Latest / The Epic Life - Bob Hallman / 16. Come On Out of the Darkness (John 8:12-30)

Transcript

16. Come On Out of the Darkness (John 8:12-30) · The Epic Life - Bob Hallman

0:01
Welcome to The Epic Life with Pastor Bob Hallman. We invite you to listen to
0:05
this timeless and inspirational message from God's Word.
0:08
May the Holy Spirit encourage and strengthen your heart today.
0:14
We're reading in chapter 8, starting in verse 12 and reading through verse 30.
0:20
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, I am the light of the world.
0:25
Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
0:30
The Pharisees challenged him.
1:00
In your own law, it is written that the testimony of two men is valid.
1:04
I am one who testifies for myself. My other witness is the Father who sent me.
1:10
Then they asked him, Where is your father?
1:13
You do not know me or my father, Jesus replied. If you knew me,
1:18
you would know my father also.
1:20
He spoke these words while he was teaching in the temple area near the place
1:24
where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized him because his time had not yet come.
1:38
This made the Jews ask, will he kill himself? Is this why he says,
1:42
where I go, you cannot come? But he continued,
1:49
I told you that you would die in your sins if you do not believe that I am the
1:55
one that I claim to be. you will indeed die in your sins.
2:00
Who are you? They asked. Just what I've been claiming all along, Jesus replied.
2:05
I have much to say in judgment of you, but he who sent me is reliable and what
2:11
I have heard from him I tell the whole world.
2:14
They did not understand that he was telling them about his father.
2:17
So Jesus said, When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that
2:21
I am the one I claim to be and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what
2:26
the Father has taught me.
2:27
The one who has sent me is with me. He has not left me alone,
2:31
for I always do what pleases him.
2:34
Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him.
2:38
Father, we come before you and just ask that you would minister to us today
2:41
through the word of God, through your word, Lord.
2:44
God, it's rich, it's powerful, it cuts to the very soul of our being.
2:48
The very inmost parts, God, are divided by your word.
2:52
And Lord, I pray for myself that you would fill my mouth with your praises and
2:56
your glory and with an accurate understanding and an accurate description of
3:00
what this text means to us.
3:02
Father, we ask that you'd give us hearts to respond to you and to walk in your light, God.
3:07
In Jesus' name, and everyone said, amen. Amen.
3:11
Well, last week we talked about the woman caught in adultery,
3:15
and the week before we talked about being hydrated in Christ,
3:19
making sure we were full and overflowing of His Holy Spirit.
3:22
Is that happening for people?
3:24
Are you staying in the Word of God and enjoying prayer, enjoying worship,
3:27
staying full of life as you spend time with Him?
3:31
Yes? Amen. Keep going, because that's where the life is, right in Christ.
3:35
Today we're going to be talking about never walking in darkness again.
3:40
And I can't help but think about our world that just seems to be heading more
3:44
and more toward darkness.
3:45
It's not getting lighter, it's getting darker in our culture.
3:49
And it was getting dark even in the culture that Jesus was speaking to.
3:53
If it weren't, we wouldn't have needed the light to come to the world.
3:57
But Jesus came because the world was dark, and it's still dark.
4:00
And people still need to hear the message that Christ proclaimed about himself.
4:04
And if you recall, call, as we've been going through the book of John,
4:07
that one of Jesus' main priorities was to reveal the Father.
4:11
The second was to die on the cross, but his primary objective was really to reveal the Father.
4:16
That was his goal, and that's why everything in his life was subservient to that goal.
4:21
That's why he was able to not want anything for himself.
4:25
That's why he was able to lay his life down for us.
4:29
That's why he was able to not have his eyes fixed on his own needs,
4:32
but on the needs of the world, was because he wanted to do one thing,
4:36
and that was to reveal the Father.
4:38
And in order to bring us to himself...
4:41
In order for Christ to bridge that giant chasm between ourselves and God as
4:46
a result of sin, he died on the cross for our sins that we might have life.
4:50
And so Jesus, during this whole period, especially during the book of John,
4:53
is making one objective, and this is John the Apostle's objective,
4:57
is to make known the deity of Jesus Christ and the plan of God.
5:03
He's revealing the heart of God. And as we look at this text today,
5:06
Jesus is continuing to reveal the Father And to reveal his own mission and to
5:11
reveal another dimension of his character and his purpose.
5:14
And so he starts out by talking about the fact that he is the light of the world.
5:19
And it's interesting because, again, in our culture, we know relatively little
5:24
about Jewish culture, most of us at least. feast, but it was during this time
5:28
at the Feast of Tabernacles where he was still speaking.
5:30
You remember the woman caught in adultery was kind of a parenthesis in this tabernacle feast.
5:36
And once that episode was over with the woman caught in adultery,
5:40
Jesus goes on and begins to teach about another dimension of his deity.
5:45
But he did it in a very concrete way for someone that was Jewish,
5:49
because during this Feast of Tabernacles, they had many things that represented
5:54
and pointed back to the life of Christ,
5:56
his ministry, his pre-incarnate ministry in terms of the people of Israel,
6:01
all pointing toward Christ, the wanderings in the wilderness,
6:04
God's provision for them in the wilderness.
6:06
You remember the rock that was struck out in the desert representing the living
6:09
water of Christ? He's already said in the book of John that he's the living water.
6:13
He's the bread of life. He's all of these things and more.
6:16
But as Jesus is reflecting on these things and beginning to present another
6:20
dimension of himself, he calls himself the light of the world.
6:23
And it's not just just some phrase he grabbed out of the air,
6:27
but it points back to the wilderness wanderings that they were celebrating where
6:31
they were guided by this pillar of fire at night. And Jesus is that light.
6:37
They had a candelabra that they would light during this feast.
6:40
And it was a remembrance of this guiding pillar of fire that God provided in his own presence.
6:47
And so Jesus, I imagine, is in there and the candles are being lit.
6:50
And at that point, Jesus says, I'm the light of the world.
6:54
I am the light that guides. I am the light of life.
6:58
You know, I thought about this and I thought, you know, we kind of get so accustomed
7:02
as Christians to hearing this kind of a phrase that, you know,
7:04
I don't think the real import of it hits us.
7:07
But can you imagine any one of us proclaiming to be the light of the world?
7:12
I mean, we're lights in the world. We're reflecting Christ.
7:16
But for any one of us to say that I am the light of the world,
7:20
man, right away, that person would be, you know, we would kind of get them to
7:24
the side, get some counseling for them and try to straighten them out, you know, right?
7:29
I wouldn't want that person up in front saying, you know, oh,
7:33
yes, you're the light of the world. Oh, come on up, man. We need to hear that
7:35
you've got a message for us. No way.
7:37
As a pastor, my objective and my responsibility would kind of cordon that person
7:42
off to the side and try to explain scripture to them that they're not the light of the world.
7:46
They're a light reflective of Christ.
7:49
But here Jesus, without any reservation, claims to be the light of the world.
7:55
So either he was totally out of his mind and he was an egomaniac or he actually
8:02
was the light of the world.
8:04
What he was saying didn't slip past the the minds and understanding of the Jewish people.
8:09
They were putting it together. They knew what he was saying.
8:11
They have known what he's been saying. They're angry with him.
