Blinded By The Light - [John 8:12-20]

I really, I have to confess, I did want to teach Sunday school this morning. We're going to be, in the weeks to come, I would encourage you to come, we're going to be talking about such light topics as racism, segregation, slavery, whether the Bible supports those or not.

Really, really interesting as I've been looking into that. But I would invite you this morning to open up your Bibles to the 8th chapter of John as I continue to teach through that gospel, written so that we might know that Jesus is the Christ and believing in him have eternal life.

The Light of the World and the Problem of Spiritual Blindness

John chapter 8, verse 12 will be where we begin, but, you know, I've told this story upon occasion, but it's so good I couldn't resist to tell it again. I was working a day shift in a little town called Lockheed out of Flintridge, and there's this huge thoroughfare that goes right through town.

I mean, there's a freeway, but then there's a road, Foothill Boulevard, and it is three lanes in each direction, and I'm like, out here, that definitely is a freeway. Out there, it's just, you know, a side street.

But I'm just driving along, and I see this car, and it's just, like, going so slow. This is a 45-mile-an-hour zone, and here it is just kind of 20 miles an hour. So I pull up next to the car. There's a woman driving, and no reflection on women.

She's got the newspaper open like this. She can hardly see out of the front of the vehicle. So I pull her over. I said, ma 'am, you know, can I see your license, registration, proof of insurance? She hands them to me.

She goes, what did I do wrong? And I said, ma 'am, you're reading the Los Angeles Times. And she says, yes, but I was driving very slowly, and I said, ma 'am, the Los Angeles Times is not safe at any speed.

Listen, there are some things that are so obvious, there shouldn't have to be laws, right? Well, the legislature immediately passed a law saying you could not read the newspaper while driving. But, you know, what do we have now?

We have laws that say you can't text and drive. Gee, I don't see the problem with that. Oh, yeah, I need a hand for the steering wheel, you know. How about, you know, no driving while both feet are hanging out the window?

I mean, there are some things that should not take a law for people to figure out, right? Some things that are blatantly obvious, and yet people do them. I mean, the number of things, you know, I mean, I could regale you with story after story, but that's not the point.

The point is people do things that are obviously foolish. It's clear what should be done, and they don't do it. They should be able to see a danger, and they don't. People can be willfully blind to danger, to situations, all manner of things.

Let's again start with John chapter 8, verses 12 to 20. We're going to be talking about a different kind of blindness, spiritual blindness this morning. John chapter 8. 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. So the Pharisee said to him, you are bearing witness about yourself. Your testimony is not true. Jesus answered, even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true.

For I know where I come, where I came from, and where I am going. But you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true.

For it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. In your law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.

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. 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. So now to kind of set the context a little bit, I want to go back to the beginning of chapter 7. You don't have to turn there. I'm just going to briefly run through it.

At the beginning of chapter 7, we would know that it is the time of the festival of booze or tabernacles. This is a time of great celebration. It is a time of reflection and just really remembering the goodness of Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel, as he guarded, protected, fed, and sheltered the people of Israel for 40 years as they wandered through the wilderness after they got out of Egypt, out of slavery in Egypt.

And I mean, that's worthy of celebration, right? You're delivered from Egypt. You go out in the wilderness. You spend 40 years out there and God feeds you. And so they had this huge festival where people would come in from throughout Israel and beyond.

Every Jew would come in. It wasn't mandatory, but it was just a time you did not want to miss. They would set up these little booths, not like we would think of a booth, but just kind of a lean-to, a tent made with branches, leaves, whatever was available, and you just took shelter there.

It was just for a few days in a slightly more hospitable climate than we have currently, you know, a little warmer. And they would basically just camp for a week and they would have all these processions around the temple and through the temple and great festivals of light and celebrations of water and just all kinds of things going on because this was a time to reflect on the goodness and the faithfulness of the Lord.

So Jesus, like every other observant Jew, was anticipated or was expected to go to Jerusalem, and his brothers said to him, you know, let's go. Let's go together. Let's go now and let's all go with all of our friends and we'll just go down to Jerusalem.

