John 8:12-30: The Light of the World

John 8:12-30: The Light of the World

Please take your Bible and turn with me to John 8. If you’re using the Story Bibles we provide, that’s on page 741. We’re going to continue our series of sermons going through the Gospel of John passage by passage. And the passage we come to this morning is John 8:12-30: “12 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. 21 So he said to them again, “I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.” 22 So the Jews said, “Will he kill himself, since he says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” 23 He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.” 25 So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. 26 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 have heard from him.” 27 They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father. 28 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. 29 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.” 30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him.”

A couple of weeks ago, I celebrated my birthday, and one of the things I got for my birthday was this really nice card from my four-year-old son, Caleb. As you can see on the screen, this card is very well done. You can see the balloons on the cover there, and then on the inside of the card, we have some more balloons. We even have an upside down balloon with the string sticking up in the air; you definitely don’t see that very often. And then, over towards the other side you can see that Caleb wrote his name in a circle—C-A-L-E-B around in a circle there. So as you can see, this card is a really cool card. You know, I received other things for my birthday—things from my Amazon wish list, gift cards, things like that—but there’s just something special about this card. It may not have monetary value, but it definitely has value. And I think the reason it has value is because it’s so unique. In fact, it’s one of a kind. It’s a special card from a special person. So the value of the card is found in how unique it is. 

And in our passage this morning, that’s the most significant thing Jesus claims about himself as well. He claims to be someone unique. Look again at verse 12, the main verse we’re going to focus on: “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 Jesus claims to be someone unique—“the light of the world.” And that might not be a politically correct thing to say about Jesus in our increasingly pluralistic culture, but nevertheless, that’s what Jesus claims. So here’s the main point this morning, the main thing to get: Jesus emphasizes his uniqueness by calling himself “the light of the world.” Jesus emphasizes his uniqueness by calling himself “the light of the world.” And there are three ways we should respond to Jesus being the unique light of the world: treasure Jesus as the light, follow Jesus as the light, and proclaim Jesus as the light. 

Treasure Jesus as the Light

So first, treasure Jesus as the light. Now if we’re going to do that, if we’re going to treasure Jesus as the light, we should probably start by asking ourselves, “What does Jesus mean by that phrase? What does he mean when he says, ‘I am the light of the world’?” We’ve established it has something to do with his uniqueness, but what exactly does he mean when he says that? Well, think about what light does. It shines down and provides so many things for us. It provides us with warmth so we don’t freeze to death, illumination so we can see, and it also just makes us happy. I think one of the most difficult parts of winter for me is how early it gets dark in the evening. I mean, you finish the workday and you want to spend a nice evening doing things, but it’s already dark at 5pm. That’s just depressing, isn’t it? Contrast that with a nice summer evening that has plenty of sunlight and a nice cool breeze. There’s something about that nice summer evening that just puts me in a good mood. So light provides us with all kinds of different blessings. And I believe that’s the sense in which Jesus is the “light of the world.” He shines on the world and imparts blessing. 

What kind of blessing? Well, look what the second part of the verse. Right after Jesus says, “I am the light of the world,” he says, “Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” So what kind of light is Jesus talking about? He’s talking about a “light of life”—a light that gives and imparts “life” to people. That’s what Jesus gives to this world. He shines down from heaven and gives this world “life.” In elementary school, I remember learning about the really cool process of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the process by which plants take in sunlight and actually make food for themselves. These tiny structures of the plant cells called chloroplasts use a chemical called chlorophyll to take in the sun’s energy. And they then use that energy, along with water they get, to grow and burst forth with bright, vibrant life. So, in a sense, that life comes from the light they take in. 

And that’s a pretty good picture of how Jesus is the light who gives us life. First of all, he gives us “life” in the sense that he rescues us from judgment in hell. In John 5:24, Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” So “life” there is understood as rescue from judgment. And not only that, life also communicates fullness and satisfaction. Like we looked at a few weeks ago, Jesus says in John 6:35, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” Jesus, as the “bread of life,” will so satisfy you that you’ll never be hungry again. His life satisfies. So I wonder this morning if you’re treasuring Jesus as “the light of the world” and more specifically as “the light of life.” Is he more to you than just a moral teacher? Is he more to you than just a really inspirational person? Is he your light, your life, and your everything? Can you say of Jesus what the psalmist says to God in Psalm 73:25: “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.”