8:14
They're looking for a way to kill him, as we've been looking at in the last couple of chapters.
8:18
But Jesus boldly, right in the temple, in fact, the place where he's doing this
8:22
is right next to where the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin meet.
8:26
You know, so he's right there. And the scripture says they didn't touch him.
8:29
You remember how we talked about God's timing, always on time,
8:32
right on time, every time.
8:34
And nobody touched him because his time hadn't come yet.
8:38
But here he is proclaiming himself to be the very light that was being celebrated
8:42
during this Feast of Tabernacles,
8:45
remembering the column of fire, this powerful presentation of God visibly to
8:53
the Israel community, the Jewish community.
8:55
And now we have the light of the world coming again, visibly,
9:01
physically, and announcing himself to be the guide, the bridge to the Father,
9:07
the only one who can forgive sins,
9:09
the only one who has life, who is the bread of life, the water of life, the living water.
9:15
We're going to look at a whole bunch of titles for him today.
9:17
And he presents himself again to a community that's been waiting thousands of
9:22
years for this promised Messiah.
9:24
In Isaiah 9-2, the scripture prophesies this event.
9:29
It says that the people walking in darkness have seen a great light on those
9:33
living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.
9:37
I don't know about you, but I praise God that he came. I praise God that his
9:40
light has come, not only 2,000 years ago, but that he opened my eyes to see the light of Christ too.
9:48
Because apart from him opening my eyes, I could have never seen it. And you're the same way.
9:53
We're not especially bright or intelligent any more than the average person.
9:58
It was because God opened our eyes and he wanted us to have the light of life of his son 1.
10:04
In John 1, as we were looking at this announcement, this pronouncement of the
10:09
arrival of Christ through John the apostle, he says, in him was life and that
10:13
life was the light of men.
10:15
And the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
10:19
So even when Jesus came, the light of the world into a very dark place,
10:24
people still don't understand it.
10:26
They didn't understand it when he pronounced it in the temple and they still
10:30
have a difficult time understanding it.
10:32
In fact, the Bible tells us there are two reasons why people have a difficult
10:35
time receiving light, receiving the light of Christ.
10:39
The first is that in John 3, is that men love darkness instead of the light,
10:44
and they preferred their evil deeds to walking in the light.
10:48
And we can all relate to this, can't we? I mean, there have been times even
10:51
as a Christian where I've been in sin, willful sin.
10:54
And when I'm walking there in willful sin, which is darkness,
10:58
I'm not particularly excited about somebody with just shining the love of Christ
11:02
and just gushing Jesus getting around me, because it makes me feel guilty.
11:07
It shines light on my darkness. And I don't really like that.
11:12
And for an unbeliever, that's the same. And in fact, I think I've shared this
11:15
before, but when I was a brand new Christian, about a year old in the Lord, I was walking in sin.
11:20
After about six or seven months of walking with the Lord, I slipped into sin
11:24
in an area that I'd been in sin before being a Christian.
11:27
And this guy was helping me install kitchen cabinets in a house that I was working
11:31
on for my parents in Honolulu.
11:33
And I was in sin and I was willfully in sin. and this guy comes in and he's
11:38
just, I mean, this guy is like Mr.
11:40
Energy, you know, he's bouncing practically dancing as he's doing his work and
11:44
he's got K-A-I-M on full blast and he's singing praises and he's asking me, oh, you're a Christian.
11:51
That's great. You know? And I'm like, yeah, yeah, that's pretty good.
11:53
And, uh, and he's going, wow, what's God doing in your life?
11:56
And I said, well, you know, he's good. He's good.
11:58
And he just, you know, it was on and on like this. And the difference between
12:01
him and me was like stark. The contrast was unbelievable.
12:05
And my my dark heart was being exposed by this guy's light.
12:08
And that's what Jesus does. And when his light shines in your life or when your
12:14
light shines reflecting Christ in the lives of others, sometimes people aren't
12:18
too excited about that because it exposes the darkness of their own life.
12:22
There's another reason that the Bible says that people aren't always excited
12:26
about the light of Christ.
12:28
And it's in 2 Corinthians 4, 4. It says that the God of this age has blinded
12:32
the hearts of men and women so that they can't see the light of the gospel.
12:36
So we've got two things that block light for people. One is our own evil desires,
12:42
and we're not ready yet to give up that darkness and that sin that's kept us in darkness.
12:46
And this can happen even as Christians. In fact, I don't know,
12:48
maybe there's someone here today who's walking in some darkness.
12:51
And, you know, being around a vibrant Christian who's just sold out for Christ
12:56
makes you a little uncomfortable.
12:57
And if that's the case, I pray that by the time the sermon's over today,
13:00
that you'll have a heart to repent and change and give that up because it's dead. dead.
13:03
But there's another reason why people walk in darkness and that's that Satan
13:07
has blinded their eyes so they can't see.
13:09
And one of the things that I encourage people when they're evangelizing and
13:13
sharing their faith with others is to realize that it's not just an issue of persuasion.
13:18
That's part of sharing our faith. But oftentimes it's an issue of spiritual
13:22
warfare and that people really can't see it.
13:25
I mean, you can argue intellectually until you're blue in the the face.
13:29
But if Satan is blinding them, your arguments are futile.
13:33
Your persuasion is futile. And so that's why it's so important that as we share
13:37
our faith with friends and family who we want to have the light of Christ in
13:41
their life, that we realize that scripture says that Satan actually blinds the
13:44
hearts of unbelievers so that they can't see it.
13:47
And that's why prayer is so crucial when you're sharing your faith.
13:50
Why are you never to give up?
13:52
Never, ever, ever give up on prayer for friends and family who you're praying
13:56
that they will come to know Christ.
13:58
So Jesus says that he's the light of the world, which is a very bodacious,
14:01
audacious statement to make, unless it's true.
14:05
And of course, we know from scripture and from our own experience that it is
14:08
true. He's changed our lives.
14:09
But he says in verse 12, if you want to look there, he says,
14:12
I'm the light of the world.
14:13
Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
14:18
So the first thing he says is it's clear that there's a choice here.
14:22
Whoever follows me, not everyone will follow him and not everyone has to follow him.
14:26
It's a clear choice choice of our will, whether we want to walk in that kind of a way or not.
14:32
In Luke 9.23, we're told what it means to follow. It means that we have to deny ourselves.
14:37
It means that we have to take up our cross, and it means that we need to completely,
14:41
wholeheartedly follow him.
14:42
That's what it means to follow Christ. It's not just a cognizant belief.
14:46
It's not that we're adopting theology of the Bible, but it means that we are
14:51
having a heart that's absolutely sold out, nothing held back whatsoever,
14:55
and we're following with passion our Lord Jesus Christ.
14:58
Denying ourselves, we've talked about this in the weeks past,
15:02
about the fact that when we come to Christ, we give up all our rights.
15:05
Our life is no longer our own. We can't live as if God is an appendage to our
15:10
commitment to Christ, that somehow God is an appendage to our own existence
15:14
and the lifestyle that we want.
15:16
To the contrary, our life when we come to Christ biblically is over.
15:21
The old man is finished, is dead and buried with Christ, and we symbolize that
15:27
in baptism, but the fact is, is that life is finished and now our life has one
15:32
purpose, just like Jesus, to reveal the Father.
