SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the North Iron Church Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to take the gospel from the Upper Peninsula to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this message will inspire and encourage you in your faith journey.
SPEAKER_00: Enjoy week one of our I Am series, where we look at Jesus' character in the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_01: Welcome, my family.
SPEAKER_01: Glad you're here with us this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're watching uh from one of our campuses across the UP.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're at home this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Many, many people throughout the UP are watching us.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're we're glad that you're here.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna look into God's Word.
SPEAKER_01: My name is Pastor Mark, and Jennifer and I are the lead pastors here at North Iron.
SPEAKER_01: I want everyone to grab their Bibles.
SPEAKER_01: We're in the middle of a series leading up to Easter, talking about Jesus making these claims in the book of John.
SPEAKER_01: That's where we're going to be in the book of John.
SPEAKER_01: If you need a Bible, raise your hand.
SPEAKER_01: We have a great version for you.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is claiming to be to claiming to be God in the book of John by evoking or using the name of God that we find in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: We talked about this uh last week as we started this series that Jesus claims this name seven times in the book of John, claiming to be Jesus, claiming to be God, and evoking this name in our greatest needs.
SPEAKER_01: And last week we looked at a moment where Jesus just got done with this incredible miracle of five feeding the 5,000, and he uses this term to everyone.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I am the bread of life.
SPEAKER_01: I am the bread of life.
SPEAKER_01: And today we're gonna be in John chapter six.
SPEAKER_01: John is a part of what we consider the gospels.
SPEAKER_01: It's the first part of the New Testament, the latter part of your Bible.
SPEAKER_01: If you're new to God's word and you go all the way to the end, you might hit first, second, third, John.
SPEAKER_01: Those are written by the same author, but that's not where we're going to be.
SPEAKER_01: Those are written to churches.
SPEAKER_01: We're looking at the Gospel of John, which you're gonna find after Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to look at chapters 7 this morning, chapter 7, 8, and 9, as Jesus again says this incredible thing in front of most of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: We find that in uh John chapter 8, verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: He says, and we'll explain this a little bit more, and maybe you've heard this verse before, Jesus saying it.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, I am the light of the world, and whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
SPEAKER_01: I think we're all pretty aware that light is important, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: I don't think anyone here dislikes light.
SPEAKER_01: I know that sometimes we are definitely leery of darkness in our lives at any any form.
SPEAKER_01: We really need to have light so that we can have life.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, a lot of us actually, one of the most primal fears I think we all have experienced at one time or another, I'm sure that we could tell some pretty crazy stories is actually the fear of darkness in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe you've experienced that.
SPEAKER_01: I've definitely experienced that a couple times in my life.
SPEAKER_01: There's there's a story I tell all the time because I like to tell it, because I actually got very, very nervous and scared in darkness when I was a youth pastor.
SPEAKER_01: We would take our Royal Rangers once a year and we would go deep down inside a cave and we would camp for the night inside the cave.
SPEAKER_01: It was really, really cool.
SPEAKER_01: We'd eat down there, we'd sleep down there.
SPEAKER_01: There's black bats flying around.
SPEAKER_01: It's it was a pretty cool experience.
SPEAKER_01: And then, of course, we would uh during the day, we'd even know it was day.
SPEAKER_01: It could have been at night, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: But um, because everything's dark.
SPEAKER_01: And so uh we would we would just explore, and and this cave had honestly been explored, but there were tunnels going all over the place, and we would always kind of buddy up with some of the commanders, would buddy up with the boys, and we would go out and and and follow them.
SPEAKER_01: And I I distinctly remember following three skinny boys through this tunnel, and of course they're they're younger than me, they're skinny, and we got some really it started to get one of those tight places where you're crawling on your belly.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever seen that?
SPEAKER_01: And you're like, I'm never doing that in my life.
SPEAKER_01: That's those are the thoughts that are going into my head, Mark.
SPEAKER_01: This is the stupidest thing you've ever done, is follow these boys into this tunnel.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm I'm crawling through, and of course, they're skinny, so they just leave me.
SPEAKER_01: They they they're gone.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, even though I'm yelling at them, you know, and I'm fat, I can't get through this area, and I get kind of stuck, and as I'm I'm stuck and trying to pull my myself, my body through this this tunneled area, my light starts to flicker.
SPEAKER_01: You ever have that experience, anyone?
SPEAKER_01: Huh?
SPEAKER_01: And my batteries start going dead, and they they just, you know, you hit it and it turns on for like 30 seconds, and then it just went uh just went dim and darkness.
SPEAKER_01: And there is no worse feeling than complete hopelessness in darkness.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought, what am I going?
