Word of Salvation – Vol. 22 No. 05 – November 1975

 

Light

 

Sermon by Rev. Max H. MacFarlane, Th. Grad. on John 8:12

Scripture Reading: John 8:12-19

Psalter Hymnal: 42, 45 (Law), 448, 453, 493.

 

What is Light? How would you define it?

Well, here is one definition taken from Funk and Wagnall’s famous dictionary:

“Light is the form of radiant energy that acts on the retina of the eye, and renders visible the objects from which it comes.  It is the illumination or radiance that is apprehended by the sense of vision.”

Well, every word of that definition may be perfectly true.  But…… it still leaves us in the dark, doesn’t it?

What is Light?  Where DOES it come from?

Does it come from outer space from the sun, moon, stars?  Or from the flick of a switch on the walls of your house?  Or from your array of kerosene lamps when you go camping out in the bush?

Let’s face it: Light is and ever shall remain a great mystery, an impenetrable mystery, until we come to read about it in the Bible.

In his famous concordance, Robert Young lists round about 365 references to “Light” – from the first chapter of Genesis right through to the last chapter of Revelation.

And from this multitude of references to Light in the Bible we select one that contains within itself all we want to know about Light.

It is extremely simple yet extremely profound – beyond our comprehension.  In fact.  it is a saying of Jesus taken from the gospel of John, chapter 8, verse 12.  Here it is:

“I AM the Light of the World.  Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the Light of Life.”

Now let us consider this statement under three headings.

1.  The Light Has Come.

When Jesus says “I AM the Light of the World,” isn’t he going a bit too far?

Well, the Pharisees certainly thought so, when they said to him: “You are merely testifying to yourself; your evidence is worthless.”

But Jesus answered: “Even if I am testifying to myself, my testimony is true, because I know where I have come from and I know where I am going, but you haven’t the faintest idea where I have come from or where I am going.”

Well, at least we know where Jesus came from, don’t we?

He came down from heaven to earth in a way we cannot fathom, to be born of the Holy Spirit of God in the womb of a young woman named Mary – to be the Light of the world, among a host of other things.

This Light of Jesus: it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to those scribes, Pharisees and others.

It was all foretold in the Old Testament Scriptures.  Way back to the time when the Israelites were slaves in Egypt.

How the Egyptians were plunged into darkness, while the people of Israel walked around in God’s light.

The Psalms are full of references to the Light that emanates from God (read from Bible):

Consider Psalm 27:11 for example; where David says: ― “The Lord is my Light and my salvation: whom shall I fear?”

Or Psalm 36:11 ― “With God is the fountain of life: in His light we see light.”

Or Psalm 97:11 ― “Light dawns for the righteous” – not  for the unrighteous, mind you – “and joy for the upright in heart.”

Or Psalm 119:130 ― “The unfolding of your words gives light: it imparts understanding even to the simple.”

Or those prophetic words of Isaiah 60:1-3. ―

“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 will arise upon you,
 and His glory will be seen upon you;
 and nations shall come to your light,
 and kings to the brightness of your rising,” …and so on.

Well, that’s how the prophets of old saw it: that’s how they saw the Light, which was Jesus.  A sign of His coming

They saw that Light as the fountain of life, as man’s salvation, as man’s glorification.

They didn’t know all the details…. they didn’t know how it would happen…… nor did they know how it would all end up.  But they did know this for sure: the Lord WOULD SHINE FORTH upon His people.

*  *  *  *  *  *

Now we come to the second part of point one, dealing with the fact that the Light has come.

But……. WHEN did this Light come?  It came at the very beginning of God’s creative work.

HOW did this Light come?  It came at God’s word of command, when He said, “Let there be Light,” and there was the Light.  Just like that.

And WHY did this Light come?  Because nothing could be made, nothing could be done without this Light.

And that’s about as far as we can go, in our feeble understanding of the Light that radiated out in every direction.

Not only to the ends of the earth, but to the ends of God’s universe, if you can speak about God’s universe having ends, limitations, boundaries.

Just to digress for a few moments: have you ever stopped to think how things would be in this world, this cosmos, if there was no light, but only darkness?

Then, life as we know it would be impossible.

Then, we would spend all our time groping around in the dark, like people playing blind man’s bluff.  Wandering around in circles, hitting our heads on trees and rocks, or falling down holes, or into swamps, rivers, etc. nd so forth.  Why, without light we couldn’t continue to exist.

