Jesus in His Own Words
The Light of the World
John 8:12
"Who do you say that I am?" That was the question Jesus asked His disciples, and it is the question we are seeking to answer, or more specifically, let Jesus answer in His own words.
We're looking at seven places in the Gospel of John where Jesus described himself beginning with the words, "I am." And today we come to the place where Jesus said, "I am the light of the world."
Listen to what we read in
John 8:12
There's something about darkness that most of us find disturbing. It is dangerous and oppressive. It caused our pace to pick up and our heart race to increase. I've never been consumed with trying to be brave. Brave people get hurt a lot! I'm not the one to call when things go bump in the night
And I find it very compelling that at the very beginning of the Bible, in the opening verses, we discover all that existed is darkness. We are told that darkness covered the face of the deep.
And the very first words that God spoke were: "Let there be light." In other words, the very first thing God did was bring light. And in many ways, the story of the Bible is the story of the struggle between darkness and light.
But physical darkness is not the only darkness that exists. You may have experienced the darkness of
confusion or disappointment. Maybe you've been in the darkness of depression or hopelessness.
If you've felt the darkness of fear, you know how paralyzing that can be. That's why what Jesus claims about Himself in these verses is really important. Because if Jesus can shine light into those dark places in our lives, then this is something we desperately need.
The outline for tonight's message comes directly from this one verse of Scripture, but this is one of those places where Jesus didn't really explain what He meant when He made this claim. So to help us understand what He means, we have to look beyond the passage to some other places and hear thwat Jesus said there.
And as we do that, I think everything will become more clear. There are three things I want you to see in this verse.
The first one is
1. Walking in Darkness
Jesus says, "If you follow me, you won't be walking in darkness." Now that means, on the other side of the coin, if we're not following him, then we will be walking in darkness. And throughout the Bible, walking in darkness is a condition that affects us in some noticeable ways. So let me give you three signs that we're walking in darkness.
The first one is
- Lostness
In John 12:35, Jesus says. "Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going."
That's pretty easy to understand, isn't it? When it's dark, it's easy to get lost. So when Jesus talks about walking in the dark, He's describing a condition of being directionless and confused. Most of us have!
It might be when we move away to college, or go off with the military or our first time away from home and all its security.
We've all had moments like that. But Jesus is talking about something bigger than just those isolated moments. He's talking about an ongoing sense of lostness and confusion about your life. It is the hopelessness of no direction.
Historians tell us that back in ancient times, sailors would look up to the stars to get their bearings, and especially if they could find the North Star, that was True North, and then they knew where to go from there.
There are a lot of people who are lost in life because they have no central, guiding truth. Everything is relative and in flux. Therefore, there is no help in making decisions or judgments. They lack a "true north", and that's what Jesus means by "walking in the dark." Lostness.
The second sign is
- Dysfunction
There's a passage in the book of Romans that also talks about living in darkness. Look at
Romans 1:21
If you keep reading, the passage continues by describing three different areas of life that won't be working right when our hearts are darkened. And there's so much here, but let me just walk through them quickly.
First, we'll see dysfunction in our
- worship
Romans 1:25
Listen the real issue in life is not whether or not you worship; it's always a question of Who or what you worship. We all worship something. And here in Romans, it says when we walk in darkness, we'll choose to worship and make an idol out of some created thing rather than the Creator. So our worship gets messed up.
But also, we'll see dysfunction in our
- sexuality
Romans 1:24
Paul is talking about treating our bodies with less dignity and honor than they were meant to have. It's easy to make the connection between that lifestyle and worship choices.
If we aren't worshipping appropriately, our relationships will be inappropriate. What you believe about God and how you worship will have a profound impact on conduct with others, and in particular in our sexual conduct. Darkness has a way of making our view of sex dysfunctional.
And then third, we'll see dysfunction in our
- relationships
Romans 1:29
There's what you get when you don't have the light of God is your heart! We behave in ways that mess up our relationships. We become envious; we deceive; we gossip; we are selfish. And we do it over and over again! Why do we keep acting like that? Because darkness is a powerful force, and we need something even more powerful to overcome it.
There is one more evidence of walking in darkness. We are lost, we are dysfunctional and we have
- Shame
John 3:19-20
Do you remember what Adam and Eve did after they committed the first sin? They hid. Why? Because for the first time, they felt shame. As a result of sin, there was something they were ashamed of.
SoOmeone says, "But isn't shame a good thing!" It is an appropriate response, but God's design was for us to live openly and unashamedly.
But when we're walking in darkness, we avoid the light, because we're ashamed. We cover up. We hide the empty bottles; we hide the pills; we erase our browsing history on the computer, we doctor the books at work.
Or maybe there's not some specific thing we're ashamed of, but something in us fears being exposed, so we cover up. And that shame stifles our life.
So Jesus said, "Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness" which means if we're not following him, we are walking in darkness. And nobody wants to admit that they're walking in darkness, but you can see it in our lostness; you can see it in our dysfunction; you can see it in our shame. Darkness affects us and it affects the people around us and it is always a negative effect.
And that's why these words of Jesus are so significant. Next, let's talk about
2. Following Christ
Notice the verse again. Jesus said, "Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness."
I said earlier that this theme of darkness and light is something you see all through the Bible. In the beginning God spoke into the darkness and said, "Let there be light." And then many times in Scripture, God himself is described using images of light.
