Believe the light

Our theme for 2022 is “Begin Again”

This series is called, “Believe Again”

You may have already believed the gospel, but it is time to believe again.

We began with “Believe in Jesus”

Then we talked about believing in spiritual reality.

We talked about how an encounter with Jesus leads to transformation, living in both realities.

Last week we talked about life - remember the great circle of life?

John talks about another circle of life - God’s life in us and flowing through us.

We respond to God and then He invites us to ask for anything!

God then responds to us because we are responding to Him.

Now we are going to shift to a different metaphor - light instead of life - or light as an illustration of life.

John 8:12 ESV

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.”

What is light?

Light is energy - electromagnetic radiation.

Sometimes it acts more like a particle - called photons.

And sometimes it acts more like wave energy.

The bottom line is that while we know a lot about light, but we are still not entirely sure of what it is.

What we know is what light does.

Sound familiar? Jesus said the same thing about spirit.

Light illuminates!

It helps us to see and to know the world around us

In the universe, light provides a constant by which time and space can be measured.

It dispels darkness, which is the absence of light.

Light nourishes and supports life.

Just as with the circle of life - there is a circle of light.

We receive light and we also give it out.

Some would say that we reflect the light of God to the world.

Others might say that we refract light, because what we reflect is unique as it passes through our individuality.

Or perhaps we are more light solar lights where energy is received, stored and released.

It’s fun to play with metaphors, the images change as you look at them differently, like looking through a kaleidoscope.

Light is also what gives life beauty, because it opens our eyes to a whole world of color which is made possible by light.

As we continue reading in John chapters seven and part of eight, we will use the light metaphor as a lens through which to view Jesus.

Using the spotlight.

John (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) shines a spotlight on certain events and teachings because they contribute to a larger picture or story.

It like the theater where the spotlight comes on and follows the character who is telling the story.

There may be other action happening on stage, but the spotlight is there to illuminate what must be seen.

Light illuminates - it causes to be seen.

Lets see what the spotlight is doing as we begin John chapter seven.

The spotlight shines where you need to look.

John 7:1–9 ESV

1 After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. 2 Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand. 3 So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. 4 For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 For not even his brothers believed in him. 6 Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. 8 You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” 9 After saying this, he remained in Galilee.

So the main action on stage is moving toward Jerusalem and the feast of tabernacles.

But Jesus is avoiding that spotlight.

It’s not time to make that entrance.

But the anticipation is building - they want Him to break out in the big number.

John has another narrow spotlight on Galilee, as if to show his audience that the real action is what is happening behind the scene.

Jesus is staying behind, presumably because his life is being threatened by evil forces.

Direct confrontation would be a disaster.

Jesus chose the element of surprise.

There is a lesson here.

We want to know and see everything about God, life and ourselves.

We want to get all the action- but we don’t have the capacity to take it all in.

Besides, sometimes what is happening in a small corner of the stage is really more important than anything else.

The Holy Spirit is like a spotlight, let God direct our attention to where it needs to be.

You can try to keep up with all of the news, current events and social media or you can simply pray - “God, shine your light on what I need to see.”

Psalm 139:23–24 NLT

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

“Holy Spirit, focus my attention on what is really important.”

Jesus did that, and it led Him to stay behind until the right moment.

Being in the spotlight means coming under scrutiny.

John 7:14–18 ESV

14 About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. 15 The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” 16 So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. 17 If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. 18 The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.

Jesus wait until the middle of the feast to show up, and then shows up in the temple courts teaching.

We can speculate that if he had come with his disciples and relatives, they would have been waiting for him and knew where to find him.

The idea is to take him out quietly before He can make a scene.

Jesus waits and goes straight to center stage - there is no chance to intervene quietly - he’s already in the spotlight.

So the Pharisees start asking questions - to expose him.

Where did you get your training?

Who are you reading? What are your sources?

Every rabbinic school has it’s critics.

Put Jesus in a category, a school of thought, and immediately you polarize the audience.

Not everyone wants to be in the spotlight, but a word of warning for those who do - the spotlight will expose every little thing about you.

If you are insecure about the way that you look.

If you have annoying little mannerisms.

If you care at all what people think about you...

The spotlight will find your weakness.

Sound scary? - Not if you know what your purpose is.

You purpose is to let the light of God shine through you.

Jesus says He is simply say what God gives Him to say.

And if your will or desire is simple obedience to God, you will get it.

