John 8:12-21
The Light of the World
"Please come to this book with the heart and mind of a worshiper. John did not simply write a book, he painted exciting pictures. These pages are filled with such images as the Lamb, the Door, the Shepherd, the new birth, light and darkness, the Water of life, bread, blindness, seeds and dozens more. Use your "sanctified imagination" as you study and the gospel of John will become a new book to you. And remember you are not studying a book, but you are seeing a person..." ( Wiersbe, Be Alive, p.15).
We come to the 2nd great “I AM” statement by Jesus in this gospel. In chapter 6 He declared the first one, “I AM the Bread of Life”. There are 7 total “I AM” statements in this gospel and each one gives a unique picture of the identity of Jesus Christ as the Savior. Remember it is the identity of Jesus that John writes to convince you of. Chapter 20:31 he says I write these things to you so “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” Your salvation is his goal. And each portrait of Christ, whether it is the Bread of Life, the Gate, the Good Shepherd, the True Vine, the Resurrection and the Life, the Way, the Truth, the Life, they all paint for us the picture of who Christ is and what He does – He is the Savior there is none other, and He did accomplish salvation – no one else can.
So in arriving in chapter 8 we see the 2nd great I AM statement. Let’s read it, “I am the Light of the world. He who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
(Read John 8:12). Every Jew who heard these words would have stopped in their tracks. Standing high above their heads were 4 giant lanterns, called candelabra’s. We learned in chapter 7 that Jesus is in Jerusalem during the Feast of Booths (Tabernacles). It’s the biggest Feast of the year. Every male Jew had to come and be in Jerusalem. All the Jews would build little huts out of tree branches and live in their huts for 7 days.
It would be like driving through Spring Lake and Grand Haven and everyone would have their tents and campers out everywhere (roadsides, parking lots, rooftops, etc) and live in them for a whole week. Nobody would live in their homes. For the Jews, it was to remind them of God’s provision and protection while they were led through the wilderness.
Well, during this magnificent Feast we learned in chapter 7 about one of the morning rituals. Each morning a parade of priests would march down to the Pool of Siloam and bring water back to the temple and pour it out on the altar. This was accompanied by trumpet blasts and singing and great celebration. This was the backdrop for those eternal words where Jesus declared, “If anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink. Whoever believers in me as the Scriptures said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”
There was another ritual that went on during the Feast indicated to us in verse 20. The place where the offerings were put was the treasury. It’s also known as the women’s court because that was all the further women were allowed to go in the temple area. In this women’s court, each night during the Feast, there were 4 giant lanterns that would be lit. Their light was so bright that one ancient writer said, “There was no courtyard in Jerusalem that did not reflect their light.”
Just as the booths reminded them of God’s protection in the wilderness; and just as the pouring out of water each morning reminded them of God’s provision for their thirst in the desert; so too these huge lamps reminded the Jews of God’s presence that guided their ancestors through the wilderness.
If you’re not familiar with that history I want to make you familiar. It really lays the foundation to understand the power of this passage. After God rescued the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt by a series of spectacular miracles, He led them into the wilderness to take them on a journey to the land He promised to them. In Exodus 13 it says that God was always before the people leading them as they followed behind them. His presence was with them. By day He appeared as a great cloud, but, by night He appeared as a great pillar of fire. He lit the way for them as they travelled behind Him in the darkness. He was their guide. He was their Light. And for centuries now, during the Feast of Booths, the Jews remembered that God was their light by lighting these giant lanterns each night.
And make no mistake, while standing under the light of these lanterns in the temple area, when Jesus declares that He is the light of the world He is declaring that He is God. He wanted everyone to see the light of these lanterns, to remember the light that God provided in the wilderness, and to make the connection with what He just said - that is, that the God who was present with them in the wilderness was at that very moment in their presence.
