Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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Good morning, Harbor Church West.
Welcome, welcome.
I want to invite you in and grab your seats.
My name is Mike.
I'm one of the pastors here at the church.
And before we get started with today's message,
I have a couple of things.
First of all, one of the things that we want to do
at our church here at Harbor West
is we want to grow in our prayer, in our prayer life.
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Whether that be personal prayer,
or our corporate prayer as a church.
And so we're holding a Prayer Seminar on August 16th during the morning.
And we invite you folks to come on out.
And through this seminar, we're really hoping that we can deepen our prayer life,
you know, kind of maybe rediscover prayer.
Maybe for some, it might be reigniting a prayer life.
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And so this is open to all.
And we want to invite you out to that.
And there's more information in your bulletin regarding the details.
So you can check that out.
The second thing I want to talk about or mention before we get into the message is this past Tuesday, the tsunami threat.
Right?
I mean, man, that was crazy.
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And we want to just thank you, thank those who are so generous and so hospitable to open up their homes during that,
to allow people to come over to kind of evacuate where they were.
And so we just want to say thanks to Justin and Heejong White, Rich and Cindy De Lizo, Brian and Donna Cadiz, Eric and Sammi Kaye Propes, Jillian Gray, as well as my favorite Hawaiian couple from Illinois, Alex and Jess Kanai.
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And so we just want to thank you so much for that.
I want to make sure I didn't miss anybody.
Yeah, so thank you.
Thank you.
Or James and Pauline Wilson as well.
And so thank you so much for showing God's love and being so hospitable to those who needed some place to go.
Well, we are in the second part of a message series that we started last week called What You're Looking For.
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And in this series, we're looking at the I am statements of Jesus.
And last week we talked about Jesus when he said, I am the bread of life.
And so this week we're talking about when Jesus says, I am the light of the world.
And so I want to invite you to turn your Bibles to John chapter 8.
That's where we're going to be.
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John chapter 8.
And if you're using the Bible that's under the chair in front of you, that's page 950.
We're talking about what are you looking for.
This past Tuesday when the tsunami, we're under the tsunami threat, people were looking for a lot of things.
People were looking to get home to loved ones, stuck in traffic.
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My wife, Julie, she was stuck in Town for a good part of the evening just because it was crazy traffic to get home.
People were looking for gas, right?
They're looking for water.
They're looking for shelter.
And I think one of the things that it reveals is that the thing that we're probably all looking for,
and the tsunami just kind of revealed that, is that we're looking for a sense of security.
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We're looking for an assurance that everything is going to be okay.
And a lot of times it takes a crisis, not all the time, but often during a crisis like a tsunami threat,
it actually reveals what we are truly looking for.
It reveals what's truly important in our lives.
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So as we go to the text today, you know what's interesting?
that at the beginning of John chapter 8, in the first few verses,
John tells a story about a woman who is facing a crisis.
She's facing a crisis because she's about to be executed.
This woman was caught in adultery,
and she was dragged out before the public by the scribes and the Pharisees,
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the religious elites of that time.
And they brought her before Jesus.
And they ask Jesus and they tell him the law of Moses says that because of her sin of adultery,
she should be executed.
What do you say?
And if you remember the story, Jesus is kneeling down in the dirt and he's writing something in the dirt
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and then he stands up and he says, the one without sin should be the first to throw the stone.
The one without sin should be the first to stone her to death.
and as the story goes that each one slowly dropped their stones and walked away until all that was
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were left was jesus and the woman and jesus looks at the woman says where are those who condemned you
and she says they're not here and jesus looks at her says i don't condemn you now go and sin no more
and I think John does this on purpose and that after writing about this adulterous woman in John
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in the beginning of John 8 it's then that we come to John chapter 8 verse 12 where he quotes Jesus
and I'll put it up on screen it says Jesus spoke to them again being the Pharisees especially he
says I am the light of the world anyone who follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the
light of life. And I think that it's interesting that John puts these kind of two stories together
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because they're connected. They're connected to one another. Let's see how they're connected.
Look at verse 13. It says, so the Pharisees said to him, you are testifying about yourself?
Your testimony is not valid. Even if I testify about myself, Jesus said, my testimony is true
because I know where I came from and know where I'm going.
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You see, for the scribes and the Pharisees,
they knew the law of Moses front and back and back and front.
And the law said that if you're going to bear witness,
you need to have two witnesses.
You need to have two people to testify.
In fact, they just did that with the woman.
Probably earlier that day, they had all of them together,
the Pharisees and the scribes,
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bearing witness against this woman.
And so they're telling Jesus, your testimony is invalid because you lack another witness.
But if you look at the second part of verse 14 and then following,
I want you to notice how Jesus responds to the Pharisees and how he actually drops the hammer on them.
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In the middle of 14, it says, but you don't know.
You don't know where I come from or where I'm going.
You judge by human standards.
I judge no one.
And if I do judge, my judgment is true
because it is not I alone who judge,
but I and the Father who sent me.
Jesus tells the Pharisees, you don't know.
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He's telling the Pharisees, you guys are in the dark,
that you're blind, that you really don't see Jesus.
Sure, you see him with your physical eyes,
but you really don't see who he is.
But let me ask you this question.
Who is the one in our story who sees Jesus for who he is?
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Who's the one who is now walking in the light?
And I ask you, you can shout it out.
Don't give me the book report, but just, you know, shout it out.
Just one word, maybe.
Who's the one?
The woman.
The woman is the one who's walking in the light, who sees Jesus for who he is.
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And then in verse 17 and following, it says, even in your law, it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true.
