John 3:17-21 • Drawn to the Light
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Transcript
(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
Our Scripture reading this morning is found in John chapter 3, John chapter 3, as we will be looking at verses 17 through 21 in your Grace Bibles at your seats, that's page 888, as we consider what John says to follow, John 3.16, that wonderful capsule of the gospel that we looked at last week. That capsule of the gospel is in many ways considered to be one of the most precious packets of light. As God is saying, "Here's the wonder that I'm providing to you through my Son." But my question for you as we begin today is, when do you most appreciate the light? And the answer has to be when you've been in darkness. The more absolute the darkness, the more you appreciate any light at all. I remember one of those accounts from the World Trade Center tragedy of a group of people coming down one of the stairwells in absolute darkness and finding their way through the luminescence of somebody's watch style. Just that little light in absolute darkness meant so much. Today in John 3, 17 through 21, the way in which the apostle is going to have us appreciate the light of John 3.16 is by telling us the darkness from which it saves us. To prepare you, we have to say there will be some light here, but the main intention of the apostle is to have us appreciate light by truly understanding darkness. Let's stand as we would honor the Lord and His Word as I will read to you, John 3, 17 through 21. The apostle says, "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.
Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because He has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
And this is the judgment.
The light has come into the world and people loved 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.
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."
Let's pray together.
Father, the Spirit who gave this Word of light coming into darkness is the same Spirit that illumines our hearts so that that light who is Jesus Himself might shine there in such a way that we would grasp the wonder of it and appreciate it because the darkness is being dispelled and pushed away by the wonder that is Your grace toward us.
Help us this day, Father.
It's hard to talk about darkness.
But if we don't help one another just to understand what it would mean to be without the light of Christ, we haven't really helped at all.
And so we talk about darkness not for any joy in that, but for the respite that You provide when we have turned to the light that is Christ. Help us ultimately to see the joy and the wonder that is in Him we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.
Please be seated.
This time He would not take my heir.
The words of a young pastor speaking at the funeral of his younger brother.
The younger brother had pursued a life apart from God and in many ways had sought satisfaction,
happiness in the things of the world, but things had not turned out as he had expected.
His children were disabled and struggled greatly.
After some years of that struggle, his marriage began to fracture.
And the career was not all that he expected it to be nor as satisfying as he had wanted.
So financial pressures increased as well.
And for a while he fought it all off, the darkness that seemed to come closer and closer by first career immersion and then unwise relationships and finally with drugs.
But the darkness did not dispel, it just got deeper and deeper.
The pastor, brother of course, recognized what was trying to go on and spoke to him over time in this long path into darkness, but it did not seem to make any difference. And at the funeral of this young man who had taken his life, the brother, pastor, compared their experience to a time long ago when they were younger.
He said, "There was a time that we were scuba diving together and we got down deep into the darkness below the surface.
And when we were down so very deep, my brother's regulator failed and he could not get air out of his tanks.
The light at the surface was far too far away for him to swim to the surface and survive.
And so I shared my air with him.
He took my regulator and we shared air and made it to the light.
But this time," said the pastor, "he would not take my air."
The gospel has already revealed to us the light that is in Jesus Christ.
But there is a recognition that in order to get to that light from the darkness of many lives' existence, it is a long journey.
And what the apostle wants to do this day is to say, "You need the air of Jesus as well to make it to the light of your hope." And just to make us recognize the seriousness of that, the importance of seizing his words, his air to make it to the light, the apostle will describe for us in detail the nature of the darkness that instead may grab us.
So that we will not fear the darkness too much. The apostle starts with the light. You recognize it. It's verse 17, the explanation of the wonderful John 3.16 that preceded, explaining what it would mean that God so loved the world that he gave his only son. The apostle John says in verse 17, "For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." Here is the great statement of the purpose of God and the provision that is for us. The purpose that God has for his son is first stated in a wonderful negative.
God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world.
