Well, as I noted last Sunday, the first half of this chapter is a summary. I don't think it's
all the detail. It's a summary of a conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, who was a prominent
ruler and teacher among the Jews. After witnessing a few of Jesus's miracles in Jerusalem, we see that
at the end of chapter two, after seeing them or witnessing them or at least hearing of them,
Nicodemus arranged for this low-key, perhaps secret meeting to take place where he could learn
about the source of Jesus's power. Because after all, it's not every day that someone comes to town
who has the ability to heal the sick and teaches with the kind of authority with which Jesus taught,
and Nicodemus, being one who was in pursuit of God in this moment, needed to have this conversation.
I believe that he was searching. He's trying to figure out who exactly is Jesus, how is it that
he can do these things, and why does that matter, or what implication or application does that have
to me personally? I think that's why Nicodemus is coming to Jesus in these moments. And as we saw
just a moment ago, as we read through it, Jesus wasted no time with Nicodemus, at least in the
summary that's given to us. There's no pleasantries listed here for us. He doesn't even really address
what Nicodemus says in the very beginning. Nicodemus says, we know that you must be from God, because who
else could do the things that you're doing? And then immediately, what we find in the summary, at least,
is Jesus cuts right to the point, and he says, unless you're born again, you can't see the kingdom of God.
He doesn't even address at all Nicodemus' statement, or at least not plainly in the beginning.
Nicodemus, being one of the Pharisees, as you know, did not consider himself to be a desperate sinner
as other men. The Pharisees believed that God would grant eternal life on the basis of their lineage
and their commitment to the law, and they were very much dedicated to those things.
Nicodemus probably, as far as comparing men to men, Nicodemus probably was as good of a Jew as you
could be. Probably very similar to the way Paul described himself before coming to Christ, a Jew of
the Jews and an Israelite of all Israelites. Nicodemus perhaps would have certainly fit that
description. Even Jesus later says, are you the teacher in Israel? He's not just any rabbi. He's well-respected.
He belongs to the Sanhedrin. If anybody was going to earn eternal life, if that was possible, Nicodemus was one.
It's not that they were uncommitted people. They were actually very dedicated people.
Their problem was they didn't see themselves as sinners, as wicked in and of themselves.
And so they believed that God would grant them eternal life on the basis of their Jewish lineage
and their commitment to the law. But in the midst of that conversation, Jesus drops this bomb on Nicodemus.
And he says, unless you experience a rebirth, a spiritual new birth, you will never see the kingdom of God.
And he says it directly in verse 7. He repeats himself in verse 7. He says, do not marvel that I've said to you,
you must be born again. And the you there in verse 7 is plural in Greek. He's not just talking about Nicodemus.
He's talking about everybody. All of the Sanhedrin, all of the Pharisees, everybody must be born again
in order to see the kingdom. And as we study through John chapter 3, you begin to piece it together
because it is a bit enigmatic, isn't it? It's a little strange to figure out what exactly was Jesus saying
and what does this new birth mean and all of these kinds of things. And we begin to see in the chapter
that being born again, this new birth is synonymous in John 3 with repentance of sin and faith in Christ
Jesus. The repentance of sin is somewhat shadowy. We find it really in verse 5. Jesus says,
truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom
of God. And I don't think that when Jesus says born of water, I don't think he's talking about our
natural birth. And I don't think that he's talking about baptism either. I think he's using this as an
allusion to the washing away, the cleansing of sin that comes through repentance, perhaps even an
allusion to what John was preaching. Nicodemus would have been familiar with that at this particular time
in biblical history. He would have understood that in this cleansing away. And I think there's an
allusion there to repentance. But then as we get to verses 15 and 16 and 17 and 18, we see overwhelmingly
this new birth being synonymous with faith, faith specifically in Jesus Christ. But then we see
that these things, repentance and faith, are actually an individual's response
to the gracious work of God's spirit in their life. So then as we dig into this chapter,
it's not that faith and repentance produce the new birth. They don't cause the new birth.
