For God So Loved the World
Notes
Transcript
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John 5. Jesus and Nicodemus (3:1–15)
The kingdom of God is seen or entered, new birth is experienced, and eternal life begins, through the saving cross-work of Christ, received by faith
Claim - Eternal Life requires a work of God's amazing love: by the Spirit that regenerates (born again), through the crucified and ressuerceted Son.
Focus - The world is very bad, but God gave His very best (His Son), to give us new birth!
Function - To celebrate the extraordinary love of God for the world.
PRAY
Step outside the street lit and police patrolled western world and you wont find too much going on after dark.
Jesus came to us in the darkness and gives us light - gives us everything!
It’s time for us to bring our whole lives into his glorious light!
This is not a chicken and an egg! This is the chicken!
If you can see that you are hiding in the dark then you are being called into the light! Step out of the shadows!
Step outside of street lit and police patrolled Europe and you wont find too much going on after dark.
SLIDE - Night
Daylight is for business, meetings, gatherings, learning, work, shopping and communicating.
For the 3 years we lived in Maseru, the capital of Lesotho, we didn’t once walk about after dark. And if we drove out at night we wouldn’t stop at red traffic lights and the doors would be locked.
Night is for privacy, sleep and staying safe at home.
Unless of course, you want to conceal your actions.
Then night is for secracy,
betrayal,
affairs,
attacks,
or simply going about unoticed.
And that’s what Nicodemus is doing in our passage today
- he doesn’t want to be noticed
in v1 and 2
The New International Version Chapter 3
Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said,
He wants to know more about Jesus
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.”
- but he is coming in the dark!
Not much happens at night in the NT. A bit of fishing, some praying, and lots of talk about dieing at night, or the Lrdo returning at night!
Dont’s say next heading - just the slide
Looking for Jesus in the Dark!
Looking for Jesus in the Dark!
Looking for Jesus in the Dark!
It’s an odd thing to record in the narrative if it’s not relevant.
NIcodemus, a memebr of the ruling council of Jewish leaders -
doesn’t want anyone to see him even talking to Jesus!
Let alone investigating what Jesus has to say.
He wants to stay in the dark.
But Nicodemus went to see Jesus.
He thinks he has some sort of grasp on who Jesus is, v2
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.”
But for us as WE read John’s Gospel,
we ought to quickly spot how far off the truth Nicodemus is!
Jesus is not simply someone who God has chosen to use, to teach an important message.
Meaning that God has
In other words, a someone who God has chosen to use to teach an important message to God’s people.
But we know far more than that.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Jesus, the Word, isn’t from God, He is God!
In and through and for him all things in this world was made,
All life exists through him!
He’s not a teacher from God,
He is God.
And he’s not just a teacher with a message
But He is the message as we’ll begin to see!
It is through Jesus, through his death and ressurection on the cross - which erememeber is the big event arun dwhich all of John’s gospel hinges.
In fact it is the big event around which all of humanity hinges - as we’ll see later when we reach v14.
Nicodemus is way of the mark,
and coming to Jesus at night symbolises his blindness to the real truth.
Obviously wanting to know a bit more, but currently way off the mark,
Jesus therefore,
is going to point this out to him:
but at first it seems Jesus is being dismissive:
watsAnd Jesus replies in perhaps what sounds like the most unhelpful answer we could imagine.
And Jesus replies in perhaps what sounds like the most unhelpful answer we could imagine.
watsAnd Jesus replies in perhaps what sounds like the most unhelpful answer we could imagine.
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
At First, It’ssounds like the knock back you get from someone pompous.
“Oh, you're not smart enough to know that - you’d need 3 years of training first.”
“Oh, you wouldn’t undertsnad what I told you even if I explained it to you - you’d need 3 years of training first.”
Jesus speaking
“You’re not going to understand me or my message says Jesus, you’d have to be born again”
Nicodemus is baffled.
SLIDE - Born again!
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John 5. Jesus and Nicodemus (3:1–15)
To a Jew with the background and convictions of Nicodemus, ‘to see the kingdom of God’ was to participate in the kingdom at the end of the age, to experience eternal, resurrection life.
