The Light of the World (John 8:12-27)

John chapter 8, starting in verse 12.

John 8 · chapter mention

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

Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.

So the Pharisees said to him, You're testifying about yourself.

Your testimony is not valid.

Even if I testify about myself, Jesus replied, My testimony is true because I know where I came from and where I'm going.

But you don't know where I came from or where I'm going.

You judge by human standards, I judge no one.

And if I do judge, my judgment is true, because it's not I alone who judge, but I am the Father who sent me.

Even in your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true.

I am the one who testifies about myself, and the Father who sent me testifies about me.

Then they asked him, Where is your father?

You neither know me nor my father, Jesus answered.

If you knew me, you would also know my father.

He spoke these words by the treasury while teaching in the temple.

But no one seized him because his hour had not yet come.

Then he said to them again, I'm going away, you will look for me, and you will die in your sin.

Where I'm going, you cannot come.

So the Jews said again, He won't kill himself, will he, since he says, Where I'm going, you can't come.

You're from below, he told them.

I am from above.

You're of this world, I am not of this world.

Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins.

For if you don't believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.

Who are you, they questioned.

Exactly what I have been telling you from the very beginning, Jesus told them.

I have many things to say and judge about you, but the one who sent me is true, and what I have heard from him, these things I tell the world.

And they did not know he was talking to them about the Father.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for this morning.

I thank you for your goodness and your faithfulness in all things.

I thank you so much above all else, Lord, for the salvation we have through your Son Jesus.

I thank you for your word.

I ask that you'll fill me with your spirit to rightly teach, that you'll fill the hearers with your spirit to rightly divide and discern what is of you, that we would grow closer to you and fall more in love with you as a result.

In your name.

Amen.

Go ahead and have a seat.

Not the most seeker-sensitive passage.

Just gonna toss that out there.

But it's good.

We're gonna go through this and it's gonna be a sweet thing.

Uh, something that we're gonna go through and mention a few times is that we're all in continuation.

This is why we at Abide teach verse by verse through books of the Bible, so that we can see the context.

Because if you take this out of context from the previous passage and from the next passage, it's a little weird.

And so what the one of the reasons why we do that here at Abide is to make sure that we have that context to understand what on earth is going on.

So, a part of that context is for the last couple of chapters, we have been in Jerusalem for a specific feast.

Who remembers what that feast is?

Tabernacles.

Tabernacles! Awesome! That's so exciting.

I wasn't left.

There's always the fear when you ask those questions of like, who remembers tabernacles, yes.

Which is the feast remembering the wandering in the wilderness after the Lord brought them out of Egypt.

Cool?

How did they get through the wilderness?

That is one of the questions we want to look at through here because the entirety of the people of Israel who were slaves in Egypt had assumedly never left Egypt.

So when God tells them, I'm taking you and I'm going to bring you into the promised land, they have no clue where they're going, they have no clue how to get there.

Not the easiest thing to do.

I have no sense of direction at all.

I like pull out of my driveway and get lost.

And so my my wife has a hundred percent of the sense of direction.

So, with that, we you we usually we actually play a game where I'm like, this is north, and she's like.

So they have no idea how they're going and how to where how to get there and where they're going.

So, how did they get there?

There was a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, leading them through the wilderness.

When the pillar moved, they moved.

When it stopped, they stopped all the way through the wilderness.

We see that in Exodus 13, verses 21 and 22.

Exodus 13:21

It says, The Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to lead them on their way during the day, and a pillar of fire to give them light at night, so that they could travel day or night.

The pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night never left its place in front of the people.

So you have this imagery of this fire, this light guiding them through the wilderness, and they are helpless without him.

What would happen if they decided to go, eh, you know what?

I'm just gonna, I'll figure it out from here.

Thanks.

It would not go well.

It goes about as well as when I decide to look at the navigation and go, eh, I don't know if that's the best way, and I go my own direction.

Doesn't go well for Ben.

So, in the same way, they're dependent upon this pillar of fire, this light, to lead them through the wilderness, where they're commemorating, being in the wilderness, dwelling in tents.

And so Jesus here, continuing forward in verse 12, spoke to them again.

