Good morning,

As you can see, or at least I hope you can see, I’m not Pastor Neal. He and his family are enjoying time with Elsa in Nepal. Let’s all be sure to keep them always in our prayers.

Neal, Lea Ann, Anna, and Britta are coming along side Elsa in the mission fields of Nepal and I’m very humbled and privileged that Pastor Neal asked that I lead you in a sermon this morning.

Let’s begin with a word of prayer.

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In Jesus’ teachings, particularly in the Book of John, Jesus made several “I am” statements.

Today I would like to discuss one of my favorites, which is the “I am the light of the world” quote that Jesus made when he was speaking to the religious leaders of the time.

Let’s read the story from the book of John, chapter 8, beginning with verse 12.

While you’re finding this passage in your Bibles, I’d like you to think for a moment about the importance of light, the physical light that we receive naturally from the Sun.

What would this world be like without light?

Well, I suppose it wouldn’t be much of a world at all. It wouldn’t take long before all the plants that rely on sunlight to exist would die. Soon after that all the animals that eat plants would starve. Then all the animals that eat other animals would also starve. Without the plants and animals, the Human race would certainly die as well.

That’s just including the absence of light. Without the heat of the sun life on earth would surely end very quickly.

 I think it’s safe to say that; Light equals life! Darkness equals death!

Now I know that some of you smart people who watch the Discovery channel know of these species of fish that live in complete darkness at the bottom of the Ocean. Well I suspect that even for these fish, the absence of light to the world above would eventually lead to the loss of their food supply and result in their extinction.

Isn’t Gods creation wonderful? How symbolic the natural world is to the spiritual world.

You see, Jesus is the light of the world! If you have his light you have spiritual life! Without his light you’re walking in spiritual darkness. And that means spiritual death.

Let’s read from God’s word.

(Read John 8:12-20) 

Let’s get the setting and the context of this important passage of scripture.

Jesus is speaking to the people at the temple in Jerusalem.

And as usual when Jesus is teaching, the Pharisees are watching for him to slip up in some way.

Most commentators agree that this passage probably took place at the feast of tabernacles, an eight day Jewish festival celebrating the harvest. During this festival, many ceremonial fires were lit at the temple for the required sacrifices.

Now, I don’t know the exact circumstances of this encounter, but I wonder if it happened something like this;

Jesus is walking somewhere on the temple mount and a large group of followers were with him.

Jesus notices a large ceremonial fire is lit for the celebration. He sees the light the fire gives and recognizes immediately that this is a teachable moment. He turns to the people and declares, “I am the light of the world”

Now the ever watchful and chastising Pharisees immediately gasp at this declaration by Jesus.

This group of self righteous religious leaders misunderstood Jesus’ teachings in so many ways, but I believe they immediately knew what Jesus was claiming.

They didn’t agree with what his claim was, but they understood his claim.

You see, Jesus was claiming to be God!

Whatever the shortcomings of the Pharisees were, they did have a thorough grasp of scripture.

They understood from scripture that God is often referred to as light and the expected Messiah was said to be the light of salvation.

Let me read to you some of these Old Testament verses.

Psalm 27:1; The LORD is my light and my salvation- whom shall I fear?

Psalm 36:9; For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.

Psalm 43:3; Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell.

Psalm 56:13; For you have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.

Psalm 119:105; Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Isaiah 2:5; Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the LORD.

Daniel 2:22; He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him.

Micah 7:8; Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light.

These are just a few passages referring to the light of the LORD and from these passages the Pharisees understood that Jesus is claiming to be the Messiah.

 I gather from this and other passages referring to the Pharisees that they thought they were the light of the world. Or rather, their job was to reveal God’s light to the world through the law. Do you think they were jealous of Jesus?

Here Jesus was claiming not only to be revealing God’s light, but claiming to actually be the light of the world.

They scoffed as they tried to rebuke his claim. “Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.”

You see, according to the law, in order for a testimony to be valid, a witness was required.

Jesus validated his testimony with the most perfect of credentials.

First of all, he bases his testimony on his own knowledge and their ignorance.

They don’t know where he came from, but he does! (v.14)

He came from heaven above, and he knows why he was sent here; to save a perishing world!

Second, his witness is his father. The Pharisees don’t know that his father is God the Father, but regardless, he has a witness to his testimony.

The Pharisees want to know where they could find his father, possibly to question him on this testimony.

Jesus rebukes them by saying they don’t know him or his father by in essence saying that he and his father are one.

As usual the self righteous Pharisees don’t understand.

Jesus said “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Wow! What a powerful statement! It’s really sets up a great doctrine of the Bible, the doctrine of light.

The doctrine that, those who have the light have life.  Those who don’t have the light have death.

Turn with me please to John Chapter 1.

(Read John 1:1-9)

Friends, on that day so long ago when sin entered the world, all creation fell into darkness, the darkness and evil of sin. And that sin means death to all mankind, for all have sinned.

