Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

Story about being in Darkness

Scuba diving in the dark

One of the things I love to do when I go on vacation is to go scuba diving!

I love scuba diving

- I have gone diving over 80 times in 5 different countries.

I have dove with sea turtles and sting rays and Giant angel fish, and barracudas and lots of different kinds of sharks.

Every-time you come around a corner of the reef and a giant fish pops up your heart skips a beat.-

A few years back I decided that I wanted to try something a little more exciting while I was on the Island of Cozumel, Mexico.

I signed up to go on a night dive.

At 11 pm I showed up at the boat got my gear set and we all headed out to the reef to dive down to the bottom of the ocean.

When we got to our spot One by one we had to all jump off the boat into the black ocean below.

The same ocean I had seen dozen of sharks and barracudas swimming in.

As I jumped off the boat and into the water- It was as dark as dark could be I couldn’t even see my own feet below me.

The weight of total darkness was upon us.

It was one of the most eerie feelings I have ever had in my life.

Floating in the ocean without knowing what was around me.

But once everyone was in the water -the dive master told us all to turn on our lights.

and as we turned on our lights the ocean below us came alive.

We could now see.

Before we were just floating in darkness, but now because of the light we could now see the beauty of the reef that was all around us.

My fear and anxiety caused by the darkness was gone because I could now see in the light.

In the book of John Jesus uses seven “I am” statement to describe his nature and proclaim himself as God.

To the Jewish audience, they would have known what Jesus meant when He called himself “I AM

Exodus 3:14 “God said to Moses, “I am who I am.”

And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ””

he was declaring himself as the God of the Old testament.

The God that Gave Moses the Law- that these same people -are accusing Jesus of breaking.

These seven I am statements of Jesus don’t just declare his deity, but they also describe his character.

Two weeks ago We looked at the first "I Am” statement Jesus made after He had fed over 5000 men a miraculous meal from 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish.

Jesus said “I am the bread of life”.

The physical food I gave you from that boys lunch will leave you physically hungry again, but the spiritual food that I am offering you will fill you for all eternity.

and this spiritual food only is available through by body which I will willing give up for you.

last week Willie did a wonderful taking us through the text of John 10.

Where Jesus makes 2 more I AM declarations of his deity. .

Jesus begins by declaring himself as the door of the sheep fold . in verse 7 of chapter 10

John 10:9 “I am the door.

If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.”

Jesus was teaching the crowd about his character again - Just like the shepherd is the door of the sheepfold and no one can enter except through the shepherd, Jesus was saying the only way anyone can ever enter into the fold of God is through Him.

In verse 14 Jesus goes on and says not only Am i the only way into the fold But I am the one who also protects the fold, and leads the fold, and loves the fold and knows the fold.

John 10:14 “I am the good shepherd.

I know my own and my own know me,”

Jesus in this simple statement reveals his character of love for those who are his sheep.

And he tells us that this love is as deep as the love of God the father has for God the son.

A perfect unbreakable love.

This morning we are jumping back in our text to John chapter 8 verses 12 where Jesus makes his 2nd I AM statement declaring his deity as God.

John 8:12 “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 morning I want us to understand what Jesus means by the light of the World.

and in order for us to truly understand what Jesus was saying we need to understand the contrast Jesus is giving us in his descriptive statement.

“ Whoever follows me will not walk in Darkness BUT will have the Light of LIFE."

Jesus in this statement is saying there are only two options for all of mankind.

Either you walk in darkness or you walk in the light.

When I was floating in the ocean I was in complete darkness, but when we turned on our lights we were no longer in darkness but were in the light.

Jesus is declaring himself as the one who can take mankind from darkness and into the light.

The Light of the World Expels Our Darkness

The author of the gospel of John Makes the point that Jesus is the Light of the world very clear

John 1:1-3 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

John 1:4-5“In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Illustration; Belize Cave.

Ive shared this story before with you but I cant think of a more visible illustration than this for darkness.

I have had the opportunity to go to a number of caves in my life, on one occasion in the country of Belize Amy and I took a tour into a cave that went 1/4 of a mile into the side of a cliff.

This cave was so hidden that even when I was 10 feet in front of It I had no idea it was there.

The opening to get into the cave was about 3 inches narrower than my belly and it took a little squeezing to get in.

Once we squeezed through the 12 ft long narrow passage the cave began to open up.

We began to walk through the tunnels of this cave.

Everyone of us had our own light.

and with all 10 of our lights shining brightly the cave was lit up beautifully.

Eventually we came to another small opening and one by one we all crawled through it, and on the other side of this small tunnel was a giant room hidden from the world.

We were deep inside this cave.

and I was glad we had someone with us who knew how to get out -Because I was lost on my own.

As we took a break inside this room the tour guide said “ have any of you ever really felt total darkness?

In my mind I thought “I’ve had been in the dark before.”

I’ve walked in the basement without any lights on before.

Ive been in places where I couldn’t see anything.

The guide said let me show you what complete darkness feels like.

On the count of three I want all of us to shut our lights off and remain silent.

and in that moment we could feel the weight of total darkness in our life.

we could feel The coldness of the darkness all around us

We could feel the loneliness of the darkness not knowing if anyone else was out there.

We could feel the desperation of being completely lost without any chance of escape.

It was an eerie sense of complete hopelessness.

As we sat there in utter darkness looking for any glimmer of light, looking for any ounce of hope, the tour guide took out a small candle and turned it on.

and do you know what happened in that moment- that little light took the coldness of darkness and pushed it away.

the loneliness began to dissolve and the desperation from being lost was no more.

Why - Because that little light pushed back all of the darkness that was upon us, and life became alive around us.

We could see!

The darkness that enslaved us was gone,

Ephesians 5:8 “for at one time you were darkness,

Understand this morning that Without Jesus we are not just in darkness but we are totally consumed with darkness.

We have no hope because we are darkness

We have no way of escape because we are darkness

Because of sin mankind is so deep into darkness that no matter how hard we may try to see light there is none to be found.

we cannot escape the coldness of darkness without light ,

we cannot escape the loneliness of darkness without light

We cannot escape the bondage of sin without the Light.

Understand this church.