I am the one who testifies about myself and the father who sent me testifies about me.
Then in verse 19, to kind of prove Jesus's point that the Pharisees are in the dark.
The Pharisees asked Jesus, well, where is your father?
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In other words, well, go wake him up or something or go get him, go drag him out of the house and bring him here.
So it can be your second testimony or second testifier.
You just don't get it.
You don't get it.
And so Jesus confirms their blindness when he says,
you know neither me nor my father.
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You don't know me.
You don't know my father.
If you knew me, you would also know my father.
And so it's at this point that Jesus completely upends our idea of who walks in light
and who walks in darkness.
It would seem that it's safe to assume
that the religious elite, the religious leaders,
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the one who know the law, the book of Moses,
that they would be the ones who walk in the light.
And that the adulterous, sinful woman
would be the one who's walking in darkness,
but it's a complete opposite.
It turns everything upside down.
And then in verse 20,
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it says that Jesus spoke these words by the treasury while teaching in the temple, but
no one seized him because his hour had not yet come. Verse 20 is important because it not only
locates Jesus in the temple, but in a specific part of the temple called the court of women.
And we know this because this is where the temple treasury was located. And so as Jesus was teaching
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near the treasury, he was within the court of women. Now it's called the court of women,
not because it was only for women, but rather it was the farthest into the temple in which a female
could go, a Jewish female could go. So if you think of the temple, you have the outer court,
which is for the Gentiles, is for everybody. And then you go one step in, and then it's the court
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of women, which is for just Jews alone, men and women. And then it was for Jewish men, then for
the priest and then for the high priest. And so imagine that Jesus is standing in this court,
the court of women, and he's teaching and it's just teeming with people. It's like, it's super busy.
There's tons of people because at this time when he was teaching, the Feast of Tabernacles was
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happening. And this is a great pilgrimage feast where Jews from all across the land would
come to Jerusalem and come to the temple to celebrate the feast of the tabernacles.
And this feast was to commemorate God's guidance and protection and presence
while the Jews were wandering around the wilderness for 40 years.
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And so Jesus is teaching at the court of women during the feast of tabernacles.
It's full of people.
And during this festival, there is these huge 75 foot lampstands.
And I marked the picture with red lines so we can see it a little bit better.
And there's about four of them, 75 feet, maybe five or six stories tall.
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And they would light the top of these lampstands because it symbolized God's presence.
So think about, you know, the Jews wandering around in the wilderness and God, the pillar of fire guiding the Jews during the darkness of the wilderness.
And so it symbolizes God's presence and God's glory.
Jesus is standing there in this court with these huge lampstands around him
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and he says you see this light see all this light I'm that light I'm that light
and I got to imagine some of the people standing around listening to him they're like
what? Jesus, he says, I don't just symbolize God's presence and glory. I am God's presence
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and glory. When Jesus says, I'm the light of the world, he doesn't just say, hey, I'm a light that
lights up the city. He says, I'm a light that lights the whole world. It's shocking, if not blasphemous.
Because notice that Jesus says, I am, I am the light of the world.
That's a clear reference to the name of Yahweh.
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When God revealed himself to Moses in Exodus chapter 3, when he says, I am who I am.
So Jesus makes a direct reference to Yahweh.
And he also is standing there with all this festivities going on, all this celebration and commemoration.
He says, you guys see all this?
All this is happening?
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It's about me.
This is about me.
In summary, Jesus is saying, I am Yahweh in the flesh.
I am the light of the world.
In other words, I am the one that you're looking for.
It's me.
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And here's the good news.
Here's the good news for us.
That Jesus, he says in verse 12, that his followers have the light of life.
They are in possession of the light of life.
That means that Jesus, the light of the world, is yours.
He's yours.
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And because you have Jesus, the light of the world,
this means that you have three things in your life.
Three things that we're going to unpack here in a moment.
But those three things are, it means that, first of all,
that you have God's presence because you have the light of the world.
Because you have the light of the world,
it means that you have God's freedom.
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And then thirdly means you have God's blessing.
You have God's blessing.
His presence, his freedom, his blessing.
So we're going to unpack all three.
So the first one is his presence.
Because you have God's, the light of the world in Jesus,
that means you have his presence,
especially in a confusing and chaotic and dark world.
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One of my favorite stories growing up as a kid
was about Howard Rutledge.
And he was a naval aviator
and he was shot down during the Vietnam War
and he was captured by the North Vietnamese
and he was held in prison.
He was in prison by them with other POWs for seven years.
Five of those years, he was in solitary confinement.
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I can't even imagine that.
And in his memoir, he writes about how they suffered.
He and the fellow POWs suffered incredible physical
and mental torture.
The living conditions were inhumane.
They would actually pull maggots
out of the back of their throat
because the food was so rotten and putrid.
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But in his book, Rutledge talks about
how he and some other POWs
started to find God's presence,
God's light in the midst of the darkness
of that prison.
They started to get a sense of God's presence
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despite the brutal conditions,
despite the death that was happening all around them.
They started to get a sense of God's light
and his presence.
And he says that the way he got that
was by recalling and meditating on
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scriptures that he learned when he was a kid way back in Sunday school. And he started to pull out
from his memory bank these scriptures. Now, just as an aside to our KK and preschool and youth
teachers, thank you so much. Because I know sometimes you're thinking, nothing's going in.
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Nope, nothing's going in. Well, it is. It is going in. And Rutledge would remember scripture
such as Matthew 28, 20, where Jesus says,
and remember, I am with you always,
even to the end of the age or to the end of time.
It was then that the light of the world,
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that the promise that I am with you,
my presence is with you in spite of your circumstances.
