A Father we've worshipped, your Son as true God of true God,
Light of light. We worship you as the Father of
Lights, the giver of good and perfect gifts.
We thank you for our offering, which we give to you in worship,
acknowledging that it was yours anyway and that we owe our life
and breath and everything to you.
We thank you for your word that it is a light and a lamp, and we
thank you that the unfolding and the explanation of it gives
light as well. And so we pray that today, as we
hear from your word, publicly read and preached from, that it
would do just that in our hearts.
Thank you for your sunrise visiting us from on high to us
who were in darkness. Thank you for Christ and May
this message that we hear from your word and what the Sunday
School kids also get from your Word, we pray that it would
cause us to walk in holiness and righteousness, that Your Spirit
would guide our feet into the way of peace.
We pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
Good morning. Hey, it's good to have everybody
here. It is the coldest day of the
year. Well, yesterday was the coldest
day of the year. It was also the shortest day.
So we're on the all the days get longer from here on and we're
past the halfway mark. So that is a good time to start
on a new series. So we're starting a new series
today, weirdly. I will explain more about that
what that is at the end of today's message, but it will
make more, it'll make more sense then.
So this morning we are going to look at this question who is
Jesus? Because what we believe about
Jesus will affect how we live our life and why it'll affect
what we believe about an afterlife and what happens next.
And as we'll see you this morning, it'll vastly impact the
amount of hope that we have in our lives.
So in Matthew 16, verse 13, Jesus asked the his disciples
are really important question. He says this, this is this.
When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked
his disciples, saying, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man
AM? So they said some say John the
Baptist, some Elijah, others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
Alright, there are a lot of different views about who Jesus
is, right? Lots of people will say lots of
different things. You know, Muslim people believe
that he was a prophet. Some people will say, well, he,
he was a great teacher. Some people will say he was just
a, a historical figure. Lots of different, different
ideas, right? But he said to them verse 15.
But who do you say that I am Simon Peter answered Simon
Peter. So it's pretty common.
It's it's common in today's world as well for people who
live in societies where multiple languages are used to have more
than one one name. When we lived in Korea, a lot of
Korean people will have a Korean name and they'll have a have an
English name, right, because Korean names are harder for
English people to pronounce English speaking speakers to
pronounce. So his name is Simon.
This is Hebrew, the Hebrew version of his name, which means
a small stone. And also Peter, also known as
Peter, which also means a small stone.
So that's kind of the the Greek version of of Simon.
So he answered one of the symbols and he said, you are the
Christ, you are the Christ right?
Now that's that's the Greek version of Hebrew, the Hebrew
word Messiah, right? We probably reasonably familiar
with that word. Messiah means anointed 1
appointed one kind of promised one, right?
And so all through the Old Testament, the Bible talks about
talks about how God would send this anointed one, this
appointed one, this promised one, this Messiah to come and
save his people. And so Peter goes, that's you,
the one that the Old Testament talks about, right?
You, you're the Christ, you're the Messiah, the Son of the
living God, right? And incredibly, incredibly
powerful statement, probably one of the most powerful statements
that Peter ever made. And Jesus said to him, blessed,
right. Blessed's kind of a religious
word, isn't it? We don't use it too much out of
that, you know, we'll say I'm, I'm very blessed, you know, I'm
very blessed today for that. But but the word actually means
happy. That's that's kind of generally
what it means. Happy, very happy, most happy.
There can also in context give the idea of to be congratulated
right? Like well done to be
congratulated, he says well done right happy.
Are you Simon Bar Jonah for flesh and blood has not revealed
this to you, but my father who is in heaven.
All right, so he uses his full name here, Simon Barjona.
You see Bar or Ben that that just means sun off.
So he's saying Simon's son of Jonah, he says, well done,
happy. Are you Simon, son of Jonah?
This is and he's saying, look, this is not something that
somebody has taught you. This is not something that you
just learned growing up. This is not something that your
dad, Jonah, taught you. This is something that my dad
taught you. Hi, this is kind of a quite a
powerful statement, right? And what is and what is Jesus
Dad, God the Father, right? He's son of the living God.
What is the the living God taught Peter that Jesus is the
Christ, the son of the living God.
And Jesus goes on to say he says, look, your Peter, right,
you're a small stone on this rock on this big rock.
What big rock that he's the Christ, the son of the living
God. I'll build my church and the
gates of hell. Hell will not prevail against
it. Sorry, first part of that
question, right? Who is Jesus?
