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Jesus is the Light of the World

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And We Need All the Light We Can Get

The number seven is throughout the Bible. John used seven a lot of different times in his Gospel. One of those sevens, is the seven “I Am” statements. These seven statements from Jesus are:

  1. I am the bread of life (John 6:35, 41, 48, 51)
  2. I am the light of the world (John 8:12; 9:5)
  3. I am the door (John 10:7, 9)
  4. I am the good shepherd (John 10:11, 14)
  5. I am the resurrection and the life (John 11:25)
  6. I am the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6)
  7. I am the vine (John 15:1, 5)

This week we’re going to focus on Jesus being the light of the world.

In John 7:1-2, it is time for the Festival of the Tabernacles. This is a Jewish holiday that lasts for seven days and is a time for giving thanks for the harvest and remembering the Israelites’ journey through the wilderness after leaving Egypt. During the holiday, many Jews build and dwell in temporary, outdoor structures called sukkot, which are meant to remind them of the Israelites’ temporary dwellings during their wilderness journey.

A part of the Festival of the Tabernacles was the celebration of light. So that people outside the temple could celebrate too. This was accomplished by lighting fires in bowls filled with oil on top of tall 30′-40′ poles. These poles would light the whole city.

It serves as a reminder of the triumph of light over darkness, good over evil, and hope over despair. By understanding the history and traditions associated with this festival, we can gain insight into how to navigate our own lives with faith, courage, and perseverance.

Like the number seven, light is also prevalent in the Bible. The Book of John starts out quoting Genesis:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through Him, and apart from Him not one thing was created that has been created. Life was in Him, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, yet the darkness did not overcome it. There was a man named John who was sent from God. He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. The true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was created through Him, yet the world did not recognize Him.” John 1:1-10

Think of how dark it would have been two thousand years ago before electricity. The world needed light. The fires on the poles gave light, but it was not THE LIGHT. The world today needs THE LIGHT.

A great example of light and how it works is the sun, moon, and earth. The earth revolves around the sun and the moon revolves around the earth. The sun is the source of our natural light. Neither the earth nor the moon creates any light. The moon’s light is a reflection of the sun’s light. A full moon is really bright and lights things up.

Jesus is our “Son” and the source of our spiritual light. When we are full, we can share the light of the Son and brighten people’s dark lives.

Jesus is the LIGHT of the world, and we should reflect that light.

The Greatest Joy

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Mary Finds the Tomb Empty

This past Sunday was Easter. The celebration of the resurrection of Jesus.

In John 20:1-10, Mary Magdalene goes to Jesus’ tomb and finds the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. She assumes someone has stolen the body and ran to tell the disciples. Peter and John go back to the tomb with her. They find the cloth that the body had been wrapped in lying there.

After all they had experienced, they still didn’t understand that Jesus must rise from the dead.

The disciples left, but Mary stayed. She was crying outside the tomb when she saw Jesus. He told her to go tell the others. She went and told them that she had seen the Lord. (John 20:11-18)

After His resurrection, He was seen several different times. On the road to Emaus, in the room with the disciples, then again so Thomas could see and believe, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and to multiple others.

The resurrected Jesus has a physical body. He eats with the disciples. Thomas touches the scars. People recognize Him. Jesus had a perfect body, scars and all.

After all that we know, do we understand who Jesus is?

The evidence is there if we chose to believe.

Our earthly bodies are less than perfect. In addition to our physical flaws, we have a big God-shaped hole, smack dab in the middle. The first step to a perfect, heavenly body is to fill this hole by accepting the gift Jesus gave us when He died on the cross.

Jesus will fill that God-shaped hole, making us whole.

The greatest joy will be our own empty tomb if we have a perfect body for eternity in Heaven. This is a choice. I hope you make the right one.

We All Have Crosses to Bear

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Life is Full of Heavy Crosses

Life is hard. There are all sorts of trials and tribulations that we go through. None of these crosses are as heavy as the one Jesus carried.

These past several weeks we been going through Jesus’ final week, and what a week it was. He went from being celebrated as a king, to being crucified on a cross. He was betrayed by one of His followers. The people who had celebrated Him, turned on Him.

This was a lot to carry, to say the least.

The Roman soldiers mocked and belittled Him. Pretending to salute Him as they dressed Him in a purple robe and placed a crown of thorns on His head. All the while beating and whipping Him. (Mark 15:16-20)

Next, He was made to carry the heavy cross that He was going to be hung on. Some say that it was just the cross bar that he had to carry. It is estimated that it would have weighed 75 – 100 lbs. This He would carry after being beaten and physically exhausted.

