Blinded by the Light - Part B

No matter what He did, no matter what He said, no matter how many miracles He performed, no matter how many lives were changed, they hated Him.

And there's a principle here. When Jesus is loved, and Jesus is received, and Jesus is followed, He becomes light to you. When Jesus is hated and rejected and spurned, Jesus becomes darkness to you. Welcome to Connect with Skip Weekend Edition. One of my least favorite things to do is to turn on the lights in the morning. It's disruptive after my peaceful night's sleep, and it kind of hurts as my eyes adjust to the brightness. Plus, I don't always like what I see when the lights come on, but then no one looks great right after waking up.

However, once my eyes adjust and I get used to the lights being on, I can efficiently go about getting ready for the day, making sure important things are done like having my socks match. Well, today in Connect with Skip Weekend Edition, Skip Heitzig examines a situation where some found the light so blinding that they decided they'd rather stay in the dark. We'll begin our study here in just a moment.

But first, here's what we have for you this month at connectwithskip.com. America is reaping the whirlwind of bad fruit from a generation of young men who lack the influence of a father. We desperately need to educate men of all ages and stages of life to begin to turn this destructive social trend.

Listen to Skip Heitzig. Dad, that's a crucial question in our world today. When fathers abandon their children, a series of dominoes begin to fall with devastating results.

We see young men rampaging through streets destroyed by drugs, then continuing the vicious cycle by creating fatherless homes. We need to educate boys and men of all ages about how dads make a difference. And that's the theme of our current resource package that includes my full hour video documentary called Where's Dad, plus seven of my most important messages to men. I hope you'll order your copy now. Dads Make a Difference.

That's the title of a critical issues package you can order now. The Dads Make a Difference package includes seven of Skip's most important messages to men and the full hour video documentary, Where's Dad, hosted by Skip. I think it's pretty easy to see from just a reading through of Scripture that it is Dad's responsibility to set the moral, spiritual tone in the home.

Remember it was Joshua who said, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Get this package in either digital download or CD and DVD when you support Connect with Skip with your gift of $50 or more. You'll be joining us as we take Skip's Bible teachings into more major cities.

Request the Dads Make a Difference package online at connectwithskip.com or by calling 1-800-922-1888. We resume our study of John chapter 8 today. So if you'll turn there in your Bibles, we'll join Skip Heitzig. A little segment on health care and health trends in America. And one of the moderators made the point that Europeans have a longer lifespan than Americans.

And they were trying to show that the health care here needs to be like their health care, etc. And they're talking about life expectancy. And so as I'm listening to this, I'm thinking, yeah, but it's one thing to live longer. It's quite another thing to live better.

You see, medical science can add years to your life. But only Jesus Christ can add life to your years. You'll have the light of life. Just like a flower won't blossom without sunlight, your life will never be what it ought to be without the light of Christ.

In fact, people without Christ are very disoriented and very confused and very apt to follow so many other things, anything almost, to navigate this life. And at the end, often become very, very, very pessimistic. I have read so many quotes, and I have heard those quotes by some famous people who've reached their goals, become famous, had lots of money, and at the end go, I'm empty. One of the most depressing quotes I ever read, I brought with me this morning. Aren't I a nice guy?

Dr. Albert Zent Giorgi was awarded the Nobel Prize, the Nobel Laureate in Medicine and Physiology. He was asked the question, if you were 20 years old again, what would you do? Listen to how low his answer gets.

He said, if I were 20 years old today, I would share with my classmates the rejection of the world as it is. Is there any point in studying and work? Fornication, at least that is something good. What else is there to do? Fornicate and take drugs against this terrible strain of idiots who govern the world. Happy guy.

Would you go to him for counseling? Now, why so fatalistic? Well, it's simple. Without the light of life, the world is disorienting, depressing, and senseless. It's sort of like trying to navigate through an obstacle course with a blindfold. Can you imagine trying to drive through New York City blindfolded? I see the way people drive around here.

It's as if they have a blindfold. So this little phrase says something about our internal condition. But it says something more.

