WEBVTT 00:00:00.959 --> 00:00:02.240 So here's where we're at. 00:00:02.319 --> 00:00:04.799 We're jumping back into the Gospel of John. 00:00:04.959 --> 00:00:12.080 At Sacred Mission, we like to go primarily verse by verse through entire books of the Bible. 00:00:12.480 --> 00:00:24.559 And so our responsibility as elders and shepherds of the church is to try to teach the whole council of God for the maturing of the saints. 00:00:24.719 --> 00:00:30.239 And so we believe that that is faithfully done in the hard work of exegesis. 00:00:30.399 --> 00:00:44.000 What we mean by that is by going through verse by verse of books of the Bible and mining out of the text, extracting from it the truth and beauty of God's promises to his people. 00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:46.479 And so we've started through John. 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:47.679 We've taken a couple breaks. 00:00:47.840 --> 00:00:59.520 In 2024, we're gonna finish the whole book of John as we take a couple of other breaks throughout our journey, but we're diving back into John 8, starting at verse 12 this morning. 00:00:59.679 --> 00:01:02.719 And so let me help us set the scene for just a moment. 00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:06.319 John isn't really worried about chronological order. 00:01:06.560 --> 00:01:18.000 As we look at the other gospel writers, specifically the gospel writer of Luke, a physician who is very concerned about every single detail, John isn't as concerned about that. 00:01:18.159 --> 00:01:25.920 And so there's not significant uh chronological consistency with inside his gospel work. 00:01:26.400 --> 00:01:43.280 What he's more concerned about is to actually communicate enough truth and narrative that we would come away reading it, believing that Jesus is the Son of God, and that by believing in him we might have life. 00:01:43.439 --> 00:01:53.599 So when we look at John's primary concern for writing his gospel, it helps us to understand why he wasn't so concerned with its chronological structure. 00:01:53.760 --> 00:02:12.000 But he wanted to make sure that he used the right stories, teachings, and experiences with Christ that would cause the reader to come away believing in who Jesus had claimed to be the Son of God who came to save the world through his death and resurrection. 00:02:12.240 --> 00:02:20.960 And so where we find ourselves is in this kind of long situation of kind of a timeline that gets a little murky, right? 00:02:21.039 --> 00:02:23.919 And doesn't isn't as clear as maybe we would like it to be. 00:02:24.080 --> 00:02:25.439 But here's what we do know. 00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:31.360 We do know that the annual feast of tabernacles has come to a conclusion. 00:02:31.520 --> 00:02:38.400 And Jesus finds himself in the city of Jerusalem because that's where he went to celebrate the feast. 00:02:38.639 --> 00:02:48.639 And at the closing of this, he's still with inside the temple area and actually inside the courts teaching the word of God. 00:02:49.039 --> 00:02:53.599 And here he's gathered around him, as normally he does, an audience, right? 00:02:53.680 --> 00:03:01.919 And among this audience, we have kind of uh common Israelite people who are there because they were celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles. 00:03:02.080 --> 00:03:06.879 They're curious and interested in who this Jesus guy is and what he's teaching. 00:03:07.039 --> 00:03:10.879 But he also has Pharisees there. 00:03:11.120 --> 00:03:21.439 Pharisees are commonly very uh uh antagonistic opponents to who Jesus is and the claims that he's making about himself. 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:34.080 And so this is where we find ourselves Jesus sitting in the court or standing in the court of the temple, teaching the word of God, and he has this audience, and there's a dialogue that we're brought into once again. 00:03:34.400 --> 00:03:44.080 And Jesus in chapter 8, verse 12, comes out the gate saying this I am the light of the world. 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:50.000 Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. 00:03:50.560 --> 00:04:00.240 So as we approach this text this morning, in verses 12 through 20, what we see is this light testifies of light. 00:04:00.719 --> 00:04:04.240 Light testifies of light. 00:04:04.639 --> 00:04:06.400 Let's talk about this together. 00:04:06.719 --> 00:04:11.039 Jesus making the claim, I am the light of the world. 00:04:11.280 --> 00:04:12.719 Here's what we have to understand. 00:04:12.960 --> 00:04:16.399 Jesus isn't saying that he has the light, right? 00:04:16.639 --> 00:04:23.199 This is what separates him from historical prophets that we have seen throughout our time, right? 00:04:23.360 --> 00:04:28.319 From Muhammad to Krishna, uh, from uh Joseph Smith to whoever else. 00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:34.959 These people claim that they had the light, that they were possessors of truth and life. 00:04:35.120 --> 00:04:45.279 Jesus isn't saying that he has something as he's obtained it, but that he is, in and of himself, the source and substance of light. 00:04:45.519 --> 00:04:50.480 That he is the truth and the life that we long for. 00:04:50.800 --> 00:04:53.040 He's the very word of God. 00:04:54.399 --> 00:04:58.800 He is the one who reveals truth to his people. 