I don’t know how much you’ve thought about dying and I don’t want to start the week off by being too morbid but we’re heading towards Easter and this Easter message has a brutal dimension to it.

In the weeks leading up to Easter, that very first Easter, dying was very much on Jesus mind. And I guess there are some who are very ill listening today and you’ve thought rather a lot about dying. Please I don’t mean to touch on a raw nerve here but dying is as much a part of life as living is.

We grow old and eventually our bodies give up our spirits, that’s what happens. But it’s those who die prematurely that I guess we really struggle with. Those who die young through sickness or accident or even foul play, that’s hard but I guess when I think about dying I wonder what it will be like letting go. Finally letting go of this life, living through those last hours and minutes knowing that this is the end.

Of course it may not quite happen like that for me. Death could be sudden or instant but I’m guessing most people are aware in their final hours and minutes, even final months and weeks that the end is near and that soon they will have to let go of this life whether they want to or not.

It’s that letting go that I think a lot about and I wonder, I wonder in those months and weeks and days leading up to His crucifixion how that played out in Jesus heart and mind.

I’ve heard people say, ‘Well, you know, Jesus was the Son of God, He wasn’t afraid of physical suffering and death. What weighed on His Spirit was the spiritual reality of taking the sin of this world on His shoulders for all time’. Well I’m sure that the spiritual dimension weighed hugely on Him. He who knew no sin was to become sin so that you and I might gain a completely right standing with God.

That’s a huge burden for the Son of God to bear but as well as being the Son of God Jesus was and is the son of man. He was God in the flesh. He was human at that point, just like you and me, with flesh and blood and emotions and all those very same things and in a sense if He didn’t suffer in the flesh as a man then this whole Easter thing is something of a slight of hand.

If Jesus the man didn’t suffer as punishment for our sins then how can the Apostle Paul possibly write in Romans chapter 8, verse 3;

“By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and to deal with sin He condemned sin in the flesh.”

No, Jesus definitely suffered in the flesh as we’ll see over the coming weeks, He definitely suffered in those beatings and that brutal crucifixion.

So I’m trying to put myself in His shoes here in those weeks leading up to Easter and I’m trying to imagine how that felt. I know He was Gods Son, I know He had a relationship with His Father in heaven that was deep and secure in a way that perhaps you and I don’t yet have although Jesus does want that same depth of a relationship with us but a man He was and He was facing the prospect of a terrible death.

Just think this through, nails through His wrists and His Achilles tendons. Hung with His full weight tearing painfully at these sensitive parts of His body. Dying over hours in excruciating pain through suffocation. Anyone, any man, any woman facing that prospect, well that excruciatingly painful reality let alone the emotional pain of rejection and ridicule is going to play so terribly on your mind, isn’t it?

In fact I wonder if I was facing that sort of death whether the prospect of that terrible reality wouldn’t completely debilitate me. I think frankly I’d want to run away. So in the day to day cut and thrust of life in those final weeks and days how did Jesus handle it? Let’s have a look at just one incident where this comes into play and it’s from John chapter 12 beginning at verse 1:

“Six days before the Passover (so it’s getting fairly close) Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus whom He had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for Him. Martha served and Lazarus was one of the people at the table with Him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus feet and wiped them with her hair.

“The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume but Judas Iscariot, one of the disciples, the one who was about to betray Him, said ‘why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?’ He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief, he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.

“Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you but you do not always have me.’”

Now this is an instance where Mary, the sister of Lazarus, worships Jesus in a way that perhaps culturally we don’t quite relate to these days but let’s just accept her actions on face value. She was pouring a lot of hard earned money out on Jesus. In fact three hundred denarii would have been pretty much a year’s wages for a labourer.

So even though his motives were wrong we can kind of understand Judas’ indignation, seems like a terrible waste. And in the face of this apparently extravagant act Jesus plainly and matter-of-factly says this:

“Leave her alone. She bought it so she might keep it for the day of my burial.”

