Walking in the Light: Finding Hope in Darkness

G'day, thanks for joining the Heights Church Podcast today. We hope you enjoy our message.

If you're in the Sydney area, be sure to join us at the Heights Church at Galston

Road, Hornsfield Heights, Sydney, Australia.

This morning we are opening to John chapter 9, reading from verses 1 to 10.

John 9 · chapter mention

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth.

His disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?

Neither this man nor his parents sinned, said Jesus.

This happened that the work of God might be displayed in his life.

As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me.

Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world,

I am the light of the world.

Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva,

and put it on the man's eyes.

Go, he told him, wash in the pool of Siloam. This word means sent.

So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

His neighbours and those who had formerly seen him begging asked,

Isn't this the same man who used to sit and beg?

Some claimed that he was. Others said, No, he only looks like him.

But he himself insisted.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks. I'm going to invite Chris to come up. You're speaking on a passage which

I can imagine is like the favourite passage of kids' church.

It involves spit and mud and wiping on people's eyes.

But I'm not pretty sure that you're going to go a little bit deeper.

I did Google on the last week, why exactly does Jesus spit on the mud in John chapter 9?

John 9 · chapter mention

It's pre-COVID. No real interesting answer. So don't be excited to hear more

about that this morning. morning, but be excited to hear plenty of interesting

things as we look at this section.

I'm actually sort of this morning doing a tour of this section of John,

looking mostly at 8 and 9, but considering also what we've already heard about

in John chapter 6 and a little bit in John chapter 7.

John 6 · chapter mention John 7 · chapter mention

I believe this morning that this text can do some powerful and important things in our life.

The section of scripture that we're looking at asks a really important question,

which is, how do we actually follow Jesus in a world that is often dark and scary and unforgiving?

It's a question that has echoed throughout the ages, resonating with believers

across lots of generations, lots of cultures.

And it's a question, as we consider the words that

are here in John chapter 8 and John chapter 9 that I think can provoke us in

John 8 · chapter mention John 9 · chapter mention

our lives to consider where we can drift away from darkness and into light as

we come towards Jesus who presents himself here as the light of the world.

This section of John is interesting as well because it's almost like Jesus is

trying to lose followers at this point.

He's trying to push people away or at least filter those that are following

him for the right reasons.

At different points in this section, people walk away from Jesus disappointed,

people plotting to kill him, and people even at one point pick up some stones to kill him.

So I wonder this morning where this passage might land for you.

For some, this passage might push you further away from Jesus,

saying, I'm out, I don't want to hear about this anymore. more.

But perhaps for you this morning, as you consider what God's word has to say

to us, that this might be another opportunity to say, you know what,

Jesus, I don't have all the answers, but I am totally in.

Let's just pray again super quickly. God, as I preach this morning,

I pray that your word would be the focus.

And I ask God that you would open our hearts to hear what you've got to say.

But also, Lord, I just pray for everyone here. We've all got different lives, different situations.

I pray that these words would land into those unique situations that everybody has in their lives.

And I ask you, God, to bring to mind as I speak where what I'm talking about

might apply and land in their lives.

Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, the other interesting thing that's happening in this section of the Gospel

of John is that John and Jesus is essentially making a series of really interesting

callbacks to the Exodus narrative.

The Exodus story found all the way back in the second book of the Bible, the book of Exodus.

Jesus is making a series of of callbacks to that story,

to that book, to that story where we can read of how God miraculously delivered

the Israelites out of slavery from Egypt and how he guided them through the

wilderness towards and into the promised land.

During that epic journey, God demonstrated his faithfulness.

God demonstrated his provision.

And one such time that he does that is in Exodus 13, where where he led his

people via the institution of a miraculous pillar of cloud by day and an equally

miraculous pillar of fire,

which led them by night.

This is the section of Exodus that in this particular part of John,

that Jesus and John, in the way that he arranged his gospel, is making a call back to.

You see, the pillar of cloud and fire in Exodus 13 was a tangible manifestation

of God's presence amongst his

people, a constant reminder that he was with them every step of the way.

During the day, the pillar of cloud provided them with shade protection from

the scorching heat of the sun.

At night time, when it was dark, the pillar of fire illuminated the way forward.

It guided them through the darkness and through the wilderness.

It was a powerful symbol of God's faithfulness.

And as it was recorded in the book of Exodus and then read for many generations

between that moment up until this moment now,

this story has challenged God's people like it it might challenge you this morning

to be thankful for the ways that God protects his people and leads his people.

