Stepping Into the Light

This is week three of our Bible study, Simply Jesus, where Jesus clearly and simply says to us, I am the light of the world. Light is another element, just like bread that we discussed last week, that's essential for us. We have to have light. And in the same way we had a miracle associated with the bread of life, we're going to have a miracle associated with the light of the world as well. Another object lesson, if you will. But before we get to that, where our study really settles, there are a few highlights or insights from chapters seven and eight that I want to draw our attention to because I just don't want to pass them up. And so I'm going to start with those. The first one I want to remind you or ask you, do you remember last week Jesus said, I am the bread of life? But he also said, I am the living bread. And we talked about that a little bit. Whoever comes to me, whoever believes in me will never hunger or thirst. Well, there's a couple verses in chapter seven that sort of where John sort of complements or completes that thought. And so I want to look at it. I'll put it on the slide for you here. John 7, 37 and 38. Jesus said, or it says, on the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. All right. Living bread, living water. That's the connection that John made. Hunger and thirst go together like bread and water go together. And then we also talked about last week that living bread implied that it did something. It was alive. It did something. Living water implies that it is alive. It does something. So let's, let's put this together. I'll put the verse, I'll continue on the verse in just a little bit here. Verse 38, out of his heart, the one who comes to Jesus will flow rivers of living water. This he said about the spirit whom those believed in him were to receive, for as yet the spirit had not yet been given. Now we're New Testament Christians and the spirit has been given. So to us, that's present tense. So let's talk about the living bread and the living water doing something. As we form a union with Christ, our living bread, he becomes the fuel that we need to do the fruit, to be fruitful, to do the good works he planned for us, to have fruit and eternal life. He becomes that fuel for us. As we form a union with Jesus, our living water, streams of living water flow from us out to those around us. So I kind of like what I see in here is that the bread fuels us and the water flows out. Now that's optional for us, isn't it? It is optional for a Christian to allow the living bread to fuel them. It is optional for a Christian to allow living water to flow out of them. It requires that we yield. We must yield to the work of the Lord. Just because we formed a union with Christ doesn't necessarily mean that this will be effective. We must yield to his work in our lives. But the important concept is that in both of these instances, I love how Jesus said, whoever comes, whoever believes, if anyone, the invitation is given to anyone who will respond. And so we learn that Jesus becomes to our spiritual life like bread and water is to our physical life. The second little highlight that I want to point out is in verse 37, how this passage started and I'll just condense it here. It says on the last day of the feast, the great day, and we're talking about the Feast of Booths here. This is the feast that is going on. So let's take a history minute to get a picture of what this even looked like. The Feast of Booths was an annual feast that God had asked Israel to observe, to commemorate things. And we have a kind of a calendar of feasts in Leviticus. So I'm going to just draw from that and I'll show you in Leviticus here how this is described. This is talking about the Feast of Booths, also called the Feast of Tabernacles. You shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths for seven days that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. And look how it ends, I am the Lord your God. Now the point of this feast was to remember how God provided for them when they pulled them out of Egypt and as they were going on their wilderness journey. How did God provide for them when they left Egypt? They had left the resources that they had in Egypt and God himself became their provision. He became their covering, if you will. And he chose to cover them by day with the pillar of cloud that directed them but also cooled them from the hot desert sun. He covered them at night with the pillar of fire that directed them but also warmed them from the cool desert floor. And when the tabernacle was finally erected, the cloud settled above the tabernacle. And so that is what they're commemorating is that time that God led them and how he covered them. And so it's the feast of booths. Go out and make for yourselves these sort of coverings, these booths. Now by Jesus's time, which is centuries later, as we do in life, a few little additional things had been added as tradition. They weren't bad things. It's kind of like maybe our Independence Day celebration. Nobody even calls it that. We call it the 4th of July. And things have been added. If you didn't know about our history, you would think we're celebrating the invention of fireworks or hot dogs or the Weber grill or something like that because those are the things. Isn't that 4th of July to you? Isn't that like that makes those added things make the tradition? And so in Jesus's day, the feast of booths in Jerusalem looked like this. Every morning the priests would go and get water from the pool of Siloam and they would carry it in a procession to the temple court and they would pour it out near the brazen altar. It was a great thing to do. It represented, I suppose, how God had provided water from the rock for them during that wilderness journey. And so that's great. And then every evening the priests would light these four large candelabras that were in the temple court and would light them and they would burn for I don't know how long. But it a good representation of like that pillar of fire. So these were great things. And to the people who lived in Jerusalem, that was the feast of tabernacles. That was something that was really important. And so what I wonder as we read this passage, what I wonder because it says on the last day, the great day of the feast, I sort of wonder in anticipation of those candelabras