John 8 12 thru 30

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“Light from the Height,” John 8:12-30 (March 15, 2015) 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.” 13 So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” 14 Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. 15 You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. 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. 17 In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. 18 I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.” 19 They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” 20 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. 21

So he said to them again, “I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.” 22 So the Jews said, “Will he kill himself, since he says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” 23 He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.” 25 So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. 26 I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” 27 They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father. 28 So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. 29 And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” 30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him. PRAY We are working our way through the gospel of John this spring. This morning we are looking at the middle portion of John 8, where Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.” I think when most people in our culture today think about Jesus (whether in the church or not), their first reaction, their gut reaction, is to say, “That’s boring; that’s irrelevant. What could Jesus or the church or Christian things possibly have that would be meaningful to me.” If that’s you – if your gut-level response when you hear the name Jesus is “boring” – then it can only mean that you haven’t really paid attention to anything Jesus said, and certainly you haven’t paid attention to what he says in John 8. Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.” And once you understand that, you might think that Jesus is the most wonderful person who ever lived with the most wonderful news that has ever been heard,

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or you might hate Jesus, consider him to be demonic, and think his message is pure evil, but you can’t be bored. It’s not possible. So what does Jesus say when he says, “I am the light of the world” to provoke these kinds of reactions? I want to look at it in three ways: first, the claim. Second, the challenge. Third, the cross. First, the claim Jesus makes. Verse 12: 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.” If we aren’t careful, we’ll miss what Jesus is saying here. When we hear him say, “I am the light of the world,” it’s tempting because of where we are and the media we’ve consumed to think that Jesus is saying this: “I’m going to let my light shine in the world.” You remember the song: “This little light of mine; I’m going to let it shine, let it shine, all the time, let it shine.” Maybe we think that’s what Jesus is saying here – he just wants to be a light for the world and help the world out. Nothing offensive there. And I think maybe we conflate that song with another song that’s impressed itself into our collective consciousness (or, at least, the feel of the song certainly has). You have to be of a certain vintage to remember this song, but in the seventies Coca-Cola produced an advertisement that set to the song, “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.” The commercial was a huge hit for Coke (they remade it several times over the years), and it was so successful because it presented dozens of people from all different races coming together, and just being happy, just being peaceful, just letting their own lights shine. In fact, in one of the commercials, all of the people are holding candles while they sing. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world,” but because of where we are and what we’ve experienced culturally picture standing there holding a lamb in one hand, a Coke in the other, with his long, brown well-conditioned chestnut hair and flowing robes, whose only desire is to spread peace, love, and groovy vibes to all the children of the world. Now, if that’s who Jesus was, it would be impossible to hate him. But it would be very possible to be bored by Jesus, to think he’s irrelevant; we’ve been there, done that, and we can move onto the next celebrity endorsement. That’s not what Jesus meant. Jesus did not say, “I am a light of the world,” he said, “I am the light of the world.” Then he says, “Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Darkness in the Bible is a metaphor for total ignorance. Jesus says, “You are all stumbling around in darkness. You have no idea how to live, you have no idea what you need or really what you want. You have no idea about your origins or your future. You are in complete ignorance about everything that matters. And unless you look to me, the

