1. Jesus the light of the world
Lorna Laister
1 October2017
Sermon 39

2. John 1:6-9 Good News Translation (GNT)
6 God sent his messenger, a man named John, 7 who came to tell people about the light, so that all should hear the message and believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came to tell about the light. 9 This was the real light—the light that comes into the world and shines on all people.
SLIDE When engineers went down into an old disused mine, they took their torches and worked for many days trying to see if they could open up the mine again. What they saw surprised them. Because they had taken light into the darkness, life had begun to sprout
New life from the light of their lamps. Amazing!
But you have heard stories like that before.
And you have also had many sermons about being a light in the dark world..
So today I want to go deeper into the meaning of this saying of Jesus “I am the light of the world”
What does it mean when Jesus says he is the light of the world?
This is the second of the “I am” saying of Jesus. What on earth can this mean to you?

3. John 1:1-5
The Word of Life
1 In the beginning the Word already existed; the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 From the very beginning the Word was with God. 3 Through him God made all things; not one thing in all creation was made without him. 4 The Word was the source of life,[a] and this life brought light to people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never put it out.
The I am statements are telling the hearers of the words that Jesus is God.
Jesus is God in the flesh
He is telling the people he is divine
With these sayings, Jesus described His Person and His Mission.
SLIDE
ILLUSTRATION getting to know me. If you want to know me. What would you ask? What would you want to know? Relationship. Imagine you are God. You’d just created the world. You have this most magnificent creation – mankind, and you wanted a relationship with him/her. Wouldn’t you tell them about yourself.
Well here is Jesus telling the religious leaders about himself.
And it didn’t go down very well with the Pharisees – or anyone else for that matter!
But there are some facts that would be good for us to understand in order to get the full impact of Jesus’ words.
The people to whom he was speaking were Jews. We need to understand what they were hearing when Jesus spoke.
Remember that it matters – what did this mean THEN before we can unpack what it means NOW

4. Feast of Tabernacles
Scholars believe that this incident took place during the Feast of Tabernacles.
The Feast of Tabernacles was like an enormous Harvest Festival. It celebrated God’s provision for His people throughout history and remembered the deliverance from Egypt by the many miracles.
It required all the males in a household to attend the celebrations in Jerusalem.
Now if we can accept that this happened during the festival, we see Jesus coming and injecting a new meaning to this feast/festival
On the last day of the festival Jesus entered the Temple and began to teach.
He was seated in the Treasury John 8:20 which was located in the Women’s Court. The Women’s Court was named because a woman could not go beyond this court unless she were actually about to offer sacrifice on the altar, which was in the Court of the Priests. Around the Women’s Court was a colonnade, or a porch. In that colonnade were thirteen treasure chests into which people dropped their offerings.
It was a very very busy place with 13 different types of offerings containers. Even the poorest people were able to drop something into the containers, which meant they could worship “properly”
It was a good place for Jesus to teach
Every day there were 2 ceremonies conducted there.
One was when the priests fetched water from the pool of Siloam. This ceremony was designed primarily as a reminder of God’s provision for His people, and in particular it recalled the way in which God provided water for His people during the wilderness wanderings.

5. Illuminating the temple
A second ceremony during the Feast of Booths is the background of Jesus saying ”I am the Light”. High up in the Women’s Court were four large stands that each held four golden bowls. The bowls could only be accessed by ladders. These sixteen golden bowls were filled with oil and used undergarments from the priests served as wicks, making for large lamps that were lit at night. The rabbis said that when the lamps were lit at night, all Jerusalem was illuminated.
It was joyous, happy, people singing Psalms and dancing. There were no street lights!! Just the lamps from the huge golden bowls
Then in the middle of these celebrations, Jesus said ”I am the light of the world”!!!!
The ceremonies were disrupted – actually for the second time that day. He had already interfered during the water ceremony, saying, “I am the living water”
Imagine now that you are a religious leader. These ceremonies are maybe the most religious of the whole year. And this upstart stands (or sits) and tells the people who he is
It’s easy for us. We know the end of the story. But the disciples didn’t.

