JESUS IS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

Big Idea: is the light that leads us out of darkness.

Bible Basis: :12-20

Key Verse: “ the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in darkness. They will have that light. They will have life.” John 8:12 (NIrV)

We’ve been learning about who Jesus says He is. The most important part of Jesus’ character is that He is God – the perfect, loving creator of the universe. Every time we hear Jesus say, “I AM,” we are reminded that He is the one, true God.

So far, we’ve learned that Jesus says:

“I AM the vine, you are the branches.” Jesus is the vine, so we can grow by staying connected to Him.

“I AM the . I know my sheep, and my sheep know me.” Jesus is the good shepherd, so we should listen to His voice and follow Him.

This week, we are going to dig deeper into what Jesus means when He says: “I AM the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness.” Jesus is the light that leads us out of darkness.

Let’s start with LEARNING THINGS:

To really understand what Jesus is saying here, it helps to look at His words in the big picture of what was going on around him right then. As we know, Jesus was a Jew. The Jewish people did things a certain way and celebrated certain holidays, just like people of every culture do today. One of the holidays the Jewish people celebrated in Jesus’ day (and still celebrate today) is called the Feast of Booths. Sometimes you may hear it called the Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot. To make it easy – I will always call it the Feast of Booths in this Digging Deeper.

ORIGIN OF FEAST OF BOOTHS

A booth (or tabernacle) is simply a tent. The Feast of Booths reminded the people of Jesus’ time, as well as people today, of how God had led his people out of Egypt and through the wilderness. As they travelled, they had to move the Tabernacle, which was basically a giant, magnificent tent that became sort of like a travelling church for the people as they moved through the wilderness. It was where the priests could meet with God. So the Feast of Booths remembers how God travelled with and guided his people on their 40 year trip to the Promised Land.

Question: How did the Israelites know where to go? What did God lead the Israelites with during the day and during the night so they would know they were following Him?

DESCRIPTION OF FEAST OF BOOTHS

The Feast of Booths was an eight day party celebrated in the city of . Jewish people would travel miles and miles just to be in Jerusalem for this celebration. The Feast of Booths happens in the fall, around the time all the crops are being brought in from the fields. It is a time of great feasting, and there were many, many different things they did (and do) to celebrate. In this Digging Deeper, we are going to focus on just one little part of the festivities – well, it’s really not a little part – it’s actually big. Really big. 75 feet tall, in fact! To remind them of the pillar of fire that God used to light their nights as they wandered through the desert, the priest in Jesus’ time would light four huge candelabras. These candelabras were like giant lamps with a place for four lights. These 75 foot tall candelabras were outside the temple – strong young men would climb up to the four bowls at the top of each one, pour ten gallons of oil into the bowls, then the oil would be lit. The whole of Jerusalem was lit up by their bright light.

Can you imagine how cool that must have looked? And it gets even better! Jerusalem is built on a hill, with the Temple at the highest part of the hill. So the light from these giant candelabras could be seen for miles around.

Remember – people would travel from very far away to come to Jerusalem to participate in the celebrations of the Feast of Booths. Many of these people would have to camp outside the city walls in their own tents. They would light their own little lamps inside their tents to light up the night, too.

Close your eyes and imagine standing in the Temple, with these bright burning lights high above you, and all around you, around the whole city, little lights burning like stars in the tents of all the people. All of these lights are reminding you of God’s loving guidance. Everybody would be cheering and celebrating when the candelabras were lit – there would be music and joy everywhere!

Sing: This Little Light of Mine. Does this song have more meaning now with a deeper understanding of the Feast of Booths?

I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

This is the celebration that was going on when Jesus says, “I AM the light of the world. Those who follow me will never walk in darkness. They will have the light that leads to life.” (John 8:12 NIrV) We don’t know exactly where Jesus was standing when He says these words, but it’s easy to imagine the four lit candelabras just behind him with the thousands of points of light coming from the tents just outside the city walls nearby.

Question: So what did Jesus mean when he said he is the light of the world?

If Jesus is saying that He is the only one that can light up our lives and lead us out of the darkness (just like God led Moses through the desert) – then:

Question: What is the darkness we face? Is it the sun going down at night? If not – what is it?

(The darkness that Jesus lights up and leads us out of is our own sin.)

When we live in spiritual darkness and choose to sin instead of follow Jesus, we don’t always see things clearly. We end up making wrong choices. It’s like we are in a completely dark room. But when someone turns the light on  suddenly you can see everything!

That’s what Jesus is saying in this verse – He will provide the light needed for us to be able to follow Him. When we have His light and we choose to follow Him, we then have life in Him – just like the Israelites did by following the light through the desert so many centuries earlier.