15:36
I don't know if this hits you. I hope it does, but even as I'm saying that,
15:41
I'm thinking, I'm not thinking sacrifice, I'm thinking privilege.
15:45
I'm thinking what an honor, what a tremendous glorious honor that myself and
15:51
each one of you here who know Christ have the privilege of following in the footsteps of Christ,
15:57
not being worried about ourselves, not drawing attention to ourselves,
16:01
not trying to be something, not being worried about gaining status in this world,
16:06
not being worried about giving and investing our entire life and the things
16:10
and material things in this world, but we have the privilege and the honor,
16:13
of holding up Christ, of holding up the Father, revealing him to a world that's in darkness.
16:20
We can be just like Jesus, just like Jesus, but we get tangled up in the world.
16:25
And when we do, our light becomes dimmer and we don't have the influence that
16:30
we would have otherwise.
16:31
But that's not the life that God has called us to. He's called us to be lights in darkness.
16:35
Now, if you look at this, he says that they will never walk in darkness.
16:40
The Bible says that there are basically, in Greek, a Greek understanding of
16:45
darkness is slightly different. Let me back up a little bit.
16:48
It doesn't just mean kind of blackness. It doesn't just mean sin,
16:52
although certainly that's a part of it.
16:53
But for someone who understood the Greek culture, darkness meant something a
16:58
little bit more expansive than our understanding of kind of like pitch black,
17:02
not being able to see, because it meant that intellectually,
17:05
darkness is a lie. It had to do with truth.
17:10
And to walk in darkness meant that you were walking in a lie.
17:13
Why? It also had to do with morality.
17:15
And the person who was walking in darkness morally was walking in impurity.
17:21
That means in every area, sexually, in their moral life, any moral area at all
17:26
where there's darkness, where there's
17:27
sin, that from a biblical Greek understanding is to walk in darkness.
17:32
And then ethically, in the decisions we make, how we conduct ourselves in businesses
17:37
and our finances and all these different areas, how we operate in that area,
17:41
you, if we're walking in darkness ethically, it means that we're walking in evil or wickedness.
17:46
So when Jesus says that he is the light of the world and whoever follows him
17:51
will never walk in darkness, this is what he's referring to.
17:54
It means that spiritually no longer are we bound to live a life of sin.
18:00
We're not bound to live lying anymore to ourselves and to others.
18:03
We're not bound to be slaves morally and ethically to sin and to the sinful nature.
18:09
And it goes beyond on that, but that's a very key part of what it means when
18:14
Jesus says you don't have to walk in darkness.
18:16
Now, one thing I want to clarify is that when he says that we won't walk in
18:21
darkness, does it mean that we'll never have any problems again?
18:24
How many of you are Christians for a while and you still have problems every now and then?
18:29
Oh, good. I mean, not good, but you know, good that you're all honest.
18:33
There's no, at least there's no lying going on here.
18:37
The fact is, is that even as Christians, we struggle and we get times of pitch
18:40
blackness when we don't know which way to go, right?
18:42
We're not exactly sure where God is leading and we don't see the pillar of fire
18:46
and we don't see the cloud either. And we just don't know what's happening.
18:50
God has left us in kind of a state of total dependence.
18:53
And we've talked about how important those stages are in our life,
18:56
that we need those to drive us to our knees, to stay dependent,
19:00
not looking to anything other than God.
19:03
There's a scripture that I really like about this in Isaiah Isaiah 50,
19:05
10, it says, who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of his servant?
19:11
That's all of us, right? We fear the Lord. We want to obey him.
19:14
He says, let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name
19:19
of the Lord and rely on his God.
19:21
Oh, you know, do I have this in your notes, this passage, Isaiah 50,
19:26
10. If I don't write it down. Okay. It's in there.
19:29
Memorize that. That's a good one because every one of us is going to hit times
19:33
of darkness and and we're going to think God has abandoned us.
19:35
We're going to think, where is he?
19:37
Doesn't he hear my prayer? Doesn't he care?
19:40
And all the while, God is saying, when you're in darkness and you don't have
19:43
any light, keep trusting in me. Keep relying on me. I'm faithful.
19:47
So that's not the kind of darkness we're talking about.
19:50
Now, he says that we're not only going to not walk in darkness,
19:53
but we're going to have the light of life.
19:55
Now, clearly, he's talking about himself, that we are going to have Christ and
19:59
his spirit residing in us.
20:01
We're going to have a guide, the Father, the Word of God, Jesus Christ,
20:04
the Holy Spirit, all three of them
20:06
together, teaching and equipping us and showing us the right way to go.
20:11
You know, I wonder to myself how the unbelieving world knows how to make decisions.
20:19
I mean, I remember as a non-Christian how I made decisions. I just kind of went whatever felt right.
20:24
You know, I just thought, well, pros and cons, you write down the list and you figure it out.
20:28
But now I see how God so many times has orchestrated my life in ways that I
20:32
would have, the pro and con would have never worked.
20:35
And one of the most obvious ones for me is coming here. When I wrote down the
20:39
pro and cons, I had plenty of cons about coming here.
20:43
And if I'd gone with that, I would have never come. But God told me,
20:47
I want you to come anyway. And I was like, wow, are you sure?
20:52
Are you sure, Lord? And he said, don't look at what man looks at. I want you to come.
20:57
And I would have missed the incredible blessing that my family and myself are
21:02
experiencing in this loving, wonderful, godly fellowship had I done the list of pro and cons.
21:10
Nothing wrong with that, but I would have missed it. I would have missed it.
21:14
And so God, through Christ, presents himself as a light of life and says,
21:18
you know, I can give you direction for your life.
21:20
I can give you purpose and meaning for your life that you've never known before,
21:24
but you've got to come to me and you've got to be willing to follow me.
21:27
And again, the reverse of walking in life is the reverse of walking in darkness.
21:31
It means that intellectually, we're walking in the light. We're walking in truth.
21:35
And the only truth that the world ever has known and ever will know will be
21:39
the word of God. That's the only truth we have. Everything else is subjective.
21:43
Everything else is relative in this world. And that's why our culture keeps
21:47
driving in a downward, degrading fashion, because there's no standard for truth anymore.
21:53
But the Bible is the source of truth for the believer. believer morally
21:56
we can walk in purity ethically we can walk
21:59
in righteousness and so jesus provides
22:02
his listeners with a choice and i would
22:04
suggest to you he's providing us with that same choice even this morning we
22:08
can either we can either follow him and walk in his light with all that that
22:13
means all the the giving up of our own life and the following of him acknowledging
22:17
our sin confessing him as lord all of all of that package that that includes
22:21
or we have the choice to reject him and to walk in the darkness.
22:26
And you know, the amazing thing is that he gives us a choice.
22:30
I mean, if I have to be honest, if I were God, I would, I would be doing everything
22:34
I could to force people into the right direction.
22:38
I would be cajoling people and, you know, everything, but pushing them off the
22:42
edge to make them do the right thing.
22:44
And, you know, I want to do that. And I don't love everybody.
22:48
And God loves everybody so much that he sent his son and he's,
22:53
He's willing, very much like a parent, to watch their child go the wrong way.
