Dec. 30, 2018 - The Light of God's Love
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On Aug. 28, 2003, Brian Wells, a pizza delivery guy who lived in Erie, Pennsylvania, delivered a pizza to a location near his place of employment.
While at the location, Brian was jumped by several armed men, and a homemade bomb was forcibly locked onto his neck.
He was then given instructions to - rob a bank, and complete a scavenger hunt, all before the bomb detonated.
After completing the bank robbery, Wells was apprehended by the police, just minutes from the bank. When the police realized he had bomb latched to his neck, they backed off, and held him at gunpoint on the side street.
At 3:18 pm, just 3 minutes before the bomb squad arrived, the bomb detonated, killing Wells in a matter of minutes.
The crime was investigated by the FBI, and was deemed as “one of the most complicated and bizarre crimes in the annals of the FBI”...
When we hear a story like this…we initially ASK the question - IS THIS A TRUE STORY?
And then when we come to find out that yes indeed it IS a true story, we contemplate how RANDOM it is..
…and how it SEEMS - it could have happened to any of us. (*guy doing his job....get’s jumped…)
The text that we’re going to be walking through today is - THE MOST POPULAR verse in all the Bible...
It’s the verse that we see at football games...
sporting events...
eye black...
WHEREVER - it’s THE most popular verse...
And i think it IS the most popular verse, because it’s a verse that really does HIGHLIGHT the gospel of Christ.
But what we’re going to see today - is that there’s another side to this verse - that people may not understand...
and so - let’s get to it...
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
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.
21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
When we look at this passage as a whole, we can see how the text itself answers the questions that come - as we read along...
And if we were to break of this section of scripture into 2 parts, we would see that...
…verses 16-18 - Deal with SALVATION (and what that entails)
…verses 19-21 - Deal with WHY salvation is needed (Judgment)
And so actually - LET’s start with the Judgment side of this...
Let’s start with verses 19-21 - and see WHO we are before God...
and WHY we ARE who we are before God...
and then we can close on what GOD has done to help us...
SLIDE: The Judgment of God: (entails) What We Love and Hate
The Judgment of God
The Judgment of God
And what do we see here...
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.
v19 says - the Light has come into the world…the Light being - Jesus...
And people LOVED darkness rather than - the Light...
WHY?
BECAUSE - their works were evil.
And then v20 explains why those who DO evil…LOVE the darkness...
READ v20...
And so - there’s a MAJOR aspect of the gospel that is playing out here...
**you ever talk to someone about the gospel…and they just FLAT OUT reject it?
a REASON they’re rejecting it - is because they LOVE the darkness...
And maybe you KNOW someone who just LOVES the darkness...
they LOVE evil...
they LOVE sin… (we KNOW these kinds of people)...
But then there also might be that OTHER friend of yours - who is not LIKE that crazy…EVIL-LOVING person you know...
They’re not like that other friend who just LOVES evil…(and lives that way)
they actually LOVE to do good...
they LOVE to pursue GOODNESS…
BUT YET - this person still REJECTS the gospel...
This other friend of yours LOVES to do GOOD...
and you TELL them that their WORKS do NOT earn them heaven...
and yet they - REJECT the gospel...
WHY?
It’s because THEY ALSO - just like you’re EVIL friend - don’t want their works to be exposed by the light!
WHY?
Because - they don’t want you to tell them - that they are HELPLESS…without Christ.
They don’t want you to tell them that they - NEED RESCUED!
They don’t want you to tell them that SPIRITUALLY - they, like Brian Wells in our story earlier…have a BOMB latched to their neck...
They don’t want to be told that Genesis 6:5 is speaking about them...
5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
They don’t want to be told that God’s WRATH is upon them...
AND - that they can’t do ANYTHING about it - apart from Jesus Christ...
they don’t want to - SUBMIT...
Because by SUBMITTING to Jesus - they would have to ADMIT that they are evil at heart!
and that they have OFFENDED God - and are separated from Him.
*Joni Eareckson Tada… (went from an active teen, to COMPLETELY dependent on others - for everything)
Think about how hard it would be to go from INDEPENDENCE to - COMPLETE DEPENDENCE…!
what makes that a hard transition? PRIDE.
**we see this in our kids as they grow up...
They go from being COMPLETELY DEPENDENT on their parents - to - fighting against that DEPENDENCE...
We hear this a lot more now - “no, I can DO IT!”
And so we can see that PRIDE is at play here in these verses...
let’s read 19-21...
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.
21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
And so we can see here that in the judgment of God - our LOVES and HATES are on the table...
And an aspect that is DRIVING these emotions is - PRIDE
SLIDE: The Judgment of God: Aiming At the Pride of Man
The Judgment of God
The Judgment of God
If we go back again and read through 19-21 we can see the PRIDE that lies within them...
explain PRIDE as you read
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.
21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
And we read about this CHANGE that takes place in v21...
This person here - WANTS it to be known that his own works have been CARRIED OUT - in GOD...
NO MORE - boasting in my works..
..in my rebellion...
No more - look at ME!
v21 shows us a change of heart - WANTING it to be KNOWN that God is working in me now!!
BUT HOW DOES THIS CHANGE COME?
How can we go from LOVING darkness - to - hating darkness and LOVING the Light..
…the light - Jesus!??
We’ve seen the JUDGMENT of GOD toward man...
Now let’s look at the SALVATION of God…!
