I'd just like to thank you again for the fellowship that we've had as a family so far, particularly this day, this Lord's Day. It really has been a blessing to us. If we could turn to God's word and to John's gospel and chapter eight and the passage that was read earlier, Pastor Tim, and verses two to 12. The gospel according to John, chapter eight. Many years ago, many years ago when I was younger and perhaps more fearless and carefree or perhaps more trusting, I went caving with a group of other people. Now this was not some kind of relaxed tour through some nicely lit caves. It meant walking in water up to your knees through passages hardly wider than your body and included pulling yourself along on your belly because you could not even kneel for the roof of the cave at points was so low and it meant crawling and rolling on your belly and back, that was the only way to get through. And if it was not for our head torches, no one would have seen the way. There would have been only darkness, thick, pitch black darkness. It was my first time caving, and I think it is my last. I was glad to get out into the light. There is a greater darkness that many people are in and they do not know it. It's a darkness in which we all need the light. And in John chapter eight, verse 12, the Lord Jesus says, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. And when you first look at these words, they might seem almost out of place. In the preceding verses, two to 11, Jesus rescues a woman from being stoned to death. And it's then after doing that, he says, I am the light of the world. Now, what does the Lord Jesus mean by giving himself this name? I am the light of the world. If we look very carefully, we will see that these verses, and the chapters closest to John, chapter 8, verse 12, will help us understand what Jesus is saying when he says, I am the light of the world. They will help us see three important truths, how He is the light each of us needs in our darkness. And the first important truth found in this name is this, Jesus is the light of the world that exposes our darkness. Jesus is the light of the world that exposes our darkness. When we think of light, we also think of darkness. A light is only useful in the dark. You do not switch on a torch when you're walking, taking a walk in the sun. When there's a power cut, we switch on our torches or light our candles. We use light in the darkness, just as I needed that light in those pitch black, dark caves. Light chases the darkness away. And light is especially useful in uncovering what is hiding in the darkness. Our little son, Gabriel, loves to play hide and seek. And he slides open our bedroom wardrobe door, he steps in, he slides the wardrobe door shut, hiding himself in the darkness. And then he calls out, come and find me, I'm hiding. And he's hiding in the darkness. So I slide open the wardrobe door, and then the light floods into the wardrobe and there he is, exposed, uncovered, seen, smiling and laughing, happy that he's being found. Jesus is a light that finds us in the darkness, but when the light shines on us, We are not laughing. We're not laughing. For Jesus is the light that exposes our darkness. What is it that burglars hate the most? They hate the light. Why? Because light exposes, shows up their evil deeds and burglars, usually come in the dead of night so they will not be seen. And some of us have experienced the aftermath, the devastation of what they have done in our home in the darkness. That's why many people fix automatic lighting systems to their homes. Jesus is the lighting system that exposes the wickedness in the world. He's the light that exposes our wrongs. This is exactly what we read earlier in John's Gospel, chapter 3, verses 19 to 20. And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world. And people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone, who does wicked things, hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. The reality is that we are all burglars. We are all burglars. We do not want what we have done to be exposed. What if you discovered that there was a live stream camera on you broadcasting on Facebook everything you did every day and every night? It would be embarrassing, shameful, horrifying. How much more would you not want a live stream camera broadcasting from inside your heart? It's there that the light would shine and reveal the most horrifying of things. It's there in a very real sense where we do things very much in the darkness, not to be seen. Perhaps we have felt anger, real anger towards someone. That is a deed done in the darkness. Perhaps we have gossiped about somebody, especially behind their back. That is a deed done in the darkness. Perhaps we have looked at a woman longer than we should when our wife is not with us. That is a deed done in the darkness. Perhaps we've taken that pen, that paper, that piece of small equipment from our place of work when no one was looking. That is a deed done in the darkness. Jesus is like someone who suddenly switches on the light, catching us out in the middle of our deed. And we're not laughing and smiling, happy like