22:58
And if any of you have had kids, are old enough to have had kids that are walking
23:03
away from the Lord and walking in sin, you know the pain of watching your children walk in darkness.
23:09
And yet God gives us that choice. And it's my prayer, I think most of you know
23:13
the Lord, but if there's anyone that doesn't today, oh, it's like the heart
23:16
of God says, why would you walk in darkness any longer?
23:20
Come to the light of life who is Christ. Thank you for watching.
23:24
Now, Jesus didn't go unchallenged. In fact, the Pharisees challenged him at
23:27
every turn. They challenged him on several different issues,
23:31
and we're going to look at that quickly.
23:32
In verse 13, the Bible says that they said, here you are appearing as your own
23:37
witness, your testimony is not valid.
23:39
You know, these guys have got a real burr in their saddle.
23:43
You know, I mean, they're just not happy, period.
23:46
I don't know if these guys were ever happy unless they were just,
23:49
you know, making other people unhappy.
23:51
But the fact is, is that Jesus here, the God of the universe,
23:55
for goodness sake, is presenting himself in another dimension,
23:58
revealing another part of his character as the light of life.
24:02
He's saying, you know, that candelabra that you guys are lighting? I'm that.
24:05
Except I'm not just wax and wick. I am the embodiment of what that represents.
24:10
I am what that points to. I am what you've been waiting for.
24:14
And they said, you know, I don't really think that you're really supposed to
24:16
be talking about this because your testimony is really not valid.
24:19
You see the pettiness? It's like the God of the universe is presenting himself
24:23
and they say, well, you know, the way you're doing this really isn't working for us.
24:27
We really don't like this. It really doesn't fit with our law.
24:30
Now this, you know, I don't mean to put them down too much because there's a
24:33
little bit of Pharisee in all of us, if we're honest.
24:36
But the fact is, is it's kind of fun to do because in hindsight,
24:39
you know, their sin is so black and of course we're not black at all.
24:42
But the Pharisees, they challenged his testimony and they had,
24:45
from a legal standpoint, they had a point because according to Jewish law,
24:50
a person testifying for themselves, by themselves, their testimony really wasn't valid.
24:55
It may have been true, it might not have been true, but the fact is,
24:59
unless it was corroborated by someone else, that testimony was invalid,
25:03
at least in their courts.
25:04
So they claimed that his testimony was a problem.
25:08
They claimed that he lacked supporting witnesses. weaknesses now jesus claims
25:11
qualification on on three accounts the first if you look in verse 14 he says
25:17
even if i testify on on my own behalf my testimony is valid for i know where
25:21
i came from and where i'm going but you have no idea where i come from or where i am going.
25:27
And this is probably the most unusual claim for the validity of his testimony
25:31
that we have of the three, because he says that his claim to the validity of
25:36
his testimony is based on the origins of his life and his destiny.
25:40
Now, I want to take a minute and kind of unwrap this for us,
25:43
because when Jesus talks about his origins and his destiny, what he's talking
25:47
about is he knows where he came from.
25:49
He knows that he's the son of God. He knows that he is God.
25:52
He is a part of the the Godhead of God the Father, God the Son,
25:58
and God the Holy Spirit, all involved in creation, all involved in every aspect of the universe.
26:02
In fact, the Scripture says that every one of these participants,
26:06
the Spirit, the Son, and the Father, in every area, everything from creation
26:11
to your salvation, we're involved in that process.
26:14
All three of them. They're one. And yet, they are separate at the same time.
26:19
They have different roles that they fulfill.
26:23
And so he points to this knowledge of his origins.
26:27
Now, I find it interesting. I was reading an article in CRI Journal,
26:32
Christian Research Institute, and they had this wonderful article on evolution
26:37
and creationism. Did somebody else read this?
26:40
I see you smiling. You read it? Wasn't it good?
26:43
Okay. It was good. Take our word for it. So he's talking about creation and
26:48
evolution, and he says outright that one of the significant proponents and defenders
26:54
of evolution has come out and said, it doesn't work.
26:58
It all falls apart sooner or later. It's a dead theory.
27:03
And he got really hammered for saying so by all his colleagues.
27:06
But the fact is, is that, do you realize how many people in this world don't
27:10
know what their origins are?
27:11
They have no idea that they're precious in God, handmade, created by the Father
27:17
of the universe, And they're left with a degraded view of themselves,
27:23
thinking that they came from slime, ooze,
27:26
from circumstances, from fortuitous events.
27:30
That's a degrading of what God has done. And so many people have no idea where they came from.
27:36
And their view of themselves is, I'm just an accident.
27:39
And because of that, I'm just going to live my life any way I want and just
27:42
get the most out of life. I'm going to drain it dry, even if I get drained in the process.
27:47
But God, through Christ, Christ announces, look, I know where I came from.
27:51
I know who I am. I know my purpose and I know my destiny.
27:55
And that's the other thing that Jesus said, is that he knows not only where
27:58
he came from, him, but he knows where he's going and he knows his destiny.
28:01
And you know, again, that the world has no idea what their destiny is.
28:05
Most of the world, at best, hopes that they're going to go to heaven.
28:12
They have this kind of vague phantom hope somehow that God is going to weigh
28:16
the good against the bad in their life.
28:17
And many people hope that he doesn't even do that, that he just carte blanche
28:22
gives them entrance into the kingdom.
28:24
And they're just hoping, you
28:26
know, know that there are many religions who base their faith on works.
28:31
And because it's based on works, they know that they don't really stand a chance.
28:36
And so they're left with a hope that maybe, just maybe if they're good enough,
28:40
maybe if God is gracious, they'll make it in.
28:43
And I don't know about you, but I have this incredible thanksgiving in my heart
28:48
to know that I have no doubt at all that I'm going to be with the Lord when I die.
28:53
You know, I can't help but thinking about Princess is Diana.
28:56
Everybody hear about her, that she died yesterday?
28:58
I was blown away by that. I was coming home from a wedding. And by the way,
29:01
we've got the happy couple back here. It's so good to have you guys.
29:04
Congratulations. We've got to give them a clap.
29:06
Glenn and Belinda, they just got married yesterday. But I heard the news on
29:10
the way home and I thought, you know, life is just so short, isn't it?
29:13
It's just like a snap of the fingers and it's gone. And everybody was just shocked.
29:17
You know, they thought the queen was going to go long before Diana did.
29:21
And I don't really follow follow all this stuff. But in spite of that,
29:24
there was a part of me that I was, oh, kind of knocked the wind out of me to
29:28
realize that she had been killed.
29:30
And I have no affection for Diana, but it was like, she's such a public figure.
29:34
And anytime a public figure with that much power, that much money is taken,
29:39
it just makes me realize that no power, no amount of money, nothing,
29:45
absolutely nothing can protect us except God.
29:48
And that's the thing that's so wonderful about God being on time every time
29:51
is that, you know, just live your life fully for Christ.
29:54
You've got nothing to fear. Don't ever, ever fear death.
29:57
That's God's gift to us. And when it comes, it's a blessing and it's our graduation
30:02
into his kingdom. That's how we need to view it.
30:04
But the world, they hear about this, about Diane and they're crushed and they're
30:08
just like flabbergasted and much of it because it points to their own frailty
30:13
and their own mortality.