SLIDE: The Salvation of God: Rescues Man From God
The Salvation of God
The Salvation of God
Now - what does this mean?
Let’s read verses 16-18 together, and then we’ll make our way from 18 to 16...
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
What I want us to see first here is that - Condemnation (v18) - equates to = the wrath of God.
And what does v18 say?
Whoever BELIEVES in him (Jesus) - is - NOT condemned, BUT...
whoever DOES NOT believe is - CONDEMNED ALREADY!
Think thru that!
Apart from BELIEF in Jesus Christ - the bible says - You are CONDEMNED already!
which means...
The wrath of God is on you - BY DEFAULT!
It’s ALREADY there…on you...
it STARTS on you!
SO that - if you DO NOT believe - you are condemned - ALREADY!
in other words - YOU REMAIN under God’s wrath!
This is confirmed later in this same chapter...
36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
And we really need to understand how VITAL this truth is in relation to the GOSPEL...
What the WORLD can’t grasp or understand is the CERTAINTY of God’s TRUTH!
Think of how CERTAIN God’s truth is!
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
HOW CERTAIN is it that man will spend ETERNITY apart from God - WITHOUT faith in Jesus Christ?
1 Trillion % certainty!!
The the WORLD doesn’t BELIEVE that!
The world believes it HAS A SHOT - well I’m really not THAT bad of a person - I should be Okay...
NOOOO!
We START out life - DEAD! Spiritually DEAD!
SLIDE: Runner vs. Wheel Chair
SLIDE: Runner vs. Crutches
SLIDE: Runner vs. Casket
THESE are the odds that we have of MAKING it to GOD without Jesus Christ!
We are the one in the casket...
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
UNTIL your unbelieving family and friends come to the realization that THEY ARE SPIRITUALLY DEAD...
…WITHOUT the ability to move toward God...
They WILL not see a NEED for Jesus Christ...
Until they SEE that they are BANKRUPT without Jesus Christ...
…they will HEAR of His coming - and they will ONLY see HIS WORDS as -
CONDEMNING WORDS!!
And they’ll say - “WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE - Jesus - trying to tell me I need RESCUED!??
“trying to tell me - I need YOUR help!”
And the sad part is - v17 tells us something about how the world THINKS...
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Do you see what THIS implies?
If the reason Jesus came was to - RESCUE us...
THEN THAT says something about our SITUATION....does it not?
**Anyone ever been in a situation where paramedics were called and showed up where you were - whether it was for you or someone else??
**911 - Paramedics get called to come RESCUE people - not condemn them!
Jesus Christ came - ON A RESCUE MISSION - we were DEAD on the floor...
and he came to BRING US - LIFE!
He didn’t come to CONDEMN the world - the world was ALREADY condemned!
And ALL of this now - is culminating into what we read in John 3:16 and what we’ve seen so far is going to help us - DEFINE what it means to BELIEVE in HIM!
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
God LOVED the world in such a way…and to SUCH a degree...
that He GAVE His only Son...
that whoever - - BELIEVES IN HIM...
Shall NOT perish but have eternal life...
SLIDE: The Salvation of God: Through Belief in Jesus
The Salvation of God
The Salvation of God
NOW - all that we’ve seen so far - is going help us see what it really means to - BELIEVE in Jesus...
I think one thing to notice right away with John 3:16 is to notice what it DOESN’T SAY...
*whoever believes IN HIM (not THAT)...
It’s about believing IN Christ!
NOW - what does that MEAN - in relation to what we’ve seen so far...
What have we seen so far?
We’ve seen how:
God’s Judgment - deals with our LOVES and our HATES...
AND that our LOVE of darkness rises up FROM our PRIDE...
v20 told us - for whoever does wicked things HATES the light - lest his works BE EXPOSED!
This is a person who is saying to Jesus - “Don’t you try and filter MY WORKS through YOUR goodness!”
“Don’t try and filter my works through YOUR standard”...
“I can GET to HEAVEN - ON MY OWN!”
And IN THEIR PRIDE - they are UNWILLING to - submit!
And SO we must know that an ELEMENT of UNBELIEF - is the PRIDEFUL RESISTANCE of God’s JUDGMENT!
WHICH MEANS - BELIEF in Jesus -
Read v16
THAT belief - it’s not about BELIEVING a fact!
It’s about - HUMBLE submission to Jesus Christ!
WHICH ALSO means - take it out a step further...
to BELIEVE in Jesus - SAVINGLY - a part of that BELIEF in Jesus is also a true UNDERSTANDING of WHO I AM before God and my NEED for Him!
If BELIEVING in Jesus ENTAILS - me, humbly submitting to Jesus...
then THAT HUMILITY - by definition - is pointing at - ME
THEREFORE - to believe in Jesus...
…is to believe that I myself, at my core, am evil and a sinner before God. It is understanding that I cannot get to God on my own. It is understanding that I need Jesus Christ, who came, lived the life I couldn’t live, died the death I deserved, and was raised again, proving who He is for me. It is understanding that I need life, and that’s it’s only found in Jesus Christ.
That’s what it means to “believe in Him”...
Do you believe in Jesus?
What have we seen today?
SUMMARY:
The Judgment of God:
What We Love and Hate
Aiming At the Pride of Man
The Salvation of God:
Rescues Man From God
Through Belief in Jesus
END:
Have a Great Week
Have a Great Week
Prayer