He just accepts His death as what is going to happen. He’s not running away from it, He’s not fighting it, He’s not panicking about it, nothing. This is what is going to happen. Over and over He tells His disciples this is going to happen. Earlier on in John chapter 10 He explains:

“For this reason the Father loves me because I lay my life down in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me but I lay it down of my own accord. I have the power to lay it down and I have the power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”

See Jesus laid down His life willingly. It was a deliberate decision and an act of love. Decades later Paul the Apostle is contemplating the utter enormity of this decision. Have a listen, Romans chapter 5, verses 7 and 8:

“Indeed rarely will anyone die for a righteous person though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”

Sadly so many have heard this message of Easter so often that we can became almost blasé about the reality of what it means for any man let alone the Son of God to face this sort of death. Crucifixion was a common Roman punishment back then, gruesome and brutal. I can only imagine what a stark contrast there was between Jesus and all those others who found themselves on the same death row as Him.

And what is it that made the difference for Jesus as He faced this death? What is it that gave Him the ability to take it in His stride? His love for us. He knew what He was doing. He knew why. He knew that this death, this terrible, terrible punishment would purchase for the likes of me and the likes of you and for millions upon millions of other equally undeserving individuals a new life, an eternal life.

Greater love has no man than that He lays down his life for his friends. You and I, we are those friends, that’s what Easter is about. A love beyond our wildest imagination.

I pretty much don’t know anyone on this earth who doesn’t like to be liked. I mean we all do. It’s great when other people like us and appreciate us. It doesn’t always work out quite like that but hey, when it does it makes us feel good and valued.

Sadly some people are addicted to being liked. If they’re not constantly affirmed and appreciated their whole world caves in. A lot of it is their personality type often combined with how loving and nurturing, or not, their parents were when they were growing up.

But we like to be liked, right? In fact you look at the whole Facebook phenomenon and a key part of that is having as many friends on Facebook as possible. The more you have the more popular you are. The more you have clear, empirical, factual evidence that you are liked. That’s very much part of the psychology that drives social networking.

As I’m thinking to myself, ‘Man, how did Jesus feel when He was riding into Jerusalem just before the Passover festival on the back of that young donkey and the crowds were cheering?’ It’s great to be liked, we know that and yet He knew He was riding to His death. Must have been so weird. What did He think about, this cheering crowd that just days later would be standing before Pontius Pilate baying for His blood?

Funny world we live in and popular opinion is fickle at best. How often have we seen popular politicians elected on a wave of euphoria only to be dumped by the people a few years later when he or she couldn’t meet up to the high expectations that had been set during the hype of an election campaign? Happens over and over again.

Popular opinion is a fickle thing and in these days of instant news, after all we can be sitting in our lounge rooms watching footage of a war across the other side of the world virtually in real time. So in these days opinion can turn quickly. Instant share trading, instant news. I mean I can be sitting on a bus buying and selling shares on my mobile phone. Everything is so instant.

Opinion is instant and it changes almost instantly. But back when the world wasn’t quite like that, things weren’t global, they were local, you only really knew day to day what was happening in your local area. There was no cable news, there was no internet or mobile devices. Things happened at a much gentler pace back then and people’s minds weren’t crowded with the glut of information and news and entertainment the way ours are today.

So over these last few years the people of Galilee and Judea have heard of this Jesus. One messiah among many who claimed to be THE messiah. One Jesus among many Jesus’. But this one was different, His teaching, well His teaching rang true. He made sense. He touched people’s hearts and the miracles, well no one could argue with them. Blind Freddy could see that God was with this Jesus. The blind, the lame, the sick, the lepers all healed. Even a dead man, Lazarus, raised from the dead as we saw last week.

This guy was definitely different from all the other people out there claiming to be God’s anointed messiah. And here we are at one of the greatest festivals on the Jewish calendar, the Passover festival. Jerusalem is full of crowds and this Jesus that they all knew about, they all heard of Him and seen Him, comes riding into Jerusalem on the back of a young donkey, a colt, and they knew what that meant.

