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"Jesus — Light of
the World"
Light
of the World
Season:
The Wonder of His Name
Episode Resources
Watch "Jesus—Light of the World."
A woman named Jenny discovered what it means
to have the light of His truth shine on her practical choices. At one point in
her life she was so focused on success in her career that she was purposefully
making her family a lower priority.
Jenny: This sounds awful but I would look for
ways to work more so I would have less responsibility with my children. I was a
career-seeking, ladder-climbing registered nurse. I’ve always had a drive to
get as much as you can and keep going up.
In-between my patients’ homes, I was
listening to Christian radio, and I stumbled upon Revive Our Hearts one day. I
had never heard of it or Nancy before that, but I liked what I heard. Then a
year-and-a-half or so ago she started the Titus 2 series on the radio.
Nancy (Titus 2 series): Titus 2 speaks to the
issue of the counter-cultural women. What does she look like? Does it really
matter that we have this counter-cultural revolution?
Jenny: It was like turning a light on for me
in the sense that I had never heard these things. I had grown up in the church
but had never heard the Titus 2 teaching.
Nancy: Jenny learned even more about Titus 2
when she came to the Revive '17 conference, hosted by Revive Our Hearts.
Jenny: And it rocked my world. It had changed
my family tree in ways that I pray will be very long-lasting.
Robyn McKelvy (Revive '17): You are involved
in nurturing in this time in your life. You have to be available to see these
kids as God sees them. They are an inheritance from God.
Jenny: And the Lord has broken my heart for
home and for my family.
Robyn: We've got to be available so that we
can share with our kids the truth of God's Word so that when they go through
their stuff, they have a solid foundation in Truth.
Jenny: Within the last year I have made the
transition to being a full-time stay-at-home mom, with baby number three on the
way, praise the Lord.
Nancy: Jenny continued to get encouragement
from Revive Our Hearts as she moved into this new opportunity, and she joined
us this fall for the True Woman '18 conference.
Jenny: I now feel a sense of hope and a sense
of “let’s see what the Lord’s going to do this year.”
Nancy: I trust Revive Our Hearts will be able
to serve Jenny for years to come as she raises those precious children. Perhaps
the Lord will call Jenny back to being a nurse one day. If so, Revive Our
Hearts will continue serving her as she serves her patients.
Jenny: And Lord willing, I hope to go back to
that at some point, but I feel passionately that my calling, my ministry, right
now, is within the walls of my home.
Nancy: What seemed like a chance
encounter—this mom stumbling upon a radio program in the car—God used it to
shed light of His truth on her life and re-direct an entire family. Revive Our
Hearts was there that day with Jenny in the car because listeners like you have
supported the ministry through their prayers and financial gifts. If you've
been a part of investing in that way in this ministry, I want to say a huge
"thank you!"
I want to let you know as we come to the end
of the year, we need to hear from you again. There are a whole lot of Jenny’s
out there who are desperate to receive true hope from God’s Word. We want to be
there for them, and the response from our listeners during these last weeks of
the year will have a huge effect on the ministry we’re able to accomplish in
the year ahead.
Some friends of this ministry want to help us
continue providing true hope for listeners like Jenny. They've agreed to match
every gift given to Revive Our Hearts between now and December 31, dollar for dollar, up to a matching challenge
amount of $750,000. That means if you give a gift of $25, they'll match it with
$25. If you give a gift of $100, they'll match it with $100, and so on. So this
is a great time for you to help us continue pointing women to Jesus—who is our
only and true hope.
You can give online to help us meet this
matching challenge by going to ReviveOurHearts.com, or call us at
1–800–569–5959. Thanks so much for helping Revive Our Hearts offer true hope to
women who are desperate to receive it.
Leslie: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy
DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of the new Advent devotional, The First Songs of
Christmas, for Tuesday, November 27, 2018.
Nancy: We’re looking this week at Jesus, the
great I AM and several of the “I AM” statements in Gospel of John. We
looked yesterday at John 6 where Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life.”
And today we’re going to be in John 8 where
Jesus says: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk
in darkness, but will have the light of life.” That’s John 8, verse 12.
