John 8.12-20

  • Sam Ford
  • Dec 23, 2007
  • Series: Gospel According to John

John 8.12-20 Jesus the Light

December 23, 2008

Sam Ford

 

Christmas Trees

As it is the eve of Christmas Eve, I trust everyone has their Christmas Trees.   There are different kinds of families that get different kinds of Christmas trees-there are the families who hike up to the top of the mountains and (as long as they don't freeze to death or get lost) experience what getting a tree was like before we had farms.  For those not as brave, or perhaps a bit smarter, they will find a Christmas Tree farm where they grow and trim perfect trees to cut down-then they'll even flock them with white, pink, or blue snow.  Of course, there are those families like I was in growing up who got their tree down at the local grocery store.  Then there are those tree-traitors we don't talk about, the fake tree people.  Don't get me wrong, fake trees have gotten quite creative with musical lights and movements...it's just not a real tree just like a Chihuahua is not a "real dog." If you're don't getting that REAL pine tree smell, or those real pine needles on the floor, or sap on your hands. 

 

Paradise Trees

I recently read an article about the history of Christmas trees and how they evolved.  In this article, also read about the history of Christmas Eve, specifically, it's meaning beyond just the "night before Christmas."  I read about back in the 14th and 15th Centuries in Germany, before Martin Luther lit up his famed evergreen with Candles that Christmas Eve used to be as unique and meaningful a day as Christmas was. 

 

It seems that back in Germany, they had a practice of performing what they called "morality or miracle plays" throughout the year.  These plays told stories from the Bible and were held at special times of the year, in accordance with the early Christian Calendar of Saints

On Christmas Eve, December 24th, they actually celebrated what was called "Adam and Eve Day".   The play they performed was about the Garden of Eden. The play required stage props, specifically, apple trees.  Traditional colors red and greed developed as part of these props Apple trees don't do too well in the colder climates, so they would often used decorated Evergreen trees. 

  • The play showed how Eve was tempted by the serpent, how she picked the apple from the forbidden tree, and how the couple was kicked out of Paradise.
  • The tree was also hung with round white wafers to remind the audience that even though Adam and Eve were expelled from Paradise, the birth of the Baby Jesus Christ would bring redemption.

 

Christmas must have Chaos first

If you think about it, we have some pretty strange traditions at Christmas time.  Hanging stockings, Santa Claus, flying reindeer, egg nog, and the Christmas Tree itself.  What do you say when your son or daughter ask you "why do we have a Christmas Tree?"  I've come to the conclusion, that I'm going to take back this 14th century tradition because it makes sense to me.  It makes sense that all our big glass ball ornaments could represent apples-that, in essence, you have a tree of Good and Evil sitting in your living room.  And, that every time you light that tree up, you are bringing light into darkness. 

 

Christmas Day without the chaos of Christmas Eve loses all its meaning.  If the God of the Universe is going to become a baby for the purposes of saving the creation he loves, then we must understand that there is something we're being saved from.  If we lose sight of the fact that we need saving, then the birth of Jesus Christ becomes meaningless, the life of Jesus Christ becomes common, and the death of Jesus Christ becomes the most brutal, cruel, and tragic events in history.  But if we have rebelled against our Creator, then the celebration of Jesus birth becomes the cornerstone of our lives...and everything else becomes meaningless in its light.  


READ JOHN 8.12-20

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 men 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.

 

Historical Context

This is the third of three different images that Jesus is connected with the Feast of Tabernacles.  As I explained, the feast of Tabernacles memorializes the great Exodus from Egypt and their time spent in the wilderness.  When the Jews grumbled for lack of food, God provided "bread from heaven" called Manna to sustain them.  Jesus says, "I am the bread of life."

 

Then, when the people grew thirsty and could not find water.  Again, they grumbled to Moses who asked God what to do with these thirst people who were about to kill him.  God said he would stand on the rock and Moses was to strike it.  From the rock came flowing water.  Jesus says, "I am that river of life water."

 

The final aspect of the Exodus experience is referred to here by Jesus.  In the Court of women, the most public part of the temple, four golden candelabra stood, each with four golden bowls, each one filled from a pitcher of oil by a youth of priestly descent. These were lighted on the first night of the Feast of Tabernacles. During the ceremony, following the water being poured on the altar, there would be a celebration which would include "men of piety and good works" dancing through the night holding torches in their hands and singing praise songs.  Like the Manna, and the Rock, this part of the ceremony remember the pillar of fire that led and protected Israel through the night. 

 

Jesus offers his light to the whole world

In this context then, Jesus stands up and says, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."  Jesus says, I am the light you have been waiting for.  I am the light that will be a light for the nations (not just Israel), I am the light that will open the eyes of the blind (John 9), I am the light that will free people from the dungeons of sin and the prisons of darkness. 