And I wonder this morning, what parts of your life at the moment would fall

into each of these two categories,

the scorching sun parts of your life and the dark wilderness parts of your life?

I wonder what comes to mind for you as you consider the parts of your life that

might It might feel like, in one way,

that they are burning you as you face situations that might be characterized

by constant arguments or anger or hurt or disappointment.

And I wonder what the parts of your life at the moment come to mind when you

consider the dark wilderness aspect of life, those parts of life where we can

drift towards thoughts of hopelessness, despair,

where we always expect the worst, where we always see things through the lens

of how hard and bad things are, or we might simply just fear the uncertainty of what comes next.

Next, what parts of your life are scorching sun and what parts of your life are dark wilderness?

Well, as the Israelites followed the pillar of cloud and fire,

they were learning to trust in God's protection and they were learning to trust in God's leading,

which is exactly what we still today are trying to learn how to do every day as a follower of Christ.

They were trying to follow God's light.

In this section of John, and light is something that comes up a lot in John,

but particularly in this section of John, as light is an important theme,

the element of light that is important to remember is this element of light

being something that we follow.

As we consider the Exodus story to remember the idea of a pillar of fire leading

people through somewhere where where they didn't know where they were going.

It's important also to remember at this point of the story in the Gospel of John from chapter 7 to 9.

Jesus, his disciples, the Pharisees, and thousands of other people are all gathered

in Jerusalem celebrating a festival, an important festival.

It was called the Jewish, it was the Feast of Tabernacles.

And this feast, this festival, which went by various other names,

commemorated the Israelites' time in the wilderness after their exodus from Egypt.

And there were a lot of rituals that were connected to this festival.

One of them was the lighting of the temple lamps, where they would light these

lamps, which, as I learned this week, because I've read this story before and read about the lamps.

In my mind, I'm thinking, oh, lamp, they're probably like this big, nice little lamp.

I only just found out this way. They were 23 meters tall, golden lampstands,

menorahs, they called them, in the temple.

And to light these massive lampstands, what they did was they'd get some young Levite boys,

in our terms, just get one of the youth to do it, to go and climb the ladders

to reach the lamps at the top of this 23-meter tall structure.

And these lamps were fueled by oil and wicks.

And I don't know what the modern-day application of this part is,

Mark, but they were lit also with the worn-out garments of the priests.

Lighting the menorahs at night was a symbolic reminder of the pillar of fire in Exodus.

And once these menorahs were lit, illuminating the entire temple courtyard and

also shining a light all throughout the city,

it created what was a spectacular display and it sparked and it allowed for,

it facilitated a joyous celebration. Celebration.

This festival was like a party.

People would all throughout the night sing and dance and play musical instruments.

Religious leaders, and again, Mark, not sure modern day application of this,

but religious leaders would perform torch dances where they would juggle or spin flaming torches.

It was a celebration of light to just remind them of the way that God's light

in the Exodus story and from then on invited God's people to trust and follow God.

And so Jesus and John, in the way it's arranged, constantly making callbacks

to this story. And we've seen this already.

John chapter 6, Jesus declares himself as the true bread of life,

John 6 · chapter mention

the ultimate fulfillment of the manna that sustained the Israelites in the wilderness.

In John 7, and also back in John 4, Jesus,

in John 4, makes a private, and then in 7, makes a public invitation to himself

as the living water to all who thirst, first echoing another part of the Exodus story,

the miraculous provision of water from the rock in Exodus 17.

And now in John 8 and 9,

and I'm looking now at verse 12 of chapter 8, we find the centerpiece of this

whole section that we're focusing on today,

where Jesus proclaims into these festival celebrations, into this feast of tabernacles,

where God's people are gathered to remember how they are to follow God as the

light, Jesus comes into this situation and he says, I am the light of the world.

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

For Jesus to declare himself as the light of the world during the Feast of tabernacles

was a direct challenge to some of the religious leaders,

including the Pharisees, about who they were dealing with.

In this, in what is a series of statements where Jesus begins by saying,

I am, which is a whole other idea that we could explore,

but by personalizing this divine concept of being the light,

Jesus was essentially claiming to be the very light that guided Israel,

the pillar of fire, and therefore equating himself with God.

It's good to know that because sometimes you read and you think,

geez, these Pharisees, what's the big deal? This is the the big deal.