They're actually responses to the new birth. And we see that in verse 8. Jesus gives this really
helpful illustration. The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it
comes from or where it goes. And then he says, so it is with every person who is born of the spirit,
the spirit of God. So like the wind, you can see the effects of God's spirit at work in a person's life.
Though you cannot see the spirit himself. He's like the wind. You can step outside and you can
feel it on you. You can see it as it rustles the leaves that have fallen from the trees over the last
several months. You can see what the wind does. You can see the effects of its work, though you cannot
see it, though you cannot understand its movements fully. You don't know where it's coming from and where
it's going. And Jesus says, that's how my spirit is at work in our lives. You can't really fully
understand its movements. You don't know where it's coming from and where it's going. You can't
see the spirit itself. But what you see is the effects of the spirit's work in a person's life
when he comes in and he produces this regenerative work, this new birth, and a person is born again.
And what immediately is seen as the result of that is repentance from sin and faith in Jesus Christ.
That's the lesson that Jesus is teaching Nicodemus. That salvation is not something you do.
Salvation is something God does in us. It's his grace. And this is really where Nicodemus had
a struggle. Look at verse 9. Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be?
How, Jesus, is that possible?
Now, Nicodemus was a smart man. He doesn't get where he is politically and religiously and all of
those things. He's the teacher of Israel, Jesus says. He doesn't get there without
being very intelligent. I don't think that he's misunderstanding Jesus's analogy about being
born again. In fact, I even think when Nicodemus responds to Jesus and says, can a man enter into,
can an old man enter into his mother's womb again? I think he's just responding to Jesus in the same
words that Jesus is using. I think he's using his words to match Jesus's analogy. And he's essentially
saying what you're saying isn't possible. Like, it can't just be that. That can't be all there is
to this eternal life and kingdom of God. And I think that his response here in verse 9 actually
indicates that he does indeed understand the lesson, but he was unwilling to accept it,
at least at this moment. And he says, not explain that to me further. He says, I don't think that's
possible. I don't think you're right about that. How can that be? So believing that his obedience to
the law would gain him eternal life, Nicodemus couldn't see how it was possible for salvation
to be entirely by God's grace apart from his own human effort. I think that's what's at play here
in this passage. And then in verses 10 through 12, Jesus rebukes the hardness of Nicodemus's heart.
We'll look at that a little more in a moment. But then he goes on to wonderfully explain
how salvation by grace through faith is possible. And that's what verses 9 through 21 are.
Jesus gives this lesson to Nicodemus about being born again. Nicodemus says, how's that even possible?
And Jesus says, let me tell you how it's possible. And that's what unfolds. And here's the summary of it.
The answer to Nicodemus's question, how is this possible? How can these things be?
Is found only in the person and work of Jesus. It's only found in Jesus. He can't understand it apart from him.
And Jesus essentially is standing before him saying, Nicodemus, I came, I am here so that this can be possible.
Just look to me, listen to me. And then he begins to explain it. And so what I want to do is I want
to take the same basic structure that we used last week in verse 16. And I want to explore
a little bit more in this broader perspective of how Jesus answered Nicodemus. And I'm going to try
to tie that back into Christmas and the Christmas story once again as well. Okay, so we're going to
look a little further at the identity of Jesus as the gift of God. We are going to see an illustration
that Jesus gives about the call of God to faith. And then we'll, we'll finish it with asking the
question of God's love. If his love is so great, why do so many people reject it? Because we find that
answer in this passage as well. Okay. So, so let's look through it just quickly together. The first thing
is identifying the gift of God, identifying the gift of God. And we're going to find this in verse 13
in just, just a moment. So last week, looking at verse 16, we found that the greatest gift ever given
was a person, God's only begotten son, John writes. And in fact, the gift of Jesus we discovered is
actually the theme of the entire Bible. So after sin brings in suffering and death, God promises that he
will send a deliverer to rescue his people. And then we find that the old Testament is full of all of
these pictures, like the sacrificial system of reminding of God's promise that he will send a
perfect lamb that will atone for the sins of man. And then when we get into the new Testament, we learn
that this deliverer who is the gift of John 3 16 is none other than Jesus of Nazareth. So let's look at
verse 13 now. And I want to see in this text, how Jesus is actually making that claim that he is that
gift. Okay. Verse 13, Jesus says this weird thing. No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended
from heaven. And then he adds in the title, the son of man. So no one has ascended into heaven except he
who descended from heaven. So Jesus had simplified this gospel mission for Nicodemus by explaining it
in the earthly terms of the new birth. But Nicodemus didn't want to accept what Jesus was saying. So in
verses 10 to 12, Jesus mildly rebukes him. Look, look with me at verse 10. Jesus answered, are you the
teacher of Israel? And yet you do not understand these things? You don't see how this can be?
