John 3:17-21 • Drawn to the Light

 

Listen to the audio version of this message with the player below.

 

Transcript

(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)

 

Quite a blessing to hear that kind of music this time of year, isn't it? And music to me is also to hear the WASs and what they're doing. And let me just tell you, I think you know it from Brad being around here, but even at the seminary, a bright light. If after class anyone was going to come up and say encouraging words and be a bright smile, it was always Brad Was, and I'm thankful for you Brad. You're a light always, and I'm thankful for you.

Let me ask that you would look in your Bibles this evening at John chapter 3.

John chapter 3.

The Apostle John, you know, does not write a nativity account, speaking of Christ coming into the world.

Instead, he says that the Word came. Remember from John chapter 1, he mentions that the Word that was from the beginning came into the world, and that Word was life.

And His life was the light of men, and the light shines in darkness, but what? The darkness did not comprehend it. What really makes you appreciate light?

Darkness.

As a matter of fact, you may not really comprehend, maybe not understand fully the nature of light until you have experienced darkness.

I remember the account of some of those who were trapped in the World Trade Center on 9-11, and how a few of them navigated their ways in the darkness of the stairwells with the illumination of a watch.

In complete darkness, you truly value light, any light, any light at all. You begin to comprehend how important it is.

The light of John chapter 3, you already know, it's up there.

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, I was about to do King James,

one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have He turn. That's the light.

But I'm taking you to the following verses, John 3.17 and following, because in ways that may distress us a bit, having just spoken of that wonderful light, now John begins to introduce some darkness.

And you may say, "Why?

Why after such glory darkness?"

And the reason is so we will comprehend the glory of the light.

Here is what John writes, John 3.17-21, "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 is not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." This is the verdict.

Light has come into the world, but men loved 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 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.

Would you pray with me? Father, light has come into the world.

May the one who said, "I am the light of the world," be even in these moments our guide,

our way, our truth.

Let the light that he would give shine in our hearts that we might be a beacon to others.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Preachers tell the account of a doctor who on a Christmas Eve was giving word to a set of parents.

We will have to operate tomorrow.

We cannot wait.

His heart will not endure. We must do the operation tomorrow.

Even the doctor did not like that news. He wanted news. He wanted Christmas Day off, and it was a certain frown that he expressed it to the parent. But the little boy hearing the word from the doctor said, "Are you going to open up my heart?"

And the doctor said, "Yes, I'm going to open your heart." He said, "You will find Jesus there."

The doctor harrumphed a little bit and said that, "Parents, we're going to have to do this. I'll leave my word with my attendants and the nurses what has to be done.

You could come back early tomorrow, but you need to say your goodbyes now."

The boy said again, "But you will open up my heart, right?"

Doctor said, "Yes, I will open your heart.

You will find Jesus there."

The doctor with a frown left the parents, and the boy went to his office and into his recorder said the words that needed to be said, how the operating room needed to be paired, how people had to come off their Christmas days to participate in the operation, and then the words, "Because the pulmonary artery is so extensively damaged."

And even as he said the words, he knew so extensively damaged that no matter what he did, in a few weeks or months the boy would still die, the damage too extensive to be more than repaired briefly.

He did all the recording, all the preparations, and then walked to his car having to cross the Christmas lawn where the manger scene was there in front of the hospital.

And it made him hesitate.

He stopped and looked at it, and then as a fist formed in his pocket, he spoke in a steely whisper to the plastic manger, "Why did you do this to this boy?

Why did you bring him here to suffer?

Why must his parents experience such pain?"

He had not thought those questions for a long time. It was something about the juxtaposition of the pain and the manger, and for some reason thinking about it, the thoughts that he had been taught in his youth came to his mind,

that that child and the manger had come so that this boy, when he died, would be healed forever by believing in Jesus.

And his parents, though they would grieve for his loss, would one day be with him eternally, and this whole life that they would experience without him would be but a hands-breath in terms of the scope of eternity that they would spend with him in perfect joy and happiness forever.

He went home, did the operation the next day.

