The Light Of The World (John 8:12-20) by Ben Hacker

Embark on a transformative expedition with us as we navigate the profound depths of spiritual disciplines and the undeniable power of prayer. I'm Ben, your guide and pastor, inviting you to a meaningful four-month journey that promises to alter not only your prayer life but your entire spiritual walk. Picture this: we're not just skimming the surface of Jesus' teachings; we're bracing ourselves for a deep-sea dive into the heart of following His path, illuminated by the Psalms and the Gospel of John.

As the light of the world, Jesus shines through the pages of John 8:12-20, revealing a symbolic tapestry of hope during the Feast of Booths. This episode unfurls the layers of Jesus' proclamation, challenging us to step out from the shadows of spiritual darkness and into His radiant truth. Through reflection and discussion, we uncover the resistance Jesus faced from the Pharisees and draw parallels to our own spiritual blind spots that can obscure our perception of His light. Tune in as we explore how to embrace, embody, and emanate this divine light, casting off the shackles of skepticism and legalism to truly encounter the Messiah.

In a world often dimmed by doubt and despair, we close our discussion by highlighting the continuous journey from darkness to light, accentuating the Holy Spirit's role as our compass in this transformative process. It's about taking that step towards recognizing Jesus as the Messiah, every day, and letting that realization reshape our lives. By fostering a dynamic relationship with Jesus through prayer and soaking in His teachings, we become vessels of His light, guiding others towards hope and truth. So join us for an enlightening experience that not only promises to brighten your spiritual path but also empowers you to become a beacon of Jesus' light in every corner of your life.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:50

Good morning East Side. How are you Good? Good, my name is Ben and I am one of the pastors here, and it is good to be together. I want to share God's word sing with you all. So glad to see some new faces with us this morning. It's always a joy just to see who God is working in in this city, and we're grateful to be here. Well, I want to draw your attention. If you just pull out your bulletin real quickly, I want to just pass the order of service.

Speaker 1: 1:31

Part of our kind of like three year vision is to become people who not just know the words of Jesus but are actively participating in and following after His ways. And so we are in a four month focus on prayer as one of these spiritual disciplines or spiritual practices of Jesus. And so we just spent four weeks looking at different aspects of praying to God, with God being with Him. And so this week we are focusing on learning how to use the Psalms in prayer. And so that guide is there, it's printing your bulletin, there's a little note from me and then some material for each day. This is a sweet thing that we have gotten to do individually, but as we continue to go, one of the things we want to do is start to expand kind of how we're doing this together. So we have a prayer night coming up this. Next week We'll have more things, but in each of the days there's an exercise for you to write a prayer, write a Psalm that's similar to the style that you are learning about and kind of engaging in, and then to do something with that. And so, for those of you that might feel like a huge stretch, just pray about it. It'll probably be okay, and it's not a requirement for those of you who feel like everything written down on the page you must do. But it's just something good to start to get us kind of sharing in this practice together. I hope that it's been good for your households. I know that my household has benefited from it and, yeah, god is just kind with the way he interacts with us.

Speaker 1: 3:15

Okay, well, this morning we're moving right along in our sermon series in John that we have titled Come and See. So this morning we're going to be looking at the passage that Jessica read John 8, 12 through 20. And first I want to set up the context for this interaction that Jesus has with the Pharisees. In chapter seven, jesus begins to navigate skepticism and hostility. During what's called the Feast of Booths in Jerusalem, and despite caution due to threats on his life, jesus teaches in the temple, astounding the crowds with his wisdom and his authority, and he challenges conventional understanding and confronts the legalism of the religious leaders. We're just seeing Jesus' ministry ever come into its own here.

Speaker 1: 4:06

At the beginning of the Gospel of John. John vividly portrays this divide among the people about Jesus' identity. Some recognize him as a prophet, maybe the Christ, while others doubt him due to his origins. It's from Nazareth. Can anything good come from there? We know that phrase. So the chapter concludes with this dispute between the Pharisees and the temple guards, just further highlighting the growing tension, and this feast would have drawn many people in. This is a very busy time and in John 8, 12 through 20, we encounter Jesus amid the celebration.