Jesus knew something his brothers did not know, and that was that the leaders of the Jewish sect, the Pharisees, were out to capture him and to put him to death. So he did not go with his brothers. They went on ahead without him.

And he basically said, my time has not yet come. They go on ahead. He comes down sometime later and thereby escapes the Pharisees who were looking for him. And they don't arrest him. And then he starts appearing at the Temple Mount and teaching.

And there are these series of confrontations where he teaches and either the Sanhedrin, those are the rulers of the temple, or the Pharisees, or even the crowds get enraged at what he says. And sometimes they even go to arrest him or they call for the temple guard to come and arrest him, but every single time he doesn't get arrested.

And it's not explained how. It just says, our text tells us it was not yet time. It wasn't his time. Therefore, he didn't get seized. And this morning's passage is another one of these. This is right after the festival.

It's another one of these interactions between Jesus and the Pharisees. And this morning's text really is like, it really is kind of a trial. Jesus makes the statements and then there's an accusation and a rebuttal and a cross-examination.

And I mean, these are really two kind of legal sides going after each other. But Jesus has one huge advantage besides the fact that he's God in the flesh. He has the truth on his side. Here's the bottom line to this interaction.

Jesus is the very personification of truth. And he has come into the world. And here are these men who are supposedly masters of the truth, masters of scripture, steeped in doctrine and teaching. And they're face to face with God incarnate.

And guess what? They don't see that. They don't believe in him. They don't observe what is right before their eyes. First, let's look at Jesus' testimony, his statement there in verse 12. Again, Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world.

He is the light, singular, definite article. He doesn't say, I am a light. He is the light. A light would allow for many lights, perhaps Muhammad, perhaps Gandhi, perhaps Mary Baker Eddy, perhaps L. Ron Hubbard.

Probably not L. Ron Hubbard. The light, this is reminiscent, I mean, this is language that John has used upon occasion back in John 1, 9. He said in the kind of prologue of this gospel, he said, the true light, speaking of Jesus, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

He is, when it says that he is the light, scripture tells us that he is intrinsically, inherently true. He is the personification, as I said earlier, of truth. What he says is true. What he does is right.

He is entirely trustworthy. We can say it this way. There is no turning of shadow with the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice also that his followers will walk in the lights. Look at verse 12 again, the second half of it.

Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Again, there's a consistency of scripture. A person is wise if they know God, right? The Psalm 14 says, the fool has said in his heart, what?

There is no God. Now, that doesn't make them... Let me just... I don't want to do an exposition of Psalm 14, but when it says the fool says in his heart, there is no God, it's not talking about their intelligence.

It's talking about their spiritual condition. And this is the point. Those who know God are considered wise. You're either wise or a fool. You're either an idolater, one who worships false gods, or you worship the true God.

You're either a child of Satan or a child of God. There are no shades of gray when it comes to the Bible. And if you follow Jesus, you are no longer subject to a life of futility. That is vanity. That is emptiness.

That is a life without meaning. Why? Because you're in the truth. You're no longer searching for, stumbling around in the dark, as it were, looking for a truth outside of Jesus, because that truth does not exist.

And to search for truth outside of Christ is a complete waste of time. So that's his statement. Let's look at the cross-examination. You know, Jesus has made his opening statement, and now the lawyers, as it were, are going to go after him.

Look at verse 13. So the Pharisee said to him, you are bearing witness about yourself. Your testimony is not true. We hear what you say. We don't believe you. But there's something more to it than that.

Just think about it this way. He made an exceptional statement, that he is the light. What typically happens when he makes that kind of extraordinary statement? I'll give you a couple examples of things that typically happen in scripture.

When he meets with the Samaritan woman in the desert, and he says, you know, get me a drink of water, and she goes and she gets it. And there's a little interaction there. And he says in verse 14 of chapter 4, he says, whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.

The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water willing up to eternal life. When he talks about that kind of water, she is, of course, excited about it. She lives in the desert. She says in verse 15, the woman said to him, sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.

