Jesus is the Light of the World

Jesus spoke to the people once more and said “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” John 8:12 

When I was young I was always fascinated with glow sticks.  How does a glow stick produce light??  It’s very clever science.  Let me explain. 

The glow stick glows because of something called chemiluminescence. That’s a pretty big sciencey word eh! All it really means is light that comes from a chemical reaction instead of light that comes from heat (like a fire or the sun).

Glow sticks emit light when two chemicals are mixed.  A glow stick has an outer tube and an inner tube.  The outer plastic tube contains a base, a fluorescent dye and a chemical called diphenyl oxalate. The inner glass tube contains a chemical called hydrogen peroxide.  When you bend the outer tube the inner glass tube breaks and the chemicals mix together.  When the chemicals mix they react to each other.  This reaction releases energy.  That energy is transferred into the dye and the dye lights up. 

And that is how a glow stick produces light.  It’s pretty amazing science eh!

Now I want to tell you about another kind of light.  This light is quite different to the light from a glow stick and it’s much more powerful.  This light shines so brightly that it can free people from a very different kind of darkness, a darkness that's inside them.

In the Bible we read that God created everything:

- the sun, moon and stars

- mountains, trees, oceans and rivers

- all the animals

- and human beings - including you!

God gave us his commands - that we are to love Him, our wonderful creator, and to love others, eveyone around you that God created.  Unfortunately you and I have not done that.  If we are honest with ourselves we know that we have all fallen short of this.  We have not kept God’s commands to always love God and love others.

Instead the Bible says we’ve all gone our own way - we’ve made selfish decisions - we’ve been hurt by others and have hurt others ourselves.  The Bible calls this sin.  And we are trapped in this cycle of sin.  A word the Bible uses for this is 'darkness'.  And worse yet, no one can set themselves free from this darkness - even if they try really hard.

But the good news is that what is impossible for people is possible for God (Luke 18:27).

God made a promise to rescue people from their darkness.  He kept his promise by sending his Son Jesus.  God sent Jesus to set people free from the darkness of sin.

Jesus said “I am the Light of the World, if you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life (John 8:12).

When Jesus was on earth he met a man named Bartimaeus.

Bartimaeus had never seen trees, cats, dogs, never seen his friends, never even seen his mum and dad.  That was because Bartimaeus was born blind.

When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus was nearby, he called out in a loud voice “JESUS, HAVE MERCY ON ME!”.  Everyone around Bartimaeus told him to be quiet - stop yelling out - Jesus is not going to do anything for you!!  But Bartimaeus was determined.  He was not going to be put off by what others said - so he kept yelling “JESUS HAVE MERCY ON ME!”

Jesus heard Bartimaeus calling and asked for him to come over to him.  Bartimaeus jumped to his feet and with help made his way to Jesus.  Jesus asked Bartimaeus “what do you want me to do for you?”. Bartimaeus replied “Sir, I want to see”.  Jesus replied “Go, your faith has healed you”.

Immediately light filled Bartimaeus’ eyes - and he could see!!!  The darkness that he had known his whole life was gone!  He looked around - he could see trees, and people, and Jesus standing right there smiling at him.

Light came to Bartimaeus’ eyes, the darkness was gone - he could see!  But at that moment Bartemaeus experienced another kind of light.  It was a light that came from knowing Jesus as the Son of God, and this light set him free from a deep darkness in his heart - the darkness of his sin.  Bartemaeus no longer walked in spiritual darkness but now knew the Light of Life - Jesus.

Now, I have never seen Jesus - but God gave me the faith to believe in him.  And when I believed in Him, Jesus rescued me from the darkness of my sin and brought me into his wonderful light.

God has kept his promise to set people free from darkness by sending a light.  That light is Jesus and if we believe in him we will be set free from the darkness of our sin and will live with God forever in heaven.

That's why Jesus is “the light of the world”.

If you would like further help or information, or if you made a commitment to the Lord through reading this, please let us know by contacting the PCF church office office@pcf.gen.nz

We'd love you to visit us at PCF on Sundays to learn more about following Jesus.