“The Light of the World” - John 8:12
I still recall an
experience growing up when my family was on vacation and stopped at a cave near
Cumberland Gap, near where Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee come together. A
guide led us with a small group of tourists down into a cavern that ran deep
inside the mountain. Then he told us we were going to now experience absolute
darkness. He then hit a switch and the lights went out. There was nothing, it was so black you
literally could not see your hand in front of your face. I tried it. Nothing
but black. Then he struck a match. And the light from that match might as well
have been a flare it seemed so bright. The light flickered off the walls of the
cavern all around us! Have you ever been
in absolute darkness? When I think about light and darkness, there was another
vacation about 40 years ago that comes to mind…
Mary Ann and I decided to take a vacation up to the Canadian Maritimes. The
first leg was to drive from New Jersey where we lived, to New Brunswick, Canada.
It was longer than we expected, I am not sure what route we took but we drove
for hours, in darkness, only the headlights of our car illuminating the way. If
there were any humans along that path they must have had the blinds closed or
the lights out, because it was dark.
Finally, we began to see a slight glow on the horizon ahead. Too early
for dawn. Aurora Borealis? No, that wasn’t it. As it gradually began to get
brighter we realized that we were seeing the lights of the city we were heading
to, like a beacon shining in the darkness of northern Maine or Canada or
wherever we were! That is a metaphor for
the condition of the world, lost in darkness, but the light shining into
darkness in the incarnation of the Son.
We’ve been spending
some weeks (we began chapter 7 on August 9th) with Jesus at the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem (John 7:2). Tabernacles
was a time to celebrate God’s provision in the harvest and to remember his
preservation after the Exodus during the Wilderness wandering. From our perspective, Jesus fulfills every
aspect – he is our Passover, he has saved us from bondage, he is our protector
and provider in the wilderness, and he is Lord of the coming harvest… He is the light that dispels the
darkness… So he declares in John 8:12, “I AM the LIGHT of the world…”
(cf. John 1:3-5). *When a woman gives
birth in Brazil, they use the expression, “dar
à luz,” which, literally translated means “to give to the light.” That is an interesting contrast to what we see
in John: When Mary gave birth to Jesus, the One who is the Light came into the
darkness of this sinned cursed world.
The historical background: For centuries the Old Testament
prophets used the metaphor of “Light” to describe the Coming One: For example, Isaiah 9:2 says “The people who walk in darkness will see a
great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them.” Also
in Isaiah 42:6-7 we read, "I
am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness, I will also hold you by the
hand and watch over you, And I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, As
a light to the nations, 7 To open blind eyes, To bring out
prisoners from the dungeon And those who dwell in darkness from the prison.”
In John 8:12 Jesus reveals that He is that Light… “I AM the Light of the world…”
In this Gospel, John
uses “light” 23 times. The contrast
between “darkness” and “light” is a major theme. In the broader context of the
Gospel, we’ve already seen John 1:4,5,8,9; 3:19-21.
In the coming chapters we’ll see 9:5; 12:35,36,46. The Light dispels darkness and exposes sin.
It reveals truth and leads the way (see Psalm 119:105).
The Near Context: Chapter 7
begins by telling us it was the feast of booths… At the end of the chapter, Nicodemus (who had
come to him by night) seems to be coming out of the darkness into the light [cf.
19:39]. In chapter 9, Jesus heals the
man born blind, and announces again that while He is in the world, He is the “Light
of the world”, in the process exposing the blindness of the Pharisees. Those two statements, 8:12 and 9:5, “I AM the
Light of the world,” bracket this section. Not all “see” the Light, they don’t
come to the Light and believe in Him. That doesn’t surprise us, since John has told
us that “…men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil”
(3:19). Our starting point today will be a single verse, John 8:12… We’ll take
that phrase by phrase, 1) I AM… Jesus is again affirming His deity…; 2) The
Light… Not a Light, but THE Light, prophesied in Scripture and alluded to
already in this Gospel; 3) …Of the World… He came as the Messiah of
Israel and the Savior of the World… and finally, 4) He who follows Me will not
walk in darkness, but have the Light of life… New Life, in the Light of His
presence, the True Life for which we were created!
The Big Idea: God
revealed himself in His Son to show the world the only way to forgiveness and
life with meaning. So we follow Him, and urge others to come out of the
darkness and to join us in the journey.
I. “I AM
the Light of the World”: God
became a man. John affirmed in his
prologue that “the Word became flesh and dwelled among us...”
