So we're going to be looking at this morning is John chapter 8. We're going to be going through parts of chapter 7 and chapter 8. So I encourage you to keep your Bibles open to those texts. But this morning I'm going to be reading from chapter 8 verse 12 before we get started.

Then Jesus again spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that you would ordain these words. May it go forth and not return until it has accomplished the purpose that you have ordained.

We ask Lord God that you give us soft hearts, open ears, a willing spirit, Lord God, to listen and to obey. Open our eyes, Lord, that we may understand and a desire to continue to seek you, Father God, longing to hear from you and only you. We pray for your blessing over this time.

In Jesus name we pray. All right, so now it's already been five weeks and we're hoping that at the end of maybe a week or two that we'll get some news from the government and that social distancing and all that stuff will probably be in place, but maybe the shutdown will begin to ease.

And I know many of you who are still working and not able to enjoy a lot of the things that we had before, that we're looking to go back to our normal life. And as I mentioned at the beginning of this, I think it's a good opportunity for us to reflect what is normal life?

What are the things that we miss that if it does open back up, what will we do? Maybe hang out with our friends, go to a restaurant, maybe get back to certain things that we enjoy doing in larger numbers, come back to church. What is normal? In fact, you know, this is the exact thing that Jesus was trying to address with these I am statements.

When Jesus said the seven I am statements, the emphasis on the I am statements is not that he is the bread of life or he's the light of the world, he's the resurrection and the life. It really is the I am statement, because it is the I am statement that connects him to the I am God of Yahweh of the Old Testament.

So if we read this like any other sentence, it was I am this and I am that, we missed the whole point of this, because as I said in the beginning of this, in the Greek composition of this word I am, it is the two to be statements back to back that connects this to the I am statement of God when he introduces himself to Moses and he says I am.

So the Jews clearly understood when Jesus was saying this that he was saying that he is connected to or he is God himself. But what's different about the I am statements in the New Testament is that Jesus was actually teaching the I am application to our lives. So every one of these I am statements is trying to correct what became normal to the Jewish community.

Much of it was a misunderstanding of who the Messiah was. They were expecting Jesus or the Messiah to come and he was going to feed them, take care of them, he was going to lead them, and each one of these I am statements are stated in a particular historical context.

He didn't have a curriculum of seven I am statements and decided that this is something that he needs to teach, you know, the seminary students so they can have this knowledge. Each one of these I am statements are given in a specific context that they had a misunderstanding or expectation of what they thought the Messiah was going to be and Jesus was correcting them, a correct understanding of the I am is that he is the bread of life, that he is the light, he is the door, he is the shepherd.

And so if you remember, we've gone through two I am statements already. We have the I am the bread of life and the context in which he says that is after he feeds the 5,000 and they're looking for more bread and Jesus says I am the bread of life.

Last week we talked about in the resurrection, Jesus says I am the resurrection and the life. He says that in the context of raising Lazarus because they wanted him to live. And so in that context he says no, it is not just because he has breath, he says I am the resurrection and the life.

So today's statement, I mean we've already gone through two, this is actually the third, but out of the seven, this is the second, out of the seven statements where he says I am the light of the world. It is also within a specific historical context. He wasn't just saying this out of the blue into the air.

If you look at chapter seven, again I'm not going to turn there, but if you look at chapter seven, he says this in the context at the end of one of the Jewish's seven major feasts. In fact it happens to happen at the very end of their calendar. The beginning of their calendar starts with the Passover and then the seventh and the last of the festivals was called the feast of booths.

Some of your translations may have feasts of tabernacles and it was the same. They consider this probably the biggest of their ceremonies. And we would naturally think that it may have been the Passover, you know. But the Jews celebrated this in a big way because it was connected to two specific things that was going on.

One, it was the celebration at the end of the harvest. So you can kind of think of it as their Thanksgiving. But after the harvest they would collect all the fruits and all the bounty that they had from the harvest and they would take that and then all throughout the week they would have these big festivals.

