Welcome to Wildwood College Life of Wildwood Community Church in Norman, Oklahoma. We are FOR following Jesus together to the glory of God. We meet on Sunday mornings at 9:45 for Bible teaching, breakfast and fellowship, and would love to see you there this week. Follow us on Instagram @WildwoodCollege for more information.

And with that, let's dive into this week's message.

 My name is Kevin Choate. I'm the college pastor here and I'm excited cuz we're back together starting a new series. We're going over the I Am statements of John, but we're gonna first look at kind of where that's all rooted. Now I wanna ask you guys a question. Have you guys ever heard these phrases about God? God must be cold and unloving because my life isn't pictured what I pictured it to be at all, or God must be distant because I don't feel him in my life.

These two misconceptions I believe are commonplace today. And it wouldn't be the craziest thing if you were having a conversation with a nonbeliever and ask them why they didn't believe in God, and those were things that they said. You know, if someone's life is in shambles, then they doubt God's goodness.

If someone doesn't experience God, then he must be distant. And although there are gaps in these ideas and their logic, I think what we see today is actually the reversal of the Chronicles of Narnia. Does anybody, or is anybody familiar with the Chronicles of Narnia? So I think today it's kind of commonplace to kind of have a reversal of the characters of the Chronicles of Narnia.

When we're looking at God, instead of viewing God as warm and loving near close, there is this character of God that is more like the white witch, someone who is cold, someone who is distant, someone who is not interested in a personal relationship. And with these misconceptions about God's kindness, about his nearness, sometimes the picture can be painted in a wrong way.

But today I hope that as we look at God's word and looking at these passages, what we'll see is that God is actually near that he's actually close, that he's actually warm, that he's actually more like the loving near picture painted when we look at the character Aslan. Today we will see that God is noble.

That's the main idea, is that God is knowable. And because God is knowable, then we should seek to understand him in the way that he designed. Okay? And we'll observe that God is noble and how God reveals himself. That's gonna be the big idea, is how he's revealing himself. So first, we'll see God reveals himself by initiating his revelation to God reveals himself for the purpose of his people's deliverance.

And lastly, that God reveals himself perfectly in the person of Jesus. So we'll be looking at Exodus chapter three and the end of chapter eight in our second half this morning. And the purpose of this series is really to discover the divinity of Christ, or in other words, to see how Jesus is God through his I Am statements that He makes in the Book of John.

And today we'll be looking at the base text of these statements in John. Going back to the source of where we first see this phrase. "I am." Exodus three. It takes place after Moses has  fled Egypt after he has faced failure and made mistakes in Egypt. And he has fled to the region of Midian, and he has separate from the Israelites.

Okay? And he's living with the fruits of his failure from Egypt. So let's catch up and see what's next for Moses. What we'll do is we'll read the passage in its entirety again, and then we will make some  observations. So if you have your Bible turned to Exodus three, and follow along with me and try to try to see what's going on here.

Verse one says "Now, Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horrib the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the mist of a bush. He looked and behold the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed, and Moses said, I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.

When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush. Moses, Moses, and he said, here I am. Then he said, do not come near. Take your sandals off your feet for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. And he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

And Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look at God. Then the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their task masters. I know their sufferings and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land.

A land flowing with milk and honey. To the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the parasites, the Hivites and the Jebs. And now behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me. And I've also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come. I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel out of Egypt.

But Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? It. He said, but I will be with you and this shall be the sign for you that I've sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain. Then Moses said to God, if I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they asked me, what is his name?

What shall I say to them? God said to Moses, I am who I am, and he said, say this to the people of Israel. I am has sent me to you. God also said to Moses, say this to the people of Israel, the Lord, 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 forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations."

So the first observation is from verses one through six, and that is that God reveals himself by initiating his revelation. So the passage begins with Moses and the wilderness, right? He's coming to the eventual mountain where the 10 Commandments would be given one day, and he discovers that this bush is burning, but is not being consumed by the flame, right?

It is burning, but it is not being burnt up. And here, through this natural phenomenon, God is drawing Moses to himself and it says in verse two, and the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked and behold the bush was burning. Yet it was not consumed. So we see the angel of the Lord appear to Moses in this flame and Moses goes out and he looks to see what's going on and God responds.

Verse three, Moses said,  "I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see God called him out of the bush. Moses. Moses. And he said, here I am. Then he said, do not come here. Take your sandals off your feet for the place on which you're staying is holy ground."

So what happens? God is drawing Moses in with this burning bush, with this natural phenomenon of this bush burning, but not being burnt up. And then he calls out to Moses by name. Now I can't but help but sympathize with Moses a little bit because I would be terrified. Can you imagine going out into the wilderness, seeing this bush being burnt up, but it doesn't burn up, and then all of a sudden it starts speaking to you by name?

