Sermon Tone Analysis

We've been going through the Gospel of John.

We'll continue to go through it for quite some time, but right now we find ourselves in chapter 8 of that gospel.

It's at the end of the Feast of Tabernacles, and Jesus is having a discourse with His opponents.

We looked, last week, at a time when He was teaching there in the temple, and they brought in a woman that had been caught in adultery.

We, today, continue in that same area where He was teaching.

We discover in our reading that it was an area called the treasury.

Jesus still, having to meet these who are opposing Him.

Their hearts are cold to His teaching, to His direction.

They're certainly religious people, but they're not willing to hear the truth that Jesus is trying to share with them.

So today, I want to take one of the I am statements, we call it, that Jesus makes that John gives us…seven different I am statements that he gives us in his gospel.

Jesus begins our discourse today by telling His opponents primarily and those who are gathered that, /"I am the light of the world."/

I invite your attention to John, chapter 8. We'll begin today in verse 12, /"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."/

An interesting literary aspect here that he doesn't identify, John doesn't identify the location until the end of the dialog and says that it's the treasury.

But to the Jewish mind, that paints a very vivid picture, especially at the end of the time of the Feast of Tabernacles.

Several things took place during the Feast of the Tabernacles to remind the Jews of the wilderness journey.

That's certainly what the tabernacle was all about.

It was a celebration of what God had protected them as they lived in those tents, or tabernacles, during all of their days in the wilderness journey.

Part of that, we had looked at it before, was the water that came from the rock.

Part of the celebration they had every day was the priest would go to a certain brook and he would draw some water in a pitcher and he would come and he would pour it out onto the altar to remind them of God's provision and His blessing.

It was on that occasion, if you were with us during that part of the study, that Jesus said that, "I am the water of life.

That anyone who comes to Me shall never thirst."

Very similar to what He had said to the woman at Samaria.

Well, at the treasury, another event took place during the feast that was also a reminder to the Jews of God's protection and provision.

If you'll remember when the Jews had crossed the Red Sea and the Hebrews began to journey toward Mount Sinai, they were in a place they had never been to before.

There were no landmarks.

They were simply having to follow the leadership of God and God provided that direction and that leadership in a cloud during the daytime and a pillar of fire at night.

Literally, that pillar of fire would light their way and would show them the way they were to go.

Well to celebrate that event, during the Feast of Tabernacles, they would light a torch and bring it into the treasury where they had set up one or perhaps a few of the huge menorah-looking candelabras that were in the temple.

They would sit those out there into the courtyard and they would light those.

They had an oil basin that each held about 50 gallons of oil, and they would light those every night as part of their procession.

It was said that every courtyard in Jerusalem was lit by the lights of these two huge candelabras.

Jerusalem, in those days, was not a very large city, and so that was certainly possible given the hilltop location of the temple area.

So it's there at the treasury where they would sit at these huge candelabras that Jesus takes that event to try to show them the truth of what's being celebrated.

You know Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that God provided for the Hebrew people water from a rock and He says that rock was Jesus.

In other words, the things that happened to the Hebrew people along their journey in the wilderness was really God's picture of how God deals with all of us.

That the pillar of fire, in other words, though it helped them physically find the law and find God at Mount Sinai, we discover that it's really symbolic.

It's symbolic of Christ Himself in that He is that light.

So Jesus makes that statement.

He says, in the Greek I should say, He says, "I, Myself, am the light of the world.

I am that light."

Perhaps even pointing to that great glowing candelabra.

He said, "That's symbolic of me.

/"I am the light of the world."/

Notice what He goes on to say, /"Whoever follows Me…"/ You see that's what the Hebrew people had done in the desert.

They didn't just see the light; they followed the light.

By follow, what Jesus meant was to obey Him, to receive Him as their Messiah and to obey His teachings, to become literally, a disciple of His.

So He says, "I am the light of the world, and whoever becomes a student of Mine…whoever becomes a student of Mine…" Look back to verse 12, /"Will have the light of life and not walk in darkness."/

Darkness all through John's gospel is a symbol of evil.

It's a symbol of man.

It's a symbol of not having the truth.

The light, through John's gospel, is a symbol of truth.

It's a symbol of what God would expect and the direction that God would have you to live.

Jesus is saying, "Those who choose to become My disciples, those who will follow Me will not be in darkness because I'm the light."

When you have the light with you, you're not in darkness, but you have the light of life itself.

That's a common theme.

That's one, as believers, that we try to let everybody know that in Christ is life…the real life.

Oh, the world paints the picture and maybe some soured Christians paint the picture that Christianity is a dull, drab life, that it is one that you can't do this.

You can't do that.

There are restrictions and rules and all the things that man tries to make, but I want to tell you friends, in Christ is real life, is joy, is excitement and living.

Jesus is saying that My disciples will discover that.

Now when you know the story of the disciples, when you know the story of the early Church, we understand that persecution and the martyrdom they went through, listen, there had to be some reason they stayed around.

I mean a smart person would have gotten out of that program very quickly.

They wouldn't have stayed around seeing everybody else killed and martyred for the name of Christ unless there was something to it.

That something to it was the joy of life, a life that is beyond comprehension, the Scriptures tell us, a joy that is unspeakable that can't even hardly be expressed, but one that is just so full of glory, that is so full of light, so full of joy.

Jesus says, "I'm that light.

I'm what you've been lighting with your torches and symbolizing, the followship of God.

That happens when you follow Me.

The direction of God happens when you follow Me."

My friends here today, I want to tell you that Christ stands as that candelabra.

He is not just the light, but the very essence of life itself.

When you choose Him, you will discover the joy of the abundant living He came to offer.

He is the light of the world.

That's exactly what Jesus was trying to tell these opposing religious Pharisees.

Now, they responded to Him in verse 13 and said, /"You bear witness of Yourself; Your witness is not true."/

They know exactly, in other words, what Jesus is trying to say.

They understand very clearly the implication when He said, "I, Myself, am the light of the world."

So they because their hearts are cold, because their hearts are so hardened are denying it.

You know I like what one commentator said, "Light permeates everything.

Light will go through most curtains.

It will go through trees, but if you want to stop light, you have to have a hard surface to block light."

That's so symbolic of hearts of people.

It's only when your hearts have grown cold to the touch of God, it's only when you have built up that resistance to the things of God that the light of the world will not penetrate into your heart.

You need to understand that if you're not able to see that pillar of fire, if you're not able to see God's direction before you today, if you'd like to know…What do I need to do?

What next step do I need to take in my life?

What decision do I make at the fork in the road that is before me?

You need to examine and see if, through religion as with these Pharisees, or through some other philosophy, you have actually blackened off the light from your life.

You've so hardened your heart.

Now you would never claim to be hardhearted, and I understand that.

To us that sounds like we're mean.

To us that sounds like we're somebody who is always in a bad mood, but to be hardhearted is as simple as rejecting the truth of God.

To be hardhearted simply means that you do not accept His teachings.