The Word Made Plain

Announcer: Welcome to The Word Made Plain with Senior Pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching in the book of John. Please open your Bible to John chapter 8, verse 12.

Tony Clark: And I want to draw your attention to the phrase I am, and this is the second of seven I am statements that Jesus will make in the Gospel of John. This statement was very important because with it, Jesus was claiming to be God in human flesh. I am in the Greek is ego ami, and it is the same name Moses heard God say in Exodus 3, verse 14, when Moses asked God what his name was. God told Moses to go back to Egypt and get my people and bring them back to this mountain to worship me. Moses said, you know, you're going to have to tell me your name. I'm asking because, you know, when I go back to your people, you know your people, and I say that God told me to come and get you out of Egyptian slavery, they're going to say, well, okay, well, what is his name?

So, God, what am I to tell them? What is your name? And you know the story, you've seen the movie. God said, I am that I am. Tell them I am sent you. In other words, I am means the self-existing one. I am to you whatever you need for me to be. And from the seven I am statements, we get a glimpse into what God can be to us. And we will look at each one of these statements as we go through the Gospel of John, verse by verse and chapter by chapter. We saw already in chapter 6, verse 35, we already saw he said that I am the bread of life. Said if you're hungry in your soul, I can feed your soul. I'm the breath of life.

He said I can be to you whatever it is you need for me to be. And we're going to look at these statements as we go verse by verse through the Gospel of John. And here in our text, we have Jesus saying, I am the light of the world. Oh, the context is so plain to see because Jesus had just exposed the sin of the religious leaders who brought this woman caught in the very act of adultery. And because they were just as guilty as she was, this is why they dropped their stones and they left. See, this is what light does. It, number one, it exposes darkness. When someone turns on the lights, all the bugs and rats and creepy things run away.

Oh, it reminds me of what John 3, verses 19 and 20 says. It says, and this is condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest their deeds should be exposed. For example, all of us know that the party isn't happening until it gets dark. The only kind of happening party in the daytime is a birthday party. We know people don't really start partying till the nighttime, till it gets dark. Why? So everyone can do their evil, illegal, immoral deeds.

And this is why people hate us as Christians, because we represent light. See, John 8:12 says that Jesus is the light of the world. Oh, but we know Matthew 5:14 says that we are the light of the world. And this is what is being said. Jesus is the big light, and we are the little light. Oh, in other words, Jesus is like the sun, S-U-N, and we're like the moon. Oh, we all know the moon doesn't have its own light, it reflects the light of the sun. And so Jesus the sun, S-U-N, turns to us, his followers, the moon, and says, do what I did when I was on the earth, which was to shine, to expose the darkness in the world, but also guide them to me.

And this is the second thing that light does. It not only exposes darkness, but number two, it guides our way. In Psalm 119, verse 105, it says, your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my pathway. In other words, the light of God's word shows me where my feet are presently. It's a lamp unto my feet, so it shows me where I am in my relationship with the Lord, but it also is a light unto my pathway. It shows me which way to go. Meaning the light of God's word will show us where to go. And I bring that up because maybe you're here and you don't know where to go in life. You're confused on what decision to make, what job to take, where to live, where to go, and all these kinds of things.

If there's one thing I'm asked more than any other question as a pastor, how can I determine God's will for my life? The light of God's word will show you where to go, because within God's word is his will for our lives. Ephesians 5:17 says, therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is." See, God wants us to understand what his will is for our lives. God is not trying to play hide and seek with his will. Say, "No, guess again. You're getting warmer. Keep guessing." Now, God is not trying to play hide and seek with his will for us. He wants us to know what his will, he says he wants us to understand what his will is.

Now, by looking at God's word, we can determine what God's will is for our lives. Hey, I'm about to lay some gold at your feet here. There are three ways to determine God's will for your life based upon the light of the word of God. Number one, do you have a desire? Do you have a desire? Whatever it is you're looking at doing, wherever it is you think you want to go, whatever it is you think you want to go after, ask yourself, do you have a desire? Philippians 2:13 says, it is God who works in us, both to will, that's desire, and to do the power to carry out his good pleasure. I am a pastor today because God put it in my heart to be one.

