For God So Loved
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Big Idea
Big Idea
Tension: Why did God give up his Son so we could have the Spirit?
Resolution: because of his great love.
Exegetical Idea: God gave up his only Son so we could have the Spirit because of his great love.
Theological Idea: In the Spirit’s new birth, in the Son’s death, and the Father’s sending, God saves us because he loves us.
Homiletical Idea: The Father sent the Son and the Son the Spirit because he loves us.
Outline
Outline
Intro: Why does God save us?
The Work of the Spirit (1-8)
Nikodemas is a complex character (1-2)
he comes at night
he’s self-righteous and respectable
he compliments Jesus, and wants to relate to Jesus as a peer
like every good Jew, he probably wanted to see the kingdom of GOd established
Jesus is gentle with him, but also firm
The only way to see the kingdom is to be born again (3)
THis is totally at odds with Nikodemas’ worldview, he believes he will see the kingdom because he has been obedient, so he asks, “how can this be?” (4)
But Jesus says, this can only happen if someone is born of the Spirit (5-6) (Ezek 36:25-27; John 1:12-13, 33)
Ezekiel 36:25–27 (ESV)
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
John 1:12–13 (ESV)
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’
Don’t marvel that the Spirit would do this, because teh Spirit does what he wants (7-8)
The Spirit is the 3rd person of the Trinity, he is a distinct person, he’s not just a “force”
And the Spirit’s role in salvation is to apply the gospel to us, he’s the one who makes us be born again, who gives us eternal life.
So the Spirit is a distinct person, and yet, the Son sends the Spirit.
The Work of the Son (9-15)
Nikodemas knows this, and he wants to know, how in the world can the New Covenant be established
Jesus says, you know the Bible, don’t you? (9-10)
Again, Jesus tells him, if you are approaching me thinking you can do this without being born again (11-12). Jesus is just again humbling Nikodemas
The Son of Man was a figure from the prophecy in Daniel 7, the elusive figure who will reign on the throne with teh Ancient of Days. And Jesus repeatedly refers to himself as teh Son of Man. And his point is, the only one who knows what is in heaven is the one who was in heaven before. (13)
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up (14-15). What happens there? By looking at the snake that was being held up, the Israelites were transferring the curse of their sin to the snake. - Num 21:4-9
From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
You see, the only way to get the blessing of the New Covenant, namely the Holy Spirit, is if something happens to the curse. You see all of us are law-bfreakers. All of us ahve sinned. ANd therefore, Scripture says we are under God’s curse. The only way to unlock the blessings of the New Covenant is if something happens to the curse for us. ANd Jesus says, I will do that. I will be lifted up, I will be put to shame, I will be crucified. Galatians 3:13-14
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
The Work of the Father
Now, notice here that Jesus answers a question that Nikodemas doesn’t answer, either because it’s too audacious, or because he simply can’t fathom it, but the question that the text assumes is why would God do this?
The answer is as plain as anything else can be in John 3:16 - For God so “loved” the world. Why did the Father send the Son so that he could send the blessing of the Spirit? because he loves us.
<Henry Moorehouse> "If I could borrow Jacob's ladder, and climb up into heaven, and ask Gabriel, who stands in the presence of the Almighty, if he could tell me how much love the Father has for the world, all he could say would be: 'God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.' "
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Abide in my love - Jn 15:10
Isn’t there something in you that knows this is right, that feels that this is right?
Don’t you want a Father whose love for you is perfect?
Don’t you want a Son who will always have your back?
Don’t you want a Presence which will always bring the Father near to you?
Because of God’s love, he sent his Son in order to save (3:17)
God would have been perfectly in his rights if he judged us for our sin, if he gave us the curse, but instead he gives us his Son (3:17)
Now, I want us to see this phrase down here at the end of 3:21, where it says that those who believe carry out their works in God. And what John is indicating here is what he will later call being grafted into the vine. That of having comunion with God. The essence of teh Christian walk is communion with God.
Our Response
Believe - it is the only way to escape the curse, look to the Son
what it means to believe is to love the light more than the darkness
unbelief is the opposite
Therefore, unbelief hides in teh dark
but those who believe, or love the light do their works in the light
They carry out their works in God
Application
You will never see Jesus for who he is if you keep trying to hold on to respectability. The longer you try to puff yourself up in front of others and put on airs, the harder it will be to see him.
You must be born again - cry out to God
All of God (Father, Son, Spirit) went to work to save all of you.
Come into the light, be washed, find life and love and forgiveness
Do the truth. Walk with integrity. You’ve been given the Spirit. So stop acting deceptively, stop acting with pretense.
The greatest privelege you can have as Christians in the New Covenant is communion with God.
We often want a token of GOd’s love, and we ask ourselves in self-pity “why hasn’t God given me x”. But God could not possibly give us a better or more profound token of his love than his own Son.
Conclusion: Nikodemas