The True Identity of Jesus: I Am Who I Am
Exodus 3:1-15; John 8:56-59
We begin this weekend to think about “The True Identity of Jesus” – according to Jesus himself. At least seven times in the Gospel of John, Jesus personally takes time to explain to us who he is. He says, “I am…” We’re going to look at each of his statements, week by week, this summer. I think that what you’ll discover is that each statement Jesus makes speaks to the deepest needs of your life as a human being.
With that in mind, you may be surprised that we begin this series today by thinking about a different man, a man that some of us here in Southern California might relate to even though he lived a long time ago in a place far, far away. That man grew up in a home of great prestige and influence. He received the best education possible in his nation, at the Cal Tech of the Middle East. And, interestingly, he also seems to have developed a sense of justice. So, one day, when he saw a person being treated unjustly and nothing being done, he stepped in to bring about justice with his own hands. He killed the abuser, an act that forced him to flee into the desert of Midian. 
When we meet him, he had met a woman and gotten married. This once powerful man had been living for 40 years in obscurity. He lived with his in-laws. He worked in his father-in-law’s business. All the dreams and aspirations of his youth were surely gone. His name was Moses. Ironically, on the day of his life we focus on today, he was wandering through a place called Horeb – it means “desolate waste”. In that unexpected place at an unexpected time, something happened that changed his life.
He saw a bush that seemed to be burning off the beaten path. And a voice out of it spoke. “This bush knows my name!” he must have thought. But then something happened that changed everything. We read about it in Exodus 3. I call the chapter, “Moses! Meet God.” It’s a report of a real event. It’s one that has been so important among God’s people that artists throughout history have tried to depict it: See Domenico Feti’s 17th C painting: 
And the stained glass at Notre Dame:
This reason this is so important is that what happened to Moses relates to questions every person has, e.g., Is there really a God? If so, what is he like? If I meet him, what will happen to my life?
Who is this God that Moses meets?
Moses knew something about God from his Jewish mother who had been involved in his childhood. But, it’s clear that, one day in Horeb, Moses truly met God. When Moses actually met God, it changed his life. It always does. God sent Moses from Horeb, the place of desolate waste, back to the halls of royalty in Egypt where he had grown up. You see, there had been a purpose to God having Moses grow up in a place of power. Moses understood the language. He knew how life functioned there. But now, Moses’ entire life was seen to have a purpose (as does yours!). Moses was to be the one God had created and prepared to bring his people out of slavery. But, Moses had a big question about this calling.
Moses said to God, “If I go to the people of Israel and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they ask me, “What is his name?” what shall I say to them?’ God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ (Exodus 3:14).’”
What does it mean when you ask your God, “Who are you”? and he answers, “I AM WHO I AM”? It changed Moses’ life to meet God and discover that God is “I am”. That’s what we will be considering for the rest of our summer, i.e., how meeting the one called “I am” changes every part of our lives.
Today, let’s just ask this: What do we learn from Moses’ meeting with God?
#1: When you meet God, it is almost always due to a disruptive event. I will turn aside (“sur”) and see this strange sight (3:3).
In Exodus 3, Moses doesn’t go out one morning and say, “Oh, I think I’ll search for God today.” Instead, his encounter with God came in the course of everyday life. The Hebrew word for what happens, i.e., “sur”, is very strong and it’s used both in vv. 3 & 4. “Sur” means to turn aside from – to abandon intentionally -- what you usually do. “Sur” speaks a person who has been going along in life doing whatever he/she usually does and then -- blam!! Something breaks in. We all know that when we get into our normal life patterns, we generally get too busy to look for God – or we’re just don’t want to do so. Instead, it’s God who takes the initiative. That’s what happened: One day, Moses was going about his ordinary agricultural business when he saw something distracting just off the beaten path. He saw a burning bush that was not being consumed. Moses chose to turn aside from what he normally did. And that was his beginning.
For many people, this sort of "burning bush" is the first step in meeting God. As long as you stay in our normal comfort zone, doing what you always do, you ignore the most important things in life – like, whether there is a God who has created you for a purpose and before whom someday you will stand.
You know how it is: You may get fed up one day and say, “Why am I doing all this stuff I’m doing? What’s my life amounting to?” Those are important questions! But, then someone walks by and says, “Hey, let’s go grab some coffee” – and off you go forgetting the big questions.
Ordinary life normally leads you to want to stay comfortable the way you are. So, what is a “burning bush” moment? A “burning bush” is something that disrupts the ordinary way you look at the world and the regular way live your life.
