October 26, 2003

Service Theme – "Our God Is Our Light"

John 8:12-19

"I Am the Light of the World"

  1. Introduction
    1. Illustration – Salvation Army founder William Booth wrote, Faith and works should travel side-by-side, step answering to step, like the legs of men walking. First faith, and then works; and then faith again, and then works again—until they can scarcely distinguish which is the one and which is the other (as cited on SermonCentral.com).
    2. Context – It’s this whole relationship between faith and works that gets us into trouble, and mostly because we don’t really understand how it all fits together. But Jesus made some strong statements that will help us understand how we are enabled to shine His light through by living our faith each and every day.
  1. Scripture Passage
    1. John 8:12-20 (from the New Living) – (NEW SLIDE) Jesus said to the people, "I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t be stumbling through the darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life." 13 The Pharisees replied, "You are making false claims about yourself! (NEW SLIDE) 14 Jesus told them, "These claims are valid even though I make them about myself. For I know where I came from and where I am going, but you don’t know this about me. 15 You judge me with all your human limitations, but I am not judging anyone. (NEW SLIDE) 16 And if I did, my judgment would be correct in every respect because I am not alone—I have with me the Father who sent me. 17 Your own law says that if two people agree about something, their witness is accepted as fact. (NEW SLIDE) 18 I am one witness, and my Father who sent me is the other." 19 "Where is your father?" they asked. Jesus answered, "Since you don’t know who I am, you don’t know who my Father is. If you knew me, then you would know my Father, too." (NEW SLIDE) 20 Jesus made these statements while he was teaching in the section of the Temple known as the Treasury. But he was not arrested, because his time had not yet come.
  1. Finding the Light
    1. I’ve wondered as I’ve read this passage before what in the world Jesus’ claim to be the light of the world had to do with His discussion with the Pharisees that followed. So I decided to check one of my Greek resources and found something interesting. The Greek for the word "darkness" doesn’t mean gloom or dark haze or being in a dark fog. It means the darkness "of death, of night" (Vincent, vol. 2, pg. 40). Jesus uses it in the gospel of John to talk about the deep, deep darkness of sin. (NEW SLIDE) Marvin Vincent wrote that "it is a condition in which mankind has become the prey of falsehood, folly and sin." This passage of Scripture began to make sense to me.
    2. You see, Jesus said that He is the light that will lead people from the dark wretchedness of sin. The Jews used light to describe the Messiah. So the Pharisees would have understood Jesus to be saying that He is the Messiah. Now look at the sharp contrast between the light of Jesus and the darkness of understanding of the Pharisees. Their hearts and minds were so darkened by sin that they didn’t see that Jesus is who He claims to be. So they flat said, "You’re lying!" What did Jesus say in return? He told them, "The law passed down by Moses says that there has to be two witnesses for something to be proved true. You have the witness of what I say. You also have the witness of the power of God my Father shining through my life. That’s more proof than you need."
    3. Stephen Kingsley writes, In our family carpet cleaning business we offered a special service for removing pet urine odors. To show potential customers their need for the service, I would darken the room and then turn on a powerful black light. The black light caused urine crystals to glow brightly. To the horror of the homeowner every drop and dribble could be seen, not only on the carpet, but usually on walls, drapes, furniture, and even on lamp shades. One homeowner begged me to shut off the light: "I can't bear to see anymore. I don't care what it costs. Please clean it up!" Another woman said, "I'll never be comfortable in my home again." The offense was there all the time, but it was invisible until the right light exposed it. It would have been cruel to show customers the extent of their problem and then say, "Too bad for you" and walk away. I brought the light so that they might desperately want my cleaning services. In the same way, God shines the light of his commandments not just to make us feel guilty and leave us that way. He has a cleaning service to offer—salvation through Jesus Christ (as cited on PreachingToday.com). I kind of think the Pharisees were feeling as exposed as those pet stains under the black light. They had brought a woman caught in adultery to Jesus, and demanded that she be stoned as Moses had prescribed. Instead, Jesus stooped over and began writing in the dirt. One by one, starting with the oldest, they all left Him. For centuries Christians have speculated about what exactly He was writing. Now this is pure speculation, but I think He was listing their sins, and as soon as they realized what He was doing, the Pharisees left. Then Jesus forgave the woman, told her to sin no more, and sent her home. This incident happened right before Jesus said to the people, (NEW SLIDE) "I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t be stumbling through the darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life."
    4. Imagine how the Pharisees must have felt! Their cleverly crafted plan to trap Jesus had failed. They may have even been humiliated to have their own sins written in the dirt for all to see. Just as that pet urine was exposed by the black light, so their sins were shining in the front of their minds, and they couldn’t handle it. Whether or not Jesus had written their sins, the Pharisees knew deep inside they were there. So out of fear they cried out, "Liar!" People often react that way when they feel so overwhelmingly guilty about something they’ve done. It’s called placing blame. The presence of God was so strong in Jesus that they couldn’t handle it. That’s why they kept fighting Him. And I wonder how many times we fight Jesus and call Him a liar in our hearts or minds because His Spirit exposes our sins just like the black light on the pet urine. I don’t like it when He does that to me, so I argue with Him. We all do. (NEW SLIDE) But Jesus is trying to get us to see that the light that He can fill us with is so much better than the darkness and death of sin. Maybe it’s time all of us stopped arguing with Him, stopped pointing fingers, and followed the Light of the World.
