1 For God So Loved The World (John 3:1-21) 17 th May This is a wonderful portion of God s Word so let s ask for God s help and

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Jonathan Lang
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1 1 For God So Loved The World (John 3:1-21) 17 th May 2015 Please turn your Bibles to John chapter 3, from verse 1 to 21. You can take notes on the outline provided. This is a wonderful portion of God s Word so let s ask for God s help and guidance before we look at it Intro/Context (vv1-2) A little boy asked his mum where he came from and also where she had come from as a baby His mum gave him a story of a beautiful white feathered bird gently placing him under a tree. She gave the same story for her own birth Later that day the boy asked his grandmother the same question and was told a similar story by her. The next day the boy was outside playing with one of his mates and he said to him Do you know, there hasn t been a normal birth in our family for three generations! Which leads us into today s passage before us. Where Jesus describes a birth that is far from normal We pick up the story in v1 where Nicodemus, a Pharisee and member of the Jewish Ruling Council comes to talk to Jesus. Just for clarification the Pharisees were usually middle class business men who believed in God s written word and also that the Law that God gave to Moses was Page 1 of 12

2 twofold both the Written Law and the Oral Law so they followed many of the 2 oral traditions that had been handed down from generation to generation. For example - the oral tradition had many many rules about what was considered to be work on the Sabbath rest day. Like tying knots with two hands would be considered work whereas tying knots one handed was not considered to be work. Nicodemus also belonged to the Jerusalem Ruling Council they were the ones who decided all questions of the law and their decision was final. This council is going to play a big role later in Jesus ministry when he is brought before them on various charges So Nicodemus comes to Jesus in v2 at night time. At night time either to catch Jesus on his own or because at this stage, Nicodemus doesn t want any of his colleagues on the council to know he is talking to Jesus, just yet Nicodemus respectfully calls Jesus, Rabbi, which means teacher and he rightly says Jesus is a teacher from God His reason for saying this is that no one could perform the signs and miracles that Jesus did if they weren t from God! But perhaps the question behind the question is: You are a teacher from God, but are you more than that? Are you a Prophet? Are you the Messiah? But in any case - here we have the well-respected Pharisee Nicodemus - someone whose whole life is consumed by the written law and oral traditions a member of the Jewish ruling council - now focusing on the signs and miracles that Jesus has done. And he s about to receive a great shock Page 2 of 12

3 The Need for a New Birth (vv1-3) 3 Because Jesus says to Nicodemus in v3 no one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is born again As usual Jesus reply is mysterious. But before we examine what Jesus is saying We d better define the Kingdom of God And I think the theologian Graeme Goldsworthy nails in: [Powerpoint 1 God s Kingdom] God s people, in God s place under God s rule So Jesus is basically saying to Nicodemus if you want to be one of God s people living in God s place under God s rule you need to be born again. This would have shocked Nicodemus he is a law keeper and teacher of Israel and he thinks he s already in God s Kingdom But now Jesus is saying you need to be born again Nicodemus! And by born again the Greek can also mean born anew or born from above What Jesus is saying to Nicodemus is All your law keeping, all your oral traditions you follow, your position, your status even believing in all these great signs I m doing none of that gets you into the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus! you need to be born again, born anew born from above from God! Page 3 of 12

4 [Powerpoin2 the need for rebirth] 4 Friends, it s the same for us no amount of rule keeping, no amount of being good will get us into God s Kingdom. It doesn t mean we shouldn t follow God s rules and it doesn t mean we shouldn t be good people but it doesn t get us into the kingdom. The problem for Nicodemus and for us is that the things we say and do and think that offend God can t be fixed by ourselves. We need to be fixed from above from God Just like, Nicodemus we need a new birth The Nature of this New Birth (vv4-6) So what does this New Birth look like? What s the nature of this New Birth? Well right away Nicodemus gets the wrong end of the stick see v4 He s thinking of a new physical birth so he envisages grown people re-entering their mother s womb and being born a second time now that would be painful for mum s wouldn t it? But Jesus in v5 - is thinking spiritual he says this New Birth involves 2 elements water and spirit [Powerpoint 3 Water and Spirit] Page 4 of 12

5 The water symbolizing washing sin and impurities away 5 And the Spirit - God s spirit which comes from above that same spirit that hovered over the waters at the time of creation that same spirit comes into a person and transforms the heart to enable people to follow Jesus. Nicodemus should have understood this; the prophet Ezekiel talks about a time to come: [Powerpoint 4 Ezekiel water and Spirit] 25 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. 26 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. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. (Ezekiel 36:25-27) Then Jesus goes on to say in v6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but Spirit gives birth to Spirit What Jesus is saying is when a baby is born its birth is from another fleshly human being but spiritual things that go on inside us can only come from another spirit namely God s spirit from above Friends, when you think about God and about Jesus are you thinking physical all the time, instead of thinking spiritual? [Powerpoint 5 physical or spiritual] Page 5 of 12

6 So far, in John s Gospel we ve seen people thinking about wine, when Jesus is 6 thinking about His blood to be shed Then last week, we saw people thinking about the physical temple when Jesus is thinking about His body as the temple and us as the temple of the Holy Spirit And now He s talking about a new birth which is not a physical new birth but a spiritual new birth The Evidence of this New Birth (vv7-12) But how are we to know if we have this New Birth? What evidence is there that we have it? That s basically the question Nicodemus arrives at in v9 How can this be? Well Jesus uses the analogy of wind. If we look outside we can see trees moving and in our recent storm trees moved a great deal and fell down. We saw the effects and power of the wind without necessarily understanding where the wind comes from or what direction it is headed! Jesus is saying the Spirit (which is the same Greek word pneuma = can be wind or breathe or spirit) is the same we can see the effects and power of the Spirit without necessarily understanding where the Spirit comes from. And we don t need to understand we just need to believe in its existence and power And that s the problem that Nicodemus faces he s trying to understand spiritual things instead of just accepting they are from God and he s procrastinating by Page 6 of 12

