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b'The book of John is vastly different from the other three Gospels. John carefully crafted his account to demonstrate Jesus is the great I AM (God\\u2019s personal name used in the Old Testament) so his audience would continue to believe in Jesus as Messiah, the promised rescuer.\\nJohn uses a lot of sevens, which is considered a number of holiness or completeness. Seven times, Jesus simply said, \\xe2\\u20ac\\u0153I AM\\xe2\\u20ac\\x9d (or, in the original Greek, \\u201cego eimi\\u201d). Whenever Jesus said, \\xe2\\u20ac\\u0153I AM,\\xe2\\u20ac\\x9d He was hinting that He is God.\\nIn John\\u2019s gospel, the first time Jesus revealed His identity in this way, it was to an outcast\\u2014a Samaritan woman living in sexual sin. Jesus overlooked all of the barriers between them and revealed His identity to her (4:26). She welcomed this news with joy, running through the village to spread the good news!\\nUnfortunately, this wasn\\u2019t always the response Jesus got when He revealed His identity as I AM. In chapter 8, Jesus had a long conversation with a group of people about who He is. Three times during the conversation, Jesus said, \\xe2\\u20ac\\u0153I AM,\\xe2\\u20ac\\x9d but the people didn\\u2019t get it until the last time. And when they finally realized Jesus was proclaiming that He is God, they started picking up rocks to stone Him. Instead of rejoicing, they wanted to kill Him.\\nAnd, eventually, people did kill Jesus. The last time Jesus said, \\xe2\\u20ac\\u0153I AM\\xe2\\u20ac\\x9d in the book of John was when Jewish Temple guards and Roman soldiers came to arrest Him. But this time, when Jesus said His seventh \\xe2\\u20ac\\u0153I AM,\\xe2\\u20ac\\x9d the soldiers fell to the ground. Jesus\\u2019 name holds so much power, they couldn\\u2019t even stand! Yet Jesus went willingly to an unjust trial and public execution.\\nIt\\u2019s fitting that Jesus revealed His identity when laying His life down for His people. He demonstrated that the great I AM is most fully embodied in this act of self-sacrificial love. If you want to know who God is, you have to look at the cross.\\nBut that\\u2019s not the end. Through His self-sacrificial death, Jesus defeated sin and death. When He rose again, He secured our resurrection for the day He returns. Until then, He\\u2019s given us His Holy Spirit so we can know Him and love others self-sacrificially, pointing to the great I AM who loves us immeasurably. \\u2022 Taylor Eising\\n\\u2022 Why does it matter that Jesus revealed Himself through an act of self-sacrificial love? \\nBut these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name. John 20:31 (NLT)\\n\\xa0\\nRead Verses:\\nProverbs 11:4; Matthew 13:44; Philippians 3:17-21'