AM Exodus 3:1-15 & John 6:22-59 I AM (part 1)

[0:00] In the scriptures, that's our first reading this morning, and it's found in Exodus 3, and it's that passage I was mentioning to the children of Moses encountering God.

[0:15] So Exodus chapter 3, and beginning at verse 1. Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

[0:38] And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.

[0:48] And Moses said, I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, Moses, Moses.

[1:02] And he said, here I am. Then he said, and do not come near, take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.

[1:13] And he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

[1:26] Then the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land.

[1:44] A land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.

[2:04] Come, I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?

[2:20] He said, but I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.

[2:34] Then Moses said to God, if I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, what is his name?

[2:46] What shall I say to them? God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, say this to the people of Israel, I am has sent me to you.

[3:02] God also said to Moses, say this to the people of Israel, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you.

[3:14] This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. If you turn with me into the New Testament now to John chapter 6.

[3:28] I apologize, I should have put this on the notices, and I entirely forgot. But if you'll turn with me to John chapter 6, and we'll read a few verses from that chapter.

[3:41] So we're going to start at verse 35. This is Jesus, Jesus talking to the people who had gathered around him. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.

[3:58] Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me.

[4:11] And whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he's given me, but raise it up on the last day.

[4:28] For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life. And I will raise him up on that last day.

[4:40] So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. And they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?

[4:55] How does he now say, I have come down from heaven? Amen. So reads God's word. Well this morning we're going to be turning to the gospel of John.

[5:15] And we're going to be considering more than one passage from that gospel. One or two different texts in the book as we look at God's word. It's generally accepted that the book of John, the gospel of John, was written by the apostle John, one of Christ's twelve disciples.

[5:34] And it was probably between 70 and 100 AD. And it's a little bit different to the other three gospels. So we have three other gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke.

[5:45] And they're often referred to as the synoptic gospels. And that leaves John as the odd one out. What does synoptic mean?

[5:57] Well it means a couple of things. One is that things take a similar perspective. So if you have two different things and you would refer to them as synoptic, they're taking a similar perspective or a similar point of view.

[6:09] And in terms of the gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, they have a similar approach to the account of the life of Christ that they give. And then the word can also be used to mean that it's something of a summary.

[6:24] An overview of a whole. And again in that sense, that's also applicable to the first three gospels. They are very much an overview of the whole life of Christ.

[6:35] And in that way, that's where we see the particular difference with the gospel of John. Now I quite enjoy military history. And there are different ways of studying it.

[6:47] You can take a whole campaign and you can look at the ebb and flow of the strategy that is used by the leaders in that campaign. That's one way.

[6:58] And that gives you one view of events. But you could also look at individual battles within the campaign. And you could look at perhaps the detailed tactics of the battlefield commanders in a particular battle.

[7:11] Looking at the way individual units are used to achieve certain objectives. And when you do that, you get a different view. Now both of those views are valid.

[7:22] But neither of them is complete. And so to get the best understanding of a campaign, you really need to study the overall pattern of it, as well as the detail of the individual bits.

[7:33] And in many ways, this is what we've got in the gospels. Matthew, Mark and Luke provide us with the overall pattern of the life of Christ. They record events right through his life.

[7:45] From his early childhood, his birth. And they present Christ's teaching from perhaps a more general viewpoint. And yet John is different.

[7:57] And the gospel of John is different in that it concentrates into a small part of the life of Christ. So we don't have an account, for instance, of his birth. There's no full account of Christ's teaching.

[8:10] It's a very concentrated part of Christ's life that we have. And this is for a reason, I think. John would have been familiar with the other gospels. They'd been written before he wrote.

[8:21] So the overall view of the life of Christ would have been known. And his purpose, then, in writing his gospel was not to establish another perspective from his perspective as one of Christ's disciples of the overall life of Christ.

[8:36] No. He writes with a particular purpose. And we know that because he tells us. It's in John 20, verses 30 and 31, where we read this. John writes, Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book.

[8:52] But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ. The Son of God. And that believing, you may have life in his name.

[9:07] In other words, John's purpose for writing is explicitly evangelistic. And that's why he focuses in onto some of Christ's teaching, some of the detail of Christ's teaching.

[9:22] And he presents us this more detailed view of the work and person of Christ. And this uniqueness of Christ and uniqueness of the detail that we have in John is perhaps no more clearly shown than in seven unique sayings that are recorded for us by John in his gospel.

