Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – Reformation Covenant Church
## Pastor Dennis Tuuri

John 8:12-21

Please stand for the reading of God’s word. John 8:12-21, and actually I’ll read into verse 21.

Then Jesus spoke to them again saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life.” The Pharisees therefore said to him, “You bear witness of yourself. Your witness is not true.” Jesus answered and said to them, “Even if I bear witness of myself, my witness is true.

For I know where I came from and where I am going. But you do not know where I come from and where I am going. You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one. And yet if I do judge, my judgment is true. For I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent me. It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. I am one who bears witness of myself and the Father who sent me bears witness of me.

Then they said to him, ‘Where is your father?’ Jesus answered, ‘You know neither me nor my father. If you had known me, you would have known my father also.’ These words Jesus spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple. And no one laid hands on him, for his hour had not yet come. Therefore Jesus said to them again, ‘I am going away, and you will seek me and will die in your sins. Where I go, you cannot come.’”

Let us pray.

Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, the light of the world. And we thank you, Lord God, for the wonderful promise that we can follow him and where he goes, we can go as well. Help these words of warning to the Pharisees—that if they did not believe in him and follow him, they would die in their sins and they may not go where he is—help these be a warning to us as well today. Help us, Father, to be strengthened in our knowledge of Jesus as the light of the world.

That we as his people in the world in which you’ve placed us, to that end, we pray that you would illuminate this text for understanding, that our minds which normally labor in darkness and slothfulness would be able to comprehend this text and its application for our lives. Grant us the light of your word, Lord God, that we may be transformed and become increasingly your children of light in the world.

In Christ’s name we ask it. Amen. Amen. Please be seated.

—

Well, by the providence of God, we come to this text on Jesus as the light of the world. Just as the light has begun to rule the night in the context of how our seasons flow. We have passed, last Wednesday, we arrived at the vernal equinox when the days are of equal length. The sun is direct over the equator and when the day now begins to rule over the night, it has preeminence over it in terms of the number of hours of light.

So there is this movement in our calendars of a movement toward increasing light. Winter itself begins with the advent of that lengthening of days. December 21st is the autumnal equinox when we have the shortest day and the longest night. Then the light begins to grow until it finally overcomes the darkness so to speak, at the beginning of spring and we move into then a season of light. And here we come to this text about Jesus being the light of the world.

People have this sad disease. It’s something that’s a new modern deal: Seasonal Affective Disorder. In winter they can’t do things because it’s dark. And you know, you can kind of pooh-pooh that idea. But you can recognize that darkness and light are very important aspects in the context of our lives. More important before the advent of electricity, I suppose. But still the light of the sun is important to us. In people that get depressed in the winter is one evidence of how important the light is for our very sense of our being. So light of course is an absolute requirement for life. Without this planet dies. So light is exceedingly important.

Jesus declares himself here to be the light of the world. Now this is a section in a growing development in the Gospel of John. And so at the top of your outlines we have a little review of where we’re at in the Gospel of John. And we’ve been moving, among other things, we’ve looked at the Gospel of John as a movement through certain articles of furniture that were in the temple as you approach the Holy of Holies. And as a priest would go into the temple and begin to do things, he would go to the laver—the sink, if you will. He’d wash up there. So he’d go to the sink and he’d wash up.

And so we saw the opening section of John’s gospel after the prologue: water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink—water that was transforming the world, that was cleansing the world was the imagery there. So we went from the sink and then we went in chapters 6 and 7 to the table of showbread. So we move from the sink to the table in the Gospel of John. And the table is where the food and drink are. And so Jesus feeds the 5,000 and then says that he’s the living water that you’re supposed to drink from. And so Jesus gives them food and drink. He’s talking, he’s correlating his own person—who he is—to the table of showbread and where the libation offerings also would be placed in the context of the temple. And then he goes to the lampstand in this furniture review of what’s happening in John’s gospel.

And now we get to a section from chapters 8 through 12 where light is the dominant theme. And you know, this sort of pictures the progression of who we are as people. We’re born of water and the spirit, right? So we’re born—water is a picture of the new birth, the cleansing, coming to life. So we’re born and then God sustains us and matures us, right? He feeds us. He nourishes and we grow up. There’s growth that goes on in our lives.

And when we become adults, we’re supposed to rule—as a picture of the ruling aspect of the Lord Jesus Christ. The lampstand shone over on the showbread which represented Israel. And the lamps are governing bodies as we’ll see as we move into the text today. So there’s this movement of the arc of human life from birth to maturation and then rule that’s portrayed in this picture imagery in John’s gospel as Jesus comes bringing the new birth, maturing his people by feeding them and now saying that he’s light and we’re expected to be light governing the world.

So you see, it’s not just an interesting little literary device—these connections to tabernacle furniture or temple furniture. The temple is a worldview image. It’s a picture of the world. And Jesus, among other things, is redoing the world. He’s recreating the world, but he’s doing it in a way that focuses on the progression of human life. And we move through this same kind of thing here.

One way to think of what we do on the Lord’s day is we come together. We’re washed of our sins—not all of us, but our feet are washed. And then we’re fed from the table, and we’re commissioned to go out as the rulers of this world. That’s who we’re called to be. And so this progression of John’s gospel is the progression of human life.