And as he was late in the day in the recovery room with the parents who had sat there the whole time, the boy kind of roused from sleep.

Did you open my heart?

Yes.

What did you find?

Said the doctor, "I found Jesus there."

Why?

Because sometimes it's only against the dark backdrop of the realities of this life that we discover how precious is the light of the gospel.

And it is knowing that that John speaks so plainly here of the darkness so that we will treasure the light.

It is something that we may hesitate to think about, to even want to talk about, that while we have the wonderful treasure of the gospel, the beauty of Christmas, the incarnation, the bells, the lights, the wonder, that not only may we not truly comprehend it but a world, our loved ones, who we will meet these holidays may not truly comprehend it if they don't see the darkness too.

That the gospel to be fully expressed, rightly understood, requires that we not speak only of the light but of the darkness too.

There is much light here.

John speaks surely of God's wondrous purposes and of the believer's promises, but ultimately he gets to the unbeliever's plight as well.

God's purposes so clearly stated in verse 17, "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world." Through him it is this wonderful statement of God's purpose. He sent His Son to save. Even that word "send" is precious. It's the same Greek word for "apostle."

God "apostled" His Son. He sent Him on a mission.

And the mission was to save.

But you know you can't really even understand what that means if you don't mention the darkness. The Son was sent on a mission by God to save.

That means there has to be something that you're being saved from. There is something not right.

The reason the Son was sent to save is that mankind, given the opportunity to sin, did.

And from that moment of our first parents, the darkness held sway.

Disease and death and disappointment and often great despair, it all became real, part of our present, part of this reality. And God sent His Son into the darkness with the purpose to save.

If we don't understand that, if we can't say that clearly to one another, then the goodness of God is not on display. We have to say when the first parents betrayed God, it was His purpose to save.

And when their children turned on one another in murderous envy, it was God's purpose to save. From every thought of the imaginations of their heart was only evil continually, so that a flood of recompense came upon the world. It was still God's purpose to save. And when those who were rescued from the flood not only turned in arrogance to drunkenness and immorality, but from God Himself, it was still His purpose to save.

And when the children of those who were saved from the flood thought by the work of their own hands they would gain heaven by towering up to Him on their own accomplishment, it was still His purpose to save. And even when He dispersed those peoples across the earth and saved a covenant people out of them, it was His purpose still to save, though they turned to prophets who were not loyal to His Word and to kings who were not loyal to Him and to judges who did not love Him, it was still His purpose to save. And even when He sent His Son to save and those very people would turn upon Him and torture Him and put Him upon a cross, it was still His purpose to save.

Do you hear the big story?

It's necessary that we let it penetrate again to understand that regardless of the darkness of His life or our life, it is still the purpose of God to save because if you don't believe that, it will not just hurt you, it will warp you.

I can remember on the seminary campus some years ago a young man meeting me on the sidewalk.

He had come to the seminary candidly with not a lot of ability to make it through and

not a lot of funds to make it through.

It was a hard, hard experience for him.

And not too long after being at the seminary, he and his wife had a child with multiple handicaps.

It was so hard upon them.

And he met me on the walk and he said, "Why does God do this to me?

I would not treat my child this way. Why does He treat me this way?"

You need to hear me clearly say, "I do not have an answer for that. I do not know. It was darkness that I could not explain." But you have to hear that even in the darkness, God's intention is to save.

We sing the song around Christmas time that it is God's will to sanctify to us our deepest distress to believe that a God who has demonstrated His nature so clearly and the purposes of His Son has no other intention but to save, to sometimes even by the bleakness of the winter of this world, to say, "You have to be rescued." And you may not understand that, sense it deeply, unless you've experienced the darkness so that not only can you say to the world you need to be saved, but you have to understand yourself. Light is so necessary because this darkness is real. I would love to tell you that that young man somehow had the light penetrate his darkness, but I can't tell you that.

I have watched him through the years since minister in a small church where I will tell you it is the ministry of condemnation, where he tries to move people and push them and urge them with the threat of the ogre in heaven who will get them if they do not straighten up.

