In those seven I am statements, he makes a conscious claim to his divinity, echoing the words of God towards Moses. I am who I am. He offers us so much revelation about his heart, his hopes, his character, his everything is in those statements. And that's why we can declare what a beautiful name it is, what a powerful name it is, because everything that we've studied over the last six weeks has been beautiful and it's been powerful. And it's an invitation to relationship for us to fully experience his divine goodness and faithfulness.
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He invites us to receive fullness and vitality through our reliance on his divine and heavenly provision of sustenance, revelation, and strength. He says, I am the light of the world. Jesus is the life -giving force of this universe. In him we find revelation, truth, sight, and vision. He is perfect and pure, luminous, brilliant, and incomprehensible.
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Jesus is our way to safety, protection, and rescue. In him, his people will be safe, cared for, and thrive. He knows, feels, and understands us intimately and is always on guard for us, defending us, healing us, tenderly caring for us. He is always with him so that we can know him and trust him. There is no other.
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In Jesus, we find restoration of life, absolute fullness and vitality, both now on earth and into eternity. We can surrender everything to him, our dreams, our passions, our hurts, our desires, our seasons, the good seasons, the bad seasons, knowing in the fullness of time he'll resurrect and breathe life into all of those things that are of him.
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He steps into the void that the world leaves, because the world doesn't leave us feeling full of vitality and fullness, does it? But he offers to set us free into the fullness of all that he is. He is who he is, and for that, I am grateful.
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Here Jesus, in what I'm saying, he is the storehouse of everything essential to life. He is meant to be our solid, stable centre. It is in him that we have longevity. It is in him that we have eternal life. He is the one who sustains us with living water and nourishment for growth.
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Maybe in saying this, he is restoring Eden and the close, attached, uncorrupted relationship that was available to us, that he wants with us in that time. How good is that?
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There's a sense of constancy, of commitment, a sense of permanency, of permanent habitation here. This isn't, this goes beyond our word for the days, our morning prayers, our attending church on a Sunday. There's something deeply intimate about this invitation to abide.
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So when Jesus declares, I am the vine, abide in me, this is an invitation to lifelong intimate covenant relationship with him as his bride to his whole church. We can read this metaphor as a personal invitation for intimacy, which it is. And we can also read it as an image of the whole body of all of us, which it also is. We are all attached and drawing from the same source.
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Are we prepared to surrender my truth, which is a big word these days, isn't it? My truth, for his truth. Are we prepared to do that?
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And the beauty of this invitation is that the weight is not on our having to abide. Every abide in me is partnered with the words, and I will abide in you. Thank goodness for that. This is not something we have to do alone. The responsibility to abide is shared.
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He longs for our dependence on him, which is very countercultural. In this world, we celebrate independence. Not so in God's kingdom. Self -reliance, self -determination, these words are all pretty popular these days, eh? Self -worth, self -care. They're all about self. They're all about our own ability, not his ability. But dependence, which is what he's seeking from us, is about abiding. It's the opposite of self. It's about surrender.
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The branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. Apart from me, he says, you can do nothing. Nothing's a solid word, right? You can do nothing.
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Power, prestige and possessions are counterfeit fruit that never sustain nor fulfill us and they certainly don't last. The deceiver would like us to think that this stuff is fruit because it distracts us from pursuing what fruit means to Jesus. Jesus is the true vine. We are the branches and we are the branches and we will bear fruit when we abide.
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If we abide in Jesus and He abides in us, His life force should naturally be the fruit evident in our lives. His love, His joy, His peace. His character becomes our character, our values, the way we walk through this life.
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All of fruitfulness flows from intimacy. Intimacy, fruit, abiding fruit, surrender, fulfillment, presence, purpose, dependence on Jesus, healing, restoration. Isaiah 61 in action.
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We need to get hungry beyond gentleness and patience. I know as a parent, we always say, I just need more patience. But we need to get beyond that, into the realms of Jesus's world -altering sovereignness, his life power, his zest, his zeal, his level of surrender. He surrendered everything to bring about this fruit, his heart for humanity, the sheer majesty of his I am -ness. Our world is dying and we cannot be dim.
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When Jesus is the bread of life, there is always enough.
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The simplicity of love healing a broken heart is what causes me to keep going. This is the fruit of abiding in the vine. This is the fruit Jesus demonstrated when He walked on earth. He is the miracle maker. He is the beautiful and powerful name. And when His name is spoken, the dead are raised. The hungry are fed. The lost are found. The mute talk. He is the storehouse and the provider of all that brings life. He is the vine.
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He doesn't just say it. He does it. He is it. He is who He says He is.
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These are not just nice statements, these I am statements. They contain the seed for His kingdom to come, His will be done on earth.
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Fruit without intimacy is just adultery. This is actually about a desire for all of us to intimacy. This is a call to abide, a call to come into that place of deep, deep relationship and connection with Jesus.
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I don't find it surprising that Jesus' I am declarations started with, I am the bread of life. And they finished with, I am the vine, the bread and the wine, communion with him, the beginning and the end of the story.
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May we learn to abide, to dwell, to infuse with his life force, his divine goodness, his strength, love and joy that we may bear heavenly fruit.
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