Here into Jerusalem arrives the long-awaited Messiah, the source of salvation.

The light into the darkness, and he is met with the darkness of religious anger,

the darkness of those who have religious power and don't want to see what God is actually up to.

And it's there. It's that part of the story where people at the end of that

chapter, after Jesus says a few more provocative things, that we find people

picking up stones to execute Jesus.

And so as we consider this story, I wonder, as God invites you to follow,

whether you want to follow Jesus into the light,

or as you really think about it, maybe you would just prefer to stay in the

shadows and drift towards the darkness.

About 10 years ago, Kate and I went on a trip to Kangaroo Island.

And one of the things that we did there was we took a trip down into the deep

darkness of the Kelly Hill Caves system,

not too different from like Janolan Caves, that sort of thing,

where we descended on this tour, I remember,

much deeper than I thought we were going to descend and much deeper,

perhaps, than what I was comfortable with, down into the murky subterranean

world where sunlight completely fades.

And is instead replaced by a gloomy darkness.

The further you go down, the darker and darker it gets.

Well, on this tour, we were given torches that we could shine in a specific way. It was pretty cool.

You'd shine the torches and it would just straight through the darkness.

When it hit the rocks and certain things, amazing colorful patterns would happen

as it bounced off the walls, all these jagged walls, and you'd see the dripping

stalactites hanging above us.

Well, at one section of the cave tour, which they often like to do on cave tours,

we were instructed that for this next section, we weren't allowed to have any

torches on or lights at all.

And we found ourselves in a chamber deep under the ground where the darkness

was absolute absolute and total.

If we put our hands in front of our face, we wouldn't have seen them at all.

Well, as Kate grabbed my hand and I did what husbands do, pretend to be a strong man,

not worried about the terrifying void that we had found ourselves in,

my mind drifted to just a few hours earlier on a different tour of a honey farm

where Kate and I just mostly enjoyed sitting down and eating honey-flavored everything.

But in the darkness, that experience of the honey enjoyment seemed like a distant memory.

Our sense of orientation had been completely lost.

And finally, after 45 hours, at least that's how it felt to me,

more like 45 seconds probably, we heard the voice of our guide who said,

all right, we can see some light again now. And he led us back to the surface. us.

The darkness gradually lifted and we stepped into the brightness of the above

ground world that you and I know well, feeling a new sense of gratitude for it.

It's interesting when you consider stories like this in John,

how much on this side of history, on the side of history after.

Electricity, how much on this side of history, we can take light for granted.

It's available, flick of a switch. It's much easier for us compared to the original

hearers of this scripture to take the presence of light for granted.

Wandering down the hallway at 3am looking for the bathroom is not quite the

same thing as the total darkness that existed in the pre-electricity world.

But we do know darkness, and there are different forms of darkness, aren't there?

You may relate to the spiritual feeling of drifting towards darkness,

of wandering aimlessly,

grappling with and not finding any good answers to questions about what is life

actually about, not being able to feel that sense of purpose and identity and direction.

And in more ways than one in our lives we can long for a light to guide us through those shadows,

for those who tomorrow morning are going to wake up

and head into work maybe head into an office the darkness can tempt you in the

form of being like in ethical dilemmas the the pressure to compromise your values

the struggle to find perhaps the fulfillment in the daily grind For those who are retired,

the darkness may manifest itself in feelings of loneliness,

a sense of less purpose than you had before,

a fear of facing the uncertainties of the future.

Maybe you lead a team and the darkness tries to take you by emphasizing in your

mind your responsibility, how big it is, the challenge of navigating complex

relationships or perhaps the fear of failure.

For those that are married, the darkness may come towards you or manifest itself

in unresolved conflicts, in unmet expectations, or the gradual erosion of connection.

For those who are parents, the darkness may consume you in the relentlessness

of raising kids today in a world that is increasingly complicated, busy, stressed out.

It could be the fear of failing your children, where all options forward with

them seem just like different opportunities to feel guilty in different ways.

For those who are students, high school, university, college,

or otherwise, the darkness can try and take you by tempting you into the darker

sides of academic pressure.

Tempting you to think, hey, if you just get that good mark, everything is going

to be okay. It could be feeling overwhelmed in the challenge of social dynamics,

where you land amongst the people that are your people.

It could be the darkness tries to take you in the forms of all of the temptations

that exist in our world today,

or it could just be those existential questions that arise for many of us,

but often particularly for young people as they try and find their place in the world.

