Turn on the Light!
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Turn on the Light!
Turn on the Light!
Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
“Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”
Intro:
Spiritual Light is ....
Often used in scripture as a symbol of Gods presence in the world.
It is often especially associated with the Word of God, the salvation brought by God, or the Person of Jesus Christ.
(pause)
And....
as it relates to Spiritual light I believe that God has a desire for spiritual light to be exposed throughout this world.
The definition of exposure is simply.....
…the state of being exposed to contact with something
And....
I believe that there is a lack of exposure in our world as it relates to the meeting with or encountering of individuals with Spiritual light.....
And....
Unlike photography where the film may be sensitive to light exposure in terms of its development, causing the light to be managed.
Our lives depend greatly on maximum light exposure!
(pause and expound)
Throughout this scripture in verses 1-10 especially ....
we hear this dialogue between Jesus Christ and Nicodemus.
And I would suggest to you that within the thought process of Nicodemus as he is having this conversation with Jesus that he is suffering from a lack of true light exposure.....
.....and Jesus is pictured as the catalyst in his consciousness to in fact, “Turn on the light!”
(pause)
The first interchange we see is in verses 2 and 3 where it says....
He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”
According to the text....
He comes to Jesus by night......
....which would suggest to me that while he is concerned with using darkness to hide his journey to Christ.
......his inward craving for greater satisfaction in his life is drawing him out of the darkness and into the light.
And his words here to Jesus seem to be spoken from a place of both affirmation and understanding of who Jesus is....
But....
Jesus responds by saying,
“No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above!”
meaning...
…that instead of Jesus being flattered by Nicodemus’s words, be basically says to him,
“You have said something that you don’t have the capacity to understand!”
(pause)
This exchange almost reminds me of when Jesus ask the disciples the question.....
“Who do men say that I am?”
And......
Peter ends up responding correctly by saying,
“You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
And Jesus says to him,
“flesh and blood did not reveal this unto you, but my Father in heaven.”
Because Peter you don’t have the capacity to know this on your own which means....
God had to turn the light on and reveal this to you!
(pause)
Notice......
....that Jesus is not interested in sugar coating his words to Nicodemus, but instead gets right to his point bluntly.
Because....
Jesus understands that when the mindset is in a really dark place, it responds better when the light is turned on quickly.
(pause)
And what I hear God saying this morning in my spiritual imagination is that....
Some of us need to be Shocked......
.........and while we may be guilty of being on a Sugar rush where the Church has tried to increase the appeal of our words so that they would be accepted
Jesus.....
....is showing us that there comes a time when Sugar coating is not the dosage to be prescribed
....but instead there needs to be a RADICALLY TRUE conversation that abruptly SHOCKS our thinking by TURNING on the LIGHT
(pause and expound)
According to the text the next response of Nicodemus in verse 4 proves......
.....that often times when we first experience the light being turned on in our lives, it is more than we can handle, and just like Nicodemus we are found searching for even more light as we are making our way around in the dark.
Look at it......
Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”
In other words....
“How can anyone be born after they are already completely grown?”
(slight pause)
Jesus responds in verses 5-7 with a twofold explanation...
Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.
John 3.
meaning....
Spiritual purification is made possible by the operative Holy Spirit....
And what Jesus is doing is reminding Nicodemus of what he has studied as a Pharisee.....
Because by Jesus saying this he is causing Nicodemus to RECALL........
.......the Old Testament reading found in Ezekiel where it says,
I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.
Ezekiel
Jesus then goes on to say......
What is born of flesh is flesh
meaning...
You cannot reproduce something different even if you were to go back into your mother’s womb naturally.....
....because the flesh is still all we would have to come out as our result.
And the flesh represents our sinful nature, or our humanity
....that’s why Jesus goes on to say
and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
.......because
because...
…it is only then when we partake and posses Gods spiritual nature.
(pause)
Now it seems as though.......
Jesus has just added to the confusion of Nicodemus, instead of turning on more light.....
