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We'll read and pray for us.
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Hebrews 6 contains a passage that speaks about some that followed the
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Lord for a while, it would seem, and then turned away from the Lord. They weren't true Christians, even though everybody thought they were.
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They thought themselves that they were. But the fact that they turned away from the Lord proved that they never really knew the
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Lord. And so there are some words of warning here, as well as exhortation for us to persevere in our faith and our service to one another.
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Hebrews chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 6.
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Therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
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And this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift and have shared in the
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Holy Spirit and have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the age to come and then have fallen away to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the
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Son of God to their own harm and holding Him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it and produces a crop useful to those whose sakes it has cultivated receives a blessing from God.
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But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed and its end is to be burned.
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Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation.
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For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for His name in serving the saints, as you still do.
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And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
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For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying,
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Surely I will bless you and multiply you. And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.
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For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes, an oath is final for confirmation.
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So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of His purpose,
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He guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.
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We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a
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High Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Let's pray.
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Our Heavenly Father, as we reflect upon this passage, Lord, there is a great warning there, and it is a warning for those who are falling away, for those who have not been faithful to You, for those who are not obeying
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You, not submitting to You. Lord, there are so many in the world, there are so many in the church who are deceived into thinking that they know
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You. But Lord, we know that on that day, many will say to You, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name and cast out demons in Your name and perform many miracles in Your name?
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And You will declare to them, depart from Me. I never knew you, you workers of lawlessness.
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Lord, I pray that each one of us here would take heed to these warnings, that we would examine ourselves, that we would watch ourselves, that we would be on the alert so that we might not be deceived by the deceitfulness of sin.
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And Lord, help us to hold fast to the anchor of our souls, Jesus Christ and His perfect work on the cross.
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Lord, we pray that as we behold You and Your Word this morning, as we continue to sing and lift praises to You, I pray that we would have a clear picture of Jesus Christ, a clear picture of what
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He accomplished on our behalf as our substitute, as the propitiation for our sin.
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And Lord, help us to live in that truth every day, anxiously awaiting Your return.
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Thank You, Lord, in Jesus' name, Amen. Well, let's turn in our
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Bibles to John's Gospel, to John chapter 8 once again.
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Well, this is the 52nd message that we've taken from John's Gospel, so we've been at it a little over a year.
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I think we started a year ago on April 15th, and here we are. We're not even halfway through.
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But it's a rich book, and it seems like as we progress through it, we come across these single sayings of Jesus that warrant our full attention, and we certainly have one of those today.
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We're going to read the passage from John chapter 8 verse 12 to verse 20 and consider its teaching today.
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The discourse of Jesus that begins with verse 12 is commonly understood as the fifth discourse in John's Gospel.
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It's rather extensive, continuing through the entire chapter concluding with the last verse of John chapter 8.
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It's been determined by some to be in the structural form of a legal challenge dialogue.
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And the way John has cast this, it seems to be like a legal setting, almost like a court scene, and there's a few terms that we'll perhaps point out that suggest this.
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It's a formal debate, as it were, between Jesus and the Pharisees. And so as the Gospel unfolds, the conflict between our
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Lord and His challengers continues and seems to even become more direct and severe.
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And so the conflict between our Lord and His detractors continues, and it would seem that our
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Lord becomes even more direct with His challengers even as they become more hardened in their resistance to Him.
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And we see here that it's ratcheted up a bit in this chapter. We have before us in the opening verse of this section of discourse one of our
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Lord's most significant and memorable declarations concerning Himself. It's briefly but concisely stated in verse 12.
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And then the following verses record the challenge of the Pharisees to His claim that He makes in verse 12 and our
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Lord's response to them regarding the truthfulness of His claim. And so here is the passage we'll consider.
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John 8 verse 12, Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, I am the light of the world.
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He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.
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The Pharisees therefore said to Him, You bear witness of Yourself. Your witness is not true.
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Jesus answered and said to them, Even if I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true.
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For I know where I came from and where I am going. But you do not know where I come from and where I am going.
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You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one. And yet if I do judge,
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My judgment is true. For I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent
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Me. It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true.
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I am one who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me. They said to Him, Where is
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Your Father? And Jesus answered, You know neither Me nor My Father.
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If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also. These words Jesus spoke in the treasury as He taught in the temple, and no one laid hands on Him, for His hour had not yet come.
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Let's first consider the setting and the context of the passage, and then we'll consider more specifically what the
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Lord was declaring. Verse 12, as we read it in our text, our
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New King James Version, seems to be a rather abrupt change from the setting and the account that we considered last week, the woman taking an adult trip.
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And we spent a great deal of time last week talking about that. It begins with John 7, 53 and continues through John chapter 8, verse 11.
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And we showed that although this account of Jesus and the adulterous woman is an authentic event that took place in the life of our
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Lord, ministry of our Lord, the account of John 7, 53 through 8, 12 was not originally penned by John when he first wrote this fourth gospel.
