Two witnesses to the truth, John 8:13-20

There are many voices calling out for attention in the church today.  And there are perhaps as many messages as there are voices.  How are we to know which are true, and which are trustworthy?  Many of them sound convincing.  Many of them claim to be based on scripture. And yet many messages are at odds with one another.  So they cannot all be true.  If some are true, then others have to be false.  The great difficulty comes in discerning which are true and which are false.

I believe that the Bible teaches us that the way to know the truth is by the leading of the Holy Spirit. When I got right with God 37 years ago in California, that was the primary thing I asked of the Lord, that I would know the truth.  And later on that evening, as I read the book of John, God showed me three passages which I believe indicated that the Holy Spirit was the source of truth, and the means by which I could know the truth.  The apostle John records Jesus as introducing the Holy Spirit specifically as the Spirit of Truth.  Listen to what Jesus says in John 14:16-17  "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;  that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”

And Jesus reiterates that in the next two chapters.  John 15:26, "When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me.”  The third is in John 16:13  "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.”

So three times Jesus gives us this phrase, the Spirit of Truth, as both a title and a description of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. So when Jesus declares this three times, we can be certain that it is an essential doctrine, and that it’s validity is without question.

Knowing that principle then helps us to understand the nature and purpose of the Holy Spirit. One of the greatest misunderstandings in Christianity today is that of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Just taking these three verses at face value, then we must recognize that the primary ministry of the Holy Spirit is to reveal to us the truth.  So many people seem to miss that altogether.  They think that the purpose of the Holy Spirit is to make us feel  something, ie, the presence of God, or to give us some emotional response or ecstatic experience.  But that simply is not taught in the Bible.  

Paul makes it clear in 1Cor. 2:11-14 that we have been given the Spirit so that we might know the things of God, through the word of God.  He says, “For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,  which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”   So we have to have the Spirit of God to understand the things of God, particularly the word of God, which of course was inspired by the Holy Spirit.

It’s also interesting that the Holy Spirit is spoken of not only as the Spirit of Truth but as the Spirit of Christ.  Look at Romans 8:9  “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”  In fact, Peter goes even further stating in 1 Peter 1:11 that the Spirit of Christ was working in the Old Testament prophets when they wrote the scriptures.

So in the Trinity, all three are one in agreement, in unity, and are the same in nature, but different only in administration.  So Jesus is the exact representation of the Father in flesh, speaking the words of the Father and doing the deeds of the Father, and the Holy Spirit is the exact representation of the Son in the Spirit, enabling us to do the deeds of Christ and to know the words of Christ, which is how we come to know God.

Now this may seem like a lengthy introduction and unrelated to the passage before us, but I believe that it is actually very pertinent to understanding today’s text as I hope to show you in due time.  Because what is at stake here is the authority and deity of Jesus Christ.  How could the Jews know for sure that what He was teaching was true?  Was His message trustworthy?  Was He claiming to be God, and was that a true teaching?

Now the Gospel of John is different from the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Even more specifically than the others, John wants to show that Jesus is the Son of God, the very God come in the flesh. In the first place, rather than starting his gospel with the birth of Christ as the other writers do, John opens his gospel with Jesus in heaven, an eternity past before His physical birth. He says, ”In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." John does not present miracles in his gospel, he has signs. That is, his miracles are intended to teach spiritual truth. He is very strategic in deciding which signs to include, and those which he does are used to point to Jesus’ divinity.  Furthermore, the book of John is characterized by the upper room discourse, in chapters 13 through 16, and then the great high priestly prayer, in chapter 17. 

But one of the primary things that characterizes the Gospel of John as different is the claim of divinity that Jesus Christ makes for Himself. They are unique in the sense that they are self-proclaimed. And that was a problem for the Jews. It was a problem because the law specified that truth cannot be established on the basis of a single testimony, but that only by the testimony of two or three witnesses may a matter be established. 

The claims of Christ are extraordinary to say the least.  The well known prophets of other religions such as Mohammed or Buddha or Confucius did not claim to be God. But Christ claimed to be God.  For example, Jesus has proclaimed in the temple, with thousands of people in attendance at the Feast of Tabernacles, three great claims equated with the pre-existent God of the Israelites.  The first statement was, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.”   