30:16
So Jesus says, look, I know where I've come from and I know where I'm going. And you know what?
30:20
Every believer, if you're a believer in Christ, I want to encourage you.
30:24
You got to know where you're going.
30:26
The scripture tells you, you may not know it, but if you're a believer,
30:29
you're going straight to heaven.
30:30
You're going to be with the father forever, but you know, the world doesn't
30:33
know that truth, but Jesus does.
30:36
And so he says, because I know where I'm going and where I've come from,
30:41
my testimony is valid. valid.
30:44
He also affirmed the validity of his testimony in 15 and 16.
30:48
If you look there, he says, I judge not by human standards. In fact,
30:51
I don't pass judgment on anyone, but if I do judge, my decisions are right because
30:55
I'm not alone. I stand with the father.
30:57
So he makes his validity of his testimony based on the father.
31:01
In fact, he has corroborating witnesses in scripture in verse 17 and 18.
31:06
He says, in your law, it's written that the testimony of two men is valid.
31:10
I am one who testifies for myself.
31:12
And my other witness is the father who sent me. And so Jesus,
31:16
you know, boy, he trumps everybody, doesn't he?
31:20
You know, he goes right to the top. He doesn't mess around. He goes right to
31:24
the father, right to the creator, right to the God Yahweh, who the Jews have
31:29
been worshiping ever since the call of Abraham.
31:32
And he goes right to the main guy and he says, that's my witness.
31:37
In John 5, Jesus says about himself, regarding John the Baptist as a part of
31:43
the corroborating witnesses, he says that if I testify about myself,
31:47
my testimony is not valid. So he's affirming Jewish law.
31:50
But then he says, there is another who testifies in my favor,
31:53
and I know that his testimony about me is valid.
31:56
You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. Not that I accept human
32:00
testimony, but I mention it that you may be saved.
32:03
John was a lamp that that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to
32:07
enjoy his light. But I have a testimony weightier than that of John.
32:11
So Jesus points to a corroborating witness, John the Baptist.
32:16
And then he goes on in this passage and he talks about the father.
32:19
In 1 John 5, the scripture says that we accept man's testimony,
32:24
but God's testimony is greater because it is a testimony of God,
32:28
which he has given about his son.
32:30
And there are a number of ways that God has given testimony regarding his son.
32:34
And these are not things that are done in the dark. These are things that were
32:37
done openly, visibly, audibly to not only Christ, but to the disciples and even
32:43
unbelievers heard the testimony, the weighty testimony of God about the son.
32:49
And I've noted a few of them there. At Jesus' baptism,
32:53
do you remember when he came up out of the water and a voice from heaven,
32:57
And I imagine it just booming, you know, he says, this is my son whom I,
33:01
whom I love with him. I am well pleased.
33:04
I mean, you know, what more testimony does a person need than,
33:09
you know, if God came and said that about you in front of a whole crowd of people, that this is my son.
33:17
He's right on. He's saying the right things. Listen to him.
33:20
I don't think that's ever happened to anybody since, but it happened to Jesus.
33:25
Do you remember with Jesus' miracles in Acts 2.22, where Peter's giving a defense
33:30
about what's happening regarding Pentecost?
33:33
He points to Jesus' miracles, and he says, Men of Israel, listen to this.
33:38
Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles,
33:42
wonders and signs which God did among you through him as you yourselves know.
33:46
So Peter points to all these miracles that Jesus did and said,
33:51
Look, what more evidence do you need that he's the Son of God? He's accredited by God.
33:56
God has put his stamp of approval on the Son through his miracles.
34:01
And if you look in the book of Acts, or even in this book that we're looking
34:04
at now, again and again, the people say, look, what more do we need?
34:08
I mean, who else has ever done miracles like this?
34:11
What else will the Messiah do?
34:14
While Peter was still speaking, you remember where Peter just kind of always
34:17
talking, trying to think of something useful to say?
34:21
Right in the the middle of that, I don't think God usually interrupts people,
34:24
but he interrupted Peter.
34:26
Boy, I tell you, I'd rather be interrupted by God than have me interrupt God. Isn't that the case?
34:31
But God interrupts Peter. He doesn't rebuke him. He just interrupts him.
34:35
Kind of talks right over the top of him. And he says, this is my son whom I
34:39
love. With him, I am well pleased. He says, listen to him, listen to him.
34:43
And so again, God gives testimony to the validity of Jesus' claims to be God himself.
34:51
And then at Jesus, at his death prediction in John 12, Jesus says,
34:56
Father, glorify your name.
34:58
And then a voice came from heaven and he says, I have glorified it and I'm going
35:02
to glorify it again through Christ.
35:04
And you know, something I want to encourage you is that God can glorify his name through you.
35:08
Even this week, if you'll live for Jesus a hundred percent, you know,
35:12
God isn't done glorifying his name.
35:15
He wasn't done glorifying it with Christ. and every time that you make a decision
35:19
to walk in obedience to him, that you make yourself available for God's purposes,
35:23
that you stop thinking about yourself and think about others.
35:26
And when you lay your life down in agape love and when you serve others,
35:29
you know what's happening every time you do that?
35:31
God is saying, I'm glorifying my name again and again and again.
35:36
And it goes on and on as men and women all over the face of this earth are bringing
35:40
praise and honor to Christ. Do you realize that you can do that?
35:44
I don't, this is incredible. I mean, like, I can't believe it.
35:48
Even as I'm talking, I'm astounded that this could be, that we could actually bring glory to God.
35:55
Jesus says after God has made this pronounce, I think I would be a little embarrassed, you know?
36:00
I mean, this booming voice comes and says, this is my son. And I'm like,
36:03
oh, wow, that's too much, you know? But the son deserved it all.
36:09
And Jesus says to him, hey, I already knew this. I'm paraphrasing,
36:13
but he's saying, look, I knew all this. This wasn't for me.
36:15
This was for your benefit that he said these things so that you could have a
36:18
verification about who I am.
36:20
Now, another corroborating witness that Jesus has laid out,
36:24
not in this passage, but in other places in
36:26
scripture is the scriptures themselves the scriptures testify
36:29
again and again to christ and his
36:33
mission and his deity in luke 24 the apostle
36:36
says that and beginning with moses and all the prophets he explained to them
36:40
what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself so this is jesus and
36:44
what he does to unfold himself and explain the mystery of his revelation as
36:48
he goes to scripture and from the beginning of of this bible to the end of the
36:52
bible through all all of the prophets,
36:54
both the major and the minor prophets, and everything in between,
36:57
is Jesus reveals himself through scripture.
37:00
And he says, look, do you see how this testifies of me? Do you see how this
37:05
is the fulfillment of this prophecy?
37:07
I am that fulfillment. Just as he was standing before this candelabra in the
37:10
temple at the day of the Feast of Tabernacles, and he says, you see that burning light?
37:16
I'm the guy. I'm the guy. I'm what you're celebrating here. I'm what you're waiting for.
37:21
I'm what you're hoping for. I'm what you're praying for. I'm here.
37:27
Isn't he so good? You know, the thing that amazes me about Jesus as he makes
37:32
these defenses for himself is that he puts up with these guys.