And I've watched not only him not be able to understand that it is God's purpose to save, that even his own difficulty is God somehow desiring to sanctify and turn him from the work of his own hands. But even though we could say those words in a theology test, it's never really penetrated his heart that God's intention is to save. And I watch his anger and his hurt and ultimately the ministry of despondency. And I so much want to say, "I can't explain all this. I can't tell it to you all, but I can tell you about God.

His purpose is to save.

And if you do not know that, it will hurt you because all the difficulty that you face in life will be interpreted as God's frown against you.

Instead of understanding in a dark world, God came to save. His people too will experience the darkness, but he's shown us a light instead that will take us from such darkness, eternally, eternally.

And that's the goodness of the message yet. In fact, it is so good that John begins to say what it means.

He says, "For the believer, he will not be condemned."

That's a wonderful message in itself, right? God did not send, verse 17, his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Verse 18, "In the beginning, whoever believes in him is not condemned."

There's the wonder. Though God would have by the darkness of our own sin every right to condemn us, there is now because of the work of Jesus Christ no guilt, no penalty, shame removed.

We are not condemned. And the best commentators, when they look at this, they take care to point out the present nature of the verb. It's not just that someday, you know, that pie in the sky, by and by, we will not be condemned. It says, "No, those who believe are not condemned." Verse 18, "Whoever believes in him is not condemned." How does Paul say it in Romans 8-1? There is therefore what?

Now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. For those who recognize the blessing of the gospel, who have claimed it, there will never be one year, one month, one day, one hour, there will be never one second of condemnation that our whole lives are under the experience of the estate of grace. That is what God has said to you and me, that there is the claim of light already upon us. There is no condemnation.

What would it be if you understood that? Not just that there is darkness about you, but that it touches you no more and eternally will not.

Johnny Erickson Tada talks about her wedding day. Some of you have read the account. Though in her teenage years she was paralyzed in a diving accident, from the neck down,

the Lord called her to a wedding relationship, and she's written about that wedding day. She writes, "I felt awkward as my girlfriend strained to shift my paralyzed body into a wedding gown.

No amount of corseting and binding my body could give me that perfect bride's shape.

And as I was wheeling at a church, I noticed that I had accidentally run over the hem of my dress with my wheelchair, leaving a greasy tire mark on my wedding gown.

My paralyzed hands could not hold the bouquet of flowers that lay off center in my lap. My chair, decorated for the wedding, was still a big clunky gray machine with belts and bearings and gears.

I did not feel like any picture perfect bride out of a bridal magazine.

And yet, now picture it.

As I inched my chair at the back of the church toward the edge of the rear pew, I caught a glimpse of my groom.

I saw Ken looking for me, craning his neck to look up the aisle. And when I saw the love in his face, it washed away all my feelings of unworthiness. I was his pure and perfect bride.

Think of that. We all know that we're approaching Christ with greasy tire marks all over us of our own sin.

And yet if you can picture it biblically, there he is at the front of the church looking all over our whole existence and craning his neck, the look of love on his face, welcoming us forward and saying, "There is from this moment forward no condemnation.

It is my love for you that is calling you for. I'm reaching for you. I'm longing for you." You know the words of Zephaniah, right? The Lord your God is with you. He is mighty to say. He will take great — what? — delight in you. He will quiet you with his love. He will rejoice over you with singing.

This is the promise to the believer. There is no condemnation because God sent his Son to save. And this estate of grace is mine and it is yours forever.

And it's coming, this estate that we have, simply because we believe.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned.

Isn't that strange?

No great payment, no great effort, no great energy, such a simple thing that even children can do it.

Such an easy thing that even the dying can do it.

And yet for those who believe, there is no condemnation.

It is looking up the aisle of this life that you and I are walking through, even though it be dark all around us, and seeing at the end of the aisle the smiling face of the saved Savior, and believing that what he has done has removed all condemnation. And when you believe that, when you believe that, the light comes for all of life for the rest of the walk.