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Rather it was inserted by a scribe at a later time when copying his manuscript.
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And so that is not in any way undercutting or undermining its relevance, accuracy, authority to us.
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It's just saying that originally John did not write it. It's an authentic scripture and a scribe included obviously under the providence of God.
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But we should understand that when John originally wrote this gospel, he went immediately from what's recorded in John 7, 52 to what we have before us now in John 8, verse 12.
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You follow? And so, John 8, verse 12 follows
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John 7, 37 which sets forth the setting where Jesus was. On the last day, that great day of the feast,
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Jesus stood and cried out saying, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
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And then we can immediately look at verse 12 of chapter 8.
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Then Jesus spoke to them again saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life.
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And so we would argue that Jesus gave these words in verse 12 on the same occasion he gave those other words.
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He declared himself to be the source of living water and here he described himself as the light of the world.
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And so he spoke these words to them again as John 8, verse 12 declares, perhaps on the last day of the feast or perhaps the day after.
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The use of the word again in verse 12 links our Lord's words in this verse with what he had taught the people when he declared he was the source of spiritual water that would quench the spiritually thirsty soul.
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He gives the Holy Spirit who is able to give forth life and through his people give forth light to others.
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Now recently we described that during the Feast of Tabernacles or the
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Feast of Booths as it's sometimes called, priests would daily carry water in a celebrative procession from the
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Pool of Siloam. They would do this every day throughout the seven days of the feast. And then they would carry it up to the temple in this celebrative formal procession and then the priest would pour out this water at the altar of sacrifice in the temple.
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Here's a description that I had read when we addressed this several weeks ago just to bring us up to speed.
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On each of the seven days of the feast the priest drew water from the Pool of Siloam in a golden flagon and brought it in procession to the temple with joyful sounding of the trumpet.
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There the water was poured into a bowl beside the altar from which a tube took it to the base of the altar and simultaneously wine was poured to a similar bowl on the other side of the altar.
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These symbolic ceremonies were acted thanksgivings for God's mercy in giving water in past days probably looking right back to the smiting of the rock in the wilderness and then on to the giving of rain in recent years.
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And so the festival was looking to God providing water for the thirsty Israelites coming through the wilderness to the promised land.
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They followed that rock and that rock was Christ. Now this procession with water would take place in the evening of each day when the entire temple mount was illuminated by a very large, actually four
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I understand, candelabras. And here is a description of the event by the commentator
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Donald Carson, present day very good reformed commentator, in which he cited the ancient
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Jewish writing the Mishnah. He who has not seen the joy of the place of water drawing has never in his life seen joy.
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This extravagant claim stands just before the description of the lighting of the four huge lamps in the temple's court of the women and of the exuberant celebration that took place under the light.
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Mishnah, sukkah, that's the context where that was taken. I don't have the parentheses right in front of the word
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Mishnah. Men of piety and good works danced through the night holding burning torches in their hands and singing songs and praises.
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Levitical orchestras cut loose and some sources attest that this went on every night of the
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Feast of Tabernacles with the light from the temple area shading its glow all over Jerusalem.
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And in this context Jesus declares to the people, I am the light of the world.
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And so this links Jesus' statement in verse 12 with the festival.
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It was the same occasion. He declared that he gives forth living water and he is the source of true light.
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Another reference described the scene. There was not a courtyard in Jerusalem that did not reflect the light of the house of water drawing.
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This light was to symbolize the shekinah glory of God or the very presence of God that had led the children of Israel through their 40 -year wilderness journey from Egypt to the promised land.
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When Jesus declared, I am the light of the world, he was asserting that he is not only the true source of God's life -giving water to the world, just as God had provided water for the
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Israelites, Jesus is also the true light of the world, the true and full realization of the shekinah glory of God, the very presence of God in their midst, the pillar of light that led the children of Israel through the wilderness onto their land of rest, the promised land.
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And so the Lord Jesus has tied himself to this feast which celebrated these
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Old Testament events which he is declaring actually foreshadowed and foretold of him and now he is the realization of it all, the reality of it all and he is declaring himself even at the end of this festival to these
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Jewish people in the temple. I thought I would pull out a brief description of how
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God led the children of Israel in the wilderness through this shekinah glory, Exodus 40, 34 and following, then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, the glory of the
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Lord filled the tabernacle, see that was a visible presence of God with Israel, and Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting because the cloud rested above it and the glory of the
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Lord filled the tabernacle. Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would go onward in all their journey, but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not journey until the day that it was taken up, and this way they were following God to the wilderness, he was leading them to their land of rest, the land of Canaan.
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For the cloud of the Lord was above the tabernacle by day and fire was over it by night in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys, in other words throughout the 40 years of wilderness wanderings.
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And so in this immediate context of John 7, and then here in chapter 8,
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Jesus is shown to be the true and realization of those types is the formal name that describes those
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Old Testament events and festivals that pointed to the reality.