This was a symbolic act. Jesus was invoking a Scripture from what we now call the Old Testament. He was speaking to them by riding in on the foal of an ass. Zechariah chapter 9, verses 9 and 10:

“Rejoice greatly O daughter Zion. Shout aloud O daughter Jerusalem. Lo your king comes to you triumphant and victorious is He, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem and the battle bow shall be cut off and He shall command peace to the nations. His dominion shall be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth.”

So by riding into town on this donkey Jesus was overtly claiming to be the messiah. The one who’d come to set Israel free. Free, as the people thought, from the oppression of Roman occupation. Of course Jesus hadn’t come to usher in a worldly kingdom, He’d come to usher in the Kingdom of heaven. But they didn’t realise that back then so lets read about His triumphant entry in John chapter 12 beginning at verse 12:

“The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him shouting, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel’. Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it as it is written, ‘Do not be afraid daughter of Zion, look your king is coming and sitting on a donkey colt.’

“His disciples didn’t understand these things at first but when Jesus had been glorified then they remembered that these things had be written of Him and had been done to Him.

“So the crowd that had been with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to testify. It was also because they heard that He had performed this sign that the crowd went to meet Him. The Pharisee’s then said to one another, ‘See, you can do nothing. Look the world has gone after Him.’”

As I said this was the very same crowd that turned against Jesus within just a few short days. But on this day they were praising Him because they thought He’d come to save them. Save them from the Romans, give them freedom and autonomy at last.

It’s amazing how we flip flop when it comes to Jesus. Just like the crowds, one day we can be hot, the next day we can be cold. It’s happened that way in my life, my hunch is it’s probably happened like that in your life too. And if you’re one that’s flip flopped from hot to cold then today, today’s message is for you.

Jesus actions weren’t determined or swayed by public opinion. Let me say that again, Jesus actions were not determined or swayed by public opinion. In fact early on, a Passover festival or two earlier, this is what John writes. John chapter 2, verses 23 to 25:

“When Jesus was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival many believed in His name because they saw the signs that He was doing. But Jesus on His part would not entrust Himself to them because He knew all people and needed no one to testify about anyone for He Himself knew what was in everyone.”

See, Jesus knew how fickle the crowds are. He knows how fickle I am and to be honest He knows how fickle you are too. We try our best but we can be unreliable like Peter. We want to stand by Jesus but when the going gets tough we’re found wanting. And fortunately none of that, not public opinion nor the unreliability of people like you and me, swayed Jesus away from what He came to do.

He rode into Jerusalem that day knowing full well that those crowds, who were shouting Hosanna in the highest, would be after His blood in just a few short days. But here’s the point, despite them, despite us He rode in anyway. Nothing swayed Him from His journey towards that cross. Nothing stopped Him because in His heart He knew that we needed Him to save us from ourselves.

What love, what great love, what immense love to die for those who didn’t understand, to die for those who didn’t deserve it. To complete the journey for us. That’s Easter. That’s what Easter is all about. That’s why they call it the good news.

Those born again Christians, well they can be a bothersome lot. I mean Bible bashers the lot of them. And sometimes it’s like they’re living on a different planet, a different set of rules. Anyhow how could you possibly be born again anyway? What a stupid idea. Anyone whose thinking that today, well you wouldn’t be the first.

Back in Jesus day there was a man called Nicodemus who struggled with exactly the same question. John chapter 3 beginning at verse 1:

“Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you’re a teacher who has come from God for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly I tell you no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again from above.’

“Nicodemus said to Him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter the womb a second time and be born?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh and what is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I say to you, you must be born again.’”

Don’t be astonished, easy for Him to say but it seems that a fresh start, a new birth, is at the centre, right at the heart of what Jesus is all about. A new beginning. I wonder just how many people there are in this world today who’d give their right arm for a new beginning.

