Jesus-I Am The Light To Follow

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As we turn to our text in John 8:12 we need to ask ourselves several questions. Remember, to fully understand God’s Word by the power of the Holy Spirit we need to “search the Scriptures”. We do this often by asking questions. Here are the key questions for this passage:

• Where was Jesus when He declared He was the Light of the world? The Courtyard of the Temple of Herod.
• When in Christ’s life and ministry was it that He declared He was the Light of the World? During the Feast of Tabernacles.
• How did Jesus say we could have the benefits of Him as the Light of the World? Follow Him.

There they are, the three keys to walking in the Light:

• We need to watch Jesus against the backdrop of the Divinely prescribed Worship of Israel, that is the 1st key to walking in the Light.

• We need to see Jesus in the events of the Divinely appointed Feasts of Israel, that is the 2nd key to walking in the Light.

• We need to follow Jesus the way He asked us to in this passage, that is the 3rd key to walking in the Light.

When Jesus walked into Jerusalem as the crowds swelled the city’s population for the Feast of Tabernacles, He was planning on making His greatest offer to Israel in His ministry. To perhaps the largest crowd of all, this happy celebration drew faithful Jews from all over the Land and even the world. And here, at the great feast God had given to Moses to write 1,500 years earlier as a testimony of Christ, Jesus arrives and offers Himself to any and all who would listen.

Have you found Jesus as your light? Last time we studied what it meant to be trusting Jesus. This morning we need to study what it means to be following Jesus. To do so, join me again in the remarkable setting of this great I AM THE LIGHT declaration by Jesus. To do so we must ask the 1st Question. Okay, here we go. WHERE WAS JESUS when He declared He was the Light of the World? The answer? In the Courtyard of the Temple of Herod. What do we need to do? We need to watch Jesus against the backdrop of the Divinely prescribed Worship of Israel, that is the 1st key to walking in the Light.

To understand the magnitude of Christ’s declaration that He was The Light of the World we need to turn back to the second book of the Bible. Remember when we studied Creation a while back? We saw that there are only two chapters4 in the Bible are devoted to the creation story, whereas some fifty chapters focus on the Tabernacle (see especially Ex. 25-40). Why did God give so many details about the Divinely prescribed worship for Israel? Clearly the Tabernacle is important and demands attention in our study, because it is a giant portrait of Jesus Christ. Everywhere you look in the Tabernacle you can see Jesus Christ the Lord!

Walk again with me through Exodus 37-38 this morning. The courtyard of the Tabernacle was one hundred fifty feet long and seventy-five feet wide. As we walk around it on a Scriptural Tour we can find every object we see in some way points to Christ. And also His great I AM declarations are featured in this sacred place.

• EXODUS 37:1-9 THERE WAS ONLY ONE WAY TO GOD. Jesus reflected this when He declared I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. The only object5 in the Holy of Holies was the ark, which represents Jesus Christ, the true mercy seat. When we meet Jesus Christ as Savior, we are ushered into the presence of God, into the true Holy of Holies. God no longer communes with men between the wings of cherubim on a gold mercy seat. He communes with men in His Son, by whom the veil was torn in two. Jesus Christ is the mercy seat. Only on the basis of the blood of a goat would God have fellowship with Israel, and only on the basis of the blood of Christ will God have fellowship with men. John, in using the term “propitiation,” in 1 John 2:2, relates Jesus to the mercy seat, since that very word ??????????? is used for mercy seat in the Septuagint translation of Exodus 25:17.
• EXODUS 37:10-16 THERE WAS ONE SOURCE OF FOOD IN THE TABERNACLE OF GOD’S PRESENCE. Jesus reflected this when He declared I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE. On the right was the table on which was the sacred bread, or show-bread. This table, like the base of the altar, was of acacia wood overlaid with gold. It was three feet long, one and a half feet wide, and two and a quarter feet high. Every Sabbath twelve loaves of fresh bread were set on it, one for each of the twelve tribes. At the end of the week, the priests, and only the priests, were allowed to eat the loaves.
• EXODUS 37:17-24 THERE WAS ONLY ONE SOURCE OF LIGHT IN THE TABERNACLE OF GOD’S PRESENCE. Jesus reflected this when He declared I AM the LIGHT of the world. Still moving west across the courtyard, we come to the Tabernacle proper-forty-five feet long, fifteen feet wide, and fifteen feet high. The holy place took up two-thirds of this area, which means that the holy of holies was a perfect fifteen-foot cube. Only priests could go into the Holy Place, in which were three pieces of furniture. On the left, as the priest entered, was a solid gold lampstand having seven branches, each filled with the purest olive oil.
• EXODUS 37:25-28 THERE WAS ONE PLACE OF A CONSTANT OFFERING RISING TO GOD FROM THE TABERNACLE OF GOD’S PRESENCE. Jesus reflected this when He declared I AM THE VINE, and we are to abide in Him or we amount to nothing. Farther in and to the center of the Holy Place was the altar of incense. It, too, was of gold-overlaid acacia wood, one and one-half feet square and about three feet high. On this altar were placed the burning coals from the bronze altar in the courtyard, where sacrifice was made. The altar of incense pictures Jesus interceding for us, the perfect Sacrifice becoming the perfect Intercessor.
• EXODUS 38:1-7 THERE WAS ONE SACRIFICIAL ALTAR IN THE TABERNACLE OF GOD’S PRESENCE. Jesus reflected this when He declared I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD WHO GIVES MY LIFE FOR MY SHEEP. So Jesus our Lamb offered Himself for us. The first article of furniture in the outer court was the bronze altar. It was made of acacia wood sheathed with bronze. It was seven and a half feet square, stood four and a half feet off the ground, and was topped with a bronze grate. The coals were placed underneath the grate and the sacrifice was placed on top. On the four corners of the altar were horns, to
  which the animal was bound when it was being sacrificed. The bronze altar is again a perfect picture of Jesus Christ, who Himself was a sacrifice for sin.
• EXODUS 38:8 THERE WAS ONE PLACE OF CLEANSING IN THE TABERNACLE OF GOD’S PRESENCE. Jesus reflected this when He declared I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE, He shed His blood to cleanse us from our sins, we are washed in His blood. Once we have received forgiveness for our sins through Christ’s sacrifice of Himself, we still need His daily cleansing that restores fellowship and joy. So the next piece of furniture in the court was THE LAVER or basin, also made of bronze. In it the priests would wash their hands, and even sometimes their feet, as they went about the bloody services of sacrifice. Here is a picture of Jesus Christ as the cleanser of His people.
• EXODUS 38:9-20 THERE WAS ONE ENTRANCE TO THE TABERNACLE OF GOD’S PRESENCE. Jesus reflected this when He declared I AM THE DOOR: There was only one entrance into God’s earthly presence, a single gate, on the east side that was thirty feet wide and seven and a half feet high, allowing a large number of people to enter at the same time. It is a graphic picture of Jesus Christ, who said, “I am the way” and “I am the door.” Just as there was only one entrance to the Tabernacle, there is only one way to God-the only Way and the only Door, Jesus Christ. Christianity is exclusive, not because Christians make it so but because God has made it so. Throughout the centuries, of course, Christians have made the earthly church exclusive in many wrong ways. But God has intentionally made His spiritual, eternal church exclusive. It can be entered only through Jesus Christ.

