Autobiography: I Am the Light of the World: Navigating Hope and Truth Amid Darkness | John 8:12

1st Baptist, baptist El Dorado.

Will you join me now in listening to our sermon from this week?

Let me read John 8, verse 12.

John 8:12

Again, jesus spoke to them saying I am the light of the world.

Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

Let me pray for us, lord Jesus, thank you that you are indeed the light of the world and we, as we just sang, we depend on you.

Lord, teach us to abide in you and, lord, right now, remind us what it means to live in the light, to live under the protection, under the care of your loving light.

Lord, please, by your spirit, speak to us now.

We ask in Christ's name, amen.

I do have good news and bad news.

The good news is this John 8, chapter 12, is it?

Today?

We are covering one singular verse, we are covering one verse, and the bad news is this that any halfway decent preacher can get 30 minutes out of one verse, and so nothing changes, though we're only covering one verse.

We live in a world of opinions.

I think you know that.

I think I know that we live in a world of opinions and you have opinions, and that's a good thing.

You have opinions about your sports, opinions about your politics, opinions about your favorite restaurant, opinions about your favorite order at your favorite restaurant.

I would imagine for you today, you've probably already made 200 decisions, since you've woken up, based on opinions.

You have an opinion that you like scrambled eggs and you like this shirt compared to that shirt.

You have opinions about all of these things, even the pew you want to sit on in this room.

You have a certain opinion and you make decisions based on that, and that's an okay thing.

I'm glad you have preferences and opinions.

We live in a world of opinions, but that's not new to 2024.

We see that in Jesus's day he lived in a world of opinions and, as we're going to see this morning in our text in John chapter 8, many of the opinions were about Jesus Opinions about who he was, what he was all about, maybe who he wasn't.

John 8 · chapter mention

There were tons of opinions about Jesus and as we approach John chapter 8, and as we see what leads up to John chapter 8 in the chapter before, in chapter 7, we see a world of opinions about Jesus.

John 8 · chapter mention John 8 · chapter mention

There were thousands of extra people in Jerusalem at this time that's thousands of extra opinions and they were there for the Feast of Tabernacles, one of the festivals they had throughout the years, where many would come to Jerusalem On Wednesday night.

We've been talking about the Psalms of Ascent.

Many of those sang as the people would come to Jerusalem, but here for the Festival of Booths or Tabernacles.

What this meant was a celebration of when the Lord brought the people out of Egypt and remember, in the wilderness.

They would dwell in these tents, these tabernacles, these booths, and they would be provided everything they needed by God as they dwelled in these tents in the wilderness.

And so they came at this time of year to celebrate that time.

In fact, many would stay in tents during the festival and when they returned home from the festival, returning to their own home, their own bed, that would commemorate God bringing them into their home many years ago in the promised land.

It was also a celebration of the harvest season, at the end of the harvest season, giving thanks to God for what he had done.

But it brought thousands of people into Jerusalem and, again, thousands of opinions.

You look in John, chapter 7 and verse 5, we see that Jesus' own brothers don't even believe that Jesus is who he says he is.

John 7 · chapter mention

We see in chapter 7, verse 15, these Jews are wondering how Jesus could be so wise.

We see five verses later, in 720, that they're yelling out he must have a demon.

We see in 731, many are saying could this be the Christ?

Could this be the one that we've been waiting on?

We see one verse later, in 32, the chief priests and the Pharisees they're saying this we've got to arrest him.

We need this person out of the way.

There are all kinds of opinions about who Jesus is.

And then in John, chapter 8, verse 12, jesus wants to answer those opinions, to give answer to those ideas.

John 8:12

Why is this sermon series called autobiography?

Because it is Jesus telling us who Jesus is.

Jesus telling us who Jesus is.

And what does he say in John 8, 12?

Again, jesus spoke to them saying I am the light of the world.

12, again Jesus spoke to them saying I am the light of the world.

Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.

Last week we saw I am the bread of life and it took Jesus 12 or 13 verses to finally get to that.

I am statement.

Jesus isn't making us wait today In the first verse of this passage, maybe because of all the opinions floating around.

He wants you to know.

