I Am the Light (Partial)

know what's around me. It gives me a sense of control. Meditating upon this, I actually realize I have an unusually large amount of very high-powered flashlights, and I assume that's getting back to my fear of being in the dark. One of my favorite times of the year is actually the full moons, because you get to go out at night and everything's illuminated. It's wonderful. So here we are, we're studying the I am statements, and this morning we're looking at I am the light. When we think about the importance of light in general, God created light and darkness. Their light and darkness are good, they're part of the good order of God's creation, but even there, the darkness has the stars and the moon to govern the darkness. The night. When we look at our passage this morning, when you think about Jesus the light, we're going to be thinking about the absolute darkness of our sin and how Jesus Christ comes to penetrate that darkness and that victory. To give us hope, many of which the words we've just sung. The Lord is my salvation. So this morning, we're in the middle of a new series. You can see this series if you look at the blue card in front of you. We normally walk through books of the Bible, verse by verse, section by section, chapter by chapter. We're kind of taking a break from judges right now, and for the summer, as we've done in the past, the elders as a group are walking through a series, and we're in the I Am Statements. Jesus has a number of these throughout the Gospel of John. I encourage you to go and meditate upon these. He is clearly and absolutely identifying himself with the one God, the covenant-making God of the Old Testament. He says, before Abraham I was, I am. Before Abraham was, I am. I'm the bread of life, that was last week. Next week we'll be looking at I am the door, and then I am the good shepherd, and then I am the way, the truth, the life, and I'm the resurrection, I am the true vine, and today Jesus says I am the light. We need to remember why John is writing. So that we will see the truth that Jesus is the son of God who's risen from the grave, that we might believe in him and have eternal life. That's what he tells us his purpose is in John 20 verse 30. As we think about the I am statements, I want to make it very clear, Jesus is claiming to be God. It points us back to the great teaching of C.S. Lewis that you have to conclude that either Jesus was a liar, a lunatic, or truly Lord. He's not a wise sage that you get to sometimes agree with or disagree with. He's not somebody you get to look up to and enjoy sometimes when you like what he says. No, he's either a liar, he's lying about being God, he's either a lunatic, he thinks he's God and he's not, or he truly is, and absolutely is, the Lord, and we know he's the Lord because he's risen from the grave. So if you're here with us, you're not a Christian, hear that what we're going to hear today is such good news because, Andrew prayed through some of the difficulties in our world. Some, some of the difficulties. This world is full of darkness. If we're honest with ourselves, our hearts are full of darkness. And Jesus Christ comes crashing in to bring about light so that we have hope and love and salvation. So this morning, we're going to be meditating upon the simple and clear declaration, John 8, verse 12. Again, Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of men. Let's begin by focusing on our first point, which is truth. The clear truth in this statement is Jesus is the light. Again, the I Am statements, they're pointing back that Jesus is connecting himself to Yahweh. In Exodus, he revealed himself. I am who I am. He is connecting himself and identifying himself clearly with the one true God. And here he's adding to that. He's explaining more of what that looks like with saying, I am the light. Now light's a powerful metaphor. If we think about the people who would have been hearing this in their time, they don't have electricity. They would go to bed at dark. They would rise at sunrise. They would not have the convenience of light. Think about the time your power goes out, and just how frustrating that is. You know, we've got flashlights and candles at our dispense. Now, yes, they had some lamps, but light was such an important and precious commodity for them at night. Light is obviously necessary for life. Many philosophers have connected the idea of light to truth, clarity, and goodness just by meditating upon general revelation. Jesus connecting himself to light as truth, clarity, and goodness, but so much more. He's connecting himself to the God who delivered his people from Egypt. I want to go and I want to expand out on all of scripture for a moment. And just think about a couple of verses that refer to the light of God. One is the passage Isaiah read earlier for us in Isaiah 60. Arise, your light has come. The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor the brightness shall the moon give you light. But the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. There's no sun in eternity with Jesus. There's no moon. There's no need for any other illuminating power other than God himself and his glory being in the midst of his people. This is in Isaiah, this is the Old Testament. They're looking forward to the day that there will not be a need for these created illuminating powers that God's given us. No, the one glorious truth, God will be with us. We can look to Revelation 21, also written by John, the author of the Gospel of John. Verse 22, we see the clear connection back to Isaiah 60. And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb, and