'I AM' SERIES: I am the light of the world- Eric Mtimkulu

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message. Well, good.

Morning everyone, so good to be here this morning and to share

God's word with you. It was BB Warfield who said that

when the scriptures are open, God speaks.

And my hope this morning is that God would speak to us from His

Word. And so if you have your Bibles

with you, please turn with me to John Chapter 8.

John 8 · chapter mention

We're looking at the I am claims of Jesus Christ, which are found

in the book of John since before perhaps we we delve into our

text for this morning. I do want to make a comment just

in terms of what has been happening this week, as I'm sure

that many of you are aware that there's that many people around

the world. We're waiting for the rapture to

happen on Wednesday and on Thursday.

Deception is powerful. False teaching is powerful.

And when many of us were hearing that the ruptures happening, we

thought, but there were many people around the globe who took

that very serious. If if we've been following this

story, whether on SABC News or any other news outlets, you

would have seen how this has harmed many people.

I felt sad about the lady sharing how she sold her cars

and sold all her possessions because she was waiting for the

rapture. She was sobbing.

She said I've lost everything because I believe they pray for

a so-called prophet and I believed a prediction that

indeed the Lord is coming on the 23rd or on the 24th.

Many of you perhaps also would have seen the e-mail from that

Lady who who was who worked for KPMG.

Part of their finance staff will send that long, long e-mail and

the rapture did not happen and I doubt whether KPMG will keep her

after sending that kind of e-mail.

Deception is powerful. The Bible says we, we are not

ignorant of his devices. That's what the biblical thing

We are not to be ignorant of the enemy's devices.

I beseech you this morning to be careful on who you follow on

social media, who you listen to, who you listen to on YouTube,

because deception is powerful. Weigh everything that you hear.

Weigh it and ask yourself, does this align with the word of the

Lord? That is my encouragement to us

this morning. John chapter 8, we read verse

John 8 · chapter mention

12. John 8 verse 12.

John 8:12

Again. Jesus spoke to them saying I am

the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk

in darkness but will have the light of life.

Take away to Pam guba in Dulin Dabas back corner is Willaco

Meliko na leming on a paga de and I'm changing go CCIA tandas

a city Theta nothing galo longest in below Z2 guest

Willaco city maga paga mesu yesu azugi SU Galithika malinguassia

2. We are so Crest 2.

Amen. So this morning we are looking

at the I am statement. The second I am statement, which

is I am the light of the world. A quick recap perhaps for those

who were not with us last week. I indicated that last week that

this particular book is written by John.

John is the one of the disciples of Jesus.

He is the son of Zebedee. In fact, the Bible describes him

in fact as the disciple whom the Lord loved.

John writes this book at Ephesus, and we know according

to history that Ephesus in fact was a difficult place to, to, to

preach. What a difficult place to share

the gospel. It was very hard.

It was hard ground. And we know that the reason for

that is because at Ephesus, there were many cultures that

were sort of converging at Ephesus.

It was a place that, because of that had many different kinds of

religion. If you were to go to Ephesus,

you would find more than 50 gods and goddesses.

You can choose which God you want to serve.

Oh, I like that one. I like this one.

I like this one. It was that kind of place.

It's a place of trade. It's a it's a commercial place

where many people were doing business.

But also as we read history, we also know that there was a lot

of false worship and more specifically Pagan worship and

magical rituals that were taking place at Ephesus.

And so John finds himself writing this particular book

there in this kind of an environment.

John's audience is mixed. We know that primarily to the

Jews, but also we know that there are also Gentiles at

Ephesus at this point in time. John's single idea here, as you

read the book of John, he wants to show that Jesus is the Son of

God, that Jesus is the divine and eternal Son of God.

I indicated to you last week that every time we we see or the

title the Son of God we know is referring to his deity.

When we see the term the Son of man we know is referring to

humanity. Jesus is both fully God and also

fully man and that is the point John is making here.

He wants to see Jesus in his deity, that he is God.