So this is throne room light. It’s also new creation light. And another way to track the Gospel of John: the temple is a picture of all of creation—the days of creation. And in that prologue, Jesus is described as life, as the life of light. And Jesus is the light distinguished from John who is a lesser light. So the light begins the new creation. Just like “let there be light” was the beginning of the six days of the creation of the physical world. Jesus comes as the light. And then on the second day, firmament is created. There’s a division and there’s waters above and waters below. And that water section is sort of the second day of creation at work.

The third day of creation is the day of first fruit. Some of the vegetation grows up, fruit plants, grain plants, and we see that feeding aspect being portrayed. And then the fourth day of creation: now the sun, moon, and stars are specifically designated in this movement of creation as rulers. God placed the sun to rule the day and the moon to rule the night.

And so we have these physical demonstrations of light as rulers. The sun reflects, as it were, the rule of the sovereign God of creation. And here we come to Jesus as the light. He was the light originally. We move through the firmament, the waters and the division. We move to the feeding section, first fruits. And now we’re at that section of light where Jesus is king. This is Palm Sunday. This is about the coming of the true light, the true king of the world.

Now, this happens in the context—all these things we’re talking about today in John chapter 8—of the Feast of Tabernacles. The movement of history as we go from spring to fall in the Old Testament calendar is the maturation of the world and the coming of the Lord Jesus and which will usher in the true harvest. And you remember that we said that at these tabernacle celebrations, there were two significant rituals that would go on.

One was the pouring of water and Jesus gets up in the context probably of the pouring of water and declares that if you’re thirsty, come to me. He is the living, lifegiving water. And then the other ritual we talked about over the last couple of weeks is the Jews would light some huge candelabras. And all of Jerusalem supposedly was illumined by these number of huge candelabras in the court of the women of the temple.

And so light—they remembered the light of God leading them and God. Messiah was actually called by the rabbis. Messiah’s name would be light. So Jesus comes and says, “I’m the light of the world.” So he declares at this great culmination feast that he’s lifegiving water and he’s the light of the world. Audacious. I mean, astonishing claims. I mean, obviously here the Lord Jesus Christ is identifying himself as the Messiah and as God—who is the light of God to man.

So he comes as the new covenant. He’s replacing what was seen as the light of the law, Torah. He’s replacing the waters of the old covenant. He is the fulfillment of all those things that the old covenant pictured. Israel was celebrating old covenant imagery. And he says, “Well, that was fine and good, but now you must follow me. You must follow me.” Jesus declares he is the fulfillment of all that imagery.

And to cling to those images without accepting the Lord Jesus Christ who comes is to die in your sins and to dwell in complete darkness.

Zechariah 14 brings these two images together by the way of water and light. We read in verse 7 of Zechariah 14: “It shall be one day which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night. But at evening time it shall happen that it will be light. And in that day it shall be that living waters shall flow from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea, half toward the western sea. In both summer and winter it shall occur and the Lord shall be king over all the earth and in that day it shall be the Lord is one, his name is one.”

Oh, a beautiful prophecy of what we see fulfilled here in John’s gospel and what we’re also celebrating today in terms of Palm Sunday—the night will become light. And so the Jews did that by lighting huge lampstands full of oil but ultimately that’s a picture of the coming of Jesus Christ who brings the true light of God the Father into the world to enlighten all the world and the living water flows out in connection with this remaking all the world, bringing to pass the new creation with light and water.

Beautiful imagery. And then verse nine of that text: “The Lord shall be king over all the earth.” And that’s what we celebrate every Lord’s day, but particularly today, I suppose—the day of Palm Sunday—is a representation that Jesus is indeed king over all the earth. So we have these images of tabernacle, living water, the light now will enlighten the whole world, and Jesus the world. And that’s what happens today on Palm Sunday.

Palm Sunday is the reminder of the day when Jesus came into Jerusalem four or five days before his crucifixion on Good Friday. Maundy Thursday—Maundy is a Latin word meaning commandment or law. Command. Monday. Mandate. Maundy. Maundy Thursday. The washing of the disciples’ feet. The last supper. “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.” And so the church has celebrated, historically, Good Friday when Jesus goes to the cross.

And these specific events are laid out in chronological parallelism with the actual last week of our Savior. He comes to Jerusalem. Now, not in our text today in tabernacles, but six months from then, next spring, he will come for Passover. But this time will be totally different than the way he approached during tabernacles. Remember way back in chapter seven when we started this tabernacle section, Feast of Booths—what’s going on? Jesus doesn’t come openly. He comes kind of in secret. There’s a deliberate contrast placed in the scriptures as we put them together between this period of time, tabernacles, when he comes not with a lot of fanfare and doesn’t start to really teach openly until the middle of the feast. And then at Passover, it’s what Palm Sunday is all about.

And in John 12:12-26, we read of this triumphal entry of the Lord Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. He is proclaimed king, the triumphal entry. Palm Sunday is the coronation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He comes as the victor. He comes riding on a donkey in fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy that he would be king. “Your king comes to you, humble, not riding the big donkey—the instrument of war, physical war—but meek and submissive to the father. Adam was not meek and submissive to the father. He grabbed for the rule, the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He wanted to be king right away. Jesus doesn’t get inaugurated or coronated as king till after. And then as he comes to be crowned as king, he comes as the one who is submissive and meek and riding on a young colt never ridden on before.