Speaker 1: 4:46

The Feast of Booths is going on. In fact, it's just ended. This festival is not just any ordinary festival. It commemorates providential care of God over the Israelite people during their wilderness wanderings coming out of Egypt. I want you to picture this with me. Picture a city teeming with people coming in the air filled with anticipation. The temple is magnificently clean and lit up brighter than it's been lit in a long time, a beacon of hope, of history, god's providence over his people. And this is the charged atmosphere that Jesus is going to make a very bold proclamation, one that resonates deeply with Jewish heritage, one that challenges the status quo.

Speaker 1: 5:40

And the Feast of Booths is not just a historical remembrance, it's a vivid, living display of God's faithfulness. And as the Israelites journeyed through the desert, god guided them. Do you remember a pillar of fire by night? The symbol of his presence, guidance and protection. This imagery of light is not just a background detail, it's central to our understanding of who Jesus is and what he declares about himself. Here in Zhang, that's where we're going to spend time unpacking, and so, as we get into this, I want you to just remember the city, I want you to think. Maybe close your eyes if you need to Think about a time when you were out in public with lots of people and there's just lights just lighting everything up. Think about being downtown at Christmastime, kind of the hustle and the bustle. It has that atmosphere to it, except with much deeper significance.

Speaker 1: 6:32

And so, in John 8, 12 through 20, as we heard, jesus doesn't merely provide a new teaching. He reveals his identity with a very bold statement he's designed the light of the world. This is the first time that Jesus uses the I am phrasing. We heard him do this in John 6. I'm the bread of life. And each time he does this, he offers us a glimpse into his nature, his unique role in God's redemptive plan.

Speaker 1: 6:58

By declaring himself as the light, jesus connects to the pillar of fire in the Exodus story. You see how this is all lining up. But he also transcends it, offering spiritual illumination and guidance that the physical light of the pillar could never provide. And I'm saying all this at the beginning, because this is a very pivotal moment. It's here that Jesus is going to invite us into a life changing relationship with God, one that moves us from spiritual darkness into his marvelous light. The implications of this claim are far reaching. They're deeply personal. It's not just about intellectual knowledge of Jesus, not just about acknowledging him as the Messiah, but it's his invitation to experience his transformative power in our lives. You see, by revealing himself as the light of the world, this calls us to recognize his divinity, his divine authority, his truth and ultimately guide us out of spiritual darkness into a life changing relationship with God.

Speaker 1: 8:06

And so, as we unpack this passage, we're going to walk through three key moments in this story. The first is the significance of light, in verse 12. We're going to explore what it means for Jesus to be the light of the world. I was not just a metaphor for moral or spiritual guidance, but the profound statement of his identity and his mission on earth. Second, we're going to talk about the problem of darkness. You can't talk about light without talking about darkness. And here, in verses 13 through 17, we're going to confront the realities of spiritual darkness. It's not just the absence of light, it's this state of confusion, of ignorance, separation from God. We'll see how Jesus addresses this darkness with His presence and with truth. And then number three, finally we'll delve into the transformative truth that Jesus, as the light, brings into our lives. Does it mean that he has revealed Himself? And this goes beyond mere knowledge? This is where we get into the deep, life-changing encounter with God that we're being invited into.

Speaker 1: 9:10

And so, as we go through this passage of this morning, I invite you to open your heart. I want to ask the Spirit, here, in a moment, to move in our midst, to show us Christ fresh, not because he has changed. He never changes. But our hearts quickly grow stale and dim. Would you pray with me, god? We thank you that you are with us this morning. We feel your presence, we inhabit the praise of your people. So, god, I thank you for just the space that we get to meet and I thank you for the leadership here at Lapham for Linda, for Lisa, for Dustin. God, I pray that you would just continue to bless their efforts as they serve just such an important role here in the community. God, I pray that we would be able to continue to come alongside of them. I just thank you for their kindness to us. Father, I thank you for these people gathered Spirit, I pray that you would move in us now. Show us Christ In Jesus' name, amen.

Speaker 1: 10:20

When Jesus proclaims that he is the light of the world, we're encountering more than just a mere declaration. It's a profound moment deeply rooted in the Jewish tradition. The longing for Messiah. This awaited deliverer, was expected to bring salvation, redemption, peace, not just to the Jewish people but to the entire world. And so again, this scene at the Feast of Booth, this festival rich in symbolism, where the Jewish people celebrate God's guidance through the desert, his ever-presentness with them, symbolized by this brightly lit temple. This reminder of this pillar of fire and so out of this, jesus' declaration is very significant and saying I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.