All the pieces of furniture also picture Christ. Everything in the outer courtyard was connected with salvation and the cleansing of sins. Jesus accomplished His sacrificial work on earth, outside God’s heavenly presence. The outer court was accessible to all the people, just as Christ is accessible to all who will come to Him. But in His heavenly sanctuary He is shut off from the world, temporarily even from His own people.

From His heavenly place now, Jesus lights our path (pictured by the golden lampstand), “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world,” Jesus said (John 9:5). When He left the world, the world was left in darkness, and only for believers is He the light of life. He is the light that directs our paths, the One who, through the Spirit, illumines our minds to understand spiritual truth. He is the One who, by the indwelling Spirit, guides us through the world of darkness. He is our light.

• He feeds us (pictured by the table of sacred bread), and Jesus is our sustenance. He is our table of sacred bread. He is the One who feeds us every day, who sustains us with the Word. The Word is not only our food but our light. And the oil is the Spirit of God, who lights the Word for us.
• He intercedes for us (pictured by the altar of incense). The altar of incense pictures Jesus interceding for us, the perfect Sacrifice becoming the perfect Intercessor.

2ND QUESTION: “WHEN WAS IT in Christ’s life and ministry that He declared He was the Light of the World?”

Pretty amazing once you put all those pieces together in the Divinely inspired Book we hold this morning. Now we next ask, “WHEN WAS IT in Christ’s life and ministry that He declared He was the Light of the World?” The answer is that it was during the Feast of Tabernacles. We need to see Jesus in the events of the Divinely appointed Feasts of Israel, that is the 2nd key to walking in the Light.

Jesus was walking in the monumental Temple built by Herod at the end6 of the Feast of Tabernacles on the day after the spectacular nighttime ceremony known as the Illumination of the Temple. That event took place in the Temple treasury before four massive golden candelabra topped with huge torches. It is said that the candelabra were as tall as the highest walls of the Temple, and that at the top of the candelabra were mounted great bowls holding sixty-five liters of oil. There was a ladder for each candelabrum, and when that evening came, healthy young priests would carry oil up to the great bowls and light the protruding wicks. Eyewitnesses said the huge flames which leapt from these torches illuminated not only the Temple but all of Jerusalem.

The Mishnah tells us that “Men of piety and good works used to dance before them [the candelabra] with burning torches in their hands singing songs and praise and countless Levites played on harps, lyres, cymbals and trumpets and instruments of music.” Imagine the smell of the oil, the heat of the smoking torches, and the shadows of perspiring, bearded priests as they whirled and danced before the fire-dazzled throng. This exotic rite celebrated the great pillar of fire (the glorious cloud of God’s presence) which led the Israelites during their sojourn in the wilderness and spread its fiery billows over the Tabernacle.

It was after this ceremony, and in the same Temple treasury the following morning, with the great charred torches still in place, that Jesus lifted his voice above the crowd and proclaimed, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). There could scarcely be a more emphatic way to announce one of the supreme truths of Jesus Christ!

Now think over just exactly what it was that Jesus was saying. Remember, WHEN did He make this declaration? That makes all the difference to feel the magnitude of what He declared! It was after the entire nation had just relived for 14 days the great exodus deliverance and wilderness experience. And then after all that Christ was saying to all of them by association:

• I AM the pillar of fire that came between you and the Egyptians.
• I AM the cloud that guided you by day in the wilderness.
• I AM the pillar of fire that illumined the night.
• I AM the cloud that enveloped the Tabernacle.
• I AM the glorious cloud that filled Solomon’s Temple at a Feast of Tabernacles 1000 years ago.
• I AM all of the great events you have been celebrating, the Light you seek – IT IS HERE, it is ME!”

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). He is everything suggested by the sublime metaphor of light — and much more.

The apostle John tells that Jesus went up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles at the temple. In Jesus, God came in the flesh to celebrate with his people. On the last and greatest day of the Feast of Tabernacles, God incarnate stood in his temple calling out to his thirsty people to come to him and drink (Jn 7:37). How ironic that his unrecognized voice was a disturbing presence in the festivities that had for so long been celebrated to welcome his presence!

All seven of the Feasts speak of Christ. The three that were required for all Israel to participate in especially spoke of Him.

• PASSOVER speaks of the death of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God (Ex. 12; John 1:29);
• the FEAST OF FIRST FRUITS is a type of His resurrection (1 Cor. 15:23);
• and the FEAST OF TABERNACLES reminds us of His coming again and the future kingdom of joy and fullness (Zech. 14:16–21).

This immense truth that Christ is the light of the world is even more powerful when we realize that the Lord applies this truth now to US this morning in Tulsa. Where? Look at Ephesians 5:8 Paul amazingly applies this metaphor to us: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord” (v. 8a). We are light! Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse, a master of illustration, used to explain us as Christ’s lights this way:

When Christ was in the world, he was like the shining sun. When the sun sets, the moon comes up. The moon is a picture of believers, the Church. The Church shines, but not with its own light. It shines with reflected light. At times the Church has been a full moon dazzling the world with an almost daytime light. Those were times of great enlightenment — for example, in the days of Paul and Luther and Wesley. At other times the Church has been only a thumbnail moon, and in those days very little light shone on the earth. But whether the Church is a full or thumbnail moon, whether waxing or waning, it reflects the light of Christ. Our light does not originate with us.

This text suggests even more than reflection — we actually become light ourselves: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord” (v. 8a). Our light is derived from him — not a ray of it comes from us. But somehow our incorporation in Christ allows us to actually be light, however imperfect. We “participate in the divine nature,” says Peter (2 Peter 1:4). Now hold on to your seats because there is even more. So authentic is our participation, so real is our light, that in eternity we will actually be part of the light ourselves. Jesus said in his Mystery Parables, “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:43).