the city has no need of sun, or moon to shine on it. For the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day. There will be no night there. There's no more light, there's no more darkness in eternity. There's no need for sun or moon. The Revelation is giving us the clarity of how this was going to work and that Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, is going to be the illuminating power that will guide us for all eternity. Now when Jesus comes and says, I am the light, he's showing us a partial revelation of Isaiah 60. Revelation 21 is the final revelation, fulfillment. But before we also jump into I Am the Lion, I want to look and see how John uses light throughout his gospel. Okay, so turn with me. If you're using a Pew Bible, it's on page 886. We're gonna look at John 1. John 1, 1 to 18 is the prologue. This is John, the way John set up his gospel. He clearly connects Jesus to the Creator God. In the beginning was the Word, And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. Chapter 1, verse 4. In Him, that is Jesus Christ, was life. And the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. That's referring to John the Baptist. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light but came to bear witness about the light. The true light. That final light that all creation has been longing for, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Notice first that, verse 5. There's a great contrast. The darkness has not overcome the light, but there's clearly a battle. A great cosmic battle has been going on, and here the true light has finally come to win that battle. The light is for men, and Jesus is that light. He was testified by John the Baptist, and we see there in verse 9 that the light is to be received by faith. Let's flip over once more. If you're using a pew Bible, page 888. John 3, I'll begin in verse 16, but our Word shows up in verse 19. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world, and people love darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the Light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God." This is a terrifying passage. Verse 19. The true light that man needs and should have been longing for, He has come. But people, that's us, they love the darkness rather than the light. Because their works are evil. Our works matter. When the light comes, when the true light of the glory of God comes, it reveals, it illuminates, and it lets us see, and it demonstrates, and exhibits. This is what we've been doing. It's evil. So we hate the light. We reject it. Our works matter. John 8, 12 is the next reference. That's our passage. We'll come back to it. Right after John 8, I am the light, he says it again in John 9. John 9. It's found on page 895 of your pew Bible. As he passed by, that is Jesus, he saw a man blind from birth, and his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. We see that same declaration here. Now, what follows is, quite frankly, a hilarious story. It's intentionally ironic, and it's supposed to bring out a humor, but it's also extremely frightening in the judgment. Jesus heals a man who had been born blind. He then is clearly seeing, but no one seems to see that he's the same guy who was blind. Not even his parents will admit this. And most of all, it's the Pharisees. Those who are supposed to be the light in the city. Those who are supposed to be the ones proclaiming the Word of God as light. They cannot see that Jesus has the authority to heal this man who was blind on the Sabbath. They reject the light, therefore they are deemed and judged blind. John 11. John 11, just flip over one page, beginning of verse five. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Then after this he said to the disciples, let's go to Judea again. The disciples said to him, Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you and are you going to go there again? Jesus answered, are there not 12 hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles because the light is not in him. There's clearly something to not being connected to and walking in the light that causes you to stumble. And then finally, John chapter 12, beginning in verse 27. Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify Your name." Then a voice came from heaven. I have glorified it. And I will glorify it again. The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said an angel had spoken to him. Jesus said, this voice has come for your sake, not mine. Now is the judgment of this world. Now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. He said this to show about what kind of death he was going to die. So the crowd answered him, we have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is the Son of Man? Jesus said to them, the light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light. And Jesus cried out and said, whoever believes in me, believes not in me, but in him who sent me, whoever sees me, sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. We see a number of themes run throughout those passages, and it mainly comes down to the fact that Jesus has come to be the one true light that we must look to and believe in in order to have life and not death and destruction. And now let's go back to our chapter 8. Page 894. And if we go back just one, we'll see the context is Jesus is at the Feast of Booths. This is one of the three major feasts that the Jews would come to Jerusalem to celebrate. And he uses numerous elements of this feast to help the Pharisees hopefully see who he is. In chapter 7, verses 37 to 39, he references the pouring out over the altar as a