I am the light of the world.

Anyone who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

So, very consistent imagery there that they would understand, especially considering what they're doing in Jerusalem at this time.

And so, this idea that he is the light of the world is something that would be understood, and anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but have the light of light.

It's an interesting thing.

The concept of light is at the very beginning of the Bible and at the very end of the Bible.

We see at the beginning that God existed from eternity, and then in Genesis 1:3, he said, Let there be light.

Genesis 1:3

So he doesn't need it, but he created it.

Who'd he create it for?

Us.

Yeah, absolutely.

And so at the very end as well, we see in Revelation 22, at the end of all things going into eternity, that he is the light.

There is no need for the sun and the moon, that he is the light in their midst.

So light is a big thing.

He is not dependent upon it, but he is the source and the giver of it.

So another important thing is this is not all imagery that is Jesus just said, Hey, here's a cool thing.

I'm gonna think it up and make it look cool.

We are gonna take a quick look back into Isaiah.

Okay, honesty time with zero judgment.

How many of you have read the entire book of Isaiah before?

That's really impressive.

It's big.

66 chapters of messianic prophecies and judgment.

And that's, you know, that's pretty much every nuance in between.

So, with that in mind, there are prophecies, especially in chapter 42 and 49, of something called the servant, which is a messianic prophecy of the coming servant.

And we see that.

I'm going to put that up on the screen here.

Isaiah 42, 6 through 7.

It says, I am the Lord, I have called you the servant for a righteous purpose.

I will hold you by your hand, I will watch over you, and I will appoint you to be a covenant for the people and a light to the nations, in order to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, and those sitting in darkness from the prison's house.

That kind of sounds like Jesus' ministry just a little bit.

Isaiah 42, 16, continuing on.

I will lead the blind by a way they didn't know.

I will guide them on paths they haven't known.

I will turn darkness to light in front of them, and rough places into level ground.

This is what I will do for them, and I will not abandon them.

And then Isaiah 49, 6, he says to the servant, the Messiah.

It is not enough for you to be my servant, raising up the tribes of Jacob and restoring the protected ones of Israel.

I will also make you a light for the nations, to be my salvation to the ends of the earth.

Really cool imagery here.

Jesus is not making this up as this could be a cool object lesson of how I'm cool.

It is a direct correlation to messianic prophecy from the book of Isaiah.

We see this imagery continuing through the book of John, as we've been going through, this is continuing through in sign language.

Just trust me.

John 1.5, the light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.

The light being Jesus.

John 1.9, the true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.

And then further in John 12.46, here's a teaser: I've come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me would not remain in darkness.

So, this imagery of the pillar of fire, that light leading them through the wilderness, all the way back in Exodus.

This prophecy of the servant being a light to them and a guide to them and a healer and a restorer, all the way back in Isaiah.

And then throughout the Gospel of John, this imagery of the light.

So when Jesus says, I am the light of the world, which is our second I am statement in the Gospel of John, this is a direct correlation of him saying, I am the one foretold.

Which I'm sure the Pharisees loved, as they are wont to do.

So, what have they tried to do thus far in this book?

So we saw in the previous chapter that they were looking to kill him, and yet they could not lay hands on him because it wasn't his time.

God's plan for salvation cannot be circumvented by man's will.

It just wasn't going to happen.

We'll see that in this passage as well.

So first they tried to eliminate him.

It's no luck.

We see in the previous chapter last week, uh, if you had, if you didn't, if you weren't here last week, please do yourself a favor and take a listen to that sermon.

It was amazing in application of this whole thing.

And there they tried to trap him in a moral dilemma about their interpretation of the law.

Here, what are they gonna do?

They're gonna try to discredit him.

This is the best thing they can do at this point in time to try to subvert what he is saying.

We talked about this a few weeks ago.

The Pharisees are very threatened by Jesus because of his influence over the crowd.

We saw that he they feared the crowd and they envied Jesus because of his influence over them.

So how do they respond to Jesus making this claim?

They say, Well, you're testifying about yourself.

Your testimony is not valid.

How does Jesus respond to that?

Does he directly answer their question?