Speaker 1: 11:11

Jesus is doing far more than speaking words. He's revealing His identity. He's connecting Himself with the long-awaited Messiah. And this ties directly to prophecy from Isaiah, who envisioned a future where the Messiah would be a light for all the nations, extending salvation to the ends of the earth, in Isaiah 49.6. Jesus steps into this prophetic promise, affirming that he is the fulfillment of Isaiah's vision, the one bringing God's salvation universally. Furthermore, this declaration echoes the profound statement God made to Moses in Exodus 3, 14. You remember he spoke from the burning bush. He said I am who I am. And so when Jesus uses these words, he's not making just a reference, it's powerful affirmation of His identity, deeply intertwined with who God is Himself. This was not just the name of God, this was the deep and personal name that God had given to His people. So when Jesus announces I am the light of the world, he's fulfilling the Jewish people's messianic expectations.

Speaker 1: 12:26

Transcending the roles of just an earthly prophet, good teacher. He's standing up and saying no, I'm the guide that you've been looking for, I'm the Savior that God has promised, I'm the one bringing spiritual enlightenment, I'm the one who you should be looking towards for guidance, and it's all in line with what God has said. So Jesus has this light, pierces through the veil of spiritual darkness, illuminating the path to true freedom, to eternal life. And His light isn't confined to just a metaphor, a physical manifestation. This is a symbol of spiritual awakening, this is the promise of salvation. The apostle Paul talks in Romans 8 of all creation groaning. And this is the answer. Jesus is not merely offering a new teaching, he's not giving a moral guideline, he's presenting a transformative way of life.

Speaker 1: 13:29

In John 1, 4 through 5, we see this concept of light introduced. John writes and Him was life and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. And this isn't just poetic Right, john's tipping his hand or tipping his hat to revealing this fundamental truth about Jesus. But the light that Jesus embodies is a beacon in the spiritual darkness that we, as humanity, find ourselves in, and it brings salvation and hope to all who will look to Him and follow Him. It's an invitation to a journey from spiritual blindness and confusion to a life illuminated by God's truth, by God's love in relationship with God. And so, in recognizing Jesus as the light, we're not merely acknowledging this theological concept. We're stepping into a life characterized by clarity, purpose, deep rooted hope.

Speaker 1: 14:31

Following Jesus means more than just agreeing with his teachings, family. It's about actively living in a way that aligns with his example. Messiah would come and teach the people all that God had said to them and how to perfectly carry it out. He would lead them on a journey to reshape their understanding, their actions, their relationships, illuminating their path with the light of his truth. It was this holistic life with God that they longed for, that we all longed for, and that Messiah would deliver. This journey of following Jesus, from understanding his identity as the Messiah to living in the light of his presence, is not just an invitation for those listening to Jesus in the temple in the first century, but it's an invitation to each one of us to embrace, to radiate his illuminating presence in every aspect of our lives.

Speaker 1: 16:20

So as we continue to build on this, we're going to see how inflammatory this statement was and begin to continue to unpack the big aspects of what Jesus is saying here. Let's continue from the significance of light to the problem of darkness. When John 8, 13 through 17, we see more than just a theological dispute. Right, if the statement by Jesus I am the light of the world there's more than just a theological statement, if it has greater implications, we're going to continue. But I think that it's possible that we kind of see a departure here. Do you guys see it?

Speaker 1: 17:02

Look again at the text. Jesus says I'm the light of the world. He says if you follow me, you'll not walk in darkness, you'll have the light of life. And then, all of a sudden, the Pharisees start attacking his judgment. Then they're talking about the law and testimony and then John kind of wraps up the scene. It's confusing, isn't it? I think it is at first. But Jesus, having declared himself as the light of the world, encounters not just skepticism from the Pharisees but actually a display of the darkness that they were living in, the darkness that blinded them from seeing the divine truth standing right in front of them. Do you see?

Speaker 1: 17:51

See, the Pharisees challenge Jesus over the validity of his testimony. They're coming at it from their very legalistic tradition, failing to grasp the spiritual truth that he's revealing. They're stuck in this mindset that an individual's testimony isn't enough to be true. But Jesus' response, as he often does, just cuts through the legalism, doesn't he? When he says, even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I come from and where I am going, he's not defending his credibility. He's revealing his connection with the Father, with God, and he's highlighting the darkness of the Pharisees' legalistic understanding the profound spiritual reality of his identity. They can't see it.