Nicodemus verse 11. Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what
we've seen, but you do not receive our testimony. Well, who's the we there? I don't think that he's
referring to his disciples yet. We don't really know much about them at this point in John's gospel,
at least. I think Jesus is referring perhaps to the Old Testament prophets, the ones that Nicodemus
was very familiar with, the ones that Nicodemus would have known, all of these prophecies as he
would have studied them himself. But all of those prophecies, Nicodemus had not interpreted right.
And Jesus is saying, we speak of the things that we know. We speak of the things that we've seen and
that God has made us aware of. And yet you do not, you do not accept those things in verse 12.
He says, if I've told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you of
heavenly things? So Nicodemus wouldn't accept the most fundamental truths explained in the simplest of
terms. He would never come to grips with the deeper heavenly realities for which he was seeking.
And Jesus's point in verse 13 was that a man's understanding is only as good as his source of
information. A man's understanding is only as good as his source of information. Nicodemus was trying to
find all these answers, but he was trying to find them in all the wrong places. And Jesus says,
Nicodemus, no man has ascended into heaven so as to learn all of these things and bring them back
to communicate to you. But Jesus stood before Nicodemus as the one from heaven who knew these
realities, who knew all of these things, had the full knowledge of salvation and had the authority
to share it. And Nicodemus is saying, just listen to me, listen to me. None of these men know. I know.
I know. And there's three things about Jesus's identity. I think that's revealed in this one
verse. And the first one we see is son of God, son of God. The clear implication of Jesus's statement
is that he is the one who came from heaven. He's not talking in an abstraction here. He's not talking
about some person that is out there that you might be able to gain this knowledge from. He's saying
clearly to Nicodemus, no, I have come from heaven. I have come. But Jesus wasn't just any being from
heaven. In verse 16, as we studied last week, he referred to himself as God's only son. He wasn't
an angel that was delivering a message as others had done in the scriptures. Jesus was claiming to be
God, claiming to be one with the father. Last week, we looked at this from Philippians 2.
I want you to actually look at this again, except from Matthew chapter one. In fact,
turn with me there. It's just a few pages over from where you are. In Matthew chapter one,
and I want you to see in the Christmas narrative, the reality of Jesus as the son of God, the son of
God. Matthew chapter one, let's start reading at verse 12 and just be patient with me for a second.
There's a reason why I want to read all of these names. Okay. Verse 12.
After the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel.
Shealtiel, the father of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel, the father of Abiad. Abiad, the father of Eliakim.
And Eliakim, the father of Azor. Azor, the father of Zadok. Zadok, the father of Achim. Achim, the father of Eliad.
And Eliad, the father of Eleazar. And Eleazar, the father of Mathen. And Mathen, the father of Jacob.
And this is the one I want you to see. And Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Christ.
Now, do you notice the difference between the way that Matthew describes the direct lineage of Jesus versus everybody else in this paragraph?
Really, everybody else in the chapter. Over and over, Matthew says, this man begat this man.
And this man begat this man. And so on and so forth. Until he gets all the way down to Joseph.
And he says, Jacob begat Joseph, who did not begat Jesus, Matthew says.
Joseph was just the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born.
Do you see what Matthew is doing? He's going out of his way here to emphasize the fact that Jesus is not the son of Joseph.
And then he goes on. We see it again in verse 18. Skip down to that now.
Now, the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.
When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, it's an important emphasis,
she was found to be with child from the Holy Ghost.
And her husband, Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
But as he considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying,
Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
She will bear a son. You shall call his name Jesus.
He will save his people from their sins.
And all of this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son.
And they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God is with us.