00:04:59.120 --> 00:05:03.680 John set the scene with this in the very opening of the gospel in John 1:1. 00:05:03.920 --> 00:05:09.519 He says, In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. 00:05:09.680 --> 00:05:14.879 So if light is going to bring truth, it's going to bring it through the word. 00:05:15.759 --> 00:05:19.120 And Jesus is saying, I am that light. 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:30.639 But light does not just bring truth, light brings life with it also, because in truth we find and discover the life that we so desperately need. 00:05:30.879 --> 00:05:31.920 Life in him. 00:05:32.639 --> 00:05:33.360 Through him. 00:05:34.399 --> 00:05:40.639 John 1 4 says this in him was life, and the life was the light of men. 00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:55.759 So Jesus is helping us understand not that he has obtained something, this kind of secret mystery, but that he is the very essence of the light and life that we so need. 00:05:57.680 --> 00:06:05.759 In verse 13, so the Pharisees said to him, You are bearing witness about yourself. 00:06:05.839 --> 00:06:08.879 Your testimony is not true. 00:06:09.360 --> 00:06:14.399 Jesus answered, Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true. 00:06:14.639 --> 00:06:20.879 For I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. 00:06:21.040 --> 00:06:24.000 You judge according to the flesh. 00:06:24.319 --> 00:06:26.160 I judge no one. 00:06:27.519 --> 00:06:38.639 Here's what he's helping them understand is that they're walking in darkness, and they're making judgment out of the darkness of which they walk in. 00:06:38.959 --> 00:06:50.480 And he wants to help them understand that if you follow after me, because I am the light of the world, you will no longer walk in the darkness that you find yourself in. 00:06:50.560 --> 00:06:56.480 To follow Jesus, to be his disciple, it actually causes us to walk in his light. 00:06:56.639 --> 00:07:01.199 Because here's what darkness wants to do: darkness wants to conceal, right? 00:07:01.439 --> 00:07:04.480 Darkness wants to hide and to cover. 00:07:05.759 --> 00:07:10.000 But darkness doesn't want to just conceal truth from us. 00:07:10.639 --> 00:07:13.199 We want to be concealed by it. 00:07:13.600 --> 00:07:24.480 It's not as if darkness is working against us in such a way that it's keeping something out of our reach that we so desire and we're hunting to try and discover in our own. 00:07:24.639 --> 00:07:30.240 No, it's that we ourselves actually love the covering of darkness that it provides for us. 00:07:30.560 --> 00:07:36.160 We in our own identity are concealed by this darkness and we love it. 00:07:37.680 --> 00:07:45.360 This is what actually John puts forward that John 1.5, the light shines in the darkness. 00:07:45.600 --> 00:07:53.279 The light is exposing to the darkness that we find ourselves in, and the darkness has not overcome it. 00:07:55.680 --> 00:08:04.480 Jesus says, if you follow me, you will no longer walk in this darkness, but you will have the light of life. 00:08:04.879 --> 00:08:06.240 Jesus is the light. 00:08:06.399 --> 00:08:11.199 To follow him ensures that we will have him, who is the light and life of men. 00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:18.480 If we follow him, we have him, and in having him, we have his light and life in us. 00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:25.040 You see, in this light, we're delivered from this darkness that entraps us. 00:08:25.360 --> 00:08:29.920 But like I said, it's not that we're victims to some powerful enemy. 00:08:30.319 --> 00:08:34.799 We've actually laid in bed with the darkness that covers us. 00:08:35.600 --> 00:08:37.039 We love this darkness. 00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:40.240 We we desire to remain concealed in it. 00:08:40.320 --> 00:08:46.320 And so if it entraps us, it is because we desire its entrapment. 00:08:48.639 --> 00:08:52.799 Because it threatens our own notion of freedom. 00:08:52.960 --> 00:09:00.159 It threatens our own understanding or pursuit of life that we think we can obtain in the darkness of this world. 00:09:00.399 --> 00:09:01.759 We are afraid of the light. 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:03.919 We rage against the light. 00:09:04.080 --> 00:09:06.720 John 3.19 helps us understand this. 00:09:06.879 --> 00:09:08.879 And this is the judgment. 00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:17.919 The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 00:09:18.159 --> 00:09:23.600 When we look at John 3, and we typically will think of John 3.16 in light of John chapter 3, right? 00:09:23.759 --> 00:09:30.320 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. 00:09:30.480 --> 00:09:37.120 The hope of Christ of coming to the world and saving us is only part of John 3. 00:09:37.600 --> 00:09:48.559 The rest of John 3 actually works to help us understand that we are condemned because we so love the light, the darkness, and we hate the light. 00:09:51.200 --> 00:09:58.559 Jesus has broken into the darkness of this world, the darkness of our very hearts, and he has cast his light upon us. 00:09:58.799 --> 00:10:01.200 This is his mercy toward us. 00:10:02.480 --> 00:10:09.039 In this merciful light, we're able to see the true life and true freedom that only He can give. 00:10:15.679 --> 00:10:20.639 We want freedom, but we don't understand the freedom that we actually need. 00:10:20.879 --> 00:10:24.320 You see, we don't want the freedom God has for us. 00:10:25.039 --> 00:10:28.320 We want freedom from God in and of itself. 