Speaker 1: 18:43

This interaction exemplifies what it means to be walking in darkness. This is what those who follow Jesus are led out of, living life disconnected from God's truth, and see the Pharisees, despite their religious knowledge, are blind to Jesus as the Christ, symbolizing a common human condition of spiritual darkness and an inability to perceive who Jesus is. And today this passage speaks volumes to us. It reminds us that the mere intellectual knowledge of Scripture or religious observance isn't enough for true spiritual discernment To recognize what's true. We need to know Jesus, looking beyond our preconceptions and biases, to encounter Him as he is then, not as we want Him to be. We can't just reduce this to being about the Pharisees' failure to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, though this is actually a reflection of our own tendency to live in spiritual darkness. See the Pharisees' reliance on their interpretation of scripture without allowing God's light to illuminate their understanding mirrors how we navigate through life, doesn't it?

Speaker 1: 19:58

And in our modern world, living in spiritual darkness can take various forms, and I want to walk through just a few of them quickly. The first form that I think it can take is religious formalism without genuine faith. Like the Pharisees, knowing scriptures but not recognizing Jesus, we can go through religious motions without experiencing Christ's transformative love. It's having the lamp of religion in our lives but never switching it on. Another is intellectualism that overlooks spiritual truth altogether. Our culture often celebrates academic achievements and sidelines spiritual realities and truth, like having a map but missing the compass of divine wisdom, and this mirrors the Pharisees' inability to see beyond their understanding to Jesus' truth that he is clearly putting in front of them.

Speaker 1: 20:55

A third is cultural relativism of truth. Morality. Our society's mantra is you do you right? And this echoes the Pharisees' inability to accept Jesus' teaching because they didn't align with their expectations. Defining truth based on popular opinion, it's very much like building a house on shifting sand. It's very much like walking around in a room you're unfamiliar with, in the dark. A fourth is material success and personal fulfillment.

Speaker 1: 21:33

In our pursuit of success and achievement, we often miss the teachings of selflessness and sacrifice that Jesus emphasized. It's like groping in the dark for something that only Jesus' light can reveal. A fifth and final we have technological distractions and superficial relationships. Our digital age often replaces these deep connections that we need, that we crave, with fleeting interactions, fueling spiritual darkness where the richness of Christ-centered relationships is lost. It's like living in a brightly lit world but feeling so alone in the dark. And in each of these examples the tendency towards spiritual darkness is clear. But Christ is the light of the world, offers hope. He offers a different story, one that encounters the emptiness of our materialism, the confusion of moral relativism, the isolation of our individualism, and invites us to follow Him out of it. So let's look at verses 18 and 20, as we see the truth that light reveals.

Speaker 1: 22:53

When these verses, jesus addresses the Pharisees challenged to his testimony's validity, and he does this with a profound declaration of His divine origin. Remember, he said I know where I'm coming from, I know where I'm going. And here he's not claiming self-awareness, he's revealing a deep connection with God as His Father. When Jesus says I am the one who bears witness about myself and the Father who sent me bears witness about me, he's doing more than defending what he said. He's unveiling a spiritual truth. Similar to using the Pharisees' opposition to Him to reveal how they were walking in darkness, he is now illustrating what it looks like to walk in the light. Jesus presents Himself as a clear window to God, offering us a glimpse of unchanging truth. But Jesus' revelation goes beyond just giving us a moral compass. What he's doing is revealing the nature of His relationship with God as something that we can have. If all those who follow Jesus verse 12, will not walk in darkness, that will have the light of life.

Speaker 1: 24:14

Knowing God through Jesus means more than just following rules. Rules do not need to lead to life. The law cannot save, but entering into this life-changing relationship with the Father through Jesus does. This relationship has the power to transform us, reorienting our desires, reshaping our ambitions, redefining our concepts of success and fulfillment. This is the path to true contentment and purpose in a world that often leaves us lost, and the implications of Jesus' identity are profound, both morally and relationally. Morally, his connection with the Father gives us direct insight into God's will and character, challenging us to live our lives following His example. Relationally, this is an invitation to be transformed. It's about more than adhering to just standards. It's about allowing a relationship with Jesus to reshape our entire being, guiding us from just ethical living to this dynamic, life-giving relationship with God.