And when Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.
He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son and he called his name Jesus.
Now, I want you to see all of this here.
Six different times, beginning of verse 16, in the lineage verse, and then when we get to verse 18 through 25.
Six different times, Matthew emphasizes the fact that Jesus was not the son of Joseph,
and that Mary was a virgin when he was born.
He's the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary.
Before they came together, verse 18.
With child from the Holy Ghost, verse 18.
That which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit, verse 20.
Verse 23, behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son.
And then you could add in an extra one.
They call his name Emmanuel, which is God is with us.
Verse 25, knew her not until she had given birth to a son.
That is an intimacy, sexually speaking.
Matthew goes out of his way in this birth narrative to say,
Jesus is from God.
Jesus is the son of God.
He wasn't a regular man who was endowed with divine qualities.
It wasn't that Jesus was born like everyone else is born,
and then all of a sudden God said, okay, I'm going to make this man my divine figure.
That's not how this happened.
Jesus has always been.
And the testimony of the scripture is that the Messiah that would come
would not just be ordinary like us, even though he is an ordinary man,
but that he is God in the flesh.
Jesus' explicit claim in the scriptures is that he himself is God.
He's one with the Father, a part of the Trinity.
But then if Jesus had been born of Joseph, and this is so important,
if he had been born of Joseph, he couldn't be our Savior.
Because if he was born of Joseph, that means Jesus was in Adam.
And every person that's in Adam has a nature of sin and rebellion that must be redeemed.
And the Bible is abundantly clear that Jesus was not in Adam.
He had no sin.
He's the son of God.
And we have the hint of that in verse 13 in John chapter 3 when he looks at Nicodemus and he says,
listen, no one has ascended into heaven to gain this knowledge except he who has come from heaven.
And Nicodemus, that's me.
That's me.
I'm the son of God.
But it's not just son of God.
We see another identifying marker in verse 13.
We see son of man.
Of course, we've talked about this a lot in Mark's gospel,
so I'm not going to spend a lot of time here.
But we know this was Jesus' favorite designation for himself.
In the four gospels, he uses it 81 times at least for himself.
Son of man, it's important.
And we think this is Jesus connecting himself to the Daniel 7 figure,
the Messiah who would rule over all things that God Almighty would give over to him.
Not only did Jesus plainly tell Nicodemus that he was the son of God from heaven,
but he plainly tells him, I am the Messiah, Nicodemus.
I'm the one, the one you've been hoping for, that you've been looking for.
That's me.
It's a bold claim.
It's a bold claim that he's made.
But he's not just the son of God.
He's not just the son of man.
In verse 13, he's the source of truth.
He's the source of truth.
His whole purpose in revealing his identity to Nicodemus
was so that Nicodemus would trust his word.
Because Jesus is the son of God,
and because he is the son of man,
he is the ultimate and final source of truth.
And his point was not only that his word can be believed,
but that it must be believed.
And so he tells Nicodemus,
no man can give you this
except the one who has come from heaven,
the son of God and the son of man,
the source of all truth.
If you really want to know about eternal life, Nicodemus,
look at me.
Listen to me.
I have that knowledge,
and I want to share it with you
if you will just listen
and if you will open your heart.
And of course, Hebrews tells us this.
Long ago at many times and in many ways,
God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,
but in these last days,
he has spoken to us by his son,
whom he appointed the heir of all things,
through whom also he created the world.
And of course, we know Jesus' own claim.
In John 14, Jesus said,
I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man comes to the Father except through me.
I'm the way, the truth.
If you want truth, you have to look at Jesus.
There's no other way to know it.
And I just want to remind you,
and I know it's a few of us,
and I know all of your testimonies,
and I know you love the Lord,
and I hope I'm not boring you.
Maybe I'm arming you with something you can take
to the family dinners this week
if you have some more of those to go to.
It's not possible to be indifferent to Jesus.
It's not possible.
He can't have been merely a good teacher
or a prophet or a moral example.
If he was only a teacher,
then what he taught was lies.
And if he was only a prophet,
then you must insist that he was a false prophet.
And if you think of him only as a moral example
for us to follow,
then your idea of morality is hugely perverted.
He's either God or he isn't.
He's either the Savior or he isn't.
He's either the truth or he isn't.
And when it comes to our response to him,
we either believe and follow him wholly
or we deny and reject him completely.
And there's too many people that we know
in the context in which we live
in a Christianity-saturated culture like ours.
There are too many people
that are indifferent to Jesus.
They're trying to be indifferent to him.
And you can't be.
You can't be.
You either follow him wholly
or you deny him completely.
There's no middle ground there.
And I think John 3
is just another example of that.
So we see identifying the gift of God.
Secondly, let's look at illustrating the call of God.
Illustrating the call of God.
So in verse 16,
the call of God was that
sinners are to believe in Jesus Christ
for eternal life.
And there's urgency to that call in verse 16.
Because as we continue to follow through,
it says,
whoever does not believe is condemned already.
We stand condemned.
So there's urgency to this call.
This salvation is made available.
Jesus is on this rescue mission.
And we learned last week
that every person is dead
in their trespasses and sin.
We desperately need rescue.
And Jesus is the promised Savior
sent to save us.
But his gift must be received by faith.
But then Jesus illustrates this call
so helpfully in verses 14 and 15.
And this is what we cut out last week
that we want to spend our time on today.
Verse 14,
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.
Remember,
these verses are Jesus' response
to Nicodemus' question in verse 9.
How are these things possible?
And Jesus begins by essentially saying,
one must believe in who I am.
The Son of God,
Son of Man,
source of truth.
You have to believe in who I am.
And then he follows that up with,
and you need to understand and believe
what I've come to do.
Except he uses this illustration.
It comes from Numbers 21.
In fact,
why don't you turn there with me
in the Old Testament.
Numbers chapter 21.
Perhaps you remember the story
maybe from Sunday school,
growing up,
or just from your own reading.
Numbers chapter 21.
And look with me at verse 4.
Of course,
this is just another example
of the many times
that the nation of Israel
had complained and whined
and turned in rebellion
from the Lord.
And we find this story in verse 4.
Numbers 21, verse 4.
From Mount Hor,
they set out by the way
to the Red Sea
to go around the land of Edom.
And the people
became impatient
on the way.
And the people spoke against God
and against Moses.
Why have you brought us up
out of Egypt
to die in the wilderness?
For there is no food
and no water,
and we loathe
this worthless food.
The worthless food,
I'm assuming here,
is a reference
to the manna
that God had sent.
The heavenly food
that was at one time
to the Israelites
so wonderful,
and now they think
it's wonderfully terrible,
and they don't want it anymore,
and they're complaining.
It reminds me that,
you know,
all the kids sang
that song last week,
Sing We the Song of Emmanuel,
and it's got that phrase in it,
lift your voices
and now proclaim.
And Andy and Amy
told me last week
that when he gets confused,
what she sings there,
every time she sings that song
is lift your voices
and now complain.
And that's really
what it was like
for the Israelites.
Every time they lifted
their voices
underneath Moses' leadership,
it was to complain
about something.
And here they're complaining
again about the provision
of God.
They would rather
go back to Egypt
than follow God
in the wilderness.
Verse 6,
Then the Lord sent
fiery serpents
among the people,
and they bit the people
so that many people
of Israel died.
And the people came
to Moses and said,
We have sinned.
We've spoken against
the Lord and against you.
Pray to the Lord
that he may take away
the serpents from us.
So Moses prayed
for the people.
And the Lord said to Moses,
Make a fiery serpent
and set it on a pole,
and everyone who is bitten,
when he sees it,
shall live.
So Moses made a bronze serpent,
set it on a pole,
and if a serpent bit anyone,
he would look at the bronze serpent
and live.
Do you remember this story?
The story is symbolic
of man's rebellion
against God.
Just as Israel spoke
against God
in this passage,
so have each of us
turned against him
in our sin and pride.
But sin always
carries unavoidable consequences
because God in his justice
must judge it.
He must judge sin.
And with the nation of Israel,
he sent these fiery serpents
really to devour them.
Many scholars believe
they're called fiery serpents
because perhaps their venom
produced a fever,
a burning fever
that ultimately led to death.
death.
