jesus is the most talked about figure in all of human history. Um That's that's that's a fact. More books have been written, more songs have been written, more paintings have been created um moore has centered around the person of jesus than any other figure in all of history. In fact, our entire world calendar as we know it today, is centered around jesus, that Bc is before christ and that A. D. Is a latin term that means in the year of our Lord. And so literally how we view the calendar and the years as we know them are centered around who is jesus. So if jesus is the most talked about figure in all of history, then why not study his own words to hear what did jesus actually say about himself. And so over the next seven weeks, if if you're here in town and this is your first time, we're so glad you're here, you came right at the right time. We're starting a brand new series and I want to encourage you to come back each and every week because we're gonna take a look at the seven central themes or seven central statements of jesus that actually described his very nature and help us understand what does it mean to actually be a christian? And that's going to culminate on easter sunday um on which easter is, the calendar gets kinda funky when in terms of when easter is but it's the latest possible in the year. So actually easter is april 21st and so um so I really want to get you to be here through this whole series and to bring a friend, bring a neighbor because if anybody is skeptical about jesus or just curious about their faith, this is the series to bring that person and if you want to take that next step, this is really the series to jump into it because we're going to actually dive into who jesus says he is and then what that means for our lives today. And so the first statement we're going to take a look at is actually when jesus claims to be the light of the world, he claims to be the light of the world. Um and this morning for those that like structure. Um so we're gonna kind of walk through three phases, we're gonna three phases, we're going to talk about the context around that statement. We're gonna actually take a look at the claim itself and then we're gonna close by talking about what that means in describing him as the christ, our savior. So we're gonna look at context, we're gonna look at the claim and then we're gonna actually describe who jesus christ actually is in light of that statement. Um Now it's interesting because this week um where you know, I was, I was doing some prep for, I was doing prep for this message and I was at Saddle Creek where if you like the coffee um that's where we get the coffee, that's where you get your $5 gift card if you're new here um at the guest services table and so we were there um I was hanging out, I was actually talking with clark, we're super excited are um student ministry just launched there on Tuesday nights and so if you have a teenager sixth through 12th grade we meet there on Tuesday nights which is just awesome. And so um talking with clark and we're prepping for the student group coming up and so we go up to this, there's a storage spot in the back of Saddle Creek Um with the clearance of about six ft high. And I say that because I'm 65 and that is because I'm going up and I'm trying to show him somewhere something is in storage and I walk up here. Yeah clark just be careful it's kind of tied up here and I hear all of a sudden shattered glass all all up in my grill up up here. I busted an eight ft, those long fluorescent lights right on the top of my head. I just walked up and just shattered to like 1000 pieces over and then the looming or whatever the stuff is on the inside just came down. So like my next started pretty much glowing and uh it was fun um and I came downstairs and I was just bleeding. I actually wasn't, I wasn't bleeding thankfully um And so we went and actually we said hey we'll be right back, we went next door to a hardware, bought another light bulb and then installed it and said, hey, I was like, yeah, somebody broke something back there and uh, but it's definitely me. Um, and so here I am trying to do prep for a sermon on, on the value of light and I bust my head on, I think the world's largest light bulb because I mean it was this massive thing and so we're here and so I guess you could say that was my lightbulb moment. That was pretty bad. Okay, just like we'll edit that out of the video. No, so, so, um, so talking about, what does it mean to have the light of the world and when jesus makes this claim well, in order to understand the value of the statement, we have to know the context of it and so we're gonna focus in on john chapter eight, which is um, jOHn is kind of the fourth book of the, of the new testament. It's a guy who wrote um really about the purpose of describing who jesus was And then in, in John Chapter seven, we don't have time to read through it, but actually Jesus and his disciples are at this place called the feast of tabernacles? The Feast of Tabernacles. And so um the feast really just kind of a brief description was kind of the, the, the culmination of the jewish, um season of festivals, so things like passover and things like that. And so the last one was supposed to be kind of this great one called the Feast of Tabernacles Was supposed to really celebrate two things. It was supposed to celebrate the provision of God and then also the deliverance of God. So he provided for God's people when they were out in the wilderness when they wandered for 40 years. If you think of the story of moses and so you have this idea that God provided while they disobeyed and still wandered, God still provided and then ultimately provided a way of deliverance for them and would even provide a greater way of deliverance ultimately through the messiah. Well, jesus comes in and actually has some really powerful statements and then, and john seven Um it actually comes through and it's actually in verses 37-39. Um while standing near water, water was a big theme tied in with this feast. He says, if you are thirsty come to me and I will give you living water and you will never thirst again. In other words, he's saying, I can give you eternal life. And so he actually makes by making this claim saying that I can give you eternal life, I can give you living streams. He was actually claiming to