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[0:00] As we come to study God's Word together, we are in our second of a series of seven I am sayings of Jesus.

[0:16] We last week looked at Jesus being the bread of life and tonight we're looking at the light of the world. What Jesus says in John chapter 8 and at verse 12, And 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.

[0:44] And our title comes from the passage, I am the light of the world. And hopefully to be able to help us as we look at the passage tonight, we've got three headings.

[1:00] A claim to be the light, a call to follow the light, and a certainty of living in the light. And you can maybe see each of these headings as we look at the text.

[1:14] And hopefully it will help us to understand what God is saying to us through the Word. I am the light of the world. Why does Jesus make that claim about himself?

[1:28] What's happened beforehand? Where Jesus is able to come and stand. Where he does stand in the temple and say, I am the light of the world.

[1:41] As Jesus makes that claim about himself, We see in other parts of Scripture That this claim is actually made about him. Elsewhere. You can go right back to the beginning of the Bible.

[1:55] You see there in Genesis chapter 1. 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.

[2:07] And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light. And there was light. And God saw that the light was good.

[2:19] And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day. And the darkness he called night. And there was evening. And there was morning.

[2:30] The first day. I don't know if you've ever looked at this passage And drawn out from it that the first recorded words Spoken in the Bible Are let there be light.

[2:45] God saw the darkness. And it is recorded that God said Let there be light. And what do we learn about the light?

[2:58] That the light was good. And we recognize Nowadays That what is done In the light Is good What's done in darkness Tends to be bad.

[3:13] And we'll see that theme continue As we go through the passage The other thing that we notice here Quite a stark reality That God did something on the first day That he will then do On the last day God separated The light From the darkness And we'll see As we go through The passage That those that walk And follow Jesus Walk in the light They will no longer Walk in darkness And those That are with him And are called to be with him And walk with him On that last day There will be a period There will be a time of separation Not a time of separation An eternity Of separation For those that walk In the light And those That walk In the darkness We then go on

[4:14] Into Isaiah And Isaiah teaches us When God is prophesying About his chosen servant That is to come We can see there All that God says About his servant Be a servant In whom he delights That he has put his spirit in He will bring forth justice To the nations And it then teaches us That he will be a light For the nations To open the eyes That are blind To bring out of the prison Prisoners from the dungeon And from the prison Those who sit In darkness As Jesus was foretold We can see there That he was to be the one That was to be a light For the nations And then the passage That we read In John We see there Almost in these 12 verses The Bible summed up

[5:16] For us In verses 1 to 4 We have creation How God created all things In verse 5 We see there The light shines In darkness And the darkness Has not overcome it That while there was sin Sin had come into the world All the way through time There has been a remnant That has kept that light Burning And darkness Has not overpowered it We can think of Daniel We can think of Isaiah Elijah Jeremiah Who walked with God When everything round about them Was in darkness The light Was not overcome By darkness We can see in verses 6 To 8 The account of John the Baptist Who he was He was to come As one That was to prepare the way We see that he was not The light that was coming And we see exactly What it was That he was coming to do

[6:18] He was coming To bear witness And then in verse 9 John the Baptist's testimony Of who it was That was coming Verses 10 to 11 We see John The Apostle's Testimony of Jesus' life He was in the world And the world Was made through him Yet the world Did not know him Is that still the situation In our world Today He came to his own And his own people Did not receive him Which makes us ask the question Have you received Jesus And all that you've heard About him All that you've read About him Have you received him And then in verse 12 John's statement Of why Jesus came But who all who did receive him Who believed in his name He gave the right To become the children of God Jesus came To reconcile us To God To be able To have

[7:19] That reconciliation And more importantly To become Children Of God If we flip to the next slide Same passage I was pleased The way that Anne-Marie was able to read All the light Light Light Light Going all the way Through that On seven occasions Within these twelve verses We have the world The word Light And it's a continued theme Throughout The book of John Along with The theme of life But again Just that focus On that final statement As to why Jesus came But to all Who did receive him Who believed in his name Gave the right To become The children Of God Something that we all Need to think about If we've not already Received him Into our hearts Believed in his name And have that privilege