3rd Question. Finally, How did Jesus say we could have the benefits of Him as the Light of the World? Follow Him. We need to follow Jesus the way He asked us to in this passage and that is the 3rd key to walking in the Light.

JESUS said: “He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” The light of life means two things. The7 Greek can mean either:

•  the light which issues from the source of life or
• the light which gives life.

In this passage it means both.

• Jesus is the very light of God come among men; and
• Jesus is the light which gives men life. Just as the flower can never blossom when it never sees the sunlight, so our lives can never flower with the grace and beauty they ought to have until they are irradiated with the light of the presence of Jesus.

In this passage Jesus talks of following himself. We often speak of following Jesus; we often urge men to do so.What do we mean?The Greek for to follow is  _____; and its meanings combine to shed a flood of light on what it means to follow Jesus. ______has five different but closely connected meanings. So how do we follow Jesus as our LIGHT and stay with Him and not walk in darkness? Each of the uses of this word explains an element of walking in the light.

(i) WE FOLLOW JESUS AS OUR CAPTAIN. This word is often a military term used frequently of a soldier following his captain. On the long route marches, into battle, in campaigns in strange lands, the soldier follows wherever the captain may lead. The Christian is the soldier whose commander is Christ. We follow Christ our Captain.

• Hebrews 2:10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. NKJV
• 2 Timothy 2:3-4 You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4 No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. NKJV
• Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. NKJV

(ii) WE FOLLOW JESUS AS OUR MASTER: This word is a domestic term used frequently of a slave accompanying his master. Wherever the master goes the slave is in attendance upon him, always ready to spring to his service and to carry out the tasks he gives him to do. He is literally at his master’s beck and call. The Christian is the slave whose joy it is always to serve Christ. We follow Christ our Master.

Matthew 11:28-30 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” NKJV

(iii) WE FOLLOW JESUS AS OUR COUNSELOR AND GUIDE: This word is a legal term used frequently of accepting a wise counselor’s opinion. When a man is in doubt he goes to the expert, and if he is wise he accepts the judgment he receives. The Christian is the man who guides his life and conduct by the counsel of Christ. We follow Christ our Wonderful Counselor and Guide

Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. NKJV

(iv)  WE FOLLOW JESUS AS OUR KING: This word is a civic term used frequently of giving obedience to the laws of a city or a state. If a man is to be a useful member of any society or citizen of any community, he must agree to abide by its laws. The Christian, being a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, accepts the law of the kingdom and of Christ as the law, which governs his life. We follow Christ as our KING.

Acts 17:7 Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king—Jesus.” NKJV

(v)  WE FOLLOW JESUS AS OUR TEACHER: This word is a discipleship term used frequently of following a teacher’s line of argument, or of following the gist of someone’s speech. The Christian is the man who has understood the meaning of the teaching of Christ. He has not listened in dull incomprehension or with slack inattention. He takes the message into his mind and understands, receives the words into his memory and remembers, and hides them in his heart and obeys. We follow Christ as our Teacher and want to become LIKE HIM, not just know what He teaches, but live like He lived!

Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. NKJV

Acts 4:13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. NKJV

A believer is one who becomes like Jesus Christ.
To be a follower of Christ is to give oneself body, soul and spirit into the obedience of the Master; and to enter upon that following is to walk in the light.
When we walk alone we are bound to stumble and grope, for so many of life’s problems are beyond our solution.
When we walk alone we are bound to take the wrong way, because we have no secure map of life. We need the heavenly wisdom to walk the earthly way. The man who has a sure guide and an accurate map is the man who is bound to come in safety to his journey’s end. Jesus Christ is that guide; he alone possesses the map to life. To follow Jesus is to walk in His light safely through life and afterwards to enter into glory.

The perfection of Christ our God is seen in the seven “I AM’S” in John’s record of Christ’s life and ministry. Christ has given His own eternal life (John 17:2), but He has also given them the revelation of the Father’s name (John 17:6). The Old Testament Jew knew his God as “Jehovah,” the great I AM (Ex. 3:11–14). Jesus took this sacred name “I AM” and made it meaningful to His disciples: “I am the Bread of Life” (John 6:35); “I am the Light of the world” (John 8:12); “I am the Good Shepherd” (John 10:11); etc. In other words, Jesus revealed the Father’s gracious name by showing His disciples that He was everything they needed. 8 So twenty-three times in all we find our Lord’s meaningful “I AM” in the Greek text of this gospel (4:26; 6:20,35,41,48,51; 8:12,18,24,28,58; 10:7,9,11,14; 11:25; 13:19; 14:6; 15:1,5; 18:5,6,8).

In several of these, He joins His “I AM” with seven tremendous metaphors which are expressive of His saving relationship toward the world. IN other words, the Christian life may be described in these seven declarations of Jesus. The Christian life is:

• I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE (6:35) -H eFEEDS OUR STARVING SOULS, but apart from Him is only unsatisfied hunger. The internal gnawing pain that hunger brings is the illustration of our condition apart from Christ. He alone feeds our soul and satisfies our hungers, all else is emptiness, hopelessness and empty mirages. Jesus said I am your food that satisfies, I am the Bread you need. I have settled the longings of your soul, I can satisfy all the hungers of your life. What do you really hunger for? UNGERING FOR JESUS AS MY BREAD OF LIFE. “I AM the Bread of life” (6:35,41,48,51).
• I AM THE LIGHT OF WORLD (8:12)- He LIGHTS OUR DARKENED SOULS, but apart from Him is only impenetrable darkness. Jesus said I am the Light, I have settled the darkness of fear, the darkness of death, the darkness of dying, it is all settled by Me! WALKING WITH JESUS WHO LIGHTS MY PATH OF LIFE. “I AM the Light of the world” (8:12).
• I AM THE DOOR OF LIFE TO MY SHEEP (10:7,9) -He INVITESuslostsheep back into God’s Family, but apart from Him is only hopeless exclusion. Jesus said I am the Door of Life, all your security and access needs are settled, by Me! In the ancient world there were sheep folds built of stones or made from caves, dotting the hills and valleys of Israel. The door was made so that the shepherd himself would lay down at night and become the door so that no sheep could wander out without stumbling over him and no predator could slip in without stirring him. So Jesus says I keep you safe from harm and secure from wandering away from my salvation! ENTERING THROUGH JESUS WHO IS MY DOOR TO LIFE. “I AM the Door of the sheep” (10:7,9).
• I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD (10:11)- He LEADS US HOME, but apart from Him is only aimless wandering. Jesus said I am the Good Shepherd who died, I have settled the issue of the unknown. I am your companion through life and death. Jesus gives us the perfect example of how to live and how to die! FOLLOWING THE GOOD SHEPHERD WHO IS THE SAVIOR OF MY LIFE. “I AM the Good Shepherd” (10:11,14).
• I AM THE RESURRECTION AND LIFE (11:25)- He pours upon US endless LIFE, but apart from Him is only endless dying. Jesus says I am the Resurrection, I am the Life. I have settled the issue of Hope, you can count on me, hope in me all through life and into death! RESTING IN JESUS WHOSE RESURRECTION GAVE ME ENDLESS LIFE. “I AM the Resurrection and the Life” (11:25).
• I AM THE WAY, TRUTH & LIFE (14:6)- He secures us in the way of endless life, but apart from Him is only endless lostness. Jesus said I am the way, I have settled the issue of your home. I am making it, your very own room, and the minute that it is ready I am coming to get you! FOLLOWING THE WAY OF JESUS, BELIEVING THE TRUTH OF JESUS, AND LIVING THE LIFE OF JESUS. “I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (14:6).
• I AM THE TRUE VINE (15:1)- He NURTURES us through life, apart from Him is only continual withering. Jesus says I am the Vine, your source of life and health. The state of your health is all in my hands. I will provide for you living grace, enduring declining life grace, and dying grace. Each just when you need them! If the vine speaks of all of life as one growing season, then we should get more fruit filled the older we get (ala Psalm 92), if it is many seasons then life is a succession of growing /pruning /bearing /resting and then growing/pruning… ABIDING IN JESUS WHO IS MY SUPPLY OF ALL I EVER NEED. “I AM the true Vine” (15:1,5). Psalm 92

 

4 Drawn from MacArthur, John F., The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Hebrews, (Chicago: Moody Press) 1983.
5 All of this material on the Tabernacle adapted and quoted from MacArthur, John F., The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Hebrews, (Chicago: Moody Press) 1983.

6 Quoted from Hughes, R. Kent, Preaching the Word: Ephesians—The Mystery of the Body of Christ, (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books) 1997.

7 Barclay, William, Daily Study Bible Series: The Gospel of John – Volume 2 Chapters 8-21 (Revised Edition), (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press) 2000, c1975.

8 Wiersbe, Warren W., The Bible Exposition Commentary, (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books) 1997. © Discover the Book Ministries 2002

Transcript

Turn with me to the Gospel by John, the 8th chapter. The Gospel by John, the 8th chapter. What passage we’re going to look at is verse 12 of the 8th chapter. As you turn there, Jesus Christ is introducing Himself. We’re actually in a series that we started a few weeks ago. We’re going through looking at Christ’s introduction of Himself.

Now, Jesus summarizes the Christian life in seven declarations. We call them His I am statements. He says seven different times I am. First of all, last time we saw the bread of life. Today we see, I am the light of the world, that’s verse twelve. A little bit later in chapter 10 verse 7 He says, I am the door. Then He says, I am the Good Shepherd. Then He goes through and says, I am the way, the truth, the life. Then He says, I am the vine. All the way through these seven I am’s, Jesus is saying, I am everything you need. I am the Christian life. I am salvation. The Christian life can be distilled down to, one word, Christ.

A dear old speaker, a beloved friend of mine, I have all of his books. He’s now in glory. Lehman Strauss used to say this, take the word Christian, C H R I S T I A N, leave the last three letters, but take Christ out of Christian and all you have left are I A N, I Am Nothing. That was his favorite little thing. I can’t quite do it as dramatically as he could because he was short and had a big voice. But you know what? Take Christ out of Christian. You have nothing. Jesus says I am everything you need. I am your salvation.

Let’s look at that as we look at the twelfth verse of chapter 8 because I want to declare to you this morning the fullness of what Christ said at this momentous time. We’re listening to Jesus Christ declaring who He was and what He can do to all who come to Him. What was it He said? In verse 12, He spoke to them again, saying, I am. Remember we saw last time, that’s the great ego eimi, and Hebrew is ehyeh-asher, which means, I forever am. It’s an endlessness. He said, I always am, will be, and was the light of the world. Then He applies it. He says, if you follow Me, you’ll not walk in darkness, but you will have the light of life, the light that comes from having eternal life, the light that leads us into eternal life. It’s both segments.

So, in our text in John 8:12, we need to ask ourselves some questions. I’m going to give you a little Bible study lesson here this morning. This is great. This is the whole I am right there. I am the light of the world. It’s wonderful. But have you ever asked yourself, where was Jesus when He said this? Because of each one of Jesus’ seven I am’s, He chose a specific place to declare that. Jesus was not happenstance. He was not capricious. He didn’t just allow things to happen. He was operating on His Father in Heaven’s divine timetable. So, Jesus picked the spots, the locations where He declared who He was. He even picked the time of the year. We’re going to see this morning, number one, where was Jesus when He said this? Let’s do a little study.

Look at chapter 7, verse 2. I’ll show you where He was. In chapter 7, verse 2, where was Jesus? John 7:2 says the Feast of Tabernacles was at hand. Now look at verse 8. Jesus said to His brothers, remember Jesus was from a family, with at least four brothers and two sisters, at least. There were probably more of them than that, but those four brothers and two sisters are named. Two of His brothers, earthly brothers, wrote books of the Bible, James and Jude. But those four earthly brothers were always hassling Him, and they were bothering Him there, now. He said to them, in verse 8, you go up to the feast. I am not yet going to this feast, for My time has not yet fully come. He says it’s not time for Me to go. Why? Six months before He’d done the feeding of the 5,000 and they tried to make Him king. He said, I’m not going down to that feast after just six months and they’re going to try and promote Me as the king. He says that’s not what God has planned.

So, verse 10, He also went up to the feast, not openly, the end of verse 10 says, but as it was in secret. So, He’s headed to Jerusalem. Now, look at verse 14. We’ll find out where He spent His time. Now about the middle of the feast which was seven days according to Leviticus. The Jews thought it was such a great feast, that they added an eighth day, which we’ll see in a few verses. So, He was on the fourth day, or the middle of the feast. Jesus went up, we’ll see tonight why it’s up, into the Temple, and taught. So where is He? He’s in the Temple. Now look at verse 37, He’s still there. On the last day, that great day of the feast. So, Jesus is still in Jerusalem, He’s still in the Temple, He’s still in the courtyards, He’s still there offering Himself, teaching, and meeting with the people. Now, in verse 53 of chapter 7, everyone went to His own home, and Jesus went out to the Mount of Olives. Verse 2 says, early in the morning, so that’s the day after the great day of the feast. Now look at verse 12, Jesus, on the day after the last great day of the feast, is in the Temple in the courtyards. He’s in Jerusalem. He picked the place for this great event.