Now in that claim, Jesus is speaking at the exact moment when the priests poured water into basins which spilled down upon the altar, signifying the water which came from the rock in the wilderness when Moses struck it.  John tells us in the next verse that Jesus was speaking of the Holy Spirit who had not yet been given to those who believed.  Paul said in 1Cor. 10:4 that “all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.”  So the rock was Christ, and the water is a picture of the Holy Spirit which springs from Christ, welling up inside of the believer.  This picture of living water flowing from our innermost being is representative of the life of Christ, the power of Christ, living in us, enabling us to do the works of Christ and to understand the truth of God.

That was the reason that in the first instance of water coming from the rock, Moses was told to strike the rock, signifying that God would smite Jesus on the cross, and by His sacrifice making us holy so we are able to receive the Holy Spirit.  But 40 years later in the second occurrence of Moses smiting the rock for water he was disobedient.  Because God does not strike Jesus again and again.  He was the sacrifice for sin once on the cross, and now He ever lives to make intercession for us.  Hence, the second time Moses needed only to speak, to ask for God to give water, signifying that we have a mediator, great high priest in heaven, Jesus who is able to make intercession for us.  

So in the first statement in effect Jesus is saying that He was the Rock in the wilderness, from which the Israelites were able to drink.  And in the second statement, Jesus cries out during another ritual when the priests lit the great candelabras which lit up the courtyard and the temple during the evening, saying, “I am the light of the world, he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

In this second statement, Jesus indicates that He is the great “I Am”, the name God gave to Moses at the burning bush.  And then thirdly, He compares Himself to the pillar of fire that led and protected the Israelites as they wandered in the wilderness.  That was the significance of the ceremony during the Feast which was the context for Jesus’ proclamation.  It celebrated the light that shone above the tabernacle over the camp of the Israelites and protected them as they traveled.  And at just the moment when the priests lit the candelabras, Jesus cried out in the temple, “I am the light of the world, he who follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

So Jesus proclaims with great boldness who He is, and what His purpose is, and I’m sure the full import of what He said was not lost on His hearers, especially the Pharisees.  And yet their response was not to accept the truth of what He was saying, but to focus on a technicality.  They say, "You're bearing record of yourself. Your record therefore is not true. “  What they are really saying is, "You're not following the teaching of the law.”

In fact, Jesus Himself had stated that principle of the law, back in chapter 5 verse 31 Jesus said, "If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true." So you would think that perhaps the Pharisees have a point in their accusation. But Jesus answers them in a way that shows that while in His flesh He has submitted Himself to the Law, but in His divinity He is outside of the Law, because He is the author of the Law.

So to establish that He is outside the law, first of all He says, “Even if I testify about Myself, My testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from or where I am going.”  In other words, men are creatures of the present.  We cannot revisit the past, nor can we know the future.  That is the province of God alone.  Therefore the testimony of men is unreliable, but what Christ knew in Himself embraced the two eternities, the eternity of the past and the eternity of the future. And therefore, He knows that the things that He says are true.

Secondly He says that they may judge according to appearance or human logic.  But He does not judge by appearances or human standards. Vs.15, “You judge according to the flesh; I am not judging anyone.”  That is exactly what Jesus said in John 3:17, "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”  

But the world would in fact one day be judged by Him, because they rejected Him.  So vs 18 says,  "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”  The judgment of sin was already in place in the world.  It is only removed by Christ.  So to reject Christ is to reject forgiveness of that judgment, and thus the judgment remains upon him.  But Christ came the first time to save the world, not to judge it.  Judgment came upon the world way back in the Garden of Eden with the first Adam.  Salvation from judgment comes with the second Adam.

Not only can we say that Christ was the second Adam, but there is a sense in which Christ was the second Noah as well.  Heb.11:7 says “By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.”  Again, the condemnation of the world had already been established. The ark represented salvation for the world, but they rejected it.  The Bible says that Noah preached 120 years, and yet we have no record of his message.  His message was the living testimony of his life, and the coming destruction was foretold by the building of the ark.  So also Christ is patient, not willing for any to perish, and the gospel has been preached for 2000 years so that they who reject it are without excuse, condemning themselves to destruction.

