APR 14 2024 | The Gospel of John S3E2 | Light Work

Sea Change Church · APR 14 2024 | The Gospel of John – S3 Ep 2: Light Work
John 3:16-21
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

The Gospel according to John, chapter 3, verses 16 through 21. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and 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 they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

This is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but people love darkness instead of light because their deeds were 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 they have done has been done in the sight of God.

This is the word of the Lord. God bless you. Well, good morning, church. My name is Harry. I love that we have that Chosen theme song going on. That's pretty rad. I'm the family pastor here. It's good to be with you. And we are continuing in our series, going through the book of John together. And you'll notice if you were here last week, we're in the exact same passage as we were in the week prior.

That's because Pastor Adam really butchered it. And so I'm just kidding. That's not true at all. Not true at all. He really focused on 16 through 18. And so he asked me to stay in the same passage and to focus on 19 through 21. And so that's what we're going to be doing today. And as we do is just some context of the passage that we're talking about as we jump in.

And that is that this is a conversation that we're jumping into between Jesus. This is Jesus speaking. And he's speaking to Nicodemus. And Nicodemus was a Pharisee. But not just a Pharisee. He was known as the Pharisee of Pharisees, the teacher of teachers. He was someone who would have been an expert in the law, in the Torah, in the prophets, right?

And he, Nicodemus, actually calls this meeting with Jesus under the cover of night because he knows it would have been bad for his reputation to meet with Jesus in the broad daylight. So he meets with Jesus in the darkness, which I think is one of the great ironies of this conversation because Nicodemus calls a secret meeting in darkness. And Jesus is gonna talk a whole lot about stepping into the light.

And so let's continue on. Let's go ahead and read again verses 16 through 19. It says, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and 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.

This is the verdict. Light has come into the world but men love darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. So verse 19 starts off with this is the verdict. This is the verdict. And this is a word, that word for verdict in the Greek has actually already been used three times. You might notice also that this passage that we're going through, if you were here last week, it's a slightly different translation.

This is the NIV 1984 versus the current NIV. And that's because there's a few changes in the current NIV, especially in the end, that aren't as helpful. I think for what we're talking about today. And when I say helpful, I mean accurate. I'm just trying not to be mean. It's wrong. Let's just say it together. It's wrong. Okay, good. We're on the same page.

We'll talk about that when we get to the end. But it's a hard passage to translate, to be fair. I actually called my old Greek professor because I always, if I'm going to preach, I always spend Monday looking at the passage in Greek. And so I called him because it was a really hard passage. And shout out Mark Duzik. He's an awesome guy. But for this word, this word can literally translate the word for verdict to judgment.

And it's already been used three times. It's the same word that the NIV here translates it, condemned. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn or to judge the world. And whoever believes in him is not judged, but whoever does not believe stands judged. In verse 19, this is the judgment. Okay? So it's all kind of building to Jesus saying right here, what's the verdict?

What's the judgment for those who do not accept God's one and only son? And he says, the judgment is this. First thing, light has come into the world. And another thing I'd like to tweak while we're tweaking the NIV, the original Greek says, the light. And I think that the is actually really important. I'm not sure why they chose to take it out, but it's because, that is important because Jesus is not just a light.

Christianity would be way more popular today on all the talk shows. And if Jesus, if you change the definite article, the, to an indefinite article, a, a, a, a light, right? But Jesus isn't just a light. But if we think about him that way, it'd be more accepted. You know, because Jesus can be a light, and Muhammad can be a light, and Buddha can be a light, and Oprah Winfrey can be a light, and there's all these lights, right, in the world.

But the Bible says that Jesus is the light. He's the light. And not only is he the light, he's the promised light of the world. See, when Jesus is using this language, it's Old Testament language that Nicodemus would have totally been able to pick up on. because there's passages that talk about the Messiah coming and being the light of the world. I included one in the, in this message.

It's not in your notes, but it'll be on the screen. It's Isaiah 42, six through seven. This is God talking about the Messiah coming, and to the Messiah. He says, I will appoint you to be a covenant for the people, and a light to the nations, in order to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, and those sitting in darkness from the prison house.