Throughout this whole passage, they're going to ask questions that he is really not going to answer in the way that they are asking.

Why?

What's up with that?

Why later, when they're like, where is your father?

And he's like, Oh yeah, you don't know him.

Who are you?

I told you this.

Like he's not repeating this over and over and over again.

There is something to this that all has to do with the heart state.

We see all the way back in Proverbs 26, 4 through 5, we have some baffling verses.

Because they like to juxtapose two different things and then go, figure that one out.

And so in Proverbs 26, 4 through 5, it says, Don't answer a fool according to his foolishness, or you'll be like him himself.

Answer a fool according to his foolishness, or he'll become wise in his own eyes.

Which one?

What's the deal with that?

Which one do you pick at that point in time?

I would submit to you, it all depends on this heart state.

Because what I see throughout the Gospels, I see people asking Jesus some really dumb questions.

I'll just say that.

That they should have figured out by now, quote unquote.

And he answers them.

And he patiently answers them.

Even his own disciples, when they're like, What does that mean?

What are you doing?

Why did you do that?

What does this mean?

When is this going to happen?

And he answers them over and over and over again.

The rich young ruler asks a question, he directly answers the question in that way to bring about a place where he has a crisis of belief.

Is he going to believe or is he not?

The Pharisees have no such qualms here.

They don't come with hearts to learn.

They're not looking for information, for dialogue, they're looking to trap Jesus.

And so, the hard state of that is we live in a world where we feel this pressure to always have the answers.

I don't know where that came from.

And if we feel like we do have the answers, we feel like we have a responsibility to impart those answers upon who everyone and to correct them as if that was effective.

In that sense, it all depends on the heart stake.

Okay, I'm going to give you some practical information that I know is going to be mind-blowing.

Social media does not represent a heart state conductive to learning.

I know.

I'm just saying that's pretty trippy, but ultimately, as a whole, the vast majority of public comment arguments are not bringing about fruit and ends us with us becoming like the fools we may be arguing with.

However, when people come with a state to really know things and learn things and ask questions, that's a great time to dialogue for that purpose.

So it is interesting throughout this whole passage.

Why am I saying all this?

Because this whole passage demonstrates Jesus not answering them with what they are asking, because they're asking to trap him.

They're not asking to learn.

Okay.

You're testifying about yourself, your testimony is not valid.

And Jesus' response, well, even if I testify about myself, my testimony's true because I know where I came from and where I'm going.

You don't know where I came from or where I'm going.

You judge by human standards, I judge no one.

And if I do judge, my judgment is true, because it's not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.

Even in your law, it's written that the testimony of two witnesses is true.

I'm the one who testifies about myself, and the Father who sent me testifies about me.

So there's his response.

Let's break this down a little bit of what's going on here.

First, he says, even if I testified about myself, my testimony is true because I know where I came from and where I'm going.

Where did he come from?

Heaven.

Where is he going?

Heaven.

That gives him a little bit more authority than the average person, is his statement in that.

But there is something really important that we need to grasp in what's going on here.

This is not happening in isolation.

When we preach these things, we have to break up the whole text into smaller pieces because otherwise it'll go really, really, really, really, really, really long.

Or be really, really, really, really, really, really shallow.

And so we break things up, and it's easy to forget that this is all happening in continuity.

So if we look back at John chapter 5, Jesus says, if I test about myself, my saying's not true.

John 5 · chapter mention

My teaching is not true.

And you'd be like, wait a minute, didn't you just say if I do, then it is true, what's going on here?

In John 5, Jesus proceeds to give witness after witness after witness of his message.

He says, John the Baptist is my witness.

My works are my witness.

The Father is my witness.

The word is my the witness, and Moses is a witness.

That didn't, like they we didn't just erase the whiteboard of everything that God said and then jump into a new conversation.

He already gave that info.

They to these people, two people in Jerusalem.

And so that is part of why we see him not rehash the whole thing over and over and over again.

Because that already happened, and they're not looking for the answer, they're looking for a trick.

You don't know where I'm coming from or where I'm going.

You judge by human standards.

I judge no one.

So we talked about this a little bit last week, which is great.

