Light of Life | I AM - Part Two | Sunday Service

How many of you believe God has more for your life?

He has more, church.

He has more not just for our lives, but he has more for people around us every day.

God so loved the world.

There's a world around us that we're making room for so they can experience the same love of Jesus that you've experienced.

So that they can experience the transformation that you've experienced.

Anybody not who you used to be?

Oh, I'm not.

I'm not like I used to be.

And I can tell you there's one reason his name is Jesus.

We're making room so that others can have that same encounter with the Lord.

If you have your Bibles, grab those this morning.

We're gonna jump straight into the Word together.

Your iPhone, your iPad, whatever device you may have, and turn with me to John chapter 8.

John 8 · chapter mention

John chapter 8.

John 8 · chapter mention

If you wouldn't mind, stand with me as we honor the reading of God's Word together today.

John chapter 8.

John 8 · chapter mention

We are continuing this morning in the series that I kicked off last week, looking at the seven images that Jesus gives us in the book of John.

These seven images represent seven pictures of who he is and what he wants to do in our life and how we can live a life with him.

Last week we looked at him as the bread of life.

And today we're gonna look at him as the light of the world.

John chapter 8, verse 2.

John 8:2

At dawn, speaking of Jesus, he appeared again in the temple courts where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.

The teachers of the law, the Pharisees, brought in a woman caught in adultery.

And they made her stand before the group.

Pretty heartless, isn't it?

Not a lot of compassion being exhibited by the religious leaders in this moment.

And they said to Jesus, Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.

And in the law of Moses, we are commanded to stone such women.

Now, what do you say, Jesus?

What do you say?

And then in verse 6, John gives us a little commentary.

He he lets us know kind of what's going on and what Jesus understands.

He says they were using this question as a trap in order to have a basis for accusing him.

Let me pause here to help you understand something.

If they were really after the truth, they wouldn't have just brought the woman, they would have brought the man.

I know we're 2,000 years removed from this story, but I think it takes two.

See, they're not really after the truth.

They're out to trap Jesus because he's become a threat to them.

And Jesus sees right through it.

Aren't you glad today that every trap the enemy has set for you?

Jesus has seen right through.

But Jesus bent down, started riding on the ground, riding in the sand with his finger.

And when they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, let any one of you who is without sin, let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.

And again, he stooped down and he wrote on the ground.

The older ones first until only Jesus was left.

With a woman standing there.

Jesus straightened up and asked her, Woman, where are your accusers?

Has no one, has no one condemned you?

No, sir.

She said, then neither do I condemn you.

Go now and leave your life of sin.

Aren't you glad you serve a Savior this morning, named Jesus?

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, I am, I am the light of the world.

I want you to say that after me this morning.

I am the light of the world.

And he says, Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

Church, this is God's word, and the title of my message this morning is simply this follow the light.

Follow the light.

Say that after me this morning.

I will follow the light.

Turn to your neighbor and say, follow the light.

Turn to your other neighbor and say, follow the light.

Turn around to the person behind you and say, follow the light.

Father, we thank you for your word this morning.

It is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.

Shows us the way to go and how to arrive there safely.

And I pray, Lord, this morning we wouldn't just be hearers of your word, but we would be doers of it.

In Jesus' mighty name.

And everybody said, Amen.

You may be seated.

Thank you, Caleb.

My mother's dad, my grandfather on my mom's side of the family, was a World War II veteran.

He was a young guy from the hills and hollers of eastern Kentucky.

Anybody know what a holler is?

Anybody know what a holler is?

A holler is a place in the mountains where you don't have a valley.

You really just have a creek bed that's separating one side of a mountain from another side of the mountain, and they call it a holler because you're so close to the other side of the mountain, you can holler at it and they can hear you.

So he he grew up in a holler in eastern Kentucky.

And as a young man, he was drafted in World War II and went to Europe to fight.

I knew him not as a young man, but as an older man, and like so many veterans, he could hardly talk about his time in the war.

It was too emotional.

It was overwhelming.

It was painful to remember what it was like to be in those days.

And I think part of his tears were also his gratitude because so many didn't make it, and yet he did.

I was probably about 20 years old, and we were there spending some time with them, and for whatever reason, he was able to talk about his time in the war.

And so I pulled up a chair.

I wanted to hear everything that he had to say, and he began just kind of laying it out.

And I come to find out that he was a transport driver.