It was again the point that Jesus has been preaching from the beginning and is the message of the gospel and the entire Bible – that He is the Son of God and as such He is God. In chapter 2, speaking of His resurrection, He declares that He will rebuild the temple of His body in 3 days. Only God is in the business of resurrection. In chapter 4 He illustrates this again when He tells the woman at the well that He gives eternal water that wells up into eternal life. Only God gives eternal life. In chapter 5 He says that both He and His Father in heaven are working – a statement declaring Himself equal with God. In chapter 6 Jesus declares to be the Bread of Life that came down from heaven. In chapter 7 He gives people living water. All of which only God can do. Then finally, in chapter 8 He says under the symbolic light of these giant lanterns, “I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” I am the God who led you in the wilderness. I am the God who appeared as a pillar of fire to guide you. I am now here in your midst and offering you the light of life.
That Jesus is the Light of the World is a familiar theme in John’s writings. In chapter 1 he said, “The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.” In chapter 9 Jesus says, “While I am in the world I am the light of the world.” In chapter 12 Jesus says, “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.” In 1 John 1 he says, “God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.” And in Revelation 21:23, speaking of the City of God, John says this, “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.”
The fact that Jesus is the Light means people are darkness. On one hand we have the gospel of Oprah, the gospel of C3, the gospel of Rob Bell and the gospel of others like them who teach that man is good and that there is light in every person. “God has faith in us. God sees the good in us. I can’t imagine God not letting him in, he was such a good person. God knows we’re just human and make mistakes. God wouldn’t send anyone to hell. There is such potential in humanity. I think I’ve lived a good life and I hope God will let me in.” It’s all human beings imagining humans being more than human. [[**Consider deleting: Rob Bell, from right here in our own back yard says among many things, this: ““I can’t find one place in the teachings of Jesus, or the Bible for that matter, where we are to identity ourselves first and foremost as sinners” (p. 139, Velvet Elvis). ]]
But on the other hand, we have the Bible - which does not pet our egos or cater to our fantasies about ourselves – it is blunt and unapologetic in assessing mankind as evil and corrupt and lost and in spiritual darkness. Matthew 4:16 says, “the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the shadow of death a light has dawned.” Luke 1:78-79 says, “…the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness…” John 1:5 says, “The light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not understood it.” “This is the verdict: men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.”
Over and over the Bible tells us that we live in a morally dark world and that we as humanity are by nature morally dark ourselves. The fact is that man is blind and he is sinful; he is groping around in darkness for some direction. Proverbs 4:19 says, “But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.” Ultimately, because of his rejection of God, he is destined to remain in and die in spiritual darkness.
But, is the destiny of every man to be darkness? Is the blackness of this world and the world after necessarily the fate of every human being? Here’s the bad news: we are all born into sin. Here’s the good news: we don’t have to die in our sin. Everyone is born into darkness but we all have the opportunity to be born into the Light.
Are you in the dark today? Are you groping around in life trying to find answers? Do you carry with you a dark past? Does there seem like there’s no light at the end of your tunnel? Is there no answers for the questions you have? Is there no hope for the circumstances you’re in? Are we destined for darkness? No. There’s a way out of darkness and the way out is to follow Jesus. Life is hopeless on our own. He is the Light of the world who gives light to every man. He
Four things about the Light.
Humbly Directed by the Light (v12)
First of all, you have to be humbly directed by the Light. Verse 12 says, “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Following Christ means walking behind Him as He leads. Just like the Israelites followed behind God in the wilderness and had God’s light, so too we follow behind Christ as He leads us. Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” The word of God is our lamp. The Son of God is our light.
Leaving the darkness behind and entering the light starts first with putting your Faith in Christ. Your first step out of darkness comes when you put your trust in Him for the forgiveness of your sins. Colossians 1 says that you have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of Christ Jesus. Second Corinthians 4 says that “God made His light shine in our hearts to give us the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Secondly, now that you’ve entered the light by faith, follow Jesus in the light. What does that mean? It means I stop living life on my terms; I stop living to please myself; I stop going my own way I leave my course of sin and I now follow Jesus Christ. He becomes my Lord as I surrender my will for me and submit myself to His will for me. This is the faithful life lived in obedience to the Lord’s commands. His steps walk in the light; The footsteps of Jesus lead us in paths of righteousness, not the paths of wickedness. (Illustration of footsteps) Our responsibility now that we have become children of the light is to live in the light.
