I Am The Light Of The World

Thank you so much for being here everyone this morning, especially to our covenant members here at 12 five

This is a time where we get to gather together with the Saints, right? This is out of obedience to our

Lord that said hey don't neglect the gathering together of the Saints We gather to fulfill the one and others to love one another to serve one another

To spur one another on to love and good works And so thank you so much for being here as we worship our sovereign

Try you try you and God together and if you're a guest or a regular attender We just want you to know that you too are welcome

If you've not had a chance, please fill out one of our connect cards and tell us how we can pray for you

Tell us if you have any questions because we'd really like to get to know you and tell you more about our church family

And so with that being said our prayer this morning for all of us together is that we would be in reverence and all of the triune

God, amen Well before we start our service like we do every Lord's Day We want to pray for a local church and so that church this morning is

Mount Zion So if you would please join me in prayer Heavenly Father you are holy and we revere your name above all else

So we thank you for this this Lord's Day where we get to worship you in song and in prayer and the preaching of the word

And God we lift up Mount Zion Church God. We just pray for their leadership We pray that you would set them apart

God that they would be bold and stand flat -footed on your word and declare your truth Because God it is your truth that sanctifies your body.

And so Lord we pray for the leadership. We pray that The Saints would gather together and fulfill the one another's at Mount Zion and God We just pray for opportunities to be able to help come in come along and be a partner of this gospel church

Lord We love you and pray all these things in your name Jesus. Amen All right. Well, if you would please stand for our call to worship

This is a time where we get to engage and declare the truths of God Together and so our call to worship comes from the

Prophet Isaiah Where the Prophet says arise shine for your light has come

Glory of the Lord has risen upon you For behold darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the people's the

Lord will rise upon you and his glory will be seen upon you and Nations shall come to your light

And Kings to the brightness of your rising Lift up your eyes all around and see they all gather together.

They come to you Sons shall come from afar and your daughters shall be carried on the hip

The Sun shall be no more your light by day nor for brightness shall the moon give you light

But the Lord will be your everlasting light Your son shall no more go down nor your moon withdraw itself

And all God's people said Amen well now let's go to to our great

God in prayer as a corporate body revering his name on high. Let's pray Heavenly Father.

We thank you once again to be able to worship this Lord's Day God I pray that you would remove all distractions from our our minds

God that we would be focused on Praising you focused on giving you proper worship

God every week We get beaten up by the world this present evil age

God sin is always lurking around every corner with temptation And so God, I just prayed that our hearts would be filled with your spirit this morning that we would look to you

Jesus the author and the perfecter of our faith. I pray these things in your name I More than I've asked for and more than I'm worth grace on top of great house we the sound

But now found came down grace rescued me

Yeah, I am free from my sin and penalty

That's across you took my place with your grace on top of Grace on top of In the sake of your glory

Grace on top Sing it with me

But now

I came down and grace rescued me

And how sweet the sound But now found

I am free from my sin and penalty

That's across you Say We won't fear the night

We will walk the valley With you by our side. You will go before us.

You will lead the way We have found a refuge Only you can say

With joy now How God is for us the father's love is a strong and mighty fortress

Raise your voice down. No love is greater who can stand against us

Beyond Can separate us hell and death will not

Defeat us he who gave his son to free us holds me

Neither Hell Joy now how

God is for us the father's love is a strong and mighty fortress

Voice now Can stand against Me Our scripture reading comes from Isaiah chapter 9

Where we read the people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light Those who dwell in a land of deep darkness on them has light shown you have multiplied the nation you have increased its joy

They receive before you with joy at the harvest as they are glad when they divide the spoil

For the yoke of his burden and the chaff for his shoulder and the rod of his oppressor you have broken on the day of Midian for every poor boot of the tramping warrior in battle to molt and Every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire for to us a

Child is born to us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful counselor mighty

God everlasting father and the prince of peace of this increase his government and of the peace will be with no end and on the throne of David and over his kingdom to Establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore

The zeal of the the Lord of hosts will do this Let's now go to the

Lord of prayer of holding fast to our assurance But also confessing to him our need for him moment by moment and day by day.