Jesus comes and is declared “Hosanna.” Psalm 118. “Lord, save.” But by then it had become to be known as simply in Scripture as a thing of praise saying “You have saved.” It means “save us, deliver.” But it had been really turned into a thing of praise saying “You have delivered.” So Jesus comes as the conquering king to Jerusalem and he comes in fulfillment of these prophecies—that as the living water and light comes, so Jesus will become king of all the world and he’s coronated here in John chapter 12.

This is still in the section of light as we’ll get to in a couple of minutes. Still light—the king is light. And Jesus comes in John chapter 12 and “Hosanna to the king of Israel.” But it’s not just the king of Israel. Because in verse 19 of John 12, the Pharisees see what’s going on with all these children singing his praises and the world, you know, acknowledging him as king and they say, “Look, the world has gone after him”—not just the Jews, the whole world. And the very next verse in John’s gospel says, “Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship him and they said, ‘We want to see Jesus’”—he’s the king of the world. And John’s gospel makes that very clear with its particular presentation of the triumphal entry of the king.

Jesus will go to the cross this Friday or in remembrance of that as king of Israel and as king of the world. So this movement of history is really very much seen in our events of today. We go from the sink, from the table, to the lamp, from the place we get washed to the place we get fed to then the place where we’re supposed to shine as rulers. We move through birth, growth and move into the ruling aspect of human life.

We are going to be as we see here in the text in a couple of minutes those reflected lights who are rulers. What did God create in the fourth day? Rulers. The sun and moon and stars were rulers—the image of the reflected light of God in ruling. Rulers is the answer to the children’s outline number three. Number four: What did Jesus say? He was living water and light. These predictions from Zechariah’s prophecy when he would be seen as king and rule. Did Jesus enter Jerusalem on Palm Sunday? He entered it as king, coronated as king. This was—he didn’t object to this. This was the plan for him to be coronated as king on Palm Sunday.

In what chapters of John’s gospel does Jesus refer to himself as light over and over? It’s chapters 8 through 12, and then chapter 12 is the chapter in which Palm Sunday is designated.

All right. So that’s where we’re at. That’s where we’re going. And all I want to do this morning is I want to go through this first basic point on your outline. Maybe make a quick reference to points three and four, but I want to talk mostly about the first point on your outline. And this text is really quite simple. Jesus says that I am the light of the world. And we’re going to talk about that today. We’re going to look at these next four chapters and see in what way is Jesus the light of the world. That’ll help us to understand how we’re supposed to follow him because that’s the application.

We’ve got credenda and agenda here again, right? What we’re supposed to believe, what we’re supposed to do. What we’re supposed to believe is that Jesus is the light of the world. And what we’re supposed to do in response to that truth is to follow him. Follow him is the command. But God just doesn’t give us credenda. There should be there’s probably another Latin word for blessing or so. I don’t know what it would be, but there’s blessings.

God says follow me and wonderful things will happen because it says that he who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but he’ll have the light of life. Christian, do you want life? Do you want to have light in your world? Do you want to enjoy life and rejoice in it and not be tied to darkness and death and the old Adamic fallen nature? Well, Jesus says the way to accomplish that is to follow him.

So that’s the three points of the outline as credenda—what we’re to believe: Jesus. One of the great promises attached to that—if we follow Jesus, we have the light of life. And then there’s this what happens next in the text is a reminder of the threatened curse referring to us, should we not follow Jesus. The Pharisees don’t follow Jesus. They question him. They’re argumentative and then they’re mocking as well. They mock Jesus. “Where is your father?” they say. And they don’t follow Jesus or in his light.

And he tells them, and this is why we read verse 21: He tells them, “I’m going away. I’m going back to heaven, all right? And you shall seek me, but you will die in your sins. Where I go, you cannot come.” Now understand the full nature the thrust of what that means. But Jesus says if we don’t—if we follow—the tremendous blessings we believe and follow. But if we don’t, we cannot go where he goes. We cannot go there. Instead we will die in our sins. We will go to hell and suffer eternal damnation.

I’m going to talk about damnation. Let me talk about some damnable things in our culture today. I thought about this last week. And it’s probably something we think about a lot, but it just every year, you know, John has pressed here at RCC to refer to Easter as Resurrection Sunday. You know, the first few years—well, Easter, I mean, you know, the name really comes from some goddess of fertility, but you know, I think that there—it’s not a sin to call Easter Resurrection Sunday is certainly more descriptive of what goes on. But you know, I’ve decided that I’m going to try to just eliminate Easter from my vocabulary. Because there are these damnable lies in our culture.

I’ve watched several movies lately, some comedy called Bedazzled. Don’t recommend it. It’s a horrible movie. The devil is this beautiful woman and there’s a young man and he wants things. And you know, you can sort of look at it and say, well, the neat thing is that it shows us that if we get what our wishes are, we always wish wrongs. We shouldn’t do that. But the whole point of the movie—you get eternal life, you get life, you get blessing and light. It’s one good deed is all you need—what a lie from the pit of hell.

