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It is wintertime and Jesus is walking in the historic Portico of Solomon on the east side of the temple courts. In an orchestrated effort, some of the Judean leaders and influencers encircle Jesus so he cannot slip away. They order him to tell them whether or not he is the Messiah. Jesus’s answer at first seems baffling. He responds: “I did tell you.” Is it possible that Jesus tells us things today and we miss what he is saying?

Jesus’s church will not fail. The kingdom of God will win. “I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18 NKJV). God’s kingdom and Jesus’s church will prevail.

John 10:1-10 contains the only one of the great “I Am” statements that Jesus felt compelled to repeat: “I AM the door.” In the infinite wall that divides us from the richly satisfying life God intends for us, there is only one door and that door is Jesus.

Both Jairus and the bleeding woman were desperate for Jesus’ help. What are sometimes that you felt desperate for Jesus?

We have a rich inheritance from the Father that He has given us for the here and now. Satan has every intention of taking parts, little by little, to diminish the richness of that inheritance. Together, we'll look at the power God has provided to restore aspects of our inheritance once stolen, then with Jesus' help we'll find aid in the restoration of that inheritance.

Jesus divides one person from another. His cross is a sword of sorts, with Jesus himself on the hilts, thrust into the earth and dividing its inhabitants one from another. How a person responds to Jesus determines which side of the divide he will inhabit. Jesus introduces himself to us as the Light of the world. There are important ramifications here for how we make our way in the world and how we relate to others in the process.

Jesus might be the source of a new and transformative life but if we don’t know how to approach him – to take him in – we might still starve.

“Who does this guy think he is?” That’s the question we are answering in this series. The question was put to Jesus on a number of occasions and answered in a variety of ways, each time with a self-introduction that began with the words, “I am…” In John 6, Jesus introduces himself as “the Bread of Life.” What did he mean by that and what does that mean for us?

Jesus first announced his status as Messiah the King when he wasn’t even in his own country! He was in Samaria, which would be like a U.S. Presidential candidate going to Iran or North Korea to make his announcement. And the first person he told was a woman – a Samaritan woman, at that – a persona non grata. Clearly, Jesus operates by his own, and his Father’s, rules. He is not like everyone else. That is an important realization for all of us who want to get to know him.

A problem many people have in trying to live as a Jesus-follower is they don’t know what story they’re in. In this series, we will be introduced to a truth about Jesus from the Gospel of John, revealed in Jesus’s fascinating “I Am” statements. But first we need to discover the biblical frame for our story, which is none other than the story of Jesus.