And man, that gave them so much hope.
Even the title of his memoir,
which is In the Presence of Mine Enemies,
It comes from Psalm 23 that promises this up on screen.
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It says, even when I go through the darkest valley,
some translations say,
even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
when death feels as close as your shadow,
I will fear no evil.
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You are with me.
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Next verse says that you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
That is, God sets a table before you.
He's with you.
He's sustaining you.
He's strengthening you.
He's holding you up.
Even in the presence of your enemies, you see his presence.
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And this assurance that Rutledge had of God's presence and King David had when he wrote Psalm 23,
We have that same assurance that God's presence is with us even in our darkest hour.
John 1 tells us that the light of Jesus cannot be overcome by the darkness.
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I think we all know that we live in a dark and chaotic world.
I mean, the tsunami this past Tuesday reminded us of this.
But there's also personal chaos, personal darkness.
Maybe there's some relational turmoil.
Maybe there's something that's going on at work or something in a classroom.
Or maybe it's just a mental chaos.
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Something inside of your head that is causing this chaos, this darkness.
Friends, one of the best ways that we can have the assurance of Jesus' presence and light is through the Scripture.
It's through Scripture.
You know, the whole storyline of the Bible from beginning to end is accounting for human suffering and sin and the darkness.
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It tells the story of the darkness that humanity has been plunged into because of our sin.
But along that same thread line is a story of God's saving presence who is with his people through it all.
And see, so when we read the scriptures and remind ourselves of Jesus's light and presence in the darkness,
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it's reminding ourselves that God is with us.
Psalm 119, 105 says,
Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light unto my path.
God's word points to that light.
It points to Jesus.
It reminds us that we have this light of the world.
So my question is, are you in God's word?
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Are you in God's word?
Are you reading it?
Are you memorizing it?
Are you putting God's word into you?
Are you looking for the assurance that everything is going to turn out okay?
That everything is going to be fine?
My friends, you find this assurance in God's word.
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And so this is the first thing, what it means to have the light of the world.
It means that you have God's presence, especially in the chaotic darkness.
But secondly, it means that you have freedom.
You have freedom from guilt and shame.
I'm going to put this picture up on screen.
Anybody recognize this couple?
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If you don't, what happened is a couple weeks ago,
this couple was at a rock concert and there was a kiss cam.
The kiss cam is when the camera person is roving the crowd.
They find a couple, they put the camera on them
and their image goes up on the big screen,
the big Jumbotron or whatever it is.
And usually like in basketball games
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and you're supposed to kiss each other.
Now, this would have been cute,
except they're married,
they're both married to other people.
And the fallout from this
is obviously broken relationships,
resignations,
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worldwide embarrassment.
See, one of the things about light is that it reveals.
Light exposes.
A hidden affair comes to light.
But it's in the same way that the adulterous woman, her affair came to light for all to see as well.
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But here's the difference.
For the kiss cam couple, the world and culture threw rocks at them in the form of online memes and viral embarrassment.
But for the woman, no rocks were thrown.
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Instead of shaming her, Jesus saves her.
See, the woman was rummaging around in the dark looking for what she thought would give her life.
in her case, is a relationship with a man who wasn't her husband.
See, but the light of Jesus breaks into her darkness
and frees her from her condemnation and from her guilt and shame.
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And he calls her and invites her to walk in the light of life.
See, maybe you're here and you're looking for relief
from the inner voice of condemnation.
You're looking for a freedom from shame and guilt.
Maybe you're haunted by your past.
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Maybe you think to yourself, man, if people knew what I did.
But friends, Jesus already knows.
And he still says, follow me.
You won't walk in darkness anymore.
The light doesn't avoid your past.
It redeems it.
Or maybe you're exhausted.
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You're just tired from proving to others and to yourself that your life is okay,
that everything is working out
and you're trying to prove it to yourself and others
through maybe your parenting or your career
or your politics or just your performance
or your fitness.
Maybe you're hiding behind a polished Instagram profile
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that's masking what's really happening behind the scenes.
But Jesus says, you don't have to fake it.
You can step into the light.
I see it all
and I still love you.
Or maybe you're stuck in a secret sin.
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Sin that nobody knows about.
But the light of the world in Jesus Christ
breaks into the darkness
and calls us to walk in a light through confession.
Not to be shamed,
but to be free.
To be free.
or maybe you hear the voice of shame whispering in your ear you're not lovable
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who would want you
you're disqualified but jesus's light reveals the truth that in christ you are chosen
you are forgiven you are wanted you see jesus's light it exposes sin not to crush us but to
cleanse us, to cleanse us from what we're trying to cover up. And just like the woman, Jesus frees
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us from our guilt and shame. We have this freedom because we have the light of the world.
We have this freedom. And then finally, because we have Jesus, the light of the world, we have
his blessing. That is his blessing to point others to the light. We have this commission.
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He commissions us to point others to the light.
Several years ago, there was a storm that hit the island. It wasn't a tsunami. It wasn't a hurricane.
It's just a storm. But it knocked out all the power to the island. Complete blackout.
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And as this is happening, I'm actually driving home from town back out here to Kapolei.
And as I'm driving, I'm seeing whole chunks of the city just go dark.
It was eerie.
Then finally, everything was out, completely black.
And it was weird.
So I'm driving down the freeway.
And off in the distance, I see a light.
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Just a small little light.
But man, seeing that light in the midst of the darkness, it just drew me.
It got my attention, my eyes.
I couldn't take my eyes off of it.
It was like this beacon of hope.
And as I got closer to it, I started to see what it was.