Let's pray Heavenly father we are a broken people God every day we sin against you

God God we sin against one another and ultimately we sin against you God and we need your grace your grace upon grace

God, please be with us because even though we are broken We can look to Jesus who is the author and the perfect of our faith and he is our wonderful counselor our mighty

God who is Perfectly will save God. Please give us assurance in these things

Please renew our hearts with truth truth knowing that we can rest in your finished work

Lord, we love you. I pray once again as we continue on through the service God that you would remove distractions

So God, please help us to know that God you are faithful and just to always forgive us of our sin

Lord, we love you pray this in your name Jesus There is perfect love

Comfort in your tears rest here in his one dress

Know the goodness the goodness of Jesus Satisfied he is all that I need

May it be come what may that I rest all my days in the goodness of Jesus What this world cannot offer

Come and find your joy here complete Taste the living water

Never thirst again Rest here in his one dress

Sing it out church The goodness the goodness of Jesus Satisfied he is all that I need

May it be come what may that I rest all my days in the goodness of Jesus Good this morning then find your hope now in Jesus He is all he said it would be

Grace is overflowing From the savior's heart rest here in his one dress

Know the goodness sing it out The goodness the goodness of Jesus Satisfied he is all that I need

May it be come what may That I rest all my days in the goodness of Jesus Is Satisfied he is all that I need

Of Jesus He is my light my strength my song

This cornerstone This solid ground

Firm through the fiercest drought and storm

What hides above? One dance of peace when fears are stilled

And strivings cease my Here in the love of Christ alone

Took on flesh fullness of healing helpless pain this gift of love and righteousness

Yes Scorned by the ones he came to save till on that cross

As Jesus died The wrath of every sin

On him was laid Here in the Darkness slain ♪

From the grave He rose again ♪ And as He stands in victory ♪

The deuce has lost its grip on me ♪

For I am His ♪ And He is my precious blood ♪

Built in life ♪ No fear in death ♪ This is the power of Christ in me ♪

From life's first cry ♪ To final breath ♪

Jesus commands my destiny ♪

No power else I'll stand ♪

Calls me home ♪ Here in the power of Christ I'll stand

Amen, thank you Jesus so much, Father, Lord, for this worship this morning, Jesus. No power in hell could ever pluck us from your hand.

What truth, Lord, and what glory there is to know and to live in that, to live in you,

Lord, until you return or call us home. Father, I'm so grateful for that, and I'm so thankful that you saved me,

Lord. Lord, I pray this morning as we continue with our service this morning,

Lord, I just pray that you would, Lord, just be with the, be with the word as it's preached this morning,

Lord. I pray that you would just anoint Pastor Keith and anoint every word that he has to say, Lord. Give him, give him clarity, give him boldness,

Lord, to preach your truths. Lord, I pray that you would all just bless this offering this morning.

Lord, we love you. We praise you. We ask all these things in Christ's name and Jesus' name and all of God's people said.

Good morning, everyone. I want the record to show that the offering is still being, being taken up.

So the sermon has not started yet. You know, every church kind of has their own sayings about different things.

And for all the new members, I thought I'd just take a few minutes to kind of bring you up to speed on a, on a saying that you've might've heard during a sermon.

Typically, if the pastor's up here and he says he's about to land the plane or if he's looking for the runway, that means he's about or he's trying to end the sermon.

And that's just kind of something that's been thrown around 12 -5 church. Well, last week,

I was accused of not even looking for the runway, okay?

But that wasn't true at all, okay? I had the runway in sight.

The control tower had not given me clearance to land, okay? But I talked to the control tower this morning and I was assured that the runway would be clear when

I got there, so. But I do have an announcement. We have some things going on in the church and it's nothing really to be concerned about.

But we believe we're going to need to have a business meeting next week and it kind of has something to do with the budget.

And we're kind of wanting to see if everything works out the way we think it's going to. And if it does, it's kind of, we need to be kind of acting a little quick.

So I'm just making the announcements because we have to give a 7 -day notice on all business meetings.

It will be short if we have a business meeting. It'll be more of an information. There will be a vote.

And as it being a business meeting, it needs to be members only, of course.

But we're still going to try real hard to make it as short as we can so we can still have some sermon discussion.

So I wanted everybody to know that, okay? Well, we're in the second of the

Great I Am Statements, which this week is I Am the Bread of Life. If you remember last week, we were talking about,

I mean, I'm sorry, I Am the Light of the World. Last week, we were in I Am the Bread of Life.

And this is the series, Who Do You Say That I Am? And, you know, this question has been asked and debated countless times and in myriad of places over the last 2 ,000 plus years.

And the different answers and beliefs actually exceeds the number of years that it's been asked.

But I think one of the most discerning answers to this question, who do you say that I am, comes from C .S.

Lewis. And let me read what he said, and I'm paraphrasing just a little bit. If there was a person who was merely a man and said the things that Jesus said and claimed the things

Jesus claimed, he would be considered either a madman or the devil himself.

He went on to say, you must make your choice. Either he was and he is the Son of God, or he was a madman or something worse.

You can shut him up as a fool. You can kill him as a demon or fall at his feet and worship him.

But let's not come up with this patronizing nonsense about him being a great moral teacher.

