Jesus: The Light of the World
By Sinclair B. Ferguson
Text: John 8
Original Audio
OPENING PRAYER:
Our gracious God, we come to you, you are a God who cares, who loves, who understands us in and through Jesus Christ. And you are the God who speaks into our hearts by your word, and in the power of your Holy Spirit. Lord we pray, that there may be no door barred to you this morning. That you will open our eyes that we may see, our ears that we may hear, that you will melt our hearts and bow our wills, that we may love you and trust you, and obey. And this we pray together, for Jesus our Savior’s sake. Amen.
Please be seated.
SCRIPTURE READING:
These Sunday mornings in our morning services we've been reading through the Gospel according to John. And at the beginning of our series of sermons in John's gospel, we reminded ourselves of the ancient saying about John's gospel, that “In John's gospel, lamb may bathe and an elephant may swim.” Now some of us may be spiritual elephants growing large and well nourished. But our series is not intended for spiritual elephants. We are going through John's Gospel with great rapidity. And we are, we're bathing a little in it as the lambs of Christ's flock. And we come today in the Gospel, according to John to the seventh chapter. And we're going to read there, the Pew Bible, page 892. And I want to read from various sections of this part of the gospel. John's gospel. In fact, we're reading in chapter eight and not as in the order of service, chapter seven. Read some verses in chapter eight, verse 12, page 894.
“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.’“
And then in verse 21, Jesus “said to them, again, ‘I'm going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come. So the Jews said, ‘Will he kill himself, since he says, where I am going, you cannot come.’ Jesus 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.”
And then verse 31, “So again Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ They answered him, ‘We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you can say, ‘You will become free’? Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me, because my word finds no place in you.’
"They answered him”, verse 39, “‘Abraham is our father.’ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing what Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. You are doing what your father did.’ They said to Him, ‘We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father — even God.’ Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here.’”
SERMON:
I can never read these words in John chapter eight, without virtually my whole life since my early teenage years flashing before me as one long story. But perhaps more of that, in a moment.
The Feast of Booths had been in progress for something like a week. And as we saw last time in John chapter seven, the Feast of Booths was celebrated with an elaborate and inspiring Water Festival. And now the feast had come to an end. And the water of life that the people had celebrated had not been given to them. And so Jesus had stood and with a loud voice he had called attention to himself, “If anyone thirsts” he said, “let him come to me and drink.”
The reason that people celebrated this festival was because they were looking forward to the day, the coming day, when the Messiah would give them living water that would quench their spiritual thirst forever. And at the end of this Feast of Booths, they were still thirsty. And Jesus directed their attention to himself and said to them, If you believe in me, then from me you will experience rivers of living water that will satisfy your soul in the power of the Holy Spirit. But the Feast of Booths or tabernacles, in which the people lived outside and makeshift wooden tents, was not only a celebration of the water that God had provided from the rock in the days of the wilderness wanderings, it was a celebration of the way in which God had guided them through the wilderness with the pillar of bright cloud during the day and the pillar of fire during the night. And so in the evenings in Jerusalem it was celebrated with another inspiring festive occasion. When in the courtyard of the women, four great lamps would be lit. Each with four lamps on it — huge lamps. Full of oil, that would be set aflame in the darkness of Jerusalem, if you can imagine the kind of darkness that there was in those days. Even in cities when there was no electricity or artificial power, and suddenly the court of the temple lit up. And in that Jewish fashion, the Levites would begin to dance round the large Court of the Women in the great temple that Herod was building. There would be joy and singing, and people in their homes, in their courtyards would light lamps and the whole of Jerusalem would become a blaze of glory. And then on the last day of the feasts, the great central lamp would remain unlit. The promised that God had given that he would send Messiah, who would be the light of the nations was not yet fulfilled. And so in symbolism on the Last Great Day of the feasts, the great light was extinguished. And we're told here in verse 12, it was on that occasion that Jesus spoke again to them, saying, “I am the light of the world.”
And as you read through this either chapter of John's gospel at your leisure, as I hope you will surely do, you find that the Lord Jesus is beginning to apply his message with great power — with personal directiveness to those who have been listening to him. Because of course they have heard him. But they have not yet heard the message. They are resisting the message. And so he begins a closer analysis of their true spiritual condition. And because of their lack of responsiveness, in this great chapter, he brings to the surface their four-fold spiritual need. And of course, the marvelous ways in which he is able to remedy their spiritual sickness. And it’s at these that we look at just for a moment together this morning.
He speaks to them first of all, and this in verses 12 through 20, about the spiritual darkness in which they walk. And this is the implication of his famous words in verse 12: “Without him”, he says, “we walk in darkness”. Clearly, he's talking about spiritual darkness. He's talking about the very thing you remember he spoke to Nicodemus about. And unless someone has the heavenly birth, then they cannot see the kingdom of God. Spiritual realities remain opaque and strange to them. They don't understand what Jesus is really speaking about. And the reason: “because they live in darkness.”
