Please click on the link to access all of our teaching notes: https://stclair.substack.com/

Listen to insights from Aaron White on Scripture and how we are formed by the word. For notes from this conversation go to https://stclair.substack.com/

Listen to insights from Jill Weber on Scripture and how we are formed by the word. For notes from this conversation go to https://stclair.substack.com/

Please click on the link to access all of our teaching notes: https://stclair.substack.com/

I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life - Gospel of John

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Please click on the link to access all of our teaching notes: https://stclair.substack.com/

I AM the True Vine - Gospel of John

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Please click on the link to access all of our teaching notes: https://stclair.substack.com/

I AM the Bread of Life - Gospel of John

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The ‘I am’ statements of Jesus in John’s gospel are profound truths that give unique expression to who God is, what God is like.  Jesus' identification reveals something of the entire narrative of scripture and speaks to the right now of our own lives. Jesus delivers a staggering word offering himself as the bread of life and that he gives it for the life of the world.

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John 6:25-51

Exodus 16

Isaiah 55

Philippians 4:1-14

John 7:38

Charles Spurgeon

"I cannot tell you exactly how manna tasted. Some say that it tasted like wafers made with honey. The Jewish notion is that it tasted according to every man’s own taste; so that, if he preferred, this flavour or that, the manna has that flavour to him, and thus it was to each one a personal and peculiar delicacy. This I know, that there is a sweetness about my Lord which is precisely that which delights me. I cannot communicate it to you, for you must each one taste for yourself. I believe that the Lord has a flavour different to me from that which he could have to you, because our circumstances and our desires somewhat differ… each believer has his own special delight… When Jesus said “I am the bread of life,” He meant ‘I am the sweet bread, that satisfying bread, that delicious bread, the like of which is never found elsewhere’."

I AM the Good Shepherd - Gospel of John

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John 10:1-21

John 9:39

John 12:32

Christine Cain

"Sometimes when you are in a dark place you think you've been buried, but you've actually been planted."

I AM the Resurrection and the Life - Gospel of John

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The ‘I am’ statements of Jesus in John’s gospel are profound truths that give unique expression to who God is, what God is like.  Jesus' identification reveals something of the entire narrative of scripture and speaks to the right now of our own lives.  Jesus offers himself as the resurrection and the life, bringing a hope that defies what is possible to a troubled world and to those of us who face despair.

John 11:1-44

Fredrick Buechner

"Resurrection means the worst thing is never the last thing."

Karl Barth

"Only where graves are, is there resurrection."

Ronald Rolheiser

"Despair is the death of our sense of surprise, the belief that nothing new can happen to us. We despair at that precise moment when, consciously or unconsciously, we say in resignation: “That is the way I am, that is the way things have always been for me, that is the way it will always be! I know what is possible! For me it is too late!” Once this has been said, we are in a tomb. Why is this despair? Why is it so dangerous? Because the resurrection is always, like it was the first time, a surprise, the totally unexpected, the impossible, that which defies all logic, the laws of nature, and the wisdom of common sense and convention. When we have every angle of reality so calculated and figured that we know all the possibilities, then nothing new can come along to surprise us. We have ceased believing in God and grace in a real sense. We have slimmed down God and grace to fit our own minds."

I AM the Light of the World - Gospel of John

The ‘I am’ statements of Jesus in John’s gospel are profound truths that give unique expression to who God is, what God is like.  Jesus' identification reveals something of the entire narrative of scripture and speaks to the right now of our own lives.  Knowing Jesus as the light of the world is much needed in the midst of these dark days that mark the beginning of a new year.

John 8:12 / 48-59

Psalm 37:4-5

Psalm 119:105

Ephesians 5:8-1

1John 1:4-5

1 John 1:5-7

2 Corinthians 4:6-12 / 16-17

CH Spurgeon

"But we have the trustworthy and the true when we hear Jesus exclaim ‘I am the light’.  Where else shall light be found?!  Where shall the bewildered sons of men find a reliable guide?  In the teaching of the person, the life, the death, the sacrifice of the Christ of Nazareth, we have light self-evidential, palpable by its own brilliance.  ‘I am the light of the world, he that follow Me shall not walk in darkness’.  Thus, then, He a light that is the be followed.  Do any of you want to enjoy the light that streams from Christ, be assured you cannot realize it by reading about it - you must follow it… To follow Him means to commit yourselves to him, to believe him, and yield yourselves up, obediently doing what he bids, and implicitly accepting what he says.  You must have no other master."

Christine Cain 

"Sometimes when you are in a dark place you think you've been buried, but you've actually been planted."