I am the Light of the World

John 8:12

There is, I think, a connection between this saying of Jesus and the immediate context of the Feast of the Tabernacles. In chapter 7 we read that Jesus stood up on the last day of the feast and said, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink' (7:37). The Feast of Tabernacles, celebrating the wanderings of the Israelites through the wilderness in the Old Testament, had come to a conclusion, and there were two great features of the Feast of Tabernacles that took place around the temple precincts.

The first feature of the feast was that every day the priest would take some water from the pool of Siloam and pour it out beside the altar at the temple. With that water imagery, together with the action of pouring out water, it is highly significant that on the last day of the feast, John should say:

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. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" 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. (John 7:37-39).

The other feature of the Feast of Tabernacles as it was celebrated in Jesus' time was the lighting of particular lamps in the Temple; four great lamps of the Temple were lit every evening, so that the Temple was ablaze with light. Except that at the close of the feast, one lamp was left unlit, symbolising in the thinking of the Jewish people that full salvation had not yet come because the Messiah had not yet appeared.

Therefore, it is also significant that as the Feast of Tabernacles comes to a close, with that unlit candelabrum speaking of full salvation, Jesus should say at this point, 'I am the light of the world'.

So John is very careful in his writing up of this account to remind us of the bond between this saying and the Feast of Tabernacles.

But, of course, it is also a significant saying within the wider context of John's Gospel. In the prologue, the first eighteen verses, John from the outset emphasises the deity of Jesus Christ. He was in the beginning. He was with God. He was God. He became flesh, and dwelt among us. He continues to be God and man; in addition to all that was true of him as God from all eternity, he has taken our nature to himself, and in one person he unites the divine and the human. This is the word which became flesh and tabernacled among us. John tells us that Jesus came down from heaven. We must believe that he is the Son of God.

John develops this theme: in him was life. Jesus exists independently of everything else that exists; that is why John says 'he made all things, and without him nothing was made that was made' (1:3). In other words, he was not made; he does not depend on any made thing for his own existence. In him is life, independent of everything else. Everything else that exists is dependent on him, while he is dependent on nothing.

John immediately tells us that the life in Jesus is the light of men. That is the light that shines in the darkness. That is the light of which John the Baptist spoke, as he bore witness to the light. He was not the light; he spoke about Jesus, preparing the way for him, blazed a trail for him, and now the true light comes into the world.

From the outset John has linked the being and the person and the glory of Jesus with the light that we need. It is a theme that he develops through the Gospel. We are not far into the Gospel when we read about the encounter of Jesus with Nicodemus, that great man who had so much, and yet had so little. He was in spiritual darkness. That is symbolised to a degree by the fact that he came to Jesus by night. Perhaps he wanted to disguise his meeting, or hide the encounter, yet the fact that it was night time was highly symbolic. Jesus goes on in chapter 3 to talk about the world being in darkness, and men loving the darkness rather than the light, coming to the light.

Nicodemus came to Jesus in physical and spiritual darkness, but I think John is going to tell us that John found the light that there is in Christ.

Chapter 9 is going to tell us about a man born blind. His whole life is darkness. He cannot see or enjoy the benefits and blessings of the sun and all the world contains. He is born blind. But Jesus is going to open his eyes. Jesus is to reveal to him the blessings of light.

We also read about Judas, at that great, solemn moment when Jesus has washed the feet of the disciples, and is preparing for his appointed end. Satan entered into Judas, and he went out, and, says John, 'it was night' (13:30). It was highly symbolic that he should go out into darkness, because the darkness is so much in him.

As John brings the gospel to a conclusion he reminds us of these great themes. Night and day, light and darkness; the women come to the sepulchre early in the morning, when the shadows of night are about to give way to the rays of the dawn. The breaking of the light is symbolic of the light that has broken out of the darkness of the tomb, a light going to dawn on the women and the disciples and the whole world.

That night they meet together, closed in an upper room, afraid of the Jews; light comes through and with the morning light the stranger on the shore there is Jesus.

Right through John's Gospel we are reminded constantly of the contrast between light and darkness, and now, at the centre of the Gospel comes this great claim on the lips of Jesus: 'I am the light of the world.

So we tie this to the immediate context of the Feast of Tabernacles, and to the wider context of the Gospel of John, but we can also tie it to the wider context of Scripture itself. What was the first thing God ever said? According to Scripture God's first words were, 'Let there be light' (Genesis 1:3). What was the first thing God did as he brought the world into being? God saw the light, and immediately he separeated the light from the darkness.

That is where we begin in the book of Genesis: with God separating the light from the darkness. And where do we end in the Book of Revelation? We end with the same separation, the same sovereign God distinguishing between light and darkness, taking his people into the glory of Heaven's city, where the inhabitants of that Heavenly Jerusalem do not need the light of the sun or of the moon because this Jesus, the lamb in the midst of Heaven's throne, is the light of Heaven for ever and ever. They are in a place where their sun will never set and their moon will never be darkened. God will be their everlasting light, and they are bathed in Heaven's light and there is no shadow caused by this light; this is light without shadow. They have left Shadowlands behind, and they have gone into the land of perfect day, and into the glory of Heaven. The nations walk in this light.

