Light and Life

Father, sometimes your word speaks of things that are hard for us to maybe accept.

We want to turn our minds and our hearts away from them.

In fact, Father, sometimes your word says things that we might be a little bit embarrassed to talk about.

Father, we thank you so much that you know us.

You know our hearts.

You know our weakness.

And so we ask that you would gently but deeply and powerfully pour out your Holy Spirit upon us

and bring these words of Jesus, his encounter with his opponents,

bring these words of Jesus deeply into the very center of our lives,

that we may have a greater and greater confidence, Father, in Jesus and in you and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Please be seated.

Amen.

So you might have been wondering why I prayed like that.

And it's a little bit.

I guess this is probably the type of day when we don't have many guests.

But if we do have guests, and I can't quite recognize you right now, welcome.

But there's a bit of a warning.

Today we're going to talk about hell a little bit.

And, you know, it's funny.

I guess there are some churches that talk about hell constantly.

But my limited experience in most Canadian churches is you could go a long season in a church

and never once hear any reference to hell.

But the scripture text that we're going to look at,

because I didn't read all of the texts that I'm going to preach from,

the scripture text that we're going to look at today, Jesus talks about it in effect.

So we're going to talk about it a little bit later on.

So it's a bit of a heads up warning that we're going to talk about hell.

And so let's look at that text.

If you'd like to follow along, it's chapter 8, John chapter 8, verse 12.

John 8:12

And part of the context of what's going on here,

well, first of all, some of you who come here week in and week out,

I mentioned this in my blog.

I don't know if many people read my blog.

That's fine.

But I'm skipping a story, which is in many of your Bibles.

And if you look carefully at most of your Bibles,

if it's at all a modern translation, there's brackets around it.

And that's because the story of the woman caught in adultery

probably shouldn't be in the Bible.

It's not found in the earliest manuscripts.

And because we preach the Bible, I'm going to skip it,

because it probably shouldn't be there.

And you can read my blog.

And if you have more questions, you can talk to me about it during coffee.

You can give me heck if you want or push back.

But the text flows quite interestingly if you take out the story of the woman caught in adultery.

And so the context that's going on here is Jesus has been making some big statements

in the context of lots of disagreement, lots of confusion.

Some people believe him.

Many people are calling him demon-possessed.

His family are rude and gnarky to him.

And he makes this very, very big claim about rivers of life.

If you believe in him, rivers of life will flow out of him.

And so the religious and cultural authorities, they're sort of all one.

And they've been trying to kill Jesus since chapter 5.

But it has this brief scene where they get together once again and say,

listen, we've got to do something about this guy.

We've got to capture him.

He's condemned.

We've got to get rid of him.

And Nicodemus puts up a little quivering hand and says,

like, maybe is this against the law?

And so, you know, as the part that we're reading right now,

it continues on in that vein.

It's talking.

In fact, you know, if you think about it, it's a world very much like ours, isn't it?

We're both in religious circles and outside of religious circles.

Sometimes the law is just inconvenient, isn't it?

Like, I'm not going to get into politics, but the whole pipeline issue with B.C.

The fact that the summer jobs program, the government misrepresents,

the government that's supposed to know what the law is misrepresents the law,

ignores the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to mean that certain people can't get summer jobs.

I mean, there's many times, it's the world we live in, isn't it,

that often the law is an inconvenient thing for those in power.

And it's not just in the secular world.

It's a common problem in churches and religious movements and in mosques

where people just disregard what their holy books say

when they get inconvenient for those who are powerful.

And so it's in this type of context that the Bible says,

again, it's a bit of a loose time marker.

Sometime after what has just happened, but continuing this same thought,

this is what Jesus says.

Verse 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.

Now, just pause here.

This is one of those verses that Christians should memorize.

And it's definitely a verse that we should meditate upon.

It's an unbelievably huge claim.

Jesus doesn't say, I point the way to the light.

He doesn't say, I have a little bit of light within me.

We all have a little bit of light within us.

And let's all just pool our light.

He says, I am, which is a claim to being God.

I am the light of the world.