00:10:29.200 --> 00:10:36.559 We don't want to be told what to do, we don't want to uh have his law and his commands governing us. 00:10:36.720 --> 00:10:47.840 But this the reality is we don't comprehend that it's within submission to his very word and the laws and commands that he has for his image bearers that the fullness of freedom can ever be known. 00:10:48.159 --> 00:10:50.480 We want to see the flourishing of our life. 00:10:50.639 --> 00:10:54.000 It is going to be found in the submission to his law. 00:10:54.639 --> 00:10:57.200 But we don't want that freedom. 00:10:57.600 --> 00:11:01.919 We want our own freedom, which actually produces death. 00:11:02.240 --> 00:11:10.240 And so in our darkness, we want freedom from God, not the freedom that God has to offer to us. 00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:21.279 But in Christ, when his light shines upon us, we won't be satisfied to walk in the darkness of this world any longer. 00:11:22.559 --> 00:11:32.720 In him, we will only be able to find the fullness of joy following him, walking with him in the life of his light. 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:40.320 And so the Pharisees are combating against this notion, this claim that Jesus is making. 00:11:40.480 --> 00:11:44.879 And here's what they're doing: they're actually throwing his own words in his face. 00:11:45.519 --> 00:11:52.720 Because if we look back to John 5, verse 31, it says Jesus actually made this claim before the Pharisees. 00:11:52.879 --> 00:11:58.240 He says, If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. 00:11:58.639 --> 00:12:01.919 And so the Pharisees remember Jesus saying these words. 00:12:02.159 --> 00:12:07.200 And now they're calling him out, they're throwing his own words back into his face. 00:12:07.519 --> 00:12:19.120 And Jesus condemns their efforts and shows what they're actually doing is operating out of the darkness of which they so love, the darkness of this world. 00:12:19.360 --> 00:12:23.440 He says, even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true. 00:12:23.600 --> 00:12:30.159 For I know where I came from and where I'm going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. 00:12:30.320 --> 00:12:33.679 You judge, he says, according to the flesh. 00:12:33.840 --> 00:12:34.639 What's he saying? 00:12:34.799 --> 00:12:43.679 It's out of the darkness of this world that you're trying to claim you can see properly and make right judgment. 00:12:44.240 --> 00:12:45.679 But you can't. 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:46.639 You can't. 00:12:46.799 --> 00:12:48.879 You're unable to. 00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:55.039 Jesus' statement about his own judgment stands in contrast to that of the Pharisees. 00:12:55.200 --> 00:13:00.720 They are unable to judge rightly because their judgment is derived from the very darkness of this world. 00:13:00.960 --> 00:13:05.120 Jesus judges, though, from the radiance of his light. 00:13:05.279 --> 00:13:10.559 Verse 16, yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true. 00:13:10.799 --> 00:13:16.320 For it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. 00:13:16.799 --> 00:13:22.799 You see, Jesus is bringing credibility of his testimony. 00:13:23.840 --> 00:13:29.120 And he's putting forward the clarity of his judgment before his opponents. 00:13:29.440 --> 00:13:37.279 It's not derived from him alone, but from the unity that he has of him and the Father, the Father who has sent him. 00:13:37.600 --> 00:13:51.360 Jesus has been sent on mission so that he might shine his light into the darkness of this world and declare the Father's judgment upon us, on all those who remain in this darkness. 00:13:51.600 --> 00:13:53.600 Jesus saying, I judge none. 00:13:53.759 --> 00:14:01.840 That is, I do not judge on my own, or do I judge out of the flesh or the darkness of which you are trying to make judgment from. 00:14:02.480 --> 00:14:07.120 But what I do judge is that of unity with the Father. 00:14:07.440 --> 00:14:12.559 And it's out of the mouth of these two witnesses that any judgment is made right. 00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:18.720 And so God is the only true, just judge. 00:14:19.600 --> 00:14:26.879 Who judges in impartiality and whose verdict is faithful. 00:14:27.759 --> 00:14:33.759 Verse 17, Jesus throws the word of the law in the face of the Pharisees, right? 00:14:33.840 --> 00:14:38.320 If they're gonna throw his word at him, he's gonna be like, hey, I got something for you, right? 00:14:38.559 --> 00:14:43.840 Verse 17, in your law, it is written that the testimony of two people is true. 00:14:44.080 --> 00:14:49.039 I'm the one who bears witness about myself, and the father who sent me bears witness about me. 00:14:50.320 --> 00:14:52.960 Jesus bearing witness about himself. 00:14:53.919 --> 00:14:55.279 Think about this for a second. 00:14:55.440 --> 00:14:58.879 Why is Jesus able to bear witness about himself? 00:14:59.519 --> 00:15:04.879 I want to submit to you this morning, it's because there's nothing that can bear witness to light. 00:15:06.080 --> 00:15:09.200 Light bears witness to everything around it. 00:15:09.440 --> 00:15:17.600 You see, we can only see that which is in the dark because light has flooded the room to open our eyes to be able to know and to understand. 