I AM // I AM the Light of the World [John 7-8] (Dan Pettersen)

A Father we've worshipped, your Son as true God of true God,

Light of light. We worship you as the Father of

Lights, the giver of good and perfect gifts.

We thank you for our offering, which we give to you in worship,

acknowledging that it was yours anyway and that we owe our life

and breath and everything to you.

We thank you for your word that it is a light and a lamp, and we

thank you that the unfolding and the explanation of it gives

light as well. And so we pray that today, as we

hear from your word, publicly read and preached from, that it

would do just that in our hearts.

Thank you for your sunrise visiting us from on high to us

who were in darkness. Thank you for Christ and May

this message that we hear from your word and what the Sunday

School kids also get from your Word, we pray that it would

cause us to walk in holiness and righteousness, that Your Spirit

would guide our feet into the way of peace.

We pray this in Jesus name, Amen.

Good morning. Hey, it's good to have everybody

here. It is the coldest day of the

year. Well, yesterday was the coldest

day of the year. It was also the shortest day.

So we're on the all the days get longer from here on and we're

past the halfway mark. So that is a good time to start

on a new series. So we're starting a new series

today, weirdly. I will explain more about that

what that is at the end of today's message, but it will

make more, it'll make more sense then.

So this morning we are going to look at this question who is

Jesus? Because what we believe about

Jesus will affect how we live our life and why it'll affect

what we believe about an afterlife and what happens next.

And as we'll see you this morning, it'll vastly impact the

amount of hope that we have in our lives.

So in Matthew 16, verse 13, Jesus asked the his disciples

Matthew 16:13

are really important question. He says this, this is this.

When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked

his disciples, saying, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man

AM? So they said some say John the

Baptist, some Elijah, others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.

Alright, there are a lot of different views about who Jesus

is, right? Lots of people will say lots of

different things. You know, Muslim people believe

that he was a prophet. Some people will say, well, he,

he was a great teacher. Some people will say he was just

a, a historical figure. Lots of different, different

ideas, right? But he said to them verse 15.

But who do you say that I am Simon Peter answered Simon

Peter. So it's pretty common.

It's it's common in today's world as well for people who

live in societies where multiple languages are used to have more

than one one name. When we lived in Korea, a lot of

Korean people will have a Korean name and they'll have a have an

English name, right, because Korean names are harder for

English people to pronounce English speaking speakers to

pronounce. So his name is Simon.

This is Hebrew, the Hebrew version of his name, which means

a small stone. And also Peter, also known as

Peter, which also means a small stone.

So that's kind of the the Greek version of of Simon.

So he answered one of the symbols and he said, you are the

Christ, you are the Christ right?

Now that's that's the Greek version of Hebrew, the Hebrew

word Messiah, right? We probably reasonably familiar

with that word. Messiah means anointed 1

appointed one kind of promised one, right?

And so all through the Old Testament, the Bible talks about

talks about how God would send this anointed one, this

appointed one, this promised one, this Messiah to come and

save his people. And so Peter goes, that's you,

the one that the Old Testament talks about, right?

You, you're the Christ, you're the Messiah, the Son of the

living God, right? And incredibly, incredibly

powerful statement, probably one of the most powerful statements

that Peter ever made. And Jesus said to him, blessed,

right. Blessed's kind of a religious

word, isn't it? We don't use it too much out of

that, you know, we'll say I'm, I'm very blessed, you know, I'm

very blessed today for that. But but the word actually means

happy. That's that's kind of generally

what it means. Happy, very happy, most happy.

There can also in context give the idea of to be congratulated

right? Like well done to be

congratulated, he says well done right happy.

Are you Simon Bar Jonah for flesh and blood has not revealed

this to you, but my father who is in heaven.

All right, so he uses his full name here, Simon Barjona.

You see Bar or Ben that that just means sun off.

So he's saying Simon's son of Jonah, he says, well done,

happy. Are you Simon, son of Jonah?

This is and he's saying, look, this is not something that

somebody has taught you. This is not something that you

just learned growing up. This is not something that your

dad, Jonah, taught you. This is something that my dad

taught you. Hi, this is kind of a quite a

powerful statement, right? And what is and what is Jesus

Dad, God the Father, right? He's son of the living God.

What is the the living God taught Peter that Jesus is the

Christ, the son of the living God.

And Jesus goes on to say he says, look, your Peter, right,

you're a small stone on this rock on this big rock.