Here, Jesus begins, affirming “...I am...” In John, there is no
question that “I am...” on the lips of Jesus is a claim to deity. He is God! We’ve
looked at the OT background in the call of Moses in Exodus 3:2-14. Moses meets God and when he asks Him His
name, God replies, “I AM THAT I AM… tell them I AM has sent you…” As you know, the OT was written in the Hebrew
language, but as Jews were scattered further away from Palestine, they
gradually lost competence in Hebrew. Eventually, in the majority of synagogues
outside of Judea, a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures known as the
Septuagint came into use. Now this is important: after Exodus 3 and God’s
revelation to Moses as the “I AM”, the Greek phrase “I AM,” [Egw, eivmi,] is only used by God, Yahweh, in referring to himself. John picks up on this and emphasizes Jesus as
the “I AM” 23 times! We’ve seen John 4:26; 6:20, 6:35ff… He is God Incarnate. Luther said: “The
mystery of the humanity of Christ, that He sunk Himself into our flesh, is
beyond all human understanding.” Paul reflects this wonder when he says:
“…who, existing
in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be
grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,
being made in the likeness of men; 8
and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even
unto death, even, the death of the cross.”(Phil 2:6-8).
Eternal God, the Creator, entered human history as a baby… I have a quote
from an English translation of the Sermons on Liturgical Seasons of
Augustine copied in one of my Bibles:
“The Word of the Father, by whom all time was created, was made flesh and
was born in time for us. He, without whose divine permission no day completes
its course, wished to have one day for his human birth. In the bosom of the
Father He existed before all cycles of the ages; born of an earthly mother, he
entered upon the course of the years on this day.
Maker of man became man that
He, the Ruler of the stars, might be nourished at the breast; that He, the
Light, might sleep, that He, the fountain, Might thirst; that He, the Way,
might be wearied by the journey; that He, the Truth, might be accused by false
witnesses; that He, the Judge of the living and the dead might be brought to
trial by a mortal judge; that He, Justice, might be condemned by the unjust,
that He Discipline, might be scourged by whips; that He, the Foundation, might
be suspended on a cross; that Courage might be weakened; that Security might be
wounded; that Life might die.
To endure these and similar
indignities for us, to free us, unworthy creatures, He who existed as the Son
of God before all ages, without a beginning, deigned to become the Son of Man
in these recent years. He did this although He who submitted to such great
evils for our sake had done no evil and although we, who were recipients of so
much good at His hands had done nothing to merit these benefits.”
*God revealed himself in His Son to show us the only way to
forgiveness and life. So, we follow Him, and urge others to come out of the
darkness and to join us in the journey.
II. “I am the
LIGHT of the world.” The only one who can forgive us and give us life with
meaning, became a man. “...the Light...” In John’s Gospel we see that Light dispels
darkness, it exposes sin, it leads the way...
Darkness was a
symbol of sin (Isa 9:2; Mt 4:16; 27:45; John 3:19). Light exposes sin, illuminates truth, and
shows us the way. Isaiah had prophesied that “The people who walk in
darkness shall see a great light…” (9:2). In the fullness of time that
light shined into human history. Even so John observed in 3:19,
“And this is
the condemnation: that the Light has come into the world, and men loved
darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.”
NB. Jesus was not simply “light” or a light, one option
among many, he is the Light. If
we take the scene with the woman taken in adultery as a parenthetical
description from another, it seems possible that it was still during the Jewish
Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) that the rest of chapter 8 occurred. Even
if it was just after that feast, the celebration and symbolism would still have
been fresh in the minds of the people. The Feast was a time of celebration,
a time when the Jews looked back and remembered God’s provision for his people
in the Wilderness. He brought them out
of Egypt, He gave them water and food in the desert, and He guided them toward
the promised Land in a Pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. In
the last book of Moses we have The Shema, Dt 6:4… The NIV marginal translation may
fit the context best: “Hear O Israel, Yahweh is our God, Yahweh alone!” With
the full revelation of both Testaments, we can see that the Bible teaches
clearly One Triune God, eternally existent as Father, Son, and Spirit. He is
the God who is, who exists, and the only hope for fallen humanity.
Today it is popular to
imagine that there are many paths to God.
