He Must Increase

John 3:31-36

The entire Christian faith rests on the correct answer to Jesus’ question (Matt. 16:15), “Who do you say that I am?” If you get that question right, everything else is secondary. If Jesus is who the Bible proclaims Him to be, then you must believe in Him as your Savior and Lord or you will face judgment. Either Christ died for your sins and is risen from the dead or not. If He is not who He claimed to be, then you’re wasting your time being a Christian (1 Cor. 15:13-19).

As John writes his Gospel he is clear as to who Jesus is and what our response should be to Him (20:31): “these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”

Everything in the Gospel of John is written to reveal Jesus Christ, the Son of God to us so that we would believe and have eternal life. Every story in this Gospel, every verse, every phrase is here to show us the glory of Jesus Christ so that we would receive God’s gracious gift of eternal life: a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. As Jesus prays in John 17:3, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”

That is what is happening in every text of this Gospel in one way or another. Jesus is being held up as glorious—magnificent, splendid, supreme—full of grace and truth (Piper, The Father Has Given All Things into Jesus’s Hands). And as we see Him for who He really is Jesus becomes for us the most precious reality in the world to us. In the words of John the Baptist (3:30), “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

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Jealousy or Joy

John 3:22-30

Today I want us to think about jealousy and joy. Jealousy is destroyer of joy. Envy steals your joy when you don’t trust God that He is good and is working all things together for your good. But what we will learn today from John 3 is that it is such a privilege and a joy to be a disciple and a servant of Jesus, that nothing can compare to it. Joy in our relationship with Jesus and in humble service to Him can rid us of the sin of jealousy.

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Light Has Come into the World

John 3:19-21

Last time we asked the question, “Why do people reject God’s loving offer of salvation through Jesus Christ?” You would think that everyone would eagerly grab the life preserver that God has thrown out through the gospel (John 3:16): “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” We saw God’s mission of love in John 3:16-17. God loved the world and gave His only begotten Son over to death on the cross for the purpose of saving lost people. Why would anyone not want the gift of eternal life rather than perishing? God has made it so simple to receive the gift, believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Look to Him and be saved.

But as we saw last time, God’s loving mission to save the world through Jesus Christ also brought about the unavoidable division of the world into those who believe and those who refuse to believe, between those who are saved and those who are condemned, between those who perish and those who have eternal life. The coming of Jesus did not cause the condemnation of the human race, sin did that. Rather it exposed it as our text today will show.

So in John 3:19-21 we see the more complete reason why people reject Christ: they love their sin and they hate having it exposed by God’s light.

Listen to our text, John 3:16-21:

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

In verse 19 we see that:

1. Jesus is the Light.

John 3:19a: “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world ….” John introduced Jesus as the Light in chapter 1 (1:4-5): “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” Later in this Gospel (John 8:12), Jesus states, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” (see also, 9:5; 12:46).

In the Bible, light is used symbolically in two main ways: First, it pictures God’s holiness and sinlessness. Paul says (1 Tim. 6:16) that God “alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see.” In John’s first epistle (1 John 1:5) the apostle declares, “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” Darkness then, sometimes symbolizes Satan’s domain and sin as Paul says in Colossians 1:13, “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.” (see also Acts 26:18).

Second, light can refer to spiritual illumination, whereas darkness refers to our spiritual blindness before we are saved (2 Cor. 4:3-4, 6):

3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. … 6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to [give] the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

God’s light is embodied in Jesus Christ, the eternal Word, the only begotten Son of God who became flesh and dwelt among us. John has already told us (1:9), “That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.” When He comes, the truth about all things comes: the truth about God; the truth about ourselves; the truth about the way of salvation; the truth about good; the truth about evil; the truth about heaven and hell.

When Jesus came into the world, His very presence exposed to the world God’s holiness and God’s truth. In John’s Gospel we see clearly that the light shines on all, and forces a distinction. As we saw in 3:17-18, even though Jesus did not come for the purpose of judgment, because of who He is, His very presence brought judgment and divided people. It showed that people are already condemned because of their sin.

