And so, dear Lord Jesus, we praise you that you are the light of the world and that you promise freedom for those who follow you. And Lord, we want to pray that as we open your word tonight, that you would open our hearts, open our eyes. Lord, help us to see you this evening through your word. Help us to behold you once again in this place for who you are, that we may go out encouraged and emboldened in the light of your goodness and your gospel. Amen. Well, as Steve said, we’re in the second of the series of the I am sayings Jesus in his own words. We’re looking through the Gospel of John. There are seven of these statements where Jesus says, I am something. We are looking at what Jesus says about himself. Many, many people have many things to say about who Jesus was. We want to listen to to who Jesus said he was. And what is notable about all these sayings is that he’s not chiefly pointing towards an idea or a philosophy or a way of life, although he does point towards ideas and philosophies and ways of life. But he’s saying, actually it’s about me. He’s pointing to himself and using all sorts of pictures to explain who he is and why he has come and what he is going to do. And last week we looked at I am the bread of life in John chapter six, and. And now we’re in John chapter eight where Jesus says, I am the light of the world. And I thought we’d start by thinking about lights. I’ve got a short video. This is from a vlog called the Action Lab. It’s an American guy. It’s kind of your friendly geek sort of doing little experiments just to see what will happen. And in this one, he finds out what will happen if you try and make the blackest room and then turn a light on. Okay, let’s have a look. Hey, everybody. Today I created an entire room that I’m going to be painting with the world’s blackest paint. Let me give you a tour of the room. And I’m going to be painting the room entirely black and then turning on the light bulb and seeing what happens. How does it look when you have a completely black room and turn on a light bulb inside? I’ve done a lot of videos using black paints, and each time I use one, somebody invents an even blacker paint that absorbs more light. So so far, the blackest paint in the world is by far this Musou black. And I did a video with it previously where I painted an Apple and different things. I painted a box with it where you could see how dark it was inside of it. And I’ve gotten so many comments where people said you should paint an entire room with that black paint. It’s getting black in here. Okay, the room is now dry. It’s time to enter the blackest, darkest room in the entire world. Lets try it out. Okay, here we go. Three, two, one. Whoa. It’s like I’m looking into a portal or something. Okay, okay. So up here somewhere is my light bulb socket. Screw it in and then we’re going to see what it looks like in a room with a light on where the walls and floor and ceiling absorb over 99% of visible. Okay, I’m gonna turn on the light bulb. Three, two, one. Here I am in the world’s darkest room. So what’s it like being in a room that’s painted with the world’s blackest paint that absorbs almost all the light in the room? Well, it’s almost like being in space where you could only be illuminated directly from the light source, not from any reflected light. What’s really interesting about this is you’ll notice how much dimmer it is in here. So I have the same light bulb in here that I when it was completely white in here at the beginning when I was unboxing the paint. But notice how much dimmer it actually looks. That’s because a lot of the light that was illuminating me wasn’t actually coming directly from the bulb, but it was coming from different parts of the room where the light headed out that direction, then came back and hit my face and so I appeared brighter. So in this case, I’m losing a lot of light to absorption that would have been reflected around the room until it illuminated me and different things in the room. We heard earlier in our prayers, didn’t we? The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness cannot put it out. And it’s intriguing that doesn’t matter how dark a room is, the light is still light. Right. That sense light is invincible in the same way that Jesus is invincible. And that was one of the things I was thinking about talking about tonight. When we think about Jesus is the light of the world. There are so many things that apply to light that apply to Jesus. You know, light is beautiful. Jesus is beautiful. Light is revealing. Jesus reveals. He reveals our hearts. He reveals the real truth about the world. Light is useful. Jesus is useful. Light is essential. Jesus is essential. Light is awe inspiring. Jesus is awe inspiring. And I was thinking about like how do I cover the light of the world in 20 minutes? And I thought I didn’t want to give sort of six four minute sermons. But I wanted to dive into just one thing tonight, which is where John chapter 8 goes straight after Jesus has said, I am the light of the world. And I wanted to focus tonight on this idea that light is undeniable. Light is undeniable and Jesus is undeniable. And the big idea is this. You go into that dark room, it doesn’t matter how dark the room is, if you have that single light on, not only is the light invincible against the dark, I mean, it could refuse to reflect it, but the light is still light. But not only that, the light is undeniable. There’s no point arguing that light is not light. Or if you do try to argue that light is not light, that conversation is going to become absurd very quickly. And in fact, there’s only one way that a person could cast legitimate doubt on whether light really is light. The two of you are sat in a dark room with a light on and someone says, I’m not really sure there is light in this room. The only way that could be a genuine comment is if that person is blind. And according to the testimony of Scripture. This is a controversial point. It’s almost an offensive point. When people don’t see Jesus for who he is. It’s never about him not shining bright enough. It’s never about him not having given enough evidence. But it’s about us. And it’s about the blindness of the heart. It’s about the