He's the Messiah, right? The one the Old Testament
repeatedly promised would come and save his people.
And he's the Son of the living God.
So let's rewind about another almost 1500 years before Jesus
to Exodus chapter 3. And the context here is that
God's people are are still in slavery in Egypt.
No hope, no way out. 40 years before this, Moses had wanted to
lead them out and but they they had rejected that and he had
fled the country as a fugitive, wanted for murder, right, which
he he was guilty of. So it didn't.
It didn't go well. And so after living as a
fugitive for in the desert for 40 years, in fact, the Bible
calls it the backside of the desert, right?
So that sounds like a pretty bad place, right?
For 40 years. He sees his burning Bush and he
goes to investigate and he finds himself in the very presence of
God. God tells him, Moses, I want you
to go back to Egypt and I want to get, I want you to get my
people out of slavery. Leave my people out of slavery.
And for lots of very good reasons, Moses doesn't want to
go. And so we picked this up and
Exodus chapter 3 and this 13 if you want to follow along.
So it's just then Moses said to God, if I come to the people of
Israel and I say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me
to you, and they asked me, what's his name?
What shall I say to them? Right.
So Moses is thinking, I don't know enough to do this.
I don't. I wasn't even raised in Hebrew
culture. They, they see me like an
Egyptian. That's why I didn't go.
You know, they didn't follow me last time.
I didn't even know what your correct name is.
If they ask me his God's response, there's 14.
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.
So this this is the title of God.
I am I exist, right? It's kind of hard to get your
head around the way people in there in the Old Testament tried
to get their heads around. This is often seen in this
phrase that you'll see over and over and over again in the
Bible. And here's one example of it
from some chapter 90, verse 2. Since this, before the mountains
were brought forth or ever you had formed the earth in the
world from everlasting to everlasting, you are God, right?
And you'll see that phrase repeated over and over, right?
God dwells outside of time. Even before there was a wild and
all the stuff that's created, God was there right everlasting
to everlasting. I am not exists.
So going back to our question, who is Jesus?
When Jesus asked the disciples who they thought he was, Peter
said that he's the Messiah. He's the son of the living God.
And Jesus says well done. Yep, happy are you?
That's correct. But what did Jesus say about
himself? You know what he himself say?
So let's go to John chapter 8. We're gonna be in in John 7:00
and 8:00 this morning, but let's just jump to the further along
in John chapter 8. The the context here is, is
Jesus is explaining to a group of Jewish people that he is sent
by God the Father, right? And that kind of pushing back on
that. And there's this sort of
conversation going on. And so we pick it up in in verse
56, John 8, verse 56. And Jesus, is this your father
Abraham, right? Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced
that he would see my day. He saw it and he was glad.
So the judge said to him, you're not 50 years old and have you
seen Abraham, right? So this is a very confusing
conversation, right? So I thinking, what are you even
talking about? Abraham died generations ago.
You're not even 50, right? Have you have you seen Abraham?
You're telling us you've seen Abraham?
His answer was 58. Jesus said to them, Truly,
truly, I say to you before Abraham was I am.
Ohh. Whoa.
Does that mean what we think it means?
Yeah. Well, how did the Jews at the
time, listening to it at the time, take it.
Look at verse 59. So they picked up stones to
stone him, but Jesus was hidden, then went out of the temple.
They knew exactly what he was saying.
Yeah, what's he saying? Ohh, God, right?
I am. I am the I am.
I'm the same God that sent Moses back to to get Jewish people out
of slavery. I am God.
Who is Jesus? He's the Messiah.
He's the Son of the living God. He is God, He is gone.
He's the I am. Alright, so let's go back to
Chapter 7. We are told at the start of this
this chapter that Jesus brothers didn't believe that he was the
Messiah, right. So the the the like I say the
autism talks repeatedly about this Messiah character that's
gonna come save his people. And this is his own brothers
didn't believe at this point, didn't believe that he was the
Messiah. Also really important.
It's kind of lost on us a little bit, but this whole thing was
happening. John 7 around the time of the
Feast of Tabernacle's sometimes feast of Tabernacle, sometimes
called the Feast of booths or even the Feast of huts.
Sometimes. This was a the last of seven
feasts that the Jews were commanded to commemorate.
It was a week long celebration in the autumn.
So that's around September in the northern hemisphere and
right at the end of the last harvest for the year.