They would have families gather together and have these huge festivals. And so it was like a Thanksgiving and this lasted for about eight days. And during these eight days, one of the things that they did was they would set out a temporary booth. And what we would consider like a tent.

And the reason why they did that was to remember God's deliverance of Israel and how God led them through the desert for 40 years. So if you remember the Passover was to celebrate how God protected them over the angel of death and led them out of Israel, or led them out of Egypt.

The Feast of Booth was a celebration of how God led them in the desert for 40 years and protected them. So they would live in tents for those eight days, having these large festivals, enjoying the bounty of their harvest. And at the end of the eighth day, again, they would have a ceremony to remember that God is the one who delivered them.

So Jesus is saying, I am the light of the world in the context of them celebrating the Feast of Booth. And the reason why this is so significant is because one of the main things, main things that they did in this ceremony was that they set up at the temple a 75 foot, like a lamp, four of them.

And so the priest would climb this up and light this and it would be going for seven, for eight days. And so it would light up the whole temple. And the purpose of this lighting was to remember that while they were in the desert, during the day, the cloud would, cloud would be with them and God's presence would be with them.

And whenever the cloud would move, they would move with the cloud. But at night, there would be this fire, right? And the fire would lead them in the darkness in the desert. And so wherever the fire moved, they would move. So they would light this torch to remind the nation of Israel that this is how God led them.

And that torch, every time they saw it, would remind them that the Messiah was going to come and they would also be led, like the fire led them through the desert. So it was at that ceremony, looking at that lamp that Jesus is telling the nation of Israel, I am that light.

I am the Messiah. But you'll be interested if you read the rest of chapter eight. Remember, we looked at chapter six and it starts out with them wanting to make Jesus king. Well, chapter eight begins with people kind of questioning him in the middle of the chapter, chapter 30, chapter eight, verse 31.

He says many of the Jews believed him. And so he's talking to Jews who have believed him in the context of him saying, I am the light. He says, if you abide in me, right, you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. And then they have, he has this encounter with these Jews who believed him.

But at the end of the chapter, it says they wanted to kill him. So we see in the first, in chapter six, they want to make him king. And then chapter 666, because of what he says, they wanted to leave. Chapter eight, Jesus says he's the light of the world.

And as a result of what he says at the end of the chapter, they want to kill him. So Jesus is correcting something about their belief about the Messiah that was skewed. So whatever it is that you were thinking was normal was unbiblical, wasn't correct. So Jesus says that he has come to bring true light.

So what we want to do this morning is to look at three aspects of what this light represents. What did Jesus mean and how did they understand it? And what does the Bible teach us about that? So the way I phrase it so that it could be easier to follow along in these three ways, what does the darkness represent in light of the light?

So the first one. So if you're looking at the outline, those of you who are at home, darkness represents ignorance as light represents revelation. Darkness represents ignorance as light represents revelation. All throughout the scripture, it is stated that the reason why the Israelites were straying from God is because they did not know him, Isaiah 513.

Therefore my people go into exile for their lack of knowledge. Isaiah 4.6, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. As Christ was hanging on the cross, he cries out to his father, said, "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing." In other words, they were completely blind.

Whatever it was that they thought that they saw was wrong. They were looking in the darkness. So when Jesus says he is the light, he's basically saying is, I came to open your eyes to see the truth. To cause us to see, to shed light on what is truth.

In John 1.9, it says, "There was a true light which was coming into the world, which enlightens every man." So in other words, when he says to the Jews, I am the light of the world, he's telling them that everything that I'm telling you is true. I came to bring you truth.

Which many of them would have been offended by because all this time the Jews thought that they had the truth. They had the Old Testament. They had the prophets. They had all their experiences. They had all these festivals. So when Jesus shows up and says, no, I am the truth.