00:15:17.840 --> 00:15:19.840 Light needs no witness. 00:15:20.159 --> 00:15:23.600 Light is the witness to everything around it. 00:15:23.840 --> 00:15:38.799 When we are in a dark room and we don't know what we're looking at or where we're stepping or how we get to the next place we're traveling, we need light to illuminate our path, to show us the obstacles before us, that we may know and understand our surrounding. 00:15:38.960 --> 00:15:44.879 Light needs no testimony because it is the very testimony of everything around it. 00:15:46.639 --> 00:15:51.840 Light is in itself self-testifying in its very nature. 00:15:52.639 --> 00:15:58.080 Yet the Father, the Father of light himself, the Bible refers to him. 00:15:58.559 --> 00:16:02.960 He also bears witness about the light that he has sent into the world. 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:14.159 At his baptism, the heavens opened, and the voice of the Father declared that this is my son in whom I am well pleased. 00:16:14.399 --> 00:16:19.360 He has worked miracles through him in the healing of the sick, in the casting out of demons. 00:16:19.519 --> 00:16:23.919 He has ushered in the authority of his kingdom through his son. 00:16:25.039 --> 00:16:30.159 And he has validated his teaching by faith in the hearts of those who believe. 00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:45.919 The Father has affirmed the testimony of the Son, that he is the light, not a light, nor the possessor of some external light, but he in himself is the light and life of men. 00:16:46.720 --> 00:16:50.639 Verse 19, they said to him, Therefore, Where is your father? 00:16:51.120 --> 00:16:53.759 Jesus answered, You know neither me nor my father. 00:16:53.840 --> 00:16:56.480 If you knew me, you would know my father also. 00:16:57.279 --> 00:17:04.799 The Pharisees make it so obvious how they are stumbling around in the darkness of this world. 00:17:05.279 --> 00:17:20.559 They've been in front of Jesus, they've seen his miracles, they've heard his teachings, and this late into his ministry, they have the audacity or the idiocracy, one of the two, to ask him, Well, where is your father? 00:17:21.119 --> 00:17:25.680 And he says, You don't know my father because you don't know me. 00:17:26.640 --> 00:17:32.079 To know the Father is inseparable from the knowledge of the Son. 00:17:32.400 --> 00:17:43.279 We cannot make any claim to know God if we do not know Jesus first, because it is only through Christ, Jesus the Son of God, that we can know God the Father at all. 00:17:44.079 --> 00:17:58.960 Every attempt to know God or know the supreme being without coming through the Son, Jesus the Christ, is ultimately a fabrication of our own heart's idolatry. 00:17:59.519 --> 00:18:01.119 It's a false God. 00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:11.039 We cannot know our Maker, we cannot intimately know Him as Father unless we come through the intimacy of His Son. 00:18:12.559 --> 00:18:15.839 You see, we cannot know God apart from knowing Jesus. 00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:22.079 We cannot stumble around in the darkness of this world long enough until we just happenstance discover him. 00:18:22.400 --> 00:18:27.759 We will always instead discover something other than God in the darkness of this world. 00:18:27.920 --> 00:18:29.440 It will be an idol. 00:18:31.519 --> 00:18:38.559 Verse 20, these words he spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple, but no one arrested him because his hour had not yet come. 00:18:38.960 --> 00:18:43.519 Jesus was not gonna allow their darkness to govern his mission, right? 00:18:43.680 --> 00:18:54.400 They wanted to arrest him, they wanted to put him to death, but he was not gonna allow their darkness, their sinfulness, their blindheartedness to govern his mission that the Father had sent him on. 00:18:54.559 --> 00:19:04.240 His mission to expose their very darkness by his light, but also to allow himself to be destroyed by that very darkness. 00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:21.599 This is the beauty of the gospel, the poetic nature of the sovereign plan of God, that Christ would come as the light of the world to expose the darkness of his people, but yet allow in his sovereignty that very darkness to destroy him. 00:19:22.240 --> 00:19:26.079 Can you imagine the love of God in Jesus for you? 00:19:29.039 --> 00:19:37.920 In the midst of their darkness, Jesus' proponents were unable, or maybe better worded, unwilling to see who he truly was. 00:19:38.400 --> 00:19:43.920 He was the light they needed to have, the life their souls truly longed for. 00:19:44.559 --> 00:19:51.519 But their darkened judgment would be futile, because truly only light can testify of light. 00:19:52.640 --> 00:19:55.200 Then we come into verses 21 through 24. 00:19:55.359 --> 00:19:58.240 We see this we cannot cross the chasm. 00:19:58.720 --> 00:20:01.119 We cannot cross the chasm. 00:20:02.319 --> 00:20:11.599 Verse 21, so he said to them again, I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. 00:20:12.480 --> 00:20:15.200 Where I am going, you cannot come. 00:20:15.680 --> 00:20:20.319 So the Jews said, Will he kill himself since he says, Where I am going, you cannot come. 00:20:20.960 --> 00:20:32.480 So while the beginning and end of this passage of Scripture, John 8, 12 through 30, is light and life, we're gonna see that, the middle is saturated with darkness and death. 