* Making decisions in the dark can lead to some regrettable consequences. Back in the days before electricity, a tightfisted old farmer was taking his hired man to task for carrying a lighted lantern when he went to call on his best girl. "Why," he exclaimed, "when I went a-courtin’ I never carried one of them things. I always went in the dark." "Yes," the hired man said wryly," and look what you got!"
* Read Text.
* Here is an interesting writing technique, the location is placed in verse 20, at the last of this section.
* The significance: the Treasury was in the Women’s section of the Temple where the offerings were dropped off.
* During the Feast of Tabernacles, it had another significance.
* Special torches were lit and the people danced, sang and worshiped, following one who had the torch.
* The torches wicks were made of old priests’ garments.
* They represented the pillar of cloud and fire that led the children through the wilderness.
* They represented the light that led the way to freedom.
I. Radiant Witness (12)
* In this context, Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.”
* Here he used the physical setting to point to an eternal truth.
* I John 1:5 - This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
* One has said, Jesus made his “I am the light” statement after his encounter with the woman caught in adultery because the Pharisees had left like roaches escaping the light, from the oldest first to the youngest.
* Others have said, Jesus is like the head lights of a car.
* But the exact analogy suffers from this.
* Headlights do not lead or decide the way. The driver does.
* This is the way many Christians live, expecting God to enlighten the way they want to go (J. V. McGee, Thru the Bible, VI, pg. 417, para. 3)
* Jesus is the light that leads the way. He guided the Children of Israel,
* I Corinthians 10:1-4 - Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.
* All of those pictures, the cloud of fire and smoke, the baptism of the Red Sea, the bread from heaven and the rock, are pictures of Jesus Christ.
* The question of the Radiant Witness is, “What position do we give Him in our lives?”
* Do we ask Him to bless our efforts and goals, or do we follow Him with a whole heart.
* Psalms 119:2 - Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart!
* Jesus has one place. That place is number one.
* Where is Jesus Christ in your life? What do you place in more importance?
II. Reasons to Believe. (14-18)
1. I know who I am. (14)
* Have you noticed, people who do not know who Jesus is are obsessed with telling us who He is?
* Sam Harris, A.D. Aczel, George Ainsley, and the list goes on.
* All of these, and a growing list, are best-selling authors who committed their lives to discredit the testimony of Jesus Christ?
* But they don’t know Jesus Christ.
* There are over 3,000 books bent on disproving the claims of Christianity.
* Why? Why don’t they just leave us alone?
* Because, in their hearts, they know the truth, and they hate it.
* Page after page of their writings drips with hatred for Christ and His followers.
* That in itself testifies to the truth of Jesus.
* Jesus predicted this. He said the world would hate us because it hated Him first.
* Again, He told us the truth.
* The rabbinical law stated one could not testify of himself.
* Jesus reasoned first, I know who I am. I am qualified to testify for myself.
* Here is an illustration. Evolution has no eye witnesses, is based on fragmented evidence and is from total speculation.
* They scoff, “where did God come from?” They have the same problem. “Where did big bang come from?”
* It comes down to faith: Either faith in speculation based on fragmented evidence with changing conclusions, or faith in the changeless Word of God, the Creator Himself, the only eye witness.
* John 1:1-4 - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
* Jesus is our eye witness. He is the only one who has seen. And He says He is light.
* The question is, who do you believe? Where is your faith?
2. I do not judge. (15)
* Jesus said, “You judge by what you see and what you know.”
* Do you see a problem with this?
* Has anyone ever mentioned to you after you made a judgment, ‘If you only knew ….?”
* A Native American proverb says, "Do not judge your neighbor until you walk two moons in his moccasins.”
* The problem is, we don’t know much.
* How much of the knowledge of the universe do you know?
* First, we must ask, how much of the universe does mankind as a whole know and understand?
* Then with that percentage, we must ask, of man’s knowledge, how much do I possess?