He did not leave that open to us, and he did not even intend to. And we'll see some of that today in the sermon.

And what C .S. is telling us is there's no open options to who

Jesus was. There's A and there's B, and there's nothing in between.

Either he is and was the Son of God, or he wasn't. And you can't choose or blend anything together.

That's the only option that's open to us in Scripture, and we have to rest on that. So as I said, today we're talking about the second great

I am statement of Jesus Christ, found in the Gospel of John. I am the light of the world.

If you would pray with me, please. Father, we're just so thankful that your word is clear, that it's not ambiguous, that we can rest on your truth.

And Father, how you speak so boldly of who Jesus Christ is.

Father, open our eyes today. Let your light shine in the darkness.

I pray this in Christ's name. So if you'd like, please go ahead and turn to John chapter 7.

We're going to be starting in there today. I'm going to do a quick run -through of this chapter. I want to kind of bring everything into context of what we're going to be talking about because a lot of it kind of goes back to what we're told in this chapter.

Then we'll switch over to chapter 8 where our text is today. But, you know, if you remember last week, we saw this rise and beginning of the conflict between Jesus and who

John calls the Jews. And I told you that when he uses this moniker, the

Jews, he's not only talking about the Hebrews, he's also and specifically including the religious elite of the day, chief priests,

Pharisees, scribes, Sadducees, the Sanhedrin. It could be any number of these present when he talks about the

Jews. But he tells us that these Jews went from persecuting Jesus because he healed on the

Sabbath day to wanting to kill him because he made a statement that indicated that he was equal to God.

And this week, we are going to see, and this is my first bullet point of the day, is the conflict is building with the

Jews. So look in chapter 7, verse 1 and 2, it says, after this, Jesus went about in Galilee.

If you remember, we were in Capernaum last week on the Sea of Galilee. And now it tells us that Jesus is still in the same area because he would not go into Judea because the

Jews were seeking to kill him. Now, the Jews' Feast of Booths was at hand.

So his brother said to him, leave here and go to Judea that your disciples also may see the works that you are doing.

So it's telling that this is the time of the Feast of Booths. You might have heard it called the Feast of Tabernacles.

And this feast, from what I studied, lasted eight days. His brother wanted him to go up so his disciples that were in Jerusalem could hear his teaching.

But he does not go, it goes on to tell us. It says that his brothers went ahead and Jesus remained.

But he didn't remain for long because it goes on to tell us that he ends up going to the feast, not publicly, but privately.

That means that he wasn't making a grand entrance as a son of God. If you'll look down in verse 14, it says, about the middle of the feast, so this is probably day four or five,

Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. The Jews marveled, saying, how is it that this man has learning, for he has never studied?

So some of these religious leaders, along with the normal Hebrews, are marveling at what Jesus is saying.

They're saying, how can he know this? He hasn't had the formal training that the Pharisees and the others would have had.

Well, little did they know, he wrote the book. So, but anyways, so he tells them though, he tells them, this teaching is not mine, it is him who sent me, it is from God.

This isn't my teaching, this is his. Now, look down in verse 29, I know him for I come from him, this is

Jesus talking, and he sent me. So they were seeking to arrest him.

But no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. Yet many of the people believed in him.

They said, when the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?

The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and the

Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. So it's telling them, because of this teaching that Jesus is doing, many come to believe in him.

And they make this statement, and don't think this is a statement that they're wondering if the Christ is coming. This is kind of rhetorical.

When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man? What they're saying is, how can somebody else come and do more signs than Christ?

They believe in him, and they believe this is the Christ that's in front of them.

And of course, the Pharisees hear this crowd, the ones that believe, muttering these things.

And so they send these officers of the court to arrest them.

The soldiers of the temple, I believe, is what this is talking about. If you look down in 37, on the last day of the feast, the great day.

Now, this is important. This is the last day of the feast. They call it the great day for a reason.

There are actually two ceremonies that take place on this great day. The first one, and this might not be the official title, but I found several, but it was termed the pouring out of water.

There would be a great procession where they go down to the pool of Siloam, they get these pitchers of water, they take it back up to the temple, and they pour it out on the altar.

And this is signifying God pouring out salvation. So this is one of the great ceremonies that took place on this great day.

And most scholars believe that this is what took place while this was happening.

Jesus stood up and cried out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture says, said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

Now, he said this about the spirit, whom those who believed in him, talking about those that believe in him, were to receive, talking about in the future.

For as yet the spirit had not been given. Why? Because Jesus was not yet glorified.

So it tells us, these people that believed in him, they didn't have the

Holy Spirit. Now, don't think that the Holy Spirit is not working. They just haven't received it yet because his body had not been glorified.