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light of the world (and there is no other), unless you look to me, the light of life, you will continue to stumble around in ignorance. In other words, Jesus says, “If my life, my teaching, my death, my resurrection, my ascension, and my future judgment seat don’t function as a light in your life, informing every decision you make and every thought you think, then you don’t really know anything of fundamental importance and eternal value. If you want real, deep understanding, then your life must be illumined by me, the light of the world.” Because we can know many things without Jesus – you can become very learned without him. Eighty years ago we did not know how bad smoking was, but we now know through modern science and medicine that it’s just about the worst thing you can do to your body. But we can’t know fundamental things about our existence without Jesus. No one would dream of saying, “Eighty years ago we did not know what the meaning of life is, but we now know through modern science and medicine what it is.” Fundamental truths – what is the basis for morality? Where do we come from? Where are we going? What is the meaning of life? We are in complete ignorance about these things. But Jesus says, “You won’t be if you see me as the light.” Love Jesus, or hate Jesus, but it’s irrational to be indifferent about Jesus. “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of thing Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 50-51. You may say, “OK, I’m beginning to see what you mean – love him, or hate him.” We haven’t even gotten to the toughest part. Second, the challenge. The Pharisees come to Jesus and say in verse 13: “So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” The Pharisees ask what seems on the surface an understandable question: Jesus, you’re making this grand claim about yourself – light of the world. Give us some proof! Back up your claims with evidence, and then we will consider them. But so far all you’ve done is testify about yourself. How are we to believe you based on just that?” On the surface, that seems to be a reasonable challenge to Jesus. And how does Jesus respond? Verse 14: 14 Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going.” Then, later, verse 23: 23 He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.” What’s Jesus saying? He’s saying, “If we were talking about things of this world, things that men could understand and apprehend on their own, then you’d be right to ask for

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corroborating evidence. You’d be right to challenge me on my claims and ask for proof. But I’m not talking about those things – I’m talking about God and how you can know him. And the normal rules of evidence don’t apply to this. God is not of this world. God is infinite, you are finite. Therefore, you can’t ask for proof about the things of God – you cannot ask for proof about me being the light of the world. Either you see or you don’t. There is no proof.” Let me put it another way: Jesus is saying that he is the light of the world. Friends, how do you prove that light is light? Have you ever thought of that? If you’re in a dark room, black as pitch, and someone flips a switch and the light comes on, how can you prove that light is in fact light? Instead of oatmeal? Or sand? Or anything else? And the answer is, of course, you can’t. You see light for what it is. It’s selfauthenticating. If you can see, the only reason you can see is because there is light. You don’t need proof, you can’t have proof – the proof is in the ability you have to see. It doesn’t make any sense to talk about proving light. Jesus says, “That’s how I am – I am like light. You must see that I come from God and that I am God, that I am the light of the world. But there’s no proving this to you.” Jesus is not like a diamond. Diamonds are rare, precious jewels, but you can examine them, study them, to determine their value and their worth. If someone wanted to sell you a diamond ring, you would rightly study it to make sure the gem was actually a diamond and not cubic zirconia. But you can’t do that with light – either you see by the light, or you don’t, but you can’t prove its existence. In fact, if you’re having to argue with someone about whether or not there is light in the room, it means you’re arguing with a blind person. Everyone else would simply open their eyes and say, “You’re right – it’s light in here.” Friends, if you don’t believe that Jesus is God, that he is the light of the world – if you don’t believe, as verses 16 and 18 say, Jesus stands with the Father in heaven – then, he says, you’re blind. You have spiritual blindness. Jesus says, “If you can’t see me for who I am – the creator and sustainer of the universe – the fault is not with me. It’s with you. You’re blind.” If you are here this morning and you are a Muslim, Hindu, Mormon, Buddhist, atheist, agnostic, or cultural Christian (by that I mean you identify as a Christian but you haven’t given your life completely to Jesus), if that’s you, then, with all due respect, Jesus says you’re blind. See what I meant when I said that if you really meet Jesus you’re either going to walk away rejoicing or furious, but not bored? Is it offensive to tell everyone on the planet that doesn’t believe that Jesus is the light of the world that they’re blind? Yes – it is. But that’s what Jesus does. Put this one more way: becoming a Christian is not like the Pepsi challenge. You remember the Pepsi Challenge? When I was a kid, Pepsi Cola had this marketing campaign called the Pepsi Challenge, where Pepsi representatives would set up tables in