In other words, this will be the end of my physical problem, but that's not what he was talking about. In other words, she takes what he says in a very literal, a crassly literal sense. I want this water so that I'll never have to be thirsty again.

I'll never have to go get water again. I want that. And again, when he says that he's the bread of life in John chapter 6, how do the people respond? Verse 52, the Jews, referring to the spiritual leaders of Israel, then disputed among themselves saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat?

On the bread of life, they say, well, what's he going to do? Give us a calf, a bicep? What are we supposed to do? This doesn't make sense to us. Again, they take it in a crassly, literal manner. He was calling for full devotion, and they were wondering if he was commanding some kind of cannibalism.

So back to chapter 8, we might think that the Pharisees are going to respond in a similar way, like, OK, well, if you're the light, then why don't you just, you know, start glowing or something? Or what?

Can we get rid of our lamps now and just use you? What's the story? But they don't respond to anything like that. They don't even address his metaphor of light and darkness. They don't even talk about that.

What do they do? They go in an entirely different direction. They attack his integrity. They attack his, not just his truthfulness, but that's certainly kind of in play. But what they do is they fall back on a legal technicality.

Jesus didn't have anybody to corroborate his testimony. So by Jewish law, according to Deuteronomy, it was not admissible as evidence. You know, it's like you go after a criminal. How many times, if you guys watch cop shows, you know, the police do something slightly askew, and they throw the evidence out.

And so the criminal goes free. And so what they're saying here is, under our laws of evidence, your testimony is not admissible. You need somebody else to back up your claim. You are bearing witness about yourself.

Your very words are not objective truth. We need another witness. They're dodging the issue. They're looking for legal technicality. They're looking for a way out. They are, after all, experts on the law, so that's the recourse they take.

And isn't this typical? Think about it for a moment. Isn't this typical of what unbelievers do when they hear the truth claims of the gospel, when they hear the truth claims of Christ and you press them upon them?

What do they do? They dodge and they deflect. You say, the Bible says X, Y, or Z, and they say what? Why should I believe the Bible? It's been adulterated. It's not trustworthy. It was rewritten of the Council of Nicaea.

It was written by men. They have all kinds of excuses why they shouldn't believe the Bible, and they go right after it. Or if you ask a person if they've ever sinned, they typically will say, listen, we all make mistakes, but what?

I'm a good person. I'm better than so-and-so. I'm good enough, and God will like me. If there is a God, I'll get into heaven. I don't believe there is a God, but if there is one, I'm good enough. What happens when light enters a darkened room, the darkness flees?

And to take that metaphor and to press it into belief and unbelief, unbelievers cannot defeat the truth. They cannot hold back the light. So what do they do? They either try to avoid it. They flee, or they deny its existence, deny its applicability to them.

There is no light. You're surrounded by it. Look at what the Scripture says about your life. It doesn't apply to me. It has no basis in reality in my life. And there's another issue. Believers dodge and divert, probing questions and difficult issues.

But worse, far worse, Pastor Mike talked about this a little bit a few weeks ago. They suppress what they know to be true. They hold it down. Romans 1, verses 18 and 20. Listen, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Listen, for what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world.

In the things that have been made, so they are without excuse. Well, we talk about suppressing the truth and unrighteousness. Well, what does that mean? You know those flotation devices, the styrofoam things that we used to have?

I don't even know what they use now. Probably just plastic something, that you use to float in a swimming pool. And if you've ever been swimming with me, you understand that I need one of those deals.

But if you take one of those and you try to hold it underwater, what happens? It pops up eventually, or if you're really kind of quick, you can hold it underwater. But it takes a lot of efforts. And that's what it means to suppress the truth.

Just like when you're in the pool and you know there's something down there, and you have to struggle to kind of hold it down. It's the same for unbelievers. They have to struggle to hold down the truth about God, because it's obvious to them.

So for example, they say, well, life is random. Life is chaotic. There's no rhyme or reason to why we exist. And it doesn't really matter that you show them evidence that shows that the chance of life existing by pure random chance are almost none.