Hence we see these I am statements which begin in the

book of Exodus chapter 3 when Moses is with God and he would

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

say what? What should I say to these

people when they ask who is the name of God?

Say I am who I am. Say to them that I am has sent

you. So this term I am really comes

from Exodus chapter 3. That is why as we read the

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

biblical text and we see that the Jews want to stone Jesus all

the time and want to execute him according to Leviticus 23.

And the reason they want to do that is because they know that

he's not supposed to use that title I am because they know

exactly what he's saying when he says I am the bread of life and

I am the light. Furthermore, in John's writing,

he does not necessarily use the word miracles.

Quite interestingly, they use the words sign.

And John has seven signs in the book of John.

And and this, all of these signs are meant to point it to a

reality. They are not meant to say, wow,

Jesus turned water into wine. They're meant to say, what does

this miracle tell me about Jesus?

What does it tell us about the Saviour?

So these are the signs that are meant to point to Christ.

And so this morning, as we then look at I am the light of the

world, we're going to look at that under 4 headings this

morning. We'll look at the context, we'll

look at the light and darkness, the invitation, and then we will

close with an application in John 7 verse one to three, he

says after this Jesus went around in Galilee.

He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jew, the

Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to heal him.

But when the Jewish festival of tabernacles was near, Jesus

brother said to him, leave Galilee and go to to the Judea

so that your disciples there may see the works you do.

As you know, Jesus has been teaching in the book of John and

the religious leaders are not happy with Jesus's teaching.

It is clear from the biblical text in Chapter 7 that they want

to kill Jesus. You have to be a very good

teacher for people to want to kill you.

And and it's about says they want to kill him for a number of

reasons. Why?

Because Jesus first, he has claimed his divinity.

He said I am the divine one #2 we know they want to kill him

because Jesus says I am one with the Father.

In other words, I am one with God.

They also want to kill Jesus because they felt that he was

not holding true tradition, that Jesus loved people more than

tradition. And it is clear even as you read

chapter 8, you will see again that the Jewish leaders wanted

to kill Jesus. They hated his teaching.

In fact, they hated it because many people, if you read chapter

6 and part of Chapter 7, many people started to believe on

Jesus claims regarding his divinity and the Jewish leaders.

We of course not happy about this and so for us to understand

then chapter 8, we must understand Chapter 7.

The context of chapter 8 begins in Chapter 7 and one of the

things we see in Chapter 7 is this Feast of the Tabernacles.

There's something about this Feast of the Tabernacles,

because we are told you that Jesus and his disciples also

went to this Feast of the Tabernacles.

It was a celebration. It was a wonderful festival.

And in fact, this Feast of the Tabernacle was a command from

God to the people of Israel that when they entered the Promised

Land, they were to maintain this as a reminder of the Lord's

goodness and the Lord's kindness and the Lord's redemption

towards them. And so this was a reminder, this

feast of the Tabernacle that God has delivered the the Israelites

from Egypt. So they went to celebrate this,

celebrate the kindness of God, celebrate the goodness of God

that he took you out of slavery, He took you out of bondage and

put you in the promised land, the land of honey.

It was a celebration to remember the the wilderness wanderings of

40 years because of their disobedience.

They were to remember and celebrate.

And the amazing thing about this celebration is that they were

dancing. It was wonderful to remember

that the Lord has been good to us.

They would dance, they would worship together as a community

praising God for the Exodus deliverance, and it would take

about 7 days. This wonderful celebration of

worship and dance, and as I was thinking about the Feast of the

Tabernacle may not be relevant to us in this sense, like the

Jews who were celebrating and dancing.

But also I thought about ourselves as well, that at times

we ought to be reminded perhaps and not forget of the of the

Lord's goodness in our own lives.

That just like the Israelites, us too, we have been rescued, we

have been redeemed, we have been saved from the slavery of sin

and death. We have been saved from the

dangers of hell. And because of that we celebrate

the goodness of God. We say wow, the Lord is good.

