Introduction

The last time I spoke to you, I talked about the first of seven “I Am” statements of Jesus in the book of John. That was about Jesus saying he was the bread of life. Today, I want to talk about the second of those sayings: I Am The Light of the World”. So, let’s look at John 8:12. (Read it)

When I was in college, the Baptist Student Union director used to take me with him when he preached at little churches in the area. He once said “I know you are used to 3 points and a poem, but I have 9 points and a duck story”. I am a lot like him. 

But today I will spare you 5 points and only give you 4 instead of 9. And instead of the duck story, I made up an illustration for you. 

Today I want to talk about: (1) the context; (2) the claim of Jesus; (3) the command of Jesus; and (4) the consequences. 

The Context

The context here is the Feast of Booths. You might know it as the Feast of Tabernacles. It called the Israelites to spend a week remembering the journey of their ancestors from Egypt to Canaan. That observance lasted for a week. It is described in Leviticus 23. 

Over the centuries the Jews added a few things to the celebration. One was a ceremony called “The Illumination of the Temple”.  At the first of the week, the priests lit large lamps in the court of the women outside the temple. They burned all night long. They lit up the whole area.  If you will, they turned darkness into light. 

This is the context for Jesus’ claim.

The Claim of Jesus

Jesus said “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

As we talked about last time, when Jesus says “I am” at the beginning of his claim, he echoes the words of God in Exodus 3:14. There, the Angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a burning bush. God identified himself to Moses as “I Am Who I Am”. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the words are the same as here where Jesus says “I am”. Jesus is claiming deity. He is claiming to be God. 

Jesus also said he was the light of the world who could lead men and women out of darkness. He was saying, these lamps are nice, but they will burn out and leave you in darkness. Only I can give you light forever.

Darkness is a physical reality. You see it every night. But in the beginning, that is all there was. Look back at Genesis 1:1-2. (read it) the earth was completely dark in the beginning. God changed that. How did he do it? He spoke it into existence. (Gen. 1:3) And, this was before the creation of the sun and moon. God lit up the world. 

Who did this? Jesus did it. The same Jesus giving this sermon at the temple. John 1:3 tells us “all things were made through him and without him was not any thing made that was made”. 

But darkness is also a spiritual metaphor. It symbolizes the lack of spiritual understanding and, ultimately, the lack of eternal life. For example, Romans 1:21 says sinful people became futile sin their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. 

We use this metaphor today. Horror movies happen at night. Vampires come out only at night. The good folks try to survive until daybreak. Darkness is where evil resides.

Jesus said he is the light that can lead us out of darkness forever. Only Jesus has the power and authority to change us from creatures of darkness to creatures of light. We will not walk in darkness if we have the light of Jesus.

Jesus also says this light is the light of life. Jesus not only gives spiritual understanding, he gives spiritual life. Only Jesus can give us eternal life living in God’s light. 

The Command

The command of Jesus is to follow him. He said “whoever follows me will not walk in darkness”. The word for follow was originally used in the context of a soldier following his leader into battle. The soldier went wherever the leader commanded, no matter how hard or dangerous it was.

It Jesus’ time, it was also a picture of discipleship. In those days, a teacher would travel around teaching in various places. His disciples would follow him everywhere he went, hearing him, learning from him and obeying him. When Jesus called his 12 disciples, he said simply “follow me”. 

Here is the thing, though. Following means giving up everything else that might be more important to you than Jesus. Peter and Andrew left their fishing business to follow Jesus. Matthew gave up his job as tax collector. Nothing was more important to them than following Jesus. 

Why was Jesus more important to them than fishing? Because they believed he was the one who could bring salvation to his followers. When Jesus asked them if they would abandon him as others did, Peter said “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God”. (John 6:68)

Jesus issues the same command to each of us today: follow me. He calls us to believe he is the Son of God who died for our sins and to begin a life of learning about him and obeying him. 

The Consequence

Jesus made an offer of salvation conditioned on a demand for discipleship. That called for a decision. There really is no neutral gear with Jesus. You follow him or you reject him.

Way down in verse 30, it says “As he was saying these things, many believed in him”. They believed his claims, the followed his command. Believing Jesus to be the Son of God who offered them salvation, they received him and followed him. 

Sadly, the passage shows us that the Pharisees rejected Jesus. They basically called him a liar. They challenged him on legal grounds, saying he witnessed to himself and the law required two witnesses. That is a distortion of the law. Two witnesses were only required in a legal setting. 

