Into the Light
Notes
Transcript
Into the Light
Into the Light
Introduction
John 3, if you have your bible’s please make your way to John 3.
On August 5th 2010, Jose Henriquez kissed his wife blanca, got up and left work, and clocked in to his shift at the copper mine
Jose, the 55 year old man, had done this for 33 years.
And as he went in to work that day as a drill operator, he probably thought that his shift would be like all the other ones that he had had since he had begun working in the mines at 19 years old.
but on this particular day, at around 2 pm, they heard one of the worst possible sounds you can hear while working 3 miles underground.
Rumbling.
as the access road down to the bottom of the mine caved in behind them, jose and 32 other miners found themselves trapped in the deepest darkest pit of hte earth.
The dust dust from the colapse left them completely blind for nearly 6 hours.
Eventually they found their way into a refuge shelter and began to prepare for the worst.
At this point most of them knew that escape, and rescue, was improbable. They took stock of their resources, and decided how they would attempt to survive in one of the darkest places on earth.
Hope, while you’re trapped 3 miles under ground, is not easy to come by.
But for Jose the hope that he brought to the 32 other men came not from rescue efforts. Not from their ability to some how find their way out. Not from their ability to utilze resources available to them.
Rather it came from his faith.
As they huddled together in the refuge shelter Jose turned to one of his fellow miners and whispered
God is the only way out of this.
Jose became nicknamed n down in that mine shaft by th 32 other miners as el Pastor. the Pastor.
And he took it upon himself to lead them through prayer while they awaited the inevitable fact that all of them were likely to spend their final moments on earth trapped in the darkness 3 miles underground.
for 17 days the miners did everything they could to keep themselves alive in the darkness.
And on August 22nd the darkness they had been living in was finally interupted.
They looked up to the celling and saw a borehole drill that had broken in from the rescue workers on the outside.
For the first time in over 2 weeks they saw light.
They had been saved.
Over the next several weeks the rescue workers made their way down and all 33 men were rescued from the depths of that darkness.
But many of them were rescued well before August 22.
A lot of them, through the hope and faith displayed by jose henriquez were saved not from their physical darkness, but from their spiritual darkness. as he preached the truth of God to them in the darkness of that rescue chamber.
Transition
We’ve been working through our series in the book of John called 7’s
Each week we’ve looked at seven different ideas or themes that John has been bringing up, each of them lending themselves to the idea that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.
And for the past 6 weeks each one of these sevens we’ve looked at has described to us in different ways who Jesus is.
And as we round the corner into our final group of seven conversations, the focus is going to shift from “who Jesus is” to “What do I do, now that know who he is.”
We’re going to look at seven different conversations that Jesus has with various people throughout his ministry.
And for the next several weeks we’re going to slow down, and take each one of these conversations one week at at time. And talk about what is the proper response when you are confronted with who Jesus is.
This week we’re going to be looking at a man who came to jesus in the darkness of night.
And the conversation that he has with Jesus is going to describe to us what it looks like to step out of Darkness, and into the light.
Roadmap
Big Idea: The proper Response to the Gospel according to John 3 is New Birth, Faith, and Walking in the Light
Point
Statement
New Birth.
Explanation
Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.
He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
Two very specific things that John is doing by mentioning that Nicodemus showed up in the dead of night.
Nicodemus is afraid to become a follower of Jesus in the day time.
John is using this motif to describe the spiritual darkness that he was in.
Nicodemus say “we” know you are from God. Which in a way was kind of a leading question: The question Nico was probably getting ready to ask was “So...are you the messiah?” Are you the one who is going to usher in the new age, and the kingdom of God, and all of that?
It’s the same thing they were asking John the Bptist: Who do you claim to be?
Jesus decides that he’s not going to beat around the bush, and he says :
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
The word Jesus uses here “again” if you have footnotes in your bible, there ought to be a note there. If you don’t have a note there, get a bible that has footnotes, or a study bible, because the word here that Jesus uses “Again” has a bit of a double, or sometimes even a triple meaning.
It can mean “again” Galatians 4:9 “But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?”
