The preaching text for Sunday will be John 8:12-30. Now, if you’ve been following along as we’ve worked through this Gospel account you will notice that we are passing over John 7:53-8:11. This is the story of the woman caught in adultery, and if you look in your Bible you will notice that it is probably in brackets. The reason for this is that the majority of New Testament scholars don’t believe that it was part of John’s original Gospel account. In other words, at some point it was added. The oldest and best of the original manuscripts that we have do not contain John 7:53-8:11. The earliest commentators, the “Church Fathers” do not provide any commentary of this account, which means as they worked through John’s Gospel, this account was not there. There are more reasons that could be provided to support this majority view, but this is not the best context to have that discussion. Seeing that these verses were not in the original account means that my conviction is that these verses are not part of the inspired text, so I won’t be preaching them as inspired text. Should this give you any cause to doubt your Bible? Should you be concerned that this in anyway calls into question the validity of the Bible? ABSOLUTELY NOT!! This is what we call a “textual variant”, and there are no variants (small or large) that change, altar the meaning, message, truthfulness or reliability of the Bible. If you want to listen to a longer answer to the question, “Why are there manuscripts variants?”, you can listen HERE…
Now, for our text this week (8:12-30), we pick up with Jesus in the temple. The Feast of Booths is coming to its close and Jesus takes the opportunity to play off the Jewish water ritual to invite those who thirst to come to him and drink. In other words, Jesus is saying that he is the source of life. Their water ritual symbolized God’s provision for the people of Israel in the wilderness and looked forward to the promise of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. Jesus takes the opportunity to say that the time for symbolism is over, he is the fulfillment of the promise. Well, our text this week is the same song with a different verse. Jesus takes advantage of another opportunity that the feast provides, another opportunity to show that he is the fulfillment of all they are hoping for. Not only is he the bread of life and the living water, but he is the light of the world. As Jesus continues to dialogue with the religious leaders we see how desperately they need light. We see how desperately we need light, the true light, the light of the word, Jesus Christ. What kindness God has shown us in sending Jesus, to lead a desperate people out of darkness by the marvelous light of the Gospel. May we see and follow that light for the glory of God!
Sermon Title: “I Am The Light Of The World”
Sermon Text: John 8:12-30
Meditation Passage: Isaiah 42:1-9
Call To Worship: Psalm 145:1-13
Benediction: Revelation 1:4-6
Songs For Sunday:
All Creatures Of Our God And King
O Spirit, Lift Our Eyes To Jesus
When I Survey The Wondrous Cross
How Deep The Father’s Love For Us