Oh, if I would ask 99% of you here, do you have a desire to be a pastor? You, many of you, no, no. But why is it that I'm one? Because God put it in my heart. It is God who works in you both to will and to do his good pleasure. Also, 1 Timothy 3:1 says, if a man desires the office of pastor, he desires a good work. So whatever it is you're trying to do to determine whether this is God's will for your life, ask yourself, do I have a desire to do this? Do I have a desire to go there? This is key for me because I hear people all the time say, well, you know, I'm not gonna really get myself too, get involved too deep with the Lord because the Lord might send me to some godforsaken place, some deep jungles of the Amazon or something, or he might send me to Africa.

I say, do you want to go to Africa or the deep jungles of Amazon? No. I say, then God's not going to send you there. You don't have the desire. It is God who works in us both to will and to do his good pleasure. If he wanted you to go there, you'll have a love for the jungle, a love for bugs and snakes and all that stuff that occurs in the jungle. You will have a desire to go there. If you don't have a desire, God's not going to send you there. So ask yourself, do you have a desire? Number two, do you have a peace? Do you have a peace in your heart? Colossians 3:15 says, let the peace of God rule in your heart. the word rule in the Greek is brio, and it means to act as an umpire, to arbitrate, meaning that the peace of God will act as an umpire calling the balls and strikes in our lives.

Or in other words, when we make a decision, the peace of God will say, foul ball, or will say, home run, or say that decision was safe, or that decision was out long time ago. So whatever it is you're thinking about doing, do you have a peace about it? Or is something inside of you saying, you better not marry them, or you better not go over there and give them a piece of your mind. Or you better not move back home. You better listen. Because the peace of God is ruling in your heart, telling you something isn't right, or that is a safe decision. Number three, is the door open or closed? Revelation 3, 7, and 8 says, God will open up a door no man can close and close a door no man can open.

So is the door open or closed? Well, let's put all these things together to try to determine what God's will is for your life. Ask yourself, number one, do I have a desire to do this, go there? Number two, do I have a peace? Is the door open or closed? Now watch this, watch this. It needs to be all three. Well, you know, Pastor Tony, I got two out of three. That's some good odds there. No, it needs to be all three. Watch this. Say, for example, you have a desire to do it. The door is open for you to do it, but something is in you saying, you better not. You better not. Say, for example, you have a desire and you have a peace, but the door isn't open.

Don't you go kicking it open. It's not open. It may be God's will, but not right now. That's why the door isn't open. Don't go trying to get, well, you know, I can pull some strings. I know somebody up there that can, you know, finagle some things. No, no. It must be all three. Now do you see how the Word of God is a lamp unto our feet, and it's a light unto our pathway, showing us the way to go. So Jesus came to this world and exposed the evil in it, but he also came to show us the way to God the Father. Now he is telling us Christians, you are now the light of the world. Do what I did when I was upon the earth.

I exposed the darkness and the evil, and I show people the way to God. I am like the sun, S-U-N, and you are like the moon. Just reflect me to this world. Show them what I'm really like. This is why we're here upon the earth. We're supposed to be showing this world what Jesus Christ is all about. However, the problem we have is this. There's only one thing that can hinder the moon from reflecting the sun, and that is during an eclipse. That is when the earth gets in between the sun and the moon. So when we allow the earth or this world to get in between us and the Lord, we experience an eclipse in our lives.

When we allow the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things to come in and choke the word of God out of our lives, like Mark 4, verse 19 says, we experience a spiritual eclipse. And maybe you're here and I just described you. Have you allowed the things of this world to come in between you and Jesus to the point where the light of Jesus is hidden? Things are now dark in your life, meaning Jesus is no longer shining through you and seen in your life. The amazing thing about it, this is you, there's always hope. In 2 Corinthians 13:5, it says, examine yourselves to see whether you're in the faith.

