I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD – LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS – JOHN 9 - PART 1
THE INTRODUCTION:
The very first mention for “I am the light of the world” is this one – {{John 8 v 12 Again therefore Jesus spoke to them saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.”}} This statement followed the incident of the woman taken in adultery, and may or may not have happened at the same time. I think it happened later on somewhere, but the statement resulted in a nasty confrontation with the Pharisees where they got abusive and vile, and tried to stone Jesus, and that takes up all the rest of chapter 8.
The nastiness of the old sinful nature was always residing with the Pharisees, but those who observe will notice that the present world is becoming now more abusive, dark and confrontational. The predictions of the end of the Church age that Paul gave Timothy are well and truly here. The cancel culture says if you don't agree with me/us we will cancel you out. The Pharisees owned the cancel culture.
The occasion of this wonderful I AM in chapter 9, was the miraculous granting of sight to a man who had never had sight, and it occupies the whole of chapter 9 of John’s Gospel. Here was a man who had never seen the light, for his experience had always been blackness. It would seem from verse 3, where Jesus explained the reason why that man had been born blind, was that the man was ordained by God to be blind, for an everlasting revelation of the power of God. {{John 9 v 3 Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents, but it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him.”}} In verse 4 we have a very special twist – {{“We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day. Night is coming when no man can work.”}}
The Lord would work in the light of the day with the man’s darkness, so that the night of his darkness would become like the light of the day. There is not the build up to this “I AM” like others have, but the Lord’s declaration of Himself comes very quickly. He then said, John {{9 v 5 “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”}} (The word “while” has the sense of “when”. It did not mean that Jesus was the Light of the World just for the years He lived here. His presence is still in the world through the Holy Spirit. The definite article is not in the original. Westcott says, "Christ is 'light to the world,' as well as 'the one Light of the world.'). The man went in his darkness to the pool of Siloam and washed and left that pool with the perfect light of the salvation of God. O, yes, we know he was saved as a careful examination of the rest of the chapter will show. The Lord does not speak again from verse 6 until He again meets the man in verse 35.
A casual reading of this story could easily pass over the great importance of the Lord’s “I AM”. “I am the light of the world.” What I would like to do, is examine the subject of light, especially in regard to the Lord so we may understand His great “I AM” better. Firstly, though, I want to look at the condition of man in regard to light and darkness, for those two words are constantly used in scripture.
MAN’S NATURAL STATE:
(a). We go right back to Genesis for the first mention of light and it is in these verses – {{Genesis 1 v 2 and the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Gen 1:3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.}} Some people, especially those who subscribe to Answers in Genesis or Creation Ministries, will disagree with my understanding here, but God does not create with darkness. God is light. I believe this state of affairs came about because of a judgement on the whole earth, and Genesis 1 is the re-ordering of an empty earth, shrouded in darkness.
“Formless and void”, or “without form and void” in both Genesis and Jeremiah 4 verse 23, and from Isaiah for that matter, comes from the Hebrew tôhû va-bhôhû, and is untranslatable. In order to convey its meaning, translations and commentators have used the following expressions – “without form and void, without order and beauty, without furniture and use, waste and void, emptiness, vacancy, barrenness, formless, lifeless mass, desolate, confusion and desolation.” Those expressions are not of joy but of gloominess and disaster, and do not describe the pristine creation of God.
The very first act of God in Genesis after the original creation of the universe, is to allow the light to appear in that scene. There is the strongest possible demarcation of light and darkness, with darkness meaning sin, and the absence of the God of light. {{Genesis 1 v 4 “God saw that the light was good and God separated the light from the darkness.”}} Darkness is man’s state; light is God’s state.
(b). Man and the cockroach share something in common. Do you know what that is? I think we all know about cockroaches. Both love the dark. Men love darkness and not light. Job explains that well – {{Job 24 v 13 “Others have been with those who rebel against the light. They do not want to know its ways, nor abide in its paths. Job 24:14 The murderer arises at dawn. He kills the poor and the needy, and at night he is as a thief. Job 24:15 The eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, “No eye will see me,” and he disguises his face. Job 24:16 In the dark they dig into houses. They shut themselves up by day. They do not know the light.”}}
Now of all the biblical writers, none more than John, has examined the matter of light, especially as regards the great contrast between light and darkness. God reveals through John, the strongest division of light and darkness such as he does here – {{John 3 v 19 “This is the judgement, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil. John 3:20 Everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed, John 3:21 but he who practises the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”}} It is important we understand this, that we see men’s minds darkened in God’s sight, and men’s actions, as the works of darkness. Many academics and university lecturers like to think they are illuminated with knowledge, but that is a dark illusion. That is the natural state of man, what man gained through sin. Greater sin leads to greater darkness. A man in darkness can not find his way.