Ephesians 5:8-14 says, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of the light (for the fruit of light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful to even mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible”. The point here is that Jesus Christ didn’t save us from dying in our sins so that we could continue living in our sin. We no longer are to walk in disobedience to the Lord but in obedience – both when others are around and when no one is around. As children of the light who have been rescued out of darkness it is those secret evil ways and thoughts that once made up our lives that are now to be exposed by the light.
This is a painful reality of walking in the light: Living in the light exposes my sinfulness. And the irony is that the more I live in the light the more I am aware of my sin – my pride, arrogance, greed, covetousness, immorality, anger, bitterness, idolatry and so on – it all becomes visible as I walk in the light. And oh is it painful. But, oh is it productive for godliness because it causes me to face my true self and confess these things in humbleness before the Lord. And it is in my confessing that brings His cleansing because “if we confess our sins He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Be humbly directed by the Light.
Wholeheartedly Convinced by the Light (v13)
Second you have to be Wholeheartedly Convinced by the Light. The Pharisees weren’t convinced by Jesus and spent their time trying to discredit Him. Verse 13 says, “The Pharisees challenged Him, ‘Here you are appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.’” In chapter 7 they tried to detain Him but they failed. Last week in chapter 8 we saw they tried to dupe Him but failed. And now they are trying to discredit Him. They didn’t think there was any credibility to what He was saying and rather than talk about the content of his claims they tried to get him on a technicality in the law.
In the Law of Moses, a person’s guilt in a court of law had to be established by 2 or 3 witnesses. For instance, when that woman we saw last week was guilty of adultery, there had to be witnesses to establish that it happened. That’s why they said that they had caught her in the act. In Matthew 18, when someone sins against you, the first step is to attempt to resolve it by going to them alone. If they will not respond, then you are to go with 2 or 3 others so that the problem may be seen by the other people you bring along. Verse 16 says that this is so the whole matter may be established by 2 or 3 witnesses.
In other words they were saying to Jesus, “Prove it!” That’s what people say today. They try to debate and deny, and they try to discredit and disprove the Word of God all in an effort to avoid being confronted by it. They will never be convinced no matter how much evidence is offered because of a willful unbelief. The proof needed is always going to be a little more than what is offered, no matter how much evidence is offered or how convincing it is. The unbelieving heart is unmovable, stubborn and willfully unconvinced even in the face of irrefutable evidence.
The evidence for the Bible is overwhelming and no Christian should ever lose courage because of attacks on the Bible. The burden of proof is not on Jesus, it is on the Pharisees. The burden of proof to prove the Scriptures wrong is on the skeptics and the scoffers. God has put forth the Bible and it stands firm under honest examination. To those who say prove it, I say the burden of proof is on you. Come up with the proof that the Bible is wrong. You will drown in the evidence.
The Heavenly Origin and Destination of the Light (14)
Now, there are several things that someone needs to be wholeheartedly convinced of. First, they need to be convinced of the heavenly origin and destination of the Light. Notice verse 14, “Even if I testify on my own behalf my testimony is valid, for I know where I come from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going.” In other words, Jesus came from heaven and is returning to heaven. He came from heaven – from God the Father - to give the world the message from God the Father; and no matter how many people don’t believe Jesus it doesn’t make His words any less true.
For someone to scoff at and reject the words of Jesus in reality they are scoffing at God. In their unbelief they are saying God’s words are not true and God cannot be believed. They are calling God’s character into suspect.
Notice the confidence in which Jesus speaks. “I know where I came from and where I’m going.” He came from the source of truth. He Himself is truth (14:6). When we have the truth, we can be confident too. You see, we know where we came from – we were born from the One who is above. We have life that came down from heaven.
But, when you have Jesus Christ, you also know where you’re going, just like Jesus knew where He was going. And my guarantee that I will go there too is based on the fact that He was raised from the dead and ascended to heaven on high and now sits at the right hand of the Almighty. He is my confidence. He is why I know where I’m going.
And He can be the same for you. When you are wholeheartedly convinced of where Jesus came from and where He was going, then, you will have the confidence of where your new life came from and where you’re going.