It says something to us about our external behavior. Look at the word walk. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness. That's a very commonly used word in the New Testament, peripeteo, which means to walk at large or to walk around or to walk about.

He's just out walking. But it has a very significant spiritual meaning. It's used figuratively for one's entire lifestyle. So you'll read in the Bible phrases like walk in the spirit, which means order your whole life according to the submission to the Holy Spirit. Walk in love, the Bible says, which means your whole lifestyle should be filled with love toward people. Don't walk after the flesh, but walk after the spirit.

Don't walk in darkness, but walk in light. The idea is the external behavior changes when you come to Christ. You're not self-centered anymore. It's not all about you. You don't worship yourself.

But that's replaced by that pure, bright, God-obeying, God-honoring lifestyle. Number three, it says something about our spiritual influence. Zero in on that little phrase, have the light of life. Just think about that for a moment. Whoever follows me won't walk around in darkness, but will have the light of life.

If it helps, picture holding something, grabbing a hold of something. You have it. You have something. You see, it's not just that light comes to you to help you navigate your way through life. It's as if you now have your own little shaft of light. You're like a little shaft of light. Better analogy, you reflect the greater light, like the moon to the sun. You're not the source of light. But like the moon that gives light at night, it's simply reflecting the glory of the sun.

That's what we are to do. There was a little boy who lived in a rundown apartment, a tenement building in New York City. Very rundown. He was out playing one day, and in the middle of the day, he stood in the courtyard of the tenement building, and he had a little broken piece of mirror. And he was holding it up just to get the sun just so in the mirror, and reflecting the sunlight to a window almost at the top level. Well, the neighbors thought he was some little pest, a little mischievous kid trying to blind people. And so one of the neighbors said, hey, what are you doing down there with that mirror? And the little boy said, listen, up on that floor almost to the top, that window, my brother's in that room.

He's disabled. The only sunlight he'll ever get is what I bounce up to him from this little mirror. How about thinking of your life like that? You go different places and you shine, you reflect, you have the light, and you reflect that glory of the light into all of the dark places wherever you go. You see, there's a correlation between following Christ, the light, and reflecting that light, evangelism. I want you to see a key verse. You read this one, I am the light of this world. Now go, just turn the page, one page, John chapter 9. John chapter 9, verse 5. Jesus has just said in chapter 8, I am the light of the world. Look what he says in chapter 9 of John, verse 5. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

Piggyback another verse with those two, and I think you'll get the picture. On the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said to his followers, you are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world. You get that, you are the light of the world. You are the light of the world. As long as I am in the world, I'm the light of the world, but I'm going up to my Father.

So guess what you are now? The light of the world. If they don't see light, it's because you didn't bring it to them.

You didn't turn that mirror just so, so as to reflect it. That's why Paul says in Ephesians, you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. You're to be that light.

I'm to be that light. You know, according to one pastor, there's two reasons why people haven't become Christians. Number one, they've never met a Christian. Number two, they have met a Christian.

You get my drift. The power of our influence can be staggering in a person's life as we reflect his glory. You know, so often we complain about the darkness that we see. This world is so bad. We're good at that. We Christians are really good at noticing all the bad stuff. And here we are going, yeah, you know, when I was a kid, it wasn't that bad. It's so bad today, right?

We all do that? This world needs more glow-in-the-dark Christians who would just be around saying, okay, it's dark. What a great opportunity for light. I mean, right? The darker it gets, the more the light is noticeable.

They said in World War II, the blackouts were so bad, you could see somebody strike a match for miles away. Great opportunity. So this little phrase in verse 12 says something about our internal condition, our external behavior, our spiritual influence. Number four, it says something about our eternal destiny. Did you know that the Bible promises that you won't just shine now, but you'll shine forever and ever? Here's the promise.

Here's the thought. If you follow Jesus now, he's the light. And if you reflect his glory now, like a mirror does or like the moon does, the sun, if you do that, you will shine forever. You will be celebrated in the kingdom forever, lest you think I'm making that up. Listen to Daniel chapter 12, verse 3. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens and those who lead many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.

