John 8:12-20
12 Then Jesus again spoke to them,
saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the
darkness, but will have the Light of life.” 13 So
the Pharisees said to Him, “You are testifying about Yourself; Your testimony
is not true.” 14 Jesus answered and said to them,
“Even if I testify about Myself, My testimony is true, for I know where I came
from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from or where I am
going. 15 “You judge according to the flesh;
I am not judging anyone. 16 “But even if I do judge, My
judgment is true; for I am not alone in it, but I and the
Father who sent Me. 17 “Even in your law it has been
written that the testimony of two men is true. 18 “I
am He who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sent Me testifies about
Me.” 19 So they were saying to Him, “Where
is Your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither Me nor My Father; if you
knew Me, you would know My Father also.” 20 These
words He spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one seized
Him, because His hour had not yet come.
Who is Jesus? Knowing
the correct answer to that question and then living in light of it is the most
important knowledge a person can have.
There was no doubt in anybody’s mind that Jesus was a very unique
individual. He was holy in His character
and yet had compassion for sinners. He
had a love for and profound knowledge of the Scripture and yet He wasn’t proud
and pompous like the religious leaders of His day. He was able to gather multitudes of people
and yet had no interest in political power.
He didn’t have a paying job, but always had enough resources to help
other people. These incongruenceis in the
life of Jesus made for great debate as to who Jesus really was. In today’s text He begins to tell the people
and the Pharisees who He was.
JESUS IS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD: Jesus declares that He is
the Light of the world. He was not a
light but THE Light. He had come into a
world that was under the reign of darkness since the fall of man. He had come to shine the light of the Gospel
into the hearts of men so they could be saved from the domain of darkness and
death to walk in the light of eternal life.
As the Light Jesus was shining a path on which others could and should
walk. His light was to be followed. His teaching was to be obeyed. His way of Light is the path to life. The Pharisees rejected this testimony because
they claimed that He was just testifying about Himself and no man’s testimony about
himself is trustworthy. Jesus was making
it very clear that He was not just any man; He was the Light of the world. Jesus came to show us how we might find the
way to eternal life. He is the Light who
must guide our path.
JESUS IS THE LORD FROM HEAVEN: Jesus explains that His testimony
is true even though it is about Himself because He knew where He had come from
and where He was going to. Jesus had
come to earth from heaven. He was not
just any other man from earth that was unreliable as a witness. He was the Lord of heaven and earth. He created all things. His time on earth would be limited and then
He would return to heaven where He was from.
His origin and His destiny make His testimony far different than the
testimony of ordinary men. The reason
the people were having such a hard time with the identity of Jesus is that they
were only considering the possibilities of an earthly origin. They had to be able to explain Him from a physical
perspective and ended up ignoring the spiritual aspects of who He was. People today continue to make this same
mistake. They look at Jesus from an
historical perspective and try to explain Him away as just another influential
person from the past. He was not just
another figure from history, He was and is the Lord of heaven and earth.
JESUS IS JUST LIKE THE FATHER: Those who want to know God must
only lean to know Jesus. He explained to
the Pharisees that He was not alone in testifying about Himself, but that the
Father would also testify on His behalf and be in perfect harmony with
Him. The Pharisees were still stuck in
the physical realm because they were asking Him who His father was. It is more than likely that Joseph was
already dead by this time. Since they
thought that they knew about His earthly father, they question Him as to his
Father’s identity. Jesus once again
makes it very clear that He is speaking in complete unity with the Father. Those who have seen Jesus have seen the
Father. Those who know Jesus, know the
Father. Jesus and the Father are
one. Jesus came to reveal the Father to
the world and to introduce the world into the presence of the Father. Jesus spoke these inflammatory words in the
temple where He could have easily been seized but no one did anything because
it was no yet the time determined by the Father. All that happened in the life and death of
Jesus were under the complete control of the Father for they are in perfect harmony
with one another.
APPLICATION: Recognized Jesus as the Light of the world and
follow Him wherever He leads. Believe in
Jesus as the Lord of heaven and earth, don’t let this physical world be a
distraction from His true identity in our lives. Seek to know God the Father by seeing who
Jesus is and what He has revealed to us about the Father.
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