You just stand back from it, this whole Easter thing and it’s just a little bit bizarre. I mean if you knew nothing about it and came and took a fresh look at it it would pretty much floor you, it confounds logic at least human logic.

God is a god completely just, completely powerful and completely loving allegedly, so they say. Then He creates the likes of thee and me knowing that we’d rebel against Him, knowing that we’d cut ourselves loose from His love, knowing that we’d be unable to satisfy His perfect sense of justice. So He sends us His Son, Jesus, to become a man and to die for us so that the debt of justice would be met and the love of God could be realised because a way back would be open for us through Jesus.

All we need to do is trust in this Jesus, this Son of God, this one who bore our penalties and our punishment out of His great love for us. Come on, who would ever dream up something like that? God has to die so that we might live. A Hollywood script writer that came up with a plot like that, you wouldn’t even make it to first base with the movie studios because the plot doesn’t fly.

This notion of death bringing you life, this notion of being born again is as hard to fathom, as hard to lay hold of for you and me today as it was for Nicodemus 2,000 years ago because it kind of doesn’t make sense because if I’d been God, can’t speak for you, but had I been God I simply wouldn’t have done it that way. I wouldn’t have written a script which had me suffering for your sin – no way.

And you translate it from the conceptual to the physical, people couldn’t understand why Jesus had to die. He keeps telling His disciples He has to suffer and to die and they look at Him with like ‘Are you crazy? Your career as a Rabbi is on the up and up. The stuff you’re doing, the miracles, the preaching. Man you’ve got a great and long and healthy career ahead of you Rabbi Jesus and we’re in on the ground floor of this. What do you mean you have to die? Are you crazy?’

Matthew chapter 16 beginning at verse 21:

“From that time on Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him saying, ‘God forbid it Lord, this must never happen to you’. But Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me satan. You are a stumbling block to me for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things’.”

“Then Jesus told His disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their lives will lose it and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.’”

There it is again, this dying to live thing. It flies completely in the face of human logic and that’s why Jesus rebukes Peter. “You’re a stumbling block to me Peter for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

It’s a sharp rebuke and He explains why. If you guys want to be my followers pick up your cross, deny yourself and follow me. You have to lose your life in order to gain it. And the gruesome picture of the cross and death in order to gain life, you have to admit it’s not a pretty picture. Dying to self. Denying self. And it’s true, the cross simply isn’t a pretty picture as we’ll see in the coming weeks, it’s anything but. It’s brutal, it’s gruesome and that’s why no one understood until the Holy Spirit finally came to them after Jesus’ death and resurrection and ascension.

So here we are in these last few days before His death. Jesus explains it again and as He so often does He paints the picture that they can begin to understand. Let’s have a listen, John chapter 12, it starts at verse 20:

“Among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip who was from Bethsaida in Galilee and said to him, ‘Sir, we want to see Jesus’. So Philip went and told Andrew, Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus and Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified.’

“Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the dirt and dies it remains just a single grain. But if it dies then it bears much fruit. Those who love their life will lose it and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me and where I am there my servant will also be. Whoever serves me my Father will honour.”

See it’s this picture of the grain of wheat that falls to the earth and dies. See it’s only when a seed is dried out and looks dead that it can sprout and grow and bear fruit a hundred fold. See a green seed can’t bear fruit, it has to die first and then fall to the ground and then it sprouts and germinates and bears fruit.

And that’s what Jesus death was all about. All these people thought He was coming to set Israel free by ushering in this new earthly kingdom when all along He’d come to usher in the Kingdom of heaven and through the death of this one Jesus, the very Son of God, He brought new life to you and to me.

If only we’ll do two things. First put our trust in Him, in what He did for us on the cross, in paying the debt of justice for our sin. And second, now taking up our cross and following Him, to live out the new life He’s given us. That’s where we find life and as bizarre as it may first sound He’s absolutely right.

I would never have imagined that beginning to let go of my selfish desires would in fact open up a whole new life for me. A life much more enjoyable and fulfilling and satisfying that I could ever imagined when I was in that old life. Looking back on it the whole ‘born again’ thing, the whole ‘dying to live’ thing it actually makes complete and utter sense. But back then I can remember it sounded so ridiculous. Born again, please.