This idea of John 3.17.

God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Jesus' purpose on earth at the time that we're looking here is not to be the final judge over everything.

It is to provide a way to be saved from judgment.

So he's not there at this moment to judge.

If he was, we would all be out of luck.

And so he says, you judge by human standards, I judge no one.

And even if I do, my judgment is true, because not I alone who judge, but I am the Father who sent me.

So the problem that they keep running into here, number one, is that they keep thinking about temporal terms: Jerusalem, kingdom on earth, setting up a king, literally, in Israel, but then also not understanding how much he's talking on a much bigger scale about being made right with God, about being saved, about being made new in that way.

And then he says, it's not I alone who judge, but my father who sent me.

A really good way to think about what he's talking about here would be the idea of an ambassador.

So you picture a king.

A king has a message to a far away part of his kingdom.

And this is before like the internet, this is before TV, this is before, you know, it you send an ambassador to bring a message to be read on the behalf of the king.

And that ambassador comes for what purpose?

He doesn't come to go, this is my moment, to now explain everything I think and feel and believe about this and how I'm going, I'm gonna build my own brand here.

His whole purpose is to come on the authority of the king and to stand there, deliver the message from the king.

Does that make sense?

That's what we see Jesus doing here when he's talking about him being sent from the Father and him being not the one, uh not the arbiter there, but also the one delivering the message of the one who sent him, because he knows where he came from and where he's going.

Jesus has come to deliver the message of the king.

The deliver, the message of salvation, of deliverance, of freedom for those who will follow the light of the world.

So it is less about a, we need to have these witnesses here to uh to corroborate my story, because he already did that in John 5.

And it is more about because you don't put it there, I'll put it this way.

Imagine if an ambassador shows up from the king.

You don't sit there and go, uh, can we have another to confirm this ambassador?

Okay, great.

Now we need another one to confirm that ambassador.

Then we need another one to confirm that ambassador, and this continue on and on and on and on and on.

You accept the message of the ambassador because you understand and receive the authority of the king.

And that is the heart of the issue here is that the people that he is interacting here at the core do not accept the authority of the king, the father God.

And that's what Jesus is pointing out here.

And he says, even in your law, it's interesting, he says, your law, not the law, at this point in time.

In your interpretation of the law, to as the testimony of two witnesses is true, I am the one who testifies about myself, and the father who sent me testifies about me.

Which is basically what he is saying is okay, you want witnesses?

I'll give you two witnesses.

God and God.

Who wants to argue?

I mean, that's pretty pretty good uh argumentation there in terms of like, you know, I'd like to call to the witness stand God and be like, okay, I'm gonna leave now.

I'm not doing this.

So that is the core of this, that if they accepted the authority of the father, they would accept, but because they don't, nothing he says will be accepted by them, and they are largely looking at a threat to eliminate.

So he continues forward in verse 19, after he says, I'm the one who testifies about myself, the father who sent me testifies with me, and they say, Where is your father?

Few different ways you can interpret this.

Number one, they're asking an open-ended question so that they can funnel him down into trapping him in something.

Number two, could is it possible that I don't know, we don't know this at all, but is it possible that the religious leaders in Jerusalem have heard the rumors of Jesus' birth?

And this is a pretty brutal statement to say because um I'll put it this way if you have a friend that comes to you and says, I am pregnant.

By the Holy Spirit, I did not engage in extramarital sex.

I just became pregnant.

The typical response would be, uh-huh.

Sure you did.

And so, from the very, very beginning, is it possible that they have heard rumblings of his origin?

We don't know.

We don't know the state of this.

We do know that their heart state is not one to be like, huh, tell me more about your father.

Because he has talked about his father for like the whole book.

So and his response, again, is not to answer them according to what they are asking.

He says, Oh, you don't know him.

One incisive question and one pretty brutal response of like, oh yeah, my father, you don't know my father.

That's a pretty brutal thing to say to the religious leaders.

Like, yeah, you don't know God.

Sorry.

That would be a really rough thing for you or I to say, because we are not Jesus.

So that's really tough to discern as humans here, basically.

It's hard to be like, oh yeah, no, you don't even know God.

