Sermon Tone Analysis

Scripture

Good morning, before we start, the passage this morning was a tough one for me to figure out, so I got quite a bit of outside help from other sources and pastors, and honestly, it’s a tough message to preach and it’s a tough message to preach.

So, I’ll start with reading the scripture, then we’ll pray, and then we’ll jump in.

When we come to the end of this text of , we see the response of many people in verse 30: “As he was saying these things, many believed in him.”

This is good news.

Because Jesus had said in verse 24, “Unless you believe that I am he [literally, that I am] you will die in your sins.”

So here we have a picture of people passing from death to life.

They will not die in their sins.

They will be forgiven.

Their sins will not be held against them.

And when they die, they will go where Jesus has gone — to the Father — unlike the unrepentant, as Jesus says in verse 21, “Where I am going you cannot come.”

And so these believers will live in everlasting light and joy.

When we come to the end of this text of , we see the response of many people in verse 30: “As he was saying these things, many believed in him.”

This is good news.

Because Jesus had said in verse 24, “Unless you believe that I am he [literally, that I am] you will die in your sins.”

So here we have a picture of people passing from death to life.

They will not die in their sins.

They will be forgiven.

Their sins will not be held against them.

And when they die, they will go where Jesus has gone — to the Father — unlike the unrepentant, as Jesus says in verse 21, “Where I am going you cannot come.”

And so these believers will live in everlasting light and joy.

That is why Jesus came into the world.

That is why he spoke these words in our text.

And that is why I am preaching this message.

I want the same thing to happen for you that happened for the people in verse 30 — “As he was saying these things, many believed in him.”

Notice, it was Jesus’s words that God used to bring about the faith.

He wasn’t doing miracles at this point.

He was speaking.

In fact, he was going back and forth with the Pharisees and the crowd — those who were blind to what he was saying.

And as people listened to his words, they believed.

Faith comes by hearing — the word of Christ ().

That can happen here.

You may start to hear this message as an unbeliever.

And you may come to the end of this message as a believer.

It happened for them.

It can happen for you.

So I am going to try to let Jesus speak by walking with him through this text pretty much in the order that it comes.

A Detour That’s Not a Detour

But it might be helpful to say something about the overarching point of the passage.

The passage begins in verse 12 with Jesus saying, “I am the light of the world.”

“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.’”

And surprisingly he never mentions light again in this whole chapter.

It’s as though he goes off onto a detour because of an objection they raise.

But we have seen before (for example, ) that when Jesus lets someone take him on a detour, he handles the detour in a way that really illumines the starting point and the destination.

So it turns out not to be a detour after all.

The Focus: Jesus’s Relationship with the Father

The dominant focus in the apparent detour in verses 13–29 — the detour away from “I am the light of the world” — is that the testimony and the judgments of Jesus are true because of his relationship with God the Father.

At least seven times in this passage, Jesus points to the fact that he is from the Father, and speaks on the authority of the Father, and is going to the Father, and does nothing on his own.

He claims, in other words, that his authority is not owing to any human origin.

It’s owing to his relationship with God the Father.

“Jesus’s authority isn’t from human origin.

It’s from his relationship with God the Father.”TweetShare on Facebook

Imagine the greatest human authority you can, and he is saying: I don’t pretend to have that.

What I claim is that I speak from God and for God and as God.

I don’t testify to any autonomous human greatness.

What I claim — in and under all I say and do — is that “I am.”

I am one with God, the great “I am” ().

Verse 24: “Unless you believe that I am [the he is added in our English translation] you will die in your sins.”

Verse 28: “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am [again, the he is added].”

And the reason I say this emphasis on Jesus’s relationship with the Father is not really a detour from verse 12 — “I am the light of the world” — 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.

May the Lord do that for you as we listen to him.

When We Follow Him, We Have Him

So let’s begin with the claim in verse 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.’”

This is a life-changing verse if you see it for what it is — see him 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.

And notice that when you follow him you have him — you have him as the light of life.

“I am the light . . .

Whoever follows me . . .

will have the light. . .

.”

You will have me, he says, as your light.

If you follow me, you have me.

I am yours.

I am your Shepherd and your Sacrifice and your Living Water and your Bread from Heaven and your God, and your Light.

Notice the last phrase of verse 12: “You will have the light of life.”

What is the connection between light and life?

gives the answer: “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”

The life gives the light.

The life Jesus has and the life he shares with those who follow him gives them 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 thus 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.

The Light of the World

And what about the phrase “light of the world”?

Verse 12: “Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world.’”

What does “of the world” mean?

The whole world is not being lightened — at least not yet.

In fact, he says, “Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness.”

Which means that if we don’t follow him, we do walk in darkness.

And where is that darkness?

It is in the world and in our hearts.

So being “the light of the world” doesn’t mean removing all darkness from the world as he walks through the world.

Here’s what I think it means: