|
|
|
|
The Gospel of John, The Interview with Nicodemus, John 3:16-21, in the Period of Consideration or the Object of Belief, Part V - Lesson 18
Verse 3:16, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Talk about the 27 languages that this verse is in the Gideon Bible.
John 3:16, I don't know what that means, but it surely does make a hungry boy satisfied.
John 3:16, I don't know what that means, but it surely does make a dirty boy clean.
John 3:16, I don't know what that means, but it surely makes a tired boy rested.
John 3:16, Now I know what it means, and it surely makes a sad boy happy.
This verse revolves around ten words.
They are: God, loved, world, gave, Son, whosoever, believe, perish, have, life.
This is the epitome, this is the highest of the highest exhibition of love that can be expressed. "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us"!
If God loves man, and he does, then his sinless Son must be sacrificed on man's behalf in order for the sting and bite of the serpent to be erased.
If death is to be conquered, only the ultimate of God's love must be given.
Christ is God's love gift.
Love was the reason for the death of Christ.
Love found a way.
Love provided a way for men to be delivered from their sin, and to be born of water and of the Spirit.
Love stepped into the picture and provided a gift to man, Jesus Christ who paid the price for sin.
God said that the wages of sin is death and man works very energetically for the wages.
God justice demands that the wages that he sets for the work will be paid.
But the wages are too great for man to bear.
God will pay the wages for man.
This is grace, the grace of God.
The death of Christ was the supreme demonstration of God's love.
His love found a way for the wages to be paid.
John 3:16 says that God so loved.
This is love demonstrated while we were yet sinners.
Not as his children, but as enemies of God, aliens from his grace.
We may understand him loving his children but that he loved us before we became his children passes our knowledge.
In Romans 5:8, "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners Christ died for us."
And again in Jer. 31:3, "Ye, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee."
Notice also the little word, "so".
This little word defines the breadth, and length, and height, and depth of his love.
Four dimensions.
Outside the realm of human thought. Beyond our capability.
Measureless, able to extend to the uttermost limits to include the giving of his only begotten Son.
For God so loved the world.
His love extended to all of the world.
All humankind.
There is no place that his love does not reach.
You can tell all, that God loves them and there is none that is beyond the reach of God's love.
No limited atonement from our Father's love as some would have you believe but his love is unlimited in its extent.
God's love was manifested in giving.
For God so loved the world that he gave.
Love, real love always seeks the highest interest of others.
It is unselfish. It looks out for others and not itself.
Love cannot be contained.
It must burst forth in giving.
God did not look for a cheap way to pay the wages of sin.
He gave the best for you and me and the whole world.
He did not hold back but freely delivered up Christ, his only begotten son, even to the death of the cross.
His love purposed to have a people that should not perish.
His love is designed to be successful and will bring fruit into the harvest of God Almighty.
Jesus is the one who saves people from their sins, and writes their name in his book, and secures for them a place in the family of God and a home that is eternal.
God is a fruitful God and he will have his harvest.
He says in this verse that "whosoever believeth in him should not perish."
Although God is not willing that any should perish, many will not participate in that harvest, just as many were not healed of the serpent's bite in Moses day.
They did not believe in the simple message to look and be healed.
Many will perish.
Many will remain "filthy still."
But God will have a harvest because many will believe on Jesus Christ and trust their destiny to him.
His harvest will be a lasting one and will never spoil or waste because he promises an everlasting life to all who believe on Jesus Christ.
This verse contains 25 words and summarizes the whole gospel story.
It begins with God, who had no beginning; is centered with the word "Son", and ends with that, which has no ending, everlasting life.
This is as it should be, for everything of eternal worth centers around the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
God has no plan, no program for this world or any other, no purpose for the universe in time or in eternity, that does not center on his Son.
All of our thinking that centers on Christ is in harmony with the mind of God.
Any thinking that is not Christ centered is out of harmony with the mind of God.
Verse 3:17,18, For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Jesus tells Nicodemus that he was not sent to judge or condemn the world.
He was sent to save the world.
The Lord Jesus came to be the Savior of Nicodemus.
He came to be the Savior of all who would be saved.
