How many of you out there have ever had any experience with sleep-walking?
I imagine we could all share some interesting stories about our sleep-walking experiences. But since I’ve got the floor this morning, you get to hear about mine.
I have actually walked in my sleep only about three times in my life—all three of those occasions coming within the same week while I was 19. I only remember the specifics of two of those occasions, and only one was very eventful. It’s relevant to our topic this morning—how to successfully navigate your way through life—because it is a great illustration of dangers of trying to get some place or go somewhere when you’re completely in the dark. With sleep walking, you’re either completely in the dark because, 1.) your eyes are closed; 2.) you’re unconscious or 3.) it’s very dark, because so often, when we’re sleeping, and therefore when we’re sleep-walking, it happens at night, when it’s dark.
All three were factors in my most memorable experience of sleep-walking. I was still living with my parents at the time. And I was asleep when somehow the thought occurred to me to get up. Somehow the thought of waking up first didn’t also occur. Because of my unconscious state, I didn’t realize at the time that I had slept on my right leg wrong, which had strangulated the blood flow to that leg, so that it was all tingly and was “asleep” in the sense that it had a very reduced circulation. And that was the leg I stuck out of bed that night to stand on. But as I brought that leg out from under the covers and onto the floor, now a third problem came into play. In my unconscious state, I somehow miscalculated the position of my foot in relationship to the floor. And as I touched my foot down, the foot was somehow roughly perpendicular to the floor with the result that some toes as they hit the floor wee pushed upward, and other floors were pushed downward and so they separated out from each other. At that point, of course, I began to place my weight directly over and on to my right leg, which as I had noted, was also “asleep” in the sense that it didn’t have adequate circulation, and at that point, the leg, and my entire body, collapsed on the incredibly awkwardly placed toes and foot below. All of this was happening in the dark, and of course, I was in the dark, being unconscious.
Now there is a sensation that is known to wake people up when they are asleep. It is called pain. And as I collapsed to the floor, the full weight of my body crushing down on a useless leg and awkwardly placed foot and toes, I experience great pain. That and the accompanying scream woke me up.
But the damage of trying to walk in the dark, while asleep, was not over. My mother, who saw me as her little baby from the day I was born until the day she died, had been sleeping across the hall in the master bedroom. My scream not only woke me, but it jolted her out of her sleep. And following her motherly instincts, my mom vaulted out of her bed into a sprinter’s crouch, and then launched herself full speed ahead in my direction.
The problem again was that it was in the dark. And an “as the crow flies” strategy isn’t always the best, especially in the dark. And so as she was filled with adrenalin and launched herself, she failed to take into account, due to the dark, that she was not quite appropriately stationed in front of the doorway. In fact, she was probably about a foot off. And so she, as you might imagine, she slammed into door jam with her shoulder and neck, sustaining painful injuries to her own body, before she eventually felt her way into my room and came to my rescue.
The problem was, of course, that each of us had attempted to make decisive moves while we were, in one sense or another, in the dark. It was only as she finally reached the bedroom to find me writing in pain on the floor that she actually supplied what we both desperately needed—she turned on the light.
Now we successfully navigated our way to the doctor’s office and ultimate healing that afternoon, and for the rest of the day after that, all because, from that point, we did things with the help of light. Because making decisive moves in the dark can be and often is a very, very dangerous thing.
And believe it or not that’s very much how it is with our spiritual life. The Bible tells us that the whole world dwells in darkness and there are a great many spiritual dangers, pitfalls, wrongs turns, broad paths that lead to destruction. And that we have absolutely no hope of finding our say through all these dangerous obstacles unless we turn to the light of God—the wisdom and direction, who as it turns out, is embodied in none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, yes, Jesus of Nazareth.
And the question I have for you this morning is as you navigate your way through this present darkness called earthly life, is are you taking full advantage of the incredible opportunity you have to use the Light of Life to make your way through life to Eternal Life?
This morning we’re going to encounter the Light of Life, Jesus, again at the Feast of the Tabernacles, six months before His Crucifixion, in Jerusalem, in John 8:12-30. He is standing in the Temple teaching and debating the Pharisees, the strictest and most legalistic sect of the Jews, who are His enemies—who are fully disposed to get rid of him by any means possible, including murder, because Jesus represented a threat to their preferred lifestyle of pride, and power, and influence, and sin, of all things. It is one of the most intense debates Jesus engages in with any of His opponents, one that ultimately results in these Pharisees picking up stones to stone Jesus, and to rid themselves of Him once and for all.