Throughout history mankind has tried to reach up to God. Most people believe in some type of divine being, but they somehow try to reach God’s approval by doing good works or being good people, or following useless rituals. But the truth is all our good works are like filthy rags to God. No one can be good enough to overcome their sin. Except Jesus. Jesus came into this world from heaven to overcome sin. Not his sin, he led a perfect sin free life, but the sin of the world.

You see, trying to find God by our own means or in our own power is like trying to find your way in the dark. It’s like trying to find your way out of the deepest, densest jungle in complete darkness.

As many of you know, I work as a lineman for the Power Company. As part of my job I often get called out from home to respond to power outages.

I remember one call in particular. It was the middle of the night some years ago and a small storm had just passed through the area. Sure enough, after the storm had passed by, the phone rings.

It’s my work.

Now days, our call out system is automated. A recorded voice asks me to press one if I’m available to work, or press two if not.

But, back then a real person called me out. It was a dispatcher from Eau Claire.  Over time and after many callouts, a person gets to know these dispatchers quite well. This particular dispatcher seemed to take great pleasure in waking people up and telling them to go to work.

The conversation went something like this;

Briiiiing!

“Hello”

“Clint old buddy! This is Denny”, what ya doin’? “

“What do you think I’m doing?  I was sleeping.”

“Well, as long as you’re up now, do you want to go out and play? Ayre  Street 22 feeder is locked open.  A lot of people are out of power.”

“Sure Denny I’ll be right in”

Click

As soon as I hang up the phone I realize what he had said, Ayre Street 22 feeder was out of power. That’s where the power supply comes from that feeds our house!  I immediately look at our digital clock and sure enough, no power.

I exclaimed to Sydney, probably a little too loudly, “Hey Sydney, our power’s out”

In a not so encouraging voice she mumbles something like, “Well why you don’t go fix it then!”

So I got up and realized it wasn’t going to be easy to function without lights.

I knew I would need some light in order to get dressed and find my way to the truck.

So, I did what I think most of you would do in this situation; I turned on the light switch……Nothing. “Oh yeah, the power’s out”.

I then try to grope and feel my way to the bedroom door, which of course is amazingly hard to do without light.

Bam, I hit my knee on the dresser; ouch, I stub my toe on the bedpost; bang, I jam my finger on the wall, until finally I reach the door.

I know it’s the door because it wasn’t open nor was it closed. It was half open as I discover with the end of my nose….Bam, ouch!

At this point I distinctly remember hearing giggling coming from the bed.

I again did what most of you would have done as you reached the door…I flipped on the light switch. “Oh yeah, the power’s out.”

Okay, I made it out of the bedroom and into the kitchen. Of course I try the lights in that room too, - habit, you know.

My goal was to make it to the kitchen cabinet where I knew Sydney kept the matches and candles.

I grope and feel my way along the wall to the cabinets. I realize that the giggling I’ve been hearing all along has now turned into quite a chuckle. Oh, if I just had a little light, then I could function. Finally, I make it to the cabinet and feel my way to the matches. After several attempts I get one to light. Ah, just the little light from that tiny match! Now I can function.  I light a nearby candle, get myself dressed, pull on my boots and I’m on my way.

I fixed the problem with the power line and turned the power back on. I must confess I probably took too much joy in turning the power back on as I remembered all the light switches I had left on as I left the house and thinking of Sydney being startled awake by the glaring surge of light throughout the house.

Now, I say all this to illustrate this point, God has sent a glaring beacon of light into this dark world. He sent his Son to light the way to heaven; actually he came as the only way to God.

 We don’t have to struggle to somehow try to reach God, God came to us! He did the work, He paid the price, and He made the atonement for our sin!

 God placed such a high value on each of you that he sent his precious son to this earth to die so that you may live. Jesus then proved that he is the savior by rising from the dead!

God loved us so much that he lowered himself and became a man. True light came into the world in the person of Jesus Christ! And for those of us who believe in him, those who accept him as their savior, we are now children of the light.

God’s word tells us in John 3:19-21. (Read)

Are you letting God’s light shine through you into this dark world?

If you’ve accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then you have an obligation to God to let his light shine through you.  

Paul also talks about our responsibility to be in the light in Ephesians 5:8-14. (Read)

 If, you’ve surrendered yourself to Jesus, you’ve been given such a tremendous gift, the gift of eternal life with him in heaven!  Now we have an incredible blessing to share his light with our words, our testimonies and our very lives.

I sure that most of you here, have stepped into the light, by following Jesus.  But I suspect that there are some here who haven’t. Maybe this is the first time you’ve heard the Gospel message. Maybe you’ve been hearing it your whole life but really never accepted the truth of Jesus Christ.

Jesus said to Paul on the road to Damascus as recorded for us in Acts 26; “I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.”

Won’t you turn from darkness to light today? Won’t you accept the precious sacrifice that Jesus gave on your behalf? Please do this right now. Say “God I know I’m a sinner and I’m sorry for my sin. I deserve your punishment. I now realize that Jesus Christ paid my debt and died on the cross for my sins. I know that he rose from the grave to prove he’s God. I accept him as my Lord and Savior”.

Please if you have any questions about this most important step in your life, talk to me or another leader after the service.

Let’s pray.