Responding to the Light

Responding to the Light

John 8:12-30   

 

Illus. Warning lights.

 

This morning we will begin with one of Jesus’ most famous statements from the book of John, the second of seven “I am” statements. Where Jesus reveals different details of His identity in relationship to the world and humanity. In John 8:12, we read these words given to a crowd where many had come for the sole purpose of questioning Him, and many were seeking to kill Him…Despite this, Jesus reveals His identity to them and each time, they would have the opportunity to respond to Him.

 

John 8:12, Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; the one who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

 

Illus. Light from the beginning.

 

From our study this morning we will see that Jesus is the Light of the world, not only historically, but presently. In John 1 Jesus was introduced to us as the “Light,” in John 3 Jesus said to a man named Nicodemus privately,  “Light has come into the world..” and here He declares “I am the light of the world” publicly but the question remains, how would they and how will we end up responding.

With verse 12 as the anchor verse, I want to highlight three essentials in responding to Jesus, first, understanding His identity “I am the light,” next, what is true for the one who follow Him “they will not walk in darkness; and lastly, the opportunity for those who believe to have “the light of life.”

 

1. Begin With Jesus’ Identification

 

John 8:12, Then Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world…”

 

• Those who hear Jesus’ words are going to respond to Him. In verse 13 they will respond quickly.

 

John 8:13, The Pharisees said to Him, “You are testifying about Yourself; Your testimony is not true.”

 

• In response to Jesus declaration of His identification, the religious leaders are immediately contentious toward His statement, and the reason is, His claim was too big for their comfort.

 

• Jesus didn’t say I am “a” light, or I am a representative of the light. Rather, He said I am THE light of the world.

 

• Jesus was telling them that He is the exclusive source of Spiritual light to the world, and the only way to walk out of darkness was to follow Him.

 

• If you have been going through the book of John with us, this statement is not surprising to you. Throughout the first seven chapters we have been given many depictions and metaphors not only tying Him to light, but identifying Him as the Light.

 

John 1:4, In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind. And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it.

 

John 1:9, This was the true Light that, coming into the world, enlightens every person.

 

• When Jesus born and went to the temple on the 8^th day, there was a man filled with the Holy Spirit there name Simeon who called Jesus “a light of revelation for the Gentiles and the glory of Your people Israel” (Luke 2:32)

 

• As Jesus’ ministry began in Galilee Matthew quotes Isaiah and announces Jesus arrival as light dawning upon those sitting in a dark land…. “The people who were sitting in darkness saw a Great Light, and those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, upon them a Light dawned” (Matthew 4:16).

 

• All this said, we are not surprised to read Jesus’ words here, that He is the light of the world, but for this in His midst, this is their first time hearing this.

 

• And to their understanding, they knew that when Jesus claimed to be the “Light of the world,” He was making no small claim.

 

• His claim to be “the Light” was a claim to His deity, they would have understood that He was telling them that He is the “Light of Life…” He is the God.

 

• In Isaiah 9 we are told that at the arrival of the Messiah, “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.”

 

• This Light, would be a Child born to us, a Son given to us…

 

Isaiah 9:6(b), And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

 

• Mighty God is the next characteristic. It is a characteristic that make His wonderful counsel quite important!

 

• He is Immanuel, God with us! The Hebrew text identifies Him as “El Gibor,” and in the very next chapter that is how Yahweh is referenced. (Isaiah 10:16-21…).

 

• Additionally, there are Old Testament texts directly depicting God alone as the Light.

 

Psalm 27:1, The Lord is my light and my salvation…

 

Isaiah 60:19, No longer will you have the sun for light by day, nor will the moon give you light for brightness; but you will have the Lord as an everlasting light, and your God as your glory.

 

Micah 7:8, Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. (NIV)

 

Illus. Context; Feast of Booths.

 

• The pillar of fire that guided the Israelites was an indication of God’s presence and provision to them.

 

• Jesus declared the light is on, and the Light is me. In order to respond properly to Him, however, they needed to first understand His identity, and so do we.