Born again
And to be fair to him he doesn’t even question the logic of being born again to recieve etenral life - he simply questions the extraordinary practicalities!
“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!”
It’s what a vicar friend of mine calls a ‘Gynacological Conumdrum!’
How’s that going to happen!
Now, I’m not an expert on giving birth,
but it doesn’t seem too tricky,
Out they pop!
But without pushing (excuse the pun) this visual scene too far,
how on earth asks Nicodemus
- would one get back into their mother’s womb again!
Alan’s a Gynocologist - any suggestions!?
But
Perhaps when you have spoken abou tthe gospel with frined or family,
peope have said back to you,
“i hear what you’re saying - but it just doen’t really make sense. Or it seems impossible to believe!”
Maybe you’re one of those people - who hasn’t been ‘born again’ and the CHristian faith seems to make us much sense as trying to literally be born again!
It’s not perhaps gynacological conumdrum!
But it is a realy life conumdrum!
And so Jesus moves on to explain a little more,
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.’
5-
This new birth is of ‘water and spirit’
You should not be suprised by what I’m saying says Jesus!
and apparently a conscientious, and educated Jew like Nicodemus should not have been suprised.
In other words, He should have known what Jesus is talking about from the OT.
But Nicodemus has not come to Jesus with his hat of humilty and robe of reverence on.
He’s not come in the light, the truth.
He’s come in the dark.
What does this mean?
He’s coming to Jesus with his own preconceptions about who Jesus is, who God is and who he himself is!
The reasosn Nicodemus isn’t undertsanding Jesus, is becasue he’s coming to Jesus with his own preconceptions about who He is, and who God is.
Most likely Nicodemus was convinced he could come to God by being obedeint to God’s commands.
Or knowing the OT really well!
We hear variations of that today, perhaps you’ll relate:
And we hear it all the time in our world don’t we.
SLIDE - Good person, love, suffering, only way, diffcult life
God will accept me becasue I’m a good person.
God will accept everyone becasue he is Love
God’s can’t exist because look at all the suffering
Jesus can’t be the only way to God, that’s arrogant
Jesus wouldn’t want me to have a difficult life, or make sacrifices, I deserve a good life
SLIDE - Looking for Jesus in the Dark
YOu see, we come all come to Jesus in the dark!
The darkness of our preceonceptions,
our selfishmness,
our inherited world views.
We come with demands and expectations,
rights and morals.
But says Jesus, no, no no no no no and no.
‘To see the kingdom of God, to recvice eternal life -
There is one thing required - and it’s to be born again!’
Or literally to Regenrate - renew a generation. the word means.
Literally, a re-generation.
The idea that absolutely everything about us is re newed - it becomes a new generation.
Related to the the old, but totally it’s own and new person.
This new birth is not turning over a new leaf - this is a New Nature!
And according to Jesus the OT holds the key to what this means,
So how does all this happen - what does ‘born again by water and spirit mean’ in the OT.
What should Nicodemus have realised if he’d come to Jesus in the cold light of day, rather than from a place of darkness at night?
The OT is full of sybolic water imagery that signifies cleansing or purifying.
The Spirit in the OT is constantly being promised by God,
that one day it would be poured out on His people.
so that they may be restored to a relationship with Him.
God’s priinciple for life - think of Creation and the waters over the sea, but many prphets promised a time when God would pour out his spirit on human kind, so that they may be restored to a relatinship with God.
But the most helpful passage comes from -27
Where water and spirit are married toegther alongsde the idea of humanity being radically ‘re-generated’.
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
Eze
SLIDE - Born Again, New Heart
I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the people of Israel, declares the Sovereign Lord.”
Being reborn, regenrate, of water and spirit is to receive,
by God’s grace, by his work
a new heart that is inclinded towards him!
SLIDE - Born Again, New Heart
A heart that does not hide in the dark, but brings us out into the light!
And Like Nicodemus - I dont think we should be suprised at this either.
I dont think we should be suprised either though should we?
If God is the God of the universe, creator of all things, master and King -
should we really expect to be able to come to him in the dark,
with our rules, conditions and preconceptions!?
