5/16/04 – It’s All in the Saying
John 8:12-59 Rick
Black Slide
The world is a very dark place… [lower lights in aud]
Light Candle #1:
Look at the newspaper... and you will read about darkness.
Go to the magazine rack in any grocery store... and you will glimpse darkness on the covers. Stop by the airport newsstand... and you will see darkness displayed in well-organized racks. Turn on the TV... and watch the darkness in comedies, reality shows, and even the cartoons. Scan the radio dial… and you can hear the darkness coming through the lyrics of musicians and the patter of the dj.
It seems to me that every time I think the world can’t get any darker – it does.
[lower lights to complete darkness except for one candle that is lit]
It’s almost enough to make you want to cross the Mackinaw Bridge, blow it up and then live by yourself in the backcountry of the upper peninsula.
But that wouldn’t help the world’s problem with darkness… The world needs light…
Light Candle #2
It was the Last Night of the Feast. For 8 days it had been a gigantic campout. The homes of the people had been abandoned for shelters made out of bushes and tree branches as a way of remembering the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness of the Sinai desert. During those years there was a great dark cloud by day that moved along their path. At night there was a there was a cloud of fire – a light to guide the way to the promised land.
Light Candle #3
At the Feast of the tabernacles one of the highlights of each evenings festivities was the lighting of 4 great candelabra’s in the temple grounds. Everyone was there on the last night for the last lighting of the great Menorah - some seventy feet high and layered in beautiful hammered gold fashioned, by the finest artisans of the nation, would be lit. Picture this small Menorah as a stunning work of art, a great lamp, with seven golden arms each reaching up to the sky. At the end of each arm a great basin filled with the purest oil. In each basing a great wick made of the worn clothing of the priests of the temple.
Light Candle #4
To the Jew it was a powerful image. It was large. It bathed the whole courtyard in warm yellow light. Josephus claimed that the light could be seen through the whole of Jerusalem it was so bright. It symbolized the light that Israel would one day take to the Gentiles in the Messianic Age in the building of a new Kingdom of might and power.
Light Candle #5
Josephus, a noted Jewish historian, gives us important insights into what happened that last night of the feast of the shelters. He records that the treasury where the offerings were given was in the women’s court of the temple. This is where the candelabra stood. The women’s court was open to all Israelites, so, unlike the court of the nation of Israel, was not restricted to men. Everyone was there! Thousands jammed in to see this lighting of this great light.
Light Candle #6
Image the noisy crowd, gathered around in the darkness waiting for the moment when the priests lift the torch to the first wick. As it comes into the courtyard from the inner courts – symbolizing God’s presence – the crowd gets quiet. Little boys sit on father’s shoulders and take in every movement. Little girls are held up to see over the heads of the people. The moment is fixed into every eye and etched into every mind.
I imagine Jesus standing beneath the candelabra, its light illuminating Him to all that were present – thousands upon thousands. There He made His proclamation just at the peak of Israel’s hushed silence as the last candle was lit and this magnificent, awe-inspiring spectacle was complete.
Light Candle #7
As the last lamp is lit – in the hushed silence of expectance – in a scene not unlike the lighting of the Olympic torch at the beginning of the games – Jesus spoke – in a loud voice and said…
I am the light of the world [Bring lights up in aud to full on]
The World Needs Light
Isaiah 5:20 (NCV)
20 How terrible it will be for people who call good things bad and bad things good, who think darkness is light and light is darkness, who think sour is sweet and sweet is sour.
Right has become wrong and wrong has become right
We look around and see that things are not as they should be.
Mark Early, ran for governor in Virginia in 2000 (and lost) spoke at a prayer breakfast this past week here in Lansing.
He pointed out that 10% of the Federal and State prison population in the US have life sentences. That’s not the way the world is supposed to be. No mother or father ever started a family expecting to see that child in prison someday.
He also told the story of a young 16 year-old boy in the DC area that was beaten up by a rival gang. As a warning to this young man’s friends they cut off both of his hands. That’s not the way the world is supposed to be.
We heard on our news about young soldiers who abused Iraqi’s in prison. We heard about a 26 year old American who was decapitated by terrorists. That is not the way the world is supposed to work.
There is no light in the world but there is a light that shines out of the darkness
Simeon had foreseen these, when he blessed the young baby Jesus brought to the Temple by His parents for dedication; he spoke of Jesus as the “light to lighten the Gentiles”, those beyond identification with national Israel.
Jesus is the Light of the World
John 8:12
12 Later, Jesus talked to the people again, saying, “I am the light of the world. The person who follows me will never live in darkness but will have the light that gives life.”
Jesus is the “Light of the world”. He doesn’t say, “I can see the light” or “I know the way to the light”; He says, “I am the Light of the world.”
Christian faith is not wrapped up in propositions and principles but rather in a person, and that person is Jesus; take Him out of the equation, and we have nothing.
Jesus shines and brings light to the world—which might not seem unusual to us, but remember, He was saying these words to a fiercely nationalistic audience who prided themselves as being “God’s chosen people”.
This, however, didn’t sit too well with the Pharisees and religious leaders; notice how they reacted to Jesus… They must have ground their teeth in desperation and rage – Jesus ruined their party!
Jesus is the Light of the World
John 8:13
13 The Pharisees said to Jesus, “When you talk about yourself, you are the only one to say these things are true. We cannot accept what you say.”
