Very truly (“Amen”) I tell you, whoever obeys my word (Jesus’ call to follow Him and His teaching as disciples) will never see death.”
52At this they exclaimed, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death. 53Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?”
Who do you think you are? Oh they are about to really find out! Jesus responds in vs. 56:
56Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”
57“You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”
58“Very truly (AMEN) I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”
Yup… Jesus just said that! He is “I AM”.
Notice he does not say, “Before Abraham was born, I was” as in, “I am over 2,000 years old.” Jesus is making a statement far beyond time. It is a statement about who He is: “I AM.” Jesus is making claim to being the “I AM” of Exodus 3. The parallel of John 8 to God’s naming of Himself to Moses in Exodus 3 are UNMISTAKABLE!
And such a claim was UNTHINKABLE to these Jews! To speak the unspeakable divine name of God was in their interpretation of the Law, blaspheme and punishable by death. It is why in vs. 59 it says that they picked up stones to stone Jesus.
“Before Abraham was, I AM” was a direct, explicit claim by Jesus to perfect equality and unity with God. Jesus is God incarnate - not simply a messenger revealing who God is like Moses did, but rather is literally this revelation of God!
So like God, Jesus is (the) Self-Existent, Set Apart, Wholly Other, Singularly Transcendent yet Personal (One).
Like God, there’s “I AM” – Jesus - and then everything else which is dependent on “I AM” – the creation and all created beings completely and totally dependent even for existence on the great “I AM” – the eternally self-existent God of all, revealed in Jesus Christ who is in all and through all and transcends all and is near to all.
With such meaning, it is clear that ONLY God - JESUS - could have this name, “I AM.” It was the name that struck awe and wonder and worship in the hearts and minds of the Jews, to the point that they wouldn’t even say the name.
So too “I AM” strikes awe and wonder and worship in our hearts and minds.
But the wonder is even deeper in that we do speak the name – Jesus – over and over again. Not because we do not revere God for who God is, but in fact because we do revere God for who God is (and) for what God has done: God incarnate in Jesus to be “God with us” – to be personal to our world and to us.
God incarnate in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection that unites heaven and earth that the name may be spoken because the veil between heaven and earth, Creator and created, has been torn. (That) the name may be spoken because the great I AM – the wholly other one – became the great I AM – wholly one of us!
Jesus is (the great) I AM…and there is no other name.
A Woman suffers from severe bleeding. She has tried everything she knows to do for 12 years but nothing has worked. She has spent all her money on doctors and medicines and yet her bleeding gets worse. There is nothing more that can be done. In faith she seeks out Jesus. She does not seek His teaching, she seeks one thing…His touch. She believes…”if I can just touch Jesus I will be healed”. She fights a crowd surrounding Jesus. Not a word is spoken but the woman reaches out and touches Jesus robe and the bleeding stops immediately, she is healed.
Jesus asked ”Who just touched me?” and He adds…”I felt power go out of me”
What was it?
What was the power that had gone out of Jesus and healed the woman?
IT is the same thing that Moses cried out for and received when he desperately cried out to God in the wilderness…
IT is what the Disciples and the writers of the New Testament refer to over 170 times.
IT is what Jesus prayed we would all receive from God and that Jesus confirmed He was leaving with us.
IT is the GLORY OF GOD!
Glory has many definitions and expressions-
- A person can win “Glory” in a sport or on a Battlefield.
- An Autumn day can be Glorious
- We can see the Glory in the ruins in Ephesus or in Rome.
The Bible uses the word GLORY in many different ways as well.
- The temple is referred to as Glorious
- Children are Glory to their parents
- Nations have Glory
But there is a Glory that is unique to the Christian faith, and a Glory that is attributed to God alone.
This unique Glory is even noted in secular sources.
“Glory is used to denote the manifestation of God's presence in the Christian religious tradition”- Wikipedia
This Glory is referred to as “Sublime” in the Philosophical world and means…
Sublime- A quality of greatness beyond all possibility of calculation, measurement or imitation…something beyond explanation.
For some who approach God from a purely intellectual viewpoint this Glory creates an intellectual crossroad they refuse to yield to.
We sometimes think we are so smart and when we run into something that we cannot understand or fully explain our conclusion is that it simply cannot be real.
God, through Paul speaks against such intellectual arrogance and warns that it ends up costing us the life that God has for us…
Ephesians 4:17-18 (NIV)
17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.
The one who cannot fully define and explain the Glory of God often concludes that because it cannot be defined and understood it must be less than our intellectual understanding.
When the exact opposite is true. The intellect cannot fully define, explain and understand God’s Glory because God’s Glory is infinitely greater than any intellectual understanding.
In the Book THE SHACK a man is having a dialogue with God and asking God all kinds of WHAT, WHY’s, and HOW’s Finally God interrupts the man and explains…
I am what some would say “holy”, and wholly other than you.” …I’m not merely the best version of you that you can think of. I am far more than that, above and beyond all that you can ask for or think.”