Now, I’ve never been good at science and my
fifth grade teacher wrote on my report card, “Nancy seems overwhelmed by our
study of electricity.” (laughter) It was true then, and it’s true now.
But I tried to do a little research on this
thing of light for this study, and I found myself being a bit overwhelmed again
trying to understand some of these things. But here are a few things I did
grasp.
Light is amazing. We take it for granted. We
don’t think consciously a lot about light. You know that the speed of light is
186,000 miles per second. Did I get that right? I think that’s right.
And that only a tiny portion of the entire
spectrum of light, which they call the electromagnetic spectrum, only a tiny
portion of that whole spectrum is visible to our eyes. So we think we see
light, but we actually just see just a little sliver of it.
Well, light is a major theme in Scripture,
from beginning to end, and it’s contrasted with darkness. For example in
Genesis chapter 1, you’re familiar with this passage:
“In the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and
darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over
the face of the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (verses 1–3).
So this was the first creative act of God as
the Spirit of God hovered, God created light.
Now light is pure
energy. And energy in light helps plants grow. So when God said, “Let there
be light,” God was energizing His creation.
Throughout the Scripture darkness is used as
metaphor for that which is anti-God. The wicked are called darkness. Sin has to
do with darkness. Death has to do with darkness.
At the Fall in Genesis 3, Adam and Eve
rejected the Light. They rejected the truth of God. And as a result, our planet
was plunged into great moral, spiritual darkness. And every human being that’s
been born since Adam and Eve, that includes us, was born into darkness.
Now, metaphorically in the Scripture, light
is used for God, for life, for salvation. God’s Word is said to be light. His
presence is associated with light.
Truth, goodness, holiness, purity, godliness,
these are all concepts in Scripture that are associated with light.
And the light of God’s presence is something
that you often find highlighted throughout the Scripture, particularly in the
Old Testament as God’s people sought after the light of His presence.
And you remember, for example, in Exodus 13,
after the children of Israel came out of Egypt, after the exodus, Exodus 13
tells us:
The Lord went before them by day in a pillar
of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give
them light, that they might travel by day and by night (verse 21).
God gave the light of
His presence, the Shekinah glory of God was seen as a light to lead His people
so the people would know, “This is where God’s going and we want to be where
God is. We don’t want to go where there’s darkness. We want to follow the light
of God’s presence.”
Now remember this Shekinah glory from the Old
Testament which is a type that we will see has great significance as we come to
the New Testament.
Now let me stay with the Old for just another
moment. Exodus 35 tells us about a golden lampstand that was found in the
tabernacle. This was the only means of light in the tabernacle.
There were no windows in the tabernacle.
There was no natural light. This lampstand which had to be kept lit, had to
stay tended, represented the presence of God, the Shekinah glory, the light of
God.
Now, as sin came into the world, mankind has
lived in darkness. And that means we stumble around.
We can’t see truth; we can’t see beauty. We
are in the darkness. The darkness conceals. There’s so much that we can’t see
because sin has caused us to live in the darkness.
But throughout the Old Testament we have this
promise of a great light that would come into the world and would push back the
darkness of the world.
We read for example
in Isaiah chapter 9: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great
light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone” (verse 2).
This is a messianic
prophecy anticipating the day when God who said, “Let there be light” in
the beginning would send the light of His presence incarnate in the flesh to
this earth to be a great light.
Now the Old Testament saints saw this only
dimly. We see it more clearly because we look back to Christ having come to
this world.
In Isaiah 49 God says
in relation to Messiah, the Servant of the Lord, He said: “I will make you as a
light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (verse 6).
And then in Isaiah 60:
“Arise, shine, for
your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold,
darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord
[Jehovah] will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you” (verses 1–2).
Does this remind you
of John 1 that says, “We beheld His glory”?
This is the light
coming into the world that was promised 700 years earlier in Isaiah 60. “And
nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising”
(verse
3).
So for centuries of the Old Testament, we
have darkness.