And they would, they would have this celebration and they would
go and they would live in hearts for a week, right?
So you'd build a little, they still do this right in your
backyard or on your rooftop or in the park somewhere and go
and, and go and stay in the Hut for a week.
The idea of it was to remember God's provision and protection
and guidance during their escape from Egypt into the promised
land, right? So that whole time in Sinai,
they were living in these, in these makeshift huts.
If you remember the story back in Sinai, God led them as a
pillar of fire. So during Jesus time, as part of
this celebration, right, remembering back to Sinai,
remembering when God led them through the desert, remembering
when he was a a pillar of fire, they would put up 420 metre tall
towers, right? That's that's those are huge
towers. And on top of each tower was one
of those, you know, the menorah, those Jewish candle stands with
the, the seven kind of spokes on them, right, giant ones on top
of these four towers. And they would like these things
up every night during the week long festival.
You could see them for miles, right.
So I guess for us, it's a bit like, you know, when you drive
past kind of stadium, FMG stadium there when there's a
game on, you know, they got the big lights going.
So you know, the Temple Mount, you know, it's on the hill and
you could just see this for miles.
You could see, see these, these massive lights.
And I would like these every night for the for the week of
the festival of Tabernacle. But this, this feast and this
celebration and these bright lights also celebrated something
else, a prophecy from Isaiah Chapter 9.
So the people who lived in this region which would come to be
known as Galilee in Jesus time, they saw some very gloomy times,
invasions, people taking into captivity occupations or all
kinds of things. But in the midst of all this
gloominess was a promise of hope from Isaiah Chapter 9.
And here is here is the promise that starts off saying this.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great
light. Those who dwelled in a land of
deep darkness, on them has light shine.
Dropping down to verse 6 here. And I9 says this.
For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the
government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be
called. Wonderful Councillor mighty God,
everlasting Father, Prince of Peace of the increase of His
government and of peace. There will be no end on the
throne of David and over His Kingdom to establish it and to
uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time
forth and forever more. The zeal or that the intense
passion right of the Lord of hosts will do this.
This is going to happen right And so this is the lighting
these lights as well as remembering that God had led
them in the past. You know, as a pillar of fire
when they were in the in the desert also looked forward to,
to the fulfilment of this prophecy, right, That are people
living in a very dark place would receive this life like
this, this sun, this number 9 Becky Beck and John John 7 verse
#9 After saying this, he remained in Galilee.
Jesus remained in Galilee, but after his brothers had gone up
to the feast, right. So they went up to Jerusalem for
the feast. Then he also went up, but not
publicly in private. So his brothers were left and
went to the feast. He didn't go with him, but then
he just sort of left by himself and didn't tell anyone about it.
So people in Galilee started wondering where he went.
And this conversation started. Who was Jesus?
Who is this guy? Right.
And some people thought he was a good guy.
Some people thought he was tricking the people and that
they're kind of having this discussion about who is he?
Who is this guy? Anyway, Jesus is down in
Jerusalem midway through the week, through this week long
festival, He goes into the temple.
John 714 tells us this. In the middle of the feast,
Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching.
And so Jesus teaches there and at the end of his teaching says
this first number 19, he says, has not Moses given you the law
yet? None of you keeps the law.
Why do you seek to kill me, right.
So there's this plot to kill Jesus.
But Jesus knows about it, right? And he he outs their plot.
He says you know who you know, none of you are following the
law of Moses. Moses given you, you don't
follow it because you're trying to kill me.
It must have really freaked them out when they realised that he
knew about their plot. So after this, more discussions
take place among the people down in Jerusalem and people are
saying who is Jesus and why do the religious leaders want to
kill him? Yet when he calls them out on
stuff, why won't they touch him? Maybe it's because he really is
the Messiah and they know it, right?
And so people have started having these discussions.
Who is he? Maybe he is the Messiah, you
know, religiously, you know and and and way this conversation
goes dropping down to verse 31. Yet many of the people believed
in him. They said when the Christ
appears, right? When the Messiah appears, when
he, when he arrives, well, he do more signs than this man has
done. Alright, so they're saying,
look, I can't imagine that the Messiah could do anymore
miracles than this guy does. It's gotta be him, right?
It must be him. John 737 tells us that this we
get to the last day of the face. It's the very last day of the
feast. So tonight is the last day, the
last night that the big candles are gonna be lit.