And he was basically telling them that they're blind. So if you look at the encounter that Jesus has with them, they're very offended by what they say, what he says. So it wasn't just a, I am the light of the world. You know, it's like, oh, okay, you're light, we're light, we're all light.

They knew exactly what he was saying. 2 Corinthians 4.6, it says, "For God who said, let light shine out of darkness, is the one who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." The primary thing that they were ignorant about was God himself.

And he says, Jesus says, the reason why he came was to shed light of his glory. The Bible tells us that people who do not follow Christ, people who are not Christians, it's because the God of this age, Satan, has blinded the mind of the unbeliever so they do not see the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So in other words, he says a non-Christian is somebody who remains blind. A Christian is one whose eyes have been open to the truth. And so because we saw the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we saw God's glory, we are changed. And that's exactly what Jesus means when he says, I am the light.

I have come to turn on the light so that you may see. Well how did Jesus do that? Which is really interesting because, remember I told you in the Feast of Booths, for eight days they would set up a tent, a temporary shelter where they would sleep outside of their home, remembering how God led them through the desert.

What Jesus has described in John chapter 114, the word became flesh and he says, dwelt among us. The word for dwelt here literally means to pitch a tent. That Jesus Christ came and he pitched a tent among us. And so one of the primary aspects of this festival was to live in their tents and these tents represented God's presence, how God delivered them in the midst of being lost in the desert.

When Jesus came, turned on the light, he pitched the tent among us and says, we saw his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. So first and foremost, what he means by him being the light, that he came and he pitched a tent among us so that we may open our eyes and to see the glory.

Because the Bible describes all of mankind as falling short of that glory and we could not by ourselves reach that glory, so what Jesus did was he came to us and turned the light on so that we may again see that glory. And that's a distinction between somebody who is changed and not changed.

Somebody who's just a churchgoer, somebody who grew up in the church, somebody who's culturally Christian versus somebody who is born again, completely radically changed forever. It's not a distinction between somebody who goes to church, memorizes scripture, was raised in a Christian family, who leads. The distinction between a Christian and non-Christian is somebody whose eyes have been opened by the light and the glory of Jesus Christ.

In John 14, 8 through 9, Philip says to Jesus, "Lord, show us the Father and it is enough for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been so long with you and yet you have not come to know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father.

How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?" In other words, Jesus was saying exactly what the rest of scripture says. He came to reveal God. Hebrews 4, 1, 3, "He is a radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature, God's nature, and upholds all things by the word of his power." You know, in Acts 17, 26 through 29, when Paul was introducing God and Christ to the Athenians, this is how he described it.

He said, "He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God." In other words, God has put boundaries and God has done all these things in creation for the purpose of his creation to look at these things and say, "Who is this?

Who did this?" and that they would seek God. If perhaps they might grow for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us, for in him we live and move and exist. As even some of your own poets have said, "For we also are his children." Christ came, turned on the light, and by seeing him would initiate in us a desire to have more, to continue to seek.

And that's why Jesus says in Matthew 7, 7, "Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you." You know, before we met Christ, right, and some of you guys may be able to relate to that, but I remember the day that I met Christ, everything that I didn't understand all of a sudden made sense.

You know, it was almost kind of like if you woke up in the middle of the night and you were at a strange house and you're trying to figure out what everything looks like, so you're touching the dining room table for the first time, you're going to the kitchen, but imagine if you had no reference for what they were, and you were only seeing things through your touch, and your eyes just weren't working, because your eyes are meant to work with light, but without light, you're using your senses to figure out everything else.

So imagine if your whole life was like that, you were blind, and you were looking through life through your hands, your senses, your smell, then all of a sudden, you are gifted with sight. Light gets turned on, and everything that you were touching, that you kind of had a sense for, but you didn't fully see, imagine what that would feel like.

Well, every Christian, whether it happened gradually, whether it happened all of a sudden like it did for me, knows exactly what I'm talking about, because that's exactly how life felt. The moment I met Christ, everything that I was trying to figure out, why am I the way I am, why are my parents the way they are, why did we come to the US, why are we this, and why is my dad that, and all of these questions all of a sudden made sense.