The second question we need to ask, is not only where was He, but when was He there? It’s answered by the same routine I just took you through. He was there at the Feast of Tabernacles. You say, what’s that? So what? Why does that matter? It makes all the difference in the world because Jesus was divinely making appointments at certain places, certain times, locations, and events so that He could fulfill them. Remember He said, I didn’t come to destroy the law, I came to what? Fulfill it. He went to the feeding of the 5,000 we saw last week, and He showed them He’s the bread of God come down from Heaven. He comes to the Feast of the Tabernacles where they celebrated two great events. They celebrated the Exodus deliverance out of Egypt and in that deliverance, God led them and fed them. So, Jesus says I’m the bread, chapter 6, in chapter 7 He says I’m the water, and in chapter 8 I’m the light that guided you through that time. The second question is, when in Christ’s life and ministry was it that He declared He was the light of the world? It was during the Feast of Tabernacles.

Then, if you look again at verse 12, the third question, and the last one we’re going to cover this morning, how did Jesus say we could benefit from Him being the light of the world? He says in verse 12, I’m the light of the world, who follows me. If someone’s got a light and they’re guiding you along, it doesn’t do you any good if they’re a mile ahead of you. You don’t know where you are, you’ll stumble and fall into a hole. It doesn’t do any good if you’re in front of them. You have to follow them if they are going to be the one that’s lighting the way. Jesus said, My sheep hear My voice, I know them and they what? Follow Me, they’re behind Me. Now He says the same thing. He says I’m the light of the world. If you follow behind Me, if you walk with Me, you will never walk in the darkness. Why? Because He says, I’m going to cast a circle of light. You’ll always know where you’re supposed to be, what you’re supposed to do, how you’re supposed to respond. He says, if you walk with Me, I’ll teach you.

Those are the three keys to understanding what Jesus meant. The first key, we need to watch Jesus against the backdrop of the location He picked to say this. What location was it? the Temple. What does that have to do with anything? I’m going to show you in just a moment. But if we look at Jesus against the backdrop of the divinely prescribed worship of Israel, in other words, all the Tabernacle and Temple procedures, that’s the first key to understanding what He meant about walking in the light.

Secondly, we have to see Jesus in the events of the divinely appointed feast. He didn’t come here on Pentecost. He didn’t come on Passover to declare He was the light of the world. He didn’t come at the time of the First Fruits. He didn’t come at any of the other seasons, even Hanukkah we’re going to see later on. He didn’t come then. He came during the Feast of Tabernacles for a specific reason. That, we’ll find, is the second key to walking in the light. We need to follow Jesus the way He asked us to from this passage and that is the final key to walking in the light.

So, let’s do our little journey to the Temple, okay? Jesus goes, as we saw in chapter 7, He leaves Galilee and walks 70 to 80 miles down the road of the patriarchs through the Judean hills and up the little mountain to Jerusalem. As He did there were literally hundreds of thousands of people. This was the most popular of all the feasts. The most popular. It was the most joyous time. Even in Israel today, they love the Feast of Tabernacles. They call it Sukkot in Hebrew. Jesus went up to Jerusalem, surrounded by all these people who were just having such a wonderful time coming up to celebrate the Lord. Jesus came, listen, to the place that God divinely appointed to be a picture of Him. You say, what’s that? The Temple and the Old Testament Tabernacle were both gigantic pictures of Jesus Christ and Jesus came to that place.

Let’s follow Him because to understand the magnitude of what He declares, that He was the light of the world, we need to look back. If you join me, look back at Exodus chapter 37. We’re going to go there for just a few minutes, don’t get lost in the Old Testament, but we need to see this. You might get your pen out because I’m going to make two chapters of Exodus very exciting for you this morning, chapters 37 and 38. We need to understand the magnitude of where Jesus made this declaration.

As we turn to Exodus 37 and 38, I remind you, that there are only two chapters in the Bible that describe the creation of the entire universe. Those two chapters are vital. We covered them a couple of years ago, and I think they bear constant repeating, especially in our evolutionary world. But there are only two chapters. Isn’t it fascinating that God devotes 25 chapters to the construction of the Tabernacle, and 25 more chapters to the procedures of the Tabernacle, making a total of 50 chapters of the Bible being devoted to the objects in the Tabernacle and the events that were prescribed to go on inside. That means that God says we should pay attention. God gave so many details about this divinely prescribed worship for Israel. The Tabernacle is so important because it is a giant portrait of Jesus Christ. It’s a life-size portrait of Him in the Old Testament. So, Jesus Christ, as we look through the Tabernacle I’m going to take you through the major objects of it, we can see Him clearly portrayed in all of them.

It reminds me of when I was in New England pastoring. They have the picture directories and back in the old days, that was many years ago, they used to do, as a donation to the church, a great big 24 by 36 portrait of the pastor. What do you do with a 24 by 36 portrait of yourself? I guess it was for the church people to hang in the lobby or something. Now a lot of churches in New England hung their pastors, but they didn’t want to hang my picture, so they gave it to me. So, I got this 24 by 36 picture of myself. Of course, what do you do with it? You put it at the front door and say, ha, there’s me, aren’t you glad you came to our house? So, Bonnie said, honey, we can’t throw it away, we’ll do something. So, she found this corner of our nursery where our little children were in their crib, she had me put a nail in, and she put it up on the wall.

I didn’t think anything of it until one day when she came up to get little baby James or Estelle, one of them, it was a long time ago. They were sitting up in their crib and they were going, Daddy, oh, Daddy, oh. They were sitting there looking at the picture, they thought it was me looking at them through the window. It was so big and life-size. They were talking to me, right there, looking up at that giant picture. I thought about that. I thought, you get a life-size portrait, and someone actually might think it’s the real thing. Jesus introduced them to the real thing. They had a life-size portrait. You know what? When I came in the room, though, the nice thing was, that little baby, whoever it was, turned and talked to me because I was better than the picture. But the problem He finds with the Jews, they like the picture better than the person. That’s the problem with religion. That was the problem the Jewish people had.

