The Light of the World

Order of Service

• Hymn of Praise — All Praise to God Who Reigns Above
• Call to Worship — Psalm 107
• Hymn — All Praise to God Who Reigns Above
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Sin — from Daniel 9
• Assurance of Pardon — 1 Peter 2:24
• Scripture Reading — Psalm 23
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Hymn of Preparation — O Splendor of God's Glory Bright
• Sermon
• Prayer
• Lord's Supper — Institution from Matthew 26:26–29
• Hymn — Behold the Lamb
• Post-Communion Prayer
• Hymn — Behold the Lamb (final stanzas)
• Benediction

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Sermon Title: The Light of the World

Scripture: John 8:12–30

I. Christ as a Shepherd Light

A. Jesus declares "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12) in the context of the Feast of Tabernacles, where four great golden lamps illuminated all of Jerusalem

1. The light of the feast recalled the pillar of fire that led Israel through the wilderness (Deuteronomy 1:33)
2. Jesus positions himself as the fulfillment of that pillar — the true light that shepherds God's people through darkness

B. Jesus as the light follows a pattern of Exodus typology throughout John's Gospel

1. John 6 — the true bread from heaven, recalling the manna
2. John 7:37 — the source of living water, recalling the rock in the wilderness (1 Corinthians 10:4)
3. John 8:12 — the light in the darkness, recalling the pillar of fire
4. Christ brings a new Exodus, leading his New Covenant people out of darkness

C. Those who refuse to follow the light will die in their sins (John 8:21–24)

1. Like Israel who perished in the wilderness through unbelief and never entered the promised rest (Hebrews 3:16–19)
2. Unbelieving Jews, rejecting Christ's light, are united to those who fell in the wilderness rather than to Christ

D. Application: your goal and aim in life determines who your shepherds will be

1. If your aim is the things of this world, the world will shepherd you
2. If your aim is God who is light, Christ is your pillar of fire through the darkness
3. The Puritans commended meditation on heaven and the world to come as a means of keeping the heart oriented toward Christ

II. Christ as a Self-Authenticating Light

A. The Pharisees charge Jesus with invalid self-witness, appealing to the Mosaic law requiring multiple witnesses (Deuteronomy 17:6)

1. Jesus had acknowledged in John 5:31 that self-testimony alone is insufficient, but there he pointed to the Father, John the Baptist, and his works as further witnesses
2. Here, Jesus does not primarily argue from within their judicial framework

B. The Pharisees judge according to the flesh; Jesus judges according to truth and the Father who sent him (John 8:15–16)

C. Jesus doubles down — he and the Father together constitute the required two witnesses (John 8:18)

D. The deeper point: the Son of God, like the sun, is self-authenticating

1. You do not need someone to prove the sun is shining — you feel its warmth and see its effects
2. So also Christ — his words and works produce a strangely warmed heart in those with ears to hear (cf. the disciples on the Emmaus road)
3. Job's confrontation with God illustrates the point — the creation itself is witness enough; God does not stand on trial before man

E. Jesus' "I am" sayings carry the weight of the divine name

1. The Greek reads simply "I am" — no predicate (John 8:24, 8:28)
2. This echoes Exodus 3:14 (God's self-disclosure to Moses) and the Servant Songs of Isaiah 40–55
3. Jesus is the Great I Am — self-existent, dependent on nothing outside himself for validation

F. Application: cold hearts do not need more evidence — they need prayer

1. Cry out to the Father to give you the warmth of his Son
2. The Father will never turn a deaf ear to such a plea, whether from an unbeliever or a believer in a cold and dark season

III. Christ as a Sacrificial Light

A. Jesus speaks of being "lifted up" — a double meaning (John 8:28)

1. Lifted up on the cross in public humiliation and execution
2. Simultaneously lifted up and exalted back to the Father in heaven
3. The cross is both the depth of his humiliation and the mechanism of his glorification

B. The cross proves Jesus is who he claimed to be

1. He does not seek worldly glory, fame, or public power
2. His willingness to be publicly humiliated and die is the evidence he seeks his Father's glory alone
3. Like Washington refusing the crown, Christ's refusal of worldly power authenticates his identity
4. The Roman centurion at the cross perceived it: "Surely this was the Son of God"

C. "Then you will know that I am" (John 8:28) — the cross becomes the moment of revelation

1. Not necessarily saving faith for every onlooker, but for any remnant among them, it comes through Calvary
2. At the Feast of Tabernacles the final lamp was left until the last night, signifying awaited salvation — Christ's being lifted up is the fulfillment of that final light

D. The cross is the blazing, untempered heat of God's love — like the Mississippi summer sun with no cool breeze

1. Christ, who is light, enters the dark world and absorbs the darkness into himself
2. Through his broken body and shed blood, those who receive him by faith become children of light
3. They no longer walk in darkness but are led by the light into the glorious embrace of the Father