That'd be a little terrifying, but that's what's happening here, and it's the angel of the Lord that's talking to him. But who is this angel? Well, at this point in Israel's history, I want just to provide some context. God has been silent for 400 years. Israelites have been in slavery for 400 years. God has been silent, okay?

They have not heard from God in a long time, but what happens here is on God's own terms, he initiates the process of revealing himself. Verse six concludes the beginning of this revelation by identifying just who Moses is in the presence of who is this angel of the Lord? It says verse six, and he said, I am the God of your father.

The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hit his face for he was afraid to look at God. The angel of the Lord had just revealed his identity, and Moses was terrified. He was in the presence of God. Yeah. What just happened is that what I wanna point out is a significant moment in Revelation history.

What we see throughout the story of scripture is God progressively revealing more and more of himself. Making himself more and more known to his people. And what has just happened here is a significant point because he has just revealed more of himself than he has before. He has revealed his name. And not only has he revealed his name, but he's revealed something extremely important about his name.

After silence for 400 years, God was making himself known in a way that was more intimate than any other time since the fall. Now, there is another period of time where God is silent for 400 years before revealing himself in an intimate way, and we'll look at that in a little bit. Hint hint, it's Jesus.

Okay? So what God is about to do by revealing who he is is another example of God initiating the process of slowly but surely peeling back the curtain of who he is. He's no longer as maybe mysterious as he may have been in the past. God is revealing himself more clearly and fully throughout time. He's progressively revealing himself through history.

But what does Exodus chapter three, verses one through six really say about God? What have we learned about his character through these verses? What we've learned that whenever we talk to God, whenever we commune with God, it's inherently a response. Now, I want you to imagine the picture of a ringing telephone.

Okay? Every time we worship God, every time we take communion, every time we gather with the saints, every time that we are interacting with a holy God, it is really responding to a conversation that he has initiated, whether it's through creation or whether it's the Holy Spirit convicting of us, us of sin and recognizing our need for a savior.

Whether it's seeing him in his word, it is continuing a conversation that God has already started. Now, this is so important for us to understand. It plays out significantly in each of our individual spiritual lives because the truth is this, sometimes we think that God is distant. Sometimes we think God is far off.

Sometimes we think God does not care about our problems, but what we see in Scripture time and time again is the nearness of our personal God. That he is available, that he is personal. He is real, and he is available in our ever present danger. Our ever-present trouble. God is there. So whenever we think about is God even here, the phone is ringing and it just takes us the effort of picking up the phone.

We don't have to question if someone's gonna be on the other line. We don't have to question if God will respond. What we see time and time again in scripture is that he is available. He is there. Psalm 1 45, 17 through 21 talks about the confidence that we should have when we talk to God. It says in verse 17, "the Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works.

The Lord is near to all who call on Him to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him. He also hears their cry and saves them. The Lord preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy my mouth, will speak the praise of the Lord and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever."

God reveals himself by being the initiator. He is available in present. But he also reveals himself for the purpose of his people's deliverance. This is what we see when God is, is extending this revelation. We see that it is for the purpose of his people's deliverance. Notice what has happened here.

Verse seven, "The Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings and I have come down to deliver them. Have the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them out of that land to a good and broad land. A land flowing with milk and honey to the place of the Canaanites, the  Hittites and the rest of the -ittes."

This is the promised land right now. A few things I wanna note here. Even though God is the initiator, he still responds. It's not like the phone is ringing. We pick up the phone and the conversation ends after we say our peace. But we see time and again that God answers prayers, that he hears his people's prayers.

Now, it might not always be the answer that we want, but God responds, that is true. So hearing the cries of Israel, he hears them right? He hears them and he answers their prayer. By initiating a plan of deliverance, God sees their suffering and he has a plan to deliver them. God loves his children. Now you might think, okay, if God loves his children, why were they slaves for 400 years?

That can be a really natural question to ask. Well, this is something that shouldn't really be a surprise for the Israelites. This is what God tells Abram in Genesis. I believe chapter 12, he tells them that they'll be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they'll be afflicted for 400 years.

But even in the midst of this, that doesn't negate God's promises, it doesn't negate God's promises. In the same chapter, he made a promise to Abraham. He made a promise, an unconditional promise that all the nations will be blessed through Abraham's seed. That he would, he would bless all the nations through him.

And there was a land promise tied to that, that there would be this promised land coming. Okay? And so, God, what? God is talking about, bringing them up out of a good and broad land, he's delivering on his promises. Us. But what he chooses to do is something interesting, right? He says, I will deliver them. But then in verse 10, he says, come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel out of Egypt.