be God. And so this, this feast of Tabernacles celebration. It was for seven days and then on the eighth day they had this even bigger celebration. So just picture like a music festival, but but very religious and with a lot of rites of passage and so people would take pilgrimages to the city and to the temple And then actually right there around the temple every day, they would light torches saying that God will provide the way God will provide the way God will provide the way. And every day they would add torches to the steps around the temple. So that by the 8th day it was said that you could see the temple or you could see the city from miles away from how much light was shining from this. And this is the context in which jesus is about to make this claim. Now also what's important to know is that the Feast of Tabernacles tied in with the story of moses because moses was um he actually was saved as a little baby and um he was protected, he was actually brought up under the kind of rule and reign of pharaoh, but he got in trouble, did something, he wasn't supposed to kill the guy, don't do that. Um and you know, it was really serious and you shouldn't make light of that, like I just did, that was inappropriate, but um and so he actually runs for his life. And so he's off, he, he flees his royal rain and all everything that comes with that and he's in the wilderness. Um he has a family and he actually meets God and a burning bush and, and God speaks to moses and says, I want you to go back and you're gonna, you're gonna set my people free. The Israelites were enslaved to the Egyptians for 400 years and so they were enslaved. And and he says, you are going to lead my people out of Egypt and moses said, whoa, not me, not me, I gotta studying problem. I can't do this, I can't do this, I can't do this. And do you know what's interesting is that, do you know what God does in that moment when moses has a lot of self doubt, I'll tell you what he doesn't do. He doesn't come and says no moses. You are good enough, you can do it moses you're strong, you're smart enough, Everybody likes you. For those that watched snl back in the 90s. Um, and so looking in the mirror and so this idea of like, no, he doesn't actually affirm moses, do you know what he says? He actually said when moses says, well, when I go and I go to pharaoh and they say, let my people go, who should I say sent me? He says say I am since you and he gives this mic drop moment where he refers to himself as I am three letters in the English language here, two words, 1 statement I am meaning that God is the alpha and the omega the beginning and the end, the all powerful, all knowing all present God. If God had a business card, it could simply just say I am right, well how do you contact me? Think or speak anything, I'll hear it, I'll get it right. What's your job description, creator of the universe, sustainer of the universe, Savior of the world tomorrow? Like, like you couldn't, you couldn't describe God in, in a job description or in a facebook profile and so like ultimately, the best way to simply describe God is just he is. And so notice this though, notice this moses was doubting himself and and fearing he did not have the courage to answer God's calling in his life, but rather than a firm moses, he affirmed God, meaning that if God has called you to do something great, it is not based on your abilities, it is based on the power and the presence of God in your life so much is written about self esteem, self help, self confidence and that's important. We can all take steps to grow in, in our personality and our leadership and so we can take steps, but ultimately, when it comes to answering the call and God's life or in your life from God, it's not about self esteem, it's about God esteem. It's not about having confidence in your abilities, but confidence and the one who created and spoke the world into existence in the first place, Amen. See I am so you have the statement. So all throughout the old testament, God is described as simply, I am in fact the name Yahweh was barely spoken in the old testament because at a reference for it. So you come to this, the new testament, jesus comes onto the scene and he starts saying these, I am statements that are only reserved for God. And so there's this incredible picture. So he's at this feast celebrating moses and God providing and taking them out of the wilderness and standing there and he's about to make this claim, I am the light of the world. Now, the context continues because we have this story in the 1st 11 verses and I just got to be transparent, honest with you, I want to be up front is that you might see in your bibles, there's like either an asterisk or like maybe parentheses that say that this little story versus one through 11 here are kind of disputed as in terms of they're not sure if it should belong in this portion of the text and there's um there's a whole science behind it called textual um, criticism and understanding what goes into the bible and win. And so, um, so people sometimes are hesitant to share this story, but what I find interesting is that while many commentators say it might not necessarily belong in this exact position, I have not found one that said this story didn't happen. So, rather than going into a discussion about the placement of the story where it belongs. We're going to actually read the story because I do believe it actually exhibits or exemplifies the claim that jesus is about to make. So whether it happened at this exact moment or um the authors or people later put it in because it ties in with his next statement, it kind of serves as a bridge in between this feast and then jesus claim. And so it's actually gonna list this out. And so if you have your bibles, let's go ahead and read john chapter eight Starting in verse one and jesus went up to the Mount of Olives early in the morning, he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and sat down and taught them the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery placing her in the midst. They said teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now pause as far as I know, I think it takes more than one person for the act, there's kiddos in the room. So we'll leave it at that. But um yeah, they only bring the woman forward, right notice that notice that so in