The Light Shines In The Darkness | Message · Rewind

Pastor Nolan Tjaden · Jun 2, 2025 · 44 min watch · 3 min read

The Light Shines In The Darkness | Message

Big Idea

The light shines in the darkness — Jesus is that light, and we are living through that moment.

Drawing from John 8:12 and John 9:1–7, Pastor Nolan Tjaden argues that Jesus' claim to be 'the light of the world' is the most audacious and consequential claim in human history. That claim is proven in the healing of a man born blind — a sign that spiritual sight is available to anyone who receives Jesus. In a world of growing darkness, believers have clarity rooted in God's Word, a new identity in Christ, and a responsibility to urgently share that light with everyone around them.

Key points

1
1Jesus bends the darkness to serve His purpose — suffering and hardship are not signs of God's absence but opportunities for His glory to be displayed.
2
2There is no such thing as being 'sort of' Christian — Jesus demands full surrender, and every form of partial commitment is a subtle resistance to the light.
3
3Believers have clarity in a world of insanity — when you receive Jesus, you begin to see reality in a whole new way, just as the man born blind saw for the first time.
4
4The healing of the blind man is a new creation event — Jesus getting into the dirt echoes Genesis 2, signaling that coming to faith in Christ is a complete re-creation of the person.
5
5The reality of eternity demands a life of urgency — those who have received spiritual sight are sent, like the healed blind man at the Pool of Siloam, to be living testimonies.

Application

Pastor Nolan's call is direct and layered. First, examine which form of resistance — from outright disbelief to quiet hypocrisy — may be keeping you from going all in with Jesus, and make the full surrender He is asking for. Second, let the reality of spiritual sight reshape how you see the people around you: your neighbor, coworker, or friend who doesn't know Jesus is someone you are sent to. Third, let the urgency of eternity move you past the fear of what people will think. You have been made, like the man healed at Siloam, a living testimony — and the greatest act of love you can offer anyone is to say, 'I was blind, but now I see. Let me tell you about Jesus.'

Take it into your week

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Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“John chapter eight, and we're gonna look at verse 12. This is an audacious claim of Jesus. Think about the magnitude of what he's saying here. He says, again, Jesus spoke to them saying”
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From the transcript
“as it goes into John nine, because there's not chapter divisions in the original writings scripture. They added that to help us find our way around. By the end of John eight, very last verse”
From the transcript
“Now what happens in John chapter eight, if you wanna know the rest of the story as it goes into John nine, because there's not chapter divisions in the original writings scripture”
From the transcript
“Let's continue on in verses one through three. Verse one says this, as he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth and his disciples asked him”
Paraphrase of the transcript
But I want you to see Jesus answer to this question in verse three. You guys still there? It says, Jesus answered, it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.
From the transcript
“I wanna pick back up in the story and continue on in verse six. We just saw that they're having this dialogue about a man born blind. And now Jesus goes to that man born blind. And I want you to see what he does to heal him. This is wild. Verse six in your Bibles. Having said these things, he what? He spit”
From the transcript
“Still later in John chapter 11, he is gonna call in the into the tomb of his friend, Lazarus, and shout, Lazarus, come out”
From the transcript
“Genesis chapter one, it's the creation narrative, and God creates the heavens and the earth with the sound of his voice. Then by day six of the creation narrative, God makes the crown jewel of his creation human beings”
From the transcript
“But I remember in Mark chapter nine, he opens up and he starts telling this story about how Jesus revealed something of his Godness to his disciples”
From the transcript
“I wanna look now at verse seven. You guys still have your Bibles? Didn't chuck them. Alright. John nine and verse seven. Look at what happens here. I'm gonna unpack it. It says, and Jesus said to him, what? Go wash in the pool of Siloam”

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7-day devotional

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Jesus doesn't ease into this claim. He walks into the temple courts during one of the most celebratory moments in the Jewish calendar and says, flat out, 'I am the light of the world.' No qualifications. No footnotes. Just the most audacious declaration anyone has ever made — that He alone is the answer to every shadow the human heart has ever known. Pastor Nolan made the point that this is not a claim you can politely set aside. It demands a response. Either Jesus is who He says He is, or He isn't. And if He is, then everything changes — how you spend your mornings, how you treat your coworkers, what you're ultimately living for. There's something clarifying about that, actually. The world offers a thousand half-lights: success, comfort, the approval of people who will forget you by next year. Jesus offers something categorically different. Not a better version of what the world is selling, but reality itself — the source of all light, stepping into the dark to find you. That's worth sitting with today. Not just as a theological fact, but as a personal one. He said it to a crowd, but He meant it for you.

For reflection

When you hear Jesus say 'I am the light of the world,' what is your honest, gut-level response — and what does that response tell you about where you are with Him right now?

Pray

Pray for an honest heart before Jesus today — that His claim would land not just in your mind but in the place where you actually make decisions.

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Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

Jesus says, 'I am the light of the world' — a claim Pastor Nolan Tjaden called the most audacious in human history. Before we dig in, what's one word or image that comes to mind when you think of light breaking into darkness?

Discussion questions

1
In John 9:1–3, when the disciples see the man born blind, they immediately ask who sinned to cause his condition. Jesus reframes the whole question. What does His answer suggest about how we tend to read suffering — and how He reads it?
2
Pastor Nolan pointed to the moment in John 9:6 where Jesus stoops into the dirt to heal the blind man, connecting it to Genesis 2 and calling it a new-creation event. What does that connection add to our understanding of what happens when someone comes to faith in Jesus?
3
In John 8:12, Jesus says that whoever follows Him 'will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.' Pastor Nolan argued that there's no such thing as being 'sort of' Christian — that every form of partial commitment is a subtle resistance to the light. What does full surrender actually look like in practice, as opposed to partial commitment?
4
The man healed at the Pool of Siloam didn't have a theology degree — he simply said what happened to him. Pastor Nolan described him as a living testimony and pointed to that as a model for how believers are sent. What makes that kind of personal witness so compelling, and what tends to hold people back from it?
5
Pastor Nolan called urgency one of the defining marks of a life shaped by eternity. How might a community of people who genuinely believe that treat the neighbors, coworkers, and friends around them differently than one that doesn't?
6
Looking across the whole message — Jesus as light, the new-creation healing, the call to be sent — what is one thing this passage seems to be asking us to hold differently as a group?

Pray together

Eyes opened — gratitude for the sight we've received, and courage to carry that light to the people right around us

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Go deeper

Where these passages are preached

John 8 John 9 John 11 Genesis 1

Explore related topics

Eternity and Urgency Full Commitment to Christ Jesus as the Light Sharing Your Faith Spiritual Blindness and Sight

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