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever prayed a prayer in that kind of darkness before?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, Lord, you have to get me out of here.
SPEAKER_01: These these kids have left me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not even sure if anyone knows I'm in this section, and and so I thought, well, I can't just stay here.
SPEAKER_01: I gotta, I gotta move head.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe I maybe I can find my way out.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm I'm crawling along.
SPEAKER_01: I'd gotten through that that tight section, and no lie.
SPEAKER_01: I reached out to grab some some dirt or rock to pull me, and I grabbed two double-A batteries.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And I like, Lord, please let someone just have dropped these who had been in here.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it was a boys, maybe, maybe they're not used up, and I put them in my flashlight and it turned on, and there's nothing, no greater.
SPEAKER_01: I was having like a little dance, I wasn't dancing.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe my stomach was dancing.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: There wasn't enough room to dance in, but I I got out of that.
SPEAKER_01: I think we all understand that that light dispels darkness in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Darkness is synonymous with this kind of this feeling of chaos and confusion.
SPEAKER_01: That's that's a real thing.
SPEAKER_01: I I love the the Wizard of Oz 1940, uh, the true Wizard of Oz, not all that stupid wickness, w wicked stuff you guys watch, but the true Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy is in Kansas, some of us who are older, maybe we grew up on that.
SPEAKER_01: When Dorothy is in Kansas, right, it's all black and white.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_01: I wasn't around in the 1940s.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you think I was, but I wasn't.
SPEAKER_01: And and and and and yet I can't imagine what it was like in theater as it was all black and white.
SPEAKER_01: And then when Dorothy arrives in the land of Oz, do you remember she opens up the door and everything's in color?
SPEAKER_01: Color is is related to light.
SPEAKER_01: Color is a reflection of light.
SPEAKER_01: Light is something we need to sustain us here on earth.
SPEAKER_01: It's a a survivability, and is it and if light or darkness is is is has this assumption of even like this kind of demonic darkness.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you were scared at night?
SPEAKER_01: Like if I was gonna be safe at night, I had to have a glimmer of hope, which meant my bedroom door was slightly open, so there was a glow of light.
SPEAKER_01: And of course, the main thing was that the closet had to be closed.
SPEAKER_01: The closet, because if the the closet for me at nighttime was like the pit of hell, like something was gonna come out of that.
SPEAKER_01: If I was gonna go down, if I wanted to feel safe, the closet door had to be closed.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what it is, maybe it's a big imagination, but there's something going on with this idea that we associate with darkness, and I believe it to be true.
SPEAKER_01: If it's true about darkness, well, this is true about light.
SPEAKER_01: That light is synonymous with honest and integrity, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: It's it's a matter of fact, we even have uh an idiom.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's an idiom where we say if something something's being covered up or something's wrong that is discovered, we we say that something negative is coming to light, or we say we've brought, we're bringing it to light, don't we?
SPEAKER_01: It's associated with honesty.
SPEAKER_01: And you need to understand that we're even of the knowledge now, maybe not in the past, but of the knowledge now, that not only is it important for our survivability, it's something that creates the world.
SPEAKER_01: It's foundational.
SPEAKER_01: Even Albert Einstein, his relativity or his theory of relativity really comes down, and you've heard it uh probably a thousand times, E equals MC to squared.
SPEAKER_01: E actually is for energy, m is for mass, but listen, C stands for constant.
SPEAKER_01: That light never changes, the speed of light never changes, mass changes, energy changes, but light is consistent.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I I I say all this that I think we that all resonates.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not I'm not telling you anything, honestly, you don't know.
SPEAKER_01: But when you pair it to Jesus, him standing before the temple and declaring to all of uh Jerusalem, where he says in in 812, he says, I am the light of the world.
SPEAKER_01: You need to understand that everyone understood what he was saying.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't a a confusing saying.
SPEAKER_01: What he was saying is, I'm the color, I'm the life, I'm the constant that holds everything together.
SPEAKER_01: That's important for us to understand.
SPEAKER_01: And I need you to understand, like we did last week, where Jesus says, I am the bread, there's there's context around that statement.
SPEAKER_01: It's true here today.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why we're gonna be in chapter 7, 8, and 9.
SPEAKER_01: I'd love for you to read this exchange as Jesus walks around and begins to teach the people during something called the Feast of the Tabernacles.
SPEAKER_01: That's actually the heading of chapter 7.
SPEAKER_01: This is a a feast, a seven-day-long feast that was in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: It was an incredible uh celebration.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, all of of Israel would come to Jerusalem for this incredible large party that actually honors God leading them through the wilderness with the the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud.
SPEAKER_01: And so they they they would all come together.