Let me tell you, here at the Heights Church, our young people are constantly

asking some extremely important and challenging existential questions.

Christians, whatever the form of darkness that might threaten to take you in

your unique life circumstances, because it comes for each of us in different ways,

whatever the form, Jesus's words here still shine forth with hope.

He says to you, as he said then, whoever follows me,

whoever follows me, Whoever takes that first step to just try and go in the

general direction that I am leading you will not walk in darkness,

but will have the light of life.

He extends to us today still an invitation to step out of the shadows into the

radiant light of his presence.

He challenges us to make, maybe

for the first ever time, or perhaps just again, to make the intentional.

Decision to surrender our lives to his leading, to trust in his wisdom,

to trust in his guidance, to say, I don't know what's coming next.

I don't have all the answers, but Jesus, I'm following you.

I'm following you because I trust and I know that you do.

When we follow Jesus, we don't have to know what life is going to look like

in two years and five years and 10 years.

We just have to know where the next step in our lives is that allows us to follow

generally in the direction that Jesus' light is leading us.

In John chapter 9, which very deliberately here, Jesus, and the way,

John 9 · chapter mention

again, that John arranges this, in John chapter 9, it's sort of like,

John 9 · chapter mention

okay, here's now, Jesus comes in, I'm the light of the world.

Paragraphs of arguments with the Pharisees. Jesus slips away,

doesn't get executed on this occasion. That's coming later, spoiler alert.

But then he, in John chapter nine, sort of like has an experience with this

incredible blind man that illustrates this idea of light.

The chapter opens and we encounter this man who we are told had been born blind. He's never seen.

He had a condition which, particularly in that historical context,

was widely superstitiously believed to happen to people either because of sin in their life,

or talking about parental guilt, or because of some sin that one of their parents

or both of their parents had committed at some point in time.

And so that's why in this story, the disciples ask aloud to Jesus what probably

everyone's thinking around a blind person in the first century,

Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?

If I'm the parent, I'm saying it was all him. It was all the infant.

But Jesus, however, and this is really important, he doesn't really answer the

question because it's Jesus saying, way too simplistic.

Let's just reject that whole idea completely because the idea of how sin and

the negative consequences of sin in this world, the way that those two things are connected.

Way more complicated than some straight line that your mind might try and understand.

There may be a link generally in the world that we live in, But Jesus is like,

that's not the question to ask here. Too simplistic.

Instead, what he says, what he does is he says, focus instead on what God might be up to today.

He says, and he says, the better thing to think about is rather than thinking

like that, why don't you think like this?

It was not that this man has sinned or his parents, but rather that the works

of God might be displayed in him. That's John 9 verse 3.

John 9:3

Rather that the works of God might be displayed in him.

This passage invites us to reframe our understanding of our struggles and our challenges.

It invites us to reframe the parts of our life that aren't what we would prefer them to be.

We see in this story how God's power often shines brightest,

not in the moments of our life where we feel ease and comfort,

But no, God's light shines brightest in the moments of our adversity,

our challenges, and we've all got them, our hardships, and we've all got them,

our insecurities, the things in our life that are less than what we would want

or less than what your next door neighbor has or less than what you thought

they would be at this point in your life.

Whatever they are, our hardships are.

Can be miraculously transformed into unique platforms for experiencing and demonstrating

God's grace and truth, experiencing God's light being displayed in us.

The works of God are displayed most often not in those with picture-perfect

and comfortable lives, but rather usually in the unlikely struggler.

And so as we shift our idea of thinking about questions like this.

Jesus goes on to heal the man.

And we've talked a little bit about what that looked like with a word,

a touch and some other stuff.

The man is healed and his reaction to being healing is just fantastic throughout this chapter.

It's so cool. I love this blind man, no longer blind man, perhaps.

Despite facing scrutiny and opposition from super smart, well put together religious

leaders, this guy's under the pump. He's getting hammered.

Despite just being totally like just put through the ringer by them as they

try and work out, why are you seeing now?

He does something that we can be invited to do as well.

Sometimes we think that we need to have all of the answers before we could possibly speak about God.

Blind man doesn't think that. He says, I don't know. I don't know.

I'm not sure. I don't know.

But eventually he says, hey, forget your questions.

One thing I do know, I once was blind, but now I see.

I was once in darkness, but now I'm following a light.

It's an example for us in our lives that all we need to do is follow that light

and bear witness to that light.

