I Am the Light of the World

father we don't have any greater need then for the light of life and so I asked that you would come and now make this service and this message and instrument of life giving that we might see Christ as our light embrace him treasure him and joy him walk in him forever I asked this in his name Amen so when you come to the end of this text now verses 12 through 30 you see the response at least one of them that Jesus got as he was saying these things many believed in him and that's really good news because it says in verse 24 second half of the verse unless you believe that I am you will die in your sins so here we have a picture at the end of this text of people moving from death to life they're not going to die in their sins that's wonderful news they're going to be forgiven their sins won't be held against them because they're believing if they don't believe they die in their sins and if they do believe they don't die in their sins they die in righteousness and they're saved and have eternal life so this is a beautiful thing we see here at the end of the text and my prayer is that it disservice would end that way I'm just going to try my best to let Jesus talk it is remarkable isn't it that he's just talking he's not doing any miracles here this this faith that happened in so many happened because they were just listening to him talk faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ and they listened and they saw and they believed and and their sins were forgiven and I'm just going to talk here I pray in the power of the Holy Spirit and and that life would be imparted and that light would be given and that people would believe in and not die in your sins it can happen here just like it did there so I'm just going to walk through this text will linger over the verse 12 a long time and then and then go quick through the rest of it but I want to spend most of our time on the main point so here we are before I unpack verse 12 I do want to give you the big picture of how I see the text structured it starts with verse 12 I am the light of the world Jesus is saying so 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 and then surprisingly he never mentions light again in the whole chapter nobody mentions light again in the whole chapter so it looks as though the reactions first reaction in verse 13 got them off track got them on to a detour it's what it looks like I don't think it's exactly that way he is saying I am the light of the world and they object to that and then he he starts talking to them about what they have objected to at least seven times now in the rest of the verses thirteen to 29 he talks about being from the father and acting on the authority of the Father and going to the Father and doing nothing on his own and it seems that whatever happened to I am the light of the world he's claiming here that there's no merely human Authority in him but that he gets everything from his father and he says it over and over and my sense of how this text works is that he starts by saying I'm the light of the world they object he goes with what they want to say and seven times draws attention to the fact that he gets his authority and he is who he is because of his relationship with the father so my conclusion is we've seen this before it's not in chapter 4 for example where the woman at the well gets Jesus off the water word on to worship and he goes with her and here he goes with them and what Jesus does on these detours is deal with the detour objection in such a way as to illuminate the origin of the journey and the end of the journey so that you realize at the end I think that was a detour I think all this talk all this interaction with the Pharisees all this interaction with the Jews about from the Father and my relationship with the father is all about how he is the light of the world he isn't an autonomous light if Jesus is the light of the world he's the light of the world precisely because of his relationship the father so that's my sense of the bigger picture of what looks like a D - I mean I was frustrated I wanted to preach on Jesus is the light of the world and it stops at the end of verse 12 come on what and then the longer I thought about it the more I realized no Jesus Jesus wouldn't wouldn't let that happen it all relates to the light of the world so that's the big picture as I see it takes their objection goes with it says over and over these relate to the Father a certain way comes the end great faith and all of that shedding light back on what it means to be the light of the world so let's go to 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 now that's a life-changing verse I hope it has changed your life it says following Jesus is more than tagging along behind it means following him for who he is means being so taken taken with him that you join yourself to him notice when you follow him you have him see that I am the light whoever follows will have the light I am the light if you follow you have the light so to follow him is to have him as your light not just to kind of tag along behind but if you follow you have him the light of the world you have him as your shepherd and sacrifice and living water and bread from heaven and your God and your light now notice the last phrase you will have the light of Life what's the connection between light and life the answer is given in chapter 1 verse 4 where John said this in him that is in Jesus was life and the life was the light of men I take that to mean that the life of Jesus imparted to those who believed in him enables them to see light until you have life that is until Jesus life is imparted to you you are dead dead people don't see anything when the life is imparted you that is when