SPEAKER_01: The reason they call it the feast of the tabernacle, and tabernacle just means tent, by the way, or they call it the feast of the booths.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone would come because in the wilderness, everyone lived in tents.
SPEAKER_01: And so even though they they they had a capital city like Jerusalem, people had houses, very few people lived in tents, and so they would come into Jerusalem to honor and celebrate God and his presence and leading them through the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: And so everyone brought their tents and they would camp out in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: It was like this massive, massive party.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine a Royal Ranger campo, or or maybe an all church campout where we would come and have uh roast hot dogs and have have a party.
SPEAKER_01: That's what's going on.
SPEAKER_01: Every night, families would get out in the evening and they would pour water on the ground to celebrate how God provided water for them as Moses struck the rock.
SPEAKER_01: And very interesting, and this is the background from what for what Jesus is saying here, is that they created this massive monolithic candle opera that they would place in front of the temple and just they would light it on fire or or they would hang all these lamps.
SPEAKER_01: Scholars say that it would light up, it would illuminate most of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Anywhere in Jerusalem, you could look towards the temple and it would be glowing.
SPEAKER_01: And so everyone was camped around the temple, and they uh they would bring in a band or an orchestra, and everyone would dance and celebrate to God.
SPEAKER_01: Sounds like a party.
SPEAKER_01: And the thing they're celebrating is the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this was represented by the cloud that would lead them, and the light or the fire that would lead them through through the wilderness as they left Egypt and left slavery.
SPEAKER_01: That's that's the fire or the presence of God that protected them against the Egyptians and split the Red Sea.
SPEAKER_01: This is as as God was giving the law of Moses to the people at Mount Sinai, he arrived in a cloud of fire and lightning and smoke, and and and and and as as they as God instructed them to build a tent to house the Holy of Holies, that the presence of God would come upon uh uh the tabernacle, that's where he would reside.
SPEAKER_01: And later on, for the kingdom of Israel, when Solomon built this incredible, elaborate temple that did not move, it was no longer a tent, and they would place the Holy of Holies inside this temple, and they dedicated to God.
SPEAKER_01: It said that a cloud of fire and lightning and his presence came and dwelt within the temple.
SPEAKER_01: It was always there, and yet at this time, people who were asking, where was the light?
SPEAKER_01: Where was the presence of God?
SPEAKER_01: Where was the cloud?
SPEAKER_01: Because you understand that a candle opera that they created was just a fake representation of something that was true, that their great-great-great-grandparents knew about and would speak about, and there were myths and legends about the power of God, and yet they hadn't seen it for years and years and years.
SPEAKER_01: And so they they still would celebrate God, but the presence of God was no longer there.
SPEAKER_01: So you maybe you're like, well, okay, what happened to it, Pastor Mark?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we we we get an indication from Ezekiel.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna find that uh in in the middle of your Bible, the prophet Ezekiel tells us as as the people are brought into exile because they're not obeying the Lord and they're sinning, God would send prophet after prophet after prophet saying, Listen, if you don't, if you don't follow me, if you don't obey what I'm asking you to do, eventually not only am I going to allow uh uh foreign nations to come in and take over, but I am me myself, I'm going to leave.
SPEAKER_01: And that's exactly what happens as Ezekiel prophesies in chapter 10.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Then the glory of the Lord went out from the threshold of the house, meaning the temple, and he visually sees that the Spirit of God leaves the temple of God and goes out of the eastern gate and returns to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And ever since then, the light and the presence of God has been absent from the temple.
SPEAKER_01: They had a word for that, they called that Ichabod.
SPEAKER_01: The glory of God had departed, the glory of God is gone.
SPEAKER_01: And so the last day of the seven-day festival of the booths or the tents, they put out the candorabra.
SPEAKER_01: And scholars say when they did that, because everyone was packing up and leaving, when they did that, he said it was there was like an eerie darkness across Jerusalem because it reminded them that the glory of God was no longer with them.
SPEAKER_01: And they kind of in a way were always asking the question when is the light of God gonna come back?
SPEAKER_01: When is the light of God going to come back?
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine then Jesus standing before the temple with a dead candle opera and saying, I am the light of the world.
SPEAKER_01: I am the light of the world, God's presence, his protection, his beauty, his glory is back.
SPEAKER_01: That's the background of Jesus' audacious claim.
SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about that claim a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: We'll talk about the claim and we'll talk about the promise.
SPEAKER_01: The the presumption of the claim you need to understand is him saying, I am God.
SPEAKER_01: When everyone heard the word I am, they knew that Jesus was declaring himself, not just a moral teacher or a religious teacher.