Heavenly Testimony of the Light (15-19)
Secondly as a child of the Light you need to be wholeheartedly convinced by the Heavenly Testimony of the Light. Verses 15-20, “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 on ewho testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father who sent me.’ Then they asked him, ‘Where is your father?’ ‘You do not know me or my Father’ Jesus replied. ‘If you knew me, you would know my Father also.’”
Here’s the point, the Father stands with Jesus. And anyone that stands against Jesus stands against the Father. The Pharisees judged Jesus by human standards – that is, they judged Him on human appearances. Isaiah 53:3 says, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and we esteemed Him not.” Jesus rebuked them in chapter 7 for this and said to “stop judging by mere appearances and make a right judgment.”
The Pharisees for all their learning and high society were making an eternally wrong judgment. They sat in judgment on Christ and without even knowing it they were judging God. The horrific irony is that they were bringing judgment on themselves for their arrogant efforts to malign Him and ultimately kill Him. God the Father stands with Jesus and gives testimony that Jesus is true.
How could they do this? Because they didn’t know the Father. Notice the change in these verses – He goes from talking about His relationship with the Father to their relationship with the Father. He knows the Father – they don’t. This was a blow to everything they prided themselves on as religious Jews. Jesus is beginning to open the door here for what He will say later in this chapter – that is, that they not only don’t know God as their Father, but, they have another father. They didn’t know the Father because they didn’t know His Son, Jesus Christ. The proof that someone doesn’t know the Father is that they don’t know the Father’s Son. “If you have seen me you have seen the Father” Jesus will declare in chapter 14. He was the Light that could have led them out of the darkness they were in.
Here’s the application: the Father stands with you when you believe in His Son. You have behind you the full weight of heaven’s testimony when you believe in Christ Jesus. Everyone else may tell you you’re wrong; everyone else may tell you Jesus is not the only way; everyone else may not believe what you believe about Jesus, but, when you trust Jesus Christ as your Lord, and you receive the light of life, you can be sure that you have just sided with truth. Jesus says in chapter 18, “Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” You have all that is true on your side when you join the side of truth.
Jesus was going somewhere. Where was He going? He was going to the place He said He was; He was going back to the place He came from; He was going back to be with the Father; He was going back to heaven. Do you want to know how to go where Jesus is?
The Light of the World
"Please come to this book with the heart and mind of a worshiper. John did not simply write a book, he painted exciting pictures. These pages are filled with such images as the Lamb, the Door, the Shepherd, the new birth, light and darkness, the Water of life, bread, blindness, seeds and dozens more. Use your "sanctified imagination" as you study and the gospel of John will become a new book to you. And remember you are not studying a book, but you are seeing a person..." ( Wiersbe, Be Alive, p.15).
We come to the 2nd great “I AM” statement by Jesus in this gospel. In chapter 6 He declared the first one, “I AM the Bread of Life”. There are 7 total “I AM” statements in this gospel and each one gives a unique picture of the identity of Jesus Christ as the Savior. Remember it is the identity of Jesus that John writes to convince you of. Chapter 20:31 he says I write these things to you so “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” Your salvation is his goal. And each portrait of Christ, whether it is the Bread of Life, the Gate, the Good Shepherd, the True Vine, the Resurrection and the Life, the Way, the Truth, the Life, they all paint for us the picture of who Christ is and what He does – He is the Savior there is none other, and He did accomplish salvation – no one else can.
So in arriving in chapter 8 we see the 2nd great I AM statement. Let’s read it, “I am the Light of the world. He who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
(Read John 8:12). Every Jew who heard these words would have stopped in their tracks. Standing high above their heads were 4 giant lanterns, called candelabra’s. We learned in chapter 7 that Jesus is in Jerusalem during the Feast of Booths (Tabernacles). It’s the biggest Feast of the year. Every male Jew had to come and be in Jerusalem. All the Jews would build little huts out of tree branches and live in their huts for 7 days.
It would be like driving through Spring Lake and Grand Haven and everyone would have their tents and campers out everywhere (roadsides, parking lots, rooftops, etc) and live in them for a whole week. Nobody would live in their homes. For the Jews, it was to remind them of God’s provision and protection while they were led through the wilderness.