you're born from above born again Nicodemus you must be born again you can't see the kingdom of God until you're born again so Nicodemus you need to be born again these Pharisees need to be born again they need to have the life which yields the ability to see Jesus is light because they're not seeing it just because they're dead and dead people are blind so they need life the eyes of a heart are open we're going to we've sung it already we're going to sing another version of it at the end open my eyes Lord I want to see Jesus they couldn't they didn't have life and therefore they didn't have the light of Life what is this phrase light of the world main Jesus spoke to them saying I am the light of the world what is of the world mean the whole world is not being lightened while Jesus is there or today and you can see it in the text don't need experience only it says whoever follows me will not walk in darkness if you don't you do walk in darkness which means there's darkness in the world if you follow me you won't walk in it if you don't follow me you walk in it so it's it's there so what is light of the world mean he's not taking away the darkness in the world what does light of the world mean here's what it means I think I'll give you four meanings that I think are true number one Jesus being the light of the world means the world has no other light than him if there's going to be light in the world it will be Jesus it is Jesus or darkness there is no third alternative no other light so he's the light of the world in that there is no other light in the world there's only darkness second it means therefore all the world and everyone in it needs Jesus as their light because they're in darkness without him everybody needs Jesus as the light there isn't any other light number three it means that the world was made for this light the light of the world means God made the world for this light creation was made for this light to fill it it's not a foreign light to this world it's the light of the owner of the world when this light comes to be sure at first it makes sin plain it exposes sin as ugly and foreign to what God had made but it also enables us to see everything good in its true light without the light of Jesus you don't see anything the way you should see it the light of Jesus illumines everything with its proper beauty and without the light of Jesus in our hearts and enabling us to see the world that was made for the light we can't see the world the way it is in God's eyes everything is dark the world was made to be illumined by this light the light of Christ is native to the world not foreign to the world the world belongs to God and when he sends his light he means here's the fourth meaning one day this world will be filled with the light of Jesus and nothing else when this light comes it not only makes in plain but sooner or later it will take all darkness and banish it out of the world all the works of darkness will be banished out of the world all the sons of darkness will be banished out of the world which is why Jesus calls hell the outer darkness there will be no darkness in the world in the universe hell is utterly outside of the creation God has made except that it's held in being in its unique place and it's dark totally dark and don't get bent out of shape about fire without light that's not a problem for God there are more Horrors in Hell than you dreamed of darkness utter darkness you don't know where the next blow is coming from Jesus is the radiance of the Father and He will fill the world and everything in it with light he is the light of the world so in those four glorious ways Jesus is the light of the world and if you follow him now you will have him as your light in advance of the great day when his light fills everything it's true that he will reveal your sins if you have him as your light but that's really good news like a wonderful serendipitous early discovery of cancer so that it can be healed feels like bad news at first and then you realize we got it early wouldn't you want not to die in your sins but to find out oh it fixable there will come a day when it's not that's what die in your sins means so yes it does do that but it does way way more than that it reveals all that is beautiful Jesus will be your light where you see God he'll be the light in which you see Redemption he'll be the light in which you see your salvation he'll be the light in which you see mountains and valleys and oceans and rivers and trees and animals and people nothing will be the same when you have Jesus as your light nothing will be seen the same Paul said that in 2nd Corinthians 5 the oldest festivais the new has come once we knew all people according to the flesh now we know nobody according to the flesh we see everybody in a new light and everything in a new light he's become our light the lamp is in us shining out and everything takes on a totally different meaning because of its relationship to the light yes even earthquakes and tsunamis and suffering and death until his light fills the earth as the waters cover the sea until it banishes until it vanishes all sin and sickness and pain and earthquakes to the outer darkness until then now even now his light will help you bear the sorrows of darkness it will be a warm soft glow to comfort you in the lonely room after the devastating loss it will be the lamp on your troubled and trembling path it will reveal the wise and loving face of God behind every crowning Providence we will all walk through valleys of darkness but not without light so Jesus starts his text in verse 12 with I am the light of the world and he offers all of that to you here's the way it says it in John 12 36 while you have the light and I think I should say this to you in