SPEAKER_01: There was even in chapter 7, 8, and 9, there's this idea that everyone's there to celebrate, and Jesus is walking around and teaching and making these kinds of claims.
SPEAKER_01: And as you read the interaction between Jesus and the Jewish people and Jesus and the Pharisees, the religious order of the day, there is this underlying question is who is Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: And he stands up with no light in the temple and declares himself the I am.
SPEAKER_01: And what Jesus was saying that everyone understood was that he was, he was the voice speaking in the burning bush.
SPEAKER_01: He was the cloud of God's presence that led them through the wilderness, he was the glory dwelled in the holies of holies.
SPEAKER_01: So of course, this offended everyone.
SPEAKER_01: You'll read in chapter 7, 8, and 9 that people are constantly trying to arrest Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, if you read in chapter 7, Jesus didn't even want to be here because he thought it would cause something to happen before God's timeline.
SPEAKER_01: But eventually, about halfway through the festival, he decides to go.
SPEAKER_01: And again, he's teaching and telling all these things, and everyone is getting upset because there's always this idea that Jesus is semi-skirting, but then he stands up and says, I am God.
SPEAKER_01: And the Pharisees come out and they begin to challenge him.
SPEAKER_01: And and and we we find that they they they want to kill Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: There's this interaction, and Jesus says, I knew your father Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: And he rejoiced.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all understand what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_01: The the birth of the Israelite people.
SPEAKER_01: We're talking about thousands of years ago, Abraham or Abram.
SPEAKER_01: I knew your father Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: This is Jesus speaking, rejoiced that he would see my day, and he saw it, and he was glad.
SPEAKER_01: And the Pharisees were like, Jesus, you're only 30.
SPEAKER_01: You're not even 50.
SPEAKER_01: What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_01: How could you know our father Abraham?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, Listen up, I'm gonna tell you the truth.
SPEAKER_01: I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.
SPEAKER_01: Before Abraham was, I am.
SPEAKER_01: And at that, it says that the Pharisees picked up stones to stone him.
SPEAKER_01: But again and again, it's more than once we find that people are trying to arrest him, they're trying to grab hold of Jesus, they're trying to kill Jesus, and something steps between Jesus and the people.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know what that is.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it was the Spirit of God, maybe it's angels, but it's not Jesus' time.
SPEAKER_01: This is what he was worried about.
SPEAKER_01: If I go to this festival and declare who I really am, that everyone's watching all the miracles I'm doing, they're gonna come to the conclusion that I am the Messiah, I am God, and yet Jesus declares it in front of everyone, and again, it spurs people to want to destroy him, and yet the Spirit of God stops it because it's not the time.
SPEAKER_01: It's not time for Jesus to arrive at the cross.
SPEAKER_01: It's not much different today.
SPEAKER_01: I love, let me give you a modern version of what's going on here.
SPEAKER_01: And uh the lead singer of YouTube, Bono, who has, I believe, faith in Jesus interview, really lays this out really well.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I I wanted to like get up and and do a little Jesus dance after I saw this interview.
SPEAKER_01: You can watch it online.
SPEAKER_01: It's pretty, pretty uh fantastic.
SPEAKER_01: But it's just an interview and they get talking about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He says the secular response to the Christ story, it always goes like this.
SPEAKER_01: He was a great prophet, obviously, an interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets.
SPEAKER_01: May they be Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, Confucius.
SPEAKER_01: But actually, Christ says, no, no, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying I'm a teacher.
SPEAKER_01: Don't, don't call me a teacher.
SPEAKER_01: I'm saying I'm I'm I'm a prophet.
SPEAKER_01: I'm saying I am God incarnate.
SPEAKER_01: And people would say, well, no, no, no, please, just be a prophet.
SPEAKER_01: A prophet we can take.
SPEAKER_01: You're a bit eccentric, but we had John the Baptist who were eating grasshoppers and wild honey.
SPEAKER_01: We can handle that, but not God, not the Messiah, because you know we're we're gonna have to crucify you.
SPEAKER_01: He keeps saying that, and he goes, No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: I'm actually the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: And at this point, everyone starts staring at their shoes and saying, Oh my God, he's gonna keep on saying this.
SPEAKER_01: So what you're left with is either Christ was who he says he was, God incarnate, the Messiah, or a complete nutcase.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we're talking a nutcase on the level of Charles Manson, and I'm not joking here.
SPEAKER_01: The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside down, but by a nutcase for me, that's that's far-fetched.
SPEAKER_01: Bono's right on.
SPEAKER_01: So you gotta ask the question is Jesus who he says he is?
SPEAKER_01: That's that's the claim.
SPEAKER_01: And yet then there's the promise or the problem of the claim.