37:36
That was one thing that came up in our home fellowship as we were applying the
37:39
teaching about the women caught in adultery from last week, is the patience
37:43
of God with the Pharisees.
37:45
Somebody mentioned during the home fellowship, if they had been Jesus at that
37:50
point, they would have solidly, royally rebuked those guys publicly.
37:55
But do you notice that Jesus never did that? He didn't rebuke the women publicly,
37:59
and he didn't rebuke the Pharisees publicly. biblically.
38:01
Now, there was a time for that, and he did do it on occasion,
38:04
but he's so patient, even with Pharisees, even with people that are trying to
38:09
trip him up and stumble him, he doesn't lambaste them.
38:12
You know, he could have smoked them right then, anytime he wanted,
38:14
call fire down from heaven, and everyone around there, I almost guarantee you, would have clapped.
38:19
They probably would have had a party because of the heavy burden and heavy load
38:23
that the Pharisees put on the people.
38:25
They would have been shocked, but they would have known that this was God.
38:29
God, but Jesus is so patient, even with evil men.
38:33
I'm astounded by that. You know what? That gives me a lot of hope.
38:36
And you know, maybe there's some here today that wonder, is God patient with me?
38:40
I've blown it so many times in this area. Could he ever forgive me again?
38:44
And you know, all you have to do is look at the Pharisees and say, yes, absolutely. Yes.
38:50
If you're ever feeling like I can't be forgiven again, that's coming right from
38:54
the pit of hell, because look at the heart of Christ.
38:56
And when you see the heart of Christ, you are seeing the heart of God.
39:00
They are no different at all.
39:02
God is patient and long suffering.
39:05
So he goes to the scriptures and he validates his testimony through the scriptures.
39:10
Now that the Pharisees, they go on because Jesus is pointing to his father.
39:14
And in verse 19, they said to him, where's your father?
39:16
And I can't help but think that this wasn't a genuine question,
39:20
but kind of a, a little bit of a knife in the back to Jesus.
39:25
We don't talk about this much, but a lot of people consider Jesus to be born out of wedlock.
39:31
At least some people knew what was happening with Joseph and Mary,
39:36
that she was pregnant before they got married.
39:41
And do you know what kind of a rumor mill that would start for people who are
39:44
trying to pull the rug out from someone?
39:48
I mean, just look at what happens in politics. If someone has a failing or a
39:53
fault in an area, what do their opponents immediately aim at?
39:57
And so the Pharisees are no different and they go right for the jugular.
40:02
They do this often and they go right to Jesus and they say, where is your father, by the way, Jesus?
40:07
Tell us about your parentage. Tell us just whose son you are, if you can.
40:13
And, you know, I mean, if I were Jesus, I would have been like livid,
40:18
knowing the truth, knowing the power of God, the miracle of the conception of
40:23
God and then to ascribe that to some sort of adulterous tryst.
40:27
And I would have been righteously angry, you know, that would have been me, but not Jesus.
40:35
What he does is that he asserts that they, first of all, they don't know the father.
40:40
In verse 19, he tells them just straight out. He says, you don't know me or
40:45
my father. If you knew me, you would know the father also.
40:48
But he acknowledges that they don't know him. He doesn't land on him,
40:52
but he just states the truth that they really don't know him.
40:54
And he goes on and he says that they're separated from God. And this is very powerful.
41:00
And in between that, you know, they're getting ready to seize him,
41:02
but again, his time hasn't come. And so we move on to verse 21.
41:05
And once more, Jesus said to them, look, I'm going to go away and you're going
41:09
to look for me and you're going to die in your sin.
41:11
Boy, that's not a happy message for religious people who think that they are
41:15
the cream of the crop and that they are going straight on the fast track to heaven when they die.
41:20
But Jesus says, you don't know the Father and not only don't you know him,
41:23
but you're not even in the kingdom. And not only that, but you're going to die in your sin.
41:28
And in verse 24, he repeats the same thing. He says, I told you that you would
41:31
die in your sins if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be.
41:34
He said, indeed, indeed, you are going to die in your sins.
41:38
You know, this isn't a happy message and it's still not even a happy message today.
41:42
A lot of people get really bent out of shape when this church talks about sin,
41:45
but Jesus told the truth and the church is to tell the truth too.
41:49
And as a pastor, I'm obligated to tell the truth.
41:52
And Jesus asserts that these guys don't know him. They're separated from him
41:56
and they're going to die in their sins.
41:58
But you know what? I want to tell you right up front right now that that's not God's plan for anyone.
42:03
The only people who end up up dying in their sins, separated from God are those
42:07
who willfully reject him.
42:09
He has made a way to walk in the light of his life. He has made a way to fill
42:14
us to overflowing with the rivers of living water, to be filled with the bread
42:17
of life, to know him, to be intimate with them, not to just be church going people,
42:21
but to have a daily intimate relationship with him.
42:25
He's made that possible. He's rescued us.
42:28
It's like we're awash in a sea that's raging and we have no life life preserver
42:34
and we're just trying to stay afloat. We're trying everything we can to just keep from going under.
42:41
And along comes Jesus and he throws out a life preserver and we say.
42:45
Wrong color. Not quite the kind I like.
42:49
I kind of like treading water over here. It makes me feel self-sufficient.
42:52
It makes me feel like I'm somebody.
42:54
When I get out of here, out of this mess, I want to be able to say, I did it.
43:00
I accomplished it. All praise and glory to me. But you can see the foolishness of doing that.
43:06
It's absolutely ludicrous to not grab hold of that life preserver. her.
43:10
In fact, the scripture tells us in Isaiah 59 that the arm of the Lord is not
43:15
too short to save nor his ear too dull to hear, but your iniquities have separated you from God.
43:20
Your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear.
43:23
And the message of Christ is that why would you die in your sin?
43:27
And for the believer, why would you continue in sin?
43:30
It's so destructive. You know, it's enticing, it's attractive,
43:33
and the Bible says that for a season, sin can be very pleasurable,
43:36
but in the end it always leads to death and that
43:39
kind of a lifestyle is darkness whether it's moral intellectual or ethical
43:42
it always leads to darkness and you can end
43:45
up being just like me years and years ago installing kitchen cabinets with some
43:49
bouncy christian around you praising god and making you feel like he would just
43:54
go away or stop talking putting it nicely or you can walk in the light of christ
43:59
and have instant fellowship with other brothers and sisters in christ and walk
44:03
in purity and have a clean, pure conscience.
44:05
Oh, you know, there's nothing like that. Going to bed at night and not having
44:09
any sin on your heart, not having any violations of other people that you haven't
44:15
dealt with and haven't reconciled, but to go to bed and wake up the same way.
44:19
It's like, wow, what was I doing all those years when I would go to bed and
44:23
I'd feel guilty about things that I'd done to people or the way I was living
44:26
or financial transactions, all these things.
44:28
I was guilty, guilty, hoping I wouldn't get caught and all these things.
44:31
And I was living under that that burden.
44:32
And now as a Christian, it's like, I don't have any of that. I'm free.
44:37
I'm absolutely free.
44:40
And so are you as you walk in that lifestyle.
44:44
You know, the neat thing about the Bible and what John is saying here is although
44:49
the Pharisees are separated from God and destined to die in their sins,
44:54
in John 14, from this very same book,
44:56
Jesus says to the disciples, before long, the world won't see me anymore.