[9:41] They're not in Matthew, Mark and Luke. They're only in John. And they're often referred to as the great I am sayings. The seven great I am's of Christ.

[9:51] And it's two of these that I want to spend our time looking at this morning. Together, you might say if you took the seven I am's together and you could sort of put them next to each other, you could almost say these provide a pocketbook guide to the Lord Jesus Christ.

[10:11] Who he is, what he came for, what he did. I'm sure you'll be familiar with most of them. John 6, we've read earlier. I am the bread of life, says Christ.

[10:22] John 8, I am the light of the world, says Christ. John 10, I am the door. John 10 again, I am the good shepherd, says the Lord Jesus Christ.

[10:33] Then we have, I am the resurrection and the life in John 11. I am the way and the truth and the life. And that's found in John 14. And then the final one, the true vine.

[10:46] That's in John 15. As I say, we're going to look at two of those briefly this morning. And we're going to pick up on a third one this evening. But as we consider them both this morning and this evening, there's something which I want you to just bear in mind, keep in mind as we seek to understand what Christ is saying.

[11:06] And to apply these sayings to ourselves, to learn from them. What we'll see is that there is typically a pattern involved in these sayings. And it's a pattern of what we might call the three C's.

[11:20] It's claim, it's challenge, and it's confession. So claim, challenge, confession. And this pattern is typical in all of them. Christ makes a claim.

[11:32] His hearers find it a challenge. And then his hearers make a confession of one form or another. And I would suggest to you that for each one of us today, as we look at these sayings, these I am sayings, that's the framework we need to apply to these sayings for ourselves.

[11:51] With each saying, Christ clearly makes a claim. And that claim will be a challenge to us. And that challenge then requires a response from us.

[12:06] A confession from us. Typically it's a confession of either agreeing with the truth of Christ as he makes the claim and makes a challenge, or disagreeing and turning away from Christ.

[12:22] Those are the two options that we have. Those are the two options we have here this morning. So let's take the first of the two sayings. As they come in the narrative of the gospel, that first one, I am the bread of life.

[12:35] We read that. It was there in John 6. I am the bread of life. And Jesus said to them, a bit more than just, I am the bread of life, because he starts to explain what he means.

[12:48] He says, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger. Whoever believes in me shall never thirst. Verses 48 and 51, that we read the, sorry, after the bit we read, we carried on reading, we see the claim to be the bread of life is repeated by Christ further on in that same chapter.

[13:10] Now, there's two words which are common to all of these seven I am sayings. And it's fairly obvious, isn't it? It's the words, I am. And I would hope that you've picked up the significance of what I had to say to the children this morning.

[13:27] I hope you've picked up the significance of reading that passage in Exodus earlier on. Moses asked for the name of God. And what did God say? It was there that we read, wasn't it?

[13:37] God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, say this to the people of Israel, I am has sent me to you. You see, God refers to himself as I am.

[13:52] And in this period of Christ's ministry that John is bringing to us in this chapter here, in this period of Christ's ministry, Christ is starting to more explicitly bring out to the Jews the truth of his Godhood, of his deity.

[14:09] Christ is saying, I am the Son of God. Christ is saying, I am God. Christ is saying, I am. And you see, that's a claim to deity.

[14:23] And when you compare these sayings of Christ, that I am sayings of Christ, to that portion of what we read, of Moses meeting God, you start to see the full impact of what Christ is saying.

[14:40] I am. That's God's name. Christ is claiming to be God. And you see, this continual reference of Christ to I am wouldn't have been lost on the Jews as they heard him speak.

[14:57] They knew the story of Moses. They knew the story of the Israelites in Egypt. They knew that God sent Moses to the Israelites in Egypt. They knew that he led them out to the promised land.

[15:10] They knew all those stories. And part of that was the name of God. Who is our God? What do we call our God? I am.

[15:22] They knew that. This would not be lost on them. And they're starting perhaps to understand Christ's claim. But if we did read in verse 42 there, the listening Jews don't really fully understand, do they?

[15:40] They sort of understand that Christ is making this claim. But they don't really understand because after all they say, verse 42, after all they say, well isn't this just Jesus?

[15:53] Isn't this Joseph's son? We know his mum and dad. What's he saying? Well they were right in one sense.