And for 400 years between the Old Testament
and the New Testament, we have silence. No word from God. No cloud. No pillar
of fire. No light of God to light the way of His people.
And the people fall into despair,
hopelessness. And then we get to the New Testament, the New Covenant, and we
get to the Gospel of John, in particular.
And light explodes in
the darkness. John 1, verse 4: “In him [in Jesus] was life, and the life was
the light of men.”
This is the light for which God’s people had
been waiting and longing for hundreds of years. His life, according to John 1,
gives us light and His light gives us life.
John 1, verse 6: “There
was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear
witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the
light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives
light to everyone, was coming into the world” (verses 6–9).
Now I want to spend several moments here in
the Gospel of John chapter 8. So let me invite you to turn there.
This is where Jesus first declares Himself to
be the Light of the world, John 8, verse 12.
But let me give you some context for this
passage that I think will help you read this chapter in a whole new light, if I
can say that.
The context here is that the Feast of
Tabernacles had just finished. This was an annual feast celebrated by the Jews.
John chapter 7 takes place during the Feast
of Tabernacles. But now this is the day after the Feast of Tabernacles.
Alfred Edersheim has written a really helpful
resource many years ago called The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah.
And in that book, it’s actually a massive
volume. I’ve seen it in two volumes. He give a lot of the background into the
culture and the life and times of Jesus and helps us understand some things
that were going on in that period of Judaism that we may not be aware of.
And he explains that there was an important
ceremony that had been developed during the Feast of Tabernacles.
It was not prescribed in the Old Testament
but it was one that the later Old Testament Jews had developed, and it took
place during the Feast of Tabernacles. It was a ceremony called the
“Illumination of the Temple.”
It involved the lighting of four, huge,
golden oil-fed lamps that were in center of what was known as the Court of the
Women.
Now this wasn’t a place where only women
could go. It was called that because women were not allowed to go any further
into the temple than the Court of the Women.
This court was also called the treasury. When
you read in the Scripture about people putting their coins into the
horn-shaped, trumpet-shaped receptacle that was in this room, the Court of the
Women, the treasury. That’s going to be important in just a moment. You’ll see
why.
But here were these four giant menorahs or
candelabras that were placed in this Court of the Women during the Feast of the
Tabernacles.
They were seventy-five feet high. They were
huge. Every night during the Feast of the Tabernacles, four young men from
priests’ families would climb ladders up to the top of these candelabras. They
would fill the golden bowls with oil and light the lamps.
As they did, the people would commemorate how
God led His people in the wilderness with the pillar of fire. They would
remember back to those days.
So these four huge candelabras would be lit
each night after dark. They would light up the temple area brilliantly and then
the light from the temple, because these candelabras were so tall, that light
would pour over temple walls and light up the whole city.
This was a symbol of the Shekinah glory of
God that had once filled the temple. And it was a reminder to these Old
Testament Jews of that great light that the Old Testament promised would come
to people who lived and walked in darkness.
Now, this is the day after the Feast of
Tabernacles. The lights have been lit for the last time for that annual
celebration. Jesus stands in the Court of the Women, in the treasury.
You see that in verse 20 of John 8, near
these massive candelabras that had been lit each night for days, and He says:
“I am the light of
the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the
light of life” (John
8:12).
He’s saying in
effect, “You have seen these lamps lit and their light dispelling the darkness
of the temple and of this city, but I am the Light of the world. Yes, this
light of the temple is magnificent, but it eventually goes out. The one who
follows me will have light — not just an occasional, annual blaze of light, but
will have light forever.”
Now, that was an audacious claim, if it
wasn’t true! Jesus was claiming to be the fulfillment of the Old Testament
Messianic prophecies.
We’re seeing this so many times in these
names as Jesus claims to be the fulfillment of the I AM Jehovah in the Old Testament.
He was the
fulfillment of the manna, the bread. Now He says, “I’m the fulfillment of
the light.”
The Pharisees knew this. Jesus was claiming
to be the Messiah. He was claiming to be I AM, the God of the Old Testament in
human flesh, at work in the world. He was claiming to be the source of life and
light.