It can also mean “from the begining” as in Luke chapter 1, where Luke writes: Luke 1:3 “With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus,”
And it can also mean “from above” James 1:17 “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
And I was trying to think of an english equivalent that lines up with these three uses of the greek word, and what I came up with is the phrase “from the top”
You can think of the phrase “from the top” as being spatial, the curtain in the temple tore from the top to the bottom.
You can think of it as like when you’re telling a story, and you want to start at the very begining you might say, let’s start at the top.
Or if any of you are musicians, and you’re practicing a piece of music, and the director wants you to start over again, he might say “take it from the top”
What’s interesting about the way Jesus uses the phrase here is it’s really ambiguous.
Jesus says you need to be born “From the top”
And in the greek it’s kind of ambigious. Which is why Nicodemus doesn’t understand
Because the sense that Jesus is getting at here is probably closer to “from above”
Jesus says you need to be born “from above” or “from the spirit”
And nicodemus takes it literally and says
“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
And since Nicodemus doesn’t get it, Jesus re-explains it. and he says
Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.
Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’
The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
this phrase “born of water and spirit” there are multiple places throughout scripture that combine the ideas of “Christian Baptism” with receiving the Holy spirit, and being re-born, and renewed by the spirit.
And here in John 3:5 the grammar is such that it’s “Water and Spirit” all one phrase. It’s not “be born of water, and then also be born of spirit”
Grammatically they’re connected as being one experience. You’re born of “Water and Sprit”
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared,
he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,
whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior,
so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
Notice that “washing” langauge that is associated with renewal and re-birth
Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith,
for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
You put on new clothes, you’re no longer the old person. you’re no longer identified by your race, or male or female, or slave or free. Your new identity, the thing that truly defines you, is that you are a child of God.
There’s this common theme that comes all throughout scripture that connects the ideas of baptism, water, and being renewed, reborn, new birth.
And it happens through the power of hte Holy Spirit.
Illustration
We are like a tree that has a disease at the roots. That’s what sin is like. And no amount of our own good works, no amount of pruning and changing is going to fix what is at the roots.
The only way to fix a tree that has a problem at the roots is to remove the old dead tree, and replace it with a new one.
The first “proper response” to the Good news of Jesus is a call to rebirth, birth from the Holy sprit. Renewal.
Application
And for those who have done that already, for those who have long ago already chosen to be born again, or born from above.
And you’ve already died with Christ, and you’re already wearing new clothes.
This part of the message of Jesus is still for you.
Each of those passages I mentioned in the New Testament regarding “new birth” were almost all written to people who had already been baptized, and had already been “raised to walk a new life”
theres a “therefore” attached to almost all of those new-birth statements in the bible.
In Titus 3, when paul writes that we have been saved by the washing of rebirth and renewal by the holy spirit, hethen says
This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.
If you’ve already been born again, your response is to devote yourself to doing what is good.
Romans 6 after paul says those who were baptized into Christ have been buried and raised with him, he then says :
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.
Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.
For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
Don’t go back to being dead. You were given new life, don’t let your old master rear up his ugly head and reign over you again.
Point number 1, what Jesus calls us to do is to experience New Birth.
What does that look like?
We’ve mentioned “Baptism” as being part of it.
But baptism by itself is just a ritual. There’s an account in Acts 19 where the apostle paul went to visit a church in Ephesus, all of whom had been baptized but none of them had been “born again” none of them had received the Holy Sprit.
Not only that, they didn’t even know what the holy Spirit was.
They Got dunked.
but they were missing the most important component which is Faith in Jesus Christ.
Transition
Which leads us to our next point in John 3,
Point
Statement
The proper response, and I would say the number 1 most important one, is Faith In Jesus
Explanation
After Jesus explains the New birth thing, Nicodemus is like “ I still don’t understand and Jesus replies
“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things?
Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.
I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?
No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,
that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
EXPLAIN “Believe”
The Word Believe, here, is “pisteuo”
I normally try not to get greeky in my sermons, but if there’s any greek word you need to know it’s the word “pisteuo” which is a verb, and the noun equivalent of it which is Pistis.
Pistis is the sister word of pisteuo, you can even here how their related pistis the noun, pisteuo, the verb.
Pistis means “Faith”
Pisteuo is the verb form of faith.
The problem we have in english, is that we don’t have a verb form of “faith” in english.