He struggled to carry this heavy load up hill to where He knew what was coming. The soldiers then forced a man, Simon from Cyrene, who was passing by to carry the cross for Him. There they hung Him on the cross to die. (Mark 15:21-32) Carrying the weight of the world’s sin as He hung there.

Crucifixion was an excruciatingly painful way to die, physically, mentally, and spiritually. This would have been even more so for Jesus.

He chose to carry this heavy burden for us.

We all have crosses to bear. They won’t be as heavy as the load Jesus carried. But they still can be heavy, whatever those crosses are. It’s important to be willing to carry our crosses.

Like Simon, we are called to help others carry their crosses.

It can seem pointless to carry these crosses. Life shouldn’t be this hard. Why even bother?

But the cross isn’t the end. There’s more after the cross. The tomb is not the end of the story.

Pick up your cross, help others with theirs, and push forward to celebration beyond the tomb.

Jesus’ Blood is On Us

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We Can’t Wash Our Hands of This

We’re getting closer to the cross this week. The past several weeks we’ve been going on this journey with Jesus. Too much of the time we just jump from Palm Sunday to Easter and bypass the ugly part in between. And there is a lot of ugly.

Part of this journey was Jesus being taken to Pontius Pilate by the Jewish leaders. They want to put an end to this Man who is messing up their comfortable lives.

Most of us have heard the story of Jesus being taken to Pilate to be put to death.

Pilate couldn’t find anything that justified Jesus being punished to this degree.  There was a tradition at that time of the governor releasing a prisoner and he offered the crowd the choice of Jesus or a notorious prisoner, Barabbas.

While he was sitting on the judge’s bench, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for today I’ve suffered terribly in a dream because of Him!”

The chief priests and the elders, however, persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to execute Jesus. The governor asked them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?”

“Barabbas!” they answered.

Pilate asked them, “What should I do then with Jesus, who is called Messiah?”

They all answered, “Crucify Him!”

Then he said, “Why? What has He done wrong?”

But they kept shouting, “Crucify Him!” all the more.

When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that a riot was starting instead, he took some water, washed his hands in front of the crowd, and said, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. See to it yourselves!”

All the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” Then he released Barabbas to them. But after having Jesus flogged, he handed Him over to be crucified.

Matthew 27:15-26

It’s interesting that even though Pilate washed his hands of this to absolve himself of this situation, his name is the one name connected to Jesus’ crucifixion more than any other. If he’d known who he was turning his back on … he might have done things differently.

Jesus’ blood was on Pilate.

The Jewish people became so caught up in the moment they asked for Jesus’ blood to be on them and their children. If they’d known what they were asking … they might have done things differently.

Jesus’ blood was on the Jewish people.

And then there’s Barabbas. He was the fortunate benefactor of this situation. The one who was set free. He literally knew what it was like for Jesus to die for him.

Jesus’ blood was certainly on Barabbas.

Just like Pilate, the Jewish people who called for Jesus’ death, and Barabbas, we can get caught up in the world and make the wrong decisions. These bad choices can’t simply be ignored, and they’ll go away.

Just washing our hands doesn’t change it.

Jesus’ blood is on all of us.

It’s up to us to believe in Jesus and accept the gift of His blood.

We Need to Live Our Lives Awake

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What Does It Mean to be Awake?

As we continue with Jesus on His journey to the cross, this week we find ourselves in the Garden of Gethsemane. They just finished sharing their last meal together. After singing a song, they went to the Mount of Olives. (Mark 14:22-26)

Jesus told them, “All of you will run away …” Peter insisted that even if everyone else runs away, he would not. Jesus said to him, “I assure you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” Peter insisted that he would never deny Him. (Mark 14:27-31)

We all know what happened later that night.

On the Mount of Olives was the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus told His disciples to sit and pray. Then, He took Peter, James, and John with Him further into the garden. Jesus was going through the distress of what He knew was coming.

Jesus asked these three to “remain and stay awake.”

Then He went on a little further and prayed. When He came back, He found them sleeping. He said to Peter,

“Couldn’t you stay awake for an hour?

“Stay awake and pray so that you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

This statement says a lot about us, doesn’t it? We want to do what’s right, but the world makes it hard.

Once again He went away and prayed, saying the same thing to them. When He came back, He found them sleeping again.

He then came a third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The time has come. Look, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.” 

I think falling asleep in this Scripture is less about the physical act of the disciples sleeping and more about them, and us, going through life with our focus on the wrong things.

Prayer is one of those things that we too often overlook.

We need to be awake and in conversations with God.

Don’t go through life asleep. Wake up and live your life. The life that God wants you to live.