What was lit up in the midst of all this blackness, all this darkness,
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and it was this.
It was the...
I'm not even joking.
It was the Malasara truck at Waikele.
Back then, only had one food truck, and that was it,
and they were running on a generator.
so as i'm driving getting closer i'm like some of you thinking you only wanted a model sada mike i
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know but that's not it was truly like it was like man in all this blackness all this darkness
there was this light and it actually brought me comfort it's like oh
but here's the thing is that jesus tells us to be like this malasada truck
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in the darkness.
In Matthew chapter 5,
looking at verses 14 and 15,
Jesus says something pretty shocking.
Talking to his disciples, his followers, me and you,
he says, you are the light of the world.
A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden.
No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket,
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but rather on a lampstand
and it gives light for all who are in the house.
so as Jesus's followers who have the light of the world we now reflect Jesus's light to be seen by
others like a lit city on a hill like a lampstand and even like a malasada truck
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in verse 16 Jesus goes on he says in the same way let your light shine before others so that
they may see your good works and give glory to your father in heaven. Paul says the same thing
in a different way in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 8. He says, for you were once darkness, but now you
are light in the world. Walk as children of light. Friends, every day presents opportunities to shine
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the light of Christ every day. At work or school, maybe you shine the light of Christ just through
your integrity. Or maybe through your kindness to your co-workers or classmates or a word of
encouragement. Maybe it's your grace under pressure that reflects and shines Christ.
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Because the reality is that your co-workers may not read the Bible,
but they are certainly reading you and me.
We shine the light of Christ on social media.
I think we all know that social media can be a dark, divisive place.
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But what if we were a people that posted non-anxious posts?
What if we were people that posted hope-filled posts
to a place that is so anxious and angry?
What if we shine the light that way?
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Even in your hard times.
You know, as pastors, Justin, Brandon, and I,
we often have the front row seat to the different hard stuff that you all face.
Grief, stress, illness.
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But every time we see this, we also see the light of Jesus shining through this church.
It makes us so proud to see how you cling to Jesus in the midst of darkness.
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To see that coming out of your lives.
At the very least, it's encouraging.
But it makes us proud.
Proud to see Jesus in your lives.
We shine the light through our good works, as Jesus says, serving others, our generosity, our forgiveness of others, loving your neighbors.
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You know, this past Tuesday with the tsunami, and this is my last tsunami reference, I promise.
But we opened up the church, and one of the church families came.
It was James and Pauline Wilson.
They live right here in Kapolei, and so they were here.
And then a little while later, a family that we didn't know showed up to the church, a family of five.
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And so we finally found out the connection is that they were, they're visiting from Iowa.
They're staying in Ko Olina.
Their landlord said, you got to go out.
The landlord reached out to a friend who somehow showed up here at maybe one Sunday, had our app,
saw the announcement that said, hey, the church is open, told the landlord.
Landlord told them they showed up.
So it's like a third degree connection.
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So they showed up, three little kids.
They crashed out on the chairs.
And then about 10 o'clock, you know, James and Pauline said,
hey, you know, I don't think anything's really going to happen.
We're going to roll on home.
What are you guys going to do?
And they couldn't do anything.
They couldn't go anywhere because the roads back to Colina were closed.
So James and Pauline said, why don't you guys come over to our house?
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And you guys are more than welcome to sleep over.
Complete strangers.
And they were freaking out because they're from Iowa.
And there's no tsunamis in Iowa.
James and Pauline housed them for the night.
And it was in that moment for that family
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that the Wilsons were the light of the world,
reflecting Jesus to this family that nobody knew.
friends that's what we have we have the light of the world we have the light of life
and now we're blessed and commissioned to reflect this light to a dark and dying world
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i'll close it with this when jesus stood in the court of women and announced that he is the light
of the world. He says, anyone, anyone who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the
light of life. Anyone. You see, this invitation is for anyone. It's for you, the person maybe
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stumbling around in the darkness of your self-righteousness, your self-reliance,
Stumbling around in the darkness thinking that maybe if I put together a nice looking package of my life,
then maybe God and others will like me.
This invitation is for you to leave behind your performance
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in trying to earn and curry favor with God, to leave that behind and come and walk in the light.
Or maybe you're here and you're saying to yourself, you know,
I'm a lost cause.
I'm a lost cause.
My life is beyond the reach of God's grace.
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But this invitation is for anyone, and that includes you.
It includes you.
That you cannot outrun and outpace the long arm of God's grace.
And the invitation is to you to come.
and walk in his light.
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The invitation is for anyone.
It's for all of us here today.
All of us here are us rebels and runaways
and spiritual ragamuffins like you and me.
Once again, we hear the invitation
where there's nothing else that we can do,
but once again, fall to our knees in sweet surrender
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that the light of life that we're looking for is found in Jesus.
It's found in Jesus.
Here's the thing.
The search is over.
What you're looking for is in Jesus.
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Because it's found in Jesus, we can rest.
We can rest.
And this is good news.
So friends, let's rest in that.
Amen?
Amen.
Let's go ahead and pray.
Good morning, Harbor Church West.
Welcome, welcome.
I want to invite you in and grab your seats.
My name is Mike.
I'm one of the pastors here at the church.
And before we get started with today's message,
I have a couple of things.
First of all, one of the things that we want to do
at our church here at Harbor West
is we want to grow in our prayer, in our prayer life.
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Whether that be personal prayer,
or our corporate prayer as a church.
And so we're holding a Prayer Seminar on August 16th during the morning.
And we invite you folks to come on out.
And through this seminar, we're really hoping that we can deepen our prayer life,
you know, kind of maybe rediscover prayer.