The third argument Jesus presents to them is to say that divine testimony can only be witnessed to by a divine being.  Note vs.16 "But even if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone in it, but I and the Father who sent Me. Even in your law it has been written that the testimony of two men is true. I am He who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sent Me testifies about Me.”  So Jesus says that God the Father also testifies concerning Him. Matt.3;17 says that at the baptism of Jesus, God spoke from heaven saying, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”  Only divinity can attest to the truth of divinity.  No man was there in the beginning with God, only God was in the beginning with God.  So if we are going to know the truth about God, then God must reveal it Himself.  Finite man cannot know it, therefore he cannot attest to God’s truthfulness. 

So Jesus is saying then that God can testify about Himself, otherwise we could not come to know God.  God has to reveal knowledge of Him if we are to know Him.  Otherwise we worship Him in ignorance.  Otherwise we are left to guess how to please God.  We have to imagine what God is like or compose a picture of Him based on earthly evidence such as creation.  We can in fact learn that God must exist from observing nature, and we can ascertain certain eternal characteristics about God through nature, but we cannot know God fully as He wants to be known simply through nature.  He must reveal Himself, He must testify of Himself if we are to know Him.  And God has testified about Christ, and Christ has testified about God.  Jesus was the exact representation of God, according to Hebrews 1:3.  

One of the amazing things this passage illustrates is that although these men claimed to know God, they really did not know Him, because they did not recognize the truth about Jesus. I find this is the problem with many people today. They say they know God, but the god they believe in is a god of their own imagination. They are merely projecting an idea about God that is a fantasy of their own imagination. Consequently they do not know God at all. Neither do they worship God; they are worshiping a product of their imagination. As James said, “you say you believe in God, so what? The devil’s also believe and tremble.”  You are not saved by believing in the existence of God.  You are saved by worshipping God in the truth.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones had this to say about such people: “Their god is something which they created themselves, a being who is always prepared to oblige and excuse them. They do not worship Him with awe and respect, indeed they do not worship Him at all. They reveal that their so-called god is no god at all in their speech. For they are forever saying that "they simply cannot believe that God will punish the unrepentant sinner to all eternity, and this and that." They cannot believe that God will do so, therefore, they draw the conclusion that God does not and will not. In other words, God does what they believe he ought to do or not do. What a false and blasphemous conception of God! How utterly untrue and unworthy! Such is the new paganism of today.” That was written about 60 years ago.  How much more true it is today.

So once again, the Pharisees don’t want to acknowledge the truth of what Jesus is saying. Instead they try a personal attack to disparage His credibility.  Jesus is obviously speaking of His heavenly Father, but they try to disparage His legitimacy by bringing up the rumor of His illegitimate birth.  They are insinuating that His father in the flesh, Joseph, who was actually His step father, was not his legitimate birth father, and so then Jesus was born out of wedlock. 

Vs. 19 So they were saying to Him, "Where is Your Father?" Jesus answered, "You know neither Me nor My Father; if you knew Me, you would know My Father also.”  Now you might look at that at first and think, well now, that's an incomplete answer, He hasn't said where is His Father. He hasn't answered their question. But  He's answered the more fundamental question. He said you don't know Me because you don't know my Father. If I produced my Father you wouldn't even know him. If you had known Me, you would have known the Father. One knows the Father only as he knows the Son. There is no other way to the Father, except through the Son. The God of the Scriptures is only known through the Son. Over and over again the Bible teaches that. The Lord Jesus later on will say, after Phillip asks him, "Lord, show us the Father." He will turn to Phillip and say, "Phillip, have I been so long time with you, and yet you have not known Me? He that has seen Me has seen the Father. How then do you say, show us the Father." And then later on he will say, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through Me." It's impossible to know God except through the Son.

Now John concludes this section by saying in vs.20,  “These words He spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one seized Him, because His hour had not yet come.”  And I can’t help but think that this is the bookend of a single thread of teaching that began back in chapter 7 vs. 8  where Jesus said to His brothers, ”Go up to the feast yourselves; I do not go up to this feast because My time has not yet fully come.”  Now in chapter 8vs.20 we see that even though Jesus said all these things in the temple, in the very headquarters of those who sought to kill Him, no one laid a hand on Him because His hour had not come.  His hour speaking of course, of the hour in which He would lay down His life for the sins of the world.