But we DO continue to exist.  And how?  Why?  Simply because God’s Light has come into the world, so we can see where we are going and what we are about.

So we may know what goes on round about us, in this fallen yet still fascinating world.

*  *  *  *  *  *

The Light has come.  At the very beginning of God’s creation

OK, we have already dealt with that as far as our limited minds could take us.  Or have we?

Just let us move on from Old Testament times to New Testament times.  Specifically to the first century A.D.

We open our Bibles at the gospel of John, chapter one.  And behold!  We find the very same words at the beginning of John’s gospel as we found at the beginning of Genesis: “In the beginning….!”

But John does not simply repeat what was said by God at the beginning of Genesis.

He gives us his own version of the event.  It goes like this:

“In the beginning was the Word (that is to say, Jesus Christ).  And the Word was with God, and the Word WAS God.

“He (Jesus Christ) was in the beginning with God: all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.

“In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light (of Jesus Christ) shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Now, what does this mean?

To put it in a few words, it means that Jesus Christ, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit is God, and the Light that shone forth at the time of the creation was the Light of Christ himself.

And at the appointed time He came down from heaven to earth, to “prove his claim that He WAS the Light of the world.  So that whoever follows Him will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.

*  *  *  *  *  *

To come to our second point ― which, together with our third point,

will be a deal shorter than our first point:

II.  The Light Has Departed ― Yet It Remains

Yes, after a period of some 30 years in this world, Jesus the Light of the world departed from us.  And yet…. the Light remains.

Now this doesn’t seem to make sense, does it?  But…… it DOES make sense.

And how does it make sense?  In this way: That Jesus Christ, who is the Light, has not only provided the necessary Light for the whole of His creation; He also provides His own people those who believe in Him with all their hearts, as I trust every one of us in this congregation believes in Him with all their hearts……!

He also provides His own people ― His friends, His brothers, His sisters ― with an INNER Light that lightens up their whole lives.

So much so, that their faces, their whole beings shine like lights in the darkness of this dark, dark world…… like lights in the prison-houses of those who prefer the darkness to the light and life of Christ

Yes, the one who is the Light has returned to His Father in glory, but at the same time He has left His Light with us…. He has shed His Light upon us.

Remember what He said to His people in His Sermon on the Mount: “YOU are the Light of the world.  Not only I, but also you.  Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

Staggering; isn’t it?  Yet it is true.

*  *  *  *  *  *

We have seen how the Light has come, and how the Light has gone ― yet still remains with us.  Now, we come to our third point:

III.  The Light Shall Return ― In Full Splendour.

How do we know this?  Simply because Jesus Christ, who IS the Light, has said so.

He himself didn’t know when it would happen, but He did know it WOULD happen.  How He would REIGN FROM HEAVEN until He had overcome all His enemies ― His last enemy being death.

Then, we will have turned full circle ― from Paradise lost to Paradise regained.

Then all the hardships, the frustrations, the difficulties, the countless day- by-day struggles within and without: they shall all disappear.  And this is how we shall live with the Light, this is how we shall live with the Lamb of God forever and ever, as we are told in the closing chapters of the book of Revelation:

“I (John) saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty, and the Lamb.  And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.

“By its light shall the nations walk, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it, and its gates shall never be shut by day.  There shall be no night there: they shall bring into it the glory and the honour of the nations.

“But nothing unclean shall enter it, nor anyone who practises abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

“Then 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 street 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; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

“There shall no more be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall worship Him; they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads.

“And night shall be no more; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God shall be their light, and they shall reign forever and ever.”

*  *  *  *  *  *

To Conclude:

 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 is to say: he shall have Me).

You know, there are those who think they can adopt a middle-of-the- road position as far as their religion is concerned, but it doesn’t work out that way.

The fact is, there’s no middle-of-the-road position.  For Christ – and for the devil – it’s all or nothing at all.

It comes down to this: either we follow Christ, who IS the Light of the World and our eternal salvation, or we follow the devil, who is the curse of the world, and our eternal condemnation.

As those who do follow Christ…… as those who are filled with His Light and His Love, it is our beautiful task to let those round about us know that they may have this shining light of Christ in their lives, too.

So that they, too, may come to believe and share their new-found faith with others, who in their turn may also come to believe and share THEIR new-found faith with others, and so on and so on.  Until the very last member of the flock is brought in, so that Jesus, who is the Light of the world, may rejoice at last with His Father and with the angels in heaven.

“To God be the Glory great things He has done.”

Amen.