So God says that the Messiah is going to be a new covenant for the people, that he's going to be a light to the nations, a light to the world, and he's going to rescue people from darkness. And so Jesus references that, and he says to Nicodemus, that light, yeah, it's coming to the world. It's here before you. The lights come into the world to rescue people from darkness, but the problem is, as Jesus says, is people love the darkness.

We love the darkness. How are you going to rescue someone who doesn't want to be rescued? See, there's an incongruency between our love and God's love. God says, in John 3, 16, right, God so loved the world. John 3, 19, people love the darkness. There's this incongruency between our loves. And notice, it doesn't say people thought the darkness was intellectually more stimulating or an intellectually cognitive, more viable position or a more moral position.

People thought the darkness was just a better path. It doesn't say any of that. It says people love the darkness. The reason I bring that up is because sometimes we think that in this wealthy, educated society, that the main barrier to faith in God's one and only son is intellectualism. And that can totally be a barrier for us. That can be. But honestly, it's a surface level barrier.

The Bible tells us continually that the main problem we have is not an intellectual problem. It's a love problem. We have a problem with our loves. In fact, Romans chapter one, if you don't believe me, says the same thing. It actually even says, although they knew God, they chose, they did not want to acknowledge him as God, to worship him as God. So we don't have as much of a knowledge problem as we do a problem with our loves.

We have a love problem. I put in our notes today that it is a misalignment of our love that keeps us rooted in darkness and away from the light. A misalignment of our love that keeps us rooted in darkness and away from the light. And so we need help. We need God to move in our hearts and in our minds. And Jesus actually talks about it in this passage previously when he's talking to Nicodemus.

He references Ezekiel that talks about hearts of stone becoming hearts of flesh. He talks about rebirth and the need to be reborn in the spirit because we have a love issue and we need God to infiltrate our hearts. And change our hearts and change our loves. Let's go ahead and let's keep reading. Let's go to verse 20. We'll read 20 through 21. It says, everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his 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. when I was in eighth grade, one of my favorite activities, me and my best friend, we would take the 30 bus and we go to UTC Mall. And the best thing to do at UTC Mall, I don't know if you know this, but Abercrombie and Fitch had a store and at this store they had this deck on the store and the deck had all their mannequins out and they were wearing their Abercrombie clothes.

And so the best thing to do at the mall is we'd come up, we'd get up on the deck and we'd pants the mannequins, right? And we'd run and we'd hide and then we'd just watch people walk by to see the mannequins with their pants around their ankles, like point and laugh and then some disgruntled Abercrombie employee would come out and like redress the mannequin and then we'd come right back up and pants the mannequin again.

And we would just do this over and over again all day, just little eighth grade terrors, right? And then it got to the point where they actually put safety pins on the mannequin's pants, right? And so we'd come up and we'd rip the safety pins off and pants the mannequin. And on probably my ninth time pantsing this mannequin, I'm quickly met by disgruntled Abercrombie employees and they're not as intimidating as maybe like all the Burley model, like if they were jacked, right?

Maybe I would have been more scared. But I'm met by angry adults and it's clearly like time to face the music. They had called mall security. I'd been messing with them all day. Like it was like, all right, dude, you've had your fun. Like now it's time to face the music, right? So naturally I ran. And so I run, I just start booking it, man. And I go to the 30 bus and I hightail home.

And the reason I run is very simple. I did not want my deeds to come into the light. I did not want my actions to come into the light. Because if my actions came into the light, well, wouldn't I be punished for them? And then I probably couldn't keep getting to do what I want to do. I couldn't keep pants and mannequins, right? Maybe I'd get grounded. Like, I don't know.

But my deeds coming into the light would restrict what I wanted to do, so I thought. And this is kind of the same thing with sin and with darkness. We think of it often as freedom. Because we can just do whatever we want, right? Sin and darkness, it's just freedom. Because I don't have to answer to any higher authority and I'm just going to, as long as I do whatever I want to do and I keep it kind of low key, like I can do whatever I want.

We think that's freedom. But the reality is, is darkness will always flee the light. It's always going to flee from the light. And you end up becoming more enslaved to the darkness, enslaved to your sin, enslaved to your selfish ambition and desires and addictions and trying to keep that all under wraps, right? So people don't see and it becomes more slavery than it does freedom.