What’s the picture of Jesus? Let me just walk through this. The first nine verses of chapter 37 declare this, and this is the whole Ark of the Covenant. It declares in Exodus 37:1-9, this is just a short summary in these nine verses. The Ark was a representation that there was only one way to God. You could not go out and offer a sacrifice somewhere out in the Jordan Valley. You couldn’t go out and offer a sacrifice over somewhere up on the plains of Ammon. You had to come to where the Tabernacle was sitting, to the place of God’s presence, and you had to bring the blood in on the Day of Atonement and pour it on the mercy seat in that spot. That was the only place that God accepted it. So, what does the Ark of the Covenant tell us? There’s only one way to God. There is only one way to receive His atonement, to get the benefits of the sacrifice, to have sins removed, to have God’s wrath taken away. There’s only one place, one location, and that was the holiest spot on Earth, the mercy seat, on top of the Ark of the Covenant.

Now, next, look at verse 10. There’s a second object that Moses records in Exodus 37, starting in verse 10, down through 16. That’s the second interesting thing. There is only one source of food in the Tabernacle. Have you ever thought about that? Now, they had these animals that they would sacrifice and sometimes the priest had a portion and sometimes you got to take some out. But the only constant food supply that was in the Tabernacle was this little table called the table of acacia wood in verse 10, and we call it the table of showbread. Actually, it’s the bread of the face, that’s the literal term in Hebrew. It’s the bread of the face, which means it was a table. God was on one side, and the priests were on this side, and they were looking at the face of God across the table. That bread was in front of the face of God, which is an interesting thing to think about when you come to communion tonight. The Lord’s Supper is a celebration of the bread of the face of God. We see the face of God in Jesus Christ. He’s the one that’s invited us to the meal, that’s just a little reminder of how significant it is. But the showbread table reminds us there was only one source of food in the Tabernacle.

Now look at the next verse, verse 17. There was only one source of light. It’s the lampstand, that goes down from verse 17 to 24. If you look carefully, there were no skylights, there were no little tiny lights near the top to give a little light into that tent. There were no windows on the sides. There were all these curtains and that made it pitch black inside of that tent, the Tabernacle, except for this one, the seven-branch menorah. The only source of light in the Tabernacle.

Look at verse 25, there was only one place of constant offering rising to God from the Tabernacle. There were occasional sacrifices. There was the morning lamb out front on the brazen altar, and there was the evening lamb, and there were the various sacrifices that people brought. But there was not continuously a lamb burning out there, or a goat, or a bull. It was whenever there was a sacrifice. But, it tells us in the text that fire was to be taken from the brazen altar, brought inside constantly, put on this altar of incense, and they were to constantly feed that fire burning and smoldering and the smoke rising. There was to be a constant rising of smoke in the Tabernacle. What is that? There was to be a constant offering of incense to God, and there is a meaning that Christ is going to attach to that.

If you keep going to chapter 38, the first seven verses describe the altar of burnt offering. We’ve already seen the Ark in verses 1 to 9, the showbread in verses 10 to 16, the golden lampstand in verses 17 to 24, and the altar of incense in verses 25 to 28.

Now, in chapter 38, the first seven verses, we have the altar of the burnt offering. This is the great brazen altar out front. There was only one sacrificial altar in the Tabernacle. There weren’t many, one. There’s just one place of sacrifice. One place where they cut up the animals and put the fire underneath the grate to burn them on that great offering place. There’s just one place of offering.

Then, look at verse 8. There was only one place of cleansing. I hope you’re noticing the one place, one place. Jesus is going to declare something about that, but there was only one place of cleansing. In verse 8, this laver, it’s like a lavatory, a place of washing. It was a place for them in this great round basin to wash themselves, to prepare to come into the presence of God. So, there’s only one place of cleansing.

Finally, the longest section is beautiful, starting in verse 9, all the way to the 20th verse. It says that there was only one entrance into the Tabernacle. Now you’d think something as significant as that Tabernacle needed more. By the way, it was 150 feet long and 75 feet wide. To give it a modern perspective, it would be half of a football field, which is 300 feet long and 75 feet wide. So, this was half the length of a football field and the same width. Here, this great tent, which was the epicenter of all the presence of God, only had one entrance. Now it was wide. It was over 30 feet wide and 7 and a half feet high, the doorway, but there was only one doorway. In other words, there’s room for everybody who wants to come in, but there’s only one way they can come in. Okay?

All of these have significance. What is the significance? Number one, back to the first part of verse 37. There’s only one way to God. What did Jesus say when He introduced Himself in John 14 verse 6? I am the way. I am the truth. I am the, what? Life. If there’s only one way to God, Jesus Christ introduced Himself as that one way. So, Jesus Christ was just like the great Ark of the Covenant. Jesus Christ is the true mercy seat. When we meet Jesus Christ as Savior, we’re ushered into the presence of God. God no longer communes with us because of blood poured out of animals. He communes with us because of the blood of the true offering, once and for all of sin, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is our mercy seat. He communes with us by His Son. The veil was torn in two. Jesus Christ is our mercy seat, and it’s only on the basis of His blood that we have access to God. So, what did Jesus say? He came to the Temple of Herod 2,000 years ago and He said to them, as He stood by that temple, I am everything that temple represents. I am the Ark of the Covenant. I am the true mercy seat. I am the only way God’s wrath will be satisfied. My blood poured out.

Secondly, there was also this whole showbread thing. We saw that last week. The showbread, the sacred bread, reminded the people of the bread of God’s presence. What did Jesus say in chapter 6? I am the bread of life. You only eat Me. If you eat Me, you’ll never hunger. If you drink Me, you’ll never thirst. Jesus said, if there was only one source of food in the Tabernacle of God’s presence, I am the source of God’s food to give you life everlasting.

Then what we’re looking at this morning, is verse 10 of chapter 37. There was only one source of light in that tabernacle. Jesus introduces Himself this morning in John 8:12, and He says I am the light. I am the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. You have to come to Me. Without me, there’s only impenetrable darkness. There was only one place of light in the tabernacle, and Jesus reflected that when He declared, I am the light of the world.