You can “have faith” you can “display faith” but you can’t faith somebody. It’s not a verb.
and so in English we use the closest equivalent which is the verb “believe”
I want you to think for a moment about the difference between the word ‘belief’ and the word ‘faith’
think about the images that conjure up in your mind when someone says I believe, and when someone says “I have faith”
They’re definitely not the same thing are they. To believe conjures up the idea of
mental assent”
I’m talking about our english word “believe” not the greek word in the bible
I believe gives the sense of “I think something” or “I have the opinion of something” I believe Rocky road is the best ice cream. It gives the idea of “I accept the notion that something is real” “I believe in bigfoot”
And the problem is, we have all of this baggage associated with the phrase “Believe” in our english language, and then we paste it over the top ofthe english translation in the bible, and we read
Whoever “Believes” in jesus will not perish but have eternal life, we have a problem.
The first thing I want you to do, when you read the word “believe” in the bible, in 99% of cases I want you to instantly think to yourself “The word there is the verbal form of the word “faith”
And if we had a verb for “faith” in the english language that’s what belongs in that spot. But we don’t.
And so when you read the word believe in the bible I want you to think, ok, this is the verb form of faith.
2nd. And this is also important, the english word faith, in our minds we often define as “trust”
And that’s a good thing. Trust gives one of the senses of the greek word pistis.
But pistis is a big word that does a lot of heavy lifting.
Pistis can mean faith as in trust. It can also mean “Faithfulness” or being trustworthy.
Pistis and faith is also where we get the words “Fidelity” as in being faithful in your marriage. Or in older times fidelity was used to describe the oath you swore to a King or a Lord.
And so when you see this word “Believe” or “faith” in the bible, I want you to have an idea in your mind of the senses of that word, and how it invokes not only mental belief, but also a deeper sense of Trust, faithfulness, and a sense of fidelity, or loyalty, or allegiance given to a king.
Illustration
The Best way I’ve heard it explained is this way. You’re standing at the door of the helicopter, you’ve got your parachute, and you’re getting ready to Jump out of the helicopter.
This is an action that is going to require Faith, in three very specific ways.
1 Mental: This is the one most people think of when they think “believe” you have to have mental belief, mental awareness, and know the facts about the situation. You have to know how the chute works, you have to know how to land, you have to know how to count off one one thousand two one thousand.
That’s the “believe” part of faith.
2 There’s a deeper “trust” faith. You have to trust that the Parachute riggers did their job and packed your chute correctly.
It’s not blind faith, you have evidence that you have seen, but at the end of the day, you have to place your total trust and confidence—your “faith” in those riggers
But then, on top of mental understanding and the deeper trust, in order to make that jump it requires obedience to the Jump master.
Part of faith is saying “The jumpmaster knows what he’s doing, he calls the shots, he says when we jump, when we don’t jump. he checks the static line and makes sure everything is right.
And I can have all of the mental trust in the world, but if I’m not following the orders of the jump master, I’m not going to have a good time.
Application
We as christians then, are called to Pisteuo Jesus.
We’re called to give him our faith. To be faithful to him, to swear allegiance and fidelity to him.
And that means being obedient to him. That means walking in the light
Point
Statement
Our third and final point, those who have accepted the notion that Jesus is the Messiah the son of God are called to Walk in the Light.
Explanation
Jesus continues and says
This is the Verdict… I want to point your attention to the fact that the previous verse, verse 18 said
John 3:18 “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” Jesus is using courtroom type language here. Condemned. Those who pisteuo in Jesus are not condembed, those who refuese to pisteuo in jesus are condemned, guilty already.
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
So we’re continuing on with the courtroom language...
Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.
But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
As followers of Jesus, who give our pistis to him. Our faith, faithfulness, and fidelity, we are called to walk in the light.
When we choose to follow Jesus, we are making a declaration that God’s ways are better than our ways.
Because that’s been the problem since the very begging, since the garden of eden.
When Adam and eve chose to disobey God’s command not to eat the fruit, what they were really declaring was “I know better than God” My ways are greater, my ability to chose good from evil is better than God’s
But when we walk in the light we’re saying no longer am I going to walk in my own ways, because my own ways are dark, they’re evil.
Illustration
I know I’ve used this example before, and so please forgive me those of you who have heard it already
But I used to work for a guy back when I did construction, his name was clint.
