I Am The Light Of The World

John 8:12-20 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.” 13 So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” 14 Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. 15 You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. 16 Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. 17 In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. 18 I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.” 19 They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” 20 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. INTRODUCTION I want to thank Kyle for preaching last week and for serving us well by faithfully guiding us through another Psalm as he’s done for many years now. Rightly connecting head, heart, and actions is key to Christian maturity and I appreciate Kyle’s commitment to fighting for that in his own life and for inviting us into the battle with him. And in case you didn’t know, Kyle was serving me as well in agreeing to preach so I could travel to MI to be with my family in light of my uncle’s passing. Thanks to those of you who prayed for me and my family. Well, after wading through the murky waters of John 7:53-8:11, it’s good to be back on solid ground. By taking a look at that passage and then taking another week away from John (with Kyle preaching), we run the risk of missing an important connection between 7:37-52 and our passage for this morning. I’ll get more into the connection later in the sermon, but for now it’s good for us to understand that in this John 8 passage, Jesus did something almost identical to what He did in the John 7 passage. In both, in the context of the Feast of Booths, Jesus made a claim about Himself (He offered rivers of living water in 7 and in 8 He is the light of the world) that was deeply rooted in the feast traditions and OT prophecies. Likewise, in both passages, John devoted significantly more words to the response Jesus got than to the claim itself. These two passages really do go hand in hand (and are almost certainly meant to be back to back) to paint an awesome picture of Jesus the Christ and the good news that is for the world. Paired together, they also help us see even more clearly the disorienting and deadly effects of sin on our ability to understand and appreciate that. The heart of this passage is that Jesus is the light of the world. And that’s unimaginably good news for a world plunged into darkness. It is my hope and prayer that God would be pleased to use this passage and sermon to draw us out of the darkness and into the light of Christ. Let’s pray that it would be so. I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD In another powerful opening statement, Jesus claimed of Himself, “I am the light of the world”. Before we dive into that, let me remind you that this is one (the second) of seven main “I am claims” Jesus made in John’s Gospel. John 6:35 I am the bread of life.
John 8:12 I am the light of the world.
John 10:7 I am the door of the sheep.
John 10:11 I am the good shepherd.
John 11:25 I am the resurrection and the life.
John 14:6 I am the way, and the truth, and the life.
John 15:1 I am the true vine John’s main aim in writing his Gospel was, once again, to convince his readers that Jesus is the Christ, in order that we