Well, I invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to John chapter 8, if you have the scriptures with you. I'll be reading through verses 12 through 30 as we're continuing our study in the gospel of John. What a wonderful book, and today we look at wonderful truths from this gospel. So beginning at verse 12 of the gospel of John chapter 8, 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. So the Pharisees said to him, you are bearing witness about yourself. Your testimony is not true. Jesus answered, even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true. For I know where I came from and where I'm going, but you do not know where I come from or where I'm going. You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I am the Father who sent me. In your law, it is written that the testimony of two people is true. I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father sent me bears witness about me. They said to him, therefore, where's your father? Jesus answered, you know neither me nor my father. If you knew me, you would know my father also. These words he spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple, but no one arrested him because his hour had not yet come. So he came to them. So he said to them again, I am going away that you and you will seek me and you will die in your sin. Where I'm going, you cannot come. So the Jews said, will he kill himself since he says where I'm going, you cannot come? He said to them, you are from below. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. So they said to him, who are you? Jesus said to them, just what I've been telling you from the beginning. I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true. And I declare to the world what I've heard from him. They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the father. So Jesus said to them, when you have lifted up the son of man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the father taught me. And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him. As he was saying these things, many believed in him. And there we'll end the reading of God's word this morning. I want you to remember that the gospel of John is written so that you would believe that Jesus is the Christ, is at the very end of the book, that you would believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and believing that you would have life in his name. That is a remarkable, wonderful claim. Think of what we have said in the Christian church for thousands of years in the Nicene Creed, that he is God from God, Jesus, light from light, true God from true God, begot, not made of the same essence of the Father. You've been saying that. That's what we say about Jesus. To say that he is the Son of God is to say that he is truly God. None of us runs around saying in our own right that we are sons of God. That's only by adoption. This is a radical claim. This is a radical claim. Well, that's what we're running up against today is that the Jews and the people are really wrestling with this. They're rejecting this. They're not receiving him. And this is exactly what Jesus has come up against here. They are wrestling with the fact that he is from Nazareth, that he is from Galilee. How in the world could anything good come out of Nazareth and Galilee? But they've not considered and thought about his message, and then he's running around doing these remarkable things. Who does this stuff? Who raises the dead? Nobody we've ever seen do it. Not one faith healer has ever been able to do it. He's doing this. His works testify, and his message is changing people's lives. This is powerful stuff. He wants us then to think about, as they have not received him and not believed in him, as they reject him, the real big consequence to not having Jesus as your Savior. I don't think we talk about that enough in Christianity today. What is the great consequence of not having Jesus as we live in a pluralistic society that says there's all these ways to heaven? That's John 8. Why can there be only one way? And that's what this is answering for us this morning. So what we have is Jesus' great claim that he makes here, and then you have the immediate challenge by the Pharisees, and then you have Jesus giving a clear consequence of what the stance they have taken about him. So that's what we're looking at briefly this morning. If you can stay with me, then you get the whole rest of the day, but focus just for a minute because I know it's really hot. I'm seeing all of you. Jesus makes a beautiful statement here. He makes the second great I am statement. I want you to notice it. Can't miss it in verse 12. It's really glowing in the text. Then Jesus spoke to them again saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. Who says that? Who says that? What would you think if I stood up and said, I, Chris Gordon, am the light of the world today? I'm a crazy man. Well, that's your choice with regard to Jesus, right? That's what the Pharisees thought. You either have, as C.S. Lewis said, liar, lunatic, or Lord. That's your choice. He's either a crazy liar, or he's an absolute lunatic, or he's Lord. No one runs around saying, I'm the light of this world, and I'm the only light you're ever going to get from God. It's amazing. This is exactly what Jesus is saying here, but I want you to put yourself in Jewish shoes just for a minute as you hear that great statement. We've already studied one of them. The first one was, I am the bread from heaven. I'm the only one that sustains life. I'm the only one that satisfies your life. Look at all the people in this world trying to find answers and you'll know exactly what he's talking about, right? I'm the only one. And then he now, he says, he makes this great claim that I am the light of this world. The claim is absolutely remarkable because if he connects it with, if you want to know what that means, he connects it with immediately following him. Now, if you're standing there in a Jewish audience and you say there's light and then you're supposed to follow Jesus, what does that sound like? The children of Israel in the wilderness where a big light was in front