blindness of our spiritual eyes. That is the claim of Scripture that light is undeniable in the same way that Jesus is undeniable. We’ve got a few minutes to dive into that idea. Here is the statement we started with. At the beginning of the passage John 8, when Jesus spoke against 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 light. And you have heard in the next verses, rather than sort of dig into the metaphor and engage with how intriguing that is and the substance of his statement that the Pharisees are just straight in to discredit Jesus, Pharisees challenged him. Here you are appearing as your own witness. Your testimony is not valid just because you say so. Jesus, why should we believe you? And it’s not a bad question on the face of it. But to understand what happens next, I was reading this passage with somebody earlier this week and they just said, you’ve got to make this really simple for us, okay? So I thought we’d start with a statement. Something that. Well, I learned it in year nine at school. I’m hoping that you all learned it as well. Maybe you haven’t got to year nine yet, but if you did hear this at school, I’m sure that every night, as your pillow hit the. As your head hit the pillow, you thought, I am so glad I learned this fact. I have taken this with me, and I could not have lived without it. Okay? And here it is. This is an oxbow lake. Yeah. Yeah. Anyone learn about Oxford Lakes at school? Okay. If you’re not in the loop, so to speak, there it is, right? You get a bendy river, right? It starts with a bendy river, and over hundreds of years, the water pushes at the bends, and eventually they push through and they create a little lake. But then the sediment builds up and you get a smiley. You get a smiley lake. So bendy rivers turn into smiley lakes, Right? That’s the claim of the oxbow lake. Now, I’d like you to imagine you’re in your geography lesson in year nine, listening to this, and you go, that’s a very intriguing idea, but I think we should scrutinise it. And you talk to the person next to you, you say, what do you think about what? You say? And your classmate just goes, well, I’m not really an authority on it. I mean, it could be. Why do we look in the textbook? That’s an authority. And so we open the textbook and we find the page on oxbow lakes. And you go, wow, the textbook really does say that bendy rivers turn into happy lakes. That’s intriguing. And you go, you know what? I think we need to speak to this guy. So we look up the name, you look in your textbook, and you go, right, who wrote this? And you look him up online, and you give him a call, and you go, I really want to talk to you about oxbow lakes. I really want to decide, is this really a true story? And of course. Yes, of course. And so you get in your car and you go off to Cambridge University, and you find the professor of geography. And you sit there and you go, right, tell me this story. Because, you know, I just think maybe aliens put the lake there. Maybe God likes happy lakes. You know, maybe it happens some other way. And he takes you through his exciting PowerPoint, all about sedimentation and erosion and how it works and takes photos, and you go, this is all very interesting. It’s sounding very convincing, but wait a minute. You’re Selling these textbooks. How can we trust you? You’re making money out of these facts. And he goes, you’re absolutely right. Why don’t you go talk to my friend over here who’s also a professor this, and they’ll tell you the same thing. And so you get in your car and you go to Oxford University and you find your professor of geography and you talk to him about it and he says the same thing. And then you go, well, it sounded quite convincing, but you’re friends with the other guy, maybe you’re all in it together. How will we ever know anything? Now that’s a very, very silly story. To illustrate that with any fact, there is a hierarchy of authority. So when it comes to things you learn at school, you’ve got your classmate, you’ve got your teacher, you’ve got your textbooks, and then you’ve got your world experts. And with anything that you learn, whether it’s in school, whether it’s anywhere else, on the television, in media, we have to decide, how far up the chain do you need to go to actually be convinced that something is true? Because at the top of any chain is the highest authority who says, well, you want a higher authority? There isn’t one. You have to believe what I’m saying. How far up is it reasonable to go before you reasonably accept something to be true and say, I know what happens. What happens if Jesus claim is true? If God himself has come to earth and is making claims about himself? By definition he is the highest authority. And Jesus says, this is me, I’m him. And somebody says, the Pharisees have, well, you need a higher authority to prove that. Jesus says, well, actually I don’t really owe you. I don’t really owe you a higher authority, and there isn’t one. But let me give you somebody that can corroborate what I’m saying. This is Jesus. Answer, verse 14. 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 judgement on no one. If I do judge, my decisions are true because I’m 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. Jesus says to the Pharisees, there is no higher authority, but there is an equal one. My Father is the other witness. I Stand with the Father. And so we ask ourselves, what would the testimony of the Father been? How has God the Father testified to the Pharisees about who Jesus is? The answer is through the Law and the prophets, the Old Testament and their knowledge of this. This would have been. They would have poured over day after day. They loved being knowledgeable. And the Bible tells us about the relationship between the Old Testament and Jesus, says the Law and the prophets, they were a shadow of the things to come. The reality is found in Jesus. In other words, what the Old Testament was doing, it was creating an outline, it was creating a contour of who Jesus was and what he was like. And the Pharisees should have known this shadow, this contour in more detail than anyone else. Because when you have a detailed shadow, it’s obvious. If you know the person is, it’s obvious