TITLES OF CHRIST
THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD
DR. JIM DIXON
JOHN 8:12, JOHN 1:1-13, MATTHEW 5:14-16
FEBRUARY 19, 1989
One of the strangest, most mysterious moments in the earthly life of our Lord Jesus Christ took place on top of a mountain. Some say it was Mount Tabor. In all likelihood, it was Mount Herman, north of Caesarea Philippi in the headwaters of the Jordan. To the top of that mountain, Jesus Christ took three of His disciples: Peter, James, and John to the top of that mountain. God sent Moses and Elijah, representing the Old Testament law and prophets, and there in the presence of these old and New Testament saints, Jesus Christ was transfigured.
The Bible tells us that His face began to shine like the sun at full strength. Even His clothing and His garments began to radiate like pure light. In that moment, He was unveiled, not merely a common man. He was unveiled in deity, and He who had dwelt from eternity past in unapproachable light was suddenly made manifest. Jesus Christ says, “I am the Light of the World.”
When He made that statement, He was not referring simply to the physical light of His heavenly countenance, but He was referring to light in the deepest sense. In saying, “I am the Light of the World,” He was making three claims for Himself. First of all, He was saying, “I am the very source of truth.” The Bible says, “The true light which enlightens every man was coming into the world, full of grace and truth.”
You see, in the biblical world, light was synonymous with truth and to be enlightened meant to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now, we live in a world where men and women claim to seek the truth and to want enlightenment. That is why people participate in education and they give themselves to the reading of many books.
We are told that the most famous bibliomaniac in the history of the world was a man named Sir Thomas Phillips. He died in 1872 at the age of 80. His goal was to own, to possess, a single copy of every single book in the world and he almost did it before his death. Now you should understand that in the 19th century, there were not nearly so many books as there are today. But Sir Thomas Phillips actually came to own more than 100,000 different books and 60,000 manuscripts and his private library was larger than the combined libraries of Cambridge University. Scholars from all over the world came to the private library of Sir Thomas Phillips to see the rare books and the precious manuscripts he possessed. He was a very wealthy British landowner. He kept all of his books in his palace on his estate. His estate was called Middle Hill. So great were the number of his books that even his mansion could not contain them. All the walls of every room in his palace were laden with books. Every bookshelf lined with books and every floor of every room in the house, it was said, was covered with books. Books stacked in boxes, boxes stacked on boxes, the whole house buried in books.
In 1863, Sir Thomas Phillips decided to move to another estate, to another mansion. Though he used 160 men and 103 carriages and 260 horses, he still was not able to move his entire library of books. When he died in 1872, the Phillips’ library began to be sold and auctioned. His books were sold individually, many of them extremely valuable and incredibly, even today, after more than 100 years, people are still buying books from the Phillips’ library.
Here is the man who had more books than any other person in history and many of those books he had read, yet he had virtually no knowledge of the truth and virtually no enlightenment. He lived a tragic life. He divorced himself from his family. He virtually abandoned them. He had three daughters, and though he was extremely wealthy, he raised them in poverty and in their entire youth they never had more than a single dress. His home was left in ill repair, his estate, because all he cared about was books. Ultimately, he became bankrupt because he spent his incredible wealth on rare manuscripts and rare books. He died a bitter man with no love for mankind and no love for God. He died in darkness. The Bible tells us that this world and the people of this world are in darkness.
Have you ever been in a cave? Sometime ago, Barb and I went to the Wind Cave National Monument in South Dakota, with more than 50 miles of tunnels and subterranean caverns. You know what it’s like when you go down into a cave. You don’t have to go very far and pretty soon there is no natural light. Whatever light you have is artificial light and you really can’t see the reality of that which surrounds you. You can’t see the truth of everything about you. Then when you begin to climb back towards the surface, this is assuming, of course, there is no artificial light, as you climb back towards the surface, you begin to get natural light and you begin to be able to see something of the reality of what is around you, but only in shadows.
The Bible says that’s what it’s like for the people of this world. They cannot really see the truth. They do not really see reality concerning this world and even concerning themselves. But the Bible says in that moment you come to Christ, in that moment, you really come into His light. For the first time you see the truth concerning the world and concerning yourself. You see the folly of the lust of the flesh and the folly of the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. You see the deception of sin. You see the wisdom of holiness. You see the value of spiritual things. You see the glory, the beauty, of the eternal kingdom of God.
