How Not to Be a Pharisee
John 8:12-20,
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” 13 So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” 14 Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. 15 You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. 16 Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. 17 In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. 18 I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.” 19 They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” 20 These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.
Last week we saw that Nicodemus told the Pharisees that they should give Jesus a hearing. Chapter 7, verse 51 he said: the law doesn’t “judge a man until first giving him a hearing and learning what he does” (7:51). And again, this was the most reasonable thing said in Chapter 7, but the Pharisees completely wrote it off. They refuse to hear Jesus, and in Chapter 8 it gets even worse.
Every time the Pharisees speak in Chapter 8, they reveal how off the rails they are with Jesus. They do not get him at all. We could call their example a masterclass in how to misunderstand Jesus — which we don’t want to do!
The Pharisees are a cautionary tale. And their bad responses to Jesus are so featured in this passage, you could argue it’s the main idea here. John wants to make sure we take note of what they do, so that we don’t make the same mistakes.
That’s how I’d like to organize the sermon.
Today I want to show you three ways how NOT to be like the Pharisees — it all has to do with how we respond to Jesus.
If you don’t want to be like the Pharisees, here’s the first thing you do with Jesus:
1. Hear his word.
Look at verse 12:
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Now, let’s just stop here for a minute and consider how amazing this statement is. Keep in mind: this is not outta the blue. The Pharisees have a context for Jesus making some big claims:
They’ve heard him say, John 2:19, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
They heard him say, John 5:17, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” (Which means he was calling God his Father and making himself equal with God, [v. 18]).
They just heard him say, John 7:37, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.”
These are big claims, and here in Chapter 8, verse 12, Jesus does it again.
He says,
“I am the light of the world.”
And maybe you hear that and you’re not really sure what he means; maybe you’ve got more questions; but regardless of your questions — even before you fully understand what he’s saying, we all can see that Jesus is claiming something about himself in reference to the world. And that’s a big deal.
He’s not saying “I am the light of Nazareth, my hometown.”
Or “I was the light of my high school football team.” I was all-state.
No, he is what he is “of the world.” As in the whole wide world.
Could you imagine talking to someone today and in the conversation they claim to be something in reference to the whole wide world? Think about that. If someone told you they were anything of the world, you would either think they’re crazy or at least be intrigued.
And remember the context here: Jesus has already been making some big claims and he’s done all these signs and people are believing in him.
And so in that context of seeing and hearing all this from Jesus, when you hear him say he’s the light of the world, how do you think you’d respond?
You think you’d at least say, “Tell me more.” Or, “What kind of light?”
But the Pharisees do nothing like that!
Jesus makes this high-magnitude statement in verse 12, and look how the Pharisees respond, in verse 13,
So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.”
Get this: They completely ignore the content of what Jesus says, and they take issue with his form. Instead of actually hearing what he said, they throw a flag on how he said it! Basically, their reply is to say: “[Alarm sound] The current form of your speech has invalidated the claim.”
They think they’re so smart. They think they just dunked on Jesus.
We’re gonna talk more about this dialogue next week, but for today I just want you to notice what the Pharisees miss with Jesus. I want us to do what they don’t do, which starts with hearing Jesus’s word.
Do What They Don’t
When I say “hearing his word” I mean both the actual words of Jesus in John 8:12, and his word as in his message, which we have in the Bible.
Hearing Jesus, listening to Jesus — for us this means that we read and pay attention to Holy Scripture. So I want you to make the connection here: ignoring Scripture means ignoring the word of Jesus; we ignore the word of Jesus by ignoring Scripture.
Let’s not do that. And this goes for all of us.
Everybody, track with me here: Stop looking for reasons to deprive yourself from listening to Jesus. Because that is something we do. And we can try to come up with reasons for why.
One reason you might deprive yourself from listening to Jesus is that you’ve got some church-hurt: Christians in the past have let you down.
And truly, I’m sorry if that’s part of your story.
We all have different experiences here, and I want to be sensitive to that, and, at the same time, if Christians in the past have let you down, you should know that Christians in the future will let you down too. Because Christians are humans, and humans let other humans down. This is life on life’s terms. And as frustrating and difficult as this is, it’s not a reason to ignore Jesus. You gotta hear him.
So if you’re here and you need to get reacquainted with Jesus, or if you’re brand-new to Jesus, I want to encourage you, give a fresh read to the Gospel of John. That’s a really good place to start. Here’s a great resource: Speak Life 321.
