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Oct 14, 2012

John 8: The Light of the World

Passage: John 8:12-30

Series: Life to the Full

Category: Evangelism

Keywords: light, jesus, dark, share, shine, evangelism, textual criticism, copyist, language, pericope, adulterae

Summary:

In John 8:12, why does Jesus claim to be the light of the world? Why does he choose those words and what does it mean to us?

Detail:

John 8

Intro

John 8:12–30 (NASB95)

Jesus Is the Light of the World

12  Then Jesus again spoke to them, 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.”

13  So the Pharisees said to Him, “You are testifying about Yourself; Your testimony is not true.”

14  Jesus answered and said to them, “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.

15  “You judge according to the flesh; I am not judging anyone.

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.

17  “Even in your law it has been written that the testimony of two men is true.

18  “I am He who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sent Me testifies about Me.”

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.”

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.

21  Then He said again to them, “I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come.”

22  So the Jews were saying, “Surely He will not kill Himself, will He, since He says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?”

23  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.

24  “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

25  So they were saying to Him, “Who are You?” Jesus said to them, “What have I been saying to you from the beginning?

26  “I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world.”

27  They did not realize that He had been speaking to them about the Father.

28  So Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me.

29  “And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.”

30  As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him.

[Prayer]

12  Then Jesus again spoke to them, 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.”

 

 

 

 

II.  The Adulterous Woman

Controversial Passage

Why does he say this? Besides the fact that it is true, why these words at this time? What does it have to do with what just happened one or two verse before? What happens in the previous section? Well, it’s the famous story of the woman caught in adultery. A bunch of men who caught this woman, and conveniently not another man, in the act of adultery, put her before Jesus asking if she should be stoned, testing Jesus to see if he would oppose Moses’ law and what’s the smoking gun retort that Jesus gives? Right, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” Everyone knows this one in some form another. People who even don’t know who Jesus is know this verse. And it’s sometimes used as a band aid or shield for anyone to use when they feel like they are being accused of something. Basically, it becomes, “who are you to judge me?”

 

So, who is Jesus talking to if in the previous verses, it says that they all left, they dropped their stones and left? Including the woman. Maybe she just stuck around to say, “tell me more about the speck that’s not in my eye.” No, he said, “go, and sin no more.”

 

There’s no one there. So, who is he talking to? I’ll get to that. We have a problem here with the text and before I go any further I want to establish something and that is this famous story of Jesus and the woman caught in adultery is the Word of God and does belong in the scriptures useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and encouraging, etc. However, I would contest that it doesn’t belong here in the Gospel of John. Many of you might note in your Bibles that it says, “the earliest and most reliable manuscripts do not have John 7:53 to John 8:11]. What does that mean? Well it means that the Bible we have today is a copy of a copy of a copy of copy that was based on copies of copies of original manuscripts. The original copies were on papyrus, doesn’t have a long shelf life, so copies had to be made immediately and repeatedly when the church was under intense persecution, even more so then. As sketchy as that makes what we have today seem, ironically, it actually helps prove it’s validity. See, the copies weren’t all made from the same group of people from the same region or times. So, yes there are going to be differences, variants in the story, etc. But because the copies weren’t all made by the same group of people, so the ‘copyist errors’ were in different parts of the manuscripts. So, it became a matter of comparing the texts and there were thousands to compare from which to derive a standardized form AND the differences in the texts amounted to less than 10% and not significantly affecting Christian Doctrine. A simplistic way of understanding this concept would be if I told you a story and then after I told you the story, I told you write down what you remember me saying. There’s going to be some errors but unless you guys are like freaky clones or something, you’re not going to make the same mistakes in the same places. A few might. To get a correct manuscript of the story that I told, you would compare the texts and come up with the accurate text by filling the gaps. Make sense. I have a reason for going here today.