Now, then in the scriptures, it talks about they start arguing among themselves. Is this the

Christ or is this a prophet? And it says, some wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

So then look down in 45. The officers then came to the chief priest and Pharisees who said to them, why did you not bring him?

They sent them to arrest Jesus, but they come back empty -handed. And they're sitting there wondering, we told you to bring him here, why didn't you arrest him?

And the officers answered, no one ever spoke like this man.

Think of this, these are the officers of the temple. They've heard the Pharisees, the Sanhedrin.

They've heard all these guys speak and preach on the Bible, and talk about it, and expand on it.

And what did they say? No one has ever spoke like this man.

And so the Pharisees can't let this lay. They answer them, have you also been deceived?

They're saying to these chief priests, so are you like this common rabble out there that you've also been deceived?

Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? What they're saying, hey, look at us. None of us have believed in him.

Why in the world are you doing it? And like, we haven't given you permission to believe in him yet. But this crowd does not know.

I mean, but this crowd that does not know the law is accursed. So he's saying the only reason they believe in him isn't because they know the law, it's because they're accursed.

Nicodemus, and we should know who that is, had gone to him before, and who was one of them said to them, does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?

So here's somebody that's trying to speak a little bit of logic, be rational about this whole thing, and say, hey, look, we have laws about this.

We need to follow our own laws. And so what does all the other Pharisees do? They replied, are you from Galilee too?

I mean, they're trash -talking Nicodemus. Say, are you from Galilee too? Search the scriptures and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.

I mean, they're not even going to come close to considering that this could be the Christ because they're even throwing that way out the window, but they're saying, hey, this guy is from Galilee.

There's no way he can even be a prophet. He's just an ordinary man. So this brings me to my second bullet point, which is the context is in the timing.

The context is in the timing. We see that this is the great day. It's the last day of the feast of the tabernacle.

On that day in the evening, they had another ceremony that took place, and it was called the illumination of the temple.

And it took place in what was called the court of the women, which is also where the treasury was located.

And it was a spectacular celebration, both in its concept and in its observance.

For this celebration, they would set up four gigantic torches or candelabras.

Some accounts say that these torches were as high as the walls of the temple. And on top of these golden candelabras were bowls.

On each one were bowls holding 17 gallons of oil each. Now, I said there was some accounts where it was as high as the wall of the temples.

Josephus tells us that those walls were close to 100 cubits high. So if you've ever been out to Riceland Foods and you see the head houses on those grain buildings, 100 cubits high, 150 feet.

So they would light these wicks in the evening, and these great flames would jump out of these four torches.

And it said you could see Jerusalem from miles away, the glow over the city.

They said in most of Jerusalem, the courtyards of the homes didn't even need lights or lamps during the night because this light from the torches were so bright.

What this ceremony was celebrating was a great pillar of fire that led the people of Israel as they traveled through the wilderness coming out of Egypt to Canaan.

It symbolized the Shekinah glory of God. And Exodus tells us a little bit about this.

In Exodus 13, and they moved on from Succoth, this is the Hebrews as they're leaving

Egypt, and encamped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness. And the

Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light that they may travel by day and by night.

The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of cloud, I mean, pillar of fire by night did not depart from the people.

They're going from Egypt, which is a symbol of the world in Scripture. They're going through the wilderness to Canaan, the promised land.

They're going to heaven through the wilderness, and the Lord did not depart from them.

What a picture of what the Lord Jesus Christ does for us when he takes us out of the world and he leads us into heaven.

Now, I want you to look down now in John 8. I want to point something out. This is where our

Scripture is going to be, but we're going to be a little bit lower. I want you to look down in 820, verse 20.

It says, these words he spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple.

And we're about to get to these words he spoke. So, we find Jesus addressing the

Jews, the religious leaders in the treasury where these four great torches are, and it's the day after this magnificent celebration.

This is the timing of Jesus Christ, and how impeccable could it be?

This is the third billet point, is the claim, sorry, the claim that Jesus is making, and we're in John 8, 12.

Again, Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world.

I mean, this claim that Jesus is making, it must have shocked the

Pharisees and the chief priests at more than just one level, at multiple levels.

I mean, one level is, during this time in the lives of Israel, the most eminent of rabbis would bestow on themselves an honorary title, and there was two of them.

One was they called themselves the lamp of the universe, and the other was the light of the world.

And see, what they were doing is they're giving themselves this esteemed position of having an elevated sense of all that is spiritual, all that is from God.

But now, here's this man from Galilee standing before them, giving himself the same title, indicating that he is the one that knows everything.

