THURSDAY 11 March, 2021 “John 3:16”

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Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends,

Have you ever found yourself in a conversation or listening to a person speak and you simply feel lost, in over your head, confused, unable to fully comprehend what is being said? Maybe it happened to you in one of your advanced education courses, or perhaps if a really intelligent person is speaking on a subject which is their expertise but an area you know little to nothing about?

That’s what happened to Mr. Nicodemus late one evening as he brought to Jesus some of his scholarly questions. We started looking at this yesterday, and will you join me again today in John 3 as we listen to some of the most powerful things Jesus ever said, while He was here on earth!

Jesus said “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.” (John 3:12,13) Can you imagine how difficult it was for Jesus to bridge the gap between WHO He really is, God incarnate, and frail, sinful humanity all around Him? Or the fact that for all of eternity past, God the Son, Jesus, has existed in all the perfection of God, fully active in creation and sustaining creation, and now for a short while, living here in our sinful, dysfunctional world, limited by a human body and surrounded by disbelieving people?

This is the first time Jesus calls Himself ‘the Son of Man’ and clearly states that He has come to earth from heaven, God’s presence! That phrase “Son of Man” is what Jesus most often used when speaking about Himself. No other person has ever used those words in self description. It’s the unique combination of ‘fully God and fully man”. We’ll come back to that several times as we walk with Jesus toward Easter. Each time you hear it, I urge you to allow that phrase to challenge your thinking and your heart, and declare for yourself WHO God says Jesus is, and who YOU say Jesus is? Do you and God agree?

Next because Jesus was speaking with a Jewish Pharisee, a scholar of the Old Testament, Jesus said: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.”

Oh my! Nicodemus of course remembered the famous story of God sending a plague of venomous snakes in the desert among His people as they grumbled. (Numbers 21:4-9) When Moses cried out to God to heal them from the snake bites, God told Moses to make a brass serpent and raise it up high on a pole and anyone bitten by the snakes could look to that brass serpent, in faith believing God would heal them, and they would be made well.

It was their faith in God that God honored as He responded to their desperate cry and saved them from snake bite death. Do you see the comparison Jesus was making as He predicted that HE, the Son of Man, would be ‘lifted up’ and those who believed in Him would not only gain temporary life, but ETERNAL LIFE!

This was the first time Jesus had spoken of “eternal life”, and here Jesus makes it clear to Nicodemus that He, Jesus, holds the keys to life eternal! Of course at this moment Nicodemus could not imagine Jesus would be impaled on a cross, but it was this same Nicodemus, months later, who asked Pilate for permission to remove Jesus’ body from that cross and prepare it for burial!

And then Jesus said the words that are probably the most famous words He ever spoke. These words have been translated into more languages than any words ever spoken: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His 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 he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son…” (John 3:16-18)

Now if these are among the most important words ever spoken I have two questions: what do you understand them to mean and what does GOD intend for us to understand by these words?

First, it is clear LOVE is the primary motivator for God in every aspect of His Redemption Plan which required God coming to earth in the person of Jesus, to pay the full ransom price to purchase every sinful person who will repent of their sin and trust only and fully in Jesus for their deliverance.

Second, Jesus’ ransom payment of His death is sufficient to purchase forgiveness for EVERY human being who has ever lived! Jesus is God, sinless God, thus only HE could pay such a high price. There is no restriction…every person is eligible to be redeemed from their sin. The qualifier is their recognition of their need for a Savior and their trust in Jesus alone to be their Savior.

Third is the word “perish”. Perish does not mean ‘die’, it means ‘eternal separation from God’. Perish is that state of being that hundreds of millions of people will experience for all eternity future, and it will begin the moment they physically die WITHOUT trusting Jesus for their Salvation!

Fourth, Jesus did not come to CONDEMN us human beings. Oh no, our sin condemns us, and we each are justifiably condemned by our sinful rebellion against and rejection of God and His holy standards for our lives. Jesus came to make our rescue, our deliverance, our salvation from our sin condemnation possible.

It is vital we understand that every living human being is living condemned by their sin. Unless they trust in Jesus and are delivered from their sin bondage and sin guilt, they will die in their sin and perish. ONLY in Jesus is deliverance found, because only Jesus is sinlessly perfect enough to pay the sin debt price for those like you and me who are condemned by our sin.

Therefore NO decision is a decision! To NOT choose Jesus and the sin deliverance He offers, is to remain condemned and destined to die condemned and thus live ‘perish’, separated from God, for all eternity future. Oh my dear friends it is vital, in fact your whole life hangs in the balance, on your understanding those powerful four points. You might want to go back and read them again.

And then as if to put an exclamation point on it all, Jesus said to Nicodemus “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds are 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 he has done has been done through God.” (John 3:19-21)

Nicodemus knew all too well it was true. He and every person has a natural tendency toward thinking, saying and doing things that are not God honoring, not holy, things that are simply wrong and evil. It flows out of our sinful nature. We can’t help it... it’s naturally who we are as humans. ‘Sinful’ is our natural DNA! And the natural thing to do is try to hide, to cover up our sin, to pretend, right?

Here, for the first time, Jesus referred to Himself as LIGHT. We understand the contrast between light and darkness. It’s true, people who do evil try to hide in the darkness, and will do anything to stay out of the light. Light exposes what’s really there. Light is TRUTH. Jesus is helping Nicodemus understand a big part of His earthly mission will be to speak God’s truth into our world and that will stir things up, it will be a contrast with all the falsehood, deceit, distortions… even those spoken by religious leaders like Nicodemus.

As Jesus is saying these things I’m imagining His piercing eyes penetrating deeply into Nicodemus’ soul, and Nicodemus squirming, looking away, wanting to hide. Jesus wasn’t condemning Nicodemus, Jesus was INVITING Nicodemus. Inviting him to consider his own integrity, his authenticity, his genuineness, his character, his reputation. Inviting Nicodemus to consider his influence on so many people as a religious leader, his position of prominence and what he was doing with that privilege.

John doesn’t tell us anymore about this late night conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, but I can assure you it not only deeply impacted Nicodemus, it also deeply impacted John. From this moment on John became passionate, driven to know this Jesus, understand Him and what He says, learn as much as he could about this Jesus…and perhaps most of all, experience the truths He spoke deep in his own life. So in closing today I ask you… what is your reaction to Jesus? Are you passionate to know Him, understand Him, submit your life to His teachings and His Lordship?

What words would you use to describe the relationship you have with Jesus? What words would Jesus use to describe the relationship He has with you? Oh my… let’s park right there and ponder that for the rest of today. I’ll ask it again…

Today’s Scripture is John 3:8-21.

Choose below to read or listen.

Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.

Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.

Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)

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