An Unusually Clear Message of Rescue...

This week, we are looking at two individuals that we usually do not talk about on Easter Sunday. Yet, it is these two individuals that actually make it possible to tell the Easter story. Yesterday, we met a man named Nicodemus, who had an unusual encounter with Jesus. In that encounter Jesus explained that entering into a relationship with God was not something one one was able to do. Instead, to be born again is something that the Spirit of God does to you.

In the same way that you have been brought into the world physically in a way that resulted in you entering into a relationship with your earthly parents, you also have to be brought into a relationship with God by the Spirit of God. And just as no one can control the wind, no one can control the activity of the Holy Spirit and what He does in bringing people to the place where they are brought into a relationship with God. Today, we will look at what Nicodemus says next, in John 3:9:

Nicodemus said to Him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered and said to him, "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. "If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

In other words, Jesus asks Nicodemus “Are you not a pastor to the Jewish people? Are you not one of the most educated and powerful people in the Jewish nation? How is it that you are unable to wrap your mind around what I am saying? Nicodemus, I am telling you that this is what the Bible says and that we have been saying this all along, yet the religious leaders that you represent have missed it all along. And if you are having a hard time understanding the simple earthly illustration that I gave you so as to trust Me, then what are you going to do if I really start unpacking what the Bible and we have been saying?”

To understand why Nicodemus was having such a hard time wrapping his mind around the significance of Jesus words here, we first need to understand how Nicodemus believed one entered into a relationship with God. You see, Nicodemus, and the Jewish religious leaders of Jesus day, believed that it was what you did for God that made you right with God. They believed that it was your performance for God that determined whether or not you were able to have a relationship with God. Nicodemus grew up and lived his entire life trying to do things for God.

And now Jesus was telling Nicodemus that everything that he had learned, lived by, and was teaching others was wrong. Jesus was telling Nicodemus, and the Jewish religious leaders of the day that they had missed what it meant and how they could live in relationship with God.

Maybe you can totally relate to Nicodemus. Maybe you thought that a relationship with God was based on what you did for God. Maybe you thought that it was your performance for God that determined whether or not you were able to have a relationship with God. Maybe Jesus statement that a relationship with God is something that you cannot achieve apart from the Spirit of God has caught you off guard. Maybe all your categories about God have just been blown up. If I have just described you I just want to let you know that you are not the first person to experience that because that is exactly where Nicodemus was at.

After blowing up all of the categories that Nicodemus had when it came to God, Jesus answers the question that drove the religious leaders to send Nicodemus to Jesus in the first place. That question was this: Who did Jesus think He was and what authority did He think He had to say and do what He was doing. We see Jesus answer that question in verse 13:

"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.

Jesus explains to Nicodemus that He alone can speak authoritatively on how one is able to be brought into a relationship with God, because He alone is the Son of Man. Jesus here bring Nicodemus back to a section of a letter that is recorded for us in our Bibles called the book of Daniel. In Daniel 7:13-14, the prophet Daniel predicted and proclaimed that the Messiah would come from Heaven to usher in the Kingdom of God.

Jesus then reminds Nicodemus of a story in that is recorded for us in a letter in our Bibles called the book of Numbers. In Numbers 21:9, we read the story of an occasion where the Jewish people selfishly rebelled against Moses and God. God responded to their rebellion by sending poisonous snakes to kill those who were involved in the rebellion. The Lord commanded Moses to make an image of a bronze serpent and lift it on a standard so that it would be visible to all. Moses then explained to the people that those who trusted that God would heal them if they looked at the serpent would be healed. All those who trusted in God and looked at the serpent that was lifted on the pole were healed, while the rest of the Jewish people who failed to trust God but continued in their selfishness and rebellion died.

Jesus then takes this Old Testament story and explains that this story was a foreshadowing of what would happen to Him. Jesus explains to Nicodemus that just like the bronze serpent in the wilderness, He would be lifted up on a pole and that everyone who placed their confident trust in Him would be brought into a relationship with God. Jesus then makes a statement that is probably the most familiar verse in the entire Bible. And it is in this single verse that we see the core message of the good news of the message of the gospel.

If you are not sure you buy the Jesus, Bible, church, thing; if you have had Christians share “the gospel” with you but found yourself walking away confused or found the message filled with big 50 cent theological words that you did not understand, I just want to let you know that I am glad you are reading this. I am glad you are reading this because, in this verse, we see the gospel most clearly and simply put. I am glad you are reading this because while you have the freedom and every right to reject and walk away from the message of the gospel, I want to make sure that you walk away clearly understanding what you are rejecting. And this may be the first time that you have had the opportunity to clearly see the good news of God’s message of rescue through the message of the gospel. So let’s look at this verse together:

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

In this verse, we see Jesus reveal for us we need to know and what we need to do in order to enter into a relationship with God. First, Jesus says for God so loved the world. This morning, God sent His Son Jesus to earth not because He was mad at the world; God is in love with the world. Jesus then tells us that God did what people, who are in love, do. God gave. God sent His Son Jesus because He loved the world.

You see, while God created humanity to experience a relationship with Him and a relationship with one another, all of humanity selfishly rebelled and rejected that relationship, instead choosing to love ourselves and do things out of that selfish love that hurt God and others. That selfish love and rebellion is what the Bible calls sin. God responded to that selfish love and rebellion by giving what was closest to Himself to rescue what was furthest away. God’s love and interest in us was made known and shown in the most powerful way when He sent His unique, one and only Son to earth, who allowed Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful lives, so that God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life.

Jesus then explains that God loved and God gave so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish. Now this little phrase believes in, in the language that this letter is written in, literally means to entrust oneself entrust to someone with complete confidence. To trust is a lot like sitting on a stool, while I can say that I believe that a stool can hold my weight, it is only when I sit on the stool that I demonstrate that I trust the stool to hold my weight.

And for the person who believes, trusts, and follows Jesus, Jesus explains that they shall not perish, but have eternal life. Now eternal life is not simply living forever. You see, everyone lives forever; we are created as eternal beings. The question is not whether or not you are going to live forever, the question is where are you going to live? When Jesus uses this phrase, He is revealing to Nicodemus that the person who places their confident trust in Jesus life death, and resurrection will not be separated from God as a result of their selfishness and rebellion, but will experience forgiveness of sin and the relationship with God that we were created for.

And that is the good news of the gospel: God loved, God gave, so that those who believe and place their confident trust in Jesus would receive life in relationship with Him. Now you might be thinking “I am still having a hard time buying that God is like this. I still see God as being like a cosmic cop around the corner waiting to bust me. The idea that Easter is about God’s love for me and desire for relationship with me is hard to accept”.

If that is where you are, tomorrow we are going to see what Jesus says that addresses that skepticism...