Funny how much sense Jesus actually makes. Funny how He opens our eyes to discover the abundant life He’d always planned for us but then that’s Easter, that’s what it’s all about, dying to live.

You know I’ve heard so many outrageous claims made over the years. At the top of the list are the get rich quick schemes you see advertised on television from time to time. Three hundred percent return in just six months. And because there’s a sucker born every minute, still people fall for that stuff. We know that if it sounds too good to be true then probably it is.

But people are still conned and hoodwinked and departing with their life savings only to lose them, as it turned out, because the deal was, in fact, far too good to be true. So in a world where the magician’s slight of hand is being even given a boost by the magic of television we’ve all become just a tad cynical.

We all look at outrageous claims and pretty much dismiss them as being advertising slights of hand and so when God comes along and does something amazing, which come on, let’s face it, Easter makes some outrageous claims right? We can look at that and shake our heads and think, ‘Mmm, no. This just can’t be true.’ And if that’s you let me tell you I can completely empathise with that position.

You look at the Church and all too often it is, at best, a shadow of a representation of who and what Jesus claims to be. Not always I hasten to add but all too often. You look at who and what Jesus claims to be and somehow believing that is just, well it’s drawing too long a bow.

Well I’m here to tell you that this dilemma is not a new one, far from it. People had exactly the same struggles in the days and weeks leading up to that very first Easter as well.

That might surprise you but it’s true. Let’s take a look, John chapter 12 beginning at verse 26:

“Whoever serves me must follow me and where I am there my servant will also be. Whoever serves me my Father will honour. Now my soul is troubled and what should I say, “Father, save me from this hour”. No, it is for this reason that I’ve come to this hour. Father glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it and I will glorify it again’ and the crowd standing there, they heard it and they said it’s thunder and others said, ‘Maybe it was an angel speaking to Him’.”

“Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come to you for your sake and not for mine. Now is the judgement of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be driven out and I, when I’m lifted up from this world will draw all people to myself.’ He said this to indicate the kind of death He was going to die but the crowd answered Him, ‘We’ve heard from the Law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of man must be lifted up? Who is the Son of man?’

“And Jesus said to them, ‘The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness you don’t know where you’re going. While you have the light believe in the light so that you may be children of light.’

“After Jesus had said this He departed and hid from them. Although He had performed so many signs in their presence they didn’t believe in Him. This was to fulfil the word from the Prophet Isaiah, “Lord who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

“And so they couldn’t believe because Isaiah also said, “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts so that they may not look with their eyes and understand with their heart and turn and I would heal them.” Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke about Him.

“Nevertheless many, even of the authorities, believed in Him but because of the Pharisee’s they didn’t confess it for fear they would be put out of the Synagogues. For they loved human glory more than the glory that comes from God.”

So a few things there. First God speaks, a voice from heaven. Now just imagine that. And the people don’t believe. ‘Oh it was just thunder. Maybe it was an angel’. Seems that no one could make the stretch into believing that they’d just heard the audible voice of God. Jesus tells them He’s going to be lifted up from the earth which meant He was going to be crucified.

But they said, ‘Look, hang on a minute Jesus, we know the Scriptures too, we’ve read it and it says that the Messiah who is promised to us is going to live forever. So if you’re going to be crucified you can’t possibly be the Messiah’. That’s what they were saying, human logic. Limited logic. A logic that simply couldn’t factor in the possibility that Jesus could in fact be raised from the dead again even though just months before He raised Lazarus from the dead.

They couldn’t figure out that Jesus could be raised from the dead and that He could go on and live forever. Well you can’t actually blame them. Would you and I have concluded any differently had we been in their shoes? And then He says, ‘Look, it’s dark down here. Believe in me for I am the light. Let me shine the revelation of God into your hearts’.