And there are a small number of religions and faiths and spiritualities

which are basically very dark.

They worship things like blood and violence and death and destruction.

But for most people, the light, and even those dark religions

sort of do so in a type of rebellion and anger against the light.

But it's sort of a universal idea in pagan religions,

in the East and in the West.

This idea of the light being something which is fundamentally good and powerful.

And Jesus makes this sweeping claim that he is the light of the world.

Not a light in the world, but the light of the world.

And that to follow him, which is another analogy or another metaphor

for believing in him, for trusting him,

to believe what he says and to actually try to follow him,

that we will receive something,

that we will actually have the light.

What does it say?

The light of life.

The light that is living.

The light that gives life.

It's an absolutely huge claim.

On Friday at lunchtime, I had the great privilege and honor

to be invited to speak at Parliament Hill

to the Parliament Hill Christian Fellowship.

It sounds more impressive than it is.

It's a small number of mainly Christian staff workers on the Hill

who gather on Fridays to spend a bit of time looking at the Bible

and maybe a brief time in fellowship to get to know each other.

And so I got to speak there at Friday over the lunch hour.

And I always give them a rough draft or a first draft of the talk I'm going to give.

And in their case, I introduced it by saying,

none of you folks will be able to relate to this text

because it deals with the problem of flagrant self-promotion,

something which you, of course, on Parliament Hill

have no experience with whatsoever.

And, of course, it got a bit of a laugh.

And then, of course, somebody said,

of course, in the church nobody's familiar with flagrant self-promotion either,

which is completely and utterly a valid point.

By the way, Andrew, are you having our 1-800 number

and how to give flashing above the screen right now as we speak

for autographed copy?

Never mind.

You know the problem which we live under.

So, you know, on one hand,

we're going to return to this statement a little bit at the end

because it sort of casts its bright light

throughout this entire text that follows.

But, you know, let's just be honest.

I mean, I've talked last week about the Rajna Sri Bhagwan

in the film thing, The Wild Wild West.

And he claimed he was basically divine.

In fact, it's very interesting.

When he was buried, they don't say that he was born and that he died.

What they say is that he only visited this earth.

And he began his visit in whatever it was, 1932,

and he ended his visit in 1990.

But, you know, that's just all malarkey, isn't it?

I mean, the fact of the matter is,

is if you went back, you could find out when he was born

and you know that his...

I mean, you can't find his body now because it was cremated.

But you know that he lived and died.

It's just malarkey to claim that he only visited the planet

and then came for a little while and left.

So Jesus makes this unbelievably huge statement.

It's flagrant self-promotion, isn't it?

I mean, for people who aren't Christians.

And that's how it's recognized by the people who hear him.

It isn't as if they go, oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

No, no.

Jesus is in the middle of all sorts of conflicts.

So how is it that they respond to this big claim that Jesus makes?

Look at verse 13.

In verse 13, it says,

they push back.

So the Pharisees said to him,

you are bearing witness about yourself.

Your testimony isn't true.

They just push back.

I mean, you know, you can just picture Christopher Hitchens

saying something like that.

You can picture your grocer, your accountant, your mechanic,

the stay-at-home dad who lives next door to the artist.

They just say, okay, well, sure, yeah, go ahead.

You can make those claims if you want.

Just you making a claim.

Like, why should I believe it?

So how does Jesus respond to that pushback?

Well, once again, we talked about this similar type of thing a couple of weeks ago.

At first glance, and at second and third glance, in fact,

his answer is profoundly disappointing to us.

But how does he answer?

Well, let's look at how he answered.

It's profoundly disappointing,

but if you press through our disappointment,

which really tells us something about our heart,

not about him, but our heart,

it's a very, very powerful answer.

So how does Jesus respond to their pushback?

Yeah, you're just talking about yourself.

It's not true.

It's just malarkey.

It's baloney.

It's garbage.

So verse 14, Jesus answered,

He said,

Now,

Now,

there's sort of three really big things in this innocuous and initially disappointing statement.

The first is the context.

The text begins with a game.

