Sermon
Jesus - The Light Of The World
November 10, 2002
Pastor Donald Sheley

Let's take our Bibles because we're in John and we're in chapter 8. I will give the introduction to next Sunday's sermon. What we're going to cover in the next few weeks is a massive text of Scripture. In all of my 50 plus years of preaching I would say to you that possibly John 8 is one of the most intense chapters in the Bible. And the reason for that is because Christ is being confronted by His critics and they are merciless. They accuse Him of all kinds of things and what you have is a gracious Christ defending His deity. It is a tremendous chapter.

So we're in John chapter 8 and our lesson will begin this morning at verse 12, but I have to give you some background because many of you are new in your faith and you might not understand some of the background to these Bible stories. So I want to give them to you.

If you go back to chapter 7 in verse 2 it says that the Feast of the Tabernacles was near. The next verse, verse 3 of chapter 7 it says that His brothers urged Him to go to that feast or that festival up at Jerusalem, but He didn't go right away. He sent them ahead and waited and then He arrived midway through the festival. What was that festival?

Well if you lived in Jerusalem, and even to this day, there are three major Jewish festivals; there's the festival of Pentecost, there's the festival of the Passover, and there's the festival of Tabernacles. Now these three events if you lived within a radius of 15 miles from Jerusalem it was compulsory that you be at these feasts. And these feasts, the one we're going to talk about in just a moment, the Feast of Tabernacles, lasted for 8 days. It was a celebration and they do it each year. They still have it to this day. They don't celebrate it in the same way that they did then.

But what happened is those Jewish people, those ancient Israelites, when they left Egypt they wandered through the Sinai peninsula for 40 years until they arrived over in Palestine, which was the land of promise. And as a result living out there in the wilderness they had all kinds of experiences and the Feast of Tabernacles was a celebration of that journey, that 40 year journey, from slavery to the land of promise. And for 8 days they would come together and rejoice.

They would read some of the old text and they would read the stories of how God brought the children of Israel up to the Red Sea and parted the sea. They would sing and rejoice about that. Then God would cause manna to fall from heaven. The went through all of those Old Testament stories and they saw how marvelously God had provided for them as a nation for 40 years. This Feast of Tabernacles was a time when they all got together and they celebrated what God had done for their ancient people.

But something very interesting -- they moved out of their house and they would go out in the garden, out in the courtyard, in the front yard, or in the street, wherever they could find a spot and they built a temporary quarter; like a booth. And they made it out of limbs and trees and twigs. It was a temporary shelter which was like a tent. And they were symbolizing the tent that their ancient ancestors had lived under. They would weave it so that when they slept of the back they could see the stars through the leaves.

It was a modern day RV campout. For 8 days they ate outside and cooked outside. Everything was outside. They were celebrating and thinking what it must have been like for those 40 years; what their ancestors had gone through. It was a party. When the nighttime fell they'd get out their flutes and they'd start singing and dancing, and they would dance and sing all night long until the sun came up the next morning.

And the town was filled because if everybody within a 15 miles radius came, tens of thousands of people came to Jerusalem. In fact, Jerusalem would be smaller than San Bruno, and yet Josephus the great historian records on one of these festivals they dedicated 270,000 lambs in sacrifice. And a lamb could be sacrificed for 10 people, so you multiply 270,000 by 10 that's 2 million 700,000 people. Can you imagine 2,700,000 people in San Bruno?

The streets were wall-to-wall with people, and these booths were every place. People singing and shouting just having a marvelous time. It was known as the most joyous festival of the Jewish calendar. That's why the place was full.

And one of the things they did they had this picture on the altar that contained about 2 quarts of water. So the priest on a certain occasion he would get these thousands and thousands of people that had already filled up the temple, and he'd take the pitcher and they'd get them all marching and they'd be singing. He'd go down out of the temple and down along the streets of Jerusalem and down to the pool of Siloam and he'd fill that pitcher full of water, and they'd sing and dance and join clear back up to the temple area.

The And then he'd take that pitcher and he would pour it on the altar. It was symbolic of thanksgiving of that moment when Moses struck the rock and water came out of the rock. It reminded them of God's provision for water out there in the wilderness, and they celebrated it through this wonderful ritual.

But there was something else very unique about that place of worship in Jerusalem. It was a large area and it was divided into various courts. On the outer skirts around the whole worship center was what was known as the Court of the Gentiles. And then there were steps that led up, 15 steps, and then there was the Court of the Women; and then more steps and then there was the Court of the Priests; and then more steps and there was the sanctuary were God dwelt.