And in particular, he drove supplies and artillery behind enemy lines to supply the front lines with battle.

He would begin to tell about some of his journeys, and tears would stream down his face.

And part of their instruction was total darkness.

They would drive supplies behind enemy lines under the shroud of darkness.

They would wait until the moon was covered by clouds.

So there wouldn't even be a glimmer of light.

Well, they transported needed supplies.

So I asked him, I said, So, Papa, how how how did you see to drive?

How did you know to follow the path?

How how did you know where to go?

And he began to explain to me that part of their strategy is that on behind on the backside bumper of every truck there was this tiny light.

It was almost a dot and it was infrared.

And that he had really two responsibilities as he was driving his truck.

Number one, focus on the tiny dot.

Don't ever lose focus because if you lose focus, it would be hard to find out where it was in the dark.

And number two, he had to make sure that the light on the back of his truck was always lit.

And so under the shroud of darkness behind enemy lines, they actually fought in the Battle of the Bulge, which broke the back of the Nazis.

Artillery shells are going off all around them.

The enemy knows what they're up to, but can't see them.

And he said, the only way we made it is that we followed the light.

I followed the light of the person in front of me.

And I made sure that the light that was on the back of my truck was illuminated so that the person behind me had a light to follow as well.

Can I tell you walking with Jesus is as simple as following the light?

Following Jesus is as simple as focusing your life, your energy, your eyes, your everything upon him and allowing him to lead you, allowing him to illuminate you, allowing him to liberate you, and allowing him to invite you forward on the journey.

Following Jesus, we make it way more complicated than it has to be.

It's as simple as following the light.

Turn to your neighbor and say you need to be following the light.

Some of y'all have been waiting to say that to your spouse for a long time.

In John chapter 6, 7, and 8, Jesus makes three really, really big statements about who he is and what he's about.

John 6 · chapter mention

And he uses some images to help us understand what he's up to.

He uses the image of bread.

Everybody say bread?

He uses the image of water.

Everybody say water?

And then he uses the image of light.

Everybody say light.

These three images that Jesus uses to point people to himself, in many ways, are a recreation of the images God used in the Old Testament to point Israel to Himself as they were leaving Egypt and meeting with Him.

In the Old Testament, we find that God uses manna from heaven to feed his people.

So when you're reading John 6, 7, and 8, you need to understand that God isn't just giving us an image.

Aren't you glad today that everything that you need in your life is found in Jesus?

So I want to walk through this for a moment because there's great, great revelation that can make application to your life.

First, in John chapter 6, we talked about this last week just a little bit.

John 6 · chapter mention

Jesus takes a large group of people to a remote place on a hillside and he teaches all day.

And the Bible says at the end of the day, everybody's hungry.

Listen, if I've listened to somebody preach all day, I'm gonna be not hungry, I'm gonna be hungry.

And the disciples, disciples tell him, hey, there's no food here.

You need to send all these people away so they can go get something to eat.

And Jesus says, No, we don't have to do that.

You find them something to eat.

And they found five loaves and two fish.

They bring them to Jesus, and what does Jesus do with it?

He multiplies it and feeds the whole crowd, and there's so much food left over that there's 12 basket fulls of food left.

Why 12?

One for each of the twelve tribes of Israel.

What he's saying is, I don't just meet your needs, but in my house, I provide for your needs abundantly above.

All you could think, all you could ask, and all you can imagine.

Aren't you glad you serve a God like that?

Jesus tells them, This bread that you're looking for, I have something to offer you myself as the bread of life that will never grow old, that it will never grow moldy, it will never be something that doesn't nourish you abundantly above what you could think or ask or imagine.

And he challenges them.

Work for food that always meets you right where you are.

Jesus did this miracle at the season of the Passover when Israel celebrated all the things that he's pointing them to.

He's saying, It's not the bread, I'm the bread that nourishes your hungry soul.

Then in John chapter 7, the scene shifts just a bit.

John 7 · chapter mention

It's about six months later.

Everybody say six months.

It's six months later, and the calendar has flipped, and now we're no longer at the season of Passover.

We're at the season of tabernacles.

And tabernacles was this festival in the fall where all people throughout the land of Israel stopped everything that they were doing, and they went to Jerusalem to celebrate how God miraculously provided for the children of Israel in the desert.

In the desert, the Bible says that God rained down manna from heaven.

He provided rock, water from a rock, he provided light by a fire every night.

That he led them, that he provided them.