What big rock that he's the Christ, the son of the living

God. I'll build my church and the

gates of hell. Hell will not prevail against

it. Sorry, first part of that

question, right? Who is Jesus?

He's the Messiah, right? The one the Old Testament

repeatedly promised would come and save his people.

And he's the Son of the living God.

So let's rewind about another almost 1500 years before Jesus

to Exodus chapter 3. And the context here is that

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

God's people are are still in slavery in Egypt.

No hope, no way out. 40 years before this, Moses had wanted to

lead them out and but they they had rejected that and he had

fled the country as a fugitive, wanted for murder, right, which

he he was guilty of. So it didn't.

It didn't go well. And so after living as a

fugitive for in the desert for 40 years, in fact, the Bible

calls it the backside of the desert, right?

So that sounds like a pretty bad place, right?

For 40 years. He sees his burning Bush and he

goes to investigate and he finds himself in the very presence of

God. God tells him, Moses, I want you

to go back to Egypt and I want to get, I want you to get my

people out of slavery. Leave my people out of slavery.

And for lots of very good reasons, Moses doesn't want to

go. And so we picked this up and

Exodus chapter 3 and this 13 if you want to follow along.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

So it's just then Moses said to God, if I come to the people of

Israel and I say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me

to you, and they asked me, what's his name?

What shall I say to them? Right.

So Moses is thinking, I don't know enough to do this.

I don't. I wasn't even raised in Hebrew

culture. They, they see me like an

Egyptian. That's why I didn't go.

You know, they didn't follow me last time.

I didn't even know what your correct name is.

If they ask me his God's response, there's 14.

God said to Moses, I am who I am, and he said, say this to the

people of Israel. I am has sent me to you.

So this this is the title of God.

I am I exist, right? It's kind of hard to get your

head around the way people in there in the Old Testament tried

to get their heads around. This is often seen in this

phrase that you'll see over and over and over again in the

Bible. And here's one example of it

from some chapter 90, verse 2. Since this, before the mountains

were brought forth or ever you had formed the earth in the

world from everlasting to everlasting, you are God, right?

And you'll see that phrase repeated over and over, right?

God dwells outside of time. Even before there was a wild and

all the stuff that's created, God was there right everlasting

to everlasting. I am not exists.

So going back to our question, who is Jesus?

When Jesus asked the disciples who they thought he was, Peter

said that he's the Messiah. He's the son of the living God.

And Jesus says well done. Yep, happy are you?

That's correct. But what did Jesus say about

himself? You know what he himself say?

So let's go to John chapter 8. We're gonna be in in John 7:00

John 8 · chapter mention

and 8:00 this morning, but let's just jump to the further along

in John chapter 8. The the context here is, is

John 8 · chapter mention

Jesus is explaining to a group of Jewish people that he is sent

by God the Father, right? And that kind of pushing back on

that. And there's this sort of

conversation going on. And so we pick it up in in verse

56, John 8, verse 56. And Jesus, is this your father

John 8:56

Abraham, right? Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced

that he would see my day. He saw it and he was glad.

So the judge said to him, you're not 50 years old and have you

seen Abraham, right? So this is a very confusing

conversation, right? So I thinking, what are you even

talking about? Abraham died generations ago.

You're not even 50, right? Have you have you seen Abraham?

You're telling us you've seen Abraham?

His answer was 58. Jesus said to them, Truly,

truly, I say to you before Abraham was I am.

Ohh. Whoa.

Does that mean what we think it means?

Yeah. Well, how did the Jews at the

time, listening to it at the time, take it.

Look at verse 59. So they picked up stones to

stone him, but Jesus was hidden, then went out of the temple.

They knew exactly what he was saying.

Yeah, what's he saying? Ohh, God, right?

I am. I am the I am.

I'm the same God that sent Moses back to to get Jewish people out

of slavery. I am God.

Who is Jesus? He's the Messiah.

He's the Son of the living God. He is God, He is gone.

He's the I am. Alright, so let's go back to

Chapter 7. We are told at the start of this

this chapter that Jesus brothers didn't believe that he was the

Messiah, right. So the the the like I say the

autism talks repeatedly about this Messiah character that's

gonna come save his people. And this is his own brothers

didn't believe at this point, didn't believe that he was the

Messiah. Also really important.

It's kind of lost on us a little bit, but this whole thing was

happening. John 7 around the time of the

Feast of Tabernacle's sometimes feast of Tabernacle, sometimes

called the Feast of booths or even the Feast of huts.