But the last thing the sovereign Lord does is to separate the light from the darkness. There is a darkness outside of this city; outer darkness, in which there is no glimmer of light. That is the awfulness of this other destination of the human soul: a place where light does not penetrate, which is outside the city.

This is what makes the Gospel so utterly solemn and so absolute and so important. We shall all, one day, spend eternity either in the light or in the darkness.

So in the whole context of Scripture, we are dealing with a fundamental issue, and here is it on the lips of Jesus: I am the light of the world.

This light comes into the darkness

That is John's whole emphasis. In Jesus there is light, and it has come into our world. According to the words of our text, there is light in our dark world. There is the light of the Gospel, the light of God's truth manifested in Jesus Christ, but it is not a light that the world could ever have produced by itself or for itself. It is not a light that could have come from any natural source. There is no energy in this universe that could have produced this light that the world needs. It had to come into the darkness from the outside.

It was not always the case that the world lay in darkness. At the very outset the light of God's own presence filled the world of Adam and Eve in that state of innocence in which our first parents were created. They chose the darkness. They thought that by disobeying God they could add to perfection and have more than they possessed at that present moment. But it was the opposite. Sin always produces a loss. They lost everything. Driven out of the garden, they are plunged into darkness. They cannot get back to Paradise. There is no way back to Eden, no return route by which they can make it back to the Paradise they have left behind. There is a sword of fire which bars the way, and they cannot retreat to that golden age now in their past. The world has now fallen into darkness, and there is no resource, no place in the whole of the sin-blackened universe that can give man the light he needs.

But the glory of our text is that there is a light in this dark world, not because it has come from us, or from the world. It has come into the darkness from the outside. Is this not amazing? Is this not what the prophet said: 'The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined (Isaiah 9:2). John is going to tell us that God is light, and has no darkness in him (1 John 1:5). Here is the world, and it is all darkness, and no light.

The glory of the Gospel is that the light that belongs to him has come into this world of darkness. The light of the gospel points us to the one who came, to the one who stepped into our darkness in order to save us. And how did he save us? He saved us by himself enduring the darkness that we brought in by fall. It was not without reason that when Jesus died at midday the world was shrouded in darkness. It was the very opposite of his birth. At his birth there was supernatural light which transformed the midnight sky. Angels sang, shepherds saw glorious light.

But when he dies, darkness covers the world and he cries out 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' (Psalm 22:1; Matthew 27:46). He comes right into our darkness and steps into it, experiencing it in all its horror and terror in order that there might be light for us.

For us, there is a problem with the human condition, to which the answer lies outside of ourselves. All the gurus of the world have twisted the truth; the world has told us that the problem is outside and the solution within ourselves. Apparently all we need to do is to unlock our own potential, and get into our own resources and energies. The solution is inside us, according to the world, which is trying to tell us that what we need are self-help therapists and theories to unlock our own resources.

That is not what the Bible says. According to the Bible, the problem is absolutely within ourselves, and the solution is outside. Until we recognise this, we shall never know peace with God. The sin problem, the darkness problem, is in our hearts. The solution, thanks be to God, has come to us by God's grace from outside of ourselves. The light has come into the darkness.

The light exposes the darkness

It is the presence of the light in the world, in the person of Jesus Christ and his truth that exposes just how dark the world truly is. You know what it is like to be sitting in your home at evening time. The shadows are lengthening, but you don't really notice it because you have been sitting there in the dusk.

Then the light comes on and momentarily blinds you! It makes you realise just how dark the evening has become. It was the light that really showed the measure of the darkness. That is how it was with Jesus too. The light came into the world, and immediately his presence exposed the darkness for what it was.

Follow Jesus. Follow him in his conversations with people, and in his interactions. See how the light that is in him only serves to show the darkness that is in them. B.B. Warfield has a tremendous little chapter in which he describes Jesus as the measure of all men. He says:

When we see Jesus, it must be in the brightness of his unapproachable splendour that we see those about him, just as it is in the light of the sun that we see the forms and colours and characters of all objects on which it shines. Especially when we see him in conflict with his enemies we cannot escape the spectacle of his utter perfection, and in that light the spectacle of the utter depravity of men. Men are revealed in this presence in their true, their fundamental natural tones, with a vivid completeness in which they are never seen elsewhere. (SSW II, p689).

In other words, when Jesus came into the world, God let down a plumb-line. Someone is building a wall; he needs to make sure that the wall is straight. So he allows the plumb-line to drop. It is absolutely straight. Once it appears, then you can see how straight the wall is, not just by looking at it, but by measuring it against something that is truly straight. Jesus comes among men, the light of the world, and in the light of his utter glory and splendour and perfection and light, you see the utter depravity of the human heart.