Maybe for some, it might be reigniting a prayer life.
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And so this is open to all.
And we want to invite you out to that.
And there's more information in your bulletin regarding the details.
So you can check that out.
The second thing I want to talk about or mention before we get into the message is this past Tuesday, the tsunami threat.
Right?
I mean, man, that was crazy.
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And we want to just thank you, thank those who are so generous and so hospitable to open up their homes during that,
to allow people to come over to kind of evacuate where they were.
And so we just want to say thanks to Justin and Heejong White, Rich and Cindy De Lizo, Brian and Donna Cadiz, Eric and Sammi Kaye Propes, Jillian Gray, as well as my favorite Hawaiian couple from Illinois, Alex and Jess Kanai.
(01:34):
And so we just want to thank you so much for that.
I want to make sure I didn't miss anybody.
Yeah, so thank you.
Thank you.
Or James and Pauline Wilson as well.
And so thank you so much for showing God's love and being so hospitable to those who needed some place to go.
Well, we are in the second part of a message series that we started last week called What You're Looking For.
(01:59):
And in this series, we're looking at the I am statements of Jesus.
And last week we talked about Jesus when he said, I am the bread of life.
And so this week we're talking about when Jesus says, I am the light of the world.
And so I want to invite you to turn your Bibles to John chapter 8.
That's where we're going to be.
(02:20):
John chapter 8.
And if you're using the Bible that's under the chair in front of you, that's page 950.
We're talking about what are you looking for.
This past Tuesday when the tsunami, we're under the tsunami threat, people were looking for a lot of things.
People were looking to get home to loved ones, stuck in traffic.
(02:43):
My wife, Julie, she was stuck in Town for a good part of the evening just because it was crazy traffic to get home.
People were looking for gas, right?
They're looking for water.
They're looking for shelter.
And I think one of the things that it reveals is that the thing that we're probably all looking for,
and the tsunami just kind of revealed that, is that we're looking for a sense of security.
(03:07):
We're looking for an assurance that everything is going to be okay.
And a lot of times it takes a crisis, not all the time, but often during a crisis like a tsunami threat,
it actually reveals what we are truly looking for.
It reveals what's truly important in our lives.
(03:33):
So as we go to the text today, you know what's interesting?
that at the beginning of John chapter 8, in the first few verses,
John tells a story about a woman who is facing a crisis.
She's facing a crisis because she's about to be executed.
This woman was caught in adultery,
and she was dragged out before the public by the scribes and the Pharisees,
(03:56):
the religious elites of that time.
And they brought her before Jesus.
And they ask Jesus and they tell him the law of Moses says that because of her sin of adultery,
she should be executed.
What do you say?
And if you remember the story, Jesus is kneeling down in the dirt and he's writing something in the dirt
(04:18):
and then he stands up and he says, the one without sin should be the first to throw the stone.
The one without sin should be the first to stone her to death.
and as the story goes that each one slowly dropped their stones and walked away until all that was
(04:40):
were left was jesus and the woman and jesus looks at the woman says where are those who condemned you
and she says they're not here and jesus looks at her says i don't condemn you now go and sin no more
and I think John does this on purpose and that after writing about this adulterous woman in John
(05:06):
in the beginning of John 8 it's then that we come to John chapter 8 verse 12 where he quotes Jesus
and I'll put it up on screen it says Jesus spoke to them again being the Pharisees especially he
says I am the light of the world anyone who follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the
light of life. And I think that it's interesting that John puts these kind of two stories together
(05:34):
because they're connected. They're connected to one another. Let's see how they're connected.
Look at verse 13. It says, so the Pharisees said to him, you are testifying about yourself?
Your testimony is not valid. Even if I testify about myself, Jesus said, my testimony is true
because I know where I came from and know where I'm going.
(06:00):
You see, for the scribes and the Pharisees,
they knew the law of Moses front and back and back and front.
And the law said that if you're going to bear witness,
you need to have two witnesses.
You need to have two people to testify.
In fact, they just did that with the woman.
Probably earlier that day, they had all of them together,
the Pharisees and the scribes,
(06:20):
bearing witness against this woman.
And so they're telling Jesus, your testimony is invalid because you lack another witness.
But if you look at the second part of verse 14 and then following,
I want you to notice how Jesus responds to the Pharisees and how he actually drops the hammer on them.
(06:42):
In the middle of 14, it says, but you don't know.
You don't know where I come from or where I'm going.
You judge by human standards.
I judge no one.
And if I do judge, my judgment is true
because it is not I alone who judge,
but I and the Father who sent me.
Jesus tells the Pharisees, you don't know.
(07:05):
He's telling the Pharisees, you guys are in the dark,
that you're blind, that you really don't see Jesus.
Sure, you see him with your physical eyes,
but you really don't see who he is.
But let me ask you this question.
Who is the one in our story who sees Jesus for who he is?
(07:28):
Who's the one who is now walking in the light?
And I ask you, you can shout it out.
Don't give me the book report, but just, you know, shout it out.
Just one word, maybe.
Who's the one?
The woman.
The woman is the one who's walking in the light, who sees Jesus for who he is.
(07:50):
And then in verse 17 and following, it says, even in your law, it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true.
I am the one who testifies about myself and the father who sent me testifies about me.
Then in verse 19, to kind of prove Jesus's point that the Pharisees are in the dark.
The Pharisees asked Jesus, well, where is your father?
(08:12):
In other words, well, go wake him up or something or go get him, go drag him out of the house and bring him here.
So it can be your second testimony or second testifier.
You just don't get it.
