Light of the World
John • Sermon • Submitted
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When I was younger the house my family lived in had a basement. And on one side was the playroom and an office for my dad. Then on the other side was this dark room with a creeky door and the water heater and air conditioning units. I could also have sworn that ghosts lived there because sometimes a door would start to creek when no one was there. Now in that room was also a freezer, and sometimes my mom would ask me to go down there and get something. But the problem was that the light switch was one of the pull downs connected to the light bulb, so you had to go IN the room in order to turn on the light. I was always so terrified leaving and I once I turned off the light I would go running out of the room and upstairs.
Now I am sure we have all had times where we were afraid of the dark. Whether it be walking home late at night, in the woods, in a dark room we had to get through, or even at home when it is late and you hear a noise. So why is the dark so scary? It is the unknown, it is the fear of what you CANT see. The fear that there is something that could possibly bring you harm. But when we have the light we are able to set ourselves free from these fears. But what if in your fear of the darkness you ran further into the darkness? What if in your fear you just stayed where you were rather than move into the light?
One time my family was camping and I had to go to the bathroom late at night. But I remembered seeing signs that there were bears in the area and that bears would try and steal food from cars. And so I didn’t want to move out of the tent and to the bathroom because I felt safer in the darkness that I was in rather than move to the light that was at a distance. But moving to the light is where we need to be, it is where we will be the most safe.
Jesus is the light of the world
Jesus is the light of the world
In this passage Jesus calls Himself the light of the world. What does he mean by this?
-One thing Jesus is referring to the pillar of fire that the Lord used to bring the people of Israel out of Egypt. God led them forward into the promised land from this pillar of fire.
-In the same way Jesus is saying that He leads us to new life, He leads us to heaven through Himself. He is our light int he darkness.
-Therefore God’s Word, His laws, His instructions are meant to take us from the darkness into the light. Jesus is that light to us, showing us the way to life.
-God’s commands are a path for us. But many times we think of God’s commands as restricting us.
-I have been recently been following on twitter this discussion between a trans activist and a pastor. This occurred because the pastor wrote an article that said that to not live by the sexual ethic that God has created for us is damaging and dehumanizing. That it will cause more pain. But this activist said that his point of view was actually hurting people not helping them because he was telling them how to live their life.
-Now he used a different analogy but with the same point I am going to use.
-Let’s say that you are about to walk off a cliff. And I yell at you, “don’t go that way! You are going to die if you keep going that way!” And I get more and more forceful, and let’s say I build a fence in front of that cliff to keep you from falling into the cliff. But then you say “Why are you telling me what to do? It is incredible toxic of you to tell me that the way I want to live is wrong and that it is harmful to me and you building the fence is not allowing me to live my life that is freeing to me”
He is also saying He is the presence of God among the people. That He comes from the Father.
-You may ask from the other theme, “how do know what we are to follow?” Well here Jesus says that He was sent by the Father. That He comes with the authority of God himself.
-Jesus says that unless they follow Him they will die.
-Example of blindfolding someone and having someone give them directions to where they are going.
The Truth will set you free
The Truth will set you free
What do you think that it means that the truth will set you free?
-If we know the truth and we follow the truth, it will set us free.
-Have you ever seen the movie, “Liar Liar”. It is a movie about a guy whose son wishes for his father to stop lying.
-At first his telling the truth causes him problems, but then he realizes that is what behind all of his problems is his lying.
So how does the truth set us free? It frees us from the bondage of sin and of the difficulties that come with our sins. Sin feels good for a while, but then it wears off.
-That is what let to the pharisees trying to kill Jesus, that is why Jesus caused them so much anger and frustration, because they couldn’t deal with the truth and because the truth meant saying that they were wrong.