And as we come to John 8:12, Jesus makes one of those earth-shaking statements about Himself. An entire crowd of feast-attenders is there along with the critical Pharisees, and verse 12 says: “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.”
Now as we so often casually read through our Bibles and come across a statement like this we are prone to have ho-hum attitude toward such a claim. But we would do well this morning to spend a little time meditating on just what a stupendous, and for any other man, outlandish claim this was.
Notice, Jesus claims that He is the light of the world. Not a light of the world. Not one of many lights in the world, or among the lights. By using the definite article the here, and that definite article is in the Greek, Jesus is signifying that He is the one and only light of the world, that there is no one else, and nothing else that qualifies as a light as He does. He is saying that He is the one and only light that exists, the ultimate light to guide the lives of mankind.
And notice also, just how far-reaching, how all-encompassing the significance of this light is—Jesus is the light not only for the people gathered around Him, not merely for his nation of the Jews, but for the whole world. It’s an incredible statement made by what some people regard as a mere Jewish mystic who never traveled more than a few hundred from the place of his birth in what otherwise might be called a small and insignficant nation in the big scheme of things 2,000 year ago—a mere vassal nation to the Empire of Rome, which also controlled it.
And what is this light good for? Where will this light lead us that we need to go? He claimed it would deliver us from that dangerous darkness of this life to life—what is really life. “He who follows me will not walk in darkness (we have already seen how very dangerous that can be), but will have the light of life—the light that leads to the one commodity we all need and want more of—life.
This is an incredible claim for any mere human being to have ever made! Tell me, is there a single person among your circle of acquaintances who could make this claim and you would take them seriously? Is there anyone who could say this sort of thing, without you either laughing out loud, or wondering whether they had lost their sanity? No, not one! In fact, in all of world history, there are very few people who ever lived who could have made this sort of claim without being either laughed off the stage or being thought a lunatic. And yet here is Jesus standing in a very public place, making a very public outlandish statement this, and He is being taken seriously, not merely by the crowds, but by His avowed enemies.
We have got to ask ourselves what it was about this man Jesus that He could say something like this and be taken seriously? What had He done, who had He been, what kind of credibility did He have that both friends, and strangers and avowed enemies would take this kind of statement seriously?
The very fact that Jesus avowed enemies did not walk away either laughing or shaking their heads about the lunacy of Jesus at this point, but instead engaged in front of throngs of people in a serious debate with this person about the veracity of such a claim tells us that every single person, no matter their relationship or attitude toward Jesus at this time, took Jesus’ claim seriously. What this tells us all by itself is that by this time, three years into Jesus ministry, is that He had built up such an incredible reputation that He could claim perhaps even to be God in the flesh, and many people might actually believe Him!
What had He done to have such incredible credibility, such credentials? Well, He had performed every kind of miracle God might be able to perform. Just a day or two earlier, people were saying, when the Messiah comes, will He perform more miracles than this man. That would get your attention, all right.
And more than that, He had come at a time of Messianic expectation. The Old Testament Scriptures, the Word of God, had predicted that a great person, a deliverer, would come about this time to Israel, and so the people had been prepared to expect someone like Jesus, and Jesus had not fallen short of any expectation they might have had.
And then there was the matter of a wisdom that was beyond the wisdom of any mere man, and that was spoken with such absolutely certainty, such authority. There never was a think-so, or a hope-so, or “I’ll have check on that.” He knew that He knew that He knew, like He was God Himself.
And then there was that impeccable character, a love for people and a love for His Heavenly Father which could not be matched.
So, everyone at that time, the moment they heard, was taking Jesus seriously. Such a statement uttered by a tremendous man like Jesus, must be taken seriously. And so also ought we here today to take Jesus seriously. What exactly was He saying to you and I here this morning?
I think it’s this: That apart from Him, all men in this life walk and live and make choices in complete darkness. That life and especially the matter of having eternal life is a great mystery shrouded by great darkness and people walk in darkness, and therefore in great danger spiritually—in their relationship to God and in their relationship, therefore, to life, and especially eternal life, if we ignore the wisdom and the knowledge that this one man in all of history provided for us.