You don't get it.
And so Jesus confirms their blindness when he says,
you know neither me nor my father.
(08:33):
You don't know me.
You don't know my father.
If you knew me, you would also know my father.
And so it's at this point that Jesus completely upends our idea of who walks in light
and who walks in darkness.
It would seem that it's safe to assume
that the religious elite, the religious leaders,
(08:55):
the one who know the law, the book of Moses,
that they would be the ones who walk in the light.
And that the adulterous, sinful woman
would be the one who's walking in darkness,
but it's a complete opposite.
It turns everything upside down.
And then in verse 20,
(09:16):
it says that Jesus spoke these words by the treasury while teaching in the temple, but
no one seized him because his hour had not yet come. Verse 20 is important because it not only
locates Jesus in the temple, but in a specific part of the temple called the court of women.
And we know this because this is where the temple treasury was located. And so as Jesus was teaching
(09:42):
near the treasury, he was within the court of women. Now it's called the court of women,
not because it was only for women, but rather it was the farthest into the temple in which a female
could go, a Jewish female could go. So if you think of the temple, you have the outer court,
which is for the Gentiles, is for everybody. And then you go one step in, and then it's the court
(10:02):
of women, which is for just Jews alone, men and women. And then it was for Jewish men, then for
the priest and then for the high priest. And so imagine that Jesus is standing in this court,
the court of women, and he's teaching and it's just teeming with people. It's like, it's super busy.
There's tons of people because at this time when he was teaching, the Feast of Tabernacles was
(10:25):
happening. And this is a great pilgrimage feast where Jews from all across the land would
come to Jerusalem and come to the temple to celebrate the feast of the tabernacles.
And this feast was to commemorate God's guidance and protection and presence
while the Jews were wandering around the wilderness for 40 years.
(10:51):
And so Jesus is teaching at the court of women during the feast of tabernacles.
It's full of people.
And during this festival, there is these huge 75 foot lampstands.
And I marked the picture with red lines so we can see it a little bit better.
And there's about four of them, 75 feet, maybe five or six stories tall.
(11:11):
And they would light the top of these lampstands because it symbolized God's presence.
So think about, you know, the Jews wandering around in the wilderness and God, the pillar of fire guiding the Jews during the darkness of the wilderness.
And so it symbolizes God's presence and God's glory.
Jesus is standing there in this court with these huge lampstands around him
(11:37):
and he says you see this light see all this light I'm that light I'm that light
and I got to imagine some of the people standing around listening to him they're like
what? Jesus, he says, I don't just symbolize God's presence and glory. I am God's presence
(12:03):
and glory. When Jesus says, I'm the light of the world, he doesn't just say, hey, I'm a light that
lights up the city. He says, I'm a light that lights the whole world. It's shocking, if not blasphemous.
Because notice that Jesus says, I am, I am the light of the world.
That's a clear reference to the name of Yahweh.
(12:25):
When God revealed himself to Moses in Exodus chapter 3, when he says, I am who I am.
So Jesus makes a direct reference to Yahweh.
And he also is standing there with all this festivities going on, all this celebration and commemoration.
He says, you guys see all this?
All this is happening?
(12:46):
It's about me.
This is about me.
In summary, Jesus is saying, I am Yahweh in the flesh.
I am the light of the world.
In other words, I am the one that you're looking for.
It's me.
(13:06):
And here's the good news.
Here's the good news for us.
That Jesus, he says in verse 12, that his followers have the light of life.
They are in possession of the light of life.
That means that Jesus, the light of the world, is yours.
He's yours.
(13:27):
And because you have Jesus, the light of the world,
this means that you have three things in your life.
Three things that we're going to unpack here in a moment.
But those three things are, it means that, first of all,
that you have God's presence because you have the light of the world.
Because you have the light of the world,
it means that you have God's freedom.
(13:50):
And then thirdly means you have God's blessing.
You have God's blessing.
His presence, his freedom, his blessing.
So we're going to unpack all three.
So the first one is his presence.
Because you have God's, the light of the world in Jesus,
that means you have his presence,
especially in a confusing and chaotic and dark world.
(14:11):
One of my favorite stories growing up as a kid
was about Howard Rutledge.
And he was a naval aviator
and he was shot down during the Vietnam War
and he was captured by the North Vietnamese
and he was held in prison.
He was in prison by them with other POWs for seven years.
Five of those years, he was in solitary confinement.
(14:32):
I can't even imagine that.
And in his memoir, he writes about how they suffered.
He and the fellow POWs suffered incredible physical
and mental torture.
The living conditions were inhumane.
They would actually pull maggots
out of the back of their throat
because the food was so rotten and putrid.
(14:56):
But in his book, Rutledge talks about
how he and some other POWs
started to find God's presence,
God's light in the midst of the darkness
of that prison.
They started to get a sense of God's presence
(15:21):
despite the brutal conditions,
despite the death that was happening all around them.
They started to get a sense of God's light
and his presence.
And he says that the way he got that
was by recalling and meditating on
(15:42):
scriptures that he learned when he was a kid way back in Sunday school. And he started to pull out
from his memory bank these scriptures. Now, just as an aside to our KK and preschool and youth
teachers, thank you so much. Because I know sometimes you're thinking, nothing's going in.
(16:03):
Nope, nothing's going in. Well, it is. It is going in. And Rutledge would remember scripture
such as Matthew 28, 20, where Jesus says,
and remember, I am with you always,
even to the end of the age or to the end of time.
It was then that the light of the world,
(16:24):
that the promise that I am with you,
my presence is with you in spite of your circumstances.