You may not treasure that as much as God intends if you don't see the dark.

And so the darkness gets described. It's the middle of verse 18.

"But whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he is not believed in the name of God's one and only Son."

This is the unbeliever's plight, just as the promise to the believer is that he is not condemned already.

The statement of the gospel is for the unbeliever, he is condemned already.

He says, "Well, that's not fair. No, wait, judgment's out there somewhere in some future year, in some future place.

But for those who do not believe, there is condemnation already."

How does that make sense?

Some of you may remember a news story a few months ago about a digital camera that was found washed up on the beach of a shore in Thailand.

The camera was destroyed, but the beachcomber popped out the memory card and read it.

The pictures that began to display were of a couple, John and Jill Nill.

They were vacationing in Thailand. They were there December 26, 2004, just last year.

And in the pictures that are displayed on this digital camera, the Nills having fun on the beach and occasionally taking pictures of the crowd on the beach, in one of the crowd pictures taken toward the ocean outward, on the horizon there is a dark line.

What was it?

It was the tsunami coming.

There are further pictures, them playing, other people having fun on the beach, even one final picture of the wave beginning to encroach on the beach itself.

The decision to stay where they were condemned them already.

So sure was the approaching wave, so vast, so great, so powerful what was coming.

That the decision to stay on the beach was a final decision even before the wave came.

John points into the future and he says, "There is a judgment coming and those who do not believe in the name of the one and only Son of God stand condemned already. There is a sureness of destruction coming for those who do not reach for the rescue from the light.

The rescue comes, how does it come? It says, "Whoever does not believe stands condemned already." Why are they condemned? Verse 18 toward the end, "That one is condemned because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." Now the wording is careful. We don't use that kind of language in our culture anymore. A coach may say to a young man, "You know, I believe in you, so get in there and pitch. Here's the ball. I believe you got the ability. I believe you got the dedication. I believe you got the training. I believe in you."

The language here is the one who's condemned does not believe in the name of Jesus.

Why is that?

I think, you know, because in ancient time a name did not just distinguish who you were in the family. It distinguished your function, your place in society. It was John the Baptist.

What does Jesus mean?

Savior, deliverer. They did not believe in the name of Jesus. They did not believe, do not believe that he is the Savior. He's the one who delivers.

They don't believe that he does that. Now you have to understand the picture of Scripture. God is not saying that he is just in spite saying, "Well, you don't believe in me, so I'm going to condemn you."

No, it's this notion, and you have to think in the paths of Scripture, or she'll go astray.

God is saying, "It is my purpose to save, and here is the lifeline. It is my son. He is the Savior. Throw it to you. Take it. Believe that's the way out. Don't you see the wave?"

Because if we don't understand that story, that picture, it's unfolding biblically, we can somehow impose a doctoral perspective that while it has certain correct features, is foreign to Scripture. We're able to say, "Wait, listen, we are reformed Christians.

We know that God saves only the elect, and if they're not elect, you know, well, that's just their plight.

You know, why should we be concerned? They're not elect."

Listen, there are mysterious aspects of the gospel. I cannot fully comprehend, but I understand what God is saying here.

Do not be unconcerned for those living in darkness.

I have sent my son. He is the lifeline. Those people will not be condemned because God is indifferent.

Here is his passion for the lost. Here is his desire to save, and he has given us not only his son, but the message of the son. We don't know in our humanity who are the elect and who are the non-elect, so he says, "Here's the story. You have the lifeline. There is the wave. Send the message out to people. Take it." This is the passion of God that he is passing to us so that we will say, "There is great darkness. There is great harm coming. You must claim the Savior."

If you don't have that passion, if you don't really see what the Palmers and the Wasas and so many of you do in the workplace, if you don't really understand that God is not just kind of saying, "Well, they don't believe in me, so in spite I turn my back," but rather he is saying, "I never stop coming toward you.

I never stop sending my son to save in his eternity nor in the ministry of the people that know him."

God means to save. Well, why don't the unbelievers believe then? God's clear about that. He says in verse 19, "This is the verdict.

Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil." This idea that even though the lifeline is coming, men won't reach for it because they actually love the darkness. Why? Because it's a cover for their sin.

And even that is given some more explanation in verse 20. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. There's not just the desire to cover deeds. There's the sense that the darkness will maintain my freedom.

I can continue to do as I please.

Leon Tombing is a name that some of you know. He's a seminary graduate who wrote some of us recently about his experience of this past fall in September of this year. Now that's while Covenant Seminary and most schools of the country were starting. Think of this.

Leon who's now serving in India was approached by rebels in a province and they demanded the church jeep.

Leon said, "We cannot give you our jeep, for it is to be used in the service of the Lord and not to help someone who is killing other people."

The jeep was demanded in public, the refusal was given in public, and it embarrassed the rebels who could not do anything in the light of day.

But they came later.

On October 1, you know, I actually looked at my calendar. October 1, I was preaching at a church on Sunday morning in Hixon, Tennessee.

And what Leon is about to describe was roughly happening at the same time that I was preaching at ease in a comfortable suburb of a church in Tennessee. Here's what Leon was experiencing by that time in the darkness of his time frame of the world.

On October 1 at night, we had a meeting at the Village Church. I was preaching after the sermon about 8.30 p.m. Three gunmen in combat dress entered the house where I was staying. They led me to an open field about 100 yards from the house.

The men ordered me to kneel down, and I did.

As they were about to kill me, God answered a prayer.

A small solar light. No, you've seen solar lights. We have them along our paths. How bright are they?

Not very bright.

He said a small solar light, which was about 200 meters away, caught the attention of the rebels. For me, this place was quite dark, but not for them. Their leader shouted, "Go and turn out that light. It's too bright."

And since they could not find the switch to turn out the solar light, they started stoning the light bulb.

They were drunk and under the influence of drugs, so they missed their target even after throwing several stones.

But the sound of the throwing stones brought the area commander to my rescue.

He sent me home, assured me of my safety.

I learned from this incident that God is in control.

He's even in control of the light.

Think about it. For Leon, the light was very small, but for those who loved the darkness, who believed that it would enable them to carry out their evil, the light was inhibiting. It would show their evil. It would keep them from doing what they wanted. The light was a threat to them. The life was, in their mind, some enslavement to them.

You have to understand that. We sometimes struggle, don't we? Even as believers, how could a good God allow condemnation?

How could a God who is gracious allow judgment? How could He even allow hell?

Do you understand, according to the Scriptures, that some of what God does even by His condemnation is let people have exactly what they want?

They love the darkness.

They desire it. They think it's better.

They think it will cover their deeds. We all recognize this to some extent, how even we hide our sin from other people, and we think we're free now because we can't be found out. What the Scriptures are saying is, "Don't you see? This is the slavery. This is the darkness." You won't understand the light if you don't see how darkness really enslaves you. You think it's better. It's not. What does light enable you to do?

It enables you to find your keys, let you find your socks, let you find your way.

The light is freedom.

It is so good that having kind of explained why unbelievers don't want the light, ultimately the apostle begins to say, "What do they miss by their love of darkness?" Verse 21, "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." Now, think of the contrast here. There are those who are described as hating the light. I mean, you almost get this image of turning over a log in the woods and the bugs running for the darkness again.

And then you get the other sense that there are those who are drawn to the light. Who are those? It's those basking in the approval of God. It's like stepping up on the stage for the Academy Award or something. You know, you're saying there's those who come into the light to receive their blessing, to receive their reward. There are those in darkness who think it's actual freedom that they're getting away with things and they're not recognizing that what they're missing is the light. It's like somebody who's saying, "I was able to shoplift this candy bar and I got away with it. They didn't see me."

And not recognizing that what God was offering was the whole star.

The world is what the Bible says. "He who spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also along with him graciously give us," what?

All things.

