Sermon #3 in What’s in a name? || February 25, 2024 || Glynwood Baptist Church, Prattville, A: || james Jackson, Pastor
Good morning! Please open your Bibles to John 7 as we continue our series on Jesus’ I AM statements. You remember a couple of weeks ago, we talked about God revealing his personal name Yahweh to His people. It means I Am.
So, fast forward to the book of John and you have Jesus giving these seven descriptors of Himself that all start with the same phrase—I Am. I am the bread of life. I am the Good Shepherd. I am the Resurrection and the Life. I am the vine. I am the way the truth and the Life. I am the door. I am the light of the world.
Each of these reveal different parts of His character. But taken together, they identify Jesus as God.
There are many people who try to say Jesus was a good teacher but he never claimed to be God. But the Jews understood what He was saying when He gave all these “I am statements.” Twice, the religious leaders tried to stone Jesus for blasphemy after He made one of these statements. They told Jesus, “We are going to stone you because you, a mere man, are claiming to be God.
So one thing I hope for this series is that some of you will understand that Jesus is God. He wasn’t just a great teacher who got misquoted. And He isn’t just the Savior that died on the cross to forgive you of your sins, but doesn’t put any expectations on you. He is God, and He wants to be the Lord of your life, and not just your savior.
So this morning, we are going to talk about the second I Am statement from Jesus: I AM the light of the world.
One of my favorite things we do at Glynwood is our Christmas Eve candlelight service. At the end of the service, we bring the lights are down as low as they can go, and we have the Christ candle up here on the stage. I’ll light this one candle from the Christ candle, and then light the candles for our ministers, who then light the candles for our deacons, who then light the candles for everyone else. And within minutes, the sanctuary that had been in almost total darkness is filled with the light from three hundred candles. So keep that in mind as we talk about Jesus as the Light of the World.
So we are actually going to start in chapter 7 this morning, beginning with verse 37. You can stay in your seats, this is a fairly long passage. But please follow along in your Bibles.
In verse 2, we get the time and place for this teaching: It says, “Now the Jewish Feast of Booths was at hand.” Your Bible might say Feast of Tabernacles, of Festival of shelters was at hand. One translation I read even said, “Now the tent-pitching feast of the Jews was near.” They are all the same thing. It was a week long celebration where the Jews remembered how God had provided for them when they were in the wilderness and lived in. This was an important detail, and we will get to it this morning. But now read with me:
37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as[a] the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
40 When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” 41 Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? 42 Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” 43 So there was a division among the people over him. 44 Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.
45 The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” 46 The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!” 47 The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? 48 Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” 50 Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, 51 “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” 52 They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”
Now look at chapter 8. We are going to skip the first eleven verses and finish up at verse 12:
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.”
May God bless the reading of His word. Please pray with me.
[Pray]
Introduction and Interruption: The Feast of Tabernacles
Maybe you have some questions about the passage. You might be wondering why I started all the way back to the beginning of chapter 7, when John 8:12 is the one verse that has our I am statement for this morning. Others might be wondering why we skipped the story of the woman caught in adultery. Still others got distracted by the message in your Bible that says, “The earliest manuscripts don’t include 7:53-8:11,” and you’re like wait—what? What does that mean? Who changed the Bible?
So here’s what’s going on, and if you’ve been here for awhile you probably remember we’ve talked about this a couple of times. The New Testament as we know it wasn’t canonized until the year 325—about three hundred years after these events took place. So scholars took all the available Greek manuscripts at the time and compared them to make decisions about how the NT would be arranged and what was to be included. And while they all agreed that the story of the woman caught in adultery actually happened, there were disagreements on where to put it. Some thought it belonged just before verse 37. Others thought it was actually a part of Luke. So I’m not sure why the decision was made to place it here. Because here’s the thing. I think we are supposed to connect the Feast of Tabernacles with Jesus being the source of living water and the light of the world.
Take a minute to think about the Feast. What was the feast of Tabernacles supposed to remind the Jews of? Right—the forty years they spent in the desert on the way to the Promised Land.
And during those forty years in the desert, how did the Israelites get water? Right—from the rock.
Now, think about how the Jews were led during those forty years. The Bible says there was a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of ________ [what] by night. And so on the last and greatest day of the feast, there was a massive celebration around two rituals:
- The First was The Water Ceremony (John 37-39)
The priests would go down to the pool of Siloam in the City of David (just south of where the Western Wall is today) and they would fill a golden vessel with the water there. They would go up to the temple, through the Water Gate, accompanied by the sound of the shofar, and then they would pour the water so that it flowed over the altar, along with wine from another bowl.