Prove yourselves, do you not know yourselves? And the word examine in the Greek is perazo, and it means to prove or to try. And this word was used to describe the process that metal goes through to test it, to see the strengths and the weaknesses of the metal. And so we need to reassess our lives to see where we are presently with God, allowing the light of God's word to show us where we are with him. Examine yourselves by asking these simple questions. Lord, is there anything or anyone in my life that is causing me to experience an eclipse? Lord, is there anything or anyone that is causing my life not to reflect you, and ask the Lord to shine the light of his word upon those areas and show us those things and people that's keeping us from reflecting him.

And we can't be in our feelings because if we're going to ask God to show us things and people in our life that's keeping us from reflecting him, we can't get in our feelings when he shows us. And what we must do, we must confess and forsake it, like Proverbs 28, verse 13 says. It says, he who covers his sin shall not prosper, but he who confesses, and watch this, and forsakes it shall find mercy. Well, Jesus went on to say in the rest of the verse, he who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. the word follow in the Greek is akolutheo, and it means to be in the same way with.

It means to accompany. It can refer to crowds following Jesus, but more specifically, it means to follow as a true disciple. And with this in mind, Jesus says, if you follow him, watch this, as a true disciple, you shall not walk in darkness. In other words, Jesus is saying, if you follow him, if you claim to follow him, you would not have your manner of life, which is what walk means, not have your manner of life in darkness or dark things or dark people, but have the light of eternal life. Oh, I was thinking about this all weekend. It was just amazing as the Lord was just showing me different things that is going on.

Now, all we got to do is just turn on the news or the computer, and we can see how dark this world is. And we can point to all the darkness and the dark things over overseas and over there and in our country and around the country, and we can point to all the dark things, but hey, we fail to realize that we are called to be the light of the world. And if we're called to be the light of the world, why are things so dark? Oh, I can tell you why things are so dark. It's because many people who are calling themselves believers, those who claiming to follow him, they are walking in darkness. And then those who think they're following him, they're not following him because they haven't examined themselves to see whether they're in the faith, because all they could do is examine their lives, and they can see from their lives they're not in the faith.

It's just talk. And I can tell you right now, the world is dark, not because of all the things we can point to. The world is dark because we aren't reflecting the light of Jesus Christ. Because we're claiming to be followers of Jesus, and we are walking in darkness right along with everybody else. Oh, I was thinking about this, and I said, you know what? This is something we have to examine our own hearts with, because we're supposed to be showing the light. We're supposed to be shining the light, because we can talk about it till we're blue in the face. The world is dark, but we fail to look in the mirror and say, are we reflecting the light of Jesus Christ?

And I can guarantee you we're not, because people who claim to be following him are walking in the darkness right along with them. We here, we, his people, we, God's people, we are finding pleasure in horror movies like they are, The Walking Dead series and all kind of horror flicks and rated R movies and cursing. We can hear F bombs and nudity, and we find pleasure in that kind of stuff. We're not abhorred by it, we find pleasure in it. Then we take God's money that he blessed us, and we pay to go watch it. And then we're drinking and partying right along with them, and we're doing everything they're doing, and we're claiming to be followers.

The world is dark because we are failing to reflect the light of Jesus. That's why it's dark. Oh, we can point to the racism and all kind of mess. Let me tell you something. We need to look in the mirror as the church. Because he said, last time I checked, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land. Oh, this land ain't being healed is because we as his people are failing to turn from our wicked ways. We're walking in darkness right along with them, finding pleasure in dark things, things that we should be horrified by, and we find pleasure in it.

Oh, I'm just amazed at us. I'm amazed at us. But this is the reason why things are as dark as they are, because we're failing to show the light, because the church that's supposed to be the light of the world is experiencing an eclipse. And it's an amazing thing because he says, he says the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, or the desire of other things, it has a way of choking the word out of our lives and we become unfruitful. Or we're not seeing the people coming to know Jesus Christ by the droves, it's because we failed to turn from our wicked ways. We got the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires of other things choke the word of God out of our lives, and we're unfruitful.