The Journey of Life Can be Hard

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It’s Nice When Somebody Goes with Us

During this time of Lent, we’ve been going through Christ’s journey to the cross. Two weeks ago, we talked about knowing where our treasure is and Mary’s anointing of Jesus with the expensive oil. She knew where her treasure was. Last week we discussed Jesus’ riding into Jerusalem and many of the people missed out on who Jesus was. They were expecting a different kind of king.

This week we’ve made it to the first Last Supper.

Jesus got up from supper, took a towel, poured water into a bowl, and began washing His disciples’ feet. He explained that this act of service was an example of how we should treat others. He even washed the feet of Judas who was going to betray Him.

This act of washing feet was done by the lowest of servants. Jesus told them that He—as their Lord and Teacher having done this—was an example of what we should do for others. There are a lot of ways that we can wash people’s feet.

Be willing to “wash people’s feet”.

At this last supper that Jesus shared with His disciples, he knew that one was going to betray him. At this point it wasn’t too late for Judas to turn back and ask for forgiveness … but he didn’t. If we’re still living we have the same opportunity. We can repent and ask for forgiveness.

Don’t wait too long to repent and ask for forgiveness.

This meal was a Passover meal. It commemorates death passing over the homes with lambs’ blood on the door posts in Egypt. Jesus held up the bread, representing His body broken for us. Then He held up the cup. Reminding us of His sacrifice He made for us. Without eating and drinking we will perish.

Accept the gift of His body and blood so you don’t perish.

We need to remember these acts and the promise that comes with them.

There are hundreds of words in the English language that use the prefix re-, which mean “back” or “again.” Some examples are reject, recede, reduce, reflect. returning, revert, rearrange, rejuvenate, regenerate, and recapitulate.

For instance, when you reject a plan, you throw it “back.” When a man’s hair recedes, his hairline continues to move “back” as he loses hair. When you reduce the amount of money you spend, you lead it “back” to a smaller amount. When light reflects off a surface, it bends “back.” When you are returning home from an outing, you are turning “back” home. And when a criminal reverts to being good again, he turns “back” to morally upright behavior.

Another primary meaning of the prefix re- is “again.” For instance, when you rearrange the furniture in a room, you arrange it “again” into a different configuration. A marathon runner can become rejuvenated or etymologically made young “again” by sleeping and eating after a long race. Some newts regenerate limbs once they’ve lost them; that is, they grow them “again.” When a teacher recapitulates something she’s just taught, she goes over it “again” by summarizing it.

If we remember the covenant that Jesus made, we become a member of His followers again.

Remember this covenant He made with us.

Another thing to remember is that He is with us on the journey of life. Even when it doesn’t feel like it.

Jeff gave an example of the importance of remembering in the children’s message. He shared a story of when he was in his mid-teens and his uncle, who was five years older and like a brother to him, died at twenty. In his loneliness and missing his uncle, Jeff asked God how He could let something like this happen. He did not hear any answers. In the silence, Jeff ran away from God for a few years.

Over time he figured some things out. One of those things was that…

The teacher is silent during the test.

Tests are a part of life, and we need to be willing to take them. Just because we can’t hear the teacher when we’re taking tests, doesn’t mean they’re not there looking over us.

In James 1:12 it says, “A man who endures trials is blessed, because when he passes the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.”

There are some hard lessons in life. But if we use the things the Teacher has taught us and remember that even in His silence He is with us, we will pass the test.

Don’t Get Caught Up in the World

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There’s so Much More Out There

It makes sense that we get caught up in the world. It’s where we live and what we know. Every day we take part in it. If we’re not careful, it’s where our awareness stops. It becomes all we focus on.

I’m not saying we should abandon the world. What I am saying is that we need to balance the physical world we live in daily, and the Spiritual world of God and eternity.

This morning on Albert Mohler’s, The Briefing, he talked about how humans make decisions. Either by rational thinking or intuition and sometimes the answer isn’t as rational as you might think.

This podcast was focused on the Nobel Prize winning economist and author of the 2011 book, Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman’s assisted suicide. Mohler’s question was why would someone so intelligent make such a decision? He concluded that it was due to Kahneman’s belief that this world is all that there is, and he wanted control over his death.

This kind of thinking is worldly.

In Matthew 21:1-11, Jesus sends two of His disciples to a village to get a donkey. He tells them where they will find a donkey and her colt. If anyone asks, the disciples are to say, “The Lord needs him,” and they will be okay with it.

The disciples went and did as Jesus instructed them.

Jesus knew there would be a donkey and where it would be. He knew that anyone who asked would be okay with them taking the donkeys. He also knew that people would celebrate His arrival when He rode the donkey into Jerusalem.

