This week we continue our series into Discovery who Jesus says He is through the I Am statements in the book of John. So far we have looked at Jesus as the Great I am…the timeless, divine one. Last week we look at Jesus as the bread of life. When we abide in Him, and partake of Him, he lives in us and through him we can have life.
This week we look at another ??? ??µ?: I, I am statement. Turn with me to John 8 as I give you a little background to this passage. At the beginning of John 7, Jesus heads to Jerusalem right before the Feast of the Tabernacles…this feast occurs near the end of September to the beginning of October during the full moon. The Feast of Tabernacles or booths in some translations is a feast where the Jews celebrated God’s guidance through the wilderness. Right after the children of Israel left Egypt, they did not immediately have tents that would shade them from the sun so they used branches, palm fronds, willows and anything else they could find to make small make-shift huts…or booths to shade them during the heat of the day.
The feast took place at the time of the harvest. In the middle east, the late summer harvest was still hot. The people would work until the heat of the day was at its peak, at that time, they would find or build a booth, a place made of balm fronds or branches…Jonah even finds refuge in one of these when he used a plant to shade himself from the sun while awaiting the destruction of Nineveh—which didn’t happen because they repented. The Hebrew word for these tabernacles—tents or booths is Sukkah. The Sukkot—plural of Sukkah—is the Feast of Tabernacles. The Lord himself was the great Sukkah when during the day he appeared to them as the Cloud to lead them by day and at night the pillar of fire. The Sukkot is a seven day feast, you can read more about it in Leviticus 23:33-44.
Basically during the day, everyone would at the build some sort of Sukkah from natural elements. They would at the very least eat within them and decorate them with ornate objects and make them comfortable for the place of celebration. At night, in the outercourts: the Court of Women, they would created 4 large pillars with 4 Large golden candelabras on top. Young levites would then pour oil into the basins of the lantern and light the wicks made out of the warn out linens of the priests. Because the Temple stood atop of a hill, the blazing candles would light up the entire city of Jerusalem. The fire symbolized god’s pillar of Fire by night that the children of Israel would follow through the wilderness…from the death of the dessert to the promised land: a land of life. During the night, while the Levites played instruments, men would dance with torches and celebrate the light of the World: the Lord. Rabbi Simeon ben Gamaliel, son of Gamaliel from the book of Acts, the one who trained Paul, is recorded in having juggled eight torches at a time without ever allowing one to touch the ground during the feasts nightly celebrations.
Our passage starts in the middle of the Sukkot, when the pharisees drag a poor woman into the Temple: John chapter 8
Read John 8:1-12
Here we have Jesus in the Temple preaching. Jesus often taught in the Eastern parts of the temple, either in the Court of the women, the hall of Israelites or Solomon’s porch. Personally I feel this story would have taken place on Solomon’s porch where Jesus could have sat down on the Beautiful Gate and taught. Here is where the pharisees drag this woman.
This woman was caught in sin…she was snared by death and the Pharisees sitting upon the Law of Moses demanded judgement upon this sinner. But Jesus asks them whoever is without sin to throw the first stone…to send death to this woman. They never would have killed the woman within the temple walls, so it is most likely this is right outside the temple structure. Notice in verse 9 that one by one, the oldest first gave up and left. When looking at verse 12 they must not have gone far…maybe then entered the temple itself because Jesus turns and speaks to them again. I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
Here this woman was walking in sin…walking in darkness and her deeds were brought into the light, but the light of man…is still darkness. When the true light of the world shines it leads from death into life.
1. Jesus as the Light of the World is a call to follow Him…
just as the Israelites followed God out of the death of the wilderness, into the light of the promised land. Jesus calls us out of the death of Sin into the light of the new life through him! Just picture it, Jesus is standing right here at the Beautiful gate and points up to the lamps, which burned continually day and night during the Sukkot. He points to the Lamps…which symbolized the guidance of God by the pillar of flame that had become known as the Light of the World and tells them He is the light of the world. That when we follow him, we no longer walk in darkness, like this woman was walking, but when we follow him…just as the Israelites followed God, we have the light of life.
Following Jesus, the light of the world gives the believer assurance of avoiding the perils and pitfalls of the darkness and the promise of possessing the light of life. That is Following Jesus is freedom from the realm of death and entrance into the kingdom of Light. John 1:4 says In Him [In Jesus] was life, and the life was the light of men. Because Jesus is the light of life, the promise carries the reality in the anticipation of its fullness in the glory of the kingdom of God to be revealed. Following Jesus takes the believer along a path that lead to glory through His death on Calvary.
Flip with me over a page or two to John 9 starting in verse 1
Read John 9:1-41
2. The Light of the World brings sight to both the spiritually and physically blind.
The disciples are questioning a basic doctrine they had been taught all their life. They believed that physical infirmities were caused by the sin of either the child or the parents. So they ask Jesus to settle the debate for them. He tells them that this man is not blind due to his sin or his parents. His blindness is not due to judgment on him or his family. Jesus notes that his blindness is beyond the tragedy of human defects—resulting in general to the fall of man and the consequential entry into sin, sickness, affliction and death in the world. His Blindness is to show God’s mercy and sovereign grace available to all. Because He is the light of the world and so to show the disciples and not merely just teach them, he heals the blind man.