God did this. That was God's purpose. God was doing this for this reason. That's what the Bible says, what Christ does. When he turns on the light, all of a sudden, we see things through his light. That's what it says in Psalm 36, verse 7. In your light, we see light.

Until our eyes are opened by the author of light, God himself, Christ, everything that we're trying to figure out, everything that we're trying to figure out is like in darkness, using these senses. It's almost like you have eyes, but you're not using it, because our sin has blinded us.

So the first thing that the Bible says about who Jesus is, I am the light, it means he came to open our eyes. Open our eyes. So when our eyes are open, the world no longer looks the same. What makes us happy, it's just not the same. What causes security is not the same.

What is normal is no longer the same. And I think the benefit now for us to have the whole world flipped upside down is a good opportunity for us to take a step back and ask ourselves, what is normal as a Christian? Through the lens of his light, now that we see everything, what is it that we consider normal?

What is it that we want to get back to? Is that truly normal? Or is that part of going astray? And that's the first meaning, what Jesus meant. I am the light. Not only for us, but for the whole world. Secondly, darkness represents sinfulness, as light represents righteousness. Darkness represents sinfulness, as light represents righteousness.

The ignorance wasn't simply because they weren't taught. The Bible says that ignorance happened as a result of their moral failure. Romans chapter 1, 21-23, "For even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of the birds of the four-footed animals and crawling creatures." Do you notice how he says, "They professed to be wise, but they became fools"? It wasn't that because they were blind that they began to be immoral.

The Bible says, because they were immoral, they began to become foolish. You know, from years of doing ministry and counseling and teaching the Bible and talking to people, you know, I've talked to so many people who are at one point on fire for God, and then there's certain events that happen in their life, and they get caught in sin, and then they begin to embrace their sin, and they begin to fall out.

And one of the first things that I notice, and it doesn't happen to every single person, but it happens enough where it's predictable. One of the first things that happens when an individual begins to embrace their sin is that they begin to become atheists. Well, what changed? How did somebody who was on fire for God and at one point talking about giving their life and becoming a missionary, and then they get caught up in sin, and they're unwilling to let go of that sin or to admit it as sin, and all of a sudden they say, "I don't know if God exists." It wasn't an intellectual problem.

It wasn't because people didn't answer their questions. Just like it says in Romans, when we allow ourselves to go into darkness, we cause ourselves to be blind. In John 8, 31-33, Jesus has this encounter. He says, "I am the light of the world." And the Jews get offended. It's like, "Well, what authority do you have?" And he goes back and forth, and he says, "My authority comes from the witness of God, myself, and the Holy Spirit." And he goes back and forth, and some of them get offended, and they leave.

But in verse 31, it says, "Some of them believed." Verse 31. So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed him. Jesus says, "I am the light of the world, and some of them believed him. If you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." Now, you wouldn't think there was anything controversial, at least in that statement.

If you heard, "Jesus is the light of the world. He just said he was God. That he's the light that they've been waiting for. That the reason why they lit that temple up every year for hundreds of years." He says, "I am that light." You would think Jews who are able to believe that, that what he says here is really innocuous.

He said, "If you believe I am the light," he said, "well, if you continue my words, you will know the truth. The truth shall set you free." But that word, "set you free," triggered them. They got upset by that. They didn't get upset by Jesus saying, "I am the light." They got upset because he said, "You will be set free," because it was personal.

Now he was pointing to them, saying that, "You need to be set free." So these Jews who believed him have another encounter with Christ in verse 31 and on. And he said, "How can we be set? We don't need to be set free. Abraham is our father. We've never been slaves." Because they were offended because Jesus just told them that, "You need to be set free." Back and forth that they go, and then Jesus ultimately calls them out in verse 44.

