Johyn 8. Nicky Cruz was the leader of the toughest gang in New York City. His Satanist parents abused him brutally, so he grew up a hardened man void of love and full of hate. “I wanted to do to others what my mother did to me,” Nicky says. “I used to feel good when I hurt people.” But privately, he didn’t feel good. “Privately, I was so lonely and I felt so lost.” Pastor David Wilkerson risked his life to tell Nicky there was hope. He said, “God has the power to change your life” but Nicky started cursing out loud,” “I spit in his face, and I hit him. I told him, ‘I don’t believe in what you say and you get out of here.’” Nicky never expected what he heard Wilkerson say next. Wilkerson replied, “You could cut me up into a 1000 pieces and lay them in the street. Every piece will shout ‘I love you.’” Nicky says, “It did damage. Good [damage] in my brain and in my heart. I began to question this kind of love, and for two weeks I could not sleep thinking about that kind of love.” Nicky and his gang showed up at one of Wilkerson’s rallies. One by one, they gave their lives to Christ. It was the crucifixion – Jesus’ death on the cross -- that grabbed Nicky. “I saw the death of Jesus in my place, the righteous for the unrighteous, and I was choked up with pain, and my eyes were fighting and tears began to come down and more tears and I was fighting and then I surrendered,” says Nicky. “For the first time in my life somebody hugged me, His Name was Jesus, and I let my head rest on His chest. I said I’m sorry. Forgive me, and for the first time, I told somebody I love you.” And then he said this, “The cross opened my eyes to who I had been, the cross opened my eyes to what Jesus had done about who I had been.”
The cross opened Nicki Cruz’s eyes, gave him an understanding and revelation, that’s because God reveals Himself to man at the cross. You can see that in verse 28: "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the one I claim to be. The title of my sermon today is “The Cross Opens Our Eyes.”
In John chapter 8 Jesus is speaking with the Jews and has been temporarily interrupted by the woman taken in adultery, whom He forgives and then He instructs to change her life, to live differently, to go and sin no more. And in this story we see the two basics of Christianity. Christianity is the declaration of good news and it is the instruction to live differently. Jesus says to this woman “I do not condemn you” and then says “go and sin no more.” Jesus combines grace and truth beautifully, and as Christians we are called to emphasize the gospel first, to tell people that God has made provision for their sin in the death of His Son, and that because Jesus was condemned all who believe are not condemned. But then we must follow the good news up with admonishment to change.
And then we saw last week that Jesus then continues His discussion with the Pharisees from chapter 7. At the end of chapter 7 these Pharisees say that Jesus cannot be a prophet because no prophet was to come out of Galilee, so Jesus responds in chapter 8 verse 12 and says “I am the Light of the world, Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the Light of Life.” In saying this He was reminding the Jews of Isaiah chapter 9 that predicted a great light coming out of Galilee; a light that would bring victory and freedom and peace to the Gentiles.
So I want us to see that in this section Jesus makes a great claim and gives a great promise. The great claim is “I am the Light of the world.” The great promise is “whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
Now I want us to notice that His claim is really a claim to being God. Jesus here says “I am”. Three times in this passage Jesus says, “I am.” Vs. 24 He says “if you do not believe that I Am (the words “who I claim to be” are not in the original”) you will indeed die in your sins” and vs. 28 “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I Am.” And look at vs. 58 He says “"I tell you the truth," "before Abraham was born, I am!" Not, “before Abraham was born, I was.” No, “I Am.”
Well this Name “I Am” is a name the Jews should have been very familiar with from their history. Look at Exodus chapter 3. In Exodus 3, God calls to Moses from within a burning bush, and in verse 7 He says: "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.” “I have seen, I have heard, and I’m concerned.” And then He takes action in verse 8 “So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey--” God came down to bring them up. He came down to rescue them. He came down to free them from slavery and take them up to the Promised Land.
And He chose to use Moses in this. What grace. The same Moses who had committed murder was now going to lead God’s people. Moses borrows trouble in verse 13 "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ’The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ’What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?" God answers in verse 14 "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ’I AM has sent me to you.’" Almighty God reveals Himself by the name “I Am”; the God of today, not “I have been” or “I am going to be”, no, the great Great I Am!
And Jesus in John 8 says, “I Am.” And in Jesus saying “I Am” He is pointing back to the burning bush and saying that He is the Almighty God of the Old Testament, the Yahweh of the burning bush. But He is also pointing forward to His own death. How is He pointing forward to His death? Because this whole story in Exodus 3 is about God coming down to bring the people up. You see, once again God sees the misery of His people in their slavery to sin, He hears their weeping in their bondage, and so in Jesus He comes down to hang on the cross, to die in our place, and then the 3rd day to rise again and bring us up out of sin. So Jesus is making a great claim in the passage, He is claiming to be God, the Great I Am, coming down to bring us up. But the Jews didn’t recognize their God. As Jesus says in Luke 19: 44: “you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you."
So let’s apply all of this today: I wonder this morning, do we recognize God in Jesus? Have we embraced Jesus the Son as Almighty God, the great “I Am” that appeared to Moses in the burning bush? Do you know that He came down to bring you up? Have you, figuratively speaking, taken off your sandals in His presence? That is, are you worshipping God in the Person of Jesus Christ?