And in that moment they would dance they will jump for joy in

celebration of what the Lord has done and remember there is an

old song we used to sing. We used to sing that in the

Township. Perhaps you don't may not know

that song, but it was just one line it you to say when I

remember what the Lord has done, I will never go back.

It was just a wonderful reminder of the Israel, the whole God has

brought you out of slavery. Therefore, celebrate the

wonderful saving acts, the wonderful saving grace of God in

your lives. I encourage us this morning, do

not forget what the Lord has done.

He's been too kind and too good to us.

That is why David would pray. Restore to me the joy of my

salvation. Continue to celebrate the Lord's

goodness. Furthermore, as they were, as

they were celebrating, they would have this small tents

where they would reside for an entire week to commemorate

really that long season during the exodus.

And they would literally do that.

Bring your own tent. Come, let's remember what

happened during the Exodus. And so let's have let's leave in

this tent. And they would do that and leave

in those tents to remember their time in the wilderness.

Number 2, they would pour water on the ground to remind

themselves of when Moses had struck the rock and water gushed

out. They would remember the Lord's

provision. It was not just manner, but also

the Lord gave them water. Lord gave them what they needed

to sustain them on this journey. Here's the other one which is so

important. In this case, they would also

light these giant lamps and these would be in front of the

temples. They were probably about 1515

meters to 20 meters long. They were huge lamps and they on

the dark night, they would put these lamps up as they were

dancing, remembering the Lord, that pillar of cloud that was

leading them in the wilderness. And we know that the pillar of

cloud really represents the very presence of God, that God was

with them. And so they would put these

lambs to remember, Oh, God was with us, His presence was with

us in the wilderness. And so it is at the back of this

then that Jesus says, I am the light of the world.

They would have seen these giant lambs to remember the presence

of God. And Jesus says, no, no, I am the

light of the world. Now, if you were a Gentile, you

perhaps have to wonder about what is Jesus actually saying?

But a Jewish person knows exactly what Jesus says.

They're not confused when he says I am the light of the

world. They're thinking what we know

who's the light we know who was the pillar of cloud.

It was God. How can you call yourself light?

Not just any light, the light of the world.

They knew exactly what Jesus meant, because here Jesus makes

a claim, in fact, that I am, that God's presence that was

with you in the wilderness. It is as though Jesus is saying,

guys, I was there. In fact, it was me, that pillar

of crowd. And of course, as you read

further on in chapter 8, you'll see the thinking.

But come on, you, the son of Joseph, man, we we know you're

dead, how can you claim to be there?

Surely there's something wrong with you and you see that

playing out in the book of John. But Jesus is going to show him I

am that. He makes an exclusive claim that

I am that. Now to say that is to say I am

God. Again, Jesus here is revealing

His divinity, that He is the one that dwelt among them.

He was the one that was in the ark.

He was the one who was there when Solomon was building the

temple. He was the one that was there.

He said, I've been there through art guys.

I am that one. And the Bible tells us then that

they want to kill him. Not just verse 40.

He says, as it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a

man who has told you the truth that I heard from God.

Abraham did not do such things. And so when Jesus #2 the bold

claim, Jesus calls himself the light of the world, in one sense

he's claiming to be God, but also he's claiming some level of

uniqueness using this imagery, this picture, this metaphor,

this figure of speech to teach spiritual truths about himself.

He's saying I am light. And in this case, he is light

because he is God, the second person of the Trinity, the

substance and the fulfillment of all things.

Notice Jesus did not say he was a light.

He didn't say I was a light. He says I am very light.

In other words, he is claiming to be the only one that gives

spiritual enlightenment. That's what he's claiming here,

that in this Dark World, I am the only one who can give you

spiritual enlightenment. In fact, as we read the biblical

text, as you will see, light is normally ascribed to God and God

alone. Of course there are cases like

Matthew chapter 5 where he's ascribed to us, but in most

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

cases in especially specifically in the book of John, it is

ascribed to the Lord. Notice John 319.