Well outside the Court of Women was a massive area where these four candelabras were. They were spaced across the courtyard. They were massive in size, covered with gold, and they were 75 feet high. At the top of those columns they had these massive bowls and what would happen is during the day the youngest priests on duty would climb ladders up to those bowls and fill them with oil. They had big ropes for wicks and then at night they would light those wicks of those four candelabras. And in that ancient time Jerusalem was not a large city was a small little town, and thus these four massive lights, candelabras, would beam their soft light across that entire city of Jerusalem. It was absolutely gorgeous.

It was under those lights that they would celebrate and sing, and rejoice in the goodness of God as to how He'd taken care of their people as they made their journey from Egypt to Palestine. The Bible tells us it's early in the morning. Jesus goes to the temple. The sun is coming up over the eastern horizon, and that's Mount Olivet, and Jesus stands amidst those candelabras and He says something that startles the multitude.

Verse 12, chapter 8, John: Jesus said, I am the light of the world. Now that was absolutely startling. In your Bible go to the end of chapter and look at verse 58. When He completes this discussion with His critics, look at what He says: And Jesus said to them, Most assuredly I say to you before Abraham was, I am! He used a title for God, and He declared His divinity.

You say, where did He get that title? Well go back way in the front part of your Bible to Exodus -- Genesis, Exodus, it's the second book in your Bible. Exodus chapter 3 -- and again we go back in ancient history. You remember Moses after he killed that Egyptian fled to the wilderness of Midian. And he's out their taking care of his father-in-law sheep and God starts a bush burning and the bush isn't consumed. And Moses walks over to that bush.

Look at verse 4. So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." Then He said, "Do not drawn near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground." Moreover He said, "I am the God of your father -- the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.

And the Lord said: "I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and Amorites in the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will send you that you should go to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."

But Moses said to God, "who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?" So He said, "I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the children out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain."

What he's talking about, later on when Moses got His children of Israel and he's circling that Sinai peninsula, it would be at that mountain that God would give the Ten Commandments.

So then Moses said to God, "Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?" In other words, Moses said, all right God, I'll go down there and I'll tell them You sent me to set them free, but when they ask the question, 'What's the name of your God?' What am I going to tell them?

It's a good question. Where's the authority? Look at the next verse. And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And He said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" Moreover God said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: 'The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.'" God said, what is My name? I AM.

Now I'm not a Hebrew scholar, but I had the joy some years ago of listening to a Hebrew scholar explain that title - the I AM. And here's what I remember of what he said. He said, when God said, I AM, what He was saying is I am everything you need, at any time you need it. I am the all-sufficient, eternal God with all power. What a title. I am everything you need, any time you need it, I am the eternal God of all sufficiency, and there's no limit to my power. I AM.

Now they knew in that courtyard that day as they are celebrating, they knew that title was the title of God. And all of a sudden here's this peasant Galilean who stands up between those massive candelabras and He says, I AM. He was saying He was deity. Our Bible tells us that Jesus Christ was God come in human flesh. Jesus says if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father, for I and the Father are one. To get to know God just get to know Jesus, for Jesus Christ is God.

That's why we worship Him. That's why we believe that He is our Savior, our Lord, and our God. But to those people that day He was the peasant Galilean making a terrible claim. It was blasphemy. And that's the setting for our text. Now I don't have time to go into the text. This is the introduction to next Sunday's sermon. But Jesus explains His deity in the most beautiful way.

You know, ladies and gentlemen, it always disturbs me when I hear of cults and religious people who disclaim or reject the deity of Christ. You really have to reject much of the words of Jesus to do that. And yet we live in a world where there are religious groups who deny the deity of Christ -- that He was a creative God. No, He is God. Jesus says, if you've seen Me, you've seen the Father. And that's why He is at the heart of our Christian faith. That's why we love Him. That's why we serve Him. That's why we believe in Him. And that's why one of these days we will see Him face-to-face. Amen?

Heavenly Father, we bow in reverence today. And even those who 2000 years ago rejected that claim of our Savior -- we have believed it with all of our hearts. We believe that Jesus Christ is the divine Son of God, Savior of the world, God in human flesh. We never will question that. Your Bible is very clear; the words of Christ are very emphatic, and that provides for us a marvelous foundation of tremendous stability upon which we build our faith in You, our God, O wonderful Christ. And we bow our hearts and worship You. Thank you for loving us dear Jesus. And everybody said, amen. Thank you all for coming. God bless you and come again.