Tomorrow will be very dark. Another year of Roman
occupation. No end insight, no way out, no
hope. More gloom, but what for one
particular person thinks about the about to turn very, very
dark? Verse 53 says this, they went
each to his own house, right? So this is the last night of the
feast. So they get everybody went home
to their own place. But Jesus went to the Mount of
Olives early in the morning. He came again to the temple, all
the people came to him and he sat down and he taught them.
Alright, so a fairly normal day for Jesus.
However, the religious leaders plot to kill Jesus has been
exposed. But they weren't done.
They weren't done. Jesus is teaching a crowd of
people in the temple right on the temple grounds, and they
need to put an end to that. So here's what happens.
There's #3 the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who
had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst, they
said to him, Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of
adultery. Greek phrasing there is like in
the very act of adultery. She's been caught in the very
act. That being the case, right, She
was caught in the very act. There's a huge question here,
isn't there? What's the question?
Here's the question that comes into my mind.
Where's the guy? Right, Caught in the very act.
This was a setup. This was a setup.
Why? What?
What are they trying to achieve through this?
Here's what they say. There's #5 Now the Law of Moses
commanded us to stone such women.
So what do you say the 6th This they said to test him that they
might have some charge to bring against him.
Because she stands guilty before the law, right?
Yes, this was a set up and she was likely being used by the
religious leaders for nefarious purposes, but she's also not not
innocent. We'll we'll see that in a in
shortly, right? She chose to sleep with a
married man rather than her own husband.
And here is the gloom, right here is the darkness.
In this the law reveals our guilt.
The law reveals our guilt. All of us stand guilty before
the law. And yes, all of us have been
affected by the sinfulness of others, but all of us have also
made our own simple decisions. And the law is very clear.
And So what they're trying to do here is they put Jesus in this
position where if he says stone here, Yep, take away Stoner, you
know, do it. People think, man, that's not,
that's not the compassion, that's that's not compassionate,
that's not loving. I don't I don't understand.
Right. And and he'll lose the favour of
the crowd. But if he says no, don't stone
her, then he's saying, well, you don't have to obey the law,
right? It's just a suggestion that it's
fine, which will also lose favour with the people, right.
The goal here is to get the people to turn against Jesus,
right? Their plot to kill him has been
unmasked. So they're they're they're plan
now just to get the people to turn against them.
This number six continues Jesus bent down and wrote with his
finger on the ground. What did he write?
What do you write on the ground? We don't know.
The Bible doesn't tell us what he wrote down.
But the word for wrote that John uses here is not the usual Greek
word for writing. The usual word is graphin, which
means the write down. That's where we get our word
graphics from. But the word he uses here is
Kathy Gryphon, right? Which means to write down a
record against and. It's an accounting term and when
you owed somebody something, they would write your name down
and then write down next to what you own, right?
So that that's the that's the word that John uses.
So a lot of people think that maybe Jesus was writing down the
names of the accusers here and a list of sins next to them,
right? We don't know.
The Bible doesn't tell us. But you know, a lot of people
think maybe that's the case. Verse #7 And as they continued
to ask him, he stood up, and he said to them, Let him who is
without sin among you, be the first to throw a stone at her.
Now Jesus is going after something that is true for all
of us, which which is this right?
Because when we think about these people, right, we think
about these men there, these accusers, we think what judge
mental arrogant people, right? And rightly so.
But they have the same problem that all of us have, right?
Which is this. It's incredibly easy to see
other people's sense and overlook our own sins in the
mirror. You even noticed that it is.
It's much easier to to look at people and go they just need to
be doing this. They should be doing that and,
and miss our own sense, not, not saying Obama has a lot to say
about this and Jesus has a lot to say about this.
Maybe you've noticed that verse #8 And once more he bent down
and he wrote on the ground. Same word.
It's writing an account. But when they heard it, they
went away, 1 by 1, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus
was left alone with the woman standing before him.
Was she guilty? Yes, she was.
Things looked very gloomy and dark without hope.
The law was clear. See, the law reveals our guilt.
But here's the cool thing. The love reveals God's grace.
There's #10 Jesus stood up and said to a woman, Where are they?
There's no one condemned you, she said.
No one will, Jesus said. Neither do I condemn you.
Go, and from now on, send no more.
Alright? All right.
Sin, no more. So despite everything that's
gone on, she is still guilty. He doesn't excuse her sin.