This divine plan would be accomplished through a mediator, as it always is, and that mediator in this case is Moses. Okay? Moses will mediate God's deliverance. But how does Moses respond? He responds how probably you and I would respond. He says, who am I that I should go to fair and bring the children out of Israel of Israel, out of Egypt?

I mean, how many of you guys have ever felt inadequate? How many of you guys have ever felt unworthy? How many of you guys have felt I am not up to the task that God is giving me? I know I've felt that way. I feel that way all the time. You know, I, I often feel inadequate to do that, which God is calling me to do.

But guess what? It didn't matter who Moses was. It mattered who was with Moses, right? It mattered. Who was with Moses? See, when I was growing up. One of my favorite movies was The Iron Giant. Has anyone ever seen this movie? The Iron Giant? Okay, so kind of synopsis of this story is a giant robot falls from space.

A kid discovers it and some mysterious things around this robot happens, and the military starts to suspect that there's this robot. Well, the boy in the the giant, they create this really close relationship. And what ends up happening is it comes to a head where the military's trying to destroy the robot, and they decide to send a nuke to destroy this town.

Okay, well, if the boy, of course, he was afraid, right? Wouldn't you be afraid if you knew a bomb was coming to, I mean, it's crazy, right? He was scared, but it didn't matter who the boy was. It didn't matter. What, what plans or schemes that he may come up with to try to save the town? It admired who the boy was with the boy had hope that the town would be delivered, not because he could develop the perfect plan of rescue, but because he had the iron giant on his side.

The same is true for us. God has called each of us, each believer to live a life fully devoted to him. Now, that will put us in difficult situations. That will put us in situations that maybe are difficult and hard and feeling like I can't do this on my own, but like Moses, it doesn't matter who we are, but it matters who is with us.

We can do everything God, that God has called us to do, not because we are strong, not because we are talented, not because we're eloquent or skilled, but because God is with us and because it's God's power. Because it is Christ manifesting himself through our lives and a life walking in step with the spirit abiding in Christ is how we live the life that God has called us to live.

It matters not who we are. It matters who is with us. That is true. See, in this passage, Moses's doubt is understandable. He has failed in Egypt and God has been silent for 400 years. So in verse 13, he asked. You know, what is his name? What should, what name should I give the Israelites? What authority on whose authority is am, am I being sent out?

This would be a common question for the Israelites. If God had been silent for 400 years, right? And so God reveals himself in a way that he has never done before. He says this. Go to the next verse. Oh, I guess I don't have that verse. Okay. Verse 14 says, God said to Moses, I am who I am, and he said, say this to the people of Israel I am has sent me to you.

God also said to Moses, say this to the people of Israel, the Lord, 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 forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. Now here's where, where our English translations fall short.

This is the English translation of the Hebrew verb, meaning to be. And it could also say, I will be what I will be, or I cause what I cause to be. But what does this all mean? This I am name. What's God's saying about himself? Well, he's saying and telling Moses that he is self existent. He is self-sufficient, and he depends on nothing.

And no one. He is, his planes will succeed because he is, he's dependent upon no one. And the point of the passage is this, God revealed himself to Moses to mediate his plan of deliverance to God's chosen people. The Israelites, their redemption of slavery would be a symbol of his promise, keeping nature, but even more a sign for the future deliverance available.

For all through God incarnate, Jesus Christ, and Prince, because God is knowable, we should seek to know him. He's not a distant God. And if we could know the creator of the universe who desires an intimate relationship with us, why wouldn't we pursue that? We can know God through coming to communing together with the body of Christ.

We can know him by reading his word, which literally means revelation. We can look to Jesus Christ though word where it says in John one 14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. We can look at Jesus and see the perfect image of God. We can look at creation and see all the things that he's created.

We can experience him in prayer and fasting and meditation, all the spiritual disciplines. So what's stopping you from knowing God? What is stopping you from knowing God on the way that he designed us to know him. He's knowable friends. Let's get to know him.

It's worth considering, are you taking for granted the ways that God has given us to know him. I hope not, but let's discuss about this idea at our tables and then we'll watch a video when we come back.

Marker

The basis of this series is understanding that word,. Yahweh. And so seeing how the way that Jesus is using this phrase, I am in the New Testament hearkens back to this Old Testament name of Yahweh or Jehovah.

And so I'm excited to get into that more the rest of the summer. Now, John eight that's where we're gonna end today, is the end of John chapter eight. Jesus has just gone through it in being questioned over and over and over and over again about who he is. And the process. He closes this chapter.

He closes this discourse by claiming his divinity to the Jews who are questioning him. Okay, so let's read John eight verses 54 through 58 and we'll have some time to for discussion at the end as well. Verse 54, Jesus answered, if I glorify myself, my glory is nothing, is my father who glorifies me of whom you say he is our God, but you have not known him.