Dr. Steve Cunningham is a scientist who was trained to believe that miracles do not happen. Then, he saw a miraculous thing happen. Steve couldn’t explain away what he saw away – and what he saw led him to know that his worldview was inadequate to explain what’s real. His whole way of thinking was turned aside – it was a “burning bush moment” for him. A burning bush is anything that pulls you out of the ordinary pursuits and patterns of your life and calls you to think about the “big questions” of the universe. Again, we human beings rarely get up one day and say, “Hey, I’m 30 years old today. I’d better go search for God!” No, usually --something has to turn us aside from our comfort zones.
So, what kinds of things can turn us aside? What kinds of things make us think more profoundly about life than we otherwise might? Sometimes, we come face to face with a miracle like Moses did or Steve Cunningham did. But, let me suggest a few other ways God might get your attention:
- People who are different – Sometimes, there are people who come into our lives who show us something of the transforming power of Christ. The testimony I’ve heard most often from people who have come to faith in Jesus as high school or college students is that they’ve met someone who was a different kind of person. It was a who loved them, forgave them, or gave them a second chance when no one else ever had done that. One student at Princeton University told me about how a teacher in high school was like this. She asked her teacher why she was different from others. The public-school teacher said, “Well, it’s because I follow Jesus.” The student told her, “I’ve always thought churchgoers were negative and self-righteous.” But the teacher said, “Well, when Jesus knows me, loves me, forgives me and gives me a second chance – and a third, fourth…, then I consider it a privilege to do the same for you in his name.” This meeting forced the student to re-think her view of people and eventually was used to bring her to Christ.
- Questions that haunt you – Some questions we human beings have force us to conclude that what we’ve been taught about the world doesn’t address the big issues of life. Min Shigamatsu shared her testimony a few years ago about growing up in China in a largely atheist context. But Min was always haunted by the “causation question”, i.e., the matter of how everything started. She would ask her mother, “I know I came from you and you came from Grandma but where did the very first mom come from?” And Min asked this question repeatedly until finally Min was given a Bible. She opened it and read, “In the beginning, God created…” Min kept reading until she came to faith in Jesus, through whom all things are created.
- Realities that you can’t control – Some of you who here at LAC have had a fresh commitment to Jesus tell me that, for a long time, you felt were doing pretty well with your life, that you had everything under control. But, you came to a point when, perhaps for the first time, you didn’t get the job you wanted. You got a “Dear John” letter from your girlfriend who told you she is going to marry your best friend. You get the news that you have cancer. You begin to discover that life isn’t manageable on your own. Your view that you’re wise enough to control things and handle life by yourself is shaken. That’s a burning bush. You’ve got to turn aside and listen.
- Emptiness that seems unfillable – Have you ever had a sense that you’re made for something more than you’ve found? You dream of success and then you get what you were dreaming of. And, you discover it’s not all you thought it would be. This may be the most powerful burning bush of all.
Here in the entertainment capital of the world, Southern CA, those few who actually do make it to the top of their professions often face this burning bush. And what we often see if that the most successful people in this material world become the most miserable people. They got what they thought life was all about and found themselves empty. Maybe you’ve been there. It’s a hard moment but it’s also one of great opportunity. Times like those are messages to you that there is something more to live for than can be found in this material world.
Has God come to you via any burning bushes like these? If so, you have to turn aside from what you usually do and take time to listen. Is God saying something to you today? Is he reaching out to you today? You must stop – and listen to hear the voice of God.
And, here I must add a word to long-time churchgoers – to those who have already come to God through faith in Jesus. Let me tell you that there is still more to be experienced with God than you have up to now. Even those of us who have come alive to God through faith in Jesus can get stuck in the rut of living life without being directed by God. I’ve found that for Christians, going deeper in our walks with God often involves regular disruptions of the kind that Moses experienced.
Sometimes, we’ve been to church for many years and maybe even to a Christian school. We can fool ourselves into thinking that we know all there is to be known about God. Then, perhaps you lose your job. You get a bad health report. You go to church and God’s Word is opened and God disrupts you and says, “I have plan and purpose for you.” It feels like he is speaking just to you – though many people are around you. It’s a “burning bush” moment.
Don’t run from burning bush moments. It may be God saying, “I have something new to do in your life.”
#2: When you meet God, you need to say yes to him. Take off your sandals… (3:5).