But there's even more levels, and there's actually three just in this saying, this

I am, the light of the world. I mean, when Jesus makes this claim that I am, he was claiming just in that statement that he was co -equal with God.

It's in all of his I am statements. It's in multiple scriptures, which we will get to through this series.

He is, in fact, saying what God says to Moses, I am that I am.

So, in this Septuagint, the Hebrew phrase for I am is rendered in the

Greek as ego, I me. Okay, now,

I hope I got that right. I talked to some of the Greek freaks in here that's taken this Greek class, and there was a little bit of disagreement.

So, if I got it wrong, Adam and Dalton, I'm sorry I tried. But it's spelled

E -G -O, and then the next word is E -I -M -I. And this is the same word as I said.

It's the same phrase that's used in multiple other scriptures. One is John 8, 18. It says,

I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the father who sent me bears witness about me.

And then in John 8, 24, I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.

Now, this I am he has another word attached to it. So, it's just a little bit different in Greek.

But if you'll look in the Greek English lexicon, it states that the preferable translation of this is actually,

I and the father are one. I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I and the father are one, you will die in your sins.

So, the next level is the light, the third level. And this is the chief focus of this statement, the theme of it.

And it is used as an actual light. It is referring to actual light, but it's also a metaphor.

That's a metaphor resembling holiness and righteousness. And one of the earliest accounts in Scripture of the actual light is one

I just read a minute ago, talking about the pillar of fire to lead the Israelites at night.

Several of the others are Psalm 104, 1 and 2. Bless the

Lord, O my soul. O Lord, my God, you are very great. You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering yourself with light as a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent.

In James 117, he tells us, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of lights, in whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

He's talking about several things here. His light is so pure that there's no shadow in it at all.

There's no change in it at all. It's nothing but pure light.

And this is directly in reference back to one of the foundational truths I talked about at the first of last week's sermon.

I am that I am. God is immutable. There is no change in him at all.

I am who I am, and I will always be who I am, is one of the things he's communicating.

1 Timothy 6 .16, who alone has immortality who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see?

This light is so perfect, so bright, so intense, so overwhelming that nobody can even approach it.

But this is not all Jesus is claiming when he uses this word light. He's not just claiming that he's co -equal with God.

He's also claiming that he is the light. And this is what the prophets spoke of in the

Old Testament. In Isaiah 9 .2, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

Those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness, on them a light has shown.

Isaiah 42, 6 and 7, I am the Lord. This is

God speaking. I have called you, he's talking about Jesus, in righteousness.

I will take you by the hand and keep you. I will give you as a covenant to the people as what?

A light unto the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison who sit in darkness.

And how appropriate it is for somebody in darkness to follow the light.

Isaiah 49, 5 and 6, this is Jesus talking now. He who formed me from the womb to be his servant, his incarnation, to bring back

Jacob or bring Jacob back to him that Israel might be gathered to him.

For I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has become my strength.

Now, it switches over to God talking. He says, it is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and bring back the preserved of Israel.

What God is saying is, you are too worthy, you are too precious, indescribable of who you are.

And it is too small of a thing for you just to go to Israel. It's too light of a thing.

He goes on to say, I will make you as a light for the nations, not just Israel, for the

Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. Now, I want to point out a little phrase back up there where it says, the preserved of Israel.

I don't think I have to go very deep, but there is part of Israel that's preserved. It doesn't say all of Israel, the preserved of Israel.

And I'll just let that hang a little bit. But these are just a few examples. But they give an example of exactly what

Jesus was stating, what he was saying. At the least, Jesus was claiming to be

God. But choosing this moment during the Feast of the Tabernacles, right after the illumination of the temple, to make this claim, he was identifying self as the

Lord that led Israel through the wilderness. This cloud sheathed the fire that was at the heart and was visible at night.

This was but a shadow of who Christ was going to be. When the

Lord came to earth, when he was incarnated, he sheathed his glory and flesh so that they could look on him.

Think of that picture. Matthew 17, 1 and 2, gives us an indication of this.

And after six days, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.

And he was transfigured before them. And his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.

Here we see another indication, white light, pure light, glory. This is the divine glory of Jesus Christ that he's giving them a sense of, a visual picture of.

And this transfigured is actually where we get our word.

The Greek is where we get our word metamorphosis. It's a change.

It says a change in appearance or a change in nature. He's given them a picture of his glory.

Jesus is stating, I am the light of the world. I am the

Shekinah glory. It was I who guided you in the wilderness. It was

I who provided light in the darkness. It was I who enveloped the tabernacle.

It was I who came into the temple at its dedication and filled it with glory.

He was claiming, I am the Messiah, who is the light to break the darkness, to open the eyes of the blind, and to bring salvation.

