“I Am Jesus”: Introduced on the Damascus Road

“Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.  And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ And he said, ‘Who are you, Lord?  And He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.  But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.’” Acts 9:4-6 (ESV).

The eighth “I Am” statement of Jesus is in the account of Saul the Persecutor’s amazing conversion when he met Jesus on the road to Damascus as he was going there with the purpose of persecuting Christians.  It is significant that Paul’s immediate attention on the Damascus Road was gained through a light that flashed from heaven.  He would not have heard Jesus say to His disciples earlier, “I am the light of the world,”  but here, to this enemy of the church and one who was even then on his way to find and perhaps even kill Christians, the light of Jesus shone upon him, getting Saul’s immediate attention.  Paul was very much aware of the light and his response indicated that he knew the light was of heavenly origin:  “Who are you, Lord?”  I think of the prophecy the aged Simeon gave to Mary when she brought Jesus to the Temple for the required Jewish purification service:  “”Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel…a light for the revelation of the Gentiles…” (Luke 2:34, 32).  Next, Saul heard a voice.  It was “the Truth” confronting Saul with the terrible deeds he was doing.  It was time for Saul to stop fighting against the Lord Christ and persecuting those who believed in Him.  “I am Jesus” the voice from heaven declared to Saul.  What an awakening for Saul the persecutor!  The very one whose followers he was trying to kill was in the light and in the voice from heaven.  The name Jesus means “Jehovah is salvation,” and Saul, well-trained in Jewish law and scriptures, would have known the meaning of the name.  He was ready to obey the light and the voice, and was led as a blind man to Damascus where the light would be further revealed to him.  For Paul’s own testimony of what happened to him on the Damascus road and subsequently, read his defense before an angry Jewish mob in Acts 22:3-21, and in Acts 26:2-23, his defense before King Agrippa II and the Roman governor Porcius Festus.  When Jesus confronted Saul of Tarsus, his life was changed completely.  He was accosted as persecutor; he arose, temporarily blinded and having to be led the rest of the way to Damascus.  But once ministered to by Ananias whom the Lord had prepared to be Saul’s helper, Paul was ready to be the “vessel unto the Gentiles” that he became.  He was soon preaching in Damascus, the very place where he had intended to persecute Christians.  Meeting Jesus changed Saul completely.

“What will you do then with Jesus, Who is called the Christ?”  This is the question each person must face.  Our “Damascus Road” experience may not have been as dramatic as that experienced by Saul of Tarsus, but the experience of meeting Jesus comes to each of us.  We either hear and heed His voice, or we turn a deaf ear and reject His invitation to light, life and grace.  It is good for each saved  person to recall the time when he/she met the Lord and responded favorably to His invitation.  Such remembrance wells up as an offering of gratitude that Christ could love each of us enough to ask us to follow Him.  “I am Jesus!”  That knowledge and what we do with it makes all the difference in how we order and conduct our lives.  As Paul stated in Philippians 4:4-7, we too can:  “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.  Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.  The Lord is at hand:  do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

Jesus: The Resurrection and the Life

“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die.  Do you believe this’?  She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.’” –John 11:25-26 (ESV).

It took a funeral of a good friend for Jesus to reassure Lazarus’ sister, Martha, who came to meet Jesus as he approached their house of mourning, that He was, indeed, ‘the resurrection and the life.”  Imagine, if you will, the setting for this statement and the subsequent miracle of resurrection.  Jesus had been summoned, for Lazarus whom He loved was very sick.  Jesus delayed His going to Bethany and arrived after Lazarus died and was already in the tomb for four days.  Why had Jesus delayed?  Even Mary, the one who sat at Jesus feet earlier to hear him teach while her sister Martha was “encumbered with much serving,” reprimanded Jesus and told Him if He had been there, her brother would not have died.  Jesus delayed so that God could be glorified in the situation of death…and subsequent life.

Jesus showed his compassion.  He, too, wept (v. 35).  Jesus joins his friends in their sadness with heartfelt sorrow, even though He knew that resurrection and joy would soon follow.  Did His weeping not show us that heartfelt mourning in the face of death is a natural and normal human emotion?  Someone has also suggested that Jesus wept because He had decided to call forth Lazurus from death and eternity to return to this sad world of sin and its trials.  When we weep under such a sad circumstance as death it does not indicate our lack of faith but shows our honest sorrow for parting and for the reality of suffering death brings to the family members that remain.  But the mourning at Bethany would soon turn to joy.  Jesus simply commanded, “Lazarus, come out!” (v. 43). Someone has written that had Jesus not called Lazarus by name, all the dead in that cemetery in Bethany would have come forth, for He who holds life in His hand and in His Word was speaking.  The Resurrection and the Life was commanding the dead to live!