Something happens from v. 4 to 5 that it seems almost contradictory. The LORD speaks from the bush and says, “Moses! Moses!” In Hebrew, when a word is doubled, it intensifies the word. A big mountain is “mountain, mountain” (har-har). If it’s a person, doubling the name deepens the intensity. Here, the Angel of the Lord in the bush calls, “Moses, Moses! I want to talk to you.” Moses replies, “Here I am.”
Then, immediately in v. 5, God says, “Do not come any closer.” Do you see it? “Moses, come close!” Then, “Moses, don’t come any closer. And, then comes the command, “Take off your sandals!”
In the ancient near east, people took off sandals for one of two reasons: 1) when they were invited into the tent of a friend, and, 2) when they were required to do it by a conquering enemy. Without sandals, the enemycould not run away into the rugged desert and escape.
The Perplexing Question:
What is God like? Is he a loving God who is ready to enter into a close relationship with people like us? Or is he a holy God who says we are unholy people who must surrender to him?
It’s clear God is both. He is loving and he is holy. To take off your shoes means you are ready to lay down your conditions. Notice that God doesn’t say, “I will meet you and then you can decide if you want to take off your shoes.” He says, “Take off your shoes and then I will meet you.” You and I must say, “God, I believe you are who you say you are. I am yours. I will follow you.”
We dare never forget that God is God. He announces in v.14, “I am who I am – not what you want me to be.” People in Sothern CA believe is being spiritual but we want a god we can shape as we want – like playdough. But God is the one who does the shaping. The real God – the God who is who he is – will redirect your life. He will tell you things you do not want to hear.
This is how it will always be. God will always be who he is. God will say to you as he said to Moses, “Moses, Moses!” (Put your name here!) I am ready to come to you. I know what you’ve done in your past. I am ready and able to forgive you. More than that, I am ready to give you a purpose-filled future. I am ready to give you a new life. But, I must be God for I am who I am.”
#3: You meet God when you meet Jesus. Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I am! (John 8:58).”
John 8:58 is a powerful declaration that Jesus made personally. He was speaking to a group of people who claimed to believe in him (see 8:31). But, it’s clear that they did not really believe in him, i.e., they had not met him, recognized who he was, and then surrendered their lives to him to follow him as Moses did. Bottom line: They thought he was a religious leader, a good Rabbi and maybe even a person God had sent to deliver them from slavery. They thought he was a Moses-type. But they did not think he was the one who had met Moses from the burning bush. Jesus declared, “I am the I am.”
Like many who go to church, they wanted to believe in Jesus to an extent without surrendering their lives in faith to Jesus. Throughout John’s Gospel, Jesus keeps making the same claim. “I have not come to ruin your life but to give your life (10:10) for I am who I am.” When you meet Jesus, you find him addressing and guiding you through the biggest issues of human existence. What did Jesus say?
- Are you hungering for something? I Am the Bread of Life (John 6:35-39)
- Are you searching for a place to belong? I Am the Door (John 10:1-10)
- Do you need hope? I Am the Light of the World (John 8:12-19)
- Are you searching for guidance? I Am the Good Shepherd (John 10:11-18)
- Does death take everything away? I Am the Resurrection and the Life (John 11:24-27)
- Are you lost? I Am the Way,
Do you have unanswered questions? I am the Truth,
Are you really living? I am the Life (John 14:1-6)
- Will you ever change? I Am the True Vine (John 15:1-9)
Let’s stop there this week and let God speak to us. As always in the Bible, the most important questions in life lead to Jesus. To understand the kind of God revealed in Exodus 3 is, you must fix your eyes on Jesus – and that starts with fixing your mind on what he did intentionally for you on the cross. In Jesus, you see that God comes down to you out of love and says to you, “Moses, Moses – (insert your own name there) -- “You must take off your shoes for I am holy and you are not. But I love you. I have found a way to bring you to God. I am holy so the wages of your sin is death. At the same time, I love you so I will die in your place. Come in faith to me and I will bring you close to God. But, be ready to take off your shoes!”
The man who wrote the Gospel of John did that. He placed his faith in Jesus. Listen to his words:
The Word, the One through whom the world was made, became flesh and lived among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth…No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and has made him known…
I have written these things that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name (John 1:14-18; 20:31).
I have preached this sermon for the same reason – that you may believe, follow Jesus and find life in his name. I pray God is speaking to you today. If so, I don’t want you to leave this place without having a “burning bush moment”, a moment to turn aside to listen to God’s voice. So, I want you to pull down your kneelers now and let me lead us in prayer…