 

Illus. Light I.D.

• In response to Jesus’ statement, we will see two different responses, those who follow (those who believe), and those who do not follow (those who do not believe).

 

• Before we get to the response of those who do not follow, Jesus details what will be true of those who do.

 

John 8:12(b), …the one who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.

 

1. Be One Who Follows Him

 

• Because following someone means many things in our society, it is important to clarify the term. When Jesus spoke of those who follow, the word “follow” in that day meant you walked behind someone or you travel after someone and subscribed to the belief system, striving to be like them as they take the lead in your life.

 

• If we apply the picture of the Israelites walking through the wilderness, the picture is painted clearly.

 

Exodus 13:21, 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, so that they might travel by day and by night.

 

• Jesus says that “the one” who follows Him will not walk in darkness, but will have the Light of life.

 

• We will have the Light that shines light, sheds light, bring light, and is a guiding light.

 

• Regarding the word “life,” the Greek language has separate words for our single word translated “life.”

 

• Word number one is the word bios. It means biological life. We get our term biology from that term bios. It’s physical biological life.

 

• Second word is psyche and it means psychological life. psyche is where we get our word psychology from. It is a reference to ones thought life, inner life, or hidden part of a person. 

 

• But then there’s a third term for the word life, and that is the term that is used here, and it’s the Greek word zōē.. It means fulness of life or everlasting life.

 

• So, when he says in Him was life, that’s the word he uses. Spiritual life, everlasting life.

 

• To not follow Him, then, is to walk in darkness and not have the Light of life.

 

• The Bible gives details as to this walk as well…

 

• Proverbs 2:13 tell us that those who turn from the right way, or the path of uprightness, walk in the ways of darkness.

 

Proverbs 4:19, The way of the wicked is like darkness; they do not know over what they stumble.

 

• They have no guiding light, they cannot see.

 

Illus. Night games.

 

John 12:35, So Jesus said to them, “For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; also, the one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.

 

John 8:13-20, So the Pharisees said to Him, “You are testifying about Yourself; Your testimony is not true.” Jesus answered and said to them, “Even if I am testifying about Myself, My testimony is true, because 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. You judge according to the flesh; I am not judging anyone. 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 people is true. I am He who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sent Me testifies about Me.”

 

• According to Old Testament law, nothing could be established without the testimony of more than one witness.

 

• The testimony of additional witnesses had already been given to the religious leaders in John 5, where we learn that the Jews were seeking to kill Him because He was “making Himself equal with God” (John 5:18).

 

• It is there that Jesus went into the testimony of Him from John the Baptist (5:33-35), the testimony of His works (5:36), the testimony of the Father (5:37-38), and the testimony of the Scriptures (5:39-47).

 

• And He had more witnesses than that: from His first followers, to Nicodemus, to the Samaritan woman, to those who set out to trip up and trap Him but after hearing a teaching from Him, they believed in Him!

 

• Here Jesus gives no such list, but rather reveals again who He is and appeals again to the witness The Father bears of Him.

 

• With the attention turned to the Father, the Pharisees take it as an opportunity to take a dig at Jesus.

 

John 8:19-20, 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.” These words He spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple area; and no one arrested Him, because His hour had not yet come.

 

• When the Pharisees asked, “Where is your Father?” It seems likely that they were seeking to insult Him because of the word getting around that He was virgin born…This seems especially likely in light of the fact that in verse 41 they will say, “we were not born as a result of sexual immorality, we have one Father; God…”

 

• Since Jesus was born, there were whispers, rumors, that He was an illegitimate child.

 

• As the conversation continues, they keep asking dishonest questions:

 

John 8:21-22, Then He said again to them, “I am going away, and you will look for Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come.” So the Jews were saying, “Surely He will not kill Himself, will He, since He says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?”

 

• They were unwilling to listen to Him, and surely they were not willing to follow Him…Those who follow have the light of life, those who do not the darkness of death.

 

• They would stay in their sin, and the wages of sin is death…So they ask a question, “is He going to kill Himself?”

