The One Who Had to Choose

Christ the King Sermons is a ministry of Christ the King Presbyterian Church located in Raleigh, North Carolina. CTK is a community rooted in the depth of the gospel, refined by hard conversations, fueled by meaningful relationships, and committed to redemptive work in Raleigh.

Good morning, friends. My name is Anderson Shore. James introduced me a little bit earlier. I was an intern here. My family and I worshiped here for seven years. We baptized two of our babies here. And I'm looking around, and I'm just seeing friends and family. It's really good to be back. I'm trying to get all the tears out now so they don't come later, but I'm emotional. It's so good to be in the house of the Lord.

It is a great day for singing, and it's so good to see many familiar faces here this morning, but also some new faces. Welcome. I'm so glad that you have found a place to worship—a place where these people deeply care and love people well, but they also deeply care about the good news of Jesus. So I'm so glad that you have found a place where you can worship God and where you can grow with His people. Praise God for that.

I'm excited to be here. I'm excited that Jeff is on sabbatical, kind of figuring out and remembering the things that he loves, and praying for Jeff during his time, praying for you and your church family. I'm also specifically praying that Jeff returns back to his love of motorcycles and ear gauges, and so hopefully he comes back with those things intact. Thank you for having me here. Thank you for having my family here. It's a joy to be here.

With that, I invite you to stand. We are going to read the text for today—the scripture today. It comes from John 8. Stand with me for the reading of God's word. You can find it in your bulletin or even behind me. What a joy it is for us to read this together.

Again, Jesus spoke to them saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life." So the Pharisees said to him, "You are bearing witness about yourself. Your testimony is not true." Jesus answered, "Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true. For I know where I came from and where I am going. But you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one. Yet, even if I do judge, my judgment is true. For it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. In your law, it is written that the testimony of two people is true. I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me." They said to him, "Therefore, where is your Father?" Jesus answered, "You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also." These words he spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple, but no one arrested him because his hour had not yet come. — John 8:12-20

Let me pray for our time. God, we thank you that you invite us to worship you. You invite us to see who you are and who we are, and we are just so glad that Jesus has come. God, I ask that you would use my words to speak truth, to speak gently, to speak boldly, and I pray that Anderson will get behind the cross of Jesus—the only way of salvation. Be with your people. Let the meditation of all of our hearts be pleasing to you. You are our rock and redeemer. It's in Jesus's name that we pray. Amen.

You may be seated.

On Books and Movies

So, just so you know, can you know something about me: I am that guy that watches movies before reading books. That's who I am. I've consistently, over time, not had the patience to read a book, and so I was like, "Oh, there's a movie. I'll watch that."

So I want to invite you into this. I want to see if there's a little participation. We're going to see who joins me in this way of life and who is more sanctified than me. Okay, so raise your hand if you read the Harry Potter books before seeing the movies. Well done, people. What if you watch the movies before reading the books? Yes. You are with me.

Alright. How about Little Women? Book first? And all the men raise your hand. Good. Well done. Saw the movie first. Alright. And then last one: Lord of the Rings. I think this might be the most participation on my side. Books first. Movies first. Yes. You are with me.

Why do we do this? Why do we read or why do we watch movies before reading books? This week, I thought about it for a little bit, and I think it could be a season of life thing. It could be that we just can't sit still long enough to get through a book, or we just don't like the time that it takes. But I do think it comes down to this: it's hard for us to sit in the unknown.

We'd rather quickly see things with our eyes or know what's going to happen. I believe the audience that Jesus is talking to in John 8 is struggling to believe that Jesus is truly the light of the world, and they're impatient. At the same time, they don't know what this means for their status, for their power, or even who they understand God to be. They want to know quickly. They start to doubt Jesus.

But honestly, I see in the Scripture there's a lot going on with what Jesus is claiming about who he is. And it makes sense why these Pharisees, why these people are hesitant to believe. And I believe that's true for us today. It's hard to sit in the unknown. We are hesitant people to believe Jesus at his word.

My hope for us today is that we will see that assurance comes from knowing the light of the world. Assurance shows us whether we're walking in the light. Assurance shows us what it means when darkness surrounds you, and assurance of where you are going. That's my hope for you today—that you would be assured of these things: presence, protection, and provision of the light of the world.

First Point: Presence

One of the themes that continues to come up in the book of John is light and darkness. Jesus is described in the book of John as the light of men, the light that shines in the darkness, the true light, the light of the world, the light of life. That's a lot of light.

