Tonight, I invite you to turn with me to John chapter 1 and John chapter 8. You recall that last week we began to consider in anticipation of our observance of our Lord's crucifixion and our celebration of His resurrection, we began to consider the I Am's of the suffering servant of Jesus Christ. the I am statements that he expressed when he ministered. And tonight we consider the second I am of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am the light of the world. Now in John 8, verse 12, where we find that statement, our text for tonight, that's in the context of the situation starting to heat up a bit around our Lord. The leaders of the teachers of the law and the Pharisees are after him. In chapter 7, they've sent the temple guard to go arrest him. And of course, they don't. And then, at the beginning of chapter 8, we find that section, and you'll see in the heading of your Bible, actually before verse 53 of chapter 7, that the earliest manuscripts and many other ancient witnesses do not have John 7, 53 through 8, 11. And that's the episode dealing with a woman caught in adultery and the teachers of the law bring her to Jesus and ask if she should be stoned and Jesus leans down and writes in the sand. And I believe that it fits quite well in the text. There's agreement, basic agreement, that it is apostolic in origin. There's not so clear agreement as to where it belongs in the text. I'm going to assume that it belongs here and that this is where we should consider it in light of Jesus' words as well, I am the light of the world. Let's read together first John 1, the first 14 verses as we hear now the Word of God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made. Without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. There came a man who was sent from God. His name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light. He came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him. Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only, who came from the Father full of grace and truth. And if you turn over to John 8, beginning at verse 12, our text, reading through verse 18. When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. The Pharisees challenged Him. Here you are, appearing as your own witness. Your testimony is not valid. Jesus answered, Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going. You judge by human standards. I pass judgment on no one. But if I do judge, my decisions are right because I am not alone. I stand with the Father who sent me. In your own law, it is written that the testimony of two men is valid. I am one who testifies for myself. My other witness is the Father. who sent me. I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. To people of God, it wasn't too long ago, you recall, that much of the state of California was under the threat of rolling blackouts as we faced an energy crisis. In fact, some of you, I know, experienced some of those rolling blackouts firsthand. But even the thought of being without electrical power makes us a little bit nervous because that would be a shock to our system of living, especially as we consider all of the things in this life that depend upon that plug and that electrical outlet. But probably the scariest part of a rolling blackout, at least for the boys and girls, especially in the nighttime, would be the fact that you can't turn the lights on. Now, boys and girls, why is that scary? Because the darkness makes us uncomfortable. It makes us uneasy. The dark is a realm of the unknown because you can't see what's in front of you and you can't see what's behind you. There's no real safety in the dark. There's only blindness and a lost sense of direction. And as I was considering this text this week, I began to look around the house and around the neighborhood and realize how dependent we are as a society on light. And of course, we could talk about the applications that stand out the most, like the lights or the lamps in our houses or these lights in this church building right now. Street lights, stop lights, automobile headlights, tail lights, and hazard lights. Of course, flashlights come in handy at times. Think about the office equipment that you operate, especially computers and copiers. They all depend on lights. Our alarm clocks have lights, which is really nice for when you wake up at 2 in the morning, you can see across the room and, wow, I've got another four hours of sleep. Telephone buttons are lit. Digital watches have lights. Our dashboards light up and certain lights flash to warn us of engine trouble. Our police and our military use infrared lights. Doctors use scopes with lights in order to search out the hidden recesses of the human body. We work, many of us, in the light of day. And the list goes on and on and you can find many more applications. But if you notice, many of the physical lights in our lives are for the purpose of making life a little bit easier to live. Making it a little bit safer. As well to give relief in the unknownness of the dark. And that's why this I Am of the Suffering Servant is so amazing and such a true metaphor for our Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I am the light of the world. Now the first thing that I want you to consider here is the divine radiance of this light. You recall last week that we took a little time to consider simply the two words, I am, first of all. For those of you who are visiting with us, with those two little words which introduce all of the I Am statements of our Lord. With those, our Savior points to His divine origin. And the metaphors of these statements that go along with those two little words like the bread of life and the light of the world and the Good Shepherd and the others, these metaphors are