You're probably not even saved.

But Jesus has pretty good insider insider information on that.

So, verse 20, he spoke these words by the treasury while teaching in the temple, but no one seized him because his hour had not yet come.

He is teaching openly, by the treasury, in the temple, preaching these things openly, that he is the light of the world, and whoever follows him will never walk in darkness but have the light of life.

And he is not being arrested, and that must be maddening for the Pharisees, who want to eliminate this threat, because he's not.

It's one thing to do this in Galilee, way up north, in the small town up there, but it's another thing to be like on their front porch declaring these things, and they can't do anything about it.

That's gotta be really aggravating when you cannot circumvent the will of God.

Now I'm sure that none of us try that, so it's only a them problem, but uh yeah, no, definitely that's an intense thing.

So, he continues in verse 21.

He said to them again, I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin.

Where I'm going, you cannot come.

I do not recommend sending that as a greeting card to somebody.

Just throwing that out there that that is uh that's intense.

I'm going away.

You will look for me, you will die in your sin.

Where I'm going, you cannot come.

And they say, well, he's not gonna kill himself, will he?

Since he says, Where I'm going, you cannot come.

If they look at themselves as the center and everything else is peripheral, when he says he's going away, it's like, oh, well, he's going away from our sphere of influence.

He must be dying.

It's like, well, yes, but not as you understand.

But clearly they do not understand what he is saying by, I'm going away, and you'll look for me, you'll die in your sin, and where I'm going, you cannot come.

Because they're basically implying here that he will be going into the lowest form of judgment by doing so.

Clearly, not what he's saying here.

And his response, you're from below, I'm from above, you're of this world, I am not of this world.

Therefore I told you, you will die in your sins.

For if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.

If you look at the words that are actually there as opposed to the little helping words, it says, For if you don't believe that I am, you will die in your sins.

That's pretty intense.

We read John 3.17 last week and this week.

If we look at John 3.19, it says, This is the judgment.

The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.

He's not making a statement of attack, he's making a statement of fact, indicating their heart state.

If the Israelites in the wilderness opted not to follow the light, what would have happened to them?

They would have died in the wilderness.

There's no way for them to arrive at the Promised Land by their own navigation into areas they have never seen nor known.

Here is the thing about these very bleak statements that are true, but a little heavy.

Let me give you some imagery with this.

What if he if I had told them the sun is going to die?

S-U-N, the bright thing in the sky.

We'll stop.

And their response is, that's okay.

I have a flashlight.

I have a torch.

I have, which is in British is the same thing, I guess.

I have a bonfire.

I'ma be fine.

You that just go ahead.

Do you know what would happen?

Roughly eight minutes later, all life would cease on Earth.

Regardless of how fine they thought they would be.

If the sun stops being the sun, the light and warmth from it, 93 million miles away, stops giving us what we need to survive on Earth.

No matter what we think, no matter what we believe, no matter what we um, no matter what safety measures we have.

No doomsday prepper has enough supplies to survive that.

It ain't gonna happen.

And we can convince ourselves all day long, all day long, that we'll be okay, but if that happens, that's the end.

Praise the Lord, we serve a God, by the way.

If people are like, I'm kind of freaked out, who holds all things together by the power of his word.

Praise the Lord for that.

I'm not suggesting that's going to happen.

So when he's making this statement, he is giving a very urgent statement that life comes through believing in him.

There is no life outside of believing in him.

We cannot take an alternate route and arrive at life.

We are in our rights to take an alternate route and it arrives at death every time, is what Jesus is saying here.

So he continues, contrasting, you're from below, I'm from above in verse 23.

You're of this world, I am not of this world.

That's why I told you you'll die in your sins.

Because if you don't believe that I am, you will die in your sins.

And their response is, Who are you?

Further questions like, that's what you got out of this?

Who are you?

That's that's the next state.

Basically, if I told you like, hey, if you don't believe in me, you will die in your sins.

I think the typical responses are either get away from me, or tell me more.

But it's like, who are you?

Okay, tell me again, who are you?

Trapping questions.

If you have who is your where is your father?

If Jesus was to say, My father is God, then suddenly we have a heresy inquisition.