For the first time, when you come into the light, you begin to see the truth concerning yourself. As you look in the light of His holiness and His light shines on you, you see the truth concerning yourself. The Bible says most of the people in the world really do not want to see the truth concerning themselves. Jesus said, “Those who practice evil hate the light.” They do not come into the light. They do not want the light to expose that which they do.
Think back to when you were a child. If you were like me, you had times when you played outside, you played in the dirt and played in the mud. I remember times I would pick up an old rock, maybe it had been there for a long time. Underneath the rock, you pick it up, there would be bugs, little sow bugs and caterpillars, and the light would come on them and they would scurry to try to find another rock to hide themselves under. The Bible says that’s really what many people in this world are like. They really don’t want to be exposed to the light. They would rather hide under a rock.
Adam and Eve, when they sinned in Eden, they wanted to hide. They wanted to hide in the darkness. The Bible says “they sought to hide themselves from the presence of the Lord God.” Certainly, our Lord Jesus Christ tried to bring the Pharisees out into the light, but they didn’t want to come out into the light. They didn’t want to see the truth. They didn’t want to face the truth concerning themselves. So they hid under a rock of self-righteousness.
Every Friday night, here at this church, we have AA groups which meet, Alcoholics Anonymous. These are many people from different walks of life. Some of them haven’t had a drink in two years. Some of them might have been drunk the night before, but they all have one thing in common…when they come to those groups, they have to face the truth concerning themselves and they have to say to one another “My name is Jim, I’m an alcoholic. Help me.” You see, that’s what it’s like. If you want to come into the light of Christ, you’ve got to face reality concerning yourself. You have to be willing to say “My name is Jim, I’m a sinner. Help me.”
This is an evangelical church. I think in a church like this, most of you have very little difficulty accepting the truth concerning Jesus Christ. Most of you believe in His incarnation, in His virgin birth, His sinless life, His atoning death, His resurrection from the dead, His ascension into heaven, His intercession for the saints, and you believe He’s coming again in power and glory. And most of you really don’t have that much difficulty accepting the truth concerning the world in which we live. At least you accept that truth intellectually. But you see, for most of us, the hardest thing is accepting the truth concerning ourselves, that we have all been tainted by sin and we are in desperate need of mercy and desperate need of grace. The Bible says that we “must walk in the light as He is in the light.”
I think some Christians think that means you have to walk without sin. If it really meant to walk without sin, then you could never walk in the light because we’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But you see, to walk in the light doesn’t really mean to be without sin. It means to walk in the truth. It means to admit your sin and it means to confess your sin and it means to repent of your sin. And when you do that, the light of Christ comes flooding into your life. You see, the Bible says “This is the message we’ve heard from the beginning. God is light. In Him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. The truth is not in us, but if we confess our sin He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” He is the source of truth, the Light of the World, and He wants us to walk in that light and come into the truth.
When He said, “I am the Light of the World,” He not only was claiming to be the source of truth, but also the source of direction, the source of guidance. The Bible says “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” Of course, the Bible is the Word of God written, but Jesus Christ is the Word of God living, and He is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Jesus said, “I am the Light of the World. He who follows me will not walk in darkness.” He is, as you see, the light that is set before us, the one that we are meant to follow.
In 1920, in Brussels, Belgium, the Olympic Games took place and the Olympic hundred-meter dash was won by an American whose name was Charley Paddock. He received the gold medal and he returned to the United States of America and he was called the fastest man in the world. He began to speak at schools all across his country. He spoke at one school in the state of Georgia. When he was done speaking, a boy came up to him and said, “Sir, I guess I’d give just about anything if I could become an Olympic hundred-meter champion just like you.” Charley Paddock smiled and he put his hands on the boy’s shoulder and he said “Son, if you believe, if you really believe, it can happen to you.” That boy was Jesse Owens.
His name was Jesse Owens and he returned to the United States the Olympic hundred-meter dash champion. He was called the fastest man in the world. All over America, in his honor, parades were held in cities. One such parade took place in the city of Cleveland, Ohio. When the parade was done, the car that Jesse Owens rode in stopped and he began to sign autographs. A boy came up to him and said, “Sir, I guess I would give just about anything if I could be the Olympic hundred-meter champion just like you. Jesse Owen smiled and he put his hand on that boy’s shoulder and he said, “Son, when I was about your age, I said the same thing to Charley Paddock. And he said to me, if you believe, if you really believe, it can happen to you.”