This is the judgment that the light has come into the world,

and men love the darkness rather than the light for their evil,

for their deeds were evil. John 95 While I am in the world,

I am the light of the world. John Psalm 27 One, the Lord is

my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the defense of my life.

Whom shall I dread is Isaiah 42 verse 6.

Isaiah 42:6

I the Lord officially Commission you.

I take hold of your hand. I protect you and make you a

covenant mediator for people and the light to the nations.

This concept of light is often used towards God or as a

reference towards God. So Jesus to claim to be the

light, the Jewish would have known Psalm 27, they would have

known the Torah, they would have known all of this is that Jesus

is claiming to be the the Messiah.

He is claiming to be the King of Israel.

He is the light. And so also for us this morning

here at Weinberg, as we were even singing this morning,

fellowshipping with one another. We do all of those things.

We rejoice. Because we have seen the light.

That's why we do that. If we have not seen the light,

everything that we do here does not make sense.

But when we lift up our voices and lift up our hands, we know

that we have seen the light. We have seen the One who is the

radiance of the Father's glory. We have seen the One who is the

image of the invisible God because His light continued to

shine forth even today. It shines forth here in

Weinberg. It shines forth in Cape Town.

It shines forth in many other countries throughout Africa,

throughout Asia, throughout America.

This light continues to shine forth.

And Jesus further says to them that anyone who has seen me has

seen the Father. That's why they're upset because

He's making this claim of this light that continues to shine in

our Dark World church. The light shines this morning.

When darkness increases, the light continues to shine.

The light is never defeated. The light is not in defence.

The light is continuing to advance even in The Dark World.

When many Christians are killed in Nigeria today, the light

continues to shine. When Christians are killed in

India and part of Middle East, the light continues to shine.

The church is never retreating. The church is always shining and

continue to shine to die. As we read the book of Peter and

we see Nero killing Christians and burning them and feeding

them to lions. They were not retreating.

Peter says come on guys, let's move forward because the light

shines forth. I know for many of us, perhaps

we are discouraged by the news and the things that we hear and

the things that we watch. But can I say you are not on the

losing side. You are on the winning side

because the light of God continues to shine.

Go forth, go forth in your difficulties, go forth in your

suffering because the light continues to shine.

Not just what Jesus says, This is the light of the world.

I I suspect the Jews, maybe they would have been happy when, if

you would have said, this is the light unto the Jews only God

does not simply display his grace to the Jews simply because

they were expecting a Messiah to liberate them from the hand of

the Romans. Jesus says no, no, no.

Guys, let me tell you, the Gentiles have always been part

of God's plan. They've always been grafted into

God's plan. I'm not just a light to the

Jews, I'm a light to the entire world.

The Gentiles are also welcomed. The Jews are also welcomed Jesus

this morning. He is a light to a professional.

He is a light to a labourer. He is a light to the wounded, to

the rejected. He is a light to a drug addict.

He is a light to the hopeless, to the downcast, to the young

and old. Jesus is a light to all, all who

would come to him by faith. He is a light to them.

He was light to a coward who was Gideon, who was afraid, who was

timid, who was weak. And yet God became a light.

He was a light to Moses, who was a murderer, and God became light

to him. He was light to Paul, who was

persecuting the Church of God. God became light to him.

And I know this morning, for many of us, he is light to us.

He's always been that light. It is light that radically

transforms our light and the Lord calls us this morning as

His light shines upon us as believer this morning.

We stand out this morning like stars on the dark night because

of the light that shines in our lives.

First, John 15 says God is light and in Him there is no darkness.

The concept of life communicates purity and holiness, and Jesus

is all of that. So to claim to be light is to

claim to be the Incarnate Son of God and the person of the

dragon, person of the Trinity, the Son of the living God.

There are others who claimed this light, by the way.

There are others who claim to be light.

Some of you might know David Koresh.

Some of you may know Jim Jones. Some of you may know Joseph

Smith. There's always people who want

to compete with Jesus. Isn't that interesting?

Always wanting to compete with Jesus, to be Jesus?