[16:06] It was Jesus. It was the son of Joseph and Mary. Yes, that's right. But they were wrong too. Because it wasn't just Jesus.

[16:19] In each case, Christ is making a statement. I am God. And as he makes these statements, he's explaining more and more in what way he displays his Godhood.

[16:36] And in what way does that matter to his hearers. So what's he saying here then? I'm the bread of life. Well this statement takes place the day after Christ has performed a miracle.

[16:52] It's the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000. And it comes in a discourse where Christ is explaining that miracle. And Christ says, I am the bread of life.

[17:02] I've just fed all these people with bread. The food I gave you yesterday, that was bread. And by the way, that perishes. What you really need is not the food that just sustains you from moment to moment, from one day to the next.

[17:20] But what you really need is the bread of life. A food that won't perish. A food that will give eternal life. You see, food is essential to us, isn't it?

[17:35] Our bodies need food each day and without food, we soon become ill. And if we have no access to any food, we soon die. We have a saying, don't we?

[17:48] To be on the bread line. It means we've only just about got the bare essentials of life. Well you see, Christ here is claiming to be the essential to more than just physical life.

[18:02] He's claiming to be the essential to eternal life. Christ is saying, I am the bread of life. Eternal life, he means. You see, each one of us here this morning is naturally starved of spiritual food, aren't we?

[18:20] We're sinners. And because of the fact we're sinners, our souls are starving. Because of sin, we're cut off from God, aren't we? We're cut off from fellowship with God.

[18:32] We're cut off from our spiritual food. But you see, Christ has been given to us by the Heavenly Father as our spiritual food. That bread of life that we need.

[18:45] He's the satisfier, he's the reliever, he's the physician of man's spiritual need. In Christ, in his meditorial office, in him and his atoning death on the cross for us.

[18:58] In him and his priesthood, in his grace towards us, his love, his power, in him alone. Now, a hymn, don't we, we sing sometimes, in Christ alone.

[19:10] Well, it's quite right, that hymn, in Christ alone, is where empty souls can find their wants supplied. See, in him there's life.

[19:21] He is the bread of life. The earlier verses of this chapter as Christ is explaining the miracle, verses 31 to 34, that you have the parallel there and the contrast between Christ and the manna that was provided in the wilderness by God to the children of Israel.

[19:40] The manna pointed forward to Christ. That was one of the functions of the manna that God provided was to point forward to Christ. And Christ uses it here as a forward pointer to the provision of God of the bread of life.

[19:57] And just as in the wilderness all that the children of Israel needed for daily living was provided by God in the manna, was a provision by God of all their needs, so too, the bread of life, Christ, is all sufficient.

[20:11] He's totally sustaining. But it's not a sustaining of physical that is being talked of here, is it? And again, Christ means more if we went on to verses 47 to 52 in this chapter.

[20:25] Again, contrast the bread of life to the manna in the wilderness. Verse 49, he says, your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and they died. Well, of course they did. It was just food for the body.

[20:36] It was just to satisfy the daily need for food, but it couldn't stop them from dying and until Christ returns, nothing can stop us from dying too, can it? We all have to die. That's the nature of things since sin marred creation.

[20:52] But you see, we were created by God in his image. We were created with eternal souls and the gift of life is given to a child, the physical life, a life that is 70, 80, maybe a little more, maybe a little less, years.

[21:08] But there's a part of us when a new child is created that is eternal. It's our soul. It will live forever. It's our spiritual existence, but because of sin, you see, that spiritual existence isn't born alive.

[21:24] It's born dead. Ephesians 2, 1, isn't it? We're dead in our trespasses and sins. That's how we're born. And you see, this is the life that Christ is talking about when he says he's the bread of life.

[21:37] He can bring spiritual life. That's what he's talking about. He can bring an eternal life, an existence with God beyond the grave. But also, he brings with that an experience of God in his goodness and his blessing in this life if we turn to him.

[21:58] This is what Christ is talking about. He's the bread of life sent down by the Father. and all those who put their faith in him, all those who therefore eat of him by faith will receive eternal life.

[22:14] He's all we need. And it is eternal. It is forever. The manna was temporary, provided for today, but it went moldy overnight, if you remember.

[22:29] It was a provision for the immediate needs of the Israelites. But the bread of life is forever. Verse 35, he who comes to Jesus will not hunger and will never thirst.