being snuffed out and the light going out and Israel going back into a year now of darkness, if that's when Jesus said what you wrote in John 8, 12, I am the light of the world. Whoever comes to me, whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. They were about ready to be thrust back into the darkness. And Jesus said, this is what you're celebrating. He's kind of saying what you're doing. This is a symbol. I am the light of life. You'll never be in darkness. It will never be snuffed out. I just wonder about that. He could have, Jesus could have personalized some words. If you allow me to take liberties with a few passages that are maybe familiar to us, Jesus could have personalized what John started his gospel with. I am the true light that gives light to everyone. I have come into the world, or he could have personalized what Paul wrote to the Colossians. I will rescue you from the dominion of darkness and bring you into my kingdom of light. Or he could have personalized what Paul wrote to the Ephesians. At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in me, light in the Lord. And we're going to come back to that Ephesians passage, but we better get into our real Bible study before too much time goes by here. John, again, will recount for us Jesus's words and his actions together. And I love that Jesus is so kind and gracious and repetitive to say the same things from so many different directions. He just faces a different way and says the same thing over and over again. And that's what our entire Bible study is about, is this repetitive Jesus giving us another view, another object lesson to help explain. All right, so let's start in John chapter nine, verse one. And it says, as he passed by, he saw a man blind. from birth. And his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? And Jesus answered, wrong question. What he really said was, it's not this man that sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. In that moment, Jesus' disciples did not seem to expect a miracle, even though they were accustomed to a lot of miracles. What they did seem to have was opinions about what they saw in front of them, opinions about why the man was blind. And they wanted to find out if their opinions were proper. Was it this man who sinned? Assumptions, maybe I should say. What they did have was assumptions. But the point is never a focus on sin. The point is always the focus on salvation. And that's what Jesus is trying to get them to focus on. So verse four says, we must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Having said these things, he spit on the ground, he made mud with the saliva, and then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud. And he said to him, go wash in the pool of Siloam, which means sent. So he went and washed and came back seeing. Now, I think it's noteworthy for us to stop right there and note where Jesus sent this man to go wash. Because this is the same pool that during this festival, the feast, that the priests were taking water out of this pool and coming and demonstrating a symbol which has no effect. It was a dead symbol. It was fine. But it was not changing anyone's life. And now when the living water, Jesus is here telling the man to go back to that same pool, something happened. Living water does something. Now this time that water is doing something to this man. Now, fun fact about that. I didn't know much about the pool of Siloam, but I did a little research. Did you know that this was just recently discovered in 2004? It was just recently that this was uncovered. Now when we have a water main break in Ontario, they dig down and we are never expecting to find ancient civilizations underneath our ground here. But when a water main breaks in Jerusalem, you know that you're probably going to find another layer of civilization. And that's exactly what happened. They were trying to repair and realized, oh, we better bring in an archeological crew here because we've stumbled upon something. And so they began excavating. Took about a year. By the time they were done, they had uncovered this not quite rectangular, a little bit more trapezoidal pool that isn't like a swimming pool like you dive in, but more like these little steps here, like you can just step down into this. And everyone agrees this is the pool of Siloam, but we didn't know it existed. We didn't see it with our eyes until just recently. So isn't that fascinating that all just, it seems like every decade or so we have something it's like, oh, well that's what the Bible talked about. Anyway, back to this. Verse 8, it says, the neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, isn't this the man who used to sit and beg? And some said, yeah, it's him. Others said, no, it just looks like him. But what I'm going to do is highlight for us, like we did in our study guide, what the man himself says. And look at his first words. He kept saying, I am the man. And so I'm going to go ahead and start with that on the slide. I am the man. In verse 10, they said to him, well then how were your eyes opened? And he answered, the man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, go to Siloam. And so I went, I washed, and I received my sight. And that's the second thing that he declared. And so then they said to him, well, where is he? And he said, I don't know. And they brought to the Pharisees, the man who had formerly been blind. And now it was a Sabbath day. Of course, it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, he put mud on my eyes. I washed and I see. And some of the Pharisees said, well, this man isn't from God for he does not keep the Sabbath. But others said, well, how can a man who's a sinner do such signs? And there was a division among them. And so they said again to the blind man, what do you say about him since he opened your eyes? And now the blind man adds, well, he must be a prophet. He must be something special to God. Well, the Jews didn't believe that he'd been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents and they asked the parents, is this your son who you say was born blind? How then does he now see? And his parents answered, well, we know it's our son and we know that he was born blind, but how now he sees, we do not know and nor do we know who opened his eyes. You go ahead and ask him. He's of age. He'll tell you. And John