45:00
This very same message he told these Pharisees, but you're going to see me because
45:04
I live, you're going to live.
45:06
And so the message for the believer is totally different. The unbeliever and
45:10
the Pharisee, they're going to die in their sins, but for the person who commits
45:14
their life to Christ and trust in the full grace of Christ and the free gift of salvation,
45:19
they are going to live forever and ever and ever in the presence of God,
45:25
bringing glory and praise to him. You know, that's your destiny.
45:29
Oh, are we fortunate? Are we blessed to be able to have a destiny like that?
45:35
Well, they question him on one more area. They question his identity.
45:40
At this point, they're like, wow, this guy is, we're just not quite sure who he is.
45:46
And they ask him the question in verse 25. They say, just who are you, by the way?
45:51
You know, to be honest with you, I can't tell you, I can't even speculate as
45:54
to what the voice inflection might have been with this one.
45:58
I think there might have been some that said, who are you? you?
46:02
I think that's probably more likely than just, you know, who do you think you
46:06
are? I don't think that was probably what they were saying at that point.
46:09
I think their hearts were penetrated with this message of sin and the opportunity
46:15
for salvation and this light of life.
46:18
And I think they were saying, who are you?
46:20
Who are you? No one ever has spoken like this before. Who are you?
46:25
And what does Jesus say in verse 25?
46:30
I love the way the Bible is just so straightforward and it just catches and
46:34
captures exactly a human nature.
46:36
But Jesus said, I'm the person I've been trying to tell you all along I've been.
46:42
I'm the guy I've been trying to explain it to you guys for the last umpteen
46:46
conversations with you.
46:49
And I'm the same guy, the same guy I've been proclaiming before I'm that same
46:54
guy. So what has he been saying? Well, let's take a quick review.
46:57
In John 1 51, he says, I'm the gateway to God. Remember the ladder?
47:02
Christ is the ladder to the kingdom of God. And he goes up and down as he wills.
47:08
And the way for us to experience that is to take that escalator of salvation
47:12
right to heaven through Christ.
47:14
We get on his ladder and you don't have to do anything except stand on it.
47:19
And God will transport you through Christ to salvation just by believing in his name.
47:25
He also says that he's a son of man in John 1.51. He's the light of the world in John 3.19.
47:31
In John 3.16, he says he's a son of God. In John 4, he says, I'm the Messiah.
47:38
In John 4.10, he says, I'm living water. And in John 6.35, he says, I'm the bread of life.
47:44
It's like, that's pretty hard to miss, you know?
47:47
I'm the Messiah. I'm the son of God. I'm the son of man. All these words are
47:51
very well known to the Jewish community as referring to the coming Messiah.
47:56
And Jesus also refers to his impending death death, as a sign of his identity.
48:02
In fact, Jesus says that there's going to come a time when, in verse 27,
48:08
when you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the one I claim to be.
48:12
And do you remember what happened when Jesus actually died on the cross and
48:15
the curtain of the temple was torn in two, just symbolizing the free access
48:20
that we have now to the Father directly?
48:21
We don't need a priest. We don't need a temple. We are the temple of God now.
48:25
And the centurion and those that were with him standing around guarding Jesus
48:29
saw the earthquake and they saw all these dead bodies coming to life and walking
48:32
around. I mean, this must've been unbelievable.
48:36
And they say, surely he was the son of God.
48:40
Surely he was the son of God. And so Jesus identifies himself by all the titles
48:47
that he's already given and by his death, but also by his life of obedience.
48:51
If you look in the next to the last verse.
48:54
He says, the one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone.
48:57
What a blessing to know that, huh?
49:00
Do you know that right now, I don't care what you're going through.
49:02
Some of you may be going through some really, really difficult things,
49:05
but you know what? God is with you.
49:07
He will never leave you. He will never forsake you. I don't care how black it
49:10
looks. I don't care how dark it is.
49:12
God will never leave you or forsake you. But the thing that I want to point
49:17
out here at the end is that Jesus says, he never leaves me. He never forsakes
49:21
me. Why? For I always do what pleases him.
49:25
I always do what pleases him.
49:27
Jesus says in John 5 30, that I seek not to please myself, but him who sent
49:31
me. And you know, this gets back to the very fundamental aspects of what it means to be a Christian.
49:35
When we come into a saving relationship with Christ, what happens is that our
49:39
life is over. Gee, this sounds familiar. Have I said this before?
49:42
Our life is over. It's finished.
49:45
And we have one purpose now. Do you know that if some of you may not even know
49:49
what your destiny in this life is, and I can tell you what it is.
49:52
I'm a prophet. I'm going to tell you right now. Okay, listen very carefully.
49:55
People go to conferences all over the world to hear what God's word for them
49:58
is, and I'm going to give it to you right now. Are you listening? Listen carefully.
50:03
God wants you to please him. That's it.
50:08
Isn't that remarkable that that's God's destiny for you?
50:12
And you know, all the little intricacies of how it unfolds for your life is
50:16
going to be different than the person sitting next to you, but it doesn't make any difference.
50:20
If you're you're walking with a desire to please him, that's God's will for you. What pleases God?
50:27
There's a whole list in the Bible. Go find out. Look under the word please and
50:31
pleasing and pleasure, and you will find a whole list of what pleases God.
50:37
The primary thing that pleases God above all else is that you would praise him,
50:40
walk in obedience to him, give him glory, and reveal him to others.
50:43
That's your mission, and that's my mission. And Jesus says of himself that his
50:48
identity is so intricately tied in the Father that he has no identity apart from pleasing God.
50:53
And you know, it's so easy as believers to have our identity tied up in our work.
50:58
Some of us have our identity wrapped up completely in our children.
51:01
Some of us have our identity wrapped up in our failures. barriers.
51:05
Some of us have our identity wrapped up in our insecurities.
51:08
Some of us have our identity wrapped up in our pride and our arrogance and our
51:12
self-will effort in this life.
51:15
And you know what? If you're walking as a Christian that way,
51:18
you're walking in the shadows. You're not walking in the light.
51:22
And I don't want to do anything except exhort you and say, brothers and sisters,
51:26
won't you walk in the light of Christ?
51:28
There is no better place to be. There is no more wonderful place to to be.
51:32
There is nothing like it. There's nothing in this world that compares to it.
51:35
I don't care what the world says it can offer you. It pales in comparison. It's shadows.
51:40
It's fleeting darkness compared to walking in the light of Christ.
51:44
And if you are willing to walk in a way that pleases the Father in every area,
51:48
not responding to how you feel, not responding and doing things that you want
51:53
because it's what you want, but walking in a way that honors God,
51:57
I guarantee to you that God will give back to you a hundred times over in spiritual
52:01
fruit and an overflowing life and a life of joy and abundance that you never
52:05
thought possible if you will only test him in this thing and live a life that pleases him.
52:12
You know what happens at the end of this whole scenario because of Jesus' testimony?
52:16
In the midst of this battle on the part of the Pharisees, in the calmness of
52:21
Jesus' response, do you know what happens?
52:23
Well, look in the last verse here, in verse 30, even as he spoke,
52:28
many put their faith in him. That was the mission.