Now at this point, even though He’s being a bit confusing, He’s saying on the one hand, ‘I’m the messiah according to Gods word and I’m going to live forever but on the other hand I’m going to be crucified’. The thing that they could have fallen back on were all His miracles. I mean Judea and Galilee, where He spent most of His time ministering from village to village, were in fact relatively small places.

People could get close enough to see the miracles and they knew the people who were being healed, they knew the blind beggar, they knew the leper, they knew the man who couldn’t walk. They knew that these people were for real. They’d seen the mind blowing miraculous healings. They had hard evidence but although He had performed so many signs in their presence they did not believe in Him.

And why? Why couldn’t they believe? Because God wasn’t ready for them yet to believe. Jesus hadn’t been glorified. The canvas of Gods astounding loving master plan, the death and resurrection of His Son, hasn’t been rolled out yet. The Holy Spirit hadn’t come yet to open their eyes.

But today, today you and I can look back on that master plan. That’s what we do at Easter. We can gaze in awe at the love that sits behind this amazing plan called Easter. And the Holy Spirit is here to open our hearts and our eyes so we can see and understand with clarity. God is revealed through Jesus. His ministry, His death and His resurrection.

And there are some who haven’t believed here today. There are some who have believed but have drifted away. And then there are some who have heard the Easter story so many times, they’re kind of numb towards Easter, it can’t penetrate their hearts anymore and so they couldn’t believe because Isaiah also had said;

“He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts so that they might not look with their eyes and understand with their heart and turn and I would heal them.”

And yet even back then some did believe. Why have I shared this story with you today? So that by hearing the simple, pure, rich word of God first hand and for yourself you can have the opportunity to believe. You can have the opportunity to wrap your heart around the life changing truth that Jesus died for you just as much as He died for me. He rose again for you, to give you a new life just as much as He did for me.

And wherever you are on your life’s journey, however your relationship with God is, non existent, drifting or even rich and full and vibrant, my prayer is that your heart will be filled with the knowledge that this Jesus came for you just as He came for me.

Father,
My prayer for each one of us today is that you would pour your Spirit out on us in abundance, that through the words of Jesus you would open our eyes, unblock our ears, soften our hearts so that we can see and believe and hear and understand, experience and know this life changing truth that Jesus came for us. We ask of it in His mighty name. Amen.

I’m watching the news the other night and they were showing a new invention that could give blind people back some sight. They’d invented a way of putting some sight detectors into some glasses and then wiring those back into the brain to give those who’d been blind some rudimentary sight. Now I have no doubt whatsoever that in the years to come they’ll really improve this technology. No doubt one day in the not too distant future bionic eyes will become routine.

I’m trying to imagine how someone who is blind and then regains their sight must feel. I mean it would be absolutely incredible wouldn’t it? Sight is one of our five senses and my hunch is that it’s one of the most powerful of all. We see things everyday, all day, and we pretty much take it for granted.

But to behold the world through our eyes is a magnificent thing and the way that it works it that light bounces off an object. Each object absorbs and reflects different parts of the light spectrum so that light, which is reflected, gives us not only its shape and its texture but also its colour.

The light travels into our eye, the lens focuses it on our retina, the optic nerve grabs the image, transmits it to the brain, the brain inverts it so that it ends up the right way up and bingo, there you have it, we can see things.

And without light there can be no sight. Really. One of Gods greatest miracles don’t you think? Light and sight.

We’re heading towards Easter in these coming weeks and over the last couple of weeks on the program we’ve been journeying with Jesus towards the cross. It’s an amazing time, those closing days and weeks where Jesus is teaching His disciples the most important of things He needed to teach them. And it was during this time that He explained to them that He was the light of the world. Let’s have a listen, John chapter 12, verses 44 to 50:

“Jesus cried out aloud, ‘Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in Him who sent me and whoever sees me sees Him who sent me. I have come as light into the world so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness. I don’t judge anyone who hears my words and doesn’t keep them for I came not to judge the world but to save the world.

