GREAT “I AM” DECLARATIONS OF JESUS
Who was Jesus? You will recall that He himself asked that question of His closest followers. First, He asked them, “Who do folks say I am?” Then He asked them a pointed question, “Who do YOU say I am?”
As we look back upon that encounter with His disciples, we soon realize that, just as it was wise for them to answer that very important personal question, it is wise for us to do likewise. It’s one thing to say that we are followers of Christ; it is quite another to know who He is.
As you know, it was the Apostle Peter who seized upon the question and blurted out the answer that all Christians ought to be able to give, “You are the Christ, Son of the living God.”
In this series of devotional messages, our focus is not on the question of who Jesus was based on public opinion; nor do we focus on Peter’s declaration of who Jesus was. Rather, we shall focus on who Jesus himself said He was – and hopefully still is in the hearts and lives of each one of His followers.
GREAT "I AM" DECLARATIONS OF JESUS - SERMON II: “LIGHT OF THE WORLD ”
JOHN 8:12 . . .
What would we do without light? In the beginning God created the sun to give us light by day and the moon to give us light by night. So, light was considered by the Creator to be essential for our well-being.
We need light to see where we are going . . . read a book . . . drive a car . . . work or whatever. Light for most of us has become a luxury without which we could not go about daily life very well. Unlike folks who are born blind, the rest of us simply cannot function without light.
We’ve come a long way from the first attempts by man to lighten up his life – from torches fueled by fossils, to wicker lamps, to candle light, to Edison’s light bulb. Nowadays the demand for better and brighter light is all around us – spot lights, neon lights, fireworks that light up the night sky on the fourth of July. Each day we echo God’s command, “Let there be light.”
In the days when Jesus walked this earth, light was just as precious to folks then as it is now – of course not exactly on the same scale as we know it today. Nonetheless, anytime the people of his day got together for a Jewish festival there would inevitably be celebration highlighted by a display of light.
One of those special events was the annual Festival of Tabernacles - when folks came together to commemorate the dwelling of God’s people in tents during their journeys in the wilderness – and their focus was on God’s deliverance of His people from the darkness of those wilderness experiences into the brighter days which they enjoyed in the promised land.
On the evening of the first day of that Festival there was a ceremony called The Illumination of the Temple. It took place in one of the courtyards within the temple complex. The Court was surrounded with galleries sort of like “bleachers” that were erected to accommodate the spectators.
In the center of the court, four great candelabra were prepared; and when the darkness came, the four-great candelabra were lit and, according to a historian of that day, the gigantic candelabra sent such a blaze of light throughout Jerusalem that the entire city surrounding the temple was lit up.
You know, in our day, we may get together for a thirty-minute show of fireworks at night on a holiday, but the festival of lights in Jesus’ day lasted throughout the night. All night long the religious leaders of Judaism danced before the Lord and sang psalms of joy and praise to God while the people watched from the galleries and clapped their hands in rhythm with the tambourines.
Against that backdrop of tradition, Jesus spoke to His listeners using an analogy of light that they were familiar with and could understand.
He said, in effect, “You have seen the blaze of the Temple illumination piercing the darkness of the night. I am the Light of the World, and, for the person who follows me there will be light, not only for one exciting night, but for the entire journey of life. The light in the Temple is a brilliant light, but in the end, it flickers and dies. I am to you the Light which lasts for ever and forever.”
Jesus went on to say, “Anyone who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Thus, He came as the Light that would pierce the darkness of night.
Jesus was telling His followers, and He is telling those of us today who profess faith in Him, that He was and continues to be the Light of God which has come into the world so that, by coming to know Jesus, we come to know God.
Jesus was also telling those who choose to believe in Him, and follow Him, that He is the Light that gives everlasting life to those who trust Him.
You know, the thought occurs to me that just as a flower can never blossom if it never sees the sunlight, so our lives can never radiate with the grace and beauty of the love of Christ if we do not live in the light of His presence. Surely each one of us wants our lives to reflect the glory of His presence.
A favorite verse of scripture that many of us learned during childhood in Sunday school sticks in our minds to this day: “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
(Matthew 5:16)
Which reminds us of a little chorus we learned to go along with that scripture verse: “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.”
Another favorite verse is given to us by the beloved apostle John: (I John 1:7)
“If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.”
Folks, those of us who know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior love to come together - for Christian fellowship . . . to be together in times of joy and in times of sorrow . . . pray together . . . enjoy one another’s company – and we love to do these things in the light of His presence.
There are so many folks in our world today, as there were in the days of our Lord, who love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil and therefore they prefer to remain in the darkness of sin. Every person in our world needs to heed the wisdom of the words of the apostle John:
“This is the verdict: Light (spelled with a capital L) has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done in accordance with God’s will.”
Folks, when we live according to God’s purpose and will for our lives, we have nothing to be ashamed of. The Christian life is a life to be proud of – and God wants you to give yourself credit for living a life that has been and continues to be pleasing unto Him.
My friends, my prayer for you as well as for myself is that we may be able to say with the psalmist, and really mean it, “The Lord is my Light, and my salvation, whom shall I fear?” (Psalm 27:1)
Oftentimes we go through the valleys of life – even the shadows of death – yet the assurance we have in our hearts is that we need not be afraid because Christ is the Light at the end of the tunnel!
When John received his vision of heaven, he tells us in his Book of the Revelation that he did not see a temple in the city of God because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are there. “The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light.”
Philip Bliss was one of our most cherished gospel song writers. His life was tragically interrupted when he lost his wife in a train wreck in the middle of the night, as a train trestle collapsed in Ohio, and the passenger train plummeted to the river below.
Somehow Mr. Bliss managed to escape through a window, but his wife was trapped beneath the debris; he made his way back into the train car and tried in vain to save her; but there was no light to help him find her before the train submerged itself into the depths of the river.
This famous gospel song writer dealt with the sorrow of this great tragedy by composing the words and the music to one of our most loved gospel songs, “The Light of the World is Jesus.” (Read or sing.)
In the darkness of your night, may this thought - “My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the Light at the end of the tunnel” - comfort you, strengthen you, and give you hope to carry on. Amen.