00:20:32.720 --> 00:20:36.079 And Jesus is saying that he is going away. 00:20:36.319 --> 00:20:41.519 And where he is going, these people cannot follow, but they will die in their sin. 00:20:42.160 --> 00:20:48.559 We see the darkness of the Pharisees, their judgment made from this darkness, this blindness. 00:20:48.720 --> 00:20:58.960 They're of the world which is in this darkness, this death that we see them carry, that they will die in their sins, that they cannot go where Jesus is going. 00:20:59.200 --> 00:21:14.160 When Jesus says in verse 21 that he's going away, he's speaking to the reality that he is going to die, be buried, resurrected, and ascend back to the Father from which he came. 00:21:14.960 --> 00:21:18.640 And once again the Pharisees show how blinded they are. 00:21:18.880 --> 00:21:20.480 Will he kill himself? 00:21:20.720 --> 00:21:23.279 Since he says, Where I'm going, you cannot come. 00:21:23.519 --> 00:21:25.759 We have to understand what they're trying to say. 00:21:26.079 --> 00:21:30.240 If suicide was a sure ticket to hell, in their mind. 00:21:30.880 --> 00:21:45.920 And so he's there, they're they're assuming, they're assuming because of their religiosity that they are so righteous, that they are obviously the blessed receivers of the Father's favor and will. 00:21:46.160 --> 00:21:48.400 They are the ones who the Father has chosen. 00:21:48.559 --> 00:21:56.960 They are the ones who are in right standing with him because of the way that they execute the law, the way that they have it lived out in their daily life, right? 00:21:57.119 --> 00:22:11.359 They are so blind, though, in this religion that they Have created that they think Jesus is actually talking about suicide because obviously they weren't going to go to hell where he went. 00:22:12.319 --> 00:22:16.880 Do we see the the the blindness and the darkness of which they're operating from? 00:22:17.279 --> 00:22:22.079 Jesus declares, though, that they are the ones who will die in their sins. 00:22:23.279 --> 00:22:25.359 They cannot follow him where he goes. 00:22:25.599 --> 00:22:33.359 What he means is to the Father, when he ascends back into the glory of which he has come from, he's warning them. 00:22:33.519 --> 00:22:46.400 If you persist in this blindness, in this rejection of who he declares to be, Jesus, the light of the world, the Son of God, they will perish away from God in eternal darkness. 00:22:46.640 --> 00:22:54.799 Without the light, without the light of Christ, our eternal destiny is darkness forever. 00:22:56.079 --> 00:23:00.319 But again, I have to put forward, we're not victims of this darkness. 00:23:00.559 --> 00:23:07.440 Hell is not something that is locked from the outside by God, where we are banging on the door trying to get out. 00:23:07.680 --> 00:23:12.160 John 3, the condemnation that comes from above is that we love the light. 00:23:12.400 --> 00:23:16.400 Hell is a casket that we have chained shut from the inside. 00:23:17.440 --> 00:23:19.680 We want freedom from God. 00:23:20.960 --> 00:23:24.079 We want to remain in our darkness. 00:23:25.039 --> 00:23:28.799 And without the light of Christ, eternally we will. 00:25:57.039 --> 00:26:01.279 That it can be put to death before you are put to death. 00:26:03.599 --> 00:26:05.599 This is why Jesus has come. 00:26:05.920 --> 00:26:09.599 Not to give us stuff, but to give him us himself. 00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:16.480 Verse 25 through 30, we see the Father's judgment through the Son. 00:26:17.359 --> 00:26:19.680 So they said to him, Who are you? 00:26:21.119 --> 00:26:25.519 Jesus said to them, Just what I've been telling you from the beginning. 00:26:26.559 --> 00:26:30.319 Their blindness has surpassed shamefulness at this point. 00:26:30.640 --> 00:26:31.519 Who are you? 00:26:31.759 --> 00:26:32.079 Right? 00:26:32.480 --> 00:26:34.000 They dare to ask. 00:26:34.240 --> 00:26:36.720 And Jesus responds, I love what he says. 00:26:36.880 --> 00:26:42.079 There's a deeper meaning in what Jesus is saying when he says, just what I've been telling you from the beginning. 00:26:42.319 --> 00:26:50.240 He's not just referring to this timeline of his engagement with the Pharisees or his public ministry of teaching the Word of God. 00:26:50.480 --> 00:27:05.279 Jesus is actually bringing them all the way back to when there was nothing but darkness in all of the cosmos, and the word was spoken from the word mouth of the Father, and light broke in, and suddenly the darkness was dispelled. 00:27:05.440 --> 00:27:07.200 He's saying it was from the beginning. 00:27:07.359 --> 00:27:15.440 You don't understand, you stand condemned already because you can look at the rising of the sun and you can see my glory in it. 00:27:16.880 --> 00:27:20.720 I've been telling you this from the day the sun rose. 00:27:22.480 --> 00:27:24.079 I am the light. 00:27:26.240 --> 00:27:34.720 Verse 26 I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world that I have heard from him. 00:27:35.119 --> 00:27:38.799 They did not understand that he was speaking to them about the Father. 00:27:39.519 --> 00:27:45.599 He is, Christ is, and will execute judgment against the darkness. 00:27:45.920 --> 00:27:48.559 This is the love of God towards his people. 00:27:49.279 --> 00:27:51.680 This is what I'm trying to help us understand. 