See, there's actually so much freedom in stepping into the light. My wife told me this week as I was brushing my teeth, she said, she said, you know what I love about you? I was like, what? What do you love? Tell me. Because I got a big crush on her. She's awesome. And she was like, I was like, okay, I'm a puppy dog. What do you love? And she was like, you know, I love that anytime I ask for your phone or a password to your email or your Instagram or whatever, you just give it to me and you don't even ask why I want it.

But she's not like snooping. We work together. So she goes through my email or like we share a son, right? So she gets all the photos from my phone, whatever. And so I just give her the thing. So she's like, oh, I love that about you. And I was like, well, it's not as romantic is what I thought you were going to say, right? You're going to talk about my dashing good looks or something.

But I get what she's saying. She was saying she loves to know that there's nothing to hide. And there's so much, it was such a good point she was making. I was like, oh, I didn't even realize that's a freedom I experience. That I just like, yeah, sure, here's the thing. You know, like there's freedom in being a people with nothing to hide. What if we as followers of Jesus could be a people who just had nothing to hide?

And that does not mean a sinless people. Because my wife can surely testify and come up here and tell you about all my sin. She's pretty aware of it, painfully aware of it. Anyone who walks with me closely in my life knows, yeah, Harry's got some issues. Harry's got some sin. Not as much as you guys, but still. I'm just kidding. It's a joke. It's a joke.

Just joking. It's not that I'm sinless. It's actually, the thing is, is I'm just not hiding that much of it, right? And as Christians, we're actually not called to hide our sin. We're called to confess our sin. To bring our sin to the light. There's so much freedom in that. In confessing. And in fact, I'd say in the Protestant church, the art of confession, the discipline of confession, has kind of become a lost art in the Protestant church.

And that might be a reaction to like the split from Catholicism and all that stuff. And I'm not a huge fan of sitting behind a, you know, the booth and doing it that way. But the Bible does say to confess your sin to one another. And it says to confess it to God. Like to confess our sin. Do you have someone in your life, and I'm talking about a trusted person, someone who's striving with you in this life, that you can bring these things to the light with and walk with and confess with.

Man, there's so much freedom in that. But darkness enslaves. I put in your notes that you will either be transformed by the light or malformed by the darkness. You're either gonna be transformed by the light or malformed by the darkness, but the reality is you will be formed. We are all undergoing a process of spiritual formation. So the question is not if you will be formed.

The question is how will you be formed? Are you gonna be formed in the image of our culture, in the image of our sin and our fleshly desires, in the image of your family of origin? Or are you gonna slowly and surely be formed in the image of God's Son, in the image of Christ? We will experience and do experience formation. Let's go back again to verse 21.

It says this, but whoever lives by the truth comes into the light. Let's just pause there. Whoever lives by the truth comes into the light. That phrase live by can be translated do, make, or practice is the literal translation. To do, to make, to practice. And I like that a lot better than live by because we live every day and we do a lot of things as we live kind of passively.

But the root of this thing is that it's something I do all the time. It's something I practice. Right? It's a daily thing that's in my practice. It's the same exact word when it says everyone who does evil. That word is really everyone who practices evil. Right? It's not a one-time thing I did wrong or a one-time good thing I did or a prayer I prayed. It's a thing that I practice.

Everyone who, where is it, but whoever lives by the truth or practices the truth comes into the light. What does that mean to live by the truth? It's to make God, or to practice the truth, it's to make God a part of your daily habits and rituals. Right? Not a one-time thing but a daily habit and ritual. This is something that would have been very familiar to the Jewish person.

Right? The Jewish person was great at practice. I mean, they fasted twice a week. They practiced Sabbath once a week. They didn't, they abstained from several things in their culture. They went to the temple. Right? I mean, they had a practice to the point where it got too close to legalism as we learned with the Pharisees. Right? But that's not as much as our problem.

Our problem in our culture is kind of the opposite. We fall victim to a lack of practice. We fall victim to this consumerism culture where sometimes following Jesus is more like going to the shopping mall. Show up once a week, maybe twice a month, you know, every other week. I show up when I feel like it and then I, you know, I grab a cup of coffee and I sit down and I hear some music and I listen to a message by a really handsome preacher and a little under in the height category but he makes up for it in charisma and I hear that message and then I get up and I get a donut and I high-five my friends and I go home and I put nothing into practice.