Audiences go to movie after movie. I went to see Dragonfly. All these movies about ghosts beyond and they sort of move us to become better people, right? And I suppose if we had an explicitly Christian culture into which these kind of things were being placed, we could assume a context for them. If we had an explicitly Christian culture that knew that outside of the light of the Lord Jesus Christ is utter darkness. And that if you die in your sins, you are headed for utter darkness, you are headed for hell, eternal suffering and punishment, cut off from the light and light of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we had a culture that was really down and understood these things and reinforced them, then maybe it’s okay to call Resurrection Sunday Easter.

We might not want to anymore. We think of a better word. You see, we don’t have that kind of a culture. We have a culture that is shouting at you from every angle that you do not need the Lord Jesus Christ to have eternal life and happiness. No, you know, there’s very few people that say death is the end of it. Everyone wants an afterlife. That’s why all these ghost stories are out there. But we want an afterlife that is blessing and light to us or at least attainable through some good deeds of our own.

And when we see those kind of movies reinforcing to us that we don’t need the light of the Lord Jesus Christ to avoid dying in our sins, these are damnable lies from the pit of hell. And we need instruct our children in those things if they’re going to see these kind of movies. I mean, it is worse for them than all kinds of other wicked things we would never put before our children’s eyes. And yet, we put before our eyes and our children’s eyes over and over, many times in an uncorrected fashion, that, you know, life is okay.

And we sort of drown out the idea that Jesus brings this home to here—that if you do not believe in him, you will die in your sins. You can communicate with the living. You will not go to where you can guide people to find a lost child as in Dragonfly. Oh boy. There you go. Another movie. Okay. So you won’t be able to do these things that are good and nice. If you die in your sins, you are going to hell to eternal punishment and torment forever.

Now, this is a wonderful season. We rejoice today that the Lord Jesus Christ is the light of the world. And we wave those palms today and say, “Praise God. Hosanna. He has delivered us from darkness. He’ll deliver us from all of our enemies. He is the light of the world. Praise God.” That is this is what our instinct should be this week—is to remember the wonderful news that Jesus Christ has died for sinners.

But we must not forget—we must greatly appropriate these blessings that Jesus says will occur to us as we follow him, believe in him and obey him. We must not forget the warning. You know, the Pharisees were not, you know, a bunch of secular humanists. They were not some, you know, Jehovah’s Witness cult. That’s not what they were. Bible believing people—went to church, went to the temple all the time. Studied well—commentaries on the Old Testament, studied, you know, all the time. They were religious, devout people just like you and I.

And Jesus warned them just like he warns us today that if we do not believe that he is the light of the world, if we demonstrate by our actions this week that we are mockers, scoffers, unbelievers and argue with Jesus’s counsel in the scriptures, Jesus warns us. He warns you. He warns me that if you don’t believe in me and follow my life, you’ll die in your sins. Where I am going, you can’t come. You think of any more scary words about our death. Jesus says, “You died in your sins. I’m in heaven. I’m ruling in the sphere where there is no darkness. You cannot come there. You’re cut off.”

God grant that we understand the nature of Jesus being light and we do follow our—follow him today and rejoice.

All right. Now, today all I’m going to do is go over the first point of the outline. Then I’ve kind of covered, you know, two, three and four and next week we’ll talk more about what it means to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. And I’m going to make mostly one application point at the end of this first Roman numeral one on your outline. And then next week we’ll flesh out more practical observations on what it means to follow the light of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But let’s look at what the scriptures tell us. And let’s specifically do that by saying well, God has given us four chapters here and he has said that the predominant theme that goes through all four chapters is Jesus as the light of the world. He declares that here and let’s talk about what it means. And what it means is, first of all, Jesus is the light of the world revealing the deeds of men.

And this looks back when we looked at the story of the woman taken in adultery and we remembered the drawing on the temple. Remember the hand of God being illuminated by the light of the world. Here we remember Belshazar’s feast where a false temple is placed up. They’re drinking wine out of the temple instruments at Belshazar’s feast. They got the lampstand lit up. They’re having a good old time making fun of God’s temple.

And they’re taking unholy communion. And God comes and judges them. And he judges them by means of the lampstand revealing the writing of his hand drawing the words on the wall of the false temple. “You have been weighed and evaluated. Your kingdom will be taken from you. You’ve been weighed, evaluated, and found wanting. You’re judged.” And Jesus does the same thing to the religious rulers of the temple. As the light of the world, Jesus reveals the deeds of men.

And then Jesus also, we could say this, and we’ll see this as we go ahead in some other scriptures, but in Jesus, the central theme, I think, in the woman taken in adultery is Jesus as the light of the world revealing the deeds of men, evaluating and judging. But it also is the deliverance of the woman who is part—seemingly to me at least from the text—part of his flock. You know, it’s like that line from Unforgiven where the kid is trying to, you know, make himself feel better about killing a man and taking away all that a man has, all that a man can do. He comes to the realization of what it means a human life and he tries to stiffen himself up by taking not the spirit of God but a different spirit into his body. And then he says, “Well, he deserved it.” And Clint Eastwood says, “We all deserve it, kid.”

