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The Great I AM

07/15/2007 - The Light of the World, John 8:12

There's a lot of controversy these days about Jesus Christ. Of course, that's nothing new. There's been controversy about who Jesus is ever since he was born. But recently the controversy has heated up and become more high profile with the worldwide phenomenon of The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown and the recent best selling book called Misquoting Jesus: Who Changed the Bible and Why by Bart Ehrman.

Right now it seems like our culture is being bombarded with skepticism about the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and the reliability of the New Testament. In his book, Misquoting Jesus, Ehrman who chairs the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, claims that the New Testament is filled with mistakes and intentional alterations made by early translators of the gospels. And because of that we can't trust the Bible. And so the widely held belief that Jesus Christ is God really is not true. Instead, it's the result of translator's mistakes and intentional fabrications. The early translators were the ones who turned the man Jesus into a god.

Not long ago, Ehrman told a packed auditorium at UNC that, "Sometimes Christian apologists say there are only three options to who Jesus was. He was either a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord. But there could be a fourth option -- he could be a legend." In other words, in his opinion the Jesus portrayed in the Bible is not the same person as the Jesus who lived in history.

Of course, in The Da Vinci Code which Dan Brown clearly admits is fiction one of the main characters says, "Almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false …. Jesus' establishment as 'the Son of God' was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicaea. And until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by his followers as a mortal prophet … a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A mortal."

The character goes on to say, "Nobody is saying Christ was a fraud or denying that he walked the earth and inspired millions to live better lives. All we are saying is that Constantine (who was the Emperor of Rome and convened the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325) took advantage of Christ's substantial influence and importance. And in doing so, he shaped the face of Christianity as we know it today." In other words, Constantine was the one who made Jesus into a god.

These are the voices that are speaking into our culture today. And they have a lot of people confused as to who Jesus really is. But fortunately, they're not going unchallenged. Recently, a group of New Testament scholars led by Dan Wallace wrote a book called Reinventing Jesus.

And in that book he writes, "Attempts to reinvent Jesus are nothing new. The vines of radical skepticism toward the biblical Christ have been creeping up the walls of the ivory tower for two centuries. But only in recent years has such intense cynicism sprouted at the grassroots. And it has spread quickly … skeptics of all stripes have used the popular media to promote their demoted versions of Jesus."

He then writes, "If you're skeptical of the Jesus of the Bible recall the story of Thomas in John 20. Despite the testimony of the other disciples, Thomas doubted that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead … Interestingly, Jesus didn't scold Thomas for his doubt. Rather, he called him to examine the evidence. 'Put your finger here and examine my hands. Extend your hand and put it into my side. Do not continue in your unbelief, but believe.' Jesus invites us to the same." Examine the evidence and believe.

Who is Jesus Christ? You have to answer that question for yourself. I can't answer it for you. Your parents can't answer it for you. Your friends can't answer it for you. No one can answer it for you. The choice is yours. And how you answer that question, will to a large degree, determine how you live your life and where you'll spend eternity because who Jesus is changes who we are.

This morning we continue the series we started last week called The Great I Am. It's a series that's going to bring us face to face with Jesus and confront us with the statements that he made about himself. And it's designed to help us believe in Jesus and trust him even when life gets tough, even when we don't understand what he's doing.

The textbook we're using for the series is the Gospel of John. I hope you're reading through it this summer because we're looking at the eight great I AM statements contained in John's gospel where Jesus says, "I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the I am. I am the door. I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth, and the life. ! am the vine." I believe these statements are true and haven't been fabricated by translators. I believe that we can trust what John has recorded about Jesus.

The Apostle John knew that his book would come under attack and so at the end of his gospel he writes these words in John 21:24, This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true.

In making these I AM statements it was very clear to Jesus' Jewish audience that he was claiming to be God because it was God who said to Moses from the burning bush, "I AM who I AM." In fact, it was the I AM statements of Jesus that divided the crowd and eventually cost him his life.

Last week we heard Jesus say to the mob on the mountain that he had just fed miraculously with five loaves and two fish, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

But not everybody believed that was true about Jesus because he didn't do some of things they expected Messiah to do. And so the chapter ends with these sad words in John 6:66, From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. ⁶⁷"You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve. ⁶⁸Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God."

Some believe Jesus and follow him and some don't and turn back. It's always been that way. It always will be that way. What will you do with Jesus when life gets tough and Jesus doesn't do what you expect him to do for you? Will you still follow him or will you turn back? I know people who have gone either way. I went to seminary with some of them. Some were pastors who really loved Christ. And during hard times some kept following Jesus, but others got disillusioned with Jesus and turned back. And so I pray, "Lord, help me to finish well." Be careful with your expectations of Jesus. Don't put words in his mouth and hold him to promises that he never made.

The first I AM statement of Jesus is "I am the bread of life." The second I AM statement is "I am the light of the world." And just like the first statement was made against the backdrop of a Jewish festival, the Passover Feast, so the second I AM statement is made about six months later against the backdrop of another Jewish festival, the Feast of Tabernacles, and that's significant.

If you have a Bible turn to John 7:1 , After this (that is the feeding of the 15,000), Jesus went around in Galilee, purposely staying away from Judea because the Jews there were waiting to take his life. ²But when the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near, ³Jesus' brothers said to him, "You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do."

The Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Booths as it was also called was the third of the three annual festivals that required all Jewish males to go to Jerusalem and worship God. The first was Passover in the spring, then the Feast of Pentecost fifty days later, and then the Feast of Tabernacles. It was held in the fall, during harvest time and lasted for seven days.