Jesus, in telling Martha (and any about her who might have heard His words), “Do you believe that I am the resurrection and the life?  She responded yes, she knew He was the Christ.  And therein lies the transfer from death to life—by simple belief.  Unsaved people aren’t just tainted and sick because of their sins.  They are “”dead in trespasses and sins”  (see Ephesians 2:1, 5).  And “by grace through faith” we are saved to walk in newness of life with Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9).  Resurrection to newness of life means abundant and meaningful life in our remaining time on earth while we await the consummation of our sanctification, eternal life with the Father.  Unless the Lord returns to earth before our death, we know physical death is sure for every living person:  “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).  But for us who trust in Jesus, the Resurrection and the Life, we have “eternal life and will not be judged…[but will] cross over from death to life (John 5:24).  For those who have had a near-death experience, as in the recent book entitled Heaven is for Real, tells us, what Jesus taught us about His being the Resurrection and the Life is also for real!  He conquered the last enemy, death, and so can we, through Him!  To God be the glory!

Jesus: The Light of the World

“Again Jesus spoke to them saying, ‘I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” –John 8:12 (ESV)  “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” –John 1: 4-5 “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.  He was in the world and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him.  He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him.  But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” –John 1:9-13 (ESV).[Read John 8:12-20]

The occasion of Jesus announcing that He is the light of the world came during the annual Festival of Tabernacles when the Jewish people and leaders were assembled at the Temple in Jerusalem. The festival was observed for eight days, about this time of year.  It commemorated a joyful celebration of the harvest but also remembered the time when the people dwelt in tents or tabernacles during the years of wilderness wanderings.  God had delivered them from those hardships.  Every night during the days of the Festival, the priests would light four large candelabra in the court of the women and these gave much light.  They reminded the people that God had led them with a pillar of fire by night and a glowing cloud by day that had shown God’s direction, protection and provision.  They would sing and dance, repeating assurances of God’s presence:  “The Lord is my light and my salvation” (Psalm 27:1) or “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you” (Isaiah 60:1). In the midst of the celebration of lights, Jesus stood and said, “I am the light of the world!”  The learned Jews among them should have known that Light was one of the names given to the Messiah.  That was seen in the prophecy of Daniel 2:22: “light dwells with Him” and in Malachi 4:2: “But for you who revere My name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.”  Unfortunately, the Pharisees hearing Jesus argued with Him and told Him that they did not believe His testimony, that it was not true.  Regardless of what the Jewish leaders believed, they were standing there, observing and hearing the very Light of the World as He sought to enlighten them. What a pity that they would not hear the truth that the Light had been with God since the creation of the world.  John would write about the Light at the beginning of his gospel.  Even at that moment that true Light stood and taught among them.

Following the discourse with the Jewish leaders, Jesus went outside the Temple courtyard and soon found a man blind from birth.  He told His disciples in the presence of the blind man, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:5).  He then proceeded to restore sight to the blind man, bringing the poor man from darkness to light.  A discourse ensued between the healed blind man and the Jews, but the man told the Lord he believed in him, praised Jesus for restoring his sight and worshiped Him.  He had experienced the miracle of Light performed by the one Who is the Light of the world.

James Hudson Taylor lived in Brighton, England.  He got a burden for the lost of China, and arranged for a loan from his bank to start the China Inland Mission in June of 1865.  The mission work was hard and tedious, but Taylor persisted in his mission “to open the eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison, and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness”(Isaiah 42:7).  And Jesus, the Light of the World, calls each of us  (as he did James Hudson Taylor) who have come to His light to be light-bearers wherever we are:  “Ye are the light of the world,”  Jesus said as He called us.  And our privilege is to follow Him and let our lights shine where He has stationed us.  “Therefore, let your light so shine!” Let us reflect the glory of the Father through the Light of His Son.   (Matthew 5:14-16).

Jesus: The Good Shepherd

“I am the good shepherd.  I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.  And I have other sheep that are not of this fold.  I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice.  So there will be one flock, and one shepherd.  For this reason My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it up again.  No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord.  I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.  This charge I have received from My Father.”  -John 10:11-18 (ESV) [Read John 10:7-18]

“I am the good shepherd.”  In Greek, there are two words for “good”:  One is agathos which means morally good; the other is kalos meaning that the person described is morally good, but also winsome, genuine, filled with fidelity, love and power.  The word used to describe Jesus as the good shepherd is kalos—good through and through, in every way good, perfect, whole.  And He would (and did) lay down His life for His sheep.  It was not unusual at all for the shepherd to have to defend his flock with his very life.  David as a shepherd boy kept his father’s flocks and defended them from wolves and lions and attacks from robbers and thieves.  From his defense of the flock of his father, David built up a strong body and he was not afraid of going against the giant Goliath with a slingshot and five smooth stones.