00:27:51.920 --> 00:27:57.920 God's judgment of our sin now is his loving kindness toward us. 00:27:59.039 --> 00:28:10.720 That we might know his life, that we might possess his light in his son Jesus, to expel our darkness by the radiance of his light. 00:28:11.119 --> 00:28:15.200 The Father sent the Son on mission to be the light that our darkened world needs. 00:28:15.359 --> 00:28:25.920 And ultimately, in the fullness of his coming kingdom, when Christ returns, he will banish light or banish darkness forever. 00:28:26.160 --> 00:28:26.799 Amen. 00:28:27.680 --> 00:28:39.440 Verse 28, so Jesus said to them, When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak speak just as the Father has taught me. 00:28:39.839 --> 00:28:55.440 Jesus is speaking to his coming crucifixion, and he's helping them understand that when you have lifted up the Son of Man, when you have raised him to be crucified, you will know that I am He. 00:28:55.839 --> 00:29:01.200 In a sense, there's a there's this measure of divine irony in what Jesus is saying. 00:29:01.519 --> 00:29:08.640 Because he communicates that they're actually going to assist in the fulfillment of the mission that the Father sent him to do. 00:29:08.720 --> 00:29:08.880 Right? 00:29:08.960 --> 00:29:09.599 We talked about this. 00:29:09.680 --> 00:29:17.920 Not only is Jesus the light that exposes the darkness, but Jesus is the suffering servant who allows the darkness to destroy him, right? 00:29:18.400 --> 00:29:27.680 And so God is going to use the darkness of the world, the darkness of the hearts of these men, to fulfill the mission that he sent the Son on. 00:29:27.920 --> 00:29:33.119 That he would be lifted up on the cross and die for him, die for them. 00:29:34.079 --> 00:29:46.640 And when Jesus is crucified, his mission as the saving, redeeming, creation-filling light of the world will be secure, and he will rise and reign and shine forever. 00:29:47.440 --> 00:29:53.039 Jesus says, it's then, it's in that moment you will know that I am he. 00:29:54.240 --> 00:29:57.839 This language Jesus uses that I am he. 00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:22.799 Jesus is using the same language before the Pharisees. 00:30:22.880 --> 00:30:28.160 When he says, When I am lifted up on the cross, it is then that you will know I am. 00:30:29.359 --> 00:30:30.960 I am Yahweh. 00:30:31.279 --> 00:30:39.519 I am the extended arm and outstretched hand of the delivering power of God. 00:30:39.680 --> 00:30:52.160 It is then when my hand is outstretched upon the beam of that tree, you will know it was the same hand that stretched forth to deliver Israel out of Egypt. 00:30:52.480 --> 00:30:53.119 I am. 00:30:54.720 --> 00:30:57.200 Verse 29, and he who sent me is with me. 00:30:57.279 --> 00:31:00.559 He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him. 00:31:00.880 --> 00:31:07.200 One of the things that I love about this is Jesus, we we tend to think about Jesus sinlessness, right? 00:31:07.759 --> 00:31:12.400 But really, this is a negative aspect or understanding of who Jesus is. 00:31:12.640 --> 00:31:14.240 Jesus never sinned. 00:31:14.480 --> 00:31:16.000 Okay, that's good, right? 00:31:16.559 --> 00:31:18.480 We should champion that, we should believe that. 00:31:18.640 --> 00:31:20.480 But it but it's really in a negative light. 00:31:20.640 --> 00:31:27.519 The way Jesus frames it is not that he never sinned, but that he always does what is pleasing to the Father. 00:31:27.839 --> 00:31:33.359 So that's a positive aspect or perspective on the life of Jesus. 00:31:34.240 --> 00:31:40.160 I think so many times we're really concerned and we're really burdened by not sinning. 00:31:40.720 --> 00:31:43.359 Can I tell you a remedy to not sinning? 00:31:43.759 --> 00:31:49.359 Change the way that we approach this life by doing what pleases the Father. 00:31:49.759 --> 00:32:05.359 If we were more focused on what pleased God, if we were more focused on what pleased the Father and our obedience and our love and our devotion for Him, I think we would sin a lot less in our life. 00:32:19.920 --> 00:32:23.519 As he was saying these things, many believed in him. 00:32:24.160 --> 00:32:25.200 Many believed in him. 00:32:25.359 --> 00:32:29.200 The Father's judgment would be delivered through Jesus the Son. 00:32:29.359 --> 00:32:35.119 In the midst of this dialogue, inside of the temple courts, we see this judgment make its decree. 00:32:35.359 --> 00:32:44.880 The Pharisees were judged, and the end result was that Jesus' light did not shine upon them, and they remained in the darkness of this world, the darkness of their sin. 00:32:45.039 --> 00:32:50.000 But many who were near to Jesus' teaching also received the Father's judgment. 00:32:50.240 --> 00:32:59.920 But their judgment was that the light would shine upon them, and it would bring them into his kingdom of light through faith. 00:33:00.480 --> 00:33:01.920 So here's our main idea this morning. 00:33:02.000 --> 00:33:03.839 Here's what I want us to walk away with. 00:33:04.160 --> 00:33:07.359 There is no other light than Jesus. 00:33:08.559 --> 00:33:11.759 There is no other light than Jesus. 00:33:12.079 --> 00:33:24.880 Like we said, Jesus isn't just saying, he's not making the bold statement that he has received or obtained some light, some mystery, some uh sense of divine revelation. 00:33:25.119 --> 00:33:29.599 Jesus is saying that he is this light. 