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So Jesus Christ is the anti -type and the
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Shekinah glory was the type that looked forward to the anti -type Jesus and the water that God provided was the type and Jesus Christ is the realization, the anti -type and everything in the
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Old Testament was typical or showed forth in type the reality which is in Jesus Christ.
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And so when we also take into consideration John 6, you recall that lengthy discourse where Jesus presents himself as the true bread from heaven, not that bread that God gave
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Israel during the 40 year wilderness wandering.
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We have three parallels set forth here in John's Gospel tying the Lord Jesus to be the true realization of all that God had prefigured and displayed to Israel in the wilderness.
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He's the true bread, he's the true source of water giving the Holy Spirit and he's also the true light of the world who guides his people onto their promised destination, the land of rest,
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Canaan, as the Lord Jesus is leading us to our heavenly Canaan, heaven and the new heavens and the new
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Jerusalem. And so as one wrote, yet just as the reference to the water in chapter 7 seems to point us back to the rock in the wilderness rather than to the pouring of water from the golden pitcher, so the light may refer us to the pillar of fire in the wilderness.
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We have noted the reference to the manna in chapter 6 so that in three successive chapters the wilderness imagery seems consistently used to illustrate aspects of Jesus' person and work.
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That's amazing when you think about how the Holy Spirit moved John to record these things and the manner that he did to display and reveal
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Jesus Christ. Well, with that bit of context now we can begin to consider the declaration of Jesus in verse 12.
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Jesus spoke to them again saying, I am the light of the world, he who follows me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life.
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Now let's work through the words and phrases that Jesus spoke.
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And first, the first two words, and it's easy to pass over these as we read our
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English translation. We need to give attention to Jesus making this declaration,
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I am, and we've pointed this out in the past. This is a repeated expression that John uses in his gospel at least seven times, perhaps eight, where Jesus declared,
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I am, and then a predicate is added to that and here, I am the light of the world. This is the second of at least seven instances in John's gospel where Jesus declared,
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I am, and this is a translation of the Greek phrase, ego eimi. And ego is the personal pronoun
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I, in Greek, eimi is the verb to be, which means I am. I am, and it's a formal statement.
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It's put at the first of the sentence to give emphasis. Clearly, John was showing
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Jesus to make this claim and it's basically a claim that he is God because Jesus has identified himself with Jehovah, God, who revealed himself to Moses at the burning bush.
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When Moses asked, you know, when the Israelites asked, who sent me to deliver them, Jesus, or rather God in the burning bush,
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Jehovah, who was Jesus as well, declared, you tell them I am sent you.
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And when Jesus said, I am the light of life, he's making that claim that he is God in the flesh.
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The Bible clearly teaches the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ and it's here.
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And we can read back in Exodus 3 of that event. We're not going to do so.
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We've done it already and we're going to come across it, you know, at least five more times in John's gospel, these declarations of I am.
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And so these expressions are universally acknowledged, recognized to be Jesus' claims to deity.
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He identified himself to Moses as I am and here Jesus Christ is claiming to be the
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I am. He is God incarnate. He's the Yahweh, which is the actual way the
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Hebrews pronounced what we say Jehovah, Yahweh of the
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Old Testament. Now secondly, let's consider the metaphor that Jesus uses of light within the
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Bible. It's a metaphor that's used in many places, many times throughout all of Scripture and I just want us to consider this metaphor of light generally and then more specifically.
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It's a very rich, of course, very frequently used metaphor. It conveys a number of ideas depending on the context in which it's used.
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And so the Old Testament God, in the Old Testament, God is presented as light to his people.
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The psalmist expressed in Psalm 27, the Lord is my light and my salvation.
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Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?
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When the people were in the presence of God whose face radiated light, Moses came into the presence of God then his face also radiated light, but they experienced the blessing of grace and peace when they were in the presence of God and they saw the light of God's countenance as it were, the kind of glory of God.
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The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you. There's the glory shining forth from the presence of God which is transformative, life -changing, life -giving.
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May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance or presence upon you and give you peace.
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And when you're in a saving relationship with God, this is the result that he bestows upon his people.
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And then in the book of Isaiah, the prophet foretold that the servant of the Lord, which is a prophecy of Jesus Christ the
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Savior, the Messiah, he would be a light to the Gentiles. God himself is a light to Israel and he promised that when he sent his
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Messiah that he would be this divine light as it were, even to the nations. And so here's a promise.
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This is actually prophetically Jesus speaking to the prophet Isaiah over 700 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
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And so it's Jesus speaking prophetically and now the Lord says, he's talking about his father, who formed me from the womb to be his servant to bring
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Jacob back to him. That would be a remnant to save them from their sin. So that Israel is gathered, for I shall be glorious in the eyes of the
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Lord. Again, this is speaking of Jesus prophetically. He himself would be glorified in his father's eyes.
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And my God shall be my strength. Indeed, he says, this is God the Father speaking to Jesus prophetically.
