Illumination Station

A few years ago, I took my family to a place I had grown up going to: Craighead Caverns. As a kid it was an amazing experience that gave me lots of memories, and I wanted my kids to experience it the way I had.

Now you don’t just ‘happen’ upon Craighead Caverns, you kinda have to look it up. The highway is littered with signs and billboards, but unless you are specifically going there, you wouldn’t even know it existed. It’s in a little town in Tennessee called “Sweetwater”, actually between Sweetwater and Madisonville. So, needless to say, it’s off the beaten path.

When you get to the location, it isn’t very impressive, just your usual tourist gift shop, some gold mining, a few picture spots, but inside, there is an entrance to a long yellow tunnel that takes you down into the cavern. As you take the long walk down the man-made tunnel it gets colder and colder the further you descend.

Throughout over a century of history, the Craighead Caverns had been used by the Cherokee Indians, Civil War soldiers and local residents so much so, that there was a point where, in one section of the cavern someone had built a dance floor, along with some other questionable items;

but it wasn’t until 1905 when Ben Sands, a 13 year old boy, as he was exploring the cave, found a tiny opening that all the others, all those years ago had overlooked. As adventurous boys do, he went crawling through that small opening some distance in the darkness, until he found an opening so large, his lantern couldn’t illuminate the far wall.

So, as boys do, he picked up clots of mud from the ground and began chucking it into the darkness to see if he could figure out just how big the room in the cavern was, but to his surprise, instead of hearing thuds against the wall, he heard splashes: What he had found wasn’t just an undiscovered part of the cave, he found a massive body of water.

Excitedly, Ben crawls back out and goes back to tell his father and others what He had found, but by the time he convinced them to come back, days had gone by and the water level had risen flooding the entrance he crawled through to the point it couldn’t be found. But Ben never gave up on his story.

Eventually, perhaps on hearing of Ben’s story (that part is unknown), explorers finally found the body of water Ben had previously discovered. And, for a time, until the discovery of Dragon’s Breath Cave in Namibia, the now-found Lost Sea was considered the world’s largest underground lake; it is still the largest in the United States, and second in the world.

But when you go there, and I do suggest if you are ever up that way you do, as amazing as the size and history is, perhaps the most amazing part of the whole tour, is that there is a part where they gather the group into a section of the caverns and tell you they are going to turn out all the the lights.

They instruct you to put away your cell phones, and watches, anything that can cast light, and when everyone is ready, they shut off the light. In that moment, you truly experience total and complete darkness.

Now, I have been in the dark before. It got dark in Idaho around 4:30-5pm in the afternoon and in the valley, it was really, really dark. But until that moment, I don’t think I had ever felt the dark. It was eerie. It was disorienting, and even though it was only for a moment, time seemed to drag on. Your eyes didn’t, couldn’t adjust because there was absolutely no light for them to take in. It was completely, totally, and utterly dark.

That same darkness ruled the cave long before Ben or anyone ever discovered it, and amazingly, the fish, and yes, there are fish in the lake, and no, they won’t let you fish there (I asked), the fish are essentially ‘blind’. Their eyes are useless because, until it was discovered, they lived in that complete, unsettling, unnerving darkness. They had adapted to their surroundings and for them, it was life. It was normal.

This week we are kicking off VBS! The Illumination Station is our theme, and our goal is to point the children, families, around us to the light of the world, Jesus Christ.

In John 8:12, we find Jesus just after the Feast of booths, or Sukkot, where the Jews were celebrating the remembrance of God leading them by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

To honor this, aside from constructing and sleeping in booths (as the name Feast of Tabernacles or Booths would suggest), they would light a large menorah in the temple courtyard symbolizing God’s provision and protection and leading them as that pillar of fire.

The ceremony itself was massive and required that everyone be involved: sons, daughters, Levites, foreigners, outsiders, everyone. It was a moment of “social leveling” for the Jews.