even tells us why the parents pushed them off is because they were afraid. They were afraid that they would be put out of the synagogue. And that's why they said, let's go talk to him. Leave us out of this. Verse 24. So for a second time, they called the man who had been blind and they said to him, give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner. And he answered whether he is a sinner or not. I do not know. But look at, let's add his words here. He said, one thing I do know that though I was blind, now I see. And we let ourselves through a progression in that, that maybe we could personalize his words and see our own spiritual journey in there. And so look at the first thing that is so important. The man said, I am that man. And it's so important that each one of us owns our darkness. We have to own our spiritual darkness and say, I am that sinner. That is me. I identify with that. That's my starting point. And then he said, Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes. I went and washed and received my sight. And it reminds us that Jesus, that God reaches out to us first. Look at in this story, Jesus made the mud and put on his eyes, but he had to respond in faith, didn't he? He had to go to the pool. That wasn't the magic. That was just the response of faith. And in the same way, that is our spiritual progression. God reveals himself to us and what do we, we must respond. We must have an act of faith to respond. And then the last thing, I love how the man says, one thing I do know, though I was blind, now I see. You guys, I don't know everything about God. I don't know everything about the Bible. I can't figure out the world, but each one of us can say one thing I do know. One thing is needful, right? One thing I do have figured out is that Jesus is the one that takes us from darkness to light. Jesus is the one that has saved me. There's one thing we can figure out. So it seems pretty easy. And I've often said it's very simple to make peace with God. It is very simple to step into the light. That is our title for this lesson, stepping into the light. It is a very simple thing unless you love darkness. Then it becomes complicated. And Jesus told Nicodemus earlier in John's gospel about people who love darkness. And we'll go there in a minute, but let's, let's finish this text and you, and see the example of people who love darkness right here. Okay. Verse 26, they said to him, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? And he answered them, I've told you already and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you maybe also want to become his disciples? He's spicy, isn't he? And they reviled him saying you are his disciple, but we're disciples of Moses. And we know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we don't even know where he comes from. And then the man answered, why this is an amazing thing. What he's getting at is you are Israel's guides. You are the religious voice of Israel. So this is an amazing thing. He says, you don't even know where he comes from. And yet he opened my eyes. We know that God doesn't listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. And so our man now, our blind man who receives sight, he's already preaching. He's already preaching to the hardest crowd there is. So look at that progression. I love it. And he's sharing his faith right away. Okay. And so how do they respond? They answered him, well, you were born in utter sin and would you teach us? And they cast him out. Okay. And that is our example. Right there, of what it looks like when someone loves the darkness. When their mind has been darkened. Now let's go to John chapter 3, I'll put it on the screen so you don't have to turn. Let's go to Jesus' words to Nicodemus. This is the judgment. The light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come into the light lest his works should be exposed. And so Jesus was explaining as well, some people love the darkness and he told us why. And Jesus used a term for people like this often, especially in Matthew, he called them blind guides. Jesus called them blind guides because they were blinded. How people who were certain that they had wisdom to guide people but they were foolish. Now how do people's hearts become foolish? And the apostle Paul tells us about that in Romans. So I want to look at that, Romans chapter 1, Paul says, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. But they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools. All right, now let's talk about our life and our world because we all live among someone who's foolish. We can see a layer of darkened hearts, a layer of blindness in our culture and then personally we probably have people in our life, have you ever said, she's so blind, right? And we're a little bit perplexed sometimes at the blindedness, the darkenness of people's hearts and it hurts us because we love people. There's people that we love that have stepped into a blindedness and it tears our hearts apart, doesn't it? We just want them to see. We just want them to step into the light. All of us have people like this and so I want to take a little moment to say, what do we do? Do we just despair? Do we just stay in discouragement? What do we do when we realize that there's people around us who love darkness, who have darkened hearts, however, whatever term you want to use. They have not stepped into the light, okay? People can only receive sight, spiritual sight, by stepping into the light. All right, number one thing is we remember Jesus is the light of the world and so we pray earnestly for those people that God himself would be the revealer of light to them in his time and his way and we pray and we intercede for people. But then, number two, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, you are the light of the world. What? We are the light of the world? That's what Jesus said. You are the light of the world. And so, back to those streams of living waters flowing out of us, we have a part to play in those around us as well. Now, the Apostle Paul talked about this in Ephesians chapter 5 that I said it was going to take us to and I think you'd like to turn to this in your Bibles. So turn to Ephesians chapter 5. We're going to start on verse 8. And I'll put the slide on the screen as well. Paul said, for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. That's