Sometimes. This was a the last of seven

feasts that the Jews were commanded to commemorate.

It was a week long celebration in the autumn.

So that's around September in the northern hemisphere and

right at the end of the last harvest for the year.

And they would, they would have this celebration and they would

go and they would live in hearts for a week, right?

So you'd build a little, they still do this right in your

backyard or on your rooftop or in the park somewhere and go

and, and go and stay in the Hut for a week.

The idea of it was to remember God's provision and protection

and guidance during their escape from Egypt into the promised

land, right? So that whole time in Sinai,

they were living in these, in these makeshift huts.

If you remember the story back in Sinai, God led them as a

pillar of fire. So during Jesus time, as part of

this celebration, right, remembering back to Sinai,

remembering when God led them through the desert, remembering

when he was a a pillar of fire, they would put up 420 metre tall

towers, right? That's that's those are huge

towers. And on top of each tower was one

of those, you know, the menorah, those Jewish candle stands with

the, the seven kind of spokes on them, right, giant ones on top

of these four towers. And they would like these things

up every night during the week long festival.

You could see them for miles, right.

So I guess for us, it's a bit like, you know, when you drive

past kind of stadium, FMG stadium there when there's a

game on, you know, they got the big lights going.

So you know, the Temple Mount, you know, it's on the hill and

you could just see this for miles.

You could see, see these, these massive lights.

And I would like these every night for the for the week of

the festival of Tabernacle. But this, this feast and this

celebration and these bright lights also celebrated something

else, a prophecy from Isaiah Chapter 9.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

So the people who lived in this region which would come to be

known as Galilee in Jesus time, they saw some very gloomy times,

invasions, people taking into captivity occupations or all

kinds of things. But in the midst of all this

gloominess was a promise of hope from Isaiah Chapter 9.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

And here is here is the promise that starts off saying this.

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great

light. Those who dwelled in a land of

deep darkness, on them has light shine.

Dropping down to verse 6 here. And I9 says this.

For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the

government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be

called. Wonderful Councillor mighty God,

everlasting Father, Prince of Peace of the increase of His

government and of peace. There will be no end on the

throne of David and over His Kingdom to establish it and to

uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time

forth and forever more. The zeal or that the intense

passion right of the Lord of hosts will do this.

This is going to happen right And so this is the lighting

these lights as well as remembering that God had led

them in the past. You know, as a pillar of fire

when they were in the in the desert also looked forward to,

to the fulfilment of this prophecy, right, That are people

living in a very dark place would receive this life like

this, this sun, this number 9 Becky Beck and John John 7 verse

#9 After saying this, he remained in Galilee.

Jesus remained in Galilee, but after his brothers had gone up

to the feast, right. So they went up to Jerusalem for

the feast. Then he also went up, but not

publicly in private. So his brothers were left and

went to the feast. He didn't go with him, but then

he just sort of left by himself and didn't tell anyone about it.

So people in Galilee started wondering where he went.

And this conversation started. Who was Jesus?

Who is this guy? Right.

And some people thought he was a good guy.

Some people thought he was tricking the people and that

they're kind of having this discussion about who is he?

Who is this guy? Anyway, Jesus is down in

Jerusalem midway through the week, through this week long

festival, He goes into the temple.

John 714 tells us this. In the middle of the feast,

Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching.

And so Jesus teaches there and at the end of his teaching says

this first number 19, he says, has not Moses given you the law

yet? None of you keeps the law.

Why do you seek to kill me, right.

So there's this plot to kill Jesus.

But Jesus knows about it, right? And he he outs their plot.

He says you know who you know, none of you are following the

law of Moses. Moses given you, you don't

follow it because you're trying to kill me.

It must have really freaked them out when they realised that he

knew about their plot. So after this, more discussions

take place among the people down in Jerusalem and people are

saying who is Jesus and why do the religious leaders want to

kill him? Yet when he calls them out on

stuff, why won't they touch him? Maybe it's because he really is

the Messiah and they know it, right?

And so people have started having these discussions.

Who is he? Maybe he is the Messiah, you

know, religiously, you know and and and way this conversation

goes dropping down to verse 31. Yet many of the people believed

in him. They said when the Christ

appears, right? When the Messiah appears, when

he, when he arrives, well, he do more signs than this man has

done. Alright, so they're saying,

look, I can't imagine that the Messiah could do anymore

miracles than this guy does. It's gotta be him, right?