He said, "You do not know me because you do not know my father. And your father is the devil." I mean, that's a long way to go from verse 31 saying the Jews who believed him and then saying your father's the devil. And then in verse 59, it says, "Therefore they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple." So people who believed in him was okay with the statement, "I am the light of the world," but when he pointed out that you need to be set free, they got offended.

And those same people wanted to stone him and kill him. You see, people who have embraced the darkness, embraced their sin, doesn't want the light to be turned on. You know, just like imagine if you're three in the morning and somebody comes into your room and just flips the light on, right?

You're going to be angry. "Why'd you turn the light on? I want to sleep." But if you need to wake up at 7 o'clock and you have an appointment or you need to go to work and you're late and somebody flips the light switch on, you would thank them because you need that light because you need to get out of bed.

That's exactly how it's described, John chapter 3, 19 to 21. "This is the judgment that the light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.

But he who practices the truth comes to light so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God." That's why an individual who embraces his sin, whether it is sexual immorality, whether it is his own pride, whether it is bitterness and hatred, they don't want to be exposed to the light.

They want to be where it is dim and darker the better. You know, the scripture makes it absolutely crystal clear in 1 John 1, 6 through 7. "If we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another as the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin." See, Jesus came to not only open our eyes to see the glory of God, but in his light, once we see his light, only then we can see all things.

But not only that, he came to flip the switch on to turn the light onto darkness because of men's sin. Remember, the whole purpose of Old Testament history and the law was to make sin utterly sinful. Because until they recognize the filthiness of the sin that is inside of each one of us, there is no need for a savior.

Jesus didn't come primarily to feed the hungry. Jesus didn't primarily come to change our economy so that we can have a comfortable life or get rid of crime or make the country more prosperous. To get rid of pestilence. His primary purpose right now is not to get rid of pestilence so that we can go back to our normal life.

That's not his primary purpose. His primary purpose in human history is to turn the light on. And sometimes pestilence may serve that purpose. Sometimes hardship. Sometimes excruciating pain. Causes us to see things that we would not have seen. God turns the light on so that we can see clearly.

Because until we recognize sin as sin, we will never be able to recognize Christ as the light. See, 1 Timothy 6, 15-16, it says, "He who is blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to him be honor and eternal dominion.

Amen." Christ dwells in unapproachable light. Until our eyes become open, until he turns on the light, we are not able to approach him. And that's why when he says he is the light of the world, it's to show the glory of God and in light of that, to show our sins.

See, a Christian is not a Christian who only repents at the beginning of conversion. A Christian is a Christian because he continues to recognize his sin. And he continues to repent because he recognizes the filth. You don't recognize the filth only in the beginning. He continues to, that's what sanctification is, is to move us along from the filth that we were okay with in the darkness because when we didn't have sight, we didn't know how filthy the couch was.

We didn't know how filthy the television was. We didn't recognize how filthy our hands were until the light got turned on. And in light of his light, all of a sudden, the world doesn't look the same. So for a Christian, for a Christian who has seen the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the world seems just as appealing as it did before you met Christ, there is a big doubt to whether that light was ever turned on.

Because the light gets turned on and when we see things as God sees it, God doesn't see this world as beautiful. This is a world that is in rebellion. This is a world that is waiting for judgment. This is a world that can only be saved by the blood of Christ and we are only waiting.

We are only waiting as the creation is groaning for the sons of men to be revealed that he may redeem us. For somebody who claims to have seen the light and has eyes have been opened and never really recognizes the filth that is around us is inconsistent with what the Bible tells us.

There is temptation. There's times we can drift. But when there is no distinction between before opening their eyes and after opening their eyes, at least in practice, it is inconsistent. It is exactly as 1 John 1.6.7 says. John is not saying, "Hey, you should work harder." He's just stating a matter of fact.

