WEBVTT 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:28.960 We're in the middle of uh three weeks just in this first chapter of John's gospel, just looking at different aspects of who Jesus is. 00:00:29.120 --> 00:00:35.920 Last week we looked at Jesus the Word, uh, and now that the image kind of moves on in that Jesus is now the light. 00:00:36.240 --> 00:00:43.600 We'll be looking at what it means for him to be the light uh of the world, that light that gives life to men. 00:00:43.840 --> 00:00:49.200 Let's uh read God's word together, beginning at John chapter 1, verse 1. 00:00:51.600 --> 00:00:57.280 In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. 00:00:57.840 --> 00:00:59.920 He was in the beginning with God. 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:06.560 All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. 00:01:06.959 --> 00:01:08.480 In him was life. 00:01:08.799 --> 00:01:11.200 And the life was the light of man. 00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:16.879 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it. 00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:20.400 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 00:01:20.719 --> 00:01:25.680 He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. 00:01:26.079 --> 00:01:29.120 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. 00:01:29.359 --> 00:01:32.879 The true light which enlightens everyone was coming into the world. 00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:38.879 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 00:01:39.680 --> 00:01:43.200 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 00:01:43.439 --> 00:01:58.159 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:03.760 And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. 00:02:04.239 --> 00:02:11.039 And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 00:02:11.280 --> 00:02:20.800 John bore witness about him, and he cried out, This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me. 00:02:21.759 --> 00:02:26.000 And from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. 00:02:26.240 --> 00:02:28.400 For the law was given through Moses. 00:02:29.120 --> 00:02:32.800 Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 00:02:33.520 --> 00:02:35.599 No one has ever seen God. 00:02:36.719 --> 00:02:42.719 The only God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. 00:02:43.599 --> 00:02:45.199 And so reads God's word. 00:02:45.599 --> 00:02:47.919 Let's pray together. 00:02:55.360 --> 00:03:03.199 Your word, O Lord, is a lamp unto our feet, a light to our path. 00:03:05.039 --> 00:03:08.639 Illuminate our minds now, we pray. 00:03:09.360 --> 00:03:12.400 Shine your gospel light in our hearts. 00:03:14.319 --> 00:03:20.400 That we might love and follow and walk in the light. 00:03:21.680 --> 00:03:24.400 We pray it for the sake of Jesus. 00:03:25.039 --> 00:03:25.680 Amen. 00:03:28.400 --> 00:03:36.400 Living in around any sort of city, and Dublin is no different, uh, rarely means that it gets so dark that you can't see, right? 00:03:36.560 --> 00:03:45.520 Light pollution leaves that kind of sodium glow in the in the clouds that it doesn't matter where you go, you're not really in pitch darkness. 00:03:45.680 --> 00:03:49.919 Now, yes, there's there's alleyways and streets that you don't walk down. 00:03:50.080 --> 00:03:55.120 There are dark and shadowy corners, but by and large, it's never really pitch dark. 00:03:55.520 --> 00:03:56.960 You know what pitch dark is like? 00:03:57.120 --> 00:03:58.960 Pitch dark, you get that in the countryside. 00:03:59.039 --> 00:04:12.879 You go out a few miles, get out into the country, and on a starless, moonless night, you can barely see your hand in front of your face, right? 00:04:13.039 --> 00:04:13.919 Have you experienced that? 00:04:14.080 --> 00:04:19.759 You've been out in a starless night like that, where it's utterly dark. 00:04:20.399 --> 00:04:24.319 So dark you don't know how sure your next footfall is, right? 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:26.480 You don't know where you're where you're going. 00:04:26.639 --> 00:04:32.240 It's incredibly disorientating to be in darkness like that. 00:04:33.839 --> 00:04:44.240 In the ancient world, in the time when John was was writing his his gospel, uh gospel, uh the book of John is basically a biography. 00:04:44.399 --> 00:04:46.800 John is one of the four biographers of Jesus. 00:04:46.879 --> 00:04:48.800 Okay, there's Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. 00:04:49.120 --> 00:04:53.759 Uh, and in the time that he was writing, you simply didn't travel at night. 