Once again, Jesus spoke to the people and said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”Again, therefore, Jesus 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.”Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.Again therefore Jesus spake unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.
10 sermons cite this verse
… Every time you get afraid, you need to look at the light. Jesus said, I am the light of the world. He who believes in me shall not walk in darkness. He who believes in me will not stumble in darkness. I am the light of the world. The first thing God said when he created the universe, let there be light. The Bible says God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. when you are scared by the shadows in your life, you just need to turn around and look at the light. Stop focusing on the stuff that's scaring you to death, those bills, those fears, those worries, that stuff that goes around in your mind, and just get your focus off your fear and get your focus on the Father. You look at the light, and the shadow can't hurt you. In fact, you don't even see it. And when you're going through a tunnel, how do you make it through a tunnel? You keep your eyes on the light at the end. …
… as I read sections of this chapter from the New Living Translation. I'll give you a few moments to find your place as I begin at John chapter 8 verse 12. Verse 12 begins, Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness because you will have the light that leads to life. The Pharisees replied, You are making those claims about yourself. Such testimony is not valid. Jesus told them, These claims are valid, even though I make them about myself. For I know where I came from and where I am going. But you don't know this about me. Now drop down to verse 31. Jesus said to the people who believed in him, You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. But we are descendants of Abraham, they said. We have never been slaves to anyone. …
Think about how that is up close and personal in the book of John. John chapter 6, verse 35, Jesus says, I am the bread of life to those who are hungry. To the blind in John chapter 8, verse 12, he says, I am the light of the world. To those who were hurting in John chapter 10, he said, I am the good shepherd who cares for his people. In John chapter 11, verse 25, he says to Lazarus, I am the resurrection and the life. John chapter 14, he says to the disciples wondering, are we going to get lost in the shuffle? And he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus was God up close and personal to these guys. You want to see a picture of the goodness, the grace, the mercy of God, you see it in the face of Jesus. And he didn't reveal it in some glowing, just one moment, here's my splendor. What he did is over a process of three years with these guys, he continually, on a day-by-day basis, revealed God and his character up close and personal to them. Now here's the problem. You get down to verse 11, and it says, Jesus says, I will remain in the world no longer. …
And that's why I am the life. In fact, in the first century, you know this, they called it the way. Because Jesus invites us out of darkness into the light. I am the light of the world, he said. whoever follows me, follows me, gets up every day and says, yes, where are we going? What are we doing? What do we need to change? Who do I need to call? Who do I need to forgive? Who do I need to contact? I'm the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Do you know what this looks like? It looks like this. I see what's wrong with him, but I'm gonna begin by looking in the mirror to see what's wrong with me. And you're gonna admit you're really afraid and you're gonna admit you're really insecure. And that's okay. It'll be terrifying and you'll be free. Isn't that how you wanna live? Isn't that how we all wanna live? …
… So the Messiah has come to those who know they are spiritually blind. Jesus came and said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. Second Corinthians 4, 6 says, God has literally shed His light on us through the glory that is revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. First Peter 2, 9, you are a people, a people of God whom He has called out of darkness into His marvelous light. So, again, when you're talking about how you begin the gospel, you start with whether a person understands the condition they're in – poor, imprisoned, and blind. And that's not all. The fourth one is to set free those who are oppressed. Sometimes it's translated downtrodden. Those who are under the massive weight and burden of their blindness and their sinfulness and their bondage. That's why Jesus said in Matthew 11, we looked at it a few weeks ago, "'Come unto Me, all you who are weary' and," what? …
… and as powerfully as He did when the glory of God was shining in the face of Jesus Christ, who in John 8, 12 said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Since He came, the world has experienced the impact of the light that shattered the darkness, namely the arrival of Christ. And through the 2,000 years since His arrival, millions of people have come to the light and have been redeemed and are now part of the light, having been transferred from darkness into light. Christian influence has gone on for 2,000 years. It has shined in particular in the West, and the West, of course, with its mission zeal for the rest of the world, sent missionaries from the West to cover the globe to extend the light to the ends of the earth." So the world has experienced the light of Christ in a common grace way. The gospel, the transformation of people through the power of the gospel, has brought light to the world. …
… Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. John 8, verse 12, Jesus said, I am the light of the world. Both the living Word and the written Word are light. Both the living Word and the written Word are absolute truth. John chapter 7, verse 17, Jesus speaking to the Father said, Thy word is truth. That settles it, folks. Jesus said it. But then Jesus himself said in John 14, 6, I am the truth. The living word and the written word. There are those people who try to tell us, well, you know, the Bible, my goodness, that was written by men, so we would expect to find some error in it because it was written by men. It was, men were the human instruments that brought the Bible. Well, do you think that the humanity of Mary made Jesus less than perfect? How did Jesus come? Did he not come? Was he not born of a virgin? How was it possible for a sinful woman? …
As we continue now with our study of the I Ams of Jesus as they're found in John's Gospel, we're going to turn our attention now to the second of the series of I Ams, which is the statement that Jesus made, I am the light of the world. Now, depending on which translation of the Bible you have in front of you, you may find this reference in a little different place from somebody else. In my Bible, I find it in John chapter 8 verse 12, where we read, Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, I am the light of the world, and he who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life." Now, the reason I mentioned in passing that it may be at a different spot in your Bible is that what precedes this in my text is the account of the woman caught in adultery. And in fact, as a subheading in the New King James Bible, it says this for chapter 8, an An adulteress faces the light of the world. …
… We end at verse 12, where Jesus made one of his famous I am statements, I am the light of the world, and he who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. And we read that the response of the Pharisees to this pronouncement of our Lord was this, you bear witness of yourself, your witness is not true. Now there are a couple of things we need to note in this response of the Jewish leaders to Jesus' proclamation. The first thing they said was obvious that he was claiming to be something on the basis of his own testimony. He had just said, I am the light of the world. This was not John the Baptist declaring that Jesus was the light. This is Jesus himself making this affirmation. And under Jewish law, when testimony was given in the law court, for someone to be convicted, they had to be convicted on the basis of two witnesses. And the two witnesses had to agree in what was testified. And so here is Jesus declaring on his own using those words egoimi, which call back to the title of God in the Old Testament, a title of deity, and he said, I am the light of the world. And they say, you're saying that by yourself. Your witness is not true. Now, you see, the inference that the leaders made at this point was that unless two testimonies were given that corroborated one another, then the testimony had to be false and that the witness of Christ was a false witness. …
And Jesus said to her, neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. And then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. He who has ears to hear the Word of God, let them hear it. You may be seated. Let us pray. And now, our Father, as we give attention to this passage so well known from the New Testament, so beloved in Thy church, for the way it bears witness to Your mercy and grace, we ask that You would grant understanding to us and to our lives. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Before we look at the content of this text, let me just take a moment or two to explain what I meant when I said some of you may not find this particular passage at the beginning of the Gospel of John in the eighth chapter. I have with me my New Testament copy of the Nestle's text in Greek, and I've pointed this out to you before, but for those of you who have supervision, you ought to be able to see the difference between the size of the text on this page, on this page, and the size on this page. …