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It is too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob. You have done this, but the
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Father is basically saying, that's not enough, you deserve much more than that in taking your kingdom.
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And to restore the preserved ones, a remnant of Israel, I will also give you as a light to the
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Gentiles that you should be my salvation to the ends of the earth. And you and I see the
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Lord Jesus, and he is the light of God to us Gentiles. Most of us, there's a few
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Jewish people here, but most of us Gentiles, even at the other side of the world, we are the realization of this promise of the
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Father to his servant's son 700 years before Jesus was even born.
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And so here the Messiah is said to be the light of God's salvation, revealed both to Israel as well as the
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Gentile world. The Old Testament declares the word of God, the Holy Scriptures, to be the light shining forth, to give guidance to his people.
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Your word is a lamp to my feet. See, it gives light to the path right in front of you, it directs the way you should go.
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A light to my path, I've sworn and confirmed, I'll keep your righteous judgments, I will follow you.
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Proverbs 6 reads similarly, that his word is a lamp that gives forth light, in other words, guidance in the way that his people should walk.
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And this is a father speaking to his son, my son, keep your father's command, do not forsake the law of your mother, bind them continually upon your heart, tie them around your neck, when you roam they shall lead you, when you sleep they shall keep you, when you awake they will speak with you for the commandment, this is the
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Scripture, the commandment is a lamp, and the law is a light, reproofs of instruction are the way of life, and so the word of God, the
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Scriptures, are what God uses to lead and guide his people, as they read them, believe them, and obey them.
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The metaphor of light is also found frequently in the New Testament. God is light in 1
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John 1, 5, this is the message we have heard from him, and declare to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.
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The Lord Jesus declared that his followers, his disciples were the light of the world, because they would go forth and reveal who
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God is, who Christ is, and the Apostle Paul described Christians as lights in the world.
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We reveal the light, true light to others, they see the light through us, just as the water of the
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Holy Spirit comes forth from us, and life goes forth to others, in the same way light comes to us, and we show forth this light or knowledge of Jesus Christ to others, and they also come to see that and believe.
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As we look to the Gospel of John itself, this is not the only place, John 8, 12, in which
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Jesus Christ is associated with light. In the prologue to the Gospel, back in John chapter 1, we read, in him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
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The sinful world didn't recognize Jesus to be God incarnate.
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In the same prologue, John the Baptist is described in relation to the light. He was not that light.
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John the Baptist wasn't, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
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And so the light of Jesus is shown to every man. The problem is, is man spiritually blind, he doesn't see it, is what the
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Scriptures reveal, declare. And so we read in John 3, this is the condemnation, lights come into the world, men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.
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For everyone practicing evil hates the light, does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
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But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done, or wrought by God, or that God had done them actually.
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So if we were to summarize how the Word of God uses the term light as a metaphor, consider this summary. And I found a couple of these lists.
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Apart from natural phenomena, light is used in Scripture of A, the glory of God's dwelling place, B, the nature of God, C, the impartiality of God, D, the favor of God, or of an influential man, he's light,
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E, God as the illuminator of his people, F, and I emboldened and highlighted this one, the
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Lord Jesus as the illuminator of men. And you'll notice the references to John here, including
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John 8, verse 12. Here, this writer is saying when
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Jesus says, I am the light, in John 8, verse 12, it's speaking specifically about Jesus being the illuminator of people of who
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God truly is and what he's like. I won't read those others. And then I came across another list because I found a
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Puritan I'd never heard of before and he wrote a wonderful book back in the 1700s entitled
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Christ All in All. And he wrote a chapter based on John 8, verse 12,
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Christ the Light. And here he talked about the metaphor light and how it's put forth in the
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Scriptures or these things carry some resemblance or application or reference to light.
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The word of God, the ministers of God, for regenerate men, now they're true
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Christians, for the state of conversion coming into light, for prosperity and comfort experiencing light, for deliverance from trouble, for all the outward good that we might enjoy, for the glory of heaven, for knowledge, and that's an important one, the light of God oftentimes is the knowledge of God and his will, for God's special favor, for posterity, your offspring, for God himself, and then here was the reference, for Christ, so this is used in this text,
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John 8, verse 12. And that was from a Ralph Robinson back in the 17th century.
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740 pages on Christ, all in all, it's all in Old English where the S are S's, you know, and it took me a while to sort through that and translate it.
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Peter also used the metaphor of light to suggest a clear path that the Holy Scriptures revealed Jesus Christ to us.
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The Holy Scriptures is likened unto a light. Jesus is the light who leads us, the Holy Scriptures is light that leads us in the will and way of God.
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And so Peter wrote, we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed, as a light that shines in a dark place.
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He's talking about the Bible, the Holy Scriptures, shining in this dark world which instructs us in the way we are to go.
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A light that shines in a dark place, and how long is this light of the Scriptures to guide us and govern us and direct us?
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Until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. In other words, until Jesus comes.