See, we’re all that woman taken in adultery. Jesus Christ rescues his people, though, from those who would want to bring judgment in an unholy way against us. And so Jesus as the light is pictured kind of in a summary fashion as delivering his people, taking upon himself—as he will do as we move ahead to Passover—the death for sinners, that those who believe in him, who follow him, who want to stick around him, unlike the Pharisees, are delivered from those who work against him.

So Jesus is the light of the world delivering his people and bringing judgment and condemnation to others.

Secondly, Jesus is the light of the world and bringing heaven to earth. This is a heavenly light that Jesus is and he’s bringing this to earth. In verse 23 of chapter 8, Jesus will say to them, “You are from below or beneath. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world.” So as Jesus begins to exposit what it means for him to be the light of the world, it is a heavenly light that he is bringing as an earthly light to us here.

He’s remaking the earth in the image of heaven. It’s heavenly light. And so the Lord’s prayer, we pray that his will might be done on earth as it is in heaven. We’re praying that the light of heaven of Jesus from above is more and more displayed in the context of our world. Jesus is the light of the world and that is a heavenly light.

Third, Jesus is the light of the world bringing freedom to the captives. In verse 36, as we go on in his explanation of what this means to be the light of the world, he says, “Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” And so, light is liberating to us. Jesus as the light of the world brings freedom. And this next week, we’re told in Hebrews that one of the reasons we become subject to sin, why we’re in slavery, is a fear of death. And Jesus as the light of the world will come and die for our sins. And death shall die instead of us dying eternally. And so there is that aspect of Jesus as the light of the world. He is the light of the world that brings freedom to the captives. He brings liberty.

And in a reflected sense then we are the people who are real liberals. You know, liberal used to mean liberating or freeing. And now it means something differently. Now it’s attached to a particular political philosophy. But Christians following the great light of the Lord Jesus Christ—he comes to earth to bring heavenly light. And in his light he brings freedom for those who embrace the light. So he releases us from the dungeon of darkness captive to our sinful Adamic fallen nature and in his light he unlocks the keys to our—or he is the key unlocking the locks of our shackles and he sets us free. And he says, “If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”

And we’ll talk more about that next week. What are we free to do?

Fourth, Jesus is the light of the world bringing the light of truth. Verse 45: “But because I tell the truth,” he tells the Pharisees, “you don’t believe me.” So Jesus in this section exposing what it means to be the light of the world says that he comes to bring truth. Now that means that when we embrace lies or deceit or when we use lies, then we’re embracing darkness and when we tell the truth, we’re embracing light.

Jesus is liberation. He is heavenly light. He judges and evaluates wicked men and he establishes freedom for his people and he does this by bringing and speaking the truth. So Jesus Christ brings the light of truth to bear upon us.

Fifth, Jesus is the light of heaven being glory. All of these things are true ultimately—and we could have started here. It’s just that we’re kind of flowing through the text of John 8 that will exposit more of what this means. But ultimately these things are all true because Jesus Christ is God of God, light of light, very God of very God. And in this chapter, in chapter 8, he will he will speak to that in verse 58. Jesus will say to them, “Most assuredly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

Now, we’ve had these declarations before. We have it today. “I am the light of the world.” He’ll say, “I am the good shepherd.” But here in speaking of Abraham and whose children are whose, he says, “Before Abraham was, I am.” Jesus is the light of the world because he is the light of God himself and is God himself.

In Hebrews 1:3, we read that Jesus Christ is the brightness of the glory of God and the express image of his person. The brightness of the glory and the express image of his person. This is the Lord Jesus Christ. God is light and Jesus brings that heavenly God light to men. In Colossians 1:15, we read that he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

And then in Colossians 2:9, “In him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” And this picks up on John S.’s sermon last week. The declaration clearly in this section of John’s gospel is that Jesus is the light of the world because before Abraham was, I am. He declares he is Yahweh. He is the eternal God. We see that in our text that we read as well.

You know, Jesus says, they say, “Well, here they are. They’re dwelling in darkness. Light comes and declares itself to be light.” And they said, “Well, your testimony isn’t valid.” See, I mean, how could light validate its testimony as it comes that darkness would accept? Can’t. I mean, it’s not the way it works. So, you can see the argumentative nature of the Pharisees at play here.

But Jesus, what’s his answer? Well, he says, “My witness is true, even if I don’t have two witnesses. I know who I am. I know where I came from. I know where I’m going. I’m God.” Is what he has just told them. I mean, well, how else could you interpret this? I mean, you have millions—at least hundreds of thousands of people getting together to do a water-pouring ritual. And Jesus gets up and says, “If you’re thirsty, come to me.” Then they light these huge things to illuminate all of Jerusalem. And he says, “I’m the light of the world.” Now, this is just lunacy if he’s not declaring himself to be God. Clearly, he is.

