John 8:12-20
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Intro/Background
Remember, going back about a month ago now, we’ve been studying how Jesus has been at the temple in Jerusalem during this religious feast that the Jewish people celebrated every year
It was the Feast of Tabernacles - an 8 day long festival that remembered God’s provision when they were wandering the desert w/ Moses for 40 years
They built little tabernacles - or tents - and camped out to honor their ancestors camping out for all that time
They remembered how God provided food (manna), water, and guidance (pillar of fire & cloud) during that time, and looked forward to how the promised Messiah (Savior) would provide those same things.
If you remember a few chapters ago, we read about Jesus providing bread (manna?) to feed the 5000, and then declaring that He was the bread of life, and that anyone who would come to Him would never hunger again.
Then we read how Jesus cried out at the temple during this feast, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water”
Tonight, we’re going to read about another statement Jesus makes from the temple, yet another assertion that He is the Messiah that they had been waiting for
And although he may not have been bringing the physical blessings that the people were all expecting, He was fulfilling those things in a spiritual way
Lesson - John 8:12-20.
Verse 12
If you remember last week, at the end of the feast, Jesus went to the temple to teach
As He’s there teaching the crowd, the Pharisees brought this woman caught in the act of adultery to Jesus to try and get Him to give a bad answer and trap Him in His response.
Jesus masterfully handled the situation by pointing out the sin and hypocrisy of the Pharisees, and then He powerfully forgave them woman and commanded her to go and sin no more, as her life would now be radically different after meeting Jesus
The crowd that was watching this whole thing unfold was still there
So after Jesus forgives this woman, He turns to the crowd and declares, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
If there has ever been a totally captive audience, this was it. I’m sure you could hear a pin drop, and all the people were just waiting to hear what Jesus would say after this powerful encounter.
And what He said was also just as powerful as what He had just done.
Something else that’s pretty cool - one of the things that they would do as part of the Feast of Tabernacles is to light all these lamps in honor of God providing light to them and guiding their ancestors via the pillar of flame back when they wandered the desert.
So you have this light, which honored and symbolized the guiding light of the Lord that lead His people and showed them the way to go, and Jesus declares, “I am that light. I am the light of God, the light of the world. Follow me to find guidance and avoid darkness in your lives.”
The Bible talks a lot about light
We who follow Jesus are children of light
We are to walk in the light
We are to be a light to the world around us
God’s Word is a light to our feet
We should use our light to exposed and get rid of darkness
All of these things, these commands, they all stem from one place - from the light of the world.
It’s really interesting, you go back to the very first chapter in this book, do you remember how John introduced us to Jesus?
He called Him the Word (logos - the ultimate reason for everything)
But He also refers to Jesus as the Light
4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. 8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9 That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
And here Jesus backs up that claim, stating that He is the light of the world, the source of light in a dark world
He makes this contrast with the darkness
There’s a lot of darkness in the world.
Darkness = sin
Before we got saved, the Bible says that we were once in darkness, or we belonged to that sin
But if you’ve committed your life to follow after Jesus as your Savior, you are now a son or daughter of the light. We have the light of life to guide us
That means we don’t have to stumble around in the darkness wondering which way to go, or stumble into the wrong things or sinful things b/c we didn’t know better
We have a light source to guide our path!
This past summer, our family took a trip to South Dakota, and one of the places we went was to Wind Cave NP
How many of you have ever been in a cave before? Have they ever shut the lights off on you?
So as part of the tour we went on, they brought us into this room in the cave and they turned all the lights off. You couldn’t see your hand in front of your face, it was so dark.
They had to warn everyone before they did it, and they said to find a stable place to stand, and don’t move once they do it, because you couldn’t see anything
That’s us before we had Jesus, not even having one little ounce of light to show us the way
It’s no wonder that people fall into sin and go down the wrong path, there’s almost no way to know the right path!