How do you deal with the worlds scrutiny?

First of all, know that everything that they accuse you of thinking or doing reflects their own actions and intentions.

They assume that you think and act like them.

Secondly, keep you focus on God and let Him shine through you.

You are to be reflecting Him, not them.

1 Thessalonians 5:15 NLT

15 See that no one pays back evil for evil, but always try to do good to each other and to all people.

1 Peter 3:9 NLT

9 Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will grant you his blessing.

Be careful, if you focus on what evil and what evil is doing, you will begin to manifest that same spirit.

I have seen people become hurt and offended when they only want to tell the truth.

And then they become so desperate to prove that they are right, that they begin to hurt and offend others who mean well.

That is why we must forgive, because only by forgiving can we shift our focus back to God and to blessing.

The spotlight can be harsh, but the spotlight also moves...

Beware that the spotlight can turn around!

John 7:19–24 ESV

19 Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” 20 The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” 21 Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it. 22 Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. 23 If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man’s whole body well? 24 Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”

So after answering their questions, Jesus has a few questions of his own.

You believe “thou shalt not murder” but you want to murder me!

Watch what happens here - they say he has a demon!

How do they know about the demonic plan to kill the Christ?

Because they are in on it!

It’s the oldest trick in the book …accuse your opponent of what you are doing.

Try to turn the spotlight on them so they don’t see what you are doing.

Then Jesus takes them to school regarding their own law.

Circumcision and Moses - two hot topics everybody is talking about.

Except circumcision predates Moses - meaning that Moses is not the ultimate authority - but like everyone else - he is reflecting a light that comes to him.

Circumcision is surgery that is normally performed on the Sabbath - but you are not allowed to do anything on the Sabbath.

They don’t want Jesus to heal on the Sabbath, but they can do surgery, why?

Because God made the Sabbath to be restorative, but they have made it about power, control and oppression.

There is one set of rules for people who walk in the light and believe in truth and another set of rules for those who make their own light and their own truth.

How do you know what is false until you know what is true?

The spotlight is a light, but it is not “the light.”

Natural light is far superior to artificial light - ask any photographer.

How do we reflect God’s light in a way that is real and true?

Becoming a lampstand.

Light as a metaphor was around long before John wrote about it.

Among the furniture of the tabernacle were lampstands.

it had seven branches - the number of completion.

3 (the Divine) + 4 (the earth)

When heaven and earth come together, there is light.

The branches also resembled tree branches with buds and blossoms.

Light and life are connected; where there is light, there is also life.

The lampstand stood in the Holy place, lighting the way to God’s presence.

Here, Jesus is at the feast of tabernacles.

In Jesus time, the feast of tabernacles featured several large menorahs in the outer court of the temple which were 90 ft tall shining like stadium lights.

They would have lit up the whole temple complex so that worship and festive dancing could continue on into the night.

it is in this context that Jesus declared Himself to be the light of the world.

In Revelation we see that the lampstand is also symbolic of the church.

Revelation 1:20 ESV

20 As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

How do we become what the lampstand represents?

Light requires a source of energy.

John 7:25–29 ESV

25 Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? 26 And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? 27 But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.” 28 So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. 29 I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.”

A light needs an energy source - a plug, a battery or an oil chamber.

Now we have “wireless charging” which I don’t really understand, but it’s pretty cool!

The people are looking at Jesus to try to understand where he gets His power from.

The cord seems to lead back to his family in Galilee and that’s nothing special! (Except that he is a direct descendant of David.)

I guess they are expecting someone to magically “beam down” into the temple.

Jesus has a source that they don’t know or understand - its called a relationship with Father God.

God sent Him.

God directs Him.

God sustains Him.

Is that just Jesus, or is that true for you too?

You have an infinite source inside of you.

John 7:37–39 ESV

37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

At the feast of tabernacles, there is a seven-day water pouring ceremony which is a prayer for rain.

Each day water is drawn from the pool of Siloam and carried in a golden pitcher to the altar where it is poured out around the altar.

I guess they were “priming the pump” for God to send rain.

In that context, Jesus stands up and declares that if we let Him pour into us, then out of us will come a continuous flow of life.

We now know that what He was talking about is the Holy Spirit.

John 14:15–17 ESV

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

You have a renewable resource, an infinite source of Divine energy living in you!

That’s what it means to be a lampstand - a container for the Holy Spirit - from which to illuminate the world.

