It's All About Jesus: For Whoever Believes 3/3/19

 

When Jesus began His ministry, one of the first people He had a one-on-one conversation with was a man named Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a leader in the Jewish church, who had come to Jesus at night to ask questions. What Jesus made very clear was that works would not get people to heaven. The Pharisees liked everything by the book. They liked the rules and works. They weren’t going to believe in a system that they couldn’t control. To the Pharisees, righteousness was to be seen on the outside.

The topic of belief is one that Jesus knew Nicodemus would struggle to understand. In order to connect with Nicodemus, Jesus quoted a story from the Old Testament and reminded Nicodemus of a time when belief saved the Hebrews.                                                                  

Numbers 21:4-9  Then the people of Israel set out from Mount Hor, taking the road to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom. But the people grew impatient with the long journey, 5 and they began to speak against God and Moses. “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die here in the wilderness?” they complained. “There is nothing to eat here and nothing to drink. And we hate this horrible manna!” So the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many were bitten and died. Then the people came to Moses and cried out, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take away the snakes.” So Moses prayed for the people. Then the Lord told him, “Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!” So Moses made a snake out of bronze and attached it to a pole. Then anyone who was bitten by a snake could look at the bronze snake and be healed!

Why would it be so hard for people who were ill from snakebites to follow the instructions from Moses and look at the pole to be cured?

  

From this story in the book of Numbers, we can see that the Lord brought a way for the people to be saved. The way to salvation involved belief. Unfortunately, not everyone believed, and those who didn’t would eventually die. God said, “All who were bitten will live if they believe and look at the snake.”

Jesus told Nicodemus that in order to spend eternity with the Father, you must be born again. To be born again is a spiritual birth. It’s not something you can control, it requires faith.

John 3:9 “How are these things possible?” Nicodemus asked. 10 Jesus replied, “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things? 11 I assure you, we tell you what we know and have seen, and yet you won’t believe our testimony. 12 But if you don’t believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.

Do you see the similarities? Sometimes something as simple as faith can seem so difficult.

            The Hebrews were in the wilderness, and they were being bitten by poisonous snakes. Moses walked around the camp, and he told people they simply needed to look at the bronze snake on the pole to be healed. They needed to have faith. They needed to do what God had asked them to do, and their faith would lead to healing.

            Undoubtedly there were people in the camp who had been bitten by the snakes who would not believe the directions from Moses. They were the ones who died. They died because of their lack of faith. The author of Hebrews writes in Hebrews 11:

11 Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.

 If you looked at the bronze snake and were cured, how would you feel when you looked at the people in your camp that didn’t look at the pole and were dying?

 

 

Jesus knew He would someday be nailed to a wooden pole. Jesus has asked us to be obedient in the same way that Moses asked of the Hebrews. Jesus told us that we need to be born again and to do so, you and I need to have faith in the man on the pole.

Jesus continues his discussion to Nicodemus, with the most quoted verse in the entire Bible. John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

As much as we learn about God from this one verse, we discover so much more from one simple word within this verse. It’s the word SO. God didn’t simply love the world, He SO loved and the world. He doesn’t simply love you; He SO loves you. To some people, you might say, “I love you.” However, isn’t there a difference when you say, “I love you SO much”?
           It’s two letters! However, it shows us how deep God’s love is for us. He loved us SO much that He decided to save us. He decided to trade HIS SON for You and me.

Some people will do anything for their pets. When we need to take our animal to the vet. We are never ready financially for the veterinarian to say, “yes, I can heal your precious best friend, but it’s going to cost $9000.” It is so much money, and you’re left with a choice. They can put your dog to sleep with a simple shot and you say good-bye for only $112.

            Some people might say, “No animal is worth $9000.” However, others will say, “I love my dog SO much that I would pay anything.” It sounds strange to compare Gods love for us to our love for an animal, but that that’s what God did. He paid for us because He loves us SO much. God knew that He would have to pay more than thousands of dollars for us but He paid something even more than that: He gave his Son for you.

What if the angels were looking at God and saying, “You paid what?” “You gave your Son? Look at them, they’re just humans. No human is worth the Son of God. Look at them, God! They are sinners! They don’t obey you. They don’t follow you. They curse your name!” And maybe God would look back at His angels with tears in His eyes as He keeps one hand on our shoulder and says, “I know all of that, but . . . but, but I love them SO much.”

   

How must God have felt as Jesus died on the cross for us? What can we learn about the depth of His love?

 

How are we responding to the love of God? We need to continue to look up, because there is a God who loves us, and never stops looking down.

Jesus continues his message to Nicodemus in John 3, 17.

John 3:17-19 

17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 

 

John makes it clear that if you believe, you have already been saved, but if you DON’T believe, if you don’t have faith, you have already been judged. It’s a very clear gospel message the only way to the father is through belief in Jesus Christ.
           People want to create shiny things. There are so many different cultures, lifestyles and fake religions that keep popping up that are based on fabricated ideas. They all have one thing in common, they diminish the truth of the gospel and allow you to create your own path. The pleasures of this world will always sparkle, but they will never save. 

John goes on to tell us that new this direction for our lives is free. We can all have this joy by simply having faith. It’s a change in our life that is going to bring us closer to our creator and further away from guilt. This change even comes with the benefits of people who are going to notice our change, people who are going to understand, and people who are going through the same exact thing that we are. We are also part of a family of believers, many of whom have been on the very place that every new believer has been.

 

John 3:20-21 

20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants. ”

Jesus has a message for Nicodemus. Jesus says you can continue in your sin if you choose to, you can hide it from everyone in your world, and you can think you’re hiding it from Jesus, but God still sees our sin. A new life in Christ makes all our sin visible to us the same way that Jesus sees our sin. When we recognize and repent of our sin, we can finally recognize the power of the blood of Christ that paid for our sin.
           Jesus wants you to walk to the cross with your sin. Jesus gives us relief from our sin, and that is what the Light is for. It’s to shine a light on our sin. Yes, the closer we get to Jesus, the brighter the light shines on our sin. This helps us to see it and come to Jesus to eliminate it from our lives. We cannot grow closer to Christ and closer to sin at the same time.

If Jesus were right here right now he might say, “Why are you still carrying that sin around? Why have you not yet brought that to me?” I already paid for it. All that guilt and that heavy heart that you have because of the sin that you know is in your life, I already paid for that. Let me have that, leave this sin, and let’s move on together.”
           Jesus really knows what our sin is, but what Jesus wants is for us to recognize it as sin. He wants us to stop making excuses. He wants us to stop believing what the world says that our sin is OK because it’s not OK. Jesus wants us to except that he is already paid for that guilt, he’s already paid for that sin.

 

Our response to the blood of Christ covering our sin should be . . .