And as we seek to follow Jesus, the light of the world, we can be encouraged

to just accept that vulnerability.

Following the light is being vulnerable. It is not having all the answers.

It is not having all the parts of our life together.

The idea of vulnerability and light go together.

One of my favorite examples of that is all the way back in Genesis,

in the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, after Adam and Eve had sinned

by eating from the tree, what did they do?

They attempted to hide from God in darkness or a form of darkness,

the shadow of the trees of the garden.

Yet when God called out to them, they were compelled to step out of the darkness

into the light of God's gaze,

exposing themselves to his presence, even in their shame and their brokenness.

And in that moment of vulnerability, Adam and Eve experienced the depth of God's love and grace.

God provided for them. He looked after them. He promised future redemption.

Part of following Jesus as the light of the world is to just be brave enough

to take the next step, knowing you don't have it all together yet.

You may feel like this morning that there's an aspect of your life or many parts

of your life that are failing.

You might even this morning look around and think,

I'm probably the only one that secretly doesn't have everything together.

Probably the only one that, you know, isn't following Jesus perfectly every day of my life.

We can be tempted to come to church and think, oh, church is good and all,

but everyone else is so good.

Not me. And it tempts us to hide in the shadows, hoping perhaps that God and no one else will notice.

However, walking in the light of Christ means being willing to put our whole

selves before God, the good, the bad, the ugly, to expose our deepest fears,

our most profound wounds, and our greatest weaknesses.

Because when we do, he heals us. It means stepping out from behind the mask

occasionally to allow God's light to shine into our lives.

And when we do so, we can recognize, okay, I'm not alone in this.

Each of us, every single person here this morning, we're all just different

versions of broken and sinful people in need of love and the opportunity to follow the light.

And so as we seek then to follow that light, what we can do is just take that next step.

But we need to remember as well that following the light isn't just for us.

As the light shines on us, we are then, even as we don't have it all together,

don't wait till then, even as we don't have it all to get together,

to be light bearers into the world.

Living as a light follower also means living as a light bearer.

Just as Jesus brought physical and spiritual sight to the blind man in John

John 9 · chapter mention

chapter 9, We too in our lives,

again, in the unique situations that you find yourself in on a Monday and a

Tuesday and a Wednesday and a Thursday and a Friday and a Saturday and today,

to shine God's light into situations of darkness.

I really believe that God is challenging you to be a person characterized by compassion,

by service, to be willing to give humble and genuine encouragement to other

people, to live a life of humble authenticity.

God challenges us, especially us introverts, to build genuine relationships

and friendships with our neighbors, whatever that neighbor's situation might be in our life.

Coworker, people you come across at different places, wherever the opportunity

beckons to be willing, as it says in Peter, to give an answer for the hope that

we have, that answer being Jesus, the light of the world.

Jesus is the light of the world who has come into the world and the darkness

might not understand it.

But as John chapter one says, the darkness of this world cannot overcome it.

How do you defeat darkness in a pitch black room or a pitch black cave?

How do you defeat that force that feels overwhelming, that feels like it's all consuming?

How do you defeat the darkness in a pitch black situation?

You just turn on the light. Light versus darkness is actually a very one-sided

affair because light is always destined to win.

Simply by being present, light wins.

So when you follow Jesus as the light of the world, just allow that light to shine into your life.

Jesus entered into the world, the great light, and he still invites people even

today to just follow him.

I wonder this morning if we can again just fix our eyes upon Jesus, the light of the world.

I wonder if we can again this morning trust in his unfailing love, in his grace.

I wonder if again this morning that we might walk in the light of his presence.

I don't know what's further ahead. I don't know what's coming,

but I know you're the light of the world, Jesus.

Let's pray. Pray. Gracious and loving God, shine light into our lives, Lord.

Shine truth into our lives.

Shine healing into our lives. Shine hope into our lives.

Shine new opportunities, new situations into our lives.

We thank you, God, for the truth of your word. We thank you for the way that

your word illuminates our paths.

Lord, grant us the courage to step out in trust, us, allowing your light to guide our every step.

Lord, we're sorry for the times when we don't surrender to your light,

when we don't embrace where you are leading us.

But Lord, this morning again, we come to you and we say, we're following you.

Even into uncharted territory, God, we are following you.

And with eyes fixed on your son, Jesus, we pray and we are about to now sing

in his mighty and precious name. Amen.