It must be him. John 737 tells us that this we

get to the last day of the face. It's the very last day of the

feast. So tonight is the last day, the

last night that the big candles are gonna be lit.

Tomorrow will be very dark. Another year of Roman

occupation. No end insight, no way out, no

hope. More gloom, but what for one

particular person thinks about the about to turn very, very

dark? Verse 53 says this, they went

each to his own house, right? So this is the last night of the

feast. So they get everybody went home

to their own place. But Jesus went to the Mount of

Olives early in the morning. He came again to the temple, all

the people came to him and he sat down and he taught them.

Alright, so a fairly normal day for Jesus.

However, the religious leaders plot to kill Jesus has been

exposed. But they weren't done.

They weren't done. Jesus is teaching a crowd of

people in the temple right on the temple grounds, and they

need to put an end to that. So here's what happens.

There's #3 the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who

had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst, they

said to him, Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of

adultery. Greek phrasing there is like in

the very act of adultery. She's been caught in the very

act. That being the case, right, She

was caught in the very act. There's a huge question here,

isn't there? What's the question?

Here's the question that comes into my mind.

Where's the guy? Right, Caught in the very act.

This was a setup. This was a setup.

Why? What?

What are they trying to achieve through this?

Here's what they say. There's #5 Now the Law of Moses

commanded us to stone such women.

So what do you say the 6th This they said to test him that they

might have some charge to bring against him.

Because she stands guilty before the law, right?

Yes, this was a set up and she was likely being used by the

religious leaders for nefarious purposes, but she's also not not

innocent. We'll we'll see that in a in

shortly, right? She chose to sleep with a

married man rather than her own husband.

And here is the gloom, right here is the darkness.

In this the law reveals our guilt.

The law reveals our guilt. All of us stand guilty before

the law. And yes, all of us have been

affected by the sinfulness of others, but all of us have also

made our own simple decisions. And the law is very clear.

And So what they're trying to do here is they put Jesus in this

position where if he says stone here, Yep, take away Stoner, you

know, do it. People think, man, that's not,

that's not the compassion, that's that's not compassionate,

that's not loving. I don't I don't understand.

Right. And and he'll lose the favour of

the crowd. But if he says no, don't stone

her, then he's saying, well, you don't have to obey the law,

right? It's just a suggestion that it's

fine, which will also lose favour with the people, right.

The goal here is to get the people to turn against Jesus,

right? Their plot to kill him has been

unmasked. So they're they're they're plan

now just to get the people to turn against them.

This number six continues Jesus bent down and wrote with his

finger on the ground. What did he write?

What do you write on the ground? We don't know.

The Bible doesn't tell us what he wrote down.

But the word for wrote that John uses here is not the usual Greek

word for writing. The usual word is graphin, which

means the write down. That's where we get our word

graphics from. But the word he uses here is

Kathy Gryphon, right? Which means to write down a

record against and. It's an accounting term and when

you owed somebody something, they would write your name down

and then write down next to what you own, right?

So that that's the that's the word that John uses.

So a lot of people think that maybe Jesus was writing down the

names of the accusers here and a list of sins next to them,

right? We don't know.

The Bible doesn't tell us. But you know, a lot of people

think maybe that's the case. Verse #7 And as they continued

to ask him, he stood up, and he said to them, Let him who is

without sin among you, be the first to throw a stone at her.

Now Jesus is going after something that is true for all

of us, which which is this right?

Because when we think about these people, right, we think

about these men there, these accusers, we think what judge

mental arrogant people, right? And rightly so.

But they have the same problem that all of us have, right?

Which is this. It's incredibly easy to see

other people's sense and overlook our own sins in the

mirror. You even noticed that it is.

It's much easier to to look at people and go they just need to

be doing this. They should be doing that and,

and miss our own sense, not, not saying Obama has a lot to say

about this and Jesus has a lot to say about this.

Maybe you've noticed that verse #8 And once more he bent down

and he wrote on the ground. Same word.

It's writing an account. But when they heard it, they

went away, 1 by 1, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus

was left alone with the woman standing before him.

Was she guilty? Yes, she was.

Things looked very gloomy and dark without hope.

The law was clear. See, the law reveals our guilt.

But here's the cool thing. The love reveals God's grace.

There's #10 Jesus stood up and said to a woman, Where are they?

There's no one condemned you, she said.

No one will, Jesus said. Neither do I condemn you.

Go, and from now on, send no more.

Alright? All right.