Isn't that a great thought? Isn't it a great thought that after the sun burns out and all the constellations die out and there's a new heaven and a new earth, you'll still be shining? Jesus said as much, Matthew 13, then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father. I've always loved the story about the little boy who went into a cathedral one day and he had never seen stained glass windows like that.

And if you've ever been into a grand cathedral, some of that glass is so intricately cut and when the light shines through the window, it's like magnificent. So he looked up and he saw people in these windows and more people in these windows and they in the cathedral told the little boy that those were saints, that saint so and so and that saint so and so. Wow, the next day was church and the test in Sunday school class was does anybody here know what a saint is? And he raised his hand up and goes, I know what a saint is. A saint is a guy that light shines through. What a great description.

How about a life that life shines through, light shines through, the light of life and you will shine forever. So that is Christ and those are Christ's followers, that's what he claims for them. Now we have the Christ haters. Immediately in verse 13, the Pharisees said, you bear witness of yourself, your witness is not true. Now according to Jewish law, nothing could be established without witnesses, two or three witnesses. The Bible says, every matter shall be established by the mouth of two or three witnesses. What they're saying to Jesus is your evidence is inadmissible, you're just making claims. Where are the witnesses? Jesus said, even if I bear witness of myself, my witness is true, for I know where I came from.

That would be heaven and where I'm going, that would be heaven. But you do not know where I came from and where I'm going, you judge according to the flesh, I judge no one. That's just what happened with the woman. They were ready to judge her and throw stones at her and he said, neither do I condemn thee. And yet if I do judge, and he will, my judgment is true, for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent me. It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. I am one who bears witness of myself and the Father who sent me bears witness of me.

Now follow me here. The law in the Old Testament that they were operating under, and Jesus refers to, these were laws given by God to men. Jesus claims exemption from those laws because he is God in human flesh. Even if I bear witness of myself, my witness is true, and I have the Father's witness as well.

It supersedes any kind of human witness. Now they say something in verse 19, I want you to notice. They said to him, where is your father? Now this could simply mean they were very sweet and ignorant and just sort of said, well we'd like to meet your dad, where is he?

I don't think so. I think they said that with sort of that little look in their eye and that little smirk on their face that said, yeah, you know, we've heard that you were virgin born. In other words, they doubted the legitimacy of his birth. Ever since he was born, the rumor went around, and it surfaces in the New Testament, that he was an illegitimate child in that marriage. This is a slur, I believe, to the legitimacy of his birth. Well, obviously they hated Jesus. No matter what he did, no matter what he said, no matter how many miracles he performed, no matter how many lives were changed, they hated him.

And there's a principle here. When Jesus is loved and Jesus is received and Jesus is followed, he becomes light to you. When Jesus is hated and rejected and spurned, Jesus becomes darkness to you. Think back to that analogy we've been working off of this morning, that of the pillar of fire in the wilderness that they celebrated in the temple. There they were, the children of Israel would look up and that pillar of fire would guide them at night and would light up the wilderness. It says, though, in Exodus chapter 14, when the Egyptians were coming against the children of Israel, and that pillar of fire formed a buffer between the Israelites and the Egyptians. Listen to what it says in the text. Throughout that night, the cloud brought darkness to one side and it brought light to the other side.

Same cloud. On one side it was well lit, they could see everything, on the other side it was dark. Jesus Christ, when loved and received, becomes light, when rejected and hated, becomes darkness. R. Kent Hughes wrote a fine book on the Gospel of John and he amplifies this application when he says this. Hugh Hefner was raised in a minister's home. Joseph Stalin studied for the priesthood.

Mao Tse Tung was raised under missionary teaching. See, the very light of Jesus Christ itself becomes darkness to those who hate Christ. A word of caution. You're going to go out, I hope, we're going to go out, you already do, you're going to go out and shine the light of Christ. You're going to say, I'm getting my mirror out, I'm getting my mirror ready, man. I'm ready to take the light of Jesus Christ and light up the world.