The word "send" there is the word "apostela," which is the word we get apostle from. There was his son, God sent on a mission as an apostle to the world itself. And this mission, surprisingly enough, was not to condemn. I mean, it might be our very expectation if you just get a little background of this son coming into the world. Do you remember from the very first chapter we read what happened? In this Jesus, we are told in John chapter 1 and verse 4, "In him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in darkness.
But the darkness has not overcome it." Some of your Bibles will say, "Would not comprehend it." The language is of darkness trying to seize the light, try to grasp it as in an attack mode. There's a word of hostility and antagonism that here was the light of God coming to the darkness, but the darkness would have no part of that.
In fact, you may remember a little bit later in that chapter would say, "Even of Jesus, he came into his own, and his own received him not."
And yet, out of this context of the light of God coming into the world in this darkness, and the darkness reacting against it and not receiving it is this wonderful statement, but he did not condemn the world even yet.
You could expect it. You would expect it, particularly in light of what John 3.14 reminds us. John 3.14 says, "When he came into the world, it came on this mission." Jesus himself speaks in John 3.14, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up."
He was not just rejected. Ultimately, he was lifted up.
A phrase used three times in the gospel of John and the very last time given the greatest explanation. "When Jesus said to those who were antagonistic to him, the Son of Man must be lifted up, and there John comments, in this way he revealed the manner in which he would die.
He will be crucified. The light would come into the world, and the world would crucify him. And yet the great statement of the gospel is, God did not send him to condemn the world. The world that would not receive him, but rejected him and crucified him, God, knowing it all, did not send his Son to condemn, but exactly the opposite." What?
In order that the world might be saved through him.
He did not come to condemn, but to save. Listen, it is the totally unexpected response. If the principal comes into the classroom and it's dark and there's a riot going on, you expect a few detentions.
But here is the Son of God coming to the world, rejected of men who would then crucify him, and his purpose is not to condemn, but to save.
That's the great statement of both sacrifice and righteousness and goodness, which we so deeply appreciate whenever we see it expressed even in humanity.
I think of the tragedies of our own culture as we think about Don Hockspring, the principal at the school in Connecticut where a gunman broke in.
And she, having worked two years, according to those who knew her, to establish security in the school, hearing the early shots, sprang from the conference room that she was in, hit the intercom to warn other teachers, saved most of the 700 children, but then ran right at the gunman to try to stop him.
She could have said, "Wait a second.
I've given so much to establish security. I've given so much to save, and now it just seemed like anything. I mean, I could just save myself in exasperation and walk away."
But her great sacrifice and great courage was to walk into the face of death.
And the reality is she did not know what she was walking into, but our Savior did.
And knowing it all, He did not come to condemn, but to save.
And the consequence of that is John 3, 18. Look at it with me, if you will, in your Bibles. John 3, 18. "Whoever believes in Him is not condemned. He did not come to condemn. He came to save. And whoever believes in Him is not condemned." It is so important that you hear that. I want you to read it with me. Do you have your Bibles open? I want you just to read that first phrase of John 3, 18. Would you read it with me? "Whoever believes in Him is not condemned." Would you read that again? "Whoever believes in Him is not condemned." Let it sink in. "Whoever believes in Him is not condemned." Why do you have to believe that? Because our hearts war against the notion.
We say, is it really true that just by faith in Him, that what is not right in my life could be put away, removed as far as the east is from the west, that my sin could rest upon Jesus upon the cross, the penalty be paid, and I would not be condemned because I believe in Him.
I mean, you recognize our hearts say it can't possibly be this true, this good. And so you almost have to take the verse in every one of its parts and say, "What wonder is here that the apostle wants to sink into our hearts." Just if you take the very end of that phrase at the beginning of Romans 18, "Whoever believes in Him is not condemned."
Paul takes it and makes so much of it. Remember at the beginning of Romans 8, "There is therefore now," what? No condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. And we hear those words and we think, "But if you knew my life, my failures, my secrets, you would not be so ready to say these words." And that's why it's so important that this same apostle John, as he later in his life, writes to the church, says these very words, "Whenever our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our heart and He knows everything."