And man, that gave them so much hope.
Even the title of his memoir,
which is In the Presence of Mine Enemies,
It comes from Psalm 23 that promises this up on screen.
(16:47):
It says, even when I go through the darkest valley,
some translations say,
even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
when death feels as close as your shadow,
I will fear no evil.
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You are with me.
(17:07):
Next verse says that you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
That is, God sets a table before you.
He's with you.
He's sustaining you.
He's strengthening you.
He's holding you up.
Even in the presence of your enemies, you see his presence.
(17:29):
And this assurance that Rutledge had of God's presence and King David had when he wrote Psalm 23,
We have that same assurance that God's presence is with us even in our darkest hour.
John 1 tells us that the light of Jesus cannot be overcome by the darkness.
(17:51):
I think we all know that we live in a dark and chaotic world.
I mean, the tsunami this past Tuesday reminded us of this.
But there's also personal chaos, personal darkness.
Maybe there's some relational turmoil.
Maybe there's something that's going on at work or something in a classroom.
Or maybe it's just a mental chaos.
(18:14):
Something inside of your head that is causing this chaos, this darkness.
Friends, one of the best ways that we can have the assurance of Jesus' presence and light is through the Scripture.
It's through Scripture.
You know, the whole storyline of the Bible from beginning to end is accounting for human suffering and sin and the darkness.
(18:40):
It tells the story of the darkness that humanity has been plunged into because of our sin.
But along that same thread line is a story of God's saving presence who is with his people through it all.
And see, so when we read the scriptures and remind ourselves of Jesus's light and presence in the darkness,
(19:05):
it's reminding ourselves that God is with us.
Psalm 119, 105 says,
Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light unto my path.
God's word points to that light.
It points to Jesus.
It reminds us that we have this light of the world.
So my question is, are you in God's word?
(19:26):
Are you in God's word?
Are you reading it?
Are you memorizing it?
Are you putting God's word into you?
Are you looking for the assurance that everything is going to turn out okay?
That everything is going to be fine?
My friends, you find this assurance in God's word.
(19:48):
And so this is the first thing, what it means to have the light of the world.
It means that you have God's presence, especially in the chaotic darkness.
But secondly, it means that you have freedom.
You have freedom from guilt and shame.
I'm going to put this picture up on screen.
Anybody recognize this couple?
(20:10):
If you don't, what happened is a couple weeks ago,
this couple was at a rock concert and there was a kiss cam.
The kiss cam is when the camera person is roving the crowd.
They find a couple, they put the camera on them
and their image goes up on the big screen,
the big Jumbotron or whatever it is.
And usually like in basketball games
(20:31):
and you're supposed to kiss each other.
Now, this would have been cute,
except they're married,
they're both married to other people.
And the fallout from this
is obviously broken relationships,
resignations,
(20:52):
worldwide embarrassment.
See, one of the things about light is that it reveals.
Light exposes.
A hidden affair comes to light.
But it's in the same way that the adulterous woman, her affair came to light for all to see as well.
(21:17):
But here's the difference.
For the kiss cam couple, the world and culture threw rocks at them in the form of online memes and viral embarrassment.
But for the woman, no rocks were thrown.
(21:39):
Instead of shaming her, Jesus saves her.
See, the woman was rummaging around in the dark looking for what she thought would give her life.
in her case, is a relationship with a man who wasn't her husband.
See, but the light of Jesus breaks into her darkness
and frees her from her condemnation and from her guilt and shame.
(22:01):
And he calls her and invites her to walk in the light of life.
See, maybe you're here and you're looking for relief
from the inner voice of condemnation.
You're looking for a freedom from shame and guilt.
Maybe you're haunted by your past.
(22:21):
Maybe you think to yourself, man, if people knew what I did.
But friends, Jesus already knows.
And he still says, follow me.
You won't walk in darkness anymore.
The light doesn't avoid your past.
It redeems it.
Or maybe you're exhausted.
(22:41):
You're just tired from proving to others and to yourself that your life is okay,
that everything is working out
and you're trying to prove it to yourself and others
through maybe your parenting or your career
or your politics or just your performance
or your fitness.
Maybe you're hiding behind a polished Instagram profile
(23:04):
that's masking what's really happening behind the scenes.
But Jesus says, you don't have to fake it.
You can step into the light.
I see it all
and I still love you.
Or maybe you're stuck in a secret sin.
(23:28):
Sin that nobody knows about.
But the light of the world in Jesus Christ
breaks into the darkness
and calls us to walk in a light through confession.
Not to be shamed,
but to be free.
To be free.
or maybe you hear the voice of shame whispering in your ear you're not lovable
(23:53):
who would want you
you're disqualified but jesus's light reveals the truth that in christ you are chosen
you are forgiven you are wanted you see jesus's light it exposes sin not to crush us but to
cleanse us, to cleanse us from what we're trying to cover up. And just like the woman, Jesus frees
(24:18):
us from our guilt and shame. We have this freedom because we have the light of the world.
We have this freedom. And then finally, because we have Jesus, the light of the world, we have
his blessing. That is his blessing to point others to the light. We have this commission.
(24:42):
He commissions us to point others to the light.
Several years ago, there was a storm that hit the island. It wasn't a tsunami. It wasn't a hurricane.
It's just a storm. But it knocked out all the power to the island. Complete blackout.
(25:04):
And as this is happening, I'm actually driving home from town back out here to Kapolei.
And as I'm driving, I'm seeing whole chunks of the city just go dark.
It was eerie.
Then finally, everything was out, completely black.
And it was weird.
So I'm driving down the freeway.
And off in the distance, I see a light.