[22:41] thirst. This is a continuous thing. It's not just a temporarily you won't hunger and thirst. This is a continuous thing. And again, verse 40, he who believes will have eternal life.

[22:53] Again, verse 47, whoever believes has eternal life. You see, the glorious truth here is that Christ is all sufficient, all sufficient for us here, now, but all sufficient too for eternity.

[23:09] as I said earlier, the structure here is a structure of a claim of Christ. There's a challenge and a confession.

[23:23] So here, Christ is making the claim. I am the bread of life. It's a claim of deity, a claim to be God, a claim of the one who can bring eternal life to the sinner. And this is a challenge to the Jews.

[23:36] The challenge that went to the very core of their religious belief system. You see, they were looking for the Messiah. Remember the feeding of the 5,000?

[23:49] After the feeding of the 5,000, there were some who saw Christ as the Messiah. And they misunderstood what the whole thing was about and what Christ meant. But you see, this claim of Christ is a challenge to us too, isn't it, today?

[24:05] It's an everlastingly relevant challenge to mankind. And we make the mistake of thinking that we're 2,000 years on from when these words were spoken and there's nothing there for us.

[24:18] We make that mistake at our peril. And again, just as it went to the core of the Jewish religious system, this goes to the core of our modern life.

[24:31] Everybody here, as far as I can tell, has had something to eat today. We have our daily food, don't we? In many ways, we're pretty comfortable really, aren't we?

[24:43] But the challenge is this, do we acknowledge the claim of Christ? Have we eaten of Christ as the bread of life? Have we eaten by believing in him, believing that he died for our sins?

[24:57] Putting our trust in him as our saviour, Lord? Do you have spiritual life? Have you eaten of this bread of life?

[25:07] Do you know Christ? That's the challenge. Will you believe or will you turn and walk away? That's the challenge. There were three different sets of reactions to this challenge in our passage when Christ laid out the challenge.

[25:21] There were those described as Jews verses 41 and 52. Probably the Jews in the synagogue, this took place, this exchange took place in the synagogue in Capernaum.

[25:34] And so probably not just the leaders, other Jews who were present in the synagogue, so a bulk of people and it would probably have included the religious leaders too.

[25:46] And it would seem that they rejected the claim of Christ. They belittle him. Verse 42, we know his mum and his dad, don't we? How can this man do this for us? There's almost a scorn here, isn't there?

[25:59] How can this guy we know we know his parents? How can he be God? God, I am, bread of life, come from heaven, believe in me.

[26:12] I don't think so. You're just that Jesus guy, we know your mum and dad. But the second type of reaction too, and this is from people who are described in verse 60 as disciples, and from verse 66 if we looked at that we'd see that these were people who'd been walking along and following with Jesus.

[26:31] We don't really know how many people it is, we're not told that, so we can't guess at that, but it's generally thought there would be a good number of people. These are people who, it appears that they believed in what Jesus had been teaching, at least up till now.

[26:47] Up till now. But you see, the problem with them was that their belief was based on their own ideas as to what they wanted Jesus to do and to be.

[26:58] And the claims that Christ is now making are clarifying who he really is. And this is too hard for them. These are people who perhaps saw Jesus as a good man, an interesting teacher, a man who can work some miracles, heal some sick people, a man worth following to see what he's going to do next.

[27:22] But you see, now they're faced with Christ making a claim. And he gives them a challenge. And you see, many of them reject the claim.

[27:33] And in verse 66, it tells us that many of them no longer walked with him. So that's the first two reactions. Utter disbelief, mockery, but then those who were closer to Christ than walking away.

[27:50] But then the third reaction we've got in verses 67 to 69. And it's from the twelve disciples. This is Christ's sort of inner followers, those in Christ are chosen. And as usual, Peter's the spokesman.

[28:02] He uses the plural we, not the singular I, in his response to Jesus' question there. Jesus asks the disciples, verse 67, do you want to go away as well? These other people are leaving.

[28:14] Do you want to leave too? And in response, he gets what is a glorious confession, you know. Lord, to whom shall we go? Says Peter. To whom shall we go? He's speaking for everybody.

[28:25] You have the words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God. What a remarkable confession that is. I mean, can you say that? Is that your response to Christ this morning?

[28:37] Is that your confession? Claim, challenge, confession. Do you understand the claims of Christ? He's the bread of life. He can bring spiritual life, everlasting life.