And these serpents
are emblems
of death
and sin.
Whoever was bitten
by one
was without
any hope at all.
There's nothing
they could do
to escape
the grim reality
of death
once one of these snakes
had gotten a hold of them.
But though the people
faced the divine wrath
of God,
he provided a way
of escape.
He provided a way
for them to be healed.
And he tells Moses,
make a snake,
put it on a pole,
and set it in the middle
of the camp.
And anyone who's bitten,
if they will just look
at what I have provided,
if they will just cast themselves
on my provision,
they will be fully healed.
But it took the gaze
of faith
for each of those people.
Jesus left no doubt
in John 3
what the application
of this event is.
It was a type
of what he had come
to do for us.
And the details
are remarkably precise.
Just as the bronze serpent
was suspended
between heaven and earth,
so would Jesus
eventually,
when he made it
to Jerusalem
for his crucifixion,
be suspended
on a pole,
on a cross
between heaven and earth.
Even the fact
that Moses
made this
out of bronze
is significant
instead of using
an actual snake.
It's significant
because Jesus
wasn't a real sinner
that was put
on a cross,
but he was made
to be sin for us.
And as he is
hanging on the cross,
he bears our sin.
He bears our wrath.
And we can't miss
the role of faith
in the healing.
The bitten people
were as good as dead
unless they looked
to God's grace
in this,
his provision.
There was no other way
for them to receive healing.
They had to look
at God's provision
for life.
But to look
to God's provision
meant they had
to abandon
all their other hopes
of remedies.
Perhaps they had
gathered whatever
hope they could
and medicinal things
or whatever process
they could go through
to get rid of this fever,
but none of those things
were going to work.
The only way
they were going
to get healing
was to look
at what God
had provided
in the serpent
that was hanging
on the pole.
But in order
to do that,
they had to abandon
all their other hopes.
And is that not exactly
what salvation
is for us?
There's no other way
by which we can be saved
than through faith
in God's gracious provision.
And to receive
eternal life,
you need only
look to Jesus.
But to look
to Jesus
means that we must
abandon
all other
potential remedies.
Because none
of the other ones work.
We come to him
and him alone.
And we gaze
at the gracious
provision of our God,
our Savior,
hanging,
bearing our sins
on the cross.
And Kent Hughes
is so encouraging here.
He says,
no matter how horribly
they were bitten,
no matter how many times
they had been bitten,
or how sick they were,
the opportunity
for salvation
was there.
Even the most degraded
and miserable sinner
who looks to Christ
will be saved.
And that's why
our Lord used
this wonderful
illustration.
So we've seen
the gift of God,
that's Christ.
We see the call
of God,
look to Christ
in faith,
Jesus illustrates
that for us.
And remember,
he's answering
Nicodemus' question.
Finally,
we see ignoring
the love of God.
Ignoring the love
of God.
So as we emphasized
last week,
it wasn't a sense
of obligation
that motivated God
to give his son
for our sins,
but he gave his son
according to the riches
of his everlasting love.
God loves the world.
Jesus died
for the sins
of the world.
And all who come
to Christ in faith
will receive
this precious gift
of eternal life.
God loves the love.
But that begs
the question,
if that's true,
why then
do so many people
reject it?
Why do so many people
deny
this incredible love?
And the answer
is in verse 19.
this is the judgment.
The light
has come
into the world
and people
love 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.
Why do people
deny the love
of God?
Because they
love their sin
more.
Because they
love the darkness.
Notice the
contrast between
loves.
Verse 16
has the love
of God.
He loves
the world
so much.
This world
that he has
created
that he gives
his only son
in order
that we might
have eternal life.
But on the
other hand
the object
of our love
is the very
sin that
makes our
salvation
necessary.
In our
hearts
we want
our sin
more than
we want
life.
Which is
exactly why
a new
birth
is necessary.
John
often refers
to Jesus
as the light
in his
gospel.
In this
context
Jesus
is the
light
that
exposes
how
sinful
we
truly
are.
And we
don't like
that.