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That's how long the Scriptures have authority over us. Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is by any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the
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Holy Spirit. And so the Scriptures are described by this metaphor of light.
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But where Peter wrote of giving heed to the Holy Scriptures, Jesus Christ exhorted people to give heed to him.
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And we would of course argue that's one and the same thing, isn't it? Again, Jesus said,
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I am the light of the world, he who follows me. That's an interesting expression or description.
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They not only see him, but they follow him. Shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.
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To follow Jesus in this context speaks about believing in him, but also suggests the idea of following him, following Jesus.
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The children of Israel followed the Shekinah glory through the wilderness, and we are to follow the
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Lord Jesus as he directs us through this dark wilderness of this world unto our promised glory.
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And then, as one pointed out, by the way, we should not overlook the present participle, follows. It's expressed in Greek as a present participle, to show or emphasize the idea of continuous following.
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And that's what Jesus is saying. He who continually follows me is going to experience life, blessed life in this world and eternal life in the world thereafter.
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And so we are to follow Jesus as he leads us through life in this world characterized by spiritual darkness.
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There may also be the suggestion that the time is urgent if Jesus as the light is seen to be passing by.
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Here we are in this dark world, and all of a sudden the Holy Spirit lets you see the light of Jesus Christ as he's presented in the
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Scriptures. You better join him and those following him and follow behind because he's passing by.
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Don't let him pass you by and leave you in darkness. He's coming by now as your opportunity.
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You better take advantage of it or the consequences are quite serious. And so we're to follow him as he leads through life in this world characterized by spiritual darkness.
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And there's a time of urgency. Stay close to that light. Follow that light because again to fail to do so one would soon find himself once again overtaken by darkness, error, ignorance, sin, damnation.
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Now let's consider in our Lord's words the metaphor of darkness briefly. The metaphor of light cannot be fully appreciated unless it's contrasted with its opposite, that being darkness.
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For even though Jesus declared he is the light of the world, he mentioned it in the context of a dark world.
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Again we read, Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.
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Darkness is a metaphor that depicts lifelessness, aimlessness, confusion, deception, and evil.
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Light dispels darkness in that light produces life, gives clear direction to the aimless, clarity of understanding to the confused, truth to the deceived, exposure of evil by the appearance or presence of that which is good.
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And so the only certain remedy of darkness is light, and Jesus Christ is that light revealed in the
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Scriptures. And so only Jesus Christ can illuminate our darkened souls to the truth of who
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God is, what God would have us believe, and how God would have us live. Jesus Christ is the light of the world.
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This is what he declared. And so if we fail to believe or even follow
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Jesus by looking to him and his word to direct us on what we are to believe and how we are to live, we will be overtaken by darkness, even though we may have walked a while with some benefit of the light that illuminated our path for a while.
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And I could cite instances of people who seem to have seen and believed on Jesus and it appeared for a while that they were following Jesus, walking in the light, but then they gave off, for whatever reason, attending to the things of Christ, attending to the word of God, attending with the people of God, to hear the word of God reinforced.
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And before long, it would seem that they were overtaken in darkness and they came to a place as if they had never been influenced or affected by the word, by Christ himself.
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And so there's a warning here. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you, is what
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Jesus declares in another place. And we'll deal with that when we arrive at John chapter 12.
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If you have some understanding given you right now of who Jesus is and that you are to believe on him and follow him, it's imperative that you immediately order your life accordingly.
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Because if you fail to do so, you may be interested and concerned right now because of the work, the blessed work and influence of the
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Holy Spirit on your life. Next Sunday, you may not be. You can grow cold and indifferent and hardened so easily.
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The light's passing through and we're to latch ourselves on and follow him, as it were.
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And so let's consider the significance of Jesus identifying himself as the light of the world. We've already stated the metaphor
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Jesus used is an allusion to the light, the shenaglory of God that led the children of Israel through the desert into the promised land.
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And our Lord, notice, identifies himself here as the light of the world.
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There's a universal meaning and application here. Whereas the shenaglory in the days of Israel and Moses led
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Israel through the wilderness. That was for national Israel. Here our Lord declared that he was the light of the world.
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He is the savior of all mankind. That see him as light and believe on him.
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As one wrote, an older, well not all that old, a Lutheran commentator who died back in the middle of the 20th century, the absolute mastery of expression used by Jesus must not escape us.
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Words are so few, so simple in themselves, in such a lucid combination to express reality so profound, so exalted, so heavenly that our minds stagger in the effort to comprehend them.
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God who is life and light sent his son Jesus as the source of light and life to all the world to fill each individual soul with truth, holiness, and blessedness and thus to give it life eternal.
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Note the universality in the light of the world combined with the personal individuality in the singular, he that follows me.
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Both reach out to the universe of men far beyond the bounds of national Judaism. When we visualize the lowly
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Jesus in the temple court uttering these words, astonishment overcomes us.
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But 2 ,000 years of Christianity have verified these words in millions of individuals in all the world.