This passage wasn’t to be found in the earliest and “most reliable” (that’s a subjective statement) manuscript copies. No Greek (Christian) writer comments on the passage until the 12th Century. That doesn’t mean nobody preached on it, just that it wasn’t written about among the people who had the ability to write back then. The style, vocabulary and interruption do not fit John’s gospel. In fact, manuscripts that this story was found in, put it in a different place in John’s Gospel, either at the end or a few verses before. AND, it’s been found in some manuscript copies of Luke’s gospel, which is fitting because the vocabulary, style and focus on a woman, fit Luke’s writings to a ‘T.’ There is actually a manuscript copy evolution of this passage. Here is an example of this. This here is the evidence of its insertion into the Gospel of Luke. In the manuscript evidence for this pericope, this snippet of a story, there is nearly always some acknowledging an addition or omission of something. They literally, in some cases, cut and pasted the manuscripts back together. We can tell not only because of physical evidence but also because they made editing marks in the text to say that is what had been done. They were not trying to be tricky about it. They knew the story was supposed to be in scripture just weren’t certain where. Someone apparently put the story in the margin, then it got put in between the lines, then in parenthesis and finally into the text. You can just imagine how this went down. Some guy in the hall of manuscript copyist says, “hey this passage about ‘You judge according to the flesh; I’m not judging anyone.’ That reminds me of the woman caught in adultery. “Oh, Yeah, the one where he says, ‘Let he who is without sin.” And so on until they realize that it isn’t in the text, they can’t find it, but everyone in the room seems to remember the story and can’t forget Jesus words in it. It rings of the truth of the Gospel. So they go to their boss and he says, I remember it too, but is convinced it comes from a lost papyri but to put it in the margin and let the next shift figure it out. Now, that sounds a little crass and I don’t think it was that sloppy. I think they were faithful with the materials they had to work with. Lord of the Rings analogy.

It is interesting what the author of the gospel writes:

John 21:25 (NASB95)

25  And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.

Who knows why it was cut, maybe the author or copyist thought the church was growing soft on sexual immorality, maybe when Luke was transporting his notes, a leaf of a papyrus fell overboard in the Mediterranean. We don’t know. I think it belongs in the Bible, I think it accurately portrays Jesus and the religious/political climate of the time. In short, it’s God’s Word. It’s actually not the passage I am going to discuss today. If you want to know more about how we got the Bible we have today and how it was copied, etc. read A General Introduction to the Bible by Norman L. Geissler and William Nix. And I wouldn’t bring any of this up except it is also distracts from the flow of the text. Why did Jesus say, “I am the light of the world.” And what does he mean? Well, first we need to temporarily assume that this passage of the woman caught in adultery isn’t there. In other words hold just as valuable as scripture the statement “earliest and most reliable manuscripts don’t have…”. So, removing that passage, you have this:

Nicodemus (he who came to Him before, being one of them) said to them,

“Our Law does not judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing, does it?”

They answered him, “You are not also from Galilee, are you? Search, and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee.”

Then Jesus again spoke to them, 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.”

So the Pharisees said to Him, “You are testifying about Yourself; Your testimony is not true.”

 

Jesus, in verse 12, is actually answering their argument that no prophet comes out of Galilee. This is important. This verse is key to understanding what John in all his writings about Jesus is trying to communicate about Jesus.

 

Picking up the discourse in chapter 7

John 7:40–52 (NASB95)

Division of People over Jesus

40  Some of the people therefore, when they heard these words, were saying, “This certainly is the Prophet.”

41  Others were saying, “This is the Christ.” Still others were saying, “Surely the Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is He?

42  “Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the descendants of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?”

43  So a division occurred in the crowd because of Him.

44  Some of them wanted to seize Him, but no one laid hands on Him.

45  The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, “Why did you not bring Him?”

46  The officers answered, “Never has a man spoken the way this man speaks.”

47  The Pharisees then answered them, “You have not also been led astray, have you?

48  “No one of the rulers or Pharisees has believed in Him, has he?

49  “But this crowd which does not know the Law is accursed.”

50  Nicodemus (he who came to Him before, being one of them) said to them,

51  “Our Law does not judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing, does it?”

52  They answered him, “You are not also from Galilee, are you? Search, and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee.”

John 8:12 (NASB95)

Jesus Is the Light of the World

12  Then Jesus again spoke to them, 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.”

So, the Pharisees say to Nicodemus about Jesus, “search, and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee.” Where do they want Nicodemus to search? The scriptures! So some of you may be asking, why is he (me) doing all these acrobatics to fit together two verses that don’t fit together? Because they do. Let me show you. When I read Galilee in 7:52 and light in 8:12, I thought, where do I remember seeing those two words in the same passage? So, I searched the scriptures and found it in Isaiah 9:2

Isaiah 9:1–2 (NASB95)

Birth and Reign of the Prince of Peace

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.