If we insist on denying the Glory of God until we can fully define it and completely understand it we miss it all together!
Instead we must rejoice that the Glory of God cannot be fully defined, and celebrate that it cannot be fully explained or fully understood… because anything fully defined or fully understood is finite, has limits and has boundaries.
The Glory of God is infinite, has NO limits and NO boundaries.
If the Glory of God were ever completely defined, fully explained, and totally understood then by definition it would no longer be the Glory of God and we would have lost the very treasure we seek!
No one has ever fully defined the Glory of God but so many have seen the Glory of God.
- Millions saw the Glory of God in the parting of the Red Sea
- Thousands saw the Glory of God when the Sun stood still in the sky
- A Father and Peter saw the Glory of God when Jesus raised a little girl and she ate a meal in front of them.
No one has fully explained the Glory of God but many have TOUCHED the Glory of God…
- Peter touched the Glory of God when Jesus hand kept him from sinking into the see
- The outcast woman touched the Glory of God as she held Jesus feet and she received forgiveness.
- The Leper felt the Glory of God when Jesus, instead of healing with His words, healed with His touch.
No one has fully understood the Glory of God but many have tasted of it.
- Mary tasted of the Glory of God when she was overwhelmed by the role God had entrusted to her as the mother of Jesus and exclaimed…
Luke 1:49 (NIV)
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me-- holy is his name.
- Steven tasted of the Glory of God when he was being stoned and was moving from this world to the next.
The Psalmist records this truth…
Psalm 34:8 (NASB)
8 O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!
And today, today this Glory is being seen, touched and tasted…????
A young man is burned over more than 70% and disfigured beyond recognition. While in the hospital a young woman visits him weekly and introduces him to Jesus and by the power of God this young man is able to say…”I am better this way WITH Jesus than I was whole without Jesus.”
A young woman struggles for years with a pain and oppression that literally steals her life and her breath and has for years and years until she is visited by the Holy Spirit who begins to direct her every step, down to the most intimate detail and she is set free.
A man loses his wife in a tragic sequence of events and yet is able to say to me that God is so close to him that the man can feel His breath.
The woman who touched Jesus Hem had tried everything and tried it for years! She had tried all that could be defined, all that could be explained, all that was understood and it was not enough, it was not near enough.
She needed something that was beyond definition, beyond her full understanding, something beyond what anyone except God could explain.
And when she reached out to touch Jesus she got it…she was touched by the Glory of God!
And we can be too. Medicine, Diets, Books and Therapy are all Good but ALL are limited.
Maybe what the Glory of God healed for the Woman with the bleeding could be healed today with medicine.
But here is one thing that is for sure…there will ALWAYS be illnesses, there will always be pains sorrows and struggles that are beyond what the KNOWN can handle, beyond what the defined can heal.
Because of that hard reality we will always be in need of something/someone Greater than the known …someone beyond what we can fully define, understand and fully explain.
Instead of wrestling with our limited understanding of the Glory of God we need to push into it’s Hope and rest in it’s Power.
1 Corinthians 4:20 (NIV)
20 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.
God knew that sometimes, maybe many times His Glory would be hard to believe… so He gave us proof!
2 Corinthians 4:6 (NIV)
6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
You want to understand the Glory of God?
You want to see, touch and feel the Glory of God?
You want to know that the Hope of the Glory of God is real?
LOOK INTO THE FACE OF JESUS!
Jesus IS the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God
Jesus is the promise of the Glory of God fulfilled
Jesus IS the GLORY OF God…There is NO other name!
Steve Znachko:
A Woman suffers from severe bleeding. She has tried everything she knows to do for 12 years but nothing has worked. She has spent all her money on doctors and medicines and yet her bleeding gets worse. There is nothing more that can be done. In faith she seeks out Jesus. She does not seek His teaching, she seeks one thing…His touch. She believes…”if I can just touch Jesus I will be healed”. She fights a crowd surrounding Jesus. Not a word is spoken but the woman reaches out and touches Jesus robe and the bleeding stops immediately, she is healed.
Jesus asked ”Who just touched me?” and He adds…”I felt power go out of me”
What was it?
What was the power that had gone out of Jesus and healed the woman?
IT is the same thing that Moses cried out for and received when he desperately cried out to God in the wilderness…
IT is what the Disciples and the writers of the New Testament refer to over 170 times.
IT is what Jesus prayed we would all receive from God and that Jesus confirmed He was leaving with us.
IT is the GLORY OF GOD!
Glory has many definitions and expressions-
- A person can win “Glory” in a sport or on a Battlefield.
- An Autumn day can be Glorious
- We can see the Glory in the ruins in Ephesus or in Rome.