my son. Jesus is the light that shines on us, exposing our sins. He does this by his words. This is what we see in John chapter eight, verses two to 11, when that woman is caught in adultery. She's been sleeping with someone else's husband and brought to Jesus. She's being caught out. It's interesting that in one Bible translation while it's here, we have the woman caught in adultery, but in another translation, the title is an adulteress faces the light of the world. But Jesus does not expose her darkness. as much as the darkness of the men who drag her before him. As Jesus is sitting in the temple, teaching the people, the teachers of the law and Pharisees bring a woman to him, caught in adultery, and ask him whether they should stone her according to Old Testament law. So what do you say? They ask Jesus. And we're told in verse six, this they said, testing him, that they might have something of which to accuse him. They were using this question to trap him, to catch Jesus out on a point of law. They think that they are the light to expose Jesus in his wrong, but Jesus' response is the light that catches them out, exposes their sins, which they thought had been hidden. Jesus first just stoops down. He writes on the ground with his finger. We're not told what it is that he writes. And perhaps as he's doing this, He's giving them grace, time to think what they are doing. Time to think about their darkness, to search their hearts. But instead they rush on in their pride, in their self-righteousness. They will not let up, they're asking again and again, So the Lord Jesus straightens up and he speaks and his words are a bright searching light shining in the darkness. Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. And what Jesus did was quite remarkable when he said those words. He exposes the sins that were hiding in the darkness of these men's hearts. It's they that are hiding away in the wardrobe with their wrongs. They have judged this woman for adultery, but how many of them had committed that adultery in their own hearts? Jesus says in Matthew 5, 28, but I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Are we not the same as the Pharisees? We can be so quick to judge someone for something they have done. but we have already acted out in our hearts what they've done. There have been times I've been quick in my own heart to judge someone for their failings, yet only sometime later do I come to see that I have failed in the same way. Pastor and reformer John Calvin said, every man ought to begin by interrogating his own conscience and by acting both as a witness and judge against himself before he comes to others. These men know that Jesus has seen into the darkness of their hearts. He's touched their conscience. He's been like a light revealing their dark deeds. This is what we read in verse nine. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones. And Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. This is what happens when a person meets with the words of Jesus. This is what happens when you pick up a Bible and read it. This is what happens when you listen to the word of God being preached. We all think like these men, I'm not as bad as such and such. There's always someone more wicked than me. But that is not true when we come before the light of the world. Standing before Jesus, we are all guilty. Every one of us. And it is not just Jesus's words, but Jesus's life that is like a light exposing our dark deeds. Read through the Gospels, read through them carefully. When you observe Jesus and follow him in his conversations with people, in his treatment of others, in his behaviour towards others, You see how the light that is in him reveals the darkness that is in them. However hard people tested Jesus with their words, however hard they laughed at him, however hard they mocked him, ridiculed him, made fun of him, however hard they then beat him with their fists, He did not sin. He did not retaliate. He did not think one bitter thought. Instead, by his innocence, and his gentleness, and his patience, he was a light that exposed their hypocrisy, their sarcasm, their pride, their selfishness, their hatred, and their many other sins. Compare yourself to Jesus, and then you too will feel exposed. We live, you live, we live, I live in a country where in politics, in workplaces, in churches, in homes, we are quick to point out the faults of others. We're quick to be the one in the right, the one to win the conversation, the one to put others down, the one to stand in judgment over others. Yet so many of us are not yet ready to acknowledge our own wickedness. We don't see our own dark deeds because we're busy acting like these Pharisees. and religious leaders, comparing ourselves with others. But the Bible does not tell us to compare ourselves with others. Stand side by side with Jesus. It's no use standing side by side with another sinner, not even the best of people, to see what you really are in your own heart. You need to stand next to Jesus. And the test is not, what am I like in comparison with other people? The test is, what am I like beside him? What does the light