00:04:53.839 --> 00:04:55.040 You just didn't do it. 00:04:56.160 --> 00:04:58.480 Unless you absolutely had to. 00:04:58.959 --> 00:05:08.560 I don't know if you've been to Israel, um, but if you've seen pictures of it, perhaps you can call to mind what the terrain looks like. 00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:16.240 It's it's rocky, it's arid, it's dry, there are sharp rocks and precipices. 00:05:16.480 --> 00:05:22.240 Uh one of the one of the markers of that landscape is they have these these narrow little valleys that they call wadis. 00:05:22.399 --> 00:05:27.519 They flood during the during the rainy season, uh, but they are incredibly dangerous. 00:05:27.680 --> 00:05:30.959 So you don't go stumbling around at at nighttime. 00:05:33.279 --> 00:05:45.600 The other danger with walking around in the dark is that there are always people who are familiar with the dark, who know the terrain, and who are watching you. 00:05:45.839 --> 00:05:56.319 One of the reasons why you didn't go walking from the Jerusalem Road down to Bethany, for example, or down to Jericho, is because you might get attacked. 00:05:57.199 --> 00:05:59.120 The dark is dangerous. 00:06:00.639 --> 00:06:04.319 It's no wonder that you see it in movies and TV shows. 00:06:04.399 --> 00:06:08.319 You know, the dark is used as a device to increase tension. 00:06:08.480 --> 00:06:13.199 Because the dark is, it's uncertain and unpredictable and disorientating and dangerous. 00:06:13.360 --> 00:06:31.199 You know, that that kind of well-worn uh movie or TV trope where they uh where the high school girl is walking into the into the cave or kind of downstairs into the into the basement of the dark and creepy house, and she's got her her torch or her flashlight, uh, and she's walking down, and what what's gonna happen to the torch, right? 00:06:31.360 --> 00:06:33.040 The torch is gonna begin to blink. 00:06:33.199 --> 00:06:38.480 She's there kind of whacking it and saying, Oh no, and then the lights go on, and that's when the tension really wraps up. 00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:40.560 Because it's dark. 00:06:41.040 --> 00:06:43.120 And creepy things live in the dark. 00:06:43.279 --> 00:06:47.439 Things that want to kill you live in the dark, not to give you all nightmares. 00:06:50.560 --> 00:06:51.519 Happy Sunday. 00:06:51.600 --> 00:06:52.800 Come back to our Carl service. 00:06:52.879 --> 00:06:53.759 There'll be none of this there. 00:06:53.839 --> 00:06:57.439 There'll be all be all twinkly lights and mold wine. 00:06:57.920 --> 00:06:59.519 But then the dark will come. 00:06:59.839 --> 00:07:00.160 No. 00:07:08.959 --> 00:07:19.120 Because the dark has this effect, this physical psychological impact, it's no wonder that it's also actually used as a as a metaphor, okay? 00:07:19.759 --> 00:07:26.000 You might say, oh, that you know, his mood was dark, or they're in a pretty dark season right now. 00:07:26.160 --> 00:07:28.079 And we all know what that means. 00:07:28.319 --> 00:07:30.319 We all have a sense of it anyway. 00:07:31.360 --> 00:07:36.639 I would say that most of you here know what it means to be in a quote-unquote dark place. 00:07:39.439 --> 00:07:45.920 To be in an emotional, mental, or spiritual darkness. 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:53.279 It's a place of little clarity, little direction, little hope. 00:07:56.480 --> 00:07:58.480 It's not a fun place to be in. 00:08:00.079 --> 00:08:02.240 Where it feels like there is no one to help. 00:08:04.720 --> 00:08:08.959 But the Bible understands that sort of darkness. 00:08:10.399 --> 00:08:15.279 The Bible talks about darkness in those sorts of ways as well. 00:08:17.839 --> 00:08:21.279 There's an example in uh in uh the book of Isaiah. 00:08:21.439 --> 00:08:34.000 Isaiah was a prophet who lived 800 years before the events of John's gospel, and and he writes, uh, in chapter 25 of Isaiah, he writes of a veil that covers the nations. 00:08:34.559 --> 00:08:39.279 Uh, and in uh Sarah's Zachariah reading alluded to something similar. 00:08:39.440 --> 00:08:54.000 This veil that covers the nations, that casts a shadow over the whole world, this shadow of death, the darkness that is extended by death that exists over all of us. 00:08:56.000 --> 00:08:59.200 Most of us here in this room have felt that darkness. 00:09:01.120 --> 00:09:11.120 We know what it's like to stand at the graveside of a family member or of a loved one, to feel the darkness of grief. 00:09:15.200 --> 00:09:27.759 Elsewhere in Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter 9, which we will read in our cycle service, very famous prediction of Jesus, again, 800 years before he steps onto the stage of human history. 