And He knows everything.
What is obvious, what is hidden, what's been revealed, what is still secret, He knows everything and says, and yet if your heart condemns you about that, if you have put your faith in Him, He is greater than your heart.
So many of us, even though we believe in the work of Jesus Christ, we keep that record book in our hearts so that somehow when there is new sin, new shame, new guilt, we pull out the record book and we say, "Look, there it is again."
And our hearts condemn us as though the work of the cross is insufficient. And what the apostle is saying is, "You must hear me.
There is no condemnation. It is put away." And He knows everything and still says, "There is no condemnation." And the wonder of this John 3.18 is not just the end of that first clause, "No condemnation,"
but the wonderful "is" that precedes it. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned. It's the beauty of the present tense, the wonder of heaven that's beginning right now. It is not pie in the sky, by and by. Someday you'll stand before the throne of God and if you believe at that time, you'll not be condemned.
It's right now.
Whoever believes in Him is not condemned.
That our gain of the beauty of God's approval starts right now. God is not just saying, "Listen, I will forgive the sin of the past.
I will forgive the sin of the present." He's even saying the sin of the future, all the sin of those who believe in Christ Jesus was put upon Him at the cross. And what that means is there is no time in your life in which you stand condemned before God.
To believe in Him is not to be condemned. It's the wonder of recognizing how good it is to be right before God right now and every step forward.
We try to claim different aspects of our existence to make it clear. I think of Johnny Erickson Tada, a name some of you will know. Johnny in her teen years because of a diving accident became a paraplegic, a quadriplegic, and as a consequence was at first embittered toward God until the reality that heaven could begin right now.
That an eternal relationship with God, free of guilt and shame, that an understanding that He could enter your life in whatever the difficulty of the moment would be working all things together for a greater good regardless of your heart condemned you or not. That heavenly reality could start right now. She came to faith in Jesus Christ and yet would wrestle at times.
What about my continuing anger? What about my depression at times? What about the discontent of my situation? Am I still okay with God?
She wrote in terms of her wedding what she came to understand.
She wrote these words, "I felt awkward as my girlfriends strained to shift my paralyzed body into a cumbersome wedding gown.
No amount of corseting and binding my body gave me a perfect shape.
And as I was wheeling into the church, I noticed that I accidentally run over the hem of my dress leaving a greasy mark.
My paralyzed hands could not hold the bouquet of flowers that lay off center in my lap. And my chair, though decorated for the wedding, was still a big clunky gray machine with belts, gears and ball bearings.
I certainly did not look like the picture-perfect bride in all the bridal magazines.
But as I inched my chair closer to the last pew at the aisle to look down and catch a glimpse of my groom, Ken, in front, I saw him looking for me, craning his neck to look up the aisle. The love in Ken's face washed all my feelings of unworthiness away. I was his pure, perfect bride. When, from that moment and all forward, the grease still on the dress, the incapacity of the body, and yet washed clean, made right, adored by the love of another. And here is God saying to us that when we believe there is now no more condemnation, that this reality of the love of God for us is made right now and forever.
On what basis?
The beginning of verse 18 again, so important. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned. It doesn't just say the tall or the short people, the white or the black people, the good or the bad people.
Whoever, whoever believes in Him, that by faith alone in what He has done, not climbing the mountain, not achieving the goodness, not getting my life straightened out, if I will believe in Him that He has provided the way for me, that His death upon the cross was the penalty of my sin, in that moment I am made right with God and there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. It's right now and forever.
That's the wonderful purpose and provision of the God who was sent. For you, for me, it's the light of the gospel.
And still we may not appreciate it without understanding the darkness.
The darkness follows the statement of life so that we will understand from what we are rescued. Do you remember the end of verse 18 after the wonderful statement, "Whoever believes in Him is not condemned this."
But whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment.
The light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
The middle of verse 18 is the verdict.
Whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. It's not language we use much anymore to believe in the name of somebody. We do know what it means to believe in somebody. You know, the coach says to his passing quarterback, "It's the last play of the game. I believe in you." You know, get in there, you know. In which saying, you know, "I believe in your character. I believe in your ability." And it's not so unlike what it means in the Old Testament and in many parts of the New to believe in the name of somebody. You may remember that the name of somebody in biblical times was often to identify their character as well as their purpose.
So the angel, when he spoke to Mary, said, "You shall name this child who is coming. You shall name his name Jesus," which means deliverer, "because he will save his people from their sins." Name him deliverer because he will be a deliverer.
His name indicates his purpose. And now, says John, "For those who believe in his name, who believe that his purpose is to save them, that he will do that.
There is no condemnation.
But against that great statement of light is the darkness.
But if you do not believe in his name, you are condemned already."
How could that be?
Because if you do not follow the light, you simply remain in the darkness.
One of those terrible but amazing stories of the World Trade Center on 9-11 has only been told in recent weeks.
It's amazing. Here we are more than a dozen years after that great crisis. And some people are just now telling their tales because of the pain, because of the scar of the memories, and because of survivor guilt, I made it when others did not.
Only now can some so reckon with the events that they are willing to tell. And one recent book is by a man who was the last one out alive from the South Tower.
And he tells how when the first explosion seemed to rock the building, how he and others first went up the stairways in the darkness until the smoke became too much. And then literally he and a group of people went down scores of floors until they got to a place in the darkness where they were blocked and could go no further down.
There was a voice at a distant stairwell across the floor.
A man saying, "There may be a way down here."
And in this little group, there was a man with a flashlight who was willing to lead them through the maze if they would follow him.
The last man out followed the light.
The others, unsure what was at the other end of the maze, decided to go back up into the darkness where they had been safe at least for a while and they all perished.
The light can be offered and you can refuse the light.
And that is why John is saying here, "The light has come into the darkness." And the light is this great message. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned is not condemned.
But you can choose not to be drawn to the light. And if that is the case, you remain in darkness.
And therefore, John says, whoever does not believe in his name is condemned already.
What's the verdict?
What's the sentence?
You know, even in our judicial positions now, there's a difference between the verdict and the sentence that comes. The sentence is actually described in verse 19 and it may surprise you. "After we have heard that whoever does not respond to the name of Jesus, 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."
Now, the verse ought to surprise you. Do you understand what's being said?
What is the sentence, the judgment of those who will not respond to the name of Jesus?
They get what they love.
They love the darkness and they get the darkness.
There are lots of definitions of hell in the Bible. One of the strongest and hardest for us is one that we'll have to deal with in future weeks at the end of this passage where it talks about the wrath of God against unrighteousness. But here's a dimension of hell that we do not often think about. It is people getting exactly what they love.
You do not want the light of the gospel and so what you get is the very darkness you love. But what is that darkness like?
People love the darkness rather than the light because their works are evil.
They don't want to be seen. They don't want their lives pursued, their engagements, their attitudes, their activities to be observed by the light and so they live in hiding. I think one way, you know, lots of commentators will talk about this. It's like, you know, walking into the kitchen at night and turning on the light and the roaches, you know, going for cover, you know. They don't like the light. They run to the darkness.
But the human reality is far more poignant and in a certain sense far more respectful.
Where the Apostle is willing to say there are those people who prefer darkness because they do not want what they are pursuing to be exposed by the light. As they would somehow, if having to face the gospel of saying, "The path I've been on, the darkest I'm in, is not where I'm going to go anymore. I'm going to come to a different light, into a different existence." Then I've got to admit that what I was pursuing was unfulfilling. The reason I don't want it really to be exposed, the reason I have to put on a mask, the reason I have to cover up the darkness of what I think about my own opinion is it has not been the very thing I would hope it would be.
I pursued what I thought would bring me happiness, what I thought would bring me satisfaction, but the reality is it's just emptiness and void and darkness.