Have you had that experience with Jesus Christ? Have you seen who Jesus is and instantly recognized, “He is holy and I am not holy! I am under God’s judgment because Jesus is Light and I am in darkness!”

When the light of Jesus exposes your darkness, you can go one of two ways. First, John presents the negative reaction:

2. Sinners love darkness.

John 1:19b: “…men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” This verse tells us some significant truths about sin. First, sin is not just doing what is wrong; sin is loving what is wrong. Sin is not just what we do, it goes deeper than external actions. It is a matter of the heart. It goes to what we desire and what we love. Jesus said (Mark 7:21-23),

“For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”

Our sin problem is far deeper than we ever imagined. The Bible does not teach that we are basically good people who need to overcome a few flaws in our character. Our root problem is that we love our sin rather than God’s holiness. It’s a matter of the heart, and the only remedy that goes deep enough is the new birth, which gives us new hearts that hunger and thirst after righteousness.

A second truth about sin that we see here is: The reason that many people reject Christ is not intellectual, but moral. Most unbelievers do not love darkness rather than light because they have thought it through carefully and concluded that darkness makes more sense. No, John points out, “men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” Listen, it is true, people like sinning!

Aldous Huxley, the famous atheist of the last century, once admitted that his rejection of Christianity stemmed from his desire to sin. He wrote (Ends and Means [Garland Publishers], pp. 270, 273, cited in James Boice, Genesis [Zondervan], 1:236):

I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning; consequently assumed that it had not; and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning for this world is not concerned exclusively with the problem of pure metaphysics; he is also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to…. For myself … the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation, sexual and political.

The main problem of mankind is that he loves his sin and he stands guilty before the holy Judge of the universe.

But the situation of loving darkness rather than light is far worse than just loving sin:

3. Sinners hate the light.

John 3:20: “For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.” Unbelievers do not just love darkness; they also hate the Light! And who is the Light? Jesus Christ. They hate the One who out of love offered Himself on the cross so that every sinner might not perish but have eternal life simply by believing in Him! They hate Him because He exposes their evil deeds.

A teacher assigned his fourth-grade students to write a topic sentence for the following phrases: “Sam always works quietly. Sam is polite to the teacher. Sam always does his homework.” One student wrote his topic: “I hate Sam.” (Reader’s Digest [November, 2007], p. 59).

So you see the progression here:

1) People do evil. Verse 19: “their deeds were evil.” Verse 20 “everyone practicing evil.”

2) People do not want their evil exposed. Verse 20 at the end: “. . . lest his deeds should be exposed.”

3) So people love darkness. In the darkness they hope to sin unexposed. Verse 19: “. . . men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”

4) And people hated the light. They hate Him because that’s where their sin gets exposed for what it really is. Verse 20 at the beginning: “everyone practicing evil hates the light.”

5) Therefore, they do not come to Jesus. The middle of verse 20: “. . . and does not come to the light. . .”

This does not mean that all sinners do their evil deeds in secret. In our day, when people call good evil and evil good (Isa. 5:20), it’s become cool to flaunt your sin. People go on television and boast about their extra-marital affairs and multiple marriages, their drug use and their racial hatred. We have “gay pride” celebrations to boast in what God condemns as evil. But they only do this where the light of Christ is so banished that they can get approval from the people that matter to them. In other words, where darkness abounds publicly, you can sin publicly without coming into the light.

What these verses show is not that their sin never sees the light of day, but that these sinners do not come to the Light, to Jesus, because His holiness condemns their behavior as evil. Jesus Himself told His unbelieving brothers (John 7:7), “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil.”

The word translated “exposed” in verse 20 means to be convicted in a court of law. It was used of an attorney proving his case. Jesus uses it in John 16:8 when He says that the Holy Spirit “… will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” Guilty criminals hate judges who convict them of their crimes, even though it’s not the judges’ fault. Guilty sinners hate Jesus because He convicts them of their sins.

J. C. Ryle (Expository Thoughts on the Gospels [Baker], 3:164) points out that eventually sinners will get what they desired while on earth: they loved darkness; they will be cast into outer darkness. They hated the light; they will be shut out from the light eternally. God will be perfectly just in condemning those who rejected Christ. They saw the Light, but hated it and turned away from it because they loved their sin.

