THREE WORDS

John 18: 4-7

So Jesus, knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth and said to them, “Whom do you seek?”

They answered Him, “Jesus the Nazarene.”

He said to them, “I am He.”

And Judas also, who was betraying Him, was standing with them.

So when He said to them, “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the ground.

Therefore He again asked them, “Whom do you seek?”

And they said, “Jesus the Nazarene.”

(This Conversation takes place right after Jesus had been praying in the garden and right before he was arrested to be crucified)

Jesus knew what He was about to experience. He knew that He had been born to die for the sins of the world. When the soldiers told Him who they were looking for, Jesus’ answer alone knocked them over backwards!

I AM HE

Those three words had the power to knock down hundreds of men. Imagine being knocked over by the very words that came out of the man’s mouth that you were about to arrest. Jesus had all the power that was needed to change what He was about to go through, but He chose not to use it to defend himself. Instead He willingly allowed the soldiers to take Him and treat Him in ways that He did not deserve, and ultimately kill Him.

It appears that the soldiers that had come to arrest Jesus had no idea what He looked like. They found out who He was very quickly though. Even after those words boomed from Jesus’ mouth and knocked them over, we know that they continued on their task, and arrested Jesus.

So what can we take away from this? We know that this is an awesome account of how powerful our God is, but there are a few lessons to learn here.

1.      Never under-estimate the power of God and what He can do. Unfortunately, we do this far too often when we lack faith in our God.

2.    Just as the soldiers acted as if they didn't know what hit them and ignored the fact that Jesus was all-powerful, we must be aware of how easy it is to be blind to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and the pricking of our consciences.

3.    We must not find ourselves being like Judas. He stood with the soldiers who missed out on the blessing of recognizing how powerful the word of the Lord really is.

These three words are for us even today…. I AM HE. Never doubt the existence of our great and powerful God!