No, no, no, no no says Jesus
The way to God has to be His way and His way alone!
And it is to be born again by water and spirit.
It is to be born again by water and spirit.
Jesus makes the point stronger that it’s God’s work not ours:
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.”
Jesus point seems to slightly thickens with another conumdrum.
The wind, in those days, before the wonders of modern meterological techniques - was a rather unknown quantity.
SLIDE - WIND
Sure, you can see the effects of wind, but in those days,
you couldn’t work out how it started,
where it came from,
what it will do next.
You might be able to predict a little of it’s moveements, but not the big picture.
We’re not that good at predicting it these days either!
In other words, It’s not up to you to save yourself,
that is stumbling in the dark
ANd so it is with those born of the spiirt we are told.
Salavtion is God’s invisible work!
But when he saves - you can most certainly see the effects in peoples lives!
In the next chapter of Ezekiel, 37
Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel according to John (pp. 197–198). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans.
SLIDE - Dry bones
There God’s Spirit as breath, as wind’ comes upon a valley of dry bones and the dry bones are revived.
God’s people come to life.
It is the same with everyone born of the Spirit: they have their ‘regenrate origin’ in the unseen spirit God.
Salavation, eternal life, seeing the kingdom, does not, can not rely on your own efforts!
Not on knowing the OT law - Nicodemus
Not on you coming to church - traditionalist
Not on your good behaviour - moralist
Not on your participation in the the sacraments - catholics,
Not on pleasing God - Muslims,
Not on self-belief - Millenials
Not on ignoring God entirely - most the world!
You cannot maniputlae, predict, control reroute the spirirt of God.
Salavtion is God’s Work
Salavtion is God’s Work
His work in regeneration.
His work in rebirth!
Salavtaion relies
Simply on,
God the almighty,
mysterious,
all powerful,
invisible God,
HE Must be at work - and WE must benefit from his re birth.
His regeration.
His heart tranplant surgery
His washing renewl of water!
PAUSE
Nicodemus has the same question you might have now:
Why bother seeking God,
investigating Jesus,
if Jesus is just going to say
- it’s God’s work, you can’t do much about it!.
SLIDE - Question Mark
But Jesus, in his wind analogy, seems to have placed a spiritual re-birth also out of reach for us, if it relies on the invisible work of God, not ourselves.
So we shoud have the same question:
Or if we are already Chritsians,
Why bother telling our friends and familiy about the Kingdom of God.
Why bother evangelising?
If it’s out of our control, we ask with Nicodemus:
“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
joh 3
Or if we are Chritsians, Why bother telling our friends and familiy about the Kingdom of God.
Why evangelise?
SLIDE - Question Mark
Pause
Well, becasue while salavtion relies on the work of God,
And praise him that it does, becasue the last time I checked,
dry bones cannot bring themselevs back to life!
While it relies on God’s work,
He has chosen to do that great work through
- revealing himself
- in a way that demonstrtaes his great love,
- and also requires his message to be shared by his church.
“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.
In vs 10-13, Nicodemus still doesn’t get it, and Jesus rebukes him again.
john 3 10
“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.”
In vs
And You still don’t get it do you Nicodemus.
You think your great knowldge of the OT will save you,
And you don’t have a clue what I’m talking about!
...
I’m showing you miracles,
I’ve been telling you all along!
teaching,
you should know that God has always promised a new birth,
All these earthly things - and you don’t even get that!
But that is just the point isn’t it.
You’re knowldge and obdience can’t help you!
What is I was to tell you I am the only one to have ever been to heaven. What if I now reveal I am God himself.
What if we now talk about heavenly things!
So Jesus tells him very clearly now, how it will be possible to be born again:
But then,
How will God work his acts of salavtion:
Jesus tells Nicodemus, who just isn’t getting it,
tells him how to be born again.
He tells him how a new heart can be accessed,
how new birth can be experinced,
How the invisible God reveals himself to the world that is looking for him in the darkness.
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.”
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,
Don’t be neive says Jesus
Jesus recalls the historical account of the Israelites in the wilderness severel hundred years earlier.