How great a light? I said, “how great a light?” Right, the light of the world. Basically, Jesus was saying, “you’re wrong, it does say that I come from Galilee. I don’t know about a prophet, I never claimed to be a prophet but rather the one that prophets talk about. That would be me.” They said Galilee and He said light. He was identifying himself with the scripture they were telling Nicodemus to search for. “I am the Great light that Isaiah was talking about, by the way of the sea on the other side of Jordan, a light arising out of Galilee of the Gentiles.” Who were the Gentiles in the Jews eyes? The world, the rest of the known world, everyone not Hebrew. Jesus is not merely identifying himself with Isaiah’s prophecy but illuminating it with light.

Now, we can start.

John, in writing about Jesus, in the the Gospel, epistles and the Revelation, uses this metaphor of light to describe Jesus. It wasn’t his idea. Even though he rattles it off so many times, comparing Jesus to a great light wasn’t his poetic license. He based all that, before this chapter and after this chapter, on Jesus statement right here and it’s connection to Isaiah.

So John’s use of the word ‘light’ is not just flowery speech, it’s a revelation of Christ that permeates his writings. What does John say about the “light” in his writings?

 

III. Light in John's Gospel

Chapter one

John 1:4–5 (NASB95)

4      In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

5      The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

 

Chapter 3

John 3:19–21 (NASB95)

19      “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.

20      “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.

21      “But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”

 

 

Chapter 9

John 9:4–5 (NASB95)

4      “We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work.

5      “While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.”

 

Chapter 11

John 11:9–10 (NASB95)

9      Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.

10      “But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”

 

Chapter 12

John 12:35–36 (NASB95)

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; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes.

36      “While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light.”

These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them.

 

John 12:46–50 (NASB95)

46      “I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.

47      “If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.

48      “He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.

49      “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.

50      “I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.”

 

B.    Light in John's Epistles

1 John “God is Light …with no darkness.”

Revelation 21 “The city needs no light because Jesus is the light.”

Revelation 22 “there will be no more night because of the Light.”

What is John teaching about Jesus, what does he want us to know about the light?

  1. Jesus is the Light
  2. The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not comprehend it.
  3. Those who walk in darkness don’t love the light, in fact they flee from it.
  4. Jesus is the light of the world while he is in the world. And that time is limited to his presence on earth. This is going to come into play later.
  5. You can’t be walking in darkness and light at the same time.
  6. The Light is meant also to release us from darkness.
  7. Someday in the future, the tension between light and darkness will be resolved.

Let’s see how these principles play out in this text here:

13  So the Pharisees said to Him, “You are testifying about Yourself; Your testimony is not true.”

14  Jesus answered and said to them, “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.

15  “You judge according to the flesh; I am not judging anyone.

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.

17  “Even in your law it has been written that the testimony of two men is true.

18  “I am He who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sent Me testifies about Me.”

The Pharisees don’t comprehend the light.

They don’t get the reference to Isaiah 9:1-2. This is actually scary. I mean really scary for them, It’s not scary like Halloween scary. And Halloween is not that scary. Most cultures have a day of the dead type celebration steeped in worldly religion. The Japanese have Obon, down south they have the day of the dead, us WASPS have Halloween. 

And it’s not that scary. Some say oh, but some people really do occultic type activities and it’s the witches high Sabbath, etc. Children are sacrificed on this day we haven’t even started in on razor blades hidden in apples and such. But what about the wives who are beaten on Super Bowl Sunday, drunk driving casualties on July 4th and New Years, violent fights break out when the LA Lakers lose or win and NBA championship. How many young women are defiled on Sunday mornings because it is the day when Internet Porn is statistically at its highest? or for that matter the World Cup for prostitution. There was this discipleship ministry in Ilinois where I served with Covenant Players, called the Master’s Commission. A ministry project they did every year for Halloween was they were given this gutted, run down hotel and they converted it to a house of real horrors. They turned the inside of this hotel into a maze and you got to see real life horror scenes, dysfunctional families fighting, they had a drunken car wreck and all the gore that went with it. They had an entire wrecked car in the hotel. They have a teen suicide with the guys’ head blown apart ala Curt Cobain. Then they have minions who misdirect you into dark rooms where you are tossed about and run into walls, Then you end up in a court room where you are judged by ghost with a gavel and you descend into the basement of the building which is set up to be like Hell. They have smoke, simulated fire and torture cages with dismembered body parts and screaming. One year they burned dead animals to the get the smell of burning flesh. That was over the top though so they stopped doing that. But at the end you go into a different room where you get the alternative, a beautiful room with glass bricks and a heavenly scene where you are presented with the Gospel and then you have the opportunity to talk with someone about it if you wish. There were lines outside this house of real life horrors for blocks. Yes, they used the theatrics to show what was really horrible about the world and they used a worldly convention to do so. That’s what I’m talking about, the difference between what appears to be scary, ghouls and goblins, to what is really scary eternal torment without reprieve.