in Jesus say about the darkness in me? Tadeusz Borowski was one of Poland's promising young writers during the Second World War and immediately after the war, whilst Poland was under the shadow of communism. And he lived through the terrible ordeal of Auschwitz, the concentration camp, the Nazi concentration camp, where people were brutally tortured and killed. But what's so striking is that in some of his writings, he accepted shared responsibility, shared participation, shared guilt for the concentration camp, even though he was the prisoner, brutally treated by the Nazis. This is what he wrote. The reader will unfailingly ask, but how did it happen that you survived? Tell, then, how you bought places in the hospital, easy posts, how you shoved the prisoners who had lost the will to live into the oven, how you unloaded the transports at the gypsy camp. Tell about the daily life of the camp, about the hierarchy of fear, about the loneliness of every man. You were the ones who did this, that a portion of the sad fame of Auschwitz belongs to you as well. I do not think that I could ever judge him, the things that he did to survive as he went through such horror, yet he himself is honest and humble enough to judge himself, to confess as to the things he did to others in order to survive. In fear of losing his own life in that horrific dark place, he was prepared to let others die, even obey perhaps what the Nazis said to do to others in order to survive. And in a way, Barofsky in his stories of Auschwitz actually draws a picture of what each of us is like in this world. We are weak, we are sinful, We can be obsessed with self, with surviving and looking out for number one, keeping silent in the face of wrong, not doing what we should do and doing what we should not do. None of us, none of us, none of us can escape clean of sin from this life. We've all played our part in committing some wicked act. We're all part of what makes this a dark, sinful world. None of us think and live as we should. If we just thought hard enough, we would know something, many things that we have done that we should not have done, or something or many things that we did not do that we should have done. We do not live to please God, but ourselves. We do not love him and others as we were created to do. And our hearts and our lives are darkened. We need Jesus to shine and expose our wickedness. We're like someone sitting at home and the light of day grows gradually dark and darker, but we don't notice it. And then someone suddenly switches on the light, and we're momentarily blinded. But it's then that we realize just how dark the evening has become. Well, we need Jesus, who is the light of the world, to expose how dark our hearts are with sin. How hopeless we are. Yet we are not without hope, because there is good news. Yes, Jesus exposes the darkness of our hearts, yet this drives us to the second important truth in Jesus' name, in John 8, 12. Jesus is the light of the world that scatters our darkness. Jesus is the light of the world that scatters our darkness. Where we live as a family in Wales, we're not very far from the coast, maybe 45 minutes. And there's one place that sometimes we might take family or friends when they visit us, and that place is called Llandudno. And sometimes we might get an ice cream and walk by the sea. However, this can be a dangerous place to eat your ice cream because of the seagulls. The seagulls, and it is almost like some kind of horror film because these large birds swoop down and they have no fear and they head straight for your ice cream. In fact, on one occasion, actually it was at another town, they took some of my wife's sandwiches. It's very difficult to chase and scatter away those hungry seagulls. They're quite frightening and they are fearless. But listen, the Lord Jesus, He scatters, He chases away, overcomes the darkness that seeks to devour us. It's only He that can scatter that darkness that rules in our hearts. Jesus says, I am the light of the world. whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. And we can know happiness and laughter when the light comes, for he scatters the very heart of our sadnesses. And it's something that happens a few chapters earlier in John's gospel, which shows us this happy light. In John chapter seven and verse two, we read this. Now the Jews' Feast of Booths was at hand. Another translation has the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles was at hand. Now that feast celebrated the wanderings of the Israelites through the wilderness, through the desert. And we read of that in the Old Testament after they'd been rescued by the Lord from slavery in Egypt and they were heading to the promised land. And one of the things that happened during this feast was the lighting of the lamps in the temple. Four great lamps were lit in the evening, every evening, so that the temple was filled with light. But at the close of the feast, One lamp was left unlit, symbolizing in the thinking of the Jewish people that full salvation had not yet come because the Messiah, the Christ, had not yet come. They were still waiting for him