other words, this was a trap. So they bring this woman forward caught in sin caught in adultery. And so they have this and they only bring her forward. So you know, this was a scheme um set up for jesus and so they're trying to catch jesus in a lie or catch him in a phrase so that they could arrest him, he says Now the law start, in verse five, now the law of moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say this? They say to test him, that they might have some charge to bring up against Jesus, you see, because if Jesus said that this person did not sin and then he was lying on the law, but if jesus says that he, this woman should be stoned, then he's cruel and that movement will stop. And so in theory they're saying, ha ha we've got jesus caught right in this difficult situation, no matter what he says, this movement of his, these followers of jesus is going to stop but notice what Jesus does says here in um In verse six, Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground and as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to him, let him who is without sin, be the first to throw a stone at her. And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when he, when they heard this, they went away, one by one, beginning with the older ones, and jesus was left alone with a woman standing before him. So they're saying jesus, we should stone her, I imagine that they would take her most likely beaten or you know, taking the clothes away from her to shame her, throw her on the ground. And when she was at her weakest point on the ground in front of this crowd notice Jesus bends down, most likely on eye level with this woman. Now Jesus writes in the sand and we don't know what he writes. Some say that he started writing the names of the people there around them Someday say that maybe he was starting to write the 10 commandments in the sand. Others say he started writing out the specific sins of the men standing around that circle. But whatever it is that he wrote in the sand, that crowd started slowly walking away And then we come to verse 10 and jesus stood up and said to her woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? She said No, No one Lord and Jesus said neither, I condemn, you go and from now on sin no more. So we have this context, We have this story and then the very next verse it says, and again Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world, Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Now, here's what I want to understand in this context of the story, is that when culture grab the stone, jesus reached out a hand here is this woman. They don't go deep into her sin, but we know that she had felt shame, she had felt guilt. She had felt embarrassed, she felt judged, she felt neglected. And in this worst lowest moment, jesus doesn't grab a stone, but actually reaches out a hand and it's in that moment, it's in that context, whether it's in this place or not, what it fits right in with his statement that I am the light of the world, Because then he goes on and he talks about the validity of his witness. And then in Chapter nine of John, he actually heals a blind person, equating physical blindness to spiritual blindness. He says, no, I bring life, I bring light, I am the light of the world. He who believes in me will not walk in darkness but have life. And so if you you have the context of the story, see jesus reaching out to this woman, but then we have the claim itself. And so here's what the claim, what I believe means. Darkness leads to guilt and shame. Light leads to grace and salvation. Darkness the end result of darkness ultimately is death, but it leads to guilt and the shame, but jesus being light bringing light leads to grace and salvation. You see the bible and and as we know it as doctrine, the written word of God. It's not a club, but a key. Use a club too, to hit someone over the head with maybe some of you had religious class as a child and you had to like what? Right? Maybe. But we've taken that notion as Children now as adults, we take that like, oh, oh man, they were really messed up here. I come with my judgment like, yeah, that's sin, That sin, that sin. Like that doesn't change anything right in your house. Imagine how horrible the temperature would be if all you had in your house were thermometers and no thermostats. Think about a thermometer, just simply tells you the temperature, but a thermostat actually sets the temperature and as christians and when we're called to live, we're not called to be the sin police to walk around going sin, Oh you're wrong. You missed that one. You missed that one, nope, that one's wrong, nope, you're wrong. Oh, look at this person is horrible, right? Like that's not, we're not called to be thermometers to just tell the temperature. We know that the world is broken. And if we're honest, I think we know that we are broken. But what if instead of being a thermometer, we actually were called to be thermostats. In other words, we actually set the temperature of the room. We actually set the the feeling in the room, That means every place we go every the workplace and the family and the conversation on the sports team. We actually bring light and freedom into this because just a few verses later after talking about the light, he says, you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. And if the son sets you free, you are free. Indeed. And I had just, I had an actual light bulb not just broken on my head moment. Uh and studying this this week. And that is when jesus says, neither do I condemn you, I had a whole new revelation of what that really meant because when I first read that like, oh Jesus was being nice man, this person was messed up. But jesus said, nope, go, you're free. But no, he didn't say just that you're free. That that sin didn't matter because if the woman wasn't going to pay for her sin, who was he was? So he could look at that woman in the eye and say, I do not condemn you and in doing so, I condemn myself because you can go free because I will take your punishment. The very fact that he can reach down his hand and say go and sin no more. You will, you do not, you are not condemned. It's not because he's light on sin, but actually even deeper. He's takes sin so seriously that he dies for you and for me that he brings light into the world. That's why