that it’s them. Here’s a few examples. If you’ve grown up as if you’ve been a child in the last 10 years, you’ll know who that shadow is. Right? Anyone? Anyone want to hazard a guess who this one is? This one’s a bit more teenagery. Who do we think that might be? Someone said. Taylor Swift. Liz Evans. Well done. You are so in with the crowd. Brilliant. Excellent. And I don’t know what sound we make when we see that shadow, but we’re going to see enough of that one later, right? But here’s the point. The Old Testament created a shadow. And the Pharisees were the ones that saw the outline more clearly than everyone else. This was the testimony of the Father. This was the other witness that the Pharisees had. They should have known. But as Jesus had already said to them in John chapter five, he said, you study the scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very scriptures that testify about me. Yet you’ve refused to come to me to have life. Jesus says the Pharisees, if they really understood their own scriptures, they should have been excited to receive Jesus finally. This is the one that we’ve been hearing about. You know, we think of the disciples on the road to Emmaus when. When Jesus starts with Moses and the prophets and he unfolds all the things that it said about him. And the disciples go, when our heart’s burning. As Jesus opened the Scriptures to us, weren’t our hearts burning? That should have been the response of the Pharisees. Jesus says in John 8, I don’t owe it to you Pharisees to give you corroborating evidence but if you’re looking for some, here, here is my father and he testifies. Now we’re not likely, you and I, to have many conversations like this with people out there in the world, with conversations about scripture and the law and the prophets, because unlike the Pharisees, we live in a culture where people know very little about it. But I don’t know about you, but I’ve certainly been asked a number of times as a Christian, prove God exists. Prove God exists. And we can ask ourselves, when people say that in this secular world, what’s usually, what’s usually the hidden kind of corroborating witness? What do people really trust? Well, I was asked that question once a number of years ago. It was a guerrilla Christian event. And you know, very clever, sixth former said, well, can you, can you prove God exists? And when you ask that question, you go, there’s a panic, isn’t there? You go, well what do I talk about? Do I talk about the resurrection of Jesus? Do I talk about sort of, you know, the church? Do I talk about the impact Jesus has had on some society? Do I talk about the moral argument and philosophy? Do I talk about my experiences and religious experience? Do I talk about miracles? All of them? It’s really worth asking, well, what, what sort of proof would actually convince you? When people say proof God, what sort of proof would actually convince you? And in this instance I had to, I sort of have to ask that question, well, what, what’s, what’s going to convince you? And when you dig down to it, what, what is often behind that question is, well, give, give us scientific proof, right? The second corroborator. It’s science, it’s the science. And we hear that word a lot, don’t we, in our culture? Said, you know, if the science says it then, then it’s true. But we think about that. Science is great, but it’s a tool for a particular purpose. It’s a tool we use to measure, study and have command over the physical material world. It is a tool entirely about our physical material world. And so think about what happens when somebody says, well use this tool of science to prove the existence of God, which is a non material claim. It’s a trap. It’s a trap and it’s a trick. Don’t fall into it because here’s what they’re saying. It’s like saying, here’s a set of kitchen scales, go outside and tell me what the temperature is, right? And you take your set of kitchen scales and you go out and you’re outside. And you go, well it’s sunny, the calendar says it’s July, everyone’s wearing T shirt and shorts and I’m starting to sweat. I’m going to say it’s about 24 degrees. And the person goes haha. But what do the kitchen scales say? They go, well, nothing. I mean I could put my finger on it until it says 24. But that’s cheating, right? It’s the wrong tool. It’s the wrong tool. And I say this because if you’re Christian tonight, I want to say don’t let people make you believe that science and even mathematics works on watertight, rigorous proof. Whereas faith and religion and claim about the existence of God, who Jesus, morality and meaning works on something wishy washy and make believe it is simply not true. Something called the Conflict Thesis. It’s been around for a few decades. There was a recent book about it, it’s called Of Popes and Unicorns and it was released in 2021. How the conflict Thesis Fooled the World. Jesus says, I am the light of the world. And the Pharisees dive into proofs and evidence and we should encourage people to ask the questions, we should encourage people to investigate. We ought to be asking questions, we ought to be investigating Jesus. But realise that at some point we’re going to come to the highest authority and we need to realise what. At what point is it reasonable to go actually I’m going to take this, I’m going to accept this, I’m going to bring this into my life. Let’s come back to the light illustration. That light is undeniable if you’re in a darkest room, darkened room, the blackest room, and a light is turned on. Not only is there no competition between the light and the dark, but there is only one way that it’s reasonably possible to cast doubt on on the light. And that is if the only eyes in the room are unable to see. And this is the claim whether you’re a Christian or not tonight. It’s no accident that John chapter 8 is followed by John chapter 9 in which we have the healing of the blind man. And in the healing of the blind man, I think I preached on it about 18 months ago. The Pharisees have this miracle of this man who’s been born blind and he’s been healed. And they’re desperately trying to deny that it’s actually happening. And their denial of it becomes increasingly comical. And this poor