So if you want to get the true measure of yourself, you must stand side by side with Jesus. It is no use standing side by side with another sinner, not even a religious sinner, or someone in the church, not even with a minister, or elder or deacon or any office-bearer. To see what you really are in your own heart, you need to stand next to Jesus.

The test is not what we are like in comparison with other people, no matter how religious they are. The test is what we are like beside him. What does the light in him say about the darkness in us? Warfield continues:

They cannot escape it. Against their wills they are tried and tested every moment they live in the presence of this Light ... As he moves through the world the whole race lies at his feet, self-condemned. We shudder, as in the light of his brightness we see man as he is. (SSW 2, p692).

The very presence of the light exposing the darkness. The life God wants is the life Christ lived. If our life can measure up to his, God is pleased with us. But if there is any point at which it does not, if there is one ounce of darkness still in that heart, then God cannot accept it, and will not accept it.

The light condemns the darkness

This is not how it ought to be with us. John says:

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. (John 3:18-20)

Is this true of us? Does this describe our situation? Jesus stands before us, exposing the darkness that makes us love sin and self more than God, and the light condemns the darkness. We stand before God utterly without excuse, without plea, no merit, no righteousness. Everything good about us is like filthy rags because his glorious perfect light condemns the fact that we have opted to walk away from the light.

The light is in conflict with the darkness

John says elsewhere, 'If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 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' (1 John 1:6-7). We need to walk in the light because we cannot have it both ways.

There is a conflict. Jesus is the light of a world in darkness. And what is that darkness going to do to the light? It is going to take him and crucify him. Up until this point in John's Gospel Jesus has been teaching the crowd, but now the crowd will be hostile, and will show just how much darkness is in it, to the extent that the people will say, 'Not this man, but Barabbas'.

There is conflict between the light and the darkness. That was vividly illustrated in the experience of the children of Israel in Egypt. All of the plagues that came upon the land of Egypt as God said 'Let my people go'. It was preparation for the ultimate judgement: the death of the firstborn, moving towards the redemption of the people of God.

One of these plagues was a plague of thick darkness. Shrouded in darkness, people in the land of Egypt were paralysed. They could not get up off their beds, there was not a shard of light, no glimmer at all breaking through. Mothers could not attend to their children, fathers could not attend to the needs of the household because of the confining, blinding, disabling darkness that came upon them for their sins.

But the children of Israel in the land of Goshen had light wherever they lived (Exodus 10:23). This world is all in darkness, but Jesus is the light. If we follow him we will not walk in darkness. Sin's darkness still disables, leaves us helpless and unable to work for the glory of God in all we do. The light is still in conflict with the darkness, warring against it. Those who follow Jesus are still in conflict with those who are in the darkness. Know the blessing of walking in the light and the blessing of his blood cleansing you. In John's words in the prologue, the darkness cannot extinguish or overcome this light (John 1:5).

The light can scatter the darkness

Paul describes the glory of the new birth in this way: God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4:6). God can dispel the darkness of the human heart to show us the glory of God. Peter explains the nature of the Christian life like this: 'But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light' (1 Peter 2:9). This is what it means to be a Christian.

The psalmist expresses it like this: For it is you who light my lamp; the Lord my God lightens my darkness (Psalm 18:28); The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? (Psalm 27:1); The Lord is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us (Psalm 118:27). That is the glory of the Gospel. In him was life and his life is the light of men.

As God's people journeyed through the wilderness they followed that light, that pillar of fire, that glory presence, that cloud. The Book of Proverbs says that 'the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day' (Proverbs 4:18). It is not dull to be a believer! Not boring or dark! There will be many shadows crossing our path here in this world. Andrew Bonar says in his diary that it was not always bright sunshine, but it was always sunlight, and never darkness.

God's people cannot always say that their path has been bright sunshine. But they can say that from the moment this light first shined into their souls, it has been sunlight, in increasing measure. Even in spite of all the shadows and the long, lonely nights, sorrow and mourning endure for a night, but joy will come in the morning.

John sees the morning dawn with all the glory of resurrection power. That's why he would have made a connection between what he records of the women who came to the sepulchre as morning light was appearing, and what he saw in the revelation of a new day dawning for the people of God, when God takes his people home to a place of perfect day, with no night there.

No more darkness, or sin, or sorrow, or pain, or lonely nights, or hard valleys or long shadows. Those who have come into the glory of Heaven where the lamb is the light, heard him saying 'I am the light of the world'. They have come to the light, and they love the light, and they walk in the light, and they have fellowship with one another, and his blood cleanses from all sin. It is either darkness or light in our soul. The problem is still within. The solution is still outside and says that he, he alone, he as always, he eternally, he and no-one else is the light.

Walk in his light so that you will experience the blessing for yourself of the covenant people of God. Though the world be shrouded in darkness, God's people have light because they have the Saviour; he has scattered their darkness and it is well with their soul.

Who are you Jesus?

'I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.'