his way of saying you are the light of the world. He's reminding us all, at one time you were darkness, but now you're light in the Lord. And then what is his instructions? Walk as children of light, okay? And then he begins to give us a little manual now. And I'm going to put some bullet points to some of these verses that follow that give us inspiration. How do we walk as children of light? How are we the light of the world? And so I'm going to use his verses and put some bullet points up for you. And the first one is verse 10. Paul says, discern what is pleasing to the Lord. And I'm going to title that, be honoring. Discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Honor the Lord with your life. The things that you do, the choices that you make, the places that you go, be honoring to the Lord in your movements in life. The next one is verse 11. He says, take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. And so I'm going to put our bullet point, be a spotlight. Oh, we don't want to do that. We'd kind of rather be like the parents of the blind man. I don't know. I don't know anything. Push it off on somebody else. But Paul says, in order to be the light, we expose the unfruitful works of darkness. And the Lord will give you, give us wisdom to know how to do that. Verse 13, he said, when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible. And so we want those things to become visible, to not flourish in the darkness like our spiders do under the crawl space or something like that. Next in verse 15, look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise. And so let's just call that be wise. Walking in the light means being wise. Be wise about what we do. I like this next one in verse 16. I called it be time conscious, be time conscious. And what Paul says is making the best use of time because the days are evil. Best use of time in small ways and large ways. We all know what it looks like to waste time, don't we? We all know what that looks like. And so this is a good exhortation, making the best use of time. There could be so many things we could be doing at any given moment. And there's a good, a better, and a best. Making the best use of time. All right, two more. Be discerning. Verse 17 says, and do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. What is the will of the Lord in my life? I like to say, what are the works that he has prepared for me to do? What is the will of the Lord? To understand that. And then lastly, the final capping one in verse 18. He says, do not get drunk with wine, but be filled with the spirit. And so I call that be sober. Be sober minded. Be careful with our minds that anything that we bring into our body does not impair our thinking, does not impair our ability to think clearly. Be sober and filled with the spirit. So I think applying this little short manual about how am I the light of the world, I think it can help us. And then also understanding Jesus is the light of the world. We pray for God's spirit over them, but it helps us from being overwhelmed or discouraged. And that's not how we want to live. Now, the story of the blind man would be wonderful, even if it ended right where we ended. But there's a little reprise to it. And with a lot of miracles, we don't get this sweet little reprise. And so I love this. So we're going to continue on here. After he had been cast away, it says Jesus heard that they cast him out. And having found him, he looked at him and he said, do you believe in the son of man? And he answered, and who is he, sir, that I may believe in him? You know, the man didn't see him when he healed his eyes because he was blind. So he says, who is he that I might believe in him? And Jesus says, you have seen him. I'm right here. You've seen him now. And it is he who is speaking to you. And then look how the man responds. He said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. I love that John added that in the text, that this man went all the way. His first words were, I am that man. I am a sinner. All the way to worshipping Jesus. That is a lovely place to end this lesson, except we can't end it there. There's a couple more verses. And the way I read these verses is Jesus talking, still looking at the man, but talking rather loudly. Have you ever stood in the kitchen and you talk in just a little bit of a louder voice? Well, I'm going to empty the dishwasher now. This is me emptying the dishwasher, hoping that someone overhears your words, right? That's how I picture Jesus. Is that irreverent? But I picture him in this next verse saying, for judgment I came into this world. That those who do not see may see, and those who see become blind. And it worked like a charm. Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, Are we also blind? Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you say, We see, your guilt remains. And it's always a person's choice to step into the light. It's always a person's choice to go from blindness to seeing. The judgment here that Jesus is talking about in verse 39 is a work of humility rather than pride that comes naturally to us. The man showed that humility. He went from I am that man to Lord, I believe, and he moved on to worship. The Pharisees showed the work of pride, and their guilt remained. Jesus used the vocabulary of a courtroom here, either acquittal or guilt. And the person is either acquitted or they remain guilty. And that's why he said to them, Your guilt remains, because your pride remains, and you won't step into the light. Pride is humankind's biggest problem. But I love how Jesus said, Whoever will, to anyone, there is the opportunity to step into the light. So let's pray. Father God, thank you for this lesson. Thank you for another view of who you are, another view of salvation, another view of our spiritual life. And Lord, we trust you with those that are around us who are steeped in darkness. Lord, we say right now that we trust you with those souls. We pray, we trust that in your time and in your way, you will give them always another opportunity to step into the light. And Lord, in the meantime, I ask that you would help us to be the light. Lord, would you equip us right now, each one of us in this room, to be an army of light that goes out into the world and expresses who you are to the world. And we thank you for it in Jesus' name. Amen.