We see this right away in our Scripture today when Jesus says in verse 12:

I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me won't walk in darkness but will have the light of life. — John 8:12

Simply put, absence of light is darkness. But as the book All the Lights We Cannot See says—I saw the TV series rather than reading the book—darkness lasts not even for one second when you turn on the lights.

From our text this morning, we see the Pharisees pushing back against Jesus, challenging him on whether or not he's telling the truth. One of the reasons they're doing this is that when Jesus says, "I am the light of the world," Genesis 1 would pop into their heads:

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, no order, and darkness was over the face of the deep. The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. — Genesis 1:1-5

We're able to know more about this beginning chapter of the whole Bible from John 1:1-5:

In the beginning was the Word, God the Son, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, and all things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. — John 1:1-5

Here is what we need to know: Jesus is claiming that he's always been present. He's eternal. Picture this for the Pharisees. They're there in the temple, and they hear somebody claiming that they are God. Jesus claiming he is God. He is eternal. And if his testimony is correct, then all of a sudden, their word will not hold as much weight. The Pharisees would begin to wonder what their future holds because somebody is coming saying that they are God, that Jesus is God.

So to keep their power in the religion, to keep their power in the city, they begin to question him. They begin to doubt him. We see it in verse 13—they tell him and others that his testimony isn't true. And we know from later on in the gospel of John, another way to lessen someone's power is to try and kill them. In John 10, we see the Pharisees try to stone Jesus because of the blasphemy they believe he's committing by claiming to be God, the Son of God, the light of the world.

Would you doubt the word of a man claiming that he is God? If I showed up today and said, "Hey guys, I'm the light of the world right here," I really hope that you wouldn't believe me. But here's a better question for us today: Do your thoughts and your actions throughout the week, if you look at those, would they reveal that you believe Jesus is who he says he is? That he is God, that he is eternal, that he is the powerful one, that he is the light that shines in your darkness? Or does your mind doubt whether or not he's present?

There are many times where we question Jesus's presence, especially when it comes to times where it feels like darkness is all around us. And that's the goal of the enemy—to doubt him, to doubt his word. Satan does this to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, and he tries to do it to Jesus when Jesus is in the desert. He twists God's word in order to bring about disobedience. He's trying to turn out the lights and draw you away from the fire, away from the source, away from the light of the world.

The more we doubt, the more it could reveal what our heart truly desires and what our hearts are actually trusting.

When anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible. — Ephesians 5:13

We actually get to be thankful that Jesus is the light of the world—to shine bright for us, to be able to see what's underneath our motivations. Have you ever seen in a show where someone uses a black light? It's like the worst thing to watch. You see them in a hotel room and it looks nice and proper, and then they shine the black light and you say to yourself, "I'm never staying in a hotel again." That's what Jesus does. He shines his light in order to show the darkness of our hearts. But he doesn't do it in judgment. He does it in love.

Friends, this is the battle of our lives—living by the light or living in darkness. It's easy for us as humans to teeter back and forth over to darkness just a little bit. And how easy it is for us to let the darkness of our world, the hard things that are happening, cause us to doubt Jesus and his word. It may be that certain darkness that has occurred in your world in the past—that shame and disappointment—is still there in how you're viewing yourself. And Jesus wants to shine bright for you.

If you hear anything from me today, know this: the darkness that's been done to you or the darkness that you have done will not overcome Lord Jesus. It will not discount his testimony of who he is, of who he is as the light of the world. The presence of Jesus has been around for eternity, and it will also be with you. Jesus desires to shine in your life, especially in your dark, lonely, scary places.

Protection Through Light

But there's more that Jesus is claiming when he calls himself the light of the world—not just presence but protection. This conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees started in chapter 7, and it's set during the Feast of the Booths, or the Feast of the Tabernacles. In my study, I learned a bit more about some of the ceremonies that would come after these feasts.

One ceremony would represent the provision of water during the years of the Israelites being in the wilderness after their escape from Egypt. The second ceremony, which could be seen right where this conversation is happening, would focus on light. Once the sun had set, they would light two lamps, and it represented the cloud and the fire that guided the Israelites during the Exodus.

The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people. — Exodus 13:21-22

There are multiple ways that light can help protect us. It helps to have a lamp on in the middle of the night so you don't stub your toe on your coffee table. Fire can help protect us from animals in the wild—that's why I don't go camping. We also know that fire purifies metals and is important for us to cook meat so we don't get harmful bacteria.

