Just to refresh your memory a little, last week we began looking at a conversation between Jesus and a man named Nicodemus. Jesus spoke about the necessity for us to be reborn and then spent some time trying to explain what rebirth was to Nicodemus. Unfortunately, we had to leave the conversation before Jesus could finish solving the confusion that Nicodemus was experiencing. When we left, Jesus was in the midst of explaining how being reborn is a work of the Holy Spirit come from God. It is during that explanation that we find ourselves this morning, picking back up in verse 14. For the purposes of our gaining back a little context, I am going to begin our reading in verse 9.
Now, we noted last week that Nicodemus was a very bright theologian and a scholar of the Scriptures (i.e. Old Testament). So, Jesus chooses to teach Nicodemus about being reborn from the Pentateuch; from the book of Numbers. This mention of Moses lifting up a serpent points back to Numbers 21 where we are told about Israel’s constant complaining in the wilderness despite their every need being met. Some of Israel even spoke against God and against Moses, so God sent “fiery serpents” to bit the people. Imagine if you will, it being like a scene out of an Indiana Jones film, but on a larger scale. Amidst these snakes trying to bite the people of Israel, they beg Moses to pray to God to take away the serpents. God tells Moses to make a bronze serpent, so that if anyone is bitten, they need only look to the bronze serpent and they would live.
We probably want to ask the same question now that Nicodemus wanted to ask then, “What does Moses and the bronze serpent have to do with being reborn?” Well, I think that the key to answering this question is found in the Greek word ὑψωθῆναι (hypsothenai), or as we have it here for us “lifted up.” You see, this word can also mean “to be exalted.” So Jesus is saying that for this rebirth to take place, then the Son of Man, Jesus, must be lifted up. First lifted up onto the cross, then lifted up into heaven and his name exalted above all other names. I had someone stop me after last week’s service and talk with me for a second about understanding Nicodemus’ questioning about being reborn; saying that since Nicodemus was living in a time prior to the coming of the Holy Spirit, stated by Jesus to be our Helper in understanding, that his statements really weren’t that foolish. On the one hand, I was glad that this person had made this link, but on the other hand, I was really hoping that my thunder for this Sunday was not about to be stolen. You see, Jesus is speaking about his crucifixion a few years prior to its occurrence. Obviously, Nicodemus can’t understand what Christ is accomplishing with his death when it hasn’t even happened yet. Jesus must be lifted up on the cross for us to be reborn and gain true life in the kingdom eternal. And just as the people of Israel had to look to this bronze serpent in order to save their lives and in essence be granted new life, we must look upon the cross and see our crucified Savior for us to be given our life anew. “That whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
Then we come to THE verse. The verse that is the best-known, most-often quote verse in all of the New Testament: John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” Such an incredible verse, or at least it should be. Unfortunately, while this is the most widely-known verse, it is also the most misinterpreted verse in Scripture. So many people, many of them Christians, have perverted this verse reading it something like, “God loved us, so he gave us ways for everyone to be saved, or so he saved everyone.” You may be confused by this crude reduction of such a profound statement of God’s love, a verse that contains within it the essence of the gospel message, so let me explain a little bit of what I mean here.
First, God gave his ONLY Son; it doesn’t say one of his sons. We live in a culture that is so afraid of offending someone that people won’t tell the truth. Well, as my wife can attest, I am brutally honest, sometimes even to a fault. However, in this case, I don’t think there is such a thing as honest-to-a-fault. The truth of the matter is that a view of God that says that we are all worshiping the same God, just in different ways is a view of God that I quite simply cannot agree with. Yes, God loved and does love us, that’s why he provided us with his only son. He didn’t provide us with Jesus Christ and then some other persons and methods by which we may enter into heaven. As we’re told here, God gave us this one and only son so that whoever believes in him will have everlasting life. Belief! That’s what we need; it’s right there for us. It’s written as clearly as we could hope to find it. That’s the second way in which this verse has become perverted. You can walk out this door and ask a group of people anywhere if they believe in God and heaven and hell. For those that answer yes, you can further ask them if they believe that they are going to heaven. Digging even deeper, you could ask those who answered in the affirmative how they know where they are going and I guarantee you that at least a handful of people will answer, “Because I’m a good person who has always done the right thing.” Wrong! That’s not to say that they aren’t going to enter heaven, but their actions aren’t the reason for it. The reason that they will enter into heaven is because of Christ and the fact that God has sent His Holy Spirit to change their hearts and their minds so that they now have a saving faith in Jesus Christ. In other words, Jesus Christ has become their passion, their love, he has become their Messiah.
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn us, but that through him we might all be saved;” a verse that I like to use just as I did a few moments ago during our assurance of pardon following our confession of sins; a time in which a pastor gives some reassurance to the congregation of our forgiveness. This verse is one of those wonderful verses in Scripture that even those with the most basic knowledge of biblical truths (or really just the English language for that matter) can understand completely. The purpose for Christ coming to this earth wasn’t to punish us or make us all feel really bad about how we had behaved, but it was to save us. “Whoever believes in him is not condemned;” such an absolute blessing and wonderful news. Just like looking at a bronze serpent saved Israel, believing and looking to Christ as our Savior saves us. But our being saved is something that carries far beyond our time on this earth.
The sad side of things, as it were, is found in the second half that statement, “but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” Let’s make no mistake about it; we all deserve condemnation; every single one of us. But thanks be to God that he has provided the way for us to escape condemnation and damnation. He has provided us with a way out of spending eternity in hell. We may want to ask ourselves, as Christians, “How, knowing that Jesus is the answer, do so many people look away from Christ and the life that is within him?” Well, John answers that for us in the final verses of our text for today. “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. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 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.” You see, this is the state that we were created. We were in the darkness, and what do things that are in the darkness do when they see light? They run.
I briefly mentioned about Christians being happier people at the close of last week’s sermon, and I want to take just a moment and flush that out a bit. Christians seem to be happier because they know what true misery looks like. We see misery when we see a life that is void of Christ. I can’t tell you how my heart has hurt for dear friends and loved ones who consistently run from the light. I can’t count the tears shed at the thought of those who I care deeply for remaining in the darkness. But Christians also know what love looks like. We know what it looks like because Christ loved us. The writer of this gospel, John, later, in his first epistle, writes, “We love because he first loved us” (4:19). Friends, the title for this two-part sermon “How Can This Be” is the most apt description I can think of about this love that Christ has for us. How can it be that we are so bad and defiant of God, and yet he provided the way for our salvation? How can it be that so many people each and every day resist such a wonderful blessing and gift? Yet, so many make a conscious decision to run from Christ.
I want to challenge you this day to do something; something that may be a bit difficult for many of us here today. We all know people who resist God and look elsewhere for their joy. We all know people who either say that they don’t need God or have created their own idols to worship. Let’s all make the effort to share the good news of the gospel with these people. I don’t care if you bring them to this church, if you go to their former church with them, if you just sit and talk with them about your faith, or what you do. I just want you to allow yourself to be used as an instrument for spreading the gospel; because I can promise you this: that any investment that you make in proclaiming the good news will not return empty. Friends, we have heard today of the great love that the Father has for us. He loved us so much that he gave what was most dear to him, His one and only Son. What we must do now to receive these great blessings that Christ has opened the door for us to receive is to believe. We are to have faith in Christ without ceasing. We must resist the darkness and live in the light. Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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