I did this thing a few weeks ago, and I talked about how there are all these possible places, Carl Sagan said, literally millions of planets throughout the universe and throughout creation that could support life, because he had this paradigm for explaining how life could come to be.

One by one, all these pillars got challenged and removed. And eventually, he had to admit that there was virtually no chance that life could exist anywhere. But that doesn't stop people from saying that, gee, aren't we lucky that life exists here?

And yet, we see all the conditions here for life, and they continue day after day. God sustains, but they don't want to acknowledge their creator. They want to suppress that truth and unrighteousness.

They'll take any excuse to deny the existence of God. It takes a lot of effort, but they'll just keep moving around, do whatever it takes. The unbeliever holds down the truth and then says, what truth?

What are you talking about? I don't see any truth. There's no truth here. All the while, just moving around, trying to keep it underwater. You can't speak to someone who says they're an atheist for two minutes without coming across this kind of attitude.

Now, again, back in John 8, Jesus makes a startling claim that he is the light of the world. And instead of evaluating, instead of looking at it in the terms that Jesus frames it, the immediate response of the Pharisees is to dismiss it, to try to drown it in a sea of legalistic wrangling.

They want to argue terms and conditions and legal qualifications. But if you recall, Nicodemus, the teacher of Israel, Pharisee, he saw these signs and what did he do? He went to Jesus because he knew the source of his power was God, but he didn't fully understand who Jesus was.

But these men here at the temple with Jesus, they wanted nothing to do with him. They weren't going to ask any questions. They weren't going to show him any respect at all. The only thing they wanted from Jesus was his death.

They were spiritually blind, but they believed themselves to be spiritually insightful. Now, just imagine for a moment, as a believer, being there in the Temple Mount, Jesus says he is the light of the world.

How exciting would that be? But if you are someone who's been holding down the truth in unrighteousness, if you've, you know, by outward actions kind of been honoring God, but your heart is far from him, as scripture would say, you hear those words and you hate them.

You're repulsed by them. For enemies of the Savior, it is a truth that must be suppressed. He is the light, but he must not be seen. So you just say, I don't see anything. That's what they were doing.

I don't see anything. Juvenile in a way. So we've seen Jesus' testimony. Second, the cross-examination by the Pharisees. And third, Jesus' defense of the truth, his defense of the truth. Here's a truism.

What's the best defense? The truth, right? If the truth is on your side, you just declare the truth. You just say it. Look at verse 14. Jesus answered, even if I do bear witness about myself, even if what you say is true, my testimony is true.

You want to know my defense against your charges? I'm telling the truth. What's the worst case scenario for Jesus? Worst case scenario, they're right. There's no one to back up his statement. He's the only one saying it.

Essentially, he says, even if the worst case scenario is true, I'm telling the truth. Now, have you ever experienced in your life, I know I have, I think we all have, being doubted? You know, and our tendency is to get kind of nervous, edgy, to get a little defensive.

But again, what's the best defense? They come at him and they're saying, you know what? We don't believe you in any event. It doesn't matter because we need a second witness to back you up. And he says, essentially, technically, you may be right, but you're still wrong.

You may be right that there is no, even if I grant you the premise that you're right, even if there is no other witness to support me, you're wrong because I'm telling the truth, but there's more than that.

He's not done. Look at verse 14 again. For I know where I come from, where I came from, and where I'm going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. This is reminiscent of a discussion from John chapter 7.

If you want to just turn back there to verse 25. Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, now these are people who lived in Jerusalem, part of the crowd. Is not this the man whom they seek to kill, they being the Pharisees?

And here he is speaking openly, and they say nothing to him. Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? Listen, but we know where this man comes from. And when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.

I talked about it months ago. Seems like it must have been months ago. They knew that he was from Galilee. And they said, listen, the Christ, the popular theology, the eschatology of the day as it were, said that nobody would know where he comes from, but that's not right.