6. John 8:12
Jesus the Light of the World 12 Jesus spoke to the Pharisees again. “I am the light of the world,” he said. “Whoever follows me will have the light of life and will never walk in darkness.” Exodus 3:14 Good News Translation (GNT) 14 God said, “I am who I am. You must tell them: ‘The one who is called I Am[a] has sent me to you.’
SLIDE
So now you can see why the Jews were angry.
They replied:
Verse 13 “You’re talking about yourself here and this is not true.”
The Jews recognized the term “I AM” as a term for deity.
It means self-existence and eternal being.
Do you remember back in the book of Exodus when Moses was to go to Pharoah and he asked God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharoah? When they ask who is the God of the Israelites what shall I say?” God said, “tell them I AM has sent me to you” SLIDE (Exodus 3:14).
So Jesus is using this term of deity that the Pharisees all understood--”I AM the light, I AM the Way, I AM the door.” Those 7 “I AM’s” given in the scripture that relate to natural things that they all understood. By these, Jesus made His claims to deity.

7. Exodus 14:19b-20 The pillar of cloud also moved until it was 20 between the Egyptians and the Israelites. The cloud made it dark for the Egyptians, but gave light to the people of Israel, and so the armies could not come near each other all night.
Do you remember when Jesus said “I am the bread” that he was realising the manna. I AM THE MANNA
The wonderful provision of God for his people. Later during the feast he presented himself as the living water
“Whoever is thirsty should come to me, and 38 whoever believes in me should drink. As the scripture says, ‘Streams of life-giving water will pour out from his side.’”
Now the light
SLIDE
THIS IS WHAT THE JEWS WOULD BE PICTURING SLIDE
This pillar. This cloud. There was no artificial light for the night time in those days.
But we can read in Exodus 14:19b-20 SLIDE
The pillar of cloud also moved until it was 20 between the Egyptians and the Israelites. The cloud made it dark for the Egyptians, but gave light to the people of Israel,[a] and so the armies could not come near each other all night.
The same cloud was light for the Hebrews and darkness/dim to the Egyptians

8. Exodus 13:21-22
21 During the day the Lord went in front of them in a pillar of cloud to show them the way, and during the night he went in front of them in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel night and day. 22 The pillar of cloud was always in front of the people during the day, and the pillar of fire at night.
So here we have Jews reliving the picture of guidance and protection from their God
As they walked over unfamiliar paths God directed them. SLIDE
Where the cloud went – they went
To be sure - Moses said that the Lord was with them
The Lord spoke from the cloud, sometimes in judgement, Israel could never forget that God was with them so long as they were able to see the cloud.
Within this context, and with this background, Jesus stood to announce, “I am the Light of the World. I am the cloud. I am God with you.” At His birth, He had received the Name “Immanuel,” “God with us,” and now He openly declared Himself as God with His people.
So here is Jesus presenting Himself as the Light of the World, GOD
as the One who guides His people as they move through unfamiliar territory.
He is God with His people, and He is the Protector of His people, but He is also guiding His people.

9. “Do not let impatience lead you to hasty interpretation of His plans before they are fairly evolved…. It is neither reverent nor wise to be treading on the heels of our Guide in our eager confidence that we know where He wants us to go.”
PAUSE In a practical sense, when the Master moves, we should be prepared to move with Him.
When He stays in one place, we should be content to wait until He is ready to move.
Now we talk a lot about this but in practise it requires a great deal of us to trust Him to lead us where He wills.
There are a couple of errors we can make in “following” Jesus.
When we are finding where is Jesus and I will join him we can make a mistake in being too quick.
A great preacher spoke of this danger when he wrote many years ago SLIDE
Take time to figure it out.

10. “Do not let the warmth by the camp-fire, or the pleasantness of the shady place where your tent is pitched, keep you there when the cloud lifts. Be ready for change, be ready for continuance, because you are in fellowship with your Leader and Commander; and let Him say, Go, and you go; Do this, and you gladly do it, until the hour when He will whisper, Come; and, as you come, the river will part, and the journey will be over, and ‘the fiery, cloudy pillar,’ that ‘guided you all your journey through, ‘will spread itself out an abiding glory, in that higher home where ‘the Lamb is the light thereof.’”
The converse is true. Don’t be tardy either.
“Do not let the warmth by the camp-fire, or the pleasantness of the shady place where your tent is pitched, keep you there when the cloud lifts. Be ready for change, be ready for continuance, because you are in fellowship with your Leader and Commander; and let Him say, Go, and you go; Do this, and you gladly do it, until the hour when He will whisper, Come; and, as you come, the river will part, and the journey will be over, and ‘the fiery, cloudy pillar,’ that ‘guided you all your journey through, ‘will spread itself out an abiding glory, in that higher home where ‘the Lamb is the light thereof.’”
Last week Gill was talking about the reality of Jesus being the source. That remembering how much we are forgiven spurs us on to live out the live of love and service. How when we are affirmed and assured of the forgiveness we have received, we cannot stop loving.
We will never serve out of duty, or because we feel we have to
So today we have another image that can help us to get back to himself when we flag. When we doubt. When we forget – if you like. MY TESTIMONY
Jesus is the light. The source

