Jesus, The Savior of the World
John 3:16-21
When last we left the book of John,
Jesus was locked in a conversation with one of the religious elite.
Nicodemus came to Jesus desiring some instruction.
He came appealing to this teacher who worked the works of God
Jesus reminded Nicodemus he didn’t need a change of direction,
He needed a change of nature.
Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of heaven.”
Although Nicodemus should have understood this,
He did not, and he questioned how such a thing could occur.
Jesus pointed out to Nicodemus why he couldn’t understand.
“Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony.”
Nicodemus’ inability to see
Stemmed from an unwillingness to see.
He could not see because he would not see.
And after Jesus exposed this sin of Nicodemus,
He then explained that salvation can only occur when there is a:
1) Sacrificial Animal
2) Sacrificial Act
3) Sacrificial Acceptance
(13-15) “No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.”
We understand what Jesus was talking about.
We have been taught the need for another to pay the sin debt,
Nicodemus should have understood, but he didn’t.
Nicodemus was seeking a teacher, he needed a Savior.
Therefore Jesus must expound on this truth.
Here in our text this morning we see that:
Jesus is far more than just a teacher.
Jesus is far more than just a prophet.
Jesus is far more than just a wise man.
Jesus is indeed the Savior of the world,
He didn’t come just to teach.
THIS MORNING WE SEE WHY HE CAME
#1 JESUS CAME FOR THE DEMONSTRATION OF LOVE
John 3:16
We are reminded of a very foundational truth.
When you want to talk about the wonder of salvation,
There is only one place you can start,
The love of God.
The origin of salvation is God’s love.
He is the Originator of salvation…
He is the Author of salvation…
He is the Offerer of salvation…
Without the love of God, there would have never been salvation.
AND GOD’S LOVE IS NOT MYTHICAL, THANKS TO THE WORD OF GOD, WE KNOW A GREAT DEAL ABOUT THE LOVE OF GOD.
The Scripture provides us with the EXPLANATION OF GOD’S LOVE
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails…”
One of Jesus parables provides us with the ILLUSTRATION OF GOD’S LOVE
Luke 10:27-37 “And he answered, “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; DO THIS AND YOU WILL LIVE.” But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. “And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. “Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. “But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. “On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’ “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”
We as Christians are the MANIFESTATION OF GOD’S LOVE
1 John 4:9 “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.”
But if you want to see the DEMONSTRATION OF GOD’S LOVE,
You only look at the cross.
Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Which is exactly what Jesus is teaching us here.
He came to demonstrate the unconditional love of God.
We see that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,”
1 John 4:10 “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.”
Before Jesus came, God’s love was a mystery.
It was unknown, it was undefined, it was unrecognized.
The closest people in history to understanding God’s love
Were the children of Israel.
Ezekiel 16:4-14 “As for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing; you were not rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths. “No eye looked with pity on you to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you. Rather you were thrown out into the open field, for you were abhorred on the day you were born. “When I passed by you and saw you squirming in your blood, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’ “I made you numerous like plants of the field. Then you grew up, became tall and reached the age for fine ornaments; your breasts were formed and your hair had grown. Yet you were naked and bare. “Then I passed by you and saw you, and behold, you were at the time for love; so I spread My skirt over you and covered your nakedness. I also swore to you and entered into a covenant with you so that you became Mine,” declares the Lord GOD. “Then I bathed you with water, washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. “I also clothed you with embroidered cloth and put sandals of porpoise skin on your feet; and I wrapped you with fine linen and covered you with silk. “I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your hands and a necklace around your neck. “I also put a ring in your nostril, earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. “Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your dress was of fine linen, silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey and oil; so you were exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. “Then your fame went forth among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfect because of My splendor which I bestowed on you,” declares the Lord GOD.”
Israel had received the love of God,
But when you factor in all the punishment they received,
And all the sacrifices that reminded them that they were not acceptable,
God’s love was still a mystery even to the Jewish people.
Despite all He had done,
God was still distant, and His love was undefined.
If it was this tough for Israel, it was near impossible for Gentiles.
What claim would they have on the love of God?
Before Jesus came, you could not understand God’s love.
It was undefined.
But then one day a baby was born in Bethlehem,
And God’s love took form.
They called Him Jesus, and He demonstrated perfect love.
A love that freed people from their bondage of sickness and disease…
A love that touched the lepers, and associated with the outcast…
A love that saw the heartache of a downtrodden people…
A love that would speak the truth even if it hurt a little…
And ultimately a love that would that go the distance
By laying down His own life for those who did not deserve it.
Jesus came as a demonstration of the love of God.
He came to show us that God cares.
He came to show us that God desires a relationship with you.
He came to show us that God does not want you to go to hell.
He came to show us that God is a Father, not just a Judge.
Jesus came to demonstrate the love of God.
And He did it to perfection.
“See from His head, His hands, His feet; sorrow and love flow mingled down. Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown?”
John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”
Jesus came to demonstrate that
Which we would not know if it weren’t for Him.
#2 JESUS CAME FOR THE SALVATION OF THE WORLD
John 3:17
This is another area that Jews like Nicodemus had missed the point.
They were waiting for Messiah, but they had a warped idea of Him.
They were waiting for the One who would come and judge the world.
They were waiting for the One who would come and restore Israel.
They were waiting for the One who would come and kill their enemies.
The One who would give Rome what they deserved.
The problem of course was that
They did not understand who their truest enemy was.
