Jesus is the Light of the World (Longing and Light Advent Bible Study)

“In [John] 8:12 Jesus claims, “I am the light of the world,” and then in chapter 9 He opens the eyes of a man born blind. In 11:25, He asserts, “I am the resurrection and the life,” and then He raises Lazarus from the dead.” (source) As we wrap up our Advent study, Longing & Light, let’s dig in and rejoice at what it means that Jesus really is the Light of the World – the answer to every longing we have, for all eternity!

Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year. I personally count down the days from June till December, longing for the days to be full of light! I think it’s not by accident during this time of year that we decorate with twinkling lights, the stores are decked out with sparkly things, and everyone begins playing perky music from before summer seems to end! In the deepest of winter, there’s often a sense of heaviness, even gloom.

In today’s episode we move to John 8. Jesus said, “I AM” the Light of the World!

Reminder, each time He says I AM (and you can find seven of these statements in John), Jesus is telling us HE IS the God of the Old Testament, He is the Son of God, and He is the long-awaited Messiah who would fulfill every prophecy and complete the payment for sin for all who would repent and believe in Him. And John’s purpose in writing is to give us that information, so that we might believe, and be saved! To find more on this, go back and listen to episodes 29 (A New Beginning), 30 (The Bread of Life), and 31, Living Water and Flowing Wine).

John 8:12 says, “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.’”

I believe there are many takeaways we can grab about the nature of God and His work through Jesus.

Jesus is the Light OF and FOR the world.

In Genesis 1 we see that Jesus, the Word, 1 of the triune Godhead, is the “agent of light.” – He is the initiator and activator in creation. In week 1 of our Advent series, we talked about the imagery of creation/darkness & light we see in Genesis 1, John 1 and 1 John 1. God creates the “light” at creation and He Himself is the Light.

Speaking of creation, scripture tells us that Jesus holds ALL THINGS (including us) together in Colossians 1:15-23, and it is through Christ that we see who God is.

God reconciles us to Himself through Christ; He brought light and life into being in Genesis – and spoiler alert – in eternity, He will be all the light that is needed. Revelation tells us there will be no need for sun and moon!

Look at this full-circle affirmation of the deity of Christ: He CREATED light and life “in the beginning,” and then when mankind brought darkness into the world with our sin, John tells us what Jesus proclaimed Himself: He came a second time to earth in the form of a man, still fully God the Son, to shatter the darkness, to give us a second chance, and to bring eternal light and life!

Jesus is the light for mankind.

Psalm 119:1-5 says, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” The Psalmist wrote these words as he wrestled with persecution, his own personal darkness. Now let’s think for a minute of how Jesus was described in John 1:1-5 (we studied this in episode 29, A New Beginning). “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. 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.”

DARKNESS CANNOT OVERCOME THE LIGHT OF CHRIST… not even our own personal darkness.

Like the Psalmist, many of the writers of the scriptures talked of their suffering, enemies and fears. What did they do when they suffered and darkness threatened to overwhelm them? They cried out to God for help, and then spoke to themselves the truths of God.

I love the saying, “preach to your heart,” and we all must preach truth to our hearts and minds when we feel overwhelmed by darkness. Martin Luther said, “The highest of all God’s commands is this, that we ever hold up before our eyes the image of his dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. He must daily be to our hearts the perfect mirror, in which we behold how much God loves us and how well, in his infinite goodness, as a faithful God, he has grandly cared for us in that he gave his dear Son for us. Do not let this mirror and throne of grace be torn away from before your eyes (Tappert, Luther: Letters of Spiritual Counsel, p. 116.).”

When Jesus speaks in John 8, He’s fulfilling a Messianic prophecy from Isaiah 42:1-8 which describes Jesus in great detail, as if He’s already come. Verse 6 says, “I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.”

Jesus is also fulfilling Isaiah 9:2, 6-7, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.”

People are walking in darkness & bondage because of their obedience, and yet in scripture, we are told not to FEAR the earth’s fears Fixing our eyes on the darkness of the world not-yet-fully made whole leads to distress and darkness). But God’s word says that HE WILL INCREASE their joy. That is a promise many of us need, whether it’s now or in the past or in the future, and we must fix our eyes fully on Jesus to walk in this promise!

When we were alienated in our sin – our darkness – Christ reconciled us by His blood, and now those who have repented and accepted His offer or forgiveness blameless in the Father’s sight. We’re called to continue in faith, stable and steadfast, NOT SHIFTING FROM THE HOPE OF THE GOSPEL.

When Jesus brings light, He brings vision, order (authority), provision, intimate fellowship with Himself and even reconciliation between people. Ephesians 2:14-16 says God brought peace to us through Jesus and even broke down the wall of hostility separating people from each other. Paul uses the example of the Jesus and Greeks and their division because of faith!