But he also says in just a couple of verses after this that the father also witnesses to him. He says—your law—and he’s reminding them. He’s not saying it’s not my law. I mean, it’s—he’s the source of that law. But he’s tells reminds them of their need for ethical submission to the law of God. Your law says that there must be two witnesses. And my father is a witness of me and I am a witness of me. We’ve got two witnesses. What does that mean? That means that the Father and the Son are separate witnesses. That establishes the separate personhood of God the Father and God the Son. Remember John S. last week talked about modalism? So there’s one God, not three persons. He just moves in different ways of being or kind of different stages or movements of how he works. Well, here the separate personhood of Father and Son is clearly established.

So the church fathers and others have said that these texts in John chapter 8 brings light to this doctrine of the Trinity as well because Jesus declares himself to be God and yet at the same time says that he and his father bear separate witnesses. So Jesus comes as the light of God himself come to heaven to bring truth and freedom to man—to deliver us from false oppressors.

This will be quite obvious, chapter nine, that I’ve gone through chapter eight so far. But in chapter nine of this section Jesus will heal a blind man. He’ll bring sight to his eyes. So he brings him out of darkness into light by enlightening his eyes. And so Jesus illuminates the blind.

You know, it reminded me of that old song, “I saw the light. I saw the light. No more darkness. No more night.” I think it was—I don’t know what version I heard was by Hank Williams. Be nice, you know, if we’re going to do—if we’re going to build Jesus’ Day into a day-long celebration in music, a celebration of the person of God in his work, that’s not a bad song. That’s a good gospel song. We’ll probably never sing it in worship, but we ought to be singing it sometime or other about seeing the light. The blind man sees the light as he’s brought literally to the seeing again through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ as a picture of the illuminating work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now I might just mention here that in the flow of these miracles, another creation aspect is spoken of. Remember that the earth is formless and void and dark at the beginning of creation and then God comes along and forms it up. He fills the world and he brings light to the world in those first several days of creation. And this is sort of the movement here as well. Jesus—earlier the miracle that kind of corresponds to this is the lame man and he kind of forms the lame man’s legs up so he can walk again, right? He forms them and then he fills his people with miraculous bread, miraculous lifegiving water, and now he brings light to this new creation that he’s moving through.

All of these examples are to remind us what’s going on in this gospel and also of the progression that’s happening. You know, light didn’t precede water. It wasn’t in that order. It’s in the order in which light comes as the culmination or maturation of what Jesus is accomplishing in the new creation. The blind man sees the light.

But interestingly, the light of the Lord Jesus Christ also blinds those who think they see. I mean, he brings sight to the blind, but he also blinds the seeing. We read in verse 39 of chapter 9: “Jesus said, ‘For judgment, I have come into this world.’” Now, we just said that he didn’t come to judge. Well, he didn’t come to judge the way the Pharisees did—the fleshly external appearances. His primary mission is not judgment. Never is. The primary mission of Jesus Christ is new creation, the extension of covenant mercies to all the world.

But that brings with it a necessary component of judgment. And so he can say later in chapter 9:39: “For judgment I have come into this world that those who do not see may see and that those who see may be made blind.” Those who think they see, in other words, are made blind. So Jesus comes as a bright, blinding light to those who are not called according to his purpose—to those who are not the elect—to those who are given over and left to travel the road of predestination.

Next, Jesus is the light of the world dying and ruling as the good shepherd. Chapter 10, Jesus will begin a set of discourses talking about how “I am the good shepherd—sheep hear my voice,” all that stuff. That’s in the same section. And we don’t think of that normally unless we recognize that of course Jesus is declaring himself to be the great David here—as Palm Sunday also referred to him as the son of David.

And David is referred to, for instance, in 2 Samuel 21:17 as the lamp of Israel. Verse 17: “Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to his aid and struck the Philistine and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him saying, ‘You shall go out no more with us to battle lest you quench the lamp of Israel.’” So David, and I’ve given you a number of references here to where David is given as a lamp, as rule to Israel.

The good shepherd is not primarily a pastoral sort of thing. It is a ruling thing. The kings of the north and south, Israel and Judah, were those who were shepherding the people of God. And when judgments are brought against the shepherds specifically, it’s brought against the rulers of the people. Jesus comes—Christ comes—as the good shepherd, as the light, the lamp, the ruling, fourth day mature king of Israel and of the world. King David in the Bible is called a lamp. A lamp. And so Jesus as the good shepherd is a lamp. Jesus is the light of the world also in bringing the dead from the darkness of the tomb to the brightness of the day.

After we go through these declarations by Jesus of what he is as light of the world and he heals the blind man, and then he says, “I’m the good shepherd. I’m the king. I’m the ruling one here like the greater David. I’m the lamp of Israel and in fact the lamp of the world.” Then the next thing he does is to raise Lazarus from the dead and very explicitly this is coming from the darkness of the tomb into the brightness of day.

All these movements that are going on we see reflected in the particular cultural setting in which we’re at as we go into springtime and the light rules over the day. Jesus actually talks about this light and darkness not just obviously by raising Lazarus from the dead. But in chapter 11, Jesus will say, “Are there not 12 hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks in the night, he stumbles because the light is not in him.” And then he goes to bring light to the dead Lazarus. And so Jesus brings life and light together to Lazarus and raises the dead as the light of the world.