Natural Judgment
They said “two must testify” to who you are and you are only one person… You are a liar! The Pharisees objected on the grounds of a perfectly good Jewish legal principle, which stated, “A person is not accredited unto himself.” In other words, they were saying, “Your word alone is insufficient”.
They sat in judgment on Jesus and found Him wanting, in their eyes. But there was an inherent flaw in their judgment. They were using the wrong yardstick!
Spiritual Judgment
Our natural judgment is based on this evidence we are presented. It is this that some relied on that day when they rejected the testimony of Jesus.
In John 8:15, Jesus says, “you judge by Human Standards”. They lacked the necessary knowledge to judge Jesus; they used earthly standards, judging according to external appearances; they had a judgmental predisposition to begin with! Judged by appearances, without real knowledge, He was just a fellow countryman, a man born in a lowly stable at that, from Nazareth—and we remember the words of Nathanael, who asked, “can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
We live in bodies confined on 5 sides – There is what you can see, what you can hear, what you can taste, what you can touch, and what you can smell. That’s it. But there is a spiritual side of us. Built in by God from the very beginning.
It is to this spiritual part of us that Jesus appeals. Jesus asserts that He can judge – but that he chooses mercy instead!
He had just demonstrated that very thing: the woman caught in the act of adultery, deserving of stoning according to the Law—and yet in His compassion and concern for her, extended forgiveness, calling her to a changed lifestyle out of gratitude for His grace.
There was a failure to communicate with some and success with others
Some rejected Jesus
They Pharisees failed in that they knew neither God the Father nor Christ the Son and they rejected the testimony of both.
But like the movie, Cool Hand Luke, there was a “failure to communicate” – why? Because the Pharisees refused to see with their spirits the truth of Jesus.
Jesus is the Light of the World
John 8:29 & 30
29 …“When you lift up the Son of Man, you will know that I am he. You will know that these things I do are not by my own authority but that I say only what the Father has taught me…”
30 While Jesus was saying these things, many people believed in him.
But some believed
The testimony of both the Father and the Son is throughout the entirety of the four accounts of Jesus life.
Some believed… They saw Jesus and the heard his words. Their must have been something about him and that drew men to him. His spirit and the testimony of the father.
How would I have reacted?
Listen to Jesus’ words when he says that He is “I Am”. Listen to the father God whose voice thunders from the sky at Jesus baptism and says “this is my Son, in Whom I am well-pleased”.
I probably would have been a Pharisee. Maybe not. I don’t know. One thing I do know… For me today, I have decided to listen with my spiritual heart and to walk in the light of Jesus
Becoming a Person of Spiritual Radiance
2 Corinthians 4:6
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Have you lost your “luster”?
An article in Newsweek a couple of years ago was titled "The Fall of the Dinosaurs". It explored the downfall of American corporate giants. Tucked away in the opening remarks were these words: "The institutions of family, church and government have long since lost their luster."
Is that true? Has the family and the church lost its “luster”? Go to the mall or to the park. Visit the restaurants this very day. Church isn’t even on their radar screen…
Maybe the reason is that we have tried to be the light rather than reflecting the light of Jesus.
The closer you are to the light the greater the reflection
On February 4, 1993, officials at the Flight Control Center near Moscow reported the successful deployment of a space reflector. This aluminum-covered disc was used by cosmonauts in the space station Mir to reflect light from the sun to the dark side of Earth.
With a twenty-five-foot disc in space, they were able to produce a two-mile circle of light on earth. Such a move placed Russia in the forefront of this reflective technology. If the church has lost its luster, it may be due to our feeble attempts to produce light rather than reflect the Light. How much greater would be our impact if we started being better mirrors of the Son!
That’s what we are about….reflecting the light that changes the world
Pastor Laszlo Tokes became too successful in the eyes of his Romanian government. He preached the gospel boldly and within two years saw his small church grow to 5,000. The authorities confiscated his ration book so he couldn’t buy fuel or food. Then in December 1989, they decided to exile him. When the police arrived they were stopped by an unmovable crowd of people. Members of other churches and denominations stood shoulder to shoulder in protest. All day, the police tried to disperse the crowd, but they wouldn’t budge. Just after midnight a nineteen-year-old Baptist student named Daniel Garva, pulled out a packet of candles. He lit one and passed it to his neighbor. One by one the burning candles were passed through the crowd. The crowd stayed all through that night and the next. The police finally broke through and knocked in the church door. They bloodied Pastor Tokes’ face, then paraded both him and his wife through the crowd. An outcry from the people led them to their city square of Timisoara, where they began a full-scale demonstration against the Communist government. Once again, Daniel Garva passed out his candles. Troops were brought in and ordered to shoot the crowd. Hundreds were shot, and Daniel’s leg was blown off. Their brave example inspired the entire population of Romania, and within days the bloody dictator, Ceausescu, was dead. For the first time in half a century, Romania celebrated Christmas in freedom. In a world of hostile darkness, God has called us to light a candle of love. Although the presentation of God’s Light may not be favorably received, such faithfulness will yield results beyond our grandest dreams.
Start with your world
According to Rick Warren, there are two basic reasons people don’t know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior: (1) they have never met a Christian; and (2) they have met a Christian. Christian influence is no small matter.
Invest in the people in your life…
Invite them to come into the light…
Now let’s enjoy being part of His family as we share in the Lord’s Supper