 

John 8:23-25, And He was saying to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.” Then they were saying to Him, “Who are You?” Jesus said to them, “What have I even been saying to you from the beginning?

 

• In the middle of their questions, Jesus gets to the most important question, to believe or not to believe, that is the question…But they didn’t want the answer.

 

• Jesus often does this masterfully. You are walking in the light, or your in darkness. Your either dying of thirst, or you have the living water, you are either working for food that perishes, or food that endured to eternal life. Jesus drills down to the most important question, and it’s an honest question… “What have I been saying to you from the beginning?”

 

Illus. Honest versus Dishonest.

 

• The answer to the question “who are you?” had been given in verse 24, “unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.”

 

III.  Believe in Him

 

• They are indicating that they want to know who Jesus is, but they don’t really.

 

• When Jesus said to them, “unless you believe that I am.” The key word to the verse is, “unless.” It is a word the represents a hinge point. It is a word that tell us there is an option.

 

• “Unless you believe I am, you will die in your sins.”

 

• From verse 30, we know that some would, in fact, believe in Him…

 

John 8:30, As He said these things, many came to believe in Him.

 

• Many heard His words and responded to Him by believing in Him, the question however, is what did they believe? And what are we to believe?

 

• Jesus said specifically what the people needed to believe in order to have life in Him, they needed to believe “I am.”

 

• If we must believe Jesus is “I am” it’s pretty important to know what believing He is “I am” means exactly.

 

• “I am” is two Greek words put together “egō” and “eimi.”

 

• Those hearing Jesus say this would have understood Jesus’ words as declaring that He is God.

 

• The first time the phrase was introduced was in Exodus chapter 3. Moses was given mission to deliver the children of Israel. God spoke to him from a burning bush that was not burning up.

 

• The Lord told Moses that He had seen the oppression of His people and had hear their cries. He was going to send Moses to Pharaoh, and the Lord would use Moses to deliver them from Pharaoh’s hand.

 

• As Moses gets ready to go, asks the Lord His name so that he can tell the people… “What will I say when they ask who sent me?”

 

Exodus 3:14, And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “This is what you shall say to the sons of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

 

• In the Septuagint (when the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into ancient Greek), it is the same phrase “ego eimi,” used of God only that Jesus applies to Himself.

 

• Jesus was applying this as a title to Himself, unless you believe “I am.” In do so, without any other description to His title or name, He was attaching Himself to the name of God, known as the tetragrammaton, YHWH, often transliterated Yahweh, the name of God, that was so sacred the Jew refused to pronounce it.

 

• Jesus said, if you don’t believe that egō eimi, you will die in your sins.

 

• This is important to our understanding because we will see next week that Jesus will say it again in verse 58, “before Abraham was born, I am…” and they pick up stones to stone Him for blasphemy.

 

• And in this chapter, Jesus applies the title to Himself repeatedly…

 

John 8:28, Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am, and I do nothing on my own…

 

• Here Jesus is referring to His crucifixion, dying on the cross… “When you lift me up, then you will know.”

 

• While not all would believe, many would. The thief on the cross next to Him would believe (Luke 23:42). A soldier at the cross, overseeing Jesus crucifixion, when he saw what took place after Jesus died on the cross said “Truly this was the Son of God” (Matthew 27:54).

 

• The disciples would see, the disciples would preach, and many would come to know, follow and believe that Jesus is “I am” personally.

 

• Jesus said, unless you believe, you will not be free from sin.

 

John 3:16-19, For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. The one who believes in Him is not judged; the one who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil.

 

• This is the verdict…this is the judgement…It is a word that means decision, or turning point…

 

• It is the Greek word KRISIS (Cree-sis)…It is where we get our English word crisis…This is the crisis!

 

• Light has come into the world, but the people loved darkness instead of light….

 

John 3:20-21, For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, so that his deeds will not be exposed. But the one who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds will be revealed as having been performed in God.

 

Illus. The verdict.

 

John 8:12-30