I am the light of the world.

This is who I am.

I wonder if you have different topics, different conversation topics, different things you like to speak to that are very personal to you.

Maybe they're hobbies that you enjoy talking about, maybe they're family members, your children, your grandchildren that you enjoy talking about, and anytime those topics come up you're fired up because you can go for an hour on that topic.

In fact, you'll be sneaky and you will like lead a conversation so that it will land on that topic, because once you get there it's your time, you can talk about that thing.

I think if we asked John the gospel writer this morning what is that topic for you, I think he'd say this he just loves talking about light.

Every time you look up, john is somehow talking about light.

You see here him echoing Jesus' words I'm the light of the world.

We saw just a couple weeks ago in the first chapter of John.

He says in him was life and the life was the light of man.

The light shines in the darkness.

The darkness has not overcome it.

In John's letter that he writes in 1 John 1, 5 through 7, he says this this is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and don't practice the truth.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sins.

There's that light again.

We saw a few weeks ago as well, as John is writing Revelation and the Lord himself is giving him this vision.

What does he see?

He sees it in the new Jerusalem.

There's no need for sun or moon.

Why, the city has no need for sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light and its lamp is the Lamb, revelation 21, 23.

John loves light.

He loves talking about how Jesus is the light.

But the reality is this that's not just new to John, it's not even new to the New Testament.

You go back to the Old Testament and ever since God first spoke into existence, the light said let there be light.

And there was light.

Ever since that moment, light has been a big part of the story of Scripture, exodus 13, like we just talked about with the tabernacles, when the Lord was leading his people towards the promised land.

How did he lead them?

It says this the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light.

The light of God was leading the way.

We see Isaiah writing around 600 years before Christ would even be born.

In Bethlehem the prophet Isaiah is writing, and these are usually verses that only get read at Christmas time, but two weeks ago we sang Hark the Herald, so we're already in.

Isaiah 9-2 says this the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

Those who dwell in the land of deep darkness, on them has light shown.

And then Isaiah answers the question who is that light?

Verse 6, for to us a child is born, to us a son is given and the government shall be upon a shoulder.

His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end.

Isaiah is saying this I'm looking towards a day when, into this darkness, the light will shine.

And who will it be?

The one we're waiting for, the son who will be born.

Even the very last page of our Old Testament, the prophet Malachi says these words at the very end of his book.

But for you who fear my name, he's looking towards the day of the Lord, when the Messiah would finally come.

It says this the son of righteousness, son S-U-N of righteousness, shall rise with healing in its wings, and you shall go out leaping like calves.

And so what we need to see here is that those who read their Bibles, who knew their Old Testament at this time, they were waiting on the light to come.

And so, as Jesus comes into this moment, when all of these ideas and opinions are flying around about who in the world is this guy?

I thought he was just the carpenter's son.

I don't know who he is.

I don't know what he's all about.

Who is this person?

It is at that moment that Jesus makes the absolute wild claim that all of these things you've been waiting for, this light, you've been waiting to pierce the darkness.

Jesus says this I am the light of the world.

Right, and it would be a wild claim if it weren't absolutely true.

I am the light of the world, the one you've been waiting for.

I'm it.

And then he says this whoever follows me will not walk in darkness.

If you follow me and I am the light, then naturally you will not walk in darkness.

If you follow me and I am the light, then naturally you will not walk in the darkness.

So now we have this darkness that is contrasted to this light.

How do we think about the darkness?

Well, we've said over the last few weeks we've talked a little bit about the darkness of our world and we know we live in a very dark world.

I believe we all know that it's probably the least controversial thing I can say from this pulpit we live in a dark world.

If we brought 300 non-Christians into this room and I just said that we live in a dark world, I think they would all say amen, and they might disagree on the source of that darkness, but they would agree with the statement Because you and I look around every day and we live in a dark world that there's evil and there's brokenness and there's hurricanes and there's disease and there's all these things that make our world at times a very dark place.

But I think Jesus is going even deeper than just the darkness of our world and as you walk in darkness.

I think he's talking about the darkness of lostness.

The darkness of lostness, I think about Ephesians 2.1.