[28:49] He's the son of God, the one sent to save. Do you understand the challenge of those claims? If these claims are true, it demands a response from us.

[29:00] Demands a response from us. And how do you respond to that challenge? Will you be like the Jews, poor scorn on the claim of Christ? Will you be like some of those who followed along because they were interested in Jesus as a good man or a teacher?

[29:15] But at this point, that's just too hard to accept. Will you be with Peter? Will you be able to make this glorious confession that you believe that you've eaten the bread of life?

[29:26] To many of us, I guess this passage is quite familiar, isn't it? But I wonder how often we see the, in just the, just the sort of immediate truths of what we have been speaking about and considering this morning.

[29:46] That Jesus is the bread of life and we perhaps miss some other things here because this particular passage, this contains references to what historically have been some of the, and even today actually have been some of the most hotly disputed theological matters.

[30:04] And here we've got the words of Christ relating to these matters. What do I mean? Well, verse 35, 36, whoever comes to me shall not hunger, whoever believes on me shall never thirst.

[30:15] But I said to you that you have seen me and yet you do not believe. Who didn't believe? You have seen me. You haven't believed. Whose responsibility therefore is it to believe?

[30:29] Well, it's yours. That's human responsibility, isn't it? We're responsible for actions. We're responsible to believe. But then in the same breath, Christ goes on.

[30:40] All that the Father gives me will come to me. Clearly speaks of the work of God, doesn't it, in salvation. In other words, it isn't anything to do with what we can do.

[30:51] But it speaks too of irresistible grace, doesn't it? No one can come if the Father doesn't give him and no one who the Father gives will fail to come.

[31:05] And we've rephrased that as irresistible grace. Verse 44 reinforces it. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, says Christ.

[31:15] Christ. We don't know that trespasses and sins. How can we come to Christ? Only if God draws us to him. There's nothing in and of ourselves to enable us to come to Christ.

[31:26] It's a work of God. But we're responsible for our actions. We're responsible for faith. What about the perseverance of the saints?

[31:37] Can a Christian, a true Christian, fall away, lose their salvation? What's Christ got to say about that? Well, verse 39. I should lose nothing of all that he's given me. Verse 40.

[31:48] Everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. This is Christ speaking. This isn't one of the apostles. The Son of God, the one who will lay down his life for his people.

[32:06] Do you believe in the perseverance of the saints? Christ did. Christ did. So here you have it. From the mouth of the Saviour himself. There is human responsibility.

[32:18] There's God's work in salvation. There's our inability to do anything towards our salvation. And there's this glorious doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. It's there in a nutshell.

[32:28] Right from the mouth of Christ. Well, let's move on quickly. One of the second of I am. So I am the light of the world. It's found in John 8, verse 12. I am the light of the world, says Christ.

[32:39] And this comes about as Christ is in the temple. It's around about the Feast of Tabernacles time. And that's significant for this saying because there was symbolism.

[32:50] It was intended to remind the Jews this feast of their time in the wilderness. They were guided in the way by what? Well, by a pillar of light and a pillar of cloud.

[33:01] And in the temple, which is where Jesus is teaching, there would have been at this time, there would have been four very large lampstands that were continually burning.

[33:13] And it was to illuminate the temple courtyard by night. But they were symbolic of the way that God had led his people. And it's likely that Christ is standing by and if he's not standing by, he almost certainly is making reference to these huge lights.

[33:31] And what is he saying? He's saying these are physical lights for the temple, but look at me. I am the light of the world. The symbolism, isn't it?

[33:43] Symbolism of the Feast of Tabernacles would have reminded the Jews of their history. Some died in the desert. Those who rebelled, they didn't reach Canaan, they didn't reach the Promised Land, they died in the desert.

[34:00] And against this background of the feast and the temple lampstands, for Christ to describe himself as the light of the world, it could hardly be more dramatic. The Jews would be familiar with the words in Isaiah 42.

[34:15] I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light to the nations. Again, Isaiah 49. I will make you as a light to the nations. So again, there's no doubt whatsoever that Christ is proclaiming himself here as the Messiah.

[34:30] The Messiah. He was proclaiming himself as the good news for the Jews and for the rest of the world. The fulfillment of prophecy. It was a bold claim. I am. I am God.