It's I suppose somewhat compared to a person that is having an affair with someone who's married and thinking all the time, "That person will leave their spouse and love me." And so we love that person.
And the love for that person becomes an addiction and it creates guilt and shame and ultimately we were spent in it, but the other person never loves us back.
It's the nature of darkness. The reason it's the condemnation, the sentence of sin itself is that we love the darkness, but it doesn't love us back. The things that we thought would provide the satisfaction, whether it's the pattern of life or the career that we pursued or the patterns that we pursued or the relationships that we pursued, all this that we felt would bring this light of life into our lives. What the reality is, we're now there and we can't face the fact it's not at all what we hoped it would be.
And to confess that, to acknowledge there might be a different path, is to follow light into the gospel that we don't want to follow because we've learned to love the darkness and we don't want the darkness of our lives to be exposed.
That's why the Apostle speaks with such wonder and grandeur of the goodness of the light. Do you recognize even if you have pursued the darkness, even if there is much there that you are not proud of, even if there's much there that does not satisfy you, you've given your life to things that have not been what you wanted them to be, nonetheless, there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. But on the beginning of a life of goodness and eternity with Him, and it's that beginning of that eternal life with Him that now is being unfolded in front of us to say, "Here is light in the life of God." And as you pursue that, there is such wonder there that you don't have to pursue anything else, you don't have to fear the exposure. There's no condemnation in Him.
We turn away because we truly do not want to be exposed, not just to the shame of it, but to our own dissatisfaction with what we have been doing.
I thought of it sometime recently when I got an email from a friend of mine who is a pastor in India.
He wrote these words, "In September, we and some other church leaders were confronted by rebels who demanded the church jeep.
My friend Leon said, "We are not going to give you our jeep, for it's to be used in the service of the Lord and not to help people who are killing others."
But on October 1st at night, we were having a meeting in the village church and I was preaching.
At about 8.30, three gunmen in combat dress entered the house where I was staying, led me to an open field about 100 yards away.
The men ordered me to kneel down, and I did.
And then just as they were about to carry out their evil plan, God used a small solar light which was about 200 meters away.
Now I don't know exactly what he's describing. I think of the solar lights that are along our garden pathways, right? You know, not very bright, just kind of dim light. And he says it's 200 yards, 200 meters away.
But even that little bit of light was going to expose the murder that these rebels were about to commit.
And because of that exposure, he writes this, "Since they could not find the switch to turn it off, they started stoning the light bulb.
But they were drunk and under the kick of some drug, so they kept missing their target.
And the sound brought the area commander of police, and they ran again into the dark."
They could do it.
They could have killed him right there.
But somehow even the exposure of any light at all upon their intent and their purpose and their lives scared them away.
I don't know where you are.
So much of what John is doing is forcing us to some self-examination.
Just a little bit of the light of the gospel in your life, maybe just this service itself, where you are hearing that there is another path and the one that you are pursuing, the one that you thought would bring notice and finance and security and satisfaction, is even just a little bit of the light of saying, "Did it really?"
If you were walking apart from the light of Christ, did it really bring you what you hoped it would bring?
Would you be so brave then as to let the light of the gospel shine a little wider and longer and more intensely into your life so that you could say, "If the darkness that you have loved has not loved you back, would you be drawn to the light of the one who has loved you eternally and says to you, "There is no condemnation in me."
If it's a long way, if it is a long way from your darkness to that light, you may need the final air of the gospel that is in this passage. It's verse 21.
Having described those who would flee the light, the contrast John says is, "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." Here's the contrast. There are those who are doing what is contrary to God, and they're constantly hiding from others or from themselves the reality of the darkness that they are in.
But those who do what is true, we kind of, "What does that mean, doing what is true?" It's what is true to the nature and character of God. If you are doing what is true to God, you don't fear coming into the light.
In fact, you're willing to come into the light because what it exposes is the God who has given you the light. Did you see the end of that verse, end of verse 21?