They had been freed by God from slavery to the Egyptians,
they had been saved by God,
They were on their way to their promised land,
God was providing food, called Manna,
each day for them to eat..
And we’ll let Numbers 21v4-8, finish the story:
They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”
Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.
The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.”
They started walking aournd in the darkenss didn’t they.
Grumbling that they deserved better,
despite the salavtion from slavery,
the provision of food,
and the sure pormise of a land of their own!
And so God reminds them
- fairly brutally,
that they really do need him!
Deadly snakes were not God’s way of driving people away from Him,
It was his way of drvinging them back to him.
SLIDE - Snakes
I wonder what snakes are in your life today?
What darkness are you living in?
What ways are you striving to find God on your own terms?
---
They called for forgiveness and were offered a way to be saved.
They were to look up to the bronze snake staff that was lifted up for all to see.
And the sure death and judgement for rebelling againt God,
would be spared them.
Life was given!
And so, in the same way - the Son of Man - Jesus must be lifted up.
So that all who look to him, all who believe in Him,
might have eternal life.
Might be born again!
Might be regenerated!
Th invisible God,
reveals himself through Jesus being raised up,
Rasied up on the cross!
SLIDE - CROSS “Jesus lifted Up”
To die in our place!
Without Jesus - we are stumbling in the dark, snakes are all around, death is certain.
without Jesus -
Are all stumbling around in the dark.
So come without preconceptions,
without demands
without understandings
without your own morals
without rights,
Let’s not holify yourselves with our own perceived interest in God.
Stop trying to find your own god, meaning, happiness, what ever it might be, in the dark!.
Salvation -eternal joy, is right there.
Can’t you see it!
Look up - Jesus is raised up,
on the cross for you to see and recieve LIFE.
Let your dry bones Live!
The unpredicatable work of God is right there
Jesus Lifted up, just there, do you see him?
that everyone who believes may have eternal life.
The work of earning salavtion is acheived by him, not us.
Our death sentance, taken by Jesus, God himself, not us
And His spirit poured out on us.
We are born again!
Regenerate us!
“Lord Jesus, we believe!”
And he does it all through JEsus, the Son of MAn - being rasied up on the cross.
Pause
Perhpas you believe, but are feeling far from God.
Perhpas you’ve begun to seek him in the darkness again.
Depsite having been saved from slavery,
A people so rebelious that even having tasted the grace of God, whether that is being freed from slavery in Egypt or freed from salvery to sin,
You’ve forgotten his kindness,
We find our selves grumbling in the dessert.
Complaining about our lives here today.
Well Jesus is there, do you see him,
Raised up on the cross for you.
You cannot fall too far,
forget too much,
For remember it is God’s work not ours.
It’s not snales we face today, but the reality of judgement from God, eternal death, when he returns.
It’s what we deserve, it’s the darkness we have chosen!
And
God doesn’t save you and keep you safe because you have earnt it,
or deserve it!
He’s done it, and will alwasy do it,
for one simple reason:
But, a solution has been found, Jesus was raised up in our place.
Love
As the narrative between Jesus and Nicodemus ends,
so our author John ties all this together
The solution...
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.
To belief in Jesus, his death and resurection, for the forgiveness of our sins against God,
Is to recieve a new birth, a heart of flesh.
Once and for alwasy!
Jesus wasn’t being awkward towards Nicodemus,
he was pointing out that it is no good trying to earn your way to God,
to His kingdom!
The only way is to be re born!
To believe in Jesus.
To accept God’s Love.
Those snakes around us in life,
the darkness are not there to bring judgement,
they are there to bring us on our knees to the saviour raised up on the cross!
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.
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.
YOu think you’re good enough don’t you Nicodemus!
Striving to obey God’s OT law.
Thinking you know best, but too embarrased to even investigate Jesus in the light!
The world, like Nicodemus,
needs to hear they are NOT, and cannot be good enough for God!
To think so is to be looking for him at night - in the dark!
BUT -
God is good enough to look for you!
To raise up his son - His one and ONly!!!
Do you see him?
The emphasisi of how much his son eans to him, emphasising His enourmous love for you and me!
The emphasiss there of how much his Son means to him, shows His enourmous love for you and me!
