Welcome to friends and family

Opening prayer

Lord, thank-you that we can gather today to hear your word. May it be your words we hear, guided by the Holy Spirit. May we each humble ourselves to learn what it is in this moment you want to teach us. May todays message spur us on to be bold to declare Your good news to the people you put on our hearts. Amen

Reflect

The Light of the World

The first thought is baby Jesus, the star leading and the light of the world born. Christmas. but this statement is at another celebrations

Festival of Tabernacles - One of Israel’s three great annual festivals, celebrated at the time of the last agricultural harvest of the year, in gratitude for Yahweh’s present and historical provision.

Leviticus 23:39-43

The festival occurs in Autumn, actually for us in March/April time around easter. It goes for 8 days staying in booths to also remember Gods provision for Isreal in their time in the wilderness.

This was the festival that inspired my goal with blue gum pilgrim

This is the setting for Jesus sharing this message. The 2 core themes of the festival are water and light.

John 7:37–38 (NIV)

On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

This is similar to Jesus stating I am the light.

At the end of the first day, there are four golden lamps lit for the singing and dancing to continue into the night, the light illuminating the entire city.

And also on the last night of the feast, when celebrants stayed up all night in the temple courts, which were lit by enormous lamps.

Light is a rich Old Testament symbol.

Reference in sermon notes

What do these passages tell us that God’s light will do?

The exodus background to the feast would have prompted the memories of the pillar of fire by which God led people on the journey.

Exodus 13:21-22

The Psalmist had taught that

Psalm 27:1 NIV

1 The Lord is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid?

The coming of the kingdom would be a time when the servant of the Lord would be a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

Isaiah 49:6

Zechariah had depicted a union of light and living waters, a perfect reflection of the two symbols of the feast.

Zechariah. 14:6-9

Which may have been one of the readings on the day of the feast.

Reflect on joyful memories in life that you have had because of light? If there was no light would they have happened? (e.g. the ability to see - A warm summers day, seeing the face of my first child)

Gospel of John has had more time to reflect on Jesus time. The oneness of God and Jesus. The unity and love they have are what Jesus wants to pass on to His disciples.

John 1:1–9 (NIV)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.

John also picks up on the old testament themes with his own focus on the light which leads us to today's I AM statement

Recognise

John 8:12 (NIV)

12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

This is a life-changing verse if you see it for what it is—see Jesus for who he is. It says that following Jesus is more than tagging along behind him. It means following him for who he is. Being so taken with him that you join yourself to him.

You carry the light. you walk in the light.

So being “the light of the world,” does that mean Jesus has removed all darkness from the world, as he walks through the world. No darkness is still around us.

My Week - Kids starting school, us in a new place, sickness, wanting to celebrate. Anxiety the darkness becoming blinding. As a follow I know this is a moment not my life. When I keep walking I feel the greater joy of Jesus in my life by preparing for todays dedication, preparing this sermon. celebrating with friends and family new and old. having people to talk to and ask for help. Jesus asked for help of His father why do we think we can get through without?

Here are 4 interpretations of which theologian John Piper pointed out in his own sermon on verse 12.

Jesus’ being “the light of the world” means the world has no other light than him.

If there is going to be a light for the world, it will be Jesus. It is Jesus or darkness. There is no third alternative. No other light. No other way to God or eternity with Him

2. It means, therefore, that all the world, and everyone in it, needs Jesus as his or her light.

All the world needs Jesus, It is sad that people are going through the darkness with no hope of light.

3. It means that the world was made for this light.

This is not a foreign light. This is the light of the owner of the world. When this light comes, it not only highlights the sin in our lives as ugly, but it also makes everything good in the world shine with its full and true beauty. This world was made to be illumined by this light. This light of Christ is native to the world.

4. And finally Jesus being “the light of the world” means that one day this world will be filled with this light as the waters cover the sea, and all darkness, and all the works of darkness, and all the sons of darkness will be cast out.

Which of these statements stand out to you and why?

That’s why Jesus called hell “outer darkness” (Matthew 8:12; 22:13; 25:30).

So how did Jesus audience take this message?

It is interesting that the audience is mostly Pharisee’s - those that should know God. known the signs. Instead, they spend the rest of the passage asking Jesus to prove his testimony.

We looked at this last week, how he could make this statement because God and Jesus are one. the Same I AM

John 8:13-20

So to summarise the big picture of this discourse and the reason Jesus’ response from v13 onwards is not really a detour from verse 12. Is that, the way Jesus is the light of the world is precisely by being one with the Father. Jesus is the light of the world because

he comes from the Father

and speaks for the Father

and is going to the Father

and is one with the Father.

So these words of interaction with the Jews look like a detour from “I am the light of the world,” but in fact, they are constantly pointing to the way he is the light of the world—by coming from the Father and going to the Father and being one with the Father.

That’s the big picture of the text—that is what Jesus wants us to see and believe and treasure from these words. Do you believe this?

That Jesus comes from the Father and goes to the Father and is one with the Father. In our life groups discuss:

When did you recognise that Jesus and God are one?

Life gives the light. The life Jesus has, and the life he shares with those who follow him, give us all light. That is, we are dead and blind to the light until the life of Jesus is imparted to us by God’s Spirit, and then we see. The eyes of our hearts are opened, and divine light streams into our living spirits. And then we have the light of life. The light that comes from new, spiritual, eye-opening life—the life that gives sight to the blind soul, eternal life-giving eternal sight.

That is our commitment today to teach, to model, to share our joy of living in the light to Boaz, to the kids, to anyone that walks through that door and especially when we walk out of it.

Can you describe the darkness before knowing Jesus and the light he now brings into your world?

Respond

Walking with Jesus in the light

And so I finish with Jesus saying in John 12:36, “While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” When you believe in Jesus as your precious light, when you follow him as your truth and your wisdom and your way and your beauty, you have his life, you are “a son or daughter of light.” You are part of the family of light. And this light will never go out. In the moment of death, when the world thinks “all the lights go out,” for you it will be the light of heaven. So that’s where Jesus starts in verse 12. I am the light of the world. He offers this to everyone. And what an offer it is! I pray you take it, and walk-in it

closing prayer

Do we miss the heart of God sometimes? do we get caught in the wording or practice and miss the light that Jesus is? Is there anything currently blinding you to the full joy in Jesus?

Memory Verse Week 2 - John 8:12 “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.””