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:34.399 Isaiah 9 promises a baby, an unusual baby, because it's a baby who will cause warfare to cease. 00:09:34.559 --> 00:09:35.919 Has Ezra done that yet? 00:09:36.159 --> 00:09:36.480 No. 00:09:37.600 --> 00:09:38.960 This baby wins. 00:09:40.240 --> 00:09:42.399 He'll cause warfare to cease. 00:09:42.720 --> 00:09:50.480 He'll rule governments, he'll be called mighty God, wonderful counselor, prince of peace. 00:09:50.879 --> 00:09:53.200 And what is the context of that prophecy? 00:09:53.360 --> 00:09:55.360 What's the context of that promise? 00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:05.440 On those who have dwelt in a land of darkness, on them has a light shined. 00:10:06.720 --> 00:10:12.639 Those who walked in a land of deep darkness, on them a light has come. 00:10:16.960 --> 00:10:25.519 Darkness in Isaiah 9 is the darkness of oppression, warfare, death, destruction. 00:10:27.360 --> 00:10:30.480 And Isaiah is promising that a light will shine. 00:10:34.799 --> 00:10:37.279 Darkness, if you think about it, it's an interesting thing. 00:10:37.679 --> 00:10:40.480 It's a curious thing to be scared of the dark. 00:10:40.799 --> 00:10:43.600 Because darkness isn't a thing itself. 00:10:44.960 --> 00:10:47.120 It's not a tangible thing. 00:10:47.519 --> 00:10:52.399 It's rather the absence of something, it's the absence of light. 00:10:53.200 --> 00:10:53.840 Right? 00:10:54.879 --> 00:10:57.759 Darkness exists where light doesn't shine. 00:10:58.399 --> 00:11:10.320 And here, John, in his prologue, in this first part of this first chapter, he describes Jesus as the light that shines in the darkness. 00:11:11.120 --> 00:11:16.639 That shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it. 00:11:17.679 --> 00:11:19.360 The darkness cannot overcome it. 00:11:19.519 --> 00:11:20.159 Verse 5. 00:11:20.320 --> 00:11:23.279 The light shines in the darkness, the darkness cannot overcome it. 00:11:23.360 --> 00:11:25.679 What does it what does John mean by overcome? 00:11:26.559 --> 00:11:30.399 Overcome could possibly be better rendered by the word mastered. 00:11:30.639 --> 00:11:32.960 The darkness has not mastered it. 00:11:33.200 --> 00:11:38.080 So you students who've been doing exams, assignments these last weeks, perhaps you're still in the thick of it. 00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:47.600 And one of the things that you're working towards is mastering the particular discipline that you're in, understanding it to a sufficient degree of competency. 00:11:47.759 --> 00:11:49.039 At least that's what you're aiming for. 00:11:49.200 --> 00:11:51.039 That's what you're paying your money for, right? 00:11:51.279 --> 00:11:55.279 Okay that's mastering. 00:11:56.080 --> 00:12:07.600 But there's also master in the sense of to subdue, to oppress, to shut down, to master it. 00:12:08.320 --> 00:12:20.159 The darkness can neither comprehend the light with sufficient clarity, nor can it extinguish it. 00:12:21.039 --> 00:12:23.039 That gives us great hope. 00:12:23.360 --> 00:12:25.679 That's such good news, isn't it? 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:32.960 So, what does it mean, therefore, for Jesus to be that light that cannot be overcome by darkness? 00:12:33.200 --> 00:12:36.320 Let me offer you three things of what it means for Jesus to be the light. 00:12:36.480 --> 00:12:40.480 First, Jesus the light is the very presence of God. 00:12:40.799 --> 00:12:43.840 Jesus the light is the very presence of God. 00:12:44.159 --> 00:12:52.480 We've already alluded in last week when we were looking at Jesus as the Word that one of the ideas there, one of the allusions there is that the Word is divine. 00:12:52.639 --> 00:12:58.559 So you see that the Word was not only with God, but was God. 00:13:00.559 --> 00:13:12.480 Here also, in this idea of light, we see a sense of God like quality because light in the Bible is always associated with the presence of God. 00:13:12.720 --> 00:13:16.480 He is the one who dwells in inapproachable light. 00:13:17.360 --> 00:13:26.080 When Jesus shows up on the road to Damascus to apprehend Saul and make him Paul the Apostle, what does Paul see? 00:13:26.240 --> 00:13:28.639 He sees any blinding light. 00:13:28.960 --> 00:13:29.840 Do you see? 00:13:30.159 --> 00:13:32.399 Let me give you a couple of references from the Old Testament. 00:13:32.799 --> 00:13:38.399 Psalm 27, verse 1, the Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? 