Jesus does not give us a recipe for how we should heal blind people, but rather He uses the very methods of healing that modern healers used—they often spit and made mud for they believed that saliva had healing properties—except when Jesus does it there is healing. When man tries things under His own power—it inevitably leads to death, but when he does it with the power of God…it leads to life…and light to the blind. This man’s physical and Spiritual eyes are opened and then…he is questioned by the spiritually blind! And then they kick excommunicate the man who was once blind, but can now see!
The Religious leaders often referred to the Torah as the light of the World. Psalm 119:105 says Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path. They had to the light of the world—the word, and yet they were blind because they did not see the true light. This goes back to the very beginning of John 1 Read John 1:1-5
You see they had the word of God…a lamp to their feet and a light to their path, but they did not understand it. They were spiritually blind. Now they have the Word of God…who was with God and was God…standing right in front of them, and the entire Word of God in the Hebrew Scriptures, the old Testament is a light shining towards the Light of the world, but they did not comprehend who was standing and teaching right in front of them. Back to Chapter 9 verse 39 Read John 9:39-41
Jesus changes the conversation from the physical blindness to spiritual blindness. To believe in Jesus—as the man born blind had done—means to see spiritually, whereas those who do not believe remain the darkness…they remain blind. Most of the pharisees were happy in their blindness for they saw their worth in the physical, but they did not comprehend that of the physical. Flip over to John 3…one pharisee wants to see…Read John 3:1-21
Nicodemus—even though he is pharisee, comes to the light. He has questions, all his years of training as a pharisee leaves him thinking in the physical only…he asks Jesus, how can one enter again into his mother’s womb…Jesus guides him to understanding the spiritual more, but many of his colleagues…the other religious leaders love the darkness, that is why they get so upset with Jesus for talking about the light…for teaching the truth for being the Word…their motives are power and pride. For their own glory not for the glory of God. They wished to be viewed as superior Jews, as the Holy ones and they worshiped their following of the Law not the one who wrote the law, so while light was shinning right in front of them they remained blind!
Jesus did not come into the world for those who believed they could see…like the pharisees, because if believe you can see—even if you can’t—you will not seek out healing. He came for those that are lost. He came for a lost and dying world…a world lost in darkness in need of a savior! John 3:17-18 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God
Jesus is telling the pharisees, the religious leader…those stuck in religion: your traditions, rituals, strict rules of religion, the answers you think you know mean nothing! You are searching for truth, for light, but you are hiding in a cave and you are lost in a land of darkness that leads to death! You are trying to created your own light, to find your own path, but I am the Light of the World, I will guide you, follow me!
3. We must Do the works of Jesus while we still have the Light of the World…while there is still time!
We are to know Jesus in Spirit and Truth as we follow him. To walk in faith we must know the truth of Jesus and experience by the Spirit the reality of that Truth. To follow the Light of the world is to follow him out of darkness…out of death…into light…into life. When Jesus healed the man who was born blind, he not only opened his physical eyes, he opened his spiritual eyes. The man starts to testify before the pharisees that Jesus is a prophet. The blind man did not know anything else about Jesus besides what happened to him. Verse 25 He answered and said, “Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.”
To do the works of God we must tell others what he has done for us, how he personally brought us out of darkness into the light…how he gave us sight where once we were blind. Revelation 12:10-12 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. 12 Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”
The devil, knows the time is Short and so does Jesus, to overcome death and the grave…to overcome darkness in this world, we must have 2 things:
1. The blood of the lamb
2. The word of our testimony.
When we believe in Jesus, the light of the world…the light of life enters into us and by His Spirit, Jesus lives within us and is the source of light and life living through us for our whole life. We no longer have to walk in darkness. Look at what Jesus calls us in Matthew 5:14
14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
Doing the Work of Jesus is to light his light shine though us before men, just like he let his light shine while he was here on the earth. We are no longer trapped in darkness…listen to Paul’s instruction in Ephesians 5:8-11
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the [b]Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), 10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. 11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.
We are to walk in the Light of the Lord…in the Light of the World, as children of the Light…as children of the Lord and we are to expose the works of darkness…we are to shine the light and expose the dark world….we are not bring judgement, but love as we shine the light…Jesus let the woman caught in sin go, he forgave her, but judged the religious leaders who thought they knew the light. We are to do the same! Not everyone will understand or appreciate what we are called to do. People love the darkness for their deeds are evil, that is why so many do not understand that by shining a light on their deeds it is done out of love. Those living in the world…of the world, are like those driving in a car at night without any headlights, going right towards a cliff, when we shine a light on them, they feel foolish and shameful because their path of destruction was made known, but it is out of love that we do the works of Jesus, for he is love, God did not sent him to bring condemnation, but life into this lost and dark world.
How are we shining the light with Love? Are we loving the sinner, those that are lost…just as Jesus loved the woman caught in adultery? How are we following the Light of the world?
Altar Song
Next week we will continue our series as we learn about Jesus as The Gate for the sheep…I look forward to seeing you then!