........because if all we can bring into this world is our humanity which is the exact opposite of spirituality, then how is it possible for my flesh to attain what I need spiritually?
(pause)
But because Jesus is not the author of confusion.....
.....when he discerns where Nicodemus is in his thinking he simply turns on more light and says to him in verse 7....
“Marvel NOT!”
In other words.....
I’m getting ready to make it more plain for you to understand by turning on more light!
(pause)
And then in verse 8 he starts bringing more light....
The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
In other words.....
You have the ability to understand that something is happening when you hear the wind blowing
......and you may even have enough training to understand that it is happening because the barometric pressures are changing which causes the wind to blow
But you don’t know.......
how the when, and the where is decided by the who that gives the orders to the atmosphere.
Jesus says,
“So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit”
(pause and expound on the - Unmovable mover and MOTION)
The last thing we hear Nicodemus saying is.....
“How can this be?”
And.......
.......this is extraordinarily profound to me!
Because....
.....what it says is that when God really turns on the light in our lives
....I don’t care how much we think we know
Just like in this text
…Nicodemus the pharisee and teacher
.....becomes the learner or the disciple sitting quietly being taught by Jesus the master teacher
(pause)
Now let me show you why this is so powerful!
....because when we examine Spiritual light as a symbol of God we discover
Gods purity
1 John 1.
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.
In other words....
What light is in the natural world, God who is the source of even material light, is in the spiritual. And as all material life and growth depends on light, so all spiritual life and growth depends on God.
And there is not even one speck of darkness in God...
meaning.....
....no ignorance, untruthfulness, sin, error, or death.
(pause and expound)
Gods glory
And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
In other words.....
God is all we need!
......everything that it takes to develop life and promote growth is found in God’s glory!
.......and Christ Jesus is at the core of God’s glory!
(pause and expound)
Gods unchangeability
for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.
Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
In other words....
God is not like when the moon is eclipsed by the shadow of the earth, or when the sun by the body of the moon.......
God is a perfect giver!
.........and God cannot give a gift that will change once it is in our hands
.......when God gives us a gift it is PERFECT
And so we have a certain level of ASSURANCE in God who is clarifying for us who God really is!
(pause and expound)
Now watch this.....
....because Satan knows all of this
And no wonder! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
Because even the devil knows......
At some point in our lives.......
We will get tired of the darkness!
Because at some point in our lives we begin to see that aint nothing worth having or doing in the dark!
And so Satan.....
.....will try to bring fake light into our lives and make it attractive.......
(pause)
And Jesus says to Nicodemus.....
“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
In other words....
Condemnation is not the object of Christ’s mission.........
.....Christ didn’t come here to catch us in the dark and talk down on us
......Christ didn’t come here to prove our SHAME
But instead.....
…Christ came to SAVE the world by Turning on the LIGHT!
(pause)
And then he tells Nicodemus...
....but here is the real problem
And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.
In other words.....
The real problem is that our lives are working hard to destroy everything and everybody around us because we love fumbling around in the dark!
(pause)
Barrel:
Have you ever been trying to find something ................IN THE DARK!
It’s hard is it not......
.....and sometimes we choose to remain in the dark because when the light comes on it....
…EXPOSES what is hidden
and we fear EXPOSURE.....
But.......
....it also EXPLAINS what is misunderstood!
(pause)
And in my spiritual imagination I hear Jesus saying........
I wish I had somebody to help me TURN THE LIGHT ON!
Because I’ve got some EXPLAINING to do!!!
Barrel:
When an Xray is taken of a part of the body a lot of times if you are just holding it in front of you it just looks dark.........and you can’t tell what it is.....
But when a doctor is ready to interpret it they will take it....
....... and put it up to the LIGHT!
Because the LIGHT brings the picture into FOCUS!
And I hear God saying....
I need to bring some lives into FOCUS!!!!
(Expound)
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
FREEDOM I wonder if you’re ready!!!!
We need some people to go out these doors and TURN THE LIGHT ON!
It’s too dark!!!
..........................EXPOUND and CLOSE.....................