00:13:38.720 --> 00:13:43.519 See that association with God, the presence of God, with him being light. 00:13:43.919 --> 00:13:47.039 Or Habakkuk 3.4, Habakkuk, if you're American. 00:13:48.399 --> 00:13:56.559 Habakkuk 3.4, his radiance, talking about God, his radiance is like the sunlight. 00:13:59.039 --> 00:14:07.039 Perhaps the the image that John would like us to call to mind is the is one from the book of Exodus. 00:14:08.559 --> 00:14:19.840 In the book of Exodus, you're familiar perhaps with the story from the Prince of Egypt or something, you know, the killing of the lamb and putting the blood on the doorposts and that whole bit, and time to go and frogs and gnats and get out, right? 00:14:19.919 --> 00:14:25.759 Okay, so once everybody leaves, about a million or so people, uh, they leave Egypt and they go into the wilderness. 00:14:25.840 --> 00:14:28.960 And God leads them for 40 years in the wilderness. 00:14:30.799 --> 00:14:33.120 How does he lead them in the wilderness? 00:14:33.519 --> 00:14:36.559 Well, during the day, he leads them by a pillar of cloud. 00:14:36.799 --> 00:14:39.759 You have a big cloud, and they follow it around. 00:14:40.320 --> 00:14:42.320 At nighttime, how does he lead them? 00:14:43.200 --> 00:14:46.399 He leads them by a pillar of light, a pillar of flame. 00:14:48.720 --> 00:15:00.639 That light signifies that God is present with his people, rescuing them from slavery. 00:15:02.240 --> 00:15:12.159 And what Jesus is doing, what Jesus has done for us, and what John is telling us the story of, is that Jesus is bringing about another Exodus. 00:15:13.279 --> 00:15:17.840 He is rescuing you and I again from slavery. 00:15:19.200 --> 00:15:21.519 Not slavery to a geopolitical tyrant. 00:15:21.679 --> 00:15:37.279 None of us are captives in in Israel under the yoke of Pharaoh, at least, well, I don't know how you'd be here, but um it's rather slavery to our flesh. 00:15:39.120 --> 00:15:41.039 Slavery to sin. 00:15:42.240 --> 00:15:43.519 Because what is sin after all? 00:15:43.679 --> 00:15:46.399 Sin is sin is self-love. 00:15:48.799 --> 00:15:57.039 It is being obsessed with the approval of another. 00:15:57.360 --> 00:16:01.440 Some of you are enslaved by other people's opinion of you. 00:16:02.639 --> 00:16:06.799 Some of you are enslaved by your pursuit of success. 00:16:09.120 --> 00:16:16.720 Some of you are enslaved by your image and presenting the right sort of image to the world. 00:16:18.559 --> 00:16:23.600 Some of you are enslaved by wanting to be comfortable. 00:16:25.679 --> 00:16:27.360 It's all slavery. 00:16:30.960 --> 00:16:33.279 And Jesus has come to liberate you from it. 00:16:34.240 --> 00:16:37.679 He is the light that will lead you out of that slavery into what? 00:16:37.840 --> 00:16:39.679 What did the children of Israel get led into? 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:40.879 Get led into. 00:16:41.519 --> 00:16:49.759 The very presence of God are being constituted as the people of God, living under his good rule, having his presence with them. 00:16:50.879 --> 00:16:53.200 Jesus is bringing about a better Exodus. 00:16:55.440 --> 00:16:59.279 Liberating you from those things that gnaw away at your soul. 00:17:00.720 --> 00:17:04.720 From those things that keep you awake in the dark and bitter watches of the night. 00:17:11.119 --> 00:17:17.440 In the Old Testament, the light of God's brilliance was too terrifying for the people to stand. 00:17:20.480 --> 00:17:22.720 Moses spent some time up the mountain. 00:17:22.960 --> 00:17:24.880 He's the guy that receives the Ten Commandments, right? 00:17:25.039 --> 00:17:27.599 You might have seen those images like the Charlton Hesson movie. 00:17:27.680 --> 00:17:30.000 So he spent some time up uh up in the mountain. 00:17:30.079 --> 00:17:36.799 He's talking to God and comes back to the camp uh after some time, and his face is glowing. 00:17:37.039 --> 00:17:37.279 Right? 00:17:37.359 --> 00:17:42.240 Because he spends so much time with God, he's just radiating God's brilliance. 00:17:42.400 --> 00:17:46.880 And they can't stand it, they're terrified by it, they can't look at it. 00:17:47.039 --> 00:17:59.599 And so they get Moses to cover it, to cover his face so that they cannot see the brilliance of the glory of God in the same way that you cannot look at the brilliance of the sun on a clear day. 00:17:59.759 --> 00:18:01.279 It'll damage you. 00:18:03.119 --> 00:18:08.240 God's presence in a similar sort of way is dazzling, it's overwhelming. 00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:10.720 It has always been thus in the Bible. 00:18:11.759 --> 00:18:16.480 People say things like, and do you excuse me if this is part of your testimony? 