  • I am the light that will guide you
  • I am the light that will protect you
  • I am the light that will remind you that I AM HERE

 

The world is in darkness

Without light, we are cold, we are dark, we are lost, we are dirty, we are hidden, the Bible says we are dead in our sin as is the world. The implication of Jesus' statement, I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD, is that the world needs light; that it is naturally in a dark condition.  Since Genesis chapter 3, the world has been in darkness.  The Bible says in Psalm 119.105 says that God' Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.  We cannot forget Christmas Eve, otherwise Christmas day doesn't make sense.  When Adam and Even sinned, they didn't just east an apple and die.  They did something very specific, they decided to go against God's spoken Word.  God had said, "Don't eat from the tree, or you will die."  In saying that he stated quite clearly:

  • Trust my Word (me) to tell you what is true - "God must be holding out on me"
  • Trust my Word to know what is right and wrong   - "I'll decide what is right for me"
  • Trust my Word to tell you who you are, a creation.  "I am God, not a depend. creation."

 

Because we turned and continue to turn from God's will, we walk down paths that are dark, paths that lead away from God who the bible says is light. 

 

Without light....we are cold, we are dark, we are lost, we are dirty, we are hidden.....

Then, after a while, it seems like we desire the light-to be alone, to stay isolated.  The first question God asks Adam when he enters the garden again after he has sinned is, "Where are you?" And where is he, in the dark of the bushes, hiding.  Adam is suddenly filled with shame, confused, and fearful of the God who loved Him.  Today, like Adam, we spend out time trying to forging our own paths, thinking and feeling that we can do it on our own like a child who foolishly rebels against their parents who love them.  The Bible says in Proverbs 16.25, "There is a way that seems right to man, but its end is the way of death."

 

So we live in darkness.  The Bible says that the world and all that is in it is enslaved to sin.  It tells us that we have a: 

§         Corrupted & sick heart- Jeremiah 17.9, Romans 1.21

§         Corrupted mind - Titus 1.15; Romans 1.28

§         Corrupted flesh - Rom 5.12; 7.18

§         Corrupted desires - John 3.19 Men loved darkness

§         Dead - Ephesians 2.1-3; Col 2.13 - From the womb Ps. 58.3

 

Proverbs 4.19

19           The way of the wicked is like deep darkness;

                    they do not know over what they stumble.

 

We are that Christmas Tree; a life full of beautiful ornaments, and dressings, but without any lights at all.  No one can see the beauty that God created us to be, it is hidden in the darkness of guilt, shame, and rebellion.

 

God promises to save us from darkness

But despite this darkness, thousands of years ago God promised a light.  He did and does not leave us to fend for ourselves, to find our own way, to remain in the WILDERNESS wandering.  Like the Pillar of Fire, he gives us a light, and promises of a future light to come. 

 

Isaiah 42:6

6 "     I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness;

          I will take you by the hand and keep you;

     I will give you as a covenant for the people,

          a light for the nations,

7           to open the eyes that are blind,

     to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,

          from the prison those who sit in darkness

 

There many lights that promise to free us

The FACT that we are in a dark world in a "WILDERNESS", the fact that it is broken and falls well short of the glory intended for it is obvious.  And there are many FALSE LIGHTS we choose instead of THE LIGHT that we hope will give us "sight" and "free" us from our prisons.   

 

But they are not the true light...and like some sort of spiritual bug zapper-the light that looks or feels like it will help us, the light that draw us because the "feel" good or "makes us happy", are no different than the FRUIT of the tree in the Garden of Eden that eve thought, was good for food, and...was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise..." But it killed her.  There is a reason the Bible says about Satan that "he disguises himself as an angel of light."

                                  

The True Light among many lights

The True LIGHT is different than the false light.  The true light isn't easy to approach, in fact, it is a bit hard to look at.  When you've been in the darkness for SO LONG, coming into the light actually hurts.  It takes some times for your eyes to adjust and often times, aren't willing to face that pain.  We run back to the darkness.

 

So God enters the darkness to get us

It's so easy to forget the meaning of Christmas Eve...the reason for Christmas Day.  As if to remind us of that, Salvation doesn't show up in royal robes and trumpets.  He arrives in a way that looks as desperate, under-doggish, and hopeless as our situation is:

 

1.      A New Government:  Augustus, in fact, first borrowed the Greek word for "Gospel", or "Good News" and applied it as a label for the new world order represented by his reign. 

2.      A New God: The empire declared him a god and established rites of worship.  His enlightened and stable regime, many believed, would last forever, a final solution to the problem of government. 

3.      The Angel Visitation:  An angel appeared  to some teenage girl

4.      The Virgin Story: The girl gets pregnant without ever having sex (would we believe a 16 year old today?)

5.      The Plan to divorce: A freaked out boyfriend (Joseph) works toward quietly divorcing Mary before angel shows up the talk with him

6.      The Journey of shame:  He takes his betrothed to Bethlehem, traveling on a donkey, where she had to spend the night in a barn, and had a baby among farm animals who give up their feeding trough for a bed.