And if you go back and look at the end of chapter 7,

what is it following?

They've illegally, unjustly, and immorally condemned him to death.

Illegally, immorally, unjustly, and in defiance of their scriptures condemned him to death.

And when Nicodemus makes a very timid but still very brave little comment,

Isn't this maybe not right?

They just call him a name.

They just say,

You know what are you?

Are you from Hicksville?

Like, are you from,

Like, what are you from?

Like, are you from northern Saskatchewan or something?

Or northern Ontario?

Like, are you just from where people don't know anything?

Like, just shut up.

So, here it is.

He's having this conversation with people who have unjustly, immorally, improperly, illegally,

and unscripturally found him guilty without any type of trial

and are seeking to have him captured and kill him.

And they're saying,

You're only bearing witness about yourself.

And he says to them,

Well, if I judge, I judge by the truth.

And doesn't your Bible say something about judging?

Now, as you're going to see from the rest of the story,

it doesn't seem as if any of them get red or embarrassed.

I don't mean they become red Tories or something,

like, or liberals.

Like, none of them get red in the face.

None of them seem to have any sense of shame or embarrassment about this.

They have a complete and utter indifference to what they're doing.

So, this raises a very interesting point.

How on earth could Jesus ever bear witness to people like that?

Like, how could he, actually?

When they show no embarrassment or shame when the topic comes up

after what they've done.

It shows there's a bit of a problem, isn't it,

in terms of Jesus trying to reveal himself.

And by the way, the reason that the Bible says this

isn't so we can say,

Gosh, those people are really stupid and evil.

Like, the question, the reason it's raised is for us to say,

Is that me?

You see, that's, we, in a sense, become just like the Pharisees

if we hear this and we say,

Gosh, I wish Trump would hear that.

Or, gosh, I wish Clinton would hear that.

Or, gosh, I wish Trudeau would hear that.

Or, gosh, I wish Kathleen Wynne would hear that.

Or, gosh, I wish Andrew Scheer or Elizabeth May.

Go through the political spectrum.

And the second that we wish that somebody else would hear it,

there's a bit of a question.

Wait a moment.

Am I hearing it?

Am I hearing it?

And then there's a second, even bigger problem with the text.

And it's a problem which is,

it's so big we don't see it.

I know that's a bit contradictory,

but it's so big we don't see it.

Look at verse 15 again.

Sorry, in verse 17.

In your law it is written that the testimony of two people is true.

Well, think about that for a second.

Why is it that the Old Testament laws say that you need at least the testimony of two people?

It's because we human beings lie.

Don't we?

We human beings lie.

We dissemble.

We cloak.

We give ourselves passes.

We make excuses for ourselves.

We flatter ourselves too much to detect or hate our own sin.

We overestimate how smart and brilliant we are and we put other people down.

Unless we get very depressed and everybody seems brilliant and we seem unbelievably dumb.

But that's in fact just the shadow or the other side of the teeter-totter from the fact that we often think of ourselves as like gods.

And so it's because God knows.

You see, if everybody in the people, if we human beings told the truth,

the Old Testament law would just say you only need the testimony of one person.

Because we know that one person tells the truth.

But we know that truth is a complicated, inconvenient...

I mean, the Bible doesn't say that nobody ever says the truth at all or knows the truth.

But it's very frank about the fact that there's a truth problem for human beings.

And when I'm saying human beings, I'm including myself.

I really am.

It's not that because a person becomes a Christian all of a sudden,

it's been like there's been a brain transplant in their head and they now...

and a heart transplant and we only speak the truth.

We know that's not true, don't we?

And so this actually is pointing to another...

Once again, well, how actually is it that the Holy God,

who is true, how does he break in and reveal himself amongst a people

who tell lies and love lies

and have a tricky relationship with the truth?

Well, how actually can God reveal himself in such a context?

And that brings us then to the third sort of aspect.

It's an even bigger problem.

We think to ourselves, we're very disappointed in Jesus' answer.

Well, I know where I'm coming from.

I'm speaking the truth.

And God the Father also bears witness.

And by the way, in John 5, a similar type of argument happened.