You can't say that your relationship with God has been restored while you're continuing to live in darkness because God is in light and those who walk with him will also be in the light. Third and final thing that darkness represents. Darkness represents lostness as light represents direction. As I mentioned, the light for the Feast of Tabernacles, Feast of Booths, was a constant reminder to them.

During the day, the clouds directed them. At night, the pillar of fire would go before them. So if the pillar of fire would stop, they would stop and camp out. But when it started to move, they would take up and move because they didn't have navigation. In fact, they didn't even know where they were going because where they were supposed to go, because of their sin, God would make them wander.

So it wasn't like, "We're headed to the promised land, so if you make this direct line, we're going to get there." God said, "No, you're going to wander for 40 years." So those 40 years, they were absolutely dependent upon this light. And if you remember, the Israelites, even though they were large in number, they had families and children.

This was not, these were not soldiers who were marching in the desert. These are families with small children. You know, typically, I don't know if you've ever noticed, but typically, if you're out in the market or if you're trying to cross the street, and if you have small children with you, most people tend to be a bit more generous, a little bit more gracious because we're vulnerable when we have small children with us.

You can't go into battle. And so we're not talking about soldiers, men who are marching out in the desert. We're talking about a large group of community with small children and grandparents walking around. And if any army wanted to come and attack them, they were completely vulnerable. And this is out in the desert.

So it wasn't like there were food lying around everywhere. In fact, one of their primary complaints was they didn't have enough food, they didn't have enough water. They were constantly complaining about that. So what God told them was, "If I tell you to move, you move. If I tell you to sit, you sit.

If I tell you to go, you go. If I tell you to camp, you camp." So for 40 years, they were doing basic training. And in the basic training, all they had to do was look at that fire and say, "Do what that fire tells you to do. Go, stop, march." And so that fire not only represented the presence of God, it was their salvation.

Because as long as they obeyed, as long as they went where God told them to go, God took care of them. So when Jesus says, "I am the light," He wasn't simply saying, "I'm going to open your eyes so that you may see the glory of God." He wasn't just saying that your sins are revealed, so now you need to repent.

He was telling them to follow Him. In Psalm 18, 28-29, "For you light my lamp, the Lord my God illumines my darkness. For by you, I can run upon a troop, and by my God, I can leap over a wall." In other words, when God lights my path, I can run upon a troop.

In other words, we're no longer vulnerable because God is with me. I'm no longer weak because God is with me. Because my strength does not depend upon chariots or horses, but on the Spirit of God. And so that's what Jesus meant. He said, "I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father but through me." And that's basically what He was saying when He says, "I am the light of the world." And He says, "He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." In fact, the early church, today, if we want to identify somebody who follows Christ, we would say they're Christians.

Or maybe more specific, evangelical Christians. Or even now, that's been watered down, so now we have fundamental Christians. And we have more words that are added to describe a genuine born-again Christian. The early church, you know what the first description of the early church was? It wasn't Christian. The word Christian was actually given to Christians in a derogatory way.

It means "little Christ." Jesus gave that to Christians, saying, "Those little Christ, those people who are following, they're little Christ." But the actual word that the Christians used to describe themselves is mentioned in Acts chapter 9 too. You know what that was? The way. That's how they refer to themselves to the other Christians.

Are you part of the way? The way. Because Jesus said, "I am the light," and they understood what he meant by that. What he meant was, "to follow me." See, Christ turned on the light not simply for us to admire him. We have people all around the world who say they're Christians, but all they are are admirers.

They admire the love of Christ. They admire his grace. They admire Christians. They might admire the church. They admire their friendship. They admire the generosity. But they do not follow him. The early Christians knew exactly what Jesus meant when he says, "I am the light." He who follows me, he said, will not walk in darkness.

So this is a Christianity, is a call not only to see the glory of God, not only to repent of our sins, but then to follow. You notice at the Great Commission, he says to go make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and then what?

Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. It doesn't end with baptism. Baptism is the beginning. The purpose of why we go to proclaim the gospel is so that non-Christians can open their eyes and see the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And when that happens, baptism is a symbol of repentance.