The cloud and the fire protected God's people when they were in the wilderness. Right before the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, the pillar of cloud moved behind the Israelites, between them and the Egyptians, so that the Egyptians couldn't attack them and recapture them. As they got on the other side of the Red Sea and were on their journey to the Promised Land, the cloud would hover over them and act as shade so they didn't have to experience the heat of the desert. At night, the fire helped them not to freeze as it would get to freezing temperatures in deserts.

But we also know from Numbers 9 that this fire and this cloud acted as a guide for them. As the cloud moved, they moved. And when the cloud or fire stopped, they set up camp.

Most of us have questions in our lives about how do I know where God is leading me? Have you ever thought that? What is God up to in my life right now?

When is God calling me to press on, to endure, or when is he calling me to stop, rest, to set up camp? You ever ask these questions?

James Montgomery Boyce puts it simply by saying: "When Jesus moves before us, we are to move. When he abides in one place, we too are to remain there."

But I also came by this quote from Alexander McLaren. He says: "It is neither reverent nor wise to be treading on the heels of our guide in our eager confidence that we know where he wants us to go."

So how do we do this? It's like trail running but in the dark. A couple of years ago, I went out for a run with some guys. I was going to start running with them and I show up and it's pitch black and they said, "Hey, we're going to go and do these trails over at Shank Forest." I was like, okay, that's cool—the place where there's roots and rocks and critters in the dark. That's awesome. Let's do it. But honestly, I was pretty hesitant. I didn't have a headlamp.

So what I ended up doing was I was second in line and I followed the guy in front of me who did have a headlamp. But it was good for me to give him a little bit of space because I didn't want to trip over his feet, but at the same time, I didn't want to be too far away because then I couldn't see around him to see how he was lighting up the path before me. It was pretty tricky.

We need to follow McLaren's advice and make sure that we aren't solely following our intuition of what we think is best. And at the same time, not be too distant from the light of the world, from our God—that we lose touch with where he desires us to go.

Application for Finding God's Will

So some application for you this morning in understanding, determining maybe what God's will for your life is. I think a great place to start is confession. Confessing to God that you have a plan for where the trail of your life should go and sometimes you're too confident in that direction and you're ignoring his guidance.

And the second is this: draw close to the light of life. The light of protection, the cloud, the pillar of fire. Hold on tight to his word in the morning and when you put your head to rest. Because those are the moments that we need to be fed. Those are the moments that we don't need to stray too far away from this cloud or pillar that's trying to provide shade for us when we're sweating through life. And when we get too far away from the pillar of fire and we start to shake, we start to tremble because we are away from his warmth. We're anxious people. Draw close to the word of the Lord.

Last thing about protection. The one verse I find interesting in this section of Scripture is verse 14.

I know where I came from and where I'm going, but you do not know where I come from or where I'm going. — John 8:14

I love how Jesus is sure of his journey, but we can also see from what he says in verse 14 how important it is for us to be sure of where Jesus came from and where he is going. And I believe that if we do know where he has come from—eternity—and where he is going—the cross and more—that we will understand the proof of that, which is actually in our story and understanding where we have come from and where we are going.

Where We've Come From

So much of what shapes our lives is where we come from. Maybe the family that you grew up in, the culture that you grew up in, maybe the things that you remember from your childhood. Sometimes when I remember my childhood, when I remember my hometown, I get a little hesitant to go back because of the darkness that was there. Hesitant to believe that God is going to protect me, that he did protect me from where I came from. The darkness resonates in my mind and in my heart, and honestly, I have needed to come to a place where I can believe that our God was present and providing and protecting in those moments of darkness for me.

So maybe something that you can do this week is take a look back at where you've come from. What has happened to you, or what past sins you may have committed? Journal about it and see and look at how God's hand of protection was on you in the midst of those things. And maybe one day, one day, you will be able to enter back into those places, knowing that God has redeemed your life from the pit.

Where We're Going

Where are we going? You know, there are probably times for all of us in this life where we don't know what next year brings or what next month brings or even when we're in a place sometimes where we don't even know what tomorrow may bring. And we're fearful. We worry about the future.

Through all of this, we have the opportunity to believe that God was at work in our past, that he's working through our journey, and he holds our future in his hands. Jesus was sure of his testimony, and nobody could question it because he was in agreement with God the Father. Can you be in agreement with God the Father that he is going to protect you wherever you go?

The Great Commission tells us, "I will be with you wherever you go." This is God's word to the Israelites: "I am the God that brought you out of Egypt. I am your God and you are my people." When we get the opportunity to believe this, we will be able to see more and more the provision of our God.

Final Point: Provision of Your Judgment and Future

I'm going to bring up two things: provision of your judgment and provision of your future.