so rich in meaning and Jesus emphasizes that these metaphors describe Him. But also with these two little words, I Am, He draws the attention of His hearers back to Moses back to the burning bush in Exodus chapter 3. You recall that we consider that the Greek construction of the words I am, as short as it may seem, the Greek construction is quite rare. Of course, used by our Lord in every statement. But what happens here is Jesus uses the same construction of the words used in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, as we said, which his audience would have understood. And the Lord God used the same words in Exodus 3 when He identified Himself to Moses. I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites. I am has sent Me. So again, with the words I am, He was drawing attention to His divine origin. But now with this I am of Christ before us, our Lord again gives emphasis to the divine radiance of this light. He claims that He is God also with the word light by using the same language that the Bible uses over and over again to describe God. God is described as light throughout Scripture. David begins Psalm 27 as we've already considered tonight. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? And David also says in Psalm 36, verse 9, For with you is the fountain of life. In your light we see light. In 1 John 1, verse 5, we read, God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. James says that God is the Father of lights. In 1 Timothy 6, verse 16, Paul speaks of God, among other things, as the One who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light. And one more, we're familiar with John's vision of the New Jerusalem in Revelation. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, For the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. But you see, not only does God describe Himself as light in His Word, but He demonstrated at different times throughout the history of Revelation, He demonstrated that He is light to the very eyes of His people. He revealed the glory of that light. And one of the most memorable occasions for the Israelites, no doubt, was that pillar of fire that led them by night in the wilderness. In fact, this I Am of Jesus may very well have called attention to that pillar of fire. In John 7, verse 37, John speaks of the last and greatest day of the feast. And in verse 2 of John 7, it says this was the Feast of Tabernacles, or another name is the Feast of Booths. And part, not all, but part of the significance of that feast was to remind the Israelites of the wilderness years before reaching the Promised Land. And this was one of the main feasts that Israel kept throughout the generations along with the Feast of Passover and the Day of Atonement, for example. But at some point in her history, at some point in her history of keeping this feast, the practice of lighting a large candelabra in a particular court of the temple became a part of that feast. And the light of that candelabra radiated during the feast, however many days that was, and it radiated for all to see. And this was to remind the people of the pillar of fire. Other manifestations of the light of God's glory include Moses' face reflecting God's glory. I think we can consider as well the chariot of fire that took Elijah to heaven might have been a glimpse of God's glory. The glory of the angels that filled the sky announcing the Savior's birth and singing glory to God to the audience of shepherds was a manifestation of God's glory. And then there was the transfiguration of Jesus in which the glory of His divinity burst through the veil of His humanity. Unlike Moses who reflected back the glory of God, this was inherent in Christ. It was part of His very being. So that even His clothes, His face, everything about Him shone with the glory of God, of His own glory. And that's why John can say with such confidence in John 1, verse 14, we have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only who came from the Father full of grace and truth. And then one more illustration from the Bible that I'm sure all the boys and girls remember is the Damascus Road, huh? The bright light from heaven that knocked Paul to his knees on the Damascus Road. Beloved, there was no doubt about what Jesus was claiming here with this statement. Of course, he was challenged. We read about that. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees say, what do you say? You have no witnesses. There's no one to confirm what you say. Remember the law. It says two or three witnesses. Jesus basically says, you don't know what you're talking about. My witness is true. Because I am the truth. I know where I came from. I know where I'm going. You have no clue. But if you want witnesses, I'm number one. And my Father is number two. He is the Son of God. God of God. Light of light. Very God of very God. And as God the light, notice also, He fulfills prophecy. In Isaiah 9, verse 2, we read, the people walking in darkness have seen a great light. And Matthew 4 tells us that Isaiah's prophecy, that very same prophecy, is fulfilled in Christ. Isaiah 42 speaks of the servant of the Lord pointing forward to the Messiah. And verse 6 says, I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles. Another prophecy is found in Isaiah 49, verse 6. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring My salvation to the ends of the earth. We're familiar with Isaiah 60, verse 1. Arise, shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. And of course, Malachi 4, verse 2 speaks of the Son of Righteousness who will rise with healing in His wings. Beloved, our Lord's claim to be the light of the world would have been no small matter to the Jews of His day. Whether they believed it or not, whether they believed Him or not, they would have understood Him to be saying, I am the fulfillment of prophecy. I am the one you've been waiting for. I am God. But then notice in the second place, the illuminating task of this light. When Jesus says, I am the light of the world, what is it that this light does? Now we know, even the young boys and girls here know that light is the very opposite of dark. We know that. There's an antithesis between the light and the dark. There's nothing the same about them. There's nothing similar about them. Light and dark are about as opposite as you can get. And the antithesis between light and dark is seen all throughout Scripture. You see, as we said before, the dark scares. The dark brings a sense of fear and danger. The dark hides things. And in the dark, you cannot see things clearly. You cannot see the truth about things. In the dark, you cannot see things as they really are. In the dark, one feels lost because they cannot recognize either where they are. Boys and girls, that's why you like to have a nightlight so that if you wake up in the middle of the night, that night light helps you to recognize and see that you're not in a strange place, but you're in the safety of your bedroom, in the safety of your house with your parents. That's what light does. We could say that light scares darkness away, because the moment you flip on the switch, the darkness is gone, vanishes. Now, Dr. R.C. Sproul talks about the fact that the antithesis between light and dark is not found only in Scripture or in Christian writings, but even unbelieving thinkers consider this antithesis. He talks about the philosopher Plato. And in Plato's work called Republic, Sproul talks about the fact that Plato uses the analogy of slaves who were confined or imprisoned to a dark cave. And all that they had for light was a little fire. But the only thing that the slaves could see from the light of that little fire were shadows on the cave wall. with no clear view of reality. And Sproul says that Plato calls these shadows opinion. Opinion. In other words, all that any of the slaves could see was simply their opinion. It was less than true knowledge. And Plato said that for a person to gain, to acquire true knowledge, he would have to get out of the cave, get out of the darkness, and into the noonday sun because only in that light can one see and can one know objects as they really are. Beloved, there is no peace and comfort in the dark. Only in the light is there true knowledge because only in the light can one see things clearly. Light exposes that which hides in the darkness. If you walk into a dark room that you've never been in before, without light, you don't know if it's a kitchen or a dining room or a family room or a bedroom or an office because you can't see what's in it. And if it's dark, you might run the danger of stubbing your toe. But the moment you turn the light on, it becomes clear what kind of room it is. You see the characteristics, the truth of that room. Even insects, when the light is turned on, can't hide in what used to be dark corners. But also light exposes and shows the beauty of something. I'm no scientist, I have to admit, but my little understanding is that color is not found in things. It's not found in objects, but it is seen as the colors of the light are refracted. Some things absorb light. Other things refract that light. And if we were to shut all the lights off in this room right now since it's nighttime, it'd be quite dark in here. And in a sense, we all turn black. Everything in the dark is black. But with the lights turned on, we see the beauty of the color of all of the different clothing. And we see the different color of hair. And we see the color of each other's eyes in the light. We see the color and the beauty of the architecture around us. And in the light outside, we see the beauty of God's creation. But light also exposes the ugliness of things. Like the aftermath of an earthquake or a flood or a fire. Or think back to the ugliness of the pile of rubble we saw on TV or in the newspapers after the collapse of the World Trade Center towers. Congregation, of course, again, the examples are endless, but the antithesis between light and dark is the picture of Scripture between God and His truth compared to Satan and his lie. And that antithesis is the reality of this world. The Bible says that Satan is the prince of this dark world. And that darkness includes the lie. It includes all that is false. It includes all that is evil and wicked. All that is unholy and untrue. Darkness is a symbol of ignorance and being blinded to the truth. Darkness points to death. But in Scripture, light stands for what is good and right and true. Light represents that which is holy and pure. And the truth that God is light points to His purity and His holiness. As well, light represents life. In 1 John 1, verse 4 again we read, In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. Very simply, beloved, light represents God and the things of God. In John's writings, light and dark are moral terms, and the truth is that all of mankind in the natural fallen condition is called children of darkness. Man is morally and spiritually corrupt. In sin, man loves and lives the lie. In sin, there is only selfishness and unrest and chaos. In sin, there is no contentment and peace. There's only constant struggle and unrest. In sin, there is only spiritual and eternal death. And that's the world our Lord entered to be the suffering servant. Notice those familiar words in John 3, verses 16 and 17. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Jesus Christ entered the world that God had created, a world which had turned to sin and shame, and He came as the light that shines in the dark world. And He exposed. He exposed by His very being and by His actions and by His words and by His very life. He exposed the lie and the ugliness of sin. Paul says in Ephesians 5, verses 13 and 14, but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. In the episode of the woman caught in adultery, Jesus exposes the sinful hearts of those teachers of the law and the Pharisees who publicly humiliated her and tried to trap Jesus as He exposed them each and every time they tried to trap Him. As well, though, Jesus exposed the truth of the sin of this woman when He says to her, Go and sin no more. Throughout His ministry, the light of Jesus shone as He scared the darkness of demons out of people. As He healed of the physical effects of sin. As He conquered the wages of sin, which is death, both by raising some back to life from physical death and as well conquering spiritual and eternal death on the cross. Beloved, when our Lord walked this earth, He was an illuminating force to all with whom He had contact. So much so that Nicodemus could say in John 3, verse 2, he came to Jesus at night and said, Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him. And as well in verse 46 of John 7, again, the temple guards did not fulfill their mandated duty of arresting Jesus as the chief priests and Pharisees had commanded them. And in verse 46, their excuse is, no one ever spoke the way this man does, the guards declared. To which they were accused of also being deceived. And as well, I think of Peter. Remember when Peter was, when our Lord told him to cast the nets out. Well, we fished all night, but if you say so, we'll do it. They brought in such a large catch they couldn't even drag it in. And Peter, it's like the light bulb went on, huh? And Peter looks at the Lord and says, Depart from Me, for I am a sinful man. As well, when Jesus died on the cross, Matthew 27, verse 54 says, When the centurion and those with Him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, the darkness too, remember, they were terrified and exclaimed, Surely He was the Son of God. We know that some who are brought to the truth of Jesus to describe that by saying, the light went on. I have seen the light. I just talked to a gentleman a couple of nights ago who said that. He grew up in the church. He ran away from it. And he was brought back by God's grace. And he said, the light went on. Jesus taught the truth of God. He corrected misuses of the law of God. He showed people their sin and their need for salvation. And He revealed the beauty of Himself and that salvation. And He continues to do that today through His Word and by His Holy Spirit. As His Word is preached from Sunday to Sunday and as it goes out to the ends of the earth, the light of Jesus shines in a dark world. But not all will come to this light. I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. And then verse 5 of chapter 1 again, the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. Only those in whom the Holy Spirit of God applies the truth of Jesus Christ will enjoy the saving beam of this light. Again, whoever follows Christ will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Now on the one hand, we need to understand that any truth that is out there, even the truth that unbelievers hold, the truth about creation, the truth about natural laws or science or chemistry or biology, even if it may be distorted somewhat, the truth that they hold, it all comes from the light of the world. There is no truth, not even about natural laws, that does not come from Christ. But also as the light of the world, salvation was not for the Jews only who would believe, but also for Gentiles, as we were reminded this morning. It was for young and old, for male and female, slave and free, rich or poor, from every tribe, every tongue, every nation. The light of the truth of Jesus Christ is to be preached to all nations, to the ends of the world. Yet it is not universal salvation. Christ did not come to save everyone and not all will embrace the light of Jesus. Those who come to this light are those that we spoke of last week in connection with Jesus as the bread of life. Those who come to Him are those whom the Father has given to Him beforehand. And the Father draws these irresistibly to the Son through new birth, a new heart, a new will, new directions, new desires. All others reject Jesus Christ in the light of His truth and they desire the darkness. Notice John 3, verses 19 and 20. This is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. And then verse 21 is the contrast. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God. Now, we know that much evil is done in physical darkness. In fact, those who seek to kill and steal and destroy, they do it most often in the dark of night. In many of our morning walks, Brenda and I have come across cars down Broadway toward El Norte. Many cars with windows smashed and radios taken. The owners don't even know it yet. And it happened during the night. It happened in the secret of the dark of night. Those who vandalize or spray graffiti. Do you ever see them? I haven't. They do it in the dark of night, except for the two young girls that got caught yesterday at about noon right in front of our church after they had graffitied the wall across the street. But most often they do it at night. They don't want to get caught. I dare say they're cowards too. But the truth of Jesus Christ and His Gospel exposes the darkness of sin and shows it for what it truly is. This truth shows how offensive sin and a life of sin is to God. And that's why God's Word teaches that you can't have it both ways. In 1 John 1, verses 6 and 7, we read, If we claim to have fellowship with Him, yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son