All the way through the rest of them, the constant offering of the altar of incense, what does that speak of? It speaks of intercession. What does it say in Hebrews? Jesus ever liveth to make intercession for us, so that we can come boldly into God’s presence. How did He relate that to us in the I am statements? It’s very curious. If you look at His final one, Jesus Christ says that I’m the vine and you’re the branches. He says only as you live connected to Me can you amount to anything. He says, I’m the one that supplies the food you need, and I’m the one that cleanses you and keeps you. That intercession and ever living to make intercession for us happens as He stands before the Father’s throne. As Satan accuses us, He says, no, I paid for them, I bought them, they are My child, they are written on My hand. As He does that, He reminds us of the vine and the branch connection. So, Jesus is the ever-rising incense of intercession for us.

There was one sacrificial altar. Jesus said I’m the Good Shepherd who gives My life for the sheep. There was one way of cleansing. Jesus Christ said I’m the one who poured out My blood. What does it say in Revelation 1:5? He loved us and washed us from our sins with His own blood. How did He do that? He says I gave My life. I’m the resurrection and the life. I poured My life out in the blood of My new covenant offering of Myself on the cross. I poured that out and I rose from the dead to be the one who gives you life. When we study that one it’s going to be interesting. We can’t determine when we die, but we can determine how we die. The Lord Jesus Christ said we should die triumphantly in hope, in confidence, and in joy of resurrection life.

Finally, there was only one entrance to the tabernacle of God’s presence. Jesus reflected this when He said in John 10, I am the door. There’s only one entrance into God’s earthly presence. It was a single gate. It was on the east side. It was 30 feet wide. It was seven and a half feet high. It allowed many people to enter at the same time, which is a graphic picture of Jesus Christ saying, I am the door. But as there’s only one entrance to the Tabernacle and one to the Temple, there’s only one door to Heaven, and that’s Jesus Christ.

So, all of these pieces and articles of furniture point to Christ. Everything in the Tabernacle was connected to salvation and Christ’s cleansing. It continues. The writer of Hebrews reminds us, From His heavenly place now, Jesus lights our path, pictured by the golden lampstand. Jesus also is pictured in the table of sacred bread as our sustenance, our table. He is the one who feeds us every day, and who sustains us with His Word. He intercedes for us, as Hebrews 7 says. The altar of incense always pictures Jesus, our perfect sacrifice who became our perfect intercessor.

Back to John chapter 8. I ask you again, where was Jesus when He made this great declaration? The answer is He was at the Temple. Why was He at the Temple? Because He was standing there at the largest full-color picture of Him in the world at that time. He’s saying, that’s Me. I am your only way to God. I am the only food you need to eat. I am the only light that can light you. I am all of those things. I am your only hope of intercession, of connection. I’m the only doorway in. I am your sacrifice. He stood there by the Temple. He said all that.

Secondly, the second question we need to ask is, when Jesus said in verse 12, I am the light of the world, he who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, what do you think the people thought of? That’s all predicated on when it was… He said it. Think about if you went on your family vacation to Jerusalem, as those people had to do three times a year. If you got ready, it was six months since the last time you went down there. You had to go down for this feast, and you got all your money ready, and you got all of your offerings ready, and you made the 70-mile walk down there. You looked at all the events, and the biggest event of this whole week was the giant lighting of those menorahs, where at night they illumined the whole city from those huge lamp stands in the Temple. Then if someone came and stood in that very spot, the crowd was still there, and if someone stood there and said, I am the light! Towering over your head were these menorahs. They don’t know whether they were 45, 50, or 60 feet high. They were as tall as the pillars of the Temple. These huge candelabras. There were standing those blackened wicks from the night before the festivities. If you were standing there and looking at that man talking and looking at that backdrop, what would you have thought He was talking about? He was relating Himself to the feast.

Now what was the feast? I’m glad you asked that. Turn back to Exodus 13. Okay. Oh boy, don’t ever get rid of Exodus. I just want to show you the last few verses of chapter 13, because the whole thing they celebrated at this feast was the light. I want you to think about the fullness of what Jesus Christ was talking about. In chapter 13 of Exodus, it says in verse 21, we call this the pillar and the cloud. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them the way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light so as to go by day and night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people. That’s what the whole feast was celebrating. The Feast of Tabernacles reminded them that for 40 years, every day when they got up, there was this gigantic representation of God’s presence. Remember what it says in verse 21? The Lord went before them. How were they supposed to know He was there? He put this huge cloud up.

Now, where was He? He had brought them out of Egypt into the Sinai Desert. Here is a little geography. By day, it gets up to 130 to 140 degrees in the sunlight. By night, there are times it can drop to freezing because it’s cloudless and it just gets utterly freezing cold there in the desert when it’s over 100 during the day. By the way, there’s no water out there, nothing grows, hardly at all. So, there they were out there in that desolate, just arid, dry, parched land, and at night, the cloud was a bright beacon light. What do you need that for? If you’re out in the desert, there are scorpions and snakes, there are canyons, there are crevasses, there are all kinds of places that people could fall down and break their arm, break their leg, they could fall into pits. They needed a light so they wouldn’t get lost. They needed to know where to go to find water. So that during the day would transfer from a glowing pillar of fire and it would go into a kind of a glowing cloud of smoke or something that would go along and they would follow wherever that cloud went. When the cloud stopped, they stopped and there would be water. And when the cloud stopped, they stopped and there would be water. So, the Lord guided them all the way and that is the picture that Jesus gives him.

He says, I am the light of the world, I am the pillar of fire that came between you and the Egyptians. If you read about that in chapter 14, starting in verse 19 of Exodus, it says that the cloud went behind them. For just a moment, the cloud snuck from in front of them and went behind them. That cloud was darkness to the Egyptians and light to them so they could cross the Red Sea. That cloud was a barrier that stopped the Egyptians from getting them. It was like a super highway for them to see exactly where to go in the night to escape. The Lord says I was the pillar. I’m the one that protects you. I’m the one that guides you. I’m the one that takes you to where you need to find your water. I’m the one that keeps you from getting lost. I’m the pillar of fire. I’m the cloud that guided you by day. I am the pillar of fire that illumined you by night. Then that cloud came and rested over the Tabernacle, and it says that it filled the whole Tabernacle with a glory cloud. He said it’s Me. I offer Myself to you. You can know Me. You can know God. You can come to Me. That’s what Jesus was talking about.

Back to chapter 8, and we’ll conclude this. John’s Gospel, chapter 8. The first question we need to ask is, where was Jesus when He said I am the light of the world? Jesus was in the Temple. The Temple was a huge picture of Jesus Christ, the cleanser of His people. When was it in Christ’s life and ministry? It was at the Feast of Tabernacles. It was at the feast where they remembered the cloud and the fire and all the provisions.