SPEAKER_01: And what we find with this both times that Jesus says, I am the light, he pairs them with a miracle.
SPEAKER_01: Now you need to understand that the Jewish community only believed that with miracles that God could do miracles.
SPEAKER_01: This is the problem that the Jewish people had because Jesus was just going around and people were seeing, people that were lame were walking.
SPEAKER_01: There's all these different miracles going on.
SPEAKER_01: And so it was always paired as much as it was in chapter six with the feeding of the 5,000.
SPEAKER_01: As Jesus says, I am the light, he pairs it with this incredible display of miracles.
SPEAKER_01: And so, in chapter, at the beginning of chapter eight, we find the adulterous woman.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe you've heard this story before that during the festival, the Pharisees, the religious order was trying to catch Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And so they went and they found this woman who was engaging in an affair and they they deliver her to the feet of Jesus because they're trying to trick Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know where the man is.
SPEAKER_01: More than likely he was let go.
SPEAKER_01: And they they brought this woman who was found in the act of sin, and by Jewish law, they were allowed to stone her to death.
SPEAKER_01: So they said to Jesus, Jesus, what are you gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: Are you going to condemn her to a stoning?
SPEAKER_01: Or are you going to defy the law of Moses?
SPEAKER_01: And instead of Jesus answering the question that the Pharisees were giving him, Scripture says that he kneels down and he starts writing in in the sand as they're kind of hammering him.
SPEAKER_01: Now, we don't know what he's writing in the sand.
SPEAKER_01: There's all these speculations that he's laying out the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe he's also writing how they have have sinned in the past or in the present.
SPEAKER_01: We're not sure what that what that is.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of speculation.
SPEAKER_01: But when Jesus gets up and the Pharisees read what he has written, Jesus very famously says, Those of you who have not sinned, you can cast the first stone.
SPEAKER_01: And scripture says that one by one the Pharisees back off, they drop their so stones, and they walk away from the situation.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus goes to the woman and says, Woman, very famously, where are your accusers?
SPEAKER_01: And she says, None remain, Lord, and neither do I condemn you, he says.
SPEAKER_01: Go and sin no more.
SPEAKER_01: Here's one of the things that light does in your life, is it exposes.
SPEAKER_01: Light makes real of whatever situation you're currently in, it exposes the positive or the negatives.
SPEAKER_01: And in this case, whatever Jesus wrote in the sand, not only including the woman who who knelt at Jesus' feet, who was definitely guilty and shameful of the sin of adultery in her life, it exposed it.
SPEAKER_01: But not only that, but for the religious elite who thought that they could cover up their sin, Jesus also exposes their sin to them.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like a well-lit mirror.
SPEAKER_01: Jen has this mirror in our dining room.
SPEAKER_01: If you've ever been to my house, I have a kitchen, and then you walk through this dining room to my living room.
SPEAKER_01: It's about 20 minutes to get from one to the other.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm always walking.
SPEAKER_01: That's where I get most of my exercise, going from the bathroom to the kitchen kind of situation.
SPEAKER_01: And um, I'm always walking through, she has it just kind of in the on the wall and all kinds of stuff around.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I'm always walking and I catch a glimpse and I'll stop and I'll like, Lord, what is going on with you, Mark?
SPEAKER_01: Like, you look like your father.
SPEAKER_01: You look, you look old.
SPEAKER_01: Like, I wish that that mirror was a little darker.
SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't know if you know that situation.
SPEAKER_01: You always look better and dark than light.
SPEAKER_01: Like that mirror, whatever reason, maybe the sun comes in and there's a big picture window.
SPEAKER_01: I stop there.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, you are not aging well, Mark.
SPEAKER_01: Jen ages like fine wine.
SPEAKER_01: I age like a gallon of milk.
SPEAKER_01: Every year I get whiter and chunkier.
SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you're laughing with me or at me.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01: It's true.
SPEAKER_01: I forgot what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: I um but I know this to be true.
SPEAKER_01: The closer you get to the presence of Jesus, the closer you get to the presence of Jesus, the more of your filth is revealed.
SPEAKER_01: And that can make you feel troubled.
SPEAKER_01: Are you with me?
SPEAKER_01: But not only is it a revealing light, it's a healing light.
SPEAKER_01: Some people just get to the revealing part and they're they push away from Jesus, they don't push towards Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Like he has the power not just to expose, but to reveal and to forgive and to heal.
SPEAKER_01: John, in writing to the churches in 1 John, the same author, backs this kind of almost this story up in a way.
SPEAKER_01: If we walk in the light as he is in the light, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.
SPEAKER_01: It's even hard for us to imagine.