(25:27):
Just a small little light.
But man, seeing that light in the midst of the darkness, it just drew me.
It got my attention, my eyes.
I couldn't take my eyes off of it.
It was like this beacon of hope.
And as I got closer to it, I started to see what it was.
What was lit up in the midst of all this blackness, all this darkness,
(25:49):
and it was this.
It was the...
I'm not even joking.
It was the Malasara truck at Waikele.
Back then, only had one food truck, and that was it,
and they were running on a generator.
so as i'm driving getting closer i'm like some of you thinking you only wanted a model sada mike i
(26:10):
know but that's not it was truly like it was like man in all this blackness all this darkness
there was this light and it actually brought me comfort it's like oh
but here's the thing is that jesus tells us to be like this malasada truck
(26:32):
in the darkness.
In Matthew chapter 5,
looking at verses 14 and 15,
Jesus says something pretty shocking.
Talking to his disciples, his followers, me and you,
he says, you are the light of the world.
A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden.
No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket,
(26:53):
but rather on a lampstand
and it gives light for all who are in the house.
so as Jesus's followers who have the light of the world we now reflect Jesus's light to be seen by
others like a lit city on a hill like a lampstand and even like a malasada truck
(27:17):
in verse 16 Jesus goes on he says in the same way let your light shine before others so that
they may see your good works and give glory to your father in heaven. Paul says the same thing
in a different way in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 8. He says, for you were once darkness, but now you
are light in the world. Walk as children of light. Friends, every day presents opportunities to shine
(27:43):
the light of Christ every day. At work or school, maybe you shine the light of Christ just through
your integrity. Or maybe through your kindness to your co-workers or classmates or a word of
encouragement. Maybe it's your grace under pressure that reflects and shines Christ.
(28:09):
Because the reality is that your co-workers may not read the Bible,
but they are certainly reading you and me.
We shine the light of Christ on social media.
I think we all know that social media can be a dark, divisive place.
(28:29):
But what if we were a people that posted non-anxious posts?
What if we were people that posted hope-filled posts
to a place that is so anxious and angry?
What if we shine the light that way?
(28:54):
Even in your hard times.
You know, as pastors, Justin, Brandon, and I,
we often have the front row seat to the different hard stuff that you all face.
Grief, stress, illness.
(29:19):
But every time we see this, we also see the light of Jesus shining through this church.
It makes us so proud to see how you cling to Jesus in the midst of darkness.
(29:43):
To see that coming out of your lives.
At the very least, it's encouraging.
But it makes us proud.
Proud to see Jesus in your lives.
We shine the light through our good works, as Jesus says, serving others, our generosity, our forgiveness of others, loving your neighbors.
(30:09):
You know, this past Tuesday with the tsunami, and this is my last tsunami reference, I promise.
But we opened up the church, and one of the church families came.
It was James and Pauline Wilson.
They live right here in Kapolei, and so they were here.
And then a little while later, a family that we didn't know showed up to the church, a family of five.
(30:33):
And so we finally found out the connection is that they were, they're visiting from Iowa.
They're staying in Ko Olina.
Their landlord said, you got to go out.
The landlord reached out to a friend who somehow showed up here at maybe one Sunday, had our app,
saw the announcement that said, hey, the church is open, told the landlord.
Landlord told them they showed up.
So it's like a third degree connection.
(30:53):
So they showed up, three little kids.
They crashed out on the chairs.
And then about 10 o'clock, you know, James and Pauline said,
hey, you know, I don't think anything's really going to happen.
We're going to roll on home.
What are you guys going to do?
And they couldn't do anything.
They couldn't go anywhere because the roads back to Colina were closed.
So James and Pauline said, why don't you guys come over to our house?
(31:17):
And you guys are more than welcome to sleep over.
Complete strangers.
And they were freaking out because they're from Iowa.
And there's no tsunamis in Iowa.
James and Pauline housed them for the night.
And it was in that moment for that family
(31:40):
that the Wilsons were the light of the world,
reflecting Jesus to this family that nobody knew.
friends that's what we have we have the light of the world we have the light of life
and now we're blessed and commissioned to reflect this light to a dark and dying world
(32:10):
i'll close it with this when jesus stood in the court of women and announced that he is the light
of the world. He says, anyone, anyone who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the
light of life. Anyone. You see, this invitation is for anyone. It's for you, the person maybe
(32:38):
stumbling around in the darkness of your self-righteousness, your self-reliance,
Stumbling around in the darkness thinking that maybe if I put together a nice looking package of my life,
then maybe God and others will like me.
This invitation is for you to leave behind your performance
(33:03):
in trying to earn and curry favor with God, to leave that behind and come and walk in the light.
Or maybe you're here and you're saying to yourself, you know,
I'm a lost cause.
I'm a lost cause.
My life is beyond the reach of God's grace.
(33:28):
But this invitation is for anyone, and that includes you.
It includes you.
That you cannot outrun and outpace the long arm of God's grace.
And the invitation is to you to come.
and walk in his light.
(33:51):
The invitation is for anyone.
It's for all of us here today.
All of us here are us rebels and runaways
and spiritual ragamuffins like you and me.
Once again, we hear the invitation
where there's nothing else that we can do,
but once again, fall to our knees in sweet surrender
(34:13):
that the light of life that we're looking for is found in Jesus.
It's found in Jesus.
Here's the thing.
The search is over.
What you're looking for is in Jesus.
(34:33):
Because it's found in Jesus, we can rest.
We can rest.
And this is good news.
So friends, let's rest in that.
Amen?
Amen.
Let's go ahead and pray.
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