reference to how the Holy Spirit we poured out. The Pharisees do not like what Jesus is saying, so they send the temple guards in to capture him. And the temple guards, they come back, verses 45 and 46. We're not arresting this guy. No one's ever talked like him. Have you heard what he's saying? Why don't we arrest him? They see something different that the Pharisees do not see. Now He declares He is the light of the world in the midst of this feast. And in the last night of the Feast of Booths, what they would do is they'd have huge lanterns in the outer courts. And I believe what's taking place is Jesus is using these lamps as a teaching point. The entire city could see the light of the temple. Jesus is in the court declaring that He is that light. that light represented in that celebration, the light of the glory of God as He took them out of Egypt, helped them cross the Red Sea and go into the wilderness. The light that He's referring to there in the temple is pointing back to the God who is the Deliverer, who says, I am with you, I am for you, I will lead you, guide you, protect you, and give you victory. He's not just saying, I am, promise-making God. He's pointing specifically to the fact that I'm the promise-making God who saves you. I am the true deliverer who continued to save Israel over and over again. And here I am to give you true redemption, true life, true worship. A few conclusions about Jesus declaring that I am the light of the world. First, He's Almighty God. There's no separating the fact that He is Almighty God, the Creator. He is the One who created the lights that we are amazed by, the sun and the moon and the stars. He is worthy of all worship and praise because He is our Creator. Secondly, He's the promise-making God of the Old Testament. He's not just some distant creator. He's a very personal God who makes promises to his people. And then thirdly, he is the actual fulfillment of all those promises. In Christ every promise has a yes and an amen. The deliverance that Israel longed for is now finally here in its fulfillment. Fourth, Jesus is God, the creator, the promise maker, the promise keeper, who has come down to save us from our enemies. He's come down to be with us and for us and fight alongside of us and for us against every enemy. And then fifthly, Jesus is the God Almighty who's come down to save us from ourselves. He comes to save us from our own darkness. Not just the darkness that surrounds us in this world and all of its lies, but He comes to save us from our own sin, our own hatred, our own works of evil in love for the darkness. Next, Jesus is God who has come down to lead us. To lead us what true life is about. To treat us into, to lead us into true happiness, true joy, true delight. He's the only one who can deliver. And as we think about Jesus in His declaration, I am the light, He is seeking to help us see that He is the only one who can truly give us what our hearts are longing for. He's the only one who can help us see who He is as the one true God, and see who we're supposed to be as worshipers. So that's the truth. Jesus is the light. Our second point is this. The problem. We need light. We need light. The declaration that Jesus is the light of the world is only good news if we actually recognize there's actual darkness. Jesus says he is the light of the world, and this word world has a very specific meaning in the Gospel of John. We can go to 1st John 2 16. The world is full of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and pride of life. That's how the world is described. It's our culture of rebellion. It's our unorganized but regular rebellion against God. The word refers to our practices. disposition, our constantly prostituting ourselves over against God, longing for every other thing as if it was God. Notice in his light we stop walking in darkness. He mentions this in John 1 and John 8. But there, we see there, there's a cosmic battle. And we lose unless Jesus comes down as light. So what does it mean to walk in darkness? If we go to John 8, 12, our key verse here, I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will not walk in darkness. It's frightening to recognize Jesus assumes that unless you are walking in Him, you are walking in darkness. To walk in darkness means we blindly indulge in sin. We fulfill and pursue our selfish desires. We long for sensual living. We seek the light in everything of this world, but not God. We really see what walking in darkness is, I believe, in Genesis 3. Remember, Genesis 2, everything's good. They're naked, and they're not ashamed. They're walking with God. They're with one another. Man is praising God for a woman, and then Satan appears. Did God really say you can't eat any fruit? You see, that question is attacking God's goodness. Would God really say you can't have anything good? Well, Eve answers, well, no, He said we just can't eat or touch this one tree or this one fruit. And she gets that a little wrong, and Satan takes advantage. Eve says you will die. And it's true. God said if you eat of this root you will die. Satan responds, you will not surely die. God's lying to you. He's holding something back from you. Verse 5 chapter 3. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened. And you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Quite a promise here from Satan. Completely undermining the command of God. He's promising, your eyes will be opened. You'll be able to see things like God sees them. You'll get it better than what God gave you. What happened? Verse 7. They took, well, verse six, they took the fruit, it looked good. They partook of it. Verse seven, the conclusion, just as Satan promised, your eyes will be opened, verse seven, then the eyes of both were open. And they knew they were naked, and they were sewing fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. Their eyes were open, but they did not like what they saw. It was not illuminating the way Satan promised. It is as if they were going to be like God, and they were going to get to determine what was good and right on their own. No. When they, when they, their eyes were opened because they rebelled against God, they, they saw shame. They sensed guilt. The illumination is, we have forsaken the one good God, and we are ashamed, so we now have to hide from that God and cover ourselves. They can't unsee this. The darkness is knowing here. They've forsaken God. The darkness is this lie that Satan wants to constantly tell us, you can see better if you just partake of what you really want. The darkness is thinking that we're always going to make it better than what God has for us when we do things our way. They decided that they could act like God, and they lost everything. Or judges. We've been going through this. And one of the key themes, every one did what was right in their own eyes. That's a summary of judges. It's a summary of humanity. We all think we can act like God and determine what is right and wrong for ourselves. Today, hear the good news. Light has come into the darkness of lies and destruction. We need to see here that Jesus in this passage, He's assuming we're all in darkness. We're all walking in destruction. We're all going to die in this darkness. Recognize we all have sin. Recognize we are constantly trying to satisfy ourselves in the dark, but it's always keeping us longing for more. If you want to get out of the darkness, turn to the light. If you want to get out of the darkness, don't turn to the darkness and try to analyze it and figure it out if it's darkness. No, the way Jesus says to come out of the darkness is to turn to Him who is the light because He will illuminate what is truly dark and how dark and how you will come to Him. We can't fix our darkness. Only He can when we turn to Him who is truly light. So now let's look at the invitation. The truth is Jesus Christ is the light. The problem is we are in darkness. We follow darkness. We walk in darkness. Now the invitation. Follow Jesus. The invitation is we get to follow Jesus. I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in the darkness but will have the light of life. This is an invitation. Because there's only two ways to live. You're either walking in the light of Christ, or the darkness of sin. You're either walking in the darkness of lies, or the truth of Christ's light. Jesus Christ has come to save us from our slave-like obedience to sin. There's good news this morning. You don't have to be blind anymore. You don't have to stumble around in the darkness anymore. You don't have to keep trying to figure out how to make your sin better. No, you can simply believe in Jesus and trust Him to forgive you of your sin and heal you. Jesus is the light. He is clear. He is good. And He is right. This is the beauty of what Christ does for us. He comes, and as the perfect communicator, as the Word of God, He tells us exactly who He is. He tells us what we need to know about Him, how we need to worship Him. He tells us what's expected of us. That is good news. We don't have to play guessing games. We don't have to try to be creative. We simply need to follow Him in faithfulness. Here's what the beauty of the light of Christ gives you. You get to come to Christ, confess your sin with absolute assurance you will be forgiven. You get to come to Christ and have your guilt taken away. Have your shame taken away. Have your eyes truly opened to see who God is and what He designed you for. You get to come to Christ and have your life restored. And be put back on the right direction. We're called to follow Jesus. To believe in Him. To walk in His life. Light. Now this means a couple things. To follow Jesus means we, we listen to Him not as just some wise sage, but as God Almighty. We trust Him as the God who's made great promises and kept every promise. We submit to Him because He's always right and we're always wrong. And we obey Him. We get to follow Jesus. Now, my fear and what it means to follow Jesus, which is an essential part of discipleship, right? Deny yourself, take up your cross, follow me. Following Jesus is a key aspect, essential to being a disciple. I fear we're oftentimes lazy disciples. I fear we're oftentimes like a lazy student. I know we're on summer break, but let's think about school for a little while. Right at the beginning of the term, a teacher, they give you a syllabus. A syllabus tells you exactly what's expected of you. Right? Here are the times you come for a quiz. Here are the assignments due and the due dates. And well, we could be a bad student. We could be a lazy student. We could ignore all those things. We could sleep in, not come to class on quiz days, and not turn in our assignments. And what does a student ask a teacher for who does that at the end of the term? You can say it. Extra credit. Oh, that glorious request. I haven't done anything you've told me to do all term, but can I have some extra credit? Can I do something special and extra to get the grade that I received to get according to your instruction? And what does every good teacher say in that situation? Say it. No. No, you can't have extra credit. I have given you exactly what you needed to know to do everything you need to do to get the grade you're supposed to get. I