in the darkness. The feast had ended and this lamp remained unlit. But then Jesus says these words in John 8 verse 12, which must have shocked the people. I am the light of the world. I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. And nothing happens by chance, including when Jesus chose to say those words right at the time of this feast. He's using the imagery of the feast for people to be provoked and even shocked into seeing this deeper spiritual truth. That lamp, In the temple that was unlit was pointing to a greater light that would come, and that light has come, Jesus. Jesus is the promised Messiah who has come to save his people, to scatter the darkness away. He's saying, come, come to me and be rescued from your darkness. Later in John chapter 12 verse 35, Jesus will say, the one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. The Israelites in the Exodus from Egypt had wandered in the darkness with many of them lost and dying. Are we not lost in the dark? Life without God is like that. is if your life is without God, you are in the darkness. And without him, there's no hope. And you do not know where you are going. You do not know. You're wandering through life lost. One pastor, Marcus Nodder, in his book, I Am, The Answer to Life's Biggest Questions, tells of how he's once in a London underground station, and he saw a blind man standing at an intersection of corridors at rush hour. And just like you would find on the New York City subway, there were crowds of people rushing here and there. and everywhere there was so much noise and hustle and bustle and the poor man was standing there turning this way, turning that way. Completely disorientated, lost, vulnerable, helpless. Thankfully someone went and took him by the arm to lead him out but being spiritually blind is like that because of the darkness of your heart. You cannot see. You are lost in the darkness. You do not know where you're going. You're dark in your thinking and living and heading only to an eternal darkness. In Matthew's Gospel, chapter 8, verse 12, Jesus speaks of this darkness. The outer darkness of hell. The outer darkness of hell. That is where we are stumbling towards, people in the dark, stumbling towards that greater forever darkness. And this is the place we all deserve because of our sins against our Creator and God. This is the place where the darkness never ends. This is the place where there is no torchlight, there is no candle, and this is the place where the pain never ends. We can be thankful in the time that we live in that there can be medication to ease pain, but there will be nothing in hell to ease the pain, to ease the physical pain, to ease the emotional pain. And we need someone to take us by the arm, to lead us away, more really, to take us in his arms and to lift us out of that darkness, out of the coming darkness, to scatter our darkness. And it's only the light of the world, Jesus, who has power to scatter that darkness of sin in your heart. Only he has those loving, strong arms to lift you out. And how is he able to do that? He does that by entering into the very heart of that darkness. He does it through his death. When the temple guards would come to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, he would say to them, but this is your hour and the power of darkness. He knew the time had come to battle with the dominion of darkness as he would bear our sins to and on the cross. And so as Jesus on that cross died in that hot midday sun, on that cross we're told that darkness fell on the land for three hours. And he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That was the darkness. That was the darkness that he entered into. Jesus, the light of the world, was dying in our place. He was experiencing the forsakeness of darkness that we deserve. He was experiencing the horror of what we deserve for our wrongdoing. The darkness where the loving presence of the Father is gone. It's gone. And there is only an eternal punishment. That is what hell is, the place of outer darkness. And Jesus came right into that darkness, which sinners such as we deserve. He deliberately stepped in, experiencing it in all its horror and terror and pain. And he overcame it. For three days later, he burst out of the dark tomb of death. Towards the end of John's gospel, in John chapter 20, verse one, after Jesus's death, the women come to the tomb where Jesus has been laid. And we're told, while it was still dark. And they see that the stone has been rolled away. But as the sun begins to rise on a new day, The darkness of the night gives way and they realize what has happened. Jesus, their Jesus has risen from the dead. And it's just as it was spoken of in the Old Testament in Malachi in chapter 4 verse 2. Jesus is the son of righteousness. to those who fear his name, to those who come to him, who trust in him. He scatters the darkness of our life of sin and brings it into the light. And Malachi's prophecy brings us to a third important truth in Jesus' name. Jesus is the light of the world that leads us through the darkness. Jesus is the light of the world that leads us through the