Our GPS is an illustration of
how we like to have options… Put two
addresses into Google maps in you might get several routes from which to
choose. We can choose the fastest route, the shortest, one that avoids tolls, maybe
even a bike route or a walking route etc. There are many different ways to get
there from here. People are often
offended by the Christian message exactly at this point: there is only one
true Light – there is only one way to have our sins forgiven, there
is only one true God and only one way that we can know him. Jesus does not only say that he came to be
“light” in some abstract sense, or “a light,” as one option to consider,
He boldly asserts “I am THE Light of the World” (c.f. Acts 4:12) Later
in this Gospel He will make a very exclusive statement when He says, “I am
the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father but by me” (John
14:6). Here Jesus said: “I AM the Light…” NOT “a” light! There is no other name under heaven, given
among men, by which we must be saved!
*God revealed himself in the Son to show the world the only way to
forgiveness and life with meaning. So, we follow Him, and urge others to come
out of the darkness and to join us in the journey.
III. He is the Light of the world. God, the only one who can forgive sin
and give life became a man, so that he could die for people from every nation. John
uses the word kosmos, “world,” 78 times, more than any other NT book. He
is the Light of the world!
“...of the World...” A
theologian might say that this is “missional Christology,” Jesus is affirming who he is and what he came
to do. He is saying what the entire Bible really teaches: the whole world is
God’s world, and world evangelization is God’s work. Isaiah had predicted as much, he was to be a “Light to the Gentiles...” We see this unfolding in the book of Acts,
look at 1:1, “...all that Jesus began both
to do and to teach...” Jesus is not physically
present for most of the story in Acts, but he is building his church. A few
verses later He says, “You will be my witnesses,
in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the Earth” (1:8).
He is the Light of the World.
Jesus came not only
as the Messiah of Israel, but also as the Lamb, the one who would be the
Savior of the World, the Rescuer of all who would come to him in faith,
from every race and nation. The whole world is God’s world, and world
evangelization is God’s work. Adam’s sin brought death to all
humanity, the sacrifice of Jesus would provide life for all who believe, from
every race and nation. We see that plan unfolding in Acts: Jews and proselytes
from every nation in Acts 2, Samaritans in Acts 8, and an Ethiopian eunuch, in
Chapter 10 Cornelius and his household are included in the new people of
God. The missionary journeys start in
chapter 13 and the Gospel goes out to Asia minor and later to Europe. At the
end of Acts 28 Paul is a prisoner in Rome, preaching without impediment the
Gospel. Jesus is building his worldwide church, composed of people from every
race and nation. God revealed himself in
His Son to show the world the only way to forgiveness and life with meaning. So
we follow Him, and urge others to come out of the darkness and to join us in
the journey.
IV. And so we
are Christ followers, and urge others to join us in the journey (8:12b). “He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
“He
who follows Me…” This is the language of discipleship. What does it mean to
believe in Jesus? Trust and obey… we follow Him. We’ve seen it in John with the
men that Jesus called, they traveled with him, watched Him, listened to Him,
learned from Him. It implies a commitment. If Jesus is the only way, and the
only light, where else would we look? We have to say with Peter at the end of
John 6:68, “Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life…”
So, as the Jews in the desert followed the Pillar of fire and cloud, we follow
the Light of the World, the Light that gives life.
“...will
by no means (will absolutely not an emphatic double negative) walk in
darkness…” There is no room for
question, no doubt, simply an emphatic statement of what will not happen: IF we
follow Jesus, the Light of the World, the darkness that had us lost and blind
and fearful before will no longer hinder us. We are in the Light!
BUT, a strong adversative, on
the other hand, this will be our experience: Following Jesus, believing
on Him, we WILL HAVE THE LIGHT OF LIFE. This is why He came, so that in the Light we can have true Life, the abundant life for which we were created!
What is God saying to me
in this text? God revealed himself in His Son
to show us the way to forgiveness and true life, life with meaning. So, we
follow Him, and urge others to come out of the darkness and to join us in the
journey.
What would
God have me to do in response to this passage?
1) If you have not yet come to the Light, what are you
waiting for? It doesn’t take a lot of
study to see that the world is a dark place. And if we honestly consider our
own hearts, we can’t deny that we too easily are content to walk in darkness… All
have sinned. You know the truth
about yourself. So does God. Even so, he
sent the greatest gift imaginable, His Son, to die for us. Paul said in 2 Cor
4:6, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our
hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ…” Come to the Light, come to Jesus, and find life!
2) Jesus said in the next
chapter, in John 9:5, “While I am in the World, I am the light of the
world…” That statement anticipates his departure, and our responsibility to
point people to the LIGHT. In the sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 5:14,16, He
said…
14 "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot
be hidden… 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others,
so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in
heaven.
Christ’s mission is our commission. Later in John Jesus says
to his disciples, “...as the Father has sent me, so send I you.” Will you embrace the mission? AMEN.
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