Jesus is the light of the world being the king of Israel and of the world. And I talked beginning—the references here are to the Palm Sunday account in John’s gospel. And notice as I said that John 12 where that is recorded—the coming, the match full maturation of the savior’s work now coronated as king—happens in this concluding section before we start a new section with the disciples of Jesus, moving into this section where he declares himself to be the light of the world.

And so Jesus comes as king, king of the world in this capstone section of him being the light of the world. And then all of this is to a particular end which has immediate application for us.

Outline point K: Jesus Christ is the light of the world being the king of the children of light.

After Palm Sunday, the triumphal entry, he says in verse 36: “While you have the light, believe in the light that you may become sons of light. These things Jesus spoke and departed and was hidden from them.” And then in verse 46 of John 12, he says, “I have come as a light into the world that whoever believes in me should not abide in darkness.”

So Jesus comes that we might follow the light and even more astonishingly than that, that we might be light in the context of this world as well. The capstone of the movement of Jesus’s life is also the capstone of who we are in Christ. We are the light of the world. That incredible statement is told to us, of course, in Matthew chapter 5 verse 14 on the Sermon on the Mount. “You are the light of the world.”

Now, he tells us in today’s gospel, “I am the light of the world.” And he is distinctively that heavenly light. He is God incarnate. He brings all those wonderful blessings to us, but to the end that we might be in that fourth day creation, we may be the sun, moon, and stars in the humanity of Christ reflecting heavenly light as we go forward as rulers from this place.

As we move from the assurance of our forgiveness and the maturation of the word and mission then to go out as shining lights into this world as rulers, kings and queens for him, we go as the light of the world. That’s what Matthew 5 says. “A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a lampstand and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your lights so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

His glory is upon us. In Isaiah 60, we read that we’re to go forth as the light of God and that the glory of the Lord will be upon us. “The Gentiles will come to our light. Arise, shine, for your light has come.”

Jesus has come. The message of Palm Sunday is the king, the lamp, the light of life has come to us. And Isaiah 60 says, “Arise and shine for your light has come. Now you shine in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. You be mature men and women ruling in the context of the world in which you will go forth from this place into where your particular calling is. The Gentiles shall come to your light, kings to the brightness of your rising,” speaking first about Jesus, but certainly about us as the light of the world as well.

Ephesians 5:8-11 says, “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. For the fruit of the spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth, finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. We’re to discern and mature in terms of who we are as lights.”

Jesus calls his disciples sons of light. And he expects us to rejoice in his light today in the coming of the king to declare, “Hosanna, hosana, hosana! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. He is the king of all the world.” But he expects us to go from this place as lights into the world.

Jesus brings that light and he—all of true Jerusalem by his shining. You remember the lighting ritual said that no home, you know, in no home could you find darkness. The dwellings of everyone in Jerusalem were lit up by those tremendous huge candelabras that were set up at Feast of Tabernacles. And now Jesus comes and wherever you live, you are all the Jerusalem of God. You are all the people of God. Your Mount Zion. And wherever you dwell, the light of the Lord Jesus Christ illumines your house.

Your house is to be a shining light in the midst of darkness that the Gentiles may indeed come to your light, that you may be that light of the world. Your home—a lampstand. Your home illuminated by the true light from heaven, the shining forth of the brilliance of God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit lighting you, making you sun, moon, and stars, rulers in your homes, and that your homes might shine forth as light into the community in which you live.

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One scholar, a man named Cullmann in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, said that light can be seen as Yahweh in action. Yahweh in action. What does it mean ultimately that Jesus is the light of the world? And I think this man has it very much right. What it means is that Jesus is Yahweh in action. Children of yours, I’ve got God in action. Don’t expect to be able to spell Yahweh yet, but God in action.

When we think of light, that’s what we should think of because that’s what all these things have just taught us. The Lord Jesus Christ comes as the light of the world in action accomplishing a new creation, ruling that new creation, illuminating his people, delivering them from their enemies, saving them that they might shine forth. And the scriptures tell us specifically of these things.

Psalm 27:1: “The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? What strength of my life should I be afraid of?” God is light and that specifically is related here to the work of God in removing any enemies you have, destroying them, and making you victorious over them. The light of God’s countenance is God in action delivering his people.

Psalm 44:3: “They did not gain possession of the land by their own sword, nor did their own arm save them, but it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your countenance because you have favored them.” It is the light of the Lord Jesus Christ that has brought us into victory.

No psalm has this repeatedly more often than in Psalm 80. Psalm 80 beginning at verse one: “Give ear, oh shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock, you who dwell between the cherubim, shine forth. Shine forth, Jesus, the light of the world, we’re praying you would shine forth before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir up your strength and come and save us.”

You see the parallelism? What do they mean when they ask God to be the light of the world? To shine forth that they might be saved. Stir up your strength. Come and save us. Verse three: “Restore us, oh God. Cause your face to shine and we shall be saved.” Verse seven: “Cause your face to shine and we shall be saved.” Verse nineteen: “Cause your face to shine and we shall be saved.”

Jesus is the light of the world. Jesus is Yahweh in action, delivering and saving his people from all enemies, external and internal, from our sins and from those who would try to compete or to control us from without.

God says that Jesus is the light of the world. Jesus is Yahweh in action. And Yahweh in action calls us today to be the light of the world as we go forth into this world, according to Matthew 5, which means we are to be Christians in action.