But when we have Jesus, it’s like bringing a massive floodlight into that cave to light up the way you need to go
Something for us to remember, just because we have a light source doesn’t mean we always choose to follow it
You can shut your eyes and be just as lost as we were in that cave with all the lights off
We can push God and His Word away and we’re making choices, trying to decide if this is the right thing to choose, and we haven’t read one page in our Bibles or prayed about it at all.
You might as well be walking around with your eyes closed, its no different that closing our eyes to the light of the world
Guys, I can’t stress enough, when you are making decisions, you need to take it to the word of God. You need to be praying, asking the light of the world to show you the right way, to keep you from sin
We can’t base choices off of our feelings, or what our friends are saying, or what other people are telling us, it has to be guided by Jesus
Alright, we’ll finish up our section so we can get through more than 1 verse tonight....
Verses 13-20
The Pharisees, who a few minutes ago walked away pretty ashamed, came back when Jesus made this bold statement and called Him a liar
They were walking in that darkness, so they didn’t see the truth, the light
And Jesus responds, “Look, what I say is the truth. I’m telling you that its the truth. The Father is a witness that its the truth. You guys need to check your relationship w/ the Father b/c you’re missing out on what He is saying.”
And the Pharisees got so mad at this b/c they thought their relationship w/ God was better and higher than anyone else’s.
But I want to close on this quickly:
The Pharisees, like we said, thought they had a close relationship w/ God
They thought they were serving Him and doing His will, but they were really blind; they did all these rules and rituals and didn’t have the relationship
This is an example for us
We can think we have it all together. We think we’ve got this Christian thing down. We serve at the church, say the right things in prayer, wear the Christian camp hoodie, but what if there’s no real relationship?
Jesus wants a relationship w/ us! We don’t follow a religion, religion is just as blind as walking in the dark
We need to have a real, genuine, working relationship w/ Jesus. One that is based on His love for us and how much we love Him in return. One that communicates to Him daily about everything in prayer, one that learns more about Him and what He’s like in reading our Bible.
During small groups, we’re going to focus in on this idea of light
How Jesus is the source of light, and how that should impact and influence our lives
Take your Bibles with you as we’ll be going through a lot of different verses!
Small Groups
Sample Small Group Questions
Sample Small Group Questions
Do a quick object lesson with your group. Tell the students that you need 1 volunteer to accomplish an easy task, and if they can do it, you’ll pay them $20. Once you pick your volunteer, tell them they need to walk in a straight line from one point to another (pick two points about 20 yards away for this). All they have to do to earn the $20 is to not stumble, and make it from one spot to the next on the first try. Line them up at the starting point, then mention that you need to add a few objects that could stumble them, but again, $20 is awaiting them.
Just before they start, tell them there is one more catch, you have to blindfold them so they do it blind (no help from the rest of the group!). Blindfold them, say go, and see what happens.
Once they complete it, have them try again with no blindfold (remember, $20 was only for doing it successfully on the first try)
Follow up questions for your volunteer
How confident were you that you would earn the $20 when you found out you just had to walk from one point to the next?
When you found out you had to be blindfolded, how were you feeling about your chances?
How easy was it with the blindfold off?
For the rest of the group
How does this example tie into our lesson from tonight?
If we know how impossible it is to walk the right path in the darkness, why do we still choose to do it many times?
Read Ephesians 5:8. What does it mean to be a child of something
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
What does it mean then to be a child of light?\
Read Matthew 5:14-16. What are we supposed to do with the light that Jesus gives us?
14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
What is the goal of shining your light to others? (Vs 16 - have others glorify God, not us)
Read Psalm 119:105. What is the importance of God’s Word to our walks in this verse?
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.
When you have a decision to make, how to you practically use God’s Word to light up the path we should follow?
Suggested answers - Do a study of that topic in the Bible, ask others to show you what God’s Word says on a topic then study and pray over it on your own, have regular devotions and ask God to speak to you during those times
Example wrong answers - randomly open the Bible and start reading to get an answer, ask someone what they think the Bible says but don’t study it yourself
Why is it important to remember that we are not the light source, but Jesus is the source of light?
Prayer requests and group prayer