And Clint was the foreman on the Jobsite that believed in self-correction.
He wouldn’t tell you you were doing something wrong right away.
He would stand there and watch you struggle
He smoked camel cigarettes, and if you were doing something wrong and it wasn’t working, he’d just stand there, light up one of those camel cigarettes, and watch you struggle.
And then after a while he’d say the phrase “How’s that working out for you.”
And he’d stand there as long as it took until you’d give up and be like.
Ok, whatever it is im doing, isnt’ working out for me so well.
And then he’d say ok, are you ready to do it the right way?
Application
That’ what we’re doing when we choose to follow God when we choose to walk in the light. We’re giving up our own ways, and we’re saying “whatever it isthat I’ve been doing in my life is not working out for me AT All.
And I’m ready to step into the light, and let God decide how I live my life.
And what Jesus says here to describe those who walk in darkness and those who walk in the light is very telling
John 3:20–21 “Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”
Have you ever met someone who is really bad at taking constructive Criticism?
You know who they are, because whenever they ask for your opinion on something they’re doing, you stop and think “hmm, how do I want to phrase this, because I know this person, and I know that if I give them constructive criticism, they are not going to take it well
They’re going to get defensive, they’re going to get their feelings hurt.
When we live a life of faith, what we are doing is allowing God and God’s word to...for lack of a better term, give us constructive criticsm
We use a big fancy bible term, convict, we allow God’s word to convict us
But it’s basically like God is saying look here are things in your life that you are doing wrong. Here is what you ought to be doing instead.
And so the question I want to ask us is, how good are we at receiving constructive criticism from God?
When we read scripture that challenges us, that challenges our lifestyle are we going to get defensive? Are we going to explain it away, and find a way to say no no, that’s not really what God’s saying.
Are we going to continue to live in darkness? And hide our deeds, so that God can’t expose our deeds?
Or are we going to live by the truth. Are we going to allow all of our deeds to be brought into the light. Exposed
And allow God to say yep, here’s where you’re doing good, here’s where you need to improve.
And this process of Walking in the light, of daily choosing God’s ways over our own ways
First of all, it doesn’t happen overnight
Secondly, it’s not perfect obedience. God’s not expecting you to get everything right 100% of the time.
rather, it involves having a heart that is pointed toward God.
And saying his ways are better than mine.
And this process, this disposition toward the light is commanded to us by God.
John himself in one of his letters goes so far even as to make it a requirement for the forgiveness of our sins
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
Transition
If we choose to step into the light.
Conclusion
Now let’s bring it all back to the conversation that Nicodemus is having with Jesus.
Nicodemus was, by all accounts, a good guy.
The fact that he was a pharisee, and a leader of the pharisees, indicated that he at the very least, knew his bible well.
And he loved God.
And he at least at some level was willing to entertain the idea that Jesus was the messiah the son of God.
But he comes to Jesus in the middle of the night, because he’s afraid to make that declaration public.
Basically he’s on the fence.
Nicodemus is at a tipping point.
He says Jesus, we know that you’ve come from God… Dot dot dot… what happens next?
And Jesus says to him. Be born again. Be born of water and spirit.
Place your pistis in The son of God. Give him your belief, faith, trust, faithfulness, loyalty, fidelity, allegience.
and then walk in the light.
Are you at a tipping point?
Each one of these three responses represents a tipping point that any of us might be at at any given moment in our life.
Are you dead in your sins. and do you need to be re-born. Renewed, born again of water and spirit?
Are you giving your belief in Jesus rather than your pistis.
Is your faith merely intellectual, and does it need to move from the category of “mental assent” to full fledged allegience to the king?
Are their deeds in your life that you are willully choosing to keep in the dark?
Are you holding back from God saying “no, I need to hold on to this sin just a little longer, I need to hold on to this lifestyle.”
I can’t forgive that person, I can’t give up that habit, I can’t give this sin over to God because I’m not ready to step into the light in this are a in my life?
Jesus Christ is the Messiah the annointed king, the son of God.
That’s the whole point of John’s account of hte gospel. Jesus is God and King.
And the question I want to leave you with as you go into your week,
Are you willing to step over that tipping point for king jesus?
Pray.