They are buried with Christ in their old life, and then they're resurrected with Christ. So that's repentance. The third part of it is to teach them to follow Jesus Christ. And that's what he meant. He says, "I am the light that they may follow." Matthew 4, 19, when he called the disciples, and he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." That's the first thing he told his disciples when he said, he didn't just say, "Come after me, and I will show you miracles.

I'm going to reveal to you who I am so that you can marvel at who I am." He said, "No, follow me so that I can make you fishers of men." John 12, 26, "If anyone serves me, he must follow me, and where I am, there my servant will be also.

If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him." Finally, in John 10, 27, he says, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." He doesn't say, "My sheep hear my voice, and they acknowledge me." He doesn't say, "My sheep hear my voice, and they admire me." He said, "My sheep, they hear my voice, and then they follow me." That we go where he goes.

We stop where he stops. We speak where he speaks. We are bold when he is bold. We are gentle when he is gentle. You know what's interesting is, if you look at the Bible dictionary, they'll give you all the synonyms and the antonyms of this word in the Greek.

I thought it was interesting because when you looked at all the antonyms of this word follow, the opposites of this word follow in Greek, it's interesting because it says the opposite of this word to follow is to lead. One of the words is lead. Obviously, you can't be following if you're leading.

Many people have already determined what they wanted, and all they're seeing with Christ is help me. I want to go here. I want to go to this school. I want to marry this person. I want to get this job, and I want this. Jesus help me. So they're not following Christ.

They're leading and asking Jesus to help them. So the opposite of follow is to lead. There's another word, to come late. He said the opposite of follow is to come late, which I thought was interesting. If you're following somebody, right, and if you come late, meaning that you come at your own time, when you're ready, when you're ready, you're not following, right, just like obedience.

If you tell a child, "Hey, I want to take your trash out," say, "I will, but when I feel like it, when I'm ready, when I'm done with my homework, right, when I'm no longer tired," that's not delayed obedience. That's disobedience, and that's what he says. Again, this is the antonym of this word follow is to simply be late or to fall short or to linger behind, right, or to stand off or to leave behind or to forsake or to abandon.

All of these words, according to the Greek dictionary, are the opposites of this word follow. Disobedience doesn't always look the same. Disobedience doesn't always come saying, "God says follow me," say, "No." Much of disobedience looks like not yet, maybe later. Once I have this, if you answer me this, if you allow me to have this, and we're negotiating with God.

But the word for follow, when Jesus told his disciples, "Follow me," they left everything immediately. They didn't say after a month. Let me bury my parents first. Let me take care of my job first. Let me do this. Let me graduate first. Let me get married first. No. When he said, "Follow me," they left everything and immediately followed him.

And the reason why that happens is because in light of who Christ is, once the light gets turned on, whatever it is that we were looking at, whatever we were seeing, we were seeing from the blind spot. We were touching things. All of a sudden, he switches the light on and we realize we weren't on the right path.

We realized that we were possibly going to the bathroom in the living room. Okay. I know that's a disgusting illustration. But that's what we were doing in the dark because we weren't seeing things properly. We may have been sleeping in the garage. We have been, maybe we've been cooking lunch or dinner in the bathroom.

It's because we were trying to figure out in the dark and all of a sudden, he turns the light on and he says, "All of this is wrong. Follow me." He wasn't telling us to follow him because he wants to make our life harder. It's because every decision you made, everything that you valued, everything that you've been practicing you were doing in the dark.

And so he's telling us, "Follow me. I will show you where you're supposed to sleep. I will show you where I intended for you to cook. I will show you where the car is supposed to be. Your car is in the living room right now." That's not what the living room is for.

And that's why he switched the light on and he tells us to follow him. Not only does he tell us to follow him, he tells us that we also must be that light to the world. As he is our light, the scripture says we are to be the light.