    5. You see, Jesus didn’t come just to shine the light on the world. Jesus came to fill us with that light! Jesus came so that His light could fill us so completely that it overflows onto a very dark world. In Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus said, (NEW SLIDE) "You are the light of the world—like a city on a mountain, glowing in the night for all to see. 15 Don’t hide your light under a basket! Instead, put it on a stand and let it shine for all. (NEW SLIDE) 16 In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father." The light that Jesus fills us with is meant to shine forth in everything we say and do. Because Jesus is the light of the world, and because He fills us with His light by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can be lights to our world. In Luke 11:36, Jesus says, (NEW SLIDE) "If you are filled with light, with no dark corners, then your whole life will be radiant, as though a floodlight is shining on you."
    6. Now we all know some folks who love to live in the spotlight. But most of us feel very uncomfortable with that. We don’t want all the attention focused on us all the time. We don’t mind a little attention, but how can you possibly live up to anybody’s expectations when the light is blazing right on you? We’re all going to mess up some time or another, so why would we want to be the light of the world? But we forget that it isn’t all up to us. It’s not our light we’re shining. It’s the light of Jesus. It’s the light He fills us with when He fills us with His Spirit. When we allow the Holy Spirit to drive the darkness of sin from our hearts and souls and fill us up with His light, then the light of Jesus will radiate from us. The pressure’s off. We don’t have to perform. We don’t have to fake it. We don’t have to try to pull off the greatest acting job the world has ever seen! All we have to do is say "Yes" when He tells us He wants to clean out an area of our hearts. All we have to do is say "Yes" when He tells us He wants to heal a hole in our souls. All we have to do is say "Yes" when He tells us He wants us to forgive and move on with Him. (NEW SLIDE) There is no pressure on us at all to perform – all we have to do is obey. That’s it. And that’s some of the best news we could ever hear!
    7. We get hung up on performance. We always want to perform well so that we’ll look good and get the results we want. Who in their right mind really wants to look bad and fail to produce great results? No one. (NEW SLIDE) But we put all kinds of pressure on ourselves to perform, even when it comes to our spirituality. We take God’s commands as performance standards. We have to constantly be challenging ourselves to become better and better at doing. We are all about performance, and since we are so focused on performance we kind of feel like God’s like the Russian judge at the Olympics. You know, unless the vote is rigged like it was at the last Olympic Games, everybody else will give you a 5.9 but the Russian judge gives you a 2.9. We focus on performance, and so we operate under the assumption that God focuses on performance. (NEW SLIDE) We forget a very important truth – God isn’t about performance; He’s about loving obedience that brings life transformation. He’s about us saying "Yes" to His will, not so that our performance review will come up positive, but so that we will allow Him to so completely fill us that our hearts and lives will be transformed us so that His light will shine from us. Transformation is what it’s all about.
    8. As we saw last week, Romans 12:2 has a lot to say about this. (NEW SLIDE) Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is. Loving obedience that allows God to fill us with His Spirit and transform us from the inside out will bring God’s results. We’ll know what to do and how He wants us to do it. But it won’t be about performance – it will be about simple obedience to His will because we’ve seen that it’s the best thing in the world for us to do. That’s what will allow our light to shine forth and pierce the darkness of our world. It will be like a beacon of hope in the pitch-blackness of a stormy sea. I have a Kincade print that is called "Beacon of Hope" and it shows that very picture. What an awesome thought that our God could use us like that to bring people to know that life is so much better with Him!
    9. So what’s the first step? How do we get started on this transformation? (NEW SLIDE) Remember, the first step is loving obedience. That means that because we love Jesus, we obey Him when He wants us to unlock those corners of our hearts that are dark and dirty and stinky and desperately need to be cleaned out. We say "Yes, Lord" and we ask for His help in letting go of that garbage we’ve been clinging to for so long. Then we walk in the light of His commandments – we obey them not so we can see who’s the best at obeying them, but because we love Him and want to please Him. That’s where we get started, and that’s how we keep going. It’s a relationship, and not a competition. As we keep saying "Yes" we keep getting closer to Him, and as we keep getting closer to Him we say "Yes" more and more. But the hard part is saying "Yes" those first few times. But Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t be stumbling through the darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life." Follow Him, and keep following Him, and He’ll take care of the rest.
    10. Illustration – Brother Lawrence, in The Practice of the Presence of God, wrote, (NEW SLIDE) When we are in doubt, God will never fail to give light when we have no other plan than to please him and to act in love for him (as cited on PreachingToday.com). That’s what Jesus is saying to us today. If we will continually make the choices that will please Him because we love Him and let His love show through, He’ll take care of the rest. His light will shine through us.
  1. Conclusion
    1. Please bow your heads and close your eyes. Has Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit been shining His light on your soul and showing you closets and corners that He wants to clean out? Are you willing to say "Yes" and ask for His help in letting go of that garbage?
    2. If your answer is "Yes" to those questions, then ask Jesus right now to help you. Give Him your permission to begin cleaning out those dark closets and corners in His way in His time. In a few minutes, I’ll pray. But take some time to talk to Jesus right now. And then, if you want me to pray for you this week, circle the "C" on the bottom of your communication card and put it in the offering at the end of the service, and I will pray for you this week. But talk to Jesus in prayer and take care of business with Him right now.
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