It is here, at the end of this festival, possibly not long after it was all over and the lights had been put out, that Jesus makes the second of His “I AM” statements, found in our text in John 8:12 which is where we see our Big idea for today: Jesus is the only light who leads us out of darkness and gives us life.

Please stand with me as we read our text today from John 8:12:

“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Let us pray

The celebration is over, the menorah has been put out. The memory of their history and what God did for their ancestors is fresh on their minds. They have just finished teaching the foreigners, outsiders, their children about God’s miraculous deliverance and protection. And here, with these praises to God ruminating in their minds, Jesus says that He is the light.

Now, to the Jewish listener, this is a very bold claim! The light from the temple during the festival would have been so bright it could be seen all across the city, it was unmistakably symbolic of God’s leading, of God Himself. To them it was highly symbolic of God’s deliverance and provision. So for Jesus to say this directly stirred up the crowd. It was a declaration that brought them back to Psalm 27:1 that proclaimed that “The Lord is my light”.

Light had a very significant theological purpose in Jewish culture, in Isaiah 49:6 the coming of the kingdom was to begin when the Servant of the Lord would be a light for the gentiles and God would be a light for His people.

You see, Jesus knew what the crowd did not. Though they celebrated the memory of the light, many were still walking in darkness. Though they recounted stories of the pillar of fire, many never followed the God who provided it. Though they saw the menorah, many had missed the Messiah standing before them.

They were surrounded by a darkness that they could not comprehend because all their life, like the fish in the Lost Sea, darkness is all they had ever known.

This year’s VBS gives us an opportunity to shine the light of Christ into that very darkness. But if we want it to do so we must understand three things from our passage in John 8:12:

The first thing we must understand is that

Jesus is the Only Light (v.12a)

Jesus said “‘I’ am the light of the world”. There is no other light in the darkness but Jesus.

Sadly, there are many who try to find light in other places than Christ:

Many try to find their way in the dark through their pedigree, claiming a second-hand attachment to Christ because of where they were raised, or who they were raised by. This was surely the plight of the Jewish people who relied upon their heritage and ancestry rather than following after God. Similarly today, some rest upon those in their family who were faithful, claiming that faith for their own but refusing to humble themselves before the Lord.

As important as your family is, as important as growing up in a Christian home is, no one is ever or can ever be saved by belonging to the right family or being in the right family circumstances. You cannot be born into a familial salvation. Only through Christ. Christ is the Light out of the darkness of our sin, regardless of who in your family held the light before you or beside you.

Our relationships on this earth may shine the light of Christ into our lives, but they do not bequeath that light to us.

Still, others try to find light through their pocketbook. These are those, like the rich young ruler who’s love and focus on money has blinded them into thinking that somehow the amount they give, or the things they provide for the church in some way afford them points toward salvation.

Don’t get me wrong, the church needs, ministries need people who are generous and with a loving heart give sacrificially for the Lord.

But it is when that giving shifts from honoring God to buying our way that we become blinded to the reality that we are swimming in the dark.

The light of Christ, Salvation, cannot be bought in any shape, form, or fashion.

And others, believe they can find the light through their practices.

Being here, volunteering, helping out, being faithful are all good, right, and great things! But if they are being done because in your heart you feel that doing so affords you the benefit of Salvation instead of doing it BECAUSE you are walking in the light, your efforts are just stumbles in the darkness.

Those in this mindset often cling to whatever false hope they can find only to feel it slip right through their fingers.

We cannot do enough to manufacture or earn salvation for ourselves. Only in the light of Christ.

Jesus here simply says “I”. Light cannot be found in anyone, or anything else!

Who else could we turn to? Who else knows the way?

Without Jesus, there is no light. There is no salvation. There is no hope. All is lost!

Thankfully, God’s graciousness sent us the light of Christ.

The prophet Isaiah, speaking of the Messiah says in Isaiah 9:2 “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.” Matthew recounts this giving us a fuller, clearer perspective in Matthew 4:16 “the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.” and it was from here that Jesus began to preach saying “REPENT, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Isaiah calls it ‘darkness’; Matthew calls it the “region and shadow of death”.