And in John 5, if you go back on it and look at it,

basically Jesus says to the Jewish people

that when you hear the Bible, you're hearing God the Father's witness.

But in this particular case, there's another bit of a problem.

If you think about it for a second,

who can bear witness to God?

Like, when I shared this at Parliament Hill Christian Fellowship yesterday,

or Friday,

you know, there's like three or four levels of security

to get into the East Block on Parliament Hill.

There's security guards outside.

They have to make sure the door gets opened.

I go through a screening process.

Then there's a desk.

My things are mic...

Not microwaved.

They look, they scan everything.

I have to go through this as if I'm going to fly in an airplane.

And if my name's not on the list,

I don't even get through the first door.

But if that happened,

if for some reason my name wasn't on the list,

which happened a couple of months ago

when I went invited to speak,

I can call Craig.

And Craig will either come down himself or somebody else.

And they can come and they can deal with it.

He can bear witness to me.

He's another human being.

He can bear witness to me.

But who's going to bear witness to God?

And if you think about it for a second,

if we human beings have a truth problem

and a lying problem,

then, like, how's that going to actually work?

Like, if we just think about it for a second,

how's that going to work?

And that's one of the things which is so profound

about John's Gospel,

is that John just keeps on...

Jesus keeps sort of pointing

to this particular thing.

And we think he's dodging the bullet,

but he's actually just forcing us

to ask ourselves the question,

one second,

let me just think about this for a second.

How is it that any human being

can bear witness to God?

Like, there's going to be a bit of a problem.

If you could put up the first point, Andrew,

and this is something...

I got inspired for this point

by a man by the name of Leslie Newbigin.

He gave me the germ of the idea,

and I sort of changed the language.

But the only way for light

to bear witness in darkness

is to continue shining bright and clear.

The only way for light

to bear witness in darkness

is to continue shining bright and clear.

You see, light can't ask darkness

for a witness, can it?

Darkness, could you just give me

a little bit of a push?

Darkness is dark.

Now, some of you might say,

well, George,

I can sort of see the problem,

but, I mean,

does that just mean

anybody can just make these big claims,

can't they?

In fact, there's a very, very different thing

that's going on here in the story,

and part of it is

that you have to remember

that the gospel of John is a book.

Story, I have a little bit...

Because I've watched this movie

about the wild, wild country,

which you don't have to watch it.

I just found it very...

I found it very moving,

very curious and everything like that,

and this guy, Rajneesh,

who made this claims to be God

and was going to create, like,

the new man in the middle of Oregon,

all the while amassing

more semi-automatic weapons

than all of the police forces

in Oregon at the same time.

Like, is there any discont...

Is there any dichotomy

between these ideas?

Well, the fact that a lot of his followers

didn't sense any type of dichotomy

is that I found this out

from a Christopher Hitchens, actually,

that he actually had gone

to the original ashram in India

in the early 80s,

and, I mean, he's been dead

a few years now,

but he actually...

There's a thing on the internet

you can find about Hitchens

commenting about this guy,

and what he says,

which they don't show

in the documentary,

is when you go into the ashram

where the Rajneesh

was going to be doing his teaching,

there was a big sign

over the ashram

before you entered,

and it said,

please take...

I should have written it down.

Basically,

please remove your shoes,

or please take your shoes off

and turn your mind off,

basically.

Oh, no, that's it.

Sorry.

I got the wording now.

Leave your shoes

and your mind

at the door.

Leave your shoes

and your mind

at the door.

Now, Jesus never tells us

to leave our mind behind.

And at the end of the day,

the full answer to this

in the context of Jesus

is just his wisdom,

his shrewdness,

his insight,

his goodness,

his gentleness,

his humility,

but the full answer

to their question

won't come for another

13 chapters

and in real time

six months

when he dies upon the cross

and he rises from the dead.

That's, in fact,

how God vindicates

his son

by having him

die on the cross

and rise from the dead.

the Romans

crucified

thousands and thousands,

hundreds of thousands

of people

and to my knowledge

in all of

the history

of crucifixion

there was only one person

who ever partially

survived a crucifixion

but it was a very

unusual one.