[8:20] Of being known As a child of God We then go to Back to the passage That we started with Do we understand Why Jesus made that claim That he was the one That came Into the world As the light Of the world From the very start Of creation God had said Let there be light And there was light Then God was going To send one That it was going To come as a light For the nation And then as we read At the beginning of John John the Baptist Came To foretell Of the one that was coming Who was the light And Jesus then stands And says I am The light Of the world Which takes us on To our next point That having said That he is the light Of the world He then makes a call To each and every one Whoever Follows me

[9:20] And what is it That he then wants them To follow Him for And why does he say This very phrase Whoever Follows me Well if we just look At the context Of where this is spoken If we'd carried on Reading Through the chapter In John 8 We would see That Jesus stood up In the temple At that time As we can see In John 7 Jesus had come To Galilee With his disciples To celebrate The feast Of booths Feast of booths As we can see In the next slide There In Leviticus Was set up Why?

[10:08] For the children Of Israel To be able To remember What God Had done For them In taking Them out Of Egypt And as it says There What they were To do Was They were To live In booths To remember The time That they'd been In the wilderness Where they had Had to live In tents But also What they were To do Was They were To show This To the generations That were To come That they would Remember What God Had done For them But there's Another key Thing That they would Have told The generations About what God had done For them As they were Going through In Exodus 13 We read And 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

[11:09] The pillar Of cloud By day And the pillar Of fire By night Did not depart From before The people It was there To guide them It was there To direct them And we see that That there was A threefold purpose For them In The cloud The cloud Was there To show that God was present With them If the cloud Wasn't there God wasn't there The cloud Moved God moved And the people Had to follow The cloud As we will see But the cloud Was there To show The people Of Israel That God Was present With them God sent His son Into the world To be the light Of the world For us And he didn't Leave us When he went Home To heaven He didn't Leave us On our own He gave us The Holy Spirit To be our Comforter To be with us

[12:09] So that we Would never Be on our own And God's Presence As it was With the children Of Israel There Is with us Here As we worship As we've spoken With the children In the morning When we talk About God Being a spirit Being infinite And being eternal God is here With each And every one Of us And his presence Is with us If we trust And know Him As our Lord And as our Saviour The other thing That the Cloud gave The people That gave them Protection It says there In Exodus 14 And this is Something That we really Need to Maybe grasp How the cloud Protected The people The angel Of God Who was going Before the host Of Israel Moved And went Behind them And the pillar Of cloud Moved from Before them And stood Behind them Coming between The host of Egypt And the host

[13:10] Of Israel And there was The cloud And darkness And it lit Up the night Without one Coming near The other All night Now why do I Say that we Need to maybe Grasp What the cloud Was Says in Nehemiah Not in Nehemiah Sorry In numbers Later on Numbers 1 1 Where you can Actually read That they carried Out a census About 13 months After they had Left Egypt And they wanted To account For how many Fighting men That they had So anybody Over the age Of 20 Was counted And there was Over 600,000 Men Between the age Of 20 And up If you can Imagine a cloud Trying to cover 600,000 people Or 600,000 men Who were married And maybe had Children And you start To build that Number up Some commentators Reckon That when the

[14:10] Children of Israel Left Egypt There was over 2 million people Walking Out Of Egypt And the Egyptian army Came behind them And God Put a cloud Between them To cover The children Of Israel But not only To cover The children Of Israel But to give Them light So that they Could see Where they Were going I think Sometimes when You see it In a film It's a wee Cloud In the sky But it Must have Been a big Cloud To be able To cover And hide The children Of Israel So that the Egyptians Couldn't see Them But at the Same time Giving light To the Children of Israel As they Walked And God Protected Them And again That protection If we Walk in the Light of God Is there For each And every One of us And we Pray that God would Indeed Be with us And protect Us In this Life We then

[15:10] See That the Cloud Was there To guide Them And whenever The cloud Lifted From over The tent After the People of Israel Set out And in The place Where the Cloud Settled Down There the People of Israel Camped And the Command of The Lord The people Of Israel Set out And the Command of The Lord They camped And as long As the Cloud Rested over The tabernacle They remained In the camp And then in Nehemiah When they were Reading By a Pillar of Cloud you Led them In the Day And by a Pillar of Fire In the Night To light Them for The way In which They should Go And again Just to Consider That that Cloud Not only Protected Them from The Egyptian Army But it Provided Light for Them as They walked During the Hours of Darkness Wouldn't Have just Been a Wee Cloud Because at The same Time as Providing Protection From the Sun During The day It also Provided

