Jesus and the Woman at the Well, Part 3: The Harvest

John 4:27-42

Let me begin by reminding you of the remarkable story of Jesus and the woman at the well from John chapter 4.

It was a hot day in Palestine, and the noonday sun beat down on the man’s head. Sweat was pouring off His brow. Jesus had been traveling with His friends since sunrise. Now the sun was directly overhead. They were hurrying to make their way through this part of the country as quickly as possible.

He came to a well with a rock edge built up above the ground in the typical manner of the Middle East. His disciples having gone into town to buy food, Jesus sat alone on the lip of the well and wished to himself, “O, if only I could have a drink of water.”

The well was about one-half mile from town near the point where two trade routes came together. It was called Jacob’s Well, after the patriarch who had first dug it some 2000 years earlier. Weary travelers from throughout Israel knew it as a place where they might drink from the spring flowing some 150 feet below the surface.

At precisely that moment, the woman came along. She came from the Samaritan village of Sychar, nestled between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. It wasn’t the normal time, and it was unusual for a woman to come to a well alone. But this woman was different.

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Jesus and the Woman at the Well (part 2)

John 4: 15-26

Today we are continuing the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. It is an extraordinary story that not only shows us who Jesus is, but also how He deals with sinners who need a savior. As we saw last time Jesus comes seeking the sinner, even a sinner who is not necessarily seeking after Him. Jesus initiates the conversation by asking her for a drink. She was surprised that Jesus, a Jewish man, was even talking to her, a Samaritan woman. It is a demonstration of God’s grace toward sinners.

To her Jesus offers the gift of living water in verse 10 saying, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” She misinterprets what Jesus says by taking it too literally just like Nicodemus did with the idea of being born again. But Jesus is talking about the eternal life that the Holy Spirit provides to everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 14 Jesus said to her, “but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” He would graciously give it to her if she would ask of Him. More →

Jesus and the Woman at the Well (part 1)

John 4: 1-14

Today we begin the story of the nameless Samaritan woman at the well. Only John records this remarkable encounter of Jesus with this woman. John 4 is a revealing chapter, full of many truths and powerful lessons for us today. This is the second long conversation that Jesus has with an individual in John’s Gospel. The first was with Nicodemus in chapter 3, a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews, and the teacher of Israel (John 3:1–21). The contrast between him and the Samaritan woman at the well is unmistakable.

Nicodemus was a man, the Samaritan was a woman. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a strict religious Jew, the woman a half-breed apostate from Judaism. Nicodemus was a prominent, highly-regarded leader and religious teacher. The woman was well-known, too, but her reputation had to do with the number of men she had lived with. Nicodemus sought out his interview with the Messiah, while Jesus surprised the woman by talking to her at the well.

It would seem that all the pluses seem to be in favor of Nicodemus. But the rest of the story will prove differently. Nicodemus did not immediately believe, while the woman’s faith is obvious. Nicodemus’s encounter with Jesus does not appear to have had an impact on his fellow Pharisees. In fact, chapter 4 begins by telling us that Jesus had to leave Judea because of the Pharisees (John 4:1-3). Quite the opposite, the woman brought back nearly the whole town by her testimony, and they received Jesus and invited Him to stay on (4:39-42). While Jesus spoke of Himself to the Jews in veiled terms (cf. John 2:18-22), He clearly revealed  Himself as the Christ to this woman (4:26). The Jews had already begun to reject Him, but the Samaritans received Him as the Savior of the world (4:42).

The story of the woman at the well teaches us that God loves us in spite of our bankrupt lives. God actively seeks us, graciously invites us to a relationship with Him, and to offers us the gift of eternal life.

The Setting: Jacob’s well in Samaria (4:1-6)

1 Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John

2 (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples),

3 He left Judea and departed again to Galilee.

4 But He needed to go through Samaria.

5 So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from [His] journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

The occasion for our Lord’s encounter is a bit unusual. Our Lord was passing through Samaria, retreating from Judea in the south to Galilee in the north. The reason for our Lord’s departure was His untimely popularity. As we saw from chapter 3, the Jews were attempting to promote a rift between Jesus and John the Baptist because of Jesus’ greater popularity. John straightens out the misconception of the Pharisees by saying in verse 2 that it was not actually Jesus who did the baptizing, but His disciples.

Rather than encouraging His popularity, our Lord abandons the influential area of Judea for a time and retreats to Galilee. As we will see in the rest of the Gospel of John, Jesus does everything on the Father’s timetable. Jesus does not run back to Galilee because of fear, but from a sense of duty. Jesus was not merely responding. He was acting graciously purposefully (John Piper). It was not yet time for undue popularity and the necessary opposition that would come with it. Instead, it was time for a divine appointment between Jesus and a Samaritan woman.