And I think if you look at this section in total you will see that the theme of Jesus being sent from God, being in unity with God, presenting the truth to the world and then going back to God is consistent throughout the whole section. Implicit in this passage is the principle that God exists out of time, and Jesus being One with God, existed in eternity past, but came into time present, in order to bring the truth of salvation to the world.  Those that believe in Him, He promises to give them life, to give them the deposit of their inheritance, the Holy Spirit, and to give them all the blessings of God.  But those that reject Him remain in darkness, and as such will ensure their own destruction as they remained condemned by that rejection.  

This principle of faith in Christ revealing the  truth of God was stated in chapter  7 vs. 17 "If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.”  This is the principle that belief in Christ is self validating, when you submit your will to God, then God will reveal His will to you.  You will know the truth, when you submit to the truth that has been revealed to you. Repentance and faith leads to confirmation of the truth.

Those who claim a superficial form of Christianity would rather skip over texts like the one we have in front of us today.  Instead they would rather find a text that focuses on some benefit to us, like the power to heal, or the power to perform miracles. Let’s find something that assures us of our specialness.  Something dramatic, exciting.  The attention of  many in the church today is firmly fixed on what they suppose to be the dramatic manifestations of the Holy Spirit.  We don’t want to know God, we want to experience Him.

But if we are going to worship the Lord in Spirit and in truth, then we need to make sure that our worship is based in sound doctrine, and that our doctrine comes from the facts of the gospel which were written for our instruction.  Jesus has much to say here about who He is, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  So it behooves us to study this passage thoroughly, that we might fully know the truth of God, so that we might worship Him in Spirit and in truth, and not be led astray by a gospel which is not according to Christ, but manipulated by self serving individuals who wish to twist the gospel to serve themselves rather than serving the Lord.

As I said earlier, to judge according to appearances means to judge according to human experience.  Human experience is the fail point of much modern Christianity today.  Unfortunately doctrine has taken a secondary place to experience.  So then, what we feel, what we think, the way we determine truth, is dependent upon our human experience, our human judgment.  And from our experience, or human reasoning, we then interpret scripture or even reject scripture and  determine for ourselves what is worship or determine according to our dictates what God is like.  But that is not the pattern of the gospel and that is not what Jesus taught.  God must disclose Himself to us if we are going to know Him.  And we have to submit ourselves to His truth if we are going to be found acceptable to Him.  So all human experience must be subject to sound doctrine.  And when we believe in Him as He has declared Himself to be, then we must submit ourselves to do His will, and then we will  know the truth of God, because the Holy Spirit will lead us and guide us as we study His word.  That is the pattern of the gospel.  Only then can you know the truth that can truly make you free.  

I AM the Light of the world, John 8:12

As I get older, it seems that my eyesight has gotten a lot weaker. But I have read somewhere that it is not that your eyesight necessarily gets weaker, which makes it difficult to read, or see clearly.  But as you age, your eyes do not receive light as well.  And I know that by experience.  I can hardly read with my glasses on when I am inside and don’t have a good light to read by.  But on a bright sunny day, I can read outside without my glasses on.  

Light then, is a great metaphor for the Christian life.  Because as Jesus says in vs.12, He is the Light.  And as we receive that Light, we have the clarity to see the truth, and then to follow, or obey the truth.  And so we see that this idea of divine light is a common metaphor in the scriptures, particularly in regards to the Messiah.

The Apostle John has already introduced this idea in chapter one, in his introductory theological statement.  He says in vs.4, speaking of Christ, “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.  The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”  And in vs.9 he says, “There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.”

So as we read, Jesus confirms this idea that He is the Light by saying, “I am the Light of the world.”  And so I want to just focus on this one statement today in an effort to glean all that we can from this important principle.  

First of all, let’s consider the setting in which Jesus has made this claim.  As you will recall, the Feast of Tabernacles is going on during this time.  This was a week long celebration in Jerusalem during which everyone would live outdoors in huts that they had constructed out of leafy branches.  This was to commemorate the time when the Jews were wandering in the wilderness after God had delivered them from slavery in Egypt.  It was a time of festivities and song and ceremonies that lasted 8 days.  