00:33:30.400 --> 00:33:37.519 That there exists no other light, no other truth, no other life than him. 00:33:38.079 --> 00:33:47.759 He alone is the light that has come into a darkened world, and he is the light alone that breaks into our darkened hearts. 00:33:48.079 --> 00:33:56.960 And Jesus being the light is not simply that he illuminates all things, that, but yet it's that by him we see everything. 00:33:57.680 --> 00:34:01.759 It is in Christ that we're actually able to see rightly. 00:34:02.079 --> 00:34:04.960 All of life is now illuminated for us. 00:34:05.119 --> 00:34:11.599 Our eyes are open from the blindness of which they were once in, and we can see the world as it should be. 00:34:11.760 --> 00:34:14.159 We can see ourselves as we should. 00:34:14.400 --> 00:34:18.480 We can see God as He so demands. 00:34:19.280 --> 00:34:27.760 It is only through Jesus that we're able to finally see, know, and comprehend the world around us and the life that we live. 00:34:28.159 --> 00:34:57.920 Only by Jesus the light can we see love, beauty, goodness, righteousness, justice, charity, honor, truth, everything good is able to seen rightly in its goodness for all that it was truly created to be because of the light of Jesus to cause us to be in awe and wonder at the majesty of its creator and to worship him as he so deserves. 00:34:58.880 --> 00:35:14.800 But it's only also by Jesus' light that we can see wickedness, ugliness, hatred, deception, unrighteousness, vileness, all that is ungodly, and all that truly is evil. 00:35:16.559 --> 00:35:20.079 Why does this light cause us to see these things this way? 00:35:20.320 --> 00:35:28.159 That we might revere and fear the judgment and holiness of our Creator and to worship him as he deserves. 00:35:28.320 --> 00:35:32.320 The beginning of knowledge is the fear of God, that we might revere him. 00:35:32.559 --> 00:35:37.840 We can only have this knowledge, right, through the illumination of Christ. 00:35:38.800 --> 00:35:44.239 There is no other light by which our eyes and hearts are illuminated to truly see all things. 00:35:44.480 --> 00:36:00.079 Jesus is the blazing Son, that by which we experience and feel the warmth of the Father's love for us and see that in him is the life our souls long for. 00:36:00.800 --> 00:36:06.480 Yet many of us, if we're honest with ourselves, we've strived to know God apart from the light of Jesus. 00:36:07.039 --> 00:36:10.159 We've strived after our own enlightenment. 00:36:10.320 --> 00:36:13.119 And I think we're in an age of enlightenment, right? 00:36:13.280 --> 00:36:18.159 We're in an age where everybody is trying to say that they have discovered truth. 00:36:18.400 --> 00:36:24.239 They have discovered really what truth is and how you can have life through it. 00:36:24.320 --> 00:36:35.039 And you're seeing yourselves being pulled left and right and back and forth between all of these claims of illumination, of enlightenment that we discover in culture. 00:36:35.199 --> 00:36:48.000 And what we're really trying to do is we are trying by our own strength and wisdom and knowledge to claw out of the darkness of which we find ourselves in. 00:36:48.159 --> 00:36:54.719 Yet we don't realize or understand that we are digging deeper into that very darkness. 00:36:56.480 --> 00:36:59.519 Some of us we seek after the light of this world. 00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:02.079 We seek after the light of this world. 00:37:02.239 --> 00:37:06.880 We believe that we can discover truth and life and our own striving. 00:37:07.199 --> 00:37:14.239 But we fail to realize the darkness of this world and its inability to truly help us see. 00:37:14.960 --> 00:37:17.360 And this is plaguing culture right now. 00:37:17.519 --> 00:37:21.199 We can see it in every single corner of society. 00:37:21.360 --> 00:37:24.800 We can see it in the very forwardness in front of our face. 00:37:25.199 --> 00:37:33.519 We have to understand we cannot discover truth and life because there is no light within this world. 00:37:33.679 --> 00:37:37.840 Look at the ways that we're having conversations around gender and sex. 00:37:38.320 --> 00:37:40.400 It is buried in darkness. 00:37:40.480 --> 00:37:42.719 And what we're claiming is that there's life in that. 00:37:42.880 --> 00:37:45.440 Is there life in the mutilation of the flesh? 00:37:45.679 --> 00:37:51.199 Is there life in allowing these children to be exploited and exposed to such things? 00:37:51.360 --> 00:37:55.840 Is there life in blocking the reproductive nature of a woman? 00:37:56.239 --> 00:37:57.360 Because of what? 00:37:57.840 --> 00:38:00.559 You're declaring that you were enlightened with something? 00:38:00.800 --> 00:38:04.480 That somehow you discovered life in the darkness of this world? 00:38:05.199 --> 00:38:06.480 By no means. 00:38:07.440 --> 00:38:09.840 What about love and relationships? 00:38:11.840 --> 00:38:23.440 We've been touting, we've been claiming that there's life in, not in monogamy, but in polyamory, or there's life in divorce or being true to myself or being as happy as I possibly can. 00:38:23.599 --> 00:38:27.679 I have to do whatever it takes that I might satisfy my own happiness. 00:38:27.760 --> 00:38:32.159 And so I'm gonna find light and life in this illumination or this enlightenment. 00:38:32.239 --> 00:38:34.079 But but what are we seeing? 00:38:35.280 --> 00:38:39.440 A culture of chaos, death, and destruction. 00:38:40.960 --> 00:38:42.960 What about money and work? 00:38:44.159 --> 00:38:50.239 We have so willingly enslaved ourselves to bank accounts and properties. 