For instance,
2 Samuel 23:4
And he shall be like the light of the morning when the sun rises, A morning without clouds, Like the tender grass springing out of the earth, By clear shining after rain.’
Psalm 104:2...
The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment;?He stretches out the heavens like a tent
1 John 1:5...
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
1 Timothy 6:15-16...
God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.
On and on these verse continues that remind us that God's character, God's being, God's essence, is filled with light. There's nothing dark or shadowy about Him!
In fact, James describes Him as "The Father of Lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning." He's all purity and holiness and brightness and brilliance.
So think about this: When we take an honest look at yourself, all we see is darkness. We are lost, we are dysfunctional and filled with shame! And we realize that what we need more than anything else is God's light!
But that is an overwhelming thought. After all, we just read in 1 Timothy 6:16 that God lives in "unapproachable light." Why is he unapproachable? Because He's perfect and pure and holy, and we're not.
So here's the awesome news of this verse: Jesus came to this earth to make God approachable. Just look how Jesus lived! He was approachable by all kinds of people! He hung out with tax collectors and prostitutes and everyone else who felt ashamed and unwelcome by religion! They felt welcomed by Jesus. So he lived an approachable life.
And then, at the end of his life, Jesus decisively removed the barrier that makes God so hard to approach, because on the cross, Jesus took all our darkness, and put it on himself. And he took his own perfect brightness, and put it on us. It was a swap. So when we choose to follow Christ, God now looks at us as having the perfect, brilliant righteousness of Christ. And all of a sudden this unapproachable God becomes approachable.
That's the good news of the gospel. And that's why Jesus could stand up and say, "I am the light of the world." Because of him, and what he's done for us, it's actually possible for the light of God to break into our darkness. And that's why the most important decision you could ever make is the decision to follow Christ.
Which means you take him at his word, you believe that he's who he says he is, and you entrust your life to him.
When you do that, when you choose to follow Christ, and when you wake up again tomorrow morning, and you say, "I'm going to choose to follow Christ today," Jesus says you will have the light of life. So, here's the last thing:
3. Having the Light
Notice, Jesus says, "If you follow Me, you will have the Light of Life."
Here is the greatest opportunity anyone who lives in darkness could ever be offered. You can have light. Your life can be lit up by Christ. Follow Him, and you will have
- Clarity
Clarity is the opposite of lostness. When we're allowing Jesus to be the center of our life, he becomes True North for us. We look at life, and we look at people, and we look at problems, based on how Jesus taught us to look at those things.
By the way, there's another place in Scripture where Jesus calls himself the Light of the World. It's in John 9, and it's the time Jesus gives sight to a blind man. Now the man in the story is a metaphor for spiritual blindness. And the point is, when Jesus enters our life, suddenly we're able to see. The lights come on. Things that were cloudy and confusing become more clear. In fact, that was the testimony of the man: "I used to be blind, but now I see."
When Jesus enters your life and mine, He brings with Him an immeasurable abundance of wisdom and guidance and direction. It's all available to us, and it is everything we need to give us clarity in life.
C.S. Lewis wrote: "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen - not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."
That's not to say that following Christ makes every decision easy, but he brings a direction and a purpose to our lives, that just clarifies things.
Secondly, having the light gives us
- Transparency
We looked at this verse a moment ago, but let's return to
John 3:20
But then look at the next verse.
verse 21
When we follow Christ, and we're allowing him to mold us and change us, our lives become less guarded and more open. We don't feel the need to cover up like we did before. We don't have to lie to defend our actions. We don't get nervous if someone looks at our telephone history or text messages because we're not hiding anything. We don't have to cover our tracks. There is a transparency to our lives.
And even when we do struggle, we can bring those things into the light, and reach out for help, and know that because of Christ, there's grace and forgiveness for our sins. Having the light gives us transparency!
And then finally, having the light of life gives us
- Reflectivity
I don't know if you follow this stuff, but there's a lot going in outer space. Just recently, a probe landed on Mars. You may not realize it, but there's a NASA program called the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. It's been orbiting the moon for a while, and the pictures and videos that are sent back from it are must amazing!
Just this week, Lisa and I were returning home from Duncan at about 10 in the evening, and the moon was just coming into view. It looked like we could drive just a few miles and touch it, it was so bit!
But we sometimes forget that the moon has absolutely no light in itself. It has no way to produce light. It gets all its glow and beauty from the sun. When it comes to light, all it can do is reflect the sun.
That's true of us as well. As followers of Jesus, the light of the world, you and I get the awesome privilege of being moons.
Listen to
2 Corinthians 4:5-7
Did you hear what it said? The more we center our lives on Christ and follow Christ, the more we will reflect his light. We're not the sun. There's only one Sun! But we get to reflect the sun.
And think about that last line! Even though you and I are these very imperfect, very breakable clay jars, we get to reflect to the people around us.
When we see and sense the darkness that those around us are experiencing, we can bring the light of God into their life! We have something to offer that is beyond ourselves!
That's powerful. We have the power to truly help people, by pointing them to the Light of the World.
One final thing I want to share, and we'll be through.
Remember how the Bible begins? There was nothing but darkness when God spoke and said, "Let there be light." And the story of the Bible, and really the story of our lives, is this struggle between darkness and light. Did you ever read the end of the book? Let me tell you how it ends:
Revelation 22:5
In other words: in the end, darkness loses and light wins. And in the meantime, no matter how dark things get, no matter how dark things are in your life right now, Jesus says, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
Let's pray.