The world is our oyster and eternity our treasure. It's all ours so that even when the darkness of this world comes upon us, we say, "This isn't my prison. This isn't my bondage. My life goes beyond this. There's nothing ultimately that can stop God from fulfilling His purpose in me as long as I believe in Him. There's no condemnation for me. There's no end to me. Everything the world and eternity has to offer is ultimately mine simply by believing in Him."

And that's what the unbeliever misses.

And it's even better than that. The reason that the believers come into the light is so that it may be plain, seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God. Now, we see this other places in the Bible, doesn't it? Even Jesus tells us that we should obey God so that men will see our good deeds and do what?

glorify God.

But you have to understand the implication. If whatever I do that is seen in the light is actually being done through God, that means that by my belief I am actually in union with the creator of the universe.

The God who made all things, the God who continues to control all things by the word of His power is operative in my life so that the universe itself is bending, changing, reworking itself by God working His plan through His people in ways more incredible than you and I can express. This is the ultimate freedom that God has chosen to unite Himself as an eternal, sovereign, all-powerful being to finite creatures like us so that He is now through us performing His will for all eternity.

We have trouble even comprehending what that means and yet that is what God is saying and we won't appreciate it fully.

If we don't sometimes see the darkness, the disease and the disappointments and the despair

and to realize I may face this for a while but this is not the end of the story.

I am in union with the eternal God of the universe and all things are mine.

Thanksgiving service a year ago, Margie Thomas whom some of you know spoke at our Thanksgiving service over at Covenant Church and she spoke of how she'd put out too much trash on the curb for the recycling man so that Sam the recycling man came knocking on the door and said, "Ms. Margie, too much."

Oh, she said, "Sam, I'm sorry." And he thought a minute. He remembered the previous years she'd given his wife perfume at Christmas time so he said, "Oh, Ms. Margie, I'm sorry. It's okay. I'll take care of it."

And she said, "Bless you, Sam."

Sam the recycling man said, "Margie, Ms. Margie, are you a believer?"

She said, "Yes."

He said, "I'm a believer too. Isn't it great?

It means no matter what you've done or what you drive or where you are in life, eternity is yours."

She said, "That is great, Sam, but you know not everybody knows that and not everybody knows that blessing."

By this time they were standing on the curb together by the trash. She said, "Ms. Margie, what's wrong?"

She said, "My husband is dying."

She said, "Then we better pray for him."

And right there on the curb, Sam the recycling man held up his arms and began to pray, "Oh Lord, please bring your power and love into the life of this family." Margie bowed her head, occasionally looking up at the passing cars, wondering what the neighbors were thinking as Sam the recycling man was lifting up his hands toward heaven.

She wondered even more when Doug came out of the house up the driveway.

Sam said, "Sir, I don't know your heart, but if you believe in Jesus, eternity is yours." Doug was not a believer, went back into the house.

Doug died this last June.

At this year's Thanksgiving service, Margie read to our church her May entry in her journal.

Just days before Doug died, she wrote, "Doug said today, I am walking with Jesus."

I want you to think of the darkness that was closing in on Sam and Margie and Doug. Great pain, disease, grief, awful things.

And yet, Sam the recycling man and Margie, as instruments of the creator of the universe,

brought some light into that darkness.

And when the lifeline was extended, in God's time and in God's way, the light was extended.

Some of you are like me. We will have Christmas meals and New Year's Day with believers and non-believers in our family.

If you don't feel you can talk about the darkness, you may not be able to talk about the light.

But facing people and saying, "Yes, the grief is real. The pain is real. But listen to me.

Jesus came to save." This is not the end of the story.

And for those who believe in Him, there is light forever.

Receive it and tell it.

Pray with me.

Father, will You, after darkness, bring light?

And make us not afraid of the darkness.

Sometimes it is the very instrument of Your hand to make the light of the gospel shine for us and those about us.

You who sent light into the world, would You make us candles, one after another, passing it along,

until the whole world is touched by the light of our Savior.

We pray for this work in us and for this world. In Jesus' name, amen.


Previous
Previous

Colossians 3:1-5 • Dying to Live

Next
Next

Matthew 16:13-20 • Don’t Tell