darkness. Did you notice what Malachi says? That those who fear the Saviour's name shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. Now we, My family and I are enjoying the countryside here and all the farmsteads and the livestock. I don't know, have you ever seen what a newborn calf does? It's quite wonderful. A calf that's just born, as they get on their feet, they just jump and jump for joy. That's a lovely illustration of a newborn believer. They're like newborn calves which begin to leap out of the stall where they've been closed in. When I emerged from that caving experience, out of that darkness, I have to confess, I was glad to be alive in the light of the day. But newborn believers are not just glad to be alive, but they have been made alive. You need to be made alive because Jesus, they are made alive because Jesus has rescued them from their darkness in which they've been trapped from a life of hopeless sinning to a new life in the light. And it is Jesus who is the light leading them on. Back in John chapter 7, when the priest lit those lamps, those four lamps during the Feast of Tabernacles, and the glow from the light could be seen across the city, those lamps also reminded the Jews of something else. They were reminders to the Jews of the pillar of fire by which God had led Israel through their wanderings in the desert, through the darkness, as they journeyed together to the promised land. When you are saved from the darkness, Jesus, Jesus is that pillar of fire. He is the pillar of light for you now in a new life as you journey through the darkness of the world. This is the wonderful thing of being a Christian that no one else has. We have Jesus who is a light in this world of darkness, through the darknesses that you will face. And there will be times when you will have dark days. It may mean doubts and despair. It may mean rejection and loneliness. It may mean suffering and loss. And some of us here will have known some of these things. It may mean uncertainty and fear. It may mean temptation to sin. But you now have a light. Jesus is the light to follow. He's that light through his word, the Bible. He's that light as we pray. He's that light as we're present in the church. Listen to words we find in Ephesians chapter five and verses eight to 21. Let me just read a few words. For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. So walk as a child of the light. Spend time in his word. Spend time in prayer, calling for help. Spend time in the church, with your church, fellowshipping with the children of light. It's then that you walk, walk in the light of the world, in the face of temptations, doubts, and sins. After those men had left that woman caught in adultery, we read in John chapter eight, verse 10, what Jesus said to her. And he said, woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? And what did she say? No one, Lord. And then Jesus says words, which he says to each one of us here. Neither do I condemn you. Go and from now on sin no more. And I think they're wonderfully comforting words. Jesus scatters those men of darkness, and he scatters this woman's life of darkness. And then he says, go and sin no more. And so Jesus tells you and me to leave the darkness behind, to walk in his light. Sin no more, Jesus says. I'm the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Let me close by just reading the words of a hymn. Oh, to see the dawn. of the darkest day, Christ on the road to Calvary, tried by sinful men, torn and beaten then, nailed to a cross of wood. Oh, to see the pain written on your face, bearing the awesome weight of sin, every bitter thought, every evil deed, crowning your bloodstained brow. Through your suffering I am free. Death is crushed to death. Life is mine to live. Won through your selfless love. This the power of the cross. Son of God slain for us. What a love. What a cost. We stand forgiven at the cross. If that is so, if that is so, let us then walk no longer in the darkness, but follow the light of the world. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, our gracious God, how conscious we are of the darkness in our own hearts, the darkness all around, the darkness of the evil one, and how we need that light, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you and praise you that Jesus has come. Jesus went to the cross and entered into the darkness for us. And he took upon himself all our bitternesses, all our anger, all our sinfulness, all our wrong deeds. He took it all on. It all came crashing upon him. He went into that darkness of hell and all that we deserve. And your loving presence left him. Oh, that we might see this, see this afresh, or even see this for the first time, see what the Lord Jesus Christ has done, that we might come to him who is the saviour of the world, the light of the world, that we might come out of the darkness and come to him. Oh, to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, we pray that your spirit might come, that we might look to Jesus, If there is any one of us here now who is wandering in the darkness, that we would turn to him and know the light of the world. Amen.