Nicodemus and his fellow Jews expected the Messiah to come with great power and great glory to judge all men as recorded in Psalm 2:8-9, They mistook the first coming of Christ with the second coming. "Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for an inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shall break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel."
He was not sent to start some new religion, some new pattern of life to live by, in order to gain stature with God.
He came to receive sinners unto himself. He came to seek and to save that which was lost, those that are perishing.
Condemnation lies within all sinners.
By nature sinners are children of wrath.
Condemnation hangs over their heads like an ax held by a fine thread.
By their unbelief they reveal their condemnation.
They reveal who they are.
What you believe reveals what you are.
What you don't believe also reveals what you are.
One who sees no beauty or does not see the glory of God in a sunset or a beautiful mountain range or calls a masterpiece of art, "trash" does not judge or condemn the sunset or the mountains or the art, but they judge themselves, they reveal who they are.
The person who depreciates Christ, or does not think Christ capable of salvation, passes judgment upon himself, not on Christ.
In fact they call Christ a liar, and in so doing they identify themselves with the condemned.
They do not need to wonder about their fate with regard to heaven or hell.
They do not need to wait until judgment day to find out their fate, the verdict on them has been pronounced already.
Those who believe on the name of the Son of God become God's children.
For those who will not believe they have imposed upon themselves self-incurred judgment.
We see then that Jesus Christ tells Nicodemus that condemnation is tied to unbelief and that salvation is tied to belief, not to a religion or religious practice or a nationality or group.
The sin of unbelief is what seals a man or woman's fate.
Verse 3:19,20,21, And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
Here is the cause of man's unbelief.
He loves the darkness and therefore hates the light.
Not only are men in the dark but they love the dark.
They would rather not accept that which is permanent so that they might have that which is immediate.
That which is permanent is always in the light, that which is immediate is always in darkness.
We are children of the permanent, the eternal, children of light, not of darkness.
Men hate the light because it dispels the darkness.
The light reveals what they are and they do not want to know what they are.
The light shows us what a dark place the world is.
It shows human beings how dark and evil they are.
Men prefer ignorance, error, superstition, imaginations, over the light of truth.
Christ is the true light shining in the darkness.
He is the light that came into the world to illuminate everyone.
But he came unto his own and his own received him not.
His own loved darkness.
Their deeds are evil and they do not want anyone to disturb their deeds.
Their deeds are secret and the darkness keeps the secrets.
But light will reveal the secrets of sinners and show them what they are.
A man who walks in darkness will say that he has a lot of living to do which really means that he has a lot of dying to do.
His kind of living has to be done in darkness.
But dark living is death and there is no light in death.
Those that are of the truth have no desire to avoid the light.
They desire to walk in the light that their works be manifest.
They come again and again to the light that their deeds might be made known and compared to the light whether they be right.
A child brings his artwork to Mom after school expecting praise and encouragement and an indication that they are doing right.
But the same child does not run to Mom with a report card full of bad marks.
True light to the upright is their reward.
It reveals their character and heart.
The true light reveals that their works are from God and that God should be praised for their works.
We come to the light in order to learn God's mind, that we may stop doing those things that displease him and to do those things that please him.
In coming to the light we express faith which pleases God.
The light gives us the sight to see our ways.
It gives us light to compare them to the Word of God and thereby the Holy Spirit provides corrections to our ways that tend to conform our ways to the Son of God.
So concludes the interview with Nicodemus.
No statement is made concerning a decision by Nicodemus.
But indications in other portions of John hint that the light that Jesus Christ gave to him on this night bore fruit and that he was born again by water and the Spirit.
He may of come to Jesus by night but that did not stop Jesus from turning on the light so Nicodemus could see.
Jesus is the light of the world and in him is no darkness.
The night of Nicodemus was no match for the Light of the World.
This passage is not only for Nicodemus but has been, and continues to be a beloved passage for all the "whosoevers" of John 3:16 that they may know the truth regarding the new birth and the true condition of man and of the world.
It is written to appeal to all who are needy and weary and are heavy laden.
It is a primer on the beginning of the walk of the child of God. Jesus said, Ye must be born again!
Our next event in the Period of Consideration is the Confession of John the Baptist John 3:22-36 |