SPEAKER_01: And if it wasn't for God's word, I just don't know.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes if we would believe it's true because of the shame and guilt oftentimes that we carry that Jesus doesn't give us, but sin gives us.
SPEAKER_01: Sin is the condemner, Jesus is the healer of it.
SPEAKER_01: In 1 John 9, we, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_01: If we bring our shame to Jesus, everyone, like the woman.
SPEAKER_01: We come and we surrender to him, and we're okay with the exposure because we know there's going to be forgiveness in healing.
SPEAKER_01: It will transform your life.
SPEAKER_01: It's the power of the miracle, they call it the miracle of grace.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus backs up his claim to be the light of the world by forgiving this woman and exposing the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_01: Then, as Jesus was walking around the temple during this festival, the Jewish people are obviously following him around.
SPEAKER_01: He's a popular guy at this point.
SPEAKER_01: And the disciples are kind of in conversation as they come up to a young, I call him a young, but he's probably a young adult.
SPEAKER_01: He has parents that are still alive, and he's blind and he's begging for food, and he's at the festival.
SPEAKER_01: And they the disciples begin to ask the question listen, did his parents sin?
SPEAKER_01: Did this boy sin?
SPEAKER_01: The Jewish people again believe that because there was sin in this family at some point that this boy was born blind.
SPEAKER_01: And so they're asking the question to Jesus what is it?
SPEAKER_01: What is it?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus almost ignores their questions in a way, and he and he makes this statement as long as I am in the world, he says, I am the light of the world.
SPEAKER_01: And having said that, Jesus kneels down in front of the blind man, spits on the ground, makes some mud, smears it on the eyes, and tells the young man, I want you to go to a pool and I want you to wash yourself.
SPEAKER_01: And he was obedient and God heals him.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine seeing light for the first time in your life?
SPEAKER_01: Of course, this of course everyone knows who this person is.
SPEAKER_01: And he's running around with this new acquired sight.
SPEAKER_01: It causes this incredible uproar.
SPEAKER_01: But again, can you see that Jesus is claiming again to be God and then bats it up by this incredible miracle that no one could grab a hold of or no one could objectify in any way?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was who he said he was, he was the incarnate presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: They actually brought the the young man in and they begin to tear uh tear uh interrogate.
SPEAKER_01: Interrogate, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Interrogate.
SPEAKER_01: And uh they bring in his parents, they're like, Who is this guy?
SPEAKER_01: Of course, Jesus heals this young man on the Sabbath, which of course to them would be a sin.
SPEAKER_01: So they're calling Jesus the sinner, they bring the boy back in.
SPEAKER_01: There's like, who did this?
SPEAKER_01: Who is the sinner that healed you on the Sabbath?
SPEAKER_01: And the young man's like, you know who it is, you know, stop playing games.
SPEAKER_01: Whether he's a sinner, I do not know.
SPEAKER_01: But one thing I do know is I was blind and now I see.
SPEAKER_01: I was blind, and now I have the sight.
SPEAKER_01: I can see.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has the power, you understand, to make everything right in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're feeling like you're you're blind today.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're watching me online and it's falling apart.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're here for the first time.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you've heard about Jesus and did not understand who he was, and you feel like, well, man, I'm just I'm too dirty for this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm too damaged, I'm too deceptive, I'm disqualified.
SPEAKER_01: This is what light does if you expose it, if you expose it, it becomes healed.
SPEAKER_01: You've heard me say it multiple times, spiritually, physically, mentally, socially.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus cannot heal that which is hidden.
SPEAKER_01: You cover it, he can't heal it.
SPEAKER_01: You expose it, you confess it, you surrender it, he'll turn your life upside down.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says this, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation.
SPEAKER_01: For some of you, that's hard to imagine.
SPEAKER_01: You're brand new.
SPEAKER_01: The past is gone.
SPEAKER_01: When God looks on you, he looks at you like a new babe, clothed in righteousness, as the son of light and the daughter of light.
SPEAKER_01: The old has passed away, and behold, the new has come.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason Paul can say that kind of thing is because he he he experienced the center of the cross, which is the light of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I love how when Jesus, in a couple chapters more, in John chapter 12, it is Jesus' time.
SPEAKER_01: The timeline has unfolded, and then it is time for Jesus to go to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: And so what does he do?
SPEAKER_01: Uh, he fulfills scripture and prophecy about himself in what we would call, and we're going to celebrate it in a couple of days called Palm Sunday or the triumphal entry where Jesus goes into Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: And isn't it interesting?
SPEAKER_01: If you remember in Ezekiel chapter 10, where the presence of Jesus, I'm sorry, the presence of God leaves through the temple and through the east gate and returns to heaven, we find Jesus riding on the donkey through the eastern gate and going to the temple.