00:18:16.799 --> 00:18:21.119 People say things like, When you became a when I became a Christian, I felt a real sense of peace. 00:18:21.440 --> 00:18:23.200 Just felt a real peace. 00:18:24.160 --> 00:18:28.720 In the Bible, when people encounter God, they very rarely feel a sense of peace. 00:18:28.960 --> 00:18:31.359 They feel a sense of, I'm dead. 00:18:32.880 --> 00:18:34.480 It's kind of the opposite, right? 00:18:35.200 --> 00:18:41.039 Isaiah again, just three chapters before Isaiah 9, Isaiah chapter 6, he sees God in the temple. 00:18:41.359 --> 00:18:42.880 He's in the temple, he's ministering away. 00:18:43.039 --> 00:18:43.839 Sorry, I shouldn't have shown it. 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:46.079 This baby in the didn't budge. 00:18:48.640 --> 00:18:50.079 Would you like me to be quieter? 00:18:50.880 --> 00:18:51.200 Okay. 00:18:52.400 --> 00:18:54.079 New father in the room. 00:18:55.680 --> 00:18:57.680 He sees God in the temple. 00:18:58.000 --> 00:18:59.680 He's ministering away there, and God shows up. 00:18:59.759 --> 00:19:00.720 And what's Isaiah's response? 00:19:00.880 --> 00:19:02.559 Isaiah's response is woe is me. 00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:09.920 I'm ruined, for I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell amidst the people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the glory of the Lord Almighty. 00:19:10.079 --> 00:19:11.279 It's like I'm done. 00:19:11.440 --> 00:19:12.160 I'm dead. 00:19:12.480 --> 00:19:13.839 Tap out, finished. 00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:15.200 See you later. 00:19:18.400 --> 00:19:20.880 We cannot see the brilliance of the glory of God. 00:19:20.960 --> 00:19:22.559 It's too much for us. 00:19:23.200 --> 00:19:25.599 It's dazzling, it's overwhelming, it's terrifying. 00:19:25.759 --> 00:19:29.920 In fact, it will lash out and it would kill us. 00:19:37.519 --> 00:19:44.000 How amazing then is it that in the incarnation. 00:19:44.480 --> 00:19:45.279 Incarnation. 00:19:45.759 --> 00:19:47.839 Incarnation just means made meat, right? 00:19:47.920 --> 00:19:49.119 Chili con carne. 00:19:49.759 --> 00:19:51.119 Carney, meat, right? 00:19:51.279 --> 00:19:53.119 Jesus was made meat for us. 00:19:53.519 --> 00:19:59.200 Next time you're having some chili con carne, praise the Lord that He was made meat for you. 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:02.880 If you're a vegetarian, I don't know what the equiv is. 00:20:03.599 --> 00:20:04.720 Not roast. 00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:07.200 Don't eat that. 00:20:08.799 --> 00:20:11.680 Jesus was incarnate for us, right? 00:20:12.400 --> 00:20:14.640 And do you what's so amazing about that? 00:20:15.279 --> 00:20:20.079 It means that we can now see the dazzling brilliance of God. 00:20:20.400 --> 00:20:22.480 We see it in the face of Jesus. 00:20:23.039 --> 00:20:28.480 In the same way that you cannot look at the sun in the sky without putting a filter over your eyes. 00:20:28.799 --> 00:20:30.240 You need to put your sunglasses on, right? 00:20:30.319 --> 00:20:33.039 You need your Polaroid lenses before you can see the sun in the sky. 00:20:34.160 --> 00:20:36.799 You need a filter over the glory of God. 00:20:37.200 --> 00:20:39.759 What's the filter over the glory of God? 00:20:39.920 --> 00:20:42.000 It's the person of Jesus. 00:20:43.039 --> 00:20:47.440 Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see. 00:20:48.640 --> 00:20:51.599 Hail the incarnate deity. 00:20:52.559 --> 00:20:56.319 Pleased with man as man to dwell. 00:20:56.720 --> 00:20:59.599 Jesus, our Emmanuel. 00:21:00.559 --> 00:21:02.000 Come again at 6:30 tonight. 00:21:02.079 --> 00:21:02.640 We'll sing that one. 00:21:02.720 --> 00:21:06.000 And you'll be able to call to mind this afternoon sermon. 00:21:07.920 --> 00:21:24.319 Jesus takes on to himself that divine light takes on to himself humanity, losing none of his divinity, takes on to himself humanity so that we can behold the glory of God in his face. 00:21:27.519 --> 00:21:31.680 That's why John says, on Dine, and we have seen his glory. 00:21:32.160 --> 00:21:35.119 The glory as of the only Son from the Father. 00:21:35.279 --> 00:21:37.200 How do you see the glory of God? 00:21:37.359 --> 00:21:39.359 Because it's veiled in flesh. 00:21:40.960 --> 00:21:44.720 What beauty, what mercy of God this is. 00:21:46.240 --> 00:21:55.680 That Jesus is both God with us and God leading us, God present with his people to draw us to himself. 00:21:57.119 --> 00:21:59.759 Secondly, Jesus, the light, illuminates. 