No matter what Jesus said, they came back with arguments. The fact is, they did not believe in Jesus. They rejected him. Their arguments were just a cover for their unbelief. Since they did not believe, they waned to discredit Jesus with their arguments. We see this today as well from non-believers. Atheistic historians, philosophers and even some who call themselves theologians try to discredit and demean Jesus. 

The end result of this is that Jesus is still Jesus, the Son of God, the Savior, who will reign forever and ever. But unbelievers, like these Pharisees, will not participate in that glorious reign. They will instead remain in darkness forever; not here, but in the place of punishment we call hell. In fact, Jesus called it the “outer darkness”. There is no light of life there. 

The Illustration

Suppose that we are all in a completely dark room. It is like Carlsbad Caverns when they turn out the lights. You literally cannot see your hand in front of your face. I know; I tried.

Suddenly, a door opens to reveal a room next door, full of light and beauty. The door closes, but we realize a light remains. It is Jesus. He is not carrying a light; he is the light. He glows with glory.

Jesus says to us, follow me and I will give you the light of life. You will never be in darkness. He opens the door and many of us follow his light to the door and enter the beautiful room.

However, some of us doubt. We ask “how do we know he is telling the truth?” We say “what right does he have to tell us what to do or where to go”. And that group stays in the dark room.

The door to the room of light closes and it closes forever. Those who follow Jesus live with him in the room full of light forever and ever, enjoying fellowship with him and each other, marveling at the beauty of the room and praising Jesus for leading us there.

The rest stay in darkness forever, cursing the darkness, having no hope of deliverance and suffering for eternity. 

So, what will you do? Follow Jesus into light and life? Or stay in darkness forever? 

The choice is yours. 

My prayer is that you will follow Jesus and join him for eternity. 

Thanks and Godspeed. 

Beginning His Ministry

4:14-30

After Jesus’ baptism and temptation, he began his ministry. He returned from the site of his baptism to Galilee. Galilee was the northern part of Israel. He went to different towns and spoke in their synagogues. He began to develop a reputation as a great teacher. The news about him spread throughout the area. (14) He was “glorified by all”. (16)

Jesus went in the power of the Spirit. (14) Jesus was conceived by the Spirit and the Spirit descended on him at his baptism. The Spirit then worked to give him power to preach in a way that got the attention of people. He was full of the Holy Sprit according to Luke 4:1. He had the fullest measure of the Holy Spirit, who worked in Jesus powerfully.  

After developing this reputation, Jesus went to his home town of Nazareth, the town where he grew up. (16) People still knew him there. He was the precocious boy who stayed in the temple to converse with the scholars, he was the boy who grew in favor. In addition, he was now somewhat famous. Everyone loves a local boy or girl who becomes famous and then returns home. That was the case here.

On the Sabbath, then, Jesus went to the synagogue. We see here something about worship in the synagogue. There was reading of scripture as part of the service. It was a custom to have a visiting person who was respected to read. So, the ruler of the synagogue pulled out a scroll and handed it to Jesus to read. It was a scroll of the book of Isaiah. (17) That tells us the reading that day was planned to be from Isaiah. Jesus found what we know as Isaiah 61:1-2. He stood out of respect for the Word and read it. 

A little side note is that the scrolls contained no chapter and verse markings. In fact, they contained no punctuation or spacing. It was not easy to find a particular passage unless you were very familiar with the scroll (or the Holy Spirit led you to it). 

This passage is about the Messiah or Christ. It is written as if the Messiah were speaking. It told several facts about the Messiah. These are:

1. The Spirit of the Lord would be upon him;
2. the Lord anointed him;
3. He was anointed to:
1. proclaim good news to the poor;
2. to proclaim liberty to captives;
3. to proclaim recovery of sight to the blind;
4. to liberate those who are oppressed; and
5. to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.  

The year of the Lord’s favor refers to the Jubilee. It occurred every 50th year. You can read about it in Leviticus 25. It was a great day for the poor. Slaves were  set free, debtors were release from their debts, lost property was returned to the original owners. 

Messiah would bring a super Jubilee. 

The Jews in the congregation knew this passage. They knew Jesus was a respected teacher. Since there was also much speculation around this time as to when Messiah would come, they were very interested to hear what Jesus would say about the passage. And so, “the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him”. (20) 

After reading, Jesus sat down. This was the normal posture of a teacher at the time. Sitting actually was a sign of his authority. He began to explain the passage to them, saying “today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”. (21) 

Jesus was anointed. He was chosen by God to be the savior and anointed by the Holy Spirit. Jesus would preach the gospel, especially to the poor. That does not mean he favored the poor over the rich, but that he would preach it to them and not overlook them as many did. 