They thought He was a king that was going to come in and take over. If they were His followers they would be rewarded in a worldly way.

The problem is that the people were looking at this from a worldly perspective.

They missed the point.

Too often, we do the same thing. We get focused on our daily routines and lives and neglect the eternal.

It shouldn’t be all one or the other. There should be a balance of both. In John 17:16-26, we are told to live in the world, not get caught up with it. The world shouldn’t be our focus. God and the eternal should be.

What’s Your Greatest Treasure?

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It’ll Be Best If It Isn’t Monetary

What is most important to you? Is it money, your job, family, social status, recognition from your peers? Not any of these things are bad or unimportant. We need to be clear on what our priorities are.

In the children’s message, Jim Miller shared a math problem that puts things into perspective. GOOD minus the letters G O D leaves a big fat zero.

Life without GOD leaves us with nothing.

In John 12:1-8, Mary got it. She poured a whole bottle of expensive oil on Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair. When she did this Judas was mad. He thought this was a waste. We’re talking about an amount equal to a year’s wages. In today’s dollars, this would have been a bottle of oil, worth almost $60,000.

This helps us see where Judas’ heart was and where Mary’s was.

Last week we talked about how the disciples were blind to how Jesus was going to rule. They were looking at things from a worldly perspective … not a Spiritual one.

The actions of Mary in today’s Scripture would have been scandalous then. A woman would not be out in public with her hair down, would not approach a man, let alone touch one. Mary did all these things.

Mary was focused on Jesus. She understood who Jesus is. This is the third time she was at His feet. She didn’t pour out a few drops of oil.

She poured out all that she had.

We need to pour out all that we have on Jesus. As we pour over Jesus, He will pour over us.

Mary gave her greatest treasure to the Greatest Treasure.

We need to do the same thing. We need to give all that we have and all that we are to God.

Perspective is Up to Us

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It’s Important to Have the Right One 

We can be blind even when things are staring us in the face. 

This is what happened with Jesus’ followers. Even those closest to Him. Those who knew Him better than anyone else on earth. They saw Him give sight to the blind, heal the lame, cast out demons, even bring people back to life. He had been teaching them and explaining what was going to happen. They still weren’t seeing things clearly. 

They were looking at things from a worldly perspective. 

A perspective is a particular way of looking at something. Too often when we have a perspective about something it is hard to change the way we see it.  

The Jews in the Old Testament were looking for relief from the Roman oppression and tyranny. They were convinced that Jesus was going to overthrow the persecution and oppression they had been experiencing and become their king. 

Even after Peter, James, and John shared in Jesus’ Transfiguration on the mountaintop … they still weren’t getting it.  

And we’re talking about a pretty amazing, out-of-this-world, experience.   

“He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.” (Matthew 17:1-8) His face was as bright as the sun! This is bright—really bright!  

Yet even after this experience, the disciples still missed the magnitude of what they were witnessing. They were still looking at things from a worldly perspective. They were looking at what was in it for them. 

There was bickering amongst them. Jesus told them they lacked faith. Judas betrayed Jesus to the church authorities. They all ran away when Jesus was arrested. They watched Jesus be whipped and beaten. Peter even denied knowing Jesus. Then He was crucified on a cross. This is not what they had envisioned.  

It wasn’t until after Jesus came back to life that they finally began to understand. 

Just like Jesus died to the world … we need to die to the world. 

Like Jesus’, we can have life after death. We need to nail our worldly perspective to the cross. We need to ask ourselves: what do I need to nail to the cross and leave behind? 

Having the right perspective is up to us and it will make an eternal difference. 

Don’t Build Your Life on Sand

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Build on a Solid Foundation

The past several weeks we’ve been going through the Sermon on the Mount. We discussed the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12), being salt and light (Matthew 5:13-16), the importance of listening to God (Matthew 5:17-20), doing things for the right reason (Matthew 6:5-15), choosing the right treasures (Matthew 6:19-24), and focusing on the right thing first (Matthew 7:1-12).

This week’s message is about the difference between wise and foolish builders.

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” (Matthew 7:24-29)

From a builder’s perspective, I can really connect with this week’s message. It’s important to know the benefits of building things well and the cost of building poorly. The Scripture above explains this well.

When things are built well they are damaged less in storms.

This doesn’t mean there won’t be storms. It doesn’t mean there won’t be any damage. It’s about coming through the storm with something to repair. In verse 25, it says, “The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against the house; yet it did not fall…” It can be repaired.

Jesus is the foundation we should build our lives on. He is the solid rock. If we build our lives on Jesus, we can make it through whatever storms life throws at us.

Don’t be foolish and build your life on the sand. Be wise and build your life on the solid foundation of Jesus.