Matthew isn’t changing the scripture here, rather, he is clearly identifying that before Christ, without Christ, what the people were walking in and are walking in still today was not a minor inconvenience of darkness.

If we shut off the lights in the auditorium today it would be a minor inconvenience of darkness. No, what they were walking in was the region, the shadow, the darkness of death!

They had adapted to the darkness

Blindness became normal for them.

In truth, the same darkness is prevalent today.

John 3:19 tells us “And 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.”

That’s the problem:

The problem today isn’t that people are having a bad day, or a string of bad luck.

The problem isn’t that people need better habits.

The problem isn’t that people need more religion.

No, the problem is that people love darkness rather than light and those walking in darkness are walking in death.

But…Jesus came, our Messiah, the Christ, to shine the light on those walking in that darkness! There is HOPE! A Light has been shown, salvation is at hand!

1 Peter 2:9 reminds us of our reason to rejoice: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

As we have prepared and have planned and have set up for VBS or any program of the church, we must do so with the understanding that we are presenting a call from God, shouting into the darkness, calling out those who blindly are walking toward their own demise. “The Light has come! And His name is Jesus!”

Jesus’ declaration here, His “I AM” statement is a declaration that apart from Him, there is no other light.

The ‘Am’ of ‘I AM’ is definitive. If you are looking for the light, you are celebrating the light, Look, I AM that light! - Jesus says.

So if we understand that Jesus is the Light, the only light, what, then must we do in response to the light?

Jesus doesn’t simply say, “I am the light of the world.”

stop. no more. done.

No, He continues, Whoever follows me…”. He gives a promise. Because He is the light, there is a promise of salvation from Him.

This declaration is telling us that if we desire salvation, if we believe that Jesus is the Messiah, if we trust in him:

We must Walk in the Light v.12b

The Jews listening that day would have immediately understood the significance of those words.

The Jewish people during the Feast of Tabernacles had just recounted and celebrated a time when they were lost, being chased by Pharaoh’s army, on the run, in danger, without direction, without hope…except for the LIGHT of God in a pillar of fire leading them to safety.

It was a significant event in the history of the Jewish nation! It was celebrated annually to remind them of God’s provision and His deliverance. No amount of ‘self’ could bring them to salvation, to safety, to the promised land. They were recounting how God, in all His glory, provided them safety and the ability to walk in the light.

Yet, here they were, generations later and though they celebrated in remembrance, they, too, were walking in that shadow and region of death.

Here Jesus, in full understanding of their condition and what was being celebrated, stands and speaks to them proclaiming “I” AM THE LIGHT! He’s essentially saying to them, ‘as you followed after the pillar of fire in the wilderness, follow after Me and you will be safe!

If we are to be a people of the Light of Christ we must then, therefore walk in accordance of that light. What good does it do if we have a lit way in the darkness and turn and go our own path?

Now, we need to understand, we’ve colloquialized the term “darkness” in the church. We’ve saved it for all the really, really bad things out there. Often when we think of the “darkness” our minds immediately go to Hollywood, or agendas, or evil political figures. But darkness is much more pervasive than that. It’s much worse than that.

When you stand in a cave below the surface of the earth and the lights go out, you begin to understand darkness.

Real darkness is the total and complete absence of light. That is what the word means! To equate it to anything else, to our commonplace characterizations would be the same as saying, “Darkness only happens when someone puts a bag over your head, or covers your eyes.” Those are temporary, avoidable instances. That is where we have gotten it wrong!

Jesus tells us here that without HIM, our lives, the lives of the children and students coming to VBS and their families are in the complete and total darkness that is tangible, that is eerie, that is felt in your bones. Not because of some malice toward some particular evil deeds our Christian sensibilities find appalling; but simply because there is a complete and total lack of the Light of Christ!