He alone. “I am
the Light of the world,” He was saying there is no other light for this
world. He was claiming exclusiveness, the uniqueness of Himself and of the
gospel.
And He said, “Whoever
follows me will have light.”
You see the Jews had followed that pillar of
cloud and that pillar of fire that led them during the Exodus. They had to
remember back to that, how they followed that cloud.
And now Jesus said, “I’m the light. Follow
me.”
To follow Him is to believe Him, to give
yourself completely to Him.
It’s following Him
with all your heart. And Jesus says, “If you don’t follow me, you will walk
in darkness.”
Verse 46 of John
chapter 12 says, “I have come into the world as light, so that whoever
believes in me may not remain in darkness.”
Now what does light do? Light reveals. It
reveals what the darkness conceals. I couldn’t see you and you couldn’t see me
if we did not have light in this room.
And without light we can’t distinguish
details. Without any light we would stumble, we would run into things, we would
get hurt.
Light enables us to see things that have been
there all along, but that we were oblivious to because we were in darkness.
Well, Jesus has come to reveal God to us.
When we were in darkness, we couldn’t see God.
2 Corinthians 4 tells
us, “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness . . .’”
Where did He say
that? Genesis 1. That God “. . . has shone in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God [where] in the face of Jesus Christ” (verses 4, 6). The Light of the
world.
The light doesn’t just reveal God to us,
light reveals ourselves to us. It exposes our hearts — the sin, the hypocrisy,
the motives, the things we wouldn’t be aware of in the inner recesses of our
hearts if God didn’t shine the light of Jesus to show it to us.
We can’t claim to be walking in the light if
we’re living in darkness.
The light of Jesus reveals the way that we
should go. His Word is a lamp to our feet, and a light to our path. It gives us
guidance.
The light of Jesus reveals obstacles and
pitfalls in the way. When you have light it’s easier to get where you’re going,
right?
So light reveals. But light also energizes.
You know living in Michigan, we have this permacloud here, right? And Michigan
winters, long nights, short days.
Do you start to feel sluggish during the
winter? We look forward to spring coming when we will have more energy because
there is more light.
There’s this connection between light and
life. And you’ve heard the term “photosynthesis” which literally means “put
together” synthesis, “by light” photo. Put together by light.
Photosynthesis is that process used by plants
to convert light energy, mostly from the sun, into chemical energy. I’ve just
told you more than I know about this, but I love Google.
That process of photosynthesis releases
oxygen into the air for us to breathe. It supplies the energy that is necessary
for all of life on earth to survive.
So the vitality of our life support system
depends on plants and their photosynthesis, processing that light energy.
Well, I don’t understand all that, and I
don’t understand all this, but I know it’s true that as the Light of the world,
Jesus is our life support system. He’s what gives us energy and life.
Light reveals. It energizes and it transforms
darkness. It penetrates the darkness. It triumphs over darkness. It overcomes
darkness. Light dispels darkness.
Light is more powerful than darkness and
darkness has no power over light. When you turn on the light, darkness has to
flee. And the darkness cannot put out the light when the light has been turned
on.
Now for centuries, generations, millennia
people have tried to extinguish the light of God’s Word and of Jesus the Light
of the world.
The Pharisees tried to extinguish His light.
The Romans tried to extinguish the light. They tried to suppress the truth and
people are still trying to do that today.
But they could not extinguish His light. It’s
an inextinguishable light — the light of the glory of God. And our culture
cannot, try hard as it might, cannot put out the light of God and of Jesus.
Our world today is in moral and spiritual
darkness. There’s injustice, oppression, hopelessness, despair, cruelty, moral
insanity, hatred, broken lives, broken relationships, broken homes.
There’s a lot of darkness. There’s darkness
in our own hearts, isn’t there? Not just outside there, but within us?
Things that other people don’t see and know?
Some of the thoughts, the crevices of our hearts, we know there’s darkness
there.
But Life has come
into the world. His name is Jesus. And He lives in us, and that’s why He could
say, “You are [now] the light of the world . . . let your light [What’s that
light? It’s Jesus. Let it] shine before others, so that they may . . . give
glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:14–16).