It's amazing.

If you really read the story in the Old Testament, it said, for 40 years their clothes didn't wear out, and neither did their shoes.

That's some good stuff.

That's high quality things right there.

For 40 years, God supernaturally provided for them.

So here we are in John chapter 7, and it's the Feast of Tabernacles, and Israel has descended upon Jerusalem, and the city is above.

John 7 · chapter mention

Buzz.

I mean, it's a festival unlike anything maybe you have ever experienced.

It's a festival filled with music.

It's a festival filled with food.

It's it is a party unlike anything you may have ever known.

And there are two ceremonies in this festival that highlight its significance in the life of Israel.

The first one is a water pouring ceremony.

And this water pouring ceremony involves a priest taking a pitcher from the temple, and he would walk half a mile down the road to the pool of Shalom.

And he would take this pitcher and he would scoop water out of the pool, and then he would take it back to the temple.

And I think I have a pitcher here of water.

May can you help me with that just for a second?

He would take this pitcher and he would walk back to the temple and he would pour it out upon the altar.

And as he poured it out upon the altar, the singers would begin to erupt, trumpets would begin to blast.

There would be this resounding sound throughout the city of Jerusalem as they would declare, Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna, God save us, God save us, God save us.

And it would roar, not just across the city, but across the region.

And for six days, the priest would make this journey down to the temple of Shalom and back again and pour out this water.

And every time he poured out the water, the community of believers would erupt in celebration.

Celebrating that God provided water from a rock in the Old Testament.

That daily he provides rains even now for our crop.

And they would celebrate that one day salvation would come to the house of Israel.

And so they would erupt in this moment of worship as the water was poured out at the altar.

But on the seventh day, everybody says seventh day.

On the seventh day, it was the last and greatest day of the feast.

And the priest wouldn't just come to the altar and circle it one time.

He would circle it seven times.

Seven times.

And with each The worship will grow a little bit louder and a little bit louder and a little bit hosannas would begin to flow.

Trumpets would begin to blast.

The singers would raise their voices in unison, declaring one day, one day, one day, salvation is going to come.

Don't forget that Israel is under Roman captivity, but the Bible has promised that one day a deliverer would come.

One day a Messiah would arrive on the scene who would deliver them from all of their captivity.

And so as the priest would circle, they would celebrate and dream about and vocalize their hopes and their desires.

It was in that moment that Jesus stood up.

As the water was being poured out, representing all of their hopes and all of their dreams, that Jesus stood up in the masses of the people.

Says, Come to me.

Come to me, the living water.

Come to me, and out of your belly shall flow rivers, rivers, rivers of living water.

Jesus declared, you're looking for something.

You've been promised, it has arrived.

I am on the scene.

I am the fulfillment of all of your hopes, all of your dreams, all of your desires.

I am the fulfillment for your thirsty soul.

Every person there was thirsty for something.

What were they thirsty for?

Maybe it was freedom, provision, healing.

The truth is, church, we're the same today.

We're all thirsty.

We're thirsty for success.

We're thirsty for money.

Thirsty for approval.

Thirsty for affirmation.

We're thirsty for healing.

We're thirsty for all the things that really don't satisfy, all the while the thirst that satisfies all other needs is found in Jesus.

Look at what Jesus says here in John 7.

It's so powerful.

Jesus says, as I said just a moment ago, he rises on the last and greatest day of the feast.

And he said in a loud voice, let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.

And then verse 38, he says this whoever believes in me out of their belly, whoever believes in me, rivers, everybody say rivers, rivers of living water will flow from them.

You know what that means?

It means if rivers aren't flowing, it's because we're not drinking.

Let me rephrase that.

Oh, we're drinking, we're just not drinking from the source of life.

We're drinking from the wrong source.

We're drinking from the source of what a world and a culture says that we need to drink from.

We're drinking from the source of peer approval.

We're drinking from the source of corporate achievement.

We're drinking from an academic culture that says you don't know enough.

Can I tell you what today?

I just believe this, and I know I'm in the process of getting a doctorate, so what I'm getting ready to say can sound trite.

We don't need more knowledge.

We've got enough knowledge to choke on.

We don't need more knowledge about Jesus.

We need a deeper relationship with him.

The problem with most of our lives is that we've chose to fill our thirst from the wrong source.

And you wonder why every morning you get up, you're still thirsty.

It's because you're drinking from the wrong pool.