Thus, you must follow Jesus as your light to life, or experience the eternal consequences of living in darkness, in total ignorance, with respect to what life is all about.
In other words, apart from Jesus, we’re all clueless. We’re all subject to the pitfalls and wrong turns and unseen obstacles of life. All of these are obstacles to experiencing eternal life. All of these are obstacles to experiencing a relationship with God who determines our destiny. The whole world lives in darkness, as the Apostle John earlier put it, but Jesus, the light and the life of God, has come, and the darkness has yet to comprehend or overcome the light of God.
And the key to walking in the light is following Jesus. To follow, from the response of the apostles, means to believe and obey Jesus, because that’s exactly what they did. And so the challenge for everyone here this morning is this: Are we taking Jesus’ claim as seriously as we ought to. Do we recognize what a dark and dangerous place this world is apart from following Jesus? Do we recognize that there is a devil and demons ready to pounce the moment we fall into darkness? Do we recognize that following the way of the world or of our own sinful nature is going to involve many pitfalls, bad choices, destructive deceptions that we will most definitely experience apart from following Jesus? Are we taking full advantage of this most blessed opportunity to have the light of Jesus shined on the narrow path we should take to life and so to be assured of eternal life, or do we prefer to spend our time loitering in the darkness, as though there is any benefit to be found there at all?
Now if any of you are inclined to doubt this, this morning, then you’re in the same class with the Pharisees, who were so inclined as well. And they had the opportunity on that occasion to debate Jesus on the issue. And what we find from their experience is that there is no wisdom or counsel from darkness which can defeat the Light of Life. And that’s our second point this morning—Know that the wisdom of darkness will always lose to the Wisdom of Light. No matter your argument for walking in the darkness, once exposed, it’s folly in the Light of the Messiah.
Now these Pharisees are desperate to find something, anything they can use to discredit this incredible claim by Jesus. Again, for any normal human being, the claim itself would discredit the one making the claim. But Jesus was a different story. He has built such enormous credibility by this point, that even His enemies had to take Him seriously because otherwise, as one corrupt spiritual leader put it after Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, the whole world would be following Him, instead of them.
So we see the Pharisees scrambling for anything that they might use to discredit Him. They are like defense attorneys who realize that such a huge case has been built against their client that there’s no possibility they can prove his innocence, unless they find some technicality to get him off on. Maybe the police didn’t gather the evidence rightly; maybe someone didn’t read the accused his rights; maybe something had gone awry with jury selection. The issue of determining what was right and true was not a matter of concern for the Pharisees. The Pharisees were only concerned about maintaining the status quo in which they could continue to have their way and exploit the nation for their benefit.
And so the Pharisees come up with just such a technicality, a ridiculous technicality based on the tradition and laws of men rather than the Law of God, or the Word of God.
In Jewish Rabbinic tradition, a man accused of any crime could not testify on his own behalf if there were no other corroborating witnesses. And so if you happened to be accused of any crime in a Jewish court of Law at that time, your testimony about your relationship to the crime, your denial, would not be admitted as evidence. If you had an alibi, and there was no one else to corroborate it, your alibi would be thrown out as evidence. You could say nothing in your own defense—you could not even profess your complete innocence without your testimony being totally disregarded, without any consideration of its merits. Now that wouldn’t feel very good, would it! That wouldn’t feel like it was fair or just, would it? And it wouldn’t be. But on the basis of such an unjust law, these Pharisees attempt to discredit Jesus.
Verse 13: “So the Pharisees said to Him, You are testifying about Yourself”—ipso-facto your testimony is not true.”
Now, at this moment, I need to interject my opinion, as a means of blowing off some steam: Baloney!!!
Let’s think logically for a moment. Just because a man testifies on his own behalf about something doesn’t, logically, lead to the conclusion that he must be lying, does it? I mean if I stand up here and say I’m the pastor of Risen King Community Church, logic doesn’t lead you to the inescapable conclusion that I’m lying, does it? Absolutely not. A number of other factors would have to be considered. My credibility. My character over the years. The fact that I’m standing up here right now in the pulpit and preaching. That could be a clue, couldn’t it? Or the fact that there are business cards in my pocket, there are bulletins in your hands, etc., that say that I’m the pastor.