But, there is another possible response to the light in verse 21. When Christ, the light of the world, begins to shine on a person’s life, it must either drive him further into the darkness or it must break him and lead him to repentance and faith.

4. Believers come to the Light.

John 3:21: “But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” John does not mean that some have a natural bent toward practicing the truth or that doing so brings salvation. He has just made it plain that we all need the new birth and that salvation comes through believing in Jesus Christ (3:1-16).

Rather, John is describing two types of people in the world: on the one hand, those that have not believed in Christ avoid the light and hate it, because it exposes their sinful deeds. On the other hand, those that have believed in Christ gladly come to Him and give Him all credit for their good deeds, because they know that those good deeds came from God, who caused them to be born again (1 Pet. 1:3; James 1:18).

When verse 20 says, “But he who does the truth comes to the light,” it expresses not so much a single act but a principle of ongoing action. Why does he keep coming to the light? Because he knows that to be in the Light is the only way to have life, to live, and to escape the consequences of sin. The Christian knows that going to Christ is the only way to have sin forgiven, and to be able to appear acceptably before the Lord with a clear conscience. True believers willingly, gladly, and repeatedly come to the light of Jesus Christ in God’s holy Word in order to grow in Christlikeness and to give God glory for His work in their hearts. True believers read God’s Word over and over, allowing it to shine into the dark corners of their lives and expose the sinful thoughts and intentions of their hearts (Heb. 4:12). False believers avoid the Word and they find churches that don’t preach the Word to expose sin.

John Piper summarizes our text this way: “There is a kind of judgment that came into the world when Jesus Christ came into the world. And this judgment reveals that the guilt of not coming to Jesus lies in the heart of man that loves darkness and hates the light. But the grace of coming to Jesus comes from the heart of God. Or, to put it another way: Unbelief is our fault, and belief is God’s gift.” (DesiringGod.org, “This is the Judgment: Light has come into the World”).

The real question we need to answer as we close today is not “Why do some people reject Jesus Christ?” but, “Will I believe in Jesus Christ or will I stay in the darkness of my sin?” Today you have the opportunity to come out of darkness into His marvelous light. The Light is beautiful, He is forgiving, He is loving, He is holy, He is able to save you today.

The Great Divide

John 3:16-18

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

Living in Colorado, most of us are aware of the Continental Divide. If you drive over I-70 from here to Denver, in the middle of the Eisenhower tunnel will be a sign that indicates this great divide. Water on the east side of the divide flows into the Atlantic Ocean. Water on the west side of the great divide flows into the Pacific Ocean.

There is a very real sense in which Jesus Christ is THE great divide. By His coming into this world Jesus Christ has divided people of the world into two distinct categories. John 3:16-21 clearly shows us those categories. We’ll see it in verse 16: there are those who “perish” and those who “have everlasting life.” We see the divide in verse 18 between “He who believes in Him,” and “he who does not believe.” Belief or unbelief in Jesus further divides people into those who are “not condemned,” and those who are “condemned already.” In verses 19-20 the divide is demonstrated by light and darkness. On the one side is he who “hates the light and does not come to the light.” On the other side of the divide is “he who does the truth,” and “comes to the light.”

1. God’s Mission of Love (John 3:16-17)

John 3:16 tells us several things about God’s mission of love (A.W. Pink):