the name of jesus is beautiful. The name of jesus is powerful. It's wonderful. He says in John Chapter one, verses 1-4, he says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God he was in the beginning. All things were made through him. For without him Was not anything made that was made. And then in verse four in him was life and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. See forgiveness is free, but it is not cheap. Just because you didn't pay the bill. Doesn't mean somebody. I didn't either. So here's this woman caught in adultery in the worst moment. Feeling guilt, feeling shame and jesus comes in as a light and removes that and says, give me your shame. He says, give me your guilt. Give me your grief and give me your pain because you were not meant for that. You are not meant to wallow in grief. You are not meant to be stuck in your sin. You were meant to be alive. You were meant to be forgiven. You were meant to have relationship. You're meant to experience love and joy and peace and and I will die for you. So, when we battle with our sin, when we struggle understand that debt's been paid, how foolish would it be to go to the store, check out and then go back in and try to re buy the stuff they're gonna look at you. I know there's already been bought. But no, I think I don't want to pay again. Amen. Right. See satan isolates gets us to doubt, he gets us the question to say we're not worthy, we're not good enough. We start we start comparing ourselves well at least I'm not bad as that person. At least I'm not as bad as this person. But seeing darkness sin grows, hatred grows, doubt grows. Self doubt grows. But when we're facing self doubt, when we struggle, jesus says, it's not about you, I am strong enough for your doubt. I am strong enough for your issue. I am strong enough for your addiction. I am sure my love is deeper than anything that you can offer because the debt has been paid. So we can trust jesus because he is the light of the world. Light travels so fast that that's how we describe the fastest thing that we know of in terms of light years, right? You have the sun, which is 93 million miles away. Okay, 93 million miles away. But yet the sunlight travels here in eight minutes and when you stand outside there's warmth, there's freedom, There's trust so that we can now be the light of the world for people that grew up in kind of the disco era. I was actually interested to know that the disco ball was actually invented by invented by some Germans in like the 1920s um and then came out. But the concept of a disco ball, hey, if you wanna have a party, it's not that this ball is of light but that it just has all these little mirrors on it, so that when light shines upon it, it reflects to everything else in a way that describes the church, that we're a bunch of broken mirrors that when placed together can serve as a light into this dark world just as the moon does not emit its own light, but reflects the light of the sun in a dark time. So too, we as a church can reflect the light and love that comes from knowing jesus as Lord and Savior. The fact that jesus is the light. The fact that jesus can look at you and whatever you're going through and say, neither do I condemn you, man, that feels good, that's called grace, that's called salvation. As the band comes up on stage, let us remember as a church that there is no sin too dark for God's forgiveness in your life, there is no issue so deep rooted that God cannot heal and that God cannot free and that means that no matter how dark your workplaces, no matter how difficult your situation is when God comes in, light changes everything, notice before you came in the stage was dark and with the lights on the stage, there's no battle up here, there's no battle when when lights are on, darkness runs, there's no battle for dark and light, Light always wins. Remember that light always wins, Bring the light into every conversation, Bring the light into it. Have you ever seen those videos where it's kind of funny, but and what kind of end with this is that, have you ever seen the videos where someone in a parked car and they're stuck and someone tries to help them get out, Have you ever seen this? And so there's like a 10 minute video of this lady who's like stuck there, there's like parallel park like so close, he can't move and then um and so for 10 minutes they work with this lady to finally get her car out and when she finally gets the car out, the lady who helps her goes, I have a great day, she she goes unlocks the car, gets in the car right in front of her and pulls out Mhm And so they could have helped the whole time. Here's the thing, if you are a christian, you have the answer, You have the light, you have the solution in front of you, meaning that you can enter any situation, you have it with you already. So we try to help in other ways, forgetting the fact that we have the light of the world and it's not about us, it's about him, so receive the light and bring the light to every conversation this week. I want to close your eyes and bow your heads. I just want to pray for a minute and and just ask God to bring light into your situation. Maybe it's a circumstance, maybe it's financial, maybe it's a struggle, whatever it is. Whatever battle you're facing right now, I just want to pray and just say, and just bring God into it. It's not about our strength but about his. Dear God, I just thank you for your son. God, I thank you that in the middle of our mess, you came down and you bring light and you bring hope and you bring forgiveness that only comes. So you're paying the price on the cross. God, I pray that we can receive your light this morning, that if you've never prayed to receive you, that we can admit that we've sinned that we can believe that you are God, and then we can commit our lives to you and God help us to be light. Bring ear's into our families, into our friendships, into our workplace, into our kids sports team, whatever it is. Got me we just bring the light in because I look at our world and it seems to be getting darker, but it's in the middle of the darkness, God, that your lights shines even brighter. Thank you for being the light of the world. God, your name truly is beautiful. Her name is wonderful, your name is powerful. God, we love you, it's in your son's name. We pray amen"