Well, during this magnificent Feast we learned in chapter 7 about one of the morning rituals. Each morning a parade of priests would march down to the Pool of Siloam and bring water back to the temple and pour it out on the altar. This was accompanied by trumpet blasts and singing and great celebration. This was the backdrop for those eternal words where Jesus declared, “If anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink. Whoever believers in me as the Scriptures said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”
There was another ritual that went on during the Feast indicated to us in verse 20. The place where the offerings were put was the treasury. It’s also known as the women’s court because that was all the further women were allowed to go in the temple area. In this women’s court, each night during the Feast, there were 4 giant lanterns that would be lit. Their light was so bright that one ancient writer said, “There was no courtyard in Jerusalem that did not reflect their light.”
Just as the booths reminded them of God’s protection in the wilderness; and just as the pouring out of water each morning reminded them of God’s provision for their thirst in the desert; so too these huge lamps reminded the Jews of God’s presence that guided their ancestors through the wilderness.
If you’re not familiar with that history I want to make you familiar. It really lays the foundation to understand the power of this passage. After God rescued the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt by a series of spectacular miracles, He led them into the wilderness to take them on a journey to the land He promised to them. In Exodus 13 it says that God was always before the people leading them as they followed behind them. His presence was with them. By day He appeared as a great cloud, but, by night He appeared as a great pillar of fire. He lit the way for them as they travelled behind Him in the darkness. He was their guide. He was their Light. And for centuries now, during the Feast of Booths, the Jews remembered that God was their light by lighting these giant lanterns each night.
And make no mistake, while standing under the light of these lanterns in the temple area, when Jesus declares that He is the light of the world He is declaring that He is God. He wanted everyone to see the light of these lanterns, to remember the light that God provided in the wilderness, and to make the connection with what He just said - that is, that the God who was present with them in the wilderness was at that very moment in their presence.
It was again the point that Jesus has been preaching from the beginning and is the message of the gospel and the entire Bible – that He is the Son of God and as such He is God. In chapter 2, speaking of His resurrection, He declares that He will rebuild the temple of His body in 3 days. Only God is in the business of resurrection. In chapter 4 He illustrates this again when He tells the woman at the well that He gives eternal water that wells up into eternal life. Only God gives eternal life. In chapter 5 He says that both He and His Father in heaven are working – a statement declaring Himself equal with God. In chapter 6 Jesus declares to be the Bread of Life that came down from heaven. In chapter 7 He gives people living water. All of which only God can do. Then finally, in chapter 8 He says under the symbolic light of these giant lanterns, “I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” I am the God who led you in the wilderness. I am the God who appeared as a pillar of fire to guide you. I am now here in your midst and offering you the light of life.
That Jesus is the Light of the World is a familiar theme in John’s writings. In chapter 1 he said, “The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.” In chapter 9 Jesus says, “While I am in the world I am the light of the world.” In chapter 12 Jesus says, “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.” In 1 John 1 he says, “God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.” And in Revelation 21:23, speaking of the City of God, John says this, “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.”
The fact that Jesus is the Light means people are darkness. On one hand we have the gospel of Oprah, the gospel of C3, the gospel of Rob Bell and the gospel of others like them who teach that man is good and that there is light in every person. “God has faith in us. God sees the good in us. I can’t imagine God not letting him in, he was such a good person. God knows we’re just human and make mistakes. God wouldn’t send anyone to hell. There is such potential in humanity. I think I’ve lived a good life and I hope God will let me in.” It’s all human beings imagining humans being more than human. [[**Consider deleting: Rob Bell, from right here in our own back yard says among many things, this: ““I can’t find one place in the teachings of Jesus, or the Bible for that matter, where we are to identity ourselves first and foremost as sinners” (p. 139, Velvet Elvis). ]]
But on the other hand, we have the Bible - which does not pet our egos or cater to our fantasies about ourselves – it is blunt and unapologetic in assessing mankind as evil and corrupt and lost and in spiritual darkness. Matthew 4:16 says, “the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the shadow of death a light has dawned.” Luke 1:78-79 says, “…the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness…” John 1:5 says, “The light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not understood it.” “This is the verdict: men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.”
Over and over the Bible tells us that we live in a morally dark world and that we as humanity are by nature morally dark ourselves. The fact is that man is blind and he is sinful; he is groping around in darkness for some direction. Proverbs 4:19 says, “But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.” Ultimately, because of his rejection of God, he is destined to remain in and die in spiritual darkness.