Paul says this for this is before you knew Christ, you were dead in your trespasses and sins.

Let me say that again.

Paul says you were dead in your trespasses and sins.

If you think about dead and death, I think dark.

Sometimes there's we're tempted to say you know, before Christ I was drowning in sin.

Maybe you've heard that phrase was I was drowning in sin.

Maybe you've heard that phrase I was drowning in sin.

I'm not mad about that phrase.

That's a.

That's a good phrase.

I know what you mean by that.

But but even saying I'm drowning in sin implies that if I could just paddle enough, if I could just reach up and catch a breath, I might could, could last a little bit longer.

But Paul doesn't say that.

He says you were dead in your trespasses and sins.

This is a hopeless state.

This is a state where I can't do anything for myself.

Any hope has to come from outside of me.

This is darkness.

I think about it like this Every night either Katie or myself.

I think about it like this Every night either Katie or myself, our nine-month-old Olivia.

One of us will hold Olivia in her room and hold her in the rocking chair kind of upright, just hold her for about 20 minutes, sometimes two and a half hours.

Different nights call for a different amount of time.

We'll hold her upright and then, when the time is right and she's good in her sleep, we will very carefully and some of you young parents you know very carefully do that transition down to the crib.

And that's a difficult one, but sometimes it works and every night it's interesting when I'm holding Olivia and just rocking and just letting her fall asleep, being held like that, I'll put my, maybe my headphones in and maybe have my phone right here where she can't see it.

But maybe I'll have a podcast on or listen to some music or, you know, just scroll maybe through a social media app or something like that.

And I'm doing something while I'm holding Olivia.

I mean, outside of cherishing the joy of fatherhood, that's the number one thing I'm doing.

But a podcast, something like that, and something always happens.

I take the phone when it's time to transfer her and I put it in my pocket and I'll stand up and I'm right by the crib, so I get her in the crib.

If it works, I stand up and then naturally, something happens.

I look at the room and I can see nothing.

It's one of those darks where you can't see your hand in front of your face.

And I tricked myself by having my phone on dim.

I tricked myself by thinking I could see and I realized in that moment I cannot see at all.

And so I am completely lost in this moment.

And I do this dance every night where I kind of I've got the crib right here and so I know a step here and there's the bookshelf.

And then I'm going this way I can't see a thing.

I know if I, if I reach the dresser, I've gone too far.

And so I do this little dance right here and I reach out here and I can find the doorknob and I know I've I've made it out.

And I got permission to tell this story.

There was a night Katie was doing this process, the dance I just described, and I think she found the crib and the bookshelf and you know maybe, found, turned around bookshelf again there's the crib.

But she finally found the doorknob, went through the door, got to the other side of the door, looked up and she had found herself in the closet and so not the hallway so she had to start the whole process over and find the hallway light again the hallway so she had to start the whole process over and find, find the hallway light again.

And it's funny to think about.

And and you know, if you could have night vision goggles and see me doing this dance out of the room, it'd be really funny to think about.

But in all seriousness, I think about this.

I want you to think about this as well, that those around us every day that don't know Christ Jesus, the, the people at your work that don't know Jesus Christ, the people at school, students at school, with you on the football team, with you in the band, with you on the cheerleading squad, with you in class, with you, the people at the gym, the people in community, maybe even individuals in your own home, in your own family.

When you think about these individuals that don't know Christ, I don't want you to lose sight of the fact that their spiritual reality is identical to everything I just described in that room, that it is absolute darkness, and their spiritual experience is just the constant darkness, grasping out to anything that might think they can hold firm on to and anything they can find that might validate or might satisfy them or might give them fulfillment, but it will all fall short.

And that is their spiritual reality, that reality of darkness just grasping out for anything.

That is the spiritual reality of those outside Christ.

And they may look happy and they may smile and life may look like it's going okay, and maybe by worldly standards life is going more than okay for them.

But spiritually speaking, that's the darkness in which they live as believers.

Do we realize that?

Do we know that these are the people who are all around?

Does it change the way we think about those individuals?

Does it change the way we think about those individuals?