1. First, the timing of His love—”God so loved.” It is not God loves, but He “loved.” That He loves us now that we are His children, we can, in measure, understand; but that He should have loved us before we became His children is extraordinary. But He did. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:8). Christ did not die in order that God might be induced to love men and to save them. The very opposite is the truth. Christ died because God did love men, and was determined to save them that believe. The death of Christ was the supreme demonstration of God’s love. The Atonement was not the cause, but the effect, of God’s love. 1 John 4:10 says, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” God did not wait for us to love Him. He first loved us, while we were still enemies of God and haters of God—He loved us and gave His Son to die for us.
2. Second, the manner of His love—”God so loved.” This is the emphasis of that little word “so.” It means “in this way.” It is not speaking about our worthiness to be loved, but of the amazing weight and glory of God’s love. There are dimensions to the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of His wondrous love, that none can measure. But His love is shown in this way: “He gave His only begotten Son.”
3. Third, the reach of God’s love—”God so loved the world.” It was not limited to the Jews or to Pharisees like Nicodemus. It flowed out to sinners everywhere.
4. Fourth, the nature of God’s love—”God so loved the world that He gave.” Love is unselfish; it gives. Love, real love, ever seeks the highest interest of others. He gave.
5. Fifth, the sacrifice of God’s love—” He gave His only begotten Son.” God sent His Son into the world to die for the world. We know Christ’s death is in view here because of the context of verses 14, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” As we saw last time, for Jesus to be lifted up refers to His death on the cross. God spared not His Best. He freely delivered up Christ, even to the death of the Cross.
6. Sixth, the intention of His love. “that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Many died in the wilderness from the bites of the serpents: and many of Adam’s race will suffer eternal death in the lake of fire. But God gave His Son in order to create a people who “should not perish.” Who these people are is shown by their “believing” on God’s Son. Verse 17 clearly shows God’s intention, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
7. Seventh, the generosity of God’s love—”But have everlasting life.” This is what God imparts to every one of His own.

Doesn’t all that make you want to exclaim with the apostle, ” Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1). Or to sing with Charles Wesley,

And can it be that I should gain
An int’rest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain?
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, should die for me?

If ever you are tempted to doubt God’s love go back to the Cross, and see there how He gave His only begotten Son to die for you.

You would think that everyone would be responsive to God’s mission of love. Picture a guy floating downstream on a raft on a hot summer day. He’s having the time of his life, enjoying the ride as the cool water gently splashes on him. You’re on the shore and you know that there’s a deadly waterfall not far downstream. This guy is floating blissfully and ignorantly toward certain destruction! So you yell to warn him. You throw him a rope. But he rejects it and keeps floating toward certain death. Why won’t he grab the life preserver? Because he loves what he’s doing and he doesn’t want to believe your warning.

You would think that everyone would eagerly grab the life preserver that God has thrown out through the gospel (John 3:16): “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Why would anyone reject such a wonderful offer? Why would anyone want to keep heading for eternal destruction? Why are some still perishing? Verse 17 raises the question: If Christ did not come to condemn, why are some condemned? Why isn’t everyone saved?

Verse 18 answers that question for us and shows us again, the great divide that comes because of Jesus.

2. The Resultant Division (John 3:18).

In verse 16, Jesus describes two possible results of God’s sending his Son. Whoever believes on him will have eternal life. But whoever does not believe, Jesus says, will perish. Verse 16: “. . . that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Verses 17 and 18 take us into the courtroom. Look at the way verse 18 describes these two possibilities: “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already.” What’s the difference? The difference is that the result of believing and not believing is not described in terms of our perishing and eternal life, but in terms of being condemned or not condemned.

In other words, verse 18 shifts over to legal language—the language of the courtroom. The language of judgment. A judge says condemned or not condemned. So Jesus has moved from the language of life and death to the language of guilty and not guilty.

This shift in language had already happened in verse 17: “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” The literal translation would simply be, “God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world” (NASB). That’s the language of the courtroom, legal language.

But, in John 9:39, Jesus says, “For judgment I came into this world ….” And in John 5:22 Jesus says “the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son.” How do we reconcile that with John 3:17? The Gospels make it clear that Jesus’ presence always drew a line that divided people (Matt. 10:34-37). As the Light, Jesus’ purpose was not to cast shadows, but to bring light. But the presence of the light inevitably casts shadows. Jesus didn’t come into a neutral world in order to save some and condemn others. He came into a lost world to save some. Not all will be saved (3:18-21). But God’s purpose in sending His Son was to bring salvation to all who will believe.

But as I said, verse 17 raises the question: If Christ did not come to condemn, why are some condemned? And verse 18 explains that even though some are, in fact, judged and condemned, it is because they are already in that condition when Jesus came.

This is important. See the same point in verse 36: “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” The word abides makes the same point in verse 36 that the word already makes in verse 18.