In particular, there were numerous ceremonies during this feast that occurred in the temple in Jerusalem.  One such ceremony we looked at a couple of weeks ago, when the priests poured water from the pool of Siloam into a basin which ran down upon the altar, symbolizing the water which came from the rock during their sojourn.  And you will remember that at that time, Jesus stood up in the midst of that ceremony, after the trumpets had sounded and the water was gushing out upon the altar and He cried out with a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”

Then the next day, Jesus is teaching again in the temple, early in the morning, and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery.  We looked at that text last Sunday.  In today’s text, it is probably now the evening of that same day.  And as it neared dark, the priests would light these great candelabras, raising them up on pedestals and illuminate the temple court.  The white marble and gold plated walls of the  temple  would reflect this light and as the darkness settled down over the city, the temple became a shining beacon seen throughout the city in which people would gather and celebrate the feast.  From historical accounts, it was a magnificent sight, and thousands of people would be gathered there in the court celebrating together their deliverance as a nation by God.

Now the significance of lighting the candelabras around the temple was to remind them that during their time of sojourning in the wilderness, God had provided a pillar of smoke to guide them by day, and a pillar of fire to watch over them by night, for all the years that they were in the wilderness.  

The account is found in Exodus 13:21-22 “The LORD was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.  He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.” And in the next chapter it says, in Exodus 14:19-20 “The angel of God, who had been going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them.  So it came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel; and there was the cloud along with the darkness, yet it gave light at night. Thus the one did not come near the other all night.”

And then in Numbers 9, I won’t read it due to time limitations, but it says that the cloud covered the tabernacle, and during the evening a pillar of fire over it, so that when it moved, then the camp of the Israelites moved, but when it stayed in place, then the Israelites stayed where they were. The Lord directed their movements by the cloud and by the pillar of fire. 

Now that is the historical context of the ceremony for the lighting of the candelabras during the evening.  And it was at this point, perhaps at the very moment that the priests lit all the lights and the temple and courtyard were set ablaze by their glory, that Jesus stands up and declares; “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

Now there are a number of things that can be understood from that stunning proclamation.  The first thing we should point out is that this is the second “I AM” statement that the Lord makes. He has already said, "I am the bread of life." He will say in chapter 10  that “I AM the Good Shepherd" and that He gives life to the sheep. He will later on say “I AM the door, and that if men enter through him they will have everlasting life. And then He will say “I AM the resurrection and the life.” He will also say “I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life." And finally he will say “I AM the true vine.” 

All seven of those “I AM” statements would have been recognized by the Jews as a statement of deity.  It would remind them of the meeting Moses had with God at the burning bush, and when Moses asked God for His name, He said, “I AM THAT I AM.”   What that meant was that God would not allow Moses to put Him in a box.  A name in Old Testament times defined you.  But God would not allow Himself to be limited to a name.  He has many names because it takes many names to speak of the multifaceted nature of God.  

There is I think a disturbing trend among Christians today, especially in the music industry, to call God by the name of Love.  God is love.  But that is not all that God is.  And so we do Him a disservice if we limit Him by naming Him according to one characteristic while denying His other attributes. We must recognize and worship God for who He is, and not who we want Him to be.

But among the Jews, they would have recognized that “I AM” was a reference to God who spoke to Moses from the burning bush.  So it is a reference to deity.  It is interesting that the first words recorded in the Bible that God spoke was “let their be light” in Genesis 1:3.  It says in Genesis that in the beginning there was darkness, and chaos ruled over the earth.  What a picture of the world without God.  But then it says the Spirit of God moved upon the waters, and God said, “let there be light.”  That is a picture of the gospel, is it not?  The Light became the light of the world.  It’s interesting that before the sun was created, Light was given to the world.  

1John 1:5 says that God is light.  So in effect, Jesus is declaring Himself as God.  He is the Light that existed in the beginning with God and who was God.  He is the source of life which is characterized as light.  And He came down to a world in darkness and chaos and brought the light of truth.  I don’t think I should have to tell you folks here today that the world is in darkness.  The world is an evil place.  You only need to pick up a newspaper, or spend a few minutes looking at the news on television or the internet and it becomes apparent that the world is in darkness. Jesus said in John 3:19 that even though Light came into the world, men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.   