Jesus would liberate those who were captive to sin, he would not only restore physical sight but open spiritually blind eyes to spiritual truth and light. He was, and is, the light of the world. He would liberate those oppressed by demons. We will study several accounts of Jesus’ battles with demons.  And he would proclaim the time of God’s favor, when all who believed in Jesus would be free.

At first people marveled at his speaking. (22) Then, as they realized he claimed to actually be God’s anointed one, they began to get concerned. Then they got angry. They said “is not this Joseph’s son”? (22) In other words, how can he claim to be the Messiah when we saw him grow right here in our town. We saw him born to this poor laborer and under questionable circumstances. How dare he claim this?

Jesus replied to this by quoting a proverb (physician heal yourself) that meant, show us what you can do to prove your claim. We heard you did miracles at Capernaum, do them here if you are the Messiah. 

Jesus, of course, did not do tricks on demand. He did tell them he expected their reaction, saying no prophet is accepted in his home town. (23) Jesus had preached God’s word to them. They now were accountable to God for it. It is the same way today. The Word is preached. We are accountable for it. He has given us enough to believe. 

But then Jesus went on. He began to speak of God’s care for the Gentiles. Jews of that day had lost sight of God’s desire to bring the Gentiles into his family. They called them “Gentile dogs”. They thought God’s only dealing with them would be for them to serve the Jews in the new kingdom.

But Jesus pointed out that God had always cared about the Gentiles. He gave two examples from Scripture. First, he said there were may widows in Israel during the ministry of Elijah, but God sent Elijah to take care of a Gentile widow in Sidon. We call her the Widow of Zarepath. (26) You can read that story in 1 Kings 17:8-16.

Jesus gave a second example, this time from the life of Elisha. He said there were many lepers in Israel, but God had Elisha cleanse Naaman, a Syrian general.   You can read this story in 2 Kings 5:1-24. 

The widow and the general had a trait in common besides being Gentiles. They were believers. The widow had to believe God’s promise through Elijah before she received the miraculous provision. Naaman had to believe God’s word through Elisha before he received healing. Jesus was calling those in Nazareth to believe. 

At this point, the congregation had progressed from wonder to fury. They literally ran Jesus out of town. They tried to throw him off a cliff. But Jesus was able to walk right through the crowd and away. We see several times in Jesus’ ministry where his “time had not come”. This was one. He will not be harmed until it is time for him to be arrested and killed. 

Jesus escaped death. But they remained dead in their sins. 

This is true for all who reject Jesus. When the gospel is preached, we either receive him or reject him. Those who receive him receive eternal life and are brought into God’s family. Those who reject him face eternal punishment for their sins. 

Receive him today if you have not done so. 

TEMPTING JESUS: LUKE 3:23-4:13

The Genealogy of Jesus
3:23-38

Jesus, at this time, was about 30 old. (23) Luke, before recounting any stories of Jesus’ ministry, first set out Jesus’ genealogy. He established who Jesus was in human terms.

If you grew up in a church or stayed in the same community for a long time, you are familiar with this. My mother sang in the choir and sang solos in church. I was often known as Bernice’s boy. When we lived in a small town and my father was the work supervisor of many of the men there, I was known around town as Kenneth’s son.

In contrast to Matthew, who traced Jesus to Abraham, Luke traced Jesus' line all the way to Adam. I like that Jesus, the Son of God, is a descendant of Adam, whom Luke calls the son of God. They both had only God to claim as their father.

There are many people in this line we know nothing about. They lived and died and nothing that they did was recorded. Yet, each was used by God to bring the Christ. All through history, God used men and women to accomplish his plan. He uses us also, whether we are aware of it or not.

THE TEMPTATION OF JESUS
LUKE 4:1-13

Before Jesus began to teach and preach, he faced 40 days of temptation by the devil. This was God’s will and intent or plan. He was led by the Holy Spirit in the wilderness. It was God’s will that Jesus become hungry and weak and face temptation in that state. Jesus was obedient to the Father’s will.

As Jesus set out on his ministry, right at the beginning he was tested at the point of his mission: would he stay true to his call to be the suffering servant and not give in to the easy path.