If here he says, they say, Who are you?

and he says, I am the Messiah and I'm here, then once again you have a mob.

He's saying it over and over and over again.

It's just that they are, while they are understanding him, they're not willing to receive it, not willing to hear.

You do not have hearts to hear that.

So, and his response to who are you?

Exactly what I've been telling you from the very beginning.

I have many things to say and to judge about you, but the one who sent me is true, and what I have heard from him, these things I tell the world.

They didn't know he was speaking to them about the Father.

He did not answer them according to what they were asking.

It would have been fruitless.

Instead, he continued avoiding that trap altogether.

Look, what I told you from the beginning, I haven't been shy about this, but I'm not going to give you the ammo you're looking for, and I have many things to say and to judge about you.

Again, not the best greeting card to send to somebody.

What does that mean?

Because we just saw that he in verses 15, I judge no one.

And here he's saying, I have many things to judge about you.

And it's like, what?

What does that mean?

Okay.

There are, from the perspective of Jesus, and from the perspective of us who have the luxury, who have the entirety of Scripture, we know and understand that Jesus' messianic work involves two comings.

This is his first coming, which is to provide the opportunity for atonement for sin, to provide the opportunity for salvation through faith and belief in him.

The second coming is a coming of judgment.

We see that at the end.

And is a coming of righteous judgment upon wickedness upon those who have rejected him.

Where do we get this from?

I bet you were thinking, man, I want another Isaiah passage today.

I got one for you.

We have Isaiah 11, 1 through 4.

A shoot will grow from the tr the uh stump of Jesse, a branch from his roots will bear fruit, the spirit of the Lord will rest on him, a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and strength, a spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

His delight will be in the fear of the Lord.

He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, he will not execute justice by what he hears with his ears, but he will judge the poor righteously and execute justice for the oppressed of the land.

He will strike the land with a scepter from his mouth, he will kill the wicked with a command from his lips.

I'm stopping there, but the rest of the passage you continue for.

This is one of those enforced peace things where we see that he's like the there will be the peace on the earth, swords into farming implements, animals that should be killing each other, laying down together.

So that's that passage.

This is another clear messianic passage.

A stump from Jesse is somebody from the lineage of David who's going to be coming full of the Spirit, who's not judging by what he sees or actually by what he hears.

He's not going to be like a human judge who's hearing trials and doing the best he can to give justice.

He is he is justice, and he will judge the poor righteously, he'll execute justice for the oppressed, and strike the land with a scepter from his mouth, and kill the wicked with a command from his lips, which sounds very, very, very Revelation 19-y in its implementation.

When he destroys those who have rejected him ultimately with a sword that comes from his mouth.

So, why am I saying this?

Because there is going to be a point where he will judge.

But that's not why he is here now.

And that's the weird thing about this passage and this whole problem that he is having with the Pharisees, is they want a Messiah who sets up as a judge now, as long as he plays by their rules.

As long as his justice is their brand of justice, because in their mind, they're golden.

They're set, and anybody they don't like is not.

And that is the issue, is if Jesus had come in that way in his first coming, like I said, we would all be out of luck.

He is coming first to offer salvation, to offer a way, to offer a guidance of light through the unknown to salvation.

Through him.

All we have to do is what?

Follow.

He doesn't say, you guys need to muster up your own lights.

I'm telling you what you need to do to be the light, be the change you want to see in the world.

He is saying, follow me because I am everything you need, Jesus speaking.

And so that is the huge problem when they say they don't understand he's speaking to them about the Father.

This is pretty intense statements where he is saying, I'm not here to judge now, I will be later, but I'm not now.

I am offering you hope and salvation and freedom from your sins, but you don't know the Father, you don't want to hear truth, you don't want to receive salvation, you want your kingdom, and you want it now.

And that is the big issue they have here.

So, in all of this, when he is saying, as the Father sent me in verse 28, I say these things, it is the ambassador language.

We'll get more of that next week.

But the one who sent me in verse 26 is true.

What I've heard from him, these things I tell the world.

He has come not as a judge, but as a herald of salvation, but also as the light for salvation.

