Jesus proclaimed "I am." This is how Jehovah identified Himself to Moses in Exodus 3:14. When spoken under the anointing power of God, Jesus' pronouncement that "I am he" knocked all of those who came to arrest Him backwards to the ground (John 18:5-6). Jesus was the great "I AM THAT I AM" of Exodus 3:14 manifest in the flesh!
When the Jewish authorities heard Jesus call God "my (own) Father," they immediately understood that Jesus claimed for Himself deity. That claim was either blasphemy to be punished by death, or Jesus was who He claimed to be.
The purpose of the fourth gospel is stated, "that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name" (John 20:31). The object of John's gospel was to show that Jesus is "the true God" (1 John 5:20) who was "made flesh" (John 1:14).