7 asking question after question instead of just believing what Jesus is telling 7 him? When people receive the Spirit we see the effect it has on them they change so radically that they are like a new person that s why it s called a new birth because they are born anew born from above. One of our daughters was quite difficult and feisty as a teenager now she is a mum with 2 kids and says some very sweet things to Heather about what a great Mum, Heather was. We are stunned! We can t believe it s the same daughter! Heather things someone has kidnapped our daughter and given us a new one! That s what Jesus is talking about here such a change brought about by the Spirit that it s almost like the person is a new person The apostle Paul describes the effects of this change in people by listing fruit of the Spirit that can be seen in people born again: Fruit like: joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? [Powerpoint 6 - Evidence] Friends can people see the power of the Holy Spirit working in your life? [Powerpoint 6a] Are you questioning Jesus instead of accepting his evidence? Are you putting off a relationship with him because of things you don t understand and will never understand? [Powerpoint 6b] Page 7 of 12

8 8 Is your relationship with Jesus hampered because you won t accept that Jesus talks about spiritual stuff we might never fully understand with our pooh bear sized human brains The Source of this New Birth (vv13-18) So far we have seen the need for a new birth and the nature of this new birth through water and spirit and we ve seen what the results or evidence of this new birth looks like but how do we get this new birth what s the source of this new birth? To explain this John goes back to an OT story from the book of Numbers our OT passage today Where the Israelites complain about God bringing them through the desert on the way to the Promised Land they moan and whine about having no bread and water and having to put up with the manna and quail that God provided them to eat. So God sent venomous snakes which bit the people and some died. When the people admitted their sin against God God told Moses to make a bronze snake on a pole and lift it up and when the people looked at the bronze snake they lived. John says that in the same way that the bronze snake was lifted up so too Jesus the Son of Man will be lifted up At the end of His ministry Jesus was lifted up on a cross (a pole) just like the bronze serpent. Page 8 of 12

9 The bronze serpent was an object representing the people s sin. 9 In the same way Jesus became an object representing the sin of the world dumped on him. The people looked at the bronze snake on the pole and they lived! In the same way we must look at Jesus on his pole (His cross) and realize he has had our sin dumped on him so we can be forgiven We too must look at Jesus and believe what He did for us then we can live. [Powerpoint 7-Lifted Up the source] That s the source of this New Birth it comes from us believing that Jesus was lifted up for us for the forgiveness of our sin And that s not the only way that Jesus was lifted up. He was lifted up after his death 3 days after His death so we too can be lifted up and have eternal life. And He experienced another lifting up when He ascended to Heaven in Glory but in doing that He left us the Holy Spirit to bring about this new birth Why would God allow this to happen to His only Son Jesus? Well famously, v16 explains why the source of this New Birth is out of God s Love for the world. [Powerpoint 8] Because God loved the world so much that he gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him, shall not perish but have eternal life The bottom line is God loves people and doesn t want anyone to perish. Page 9 of 12

10 10 God didn t go to all the trouble of sending Jesus to merely point an accusing finger and tell the world how bad it was. No Jesus came to help and put the world right again. Anyone who believes in Jesus death and resurrection is found not guilty of their sin but anyone who refuses to believe in Jesus death and resurrection is already under a death sentence without knowing it because they ve failed to believe in God s one of a kind Son when they have been introduced to Him! But V16 has some small print and you know what people are like with small print - sometimes people don t read the small print [Powerpoint 8a small print] The small print in v16 is whoever believes Jesus sacrifice on the cross is sufficient for all but it is only effective for those who ve read the small print and believe! Friends, have we fully understood just how much God loves us and the sacrifice he made for us by sending His Son? Friends, New Birth is a God activity not a human activity it requires Jesus being lifted up on a cross and dying for sin and lifted up from the dead for eternal life and requires the Spirit to enter those who believe Accepting or Rejecting this New Birth (vv19-21) With God s amazing love for us comes the freedom of choice Page 10 of 12

11 11 John in verses 19 to 21 finishes this section by contrasting the choice that we all have He describes the world he lived in which is pretty much the same today - He says Jesus - the light of the world - came into the world But many people in the world loved darkness instead of the light Jesus offered why? Because their actions were evil and they preferred to do evil rather than good They didn t want to come into the light because the light would expose what they are really like. Have you noticed that people hang around with like-minded people because they feel comfortable they are not going to be challenged by like-minded people because they are all on the same page? That s great if the like-minded people are Christians and walking in the light of Jesus It s not so great if the like-minded people are evil and wicked and addicted to some of the terrible things this world has to offer. If that s the case these like-minded people will stay in the dark because they don t want Jesus light to shine on them and expose and convict them for what they are really like God loves the people of the world so much He gave His Son but He also gave freedom to choose? To choose darkness or light? [Powerpoint 9] Page 11 of 12

12 12 Friends are you walking in the light if so that s fantastic and it will be plain to everyone that you are doing God s work that He has planned for you. And if you are walking in the light I pray you continue and attract others to come into the light with you! Or are you staying in the darkness fearing exposure? There s no need to stay in that darkness there s no need to fear exposure Jesus died to get you out of that darkness and to remove that fear and offer you a new birth a spiritual birth an extreme makeover It s not too late to come into the light. Let s pray Page 12 of 12

The Propulsion of Love. John 3:1-21

The Propulsion of Love. John 3:1-21 The Propulsion of Love John 3:1-21 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