So let’s review: What did they pour? [Water and wine] Where did they pour it? [on the altar]. Why did they do it? [to remember God’s provision].
But then there was a second part to the ritual, and this was called
- The Illumination of the Temple Ceremony
In the Court of the Women outside the temple, there were four golden pillars, each 75 feet high, with a golden bowl on top of each one. Four young men were chosen each year to climb up to the top of the pillars fill the bowls with oil and light them. According to the Talmud,
there was not a courtyard in Jerusalem that was not illumined by the light of the place of the water-drawing. Men of piety and good deeds used to dance before them with lighted torches in their hands, and sing songs and praises. And Levites without number with harps, lyres, cymbals and trumpets and other musical instruments were there upon the fifteen steps leading down from the court of the Israelites to the court of the women,
And listen to this quote, directly from the Babylonian Talmud: “He who has not seen the rejoicing at the place of the water-drawing has never seen rejoicing in his life.
So again, let’s review: How many pillars were there? [four]. How many years were the Israelites in the wilderness [forty]. What was on top of the pillars? [a golden bowl filled with oil]. How were the Israelites led during the 40 years they were in the wilderness? [A pillar of fire].
So, put it all together: on the last day of the feast, at some point during this ceremony, Jesus stands up and cries out with a loud voice,
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as[a] the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
I guess He had to cry out with a loud voice to be heard over all those harps, lyres, cymbals, trumpets, and other musical instruments. Not to mention all the holy men dancing around with lit torches and singing at the tops of their lungs!
Now, if you take out the story of the woman caught in adultery, the very next thing you get to is verse 12:
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.”
Jesus is the Light of the World (John 8:12
Remember how the Talmud said there was not a single part of Jerusalem that wasn’t lit up by the light coming from the Temple? Well, that’s what it means that Jesus is the light of the entire world. One of the interesting things about the Feast of Tabernacles is that it was the only one of the Jewish festivals that Gentiles were welcome to celebrate too. So people were literally coming from all over the world to Jerusalem for this festival!
And it is as though Jesus is saying, “God’s presence was a pillar of fire for Moses and our ancestors. Now the presence is here in person! I Am! Yahweh is here to be the light of life! These pillars will go out by morning, but I am the pillar of fire that will never go out. Come, follow me, and you will never thirst again. Follow me and you won’t ever stumble around in darkness again. walk in the light forever!”
Light Overcomes Darkness (John 1:5-9; 1 John 1:5-9)
4 In him was life,[a] and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
John 1:4-9
5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
We are the Light of the World (Matthew 5:14-16; Matthew 6:22-23)
There is a unique characteristic of this “I Am” statement. It is the only one of the seven Jesus shares with us. In Matthew 5, Jesus says that YOU are the light of the world. He never says “You are the resurrection and the life” or “You are the Good Shepherd.” But He says you are the light of the world. We are the light of the world. Now, just as John the Baptist was nbot the light, He only bore witness to the light” (John 1), we don’t have any light except what we reflect. We are like the moon that way.
All of us have seen a full moon If it’s a clear night, you can nearly read a book by it. But the moon has no light of its own. All it can do is reflect the sun.
Every once in a while, when the earth gets exactly between the moon and the sun, the world casts its shadow on the moon and blocks the light from the sun. That’s called an eclipse. The moon would normally reflect the light from the sun, but what happens—
The world gets in the way.
The same thing happens in our spiritual lives. Jesus says we are the light of the world, but all we do is reflect His light. We don’t have any light of our own. And when we let the world get in the way, even the light we reflect from Jesus is dimmed. So if we want to shine for Jesus, we have to make sure the world doesn’t get in our way.
Conclusion:
In the last years of the nineteenth century, a small church was built on the American frontier. That little church became prominent in the prairie town. When people came for an evening service, each person would bring an oil lamp and hang it on a hook on the wall. The more people that came, the brighter the light was.
Well, when electricity came to the little prairie town, the congregation was excited! Finally they wouldn’t have to bring their own oil lamps. But to their surprise, the pastor suggested that they not have electricity put in. He told them, I want us to always remember that this building is not the church. This building doesn’t have any life or light by itself. We have to bring it.
And when our worship service is over, we all go back out into the world, carrying our light with us. And that is the only way the world has any light. There’s no light in here except what we bring with us. And there is no light out there except what we take.
That saying stuck. And for years, the church didn’t have electric lights, years after every other building in the town did. To this day, there is still a sign above the pulpit:
No light in here but what we bring.
No light out there but what we take.
Let’s pray.
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