I think that is what John is indicating when he writes, “But He needed to go through Samaria,” (4:4).  Yes, Samaria was between Judea and Galilee and it may have been the shortest route, but it was not the only route. Some strict Jews, who didn’t want any contact with the despised Samaritans, would sometimes take a longer route, crossing the Jordan River to the east, traveling north, and then going back west into Galilee. Since Jesus was probably already at the Jordan River, where they were baptizing, He could have taken that route, but He didn’t. Instead, He purposefully turned and went up to the hill country of Samaria. The word translated “needed to” indicates more than geographic necessity. In fact whenever John uses that word about Jesus it indicates His divine mission. He “must” go through Samaria because it is His mission from the Father (3:14; 9:4; 10:16; 12:34; 20:9).

The journey from Judea to Sychar was about 30 miles. It was a hot and dusty trip. By midday on probably the second day of their hike our Lord was tired, thirsty, and hungry. His disciples left Him sitting by a well dug by Jacob many years before while they went on into Sychar for provisions. The well was about 100 feet deep and fed by an underground spring that tricked through the ground.

In verse 7 we meet the Samaritan woman as she comes to the well for water. The next several verses record the conversation between her and Jesus. Today I want to draw three lessons from these verses (I am thankful to Steven Cole for ideas from his outline).

1. Jesus seeks sinners.

Most of us know this truth because we have read through the Gospel of John and the other Gospels as well. We have seen how Jesus receives sinners, eats with them, heals them, and loves them. One thing that this story shows us is that Jesus seeks sinners who aren’t necessarily even seeking Him. Nicodemus was a religious sinner who sought out Jesus. But a Jewish Rabbi who is actually the Christ, the Son of God, was not what the Samaritan woman was expecting to find at the well outside of Sychar. Listen to the encounter in verse 7,

7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”

8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

The racial and cultural (not to mention the theological) barriers present at this encounter were insurmountable. When our Lord asked this woman for a drink of water, she was caught completely off guard, for in her own words, “… Jews have no dealings with Samaritans” (John 4:9).

That was putting it mildly. There had been bitter feelings between Jews and Samaritans for centuries. The Samaritans find their origin at the time of the Assyrian conquest of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 721 B.C. According to Assyrian figures, nearly 30,000 Israelites were deported, being replaced by heathen captives from all over the Assyrian empire (cf. 2 Kings 17:3f.). It was not long before the purity of the Israelites was defiled, not only racially, but spiritually.

Their religion was a mixture of their foreign gods with Judaism (2 Kings 17:24-41). When the exiles from Judah returned from Babylon, the Samaritans offered to help them rebuild their temple and the walls of Jerusalem, the Jews viewed them as foreign enemies and refused their offer (Ezra 4:1-5; Neh. 4:1-3).

Then, in about 400 B. C., the Samaritans built a rival temple on Mount Gerazim. The Jewish leader John Hyrcanus burned it down in 128 B.C., which deepened the rift between Jews and Samartians. The Samaritans only accepted the Pentateuch (the first five books of Moses), not all of the Jewish Scriptures. The hostility between the Samaritans and the Jews was often intense.

As we saw in verse 6, it was about the sixth hour, that is, noon. The normal time for women to get water was either early morning or later in the afternoon, when it was cooler. The well was a place where women gathered to talk as they filled their water pots. John doesn’t say why this woman came to the well at noon, but it may be that because of her immoral life, she was not liked by the other women of Sychar.

She came at a time when she would most likely be alone. But instead, she encounters this Jewish man, who has the audacity to ask her for a drink of water. In verse 9 when it says, “For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans,” it literally means that Jews do not use the same things as Samaritans. In other word, Jews would not drink from a cup that a Samaritan drank from. Add to this that it just wasn’t socially acceptable for a Jewish man, much less a rabbi, to speak to any woman in public. For Jesus to ask her for a drink from her cup was shocking enough. But talking with her about spiritual things was unheard of (4:27).

It wasn’t like this woman looked at Jesus and said, “Sir, you look like a Jewish rabbi. I’m hungry to know your God. Can you tell me how to do that?” She was minding her own business. She wasn’t asking about the Kingdom of heaven like Nicodemus. The only explanation for their unexpected conversation is that Jesus was seeking a sinner who wasn’t even seeking Him.

We cannot always tell from outward appearances or even from internal attitudes who will respond positively to an encounter with Jesus. Jesus seeks those who are not even seeking Him. We should be open to sharing Jesus with anyone at any time. God is seeking people that we might write off. Don’t skip anyone.

Maybe you are one has a notoriously sinful past. Jesus said (Luke 19:10) that He came “to seek and to save that which was lost.” He saved the thief on the cross. He saved the chief of sinners who was persecuting the church. He saved this immoral Samaritan woman. He seeks to save lost sinners even when they are not seeking Him!