We read in Revelation chapter 1 about this
lampstand that John saw in his vision. What is the lampstand? It’s the church,
the church that is to be the light in the darkness.
Paul says in
Philippians 2 we are to be “children of God without blemish in the midst of
a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,
holding fast to the word of life” (verses 14–16).
God
has called us not just to survive in this world, but to be light that pushes
back the darkness in your marriage, in your home, in your community, wherever
you live and go in the supermarket, in the bank, in your workplace, God wants
to shine the light of Jesus through us so that the darkness is pushed back.
Jesus is the Light of the world.
He’s the “Star
come out of Jacob” that we read about in Numbers 24:17.
He’s the sun of righteousness risen with
healing in His wings in Malachi 4:2.
He’s the One that John saw in Revelation 1:16
whose face was like the sun shining in full strength.
He’s the bright morning star we read about in
Revelation 22:16.
He’s the sunrise or the dayspring depending
on your translation in Luke 1 that has visited us from on high to give light to
those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death (verses 78–79).
That sunrise, that dayspring visited us when
He came to this earth. He penetrated the darkness. And one day He will return.
There will be one final great sunrise.
And then there will
be no more sunrises. We read in Revelation 21 about the new Jerusalem. This
city “has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives
it light, and its lamp is the Lamb [the Lamb, the Light of the world] and [the]
gates [of that city] will never be shut by day — and there will be no night
there” (verses
21–23).
Can you imagine it? No more darkness. No more
night. No more artificial light. No more permacloud. But eternal brilliant
glorious light.
The Light of the world. His name is Jesus.
And in the meantime, as we walk in this dark world, He lives in us. And He
wants to shine through us to give this world a glimpse of who God is.
He wants us to walk by that light, walk in
that light. We no longer walk in darkness. We walk in light. God wants through
us to shine the light of Jesus into this world.
Leslie: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth has been
showing us how important it was for Jesus to say, “I am the Light of the
world.” She’ll be right back.
Jesus is the Light that reveals God to us. He
is the Light that triumphs over darkness. And He is the Light that gives us
energy and life.
The “Light of the world” is one of
thirty-two names of Jesus we’re exploring in the current teaching series, “The
Wonder of His Name.”
We know that as you get to know the meaning
behind these names, you’ll get to know Jesus Himself. Nothing matters more.
The series will run through Christmas. As you
focus on Jesus through the series, it will make this season even more
meaningful.
When Jesus claimed to be the Good Shepherd,
it was more. The people who heard it were well versed in the Old Testament,
making His claim a very big deal. Find out why . . . tomorrow on Revive Our
Hearts. Nancy is back to pray.
Nancy: We worship
You, Lord Jesus, Light of the world, the Lamb who is the Lamp. And we see You
today more brightly because we’ve been in Your Word. You have shone light into
our hearts. But how we look forward to that day when there will be no more
darkness, no more night. Only eternal, glorious, beautiful light. And as we
anticipate that day, we worship You. We say by faith, “Come quickly Lord
Jesus.” And all God’s people said, "Amen."
Revive
Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth wants you to reflect the light Jesus to
the world. It's an outreach of Life Action Ministries.
All
Scripture is taken from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted.
Dawn
Wilson, Lindsay Swartz, and Darla Wilkinson provided helpful research
assistance for this series.
*Offers
available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.
Nancy
DeMoss Wolgemuth
has touched the lives of millions of women through Revive Our
Hearts and the True Woman movement, calling them to heart revival and
biblical womanhood. Her love for Christ and His Word is infectious,
and permeates her online outreaches, conference messages, books, and two daily
nationally syndicated radio programs—Revive Our Hearts and Seeking Him.
She
has authored twenty-two books, including Lies Women Believe and
the Truth That Sets Them Free, Seeking Him (coauthored),
and Adorned: Living Out
the Beauty of the Gospel Together. Her books have sold more than
four million copies and are reaching the hearts of women around the world.
Nancy and her husband, Robert, live in Michigan.
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