“Light in the Darkness” – FBC Morning Light (10/31/2024)

Well a good Thursday morning to you. Today we're focusing our attention in the Gospel of John, reading John chapter 8 verse 12 through the end of chapter 10. And what I want us to see in this passage is a statement that Jesus makes in John 8 12, which then receives some interesting illustration later on in our reading.

In verse 12 Jesus says, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life. Now what's interesting here is that Jesus says that if you're not following Jesus, if you're not following him, you're walking in darkness.

Why is it that in this fallen world in which we live, there just seems to be a total lack of what we would call common sense in certain things. Why is it that people don't see how messed up it is to do all this stuff to transition little girls to try to make them little boys and vice versa?

Why is it that many people don't see the nuttiness of that, or to allow biological men to compete in girls sports? Why is it that people don't understand how egregious this is to take the life of a baby in the womb?

Why is it that people just can look at that and say that this is nothing but a glob of tissue that's being removed? Why can't they see? Why can't they see? Why is it that we can't see, and in this fallen world, the reality behind so much corruption, crime, and so on and so forth?

Why? Why is it that there is such a problem in inner cities with fatherless homes? On and on we can go throughout the culture and society and the world in which we live, where people just don't see. Why is that?

Because without the light of Christ to show reality as it is, to give insight into the deep things of this world and the root causes of things in this world, men just go on in darkness and they keep throwing solutions at problems where they don't see the real root of the problem, and the solutions never work.

They just don't work. They might provide a patch, they might be a band-aid for a while, but in time it doesn't work. So what is it that we need? We need Christ, the light of the world. Now he gives an illustration of this, a living vivid object lesson, if you will, in chapter 9, where there's this man who is blind from birth, and the disciples say, oh Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind, and Jesus said neither this man nor his parents, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.

And so then in verse 5, Jesus says, as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. And then he takes some clay, spits on the ground some dust, and makes clay with the dirt, and he anoints the eyes of the blind man with the clay, and he tells him to go wash in the pool of Siloam.

He went and washed, and he came back seeing. Jesus is the light of the world. Jesus is the solution to the blindness of man's eyes. This is the object lesson, this is the point. And then the response to that by the Pharisees is not to say, wow, the light of the world is here, and so now blind eyes can be made to see, and the darkness that's enshrouded the minds and hearts of people is going to be lifted through Messiah.

No, that's not what they say. They want to excommunicate the man that was born blind, and now sees because he speaks favorably of Jesus. And then eventually Jesus finds this guy again, and he says to him in verse 35 of chapter 9, he says to the man, do you believe in the Son of God?

And the man answered and said, who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him? Jesus said to him, you have both seen him because the light has come, and it has opened your blind eyes, and it is he who is talking with you.

And the man said, Lord, I believe, and he worshipped him. There's the living object lesson of what Jesus means when he says, I am the light of the world. I remove the scales of blindness from a person's eyes so that spiritually he can see who Jesus really is, and put his faith and trust in him, and worship him, and find in him the answer to the sin problem that plagues the society.

Well, I trust the Lord has opened your blind eyes, and that you see clearly who he is. You're trusting in him today. Our Father and our God, we thank you for the Lord Jesus. Thank you that he does indeed open blind eyes.

Thank you that he is the light of the world. And I pray, Father, that those who are walking in darkness, many, many of those who are walking in darkness, would have their eyes open to see the light of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, have a good rest of your Thursday, and the Lord bless you in it.