of them and that light led them all the way to the promised land, didn't it? A big, beautiful, powerful light, fire light was right in front of them. The whole way, that light led them to the promised land. Now, I want you to think of the context of this. You'll notice here you have a detail that he spoke in the treasury. He's in the temple. There's all these series of courts in the temple, But he's in the lowest court, and he is there in the court of women. But in the court of women were 13 trumpet-shaped box for putting your offering in. But there was something else there. There were two 50-foot-high gilded candelabra. Massive lights right in the middle, lampstands in that temple. Now, you remember in Exodus, you shall command the children of Israel that bring you pure oil, oppressed olives for the light to cause the lamp to burn. How long? Continually. In the tabernacle of meeting outside the veil, which is before the testimony, Aaron and his son shall tend it from evening until morning before the Lord. It shall be a statute forever to their generations on behalf of the children of Israel. So he's in the temple, there's giant candelabra, two of them right there, 50 feet high. He stands under it and he says to them, putsing out his hands for sure, I am the light of the world. That light always burned. It was never to be put out. The Lord made specific instructions. symbolizing everything that Israel had experienced of light in the wilderness. You remember the Lord went before them by day and a pillar of cloud to lead the way and by night and a pillar of fire to give them what? Light. So as to go by day and night, there was light. There was always light day and night for them. There was always light. And that he did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people. Israel knew this. His light was always leading them. His light was always guiding them. And they were to follow in that light and they were to come to the land. They were to come home safely as that light led them through the wilderness, through all the hardship and all the attacks and all the dangers. So here he is standing. He's not only saying that. I am. I'm the one who was in the burning bush. I am who I am. Remember, Moses asked that, boys and girls. He's the light that was never put out. And I brought you through the sea, Israel. This is what Jesus is saying here. I was in the bush, and I brought you through the sea. And you have light in me. If you follow my light, I will lead you the whole way home. Now listen to what he's saying here, because we're no different than Israel. If you follow this light, I will bring you into the eternal land. I will bring you into a new heavens and new earth where righteousness shall dwell forever if you follow in my light. If you turn away from this light, your only alternative in this life is this. You're going to grope around in the darkness the rest of your life and you'll never make it to the land. You'll never make it to the new heavens and the new earth. This is what Jesus is doing here. And I think this is important to say because everyone in this life is on one of two paths. You're either following Jesus in the light or you're stumbling about in the darkness. And that was such an emphasis in Jesus's teachings and the apostles' teachings that I think it's important just to hear a few verses so now you can put together how Jesus's statement here of I am the light, how they used it throughout the scriptures to instruct God's people to walk in it. Remember, Jesus will say, A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. He who walks in darkness does not know where he's going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light. The Bible makes this great separation. The apostles were very affected by this. Paul said, For the fruit of light, the fruit of light is found in what? everything that's good and right and true. And try to discern what's pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. Peter, what is walking in the darkness? For we have spent, now, what is darkness? What does it look like in your life if you're walking in it? I'll tell you, this is exactly what Peter says. For we have spent enough of our past lifetime doing the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. That's walking in darkness. If you're out and drinking parties and you're getting drunk and you're committing sexual morality and fornication, I'm telling you that's darkness and you don't inherit the kingdom of God. That's what he's saying. You are all sons of the light and of the day, he's saying, to Christians. We're not of the night nor of the darkness, therefore don't sleep. as others do, but let us watch and be sober. I always notice how drunkenness fits in with darkness. He's always using that. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love as a helmet and the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us. So you understand the claim here, I hope, by now. When he says, I'm the bread of the world, I keep you, I satisfy you, I preserve you. When he says, I'm the light of the world, I am the one that in that light you walk and are safe and are kept and are brought home. I'm the one that keeps you the whole way. You've come to the light. I mean, this is, it's really kind of an, I think, an exciting moment in the Gospels because if you know Jesus and you walk in the light, do you know what the destiny is in walking in that light? The destiny of walking in that light is eternal life. Well, far better than this sad world. Now from here, John begins to show us that to walk in the light is first to accept the huge claim that Jesus is making about himself. It's not just ethical. It starts with faith. What do you believe about Jesus? How do you walk in the light? It has to do with what you believe about him. If he is who he says he is, then that has huge implications on everyone's life sitting here right now, right? The other night, Dr. Godfrey was preaching and I heard a lot of things that he said, but he said one thing in the prayer that I thought really captured this. And he prayed, and I don't know if anyone remembered it, but he prayed, Lord, as all