And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself. --John 12:32
British evangelist J John is always looking for ways to point people to Jesus, even in his everyday experiences. He said that one day he was at a supermarket checkout, and the clerk on the cash register was wearing a cross on a chain around her neck. J John asked her about it. "Hey," he said, "I noticed you are wearing a cross around your neck. Are you a Christian?"
The girl's hand instinctively went to her neck, and she touched the cross. "Yeah," she said, "I suppose. I just think it's nice."
"The cross, you mean?" JJohn shot back. "It's not nice at all. It was an instrument of torture and death." The girl looked at him like he was an alien from another planet. He went on. "Look, if I had an earring in my ear right here, and you said what's that earring about, and I said Oh, it's a gas chamber. You'd say Eww, why are you wearing a gas chamber in your ear? And I'd say, well I want to remember how millions of Jewish people died in the second world war. And then what if you said to me well what's the other earring? And I said well, that's an electric chair. You'd say no way, why would you wear an electric chair earring? And I'd say I want to remember how certain criminals got executed in the United States. So, what would you say to me if I were walking around with an electric chair on one ear, and a gas chamber on the other?"
She answered him, "Well, I'd think you'd totally lost it!"
He said, "Why is that? Is it because they are both symbols of execution?"
She said, "Well, yeah."
He said, "Well, then, what do you think you are wearing around your neck?" He continued, "You've got to remember something about the cross. Jesus didn't wear it around His neck; He wore it on His back. Big difference."
The whole exchange lasted just a couple of minutes, but it blew her mind.
In my last posting we started reading in John chapter 3 about a Jewish leader named Nicodemus who came to Jesus with questions. Jesus answered Nicodemus's questions, and those answers blew his mind. Let's read on:
Nicodemus answered and said to Him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? Most assuredly I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 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. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 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. 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. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 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 3:9-21
Jesus turned Nicodemus's own words against him. In verse 2 Nicodemus had said, "Rabbi, we know You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." Jesus turned his statement back against him by saying, "We speak of what we know (heaven) and testify of what We have seen (God's glory), but you do not receive Our testimony." Here Jesus is not just speaking in the "royal we" or "editorial we"; He is not being pretentious. He is invoking the Trinity--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, because under Jewish law a man's testimony must be corroborated by two or three witnesses.
Jesus explains how He was a reliable witness to what He had seen. He said no one on earth had ascended into heaven and come back to tell of it. But He knew what He was talking about, because He had descended from heaven. Jesus was a witness of heavenly things. Not only that, but He was showing us what it takes to get there.
Jesus used a Jewish historical reference to illustrate His point, one that Nicodemus would be familiar with. In Numbers 21, God sent judgment to the people for a certain sin they had committed. That judgment came in the form of a bunch of fiery serpents who bit the people, and many of them died. As people were dying in their sin from the serpent's poison, they repented and asked Moses to pray to God on their behalf. When Moses prayed, God told him to fashion a serpent out of bronze, to put it on a pole, and to tell the people to look up to it and be healed. All who looked up to the bronze serpent lived; those who refused to look upon it died in their sin.
In the same way Satan has infiltrated humanity, slithering in like a serpent. People are being poisoned by sin, and as a result are experiencing spiritual death. They are hell-bound unless they look up to Jesus, who was lifted up on a cross as a sacrifice for our sin. Those of us who look up to Him and believe are spared the consequences of sin; those who are hell-bound to refuse to look up to Him, who look away from the light He offers will die in their sins. There is hope for those that believe. For those who do not believe, there is no hope.
At this point in time, as Jesus spoke to Nicodemus, He had not yet been crucified. So all of what He said here was prophecy. The point that Jesus made, the application of His sermon if you will, was that God loved the sinful, hell-bent world so much that He gave His one and only Son, who would be lifted up on a cross one day. Whoever believes in Him would not perish, that is they would not die in their sins, but would have everlasting life. Jesus didn't come to condemn people, as they are already under the condemnation of sin--the serpent has already bitten them. For those people who are resistant to the Gospel, who ask, "Why would a loving God send people to hell?" here is the answer: People are already headed to hell. That's their default destination. God does not want us to go there, which is why He sent His Son to die in our place. If you feel condemned by God, then you need to repent and believe; if not, then you have pretty much sealed your fate--you remain in a state of self-condemnation.
"And this is the condemnation," Jesus said, "that the light has come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light." Jesus is the light. We can either look to the light and walk in the light as He is in the light, or we can continue in darkness.
Suppose you were in a movie theater. The lights go down, and the image is projected on the screen. You are really into the movie--the actors are believable, the plot is engaging, the music draws you in. Suddenly, the movie stops and the house lights come up. Worse yet, someone opens an outside exit door, and sunlight comes streaming in. Everyone in the theater shuts their eyes to avoid the light, as it is painful to see. Plus, someone starts shouting to the crowd from the exit, "There is a fire in the building! Get out now!"
If you were in that theater, what would you do? Would you listen to the one who came to save you from the blazing inferno? Or would you stop your ears, and whine that the movie was just getting good and some crazy person had to come in and interrupt it? Those are the two responses. Some will get up and follow the light. Those people will live. Others will ignore the warning, and stay in their seats waiting for the movie to re-start. Those people long for the darkness, but it leads to death.
Jesus has entered this dark world, and has thrown open the door to let the light shine in. His motivation is love, and He has done it at considerable cost to Himself. Yet most people question His motivation, and accuse Him of bringing condemnation to them. They prefer the darkness. They remain condemned in and of themselves, and do not recognize Jesus as the savior that He is.
Commentator David Guzik says, "We may say there are Seven Wonders in John 3:16:"
| God | The Almighty Authority |
| So loved the world | The Mightiest Motive |
| That He gave His only begotten Son | The Greatest Gift |
| That whoever | The Widest Welcome |
| Believes in Him | The Easiest Escape |
| Should not perish | The Divine Deliverance |
| But have everlasting life | The Priceless Possession |
Doesn't that just blow your mind?
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