That’s what is scary about this exchange between the Pharisees and Jesus. There’s no violence here, no one is being nailed to cross yet. It’s what’s NOT being said here that is scary. Jesus just told them He is the Light arising out of Galilee. They DIDN’T comprehend it. And He WOULDN’T go out of his way to correct them again. That’s what is scary. He could’ve said, “hey guys, I don’t know if you really caught that but I was referring to Isaiah, the Prophet, the light out of Galilee. Remember?” He didn’t do that, he didn’t continue, he left them to their own devices, to their own powers of reasoning. This is scary.

We all have our wrestling with God in our flesh. We disagree with how He’s guiding our lives and so we debate, procrastinate and get to a point where God just says, “OK, sure, have it your way. I’m not going to make you listen.” This is scary Especially if you’re not children of God, like these men weren’t. Jesus could have convinced them. Instead, just continues to speak and insist on his authority. So, they go on to that third principle. We talked about the first two, Jesus is the Light, The Darkness Doesn’t Comprehend the Light, and this one

The Darkness tries to flee from the light.

John 8:19 (NASB95)

  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.”

See, they actually don’t know or believe that He came from God nor are they comprehending His reference to God as His father. They are not curious about His heavenly father here. They are trying to open a door to for Him to expose the sin he was allegedly born into, out of wedlock to a teenage girl. They know his story, they know about Joseph marrying his already pregnant wife.  I don’t know how they knew either but they did, check it out in verse 41 of the same chapter:

John 8:41 (NASB95)

  41    “You are doing the deeds of your father.” They said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God.”

They are changing the subject, fleeing the light. Not only do they not comprehend the Light come from the Father out of Galilee but they are trying to turn the light back on him. “Hey, you’re trying to say we’re bad, you were conceived out of wedlock.”

What are they talking about here? Why they talking about fornication here? Who brought up fornication anyway? What is fornication? Sexual immorality, promiscuity, if you will. BTW, whenever the fornication is mentioned in the Bible, the word needs to be interpreted within the context of the times it was spoken of in, not what the current cultural definition is. Which is:

Promiscuity, in human sexual behavior, is the practice of casual sex with multiple sexual partners.[1] The term can carry a moral judgement and is viewed in the context of a mainstream social ideal for sexual activity to take place within exclusive committed relationships. A common example of behavior viewed as promiscuous within the mainstream social ideals of many cultures is a one-night stand.

Culturally speaking, how many partners before you're considered promiscuous? Who knows? From Biblical perspective though, it’s always any sex outside the context of marriage between men and women.

 

They bring up fornication because of the circumstances Jesus was born in—born to a virgin. We celebrate this at Christmas time. They don’t believe that though, the virgnin birth, yeah right. Who do you think you are Anakin Skywalker. But there is scandal attached to it. So much so that Mary’s fiancé Joseph wanted out of the situation. Isn’t that always the case though, many of God’s servants throughout the Bible, always have something about them that can give cause for you to doubt their testimony. There is usually some scandal involved—Abraham, the father of the Jewish faith, pimped out his wife, Jacob—a liar and a cheat, Joseph—a tattletale, Moses—a murderer, Rahab—a prostitute, David—an adulterer, Solomon—a polygamist, Nehemiah—a bully, Matthew—governmental extortionist. The Apostle Paul—chief enemy of the Christian faith becomes its most vocal friend. The point is God will almost always make it so that there needs to be a step of faith involved. That is God will allow a reason for doubt to exist when it comes to choosing whether or not to believe His truth. God will always leave room for doubt. Otherwise, it isn’t faith. A shepherd boy stands up to a nine foot giant and says, “step off, in the name of God, step off.” The giant doesn’t buy it and has good reason not too. It’s a boy. How can a shepherd boy with a slingshot be a godly power? The Pharisees to Jesus. How can the son of a fornicating carpenter be an authority to judge us? Because face it, in their logical minds, the only reason Joseph would marry Jesus mother already pregnant would be if he was the one who did the deed.

