I am the light of the world

We all know the value of light. We have all probably faced a situation where we have thought to ourselves, “If only I had a torch handy.” If you like watching crime dramas, you may well have noticed how popular a torch is for those crime scene investigators. They seem to use them all the time to highlight the area they are focussing upon in their search for clues. Light is very important to us.

The focus for Jesus’ self-declaration, “I am the light of the world’ is a discussion about his personal testimony about himself and the validity of the claims he makes. This all takes place in John 8, and culminates in Jesus saying, “Before Abraham was born, I am”, which so enraged the Jews with whom he was debating that they picked up stones to stone him. We know from elsewhere in the Gospel that the reason they wanted to stone him was because they believed he was guilty of blasphemy because he was claiming to be God (John 10:33).

In the Old Testament David declares, my God turns my darkness into light, and, The Lord is my light and my salvation (Ps. 18:28, 27:1). Most famously perhaps are the words from Ps.119: Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light for my path.

Isaiah too uses the power of the symbol of light when he speaks prophetically about the coming of a new dawn: The people walking in darkness have seen a great light, on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. (9:2). And later when he says: Arise, shine, for you light has come (60:1)

So, light is a powerful symbol of both the presence and the power of God. As John would later write in his first letter: God is light, in him is no darkness at all. (1 Jn.1:5)

Light in John

In John’s gospel, light features 16 times in the first 12 chapters. It is part of John’s opening prologue, it features in the discussion with Nicodemus and is used to describe the ministry of John. It is the self-declaration of Jesus in both chapter 8 and chapter 9 and is used by Jesus himself to talk about his own ministry in chapters 11 and 12.

Incidentally we ought also to remember that Jesus tells his close followers that they too are the light of the world and that Paul would call the Ephesian Christians to live as children of the light (Eph.5:8).

Light reveals God

In his prologue John tells us:

The true light was coming in to the world but would not be recognised. He would give to those who believed in him the right to become children of God. Light and life are linked and the light is more powerful than darkness because the darkness can neither understand nor overcome the light.

This is one of the fundamental things about light. It is light that transforms not darkness. You cannot turn on darkness, you can only turn of light. Darkness is defined by the lack of light not the presence of something more powerful than light. The light that John declared was coming into the world was the life that is expressed in the living Word who is God himself.


Light exposes sin

In his dialogue with Nicodemus, which rather interestingly happens “in darkness” because Nicodemus comes “at night”, Jesus speaks about the power of light to expose. It must have been an interesting discussion as Jesus talked about light and darkness and shadows in the flickering glow of an oil lamp. “Men love darkness,” He said, and the reason they do is because, “their deeds are evil”. The shadows are their natural habitat because the shadows can conceal the true nature of their actions. But light exposes them.

God does not cover up our sin. He exposes it. As Paul puts it: He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness.

Now it has to be said that when you truly think through the implications of that statement, it is far from comfortable. For who really wants their every dark thought and deed exposed to the glaring light of God’s holiness and scrutiny? No wonder we run towards the shadows rather than towards the light. And no wonder it hurts when we come into the light.

But once exposed, it is not God’s intention that we are left to deal with our sin on our own.

Light Liberates

The wonderful thing is that although everything is exposed, nothing is left hidden, the opportunity for freedom also becomes available. Stepping into the light is a choice to live by the truth and not according to a lie. The lie is that we’ll be okay, that somehow God will find a loophole in our favour that will allow us to go on living how we want and at the same time make us acceptable to himself.

Coming into the light is an acknowledgement that we can no longer go on living as if we know best and that our choices have no bearing on our eternal destiny. The light lets us see the real truth that we desperately need God’ forgiveness and grace in order to live in the light. Light sets us free, and when the son sets us free, we are free indeed.

Light offers life

Once we are free, we are free to enjoy a new life. As John would write later:
If we walk in the light, as he is in the light... The blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin.
In his prologue John makes this statement: In him was life and this life was the light of all people.