7.      The only witnesses are Illiterate shepherds were the only witness the great declaration- fitting for the friend of sinners and later some WISE GUY astrologists from Iraq!

8.      The Murderer:  Herod the Great, the King of the Jews-a masochistic freak who had killed two of his brother-in laws, his own wife, and two of his own son-chases their family out of Israel with murderous threats.

9.      The Trip South: Jesus entered the world amid strife and terror, spending his infancy in Egypt to avoid it all. Only when Herod died did Jesus return, but not to their hometown from whence they came, they settled in Nazareth.

 

The True Light challenges our intellect, our emotions, and our experience

The situation is such that you almost have to say...this HAS to be GOD at work!  But what kind of God goes to such lengths to pull his creation out the darkness they put themselves into. Consider what you would do for your child or someone you love?      

 

JB Phillips

...a famous and controversial ‘paraphraser' of the Bible, wrote a short story entitled "Visited Planet".  It basically was a conversation between angels discussing the amazing miracle of Christmas: 

Once upon a time a very young angel was being shown round the splendours and glories of the universes by a senior and experienced angel. To tell the truth, the little angel was beginning to be tired and a little bored. He had been shown whirling galaxies and blazing suns, infinite distances in the deathly cold of inter-stellar space, and to his mind there seemed to be an awful lot of it all. Finally he was shown the galaxy of which our planetary system is but a small part. As the two of them drew near to the star which we call our sun and to its circling planets, the senior angel pointed to a small and rather insignificant sphere turning very slowly on its axis. It looked as dull as a dirty tennis-ball to the little angel, whose mind was filled with the size and glory of what he had seen.

"I want you to watch that one particularly," said the senior angel, pointing with his finger.

"Well, it looks very small and rather dirty to me," said the little angel. "What's special about that one?"

"That," replied his senior solemnly, "is the Visited Planet."

"Visited?" said the little one. "you don't mean visited by --------?

"Indeed I do. That ball, which I have no doubt looks to you small and insignificant and not perhaps overclean, has been visited by our young Prince of Glory." And at these words he bowed his head reverently.

"But how?" queried the younger one. "Do you mean that our great and glorious Prince, with all these wonders and splendours of His Creation, and millions more that I'm sure I haven't seen yet, went down in Person to this fifth-rate little ball? Why should He do a thing like that?"

"It isn't for us," said his senior a little stiffly, "to question His 'why's', except that I must point out to you that He is not impressed by size and numbers, as you seem to be. But that He really went I know, and all of us in Heaven who know anything know that. As to why He became one of them - how else do you suppose could He visit them?"

The little angels face wrinkled in disgust.

"Do you mean to tell me," he said, "that He stooped so low as to become one of those creeping, crawling creatures of that floating ball?"

"I do, and I don't think He would like you to call them 'creeping, crawling creatures' in that tone of voice. For, strange as it may seem to us, He loves them.

 

So who is this light?  Who is this God?

Strange as it seems, salvation came in the form of a baby.  And it was a baby of whom the Scripture said:

 

Isaiah 9

2       The people who walked in darkness

          have seen a great light;

     those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,

          on them has light shined.

3      You have multiplied the nation;

          you have increased its joy;

     they rejoice before you

          as with joy at the harvest,

          as they are glad when they divide the spoil

4      For the yoke of his burden,

          and the staff for his shoulder,

          the rod of his oppressor,

          you have broken as on the day of Midian.

5      For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult

          and every garment rolled in blood

          will be burned as fuel for the fire.

6      For to us a child is born,

          to us a son is given;

     and the government shall be upon his shoulder,

          and his name shall be called

     Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

          Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace

 

.

 

Conclusion

Walk in the light

Everyone is guilty of one of two errors:  

  1. We either don't realize the darkness that we're in = underwhelmed by the darkness.  We follow a false dim light and stumble around as we try and find our way through.  We Jesus says, Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.  In other words, if you're not following Jesus, you're walking in darkness...and Jesus says that the darkness, which is sin, will kill you.   We don't celebrate Christmas Eve.

 

  1. Then there are those who don't realize the light that is Jesus = overwhelmed by the darkness John 1.4-5  4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.   We don't celebrate Christmas.

 

Exodus 14.10ff

10 When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. 11 They said to Moses, "Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Is not this what we said to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians'? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness." 13 And Moses said to the people,  "Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent."

15 The Lord said to Moses, "Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. 16 Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. 17 And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. 18 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen."

19 Then the angel of God [JESUS] who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, 20 coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.

 

The path of the righteous does not come from doing anything in your own power to be good, it has to do with celebrating what CHRISTMAS EVE stands for, that we need saving and cannot save ourselves.  It doesn't matter HOW dark your situation is, God has entered the darkness to save you, to be your light-sometimes a light of protection, other times a light of guidance, but always a light of hope.

 

 

There is nothing that can separate you from the Love of Baby Jesus.

 

Damascus Podcast