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:01.119 Illuminates things. 00:22:01.359 --> 00:22:02.799 That's what lights tend to do. 00:22:02.880 --> 00:22:04.640 So Jesus the light illuminates things. 00:22:04.799 --> 00:22:08.079 At this point, this second point has two briefer subpoints. 00:22:08.319 --> 00:22:11.440 He illuminates, first of all, what the world is really like. 00:22:14.559 --> 00:22:16.000 Do you remember the moment? 00:22:16.799 --> 00:22:19.359 Perhaps for some of you it's quite recent. 00:22:19.599 --> 00:22:24.079 Do you remember the moment when you realized that your parents weren't perfect? 00:22:27.599 --> 00:22:30.880 Do you remember the moment when you realized that people lied to you? 00:22:33.039 --> 00:22:38.319 And what you were what was happening in that moment is you were realizing the world as it truly was. 00:22:39.039 --> 00:22:45.039 I'm very happy to be Superman to my children, as long as I can pull that veil over their eyes. 00:22:45.119 --> 00:22:47.359 But one day they'll realize that I'm not. 00:22:49.359 --> 00:22:50.319 Alright. 00:22:53.359 --> 00:23:03.680 And you begin to see the world as it truly is, or perhaps you had the experience that I have, is that when you get older in your family and as you kind of mature through your family, you get more access to the skeletons. 00:23:04.720 --> 00:23:06.400 You get the secrets. 00:23:06.880 --> 00:23:07.599 It's quite cool. 00:23:07.759 --> 00:23:09.920 You say, oh, I'm advancing, but then you're like, what? 00:23:11.039 --> 00:23:13.839 You know, whatever happened to Uncle such and such. 00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:16.799 Oh, yeah, he ran off with that guy from down the road. 00:23:17.359 --> 00:23:17.920 What? 00:23:18.240 --> 00:23:19.599 Or is that just my family? 00:23:21.039 --> 00:23:22.160 True story. 00:23:24.079 --> 00:23:26.240 You actually get to see the world for it truly is. 00:23:28.640 --> 00:23:35.680 Jesus, the light, shows us the true nature of the world that we live in. 00:23:38.880 --> 00:23:40.240 And it takes some. 00:23:44.160 --> 00:23:45.759 It's hard to look at. 00:23:47.599 --> 00:23:51.279 Because what he exposes, he exposes some dark things. 00:23:51.519 --> 00:23:53.920 He exposes dark things in us. 00:23:55.039 --> 00:23:57.119 He exposes dark things in the world. 00:23:57.359 --> 00:24:02.799 He says in John 3 that people love the darkness. 00:24:03.839 --> 00:24:12.160 There's something in you and something in me that actually doesn't really want to come into the light, that actually likes the dark. 00:24:12.240 --> 00:24:13.519 And why do we like the dark? 00:24:13.680 --> 00:24:15.200 John 3, 19 and 20. 00:24:15.440 --> 00:24:17.119 Because our deeds are evil. 00:24:18.640 --> 00:24:28.160 We don't want, whether it's the embarrassment, the shame of exposure, the having to change, and so we stay in the dark. 00:24:28.640 --> 00:24:31.279 There's part of us that quite likes the dark. 00:24:32.160 --> 00:24:36.880 And Jesus shines his light on that and puts his finger on it in the most uncomfortable way. 00:24:40.079 --> 00:24:42.720 The light always gives exposure to dark things. 00:24:42.880 --> 00:24:46.720 You think of something like a discipline like investigative journalism. 00:24:48.559 --> 00:24:58.000 That job is to shine lights in dark places, to expose secrets and lies and to bring it all out into the light so that people might truly know what was going on. 00:24:59.519 --> 00:25:02.880 Jesus shows us the true nature of reality. 00:25:02.960 --> 00:25:04.799 And that's why people wanted to kill him. 00:25:05.039 --> 00:25:08.720 The Pharisees wanted him dead because he showed up. 00:25:08.960 --> 00:25:11.279 He exposed the emptiness of their religion. 00:25:11.519 --> 00:25:14.319 He exposed the fact that they were whitewashed tombs. 00:25:14.480 --> 00:25:15.279 You know what I mean by that? 00:25:15.519 --> 00:25:18.240 Painted and clean on the outside and full of death on the inside. 00:25:18.319 --> 00:25:19.680 That's a Pharisee. 00:25:21.759 --> 00:25:30.880 That's a hard thing to comprehend, especially if you're here this morning and you like giving the look that you're okay, but actually you know inside you're full of death and you're rotten. 00:25:32.559 --> 00:25:36.559 Looking in Jesus' light can be a very uncomfortable exercise at that point. 00:25:37.920 --> 00:25:40.079 That's why they wanted him dead. 00:25:40.400 --> 00:25:41.599 He showed them the. 00:26:35.839 --> 00:26:38.000 And how uncomfortable that would make you feel. 00:26:40.880 --> 00:26:43.680 John gives us a warning in John 3. 