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malls and get people to sit down at them, blindfold them, then give them a cup of Coke and then a cup of Pepsi and ask them which one they liked better, because the Pepsi people were convinced that if you could just get people past the hype of advertising and emotional attachment people have for Coca-Cola you would choose Pepsi because it tastes better. The Bible makes it clear that believing the gospel is nothing like the Pepsi challenge. No one approaches Christianity objectively and says, “Let me examine all the facts in the light of day, let’s look at the history and the philosophy and the apologetics and make an informed decision about Jesus based on those facts in the light of day.” No – why? Because Jesus is the light of day – he is the light of the world, and if you don’t see that, you won’t see anything else. “4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:4. C.S. Lewis: “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.” Precisely. Now I want to give you four points of application – three for Christians and one for those who don’t believe in Jesus. First, if you have a loved one or a friend who is not a Christian, and you want to tell them the good news of Jesus Christ (and of course you should want to tell them the good news of Jesus), then by all means tell them the gospel, study the Bible with them, give them good books on apologetics and the hard questions to help them with their doubts, but please, please don’t think that if you just pile up enough evidence that this person will have to believe. Don’t do that – this person is not an impartial juror, who is neutral and just waiting to make the right decision if someone will just give them enough good evidence. Unbelief never has enough proof. No, unbelief is not an intellectual position. It’s not a matter of not yet having enough evidence. Rather, it’s a spiritual condition. 14

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2:14. Romans 5:10 says that in our unbelief we were “God’s enemies.” By nature, we are blind to things of God and, by nature, we hate the things of God. By nature, we are God’s enemies. By nature, we resent the idea that there is a God in the universe who calls the shots instead of us. So don’t be surprised when you give lots of evidence and resources about Jesus to someone and they still reject him. Give this friend and loved one the gospel, give them books, give them good arguments, but most of all give them up in prayer to God. Pray for them, because the primary roadblock keeping them from faith in Christ is not intellectual, it’s spiritual. Second, if you are here and you are a Christian but you feel like there’s so much about Christianity and the Bible you don’t understand, then by all means study, read books, listen to sermons, but again, you’re problem is not primarily intellectual. Your problem is not primarily a lack of knowledge. You need more light. You have enough sight to

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see that Jesus is the light of the world, but you’re still pretty nearsighted. You need more light. Almost everyday before I read the Bible or as I’m writing the sermon, I’ll say in a quick prayer to God: “I need more light – help me to see.” Or, I’ll pray Psalm 119:18: Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” Once you become a Christian, you don’t stop needing light – you just begin to see how little you see. In fact, I would go so far as to say the way you know your spiritual sight has really begun to clear is that you see how weak your sight actually is. The way you know you’re starting to finally see clearly is that you see how little you really see. Is that clear? Do you see what I mean? Third, because growing as a Christian is a matter of spiritual sight, seeing things about God that you didn’t see before, then it’s absolutely vital that you’re always around other Christians who can point things out to you about Jesus that you don’t see. Some Christians will have better spiritual sight than you, so you definitely want to be around them regularly, because they’ve seen things about Jesus that you’ve never seen. Do you have friends like that, further along in the faith than you are? Isn’t it wonderful? I remember being around a campus minister in college who was about ten years further along in the faith than I was, and after every talk he gave I walked away feeling like I saw things in the Bible than I’d never seen before. It was wonderful. Or, maybe you have friends who don’t have better spiritual sight than you, but they just see different things than you do in the Bible, so even though they’re not more mature than you, they can still help you see, and you can help them see. The point is: if you want to grow as a Christian, you need to make room in your life for other Christians to come in and point things out to you about Jesus. You can’t see everything on your own; you need help, because Christian growth is a matter of spiritual sight. Fourth, if you are here this morning, and you’re not a Christian, welcome. We are so thankful you’re here. And yes, I have said that Jesus calls you blind, because you do not see Jesus as the light of the world. But that doesn’t mean you can never come to see Jesus. Because do you know what God is in the business of doing? He’s in the business of giving the blind sight. So would you consider doing something? Would you go to someone who you respect who is an actual Christian, who has actually given their life to Christ, and ask them to take you to church and to study the Bible with you for four months? Maybe meet once a week for an hour or so. And would you pray every day for those four months something like this: “God, if there is a God, show me if Jesus Christ is your son or not; if you show me that He is your son, I promise to receive him as my Savior and my Lord, and confess him as such before the world”? Will you do that? Because here’s what I want you to avoid: the vast majority of people in America who say, “I don’t believe the gospel; I don’t believe that Jesus is the light of the world,” have never even read the New Testament, let alone the whole Bible. They haven’t prayed. They’ve rejected Jesus without even knowing anything about him. Don’t be like that,