But, is the destiny of every man to be darkness? Is the blackness of this world and the world after necessarily the fate of every human being? Here’s the bad news: we are all born into sin. Here’s the good news: we don’t have to die in our sin. Everyone is born into darkness but we all have the opportunity to be born into the Light.
Are you in the dark today? Are you groping around in life trying to find answers? Do you carry with you a dark past? Does there seem like there’s no light at the end of your tunnel? Is there no answers for the questions you have? Is there no hope for the circumstances you’re in? Are we destined for darkness? No. There’s a way out of darkness and the way out is to follow Jesus. Life is hopeless on our own. He is the Light of the world who gives light to every man. He
Four things about the Light.
Humbly Directed by the Light (v12)
First of all, you have to be humbly directed by the Light. Verse 12 says, “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Following Christ means walking behind Him as He leads. Just like the Israelites followed behind God in the wilderness and had God’s light, so too we follow behind Christ as He leads us. Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” The word of God is our lamp. The Son of God is our light.
Leaving the darkness behind and entering the light starts first with putting your Faith in Christ. Your first step out of darkness comes when you put your trust in Him for the forgiveness of your sins. Colossians 1 says that you have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of Christ Jesus. Second Corinthians 4 says that “God made His light shine in our hearts to give us the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Secondly, now that you’ve entered the light by faith, follow Jesus in the light. What does that mean? It means I stop living life on my terms; I stop living to please myself; I stop going my own way I leave my course of sin and I now follow Jesus Christ. He becomes my Lord as I surrender my will for me and submit myself to His will for me. This is the faithful life lived in obedience to the Lord’s commands. His steps walk in the light; The footsteps of Jesus lead us in paths of righteousness, not the paths of wickedness. (Illustration of footsteps) Our responsibility now that we have become children of the light is to live in the light.
Ephesians 5:8-14 says, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of the light (for the fruit of light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful to even mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible”. The point here is that Jesus Christ didn’t save us from dying in our sins so that we could continue living in our sin. We no longer are to walk in disobedience to the Lord but in obedience – both when others are around and when no one is around. As children of the light who have been rescued out of darkness it is those secret evil ways and thoughts that once made up our lives that are now to be exposed by the light.
This is a painful reality of walking in the light: Living in the light exposes my sinfulness. And the irony is that the more I live in the light the more I am aware of my sin – my pride, arrogance, greed, covetousness, immorality, anger, bitterness, idolatry and so on – it all becomes visible as I walk in the light. And oh is it painful. But, oh is it productive for godliness because it causes me to face my true self and confess these things in humbleness before the Lord. And it is in my confessing that brings His cleansing because “if we confess our sins He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Be humbly directed by the Light.
Wholeheartedly Convinced by the Light (v13)
Second you have to be Wholeheartedly Convinced by the Light. The Pharisees weren’t convinced by Jesus and spent their time trying to discredit Him. Verse 13 says, “The Pharisees challenged Him, ‘Here you are appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.’” In chapter 7 they tried to detain Him but they failed. Last week in chapter 8 we saw they tried to dupe Him but failed. And now they are trying to discredit Him. They didn’t think there was any credibility to what He was saying and rather than talk about the content of his claims they tried to get him on a technicality in the law.
In the Law of Moses, a person’s guilt in a court of law had to be established by 2 or 3 witnesses. For instance, when that woman we saw last week was guilty of adultery, there had to be witnesses to establish that it happened. That’s why they said that they had caught her in the act. In Matthew 18, when someone sins against you, the first step is to attempt to resolve it by going to them alone. If they will not respond, then you are to go with 2 or 3 others so that the problem may be seen by the other people you bring along. Verse 16 says that this is so the whole matter may be established by 2 or 3 witnesses.
In other words they were saying to Jesus, “Prove it!” That’s what people say today. They try to debate and deny, and they try to discredit and disprove the Word of God all in an effort to avoid being confronted by it. They will never be convinced no matter how much evidence is offered because of a willful unbelief. The proof needed is always going to be a little more than what is offered, no matter how much evidence is offered or how convincing it is. The unbelieving heart is unmovable, stubborn and willfully unconvinced even in the face of irrefutable evidence.