Well in verse 13, the Jews need some proof of Jesus’ claims, they need a witness. They appeal to the fact that Jesus is testifying on His own behalf, as if to say, “you want us just to believe you on such an important matter as being the “I Am” and the Light of the world? You want us just to take your words at face value?” This is silly because Light is its own witness. If you walk into a dark room and turn on a light, you don’t say “can I get a witness that the light is on?” No the light shining is its own witness. If the Jews had just paid attention they would have seen that He turned water into wine, healed sick people, fed 5000 with a few fish and some bread, walked on water, told a hurricane to sit down and be quiet and it obeyed Him. The light is shining. But Jesus goes on to give these people 3 proofs that He is the Light of the world, the almighty God, the great I Am.
The first proof is that He is one with God in eternity. In verse 14 Jesus answered, "Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going.” The proof is that He came from heaven and is going back to heaven, that He came from the spiritual realm and is returning to the spiritual realm, that He came from God and is returning to God. He just came down temporarily to rescue His people, to bring them up. He claimed to be one with God in eternity.
The second proof is that He is One with God in judgment: He says in verse 15: You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. 16 But if I do judge, my decisions are right, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me. John 8:15-16. In His first coming He did not come to judge, but to be judged, as is evident by the way He forgave the woman caught in adultery. In His Second coming He is coming as the Judge. He claimed to be one with God in judgment.
The third proof is that He is one with God in witnessing. 17 In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two men is valid. 18 I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me." John 8:17-18 (NIV) They both witness to Who He is.
So He claimed to be One with God in eternity, one with God in judging the world, and one with God in witnessing. In summary, He says in verse 19: "If you knew me, you would know my Father also." Because they are One and the same.
But they didn’t know the Father or the Son. In fact, in vs. 14 they didn’t know where Jesus had come from, nor where He was going. In vs. 19 they didn’t know where His Father was. In vs. 19 they didn’t know the Son or the Father, in vss. 21 and 24 they didn’t know the way of salvation nor that they were dying in their sin, in vs. 27 they didn’t understand that Jesus was talking about His Father. So over and over it says they didn’t know, they didn’t comprehend, they didn’t understand.
But there was a time coming when all that would change. A time was coming when those who didn’t know would know, and those who didn’t understand would understand. When would this time be, and what does it have to do with us today? Notice vs. 28: So Jesus said, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I Am.” Ah, the cross would open their eyes. When they lifted Jesus up on the cross to die, they would be given understanding that they didn’t have previously. This whole section is filled with Jesus saying “you don’t know the Father, you don’t know me, you don’t know where I’m from or where I’m going, you don’t know, you don’t understand, until it comes to vs. 28 and the cross, and Jesus finally says “you will know.”
When Jesus died there would be all kinds of signs. There would be a great earthquake, darkness would cover the land, it would be midnight at mid-day, people would be raised out of their graves, and a light would begin to dawn on some of those Jews about Who Jesus really was.
Can you just imagine for a moment, Levi the Jew. He’s always admired Jesus, the way He spoke, the way He loved people. He watched him heal sick people, and feed hungry people and calm terrified people. And he’s watched as Jesus was accused and condemned and beaten and then raised up on a cross. And then he hears these words of Jesus, “when you have lifted me up, then you will know that I Am.” And he has a thought and he quickly turns to Exodus 3 and rereads the story. “The Great I Am comes down to rescue His people and to bring them up.” And he gets it. God came in Jesus and died for me to raise me up out of slavery to sin. Jesus came as the Light of the world, and the cross is the place of greatest revelation.
So what does that have to do with us today? Did you know that you and I by birth are just like these Jews? We don’t know God the Father or God the Son, we don’t know where He came from or where He is going, or why. We don’t know the way of salvation and we don’t know we’re dying in our sins. Until God sovereignly brings the cross before our eyes. When we come to the cross then we know. We come to know that we are sinful to the core and deserving of death. We come to know that we are not good but bad, otherwise Jesus wouldn’t have had to die. And we come to understand that we are in need of salvation.
But the cross is not just for unbelievers to have their eyes open, even as Christians we don’t know, we don’t understand how to live, until we come to the cross. At the cross we see that we are to love those who abuse us. To people who falsely accuse us and speak ill of us, the cross shows us that we are to pray for them and do good to them. The cross shows us we are to overcome evil with good. The cross shows that we are to go to people who have done us wrong, and love them. I mean God did not sit up in heaven and give us the cold shoulder. “Oh you sinned against me, well I’m not going to talk to you.” No that’s the world’s way of dealing with things. The cross shows us that we are to crucify our flesh and die to sin. The cross is the place of revelation and understanding and illumination, both for the unbeliever and the believer.
Yes, the cross is the place of great revelation. At the cross our eyes are opened and we see the Light. Remember the song, “At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light…and the burden of my heart rolled away.” The cross is the place of revelation. Remember the disciples on the road to Emmaus? Their eyes were opened when the bread was broken. When that bread, which symbolizes the body of Jesus was broken, their eyes were opened. At the cross a horrible gang leader’s eyes are opened to who he really is and who Jesus really is. Have you been to the cross lately? Have you knelt there and gazed upon the One dying for you?
Finally, let’s notice the result of Jesus preaching in John 8:30 “Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him.” Many believed on him. While there were many that became more obstinate and hardened under his preaching, refusing to believe, refusing to humble themselves, there were many, also, who by the same truth were softened and became believers. "The same sun that hardens the clay, softens the wax.” Which is it with us today?
2,000 years ago a hardened executioner kissed his wife good-bye, went to work as usual, and took part in yet another crucifixion, as he had done hundreds of times before. But something was different about this one. As he stood at the foot of this cross, and saw how this One died, his eyes were opened, and he exclaimed, “Surely this man was the Son of God.” And I say to you, that anyone who comes to this cross likewise has their eyes and heart opened to see the beauty of the Son of God.