It was in the Sermon on the Mount, earlier on, that Jesus had explained what this darkness was. He said, You see the problem with men and women by nature is that the darkness is actually within. He says to them, If the light that is within you, that is to say, if the way you see things, if the light within you is actually darkness, then how great is that darkness.
Some of you, you know, are loving people whose minds have gone. What is the problem of dealing with people when their minds are gone? It is that the very instrument we use to communicate in a reasonable and intelligible way with one another has — has malfunctioned. And you can't say to that person, why don't you think clearly? You see? Jesus is saying to them, the reason you do not respond to me in faith and trust and become my disciples is because within is the darkness.
You say, I can see perfectly clearly.
But spiritually your mind, he is saying, is in the darkness.
I met a man a number of years ago, who told me this very amusing, but rather poignant story of how he had gone out to work one day. He was a very prosperous businessman. And he said to his wife, as he left, “I am going to collect the new BMW today”. She knew he was interested in a new car. They said, “Well, let's meet at lunchtime and I can see the new car.” And so they had lunch together. He had worked out a great deal. He could hardly believe that this car, this BMW, was going to be — such a terrific price. He was a tight A hard driving businessman. He could have afforded any BMW but to get it cheaply. That was really something. And so he handed his wife the keys. And he said that it’s just round the corner. They had talked late. There were only three cars in the parking lot. And she came back, I think she said to him, “I thought you said it was a green BMW you bought”.
“Yes, it was,” he said.
And she said, “The only the only BMW in the parking lot is pink.”
“Oh, I forgot I was colorblind.”
It was a Mary Kay BMW!
And you see — you see the point? He thought he saw perfectly.
That's the alarming thing Jesus is speaking about. He'll turn to it again in the next chapter. We think we can see perfectly clearly but the tragedy is, he's saying, that by nature we are blind. And in verse 15. So the sign of that is, “I judge according to the flesh.” “I judge according to the flesh" with human understanding and I don't see. And Jesus says on this day when the great light has been extinguished, Oh, I am the light of the world. If you follow me, I will lead you into the light. You will not walk in darkness.
Then he moves on, verses 21 through 30. To another aspect of their spiritual need. Not only the spiritual darkness in which they walk but the spiritual death in which they live. You notice these words in verse 21, he says, “You will seek me and you will die in your sin.” And verse 24, “I told you that you would die in your sins.” Now, of course the reason for this was they were already spiritually dead. Do you notice a very interesting thing? Their response in verse 22. They have no idea whatsoever what he's talking about. They think he's talking about taking his own life. Now it was plain Aramaic. He spoke — it was no more difficult to understand than the plain English he was speaking. “You will die in your sins.” What's he talking about: “Die in your sins”? You see, it was actually the sign of their spiritual death, they didn't know what spiritual death was, because they've never actually experienced spiritual life.
I saw a robin this morning. Reminded me of British Robins who are very beloved birds are much smaller birds than American robins. They would be wouldn't they? And they have this beautiful red, it's not Cardinal red, it's British red. And they are beloved birds. They are beloved birds. And I remember sitting in the garden outside our, our home in Scotland. And as I was reading I, I saw out of the corner of the eye, one of my little friends: the beautiful red breasted Robin. And as I read on I, I thought about this Robin and as I thought about it, I could see the robin — the beauty of the red, the delicacy of the feathers, the miniature nature of the British Robin. And then after a minute or two, I realized that since I caught sight of the robin, the Robin had not moved. And I turned and there I saw the beauty of the red breast. The tenderness and sweetness of the feathers. The little beaks a tiny little eyes — all perfectly formed — but there was no life in the Robin. It's at all the appearance of being a Robin. But it was dead. You see.
And that's what he's saying to these people who are listening to him and have not responded to him. And, and that was the sign of their spiritual death. That they hadn't responded to Jesus. Now friends, we need to be very clear about this. If I've not responded to the Lord Jesus, indeed, if I don't respond to the Lord Jesus in faith: embracing him, loving him, want to serve Him then it's because there is no spiritual life in me to connect me to Jesus and to connect Jesus to me. And so he speaks about the spiritual death in which they live.
And then in verses 31 through 36, he addresses the spiritual bondage in which they are held. And you notice as he senses the response, as, as teachers and preachers often do. Those of you who teach in Sunday school, you know, when the glazed over look comes. I know when the glazed over look comes. And Jesus knew. Jesus sensed. And so he speaks even more directly. And he says to them, verse 34, "Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who commit sin is a slave of sin.” And of course, they immediately burst out — notice their response. “We are offspring of Abraham, we've never been enslaved to anyone.” And he says, Oh, he says the very fact that you sin in your unresponsiveness to me is a sign that you are actually held in a bondage that you yourself cannot break. And the evidence of it, notice verse 37, “it is my word finds no place in you”. Now that word can mean my word makes no advance in you. That’s the evidence that Christ has set us free. That his word is advancing like a like a great army moving into our lives — changing us and transforming us, but they were resisting it. They were giving it no room; they were pushing it back. They didn't really understand it.