purifies us from all sin. And those whom God brings from darkness into His marvelous light by the power of the Holy Spirit are also able to walk in the light. Those in whom the Holy Spirit shines the light of Jesus and His love. Indeed, they see the light. The light bulb goes on. They are able to heed Paul's command in Ephesians 5 verse 8 which says, For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. live as children of light. Those of you who had the opportunity to go to the Calvin Christian School fellowship dinner the other night, remember the speaker talking about how Christian education is to affect the head and the heart and the hands of students. And it begins right here with the light of the world. The light of the world affects, transforms the head of one in that true knowledge is given to that one. True knowledge of God. True knowledge of self, of Christ, of the world, of sin, of everything. For that same one, the heart is transformed by the light of the world. As the light of the world chases away the darkness of sin from that heart and fills that heart with the truth of Jesus Christ and His saving sacrifice and a desire to be obedient to that truth. And that light also transforms the hands as the Holy Spirit of God leads God's people to perform good and not evil. For God's people, Jesus, the light, has taken away the fear of the unknown. He has removed the dark clouds of night. He has removed the blindness that keeps us from seeing the truth of Christ. In John chapter 9, after Jesus heals the blind man who was born blind, He says again, I am the light of the world. Who knows? Maybe the very first one that this former blind man saw was indeed the light of the world. But in Christ, God's people are able to walk in safety because He is the beam that lights the narrow path that leads to eternal life. Because of the light of Christ, God's people are able to see the potholes and the roadblocks of the devil's false accusations. They are able to see the dangerous temptations of the devil crossing their path and recognizing these temptations for what they really are. To follow Jesus is to believe in Him. That He is the only Savior. It is to trust that He is the way and the truth and the life. It is to walk as Jesus walked in obedience to God's commands. And how is all of this possible? Because as the psalmist says in Psalm 119, verse 105, Your Word is a lamp to My feet and a light for my path. He not only shows His people the way, but He tells us how to live on the way. Beloved, we must follow no other road map for daily living than the road map of the Word of God, the same Word of God that reveals the only Savior. The law of God is to be our rule for life. You see, how does this play out practically speaking? Well, for example, we don't cheat on a test. We don't steal candy from the store. We don't have premarital or extramarital sex. We don't hate or gossip or steal from God on the Lord's Day by doing our own thing or making something or someone else more important than God or many other things we don't do. Why? Because those things belong to the darkness. We do study diligently for a test. We watch our language. We promote our neighbor's good. We do an honest day's work. We are faithful to our spouse. We only date believers. We place God at the center of our lives. Not because we earn salvation or anything even remotely close, but because those and many other things belong to the light in which God's people are called to walk. And in the end, Where does the beam of Christ's light lead? Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but have the light of life. You see, those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ will suffer the eternal darkness of hell. Eternal death. But those who walk in His light will be led to the glory of the promised land called heaven. Just as those who followed the pillar of fire were led to the promised land called Canaan. God's people who closed their eyes in the darkness of death opened their eyes to behold the glory of the light of God, the light of God's glory. You see, even in the darkness on Calvary's tree, our Savior, the suffering servant, the light of God's love shone bright as He removed the darkness of sin and death and hell from us forever and open to us the glory of heaven where there is no need for the light of the sun because God Himself is the everlasting light. Rejoice, believer, because the darkness is gone forever and the light of our Savior's love and truth will keep you safe forever. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, we pray that You would never allow us to test the darkness. That more and more You would deliver us from the darkness of sin and shame and death. That You would keep us safe from the snare of the devil and his temptations. That You would illumine us more and more by the power of Your Holy Spirit. That more and more the light and the glory of God through Jesus Christ would be made evident to us. Father, and that we might desire to be reflectors of that light. Even as You have called in Matthew chapter 5, that the light is to shine, that others may see, see the goodness of God, see our good works, and glorify God forever. Once again, O Lord, we thank You for the salvation which is ours, accomplished by our suffering servant, Jesus Christ. We thank You for the righteousness that is ours, with which we might stand in Your presence with which You will accept us for the sake of Jesus Christ. And Father, may we look forward to that day when the great I Am comes again on the clouds of heaven in all of His splendor and all of His glory to be seen as the lightning is seen in the east and the west that we might worship Him forever and ever. In the name of Jesus, we pray all of these things. Amen. Thank you.