So the entire argument they make, even on its face, is fallacious. But Jesus takes the time to refute it, no doubt for the sake of all those onlookers who are watching this debate take place with great interest—after all their eternal destiny could depend on what they decide about it and what they decide about Jesus.
And Jesus disposes their argument with three different lines of logic. First, because he speaks from the perspective of knowledge—knowing the truth about Himself, whereas they come from the perspective of nearly complete ignorance of Him, where He’s from and where He’s coming.
Verse 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.”
Now even when it comes to normal human beings, who is the expert on each person’s background and at least intended direction? That person. I’m the expert with regard to Jim Wallace. No one, except God, knows Jim Wallace’s background and where he hopes to go than Jim Wallace. And so it was with Jesus, except that He was God in the flesh and knew everyone’s background as well as His own and certain knew His own destiny better than anyone else, especially the Pharisees, who were almost completely “in the dark” about Him.
So if you’re standing there as watching this debate go on; logically and objectively-speaking, who are you more likely to believe regarding who and what Jesus is—Jesus, the expert, with demonstrated credibility of every possible sort, or the Pharisees, who are almost completely ignorant about Jesus.
Jesus’ second argument against the Pharisees contention is that their judgment is deficient. It’s bad. Why, because it’s according to sinful, human perceptions, rather than according to the truth.
Verse 15: “You judge according to the flesh. I am not judging anyone.”
In other words they are condemning him according to a sinful human perspective, that often makes its judgments based on appearances, and more than that, according to sinful priorities and prejudices. Again, these Pharisees aren’t interested in discovering the truth. Their prejudice is to find facts, any facts, that might support their contention that the crowd ought to reject Jesus’ claims and continue following them and their sinful ways. Jesus says, in the then present tense, that He was not judging anyone, because, as a matter of fact, He had come to seek and save the lost; He had not come to judge at this time, but to save. At some future time, He would be the judge of all men, but not at this time.
And now, the third argument against the Pharisees’ judgment that Jesus’ testimony about Himself was not true. Verse 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. Even in your law it has been written that the testimony of two men is true. I am He who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sent Me testifies about Me.”
So Jesus here refutes the Pharisees’ entire premise that He alone testifies on His own behalf that He is the Light of the World. He cites the Law of God in this case, not the traditions or laws of men, and calls attention to Deuteronomy 17:6; 19:15 and Numbers 35:30 that all insist on the testimony of at least two accusing witnesses in any case involving capital punishment. And then He explains how He indeed has the testimony of two witnesses with regard to the claims about Himself which He made. He has his own testimony and the corroborating testimony of Someone who was not merely a man, but God, God the Father. And how was this testimony given? By the fact that God confirmed the deity of Christ, and thus that He was the light of the World, abundantly and repeatedly, apparently many times a day, by the fact that He heard Jesus’ prayers and always answered with regard to any and every request no matter how difficult, no matter how seemingly impossible, even if it involved raising the dead, walking on water, stopping a storm, exorcising demons or healing any and every kind of sickness. And on a few occasions, God the Father even spoke from the heavens testifying to the fact that Jesus was indeed His beloved Son.
And so, in every possible way, in short order, the Light, Jesus shined on the darkness of the Pharisees, and exposed their darkness, their sin, their pride and their prejudice—the fact that they really weren’t interested in the truth about Jesus, but were merely seeking any and every excuse to discredit Him and maintain the status quo which so favored them and their sin.
This morning, I need to ask you, is there some darkness in your life that you don’t want the Light of Jesus to expose? Are you, like these Pharisees, seeking some pretext, seeking some excuse to continue to walk in that darkness? As Proverbs 21:30 says, “There is no wisdom and no understanding and no counsel against the Lord.” If you continue to walk in that darkness, you’re exposing yourself to extreme danger. “The way of the wicked is as darkness, they no not what they stumble over” as Proverbs 5:21 says.
Let the light of Jesus shine, and shine on every place in your heart and life. He will expose the folly of the sin as well as the truth that real life, abundant life is found in following Him.
For as my mother and I found early that one morning, health and healing both physically and spiritually, only begins when you get out of the dark by turning on the Light.
Turn on Jesus this morning. Don’t walk in darkness any longer. But walk according to the Light that can make sense of all of life and bring new and eternal life.
Let’s pray.