Follow Jesus as the Light

But not only do we need to treasure Jesus as the light, we also need to follow him as the light. That’s the second way we respond to Jesus as the “light of the world”: follow Jesus as the light. And we get that from our main verse, verse 12: “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.’” Notice that word “follows.” The only people who “will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” are the people who follow Jesus. That means you follow his teachings, you follow his example, you follow him as the one to whom your ultimate loyalty belongs. 

Now if you’ve been paying close attention as we’ve been working our way through the Gospel of John these past six months, you’ve probably noticed that Jesus repeatedly tells people that the way to be saved is simply by believing in him. That’s the word he uses: “believe”—πιστεύω in the original Greek. It occurs an astounding 98 times in the Gospel of John. Even later on in this very passage, in John 8:24, Jesus says, “unless you believe that I am he [the Savior and Messiah], you will die in your sins.” So the way people are saved, as we see over and over again, is by “believing.” We don’t work our way to heaven. We don’t try to perform well enough or measure up to a certain standard in order for God to accept us. We simply look to Christ, believing in him and placing our full confidence in his merit rather than our own to make us acceptable in the sight of God. You see, when Jesus lived his perfectly righteous life, he was living it in our place. He was earning for us the righteousness we need in order to get into heaven. And then, he took care of all the sin that would keep us out of heaven when he died on the cross. His death was what we like to call a “substitutionary” death. He was acting as a substitute in our place, taking upon himself all of judgment and punishment for sin we deserved. And because of his righteous life and because of his substitutionary death and then, after that, because of his victorious resurrection from the dead, we can spend eternity with God in heaven. But the only way we receive that gift is by renouncing all of our efforts to earn it and simply “believing” in Christ.

But here’s the thing. Some people think that because we simply believe in Christ in order to be saved, there’s really no reason for us to live a righteous life. We’ve already got our ticket into heaven, so why do we need to pursue obedience and holiness and all the other tough requirements of discipleship? And at first, that kind of attitude might seem to make sense. It’s certainly convenient if there are sins in our life we’d rather not give up. But then, we encounter a verse like the one we have here in verse 12: “whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” That’s not so convenient, is it? Jesus says that only the people who follow him will receive the life he offers. And then look at John 3:36: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life”—just like we’d expect. But then Jesus continues, “whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” Did you see what just happened? Jesus just used “believe” and “obey” interchangeably. And that’s what we see throughout the New Testament: saving faith is always inseparably tied to a life of discipleship. Inseparably. That means you never have one without the other. And that’s what John Calvin meant when he said, “We are saved by faith alone, but faith that saves is never alone.” Saving faith is always tied to a life of discipleship. 

There’s a show on Netflix called “Lie to Me,” and it’s a few years old, but it’s really interesting. The show basically revolves around this guy who’s some sort of psychologist and is able to tell if people are lying or not simply by looking at their body language when they’re talking. Apparently, whenever people lie, they always indicate they’re lying with various subconscious “microexpressions.” Microexpressions are these incredibly subtle cues people give with their lips or their eyes or another part of their body that indicate what they’re thinking. And people don’t mean to do it, but they can’t help it. So by reading people’s microexpressions, this psychologist is able to help the police solve murders and things like that. And just like, at least according to the show, you can’t lie without giving a subtle indication of that in the form of a microexpression, in the Bible we see that you can’t have true faith without obedience. It’s the faith that saves you, but that faith will always be accompanied by obedience. That’s why Jesus can say back in our main text that the only people who will have the light of life are those who follow him. Hopefully, you’re doing that. And if you’re not doing that—if there’s any part of your life right now where you’re habitually and willfully walking in disobedience to Jesus without any kind of a second thought—you should probably ask yourself whether you have true faith. So that’s the second point: follow Jesus as the light—the light who illuminates the way we should live.

Proclaim Jesus as the Light

Then finally, number three, we need to proclaim Jesus as the light. And there’s nothing in the text that explicitly talks about proclaiming or preaching or anything like that, but I see it as a natural and necessary implication of Jesus being “the light of the world.” If Jesus really is what this text says he is, then we need to be proclaiming him as that. And this text clearly teaches that Jesus is “the light of the world,” meaning he’s the only one. There’s no other light. Jesus is utterly unique among all the world religions. And as I acknowledged at the beginning, I realize that statement is probably one of the most politically incorrect things you can say in our pluralistic culture.