SPEAKER_01: And again, what Jesus is saying is the light has returned.
SPEAKER_01: The presence of Jesus has returned.
SPEAKER_01: That's the beauty of what's going on here.
SPEAKER_01: That's the hope that we all have.
SPEAKER_01: So let me ask you this question.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's important because there's a lot of different people here, and it's important for you to wrestle with this question.
SPEAKER_01: And the question is, is what am what am I gonna do with this light?
SPEAKER_01: And again, if you're here and you're not a believer, maybe you're kind of kicking around the tires of of North Iron, maybe you're online watching us across the UP in the United States.
SPEAKER_01: I I notice when I begin to preach the gospel that it people become uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_01: Not so much by my presentation of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there is that, but I really don't think it is.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes people say, Well, Pastor Mark, you just don't speak well, and I don't understand what you're saying, but most of the time it is that they're offended by the truth that is being spoken because it goes up against their culture.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll be real blunt with you that that is a demonic culture that you grew up in.
SPEAKER_01: The world is a demonic place, and it is the polar opposite of the way that God says you should live.
SPEAKER_01: And so when those words are spoken, they're alive and active.
SPEAKER_01: Sin puts you to sleep, it puts scales over your eyes, and oftentimes it takes time and time and time again, being in the presence of Jesus to be able to have those scales fall off your eyes and say, Man, I'm just not even the same person.
SPEAKER_01: I don't even, I don't even know how it happened.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how my heart changed, but I'm not the same person.
SPEAKER_01: But oftentimes that light, that exposure is almost too much.
SPEAKER_01: You ever walked out of a dark theater and you're like, Oh man, the sun.
SPEAKER_01: She would always come in and sing, Rise and shine and give God the glory, glory, rise and shine.
SPEAKER_01: Do you have that kind of mother?
SPEAKER_01: Give God the glory, glory, rise and shine and give God the glory, glory, children of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna be singing it all day.
SPEAKER_01: I never, I never got up and said, Well, thank you, mother.
SPEAKER_01: I will rise and shine and give God the glory with my day.
SPEAKER_01: Nah, it never happened.
SPEAKER_01: I covers, Mom, leave me alone.
SPEAKER_01: She's turning on the lights, shades going up.
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes that's the way it is when you're in the presence of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Cause your sin's always gonna be revealed.
SPEAKER_01: We'd like, oh I'm it's offensive.
SPEAKER_01: How dare you tell me I I can't live this way.
SPEAKER_01: We just kept on coming, kept on reading God's word, kept on worshiping.
SPEAKER_01: And and Jesus promises that in that process of discipleship and following Him, He'll transform your life.
SPEAKER_01: But my question for those who are not believers is it starts first with recognizing you don't have what it takes.
SPEAKER_01: And then secondly, confessing and surrendering your life to this God.
SPEAKER_01: I love in the end of chapter nine that Jesus, after healing the young man of blindness, he doesn't just leave him there.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, physical sight is a pretty awesome thing.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus, out of all the people that are out there, he goes and he finds the blind man and makes certain it's just not a physical healing, but a spiritual healing.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus heard that the Pharisees had cast him out, and having found him, he said, Do you believe in the Son of Man?
SPEAKER_01: And he answered, And who is he, sir?
SPEAKER_01: That I I may believe in him.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says to him, You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.
SPEAKER_01: And the man with sight said, Lord, I believe, and he worshiped me.
SPEAKER_01: Your greatest need is not physical, your greatest need is spiritual healing in your life.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying that Jesus won't heal you, He does.
SPEAKER_01: We see it in this church all the time.
SPEAKER_01: But your your greatest need again is a spiritual healing in your life, and that that happens when you begin to surrender your life to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Your greatest need is not physical, your greatest need is spiritual.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you're an unbeliever, I hope today that in a moment I'm gonna pray with you.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna all open up the altars down front.
SPEAKER_01: I would hope that you could get out of your seat and come and surrender your life to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But for believers, I don't want to shy away from what Jesus is doing here in speaking to us.
SPEAKER_01: That there is a great responsibility of receiving the light in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus lays that out kind of in front of not only the disciples who are his followers, but the Pharisees who were the religious people, because oftentimes we grow up in religious organizations we call church all the time.
SPEAKER_01: And we find that he says this, it's kind of confusing, but I hope I can lay it out for you.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, For judgment I came into this world that those Who do not see may see.
SPEAKER_01: And those who see may become blind.
SPEAKER_01: Seems confusing.
SPEAKER_01: And yet some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and they said to him, Are we also blind?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you would have no guilt.
SPEAKER_01: But now that you say we see, our guilt remains.