And that illustrates what John was saying in chapter 1 vs.5, “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”  Actually the word translated “comprehend” could have two meanings: 1)comprehend as in understanding the Light, or 2) comprehend might be translated as overcome.  The darkness could not overcome the Light.  In fact, we know that Light has triumphed over darkness.  We haven’t yet seen the culmination of that triumph, but the battle has already been won.  Darkness may look like it’s winning if you watch the news, but we have seen the headlines of the newspaper of the future.  God wins.  Darkness loses.  In fact, the forces of darkness are already vanquished foes.  But we still are called to stand firm and fight the good fight of faith until the Lord comes back.

Also, in His statement, Jesus is referring to the fact that He was the Light which led the Israelites out of bondage.  He was the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, and they that followed Him were led out of enslavement in Egypt to the freedom of the Promised Land.

Now the Messianic metaphor of light is readily apparent in the prophecies, found particularly in Isaiah.  In Isaiah 60:1-2 for example, speaking of the coming of the Messiah;  "Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; but the LORD will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you.”  Notice how that prophecy echoes the Genesis creation account.

And though there are many others, let’s look at Isaiah 9:1-2, which also is quoted from in Matthew 4, “ But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.  The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.”  

All of these and many more speak of the coming of the Messiah as the appearance of light shining in a dark world.  I can’t help but think in this context of the Apostle Paul, who before his conversion was known as Saul, the persecutor of Christians.  And the reason that Saul was arresting Christians and even putting them to death was because they taught that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah.  To him this was blasphemy and worthy of death.  

So it’s ironic that when God chose to reveal Himself to Saul on the road to Damascus, He did so as a flash of blinding light.  It was a light so bright that Saul became blind for three days.  God showed Saul that though he thought that he knew the truth, the fact was that he was spiritually blind.  The Lord said to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”  And Saul said, “Who are you Lord?” And the voice out of the light said, “I am Jesus who you are persecuting.” 

That conversion really illustrates the principle of the Lord as light.  The world is in darkness, the world is blind to the reality of who Jesus is, and what He came to do.  But when the light of God shines in our hearts, it illuminates the truth about Christ, that He came to save us from our sins, and it illuminates the depravity of our sins so that we recognize our need of forgiveness and our need of a Savior.

I just want to reiterate that this illumination is a sovereign act of God by which we see the truth and we see our condition.  Without God specifically shining the light in our heart, we will not be able to recognize the truth, or to know that we need to repent.  So there is a need in the new creation as it was in the old creation, for the Spirit of God to move upon the darkness and void of our souls, and shine light to illuminate the eyes of our heart, so that we might see the truth.

So Jesus is the Messianic Light of the world, the very Light of God, sent by God, so that the world might have life. And then notice the second phrase; “He who follows Me will not walk in darkness.”  Now that symbolically was represented by the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire that the Israelites followed as they wandered in the wilderness.  

But fortunately, we have a paraphrase of that statement made by Jesus Himself in chapter 12 vs 46:  Jesus says, “I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.”  So we can understand that Jesus is saying that to believe in Him is to follow Him.  You believe that He is the Light of the world, that He was in the beginning with God, and that He was God and all things were made by Him.  And if you believe that He came to the world to save the world by His atonement on the cross for our sins, then you simply follow Him, you obey Him, you cling to Him, you worship Him.  You don’t add a little Jesus to an already full life.  If you really believe He is the source of all life, the source of abundant life, then you forsake everything to follow Him.  He is the pearl of great price which you will pay anything to have.  He is the treasure in a field which finding you sell everything to buy.

It’s like the story of the fountain of youth which Ponce de Leon risked everything to find.  If you really found the fountain of youth, then nothing else is important.  You move there and live there and drink of it constantly.  As Jesus said in chapter 7, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”

I think that the problem with most people today is that they don’t really believe that Jesus is the source of life.  They may think that Jesus is an important part of life, but not the only source of life.  They see Christianity as somewhere on the lower part of the priority list.  It’s important, but not as important as my marriage, or my fiancé, or my career, or money, or sports, or whatever.  Not really.  We say He is, but our lives say otherwise. Unfortunately, we are not fooling God, but only ourselves.

And not only is He the source of life, He is the guide of life.  I think to follow Christ means to become a disciple of Christ.  The disciples left everything and followed Him.  When Jesus asked them if they too would leave Him, when the great crowd had left Him after one of His messages, Peter said, “where are we to go Lord?  For you have the words of life.”  