its own way while you have the light believe in the light that you may become sons of light and so at this midpoint in the message I'm saying you have heard something just a small amount of what it means for Jesus to be the light of the world and and he's saying to you if you will follow me you will have me as light you'll have my life and I will open your eyes and you will see light and you will never be in darkness again verse 13 starts the apparent detour the Pharisee said to him you're bearing witness to yourself your testimony is not true no where'd that come from it came from chapter 5 verse 30 where Jesus had said if I bear witness about myself my testimony is not true that's what he said literally no words added English versions Edwards here to try to soften it he just said it if I bear witness to myself my testimony is not true so here he's doing it haha we caught him contradicting himself can't be the light sensor that sets up the next 17 verses Jesus's goes with it he goes with their accusation and he responds to it and interacts with them all the rest of the way so he really did say it if I bear witness about myself my testimony is not true what did he mean what did he mean the word alone is added in the ESV the word Dean's is added in the ESV I've written to those folks who well my friends who translated this verse said don't do that to me I have to preach on this the fact that he said it the way the said it accounts for their objection in verse 13 if you take out the problem from chapter 5 verse 30 you can't explain the problem that the Pharisees raised in chapter 8 verse 13 so forgive me for being a little bit here he said if I talk about myself I am NOT true and they said we got you and in the context back in 5:30 what comes clear is that he means something like this if I testify from myself if it originates with me if I am a witness to myself disconnected from the father then I'm false I'm false the Pharisees did not hear the context they didn't want to hear the context they just wanted to take a phrase in isolation like you can catch somebody could catch me probably catch others take a little phrase and D C and not hear it the way he intended it and give you an illustration what I think is going on here to cause you to feel appalled at this moment for the Pharisees it's as though you heard me say yesterday in conversation with a British friend we have some British friends here tonight suppose I was talking with a British fan and you you overheard me say I don't use the word torch and today I find you in a tunnel trapped very dark needing help to get out not knowing where to turn and I have in my hand a bright burning torch and I say to you I have a torch for you so get you out and you look right past the torch and say you use the word torch yesterday you said you don't use the word tort so you don't have a torch what would you say if you were me in that situation well I could do it this way I could explain I said look we were talking about flashlights British people call flashlights torches I said I don't use the word torch to mean I don't call flashlights torches you weren't listening you took that out of context so I'm not contradicting myself i i'm using the retorts because you could do that jesus did not do that and i think he didn't do it because there's something just so appalling going on here what you should say is this is torch you need to get out take the torch forget about the words take the torch that's what you'd say this is absurd this is absurd right to say here you the word torch so you're a contradictory so you're not offering me a torch that's absurd it is absurd it is absurd they're standing in front of the Living God his burning brightness shining for all who are alive to see and plotting his death this is absurd and I hope you're not doing it right now their eyes and their hearts were blind the light that is Christ the light of Christ is not an inference drawn from an argument it is the brightness of the glory of God shining on the retina of the human soul you don't infer light you see light light is not a conclusion at the end of an argument it is the sun shining in broad day strength what they needed here was not to go back and clarify the context of I don't speak of myself what they needed was eyes amazingly many of them got them while they were listening I can see puzzles on some of your faces just hope you hang in there with the Gospel of John all the way because this language of seeing the glory of God as the means by which we recognize his truth and are saved is everywhere and if it's foreign to you that should be a concern to you somebody hasn't helped you like they should and I would like to help you recognize perhaps what has happened to you and you just never heard it talked about this way or it never has happened to you and seeing with what the Bible calls in Ephesians 1:17 the eyes of your heart seeing with the eyes of your heart so that you apprehended in the gospel in Christ the glory the beauty which is self-authenticating Li real and you know it Jesus our bonds in verse 14 if I do bear witness about myself my testimony is true for I know where I came from and where I'm going but you do not know where I come from or where I am going in other words I come from God I am going to God and you don't know God and therefore you can't see me as the light of the world because the meaning of my being the light of the world is that I am of God I am here for God from God to God as God that is what it means for me to be the light of the world and you don't know him where I come from where I'm going to you don't know him so you can't see me that's light he goes on verse 15 you judge according to the flesh that's chapter 3 again this is Nicodemus all over