If you know David Koresh, who was the leader of the Davidians,

who claimed to be the figure and the Messiah and ending up to

ending up dying in a most awful way with some of his followers.

If you know his history, some of you may know Jim Jones.

They made a number of documentaries about Jim Jones.

But he was an interesting figure.

He was an figure who started to operate of all, you know, in one

sense felt that he had the gift of healing.

And because he felt he had that gift of healing, he had a, he

had a number of people, thousands that were following

him. And one day he told all of his

followers to say, hey, sell everything that you have.

We will go and buy an island and go and stay there together.

People sold their homes, their houses and went to stay with

him. And then while he was there, Jim

Jones started to say, guys, I'm the Messiah.

I'm the one you've been looking for.

He stopped preaching the gospel all together.

He says I'm the one he has. The sad part about the story,

Jim Jones poisoned all of his followers, including himself.

That's how he died. It never ends well when people

claim divinity, when people claim to be God.

It never ends well for Joseph Smith as well, who claimed that

this eternal progression, that you can become human because he

believed that God was first human before he became God, that

all of us can also become gods in this world.

Can I tell you this? They're not the only ones and

they're not the last. There are many even today who

claim the same divinity, and one of them is right there in the

Eastern Cape today claiming to be divine.

Guess what? All of those three, they are all

dead. But guess what?

This light, who is Jesus, though he may be dead, He is alive, for

He was raised from the dead. All of these other voices,

including those voices, have been silenced.

But there's one voice that can never be silenced, and that is

the voice of Jesus. And he continues to shine forth

in our lives this morning. His light will not be

extinguished. His light will shine forever.

For Him alone is magnificently beautiful.

Him alone is wonderfully true. Him alone is gracious and

powerful. Him alone is sovereign, and

therefore His light will continue to shine.

Point #3 the light and darkness. Notice what Jesus says here.

Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness.

This is really a reminder of Chapter 7, part of it, but also

a reminder of the book of Exodus, that the Israelites of

course, were led by this pillar of fire by night.

In other words, the pillar of fire was giving them light.

It was the very presence of God that was leading the people of

Israel. And Jesus would now speak these

words to say, whoever follows me will not walk in darkness

because the Israelites knew the pillar as their light.

But also in the Greek here, if you check that word in the

Greek, it appears as a double negative.

In other words, the description of darkness is not a description

for believers. Believers do not live in the

domain of darkness. They live in the domain of

light. Ephesians 58 says, for at one

time you were darkness. Quite interesting that you you

were darkness but now you are light.

Therefore walk as children of the light.

Darkness for a believer identifies one pre Christian

state or pre convergent state, but it is not the present state

of the believer. It is a description of those who

do not believe in Christ. It is a description of those who

do not follow Christ. Why?

Because darkness is an indication of the absence of

light. First Peter 29 says I called you

out of darkness into his marvelous light.

And Jesus then says, For those who follow me will not walk in

darkness because now they, no, they no longer walk according to

verse 15. They don't judge according to

the flesh. That's, that sounds quite hard.

The language that's the language of the Bible, darkness and and

the Bible does not apologize for saying that, that if you do not

know Christ, you're walking in darkness.

Without Christ, you are in darkness.

May may I ask you this morning, have you trusted in Christ for

your salvation and perhaps to simply say, Lord, here I am,

save me. John's heart is for his audience

to be saved, and it is our heart this morning that is all that

you would be saved and come to know Christ, to come out of the

domain on darkness and come to the domain of light, that your

eyes will be open, that the light of Christ will shine upon

your life as well. There are only two alternatives

here. It's darkness and light.

It's Satan or Jesus. There is no middle ground.

There's none. In the Old Testament.

They use an interesting language.

In the book of Deuteronomy, there is Moses who says I put

before you life and death. I put before you curse and

blessing and then he says in case you are confused about the

choice, he says let me help you. He says choose light and choose

blessings so that you may leave because that's the best choice

ever. And so this morning I, I

encourage you, if you do not believe to come to Christ this

morning and experience his life. I'm nearly done.

