John 3:16-21 says...

Today's devotional verses are John chapter 3 and verses 16 through 21, which read,...

v.16 - "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."

The whole passage we are looking at this morning is in red.  We start off by reminding ourselves of the setting.  Nicodemus, a teacher of the law and a ruler of Israel seeks out Jesus at night to find out more about who He is.  Jesus goes right into a conversation about spiritual birth, being born again.  Nicodemus is confused and can think only of physical birth and so Jesus explains to him how spiritual birth is different than physical birth.  Jesus also tells Nicodemus that he needs to be spiritually born if he is going to enter the kingdom of God and receive eternal life.  There is a looking to the One who will be lifted up like the serpent lifted up in the Wilderness.  Nicodemus is given the "what" and "how" but now Jesus comes with the "why."

The "why" is because God loves the world.  In this context the world would seem to be pointing to mankind rather than all of the universe because the Son is sent to save sinners and not the solar system.  Nicodemus is told what he knows from the Scriptures that a Messiah would be sent from God but now Jesus connects for him that this Messiah is concerned about a belief in Him to receive eternal life.  God was going to sacrifice His Son being with Him so that mankind would experience Jesus to receive the essential element to eternal life.  The essential is a belief that Jesus is the Messiah, the Anointed One, Emmanuel, God with us.

v.17 - "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him."

Nicodemus needed to know that the Messiah was to come twice.  This first time was to save those of mankind who would believe in Him and the second time to judge the world.  Salvation comes first.  The reason Jesus was here was to speak and be the Gospel to the world.  The common thought of the Messiah coming as a warrior to overthrow the Romans was too small of a vision of what this Messiah had come to do.  This Messiah was after the hearts of man.

v.18 - "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."

God's judgement was already here.  God had given His law.  God had spoken and in that law was the prophecies of the coming Messiah.  Those prophecies gave enough information to verify that what Jesus was doing and saying was testifying that He was the One.  God gave the Scriptures.  God gave the prophesying prophets.  God gave the testimony of John the Baptist.  God gave the fulfillment of prophecies of Jesus' birth.  The one who believes in the name of the only begotten Son of God goes from "judged" to "not judged."  It is also interesting that the phrase "believed in the name" is literally, "to believe into the name."  This is something we were not doing before.  This is something we are coming "into."

v.19. 20 - "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."

What are we judged on?  The Light, Jesus Christ.  I saw a recent interview with Pastor John MacArthur and Ben Shapiro.  Ben, a devout Jew, wanted Pastor John to speak about the fundamental differences between Judaism and Christianity without talking about Jesus, the Messiah.  Pastor John explained that there is no way to do such a thing because Jesus in the fundamental difference between Christianity and any other religion.  Here is the link to that interview:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-ofKxfYqGw

What do we do with the Light?  Do we love the Light or do we love the darkness?  Do we care more keeping our evil deeds than coming to the Light?  Do we protect them rather than having the Light expose them so we can submit to a right relationship with Him?  Jesus, the Light, and darkness are incompatible.  You either have one or the other.

v.21 - "But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God."

Jesus ends this little section with looking at the opposite or the desired path.  Instead of performing deeds that are evil and running away from the Light in fear, we have someone who is coming to the Light and it is seen in the practicing of truth.  This person is applying what Jesus is saying.  This person is also doing deeds but they are in light of what God has called us to do.  These deeds are now happening because of the love of God shown to us.  These deeds are not to get God's love but in response to His love to us by giving His only begotten Son.  Because of the love of God I love Him and others, the two greatest commandments.  Because of the love of God I go and make disciples, the great commission.

This ends Jesus conversation with Nicodemus.  We know later that Nicodemus did accept Jesus as the Messiah.  Nicodemus spoke up for Him before the Sanhedrin to hear from Jesus directly and was responded to in a very negative way.  Nicodemus was with Joseph of Arimathea to take Jesus' body from the cross and to the grave.  This conversation with Jesus at night took hold at some point and Nicodemus is recognized as someone who came to believe into the name of the only begotten Son of God.  Nicodemus became born again spiritually as the God who is in control of the wind allowed him to understand who Jesus is and he responded to the calling with a coming to Him so that his deeds would be manifested as having been wrought in God.  

I am so thankful for this conversation.  I am so thankful for Jesus taking the time to spell out what happens behind the scenes so that we can be born again.  Let us pray.

"Heavenly Father, thank You for this conversation.  Thank You for Nicodemus' honesty and humility to not understand but question You more.  Thank You for giving us the words to explain to others about Your great love and the salvation that only comes from You.  Amen."

Pastor Adam