Luke specifically puts the temptation of Jesus in parallel to the wanderings of Israel in the wilderness after they left Egypt. You can read about their journey in the book of Numbers in the Old Testament. Israel often complained during the journey. They complained of lack of food and water. They complained about danger from enemies. In each instance God provided for them. But rather than ask and trust, they constantly complained.

They also rebelled against God. After several smaller rebellions, they refused to go into Canaan (the Promised Land) because the people there were tall. They did this despite the fact that God had defeated the Egyptian army to protect them.

Both Israel and Jesus were in the wilderness and both were tempted at the point of their trust for God. Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days, reflecting the 40 years of Israel. But Jesus prevailed where Israel failed. Jesus is the true Israel of God.

Jesus responded to each temptation by quoting the word of God. his is a good example for us. He believed God. He believed in God’s word and he stood on it. He was tempted for the whole 40 days, but did not yield. (4:2)

The first temptation regards physical need. Jesus was hungry. (4:2) He had been in the wilderness fasting for 40 days. He was likely physically weak and exhausted. Satan tempted him to turn stones into bread.

Jesus came to live as a man, subject to all of the temptations men and women face. Hebrews 4:15 calls Jesus “one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin”.

It was also a temptation to show who he was. The devil said “if you are the Son of God”. He wanted Jesus to show his divinity by a display of divine power. He questioned whether Jesus was the Son of God and dared him to prove it.

God had already declared Jesus to be his son. Remember, at his baptism, God said “you are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased”. (Luke 3:22) Satan is questioned God’s word.

This is exactly what he did to Eve in the garden. He said “did God actually say…?” (Genesis 3:1) Satan does not really have any new tricks. He constantly tempts us to doubt God’s word.

Why would this creation of bread from rocks be a bad thing to do? It is because Jesus came to do the Father’s will. He did not want Jesus to perform miracles for his own satisfaction. He wanted Jesus to trust him to provide for his needs. Matthew’s version of this event shows that the Father did meet Jesus’ needs, sending angels to take care of him. (Matthew 4:11)

Jesus obeyed by saying “Man shall not live by bread alone”. This is a quote of a portion of Deuteronomy 8:3. The rest of the statement is “but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”. Certainly anyone with Old Testament knowledge would know the rest of the quote and Satan appeared to know it as well.

The context of this statement, a statement of God to Israel, was that he wanted them to obey all of his commandments and trust in him. Israel had trouble remembering this, but Jesus did not.

By answering Satan with a quote about man, Jesus refused to consider Satan’s questioning whether Jesus was the Son of God. Jesus knew he was, he believed the Father’s word and so he answered as a human being, identifying himself with us. Because he was tempted as a human being, we can trust him to help us in our temptation and trial. Hebrews 2:18 says “For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted”.

The second temptation is the shortcut. (4:5) Jesus came to establish his kingdom so that it would spread over the whole world. It would take his own suffering and death. It would also take the suffering and death of countless followers.

All of that could be avoided by accepting Satan’s offer of all of the kingdoms of the world. Although always subject to God’s sovereignty, mankind’s sin gave Satan power on earth. Jesus even called him “the ruler of this world”. (John 12:31)

Satan did not offer Jesus anything to which he was not entitled. He had the right to the kingdom. But, it was not to be brought about in this way, the easy way.

All Jesus had to do was worship the devil. He could have a kingdom without the cost of suffering, but not the kingdom of the Father. Additionally, he could not bring salvation to humanity if he took the devil’s way.

Jesus responded by quoting the commandment to worship only the Lord. Jesus referred to Deuteronomy 6:13. The cost of Satan’s offer was bowing to the lordship of Satan. Satan has for a long time wanted God’s power and authority. He was thrown down from heaven for this desire. Jesus, however, obeyed God by refusing to worship anyone else.

We also must worship God and accomplish God’s will God’s way. Churches are often guilty of pragmatism. Pragmatism means doing what works. That is usually measured in terms of numbers. Installing a flashy program or a rock star speaker are practices of pragmatism. But we are called to worship the Lord as the Bible prescribes, to preach the word, baptize and observe the Lord’s Supper. We make disciples this way. And it is important that we worship only the Lord God, not our success or attractiveness. It is about God’s glory, not our own.

The third temptation was for Jesus to test the Father, forcing him to protect Jesus. Satan said prove you are the Son of God by jumping off the highest point of the temple. And this time, Satan quoted scripture to Jesus. He quoted Psalm 91:11-12.