Jesus, the Light of the World, moves circumstances and people from darkness, hopelessness, chaos, bondage, and NOTHINGNESS, to life and hope. By Christ, God DOES NOT LEAVE US IN DARKNESS.

In John 8:1-11 we read the story of the adulterous woman (this story comes immediately before He is referred to as the Light of the World).

The woman in the story is “in darkness” in her sin (and it has been hidden and “brought to light”). The Pharisees want to condemn her IN her sin, in essence leaving her forever in darkness. They seek her out to catch her “in the act” and ironically as religious leaders, in doing so, they actually model the darkness themselves. Ephesians 5 says not to even speak of the kind of sin that takes place under cover of darkness – and the Pharisees stalk this woman and drag her sin out to display it in the light.

But when we see this kind of behavior, we remember, darkness cannot overcome Him

At Jesus’ crucifixion, (Matthew 27:45) darkness fell. Before His resurrection (John 20) – Mary and the others went to see His body while it was still dark, on the morning the third day. But He was gone; the darkness could not hold Him! Quite literally, we see the darkness of death could not overcome the light of life brought by Jesus.

Much like the story of the plagues in Egypt, Revelation is a book about chance after chance to listen to this message of the gospel, repent, and believe. It lays out for us a future series of disciplines, battles, and opportunities for more to believe in the hope of Christ, and still many do not see the Light. But in the end, there is HOPE! There will be a NEW Heaven and new earth, and Revelation 21 tells us “I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illuminated it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” – Revelation 21:23-26, ESV

Jesus, the Light in our darkness does two things: He releases us from sin and calls for responsive obedience (which reveals His light and life to the dark world!).

In John 1:29, Look at John the Baptist’s first proclamation! He calls Jesus The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (this, by the way, combats a progressive Christianity view that God sent Jesus merely or primarily to bring social equity, reconciliation, or justice).

In the story we mentioned above in John 8, Jesus forgave the woman and called her to “go and sin no more.” He offered her freedom FROM condemnation, and TO obedience. He offers this to each of us!

Christ calls us to receive, believe, then in response to His gift of salvation, OBEY.

There is a pattern in the miracles He performs, where He often speaks of the forgiveness of sins immediately after performing a miracle. For example in Luke 5, when Jesus multiplies the fishermen’s catch, Peter drops to his knees and begs for mercy because this miracle causes him to recognize his own sinfulness!

We see the call to responsive obedience throughout the New Testament.

Galatians 5:1-6 we see that it’s “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
In Romans 6:14, “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”
In Ephesians 2:8-9, 13-16, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast…”

Jesus the Light calls for RESPONSIVE OBEDIENCE – in other words, you’re saved, now WALK IT OUT. Look again at John 8: “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.”

We read in Psalm 119:97-106 that God’s Word is a lamp for our feet. We “walk,” or live in God’s way, by obedience to and love for God’s law. And wisdom to obey God is gained from familiarity with and obedience to the Word.

We see in Galatians 3:1-3, and 24 a reminder that the law pointed us to God’s salvation through Christ, and we walk obediently to Him as a response to that. In Colossians 2:6-7 we’re reminded that we walk with Him “by faith,” which He grants us, just as He did for our salvation. In John 3:19-20 we’re told that judgment came to those who saw the light and did not recognize Him.

Jesus shines His light THROUGH us into a dark world.

In Philippians 2:12-16 Paul challenges the church (and us) to walk “with fear and trembling,” living holy lives so a needy world could see God at work in us. In Matthew 5:13-16 Jesus Himself said, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

I propose that how we live, glorifying Jesus with our lives,is not so much about our personal conviction on each and every issue that pops up, but whether we first have responded to Jesus, the Light of the World, with repentance and belief. Next, do you preach the truth to yourself when the darkness SEEMS to overcome the light? Do you trust and obey the the Lord, the Word? Do you reflect His light and life by pointing others to Jesus? Do you long for the day when we will feast at the table of our Bridegroom, the Bread of Life?

It’s no longer about the law, but about the grace and freedom that come with obedience to Him! THIS is Christ at work, the Light in the darkness.

At the time of this post, I’ll be pausing for a couple weeks to study and prepare for coming episodes. If you would, I’d like to ask you for a couple things… if you’re blessed by Everyday Welcome!

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As you celebrate the holidays, keep coming back to these themes. How is God calling you to think and live according to this truth we saw in John 8, that He is the Light of the World? This is what scripture tells us: “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.” My prayer for you this season is that you will come to Him with repentance, with faith, with HOPE, and with responsive obedience… that you’ll breathe deep of His fellowship and offer it bravely and beautifully to those God brings into your life!

RESOURCES:

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