[16:11] Heat For the Fire The pillar Of fire As they Were walking In the Desert During the Night And the Temperatures Going down But the Key thing For us Here is When the Cloud Rose The people Falled They couldn't Just sit And say I'll catch Up with it In the Morning When God And the Thing that we Have to Consider here Is That God's Word is Given to Guide us And guide Us In life's Journey And we Can see That Jesus Coming As our Light Is the One that Has to Guide us But what Do we Need to Think about Whoever Follows Me We can Stand and We can Look at The light But we Must follow The light That's where We get the Benefit In following The light And sometimes That light Will take Us As we

[17:11] Heard this Morning From Mark It might Take us To places That take Us outside Our comfort Zone To be a Witness For Jesus At other Times it Might say To us To wait And sometimes We might be Impatient The children Of Israel Had tried to Go ahead Of the Cloud They would Have either Been in Darkness Or they Would have Been in Danger Or they Might have Frozen Or they Might have Been burnt By the Heat of The sun They had To stay And be Guided By God And through The By the Cloud And used God And God Would have Guided them Sorry We then See As we Move on As James Montgomery Boyce says To us There We can Easily see How this Applies To Christ's Statement In relation To the Cloud For when He claimed To be the Light of The world In clear Reference To the Cloud Of Israel's

[18:11] Wandering He was Claiming not Only that He was God with His people Or that He was The one Who would Protect Them But also That he Is the One Who gives Guidance Thus When Jesus Moves Before us We are To move When he Abides In one Place We too Are to Remain There And it's Something for Us to Consider So often We look For answers Now We want Things done We want Answers That God God may Tell us To wait But on Other occasions God may Take us To places That we Didn't Think we Would Ever Want To go Or we Ever Thought we Would Be Are we Prepared To accept God's Guidance In our Lives And follow Him Wherever He may Lead us Which takes Us to Our final Point I am The light Of the World Whoever Follows Me A certainty For each And every One That lives In the Light That they Will not Walk in Darkness But will

[19:13] Have The light Of Life John 3 19 To 20 It says To 21 And this Is a Judgment The light Has come Into the World And people Love the Darkness Rather than Light Because their Works were Evil For everyone Who does Wicked Things Hates the Light And does Not come To the Light Lest His Works Should be Exposed But whoever Does what Is true Comes to The Light So that It may Be Clearly Seen That his Works Have Been Carried Out In God Says There At the Beginning And this Is the Judgment You already Know You've been Coming here Long enough To know That there Will be A day Of Judgment And you Saw what That judgment Would be If we read That statement And where

[20:15] The dots Are If we Added our Own names Is that The situation That we Find ourselves In That we're Walking In Darkness Rather Than Light It indicates There That we Hate The Light That we Don't Want to Come To The Light Lest Our Deeds Be Exposed Is that Situation That anyone Here Finds Themselves In Still Walking In Darkness Because if You follow Jesus He tells Us we Will not Walk In Darkness But If we Do what Is true And we Come to Light It's Clearly Seen That what We do Is done Is to Carry out The work Of God Are you Willing To follow Jesus

[21:15] Or do you Want to Continue Walking In Darkness And see What it Says to us There In relation To walking In Darkness There will Be a Judgment And that Judgment Will be Final But for Those Who Come to Light So that It may Be clearly Seen that The works That they Do is The works Of God And not The works Of Darkness There is Indeed Something Great Promised For each And every One of Us Next Two passages That we See again In John The Gospel Of John In the Epistle Of John Contrast Again The difference Of light And darkness Again Reminding us That the light Is among us And it will be Among us For a little While longer Walk While you Have the Light Lest Darkness Overtake You The one Who walks In darkness Does not Know where He is Going

[22:15] Does anybody Feel lost Tonight Wondering What life Is all About While you Have the Light Believe In the Light That you May become The sons Of light And then In John The epistle Of John 1 5 7 This is the Message we Have heard From him And proclaim To you That God Is the Light And in him Is no Darkness At all If we Say we Have fellowship With him While we Walk In darkness We lie And do not Practice The truth But if we Walk In the Light And he Is in The light We have Fellowship One with Another What's the Important Thing that We always Learn The blood Of Jesus Cleanses Us From all Sin Do you Know that Cleansing Tonight Do you Know the Importance Of coming And walking Out of Darkness And walking Into the Light And having