 

So, they don’t comprehend the light and they flee it. We often do that don’t we. We flee or attack that which we don’t comprehend. It’s threatening. Next principle, Jesus is the light of the world WHILE he is in the world—limitation

Jesus has a body and certain physical limitations as that member of the trinity.

  • 14          Jesus answered and said to them, “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.
  • 21          Then He said again to them, “I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come.”
  • 22          So the Jews were saying, “Surely He will not kill Himself, will He, since He says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” 

The Pharisees they get this and don’t get this. Yes, in sense, Jesus is talking about His death on the cross. But if He were just talking about that, he would be incorrect in saying they couldn’t go there. They did die and it would have been possible for them to die on the cross. It, however was not possible for them to die, resurrect bodily and go to heaven. But the point is,

Christ is the light ONLY while He is on the earth.

In the next chapter Jesus says, “While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.” In chapter 12 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; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes.

What’s my point? Why is it important that Jesus can only be the light while He is on earth? This is why. The implication is inheritance. Jesus passes the light to us. Those who believe in Him, in His death, in His resurrection and have received the Holy Spirit, they have the light of the Christ in them.

Matthew 5:14–16 (NASB95)

  14    “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden;

  15    nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.

  16   “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

It’s physics. Jesus, in bodily form can only be in one place at one time. And that light is far reaching, it affects all the people who hear of him, experience his miraculous words, and touch. At this point in time, he is still not Facebook. He doesn’t have a regular column published in a magazine, newspaper, or other periodical. There was no Jesus.com on the worldwide web. Jesus himself says to us,

John 14:12 (NASB95)

  12    “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.

His Great light was multiplied by those who came to believe in Him, even us. That’s what means. He goes from the physical limitation of one body on earth to billions of bodies on earth amplifying it through whatever streams of communication they can create, navigate, or innovate—Facebook, Publishing, Travel, etc.

 

So, for right now, we’ll just call that a teaching point. We’ll get to application later, but know that it was Jesus intention that YOU be the light of the world in His temporary absence. I’ll show you a practical example of this teaching from scripture a little later on. So, Jesus is the light, the darkness doesn’t comprehend it, the darkness flees it, the light can be shared and amplified. Next,

Light and Darkness Cannot Coexist.

23  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.

24  “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

He is saying that, “you either believe me or you don’t. There is no in between.” You accept the whole package, like Pastor John was teaching last week, quoting C. S. Lewis. You can’t just accept Jesus as a great moral teacher. You must accept Him and all that He says. No great moral teacher would say that He was the only way, truth and light unless He really believed it to be so. Jesus really believed it to be so. So, either you live under that light, Jesus’ light and all that goes with it or you don’t. What is that light? It’s Jesus so, us having been in darkness, do not naturally comprehend it, instinctively flee from it, hope that it leaves, and we certainly wouldn’t naturally want it in our lives on a regular basis. Think about it. Some man is coming at you with a knife, do you want that to happen. Well, the words of Jesus are sharper than any two edged sword. They cut right through you to the heart of the matter. How many of us really naturally want someone coming up to us and pointing out our flaws. We know we can’t live up to the standard why would we want a constant reminder of it? Why? Because by faith that comes by the Spirit, we trust that he’s not going to hurt us, but the great healer, Jesus, is coming at us with a surgeon’s knife to extract the cancer that will destroy us. By faith we accept. If we don’t accept or are not willing the hear the sharpness of his words, we will remain in darkness. You either accept the spiritual healer with his methods, or you keep your spiritual cancer. You can’t just go to Jesus and ask for His advice on how to treat your spiritual condition at home. Jesus doesn’t just know the cure, He is the cure. What am I getting at? You can’t be cured of your sinful condition, your walk in darkness, just by living how Jesus teaches you to live. It’s like going to a doctor, the doctor tells you how you got the disease and you say, “Oh, I just won’t do that anymore. Thank you.” No, you have to have the disease removed by treatment from the doctor. This brings us to our next principle of Light:

The Light is meant also to release us from darkness.