Jesus was saying, I am the only light of truth as opposed to the darkness of lies.

He was claiming, I am the only light of wisdom as opposed to the darkness of ignorance.

He was claiming to be the only light of righteousness as opposed to the darkness of sin.

And he was stating that he was the only light of life as opposed to the darkness of death.

This is who Jesus was claiming to be. But there's a fourth level that they would have understood, and that's the term, the world.

He says, I am the light of the world. Now, many will take this word, world, which is actually used 77 times somewhat in the

Gospel of John, and say, oh, he's talking about everybody. This is universalism. God came to save all mankind, is what they'll say.

But we know this cannot be true. And the Greek word here for world is cosmos.

And John uses it multiple times in multiple different ways. So how do we know how he's using it?

Well, as many like to say, context is king. Context is the key. You have to look at the surrounding verses.

What is he saying about this? What is Jesus saying about this term, the world?

And then you can go look at other scriptures that will match what he's saying. And that's what I'm going to do here, go back to Isaiah 49.

For I will make you as a light for the nations. He goes on to say that,

I am bringing salvation for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.

And they knew what he was saying, because he isn't saying, I am the light of Israel, or I am the light of the

Hebrews. He's talking about the elect of the Gentiles. He's also a light for them.

And what torqued them off so much about this? He was ruining their little monopoly that they had going on in Israel.

They were not fulfilling the Lord's purpose and will for them. They had their own little, as I've called it, a cash cow, fiefdom going on of Judaism.

And they couldn't stand the thought that it was going outside of their boundaries. That is what had them so wound up, these four different things.

So considering the timing of such a powerful ritual, during the feast of the tabernacle, after the illumination of the temple, this must have come to stunning force with them.

But he doesn't let it just hang in the air. He makes a declaration.

And this is another cause and effect. Whoever follows me, there's the cause.

If you follow Jesus, the effect of that, you will never walk in darkness, but have the light of life.

So this even gives some context back to this word, world, that's used.

He's not saying, if you're a Hebrew and follow me, whoever follows me. So this brings me to the fourth bullet point.

And that is the cause is following Jesus. He says, whoever follows me, that's the cause.

Now, in the Greek, this word has two meanings. One of them is just following somebody like the crowds did

Jesus just from place to place as he went along. But in the context of this verse, what it means is it's referring to complete submission, submission to our

Lord and Savior. It is belief. It is faith in Jesus Christ.

It's becoming a true disciple. It's not just walking with him.

It's walking in him. It's abiding in him. It's having the

Holy Spirit in your life leading you through sanctification. It's your life.

You know, we talked in Ephesians about the first three chapters was doctrine. And then the last three chapters was how to you live according to this doctrine.

That's what it's talking about here. But this verb is also in the present tense, which means it's continual.

It's not just a one -time occurrence. It isn't just something that happens and we're going to go merrily on with our lives.

It is a continuation of this life. It's a transformation of your life.

It's a change in direction of your life. Jesus is leading the way with his life and his witness.

We follow him according to his character and his revelation. So this brings us to the question of the day.

Are you following Jesus because you are in Christ? Is that the reason you're following him?

Or are you just with Jesus? If you remember at the end of last week's sermon, the very last verse was talking about these disciples.

And you may remember that they no longer found it beneficial to be with Christ anymore.

They said, these are hard sayings that he's saying. I mean, they went against everything that they had been taught.

It no longer what he was saying matched what they thought or the way they wanted to live.

And it stated that many of them turned back and were no longer with him because they weren't following him.

They were just with him. Now, there's a truth I don't want us to miss about following Jesus Christ.

And that is you do not follow Jesus just with your words. It's just not something you speak about.

It's how you live your life. It's your actions. And we'll get a little personal.

You know, many find it easy just like these disciples that were just following him around.

Many find it easy to follow Jesus when they walk through those doors. Oh, it's easy while we're at church.

But what about when you're at home? What about when you're at your workplace and all your work buddies are around you and they're not acting like they should?

What about when you're at the ball game, hanging with your friends? How about when you're at the deer cabin?

Are you following Jesus when you're on your device? Ouch. Your iPad, your computer.

Do you follow Jesus with your money? How you give your money?

How you spend your money? You know, there's an old saying I remember from a long time ago that said, if you want to really know somebody's true priorities in their life, just look at their checkbook.

Look at their credit card statement. So, in light of these questions, temporarily, for this sermon,

I'm going to change the series title from, Who Do You Say That I Am? To, How Do You Follow Me?

Because that's what Jesus is really asking us, isn't it? How have I affected your life?

How do you follow me? So, you might ask, Keith, what does it really, really mean to follow

Jesus? Well, it's quite simple. I mean, scripture tells us over and over. It's having a holy living on an individual level.