If you want to know life, then you need to step into the light.

How to walk in the light

I want to offer you two simple guidelines for walking in the light. I’m guessing that we could produce quite a list of things we’d all consider significant, but rather than doing that I want to make it as simple as possible.

Here are my two things. They are taken from Ephesians.

• Walk worthy.
  
• Imitate God.
  

To walk worthy is to ask the simple question: Does this honour God? Whatever decision you’re facing, whatever choices you’re about to make, whatever actions you are taking, ask yourself: Does this honour God?

To be an imitator of God is to ask yourself the other simple question: What would Jesus do?
Wearing a bracelet or necklace or carry a key ring with WWJD doesn’t count if you are not asking the question.

Conclusion

Jesus said: I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness. He called us to put our trust in the light while we have it. If you choose not to believe, not to trust, then you stay in the darkness. If you will trust Jesus Christ, then you step out of darkness into light,and in the light there is life, there is liberty and there is forgiveness.

So choose: Darkness or light. Which will it be for you?

I am the bread of life

We’re beginning a short series of studies on the the so-called “I am “ sayings of Jesus in the gospel of John. There are seven of these sayings, eight if you include the debate Jesus has with the religious leaders in chapter 8 where he declares, “Before Abraham was, I am.”

The significance of “I am”

To you and I, “I am” is a part of our everyday language. I am hungry, I am thirsty, I am tired. Nothing unusual or significant in our use of the phrase. And to be honest there would be nothing unusual about its use in the time of Jesus either except for two things. Firstly you generally didn’t need the personal pronoun “I”. In the languages of the day, the verbs told you who was doing what. You didn’t need to say I or she,or they, the verb carried the person with it.
So you only ever used the pronoun if you wanted to emphasise something. Literally speaking, when Jesus said, “I am the bread of life,” he said “ I, I am the bread of the life.”

The second significant thing about “I am” is that it had strong religious connections for the Jewish people themselves. “I am” was the name by which God introduced himself to Moses, the archetypal prophet leader who spoke to God as one speaks to a friend. No one else matched up to Moses and he was revered amongst the people.

When Jesus used this term about himself the people and the religious leaders knew he was putting himself in place of Moses and even more amazingly he was claiming equality with God.
If it were not true, then it was blasphemy and it outraged the religious leaders of the day.

The story of chapter 6

It’s hard to miss the connection in chapter 6 between the feeding of the five thousand and the conversation about bread, but what has the story of Jesus walking on water got to do with it? Why introduce something so remarkable in the middle of a debate about bread and manna?
The key is Moses as God’s mediator of the old covenant and the status if Jesus as the new Moses, mediator of a new covenant.

For those who know the Biblical story, you will remember that Joshua served as aide to Moses. When he took over the role of leading the people he had to demonstrate that as God was with Moses so he was with Joshua. So, just as Moses had stretched out his staff over the sea and the waters had parted, so too Joshua stands on the bank of the Jordan and God expresses his power through Joshua as the Jordan dries up and the people cross over. Jesus takes authority over water to a new level. Rather than parting it, he walks on its surface. Feeding the five thousand and walking on the water set the scene for the conversation that is to follow.

A new Moses, a new Passover

Moses is mentioned 12 times in John’s gospel. To the Jewish people he was a very important part of their history. He was, as we’ve already mentioned, the key link between God and the people. It was Moses who brought the Ten Commandments, down the mountain, Moses who lead the people out of Egypt and Moses who delivered the design template for the special tent called the Tabernacle.

But John wants us to understand that things are changing because Jesus is here.

In chapter 1 he tells us that the Law came through Moses, rightly so, but now grace and truth have come through Jesus, God’s Son. Moses represents what God did, Jesus represents what God is doing.

The Passover

What did the Passover represent?