The Light (Jesus Christ) has come and people must make a judgement. Those in darkness see the light but will they respond, and leave their darkness to seek the light? Many don’t because they love their darkness and think the darkness hides their evil practices. In a perverse way, it gives them comfort. Darkness embraces sin for consolation. Sin embraces darkness in consolation. They will not come to the light to get converted. On the other hand the saved ones love the light and dwell in it, because there is no condemnation, for the Lord has taken it all away. The Lord called the rejection of Himself, “judgement” because firstly, the judgement of choice is made to reject Him, and secondly, rejection will lead to the judgement of the great white throne. No natural man will ever find God. It is into this scene the Son of God came and He plainly said – “I am the light of the world.”
CHRIST'S NATURAL STATE:
(a). Again, no one but John has instructed us as to the light (note the number of times “light” is mentioned) – {{John 1 v 1-10 “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 came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came for a witness that he might bear witness of the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light but came that he might bear witness of the light. There was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.”}}
(Work through this passage later on, in your own time taking note of all the facts here).
Jesus’ own life showed us that Light has the ascendency over darkness. Light poured into darkness makes everything clear, like the rising of the sun. Darkness poured into light is eaten up. The Lord was not overtaken by darkness. The Lord came into the world to reveal the darkness of men and the light of God. A man hates his sin being exposed, and like the Pharisees did, they turn from God and hate Him. Their hate was so vile, it led to Calvary. Sin can not exist in the open presence of God. That is the light Moses could not enter into, but only in part, and why his face was so bright. It was represented by a mere faintness at the Transfiguration in Luke 9. God is light, and at the same time He is a consuming fire.
(b). Thus the Lord came to earth to be the Light of the World, or as Job stated – {{Job 12 v 22 “He reveals mysteries from the darkness, and brings the deep darkness into light.”}} Much of Isaiah looks towards the incarnation, and then, the Second Coming of the Lord, still future. Prophesying of the first coming, he wrote – {{Isaiah 9 v 2 “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.”}} Christ came unto His own, but He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. Man wanted to extinguish the very Light that gave them hope, the Light that showed them up for what they were. {{Isaiah 42 v 16 I will lead the blind by a way they do not know. In paths they do not know I will guide them. I will make darkness into light before them and rugged places into plains. These are the things I will do and I will not leave them undone.”}} Isaiah wrote so much still future, but this verse has a double application. The main fulfillment is still future for Israel, but it can also be applied to His first coming. Just look at that part, {{“I will lead the blind by a way they do not know,” and “I will make darkness into light before them.”}} That is the Light of the World shining in great brilliance in this world, taking man’s natural state and making it light, as the light of the glorious gospel of Christ breaks through their darkness, leading them into the paths of righteousness in the light of God. {{Matthew 4 v 16 “The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light, and to those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, a light dawned upon them.”}}
(c). We will close this first section with some words from the Lord, also from John’s Gospel – {{John 12 v 35 Jesus therefore said to them, “For a little while longer, the light is among you. Walk while you have the light that darkness may not overtake you. He who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. John 12:36 While you have the light, believe in the light, in order that you may become sons of light.” These things Jesus spoke, and He departed and hid Himself from them. and John 12 v 46 I have come as light into the world that everyone who believes in Me, may not remain in darkness.”}}
THIS IS THE TRANSITION: FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT
(a). So far, we have looked at the state of the natural, unconverted man born in, and existing in darkness; and then, we looked at the stark contrast of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Light of the World, the eternal Light, who came into the darkness of men. When darkness and light clash, the light will overcome darkness. Through the working and conviction of the Holy Spirit, many sons are brought to glory, the theme of Paul in {{2Corinthians 4 v 6 “for God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”}} I want to say to you, never underestimate the grace of God that called you to salvation. Many are called but few are chosen. They are the ones whose hearts God has shone in, to reveal the light, and knowledge. In writing to the scattered Jewish Christians, Peter expressed the same thought – {{1Peter 2 v 9 . . . a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellences (virtue, moral excellence, perfection, excellence) of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.”}}
(b). We are looking at transitioning from darkness into light, but coming into the light of God, has definite consequences. Paul takes this up when speaking with the Ephesians, these people who once were in such deep darkness in their worship of the fertility goddess, goddess of virgins, and goddess of the hunt, Artemis (Diana to the Romans). The transition from black to white was NOT lost on the Ephesians – {{Ephesians 5 v 8 “for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light Eph 5:9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), Eph 5:10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. . . . Eph 5 v 13 but all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.”}}
By the way, in verse 8 there is no preposition “in”, as we might say it, in connection with “darkness”. Paul says they WERE darkness, that’s how bad they were, BUT when the Light of the World laid His hand upon them, what a dramatic conversion took place, a new creation in Christ Jesus. Once in the light, Christians are to walk in that light. This is a very important passage but we will look at it in the next section –
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(I will break the message here and put it in two PARTS because of its length. That ends PART 1. PART 2 follows on in the next posting.)
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