An instrument to light the way to the presence of God.

Is that you? Could it be you?

Ignite what is in you.

John 7:44–46 ESV

44 Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. 45 The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” 46 The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!”

So they sent officers to arrest Jesus and they came back empty-handed. Why?

Because they saw something that they never saw before.

You could say it was real light as opposed to the dime light that they were used to seeing.

You could say it was real truth, instead of made-up truth that they were used to getting.

You could say it was life, love, joy or grace.

What they saw was God being God, instead of some man behind a curtain pulling levers.

What do people see when they look at you?

Fake it til you make it?

Please, don’t look too hard?

Or will they see a genuine spark of something real?

You are a light; you have what it takes. Ignite what is in you!

Shining the light for all to see.

Matthew 5:14–15 ESV

14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.

We started by saying that Jesus is the light of the world, but Jesus said that you (all) are the light of the world.

That’s the circle of light.

From Jesus to you and you to the world, therefore, from Jesus to the world.

How do we do that?

I would suggest that Chapter eight gives us a few clues.

Expose the darkness.

John 8:6–9 ESV

6 This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.

This is the woman caught in adultery - we know the story.

But see it in terms of darkness and light.

They are bringing an ugly situation into the spotlight, thinking that Jesus will do what they would do - yell, “turn it off!”

But instead of turning it off, Jesus turns it up.

Lets see who can stand if we widen the spotlight to include all of you?

What did Jesus write in the dirt? We don’t know.

But whatever it was, illuminated their hearts to see what they didn’t want to see.

They believed that sin is a constant, reliable principle.

And that being exposed to sin, Jesus would chose darkness over light.

But, in fact, light is the constant, reliable principle.

And when Jesus brought light into their darkness, either sin had to go or they did.

Reveal the Father.

John 8:13–19 ESV

13 So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” 14 Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. 15 You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. 16 Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. 17 In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. 18 I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.” 19 They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”

This is a deep passage, but let me try to simplify it by explaining it in terms of light and dark.

The Pharisees are saying, :”you cannot illuminate yourself”

You can not be on both ends of the spotlight.

Jesus is saying, “well, actually, I can.”

You are assuming that everyone is in the dark and needs the light to see themselves.

I’m not in the dark, in fact, I am the light.

But if you need someone on the other end of the spotlight, how about God the Father?

Here’s the irony, because they don’t know or understand about God the Father.

So, instead of God the Father shining the spotlight on Jesus; this becomes an opportunity for Jesus to shine the spotlight on Father God.

If you ever want to mess with people, just start talking about your relationship with God.

Immediately, you get one of two reactions.

Some people think you are crazy and want to get away from you.

Other people “light up” and are like, “I know exactly what you are talking about.”

You want proof that God is real? Here’s your proof!

Just bring God into any conversation and watch people react to what they insist isn’t real.

Illuminate spiritual reality.

John 8:23–30 ESV

23 He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.” 25 So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. 26 I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” 27 They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father. 28 So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. 29 And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” 30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him.

Remember that we said that Jesus came to show us spiritual reality and that believing in Him we live in both worlds.

When you talk to people about Father God or Holy Spirit, you seem to them like you are from another world.

Spiritual things are spiritually known.

1 Corinthians 2:14 CSB

14 But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually.

People only understand spiritual reality as is is lived out and demonstrated to them.

Jesus said the wouldn’t understand His mission until after His death (lifted up).

That’s because God sacrificing himself was beyond anyone’s imagination.

God coming in the flesh and being “knowable” was still beyond most people’s comprehension.

Coming into the light is going to result in seeing things like you have never seen them before.

Even with our physical eyes, we can only see a limited spectrum of light and of colors.

There is beauty to be seen beyond what we can even imagine.

The same is true of when we become light.

God is going to use you to reflect Himself in ways that you cannot yet comprehend.

You are going to expose what lurks in darkness.

But where ever the light shines, it will also bring out the beauty of the glory of God.

Questions for reflection:

Lets invite God’s light into our live by praying Psalm 139:23-24

Psalm 139:23–24 NLT

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

2. Are you aware of the Holy Spirit’s power and presence living in you? Are other people aware of it? What would it take to ignite God’s Spirit in you making it visible to the world?

3. Do you feel threatened by the encroaching darkness in the world. What if instead of being afraid of the light, we were to get bold with it? What would happen if you turned it up instead of turning it off?