I'm not saying you do that. You can be the judge of that. I'm not saying you do that. I'm saying how easy it is to do that. I mean, it's just so easy to do that, to make this something we consume instead of something we do, instead of something we practice to make this a part of our everyday rituals. Richard Foster, who's an author who talks a lot about putting faith into practice through spiritual disciplines, he says this, I put it in your notes, he says, human beings seem to have a perpetual tendency to have somebody else talk to God for them.

The history of religion is the story of an almost desperate scramble to have a king, a mediator, a priest, a pastor, a go-between. In this way, we do not need to go to God ourselves. Such an approach saves us from the need to change for to be in the presence of God is to change. How are you going to God yourself? How are you going to God? And in that time, how is God changing you?

And this is great. Like, this is important, so don't hear me wrong. I wouldn't have a job if I didn't like it, right? This is an important thing. In fact, the Bible says, do not forsake meeting with one another. So our gathering is really important. This is great. But again, it's just easy to show up and be led by someone else in worship, in prayer, in a message, and then not in practice, right?

How do we, how do we actually engage God in practice? Something Pastor Adam has said for years since I've been here is that Sunday should just be the cherry on top of your week of following Jesus, right? It's important. We need to be here. I think it's really important. But it's, but it's just part of, it's just the cherry on top of how you engage with God. Let's go back again to verse 21.

So, it says, but whoever lives by the truth or practices the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God. So, whoever lives or practices the truth, they build a habit of walking with God in the truth, they come to the light so that for the purpose of what? Of giving God glory. To show, man, that all this practice, the way my heart and my life, the way God's moving and changing in me, I'm eager to step into the light so everyone can see that what's been done has been done through God.

So, his name gets glory. This is why I'm so passionate about this part of the translation being correct, not only because it is factually correct, but also because the new NIV translates it done in the sight of God. And that's fine, but it's not something that God just sees, right? That I'm just doing it and God's seeing it and he's separate from it. No, it's done through God, right?

God is empowering it and that's why I step in because I want to step in to give his name glory. I want everyone to know nothing is done in his sight that's done through him, that he's actually worked and changed me in my life. That's the purpose of those who step into the light. It reminds me of Psalm 23. Psalm 23 is a favorite psalm of everybody, right? Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul. Right? I mean, we love that psalm but then it says this, it says, now I'm forgetting what it says, good thing I wrote it down, that he leads me in paths of righteousness for what? For his name's sake. Yeah, he leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. So you're telling me that the Lord can take someone like me who loves the darkness, who loves the darkness and he can begin to shepherd me and in his shepherding he can restore my soul and in the restoration of my soul I can go from someone who loves the darkness to walking down righteous paths and guess who it's done for?

His name's sake. Who else could get glory for something like that? Who else could get glory from taking someone who loves the darkness and now putting him restored, walking down righteous paths? It's one name that could be glorified from that. It's for his name's sake. There's a great Bible commentator. His name was Harry Ironside. It's a good name. Harry is a really good name.

Ironside? Makes Wilson feel kind of lame. I'm going to change my name to like Harry Ironfist. And Harry Ironside, he was a pastor and a Bible commentator in the 1920s, I think, and he traveled all up and down California. And there's this story about him being in San Francisco and he was a big part of the Salvation Army and he was at the Salvation Army rally and there's music playing and bands and he's sharing his testimony and during the sharing of his testimony, somebody came up and they handed him a card.

and on the card it read, I'd like to challenge you to a debate of agnosticism or atheism versus Christianity. And he read that and he read that out loud and he said, okay, well, I'll accept this debate on one condition. My challenger, to make sure there's anything worth debating, my challenger has to bring two people, a male and a female, who have just been in the darkness.

I mean, just been, just, you can pick the darkness, doesn't matter, addiction, whatever it is, pick your darkness. You have to bring those two people and they have to be able to testify that atheism has just changed their life. You bring those two people and I'll bring a hundred of people who can, who will willingly, gladly, joyfully testify that Christ has changed their life.