The Bible uses the word GLORY in many different ways as well.
- The temple is referred to as Glorious
- Children are Glory to their parents
- Nations have Glory
But there is a Glory that is unique to the Christian faith, and a Glory that is attributed to God alone.
This unique Glory is even noted in secular sources.
“Glory is used to denote the manifestation of God's presence in the Christian religious tradition”- Wikipedia
This Glory is referred to as “Sublime” in the Philosophical world and means…
Sublime- A quality of greatness beyond all possibility of calculation, measurement or imitation…something beyond explanation.
For some who approach God from a purely intellectual viewpoint this Glory creates an intellectual crossroad they refuse to yield to.
We sometimes think we are so smart and when we run into something that we cannot understand or fully explain our conclusion is that it simply cannot be real.
God, through Paul speaks against such intellectual arrogance and warns that it ends up costing us the life that God has for us…
Ephesians 4:17-18 (NIV)
17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.
The one who cannot fully define and explain the Glory of God often concludes that because it cannot be defined and understood it must be less than our intellectual understanding.
When the exact opposite is true. The intellect cannot fully define, explain and understand God’s Glory because God’s Glory is infinitely greater than any intellectual understanding.
In the Book THE SHACK a man is having a dialogue with God and asking God all kinds of WHAT, WHY’s, and HOW’s Finally God interrupts the man and explains…
I am what some would say “holy”, and wholly other than you.” …I’m not merely the best version of you that you can think of. I am far more than that, above and beyond all that you can ask for or think.”
If we insist on denying the Glory of God until we can fully define it and completely understand it we miss it all together!
Instead we must rejoice that the Glory of God cannot be fully defined, and celebrate that it cannot be fully explained or fully understood… because anything fully defined or fully understood is finite, has limits and has boundaries.
The Glory of God is infinite, has NO limits and NO boundaries.
If the Glory of God were ever completely defined, fully explained, and totally understood then by definition it would no longer be the Glory of God and we would have lost the very treasure we seek!
No one has ever fully defined the Glory of God but so many have seen the Glory of God.
- Millions saw the Glory of God in the parting of the Red Sea
- Thousands saw the Glory of God when the Sun stood still in the sky
- A Father and Peter saw the Glory of God when Jesus raised a little girl and she ate a meal in front of them.
No one has fully explained the Glory of God but many have TOUCHED the Glory of God…
- Peter touched the Glory of God when Jesus hand kept him from sinking into the see
- The outcast woman touched the Glory of God as she held Jesus feet and she received forgiveness.
- The Leper felt the Glory of God when Jesus, instead of healing with His words, healed with His touch.
No one has fully understood the Glory of God but many have tasted of it.
- Mary tasted of the Glory of God when she was overwhelmed by the role God had entrusted to her as the mother of Jesus and exclaimed…
Luke 1:49 (NIV)
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me-- holy is his name.
- Steven tasted of the Glory of God when he was being stoned and was moving from this world to the next.
The Psalmist records this truth…
Psalm 34:8 (NASB)
8 O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!
And today, today this Glory is being seen, touched and tasted…????
A young man is burned over more than 70% and disfigured beyond recognition. While in the hospital a young woman visits him weekly and introduces him to Jesus and by the power of God this young man is able to say…”I am better this way WITH Jesus than I was whole without Jesus.”
A young woman struggles for years with a pain and oppression that literally steals her life and her breath and has for years and years until she is visited by the Holy Spirit who begins to direct her every step, down to the most intimate detail and she is set free.
A man loses his wife in a tragic sequence of events and yet is able to say to me that God is so close to him that the man can feel His breath.
The woman who touched Jesus Hem had tried everything and tried it for years! She had tried all that could be defined, all that could be explained, all that was understood and it was not enough, it was not near enough.
She needed something that was beyond definition, beyond her full understanding, something beyond what anyone except God could explain.
And when she reached out to touch Jesus she got it…she was touched by the Glory of God!
And we can be too. Medicine, Diets, Books and Therapy are all Good but ALL are limited.
Maybe what the Glory of God healed for the Woman with the bleeding could be healed today with medicine.
But here is one thing that is for sure…there will ALWAYS be illnesses, there will always be pains sorrows and struggles that are beyond what the KNOWN can handle, beyond what the defined can heal.
Because of that hard reality we will always be in need of something/someone Greater than the known …someone beyond what we can fully define, understand and fully explain.
Instead of wrestling with our limited understanding of the Glory of God we need to push into it’s Hope and rest in it’s Power.
1 Corinthians 4:20 (NIV)
20 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.
God knew that sometimes, maybe many times His Glory would be hard to believe… so He gave us proof!
2 Corinthians 4:6 (NIV)
6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
You want to understand the Glory of God?
You want to see, touch and feel the Glory of God?
You want to know that the Hope of the Glory of God is real?