The evidence for the Bible is overwhelming and no Christian should ever lose courage because of attacks on the Bible. The burden of proof is not on Jesus, it is on the Pharisees. The burden of proof to prove the Scriptures wrong is on the skeptics and the scoffers. God has put forth the Bible and it stands firm under honest examination. To those who say prove it, I say the burden of proof is on you. Come up with the proof that the Bible is wrong. You will drown in the evidence.
The Heavenly Origin and Destination of the Light (14)
Now, there are several things that someone needs to be wholeheartedly convinced of. First, they need to be convinced of the heavenly origin and destination of the Light. Notice verse 14, “Even if I testify on my own behalf my testimony is valid, for I know where I come from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going.” In other words, Jesus came from heaven and is returning to heaven. He came from heaven – from God the Father - to give the world the message from God the Father; and no matter how many people don’t believe Jesus it doesn’t make His words any less true.
For someone to scoff at and reject the words of Jesus in reality they are scoffing at God. In their unbelief they are saying God’s words are not true and God cannot be believed. They are calling God’s character into suspect.
Notice the confidence in which Jesus speaks. “I know where I came from and where I’m going.” He came from the source of truth. He Himself is truth (14:6). When we have the truth, we can be confident too. You see, we know where we came from – we were born from the One who is above. We have life that came down from heaven.
But, when you have Jesus Christ, you also know where you’re going, just like Jesus knew where He was going. And my guarantee that I will go there too is based on the fact that He was raised from the dead and ascended to heaven on high and now sits at the right hand of the Almighty. He is my confidence. He is why I know where I’m going.
And He can be the same for you. When you are wholeheartedly convinced of where Jesus came from and where He was going, then, you will have the confidence of where your new life came from and where you’re going.
Heavenly Testimony of the Light (15-19)
Secondly as a child of the Light you need to be wholeheartedly convinced by the Heavenly Testimony of the Light. Verses 15-20, “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 on ewho testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father who sent me.’ Then they asked him, ‘Where is your father?’ ‘You do not know me or my Father’ Jesus replied. ‘If you knew me, you would know my Father also.’”
Here’s the point, the Father stands with Jesus. And anyone that stands against Jesus stands against the Father. The Pharisees judged Jesus by human standards – that is, they judged Him on human appearances. Isaiah 53:3 says, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and we esteemed Him not.” Jesus rebuked them in chapter 7 for this and said to “stop judging by mere appearances and make a right judgment.”
The Pharisees for all their learning and high society were making an eternally wrong judgment. They sat in judgment on Christ and without even knowing it they were judging God. The horrific irony is that they were bringing judgment on themselves for their arrogant efforts to malign Him and ultimately kill Him. God the Father stands with Jesus and gives testimony that Jesus is true.
How could they do this? Because they didn’t know the Father. Notice the change in these verses – He goes from talking about His relationship with the Father to their relationship with the Father. He knows the Father – they don’t. This was a blow to everything they prided themselves on as religious Jews. Jesus is beginning to open the door here for what He will say later in this chapter – that is, that they not only don’t know God as their Father, but, they have another father. They didn’t know the Father because they didn’t know His Son, Jesus Christ. The proof that someone doesn’t know the Father is that they don’t know the Father’s Son. “If you have seen me you have seen the Father” Jesus will declare in chapter 14. He was the Light that could have led them out of the darkness they were in.
Here’s the application: the Father stands with you when you believe in His Son. You have behind you the full weight of heaven’s testimony when you believe in Christ Jesus. Everyone else may tell you you’re wrong; everyone else may tell you Jesus is not the only way; everyone else may not believe what you believe about Jesus, but, when you trust Jesus Christ as your Lord, and you receive the light of life, you can be sure that you have just sided with truth. Jesus says in chapter 18, “Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” You have all that is true on your side when you join the side of truth.
Jesus was going somewhere. Where was He going? He was going to the place He said He was; He was going back to the place He came from; He was going back to be with the Father; He was going back to heaven. Do you want to know how to go where Jesus is?
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