SPEAKER_01: Let me unpack that for you, and I'm going to give you some scripture.
SPEAKER_01: You can look them up at home.
SPEAKER_01: Get hit that next slide for me, Amy.
SPEAKER_01: The Pharisees, the religious, claim to have spiritual sight.
SPEAKER_01: But because of their pride, they were blinded.
SPEAKER_01: Because of their self-confidence, it hardened their heart.
SPEAKER_01: There is nothing worse for a believer than pride, everyone.
SPEAKER_01: I got it all together.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing more damaging.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, scripture says that to the prideful, God goes after not just not just to frustrate them, but to take them down.
SPEAKER_01: And pretending to see shuts this door of further further light.
SPEAKER_01: And for that reason, because of that self-confidence or that pride or that arrogance, your your guilt still remains.
SPEAKER_01: Because knowingly rejecting the light of the world, meaning Jesus, their sin stayed on them.
SPEAKER_01: The greater knowledge means greater judgment.
SPEAKER_01: We find this throughout scripture that once you're exposed to the light and exposed to Jesus, that demands something of your life.
SPEAKER_01: And only Christ can remove that guilt by refusing Him.
SPEAKER_01: You keep that burden.
SPEAKER_01: To see the truth of Scripture and yet resist it is to remain under that condemnation of your sin.
SPEAKER_01: I would not serve you well as your pastor and preacher of God's word.
SPEAKER_01: I could not be or claim to be a preacher of God's word if I would not tell you two of the most important events in human history.
SPEAKER_01: The first one is in Jesus' return.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, in Jesus' first coming, his advent.
SPEAKER_01: He came as a savior to rescue you from darkness.
SPEAKER_01: That's still true today.
SPEAKER_01: In the present, that he's still a savior.
SPEAKER_01: But you need to understand that scripture says that one day, and no one knows, no one knows the time or the hour, but that Jesus is going to return and set up his kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: But he's not returning as a savior, he's returning as a warrior king who's bringing justice to all who did not surrender their lives to him during this period of grace.
SPEAKER_01: And because of that, he's going to send them into darkness.
SPEAKER_01: So, as believers, this information, what is preached out of God's word, his message to you, must be taken in all sincerity.
SPEAKER_01: So, how do we walk in the light with integrity?
SPEAKER_01: They say integrity is doing the right thing when no one's watching.
SPEAKER_01: Living your life, pursuing him, not perfectly, but in pursuit of him.
SPEAKER_01: It'll it'll it'll radically change not only your life, but it'll begin to change the people around you, and that's where courage comes in.
SPEAKER_01: Because when you become a son and daughter of light, no matter what situation you walk into, the Spirit of God, his power, his presence, his light is walking into that same situation, that same atmosphere, and it begins ultimately to create waves around you.
SPEAKER_01: Where people can even become offended by the way that you're living your life.
SPEAKER_01: You don't even have to open your mouth.
SPEAKER_01: People recognize that something's different about you.
SPEAKER_01: And so, like the Jewish people against Jesus, like the Pharisees, it takes courage to make a stand.
SPEAKER_01: Because ultimately you've received this light of grace in your life, and there's a responsibility to give that grace to all of those around you.
SPEAKER_01: And one day you have this hope that he's going to return and set everything straight.
SPEAKER_01: That's the hope of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So if you find yourself, someone who's not following Jesus, I would encourage you to surrender your life this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Confess your sins, believe on Jesus, and he'll transform your life spiritually in an instant.
SPEAKER_01: And for you, those who are believers, that you would live your life with integrity, cult, uh, uh, courage, grace, and hope that one day he's going to come back and set everything right.
SPEAKER_01: Just stand with me, I'm gonna pray with you.
SPEAKER_01: Our prayer partners are coming down front.
SPEAKER_01: And we always open this area up for worship.
SPEAKER_01: Man, don't go without speaking to the Lord this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I encourage you to come down when you make a step towards Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He he meets you here.
SPEAKER_01: So, Father, as your spirit is moving, Lord, as we understand who you are and your claims to be God, Lord, we fully come in a surrendered spirit to you, Jesus, asking, Father, that that you would rectify all in our lives, Father, that you're the healer, you're the exposer, Father, you're you're a God of grace, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And so we come and we kneel at your feet, Lord, that you would take our scales off our eyes and that we would see spiritually, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we ask all of this in your mighty name as we come down this morning, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You are the God of hope.
SPEAKER_01: And so we ask all of it, Father, in your name.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us for this message.
SPEAKER_00: For past sermons, a giving link, and more.
SPEAKER_00: Check out the footnotes below or visit our website at northeiron.church.
SPEAKER_00: We hope to see you soon.