00:26:44.880 --> 00:26:48.319 If you love the darkness, you will never come into the light. 00:26:48.960 --> 00:26:51.279 You have to begin to hate the darkness. 00:27:13.039 --> 00:27:19.599 In the same way that if you're in the countryside walking down a dark road, you need a light in that ancient world. 00:27:19.759 --> 00:27:23.920 You needed a light in order not to stumble into one of those waddies. 00:27:25.200 --> 00:27:35.920 Or even in your own house, you ever had that experience where you're coming down the house and uh in the middle of the night in the pit in the pitch darkness, and you're coming down the stairs, and you know that there's a final stair coming up, but you never quite know which one it is. 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:38.640 And you do that thing where you oh no, there we go. 00:27:38.720 --> 00:27:39.200 That's it. 00:27:39.279 --> 00:27:41.119 Uh or is that again, is that just me? 00:27:41.279 --> 00:27:46.880 Um we need light in order to be able to navigate our world, our place in it. 00:27:47.039 --> 00:27:48.640 Jesus is that light. 00:27:48.960 --> 00:27:51.279 Jesus illuminates the path of the disciple. 00:27:51.359 --> 00:27:52.319 What's a disciple? 00:27:52.559 --> 00:27:54.400 Disciple is a Jesus follower. 00:27:54.640 --> 00:27:58.559 If you are a believer in Jesus, you are a follower of him. 00:28:01.440 --> 00:28:07.920 In doing so, Jesus mercifully, wonderfully, he doesn't leave us to our own devices. 00:28:08.160 --> 00:28:14.720 You know, he doesn't leave us to kind of work out what it means to follow him, groping around in the dark, kind of trying to figure out how to please Jesus. 00:28:14.799 --> 00:28:15.839 No, no, he's the light. 00:28:15.920 --> 00:28:22.400 He shows us, he shows us what it's like to follow him, to walk in his ways. 00:28:22.799 --> 00:28:24.960 Let me read John 12, 36. 00:28:25.039 --> 00:28:26.799 Again, picking up this theme of light. 00:28:26.880 --> 00:28:30.559 Listen, he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. 00:28:30.720 --> 00:28:37.440 While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become sons and daughters of light. 00:28:38.079 --> 00:28:39.759 So what does it mean to follow the light here? 00:28:39.839 --> 00:28:41.200 What does it mean to walk in the light? 00:28:41.359 --> 00:28:44.079 It means to believe in the light. 00:28:44.640 --> 00:28:48.000 The light is something that you believe in. 00:28:48.400 --> 00:28:52.640 You think, well, that's odd, because I don't I don't tend to think of the lights around here. 00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:54.799 It's like, I don't, okay, I believe in that light. 00:28:54.880 --> 00:28:55.200 No, no. 00:28:55.279 --> 00:28:58.240 So what does it mean to believe in the light? 00:29:00.400 --> 00:29:01.759 It's to trust. 00:29:02.880 --> 00:29:12.799 It's to trust that the light is illuminating the way that is good for you to walk in. 00:29:13.839 --> 00:29:19.680 To walk in the light that Jesus gives us is to believe that what he says is true. 00:29:20.400 --> 00:29:35.440 What he says about himself, what he says about the nature of humanity apart from God, the nature of the world, what he says about our need of him, it's to trust that. 00:29:35.759 --> 00:29:40.880 And to trust that what he says for us is good for us. 00:29:42.960 --> 00:29:49.440 One of the reasons why you might stay in the darkness is if you do not believe that what Jesus says to you is good. 00:29:54.400 --> 00:30:01.599 Jesus rule, his lordship, his light guidance of you is good. 00:30:04.160 --> 00:30:09.519 He doesn't want you to stumble in the dark, but to walk in the light. 00:30:12.640 --> 00:30:20.880 Thirdly, Jesus, the light, is life. 00:30:21.599 --> 00:30:22.799 You see that there, verse 4. 00:30:22.960 --> 00:30:27.440 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 00:30:27.519 --> 00:30:32.400 So there's an association between light and life, okay? 00:30:32.559 --> 00:30:44.400 And that you think about that just for you know 10 seconds, and that makes sense because you're drawing on the physical world a little bit there, because the big glowing ball in the sky, uh, Irish people are unfamiliar with. 00:30:44.480 --> 00:30:50.960 Um, if it wasn't there, um if it wasn't there, all of life would die, right? 00:30:51.039 --> 00:30:51.920 We need it. 00:30:52.240 --> 00:30:54.720 The light gives life. 00:30:54.960 --> 00:31:00.079 So the dawning of Jesus, the light, gives us life. 00:31:00.319 --> 00:31:01.119 Do you see? 00:31:02.480 --> 00:31:03.920 You push it a little bit further. 