#1 Rescue

Israel had been slaves in Egypt and God had rescued them. They had escaped the oppressive regime of Pharaoh, wandered through the wilderness eventually reaching the land God promised them. For Egypt read Rome and the empire. The only difference was that the oppression was happening in their own land. A new Passover would surely bring a new rescue from a new oppressor.

What they didn’t appreciate was that the original exodus, the original escape plan was part of a much bigger picture in the plans of God.

#2 Redemption

The second key aspect of the events marking the first Passover is God’s act of redemption. As the culmination of the demonstration of God’s authority even over the Egyptians, there came the death of the firstborn. The only salvation available was through the blood of the Passover sacrifice, blood that bought back the life of all the firstborn of Israel or any Egyptian who joined them.  This wasn’t about becoming an Jew, it was about trusting God.

A new Passover needed to offer not only escape from oppression but redemption from judgement.

Jesus the new Passover

Enter Jesus. Having fed 5,000 and having walked on water he demonstrates his authority over creation and he opens the door to a new rescue package a new offer of redemption. He reminds the people that it wasn’t Moses that gave them the bread form heaven but it was God who worked through Moses; it was God who gave the manna and it was God who had sent the new bread, the true bread from heaven.

“Give us this bread,” cries the crowd, “I, I am the bread,” declares Jesus. “ I am God’s rescue plan, I am your new redemption.”

Of course the religious people didn’t like what Jesus was saying. They grumble and argue, they even accuse Jesus of suggesting some form of cannibalism. But the point Jesus is making is that to benefit from the Passover you had to take part in the Passover. You couldn’t simply give intellectual assent to it. If the first generation of Israelites who escaped form Egypt had not daubed the door posts with the blood of the sacrificed lamb, if they had not taken part in the meal and eaten its meat, they would not have been rescued, they would not have been redeemed.

The Passover is not effective for those who only argue about its significance or debate the proper application of its elements. It works for those who share in it.

Jesus would make this clear when he shared his final Passover meal with the disciples. “This bread,” he would say, “represents my body”, This wine represents my blood.”

Why do we need a Passover?

You may be wondering what all this has to do with you. Do you feel like you need rescuing? Are you aware of a deeper need for redemption. Whether you feel it or not, the Bible says you most definitely need it. And the good news is that God didn’t wait, doesn’t wait, for you to notice your need, he made provision for you through the death and resurrection of Jesus himself.
We need a Passover because whether we recognise it or not, we need rescuing, we need redeeming. The Bible tells us that we’ve all messed up, we’ve all made mistakes, we’ve all failed God.

Jesus makes an interesting observation about how the people responded to him. He said that they were only really interested in getting enough to eat. They wanted all the benefits of his presence but without all the expectations and demands. They wanted cheap grace. Easy access to God’s provision. They were the kind of people who would praise God went things went well, but if things got hard, well maybe they’d look elsewhere.

But grace is not cheap. It was paid for with the highest price, the death of Jesus himself. The apostle Paul reminds us that we are bought with a price, the precious blood of Jesus himself.
When the crowd asked Jesus what they must do to respond appropriately to the grace of God, he told them they must believe in the one God sent, the bread of life, Jesus himself.

To believe is to share in the new Passover. Just as they had to trust in the redemptive value of the Passover lamb, they now needed to trust in the redemptive value of Jesus, “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” as John described him.

Conclusion

Jesus makes the same offer to you and I that he made to the crowd that day. You can go on trusting the old way,you can go on trusting yourself, or you can choose to trust God’s new way.
If you choose the latter, then the steps are simple and straightforward.

• Step one, acknowledge that you need rescuing.
  
• Step two accept that only God can rescue you.
  
• Step three, act in accordance with God’s plan. 
  

Easter 2009

We celebrated Easter this morning with an early communion and an All-Age Celebration.

Our all-Age event was a news cast from Rome's premier TV station VVV (Veni, Vidi, Vici) with host Gloria Evermore, roving reporter Max Amillion in Jerusalem, and Fiona Brucia in the studio.

The whole thing went really well.