* Physics, agriculture, aeronautics, biology, chemistry, mineralogy, physiology, psychology, numerology, entomology, sociology, geology… all the “ologies”.
* I put my percentage below one percent. There is a lot I don’t know.
* I Corinthians 4:5 - Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God.
* The Pharisees were foolish enough to believe there was nothing beyond their understanding that would change their minds.
* Jesus said, don’t judge, trust.
* Don’t judge because you don’t know enough to make proper judgment.
* He didn’t judge because the Father already made judgment.
* Jesus declared the righteousness of God. He simply proclaimed God’s judgment.
* When all judgment is given to Christ, He will simply pass on the rule His Father has already made.
* This question is simple. Do you believe your eyes, past, opinion, or speculation?
* Do you know enough to pick perfect righteousness, or do you trust Him?
3. My Father bears witness. (16-18)
* God himself said aloud, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!” Matt. 17:5
* Jesus said, “Whoever believes in me will not perish but have everlasting life.”
* The Law of God said that if one testifies of himself with another witness, it is to be considered as true.
* The question that would come up is how reliable is the witness.
* Already, Jesus had trusted the power of God to feed 5,000, walked on the sea, calmed the storm on the sea, healed the sick, and turned water to wine.
* No one on earth could match these, because they were the testimony of the Father for the Son’s ministry.
* Yet, people wouldn’t believe. They turned away. They challenged His very claims.
* We click our tongues and say, “If I saw those things, I would have been His number one follower.”
* Yet, we are commanded to believe by faith.
* Romans 10:17 - So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
* We claim we believe, but how much do we go to the Word?
* We say the Bible has the answers, but how often do we go and search through it?
* John 5:39 - You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.”
* True followers of Jesus Christ search the scriptures. They do testify of Him.
III. Revelation of the Father. (19)
* True to form, the Pharisees asked, “OK, big guy, where is your father?”
* They again were offended by the implications that Jesus had a unique relationship with God, the Father.
* His language offended them.
* Here, they tried to get Him to say too much, to incriminate himself.
* What He was saying, to their judgment, was blaspheme. They wanted Him to say it outright.
* It was a silly “Clint Eastwood” stance; “Go ahead, make my day.”
* “Knock this block off my shoulder. Give me one more reason to be mad.”
* Jesus knocks of the block of wood and doesn’t worry. The Father sets the schedule, not the Pharisees.
* Jesus’ point was this: He is the revelation to us of the Father.
* Interesting note: When you study the Bible from the start, you get impressions of God.
* A solid description of the Father is difficult to pinpoint in the Old Testament.
* You cannot take a single passage and understand the nature, power or glory of God.
* We are like Moses, we only can see glimpses of His glory by what it does to the surrounding environment.
* Jesus came to reveal the Father. In Jesus, we have an earthly example of the nature, glory, power and love of God.
* There is no other way to know God.
* Jesus’ “I Am” statements show us the way. “I am the way, truth, life, door, light….”
* In Jesus Christ, we find God.
* Do you want to know God? Do you know Jesus Christ?
* Illus. John Newton was a rough, dirty sailor with a foul mouth and an appetite for rotten living. He hated life and life hated him. He was captain of a slave ship. Then someone placed in his hands a copy of Thomas a Kempis’ The Imitation of Christ. He also had the gift of a good mother who told him about the Savior when he was young. And then he was saved. He went all over England sharing his faith. Well past his "retirement" age, he had to have an assistant stand in the pulpit with him on Sundays. He was nearly blind and spoke in whispers, but nothing could keep him from preaching while he still had breath.
* One Sunday, while delivering his message he repeated the sentence: "Jesus Christ is precious." His helper whispered to him: "But you have already said that twice." Newton turned to his helper and said loudly, "Yes, I’ve said it twice, and I’m going to say it again." The stones in the ancient sanctuary fairly shook as the grand old preacher said again: "Jesus Christ is precious!"