Does it change the way we talk to those individuals that this is the darkness they live in every day?

But the good news is this there's hope.

I am the light of the world.

Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have what the light of life On the other side of that darkness.

Those who follow after Jesus no longer have to walk in that darkness.

We know what it means to walk in darkness.

Before Christ we were there, but now, in Christ, we are following Christ and we walk in the light.

Why?

Because we are following the one who is the light, and as Christ, who is our light, leads the way forward, we can safely and surely follow him, even when things aren't easy, even when life, life is difficult, and many times it will be difficult, we can know that we are in the light as we follow after the light.

My question is this how do we follow after the light?

How, how are we people of the light, practically speaking?

I think number one is this obey that.

We obey his word and obey Christ.

I think about his word, psalm 119, 105.

Your word is a what A lamp unto my feet and a what A light unto my path.

Your word's a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

And so, in my thinking, is this If you want to follow the light, follow what the light has given us.

What he says will help light our way.

And as we are in the word of God and we are people of the word of God and we obey the word of God, god's not given us his word so that we can have some kind of checklist or feel guilty if we miss one mark, or just so that we can have some kind of checklist or, you know, feel guilty if we if we, you know, miss one marker, or just so that we have some you know final report card we can get.

He's given us his word because he knows what we need to live the abundant life in him, in the light.

He's given us his word because he knows what it means to live a life of joy and he knows what it means to be a human who chases after him.

How are you doing with the word of God?

Do you make time to be in this word that God says is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path?

Do you make time for it?

You know it's interesting.

Often, maybe I've, through the years, have been tempted to say it, maybe you have too and you say, hey, it's not that I don't want to be in the Word of God, it's really just a time issue.

It's a demanding job.

You know we've got young kids in the house right now.

It's not that I don't want to be there, it's just a time issue.

And then, a few years ago, apple released something and it was a bad day.

They released that screen time report.

And every week I look at my phone and I see that screen time report and I realized very quickly.

It was not a time issue, it was a priority issue.

Are you making time for the word that God says is a lamp to your feet, a light to your path, that the light himself has given to us to give us light to walk towards the light.

Are you making time for his word?

Maybe this week the best thing you can do is wake up and spend five minutes in your word Monday morning.

Do it again Tuesday.

Read the first chapter of John.

On Tuesday, read the second chapter.

Make time for his word.

How else are we people of the light?

Do you run from darkness?

Do you flee sin?

We talked about the John Owen quote a few weeks ago.

Be killing sin or it will be killing you.

Are you running away from the darkness?

Do you live like a person of the light?

How foolish it would be for people of the light, even for a moment, to run back towards the darkness.

No, we've been saved out of that.

How else are we people of the light?

Do we allow the light to shine on every single area of our lives, and not just that, but to reframe and reshape how we see everything in our lives?

Sometimes we're tempted to do this the light you can shine on me, jesus.

Let your light shine on me in every area.

Everything except for this one thing.

If you could just not shine on that, we compartmentalize our sin or our desire for control, or whatever it is.

If you could just keep your light away from that part.

No, jesus, shine on everything.

But also, does the light change how we see everything else in our life?

Does it light up everything else, just like we talked about a moment ago?

Does the light change how we see those who don't know the light?

Do I see these people as just co-workers or people at the gym with me or you know people in my community, or do I see these people as just co-workers or people at the gym with me or people in my community?

Or do I see them as people who are living outside of Jesus and need the light to shine on them?

It should change everything we do, how we think.

Cs Lewis says this that I believe in Christianity, like I believe that the sun is shining, not just because I see the sun, but also because by it I see everything else that as we see the light of Jesus, we behold his glory and his majesty, and we see this light in a fresh way.

But not only that it changes how I see everything else around it, and everything else in my world is seen through the lens of the light, and my whole life is changed by it.

Again, jesus spoke to them saying I am the light of the world.

Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light Of life.

I want to tell you All preachers know this Every single illustration breaks down somewhere.

We give illustrations all the time and none of them are perfect, and if you sit there long enough with them, you'll find out.

Yeah, that one breaks down there Doesn't quite sum up what you were trying to get to, and I got to tell you.