[23:15] Your sins Cleansed In the Blood Of Jesus Because we Then see In the Next two Passages That the True light Which gives Light to Everyone Was coming Into the World And as We've Already Seen Has made That claim I am The light Of the World And he Was in The world And the World Was made Through him Yet the World Did not Know him He Came To his Own And his Own People Did not Receive Him But to All who Did receive Him Who Believed In his Name He Gave The Right To become The children Of God Are you A child Of God Tonight Do you Know the Blessing The true Blessing Of being A child Of God Knowing God's Presence Knowing God's Protection Knowing God's Guidance In your Life Because that Well known Verse For God So loved The world That he Gave His only Son He Sent His Son Into the World To be The light Of the World

[24:15] That whoever Believes In him Should not Perish But have Eternal Life For God Did not Send his Son Into the World To condemn The world But to Save That people Would be Saved Through him Sorry God sent His Son As light In the Darkness To save Us God We read Earlier On That those That walk In darkness Don't know The way They're Going They're Lost I don't Know If there Is any Here this Night That feel That they're Lost in This life Looking For something Else Come To the Light Because the Promise is That you Will have The light Of life And what Does it Say to Us As we Carry on In God's Word Revelation 22

[25:16] We've been At the Beginning of The Bible In Genesis We're now In the Last chapter We've spoken Of a Judgment That will Come And a Promise That awaits Those That follow The light And know The light Of life The angel Showed me The river Of the Water Of life Bright As crystal Flowing From the Throne Of God And of The Lamb Through The middle Of the Streets Of the City Also On either Side Of the River The Tree Of Life With Its Twelve Kinds Of Fruit Yielding Its Fruit Each Month The Leaves Of The Tree Were For The Healing Of The Nations No Longer Will Be The Anything Accursed But The throne Of God And of The Lamb Will Be In It And His Servants Will Worship Him What a Thought What a Thought To be Able To be There And see That And they Will see His face And his

[26:17] Name Will be On their Foreheads And night Will be No more They will Need no Light Of lamp Or sun For the Lord God Will be Their Light And they Will reign Forever And ever The Beginning In Genesis God said Let there Be light And here We see In the New Jerusalem That God Will be Their Light There will Be no Need For a Lamp Light Or Light Or light Of the Sun God Will be Their Light And that Is a Promise To each And every One Who Recognizes That Jesus Came As the Light Of the World And who Answers That call To follow Him To no Longer Walk In Darkness But to Walk In light And know The light

[27:17] That leads To life Life Eternal That is Available To each And every One And for Those of Us That have Given Our lives To Christ Who are Following Christ This day As the Light Of our Lives These Verses Should fill Us with Joy Fill us With Encouragement That no Longer Will there Be any Night How many Of you Last night Were hearing The wind Rattling During the Night And wondering What you Would see When you Get up In the Morning It's not A nice Experience Lying in Your bed Been woken By the Wind But you Can't see What's Going on Because of The darkness There's a Day coming That if we Follow Jesus That there Will be no More night Because God

[28:18] Will be our Light Are you Children of God Are you Seeing The light Of Jesus Are you Hearing him Calling you Follow me And are you Walking with Him Each and Every day Walking out Of the Darkness Into the Light That leads To life Life Everlasting Let us Pray Dear Heavenly Father we Thank you For your Word to Us We Recognize Heavenly Father that Your Word teaches Us That your Son came As the Light Of the Word He Calls To each One of Us To follow Him And we Thank you For the Promise That if We Follow him That we Will no Longer Walk in Darkness We will Walk in The Marvelous Light That does Indeed lead To life Eternal That we Can claim That promise That we Will be Sons And daughters Of God And we

[29:18]  Pray Heavenly Father that Each and Every one Here in The Building Or Watching Online That hears Your Word Will Indeed Search their Hearts Heavenly Father and See their Need To follow Jesus And know His Protection Know his Guidance But most Of all Heavenly Father to Know him And to Love him All the Days of Their Life And we Ask this All in Jesus name Amen