But another reason you might deprive yourself from hearing the word of Jesus is that you don’t have time. You’re too busy. And of course, everybody is busy (or at least we all think we are).
I’ve got a friend who grew up in Kentucky, and he told me that as a kid, every time he’d tell his Dad that he was hungry, his Dad would say, “Boy, you ain’t never been hungry in your life.”
I tried that out on a kid this summer. They told me they were too busy, and I said, “Child, you ain’t never been busy in your life.” Some of us need to hear that.
We gotta get out of the tunnel vision. We gotta look around. We make time for what matters most to us, and nobody is too busy to hear Jesus’s word. We can’t be.
Hearing Jesus’s word — reading the Bible — look, it’s the non-negotiable for both first-time faith and for growing faith. This goes for everybody. You can’t believe in Jesus, and you can’t become like Jesus, apart from his word.
The Pharisees refused to hear him; don’t be like the Pharisees. Hear his word.
The second way to not be like the Pharisees is …
2. See his light.
Unlike the Pharisees, we’re not skipping what Jesus says in verse 12. We’re not changing the subject. We’re staying here the rest of the sermon because he says he’s light of the world — and wanna know: “Tell me more” and “What kind of light?”
Now there are a couple different angles we could take to try and understand what Jesus says…
The historical context is the Feast of Booths, which we talked about last week. Jerusalem was crowded with people for this feast, and apparently, part of the festivities included a lighting ceremony in the temple. There would have been big lamps shining in the temple, and so some say Jesus is using his light metaphor to connect with that tangible experience.
There were literal lights in the temple, so Jesus looked around and said he’s the light. That’s possible. Jesus did that sort of thing.
But, this also is not the first time we’ve read about light in this Gospel. (There’s the historical context of the event, but also the literary context of the text.) It goes back to the very start. John tells us right away about Jesus, Chapter 1, verse 4:
“In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Verse 9,
“The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.”
And John doesn’t stop here. The light metaphor shows up all throughout the Gospel, and my hunch is that that’s what we should be thinking about when we hear Jesus in Chapter 8, verse 12. So what kind of light is this?
How does what John says about light in this Gospel help us here?
Well, I don’t think John means to narrow the metaphor to only one kind of light. Light is a broad metaphor and John likes to layer things, so I think this metaphor is layered. I think there are at least three kinds of light that Jesus is — he’s an exposing light, an illumining light, and a welcoming light. I’ll explain…
Exposing light
This is a light that exposes what is hidden. It calls out sin and banishes darkness. In the immediate context, this seems to be the front-runner idea because right after verse 12 the conversation is about judgment. Jesus also said back in Chapter 3, verse 19,
“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. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.”
So no doubt, Jesus is an exposing light, and the Pharisees can’t stand him. In Chapter 3, Jesus gave us a category for what the Pharisees are doing in Chapter 8. Jesus exposes.
Illumining light
This is a light that reveals or makes known. It’s the kind of light you need when you’re stuck in a cave and everything around you is dark. There’s a way to go, but you can’t see it. You need a flash light! You need a light to illumine the way.
Jesus is this kind of light. That’s what John Chapter 1 is getting at.
John 1:18,
“No one has ever seen God, but Jesus has made him known.”
Jesus says in John 14:6,
“Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”
Jesus shows us God. He reveals God. He’s an illumining light.
Welcoming light
This is a light that tells you where home is. Jesus is this kind of light.
He says in John 12:46,
“I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.”
He said in John 12:36,
“While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”
That’s an invitation, see…
As an exposing light, Jesus exposes the sin we try to hide.
As an illumining light, Jesus illumines the truth of God.
As a welcoming light, Jesus invites us home.
And it’s this third one I want us to think more about … the welcoming light that Jesus is to this world.
“I Saw the Light”
Growing up in church in the South, we didn’t always sing Hank Williams, but when we did, we sang his classic, “I Saw the Light.” Y’all know this song? …y’all know Hank Williams? He was the Hillbilly Shakespeare. There’s a great story behind the song…
It was 1947. Hank had played a concert somewhere in Alabama and afterwards went on a terrible drinking binge, almost drank himself to death; lost all touch with reality. His mother had come to get him and bring him home — he was only 23 years old.
Well, his parents lived next to an airport and there was a big runway light that would sweep across the sky, and as the car got closer to home — he’s barely awake in the backseat, but his mom’s driving — she sees the sky light up, and she says, “Hank, I saw the light. We’re almost home.”