Even if you study the Old Testament, you know that's not right. And so verse 28, he says, so Jesus proclaimed as he taught in the temple, you know me and you know where I come from, but I have not come of my own accord.

He who sent me is true and him you do not know. I know him for I come from him and he sent me. Very similar. He's saying, listen, you think you know where I come from, but I have a different origin than you acknowledge.

And in chapter 8, you can go back there. Again, he claims heavenly origin. And he says he's going back there. Well, if it didn't sit well back in chapter 7, which it didn't, they wanted to arrest him.

It wasn't going to sit well with them now in chapter 8. Jesus also emphasizes that the Pharisees don't know where he is from. In other words, they understand his claim, but they don't believe it. They have no faith in him.

And in fact, they know that he says he's from heaven, but they don't have any confidence in that. They don't believe and they want to put him to death more than ever. And that's what divine truth does to the depraved mind.

It inflames it. It drives it to violent anger. It's amazing to read the things that atheists these days are writing. They're angry. They want religion, specifically Christianity, suppressed. But isn't it amazing that two people can hear exactly the same message?

And to one, it is life-giving. It is the fragrance of life. And to another, it is the aroma of death. Two people even sitting here this morning, one person can say, that's true, I love that. The other person can say, that is so out there, I hate it.

So how can Jesus be so confident of his testimony that he is the light of the world? Well, not only because he knows it inwardly, because the truth is manifested to him, it's born to him by the spirit of God, the Holy Spirit who indwells him, but also because he is completely qualified to judge the truthfulness of his claim.

And they are not. Jesus has a perfect knowledge at this point of his heavenly mission. He knows he left the Father's side, and he knows that he will return there after his work is finished. But he's just warming up.

Not only is he perfectly qualified to determine whether or not he's telling the truth, but the Pharisees are completely unqualified. He knows where he came from, where he's going, and he's not talking about Galilee, he's not talking about Bethlehem, he's talking about he came from the Father's side and he's going back there.

But the Pharisees are completely unqualified to make such a determination. Look at verse 15. You judge according to the flesh. What does he mean? Well, they have bad motives. Ultimately, they view everything through their works-righteousness grid.

They have a religious system that they've established that they want to defend. They have reputations. And just imagine what would happen to a Pharisee if he said, you know what, I think Jesus really might be the Messiah.

I think he really might be the Christ. I think he really might be telling the truth. He'd lose everything. Lose his position, his wealth, everything that was important to him, his status. So what would we say if we were interviewing, if we were attorneys, we were interviewing jurors to sit on a jury, potential jurors, I guess, and one of them said, well, I already know that the guy's not guilty or that he is guilty.

We'd say, you're dismissed from the trial, right? Well, these guys have already determined beforehand they have a vested interest in the outcome of deciding whether Jesus is telling the truth or not, but they want to sit there and make judgment.

They have bad motives. They're judging according to the flesh. Again, this is typical of unbelievers. They have a fixed worldview that permits no room for absolute truth. They view the gospel and the truth claims of Christ as either ridiculous or irrelevant to their lives.

Why? Because they're not an honest jury. They judge according to the flesh. They have a predisposition against God. They know there is a God. They know that one day they will stand condemned before him.

Romans tells us that. They have the law of God written in their hearts. They know what right and wrong is. They have a conscience. They know when they sin, and they know a day is coming, but what do they do?

If that is a truth that doesn't fit your worldview or it's inconvenient or you don't want to stand guilty before a holy God, what do you do? You submerge that truth. You hold it down. You just hope it will drown, right?

You don't want to stand before God on judgment day. I mean, who could live with that kind of Damocles sword hanging over your head? No one. So you just say, it's not there. I don't see a sword. There's no judgment coming.

There is no God. Suppress it. Ignore it. Pretend it doesn't exist. Look right at the light and say there is no light. And not only did they have bad motives, they didn't know what they were talking about.

They were unqualified in any way to judge what the Savior said. They were going to sit in judgment of the divine. Now, this next section is a little bit difficult. Again, verse 15, the second part of it, I judge no one.