Now, what does this mean for us?

This is pretty intense, right?

Pretty like 21st century uh Americans, we really don't like ultimatums too much.

Uh and uh we we tend to like autonomy, we tend to like freedoms of to do whatever we want, say whatever we want.

And so what God is saying here, God being Jesus, there is only one way to not die in your sins, and that's to follow me, who is the light of the world to salvation.

That's pretty intense.

Um but that's the gospel.

The gospel is, and it's not framed like that.

It's framed that he is the light.

If you were in darkness, okay, I'll put it this way.

Gonna give you way too much information about Ben.

When I was a kid, I slept with my light on for longer than any kid probably should have, because the darkness freaked me out.

Um that light was on, I felt at ease.

When the power went out, young Ben's freaking out.

So if we are in darkness and we have seen light, there is hope to be had in that.

There is joy to be had in that.

It's no, it's once you see light, you don't go, wow, I was in real big darkness back then.

You're like, yay! And that is the thing.

I've been talking about how we study these things in continuity.

We cannot separate this passage from the one that just happened.

Because what we studied last week was Jesus' mercy upon someone caught in sin.

Mercy.

Not dispensing judgment in that moment, offering hope, offering life.

And here we see the warning that rejecting that mercy results in death.

You cannot separate those two, because on one hand, we have a God who is super uh plush and cuddly, and he's basically like, I got this, don't worry, and that's true.

But then on the other hand, we have a God who's very, very stern and go, you deserve death.

I'm gonna pay this with one time, but you best not get put in this situation again.

Um there's a lot to unpack with that, but put these things together and understand that God is righteous and God is true, and he is merciful, and he is love, and he offered us salvation when we had no hope.

He offered us life when we were headed for death.

He offered us light when we were sitting in darkness.

And so, with that in mind, it is easy to look at this passage and go, man, I get I better get on the bus or else it's the end for me.

I mean, that's true, but if that was it, that'd be pretty stark.

The reality is following Jesus is amazing.

Walking with Jesus is wonderful.

The life we have, the peace we have, the hope we have when we did not have it is amazing.

Is it terrifying to surrender autonomy to a certain extent and to uh choose to obey God rather than what we want?

Well, yeah, absolutely.

But it is good.

So, something that I really want us to take out of this is if we can put these passages together and understand that yes, while there is only salvation through Jesus, salvation is offered through Jesus, and that should bring us hope and joy and peace, and also bring us hope and joy and peace that we are not the ones who have to make it happen.

What did we have to do with the light?

Believe and follow.

Isn't that amazing?

Salvation is super simple, it's just very threatening if we want to do what we want to do.

But I just, that's something that I hope that we can take out of this passage is that God is not just just, He is good.

Following Him is not just necessary, it is amazing, constantly, and it is better than anything that we could have had otherwise.

Let's pray.

God, you are good.

I thank you that your goodness involves being upright, it involves being the standard, it involves being the arbiter of what is good and what is not.

And I thank you that you are so good that you do not compromise that line arbitrarily.

God, you are loving.

You are so loving that you offered a way to be made right with you even when we repeatedly violate your righteous standard.

That when we were your enemies, you made us right.

You made us not only right with you through the blood of your Son, but you made us your children.

I thank you that through Jesus we can be transferred from enemies of God to children of God through no work of our own, through no effort of our own, simply by confession and belief.

I thank you, Lord, that following you is so good and amazing and wonderful that there is hope and life and peace to be had in you that cannot be found anywhere else.

And Lord, I ask that if anybody has not confessed you who hears this message, I ask that they would desire to follow you, the light of the world, that they would desire to believe that you are He and so be saved from death.

I ask, Lord, that by your Spirit you would work on hearts, that you would quicken hearts to desire to follow you, to seek you.

Please be working in hearts for that now.

And for those of us who know you, I ask, Lord, that we would be renewed in the exuberance of the life that we have in you and the joy that we have in you, that we would not be a perpetually anxious presence in this world, but that we too would be ambassadors of the King, declaring not only the salvation we have in you, but also demonstrating the goodness and wholeness of life we have in you.

Please be working mightily in your name.

Amen.