When we
come to
Christ
we cannot
come without
acknowledging
our
wretchedness
our
inability
to do
this on
our own.
And instead
of coming
to him
to be
exposed
we'd
prefer to
remain in
the darkness.
we see
this all
around
us.
We sing
about
this.
At
Christmas
hark the
herald angels
sing.
Hail the
heaven born
prince of
peace.
Hail the
son of
righteousness
light and
life to
all he
brings.
Mild he
lays his
glory by.
Born that
man no
more may
die.
Born to
raise the
sons of
earth.
Born to
give them
second
birth.
It's
this
wretchedness
and love
of the
darkness
that has
so
infiltrated
our
hearts
that we
would never
cry out
to God
on our
own.
That's
why
Jesus
tells
Nicodemus
you need
the wind
to blow.
You need
a new
birth.
You need
the grace
of God
to change
your heart.
We see
this in the
Christmas story
evidently
in the
person of
King
Herod
right.
He knows
based on
the testimony
of the
Magi
and on
the testimony
of the
chief
priest
and the
scribes
that revealed
to him
the prophecies
of the
Old Testament
that if
this really
was the
King of
the Jews
this is
the one
this is
the Messiah
he's the
one yet
what did
Herod do
with that
information
he sought
to kill
him
he sought
to kill
him
why
because he
loved the
darkness
more than
the light
and we
see this
in people
around us
a couple
of nights
ago
a Christmas
Eve night
we were
at my
parents
house
and
somebody
had turned
on a
new show
that has
Will Smith
going around
the world
and looking
at all these
natural things
like volcanoes
and stuff
like that
and of course
that
I don't know
if you do
this but
anytime
somebody
pops up
on TV
that's
famous
we usually
try to
figure out
what do
they really
believe
you know
and somebody
says
I wonder
if he's
a Christian
and so
my brother
in law
RJ
started
looking online
to see if he
could find
what kind
of information
about Will
Smith
and what
Will
Smith
believes
and apparently
based on what
he had found
he grew up
as a Christian
and even
in a Baptist
church
of sorts
and
but as he
got older
he decided
that he
believes
that there's
a God
but that
he hates
organized
religion
which is
really just
another way
of saying
I don't
want anyone
to tell me
what to do
I want
to do it
myself
and make
up my own
mind about
how I'm
going to
live my
life
and he
said
what I
want to
do
is I
want to
find all
of these
religions
and I
want to
find the
things that
I like
the most
about these
different
religions
and I
want to
bring them
together
and that's
really what
my faith
is
so God
is there
God
is there
I don't
want to
deny
that
but I'm
going to
get the
best things
out of all
of these
other things
that's just
another way
of saying
I don't
really know
if God
is there
but if he
is and if
he's good
I'm sure
that he
will reward
nice people
who really
do their
best and
try their
hardest
but it's
not really
about
subscribing
to a
person
or a
thing
so I'm
just
going to
grab
all of
these
little
things
what is
that all
about
that's
about
loving
the
darkness
in
Jesus
has come
the light
but men
love the
darkness
rather than
the light
because their
hearts are
evil
because in
them there
is depravity
and sinfulness
and a nature
that must be
redeemed
and they
grasp at
everything
possible
except for
the one
thing
that can
actually
help them
they refuse
the provision
that God
has given
in order
to pursue
their own
things
and God
says listen
Jesus
says listen
you've got
to be born
again
and look
verse 21
we'll finish
with this
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
so lest we
arrogantly
think too much
of ourselves
as if
we did what
was necessary
and the others
didn't
we were
smarter than
them
or we were
more capable
than them
we're reminded
here in
verse 21
that coming
to the
light
actually
reveals
God's
work in
us
the wind
has blown
and its
effects are
visible in
us
and this
is a result
of God's
grace
isn't it
isn't that
why we
worship him
and we
thank him
because of
his grace
so maybe
this week
if you
gather with
family once
again
perhaps for
extended
Christmas
gatherings
or maybe
maybe for
your New
Year's
gathering
if you do
something
like that
maybe
maybe a
good question
to ask
is in
is the
wind blowing
in your
life today
do you
hear his
voice
is he
calling
believe
him
follow
him