Speaker 1: 25:24

Yeah, there's a struggle here. We often lean toward the ethical over the relational, don't we? I mean, that's what's happening here with the Pharisees. They're presented with the truth that Jesus is the light of the world, that he is God. Come as Messiah, sent from heaven, connected to the Father, of one mind and of heart with Him, and yet they choose to lean on their ethical standards. People living with clear-cut rules offers a sense of control, doesn't it? A sense of security, it's tangible, it's comfortable. However, in focusing solely on the ethical, we risk missing the essence of what Jesus is saying. He's not just setting another rule in front of us. He's inviting us into a relationship that transforms. This relationship challenges our preferences for the tangible, for the measurable, to reject our sense of what is true, for God's truth, to reject our own guidance of ourselves to follow Jesus In essence, jesus' revelation to the Father, while encompassing moral truth, is primarily relational.

Speaker 1: 26:50

It's about more than discerning right from wrong. It's about embracing a relationship that lights our way through this life. This is what the Pharisees were missing. It's what we have access to. Jesus shows us the Father, offering a remedy for our world's confusion and aimlessness. He invites us to see the world as it truly is, to know God intimately and to live lives reflecting His love, his truth. In Jesus' delight of the world, we find not just this moral guidance but the ultimate revelation of who God is, the surest guide for how we ought to live. Okay, when we've seen this defining moment, jesus declaring Himself as the light of the world, we've seen Him connect profoundly with just this tradition of the Feast of Booths, this hope that's resonated through the ages for a deliverer who would bring salvation not just one time but for all time.

Speaker 1: 27:53

The truth of the gospel is not just for understanding but for transformation. Jesus' delight doesn't merely dispel darkness. He offers a new way of seeing, a new way of living. The light provides guidance, salvation and the promise of eternal life. But it's not just about seeing. It's got to be about following it. This profound declaration of Jesus is an invitation to move from spiritual blindness to true understanding, from a life of confusion to one of clarity, one of purpose. And embracing this transformative relationship with Christ means more than acknowledging His teachings or admiring His wisdom. The Pharisees could do that, our culture does that. We have people who think highly of Scripture, but they don't know Jesus. All of this involves a radical reorientation of our lives, fen, as we follow Jesus, we embark on a journey that keeps moving us away from our limited understanding, our spiritual darkness, into a deeper, more intimate relationship with God as our Father, brightly lit by the light of Jesus.

Speaker 1: 29:15

And so, as we step back and reflect on this passage, I want to go through two different application points and then answer a question. By revealing Himself as the light, jesus calls us to recognize His divine authority and His ability to speak truth. So our response to this revelation involves two essential actions we need to see the light and we need to follow the light. We need to see the light. Let's go back to that setting in the temple During the Feast of Booths, the rich symbolism of God guiding His people through the wilderness. Jesus proclaims I am the light of the world, but people have to see Him.

Speaker 1: 30:22

For many, the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees exists and there's an initial blindness to Jesus' true identity. And here Jesus extends an invitation to see Him as the Messiah for the first time. This call to sight isn't about physical vision. It's about spiritual awakening and epiphany of recognizing who Jesus is. Such an encounter is transformative, shifting us from the shadows of misunderstanding and doubt into light.

Speaker 1: 30:55

However, this vision of Jesus isn't just a one-time event. It requires continuous realignment, a daily renewal of our understanding, of our faith. This is what we call preaching the gospel to ourselves every day, ensuring that our spiritual eyes remain focused on Jesus and His ongoing vision of Jesus has cultivated through a humble dependence on the Holy Spirit to show us Christ. He opens our eyes to the truths of the gospel. He transforms our hearts, aligns our lives with Jesus' Lordship, leading us into deeper understanding, deeper obedience, deeper experience of His presence, dispelling the darkness that is so natural to our human ways of living. But upon seeing the light, we have to follow where it's going. So number two following the light. Jesus' promise is clear. You might look back at verse 12,. Those who follow Him will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. This is just a metaphor. It's reality that manifests in our relationship with Him. To move from darkness into light is to recognize our own spiritual state upon seeing the light, and for long time believers, this means refocusing on Jesus. Think about stepping into a brightly lit room from a place of darkness. It's a rediscovery of familiar truths, seeing them with renewed clarity and insight, and for those encountering Christ for the first time, it's like gaining sight after a lifetime of blindness.