52:35
Dying on the cross, revealing the father, and even in a debate over his identity,
52:40
even in a debate over his parentage, in the validity of his testimony,
52:46
to the chagrin of the Pharisees, I'm sure, many put their trust in him.
52:52
Those of you that are believers today, I just want to encourage you.
52:55
Are you really walking in the light of Christ?
52:58
Are you filled with his light morally, ethically, intellectually, spiritually?
53:03
Are you pure before him? Are you righteous before him? And certainly all that's
53:07
done in Christ, but we need to be walking in it too.
53:09
We need to be participating with the work of the Father and the Holy Spirit and the Son.
53:14
Is your life reflecting the light of Christ? You know, that's one of the things
53:17
that the Bible says in Matthew 5 is that we are given the privilege to to be
53:21
lamps and that the light of Christ that we have is not to be covered with a
53:27
bucket or a barrel or a basket,
53:29
but we're to stick it out there high and bright with a desire that other men
53:35
and women could warm to its glowing, that they could see.
53:38
Do you know how many people don't even know which way they're going?
53:41
You know, I want to share one thing. I just so grieve this week.
53:45
I talked with a couple that is
53:47
not a part of our church. They're not Christians. They live on the island.
53:49
And I I noticed I went to their house the other day and no one was there.
53:52
The place was completely vacated. And I thought, my goodness,
53:54
what happened? They must have bought a house.
53:56
So I called him up on the phone and I said, hey, what happened?
53:58
Where are you guys? You guys buy a house? I was kind of excited for him.
54:01
And he says, no, he says we separated. And I said, you're kidding.
54:04
I said, I had no idea. I've known him since I came here. And I say, well, what happened?
54:11
And he says, we just don't get along. We just don't see things the same anymore.
54:15
And we fight constantly.
54:17
And and i and he i said i said
54:20
i'm sorry i said is there any hope of reconciliation
54:23
are you willing to reconcile and he said no not any not any hope whatsoever
54:28
and he said but be happy for us and i'm like how can i be happy for you and
54:34
he says we're happy why can't you be happy for us and you know i thought to
54:37
myself how desperately this world needs the candle of the truth of christ to be be held up,
54:42
that they can see because people are actually walking in darkness,
54:46
so dark that they don't even know which direction they're headed.
54:49
And even being headed in the wrong direction, they're saying, be happy for me.
54:53
And how can I be happy for him? How can I be happy for him?
54:58
God says that we're to be light in darkness. And I want to encourage you,
55:00
there are people all over this island that God has appointed you to be a light for.
55:06
Each one of you have relationships that no one else has in this church.
55:10
And some of you on the mainland, we obviously don't have the relationships you have on the mainland.
55:14
And God has appointed you divinely, sovereignly, put these people in your life
55:18
that you would be a light in darkness.
55:19
But if your light is a shadow, your light won't be a light.
55:23
But if your light is burning bright for Christ as you walk with him,
55:26
them people are going to come to that light and say, wow, I can see a little better now.
55:30
I couldn't see too well until you came along. Can I get some of that?
55:34
Where'd you get that candle anyway? And we can tell them about Christ.
55:39
And for some of you, I know that you may be walking in darkness because you've
55:42
never met Christ before. You've never experienced that light before.
55:46
And God is calling you into his kingdom today.
55:49
And I want to give you a chance to experience Christ today. I'm telling you,
55:53
there's nothing like him.
55:54
I've walked in darkness. Who has not walked in darkness here?
55:58
Oh, just me. Am I the only one? Who hasn't walked in darkness?
56:03
Oh, wait, I'm saying it wrong, aren't I?
56:05
Who's walked in darkness here? Okay, so I'm walking in darkness. What can I say?
56:10
Okay, now how many of you compared in your relationship then and now want to
56:15
go back to the blackness of what you had before compared to Christ.
56:20
Raise your hands. Come on now. Don't be bashful.
56:23
Okay. I'm the only one again. Okay. Well, no one. And the reason is,
56:27
has it your life been transformed by the power of God?
56:30
Isn't it a wonder? I mean, what in this world can compare with knowing Christ?
56:35
Can anything compare with knowing Christ?
56:38
Won't you draw near him this week?
56:41
Won't you just rub shoulders with him? Get that perfume of Christ all over you
56:44
and walk around the aroma of Christ.
56:47
You can't get that aroma if you're not walking with him. And even believers,
56:51
we can kind of drift off into the shadows if we don't spend time with them.
56:54
But if you spend time with them, you're going to get saturated with the fragrance of Christ.
56:58
And then wherever you go, people are going to go, whoa, what is that?
57:01
That's a beautiful smell.
57:03
That's beautiful. What is that? No, that's God.
57:09
It's the Holy Spirit you're smelling and people will recognize it.
57:13
Oh, I want you to walk with Christ this week. I want you to know him more.
57:17
I want you to love him more. I want you to serve him more. I want you to live
57:20
a life that pleases him. I want you to get up in the morning every day this week.
57:24
And I just want you to start your day off and say, father, my life is over.
57:28
What would you have me do today? How can I please you, Lord?
57:31
There's a scripture in the Bible that says a husband's not to be worried about
57:35
himself, but he's to be consumed with how he can please his wife.
57:39
And I just want to be like that. Don't you want to be like that with not your
57:42
wife alone or your husband, but with God and say, oh, I want to be consumed
57:46
with how I can please the Father today.
57:49
And you know, when you live that life, God will be glorified,
57:52
and you're going to be bringing praise and honor to your Creator,
57:56
something that the world can't do, something that demons can't do,
58:00
something that's unique to human nature and to the human condition is that we
58:04
can bring glory and honor to God.
58:06
You know, I just want to say that just in closing is that God loves you.
58:12
And I can't say strongly enough that God has a mission for us as a church and we're moving in it.
58:18
And God's expanding the kingdom in this fellowship and he's expanding it across
58:22
this island, not just through our fellowship.
58:24
And I really want to encourage you, be on board.
58:26
Be on board with what God is doing. Don't miss what the Lord is doing by walking
58:30
in sin or by walking in darkness. If you need prayer, if you're struggling in
58:34
an area of sin, we've got people that will pray with you.
58:36
If you want to know Christ, I want you to come forward today after the service
58:39
and meet Jesus Christ for the first time.
58:42
Don't let anything keep you from walking in the light that God has given us.
58:46
And just as the Israelites had that candelabra, and before that,
58:50
the pillar of fire, God will go before you and you will walk in his light and
58:54
your life will never be the same. Let's pray.
58:57
Father, we thank you for what you're doing. God, we give you praise and glory and honor.
59:02
And we give you your rightful place, Lord. And we don't want to argue with you
59:05
about who you are. We know who you are.
59:07
God, we don't want to defend our own position any longer as the Pharisees did,
59:12
but we want to embrace you.
59:13
And we want to be among those who put their faith in you.
59:16
And certainly among those and among Christ who didn't seek his own good.
59:21
He didn't seek to please himself, but he had one purpose in life.
59:25
And that was to do always those things which please you. you.
59:28
God, thank you for that privilege, and we give you the glory and the praise,
59:31
and we thank you for your word this morning. In Jesus' name, amen.