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I Am the Light of the World
A sermon preached by Dr. James Flamming
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Third in a Lenten series entitled, “Who Do You Say That I Am?”
The Eight “I Ams” of Jesus from John’s Gospel
I invite your attention, please, to John, the eighth
chapter, John 8. If you have a pew Bible it is sixteen sixty-two.
Let me paint the scene for you out of which this scripture
comes. There were four great festivals in ancient Israel, all of them in some
way tied to religious uh ritual and festival. And one of those was called the
Festival of the Tabernacles, sometimes the Booths, sometimes the Festival of
Lights. Why lights? Because, in that day and time, no electricity, no lights
coming down like from a stadium, they had some huge candelabras. And the
candelabras, as you know, in the Jewish Menorah has its arms moving from the
center up and those were so big and specially prepared that when they lit those
on the outer court of the temple, it just, it lit up everything around. And it
was then that Jesus gave the statement that we are about to read from John, the
eighth chapter.
Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. And the ones
whoever follow me, they will never walk in darkness but they will have the light
of life. I am the light of the world.”
I’m in the process of having a series of sermons on the
eight “I AM”s of John’s gospel. First one was “Before Abraham, I Am”. The
second, last week, “I Am the Bread of Life”; this week, “I Am the Light of the
World.”
In the twelfth century an amazing thing happened in the
sky. The light of a super-nova, the birth, I mean the death of a star,
happened. And when that happens there is a huge explosion. And that explosion
lasted in the sky for many, many days. It was so bright that they could even
see it in the daytime. At night it was the brightest thing in the sky, even
more so than the moon. And that amazing occurrence was recorded by people all
over the world. In China. In the South Sea islands. In South ah American and
South Africa. Even American Indians recorded it. But friends, in all of the
sophisticated halls of learning in Europe, not one mention is ever made of it.
Amazing. The very place you would expect to have noted that and put it down,
nothing. Just because there’s a light does not necessarily mean you’re gonna
see it.
Let me ask you a question. Did any of you look at the sun
this morning? On your way to church? When it came up? I hope not for long if
you did look at it. The point is we accept the warmth of the sun, the light of
the sun, the provision of the sun, the life-giving function of the sun. We
don’t often fasten our attention on it, and, if we do, we certainly ought to
have the right glasses.
Bright? Certainly. Able to harm our eyes? Certainly.
Overlooked and taken for granted? Most certainly.
When Jesus said “I am the light of the world” he is talking
about a theme in the Bible that is consistent. If you go to the very first
chapter of Genesis and go all of the way through to Revelation, you’re going to
find light being a key factor and function. You need to understand light is not
a throw-away word, not a take-for-granted word, not in the scripture. It always
has a purpose.
And when Jesus said “I am the light of the world” he was
saying “I have a purpose for your life.” What is the purpose?
One of the first purposes is to bring some order out of
your life, some creativity, some life-giving spirit.
Turn, if you want to, to Genesis 1:1. And in Genesis 1:1,
you’re going to find the beginning as the scriptures describes it. And notice
what the world was described as before light appeared. “In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless, empty, and
darkness was over the face of the deep.” Whoo. Don’t you think that describes
the lives and the hearts and the minds of a whole lot of folks today? Formless,
empty, and dark. The whole point is God is about the business of doing
something about it. So what did he do at the beginning? Well, the Spirit of
God was hovering over the waters. The word “hover” is like the word
“helicopter”, hovering over the face of the deep. God’s about to do something.
He’s going to do it through his spirit. He steps on the brow of nothingness and
what does he say? “Let there be light.” And there was light. And out of that
which was formless came form. And out of emptiness came fullness. And out of
darkness came light.
By the way, in the scripture, light is very often seen as
the answer to fear. Turn over to Psalms. Psalm 100, pardon me, Psalm 27 and
one and two. Psalm 27, one and two. If you have a pew Bible, it’s eight
sixty-four.
Now this is a verse that if you haven’t put to memory you
might want to. It’s easy to memorize. Besides that, you’re gonna need it
somewhere down the pike. I certainly have. And the Lord’ll give it to you at
just the right time. Here it is:
“The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I
fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?”
Notice how it plays off of fear. The light, whom shall I fear? Stronghold, of
whom shall I be afraid?
You see, in the chaotic times of life, we are told that God
in Christ will step in and begin to bring some order. Will begin to fashion
some purpose. Will begin to bring light in the midst of the darkness. The
second thing: we need to understand that God is going to come to us in the
uncertain times of life when we are frankly very weak.
You know, when I have described to you the feast of lights,
the huge lights, the brilliance of them, and Jesus saying in that setting “I am
the light of the world.” What we get as an image, is a light that is huge,
magnificent, bright like a searchlight, like lights in a stadium, like
spotlights. But if you study Jesus’ life, that’s not what he meant by “I am the
light of the world.” No big menorahs. Instead, he chose to illustrate it from
the book of Isaiah.
Turn to Isaiah 42: 1 and 2. Isaiah 42:1 and 2.
Now let me tell you where Isaiah is. He’s in captivity,
Babylon. They’ve conquered Jerusalem, carried ‘em off. They’re slaves. But
out of that came a vision, that there would come a day when there will be one
chosen by God who will bring light again. Take five hundred years. But out of
the remnant that came back to Judah, out of that remnant came Jesus Christ our
Lord. This is called a servant, this person is called a servant in Isaiah.