00:38:52.079 --> 00:38:53.519 And we think there's life there. 00:38:54.239 --> 00:38:55.840 Do you really feel free? 00:38:56.880 --> 00:39:02.719 Do you really feel free when you have to work to make someone else rich? 00:39:04.400 --> 00:39:07.519 And you're stuck in this metal cubicle, right? 00:39:07.760 --> 00:39:09.920 Just chugging away at some keyboard? 00:39:10.239 --> 00:39:11.519 Doesn't it feel like life? 00:39:11.760 --> 00:39:14.639 Lord, I'd rather make bricks in Egypt, I feel like sometimes. 00:39:14.800 --> 00:39:16.159 That's just how my mind works, though. 00:39:16.960 --> 00:39:18.079 I don't like that. 00:39:18.239 --> 00:39:19.440 I won't do that. 00:39:22.159 --> 00:39:24.400 What about justice and liberty? 00:39:26.159 --> 00:39:28.239 Do you think we know justice? 00:39:28.800 --> 00:39:31.119 We're claiming we know justice. 00:39:31.360 --> 00:39:32.000 Right? 00:39:32.239 --> 00:39:39.599 We're claiming that we can be the judges of culture and we can communicate justice rightly. 00:39:39.760 --> 00:39:44.159 But it is perverted by darkness. 00:39:46.239 --> 00:39:48.960 It is partial in its judgment. 00:39:49.360 --> 00:39:51.119 Here's one thing about the nature of God. 00:39:51.360 --> 00:39:53.920 God's justice is impartial. 00:39:54.079 --> 00:39:55.360 That's what makes it holy. 00:39:55.519 --> 00:40:17.920 When we talk about the impartiality of God, it means that there is no one who is able to slight or to be dismissed from his right judgment because of anything about themselves, anything about their ethnicity, anything about their sex, anything about their class within society, anything about their ableness. 00:40:18.239 --> 00:40:31.039 So when we talk about intersectionality as some type of cultural enlightenment that actually brings justice to people, do we not know that we are speaking directly against the very nature of our God who judges impartially? 00:40:32.159 --> 00:40:35.039 Intersectionality is not godly or enlightenment. 00:40:35.360 --> 00:40:39.119 It is condemnation and unrighteous judgment. 00:40:40.400 --> 00:40:42.400 What about life and death? 00:40:44.480 --> 00:40:46.960 Look at what Ohio we just did. 00:40:48.719 --> 00:41:00.480 Somehow we're touting, we are claiming that we know light and life, and we're gonna discover it in the destruction and murder of countless children in the womb. 00:41:02.719 --> 00:41:10.559 Can we just be honest with ourselves for one moment that we are not gonna discover light from the darkness of this world? 00:41:11.119 --> 00:41:13.039 It's not gonna happen. 00:41:13.519 --> 00:41:27.199 And we are hopeless and full of despair if we continue on in this life believing we will ever claw our way through the surface of this darkness to have any sense of radiant light burst through. 00:41:27.360 --> 00:41:28.400 We won't. 00:41:28.800 --> 00:41:35.199 It'll come at the cost of countless lives, hearts, relationships, mental health issues. 00:41:35.360 --> 00:41:36.800 You go down the gamut. 00:41:39.119 --> 00:41:44.800 We continually to strive and to derive light from darkness, but it's futile. 00:41:44.880 --> 00:41:55.760 Ephesians 4, 18 through 19 says this they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 00:41:55.920 --> 00:42:03.679 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 00:42:03.840 --> 00:42:04.159 Why? 00:42:04.400 --> 00:42:07.519 Because they're darkened in their understanding. 00:42:07.679 --> 00:42:08.960 What does that give way to? 00:42:09.199 --> 00:42:11.199 It gives way to anything. 00:42:11.840 --> 00:42:14.880 Anything, every kind of impurity. 00:42:15.039 --> 00:42:24.159 The human mind has not exhausted itself in creatively discovering more ways that it can express the darkness it finds itself in. 00:42:24.400 --> 00:42:26.880 We've just hit the tip of the iceberg. 00:42:29.599 --> 00:42:31.920 We need Jesus. 00:42:35.760 --> 00:42:39.360 We need Jesus because here's the hope and beauty of the gospel. 00:42:40.320 --> 00:42:47.840 Jesus delivers us out of the darkness and into his kingdom of light. 00:42:48.800 --> 00:42:55.039 Jesus delivers us out of our darkness and into his kingdom of light. 00:42:55.280 --> 00:42:57.280 This is the beauty of the gospel. 00:42:59.280 --> 00:43:03.119 Now you and I, because of Christ, we can finally see. 00:43:03.920 --> 00:43:05.440 We can finally know. 00:43:06.320 --> 00:43:18.880 We can finally experience and have love and mercy and grace and beauty and goodness and righteousness because of Jesus our King. 00:43:19.360 --> 00:43:20.000 Why? 00:43:20.559 --> 00:43:23.119 Because He crossed the chasm for us. 00:43:24.719 --> 00:43:30.880 He crossed the chasm and he came intimately near into the darkness of our despair. 00:43:31.519 --> 00:43:34.480 And he carries us home to the Father. 00:43:36.079 --> 00:43:44.880 And our hope is not just that we'll be illuminated now, that we just have our sin brought into the light now, or that we're able to see clearly the world around us now. 00:43:45.119 --> 00:43:47.679 Our hope is in a coming reality. 00:43:48.000 --> 00:44:03.280 When Christ returns for his bride, the church, that we will commune with him and fellowship with him in a light that blazes forever and ever, and the absence of darkness is ever before us. 00:44:03.599 --> 00:44:06.559 Revelation 21, 22 through 25 says this. 00:44:06.719 --> 00:44:08.159 This is what we are waiting for. 00:44:08.320 --> 00:44:10.880