“Shake Your World for Jesus!”

TAKE 5–AUGUST 11, 2017

“When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” The Pharisees challenged him, “Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.” Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going. You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. But if I do judge, my decisions are true, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me. In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me.” Then they asked him, “Where is your father?” “You do not know me or my Father,” Jesus replied. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” He spoke these words while teaching in the temple courts near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come.”
John 8:12‭-‬20

So, Jesus goes right back to teaching in the temple. Due to the attitude of the religous leaders and their misuse of the scriptures and attitude to the “unlearned crowd” who came to worship (7:15), Jesus repeatedly challenged them and taught in ways that drew attention to God’s intent for what the scriptures where written for, rather than THEIR interpretation of the scriptures.
So Jesus leads off with, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Now Jesus had just breathed the love of God into a dark situation when He forgave the woman caught in the act of adultry. He had also shone the Light of God into the darkness of the sins of the accusing religous leaders who drug the woman to Jesus, because one-by-one, they dropped there stones and accusations and exited.(vs 9) Now whether what Jesus had written in the sand were names of individuals who had partnered with this woman, or the specific sins of the specific men who accused the woman, the fact was that they saw that they too were guilty and abandoned the stoning project.
So Jesus says to them, “I am the Light”. “I shed light on dark hearts, exposing what’s inside”. Yikes!
So the religous leaders, being true to form, continue to agrue with Jesus saying, in effect, “your claim to be the Light of the world is unfounded because its your own testimony of yourself. You say that your Father testifies about you too, but where’s your Father-exactly, who is your Father”, (vss 13-14, 16-19 (my paraphrase).
Jesus answers in vs 19, “You do not know Me or My Father,” Jesus replied. “If you knew Me, you would know My Father also.” Despite their constant study of the scrptures, the Focal Point of all the scrpture sat before them and they didn’t recognize Him! What Jesus was saying to them was that to know the God of the scriptures was to know Him and to know Him was to know the Father. They knew neither. He was the Light of the world that brought light upon the scriptures. He was the Light of the world that brought sin into the light.
The passage ends with saying that though Jesus taught in a very accessable place, the public part of the temple where the offerings were taken, no one arrested Him for the time for that had not yet come.
Jesus told His discples that “YOU (them & us) are the light of the world” (Matt 5:14). Just as Jesus was a Light in a darkened world, so we, as Christ followers are. We bring Light because Light, in the form of Holy Spirit lives in us. Sometimes, just entering a room turns the spiritual lights on, and brings people face to face with God. As it was with Jesus, so it should be with us.
Think about it!