“The one who rejects me and does not receive my word has a judge. On that last day the word that I have spoken will serve as judge for I have spoken not on my own but the Father who sent me has Himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak and I know that His commandment is eternal life. What I speak therefore I speak just as the Father has told me.’”

Many people will recall that Jesus claimed to be the light of the world but like this miracle of sight we kind of just gloss over the familiar without too much thought and consideration. Actually throughout Johns Gospel we discover that Jesus spoke rather a lot about being light. And that passage we just read, that’s what it’s all about. That and the consequences of light and dark:

“Jesus cried out, ‘Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in Him who sent me and whoever sees me sees Him who sent me.’”

Jesus was and is the exact image, the exact representation of God Himself because He is God in the flesh and whoever sees Him, in fact, sees the Father who sent Him.

“I have come as light into the world so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness.”

And the reason He shines the light into the world is so that we shouldn’t remain in darkness. But what is this light? What’s He talking about? Well that comes from the verse before, verse 45:

“And whoever sees me sees Him who sent me.”

The light is, in fact, the knowledge of God, the revelation of God. Who He is, what His plans are, what His purposes are, what He’s like. The deep, relational, heart knowledge of God is like a light and the moment that light shines the darkness is gone. I mean in the moment a blind person sees for the very first time their life of darkness is gone.

Before I met this Jesus I wouldn’t have said I was living out my life in darkness. With all that I was I truly believed I was living out my life in full technicolour. Vividly, powerfully but it wasn’t until Jesus opened my eyes and revealed God to me that I realised how dark, in fact, my darkness had been. It was like two different worlds. All of a sudden I could actually see and I knew that I was in the light.

I could see that the way I’d been living my life was leading to destruction. The selfishness, the raw ambition, the disregard for others. All those things were ruining everything and one day, on that day of judgement of which Jesus speaks, it would completely ruin my eternity. I simply couldn’t see that before I met Jesus.

Elsewhere, earlier on in His ministry this is what He says about the deception of this darkness, of this darkness that we live in, in our sin but actually we can’t see it, we don’t realise that it’s happening. Matthew chapter 6 beginning at verse 22. He said:

“The eye is like the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy your whole body will be full of light but if your eye is unhealthy your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness?”

That was me down to a tee. My body was in fact full of darkness but see I thought it was light. Man, was I in trouble. That’s the reality that many people are living out today my friend. And for many years, even though I would have denied it, even though the bravado I had on the outside completely belied it, deep down the reason I was running away from God was I was afraid of what His light would reveal.

I wouldn’t quite of known to use those words to describe my predicament back then but that was it exactly. And the problem, the problem with this darkness is that it leads to a fierce judgement. Jesus said:

“I don’t judge anyone who hears my word and doesn’t keep them for I came not to judge the world but to save the world. But the one who rejects me and doesn’t receive my word has a judge. On that last day the word that I have spoken will serve as judge but I have not spoken on my own but the Father who sent me has Himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak.”

One day, Jesus is saying, judgement is going to come and so Jesus isn’t going to judge anyone right now, that’s a matter of grace. He wants to give us the time and the opportunity to come to Him, to accept Him, to believe in Him and to follow Him. But if we don’t we will be judged against Gods own word.

And His Father had given Him a commandment to speak. What was that commandment again? Verse 50:

“And I know that His commandment is eternal life. What I speak therefore I speak just as the Father has told me.”

Jesus is the light of the world who came to bring us eternal life.

When I started preparing this current series of messages, A New Life In Jesus, I was astounded at how often Gods word speaks of this new life. Friend, Jesus came not to judge us but to shine the light. To transfer us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. To give us a new life, an eternal life.

That’s Gods command to Jesus, bring them the commandment of eternal life, a life that begins here and now and goes on for all eternity. A life bathed in His incredible light, the light of knowing God, the light that shines on everything and gives everything a new colour, a new glow, a new meaning.

That’s what Easter’s about, a new light.