Listen.
“Here is my servant whom I uphold. My chosen one in whom I
delight. I will put my spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations
and he will not shout or cry out or raise his voice in the streets.” He’s not a
street preacher. “A bruised reed he will not break.” A reed, in that day and
time, was a measuring stick, like a yard stick. Now suppose your yardstick is
broken or suppose the end has been chipped off. No use. Why? You need the
whole stick. So what they did when the bruised reed happened, threw it away.
And what Jesus is saying is “when you’re bruised and when part of you is broken
and part of you has been harmed, I’m not gonna throw you away. I’m gonna keep
you. Notice the next one. “And a smoldering wick, he will not snuff out.”
In that day and time, light in a home was usually an oil
lamp. And they knew when the wick was about to go out because it would begin to
smolder, it would begin to have a little bit of a puff of a smoke. It was about
to go out and they would replace it. And Jesus is saying, “At the smoldering
wick times of your life, don’t be afraid. I’m not gonna throw you away. I’m
not gonna replace you. You’re my son, you’re my daughter. I’m gonna be there
for you.” In other words, to be light of the world insofar as Jesus is
concerned is not to replace, to destroy, to cast away. It is instead, first of
all, to nourish. What the Lord is saying is “I’ll be there and what little wick
you have I’ll keep it lit. But I tell you something else. When you’re strong
enough I’m gonna to light it again. I’m going to ignite you and give you the
power and the strength you once had.”
Thomas Kincade is mostly known for the paintings that he
makes but he also wrote a book. It is on Jesus, the Light of the World. And in
it, he points out this whole business of the wick and the wax. Huh. And he
says without the wax the wick becomes a fuse. Temporary. And without uh
without – if you have only the wax, all you’ve got is darkness. That the wick
and the wax work together. As the wick burns down, as it is, as it were,
encircled by the wax, the wax melts and together they give light. Says he, the
wick is like us. The wax is like the Lord, who encircles us, who embraces us,
whose presence is there regardless of what we need. Hm.
There is another thing about “I am the light of the
world”. We need it so much. When it comes to the times when we don’t know the
way. Darkness seems ahead. We don’t know the next step to take. And in taking
that next step we need a light.
Gracie Kirkpatrick who is our leader at Camp, Camp Alkulana.
It’s our Baptist camp up in the Blue Ridge. And we, every summer, take
inner-city kids and we give them a taste of mountains. We give ‘em a taste of
streams, of love. And when they have surveyed those who have gone through the
camp, and it’s been there since 1915, almost always what they get is “the thing
we remember most about camp is that is was a safe place and a love place.”
Isn’t that great? Well the inner city kids come and one of the adventures of
camp is to take them spelunking, that is exploring a cave. Now they go to a
cave they know very well and the leaders and the guides, there’s no danger
particularly. But when they get deep enough in the cave to where it’s really,
really dark and all of ‘em have flashlights, they ask them to turn the
flashlight out. And they do. And for the first time in their lives, they
realize real darkness. And if you’ve never been there, you can’t even see the
hand in front of your face. It is dark with a capital D. Then they say put
your lights back on. Now take ‘em off again.
Do you think you could find your way out of here without
that light. And it is always unanimous. No. We could not find our way out of
here were it not for that light. Hm. And then they talk about Jesus, the light
of the world.
You say, “My, that’s just wonderful – for inner-city
kids.” How about you? The next step that you make – does it seem uncertain?
And the future dark? And you’re not quite sure what that step oughta be?
Listen to the Lord. Hear him. Hear him in your soul. Let his sound
reverberate. “I AM the light of your life. I will show you the next step to
take.” Hm.
Gracie told another story. It is about a farm family that
went spelunking. They had done it a lot. But on this occasion, the father put
his backpack up on a ledge so that the rest of the family, because the trail was
so narrow, could get by more easily. They got lost. And before long the
flashlights dimmed and then went out. And the water and the food was back in
the backpack. It was almost a week before they found them. They found them
because they saw the pickup out front and Camp, Camp Alkulana people were the
ones who alerted them. When they found them, they were dehydrated, terribly
weak, near death. The good news is that all of them survived and all of them
were well. The ironic thing was the backpack was only twenty feet from where
they settled to wait. Hm.
Listen. The Lord is here. The light of the world is
here. His spirit is here. He’s less than twenty feet from you. No, he’s right
where you are. Will you let the light of the world be yours this day? And what
is the darkness in your life right now. Put a name on it and let the Lord Jesus
walk into that dark place and show you the way through.
Will you pray with me?
And with your head bowed and your eyes closed, I want to
ask you this question. What is the dark place in your life right now? The dark
cavern, the dark hall, the dark closet, the dark basement? Will you let the
Lord shine his light there?
Let me tell you what he’s gonna do. He’s gonna walk you
through it. Whatever it is, the Lord’s gonna walk you through it. Hm. Invite
him in to do just that.
Oh, Lord Jesus, we ignore you so often. You’re there, we
pay no attention. Like the light all around us. We pay no attention. Just
now, give us alertness, sensitivity to your spirit and to your light. And walk
into our hearts and into our lives to give each one of us the light that we most
need. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.
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