It didn't go with

the flogging beforehand

and they weren't

crucified for a very long,

just like an hour

or something like that

and there were physicians

who were right there

to care for him

and he sort of survived.

But in centuries

of this as a punishment,

hundreds of thousands,

that's the only case

and it's not like Jesus is

with the flogging,

with the spear thrust.

And it's not just

the resurrection of Jesus

which is going to be

the vindication of it.

It's both

as we're going to see

in a moment.

It's his death upon the cross

which in an odd way

vindicates who he is

because he said

he's going to die on the cross

and his resurrection

from the dead

vindicates who he is

and what he said.

So there's going to be

a vindication

by a spectacular miracle

on top of the other signs

and miracles

which Jesus has done

and there's never

any invitation

for us to leave

our mind behind

when we read the Bible.

In fact,

the problem we have

when we read the Bible

is that we

don't actually

look deeply enough

at what's being said

to pierce behind

our arrogance

and our disappointment

in the answers.

It's the shallowness

of our thought

which is the problem

and the scripture

keeps calling us

to pay heed,

to look deeper,

to look at our own heart,

to look at how

our own mind works,

to look at the problem,

to consider it.

So,

Jesus has pointed

to a big elephant

in the room

about judging

and the fact

that they've done

something illegal,

unjust,

and immoral.

how is it the Pharisees

respond

to Jesus'

bringing an elephant

into the room,

whether they notice it

or not,

whether they're so filled

with pride and conceit

that they don't notice it

or how do they respond?

Well, let's look

in verse 19.

They said to him,

therefore,

where is your father?

Jesus answered,

you know neither

me nor my father.

If you knew me,

you would know

my father also.

These words he spoke

in the treasury

as he taught

in the temple,

but no one arrested him

because his hour

had not yet come.

It's a very interesting thing.

They don't say to him,

who is your father?

They say,

where is your father?

Isn't that an interesting question?

Where is your father?

Now,

part of it's

probably a little bit

of a put down

because they might know

that there's

these claims

of a virgin birth

and that Joseph

really,

in a sense,

had to adopt Jesus

and didn't marry Mary

until she was quite

noticeably pregnant

and it might be

a little bit

of a put down

about,

yeah,

where is your dad?

Jesus,

where is your dad?

Do you even know

who he is?

But,

of course,

the great tragedy

and irony

is that God,

the Son of God,

is standing right

in front of them.

God,

the Son of God,

who reveals God,

is standing

right in front of them.

of all people

in the history

of the planet

most privileged

and blessed

that they could see

God,

the Son of God,

stand in front of them

and have a conversation

with them.

But instead,

they sneer.

Is this talking

about me?

So,

Jesus said to them

again,

verse 21,

and this is a very,

very,

it's a very small

little sentence,

but it's a very,

very powerful sentence.

And it's one of those

things which I'm sure

for John

and the disciples

later on

as they thought

about it,

they thought about

the profound

insight of Jesus

and the profound

tragedy of what

he says.

He says in

verse 21,

we'll read

21 and 22,

I am going,

Jesus said to them

again,

so Jesus said to them

again,

because you're not

getting it,

I am going away

and you will seek

me and you will

die in your sin.

Where I am going,

you cannot come.

Say it again

and then we'll read

22,

I am going away

and you will

seek me

and you will

die in your sin.

Where I am going,

you cannot come.

So the Jew said,

will he kill himself

since he says

where I am going,

you cannot come?

Now here's the

great,

great,

great,

great tragedy

of this text.

The people who say

this are plotting

his death.

That's how the story

goes.

They are plotting

his death.

Just before this,

they said they

weren't able to

arrest him because

his hour had not

yet come.

It's just in the

shadow of their

attempts to arrest

him so they can

have him put to

death.

And in a sense,

they have the gall

to wonder whether

he's talking about

suicide.

He's not talking

about suicide.

He's talking about

his impending

murder by those

same people who

are asking him

these snarky

comments and

questions.