It's striving to have the character of Jesus Christ, modeling his character traits in our life, no matter where we are, no matter who we were with, and no matter the circumstances.

And I believe there's no better section of scripture that models Jesus' character traits than the

Beatitudes. So, if you would, please turn to Matthew 5. We're going to be beginning in verse 3.

I'm hoping you can keep up, but I'm going to do a lot of paraphrasing. I'll give you some prior warning before I start going through this.

But in verse 3, Jesus starts out by saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, the humble, those that are in spiritual poverty.

The world reveres those that are proud, haughty, self -reliant, and self -righteous.

Jesus tells us that blessed are those who mourn, are repentant, grieve for the lost, and have sorrow over sin.

The world promotes those that elevate sin, celebrates evil, and ignores the destitute.

Jesus claims blessed are the meek, those that are gentle, submissive, quiet, willing to sacrifice for others.

The world praises those that are haughty, self -important, independent, self -serving, materialistic, and seek power.

Jesus says blessed those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those that are obedient, those that honor and glorify

God, those that are spiritually hungry. The world lifts up those who gratify their own lusts, celebrate their own ego, their own accomplishments, and promote their own truth.

Jesus assures us that blessed are the merciful, those who give of themselves, those who love others, those that are charitable and forgiving.

The world esteems the critical, the spiteful, gossips, those who are vengeful, cruel, and resentful.

Jesus affirms that blessed are the pure in heart, those who strive to be holy, try to live a pure life, are honorable and devoted to him.

The world pays homage to the self -reliant, the indulgent, the self -righteous, those who are woke and those who take pleasure in their own sin.

Jesus proclaims blessed are the peacemakers, the righteous, those who strive for goodness and are wise.

The world looks up to those who are self -seeking, self -serving, argumentative, are aggressive, cause trouble, and are corrupt.

Jesus attests that blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for doing what is good and right in the eyes of God.

The world honors those that do the persecuting. What a world we live in and how dark it is.

Jesus goes on in verse 13 to say, You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?

It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.

He goes on to say in verse 14, You are the light of the world.

We've gone from Jesus to proclaiming that he is the light of the world and now he's telling these

Israelites, You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand and it gives light to all the house, all in the house.

In the same way, now I'm about to make a little insert there, this is a Keith insert.

In the same way, as you follow me, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your

Father who is in heaven. Here we have another cause and effect. You let your light shine, it's a cause and how is it going to affect?

Others are going to give glory to your Father who is in heaven. You see in these verse,

Jesus in the Beatitudes, he's blessing the character traits that the world does not think is worthy to be honored and praised.

And we know, we've seen what the world glorifies. They glorify status. They glorify power, political clout, money, position, athletic talent, being able to act, talent to be able to act.

That's what they lift up and revere. But now Jesus turns it around on its head as he's talking to these

Israelites. Now, this is the common people of Israel. And this is also the Jews that are here.

He is saying, you are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

Can you imagine the force that hit them when he said this? You are the light of the world.

They must have been shocked. I mean, the common people must have thought, how in the world can we be the light of the world?

How can we be that? When the Jews were probably thinking, how in the world can they be that?

How can they be the light of the world? That must have been what they were thinking.

But there's a truth about spiritual light. It always reveals what is hiding in the darkness.

Where the light shines, evil is noticeable. It makes it stand out.

It reveals what is wrong. It reveals what is evil. It reveals what is false.

And it produces what is righteous and true. Christ is the true light.

And we are to be reflections of him as we follow him.

That is how we are the light of the world, is by reflecting his light.

God sheds his light on the world through the followers of Jesus Christ.

I can't tell you how profound this is. God sheds his light on the world through the followers of Jesus Christ, through the body of the church, through his bride.

This is what verse 16 is telling us. Let our light shine before others so that they may see our good works and give glory to the fathers in heaven.

This is what it means to follow Jesus. Now, there's a fact

I want us to understand concerning light. Ever since creation, darkness can only dwell where the light has vacated.

Darkness can only dwell where the light has vacated. In the absence of light, that is all that permits darkness.

Let your light shine. John 8, 12. I'll repeat this. Again, Jesus spoke to them,

I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but have the light of light.

And I can't leave it out. One of my favorite verses in the Bible. I've quoted this many times.

Ephesians 5a. How applicable it is here. For at one time you were darkness.

And I'll give the spill. It doesn't say you were in darkness, of darkness, following darkness, around darkness.

It says you were darkness. But now, that's almost as good as but God, Nathan.

It's close. But now, you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.

Jesus speaks through this verse. Follow me. This is what he's saying.