The world was in a state of condemnation under the wrath of God. Jesus did not come to a neutral world with the result that some people moved from neutrality to be anti-Jesus, and others moved from neutrality to be pro-Jesus. Nobody was neutral. And nobody is neutral. We have all sinned. We are all guilty. We are all perishing. Therefore, we are all under God’s righteous wrath. And we are already condemned.

The cross draws a distinct line. There are two and only two alternatives: either you believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior from judgment and have eternal life or you do not believe in Him and you perish. God’s great love does not override or negate His perfect holiness and justice. So the message is both comforting for those who believe, but disturbing for those who do not want to come to the light because they love their sin (John 3:19-20).

Whether we stay that way depends on how we respond to Jesus. He came not to make neutral people into pro-Jesus people, but to make guilty people non-guilty, condemned people not condemned, and to make dead people eternally alive. God does not owe anybody acquittal or life. That Jesus came to offer it, and that some accept it, is all because of God’s love and by His grace.

The Greatest Verse in the Bible

Martin Luther, called John 3:16 “the heart of the Bible, the Gospel in miniature.”

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).”

Here is a simple outline that shows its greatness:

1.   “God”…     …The greatest Lover
2.    “So loved”…     …The greatest degree
3.    “The world”…     …The greatest population
4.    “That He gave”…     …The greatest act
5.    “His only begotten Son…”     …The greatest Gift
6.    “That whosoever”…     …The greatest invitation
7.    “Believeth”…     …The greatest simplicity
8.    “In Him”…     …The greatest Person
9.    “Should not perish”…     …The greatest deliverance
10.  “But”…     …The greatest difference
11.  “Have”…     …The greatest certainty
12.  “Everlasting Life”…     …The greatest possession

Look and Be Saved

John 3:9-15

Now you will remember John chapter 3, starting in verse 1 and running to verse 21, is the Lord Jesus teaching about salvation. And it all happens in a conversation with a Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus.

Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews, comes to Jesus under the cover of night. He affirms in verse 2 that Jesus is “a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” Jesus responds in verse 3 by saying, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus wonders whether a man can enter into his mother’s womb again and be born.

Jesus answers in verses 5–8 that he is talking about a spiritual birth. He says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God,” (3:5). Unless you are born again from above, you will never enter the kingdom of God — you will never be cleansed from sin and have a new heart in which God’s Spirit lives. Jesus insists on the necessity of the new birth saying to all, “‘You must be born again,” (3:7). Then he teaches that the Spirit of God is the one that causes the new birth and the Spirit is as free as the wind in the way He does it. The new birth is not a work of man but a miracle of God that He does in the human heart through His Spirit.

Today we will look at the rest of the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus. More →

Born Again (Part 2)

John 3:3-8

1 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”

3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”

10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?

Today we continue last week’s message on what happens in the new birth. We are in John 3 where Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God,” (John 3:3). And, “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” (John 3:7). Jesus told Nicodemus — and us — that our eternal lives depend on being born again, that is, being reborn from above. The concept of new birth or new creation is all over the New Testament. More →

You Must Be Born Again

John 3:1-7

A number of years ago, a newspaper carried an account of a speech given by the president of a well-known university to a group of influential businessmen and civic leaders. The president told of a recent experience which he, his audience, and the newspaper reporter found humorous. The president was shopping during the Christmas season and happened to pass by a Salvation Army volunteer, standing by a “donation kettle” and ringing a bell. As he paused to make a donation, the woman volunteer asked him: “Sir, are you saved?” When he replied that he supposed he was, she was not satisfied, so she pursued the matter further: “I mean, have you ever given your full life to the Lord?” At this point, the president told his audience, he thought he should enlighten this persistent woman concerning his identity: “I am the president of such and such university, and as such, I am also president of its school of theology.” The lady considered his response for a moment, and then replied, “It doesn’t matter wherever you’ve been, or whatever you are, you can still be saved.”