And the great

tragedy is there

seems to be no

reddening of the

face or looking

down or shuffling

of the feet or

embarrassment or

catching of the

throat.

They seem to be

completely blind.

But look,

listen again to what

Jesus says,

I am going away.

He's referring to

his death.

He's referring to

the fact, as we'll

see in another

couple of verses,

that he knows that

he's going to go,

that he's going to

die.

And then he says,

and you will seek

me.

But isn't that very

interesting?

Because that's exactly

what does happen.

They seek his body

because they can't

believe he actually

rose from the dead.

And as you know

from reading the

other biographies,

they seek the body,

they bribe the

soldiers, they

collude with the

Roman authorities

to make sure that

the soldiers aren't

punished, and they

pay the soldiers

and they put out

lies because they

can't find the body.

What do they seek?

They seek his body.

They don't seek

him.

They don't seek

him.

They seek his body.

And so what does

he say?

I'm going away,

and you will

seek me, and you

will die in your

sin.

Where I am going,

you cannot come.

Now this is where

we're going to talk

a little bit

about

hell.

Let's read verses

21 to 23

and 24

first.

So you notice how

just at the end

of 21 he says,

where I am going,

you cannot come,

and just before

that you will die

in your sin.

And three times

you will die

in your sin is

said.

The first one in

21, you will die

in your sin.

23, he said to

them, you are

from below, I am

from above, you are

of this world, I am

not of this world.

I have told you

that you would die

in your sins.

For unless you

believe that I am

he, you will die

in your sins.

Three times.

Just a couple of

months ago, one of

the people that I've

had quite a few

conversations with

about the Christian

faith, and I've

tried to share the

gospel with her.

Out of the blue,

she said, George,

do you think I'm

going to go to

hell?

Are you one of

those Christians

who believe in

hell?

And if you do, that

must mean I'm going

there.

Is that what you

believe, George?

I wasn't prepared

for the question.

And it's one of

those things I wish

I could tell you

that I gave you a

really snappy

response.

I can't really

fully remember my

response.

I wonder if there

was a videotape,

if it would have

shown me looking

like I was a deer

caught in the

headlights.

I hope not.

I know I didn't

back down and say

no.

And I know

afterwards I

thought of about

three different

things I could

have said that

would have been

a better answer.

But I know I

did say that,

yes, there is a

hell, and I

mean, that's all

part of the

reason of Jesus,

is to put your

faith and trust in

him so that you

don't go to hell.

And I probably

said something about

how my, it's not

that I'm better

than anybody else.

No Christian should

ever think they're

better than another

person, that we

are dependent upon

God's grace.

I know I gave

some type of an

answer, and I

know I didn't

back down and

say, no, no, no,

no, no, we

don't believe those

things, or no,

no, no, you

don't have to

worry.

Like, I know I

didn't say

anything like that.

And I, we've

never returned to

the topic, and

she still speaks to

me sometimes, so

I guess it was,

you know, this is a,

I just want to

share this with you

because, you know,

one of the things

that we worry about

when we bear witness

about Jesus is that

we're going to

blow it.

So here's the

good news.

You will blow it.

So get over it.

Because you will

blow it.

Everybody blows it.

Everybody without

exception blows it.

But that's, Jesus is

the evangelist, not

you and me.

The Holy Spirit is

the one who moves.

Just try to be as

honest as you can and

as loving as you can

and do the best you

can, and it's the

Holy Spirit that does

the work of

evangelism, not you.

But if you could

put up the next

point, Andrew, here's

the thing.

Jesus warned of

hell, so if I never

warn of hell, I am

not being Christ-like.

By the way, this

point and my next

point, there's a guy

by the name of J.C.

Ryle, and he said

something like this,

and I've sort of

adapted his little

insight just to, I

just adapted it, but

I have to give the

credit to Ryle for

this in the next

point.

But Jesus warned

of hell.

So if I never

warn of hell, I'm

not being Christ-like.

And that's what

Jesus says.

Look at that verse

21 again, and you

will die in your

sin.

Where I am going,

you cannot come.