Jesus says, Come to me the living water, and out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water.

The first ritual during the Feast of Tabernacles was the water pouring ritual.

The second ritual that marked this festival was the lighting ceremony.

And it was during this celebration that Israel would build four giant light pillars in the temple.

They would reach seventy-five feet in height.

Anyone want to climb that ladder?

Pastor Noah, would you like to climb?

As the associate pastor, I think it's your responsibility to climb that ladder.

75 feet high, these lamps would go.

They would be so bright that they would illuminate the entire temple complex, but not just the temple.

All of the city of Jerusalem.

For seven days, these lamps would be lit and light would flow out from the temple all across the city.

So the celebration wasn't just a celebration during the day.

It was a 24-7 party.

People were dancing, people were celebrating the provision, the faithfulness, the promise of God, the hope of a better future.

And night after night, day after day, the celebration would go until the final conclusion when some young priest would climb the ladder and extinguish the lamps that had illuminated the city for seven days.

The Bible tells us that it was at the conclusion of the festival on the next day, on the morning after the lamps had been extinguished, that Jesus goes back to the temple court and begins to teach them again.

I imagine that the smell of smoke was still filling the temple complex.

I imagine as the masses gathered and the crowds grew closer around Jesus, that the smell of the light that had been burning for seven days was at the forefront of their mind.

Jesus begins to teach, and it's in that moment, and John chapter 8, the Bible tells us that these religious leaders interrupt everything that's going on.

John 8 · chapter mention

They see the commotion coming into the complex.

They're dragging this woman out of some house and throwing her at the feet of Jesus and saying, the Bible says she has to die.

What do you say, Jesus?

What do you say to the accusation of this woman?

They're not after the truth.

I've already said that this morning.

If they were, they would have grabbed the man as well.

Though they're trying to catch Jesus in a trap.

And he sees right through it.

The Bible says he bends down.

And he just begins to doodle a little bit in the sand.

Jesus, what do you say?

She's supposed to die.

He just keeps writing.

After a moment, he stands up.

They ask him again, Jesus, what do you say?

This woman was caught in the act of adultery.

The Bible says the word says she has to die, and he he bends back down again.

He begins to write.

No one knows what he wrote.

Books have been written about what people think he wrote.

My favorite theory is that he wrote the sins of the accusers in the sand.

That one by one he kind of looked up at them, caught eyes, and then began to write.

Looked up again.

Yeah, I've got you two right here.

Are you a part of this group?

Nope, I'm not a part of that one.

I I bet people were disengaging from the group pretty quickly.

He wrote in the sand again and again what I would guess would be the sins of her accusers.

Until one by one they each walked away.

You know, there's a lot of darkness in this story.

Some of it is obvious.

Some of it is hidden.

The obvious darkness in the story is the act that the woman was caught in.

That's obvious.

What's hidden and under the surface that Jesus addresses first is the hypocrisy of the religious.

They have turned scripture into a weapon to win a point.

Can I tell you, church, anytime you turn the scripture into a weapon to win a point and you don't win the person you lose?

They've turned a person into a prop for their theater.

And Jesus deals with it first and foremost, head on and directly.

In the way that only Jesus can.

See, the hidden darkness in this story is the self-righteousness of the religious.

They think they're right.

They think scripture is on their side.

They think they figured out how to get him.

And all the while, Jesus reveals the darkness that's laying hidden in the recesses of their heart.

Can I, church, can I just say there's probably more darkness in the recesses of our heart than we want to admit.

That the greatest problem with the church isn't the sinner, it's the self-righteous.

The number one problem to the church isn't the sin of the sinner, but the self-righteousness of the saved.

Sinners are often aware of their sin, while the self-righteous can often be blind to the darkness that's residing in their heart.

You know, the woman was well aware of what she had been caught in the middle of.

I imagine as she was flung at the feet of Jesus, she was filled with guilt.

She was filled with shame.

She was filled with remorse.

She was overcome with regret.

Yet the religious leaders, the Pharisees, the very ones that are there to point people to God are completely oblivious to the darkness that was residing inside their heart.

They weren't even aware of it until Jesus began to write in the sand.

And unfortunately, I believe the longer you walk with God, the more we tend towards self-righteousness.

And let me tell you why.

We tend towards self-righteousness because naturally we have a works-based mentality.

Our flesh loves to justify itself.

And this is the heart of the matter that Jesus is dealing with.

This is the darkness that is lying under the surface that's seething.