Jesus opens up with this one:

John 8:12 (NASB95)

Jesus Is the Light of the World

  12   Then Jesus again spoke to them, 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.”

So, this argument that he has with the Pharisees isn’t effective. They don’t get it and perhaps the bystanders don’t either completely. But nevertheless, some take Jesus advice and believe in Him.

John 8:30 (NASB95)

  30    As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him.

This is it. Jesus says it right here. He doesn’t want us to walk in darkness, in confusion, not knowing where we are going or where we came from.

John 8:12 (NASB95)

John 5:24 (NASB95)

24   “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

Let’s look at a more practical example from scripture outside of the Gospel of John to see this in action.

Acts 26:12–15 (NASB95)

  12    “While so engaged as I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests,

  13    at midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining all around me and those who were journeying with me.

  14    “And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

  15    “And I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

So, here we have Jesus reveal himself to Saul in the form of light. Paul doesn’t naturally comprehend it and Jesus reveals that he is kicking against the goads, fleeing the light.

Acts 26:16–18 (NASB95)

  16    ‘But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you;

  17    rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you,

  18    to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’

Here we have the idea of Jesus passing the light to Paul making him minister and a witness. Jesus uses the term inheritance when talking about what those who are sanctified by faith—including Paul. Jesus talks about rescuing Paul from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles because Paul cannot remain a part of that Pharisee system nor can he remain of the Worldly system because he is no longer of this world. Paul is now light to this world so that those who believe may turn from darkness to light.

What does that mean to us?

Well.

1.There may be an area of personal growth that Jesus wants you to go through. Maybe there is something He is asking you to give up or trust Him in more. When Jesus speaks to you through the Word, in your devotions, through a sermon like this, through song on the radio, a jog on track or if you’re like me, a jigsaw puzzle, don’t debate, don’t argue with Him and say, “how can this be?” He will give grace and put up with it for a while, but then there comes a point where Jesus will let us try out own way for a while. He won’t leave us but He will stand by and let us come to the end of ourselves.
I remember when I was a young man, I was twenty four and I had just embraced the truth of the Gospel as an adult and started my life in the light. Well, I had been walking in the darkness of the world, living as adults live in the world—in out of sexual relationships, lived in debt beyond my means, had no regard for those less fortunate than me. I lived for myself for a number of years. So, becoming a Christian I looked to live a good life. I wanted to be a good man but I still had some wrong thinking that didn’t go away right away. In my mind, yes, women were not objects for my pleasure anymore. But in my mind, I still kind of regarded any woman as a potential object for me to attain. First of all, I had this error of looking for ‘the right one for me,’ like I was shopping or something. So I like a bottle of shampoo, I might hold it in my hand for a while and if I didn’t think I was going to like her after all, put her back on the shelf. Needless to say, I ran into a lot of frustration in dealing with my sisters in Christ. When I finally did get it, I was like, “Lord, why didn’t you tell me I was so messed up still and not ready for the blessing of a wife?” You know what He said, “I tried to. Remember when you went to that Pentecostal church and the friend you were with, Gale, said she had a word for you from me, ‘Oh, how I would want to heal you and gather you in like hen with her chicks.” That was me telling you I had some deeper work to do with you other than letting you have your ‘bottle of wife.’
So, when God gives you a Word that you know is for you but you’re not completely sure what it means, spend some time praying and fasting about it until you DO understand it.

2.Recognize that you are the light of the world. If you have trusted in Christ as your Lord and Savior. Jesus said so. So, you have the responsibility however ill prepared, or ill equipped you feel, to share that light. And know that light will expose darkness in those around you and a lot of the time it won’t be comprehended or appreciated.
When I first accepted Christ, I had roommates who were self-proclaimed neo-pagan. They knew Satan’s much better than I knew God’s truth. I took a beating BUT it made my faith in Christ much stronger.

3.Don’t continue to love the things of this world. He who loves the things of this world does not have the love of the Father in him. Light and Darkness cannot coexist. What I mean by not loving the things of this world, is don’t put them above your love of Christ.

4.Take that step of faith. Jesus’s words are sometimes very hard and it does often take a step of faith to submit to what he asks as your Lord. For you are not your own, you were bought at a price. Maybe Lord Jesus is asking you to step out in faith in regard to the use of your treasure, talents, and time in a way that challenges you.