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and don’t assume that if you grew up in church you heard everything you need to know about Jesus. Maybe you did grow up in a church where the Bible was faithfully taught; there’s a good chance, however, you didn’t. Maybe you’re not really rejecting Jesus but you’re rejecting a Sunday school teacher or a pastor or a group of hypocritical people you couldn’t stand to be around. John 20:31 says this: “These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” It’s not at all uncommon to meet people who thought that they could never come to see how Jesus was the light of the world, but after a few months, they say something like, “I can’t understand why I didn’t see this before.” This church is full of people who have had experiences like that; I’m one of the people who has had an experience like that. Who can say, “I once was blind, but now I see.” That’s really how it feels. And if you’re thinking, “Wow, J.D., that’s a big commitment – pray every day, study the Bible, go to church for four months – that’s asking a lot, isn’t it, of someone who you say is blind?” I don’t think so; not at all. My wife and I bought some exercise videos last summer called “The Thirty Day Shred.” The promise was that if we did these exercises every day for thirty days, then our bodies would be transformed. But we couldn’t just do it for a day or two – every single day for thirty days. We had to stick it out. Jillian Michaels was the woman leading the workouts on those videos, and I don’t think it’s an overstatement or embellishment at all to call her one of the most annoying women on the face of the earth. Yet she’s gotten lots of people to try her out for thirty days in the hope of having a new body. Jesus Christ is the most influential person who’s ever lived – more influential that all the kings who have ever ruled and all the governments who have ever sat. That’s not just something ministers say – go find someone in the history department at Ole Miss, and they’ll tell you the same thing. Do you really want to go to your grave one having given thirty days to investigate Jillian Michaels (and if you haven’t given her thirty days you’ve given someone else like her thirty days) but refusing to give just four months to investigate Jesus? That would be foolish. But if you’re still looking for a reason to investigate Jesus … third, the cross. John 8:28: 28 So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.” What’s Jesus talking about there – you have lifted up the Son of Man? He’s talking about the cross. At the end of his life, Jesus was killed – he was nailed to a Roman cross and he died

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there. Now, do you know why was he on that cross? If he was just a teacher of peace, love, and groovy vibes, why in the world would anyone kill him? And of course the answer is: he wasn’t just a teacher. He was the Savior. In Jesus Christ God himself took on flesh and bone like ours so that he could live a perfect life we should have lived (but didn’t), and die the death we deserve to die, so that our sins would be paid for and we could be reconciled to God. And, remember, it wasn’t like Jesus came to die and save only the good people. The Bible says that there are no good people; we all stand equally condemned by our sins. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. Jesus didn’t come to save only good people. Rather, we read this: 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:6-8. Friends, only Christianity has at its core a man dying for his enemies. Why should you investigate Christianity? No other religion or philosophy even claims to have someone that good, that loving, that merciful at its center. Look at Jesus dying on the cross. See the people he is dying for! They are mocking, jeering, and spitting on him. Yet in the greatest act of love in history, Jesus looked down at those people and he stayed. Does the sight of Jesus move you? Then investigate him. Investigate Jesus, pray to Jesus, and see if you won’t see that he is the light of the world. PRAY

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