Matthew chapter 5, 14, "You are the light of the world. The city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven." If we are the light of the world and we live no different than the rest of the world, we value the same thing that they valued in the darkness, how can we possibly be the light?

The reason why he tells us to be the light is to live as people that the light of Christ has been turned on. It's been turned on and we see things clearly now with an eternal perspective because we've seen the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We've seen God's glory.

Even if it is dim, we've seen its glory. We're no longer feeling around in darkness. So that light that he has given us, he says now we are to take that light and go to the world and be a light. You know, a lot of times, you know, like you can preach the gospel, but if your life doesn't fit the gospel that you preach, all they hear is hypocrisy.

You can preach with power, with accuracy, with precision, with articulation, but all they see is hypocrisy because what you say and what you do doesn't fit. So that's why he says not only to admire him, not only to say, "Oh man, I feel so bad for my sins," but to follow that we may also be that light.

You see, every one of these "I am" statements is challenging the Israelites' normal, normal. What they became accustomed to, what they were hoping for, what they were looking to. The only difference between the Israelites and the non-Christians, the Gentiles, was that the way to get to the top, the avenue to get to the top was different.

Where the pagans were praying to their gods and their idols, or they built up their armies so that they can conquer the smaller nations so that they can be the superpower. The only difference for the Israelites at this time was the avenue in which they were going to achieve the same thing that they were going to achieve is through their Messiah.

The easiest way to get on the top is to have the Messiah just come and conquer and feed them and take care of them. So when Jesus says, "I am," he's flipping their worldview upside down. He said, "The food that you desire, I am that food. The light, the Messiah that you're waiting for, I am that light.

The life that you are looking for, I am the resurrection and the life." What is normal? Maybe for many of the Christians, what we consider to be normal really should be considered abnormal in light of what we profess to believe. You know, if you look at, again in conclusion, Genesis chapter 1, the very first thing that God created was the light.

Chapter 1, verse 3. He says, "All he did, he said, 'Let there be light.'" That's all he had to do. And then what did he say? And light was created simply by his word. Just like he told Lazarus to give him life, to put breath back into him, all Jesus did was Lazarus come out and by his words with authority that he has brought him back to life.

God created all the light we saw instantaneously with the word of his mouth, "Let there be light." But the light that he has come to recreate life in us wasn't that simple. He didn't just say, "Let there be light." He didn't just say, "You're saved." He didn't just say, "You're forgiven." That same God who created the universe by the proclamation of his words humbled himself, took on our flesh, lived humbly, humiliated, was beaten, punctured on his side with a spear, crucified.

All of our sins laid upon him, our burdens he took upon himself, and then he took our shame and atoned for our sins. So the first light he created, even though we look at the vastness of the creation, all he did was, "Let there be light." But the light that we celebrate, the light that we have been given, Christ had to give himself.

And that's why, again, when Jesus says, "I am the light of the world, he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." Maybe this period of quarantine, however long it lasts, whether it's a week or two weeks or several months, is a great opportunity for us to take some time to think, "What is normal?

Has the light been turned on? Did I actually see the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Has that caused me to see sin in the world the way that God sees it? And then thirdly, am I following this Jesus or am I just admiring him from a distance?" As we conclude, I asked our praise team to sing our final hymn, "Be Thou My Vision." So let me read this for us.

And I know this is a hymn that we all know very well. But again, I want us to sing very purposefully, just looking at the lyrics of what it says, because it relates to the passage that we looked at. It says, "Be Thou my vision, O Lord my heart." In other words, let everything that I see, let me see light in the light of who he is.

Be Thou my vision, O Lord my heart. Not be all else to me, save that Thou art. Let all other things in light of his light disappear. Thou my best thought, by day or by night. May the thought of Christ take the center stage of day and night, walking or sleeping.

Thy presence my light. Be Thou my wisdom and Thou my true word. I ever with thee and Thou with me, Lord. My great father, I thy true son. Thou in me dwelling and I with thee one.