Well, the years passed and in 1948, the Olympic Games were held in Wembley Stadium in London, England. That boy had become a young man and he was crouched waiting for the start of the Olympic hundred-meter dash. The gun went off and he ran and he won and he tied Jesse Owens’ Olympic hundred-meter record. He returned to America and he was called the fastest man in the world, and his name was Harrison “Bones” Dillard. Many times Dillard said that for him, Jesse Owens had been a shining light. He said, “For me, Jesse Owens was the light set before me, the shining light that I followed. Surely, for Jesse Owens, Charley Paddock had been the light, the shining light set before him, the light he followed.
What’s the light? What’s the light that’s set before you? What’s your shining light? What’s the light you’re following above all else? If it’s not Jesus Christ, then that light’s not bright enough.
Have you ever heard of the word “shekinah?” In the western world, it’s the way we pronounce the Hebrew word “shekinah.” Shekinah is the word theologians used to describe theophanies, luminous manifestations of God to His people in light. Think back to the exodus. As the children of Israel left Egypt and they left bondage and they were crossing the wilderness. In Exodus, Chapter 13, we are told that before the children of Israel, as they passed through the wilderness, God went before them in light. The “shekinah,” a theophany. By day, a luminous cloud shot through with lightning and by night a supernatural pillar of fire. The light that went before them and led them and guided them through their wilderness wanderings towards the promised land.
The Bible makes it very clear that for us, as Christians, this world’s a wilderness. It’s not our home. We’re just passing through and our true home is in heaven with Christ. That’s the land, the promised land, the land flowing with milk and honey. We’re told that through this wilderness, through this world, Christ is the light set before us who would lead us and guide us ultimately to heaven itself. For He says, “I am the Way, the “hodos,” the path, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father, but by Me.” He is the light set before us and he calls upon us to walk the path that He lights. Ultimately, that path leads to eternal life and, of course, in the midst of this world, He leads us in pathways of righteousness. He says to you, “In all your ways, acknowledge Me and I will direct your paths.” The source of guidance.
Thirdly, and finally, when Jesus Christ said, “I am the Light of the World,” He was claiming not only to be the source of truth and the source of direction, but He was claiming to be the very source of life itself. You see, the Greek world understood that without light there’s no life. That is why Jesus said, “I am the Light of the World. He who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life. In Him was life and the life was the light of man.” Light in the Greek world was almost synonymous with life. Without light, there could be no life.
Perhaps some of you have heard of the element called iridium. Scientists tell us that iridium is very rare in our world, but scientists also tell us that in other worlds outside of our solar system and in other galaxies and throughout the universe, there are many planets and there are many asteroids that are very rich in this element of iridium. Scientists believe, they claim, that 65 million years ago, between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods of earth’s history, a meteor very rich in this element iridium collided with the earth…a massive meteor, miles in width. This meteor impacted with the earth, and when it hit the earth, dust rose to the heavens, dust from the earth, but mostly dust from that meteor that shattered when it hit the earth. So dust rose to the heavens, dust rich in iridium, and this cloud of dust that rose formed a dust canopy that just enveloped the earth, that literally covered the globe. It was so thick, this dust, scientists tell us that the light of the sun was not able to reach the surface of the earth. And because the light of the sun was not able to reach the surface of the earth, plants began to die. There could be no process of photosynthesis.
When the plants begin to die, plant-eating animals begin to die, including the plant-eating dinosaurs. Then after a period of time, flesh-eating animals, carnivorous animals, carnivorous dinosaurs, they begin to die because they had no plant-eating animals to eat. Thus, some scientists believe, we have the extinction of the dinosaurs. They say this theory is confirmed because geologists, when they look at the geological column, the straw of the layers of the earth’s crust, between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods, they see in many parts of the world a layer of iridium when the canopy dispersed and fell to the earth. They call this the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction, but it’s only a theory. It may be true, it may not be true, but this we know is true; without the light of the sun, there’s no life on this planet. It’d be a lifeless void, just a lifeless ball spinning in space. Without the sun, there can be no life. And so it is, the Bible tells us, without the light of the Son of God, people don’t really have life.