Provision of Your Judgment

I have not read Les Misérables by Victor Hugo—and do you blame me? It's 1,400 pages long. I don't really need to know too much about France's sewer system. But I did get the opportunity to see it at the theater last night, so I know the story. It's an amazing story and an amazing performance.

One of the biggest themes in Les Misérables is the idea of judgment and justice versus grace, mercy, and love—and how these two things create different types of people. If you know the story, you know that Javert, the policeman, shows us how rigid he is, how uptight he is, with a lack of ability to see that people can change. He's all about judgment. He's all about justice.

But we also see the story of Jean Valjean. Jean was a criminal who finally gets on parole and goes to stay at a bishop's church. He sees an opportunity to create something for himself. "I'm going to be in control. I'm going to steal this silver from this bishop and take advantage of his grace." But he gets caught stealing the silver, and the authorities take him back to the bishop. The bishop tells them, "Of course I gave him this. But brother, you also forgot these gold candlesticks. Take them."

The actor did such an amazing job of showing the complexity of what Jean Valjean felt in that moment—heartbroken but also changed, wanting to do good. All because of the grace and mercy of this bishop shining a light in his dark world, creating an even better life than he could have ever created for himself.

The closing conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees in verses 15 through 19 reminds me of Les Misérables. It's exposing the Pharisees' heart and how they're just not getting what Jesus says. It continues throughout chapter eight where you begin to wonder: Why is Jesus taking so much time with these details of where he's come from and that he's connected to the Father?

What I see in Scripture is Jesus trying to show these rigid Pharisees that they're in darkness, that their actions of judgment show that to be true. The way they are approaching Jesus is showing the darkness of their hearts. And for some reason, Jesus just keeps on pursuing them. They're doubting the one whom God has sent, wanting to kill him, wanting for others to not believe him—even though he is being affirmed by their God, the God of Abraham.

The light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. — John 3:19

The Pharisees are judging according to the flesh, but their flesh is also bringing judgment against themselves. We've talked about this today: how we doubt Jesus' presence and try to search for other lights in the midst of our darkness, or how we may even be rigid people that want to hold on to justice so much that we judge others and put judgment upon them.

And yet for Jesus, he confirms this in John 3:17-18:

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. — John 3:17-18

The word "condemn" is the same word used in our text for judgment. It's the Greek word meaning to judge, to condemn, to separate. Our actions separate us from the Father. It is our human sinful nature that we will choose darkness again and again. But the provision of our judgment was known by Jesus. He knew where he was going. He was going to the cross for you.

When his time had come, he took on darkness for you. He hung on the cross for our actions, for our dark sins, our judgmental nature. And we know from the Gospel of Matthew that darkness came around noon when Jesus was on the cross. As one author says, but it is there in midday darkness, suffering the greatest injustice of all time, that Jesus was actually defeating the physical and spiritual darkness of this world.

Jesus bore our darkness in his body and faced the wrath of God on our behalf.

Do you believe that Jesus is the light of the world?

Do you believe his testimony is true that the great light has shown in your darkness taking your sins so that you could be invited into the kingdom of light? Oh, friends, believe this. He desires to give you freedom, an even better life than we can ever give to ourselves that you may carry the light to others. That you may carry those candlesticks holding the light of the world to others that are in darkness.

Provision of Our Future

Let's be real. Books are better than movies. They are. They're slower, but you're in the story for longer and you get to know the characters more. And when you finish the book, you're sad that it's over if it's a good one, right?

As you continue to wrestle with where you came from and where you are going, know that it may be a slow work, but that in that slow work, you get to draw close to the light of the world and get to know him more and more. What's beautiful in being a part of this story is that Jesus is coming back. Jesus is coming back and when he does, we won't be sad that the story is over. No, it's just beginning, friends.

Over and over again, Jesus said he knew where he was going. And for those that know Jesus is the light of the world, we know where we're going. We're going where the presence of Jesus dwells and we will be with him forever. We're going to a place where the darkness will no longer harm us and Jesus's full protection is realized.

And I saw no temple in the city. For its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it. For the glory of God gives it light and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it and its gates will never be shut by day and there will be no night there. — Revelation 21:22–25

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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God, how good you are to us to give us your word that we may know you, that we may know the excellencies of your story that you are writing, that you give to us. That we may know the light of the world, that we may know Jesus. And so, Father, I pray for my brothers and sisters. That whatever darkness that they're remembering or what darkness that they're stuck in right now, would you be with them. Show your face to your people. Remind them in so specific ways of your presence and your protection and your provision. All because of Jesus. It's in his name that we pray. Amen.