LOOK INTO THE FACE OF JESUS!
Jesus IS the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God
Jesus is the promise of the Glory of God fulfilled
Jesus IS the GLORY OF God…There is NO other name!
Tim Ayers:
There are times in life when someone has to take a stand… when things are seemingly so out of sorts that someone needs to stand up and point out the facts… and I’m sure that you know that if that someone happens to be you… your standing up can often lead to a lot of turmoil… even if you are absolutely right about things. I think this probably happens to just about everyone at some time in life. Even Jesus had some moments like this… now, they were usually times when he was talking to big shot religious leaders… people who were always trying to argue with Him, but there was one time when Jesus was talking to people from his boyhood home when things got so heated that it led to all kinds of trouble for Jesus. And, believe it or not, it also ended with Jesus having a new name… a name that most of us know… it’s a name that we say with great honor and significance. It’s this: Jesus is the bread of life. But it’s important for us to know that Jesus being called ‘the bread of life’ didn’t grow out of some feel good teaching moment or the result of someone recognizing something meaningful about Jesus. No, Jesus being called the Bread of life came out of a moment of confrontation and suspicion. A moment when Jesus had to stand up, point out the facts and set things straight.
Here is what happened. It all started when Jesus had recently returned to his home in Galilee… the people there knew him… many had known him since before his ministry had started… and now his ministry was taking off. People were following Jesus… a lot of people were following Jesus. He’d healed sick people and crippled people; he’d turned water into wine. And he’d been preaching the good news of the kingdom in the power of the Holy Spirit and the crowds were growing. He’d even just fed at least 5,000 people by multiplying 5 barley loaves and 2 small fishes. Jesus was on a roll and some people were actually trying to make him king. From all appearances things were going very well for Jesus. But, Jesus knew what was really going on: people weren’t following him because they had a deep longing in their hearts for God; what they really wanted was the free food; they had a deep hunger in their bellies for some of that free bread. And Jesus had the courage to point out this truth! Listen to what he said in John 6:26: Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed (meaning the miracles of healing) but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Then he added… Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
Well, that got the crowd going and they said these things to him. “Who do you think you are? What sign are you going to give us to prove God has favored you. Back in the day, Moses proved that God had placed his seal of approval him by sending manna for us to eat. What are you going to do to prove yourself?” It’s clear they were still focused on eating… they’d brought up manna… the food that was found on the ground each morning during the 40 years the Jew spent wandering in the wilderness… and guess what they often called manna: ‘bread from heaven.’ Now, when Jesus heard this challenge… what miracle are you going to do for us to prove you have God’s approval, he’d had enough! He said, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” I can see the fire in his eyes when he said, ‘Moses didn’t give your ancestors manna. He didn’t have anything to do with giving anyone ‘bread from heaven.’ It was all God’s doing… and his bread gives life to the world.’ Everyone in first century Palestine ate bread at every meal. The poor generally ate barely bread and the rich usually ate wheat bread but everyone ate bread at every meal. Bread was a staple… bread gave vitality and strength and energy to life. To live life the way it is supposed to be lived you needed bread. Bread made life possible! Everyone believed this. But Jesus’ words about Moses not having anything to do with giving their ancestors manna seemed like Jesus was disparaging Moses and that brought about a smarmy response from the crowd. They said, “Sir, give us this bread.” In other words, ‘Do a trick for us Jesus; get some of this bread to fall down from heaven for us. Prove that you have some special connection to God.’
And with this Jesus was done… it was time to stand up, state the facts and let the chips fall where they may. And he said this: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.”
Well this didn’t go over very well. Listen to what John tells us about what happened next. At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?” And later they asked, ‘Is he saying we’re supposed to eat him?’ Clearly, no one knew what he was talking about. But, he had called himself ‘The Bread of Life.’ He’d given himself a new name… But Jesus didn’t call himself the bread of life to start some new metaphorical conversation. No, he did it to state two very important facts: first and foremost, just like manna, God had sent him from heaven. Jesus didn’t wake up one morning and feel like preaching; he didn’t stumble into his ministry; and he didn’t come to give us gifts from heaven. The fact is: He is the gift! He was sent from heaven by his father with the specific agenda: to give life, real life, eternal life, to the world. And the second fact: the only way that anyone can know life as God intended it to be is to believe in the name of Jesus. And when you do you will receive spiritual food from heaven for your soul… food from heaven that will give you spiritual strength and spiritual power and spiritual vitality and spiritual energy. And that spiritual food is Jesus; he is the staple of our spiritual life; he alone brings insight and wisdom and knowledge and truth. Everyone needs Jesus to live. He is the bread of life. He called himself by this name in the process of setting things straight. And here is that truth: Jesus is the bread of life. It is a name that speaks of all that he gives to us if we allow him to feed and strengthen our souls. He is Jesus. He is the bread of life and there is no other name.