And during the feast the Jewish people left their houses and lived in little booths or shacks all over the city, in the streets, on flat roof tops, in city squares, in gardens, even in the Temple courts. And the booths were made of branches and palm fronds and had thatched roofs that were meant to remind God's people of the tents they lived in during the forty years they wandered in the wilderness and how God had provided for them. It was a happy, festive time. And of course, there were special services that were held at the great Jewish Temple.

And each day there was a procession from the Temple down to the Gihon Spring, the only water source in the city. And a priest would fill a gold pitcher with water from that spring and bring it back up the Temple Mount and pour it out on the altar as offering to God while a choir sang the words to Isaiah 12:3, With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And that daily ritual reminded the people that God had miraculously provided water from the rock during their wanderings in the desert. It was very dramatic moment.

But the drama built throughout the week until the last and greatest day of the Feast. Because on that day the priest would draw water from the spring and climb the steep steps to the Temple. And while the choir sang he would walk around the altar seven times in memory of the seven times God's people walked around Jericho before the walls came tumbling down. And as a hush of anticipation fell over the crowd and the priest was about to pour the water on the altar for the last time, Jesus stands up in the midst of the mob and does the unthinkable. He breaks the silence with these words.

Look at John 7:37, On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. ³⁸Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within them." ³⁹By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

And against the backdrop of the Feast of Tabernacles Jesus says," I am more satisfying than the water that comes from the Gihon Spring or the water that came from the rock in the desert. I alone can satisfy your thirsty soul." Just like he had said against the backdrop of the Passover Feast that we looked at last week, "I am more than manna. I am the bread of life who can satisfy the deepest hunger of your soul."

And once again there was controversy. Once again the crowd was split. Look at verse 40, On hearing his words, some of the people said, "Surely this man is the Prophet." ⁴¹Others said, "He is the Christ." Still others asked, "How can the Christ come from Galilee? ⁴²Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David's family and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?" ⁴³Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. ⁴⁴Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.

But Jesus wasn't finished. He uses this same stage to make another dramatic claim. Against the backdrop of the Feast of Tabernacles he makes his second I AM statement and it's found in 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."

Jesus most likely made this statement while he was standing in the Court of Women in the Temple in Jerusalem. One of main events of the Feast of Tabernacles each night was the lighting of a giant candelabra over 75 feet high that was in the women's court. This candelabra was so huge that the wicks we're told were made from the worn out robes of the priests.

And every evening at dusk the lights would be lit and stay lit all night long until the cock-crowed the next morning. And people crowded into the Temple to sing and dance and play music deep into the night. It was a celebration! The light of that candelabra was brighter than any light most of these people had ever seen and it shone all over the Temple and illuminated much of the city. It was dramatic. It was like a block party, rock concert, and fireworks display all rolled into one every night of the week.

The light from that candelabra was another symbol of how God had cared for his people during the forty years they wandered in the desert by providing a pillar of cloud by day that turned into a pillar of fire by night. And against that visual aid Jesus says, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

This world can be a very dark place. There's the darkness of sin and disbelief, of ignorance and evil in all its many forms. And we can spend our whole lives wandering around in the darkness. Or we can choose to follow Jesus, the light of life, and never walk in darkness again because Jesus will light our way.

Light is what God is all about. The very first words out of God's mouth in Genesis 1 were, "Let there be light." and there was light. And God saw that the light was good.

Thinking of that, John opens his gospel with Genesis 1 in mind when he writes,In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... ⁴In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it.

Later on in 1 John 1:5, John will say, God is light, in him is no darkness at all. Light is a symbol of purity and holiness.

The whole Bible ends engulfed in light when we read in Revelation 22:5, There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign forever and ever.

God is into light. God is light and Jesus is the light of the world. And that's an amazing thing. But what's even more amazing to me is that Jesus calls us the light of the world too. That's what we discovered in our study of the Sermon on the Mount last fall. Jesus said in Matthew 5, You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. Who Jesus is, changes who we are when we believe in him.

God wants us to light the way for others to find him in the midst of the darkness. And he has placed his Holy Spirit inside of us, as Jesus said he would, to empower us to be that light. And our light shines brightest when we're open and honest with God about the darkness in our own lives, because the darkness in this world is not just out there, the darkness in this world is in here too. It's inside me and it's inside you. And if we give in to the darkness our light gets very dim.

And so John writes this in 1 John 1:6 , If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. ⁷But 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, purifies us from all sin. ⁸If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

I love this passage. It's one of my all time favorites. It tells us that being the light of the world, doesn't mean we're perfect people. Instead, it means that we're ready and willing to let God purify our lives because we want to walk with him. We want to enjoy an open and honest relationship with Jesus. No more hiding in the darkness.

And our light will shine bright for Jesus if we do two things, John says. First, if we walk in the light as God is in the light. When we're walking in the light we're following God to the best of our knowledge. But because we're not perfect, the sin that we're unaware of, John says, is cleansed by the blood of Christ. How cool is that!

And as we walk with God he'll gently point out areas in our lives that need attention. Attitudes and habits, stuff we do and don't do, ways of relating that need to change. And so as he brings those things into the light we confess them to him. The word confess means "to agree with, to say the same thing about."

And when we do, when we say, "God you're right. I'm wrong. Please forgive me." He's always faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. What a promise! Walking in the light and confessing the darkness as God reveals it to us, that's what keeps our light shining bright for Jesus in a dark world. Jesus said, I am the light of the world.

Who is Jesus Christ? Liar, lunatic, legend or Lord? It's your call. You have to make that choice. And if you choose to believe that he's Lord then he promises to satisfy your hunger, quench your thirst, and light up your life so that you'll never walk in darkness, but instead be the light of the world.

FOR MORE INFORMATION about Valley View Community Church, feel free to contact us at info@valleyviewseek.org or call 610.631.2707.