blind man who can now see the irony is he sees more clearly than these Pharisees. And as we Come to the end of our passage tonight. Jesus says to them, you do not know me or my father. Jesus replied, if you knew me, you would know my father also. Despite the fact they were ideally placed to know God, there was no lack of information here. There was no lack of family tradition here. There was no lack of intelligence. Intelligence here. There is just something else going on. And John, who wrote this gospel, by this point, actually, he’s already told us what is going on. And that is to explain that no one, not one of us, comes to the question of Jesus as objective observers. Because the light that shines in the darkness, that helps us see and brings freedom is also the light that convicts. It’s John, chapter three. John writes verse 19. He says, this is the verdict. Light has come into the world. But people love darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for their fear that their deeds will be exposed. There is a set of people that are really, really good at illustrating this point. They want to come into light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. I live with one, and that set of people is three year olds. And this week I said to my three year old, I said, that’s very naughty. And older children might just look a bit sad and weep and know what’s coming and know the punishment. But three year olds, this is how they respond if you say that was very naughty. They go like this. They go, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Go away, go away, go away, go away, go away. Because they run. They run. You give the verdict and then they find a place to hide. Because if they run fast enough from the verdict, it won’t be true anymore. And they try to find a place in the house where Daddy can’t find them. But of course, it’s Daddy’s house and there’s nowhere they can hide. We live in God’s universe. We heard this morning from Genesis 2, Hugh was preaching about how the language about creation speaks to the language about the temple. This world is God’s temple. It is sacred. But we fail. We were built to live in this sacred world, this wonderful world. And of course, as adults, we can’t escape God’s world. We don’t really want to because it’s a blessed place to be. But we learn in our hearts. It’s more successful to either feign ignorance or actually become hard of heart. But no one can really know the truth, can they? Everyone should get to decide their own Truth. We hear that from our culture a lot. There is no truth. It’s just easier if there’s no truth and everyone gets to decide. And our self justifying tendencies, they work overtime in our hearts. That we would prefer to be blind than come in to the light for fear that our deeds will be exposed. And so we’re trapped. We long for that light that Jesus promises. We long to walk in the light and yet we dare not be exposed by it. And therefore, what shall we do? And the answer is that we gaze into the gospel of Jesus and find not only freedom, but the confirmation that Jesus words are true, that he really is who he says he is. This is John 8:28, a little further on from the passage we read. It’s the same conversation. And Jesus says to those around, he says, when you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am He. When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am He. And I do nothing on my own, but speak just what the Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases Him. Even as he spoke, many believed in him. And to the Jews who believed him, Jesus said, if you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. And then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Where do we look if we want not only our minds but our hearts to have confidence in knowing that we can trust Jesus, that we can rest our lives on him, and that we can walk in the light with him. If studying the words of Jesus isn’t enough, if seeing how he fulfils the promises of Scripture doesn’t cut it, then perhaps the reality of the cross and the empty tomb is the place to go. And that freedom and the life that is offered in the story of Jesus. Ask your questions there. Be sceptical of yourself. Don’t underestimate your ability to lie to yourself. Nobody lies to you more than yourself. Nobody hinders your search for freedom more than yourself. For we say to ourselves, either I don’t need the light, I don’t need forgiveness, or I can’t come into the light. I’m beyond forgiveness. But here at the cross we see the light of the world. By darkness slain and an even invitation to be set free. The verdict has come down. But the verdict has come down on the Lord Jesus, the light of the world. And he invites us to follow him in freedom as forgiven people and just. In the last chapter, chapter seven, Jesus actually gives this promise to his believers. He says, anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God. Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God. Folks, if you’re not a Christian here tonight, the invitation is not. Is not to just look at Christianity from the inside, but start so from the outside. But start to discover it from the inside. But start to discover it from the inside. Jesus says, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Do you know this promise? This evening? Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you that you are the light of life and that you promise that those who come to you will be set free. Set free from the curse of sin, set free from the curse of death, Lord, with a life lived to the full, lived with you for now and for eternity. We thank you for these promises. And Lord, we pray for those that do not know you. And Lord, we come as people knowing that we could not have come to you if you had not opened our eyes. And Lord, we pray for the opening of eyes of our loved ones, those we know at school and work, those we meet week by week. Lord, we pray that we might speak words of life as you have spoken words of life. Lord, we want to pray that we would reflect your light as you have designed us to do that, Lord, more people will see your glory and come to you from now until that day that you come again in your glory. Amen.