11. The Light… exposes sin and darkness Reveals the truth Witnesses
What was the purpose of the Light? What does light do?
The Purpose: SLIDE
1. to expose sin and darkness
Why was LIGHT one of the great claims of Jesus? There were several things, but one of the main purposes for Jesus coming into the world was to expose sin and darkness. The Pharisees did not like the light shining on them to expose their attitudes and deeds. People who were in sin did not like the light to expose their sin.
E.G when People struggle with any kind of addiction the first step is tp admit there is a problem
But we justify
Hide away
We don’t want to see it
LET THE LIGHT IN!
1 Peter 2:9
ILLUSTRATION: If you turn over a log in the woods, the bugs will scurry everywhere, not because they fear you but because the light is repulsive to them.

12. St Paul’s Cathedral Holman Hunt Rev 3:20
“Forgive me, Lord Jesus, that I kept you waiting at the door so long.”
2. Reveals the truth
Story: A famous picture hangs in St. Paul’s cathedral in London, and it is called the “Light of the World.” It is a picture of Jesus knocking at the door. Because this picture was hanging in a place near some busy roads, it got dusty and began to lose its colour. The Cathedral authorities decided to get it cleaned. When the art specialist took it out of the frame and shined a light on it, they saw some words that no one was intended to read. The artist had written many years earlier, “Forgive me, Lord Jesus, that I kept you waiting at the door so long.” He had known about Jesus but waited a long, long time before responding to the invitation. The LIGHT had shown up these words; and in the end, he sent the message to thousands who gazed upon the picture. It was good that these few words were brought to the light.

13. The light is the witness
3. Our Witness: We live and walk in the light that Jesus gives in order to reflect that light to others. We allow the light of Jesus to be seen in our lives as we identify ourselves as followers of Jesus. We don’t have to be obnoxious about it. We don’t have to preach or point a finger at other people criticizing them for the way they live. We simply let our light shine as we live as a follower of Jesus in word or in action.
When we are prepared at any moment to tell others about the light in our lives, we are careful to live in a way that is pleasing to God. No one who is planning to say something good about Jesus will allow their lives to be a bad testimony by living in sin.
Why has He chosen to reflect His light through us to an unbelieving world? Maybe because unbelievers are not able to bear the full gazing glory of His light first-hand.
All of these 3 things the Israelites were supposed to understand.
The pillar of cloud and fire revealed God. God exposed sin and darkness. His chosen people were supposed to be the example to the world
The pillar of cloud and fire revealed God. God revealed the truth His chosen people were supposed to live in the truth
The pillar of cloud and fire revealed God. God witnessed His chosen people were supposed to witness to the surrounding nations

14. Colossians 2:6-7 Good News Translation (GNT)
Fullness of Life in Christ
6 Since you have accepted Christ Jesus as Lord, live in union with him. 7 Keep your roots deep in him, build your lives on him, and become stronger in your faith, as you were taught. And be filled with thanksgiving.
This is NOT a sermon on how to be a light to the world. That’s for other times
This sermon is about Jesus IS the Light
He IS the source
He is the one we have to get back to. To look up to. He’s the One we need in order to live our lives as Christians. SLIDE
Story
Story: A man drove his wagon swiftly and safely through a dark forest. Afterwards he was asked how he knew where all the trees were along the road so he could miss them as he drove on the narrow road. He replied that he did not know where they were. He added, “I looked up at the opening between the tree tops and knew that if I followed the light above, I would be safe.”
We must do this in our spiritual journey. Look up to the Light that Jesus gives. We will have direction in spite of all the darkness around us.
When we follow Jesus, walking in His light, we can avoid walking blindly and falling into sin. He lights the path ahead of us so we can see how to live and what decisions to make.

15. Jesus is already there!
If we are to receive the Light He wants to give, we must be willing to remove all those things that would prevent us from receiving or things that would cause the light to go out. What causes the light to go out in your life? Indifference, laziness, not making it a priority? Only you can answer that.
We will go round many bend in our lives
There will be tough times in our lives
There will be great times in our lives
But round every bend Jesus is there to guide, light the way, illuminate the path and love and protect
Just like he’s always done!
Thank you God!