No illustration has broke down more than the one I'm about to give.

For just a moment, could we just kill all the lights in the room, all the house lights?

Let me tell you the breakdown.

It's these stained glass windows, because we've turned the lights off and I can still see you so clearly and you can still see me so clearly.

But think with me for a moment.

Pretend that it's a little darker than it is in this room.

Do you know and realize that outside of Christ, this was you, this darkness that we experience that outside of Christ.

We were dead in our sins and this darkness was our darkness.

We don't need to forget where we come from.

We were hopeless and we were dark until the light of the world came for us and pierced that darkness.

But listen to me, this is who we were, those around you who don't know Christ, this is who they are, this darkness.

But I want you to think about something real quick.

And you're saying he's three months in now the gimmicks come out.

I'm going to come over to the light switch and hope my microphone reaches over here.

2,000 years ago something happened that in a little manger in Bethlehem there was no room in the inn, a little no place town.

The light pierced the darkness, no place, town.

The light pierced the darkness and it probably didn't look as grand as our chandelier at the time, a little baby in a manger.

But this light came into the darkness and the light actually on the cross, took all the darkness that belongs to you and me, all our sin, upon himself and the light took that on himself and died on the cross and Jesus went down to the grave and in that moment it really felt like the light may have gone out, but early Sunday morning Christ Jesus rose from the grave and the light pierced the darkness once and for all.

And now Jesus has risen and has ascended to the right hand of the throne of God, and now the light really is as grand as that chandelier, if not more grand.

Actually, I promise you, more grand that Jesus now shines on all things.

And now you and I can see everything.

Why?

Because Jesus, the light now shines on us, but it gets even more exciting.

Okay, it doesn't get more exciting than that, but the excitement continues.

I'll say it that way Because you and I are in the light.

We now have the privilege and opportunity to not be light on our own.

We can't do that, but we have the privilege and the opportunity to reflect the light of Jesus.

And here's what excites me so much about this room and every room where the people of Christ are gathered that now, in the light, we have this privilege to reflect the light in such a way that Jesus, excuse me that people can actually see the light in us.

And it's not our light, we're not the chandelier Don't get it twisted but we're these lights that reflect the light into a broken and dark world that they can see who Christ is, and they can even see it through us as people who live in the light and know the light and show the light to a world that is so dark and so deeply needs a light.

I want to tell you something about First Baptist El Dorado.

I want people to know that this is a church that knows the light.

I want people to know that this is a church who has seen the light.

These are not just a church, but individuals that know that this is a broken and dark world, but also know that the light has come into the darkness and the darkness could not comprehend it, and that Jesus himself says I am the light of the world.

Maybe this morning you sit here and you don't know that light, and today needs to be your day to step into the light, to say I came in here in darkness.

What you described about that dark world, that's me.

But I want to leave knowing Jesus.

My prayer is that you would come see me.

You don't have to see me to come to know Jesus.

Trust me, but come talk to me because I would love to introduce you to Jesus Christ.

And maybe you're in the room and you know the Lord, but you just want to say this Jesus, help me to show your light.

Maybe, as I always talk about, you need to take inventory of your own life and say who's around me living in darkness, jesus, who needs your light to shine on them, and how can you help me reflect you?

And, lord, give me the boldness to do it.

Let's pray together and then I'll be down front as we worship.

And if you want to come, please come see me.

Lord Jesus, thank you so much that you are the light and, like Isaiah said, we who walked in darkness, we have indeed seen a great light, and that is good news.

I thank you for the good news of the gospel, the good news of the hope that is in Christ Jesus.

What a privilege that we can be called people of the light.

Lord, I pray that if there is one there are two in here that do not know you, that today would be a day that they step into the light.

Lord, if there's those that want to come, make themselves a part of this church family.

If there are those that want to come, just be prayed for, just talk about what you're doing in their lives, that they would come.

And, lord, just let me chat with them.

I'd love nothing more than to serve them in any way.

Lord, we thank you for your word, thanks for the encouragement that it provides.

Let us worship you now in Christ's name, amen.

Would you stand now as we continue in worship?