00:31:04.079 --> 00:31:12.720 Just as the sun in the sky, the uh the the glowing self-exploding ball of gas, it generates life. 00:31:12.799 --> 00:31:19.279 I'm sorry, it generates light from within itself and emanates life from its own being, right? 00:31:19.839 --> 00:31:31.039 Jesus, in the same way, generates life to us, to those who walk in his light. 00:31:31.359 --> 00:31:35.519 You and I, you and I have been gifted life. 00:31:35.680 --> 00:31:37.920 We have derived life, right? 00:31:38.160 --> 00:31:40.559 Your life has come for you as a gift from God. 00:31:40.799 --> 00:31:42.160 Jesus is not like that. 00:31:42.319 --> 00:31:47.119 Jesus has self-generating, perfect, eternal life within himself. 00:31:47.680 --> 00:31:50.559 And that's what he gives to his followers. 00:31:50.720 --> 00:31:56.079 That's what it means to walk in his light, to receive that sort of life. 00:31:57.519 --> 00:32:04.640 You see, all the way through John's gospel, Jesus is not just presented as a guru to help us to finally attain eternal life. 00:32:04.720 --> 00:32:12.160 No, no, he is the source of that life himself, which is why we walk in the light. 00:32:16.640 --> 00:32:23.119 Some of you approach Jesus as though he were a massive insurance policy. 00:32:25.759 --> 00:32:29.119 He's your ticket to ride when you die. 00:32:29.680 --> 00:32:34.079 I just got my car insurance uh policy through an email this week. 00:32:34.319 --> 00:32:35.440 That's a great thing. 00:32:35.519 --> 00:32:38.000 Uh now you can just let it roll on over. 00:32:38.160 --> 00:32:41.039 Just click a button, and I don't need to think about it anymore. 00:32:41.279 --> 00:32:45.200 Just rolls over, it'll start again on the 4th of January, and that's another year sorted. 00:32:46.799 --> 00:32:49.279 It doesn't have to impact my day-to-day. 00:32:51.599 --> 00:32:55.599 Perhaps that's your spiritual life. 00:32:55.839 --> 00:33:17.759 You keep your relationship with Jesus ticking over, but he doesn't figure into your week, doesn't impact your decisions, doesn't impact your love life, doesn't impact your relationships, doesn't impact your marriage, doesn't it impact how you work, doesn't impact how you use your money, doesn't impact what you value, doesn't impact how you treat others. 00:33:18.079 --> 00:33:20.240 You just keep him ticking over, right? 00:33:21.119 --> 00:33:23.200 He'll come in handy later. 00:33:24.640 --> 00:33:29.680 If that's your relationship with Jesus, can I encourage you that you've missed the point? 00:33:31.440 --> 00:33:33.759 That's not what Jesus is offering. 00:33:36.960 --> 00:33:40.079 He's not just your ticket when you die. 00:33:41.359 --> 00:33:50.400 He is the one who enlivens, enriches, and transforms every part of your existence now. 00:33:51.519 --> 00:33:54.960 You imagine for a second that you walk into a dark room and you flick on the light. 00:33:55.039 --> 00:34:03.440 It's not the case that uh that that from the light shines shines a single beam lighted up a single point on the floor. 00:34:03.680 --> 00:34:04.480 No, no, no, no. 00:34:04.640 --> 00:34:07.680 You turn on the light and it enlightens the whole room. 00:34:08.480 --> 00:34:15.440 When Jesus the light dawns in your life, he enlightens your entire life. 00:34:16.320 --> 00:34:30.320 You love differently, you work differently, you value things differently, you value your money differently, you value your comfort differently, you value your successes differently. 00:34:31.199 --> 00:34:32.960 Because his light is dawned. 00:34:38.400 --> 00:34:43.920 Jesus doesn't just shine a spotlight on your eternal life, he enlightens your life now. 00:34:47.519 --> 00:34:54.400 And how is it that he is that life-giving light for us? 00:34:55.280 --> 00:35:02.480 How is it that Jesus, Jesus the light, gives us life? 00:35:03.119 --> 00:35:04.480 How does he do it? 00:35:06.880 --> 00:35:14.239 It is because he plunged voluntarily into deep darkness. 00:35:16.960 --> 00:35:26.239 Darkness in John's gospel is where sin and death reign. 00:35:27.599 --> 00:35:32.480 It's the realm of the evil one. 00:35:33.760 --> 00:35:36.239 It's the place of ignorance and rebellion from God. 00:35:36.320 --> 00:35:48.639 And so when you when you read in John 13, when Judas goes out, Judas goes out, and there's a little phrase in John 13 that says that he left the gathering, and then John says, and it was night. 00:35:49.760 --> 00:35:51.199 Why does John say that? 00:35:53.119 --> 00:36:04.239 Because the darkness in John's gospel is the very epicenter of evil. 00:36:06.639 --> 00:36:08.079 Nicodemus, John 3. 00:36:08.480 --> 00:36:11.599 John 3, it starts at Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. 00:36:12.800 --> 00:36:15.760