This is where we mistakenly say things like, “well, he doesn’t go to church, but you know, he’s a good guy.” Listen, nice or not, good or not according to the world’s standards, if they are not walking in the light he, she, they, all of them are blind fish swimming in a lost sea of darkness with no understanding of who or what the Light is.

That is why we offer VBS, youth, Grief Share, Celebrate Recovery, and All the ministries of the church.

1 John 1:5–7 “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

Our call, our commission as believers in this world is to walk in the light with Christ! To lift Him up so that all may be drawn unto Him, out of the darkness INTO His marvelous light!

In our passage today, Jesus is acting upon a memory, fresh in their minds, of stories told for generations of those who escaped captivity, who left the darkness, quite literally, of Egypt and followed THE LIGHT of God, a pillar of fire, bright and buring, showing them the way. And He tells them, if you follow me, you will not walk in darkness. Just as your ancestors followed the pillar in the wilderness and were led safley by God, so too you who follow me will not walk in this region and shadow of death but you will walk in the light of life.

Friends we must understand that salvation isn’t found in the program of VBS, it isn’t found in youth ministry, or senior adult ministry or church ministry. No, salvation is found through Grace alone by Faith alone for the Glory of Christ alone!

VBS isn’t a ‘magical’ program we put on that gets kids excited about being church members! It should never be that.

I have seen God work great things at camp, at VBS, in programs, but we must not become confused and think that these are the light.

They are a beacon, shining in the darkness introducing people to the light of Christ. Showing them, by example and by the Word of God how to walk in His light.

Jesus Christ is the light. We must understand that all the time and effort and decorations are for naught if we forget that one important point: Jesus is THE ONLY light. If we do all of this, and we don’t walk in the Light, and we forget to share the Light, we have missed the mark.

Praise God for our VBS workers and volunteers. May God richly bless you in your efforts to point these children to the Light of Christ. We know that you do this, you have sacrificed, you have studied, you have prayed for this very reason; you are walking in the light to show Jesus as the light of the world. And we should all be greatly encouraged, and challenged to do the same.

In John 12:35, Jesus is talking to the crowd, telling them about His impending crucifixion and He makes this statement: “Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.”

When we put on VBS or other programs as a church, we do so, not because it is “the thing to do.” Not even because “people need to belong.” We do so because people are overtaken by the darkness in the world and their only hope is Jesus.

Blind as they are, they cannot find the light on their own. Christ has to intervene. They have to be shown the light, have the light explained to them because it is foreign to them, they must see us walking in the Light.

The Prophet Isaiah spoke about the Messiah in Is. 42:6, and again in Is. 49:6, specifically in this context:

In Isaiah 42:6 ““I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations,”

And in Isaiah 49:6 “he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.””

Jesus is the Light of the nations; If we know that, if we have experienced that, we are to be obedient in shining that light wherever we go in whatever we do.

There is a prevailing narrative that some in greater christendom try to push upon us. That story is that, in order to reach people you have to walk a mile in their shoes, you have to be just like them.

Try that leading someone who is blind. Close your eyes, take them by the hand and say “Come on, let’s go, I’ll lead you!” They don’t know you can’t see, they just go along trusting you know the way! It is literally the blind leading the blind.

Sadly, that happens all to often. We’ve bought the lie that we have to reject the light to lead people to the light.

We don’t say it like that. We dress it up to sound spiritual, but that is what we do. We use phrases like “They won’t listen” or “they won’t hear unless we…” to justify something that is not God honoring we want to do in the flesh.

But Paul echos Jesus, refuting this when he says: in Ephesians 5:8 “for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light”

We were darkness. Not we were ‘in’ darkness. The darkness was so prevalent that there was no distinguishing between us and it.

But now, in Christ, we are light. And as such we should walk in a manner worthy of that distinction. Worthy of Christ.

And when we do, those around us, those coming to VBS or any other program will find the third truth in our final point this morning from John 8:12:

The Light brings Life v. 12c

Jesus says, “Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Do you see that?