The reason that we do not fear coming into light is so that it may be clearly seen that our works have been carried out in God.
Here's the air. It's the very last two words, "In God."
Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount that the reason that we are willing to do our works before men, right, is sometimes that we'll be noticed by them. But the reason that we as believers are willing to do our works is so others will not notice us, but they will see the God who enabled us and give praise to Him.
"Now," John is saying, "for those of us who do what is true to God, enabled by Him, what we are showing to the world is the light of Him in us." We say to the world, "Yes, look what I did in Christ through God." It's that wonderful statement of union with Christ that God is saying, "Listen, if you're with me, if you have been drawn to the light, if you're walking with me now, you are not alone and you are not stuck in the dark."
I think of some friends who called our family just recently and they were rejoicing. They said, "We were praying for our child who's not been walking with the Lord. He lives in another city now. And we were praying for the light of the gospel to come into his life. And he was in a bookstore one day and we don't know how it happened, but some friends of ours who are believers, their son who is walking with the Lord, came across his path in the bookstore. And as they just in conversation begin to talk about where you're from and who do you know and so forth, they struck up an acquaintance and the other friend has invited our son to go to church.
Now you would think, "Now why are they telling the pastor this?"
So that I would think, "Aren't they great people of prayer?"
No, why were they telling me that?
They were saying, "Isn't God great?
He's in our lives. We are not alone. We are not stuck in the darkness. Is there darks? Of course. But we're pressing against it with the reality of Christ in our lives, of God who is our light being with us. We are not alone. We are united to him. And in union with him, we recognize that our God is doing work through us for the sake of our lives and others' lives. In this world, it's the reality is we are not stuck in the darkness. Life doesn't have to be like it is right now. We are not alone anymore and our God is in our lives. That means real change is possible. This darkness is not my destiny. There really can be change. Not only can there be no condemnation, the reality is I can have the creator of the universe loving me and leading me and helping me from this time forward. Listen, I don't know when that begins to penetrate into different people's hearts and lives. I recognize that sometimes the light of the gospel is just like this blinding light that comes almost as a miracle as it did to the Apostle Paul. And, and you may remember that there are times when Zacchaeus just suddenly got the lightning boat. This is the Jesus.
But for other people, you recognize there can be this, this slow growing awareness.
I was on this path and I thought it was good, but my life is so empty.
And just over time, the wonder and the goodness of the mercy of God in Christ, the promise to be with his people and promise to help his people, that that promise, that mercy just begins to grow and, and things we've heard for years finally make sense. Like, like John Wesley, remember when he talked at Aldersgate, how his, his heart suddenly began to have this strange warmth as the gospel finally penetrated. But maybe neither of those describes you. Maybe you're more like the person, remember who this chapter is oriented around, this Nicodemus, this, this man who knows all the religious answers, he's, he's heard all the religious truths. And his life is such that, that sometimes he believes and sometimes he doesn't quite believe in this Jesus.
And sometimes he's full of joy and fights back against sorrow. And sometimes he's courageous and sometimes he's a coward. And he's kind of back and forth and back and forth until finally over time, he says, "What am I doing? What has the back and forth gained me at all?
I'm just going to give it all to Christ." And it's that great last step of his life in which he simply says, "I'm going to believe in His name. I'm just going to commit to Him."
Because all these people, where there is this, this blinding light of conversion, or there's this, this slow growth of the wonder of the gospel that creeps into your heart, or there's this back and forth that, that kind of goes back and forth until you come to the resolve that this Christ is really where my only hope is, regardless of which person you are, the, the common denominator, common denominator of all of these people is that all of them ultimately say, "Christ is my life."
The other things are darkness.
I need to turn another direction another way. And I need to simply say the things that I thought was satisfied would bring fulfillment, have not. Christ is my life. And that common denominator is the light of the gospel that dispels the darkness and brings us into the wonder of the life that He intends.
As we in union with Christ know we're no longer alone, and we're not stuck in the darkness
because Christ has entered in, and He's our life now.