You know, I was listening to a tape this morning by Bill Mouser. He’s the one that had that study section book tapes on the five aspects of man and spirituality that Doug Wilson spoke about at family camp last year and he just—so far these tapes are really very good. Where is man affected by the curse? If we look at Adam, his vocation, what do men do in terms of their vocations? Well, they either abandon them mentally in their minds or they twist them. They either get lazy or they get domineering in terms of trying to exercise dominion in terms of vocation.

And he was remarking about how he’d been talking to various college professors—that the men of the generation right now that’s going through college this particular generation they seem to have no drive, they don’t seem to be in action. Now on one hand they’re not going to go out and be like Hitler who was very driven. They’re not going to, you know, start a lot of wars and they’re not going to do a lot of weird things in an evil sense. But they’re also not going to accomplish a whole lot in terms of being dominion Christians either.

Jesus says that we’re to be lights of the world, the light of the world. And he calls us to understand that what that means in terms of the scriptures is that light is God in action, Yahweh in action. Men, when you go to your workplace tomorrow, be lights. Be rulers. Be men of action. Don’t settle for just the status quo. Don’t go and just put in your time. Go and understand that your vocation is a holy calling before God. And you are called to shine as lights in the world by being men in action at work.

You have the knowledge of the whole world in between these pages of your scriptures as the Spirit of God illumines our understanding with those words. These are the principles of all truth and reality. You know these things. You have an unction from the Holy Spirit. You know all things. You know how to remake the face of the earth, so to speak, word and exercise dominion in the context of the world. You know how it is to manage people—to keep the little Adams and Eves, as some of you are in management position.

You get tired of their petty squabblings, their sinful actions against one another. You can expect nothing different from non-Christians. But you should know through a study of the book of Proverbs how to make those people efficient, though evil. How to channel those particular people, even though they’re not Christians, to accomplish true dominion tasks in the context of our world. You should aspire to leadership.

You should aspire to be able to apply dominion in the context of your workplace. It will not happen if you are slothful. It will not happen if you are sluggardly. The book of Proverbs is the book that tells you how to be wise and understanding. How to go from the simple understanding of what God says you must do in the law to applying that law in maturity with understanding, with wisdom. Solomon threatens to split a baby because he’s wise beyond years.

He’s not just a priest knowing the details of the law and what specifically—he takes the law and applies it. He’s not back there in grammar school where everything is memorization as priests. He’s up there in rhetoric now. He’s taking the word of God and he’s applying it with wisdom. That’s your unction, men of God. Go into the world tomorrow as dominion men.

Now, I can say this because a number of you are having vocational employment problems. And I wouldn’t do it if there were just one or two of you. I’m not talking about anybody specifically here. But I’m saying that if you don’t have a job tomorrow, you still have a job tomorrow. Whether it’s looking for work, part-time, putting yourself to a useful task, you guys that are struggling vocationally, this is still for you. Even though you’re not going to work tomorrow, be men of action.

This world wants you to believe the lie. As I said earlier, the damnable lie that apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, we can understand things. We can go to some kind of eternity. Boulder dash. All that’s wrong. And this world offers nothing more than a life of pleasantness to be, you know, tasting along the way. And if you got to work a hard day once in a while, well, you know, that’s the necessity to get the little good things that you like.

But Jesus is the light of the world. Jesus is Yahweh in action. And if we’re going to be lights in the world, we’re to be men and women of action. And in a culture that is slothful to the nth degree, God says that you, if you are men of action, you can accomplish great things in this world. In fact, you are needed to tame those ungodly men and women that all too often you think it’s diversion from your task—you managers—but it isn’t. You see, if you know wisely how to work with people and get rid of the petty squabbles—if I can figure out how to do that in my home—then everybody becomes more productive for the kingdom, even those who are not submitted to the King because you know how to, as a wise ruler, manage their work for dominion work that you’re called to do.

God says that on Palm Sunday Jesus is coronated as king and every Lord’s day we celebrate the goodness of the Lord Jesus Christ—that he’s the king of the world. And every Sunday, we’re reminded as we move from birth and washing through maturation, feeding, that we are called to go out from this place as lights in the midst of a dark world. We are to be the light of the world as we leave this place. We are to be like Jesus. We are to be like Yahweh—men and women in action.

Let’s pray.

Father, we thank you, Lord God, for the high calling you’ve given to us. We thank you for the delightfulness of this season, rejoicing in the resurrection of our Savior and his coronation as king. Help us, Lord God, to think through what it means for us to be men and women of action in a way that we haven’t been this past week. Empower the fathers in this church to be men of action, teaching their children the scriptures, guiding them in devotions. Help them, Lord God, in their vocations to be men of action, applying the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Help us, Father, to see ourselves as mature in Jesus. And help us to be mature men and women. Help us to leave behind sloth and the pastimes that all so often occupy so much of our time, Lord God. And help us attend to the dominion work you’ve called us to do. And help us to joy in that work as a candle joys to shine forth in the darkness. Help us, Father, to joy to be men and women in action.

In Christ’s name we ask it. Amen. Amen. Amen.