Isaiah 53:1-6 “Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.”
They didn’t understand that they needed a savior from sin.
In fact after they crucified Jesus, Peter had this to say.
Acts 3:17-19 “And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. “But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;”
Paul would say this about his former life of sin.
1 Timothy 1:12-14 “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus.”
The Jews did not understand their need for salvation.
So here Jesus makes very clear to Nicodemus
That salvation is why He came.
He didn’t just come to instill a new moral code.
He didn’t just come to encourage religious faithfulness.
He came to save men from sin.
Romans 8:1-4 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
Before Jesus, salvation wasn’t possible.
You couldn’t know it.
Before Jesus, there was only the Law and condemnation.
But through His sacrificial death on the cross,
Not only did we understand the love of God,
But we understand the way of salvation.
His blood was the perfect sacrifice that a Holy God requires.
His death appeased the wrath of God.
He paid the debt we could not pay.
Salvation came through Jesus.
Colossians 2:13-14 “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”
Colossians 1:19-20 “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.”
Galatians 1:4 “[Jesus] gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,”
Romans 5:6 “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”
Romans 3:21-24 “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;”
Revelation 5:9-10 “And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
“You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.”
He came for the demonstration of love
He came for the salvation of the world
But then again, we know that. We have talked about it over and over.
#3 JESUS CAME FOR THE REVELATION OF JUDGMENT
John 3:18-21
These four verses succeed in making Jesus sermon to Nicodemus
Quite an interesting paradox.
Without even a warning we go from seeing Jesus as the One who provides salvation to the One who secures condemnation.
In verse 18 Jesus said, “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Now there is a verse to open your eyes.
The first line we fully accept.
If you believe in Jesus, there will be no condemnation.
Romans 8:1 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
THIS IS WHERE WE OFTEN STOP OUR CONVERSATION
But Jesus didn’t.
“he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
WHAT DOES JESUS MEAN, “judged already”?
If you don’t have Jesus in your life…
If Jesus is not your Lord…
God does not have to condemn you,
You are already condemned.
John 5:45 “Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope.”
Consider what Paul says in Romans 9.
Romans 9:15-16 “For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.”
Without God’s mercy, we are already condemned.
All that must be done in order for you to go to hell, is nothing.
Mankind is already condemned.
That happened thanks to a man named Adam.
Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned”
Ephesians 2:1-3 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”
Man is already condemned,
Jesus came to save man from condemnation.
If you reject Jesus, you are already condemned.
If you reject the only way of salvation, condemnation is your only option.
Hebrews 10:26-27 “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES.”
Jesus is showing this to Nicodemus,
But Jesus even goes further.
He shows Nicodemus why men choose judgment over Jesus.
DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY MEN DON’T SURRENDER TO JESUS?
Verses 19-21, “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. “But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”
Because He exposes men and they don’t want to be exposed.
I’ve seen it hundreds of times.
People under conviction during an invitation,
But unwilling to admit what they are.
They don’t want to enter the Light.
They just want the Light to quit shining.
They are content in the darkness, in fact, they prefer it.
We see it throughout the Bible.
The Rich Young Ruler went away sad.
Jesus wept over Jerusalem for being unwilling
Pharisees refused to see what they were.
After the sermon of Stephen which rightly exposed their wickedness.
Acts 7:54-58 “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him. But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” But they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears and rushed at him with one impulse. When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul.”
It is a hatred for the truth.
That is why Noah was ridiculed…
That is why Elisha was made fun of…
That is why Jeremiah was mistreated…
That is why Amos was rejected…
That is why Zecharaiah was killed by the altar…
That is why John the Baptist was beheaded…
That is why Jesus was crucified…
That is why Peter was crucified…
That is why John was exiled…
That is why James was stabbed…
Men either had to learn to love the light, or try to put it out.
“For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”
DO YOU SEE WHAT JESUS IS DOING?
He is revealing why judgment happens.
He is revealing why men are condemned.
Nicodemus (who came at night) needed to know this,
Just as we need to know it today.
There is a reason why a person fails to come to Jesus.
It is because they have a internal problem.
They have a love of sin in their heart, and are unwilling to give it up.
And this is what I want you to see today, above all else.
We have been searching for the Biblical Jesus.
We live in a world that analyzes Jesus frontward and backward.
We live in a world that misrepresents Him continually
We have been studying Him for several weeks now.
BUT LET ME REMIND YOU OF SOMETHING.
We are taking a close look at Jesus,
But Jesus is not the One on trial here.
His trial is over.
He has already proved who He is.
Romans 1:4 “[He] was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord,”
Jesus is not the One on trial, He has nothing left to prove.
JESUS IS NOT ON TRIAL, YOU ARE.
We are the ones who are presently being tried.
What we do with Jesus does not reveal
Whether or not Jesus is the truth,
What we do with Jesus reveals
Whether or not our heart loves the truth.
Jesus is the truth.
He is the Son of God. He is the Savior of the world.
When men don’t come to Him, it does not disprove Jesus,
It only proves that they do not love the truth.
WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THE TRUTH?
Jesus hometown rejected the truth…
The Pharisees hated the truth…
Judas betrayed the truth…
Pilate was afraid of the truth…
Herod laughed at the truth…
The Mob crucified the truth…
But those that practiced the truth came to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.
Jesus is the Savior of the World
If you won’t come to Him, what are you planning on doing?
Hebrews 10:26-31 “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.” And again, “THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
