5/14/17 – The Illumination of the Incarnation

John 8:12-30 ESV
12 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.” 13 So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” 14 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. 15 You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. 16 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. 17 In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. 18 I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.” 19 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.” 20 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. 21 So he said to them again, “I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.” 22 So the Jews said, “Will he kill himself, since he says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” 23 He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.” 25 So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. 26 I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” 27 They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father. 28 So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. 29 And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” 30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him.

I. I AM The Light of the World (12)
A. At Festival of Booths, Jesus declares He is the Light of the World, claiming to have been the light that guided Israel through the desert.
B. Through the incarnation, Jesus flips on the lights and shows us who God is, what He is like, and what our purpose in life is.

II. THE SUN IS NO GOOD TO A BLIND MAN (13-14)
A. The Pharisees reject Jesus’ claim and ask Him to call witnesses to back up His claim.
B. The problem was not a lack of witnesses to who Jesus is. It was a lack of the blindness of the Pharisees.

III. IRREFUTABLE WITNESSES OF JESUS (15-20)
A. Jesus’ lack of origin was His first witness to His deity and the reason non-moral Mosaic Law did not apply to Him.
B. That Jesus needed no man to back Him up but had God, the Father, to back Him up proves His deity.
C. Rather than proving Jesus was not the Son, their inability to see who Jesus proved that they did not know the Father. (1 John 2:23-25)

NEXT STEPS (21-30)

TWO QUESTIONS —
1. Are we covered with the scent, the aroma, of Christ, so that we make Him known? (2 Corinthians 2:15-17)
2. Do our lives revolve around The Son, the Light of the World, the way the planets revolve around the sun, the light of the galaxy?