The Light of Life

I'd like to begin by reading one verse from John chapter 8, verse 12. Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

This is a promise that He, Jesus, will fulfill in us every day of our life. Follow me, He says, and if you follow me, you will have a light burning inside you that will keep you alive, that will keep you on a path that makes sense. And we need to look at this promise, think about it, and act on it, because many, many, many people know all the basic doctrines of the Christian faith and yet are walking in darkness.

There are people who have had spiritual experiences, visions and revelations from the Lord, but they're walking in darkness. People who have, at some point in their past, have seen the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, but their present walk is darkness. If a man is continuously confused about the will of God for his life, he's walking in darkness.

If a woman is chronically anxious about what's going to happen to her tomorrow, she's walking in darkness. If a man is afflicted with a trouble, uneasy conscience all the time, he's walking in darkness. If a woman seems to live under a cloud of discouragement and despair, which never lives, she's walking in darkness.

If a man or a woman are all the time angry and sour, they are walking in darkness. If we never seem to have the time or the strength to go out of our way for our neighbor, we are walking in darkness. If Jonah himself stands up in a pulpit and talks to 10,000 people about the importance of doing what God says and going to Nineveh and inspires everybody, if his own feet are not moving toward Nineveh, Jonah is walking in darkness.

Now, notice the emphasis is on the walk. He who follows me to follow Jesus is a walk. It's not just grasping the doctrines.

It's not just mastering a body of information about Jesus. It's walking in his steps. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

He will have, she will have light so that they won't stumble, won't be forever depressed, always worried, constantly confused. They will have the light of life and they will know where they're going. Reading from John 11, 5. Now, Jesus loved Martha and her sister, Mary, and Lazarus.

So when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. The place where he was was on the other side of the Jordan. Then after this, he said to his disciples, let's go back into Judea again.

The disciples said to him, Rabbi, the Jews were but now seeking to stone you and you're going there again. Jesus answered, Are there not 12 hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles because the light is not in him.

Jesus, as the Son of Man, walked in the light of his Father's presence. Walking in the light meant that he knew when it was time to leave Judea, he knew when it was time to go back into Judea. Now it's time to go back, even though they're waiting to arrest him and kill him.

And so he goes. Because walking in the light of his Father, he knows that even though they are going to arrest him and kill him, they're not going to arrest him, they're not going to kill him one second before it's time. And in the meantime, there's work to get done.

So he goes back, raises Lazarus from the dead, and then celebrates his final Passover with his disciples by becoming the Paschal Lamb himself and offering himself up for the sins of the world, Now when we look at Jesus' life in flesh and blood, we are looking at a man who never stumbled, never got discouraged, never got depressed, never got ugly, never fell apart. Even when things were going really rough, really hard, he knew that his Father was there. And he walked in the light of his Father's presence.

Now just as Jesus had that kind of light with him as he walked the dusty roads of Judea or sailed through the storms on Galilee, always the Father was there. He knew the Father was there and he held on to that. So we can have that kind of light from him.

He becomes our light just as the Father was his light. We can have the presence of the Lord Jesus with us all the time. In every place where we go, in all circumstances, there's no need for us to be fumbling and stumbling around as we so often do.

Anymore. We can have light. We can know who we are.

We can know where we're going. And we can know what we're here to accomplish. And we can know that Jesus is here.

He's with us. He's in us. He's under us.

He's over us. He is our strength. He is our vision.

He is our sanity. He is our health. He is our power.

He is our authority. He is our joy. He is our peace.

He is our light. And he is our life. All this, if you follow me, Jesus says, you can have.

If you will walk with me. Now it's a walk. It's a daily walk.

And that daily walk really is broken down into four parts. And maybe it would be helpful to think of it as a daily four-step program. First of all, step one.

We fix our eye on him every day. Step two, we commit our heart to him every day. Step three, we do his commands every day.

And step four, we go where he leads every day. Every day we do these four things. Fix our eye on him.

Commit our heart to him. Do his word, his command. Go where he leads.

If daily we will fix our eyes on Jesus, we will have light. And fixing our eye on Jesus means that we turn away, constantly keep turning away from all the things that distract us, and fix our eye, our attention, back on him. As our leader, our shepherd, the only light we really have in this world.

Reading from Hebrews chapter 12, excuse me, verse 1 and 2. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, people who walk by faith, let us also lay aside every weight, distraction, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, getting our eyes on him, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, Jesus, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Now it's a matter of getting off the distraction and fixing it on him, the attention, the eye, the vision. Jesus is on that road up ahead of us, and we hear him say, Come, follow me, I'll get you there.

And he's on a road that leads to a cross, then to a grave, then up into a resurrection as the firstborn of the new creation, and then on to the Father's throne. And every day we fix our attention on that walk of his. We look at him, we worship him, and we confess that he is the light of this day that I'm in, and he is the light, the only light I have in this situation where I find myself right now.

Now if I don't discipline myself, you know, put some effort into getting my eyes on him, what happens is that my vision just drifts off to other things. See, and when my vision drifts off onto other things, my eye drinks in darkness. And that darkness fills my body, as Jesus says.

And my whole body becomes darkness. That means my life. But when I fix my eye on him, daily, on him, my eye fills with light, and my body receives that light.

You want to talk about a principle of healing, there it is. And my life is filled with that light. Now, if daily we will commit our hearts to Jesus, we will have life.

Reading from John chapter 21, verse 15, it's after the resurrection. Peter took off and went fishing. You know, and Jesus is on the shore.