That many cases we are unaware of, we are oblivious to, and we miss the reality of what Jesus said in John 6 about the bread when they said, What work must we do to receive this bread?

Jesus said, The bread, or excuse me, the work of God is to believe.

We want our works to justify our salvation, but we are justified by grace alone, not by works, so that no man can boast.

See, see, works flow from love, not for love.

And this is the heart of the matter that Jesus is dealing with here in this story where this woman has been thrown at his feet.

That we live, we move.

Let me ask you a question.

Where would you be without the grace of God?

What would your life look like today without the grace and the mercy and the compassion and the kindness, the goodness of God?

I'm so thankful.

It's not by works.

Listen, the story of my life is simply this, but God.

But God, but God, but God, but God, but God.

If it wasn't for God, oh, it's not about I've made good choices.

It's not about my hard work.

It's not about this, it's not about Jeremy, as we were just singing, it's about the name that is above every name.

And his name is Jesus.

We live, we move, we have our being because of Jesus.

And this is what Jesus is trying to communicate to these religious leaders.

You think your works are earning you favor?

How often do we obey God because we think it earns us something with God?

It's all by grace.

It's by grace.

I'm so thankful that it's by grace.

One by one, these leaders leave, and then Jesus turns to the woman, and I'm wrapping this up.

Worship team can come to the stage.

One by one, these leave, and Jesus turns to the woman and says, Where are your accusers?

And she says, There is none.

And then listen to what Jesus says.

This is what his light does.

He says, Neither do I condemn you.

Now go leave your life of sin.

The light of Christ does not deny sin, but it refuses to weaponize it.

It always opens a door for a different future.

Oh, come on, somebody.

That that that yeah, that God doesn't deny my sin, but by the grace of God, he opens a door for a different future.

He doesn't humiliate sinners, he frees us.

He doesn't pretend sin is fine, but he refuses to let sin have the final say.

It's by grace and grace alone that we stand, that we live, and that we move.

This is the light of Christ.

Light of Christ, it leads us out from the world to him.

It illuminates our hearts and our minds to his way, it liberates us from the stranglehold of darkness, and it invites us to be carriers and conveyors of his light to the world around us.

Jesus on the hills of the Feast of Tabernacles, just after saying, Come to me and find thirst for your soul.

The lamps have been built and illuminated and had just been extinguished.

A woman is thrown at his feet and he steps forward.

And you want to know what it looks like?

It looks like liberty.

It looks like liberty.

It looks like illuminating a new path forward.

It looks like inviting others to join you on the journey.

Follow the light.

You stand with me where you are this morning.

I just have a couple questions in conclusion today.

And the first one is this.

Where are you chasing signs instead of a Savior?

Where in your heart is darkness blinding you to the light of Jesus?

And lastly, and most importantly, will you let Jesus open your eyes to his light?

With every head bowed and every eye closed this morning.

How many of you would say here today that as I've been preaching, as the worship team was leading us, there's an area in your heart that the Holy Spirit has pinpointed.

There's an area of darkness that the light of Christ wants to illuminate.

Not to hurt you or to harm you, but to free you, to liberate you from a darkness that's trying to hold you captive.

A darkness that is shrouding your vision and preventing you from seeing the hope that you have in Jesus and the future that He has for you.

With every head bowed and every eye closed, you would say, Pastor, that's me.

There's an area of my life that I recognize that God wants to shine his light on.

If that's you, we just raise your hand.

I want to pray for you this morning.

Yeah, I see that hand.

I see that hand.

Yeah, just I see that hand.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

I see that hand.

I see that hand.

Thank you for your honesty this morning.

Here's my second question.

How many of you would join me in praying?

God, open my eyes.

Open my eyes.

God, I want to see.

I want to see.

I want to see you.

I want to see myself.

I want to see others, Jesus, as you see.

Hallelujah.

Lord, open my eyes.

Absolutely.

I'm going to ask my altar team to join me to my right and to my left.

We're going to worship together in conclusion this morning.

And if you raised your hand today, and you want the light of the glory of Christ to shine afresh on you this morning, I'm going to ask you to get out of your seat and come to one of our prayer team members because we want to pray for you.

We want to declare the light of Christ over you.

That he would illuminate, that he would lead, that he would liberate you to be the person that he's created you to be.

Go ahead and move right now.

If that's you, some are already moving.

That's right.

Just go ahead and take a step.