I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and he was glad. So the Jews said to him, you are not yet 50 years old, and have you seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, truly, truly.

I say to you before Abraham was, I am. Our final point is that God reveals himself perfectly in Jesus. After receiving criticism from the Jews, Jesus helped them understand that glory only comes from the Father. That's what says in verse 54. See, they did not see the irony in their claim. Okay. They failed to see what their God was doing through Jesus.

In verse 55, it continues and Jesus continuing explains the difference between his relationship and the Jews relationship with the Father. What they didn't realize was that Jesus knew his father. Intimately, they were one, in essence, so close with their relation that it makes the Jews accusation. If you look in your Bible at verse 53, they basically say, who do you think you are?

And looking at that and understanding the relationship of Jesus and Father and the God that our trium God, it makes that claim all the more sad, all the more cold and dead. Continuing in verse 56, he begins connecting the point that will lead his claim to Dev Divine. Talking about Abraham. See, Jesus helps us see that much of the hope that Abraham had, that all the nations would be blessed through Abraham's seed is being fulfilled in Christ's day, as he said that a Abraham would rejoice that he would see my day.

Now why? Why is Jesus saying that? The air in which Jesus is inhabiting is the one in which all the world would be saved. God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whosoever believed in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. It was through Jesus Christ that all the world had the path to salvation.

No longer was, was God mediating his divine plan only through the, the Jewish nation. But now there was a path for the Gentiles to come to faith. And that is why Abraham would rejoice in his day. He saw God's promise. He didn't know maybe exactly how it would be fulfilled, but he rejoiced knowing that God was a promise keeper.

And if God say, said that all the nations would be blessed through Abraham's seed. This is being fulfilled through Jesus Christ in a partial way. Okay? But even after all this, the Jews could not and would not comprehend the nature of Jesus. What do they said? You are not yet 50 years old. How have you seen Abraham?

They couldn't imagine a world where Jesus was pre-existent. They couldn't imagine a world where Jesus was God and flesh. They couldn't even wrap their brains about the, the possibility of this Jesus response shows the Jews and us who he really is. Truly, truly. I say to you before Abraham was, I am now.

That's a really intriguing way to speak, isn't it? You would think the grammatical flow would be Before Abraham was, I was. If Jesus was merely wanting to explain that he existed before Abraham, he would've just said I was. But what did he say instead? He said, I am simultaneously through this phrasing, he is claiming not only his preexistence but his deity throughout the entire book of John, what we see is this argument.

This, this sermon that John is writing showing us that Jesus is the son of God, that he is the second person of the Trinity, come down on earth. Condescending His very nature that, that he is God friends. God was revealed perfectly in Jesus Christ. When we ask what is God like, all we have to do is look at Jesus.

That's the beautiful thing. They're one in essence, three in persons, one. In essence, they are in their very essence, the image of the invisible goddess. As Colossians says, he's the corresponding point between the carnal and the divine. He is God in flesh, and all the nations will be blessed through Jesus Christ.

So today we've seen that God is noble by looking at. Number one, God reveals himself by in initiating his revelation. Number two, God reveals himself for the purpose of his people's deliverance. And number three, God reveals himself perfectly in the person of Jesus. Now, after today, I think it is impossible to say that God is like the white witch of the Chronicles of Narnia, cold and distant.

In fact, Lewis writes the white witch to depict the devil.  Let us instead remember what is true about God. Let us  remember that he is much more like Aslan, that he is warm, that he is near, but you know what is a better picture of God? Well, that's Jesus. My final application for you today is if you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus.

We don't have to wonder, we don't have to be lost. We don't have to be scared in this life. We have a God who is near a God who knows you, and a God who sent his son to die for you. In Jesus, we have the perfect expression of God's love and his nearness. The second person of this triune God wanted to be so near to you that he came to this earth and took on flesh.

Let us never doubt his love or nearness. God is loving and he is near. Let's pray. 

Dear heavenly father, let us never forget what you've done through your son Jesus, how you have made a way back to you through personal relationship. Through what Jesus has done on the cross and who he is. I pray that we would not only trust in you each and every day for the forgiveness of our sin, but Lord, that we would walk daily making you the Lord of our life, the king of our heart, that you would cultivate passions and desires and affections that are holy and good, that you would lead us to repentance from things that are false, things that are untrue about you, lies that we believe.

And Lord, protect us from ensnarements, from the devil. Let us not believe the lives of this world, but let us draw near and close to you as you, as you have drawn near and close to us. God, I pray that this summer we would learn more about you, not for head knowledge, but that we might grow in our faith, in you, and our love For others, show us how we can be better representatives of you on this earth.

In Jesus' name I pray, amen.