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And so there's a universalizing here of the ministry and mission of Jesus. And the world, again, is set apart.
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It's really the anti -type of the wilderness in the Old Testament, the type. The world in which we live is a desert wilderness, a barren place which is unable to sustain true spiritual life.
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It's a metaphor for a spiritual wasteland, the wilderness. There is no food or water.
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And in this fallen world, there's no spiritual water to encourage us and invigorate us or spiritual food to feed us in our spiritual life apart from what
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God gives us through Jesus Christ. The world is a foreboding place in which people wander about lost and in derision for they don't see the way to go, the way to travel safely through and out of the wilderness of the world into a place of pleasant and eternal existence and security.
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But Jesus Christ is as this great light moving through the world. And as people who are in darkness see the light coming near them, they begin to follow it, follow
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Him. And in doing so, He gives them understanding of who God is and His ways and enables
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His people to proceed in the way that He leads them. As one expressed it, this was
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Lenski too I guess, like the pillar in the desert, that would be the pillar of fire by night, cloud by day, like the pillar in the desert,
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Jesus is the light of the world must be followed, He that follows me. While actual outward attachment is meant, even as many at that time followed
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Jesus about and kept His company as much as possible, following Jesus here as elsewhere in the gospel means permanent spiritual attachment.
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Of its own accord, this gracious gift of God, this light, shines into the world's night. It is glorious, saving radiance, attracts all whom it meets and draws them to remain with this light.
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Everyone who yields to this drawing power shall not walk in darkness, shall escape from its deadly power, shall no longer be lost, eventually to perish in the world's desert.
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This negation, however, and its individual formulation intimate that some whom the light reaches and begins to draw to itself will turn from it and prefer darkness.
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Chapter 3, verse 20. This is the tragedy that's connected with the coming of the light. Yet the positive,
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He that follows me, intimates also that some will truly follow Jesus and the effect shall be that each of these shall have the light of life.
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And so often, in the words of Jesus, the positive is not made the mere counterpart of the negative.
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Jesus says more than that. He shall walk in the light. To be sure,
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He shall do this too. But He shall do it because this light shall actually penetrate Him and shall become
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His personal possession. This is another case where the figure used is really inadequate to express the spiritual reality.
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It only approximates the spiritual reality. Natural light never becomes part of our inner being.
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It only shines outwardly and round about us. Jesus, the light of the world, shall do far more.
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It enlightens your very self. And so we see
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Jesus as the light of the world in this dark world. I wanted to spend more time giving details in some of Ralph Robinson's book.
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I didn't do so. I actually made some copies of his notes and put it in an appendix. If you care to refer to it later, it's at the back of your notes.
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Now let's in the time we have remaining consider the challengers to Jesus and His defense before them.
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This is quite interesting. We read in verse 13, the Pharisees therefore said to Him, You bear witness of Yourself.
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Your witness is not true. They're really not saying that Your witness is false.
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That's not the issue. So after the Lord Jesus made this claim before the people while standing in the court of the women of the temple, that's the treasury, the
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Pharisees sought to discredit His claim. And this is the most direct challenge that they have posed to Jesus thus far in the
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Gospel. There's been a gradual escalation of hostility in John's Gospel, as one wrote.
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The exchange of responses begin with the rejoiner of the Pharisees who become in this
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Gospel professional antagonists of Jesus. While they have normally plotted against Him silently, spoken about Him to each other, or even spoken about Him but not to Him while in His presence, here the
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Pharisees confront Him directly. And you can see an escalation taking place.
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It's interesting, they did not attempt to refute what Jesus declared. That is, they did not charge Him directly with teaching something false.
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That's not what they were saying. Rather they sought to discredit His witness by saying it was illegitimate or invalid.
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We don't have to believe it because it's not valid. They didn't try and disprove
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His claim, they just said we don't have to believe it because it wasn't a valid witness.
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And so this effort of the Pharisees was really a legal challenge to Jesus and His legitimacy for making such a claim.
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And they call upon the law of God to argue their point. The law of Moses required at least two witnesses in a court case in order to substantiate a claim.
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And here, to them, Jesus was just one witness and therefore whatever He said we don't have to give any regard to at all.
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It wasn't legitimate. It's just one witness. And so they were attempting to delegitimize our
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Lord's witness on this ground before the crowd. They were basically claiming no one had to give any regard to His claim because it was not validated by two witnesses as one described it.
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The leaders of the opposition to Jesus are the Pharisees. They do not address themselves to the main question.
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Indeed, they do not speak of light and darkness at all. Typically, they fasten on a legal technicality.
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Jesus' buried witness is not true. This does not necessarily mean that it's false.
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It means it's not valid. It has no legal worth. There is no reason to accept it.
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The Pharisees' reaction to Jesus' claim to be light is at base the answer men always make when they do not wish to be convinced.
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I do not see it that way. Yesterday morning down in the food and clothes closet we take about 10 minutes and speak to the people.