You see, pluralism basically teaches that all religions get you to God, but they just do it in different ways. It’s like there’s this mountain with God at the top, and there are many different paths up this mountain to get to God. That’s what pluralism says, and that’s probably the most common view in American culture today, although hopefully by now in the sermon, you can see from our text that Jesus was not a pluralist. Hopefully that’s obvious. There wasn’t a single pluralist bone in Jesus’ body. 

But there’s another theory out there that I would like to discourage you from believing called “inclusivism.” Inclusivism is a view that’s held among some who identify themselves as Christians that’s a little sneakier than pluralism. It doesn’t come right out and say that there are other ways to heaven, but it cleverly leaves the door open for adherents of other religions to get to heaven without ever converting to Christianity. Inclusivism says that the only way anyone can get to heaven is through Jesus. However, you don’t necessarily have to be a Christian or even have heard of Jesus in order to get to heaven through Jesus. In other words, you can just keep practicing whatever religion you’re practicing, or not even practice a religion and simply be a good person, and you can get to heaven through what Jesus did on the cross. Do you see what I mean when I say that it’s sneaky? And it definitely sounds good—it sounds really good—but there’s only one problem: that’s simply not what Jesus taught. Remember, in verse 12, Jesus teaches that “whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life”? You have to actually follow Jesus himself. Not just follow the moral teachings of Jesus, but follow Jesus himself. Also, that whole little theme we talked about in the Gospel of John of “believing” in Jesus—you remember, that “little theme” that only occurs 98 times?—well, that kind of rules out inclusivism as well. 

And I realize that this view of conscious belief in Jesus as the only way to heaven may seem arrogant to some. Some people think it’s arrogant to say that only people who consciously believe in Jesus get to heaven. But here’s the thing: If Jesus was really God, and if this is what he taught, then it’s not arrogant. It’s just reality. If God says it, it’s reality. It would be kind of like me saying that this key is the only key on this key ring that will get you into my house. You can spend all day trying to jam these other keys into the lock, but it won’t work. This key is the only one that will get you in. Now let me ask you, is that an arrogant thing for me to say? Not really; it’s just reality. 

So if you’re a Christian this morning, I’d like to encourage you not to shrink back from presenting Jesus as the only way to heaven. You can do that without being arrogant because you’re simply echoing what God himself said when he walked on this earth in human form. So don’t be afraid to make that claim. Because your primary concern shouldn’t be about what these talking heads in the media think about you or what these cowardly people who hide behind their Facebook profiles think about you. Your primary concern should be about what God will think about you when you stand before him one day and give an account of the way you’ve served him. 

And also, since Jesus is the only way to heaven, think about what kind of urgency that brings to our mission. If we really believe that people without Jesus are going to hell, the only humane thing to do is to devote our lives to reaching as many of them as possible with the gospel. That’s not heroic; it’s just humane. It should break our hearts that there are people all around us who need Jesus so desperately. 

Conclusion

And also, in addition to that, it should make us very careful to make sure that it’s Jesus we’re giving to people. Here’s what I mean by that, as we conclude: The central message we need to be preaching is not “Five Steps to a Better Life” or “Three Strategies for Improving Your Self-Esteem.” People need Jesus. And that’s what our church is about. Our church is a church that simply gives people Jesus. We’re not primarily concerned about dishing out self-help advice. We’re not primarily concerned about giving people a “worship experience” where we merely try to whip up their emotions. Our passion is simply to give people Jesus. 

Kind of like Five Guys. When you go to Five Guys, you pretty much know what you’re going to get, right? They don’t really offer a very big menu, but people go there because what they do offer is good. That’s sort of the way we are, but even more so, because there’s only one thing on our menu. And there only needs to be one thing when that one thing is Jesus. Because let me tell you something: when you offer people Jesus, you don’t have to offer them anything else—because he’s all-sufficient and all-satisfying by himself. Now if you’re just offering people the fluffy, cotton candy version of Jesus, you probably have to prop that up with other things. But if you’re offering the Jesus of the Bible in all of his glory and beauty and splendor, it doesn’t take long before people discover that he is enough, and they don’t even have an appetite for anything else anymore. Jesus is so glorious and so satisfying that nothing else is necessary. So that’s who we offer. If people want him, they’ll come; and if they don’t, they won’t come. But Jesus is the only thing on the menu at Redeeming Grace Church. He’s “the light of the world.”