Not just sight.

Not merely direction

Not simply escape from the darkness,

but they HAVE LIFE, and Life eternal!

My kids love to play with flashlights, for whatever reason they think it is cool to run around with a flashlight. But a flashlight can only do so much:

A flashlight can show you where to walk, but it cannot make a dead tree live. It can’t make a blind fish see. It cannot make a dead man breathe. All it can do is illuminate.

But Jesus doesn’t not merely illuminate. Jesus gives LIFE.

The problem isn’t merely that we were lost; the problem is that we were dead in our trespasses and sins. Dead people don’t need directions. Dead people need life.

When you come into the light of Christ you are delivered from darkness, delivered from death.

Ephesians 2:1–5 “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind…” That was us before Christ, before the light.

“But God,” Probably two of the most powerful words in all of scripture. You could have someone giving you every excuse of why they aren’t worthy of forgiveness, why they can’t come to church, why life is so bad, and when they are done with their lament you could simply answer: “But God…”

Truly our deliverance begins when God interrupts the very darkness of our being and shines His light, the only light that can penetrate that darkness into our lives. Why? The rest of the verse tells us:

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—”

When Christ came, as the Light of Life, He doesn’t just show us how to live He gives to us a life we could not have found on our own because we were lost in the darkness of our sin.

Those fish in the lost sea adapted to the darkness. Blindness became normal.

Church, that is the condition of every person apart from Christ.

They’ve become accustomed to sin; comfortable with rebellion, and all too familiar with living as one already dead.

But Jesus steps into the darkness and says: “Follow Me”

Not “Figure it out”

Not “Find your own way”

Not “Try harder”

But “Follow me” and in following Him, we receive the light of Life.

Jesus brings light in the most unconventional way possible: by dying.

And when He died, in that moment Jesus entered into our darkness. He was lifted up on the cross. He bore our sin. He endured our judgement. He entered death itself.

…And three days later, the Light shone from an empty tomb.

THAT is why we’re doing VBS.

Not because children need another event.

Not because families need another activity.

Not because we want a busy church calendar.

We do it because there are children and families living in darkness and we know where the Light is and that light brings life everlasting.

Jesus said in John 3:14 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,” And in John 12:32 “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.””

This week we are lifting up Christ. We are pointing children to Christ.

We are pointing families to Christ.

We are crying out in the darkness “The Light Has Come! And in that light there is Life, abundant and free.”

In 1999, a devastating F5 tornado ripped through the community of Moore, Oklahoma leaving a path of destruction over a mile wide. The storm destroyed neighborhoods, homes, apartment buildings, everything in its path at just before dark.

In the aftermath of the rubble it was discovered that, though FBC Moore had been originally in the path of the tornado, the storm took a turn and almost completely avoided the church.

Rescue crews began looking for survivors in the rubble and as the light faded, with the tall cross of the church still intact, they shined two large spotlights upon the cross and began instructing all those they could find “GO TO THE CROSS. THERE IS SAFETY AT THE CROSS!”

This week we are doing just that. We are shining a light on Christ and telling children and families, Look to the cross, there is safety, there is salvation, there is Life in the Light of the Cross.

Closing

Today, you may be here and until this moment, you didn’t realize that you were walking in darkness. As the musicians come to sing a song of invitation, I, along with all of us who know and walk in the light, implore you: Come to the Light. There is Life, abundant and free in Christ.

Or maybe you are here and you claim Christ but have walked away, stumbling in the dark, attempting to find your own path. The light still shines for you. Return to the Light.

But if you are here, and you know Christ, you are walking in the Light and safety of Christ, your call, your mission, our glory is to Hold up the Light and let all be drawn unto Him so they may be drawn unto Him for His glory.

Whatever your need is today, do not stumble anymore in the darkness. Jesus is the Light, and all who follow Him will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.

If you have a need and want to come to pray to lay down a burden or to be a blessing I ask you to come as the musicians sing.