We tend to do that with our son. We go, yeah, I, I did this.
But you know, you have to understand this was the
circumstance. This is what happened.
You know, I have a I had a tough time.
I had a tough upbringing. I did you know, and we we tend
to excuse us in the way Jesus doesn't excuse it away, but he
says you're not condemned, you know, condemned Romans 8/1.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are
in Christ Jesus. Are we guilty?
Yes we are. Do we deserve condemnation?
Yes we do. But if we're in Christ Jesus,
then ultimately we are not condemned.
Does that mean sin doesn't have consequences?
Yes, it does. Sin does have consequences, but
it doesn't have the eternal consequence of separating us
from God. So what does all that mean?
Right? What?
What does all this mean? It's it's a great story, but
what does it all mean? It means you are not defined by
your sin. It means you are not defined by
what you did. It means you're not what they
say you are. It means God's grace changes
everything because you are who he says you are.
Now Satan, as our accuser will tell us, after what you did, God
could never love you. After how badly you messed up,
God can never forgive you. After everything you've done,
you can never have a good marriage.
And on and on and on, right? But look what Jesus says, verse
#12 And Jesus spoke to them saying, I am alright, don't miss
it, don't miss it, I am. But this time, he expands on it.
He expands on it. The Gingers spoke to them,
saying I am the light of the world.
Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the
light of life. See, here's the thing, The light
reveals our hope. Jesus told her you don't have to
live like this anymore. He said, neither do I condemn
you. Go and from now on send no more.
There is a sense of urgency in that word.
Go, go, go now. Go, go now.
Some some translations will translate it.
Go now, right? It's kind of urgent you are
freed from this. If you are into something that
you shouldn't be, you are not trapped there, right?
Go now. Go now, right?
Jesus brings hope. In fact, he said this later on
in John 12. He said I have come into the
world as a light so that no one who believes in me should stay
in darkness. You know, trap.
The law reveals our guilt. The love reveals God's grace and
the light reveals our hope. Jesus was the fulfilment of that
prophecy and I in those iron 9 in the land of gloom and
darkness without hope. Jesus was the light of the
world. It's no coincidence that the
lights have been turned off. Festival was over, lights are
out, and Jesus says this the very next day.
Who is Jesus? He's the Messiah.
He's the Son of the living God. He is God and He's the light of
the world. At the point where Jesus said I
don't condemn you, he went from being the light of the world to
being the light of her world. Here's the question for us.
Is he your hope? Ohh, you trusting in something
else? You trusting in something else?
He offers forgiveness, right? He offers grace, something you
don't deserve if you've never accepted their forgiveness, if
you've never turned to him and insidious sorry, do that, make
that connection right. You stand guilty before the law.
All of us do. You stand guilty, but he's
offering a light cause he is the light, right?
He's offering hope. He's offering forgiveness.
Maybe you've received that forgiveness and you're in Christ
Jesus, but you're something you shouldn't be, right?
You're not trapped. There is light, there is hope.
Jesus is the great I am seven times in the in John's gospel,
Jesus says I am and then he expands on that.
We started out with this one. I am the light of the world.
Cause matter, Ricky, right? And everybody's thinking about
stars and bright lights and all those kind of things.
That was a good place to start. But for the next several weeks,
we're going to look at these statements of Jesus where he
says I am, and then he expands on it and we're gonna pick those
apart and we're gonna see who he is and, and what that means for
us in our everyday life, right? I am.
But this morning, thing is, I am the light of the world, right?
Jesus brings hope. The law reveals our guilt, the
love reveals God's grace, and the light reveals our hope.
This pray and then I'll hand over back to Mark.
Father, we, we thank you that we serve you the living God.
We thank you that Jesus as your son was also the living God, the
great I am. And we thank you for the hope
that that brings, the hope that comes from the knowledge of of
our salvation, of knowing that you have rescued us, that we're
not condemned. We thank you for that, but also
the hope of knowing that our sin doesn't trap us, that you're a
light, you've come, that we don't have to stay in darkness.
And we thank you for that, Lord, thank you for your word.
Thank you for these just these incredible things that are in it
that just kind of so hard to get your head around, but it's just
so amazing and just stand out as examples of of what a great God
you are. Also just the whole pattern and
the threat of things running for thousands of years through your
word. And thank you for letting us be
a part of what you're doing here at Hockenheim.
Look, thank you for being the light of the world.
Thank you in Jesus name, Amen.