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There were probably close to 100 people there. They come in Saturday of every month.
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I never prepare ahead of time so in about 60 seconds before I stand up I'm trying,
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Lord, what do you want me to say to these people? I thought, well, tomorrow is Mother's Day. I know what
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I'll do. I said a few words about Mother's Day and then I talked about how there are some, particularly
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Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholicism that promote Mary as Jesus in an unhealthy way. And I went ahead and declared she's not the
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Queen of Heaven. She wasn't born without sin. She doesn't forgive sin. She certainly doesn't hear your prayer. A woman shot up her hand.
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Why? She wanted to ask me a question right then and I'll answer your question afterwards.
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So I spoke to her probably for five minutes or so afterwards and she was a very vehement, very strong, convinced
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Catholic. I tried to appeal to her. You know, Scriptures don't teach that. We don't really pray to Mary.
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We just pray that she would pray for us and that kind of stuff. It was clear that she had no intention of receiving anything
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I had to say. And so she was trying to dismiss and discredit what I was saying on illegitimate grounds.
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But there was no teachableness whatsoever on her part. I just tried to emphasize if it's not in the
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Bible, if it's not in the Scriptures, it's not binding. And so, you know, we smiled at one another as we concluded, but we didn't really accomplish much at the time.
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Well basically, you know, the truth is self -evident is what
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Jesus is declaring. And so this one commentator said, the evidence is not sufficient to establish the claim, but light establishes itself.
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You know? Basically you don't prove the light by arguments, but the light proves itself by shining.
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And that's what Jesus was doing of course. Light must always be accepted for itself, and that notwithstanding the objections of the blind.
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And that's what these men were. They were blind. Finding some, what they thought was a scriptural legal argument to disavow what
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Jesus' claim was. But the Lord insisted that His witness was valid and true.
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Verse 14, Jesus answered and said to them, even if I bear witness of myself, my witness is true, for I know where I came from, where I am going, but you do not know where I come from and where I am going.
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And so He claimed to have inside information that they weren't privy to. Now, if you find an infidel, a hardened unbeliever who knows his
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Bible, he might take this verse and throw it at you and show how it conflicts with what
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Jesus said on an earlier occasion. And so Jesus' words here need to be reconciled with what
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He declared earlier. Back in chapter 5, we read our Lord stating, if I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.
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And here He says, even if I bear witness of myself, my witness is true. And if somebody wanted, you know, nailed you with that, how would you respond?
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It looks like a very clear conflict here. However, we need to understand the context in which our
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Lord spoke these words. Back in John 5, 31, our Lord was simply acknowledging that His witness needed additional support before it could be regarded as valid by those who heard
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Him. He recognized that. There He was asserting the legal principle.
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They were now arguing, however, in John 8, 14, what was legitimate in John 5, 31 was not legitimate here.
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Here He claims that His witness is indeed valid. I'm authoritative witness and it's true because I know where I came from.
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You don't know where I came from. And besides, I've got the Father who's with me all the time who is asserting the same thing.
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There's two witnesses here making this declaration, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness.
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And so in the present passage, Jesus has made two points. He has two points to make.
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The one, He is qualified to bear witness though His enemies are not. And the other, that in any case,
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His testimony is not unsupported. The Father bears witness of Him. And so here
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Jesus is contrasting Himself with the Pharisees. He knows both their origin and destination, but they know neither.
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They are not in a position to comment on His witness. They are totally unaware of the great heavenly verities or truths.
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Our Lord then declared in verse 15, You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one. Jesus stated,
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They were in no way qualified to pass judgment on His claim. I am the light of the world. Now, we're probably accustomed to think of the term flesh as sinful flesh.
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We think of Paul when he talks about flesh. And when Jesus here said, You judge according to the flesh,
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He wasn't saying that they were judging according to sin. He was just simply saying that they were judging only as human beings are capable of doing, which is finite, limited, and therefore is not qualified to make these kinds of judgments rightly.
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And so here the word flesh does not carry the nuance of being sinful. The idea is that it's limited.
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You judge according to the flesh. You're clueless. You don't have the context. You don't have any way of knowing.
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And again, the way Jesus is interacting with the Pharisees, it's like a legal argument within a court.
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And this comment or this commentator attempts to bring this out by using a couple legal words.
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Jesus continues His surrejoinder by expressing again the paradox of His authoritative function.
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Even though He's already stated He is the judge and will say much, as much in the verse to follow, verse 16,
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Jesus here claims what might seem contradictory. I'm not judging anyone. The explanation must be found in the contrast.
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You judge according to the flesh. Judgment according to the flesh is a reference to the limited perspective of the person who judges.
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This is the only time in the gospel this term is used as a qualifier. In this gospel, flesh is not evil, but limited and is to be contrasted with that from above.
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The judgment of Jesus then is different in kind, not in degree, but kind from the judgment of the
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Pharisees. You're judging according to flesh. You have no capability. You have no context.