And then they

repeat it in 22 as

a sort of a

question.

Will he kill

himself?

Since he said,

where I am going,

you cannot come.

So you sort of

notice it.

And then in

verse 24, he

says, I told you

that you would die

in your sins.

For unless you

believe that I am

he, you will die

in your sins.

Now, in evangelism,

I would never raise

the topic of hell in

Canada because it

would just cause

people to roll

their eyes.

There's other ways

you have to bear

witness to Jesus.

Jesus.

But the reason I

put this up is

because every

Christian has the

problem of

potentially turning

into a duck.

You know that

old thing, if you

start walking like

a duck, talking

like a duck,

pooping like a

duck, shedding

little duck-lean

feathers, and you've

just turned into a

duck.

And it's really

easy for us to

sort of just become

completely and

utterly comfortable

in the world.

And before you

know it, we just

don't look any

different than

people in the

world.

And the fact of

the matter is, is

all we've done is

become worldly, and

maybe we've never

been a Christian at

all.

And so even though

it might be that we

very rarely have to

actually warn

somebody about hell,

it's one of those

truths which is

central to the

Christian faith, which

we need to hold

clear.

Because even if

we're talking to

people and we're

doing lots of other

different ways of

bearing witness to

Jesus, we have to

remember where true

north is.

We have to

remember where we

are.

We have to

remember what's

true.

And the fact of

the matter is, is

that hell exists.

And one of the

great problems that

I have, and

probably you, is

that we've lost any

sense of the

lostness of the

lost.

We start to lose

any sense of the

lostness of the

lost.

And so we can

have a very hard

time sharing the

gospel with those

who seem to be

very good.

And we start to

live and pray as

if the good people

in Canada, and

there's lots of

good people in

Canada who live

far better lives

than you and I,

and it's as if

they don't need

the gospel.

But everybody, good

people need the

gospel.

The lost are

lost.

And I don't say

that because I'm

special.

I just say that

because what does

Jesus say?

Jesus warns us of

it, and he said,

he invites us to

believe that he

is the one, that

he is the light

that comes into

the world, that he

is the one who's

the source of the

river of life, that

he is the bread of

life.

He keeps saying

things like this,

that we would say,

Jesus, I need you.

Please be my

savior.

Please, I want to

follow you.

I want to be

yours.

I want the light

that gives life.

I can't do it

myself.

I humbly

acknowledge that I'm

completely and utterly

dependent upon you.

Jesus doesn't say

these things to

depress us, but that

we would call out to

him for savior.

And you know, these

lines here, it tells

us something about

the gospel.

It tells us something

about the gospel.

Let's just keep

reading to see how

they respond.

Verse 25, so they

said to him, who are

you?

And Jesus said to

them, just what I

have been telling you

from the beginning.

Verse 26, I have

much to say about

you and much to

judge, but he who

sent me is true and

I declare to the

world what I heard

from him.

Verse 27, they did

not understand that

he had been speaking

to them about the

father.

So Jesus said to

them, when you have

lifted up the son of

man, then you will

know that I am he

and that I do nothing

on my own authority,

but speak just as the

father taught me.

And he who sent me

is with me.

He has not left me

alone, for I always

do the things that are

pleasing to him.

And all the way

through John's gospel,

when you hear the

phrase, when you have

lifted me up, when I

am lifted up, it's

always referring to his

crucifixion.

So you see, here's the

blessed hope.

If you could put this

up, Andrew, that would

be a great help.

In Christ, when you

put your faith in, when

I put my faith in

Christ, when you put

your faith in Christ,

your sins die before

you do, because it

dies with him.

Without Christ, you

die in your sin.

That's the gospel.

When I follow Jesus,

when I put my faith and

trust in him, my sin

has died with him.

When I die, I don't

die in my sin.

I die in him.

My sin died 2,000 years

ago in him.

That's the hope of the

gospel.

Brothers and sisters, if

you are in Christ, when

you die, right now you

might be struggling with

depression.

You might be struggling

with feeling very

unworthy.

You might be struggling

with feeling like you

are a failure.