Furthermore, Jesus knows His own for whom He lay down His life.  Just as the shepherd knew which sheep belonged to his flock and the sheep likewise knew their shepherd and followed him, so those who are in the flock of the Lord are known by the Good Shepherd.  Is it any wonder that John the Baptist exclaimed when he saw Jesus approaching the Jordan River, “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world!”  The Good Shepherd was also the sacrificial Lamb, laying down His life for His sheep.

In this lesson on the Good Shepherd, we have also an important truth on non-exclusiveness.  “I have other sheep that are not of this fold.”  For centuries the Jews had felt that they were the Chosen People of God, and, indeed, they were.  But they had forgotten the word of God to Abraham that spoke of him and his seeds (the flock of God) being as the sands on the seashore in number and a blessing to all mankind.  Here Jesus is including the Gentiles who will come to believe in Him as “not of this fold,” but coming into the fold because of their faith in the Lord.  It is only in Jesus Christ and through His message being accepted that the world can become one.  And it is the purpose for which Jesus came into the world:  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).  The Good Shepherd gave His life for His sheep.  He lay down His life and He took it up again.  And through that gift and by that hope His flock can rest secure.  Praise be to God!

Jesus, the Door

“”Truly, truly I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.  But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.  To him the gatekeeper opens.  The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out…So Jesus again said to them, ‘Truly, truly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.  I am the door.  If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” –John 10:1-3, 7, 9 (ESV).

The “I am...” statements of Jesus, “I am the door” and “I am the good Shepherd” are closely related because each of them uses the care and keeping of sheep as the metaphor to explain important truths about who Jesus is.  In New Testament times, the sheepfold was often in protected areas near where the sheep were led to pasture.  When my husband and I were in the Holy Land in 1978, we were taken to such a place by Mr. Tabish, a Christian Jew who lived in Bethlehem.  He invited us to drive with him out to what was called “Shepherd’s Field.”  It was the place held to be where the angels appeared to the shepherds on the night of the Savior’s birth.  There Mr. Tabish led us to a cave in the side of the hill, an indentation in the earth large enough for sheep to be gathered in out of the elements.  The opening at the mouth of the cave was the “door” of the sheepfold.  Mr. Tabish explained to us that the shepherd himself would lie down across that opening when all the sheep were safely inside and had been watered and their scratches and wounds tended with pouring on of healing oil.  As the shepherd reclined at the opening, he became the guard for his sheep.  Nothing outside could go over his body and harm his flock,  Neither could a sheep stray out of the safety of the sheepfold without the shepherd being aware.

With this beautiful picture of the “shepherd as the door” of the sheepfold, it is much easier for us to understand the metaphor Jesus had in mind when he said, “I am the door,” or “I am the door of the sheepfold.”  In the safety of the sheepfold, the flock was separated from the dangers outside the fold, like ravening wolves, or thieves and robbers.  The door also represents a decision.  “The sheep know my voice,” the shepherd said.  The sheep made a decision to follow the call of the shepherd. They could tell their own shepherd’s voice from all the other shepherds that grazed flocks where there was pasture.  When it was time to go to the sheepfold for the night, the sheep knew which shepherd was theirs and followed him.  I well remember a little chorus my pastor, the Rev. Claude Boynton, taught us children in Vacation Bible School when I was very young.  It speaks of the decision we must make to follow the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, and the one door He is to our salvation:

            “One door and only one, and yet its sides are two:

            Inside and outside, on which side are you?

            One door and only one, and yet its sides are two:

            I’m on the inside, on which side are you?”

Jesus as the door is very akin to another “I am…” saying of Jesus:  “I am the way, and the Truth and the Life.”  Just as there is only one way to salvation, and that is repentance of sins and belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, so there is only one door that leads to the safety of the sheepfold where the flock can rest in safety.  There is compassion through that door.  The good shepherd would care tenderly for his sheep, bind up their wounds, give them water to drink, see that they had proper food for their nourishment.  All of these things are provided by the one who lies at the door and guards His sheep.  Security is guaranteed as the shepherd places himself at the door.  Security of the flock is the shepherd’s number one responsibility.  Praise be to God!