Finally, look what Jesus says at the end of verse 12. He says, I’m the light of the world, he who follows Me. Jesus put a little catch into this statement. He didn’t say that the light would be sufficient if you went your own way. He said you have to come My way, you have to follow Me. You have to line up behind Me. You have to allow Me to be the one that is your Shepherd, that guides you, that is the doorway and the pathway that you follow. You got to follow Me.

It’s interesting, in this passage when Jesus talks about following Him, He gives us an explanation. You say, how did He do that? The word He uses is fascinating. Remember, every word of God was engineered by God. Jesus picked a very unusual word when He said follow. The word in Greek, for those of you from Greece here this morning is akaluthete. It actually just means follow, but the way it’s used in the New Testament is powerful. Let me just run these by you to spur you on your own study.

It’s used in the way a soldier follows his captain. You say, what does that mean? Turn to Hebrews 2:10 with me if you want to find this great idea. It says in the scriptures, Jesus Christ is our captain. Did you know that? Hebrews 2 and verse 10, It was fitting for him, for whom are all things, by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation. Jesus Christ is the captain. We relate to Him in the military sense, which is the first way this word is used. We relate to Him as His soldiers. Turn back just about two books to 2 Timothy. Just back up to 2 Timothy chapter 2. It goes 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews. 2 Timothy chapter 2 and look at verse 3. Therefore, endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Verse 4, If you engage in warfare, don’t entangle yourself with the affairs of this life, to please Him who enlisted you. Who enlisted us? Our captain. So, we are to follow Jesus like a soldier would follow their captain. How’s that? Hebrews 12 tells us we are to look unto Jesus. We’re to go through life looking unto Him. He’s the author, He gave us salvation and He’s the perfecter. He has finished our salvation.

First of all, when Jesus said, follow me, we follow Him as our captain. On long marches into battle, into campaigns in strange lands, a soldier follows wherever the captain leads. We as Christians are soldiers, our commander is Christ. We follow Him. He’s given us our marching orders right here. He wants us to know them, follow them, obey them, and have them written on our hearts.

Secondly, we follow Jesus as our master. This term, and if you want to get back to Matthew chapter 11, I’m going to show you a verse there. The last three verses of Matthew 11 give us a little idea of how we’re to relate to Jesus as master and servant relationship. Matthew 11, Jesus said this, Come unto Me, all ye who labor and are heavily laden, and I will give you rest. Then He says the term of our relationship to Him. In verse 29, He says, Take My yoke upon you. We are to follow Jesus as our master.

In the ancient world, the word was used for a slave who accompanied his master. What’s that? When the master would go to the marketplace to buy food, the slave would carry all the stuff that the master purchased. When the master was on his trip all the things that the master needed would be handed to him and offered to him. Jesus said, I am your master. You are My slaves. We are the bond slaves of Christ. He says, follow Me as a slave follows his master. We should be always ready to spring to His service. We should carry out the task He gives us to do. We should literally be at His beck and call like a slave was for their master. The Christian slave is the slave whose joy it always is to serve Christ. Jesus said, if you look at verse 29 if you relate to Me as Me being your master and you being My slave, you will find rest for your souls. The scriptures say other masters we’ve had, but only You give us joy and peace. Paul put it this way. He says, don’t yield yourself as slaves to sin. Rather, yield yourselves back to the Lord Jesus as His slave to do His bidding. That’s the second way we follow Him.

The third way, you don’t have to turn to this one because you know it. This word is also used as a legal term for following a lawyer’s opinion. When you want to purchase something, you get a legal opinion or check the title out. We are to follow Jesus as our counselor and our guide. Do you remember the great Christmas verse, Unto us a child is born, a Son is given, and what’s His name? Wonderful Counselor. Jesus said I want you to follow Me as your counselor, as your guide. We trust and obey Him.

The fourth way this word is used is of a citizen following their king. Jesus is our king. It says in Acts 17:7, that we have another king, and His name is Jesus.

Finally, the last way this word is used in the New Testament is probably the best known. In the Great Commission, Jesus said, All authority is given to Me in Heaven and Earth. Go therefore and disciples, teaching them to observe what I commanded you. As a Christian, we come to Christ as our teacher. We follow Him as the one who we want, to not only know what He knew, not only understand His truth and do what He did, but we want to be like Him. When we follow Jesus, we follow Him as our captain, we follow Him as our counselor and guide, we follow Him as our master, we follow Him as our king. But most of all we follow Him as the teacher we want to imitate. We want to be like Him and someday we’ll see Him as He is. We’ll fully be like Him, but through life we want to know what He knew as we study His Word to be like Him, as Paul said, to be imitators.

What’s the response that we should have? I want you to close your Bibles and take your hymn books and we’re not going to sing, we’re going to read, okay? Number 336, because I want you to think this morning about a response to God. Now, for some of you, I met four or five visiting families, you probably just covered more verses than you cover in a month at your church. I know you’re worn out, but look in the hymn book, okay? This is the response that we should have. Don’t ever hear something from God without in your spirit, from your soul, responding. I’m going to read the stanzas and you read the words that are repeated over and over again. Your words are, here’s your part, Jesus I come. Now, for some of you, this is just going to be let’s get it over, it’s time for lunch. For others of you, you’re going to understand what it means. The songwriter here talks about everything we face in our lives and what he’s saying is, that Jesus is all we need, come to Him for it.

Listen to this, Out of my bondage, sorrow and night, Into Thy freedom, gladness, and light, Jesus I come, Jesus I come. Out of my sickness, into Thy health, out of my want, into Thy wealth, out of my sin, and into Thyself, Jesus I come to Thee. Amen. Out of my shameful failure and loss, Jesus, I come to Thee. Into Thy glorious gain of Thy cross, Jesus, I come to Thee. Out of Earth’s sorrows, into Thy balm, out of life’s storms, and into Thy calm. Out of distress to jubilant psalm, Jesus, I come to Thee. Out of unrest and arrogant pride, Out of the fear and dread of the tomb, Into Thy blessed will to abide, Into the joy and light of Thy home, Out of myself to dwell in Thy love, Out of despair into rapture above, Out of the depths of ruin untold, Into the peace of Thy sheltering fold, Upward for I on wings like a dove, Ever Thy glorious face to behold, one last time, Jesus I come to Thee.

I want to tell you this morning that song and that Savior will meet every need you’ll ever have if you just come to Him. He said I’m all you need. I am the light you need. So, you don’t spend your life walking in the dark. All you have to do is come to Him.