the things that are happening in this world right now, tell us so clearly, we are not the Lord of our lives. That is a really powerful statement. You're not the Lord of your life. You don't hold the reins. He pulls the plug whenever he wants. He's the Lord of our life. And here we are where what Jesus is now saying to them is, when you receive this light, you have assurance of going home. But when you don't, you may go in this life, And you may try out everything you want to try out, but what you're doing is inviting judgment. You're inviting judgment on your life when you don't receive this light. And that's what happens here. Now comes the great challenge to Jesus from the Pharisees. In verse 13, the Pharisees said to him, they're the ones doing it, by the way, you bear witness to yourself. And if you do that, your witness is not true. Why would you expect us to believe this ludicrous, crazy claim? That's the world, isn't it? That's what they say about Jesus. You just said you're the light of the world. Who says that? You're a madman. You're a fool. Nobody runs around saying that. And he who says that has to have witnesses, and you're testifying about yourself. Jesus responds, Well, so what if I do? Even if I do, it's true. Even if I do, it's true. Even if I said it all by myself, what I just said about myself is absolutely true. I know where I came from, and I know where I'm going, but you don't. That's how he first responds. It's kind of similar to Psalm 14. The fool in his heart says there's no God, but I want you to think about what he does at this point. He says, you think of me as coming from Galilee and Nazareth. And that's all you think about me. But you know, in your own law, you have this statement that you know about that on the testimony of two or three witnesses, something is established as true or not, right? Well, yeah, of course we have that. Who are you talking about? Your testimony is alone. Jesus is saying, not true. I'm one and the father's the other. There's your two witnesses. I'm one and the heavenly father's the other. He bears witness about me that I am the light of the world, actually through the work of the spirit. Where's your father? We don't see your father. I don't see him. I don't hear him. He's not agreeing with you. Now, the father actually did bear witness numerous times to God's people, didn't he? Where he said, this is my beloved son. Hear him. He was doing that. Jesus' answer to them, you neither know me nor my Father, for if you had known me, you would have known my Father. And I think that's the important point to take away here for a moment, that the reason they can't hear the witness is because they don't know God. I really pondered that this week and thought, how sad, all the religious acts of devotion, and they didn't really know God. They didn't really know him. All those years, and they didn't know him. Why? Why didn't they know him? Jesus told us. Because they didn't know him, Jesus. Jesus was proclaimed all throughout the scriptures. Jesus was evident all throughout the Old Testament. Remember, Philip comes to Jesus and says, hey, show us the Father. Give us unmediated access to the Father, and then we'll finally believe. And what did Jesus say? No, wait a minute, Philip. don't you know? How can you say that? He says, do you not know that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The only way to know the Father is through the Son. And that's the big point, I think, that Jesus made to Peter when he said, Peter, who do you say that I am? Who do you guys think that I am? And Peter says, you're the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus looks at him and says, blessed are you, Peter. You didn't get that on your own. God the Father gave that to you to know me. You know, if you know Jesus today, the Father has given that to you. That's not something you just figure out. That's the gift. That's the work of the Father in your life. And I think what we have to understand is this claim is important because Jesus now says something that I think is one of the most important things to understand in the Gospel of John. Verse 23, I want you to notice. You are from below. I am from above. You are of this world. I'm not. I'm not of this world. They were looking at him only as someone from Galilee. And what Jesus is saying here is what you don't get is you have to be conveyed out of this world. You have to be saved out of it. You have to have a whole new existence. There's this gulf between what is heavenly and what is earthly. And because of the sinful nature, you're stuck in this earthly scene with an earthly heart, with fleshly desires that unless you're given a new life from above, you can't get out. That's what he's saying. Remember Nicodemus? You must be born again. Nicodemus, you must be born from where? From above. Life has to be given to you. And what Jesus is saying here is this, beloved. That if you don't believe in him as I am, as the one who bridges the gap from heaven, as the mediator who's come down to us, if you don't have him as the Lord of your life, if you don't have him as the savior of your sins, the consequence is so clear. You die in them. What's frustrating about this, we're not so far off on this one, but I want to make sure we get this point. What's frustrating about this today is the effect of this is lost on the Christian church. We've told everyone that God is just love. I don't know that anyone even believes there's a coming judgment or a place called hell anymore. But it doesn't make it go away. Jesus says the most potent thing, I think, in all of Scripture right here. You can quote, God so loved the world. That he gave his only begotten son. That whoever believes in him, yeah, whoever, will not perish. But a vast majority of the people don't. And they need to be pressed with this. So what then? Jesus says it. If you don't have me, if you don't have my life, my heavenly life given to you, you will die in those sins. I don't know if there's a worse statement in scripture. And then Jesus says in verse 21, I'm going away and you'll seek me and you'll die in your sins. Where I go, you cannot come. You can't get