Now, the final bullet point is the crisis of spiritual blindness. Or actually, spiritual darkness.

John 8, 13. So the Pharisees said to him, here's the Jews. They got to speak up.

You are bearing witness about yourself. Your testimony is not true. That's what they're saying. They're questioning the authority of Jesus.

How can he make such a claim? And they're not grumbling now, as we saw before.

Now, they're calling Jesus a bold -faced liar. That's what they're doing. You lie. There's no truth in you.

There is no truth about you. You do not have the truth, is what they're saying. And it's evident from their statement that these

Pharisees, these religious leaders, they didn't know Jesus. They didn't know who he was.

They didn't want to know who he was. And it was because of their blindness.

This is why Jesus calls them, later on, blind guides. And we'll get to that in another sermon.

It's because they were blind. They were in darkness. It was because of their intense hatred of him.

And like I said before, it's because they threatened their cash cow. They had their own little kingdom going.

It was because they could not know Jesus. We talked about this at length last week.

2 Corinthians 4, 3 and 4. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.

In their case, the God of this world, Satan, blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

They could not understand or receive God's testimony concerning his son,

Jesus Christ. They didn't have the ability to because the God of this world had blinded them.

They couldn't see the light of the gospel. The result of their darkened blind hearts and their intense hatred would drive them to rid themselves and Israel of the

Messiah. And that's precisely what they're plotting and scheming to do.

That's what we see. Their actions stemming from their dark hearts, their hearts of stone, their hearts of unbelief, their hearts of legalism would eventually lead our

Savior to the cross. Jesus standing right in front of them, right after this unbelievable celebration, claiming these words of truth.

John in his first chapter, verse 5, says it like it is. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Again, I quote Pink. The world is charged with ignorance, but Israel with unbelief.

With their positive refusal of him, instead of welcoming the heavenly visitant, they drove him from the door and even banished him from the earth.

Banished him from the earth. In the end, these blind guides rids themselves of Jesus.

We know that. And we'll get there. Or so they thought. Or so they thought.

I can imagine. Can't you? Jesus is hanging on the cross. They're patting themselves on the back.

Look at what we've done. We finally got rid of this Galilean. He's not going to be any trouble anymore.

We've saved Judaism. We've saved this kingdom that we've built for ourselves.

We have saved Israel. But little did they realize, the three days hence from their little celebration of their victory over this

Galilean, the grave would burst open and history would change forever.

It was their actions and the Father's will that would force the world throughout history to answer the question, who do you say that I am?

Isaiah 60, 1 -4. Arise, shine, for your light has come.

And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness the peoples.

But the Lord will arise on you, and his glory will be seen upon you.

Lift up your eyes all around and see. Have your eyes been opened today?

Can you see who Jesus really was and is and what he accomplished on the cross?

Has the Lord replaced your heart of stone with a heart of flesh and given you faith in Jesus Christ?

If so, please come talk to Pastor Nathan, Pastor Jeremiah, or myself after the service today.

And we'd be glad to discuss these things with you. So we pray, please.

Father, Lord in heaven, we are so thankful for your presence in our lives.

We are so thankful that you have sanctified us, Lord. That you lead us in following you.

That we don't have to do it in our own strength, but we can do it through your strength. That we can be in you and abide with you because what you did on the cross.

Thank you now in Christ's name. Amen. So this brings us to the

Lord's table today. We come to the table so we can be remembrance of him who died for our sake.

It's a picture of his eternal love for us. So that we can remember our union with him and each other's as members of his covenant.

This is a time to love our Savior and to feed spiritually on him.

Who is the bread of our life and who is the light of our life.

Now I want to remind all that this is a sacred time. This is an ordinance of the church.

It's for believers who have rested all their hope in Jesus Christ. So if you do not know

Christ as your Lord and Savior, we ask that you refrain from coming to the table.

We encourage those that are believers to check your heart. Look at your heart.

Examine your heart so that you may partake in a worthy manner. If your heart is not right, then we ask you please do not come to the table until you can freely partake in a worthy manner.

Now as always what we'll do is we'll divide the room about in half. And everybody on this side will come to the outside of the table.

Same over here and then you'll return in the middle if you would. So let us pray.

Father in heaven we bow our heads. We bow them in reverence and respect for you.

We bow them in reverence of the person of Jesus Christ. We are so thankful.

We just want to thank you for the words of Christ. And today for the cross of Christ.

Today we come not in our own righteousness but in your many and great mercies.

Amen. The Lord Jesus Christ on the night when he was betrayed took bread.

And when he had given thanks he broke it and said this is my body which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. And in the same way he also took the cup saying that this cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink in remembrance of me. Come to the table.