He has breakfast for the disciples. When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these fish? He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said, Feed my lambs.

The second time he said to him, Simon, son of John, do you love me? He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, Tend my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know everything.

You know that I love you. Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. In other words, Peter will not have the stamina, the insight, the vision, the power to feed those sheep because they're an ungrateful bunch, those sheep.

Aren't we all? He won't have the power unless he's driven by love for Jesus, by a heart that's committed to Jesus. Do you love me, Peter? Means much more than, will you be my Valentine? It means, is your heart committed to me? All the way. Are you committed to me? And that's exactly what he asks us, individually, each of us, and also corporately, together, every day of our life together, he's saying to this congregation, do you love me? Are you committed to me? And in that answer that we give, which is more than something coming out of our mouth, but it's a life that we live, we receive light.

When we say, with an act of our will, refreshing that commitment to him, renewing it, living it, willing it, each day, light from heaven comes into us, enabling us to have the power to feed those sheep. Because each of us is both a sheep and another shepherd. We're sheep following him, but we also, every one of us has responsibility to, you know, and this concept of the church where we are nothing but sheep getting fed all the time, is absolutely sick.

You know, we are all being fed, but we are all to feed, and we only are able to do that if our hearts are committed to him. If, daily, we will do his commands, we will have life. And so he says to us, feed my sheep.

Don't just talk about it, don't just pray about it, don't just think about it, do it. I was thinking, yesterday, I came back from street work, I was getting out of my car and going into the house, and Bill and Ginny Ziegler came by in their wagon, and they both had tears in their eyes, but what's the matter, they having a fight? But it was no fight, praise God, they had just seen the film Mission, which I have not seen, but many of you have, and so I don't know really what he meant by this, but Bill said, this is Argentina, this neighborhood is Argentina. And I got the general idea of what he's talking about, and that's true, and as they drove off, and I was going up the steps, the thought comes to me, okay, if it's Argentina, if this is our mission field, what are we doing about it? You know, it's great to see the insight, but we need to act on that, and there is a call now to obedience, to come, you know, to act on this, do it, and so we read, excuse me, I'll get this clear in a second here, 1st John chapter 2 verse 3, by this we may be sure that we know Him, meaning Jesus, if we keep His commandments.

He who says I know Him, but disobeys His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, in Him truly, love for God is perfected. By this we may be sure that we are in Him.

He who says He abides in Him, ought to walk in the same way in which He walked. Now Jesus' commands are very simple, and really very few. A child can learn them.

We sit at His feet, and we drink them in, we soak them up, we listen to them, and then we go out and we do them. And even if we fall short in the doing of them, we keep doing them. And in the doing of them, comes life.

He commands us to feed His sheep, to show compassion, mercy, forgiveness, purity. Not only does He command us to do these things, He then shows us how it's to be done, by living that life Himself. And then He goes beyond that, and He dies for our falling short of it.

He atones with His own blood for the fact that we have failed to live this way in the past. And then, even today, right now, He pours out His Spirit upon us, to give us the power to be able to do what He commands us to do. And so each day, we come before Him, and if we do this, He gives us a word, some word, that will help us to be able to feed those sheep, and love those sisters and brothers.

And then we go out and we do it, and we work on it, we practice it, and in the doing of it, comes light. Finally, if daily we will go where He leads, we will have life. And we read from John chapter 12, verse 26, If anyone serves me, he must follow me, and where I am, there shall my servant be also.

We follow Jesus, and pretty soon we find ourselves following a little grain of wheat. And there goes this little grain of wheat, it's dancing across the ground, and all of a sudden, boom, down it goes into the ground. And we go down with it, and the ground covers it up.

And in there it dies. And then, where it died, up comes a fresh, green stalk of wheat that's going to produce millions of grains of wheat in the years to come. And in following Jesus, He's trying to teach us to do what He did, and to do it all the time.

You know, to deny ourselves, to spend ourselves, to pour ourselves out, to give ourselves in our homes, relationship with our children, our parents, our wife, our husband. But also, He's calling us to do that in every relationship, everywhere we go. That's what He means when He says, take up your cross daily.

Daily, learn with me, walk with me, learn how to die with me. Here in the body, especially. Here in the body, opportunities will come for us to die.

Somebody hurts my feelings. Somebody forgot about me. Somebody walked right past and didn't say hello.

You know, they passed me by. Whatever it is, you know, opportunities will come for me to learn how to die to myself, with Him. Out there in the world, the shop, the factory, the warehouse, the office, the construction site, the school, the hospital.

There He teaches us to do the same thing. And we go down into the grave, and then, in the midst of that darkness, comes suddenly in that grave an unearthly light, as the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead comes down to where we are and raises us up with new life. Even as a congregation, God is taking us through that kind of process, even now.

And if we learn to die to ourselves, into our own vanity, and really give ourselves utterly to Him, out of that grave of self-death comes a resurrection of supernatural life and new vision. Again, Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of light.

And we are to take that promise absolutely literally. There's no reason for us to be stumbling around through our lives, on and on and on, stumbling in this direction and not in that direction no more. We can walk in the light, and we can know where we are going, and we can get something done that's going to be of value, if we will follow Him.

And it's a daily, four-step program. If daily, we will fix our eyes on Jesus, commit our hearts to Him, do what He tells us to, and go where He leads. We will not, but we will have the light of life.

And by that power of that light, that Spirit, we will bear much fruit and bring glory to His name, and we will have, as we do it, unspeakable joy. Let's just have a little time of silence and wait on the Spirit of God.