Sin, no more. So despite everything that's

gone on, she is still guilty. He doesn't excuse her sin.

We tend to do that with our son. We go, yeah, I, I did this.

But you know, you have to understand this was the

circumstance. This is what happened.

You know, I have a I had a tough time.

I had a tough upbringing. I did you know, and we we tend

to excuse us in the way Jesus doesn't excuse it away, but he

says you're not condemned, you know, condemned Romans 8/1.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are

in Christ Jesus. Are we guilty?

Yes we are. Do we deserve condemnation?

Yes we do. But if we're in Christ Jesus,

then ultimately we are not condemned.

Does that mean sin doesn't have consequences?

Yes, it does. Sin does have consequences, but

it doesn't have the eternal consequence of separating us

from God. So what does all that mean?

Right? What?

What does all this mean? It's it's a great story, but

what does it all mean? It means you are not defined by

your sin. It means you are not defined by

what you did. It means you're not what they

say you are. It means God's grace changes

everything because you are who he says you are.

Now Satan, as our accuser will tell us, after what you did, God

could never love you. After how badly you messed up,

God can never forgive you. After everything you've done,

you can never have a good marriage.

And on and on and on, right? But look what Jesus says, verse

#12 And Jesus spoke to them saying, I am alright, don't miss

it, don't miss it, I am. But this time, he expands on it.

He expands on it. The Gingers 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. See, here's the thing, The light

reveals our hope. Jesus told her you don't have to

live like this anymore. He said, neither do I condemn

you. Go and from now on send no more.

There is a sense of urgency in that word.

Go, go, go now. Go, go now.

Some some translations will translate it.

Go now, right? It's kind of urgent you are

freed from this. If you are into something that

you shouldn't be, you are not trapped there, right?

Go now. Go now, right?

Jesus brings hope. In fact, he said this later on

in John 12. He said I have come into the

world as a light so that no one who believes in me should stay

in darkness. You know, trap.

The law reveals our guilt. The love reveals God's grace and

the light reveals our hope. Jesus was the fulfilment of that

prophecy and I in those iron 9 in the land of gloom and

darkness without hope. Jesus was the light of the

world. It's no coincidence that the

lights have been turned off. Festival was over, lights are

out, and Jesus says this the very next day.

Who is Jesus? He's the Messiah.

He's the Son of the living God. He is God and He's the light of

the world. At the point where Jesus said I

don't condemn you, he went from being the light of the world to

being the light of her world. Here's the question for us.

Is he your hope? Ohh, you trusting in something

else? You trusting in something else?

He offers forgiveness, right? He offers grace, something you

don't deserve if you've never accepted their forgiveness, if

you've never turned to him and insidious sorry, do that, make

that connection right. You stand guilty before the law.

All of us do. You stand guilty, but he's

offering a light cause he is the light, right?

He's offering hope. He's offering forgiveness.

Maybe you've received that forgiveness and you're in Christ

Jesus, but you're something you shouldn't be, right?

You're not trapped. There is light, there is hope.

Jesus is the great I am seven times in the in John's gospel,

Jesus says I am and then he expands on that.

We started out with this one. I am the light of the world.

Cause matter, Ricky, right? And everybody's thinking about

stars and bright lights and all those kind of things.

That was a good place to start. But for the next several weeks,

we're going to look at these statements of Jesus where he

says I am, and then he expands on it and we're gonna pick those

apart and we're gonna see who he is and, and what that means for

us in our everyday life, right? I am.

But this morning, thing is, I am the light of the world, right?

Jesus brings hope. The law reveals our guilt, the

love reveals God's grace, and the light reveals our hope.

This pray and then I'll hand over back to Mark.

Father, we, we thank you that we serve you the living God.

We thank you that Jesus as your son was also the living God, the

great I am. And we thank you for the hope

that that brings, the hope that comes from the knowledge of of

our salvation, of knowing that you have rescued us, that we're

not condemned. We thank you for that, but also

the hope of knowing that our sin doesn't trap us, that you're a

light, you've come, that we don't have to stay in darkness.

And we thank you for that, Lord, thank you for your word.

Thank you for these just these incredible things that are in it

that just kind of so hard to get your head around, but it's just

so amazing and just stand out as examples of of what a great God

you are. Also just the whole pattern and

the threat of things running for thousands of years through your

word. And thank you for letting us be

a part of what you're doing here at Hockenheim.

Look, thank you for being the light of the world.

Thank you in Jesus name, Amen.