And the story goes that her words struck him. He might have been born again — we don’t know, he had a complicated life — but in that moment, he managed to scribble down the lyrics to the song. It starts like this:
I wandered so aimless, life filled with sin
I wouldn’t let my dear Savior in
Then Jesus came like a stranger in the night
Praise the Lord, I saw the light
“I saw the light” — it’s a conversion song. To “see the light” is another way we talk about “believing in Jesus.” It means something has changed. Jesus is that kind of light.
He’s the lighthouse shining when you’re surrounded by the raging sea; he’s the sunrise that means your darkest night has ended; he’s the front porch light left on when you’ve been in the far country — Jesus is the light of the world who says to all of us, “Come home.”
He is shining and saying Believe in me and come home to God.
But the Pharisees refuse to. They love their darkness. They love their lostness. And so Jesus tells them very directly in verse 24, “you will die in your sins.”
Everybody, look: don’t be like the Pharisees.
Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.”
See his light. Put your faith in Jesus Christ. And welcome home.
Third way not to be like the Pharisees …
3. Follow his path.
This is the second part of verse 12. After Jesus makes the declaration that he’s the light of the world, he follows that declaration with a conditional promise.
And this one I really want you to see. So everybody, find verse 12:
“I am the light of the world...”
Second sentence —
“…Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
The promise here is a negative/positive: you will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. That’s a good promise, right?
But it’s conditional. This is not for everyone, but it’s only for those who, Jesus says, follow me. Whoever follows me, that’s who this promise applies to.
And something interesting here is that Jesus uses the word “to follow.” He mostly uses the word to believe. It shows up a lot in the Gospel of John. He’ll use it soon in verse 24, but here, in verse 12, he says Whoever follows me.
And I don’t know why exactly he does this. It might be because “follow” fits better with the metaphor: when you see the light, you follow it. You could believe light, but it makes more sense to follow light.
But the main thing that I want you to catch here is that to truly believe in Jesus and to follow Jesus are one in the same.
Being a Christ-Follower
Now lots of people might “believe” in Jesus as in they recognize his historicity — they recognize he was a real person and I like most of what he says — that kind of “believing” happens in this story, we’ll see next week (8:30–31) — that’s one kind of believing.
But there’s another kind of believing that means to follow him. And that’s the believing Jesus is looking for. This is believing that says I’m looking to you and listening to you. I’ll go where you lead me. I’ll do what you say. I follow you.
I met a new friend recently, one of the dads of my son’s baseball teammates. We were standing together watching a practice, and in the conversation right away, I told him I was a Christian and I asked him if he had a Christian background — I’ve found that’s a good way to start a spiritual conversation (most people have some kind of religious background).
So I asked him, and he said, “Oh, yes, we are Christ-followers.”
And I caught what he was doing there. He was letting me know, “Hey, I’m not a Christian as in my grandma took me to church when I was a kid.”
I’m more Christian than just my background. My faith is not nominal. I follow Jesus. Now he didn’t say that, but that’s what he was saying.
And I said to him, Praise God. You’re not a Pharisee! (I didn’t really say it, but I was thinking it.)
See, the Pharisees had a lot of face-to-face with Jesus. They see him, they hear him, they’ve heard about him. Jesus became very much a part of their world. They couldn’t deny him. But one thing they keep doing, and they do again here, is they refuse to follow him. Which then means they stay in darkness and don’t have life.
What about you? Do you follow Jesus?
Is your believing true believing that means your highest allegiance is to Jesus? Whatever he wants, that’s what you want. Do you follow him?
Hey, don’t be like the Pharisees. We need to see what they’re like in this chapter so that we can run hard in the opposite direction, toward Jesus, which means we: Hear his word. See his light. Follow his path.
That’s what brings us to the Table.
The Table
What I’ve asked Jesus to do through this sermon is to bring you to himself. I don’t know exactly what that means for each of you, but whatever it means, that’s what I want Jesus to do. I got the idea from John Calvin.
In his commentary on John 8:12, because of the promise — not walking in darkness, having the light of life — he writes,
“…we ought to be excited to follow Jesus, and, indeed, by stretching out his hand — as it were — he draws us to himself.”
Can you imagine that? Whatever you got going on in your life, Jesus is saying to you, Come on.
Whether it’s first-time faith or growing faith, Jesus — as it were — stretches out his hand to you this morning, and at his table we respond…
If you’re not yet a Christian, make today the day you truly believe.
If you are a Christian, let’s eat and drink now from his Table, and give him thanks.