2. Jesus offers the gift of living water.

Note two things here:

a. Living water is a gift of God.

Note the emphasis on gift or give here (my italics): John 4:10: “Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”” John 4:14: “but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” It’s a gift, not a reward!

One of the most common errors of religion is that we get into heaven by our good works. Many think they will be accepted by God that way. They are wrong.

The Bible states (Rom. 4:4-5): “Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.” Ephesians 2:8-9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

The gospel is not good news if it requires that you must do penance, reform your life, keep a bunch of rules, do an unspecified number of good deeds, and hope that someday God might let you into heaven on that basis. But it is wonderfully good news if God offers it to you as a free gift, which He does!

But, maybe you’re thinking, “Because of my many sins, which I’d be embarrassed to make known, I’m not worthy of such a gift.” True, you’re not worthy. No one is. But … this woman shows us that it does not depend on your worthiness.

In the eyes of most Jews, including the disciples at this point, this woman was not worthy of Jesus’ time. Just being a Samaritan excluded her. Being a woman was strike two. But being an immoral Samaritan woman struck her out. But Jesus took the time and the initiative to talk with this sinful woman about living water. He didn’t exclude her from offering her this gift. And He doesn’t exclude you, either!

Actually, it’s often good, religious people who exclude themselves from receiving this gift. They’re proud of their accomplishments and want some reward for what they’ve done. They don’t want to associate with people like this sinful woman or admit that they need living water from Jesus just as much as she did. But the gift is freely offered to notorious sinners and to self-righteous religious sinners. Both equally need the gift.

b. Living water satisfies the thirsty soul.

Jesus tells this woman (4:14): “but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” By “living water,” Jesus is referring to the eternal life that the Holy Spirit gives. As Jesus said (John 7:37-39a), “‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, “From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” But this He spoke of the Spirit….” “Living water” is the same thing as the “new birth,” but just a different picture of the same thing.

Jews familiar with the Scriptures knew that the Lord Himself is the spiritual fountain of living water. In Jeremiah 2:13, the Lord rebukes His sinning people: “For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” Or (Jer. 17:13), “O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake You will be put to shame. Those who turn away on earth will be written down, because they have forsaken the fountain of living water, even the Lord.” (See, also, Isa. 12:3; 44:3; 49:10.)

Jesus told this woman that the water that He gives “will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” In him shows that true Christianity is not primarily a matter of rituals and ceremonies, but rather an inward, personal relationship with the living God. It must be in each person’s heart. The picture of this living water springing up points to the continual source of life that the indwelling Holy Spirit supplies to believers. It’s active and always flowing.

When Jesus says that “whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never thirst,” Jesus does not mean that our thirst is forever quenched in the sense that we cease to long for more and more of Him. We still hunger and thirst after righteousness (Matt. 5:6). Our hearts still pant after God like the thirsty deer for the water brook (Ps. 42:1). We still pray (Ps. 63:1), “O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; my soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” But Jesus is the perpetual fountain that forever and at ever moment satisfies our thirst.

So, how do we get this living water of salvation that Jesus freely offers to all?

3. Jesus invites you to receive this living water.

John 4:10: “Jesus answered and said to her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, “Give Me a drink,” you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.’” These words would have cause me to ask three things: (1) What is this gift of God? (2) Who is it who is talking to her? (3) Should I ask Him for this living water?

a. Living water is salvation that the Holy Spirit imparts.

We’ve already seen that the gift of living water is the salvation that the Holy Spirit imparts. It is the Lord Himself, dwelling in believers. Jesus invites this sinful woman to ask Him to give her this living water that will forever quench her spiritual thirst.

b. Living water is received by knowing Jesus Christ.

The woman needed to know something about this one who claimed that He would give her living water.

The fact that Jesus is able to give living water to thirsty sinners shows that He is God. The woman asked (4:11) how Jesus could get this living water out of the well, since it was deep (over 100 feet) and He had nothing to draw with. Then she challenged Him (4:12), “Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?” The answer, of course, is, yes, He is much greater than Jacob! And the answer to where He can get the living water is, He has it within His own divine nature to supply it to as many sinners as ask for it. He has an endless supply of grace for all. Finally,

c. Jesus invites us to ask for this living water.

Jesus says (4:10), If “you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” To ask, you have to recognize that you’re thirsty and that you can never satisfy that thirst by yourself. But if you come to Jesus and ask, He will give it. All you have to do is drink and drink of Him until you’re satisfied. But the only condition that Jesus states is, “Ask.” If you ask, He will give you an endless supply of living water.

So, have you asked Jesus for the living water of eternal life? Do you have the evidence of being satisfied with Jesus? One drink from Jesus and you’ll never thirst again. So, why don’t you ask?

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 →