The "I AM" Series (Part 1)

Jesus has been called many things. Some people say He was just a good man; others say that He was wise teacher; others say that He was a man that became God; some teach that He was a enlighten (a Buddha), or that He is one of many gods.

This September in our D-Groups, we are letting Jesus tells us who he is by studying His "I am" statements  in the Gospel of John. On 09/01, we started the series with "I am the bread of life" (John 6:35) and "I am the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25). We learned that Jews saw bread as divine provision and essential for life. We also learned that Jesus is the giver of life. We discussed how Jesus is our "daily bread," can give us life, and resurrect any part of life or relationship that may be "dead."

Yesterday, we studied "I am the gate for the sheep" (John 10:7) and "I am the good shepherd" (John 10:11). After Jesus had healed a blind man, and the Pharisees had “examined” the healing, Jesus talks to the blind man, and talks about spiritual blindness (John 9). Then, in the first 21 verses of chapter 10, Jesus continues to talk about spiritual blindness, salvation, and spiritual leadership.

We learned that the sheep pen was a walled enclosure preferably near a place providing water, it was roofless, walled by stone, and had only one door; and that sometimes flocks of more than one shepherd were kept overnight in the same fold, with one shepherd taking care of the animals, then in the morning the sheep would be carefully counted when the shepherds came to reclaim their flocks.

We discussed how Jesus compares the idea the Pharisees had about salvation thru works to "a thief and a robber" (John10:1). We talk about how sometimes we try to "jump the wall forget "the gate."

Then we talked about how Jesus is our "good shepherd." We talked about the leadership that is not committed to Jesus (the hired hands), that run away when they "see the wolf coming." We learned that since we are called to disciple other, we are also called to follow Jesus example and be "good shepherds" and not "hired hands." We also discussed how we need to depend on Jesus as a sheep depends on its shepherd. We need to have a relationship like the one described in chapter 10: "I know my sheep and my sheep know me," "and his sheep follow him because they know his voice."

The verse that brought more interest was John 10:16, "I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd." Can you see why?