Great. Just know that not everybody likes that. Just like when somebody turns the light on to you and your eyes have grown accustomed to the dark and you go, ugh.

Turn that off. Jesus, if you remember back in chapter 3 said, everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed. And this is why people hate the light. They hate the light of the truth, hate the light of the Gospel. You preach the Gospel to people, they, unless they're willing to receive Christ, will hate it. Because the light reveals what the darkness conceals.

And that is flaws. You turn on the light, you're looking in the mirror with a really, really bright, good light. You go, something's wrong with the light here.

Needs to be darker, softer. You're saying that because that light, the most unflattering light is direct light, that's why when you get a picture with a flash directly at you, you go, ooh. It's truthful.

People don't like it. So that's the word of caution when you bring the mirror out. Be wise as serpents, harmless as doves. It could be that your own personal life is in the shadows. You haven't been walking with Christ.

Every step to you is just uncertain and confusing. Jesus is saying to you, hey, step into the light. Follow me. You won't walk in darkness. You'll have the light of life. So I'm encouraging you to do the same thing you do at night when you come home and it's dark in your house. You walk in the door and you do what? Flip on the light. Jesus is saying, come on, follow me. Turn on the light.

That's the invitation this morning. If you haven't done that, that you would make a conscious decision to follow Christ. Well, if you'd like to learn how you can do that, how you can flip the switch and turn on the light of Christ in your life, we'd love to tell you more about what all that means. Just call, won't you, at 1-800-922-1888. And before we go today, here's Pastor Skip and Lenya to give us a little encouragement.

Lenya? Today's teaching, we hit on a topic that we talked about Jesus being the light of the world. But I know from personal experience that sometimes the pain in my life feels pretty dark. And, you know, when Jesus says, I am the light, or that, you know, he passes the baton and says, you are the light of the world. So we have to realize that the light of God is greater than our dark circumstances. And so do you have some encouragement for people who are hurting today and it feels like a dark season? My heart goes out. I've been in some dark seasons myself, so I'm sensitized toward that.

I guess the first thing I would say is to help our listeners realize this is not unusual. They're not the odd man out. Jesus said, the sun and the rain fall on the just and the unjust alike.

So that's a common part of life. Also, because Jesus is the light doesn't mean, and we shouldn't read into that, that we're always going to be lighthearted, that always have a smile on our face, and always, you know, kind of a Skip to our step, because Jesus is the light. It doesn't mean that we're going to be without a crushed heart, a broken heart. The Bible says the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, and he won't despise that.

So that'd be sort of the third thing I would say, is to learn to bring that brokenheartedness to the one who invites that. And the other thing is, the Bible talks about walking in the light, as he is in the light, and the best way I know to do that is to walk around people who do that. So when I'm in the light of God's people, God's presence through his people, it lifts me up, because I see a different perspective, and their perspective balances mine. And also that we know that the Word, your Word is the light unto my feet. And I, for myself personally, in my darkest places, if I turn to his Word, I do find such, you know, resonance of light. And, you know, I don't mean to make it trite, but God does look for diamonds in the rough.

And sometimes when we're in the rough, he's got to strike some blows, or put some heavy pressure, or polishing. And as I look back, there's more brilliancy in my dark places than any mountaintop, really. Those have become the shiniest places within me. And the people that I talk to who live in cloudy regions, they appreciate the sunshine all the more, because they're so used to the darkness, the cloudiness, that a sunny day, like in England, it's a bright, sunny day. We've had 40 hours of sunshine this year. They learn to appreciate the light moments, the sunshine, when darkness comes. So God knows how to balance out our lives.

Yep, the light's still shining behind the cloud. Well, thanks, guys. That's all the time we have for today. But remember, you can order a copy of today's teaching, which is available on CD for just $4 plus shipping, when you call us at 1-800-922-1888, or when you visit connectwithskip.com.

Next time, we'll explore the best and worst ways to die. It's a study you won't want to miss, right here in Connect with Skip Weekend Edition, a presentation of Connection Communications. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross, and cast all burdens on His word. Make a connection, connection, connection. Connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.