James Montgomery says the following If it is only a

question of seeking the light or living in the light, then

Christianity is no different from any other religion of

philosophy, and there's no more hope from it than any of them

but it, but it. But if becoming a Christian

involves a change from darkness to light, then the presence of

Christians in the world is itself hope, as together we

stand against the darkness. So what's the alternative?

If Christians are not supposed to walk in darkness, what's the

alternative? Notice there in first John.

They are to walk in the light. They are to walk in wisdom.

They are to walk in love. They are to walk in the newness

of life. They are to walk in the Spirit.

They are to walk in the truth. But they are never to walk in

darkness. The invitation, last point,

whoever follows me and again in this world, this word in the

original text, it sort of has this connotation of a complete

submission to Jesus as though the Lord does not accept half

hearted following of Christ. I love the way JC Rile puts it.

He says to follow Christ is to commit ourselves wholly and

entirely to him as a leader and Saviour, and to submit ourselves

to Him in every matter both of doctrine and practice.

This is the invitation to follow Christ, and that means to trust

Christ, to believe in Christ, and to place your faith in

Christ this morning, that your body, your soul, your spirit is

all in obedience to Christ this morning.

That's what it means to follow Christ.

And so this morning we must be reminded that everything that we

have and have accumulated ought to be used for the glory of God.

We follow Christ with our family.

Every assets that we have, including our cars, our homes

and our gift and our talent and everything that we have belongs

to Christ. We follow him with our money,

everything, because we don't own everything.

We simply manage everything. That house that you have, you

know the owner, I know your name is on the title deed.

Actually, you're managing it because the Lord has given it to

you to use it for His own glory. This morning there was a call

from Ryan here to say, hey, who wants to serve this morning?

Because following Christ means I am getting involved.

I'm part of what God is doing in Weinberg.

I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm part of this.

I'm plugging in to what God is doing in this community.

If it means using my house, if it means using my car, if it

means using anything that I have, I will use that to the

glory of Christ. Why, because I'm I follow him, I

belong to him and so I want to say to you this morning, don't

hold back. Use all that God has given you

to serve him for we follow him. I'm running out of time.

Few words of application. 1st, we must be reminded that in this

text, the heart of John and the message from John is that Jesus

is the one who gives spiritual light.

He's the one that gives light. He is the one that is light #2

Those who trust in Jesus are to work as children of the light

church. We don't work like those who are

in darkness. We are called to be peculiar, to

be different, to shine in this world.

We don't work in continuous disobedience.

We don't work in continuous sin. No, we repent.

We ask the Lord for His mercy and grace to help us in our

journey of faith. We are called to follow Jesus,

but also we are called to live like Jesus in this Dark World.

And guess what? You cannot do it in your own

power. You need the sanctifying work of

the Holy Spirit to help us to be able to do that.

For those who are not believers among us this morning I want to

say to you, turn away from darkness, turn away from

unbelief. Believe in Jesus.

See Him this morning for who He is truly is.

He invites you to be light in your life.

I'm going to. Ask Jews to come and pray as a

as a respond to God's Word. Amen tua que la Li mier que Nos

a from bezua Venus de Clare pere nasi porta parole nasi sener PO2

seceto savita vien de parle pere.

This was no cure nose Esprit que SE parole PES ponde PLA senor da

no cure Tue la le mier que Clare Le Monde Tue la le mier oh pere.

Tuaqui ale sele Tron tuaqui accepted the Murray Rafiq anun

70s Alfa SE tuaqui naza shwazi eternidi tu pisan we nursi

eternidi tu pisan oriat no gid no.

Wonderful, my friends, when we see the real Jesus in Scripture,

when we look at these I am statements I I think they they

have to challenge us. Thank you for listening to

today's message. We hope you are encouraged and

challenged in your faith. If you're in the southern

suburbs, we'd love to welcome you in person at one of

ourselves. Don't forget to subscribe, share

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Until next time, stay please and keep shining your light.