You might be struggling

with some great

besetting sin, which

seems as if it's going

to devour you.

You might be struggling

with dashed hopes and

failed dreams, but I

can tell you right now

that when you die, your

sin died 2,000 years

ago because you put your

faith and trust in Jesus.

You do not die in your

failure.

You do not die in your

sin.

You do not die in your

shame.

You die in Christ.

But without Christ,

without Christ, you die in

your sin.

You die in your sin.

And so would I.

I am not special.

I am saved.

But I am not special.

And I am not being a

narcissist and saying that.

Far from it.

That far from it.

Because a Christian isn't

saying, I'm a narcissist.

I'm so wonderful.

I'm so beautiful.

I look at Facebook and I

never get depressed because

I just think I am so

wonderful.

That's not the Christian

life.

The Christian life is my

sin has to die.

I don't want to die in my

sin.

Jesus, take my sin.

If you could put up the

final point, Andrew, that

would be very good.

Jesus says to you and me,

I am the light of the

world.

Whoever follows me will

not walk in darkness, but

will have the light of

life.

That's the bright light

that shines over this.

In the face of people who

have judged Jesus unjustly,

immorally, and unbiblically.

In the face of people who

have no shame, no

embarrassment.

Jesus just says, listen, I

am the light of the world.

I am the light of the

world.

Listen, George, I know you

have a truth problem.

I know you have a sin

problem.

I know you have a shame

problem.

I know all these things

about you, George.

I am light of the world.

Follow me.

Come and follow me.

And what am I going to

give you?

The light that gives life.

We all know that truth can

be very cruel and very, very

hard.

And truth can condemn.

I was speaking to a

retired professor on the

streets of Ottawa just the

other day, and he went on

about a 10-minute rant about

how terrible university

students are nowadays.

how they're all a complete

dead loss.

He's lucky if he finds one

in a billion who have even a

spark of interest or

intellect or desire to read

or learn.

I could go on and on and

on.

I could not master his

eloquence.

But he went on for 10

minutes.

And I said after that was

all, and he talked about

how the whole educational

system is completely corrupt.

It's a complete and utter

scam.

The government knows this.

Everybody knows this.

Students go into it knowing

that it's like getting a

lottery ticket.

You don't get jobs out of

it.

On and on and on and on

and on.

And after he finally caught

a breath, I said, well,

thank you for giving me a

dose of optimism this

afternoon.

Whether or not he's true or

not, I don't know.

But the truth can be cruel.

I doubt he's true.

He was filled with despair.

The truth often just brings

death.

But Jesus is the light, the

truth that brings life.

And he offers it to us.

One final thing, brothers

and sisters, just before

we go, two final things.

First of all, if you haven't

given your life to Jesus,

follow the light.

He's calling you.

He's calling you to come to

him and say, Jesus, you are

the light of the world.

I want to follow you.

And I know if it's just up to

me following you, I'm going

to fail.

So grab a hold of me and

Jesus, thank you that you

will never let me go.

And give me this light that

gives life.

And the second thing is one

of the things that we can

pray about us as a church.

Our culture is increasingly

becoming a culture that

pursues and embraces death.

Can you pray that we will

become an island of life,

an island of light in a

nation that is slowly but

surely embracing death?

Make us an island of light

that prays for our nation,

that it will turn away from a

culture of death.

Please stand.

Bow our heads in prayer.

Father, we know that light is

life.

We know that light is life.

And we thank you for Jesus.

We thank you that he is the

light of the world.

We thank you, Father, that he

came into this dark world and he

just shone bright and clear and

pure.

That he shines in a way that

touches our hearts, that changes

our destinies.

And not just changes our

destinies, but changes how we can

begin to live today.

As the light that brings life

becomes the ground upon which we

stand, the covering over our head,

the oxygen that we breathe, the

drink that we drink and the food

that we eat.

Father, make us disciples of Jesus

who are gripped by the gospel,

learning to live by following

Jesus and having the light that

gives life.

Father, help us to be gripped by

the gospel and live for your glory.

And we ask this in the name of

Jesus.

Amen.