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You have no ability to assess and critique and dismiss what I'm saying.
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My witness is valid because I know where I've come from and where I'm going and besides my father standing here testifying the same thing with me.
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That's the gist of it. And so the Lord makes a declaration and then he discredits them for trying to discredit him.
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And then Jesus declared in verses 16 and 17, And yet if I do judge, my judgment is true, for I'm not alone, but I am with the
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Father who sent me. In his divine nature, he's with the Father. There's a connection.
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There's a fellowship. There's with one another that was never severed even in his human nature.
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It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. I am one who bears witness of myself and the
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Father who sent me bears witness of me. And so here our Lord declared that there were two witnesses after all, himself and his father.
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And therefore his claim is indeed valid. He was not out of order in what he had asserted. He is the light of the world.
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And these Jewish leaders, Jesus appeared to be his own in their eyes. But this was not the case.
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His father was with him always. They stood together. And then of course this claim brought forth an expected question from the
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Pharisees. Verse 19, Then they said to him, Where is your father? And of course we know where this leads, doesn't it?
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Later on in John 8 he says, You know, you have your father the devil. One can well imagine the reaction then when he told these
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Pharisees that claim. You have your father the devil. The desires of your father you want to do.
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He was a murderer from the beginning. He does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie he speaks from his own resources.
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He is a liar, the father of it. And you are his children, your sons. And then we have the conclusion of this episode.
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It is John's explanation of where the incident had transpired. It was in the treasury of the temple.
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This would have been the court of the women. By the way, right here in the treasury they had seven, no, no, they had 13 very large offering receptacles that were each made like a large sofa, like a large ram's horn.
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And there were 13 of them and each one was designated to some specific purpose.
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And this is where Jesus had earlier seen the widow casting in her two mites in the treasury.
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Well, let's conclude here. Let's draw it all together in two minutes. As we are about to leave this place this morning let us ask ourselves this question.
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Have we been and are we truly following the Lord Jesus as the true light that God the Father has given us to lead us through this dark world?
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Is Jesus Christ your Lord? This is not to ask if you're in His house on the
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Lord's day week after week, I trust you are, but do you follow Him day by day?
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He is the light of the world, the only light that God has given us to lead us out of this wilderness world into the glorious world
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He's prepared for us. And so to follow Jesus as your light means that you've embraced
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Him in faith as your sole Savior and Lord. To follow Jesus as your light means that each day you wake up and you renew afresh your faith in Him to lead you rightly through the day.
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To order your thinking, behaving, acting, reacting according to the way that He would have you do.
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And He of course leads that, leads you through that, through the Scriptures. And so answer the question, do you see
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Jesus Christ with the eye of faith? Do you see Him as His Father sent Him into this dark world as a light to lead us onto our eternal home?
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Do you see Him before you? Do you see the others following Him, other Christians? Join yourselves to them.
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In faith purpose that Jesus Christ will be your Lord and Savior. And resolve by the mercy and grace of God to follow
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Him wherever He leads you. For you know the final destination to which He's leading His people is where you want to be.
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Out of this dark world into heavenly glory, eternal glory. And again, where and how do we discern
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Him guiding us? How do we follow Him? We don't visibly see a cloud by day and pillar of fire by night, but He's given us a much better and clearer source of instruction, that being
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His holy, authoritative, instructive Word of God, the Holy Bible. And so we close again reading
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Peter's exhortation, how the Bible is to be our light leading us day by day.
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We have the prophetic word confirmed. Would you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place.
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He's talking about the Bible. Until the day dawns, until the morning star rises in your hearts, until Jesus comes.
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Knowing this first, no prophecy of scriptures of any private interpretation, prophecy never came by the will of man.
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Scripture wasn't written because some guy wanted to sit down and write about God. But rather, holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the
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Holy Spirit. And so the Word of God is the way that Jesus shows us, leads us.
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It's the light of His Word as He's directing us as we continually follow Him.
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And follow just isn't believing who He is, but believing who He is and what
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He's doing. He's directing us as our Lord and Savior. And so in faith, we follow
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Him and we trust Him to enable us, to give us the water of life, to enable us, to feed us spiritually with Himself as we continue this pilgrimage, this journey through this world onto our heavenly rest, our heavenly
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Canaan. May the Lord help each of us do so. Amen? Let's pray. Thank You, Father, for Your Word.
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Thank You for the glorious brevity of our Lord's statements and the richness of meaning that we see in the
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Lord's words. He indeed is the light of the world. And it's our desire our
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God to follow Him. May You give us grace to do so, our Lord. And even as we watch one another and as some perhaps stumble and fall, give us grace that we can help one another,
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Lord, as we join together in this wonderful pilgrimage journey of Your people through this dark wilderness world.
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May Christ be glorified in our midst. May we see Him more clearly, our God, as our Lord and Savior.
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As we go forth from this place, let us follow Him each day this week. For we ask in Jesus' name.