Instead of being fruitful, instead of us seeing fruit, some 30, some 60, some 100 fold, we're unfruitful. And then we're right along with everybody else saying, oh, the world is so dark. I bet it is. We're supposed to be the light, and we are walking in darkness. He said, he who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. We're supposed to be showing people the way to God, but instead we're following them to the way of darkness. And it's a sad thing. And we as the church, as the people of God, we see no problem until you hear messages like this, and then it's like a wake up call, like, whoa.

But this is the problem here. Oh, don't point at what's going on around the country, neither around the world. A point on point and to say what's going on in the church. Not a whole lot. And, you know, it's just, it just blows me away. It blow, it blows me. The church amazes me. It amazes me. Oh, we all in the season, the holiday season, and everybody cries broke all year, but during this season, you're going to go out and run your card up to out the wazoo, and you're going to do your thing, and you're going to spend money, and then when we talk about doing things for the kingdom, I don't have any money.

Church is a hot mess, and I'm glad that it's Jesus' church and not mine. Belongs to him. He loves you. Hey, I don't have a heaven to put you in, nor hell. He loves you. He and just, you got, he got to deal with his people because we are a mess. And it's dark because we're not reflecting. We're walking in darkness. That's why. And I, it's just amazing thing when Jesus said this, no doubt he said this to the religious leaders. And so, how did they respond to what Jesus said? Now, you know we're gonna have to wait till next time to see that. That's where verses 13 to 20 comes in. We're gonna see how they responded to what Jesus said.

Let me conclude with this. In this study, we saw how Jesus said that he is the light of the world. This statement implies that the world is dark. Now, we're here on this earth, and we're told that we're supposed to be the light of the world. The question is, how is your light shining today? Dimly or not at all? If I would go to each of your jobs or your neighborhoods and say, did you know that they're a Christian? They would say, who? Who? Surely you're not talking about them. Well, is that what they would say to you? Or if I would go and say, who are the Christians at this job? Would they immediately run over to you and say, they they're one?

Is your light shining dimly? Or maybe not at all. Maybe the reason why is because you're experiencing an eclipse. If so, see what part of this world is coming in between you and Jesus Christ. Maybe it's the cares of this world. The word cares is a word that means the worries, the worries of this world, meaning that what the world is worrying about, so are you. Or maybe it's the deceitfulness of riches. Why is it called the deceitfulness of riches? Because it deceives us into thinking, if I had more, I would be happy. That's deceitful. If I had this position that pays more, if I had this raise, or if I had this new job that pays more, then I will be happy.

That's the deceitfulness of riches because it deceives you into thinking that happiness comes with more money. It's deceitful. Or is it just the desires for other things? Oh, it's not the deceitfulness of riches, nor is it the cares of this world. It's just other things that, you know, I'm just busy now, just other things. Whatever it is, confess it and forsake it so Jesus can shine through you once again. Finally, we saw how the Word of God is a light unto our pathway because in it reveals to us the will of God for our lives. All you got to do is ask yourself these three questions. Do you have a desire?

Number two, do you have a peace? Number three, is the door open or closed? And if you can say yes to all three of these questions, you can safely determine God's will for your life. But all this has to do if you have a relationship with him from the start. If you never repented of your sin and accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, what I just said means nothing to you. That's first. You have to get that right. And repent of your sin, then get things right with the Lord. You can try to apply these three questions, and you will get nowhere. This is for believers. This is for people walking with God, have the relationship with him.

This is people who have examined themselves to see whether they're in the faith, and they can say, yeah, I'm in the faith. If you're not, that's where it starts. If you never repented of your sin, accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, that's where it starts. We're going to close in prayer and give you an opportunity to get things right with the Lord. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for your loving kindness and tender mercies. Thank you for your grace that abounds toward us. Thank you for your great love that you sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sin. And so, Lord, I pray for those who are here, who are experiencing an eclipse.

I pray, God, that they will come and confess and forsake whatever it is that's causing darkness to be in their lives. And Lord, I pray that you forgive us as your people for walking in darkness. Oh Lord, have mercy upon us. May we shine the light of Jesus Christ to this dark world. And so, Lord, I pray also for those who've never really accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior. May today be the day of salvation for them. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

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