But, Satan twisted the meaning of the scripture. Those verses did not say to do dangerous things and force God to deliver you. They said, because you have put your faith in God, he will protect you and guide you.

Jesus again responded with scripture, saying “you shall not put the Lord your God to the test”. Again, Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy, this time chapter 6, verse 16. The context of this verse was Israel demanding that Moses give them water and questioning whether the Lord was with them. They did not trust the Lord.

I remember watching a television preacher who was talking about God’s promises. He said you had a right to those promises and you could order God to perform them and God had to do it. I was horrified. God’s promises are statements about his character. Those who love him and trust him can count on him to do what he says he will do. We do not have a right to test God or demand of him. He is God. We are not. We trust him to do what is best.

After failing to cause Jesus to sin, the devil left him for the time being. Remember, Jesus relied on God’s word to defeat the devil. We may also. That is why the whole armor of God includes the “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”. (Ephesians 6:17) James 4:7 tells to resist the devil and he will flee from us. We resist him by relying on God’s word.

I would never advise combatting the devil in your own strength. Instead, meet every temptation, every trial, every suffering with the word of the Lord. Read and memorize scripture to prepare you for this.

By resisting Satan, and relying of the word of God, Jesus demonstrated his character as God’s anointed one, the Christ. He would trust the Father and do his will. He would resist shortcuts, grandstanding and personal aggrandizement. He would embrace obedience, suffering and shame for the sake of our salvation and the glory of the Father.

Not only did Jesus demonstrate that he is the true Israel, he also showed he is the second Adam. The first Adam was tempted, but in a perfect garden, not the wilderness. He was tempted by the devil, who questioned God’s word to Adam. Adam succumbed to temptation. He sinned, and he led all of humanity out of the garden and into the wilderness by his sin.

Jesus, the second Adam, was tempted in the wilderness, hungry, alone and tired after 40 days of suffering, yet resisted the devil and his questioning of God’s word. By doing so, he brought us out of the wilderness and back into paradise.

This is not an original thought of mine. The great English poet, John Milton wrote about it long ago. His first book length poem is entitled “Paradise Lost”. It is the story of Adam’s disobedience bringing death into the world. HIs second poem is “Paradise Regained”, the story of Jesus regaining what Adam lost.

When Jesus Comes Again

When Jesus Comes Again: http://feedingonchrist.com/when-jesus-comes-again/
A short, but good, summary for your perusal.

Seeing God in Creation

Having spent a week in the Rocky Mountains, I am reminded of the glory of God’s creation. The first thing we learn about God from the Bible is that he is the Creator. Genesis 1:1 says “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” The Bible reminds us of this all the way through, ending with Revelation 10:6, which refers to God as the “him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it…”

The creation also tells us something about the Creator. Romans 1:19-20 says “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world…” The majesty of tall mountains of stone reveal God’s eternal power. As powerful and majestic as the mountains appear, they remind us that the one who created them is more powerful and majestic. They could only be created by one who is divine.

The beauty of God’s creation tells us that God’s plan for us is beautiful, not onerous. God could have made the earth uniform and plain. Instead he made it diverse, intriguing, and beautiful. When we order our lives under his   lordship, his sovereign rule, we will see this beauty, his beauty, in our lives. We know this is true because Revelation shows us that the end of all things will be a place totally under the rule of the Lord and that place is beautiful. It is peaceful and restful.

May you see God’s glory today and experience his peace. 

The Blessing of the Word

After Malachi there was no prophetic voice for over 400 years. In other words, God did not speak a new word to his people during 4 centuries. As we have seen in our study of Luke, John the Baptist was the next prophet to speak for God.

Fortunately for us, God has spoken, caused his word to be written, and preserved it for us. We believe the cannon is closed; there are no new books and no new word from God. That is because Christ is the final word. "In these last days, he has spoke to us by his Son". (Hebrews 1:2)

While there is no new word, there is a final word. It is a sufficient word. It is all we need for "life and godliness". (2 Peter 1:3) And every day we may pick it up and read it to learn about God. Every day we may find his wisdom, his strength, his comfort and his salvation.

There is no silence for the followers of Jesus. We have his word, we have the Holy Spirit to guide and illuminate us and we have the love of God upon us.

Our blessings are great.

The focus of the Old Testament is God’s covenant with Israel. God dealt with his people through prophets, priests and kings. 

The focus of the New Testament is the appearance of the Messiah or Christ inaugurating his kingdom and establishing his church.