And then somebody in the Salvation Army, one of the people who worked there said, sir, we can provide you 40 at least from this platoon alone and we'll even give you a marching band as you make your way. So Harry's about to roll up with a hundred plus people in a marching band to debate, right? And it's, why is that? Why is that so easy? Well, it's because if you have had your life changed by Jesus, you've been, you've gone from darkness into light, you are eager to testify, eager to say, look at what he's done, look at my life, not for my own glory, but what he's done and what's been done through him.

Look at what God has been doing in my life. I'm always amazed by the people God reaches. Like some of the, I mean, you ever have those people in your life where you're like, not them, like no chance, right? Like they could never be like, Jesus, God's good, but like that person, not a chance, right? We don't give God enough credit sometimes. I've been talking to somebody at my gym who I've known for years and this guy is a character.

I can repeat almost any word he says here and he's had a really intense, gnarly life and he started talking to me more and telling him his girlfriend's become Protestant and is kind of like talking to him and he started talking to me and he said, well, Harry, you know, I grew up Catholic and I've shot people. I was like, I don't know why those things need to be together, but okay.

It's a weird pairing. But I grew up Catholic and I've shot people and so I see things a little differently and I was like, fair enough. I haven't shot anybody. That's fair. But he said, but you know what? Something about what's being said is just starting to work on me and I'm not there. I don't know. I'm not there, but it's just starting. I was like, really?

Like this guy? Like God can do anything. The people he takes from darkness into light is incredible. I put in your notes, to step into the light is to step into a relationship with Jesus where nothing can be hidden but all can be healed. And if you're here today and you've never stepped into a relationship with Jesus or you've been here and you've done that but man, it's just like you feel like you've fallen back into the pit, I want to encourage you.

There is no amount of darkness that can disqualify you from the salvation of the light. Nothing in your past, nothing you've done can ever disqualify you from what Christ has done from you for the salvation of the light. Jesus is the light of the world. Yeah, amen. Amen. Jesus is the light of the world and the light of the world went to the cross and he took on my darkness and he took on my sin and he died so that a way could be made for you.

It's incredible. You ever wonder why when it says after Jesus dies it says darkness came over the land? It's because the light of the world went out. God sent his son who is all light, all beauty, all perfection and that son hung on a cross and was ridiculed and took on darkness and died and the light of the world goes out all to make a way for you and me. Don't ever think you can out sin the blood of Jesus.

Don't think there's darkness that can disqualify you. The light has been provided for us for a way to be made for us. That sacrifice is too beautiful for us to be able to out sin the blood of Jesus but you have to be willing to have your heart changed. You're gonna have to be willing to have your love reshaped and I just encourage you to step into loving relationship with Jesus but just know he's gonna change your heart.

He's gonna change your loves. He's gonna reshape and you're gonna eventually as you walk in stride with him build a practice of the truth and a practice of stepping into the light. And then you know what else is amazing? If you do that Jesus actually says we become people of light. In Matthew chapter 5 we'll close with this. Matthew 5 is the Sermon on the Mount and on the Sermon on the Mount these people who he's speaking with he have followed Jesus up a mountain and these are poor people.

These are the oppressed by Rome. These are not the elite. These are not the wealthy. They're not the religious academics. These are the impoverished and the poor and they follow Jesus up a mountain just in hopes to hear the words of truth and as Jesus begins to speak words of truth to them he looks at them and he says you are the light of the world. I thought he was the light of the world.

See that's the cool thing with Jesus. Jesus when we step into practice relationship with him when we come hungry and to hear the word of truth Jesus actually says we get to share in his light. We become people of light. People like he says in Matthew 5 that are like a city on the hill shining in the darkness. That's our call as followers of Jesus. Our call is to be a people of light.

An imperfect people for sure. A people still being formed in the image of God but a people with nothing to hide. A people eager to practice the truth and step into the light to give his name glory that everyone might know has been done through him. Amen? Amen. Let's pray and I'll invite you guys to stand. Go ahead and stand. And if you're here and you want some practical next steps there's a next step table in the back.

If you want to talk about baptism or small groups or any next step man please go get some next steps. Or if you are here and you want prayer something in your life you want prayer for we're going to have a prayer team up front that will come and that will pray for you. And so go ahead and extend your hands. We'd love to bless you here at this church. Father we are so grateful first and foremost for your provision of salvation that you sent your son into this world who is all light and all beauty as my substitute to pay my price so that I might have life apart from the darkness.