The most tragic part of this incident is that both the seminary president and his audience actually thought his story was amusing. I can imagine that if Nicodemus had been confronted by this Salvation Army volunteer, he would have thought—and said—just about the same thing as the university president. Nicodemus is a Jew, but not just any Jew, a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews, a member of the Sanhedrin, and a highly respected teacher of the Old Testament Scriptures. Can you imagine being Nicodemus and having Jesus tell you that all of this is not enough to get you into the kingdom of God? Yet this is precisely what Jesus tells Nicodemus. If a man like Nicodemus is not good enough for the kingdom of God, then who is? That is the question, and Jesus has the answer, which John records for us.

Listen to John’s account of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus in John 3:1-10 More →

Does Jesus Believe in You?

John 2:23-25

I thought after last week’s study that I would be ready for us to move on to John 3. I am really looking forward to preaching messages from that great chapter. There we will find Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus about our need to be born again. We will also find the greatest gospel verse that has ever been written, John 3:16.

But as I began to study this week, the Holy Spirit stopped me in my tracks at the end of chapter 2. There we find three verses that serve as a bridge between the events of chapter 2 and what happens in chapter 3. Remember that when the Bible was written it had no chapter divisions or verse designations. They were added later to help us in studying the Bible together—so that we all can know we are looking at the same place in the scripture.

So these verses conclude the stories of Jesus’ sign of turning the water into wine and His cleansing of the temple in Jerusalem, but they also introduce us to the encounter with Nicodemus.

As I have reminded almost every week, John’s purpose for writing this Gospel was (20:31), “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” In the prologue (1:1-18), John immediately sets forth the glory of Jesus Christ as the eternal Word, who was with God and was God. He is the source of light and life. We saw in 1:12, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.”

In 1:50, Nathanael is the first one in this gospel who is said to believe in Jesus. In 2:11, the disciples, who had already believed and followed Jesus, believed again when they saw His glory when He turned the water into wine. In 2:22, John tells us that after Jesus resurrection, “His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.” So John is drawing a portrait of Jesus as the glorious manifestation of God with us, the one in whom everyone should believe for eternal life. The disciples have are examples of early faith and growing faith in Jesus.

And then we read (John 2:23), “Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.” We might expect this to be another example of saving faith following the earlier examples that he has given. But instead we read (2:24-25), “But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.” Why would Jesus refuse to commit Himself to those who believed in Him?

The word translated “commit” (2:24, NKJV) is the same Greek verb as “believed” (2:23). We might translate it this way, “Many believed in Jesus, but Jesus didn’t believe in them.” Jesus did not have faith in their faith.

I agree with John Piper, who explains (He Knew What Was in Man):

What it says, in essence, is that Jesus knows what is in every heart, and so he can see when someone believes in a way that is not really believing. In other words, Jesus’ ability to know every heart perfectly leads to the unsettling truth that some belief is not the kind of belief that obtains fellowship with Jesus and eternal life. Some belief is not saving belief.

So while most of us in this room today would probably say, “I believe in Jesus,” maybe the more important question we all need to ask today is, “Does Jesus believe in me?” More →

Jesus Cleans House

John 2:12-25

What gets you worked up? What gets you excited? Some people get excited over ballgames. Some get worked up over political issues. Others are energized by work or church. Some are passionate about their gardens or their homes. Some get worked up over their families.

Anyone here passionate about cleaning house? Jesus was—when it came to His Father’s house. Let’s read the text for today, John 2:12-25,

12 After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days.

13 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

14 And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the moneychangers doing business.

15 When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables.

16 And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!”

17 Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.”

18 So the Jews answered and said to Him, “What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?”

19 Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

20 Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?”

21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body.

22 Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

23 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.

24 But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men,

25 and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.

In our last study, the disciples got an initial glimpse of Jesus’ glory when He turned the water into wine and they believed in Him (2:11). They had already believed in Him, but when they saw more of who He really is, they believed in Him again, in a deeper way. After Jesus’ resurrection when the disciples remembered this incident, the result was the same: “they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken” (2:22). John writes these things so that we might get a deeper understanding of who Jesus is so that we might believe in Him as the Christ, the Son of God, and through believing, we might have life in His name (20:30-31). John want us to behold the glory of Jesus and to receive His grace. More →