Jesus said in Matthew 4:4, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’”  If we truly believe that He is the source of life, then we follow Him so that we may continually eat of that spiritual food and live.  To not follow Him would be to wither away from spiritual hunger.  We follow Him because we live by His word.  His word feeds us, so that we may grow in maturity to be like Him.

But going back to the metaphor of light, we follow Him because as Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”  We will walk in the light because we walk according to the word.  We follow the light of God’s word, step by step, day by day.  This is how the Holy Spirit leads us in the paths of righteousness.  This is how we do not walk in darkness.  First of all we have the light of the Spirit of God to shine in our hearts.  And then we have the light of the Word to guide us in the truth.  As Psalm 36:9 says, “In your light we see light.”

This is the path of sanctification.  Like I have said so many times, as you are obedient to the light God has shown you, He will reveal to you more light.  You cannot understand truth and be conformed to the truth, by standing still or sitting in a monastery somewhere.  You comprehend the truth by following, obeying the truth, step by step, each flagstone of your journey another truth of God proven and made manifest by your life, by your discipleship.  

I wonder sometimes at so called Christians who I have known for 15 years or so, and they don’t seem to have matured at all.  They still hold onto weird prophesies or spiritual fantasies that they held to years before.  I wonder why they haven’t grown in their faith.  And the answer must be because they have not been obedient to the light God has shown them. They have not allowed the word of God to guide them in the truth. You cannot not grow without discipleship.  

The last phrase of Jesus’ statement we have already alluded to, but we will look at it briefly in closing; “But will have the Light of life.”  First, as I’ve already pointed out, when you believe in Christ and follow Christ, you receive Christ. Christ is the Light.  So when we believe in Him then we have the Light of Christ within us.  Then, in turn we become lights in the world.  As the moon reflects the light of the sun, so we reflect the light of Christ.  That’s what Isaiah 60 said, “Arise, shine, for your light has come.”  We shine because His Light is in us.

But having that Light in us, and then following the Light, also means that we can see clearly.  We can have discernment.  We have understanding of the word of God. John 16:13 says, ”But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.”  And in 1John 4:6 we read, “We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”  So we do not walk in darkness if in truth the Spirit of Christ lives in us. As we walk in obedience to the truth, He illumines our hearts so that we know the truth and have discernment. 

And notice He correlates that to have Light is life. “The Light of life.” The word “life” is “zoe" in the Greek.  It means animated life, abundant life, the absolute fullness of life.  It means eternal life, everlasting life.  It doesn’t say you will one day get life, but you will have the Light of life, present tense.  Zoe life is a present reality, not just a future one.  

Jesus said in John 10:10 “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”  I know that a lot of people want to take out the charge card at that statement and run to Macy’s with it.  But we should all know that is not the correct interpretation of an abundant life.  What He is promising is eternal life, fruitful life, meaningful life, a blessed life, Those that have been in our church awhile should know what I am talking about when I speak of the beatific vision.  It refers to the ultimate source of blessing, to be in the light of God’s countenance.  In that place is fullness of life, for He is the pure source of life, abundant life, even eternal life.  And you can have that life now, if you will just receive Him and follow Him. 

We sometimes hear someone use the expression, “it was like a light bulb went on” to describe an “a ha” moment.  A more sophisticated  word is  an epiphany, which means a sudden revelation of truth.  I wonder if someone here today has perhaps heard the gospel for years, and suddenly today a light has shone upon their hearts.  Suddenly they had an epiphany, perhaps like Paul had on the road to Damascus,  a realization of who Christ is, and what He came to do, and what our response must be if we are to have the Light of Christ in us.  

If that person is you, then I pray that you will accept Him today.  As His light has shone in your heart, I trust that the depravity of your heart has been revealed, and you know your need of a Savior, and of forgiveness.  You can be cleansed from sin and know the abundant life that God has provided through Jesus Christ through repentance of your sins and faith in who Christ is and what He accomplished.  Then commit to follow Him, leaving all the darkness of this world behind and simply follow Him, and He will lead you and guide you in the truth.  

Let me close with the words of John found in 1John 1:5-7. “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;  but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”