Beleive in Him, look up to him,
Whatever life or faith has thrown at you,
that you might recieve eternal life!
To conclude our sermon, John concludes for us:
v19
john 3 19
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 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.
19-
Living in the light is not to think you are perfect - the opposite is true!
To live in the light is to expose your evil deeds -
to recoginse you are not perfect and you need saving from God’s right judgement!
To live in the light is to look for Jesus from a place of repentance and honesty!
It’s to know the truth!
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.
21
If you are a believer in Jesus here today, then you are living in the light.
You are not perfect, you are not worthy of God’s love.
You have not saved yourself through seeking and finding Jesus!
You have simply benefitted from
The Almighty God of Love who has breathed new life into your dry bones!
He has washed you clean by the blood of Jesus
He has given you a new heart of flesh through the resurection of the raised up Son of Man!
Do you see him?
PRaise Him alone!
He Loves you beyond measure!
He has sacrificed for you beyond measure!
You are his child!
You have eternal Life
You are precious in his sight!
You have overcome every conundrum in life -
You have been born again!
Look up to Jesus!
And if you do not believe - and you have ears to hear today.
Then God is bringing his spirit of light into your life today!
Believe, Look up to Jesus on the cross.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John 6. Extended Comment I (3:16–21)
the words ‘his one and only Son’ (cf. notes on 1:14) stress the greatness of the gift. The Father gave his best, his unique and beloved Son (cf. Rom. 8:32).
And trust him to give you new birth.
3v16 - pre-supposses that (as has been explained to Nicodemus) the world does not/cannot love God - so he loves us!
Do You See him?
PRAY
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John 6. Extended Comment I (3:16–21)
More than any New Testament writer, John develops a theology of the love relations between the Father and the Son, and makes it clear that, as applied to human beings, the love of God is not the consequence of their loveliness but of the sublime truth that ‘God is love’ (1 Jn. 4:16).
IMPORTANT THEOLOGY HERE
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John 6. Extended Comment I (3:16–21)
From this survey it is clear that it is atypical for John to speak of God’s love for the world, but this truth is therefore made to stand out as all the more wonderful. Jews were familiar with the truth that God loved the children of Israel; here God’s love is not restricted by race. Even so, God’s love is to be admired not because the world is so big and includes so many people, but because the world is so bad: that is the customary connotation of kosmos (‘world’; cf. notes on 1:9). The world is so wicked that John elsewhere forbids Christians to love it or anything in it (1 Jn. 2:15–17). There is no contradiction between this prohibition and the fact that God does love it. Christians are not to love the world with the selfish love of participation; God loves the world with the self-less, costly love of redemption.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John 6. Extended Comment I (3:16–21)
In other words, God maintains the same stance toward the world after the resurrection that he had before: he pronounces terrifying condemnation on the grounds of the world’s sin, while still loving the world so much that the gift he gave to the world, the gift of his Son, remains the world’s only hope.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John 6. Extended Comment I (3:16–21)
Because John 3:16 is sandwiched between vv. 14–15 and v. 17, the fact that God gave his one and only Son is tied both to the Son’s incarnation (v. 17) and to his death (vv. 14–15). That is the immediate result of the love of God for the world: the mission of the Son. His ultimate purpose is the salvation of those in the world who believe in him (eis auton, not en autō as in v. 15). Whoever believes in him experiences new birth (3:3, 5), has eternal life (3:15, 16), is saved (3:17); the alternative is to perish (cf. also 10:28), to lose one’s life (12:25), to be doomed to destruction (17:12, cognate with ‘to perish’). There is no third option.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John 6. Extended Comment I (3:16–21)
He did not come into a neutral world in order to save some and condemn others; he came into a lost world (for that is the nature of the ‘world’, 1:9) in order to save some. That not all of the world will be saved is made perfectly clear by the next verses (vv. 18–21); but God’s purpose in the mission of Jesus was to bring salvation to it. That is why Jesus is later called ‘the Saviour of the world’ (4:42; cf. 1 Jn. 4:14).
LIGHT - Exposure, but also SHAME AND CONVICTION - See the blinding light!