Reminds me of the story of the great Wesley brothers, John and Charles. Charles, perhaps the greatest of all the hymn writers in the English speaking language who met the Moravian Peter Boehler—many of you know the story.
And Peter Boehler said to him, “Do you hope to be saved?”
And Charles said, he was an Anglican clergyman, “Yes”, he said, “I do.”
And Boehler said to him, “On what ground?”
And Charles Wesley answered, “That I have used my best endeavours to serve God.”
And Peter Boehler simply shook his head: “Oh dear.”
But by God's grace, Charles was awakened. And similarly, his brother who met another Moravian just down the road here in Savannah, Georgia. He met Gottlieb Spangenberg. And Spangenberg asked him similar questions.
He said, “Do you, John, know Jesus Christ”?
And Wesley records in his journal. I paused and said, “I know him to be the Savior of the world”.
“True”, replied Spangenberg. “True, but do you know he has saved you?”
“I answered, ‘I hope he has died to save me.’”
And Spangenberg added. “Do you really know yourself”?
And Wesley instantaneously replied, “I do.”
But later on, he wrote in his journal, “I fear they were vain words.”
And then within a short time of each other, they both were set free from this bondage in which they thought that salvation was something that you earned and not really something that you trusted Jesus Christ for. My dear friends if salvation was something you could earn, Jesus Christ would never have died on the cross for us, you see.
Now that may be an encouragement to some of us. Anglican clergyman… Anglican clergyman, and they are bound by their own later confession: “Bound in sin and nature’s night”. And by God's grace, set free. You remember the words that celebrated that for both of them:
Long my imprisoned spirit lay.
This is an Episcopalian clergyman speaking my friends.
Long my imprisoned spirit lay.
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night.
Thine eye defused a quickening ray,
I woke the dungeon flamed with light.
My chains fell off, My heart was free
I rose, went forth and followed Thee.
If the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed. Are the chains loosened from your life? That's what Jesus is saying.
And then there's a final bondage: the spiritual darkness in which they walk, the spiritual death in which they live, the spiritual bondage in which they are held, and the spiritual orphans they have become.
Do you notice how in these verses, from verse 37 onwards, when Jesus challenges them their instinctive response is to say, “BUT Abraham is our father.” Now, it's interesting a few verses later on, they will say, “God is our Father.” But you see they’ve let the cat out of the bag, haven’t they? Their first instinct, their first instinct in terms of what does it mean for me to know that God is my gracious savior and my Heavenly Father is to say, “Abraham is my father”. You see? But Abraham cannot save you. It's only then, as it were, when the cats out the bag that they begin to say something about God because their understanding of what it means to — What it means to belong to the Lord's people is entirely a matter of their natural lineage, isn't it? And not a matter of their own living relationship with God as their Heavenly Father.
And you notice how here in Jesus response to them. He points out the one simple mark that you will see in all of God's true children. It's there in verse 42, isn't it? They love the Lord Jesus. They love the Lord Jesus. Yes, they may have been taught from childhood “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.” But they've responded to him. They've come to life and they love Jesus. Well, what a marvelous thing it is to understand that the Lord Jesus Christ gives us spiritual light. And gives us spiritual life. And gives us spiritual freedom and brings us into the family of God.
I said whenever I read John 8, my whole life flashes before me. Because I attended a service in a church once as a teenage boy, that is as real to me this morning as it was to me when I was a young teenager. I sat in the gallery. I heard a police sergeant sing a solo. He was wearing a brown suit. He had jet black hair. He was later knighted by Her Majesty the Queen's and went to great heights in the land and became a friend. I heard a Bible reading from Romans chapter 10. I heard a sermon on John chapter eight, verse 12. I am the light of the world. “He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." I was helped by an elderly physician whose son became a friend and a missionary to Thailand. Whose grandsons were missionaries to Thailand and to Vietnam. My friends, it was 45 years ago. And for some of you in church this morning, that's three lifetimes. And I seem a very old man, by comparison with those early days. But do you see the point of this? You can be a child in Abraham's line and yet never have responded to the Lord Jesus Christ and become his. And I want to say, particularly to those of you who belong to that category, where you are three lifetimes behind me, that for 45 years, I followed him. And even in the darkest, darkest days, and there have been some dark, dark, heartbreaking days, there is never been a single day when this promise has failed. That those who follow him will never again walk in darkness but enjoy the light of life.
Are you following him young teenager? All of your life before you. Many pressures on you. Many ambitions in your heart. Many aspirations to fulfill. Make this your chief aspiration. To say to him, Lord Jesus Christ, Savior, friend, Master, have all of me. Be my savior. Give me light. And it may be in 45 years time you will be able to say to somebody who is now your age, “For 45 years, every single day. the promise has come true.” Isn't that something? Isn't that something? Isn’t HE something?
CLOSING PRAYER:
Lord Jesus Christ, light of the world and light of our lives, shine upon us, we pray in your grace and power and grant that in your light we may see our darkness and be brought out of that darkness into your marvelous light. We ask this for your great name’s sake. Amen.
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