fear we too often, and I say we, we want to figure out what's special we can do for God and not just be faithful. Not just look to His simple commands. Love me with all your heart. Do not forsake the fellowship. Turn to me in prayer. You get to come into my very presence and worship me and love me and learn what it means. No, we would rather do our own thing than at the end of term. God, can I get some extra credit? Is there something special I could do? I'll go do a missions trip if you'll just overlook the fact that I've not been faithful in anything. It's amazing the kind of excuses we give ourselves. It's amazing how we presume upon the grace of God. Because if we, we understand how God works as the light. It's that regular faithful obedience that actually begins to win our affections for Him. That's how God knows we work, designed us to work, and gave us command to work out our darkness so we'd love to sin more. It's that regular, steady obedience that actually wins our hearts. Our works. Our works. That's how God, after he brings you to himself in faith, works out your darkness. That regular, steady obedience. Before we move on from the invitation, we need to address one more particular sin. It's a very blinding sin. It's a terrifying sin. It's the actual sin of chapter 8 and 9 when Jesus says, I am the light. In both of these passages, as you'll see, if you continue to read on in chapter 8, and if you look at chapter 9, as we talked about earlier, that's the story of the blind man who's being put on trial by the Pharisees. Both of these chapters, Jesus is confronting the Pharisees in that they do not see those who are supposed to be the light of Israel. They're not the light. And they don't even see the light when the light comes. Chapter 9 illustrates this point so clearly. Here's a man who everyone knows has been blind from birth. He's been sitting in the middle of the town being a beggar his whole life. And everyone knows him, but they can't see he's been healed. Because that would mean they would have to acknowledge that Jesus Christ has the power to heal, which means he's God. Even the physical sight evidence doesn't bring about a heart change. The confrontation that Jesus is bringing about is confronting the most dangerous, blinding sin, and that is of self-righteousness. The Pharisees, they don't in any way see that they might be in darkness. They are constantly looking at others and finding out what's wrong with them. The sin that is confronted when Jesus says, I am the light, is always, in both instances, the sin of these self-righteous Pharisees The Pharisee who, when he goes to the temple, he prays, thank you God, I'm not like those people. Whereas Jesus has come to give us light so that we can pray like the tax collector who prays, Lord, have mercy on me, I'm a sinner. The most dangerous darkness is the person who thinks that they understand all the light and they have all the light and they're able to put that light on everyone else, but they never put that light on themselves. That is the specific sin Jesus confronts when he says, I, I am the light. Your darkness is keeping me from you. Repent of that darkness so that I can come in and shine light so that you can receive the mercy. So if you're preoccupied with everyone else's sin, repent and get out of the darkness. Really, right now, if all you can think about is how everyone else needs to hear this around you, that's the dangerous, deadly, blinding sin that Jesus is calling you out of. It's the blind darkness that I have everything under control and everything right, and Jesus is saying, I'm giving you light so that you... The world needs the light of Jesus. The world needs the light of Jesus. The ongoing celebration of sexual perversity of our culture. The ongoing celebration of abortion. The ongoing fear of war. The ongoing tensions and hatred of racism and every other kind of bigotry. This is a fearful place we live in. It is full of darkness. The world needs the light of Jesus. We could say it ain't Mayberry anymore, but it never has been. We've always been wicked. The world needs the light of Jesus. Third, we personally need the light of Jesus. You see, it's easy to think of the world and how many troubles and problems are out there. It's another thing to realize I'm part of that problem. I have anger. I have lust. I have impatience. I have coveting. My own heart is so full of darkness. Jesus, please come and heal and help. Jesus is the light. The world needs the light. We need that light. And in order to receive that light, we must turn from darkness. We need to pray the prayer of Ephesians 1. Paul says, I pray that your heart will be illuminated by the power of the Spirit, that you would see the inheritance you have in Christ. You're redeemed, you're adopted, you're loved, you're forgiven. Now walk according to those things. Jesus is the light of the world. It's quite an invitation. Come and follow Him. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you that you have not left us alone in our darkness. You have sent your Son that He is a glorious light. You sent your Son knowing that in our deeds of darkness we would murder Him. and yet he came still, you sent him still, and in our murdering him, you were working good so that we could find forgiveness, we could actually see the light as he is lifted up on that cross, to see how faithful you are to keep your promises, how faithful you are to be loving us and leading us. Lord, help us to recognize our darkness, to turn away from it, to turn into the glorious, welcoming, precious light of Christ and rejoice in Him. In His name we pray, amen.