Speaker 1: 32:47

I read a study this week on a surgeon who was reviewing case studies of other eye surgeons who were removing cataracts in India. And so these children were blind from birth and they knew their environment by touch. They could move about with no problems in the dark, but their eyes were blind to what was really going on. And so, upon surgery, what they discovered was that, bringing them back into the same environment, they could have recognized anything by sight, because they had only ever felt it with their hands. And so when we see Jesus for the first time, there's a fundamental shift in how we engage with the world. That needs to happen, and we need Jesus to lead us through it. And so this surgeon spent time with these kids, and they had people helping them, leading them through their house, having them touch an object and then telling them what it was. But they had to be led through this environment that they had lived in their whole lives, because they could see in a different way now, and so following after Jesus requires his help to light our way. It requires us to walk faithfully after him, staying in step with him, and this journey is one that is marked by a growing understanding of who he is, a growing dependence on him for what we need, deepening relationship with him and increasing alignment of our lives with his will. Over the period of several weeks, these kids began to learn what things were faster and faster and faster. It's a fascinating thing. I went way down the rabbit hole on it. We could talk about it afterwards if you want to. Well, we might be at this point and you're saying, ben, all this sounds amazing, sounds so good, but see, jesus, we'll follow Jesus. Where should we start? I'm glad you asked.

Speaker 1: 35:08

Jesus' declaration as the light of the world is a call to action for everyone. It's a call to recognize his divine authority and truth, to follow him out of our own spiritual darkness, and I just want to offer some key kind of entry points. So I just want to invite you to just listen and see if the Spirit pings any of these and then encourage you to just take them into your prayer times with God, take them into conversations with others. Step number one is to acknowledge our need for light. We have to admit that we're blind. We have to admit that our eyes have dimmed. Just as the Pharisees struggle with spiritual blindness, we do too. So this admission that, apart from Jesus, our understanding of truth, our understanding of reality, our understanding of the right ways to walk in order to honor God are none. We have no ability on our own.

Speaker 1: 36:18

Number two those who are believers we have to cultivate a relationship with Jesus. Recognizing Jesus as the light of the world is just the beginning of a deep and personal relationship with him. It's about spending time and his presence through prayer. We talk about being with Jesus because we want to become like Jesus. We want to do what Jesus did. We allow his light to permeate every aspect of our lives. Number three this means that his teachings are not just moral guidelines we don't just go to our Bibles and see what he says and then close them and just walk out the door and live the way we want but that embracing his teaching involves letting them shape our thoughts, our decisions, our actions.

Speaker 1: 37:17

I would say that this is the necessary step in order for number four to be a reality, which is to reflect his light to the world, as followers of Jesus were called to do this, to be his light. In fact, jesus and Matthew calls us the city on a hill shining the light of his truth, but involves living out of his love, his grace, his truth in our actions, with others serving as beacons of his light in a world that is so shrouded in darkness. I love the song we sang earlier. You feel it, we feel it, don't we? The world is broken, the world is dark. Number five we're lying on the Holy Spirit.

Speaker 1: 38:10

The journey of following Jesus is not one that we go on alone. Later on, in John, jesus is going to tell you hey, it's actually better that I go Back to the Father, because then I can send you the Holy Spirit to help you, to comfort you, to guide you, to empower you to live in the light of Christ. The Spirit helps us to understand and apply what Jesus is teaching us. He enables us to reflect Jesus' light in our daily lives. He loves to shine the spotlight on Christ.

Speaker 1: 38:48

Finally, in embracing Jesus' light of the world, we step into a life marked by clarity and purpose and hope. It's good to see, isn't it? This life transcends superficiality, confusion, offering profound sense of direction and fulfillment. These are the things that we were made for, and in Jesus' light of the world, we find the ultimate revelation of God, the surest guide for how we should live. In fact, jesus was going to say it in John 10.10,. I came that they might have life and have it to the full. We call that the good life. Here it is said. As we follow Him, may our lives become testimonies of His transformative power. May we witness one another and experience ourselves being guided out of spiritual darkness into vibrant, life-giving relationship with God in the light. Let's pray.