he doesn't have any life that which is born of the flesh is flesh that which is born of the Spirit is spirit you need to be born of the Spirit because all you are is slash and flesh can't enter the kingdom of God came him see the kingdom of God he continues verse 15 middle of verse I judge no one that is on my own I don't originate judgments I echo my father's judgments verse 16 yet even if I do judge my judgment is true for it is not I alone who judge but I and the father who sent me in your law it is written that testimony of two people is true I am the one who bears witness about myself and my father who sent me bears witness about me verse 19 they said to him therefore where's your father he answered you know neither me nor my father if you knew me you would know my father also in other words I and the father are so United that if you knew and loved him you'd known know and love me and if you know and love me you know and love him and you don't know and love either religious though you are now that language is unbelievably offensive and explosive which is why I think Paul I mean John pauses here in verse 20 to say how amazing it is that they aren't stoning him or arresting him these words he spoke in the Treasury as he taught in the temple but no one arrested him because his hour had not yet come he will go but he will go in his time and in the father's way and now in verses 21 to 24 he spells out some implications of their blindness so he said to them I am going away and you will seek me and you will not and you will die in your sin where I am going you cannot come so the Jews said would kill himself since he says where I'm going you cannot come he said to them you are from below I am from above you are of this world I am of I am not of this world I told you that you would die in your sins for unless you believe that I am he is added you will die in your sins when Jesus says in verse 21 that he's going away he means I'm going to die rise again and return to my father in heaven and when he says you will die in your sins he means they can't follow him there they go another direction I'm going to my father I'm going away and you can't come because you're going to die in your sins if you don't if you don't repent and he holds out hope to them verse 24 middle of the verse unless you believe that I am you will die in your sins believe and you won't die in your sins refuse me and you will die in your sins and if you if you believe and don't die in your sins you will go with me where I go you will seek me and you will find me and I'll be with you forever and if you don't believe you will die in your sins and you won't be able to go with me where I go namely to the Father over and over again in this text he talks about his relationship to the Father which is why he's the light of the world he's from the father he acts for the father he represents the father he is the presence in car of the father now things come to a climax and we wrap things up with this things come to a climax in verse 28 where he finally tells them how it is that eventually they're going to come face-to-face with the light in such a way that they will know now what they had missed verse 28 so jesus said to them when you have lifted up the Son of Man that means crucified him lifted him up on a cross we know that from chapter 3 where this phrase is used in that context when you have lifted up the Son of man then you will know that I am that he is added then you will know that I am that doesn't mean that at the crucifixion of Jesus as the Pharisee stood around they all got saved they didn't it means you yourselves unwittingly are going to be the instruments of helping me finish the work I must do to be the effective eternal light of the world you're going to help me finish my work by hanging me on across you're going to crucify me and when I'm crucified my role as a saving redeeming creation filling light of the world will be secured no one will be able to undermine it and I will rise and reign forever and shine forever and my father's right hand and then on the earth and the day will come that you will know this you will know this you can know it now and I say this to you you can know it now and be saved from your sins and not die in your sins or you can be the ones who crucify me and die in your sins and find out later who I was when it's too late that's the choice you all have tonight and the choice you have tonight and this morning as it is with them so it is with you and me we see him and we receive him as the light of the world now and we don't die in our sins or we die in our sins and it's too late so my prayer is that God would grant you life it comes through hearing in life awakens your heart to have sight and like these folks in verse 30 just listening just listening to Jesus they concluded okay I'm not resisting anymore I can't there is the light of the world is in front of me there's no more battle I'm done my sword is on the ground my knee is bending God did it I see and I believe I pray that miracle will happen for you let's pray so I'd simply ask you father to do for many what you did for those Jewish people in verse 30 when they heard him teaching they believed something happened inside when they listened they were granted ears to hear and eyes to see and they are now confessing in his presence Jesus is the light of the world my light forever should do that for all who are listening to me in Jesus name Amen you

Channel: Desiring God

Views: 16,134

Rating: 4.8644066 out of 5

Keywords: Sermon, John Piper, Desiring God, Bethlehem Baptist Church, Christian, Christianity, Church, Bible, Jesus Christ, God, Scripture

Id: FQAgBSeTktI

Length: 39min 58sec (2398 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 30 2013