[34:42] I am the light of the world. I am the Messiah sent by God. When do you need light? When it's dark, don't you? So what's the darkness that we need the light of Christ for?

[34:55] Well, it's spiritual darkness again. Morally and spiritually, this world is in darkness. darkness. And Christ is the light. Christ is the only true light that can bring us out of that darkness and into the light of life.

[35:10] It's the Lord Jesus Christ. I remember some years ago walking in North Wales. We actually slept on top of Snowdon. And in the early morning we were traversing one of the sharp ridges of Snowdon.

[35:26] Just a torch for company. And the darkness to the side of me as I looked down was complete. And the height was so high that the torch couldn't really penetrate the depths of the darkness.

[35:38] It was actually quite scary. But as we went the sun came up. And if you've ever been up there then you will appreciate what a glorious sight a bright sunny morning after a freezing cold dark night is.

[35:55] in that part of the world. The precipices that at night were scary were things of beauty. The darkness that was scary became a thing of beauty as the view developed as the sun came up.

[36:13] And you see this is similar with Christ as the light of the world. Without him we live in darkness. It's a frightening place to be you know. There's no hope.

[36:23] There's no direction. There's no way of knowing what what's going in the right direction means. We're stumbling around in the dark. But you see when Christ comes to lighten our way what do we have?

[36:38] We have joy. We have lives that are transformed into lives of joy. We have direction all of a sudden in our life. We can see. We have hope.

[36:49] You know we live in a world of false dawns false lights people and movements all around us that profess to bring us happiness and direction for life.

[37:00] And it's all sorts of things. It's sometimes philosophy it can be science it can be art it can be all sorts of different things. But they're false lights they're false dawns.

[37:12] And you know in days gone by around the south coast of England they used to put out false lights that would lure unsuspecting ships onto the rocks and wreck the ships so they could go and steal the cargo.

[37:27] So to these false lights of the world they lure unsuspecting sinners deeper and deeper into sin and deeper and deeper into rebellion against God.

[37:40] But you see here Christ proclaims himself as the light of the world. That is his claim. And that's the challenge to us. Do we want this light in our lives? A light that can light our path?

[37:51] A light that can bring meaning to life? A light that can bring hope for eternity? And it's a certain hope by the way. It's not just a vague hope the certainty for eternity.

[38:03] Or do we want to walk trying perhaps to figure out how to light our own way? That's the challenge. I am the light of the world.

[38:18] That's the claim. The challenge. Can you walk in darkness? Do you want to carry on walking in darkness? Or do you want to walk in the light of life? What about the confession? Well the ensuing exchange in that passage in John 8 between Christ and the Jews in the temple didn't have a happy ending.

[38:36] If we had time to read it you'd find that. There's no acceptance of what Christ is saying. In fact they reject his testimony. By the end of the chapter we find the Jews wanting to stone Christ.

[38:47] They want to kill him. Why? Because Christ has made clear to them he's claiming to be God. His I am's are indeed because he is the great I am.

[39:02] Verse 58 of John 8 Truly, truly I say to you before Abraham was I am. There's no great confession here from the Jews but rather a rejection of Christ as the Messiah.

[39:15] And that again is a further challenge to us. Do we understand what Christ is saying here? Do we confess our need of Christ? Or this morning if Christ was in our midst physically here would we be like the Jews wanting to take him outside into the streets and stone him?

[39:34] Kill him? And you know if we confess Christ and we want to follow the light we've got to be prepared to follow wherever that takes us.

[39:50] And that again is a challenge for us that we prepared for that. Christ is the light but he tasked the apostles with spreading that light. Christ is the light and we are tasked with spreading that light.

[40:04] Can we take up that challenge? Can we accept the light? Can we spread the light? Are we prepared to take that where it might lead us? I am the bread of life said Christ and only through faith and believing in him can we eat of that bread of life.

[40:22] I am the light of the world said Christ and only by following that light can we safely travel the pathway of this life to eternity. We need to lay hold of Christ don't we?

[40:37] We need to lay hold of life. We need to cast ourselves on Christ. We need to put our faith in Christ as the one who is able to save us. Put our faith in Christ and his sacrificial work.

[40:50] Put our faith in Christ the one who rose from the dead. We need to take of this bread of life. We need to live in the light of life. And may God grant us the grace then so to live.

[41:05] Amen. Amen. God.破 God.

[41:21] God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God.

[41:31] God.