there without me. You cannot go to heaven without me. You hear him saying that there? And yet at every Hollywood funeral, what do they all say? Heaven got a new star. It's not true. It's not true. We have to reckon with Jesus. We have to reckon with what he's saying to us. I'm going away. You will look for me. Where I am, you can't come, and you will die in your sins. He's saying that to a nation to this day that still has not received her Messiah. Now, I think that's why when you stand here and listen so freshly to the statement, I am the light of the world. Come to me. who's crazy enough not to come? What solutions do we have in this life? I'll never forget I had a young friend when I was 16 years in high school. This affected me deeply. He was a basketball player, played on the basketball team. He was a great basketball player. And he was working out in summer, doing a summer job. And he pulled out with another kid in front of a semi. And just like that, his life was gone. Gone. So I went to the funeral. And I'd had enough upbringing in a church just like ours to know that there's only one way. And at the funeral, all I heard was, this kid was a good kid. and God will take him. He didn't know Jesus. And you see, maybe God would if he knew Jesus. Of course he would. But the point is, is that I knew that the message that was trying to be given to me was telling me that apart from Jesus, someone could be saved. What God does is his. And the point I'm making here is, is that what Jesus is saying is you have to have his life. That's the point. That's why we say there's only one way of salvation. Pharisees, who are you? You hear them there? You? Who are you? You're nobody. You're nobody. Jesus says, just what I've been saying to you from the beginning. He who sent me is true. When you lift up the Son of Man on the cross, then you will know that I am and that I do nothing of myself, but as my Father taught me, I speak these things. And he who sent me is with me. The Father has not left me alone, for I always do the things that please him. And as he spoke these words, here's the greatest encouragement I think we're starting to see here in this text. Many believed in him. Many. Many believed. Jesus just made a prophecy that in the cross, when he's lifted up, then there would be a great revelation of who he is. Remember what happened at the cross when they crucified him? Somebody yelled out, truly, that was the son of God. Today, that revelation's right in front of you. The cross tells you today that he died to pay for your sins. And I have the best news ever in light of the bad news. That for those who believe the gospel, for those who have Jesus. Remember what Jesus said to Peter? Where I'm going, you can't come now, but I'm coming back and I will take you to be with me. See? To make you all really happy right now, even in this heat. He just said, your destiny is certain if you have me. You believe in Jesus? You have eternal life. There's nothing else that needs to be done. That's what the cross was about. When he said, I am, and he said, it's finished, he paid for your sins and he loved you. And now you understand why we're telling the world this message. That's why we're here. We're not here to fix the economy. We're not here to make a ton of money. We're here to tell people that you have Jesus, you've got a new heavens and a new earth held out for you, that his light is bringing you to, I cannot imagine how glorious the things that are held out for those who love God. That's the gospel. And then you understand how important it is to tell people to believe. If we ever lose the message that there's really salvation only in Jesus, if we ever lose that. And we start telling everyone, there's all these different ways, as I was told at my friend's funeral. Why do I need him? Why do I need Jesus? He's the only one God sent to deal with our problem and he's dealt with it. And he loves you. That's the beauty of this. If he didn't love you, think about the thing that you witnessed this morning. He just said, I'm including you and your children and in my promises through me. That's salvation. That's life. That's a reason to rejoice. And then you'll never die in your sins. You'll never die in your sins. They're forgiven right now. Isn't that the beautiful thing we read from Colossians 2? That he has canceled your sins and paid for them and atoned for them, canceling the debt that was against you and set you free so that you would live in happiness and in joy and in comfort all the days of your life in that light being brought to the promised land, never to know death or judgment ever. That's what we celebrate today. And I pray then that as we go forward, you would hear this great statement of Jesus, I am the light of the world. Doesn't that mean something to us in this world right now? Seriously, maybe there's somebody here right now who's still wrestling with that claim of Jesus that Christians have believed for thousands of years and bowed down to this name for thousands of years. Tell me what solution there is in the world right now. Tell me what other light there is in the world right now. Can anyone? It's all darkness. Jesus is your light. He is your salvation. Believe him and you'll have joy and happiness all the way to the new heavens and the new earth. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word and thank you for your gospel and thank you that you instruct us and care for us and love us. We have to hear the bad news to know how wonderful the good news is. And yet before us today, you shower down on us more good news than we can even handle. Children brought into your covenant, families gathering to worship and love you, all because you've loved us with an everlasting love and that we now know the light of the world. We ask that you'd keep us in that light that we never go back to the darkness the things that we know ruin lives the things that were mentioned of darkness kill lives ruin lives destroy lives those who walk in the light have peace and joy and happiness and love may we always hear that great call I am the light of the world and walk in that light in Jesus name we pray Amen