I think there is little question, and with this we’ll close, little question that C.S. Lewis has been one of the 20th century’s most influential and popular Christian writers. It’s a matter of debate whether this Oxford professor was more influential in his so-called left-brain writings, his non-fiction works books such as “Mere Christianity”, “The Problem of Pain”, “Surprised by Joy”, or whether he was more influential in his so-called right-brain writings, his fictional books, his fantasy books, books such as “The Chronicles of Narnia” and “The Space Trilogy” and “The Screwtape Letters.” I think it’s safe to say that all of Lewis’s writings have found an audience, and Lewis loved and served Jesus Christ with his whole mind. But you see, it wasn’t always like that for him.
He was born on a cold winter mourn in Belfast in the year 1898. His father was a lawyer. His mother with a was a clergyman’s daughter. When Lewis was only 10 years old, his mother died. Then shortly after that, he lost his father not to death, but to anger and grief. In those early years, many times Lewis was forced to go to church. But he said in those years in his youth, he didn’t have a single spiritual experience. As a young adult, he was a confirmed atheist. The rational side of his mind had been carefully honed and shaped by W.T. Kirkpatrick who had taught Lewis in philosophy and language and logic. Lewis had decided that the universe was really no more than a tragic cosmic accident and there were facts in the universe to be studied, but there was nothing in the universe to be obeyed and nothing in the universe to be believed in and God Himself did not exist.
Lewis admitted that in those days, sometimes he was angry with God for not existing. But you see, Lewis had another side of his mind, not so much an irrational side, but a creative side, a side of his mind that loved fantasy and loved fiction. This was a side of his mind that gave him whatever measure of happiness he had in those days. With this side of his mind, he longed to believe and he longed to have faith. You see, the rational side of his mind would not allow that, would not allow him to believe. The rational side of his mind built a wall that kept the light out. Lewis said that in that time in his life, he felt like life itself had given him a strange and bitter ironic kind of twist or turn because he said the things he loved, fantasy and fiction, he knew weren’t real and the things that were real he didn’t love. And so, in his life, he really had death and he spent most of his time, he said, in darkness.
But every once in a while, the light would penetrate the darkness of his world as he would read George McDonald and he’d think to himself, “You know, maybe there really is a God.” I mean, Lewis had always said you can’t be too careful if you’re an atheist. There are certain books you don’t want to read and certain people you don’t really want to get to know if you want to remain an atheist. Lewis had read many books and even Chesterton’s essays and Bergson’s philosophy and Milton’s poetry. Even these things had begun to chip away at the wall that held out the light. Eventually, Lewis became a kind of rational theist where he decided intellectually, he decided with his rational mind, that there really is a God and God does exist, but Lewis still lived in darkness. He still lived in darkness because he didn’t know this God.
Lewis’s best friend, J.R.R. Tolkien, who was also an Oxford professor, would sit down and talk with Lewis for hours around the fire. He would tell Lewis how the only way he could ever really know God was through Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Lewis struggled with this. He began to read the Bible and the light penetrated more deeply. Then there came that incredible day when Lewis left his house and he rode in the car to the zoo. When he left the house, he didn’t believe that Jesus was the Son of God. When he arrived at the zoo, somehow he believed that Jesus was the Son of God. He said he couldn’t explain that. He said it was like having a long sleep and suddenly just waking up in bed and realizing you’re awake. He had moved from death to life, from darkness to light.
Well, if you’re a Christian, you had some experience like that. It might have been sudden. It might have been a long process, but somehow you’ve come to the point where you believe Jesus is the Son of God and you believe it sufficiently, you believe it enough, that you’ve been willing to commit your life to Him as Lord and Savior of life. God wants you to understand that this life He gave you when you moved into the light, when you went from darkness to light, the life that He has given you is both quantitative and qualitative. It’s quantitative in that it never ends. It’s “zoe aionios.” It’s eternal life. It never ends, but it’s also qualitative life and it’s meant to be an abundant life. God wants us to understand we’re only going to experience that life in abundance to the extent that we walk in the light. We’re only going to experience that life in abundance to the extent we live in the light of Christ and we bask in the word, in the scriptures every day and in prayer and in the fellowship of believers. God wants us to understand this is a strange kind of light that he’s given us. The more you shine it on other people, the more it shines on you. The more you give this light away, the more you have this light. He’s called you to share the light of Christ with the nations. Jesus said to all of you who believe, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid, nor does one light a lamp and set it under a bushel but on a post that it might give light to all in the house. So let your light so shine among men, that they might see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” The Bible says to all of us who believe, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you might declare the wonderful deeds of Him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” Let’s close this morning with a word of prayer.