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. Well, he says first, he doesn't, you know, yet even if I do judge, he says he doesn't judge.

And then he says, yet even if I do, my judgment is true. Well, which one is it? Do you or don't you? Here's his point. He didn't come to earth to judge. He didn't come to condemn, but to save, to bring life.

Then he looks forward to that final judgment. He says, oh, someday I will. Well, I'm not judging now, not judging with an eternal judgment, but I will one day. I and the Father will judge, and it will be true.

Every verdict rendered on that day will be true. That is to say, fitting, just, and righteous, perfect. And finally, in his rebuttal to the Pharisees, Jesus takes on their allegation head on, verses 17 and 18.

In your law, again, reflecting back to Deuteronomy, I believe it's chapter 7, it is written that the testimony of two people is true. In other words, you want two witnesses. You want somebody to support my testimony.

Verse 18, I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me. I do have two witnesses. I have me, and I have my Father in heaven, the one who sent me. He bears witness about me.

Now, you know, when you're going to court, how many of you have been prosecuting attorneys? Neither have I. What do you want? You want reliability. Well, how much more reliable can you get than God the Son and God the Father?

If I was a prosecuting attorney, and I was looking down my witness list, and I thought, okay, I've got the Son of God and God the Father, I'd go, I think this is a pretty good case. I think we're going to win.

If we don't win, there's something wrong with me, which is clear. But, he says, I have two witnesses, stellar witnesses, the best witnesses, you can't get better. In other words, your objection is overruled.

Your objection is null and void. So, what do they do? Fourth point here this morning. They attack the witness. The Pharisees attack the witness. This is pretty standard, right? If the case is going against you, if you don't have the evidence to support your claims, what do you do?

You go after the witness. Look at verse 19. They said to him, therefore, where's your father? Now, when we look at that, I mean, this is one of the oldest legal tricks in the book, right? Attack the victim.

That's common. Attack the witness. This is what they do in court. If you can't refute the evidence, you go after the people. This is an ad hominem attack. Now, when you first read that, you might think, well, what they're really doing is they're going after Jesus.

They're going after the virgin birth, right? Where's your father? You know, maybe you don't have a father kind of thing, but that's not it at all. It's very simple. They say, you say your father is your supporting witness.

He's your backup. He's your verification of your statement. Well, where is he? Let us talk to him. We'd like to hear what he has to say. What does that mean? Well, essentially, it means that they're not going for the idea of Jesus being sent from heaven and the father being the sender.

Hendrickson says this. He says, the Pharisees were engaged in the most dangerous activity among men. They were hardening their hearts. Such hardening results in total blindness and ignorance. The most learned men in all of Israel, they knew the law backwards and forwards, but they're hardening their hearts against the very God that they profess to love.

Again, the light of the world was right in front of them and they could not see that truth. Some of us might wonder how it's possible that our child or our spouse could hear the gospel again and again, whether it's at church or at the dinner table, and yet not believe.

Listen, these religious leaders whose zeal for appearing spiritual had no equal were face-to-face with Jesus. They watched him. They listened to him. They marked his life and eventually seized him and put him to death.

The capacity of unsaved man to fail to hear the truth, to believe the truth, to even refuse to let it penetrate their minds and hearts is incalculable. You can't put a value on it. They can... That's just their mindset, their hearts.

And unless a child or a spouse is brought to spiritual life, is caused to be born again by the work of the Holy Spirit, he or she will not yield to Jesus any more than these Pharisees did. The natural inclination of every man, of every woman, of every child is to deny the true identity of Jesus and to refuse to receive him as Savior and to worship him as Lord.

That's the natural position. That's the default. So we've seen Jesus' testimony. We've seen the cross-examination of the Pharisees. We've seen Jesus' defense of the truth. We've seen the Pharisees attacking the witness.

And finally, we see the verdict of Jesus. First note that a lack of belief in Jesus means a lack of belief in the Father. Look at verse 19, the second half of it. Jesus answered me, or answered, you know neither me nor my Father.