Salvation - John 3:1-17
William Dixon lived in England. He was a widower who had lost both his wife and his only son. One day he saw that the house of one of his neighbors was on fire. Although the elderly owner had been rescued, her orphaned grandson was still trapped in the fire. William Dixon immediately climbed an iron pipe on the side of the house and lowered the boy to safety. His hands and arms were badly burned in the rescue, but he was glad to get the boy out of the fire. Shortly after the fire, the grandmother died. The townspeople wondered who would care for the boy. Two volunteers appeared before the town council to offer their homes to the boy. When it was William Dixon’s turn to speak, instead of saying anything, he merely held up his scarred hands and arms. When the vote was taken, the boy was given to him. The chairman of the city council said, “Sir, the scars on your arms are proof of your love for the boy, as well as your promise to take good care of him.” Well the Bible says to us this morning, that the scars on Jesus’ hands and feet are the proof of God’s love for you, as well as His promise to take good care of you. The title of the sermon this morning is “the love of God in our salvation.”
We are studying the Bible sequentially, having started in the gospel of John approximately 4 months ago and now we have come in our study to chapter 3, and I don’t need to tell you that this is unarguably the most well-known chapter in all of the Bible, containing the most well-known verse in all of the Bible, John 3:16 which says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Let’s pray as we begin to study this important chapter. “Father in heaven, we stand amazed at You, that You loved us so much that you would give your only Son to die for us, and Lord Jesus that you would go farther than William Dixon and actually give your life to rescue us, not only from the fire of hell, but also from the lies of the devil, from the allurement of this world, and even from our own wrong desires. Oh God! As we look at the scars on the hands and head and feet and side of Your Son, our Savior, we have the greatest proof of the greatest Love that has ever been shown to this world. So Holy Spirit help us in our study, help us to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is your love, and help us to know this love that surpasses knowledge. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Well my plan is to do a 30,000 foot fly-by of John chapter 3 today, seeing an overview of the chapter, and then in the following weeks to look at this chapter more closely. So today we will see 3 points:
• The requirement for salvation
• The method of salvation
• The results of salvation
The requirement, the method and the results of salvation. We see these 3 points coming right out of the passage. The requirement is stated in verse 3, “no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”, we see the method of salvation in verse 14-15, “14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life” and we see the results of salvation in verse 16 “shall not perish” and in verse 17, “Is not condemned” and both of those statements are summed up in the words “eternal life.”
So let’s notice these 3 points together today. First of all, the requirement: the setting of this passage is that a very religious man approaches Jesus at night to have an audience with Him. Now this man is not just any religious person, we get several indications of who he is by reading verse 1 which tells us that he is a Pharisee, a Jewish leader, and verse 10 which tells us he is Israel’s teacher. This man is somebody. He most likely has the entire Old Testament memorized, as all Pharisees were required to do, and his role is to teach the Scriptures to the people. He is very knowledgeable, he is very religious and he is very well respected.
But verse 2 tells us he comes to Jesus by night. Now the Bible doesn’t tell us why he comes by night, but it’s clear that he has wants something from Jesus, but as of yet he is probably not ready to be called a follower of Jesus, so he comes by cover of night.
And in verse 2 we see that he comes with compliments on his lips, he begins speaking with Jesus by saying “we know that you are a teacher sent from God because no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with Him…” but Jesus cuts him off right in the middle of his compliment, and says “no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” Now this strikes me as just so very strange that Jesus would say this to Nicodemus: we would expect Jesus to say that in the next chapter, chapter 4, as He begins talking with the Samaritan woman who had had 5 husbands and is currently shacked up with another guy. Then everybody would agree, yes she needs to be born again. She needs a new start, she needs a new life. But no, Jesus makes this amazing statement to Nicodemus, probably one of the most religious men in all of Israel at the time.
You know something we can learn from what Jesus says so far? Just this: salvation does not come through education, Nicodemus was highly educated, and salvation does not come through religion, Nicodemus was highly religious. Salvation is much more than merely acquiring knowledge or going to church or becoming a better person, Nicodemus was all of these things. Salvation has to do with being born again. This is the requirement for salvation. “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
Well what exactly is being born again? If you ask the press, CNN would tell you that it is those voters who are against abortion, homosexuality and who vote for Mike Huckabee. That’s the world’s view of someone who is born again. They are the far right, in fact some people say that they’re so far right that they’re just plain wrong. Nicodemus also doesn’t know what being born again is, in verse 4 he asks “how one can be born when he is already old,” and “how can somebody can enter a second time into his mother’s womb” to be born a second time? Like the world and the press today, Nicodemus really does not have any idea what being born again is, so he asks Jesus what that means.
And Jesus answers Nicodemus’ question by providing an explanation, and an illustration. The explanation is in verses 5-13 and the illustration is in verses 14-18.
The explanation is that being born again is a spiritual birth, not a physical birth. Jesus tells Nicodemus in verse 5 that in order to see the kingdom of God one must be born of water and the Spirit, which we will talk about more next week. In verse 6 he says that the flesh only gives birth to flesh; in other words being born the first time is just a natural birth, but if people want to see the kingdom of God they must have a spiritual birth, a second birth.
In other words, the Holy Spirit has to work a miracle in our hearts and give us new spiritual life. We were dead and we need to be made alive. We need ears that can hear truth, and we need eyes than see Christ and his way of salvation as supremely beautiful. We need hearts that are soft and receptive to the Word of God. In short, we need new life.
So Jesus has just described two worlds: he has described the natural world where people live who have only been born once, and He is describing a spiritual world that people enter into when they are born again by the Spirit of God. So if we’re born once, we’re in the natural world, the world of the flesh, if we’re born twice we’re in the kingdom of God.
But I want us to notice something amazing from verse 8. In verse 8 Jesus places the prerogative of new birth entirely with God the Holy Spirit. Verse 8 compares the Spirit of God to the wind and says “the wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Jesus is saying here that God is sovereign in who He gives the new birth to. The wind blows where it pleases, in other words, the Holy Spirit gives new life to whoever He pleases. Just like in our first birth, we are not the ones who chose to be born, so in our second birth God is sovereign, blowing where He pleases, giving life to whom He pleases.
This is the explanation of being born again; that it is a spiritual birth enabling us to see the kingdom of God, and is entirely at the discretion of the Spirit of God. This is the requirement for salvation: we must be born again.
But Jesus is the best Teacher Who ever lived and so He does not merely give an explanation He also gives an illustration. In order to illustrate His point He takes Nicodemus back into the history of the nation of Israel, back to a story that Nicodemus himself had probably taught numerous times. In verses 14 and 15 Jesus says “14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
Let’s turn to that story in Numbers chapter 21, and let’s see the context of this story. Keep in mind here that Jesus is answering Nicodemus’ question of how one can be born again. This story then teaches us the method of salvation, it teaches us about the new birth. That’s how Jesus uses this story.
Numbers 21 starting with verse 4: 4 They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; 5 they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!" 6 Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. 7 The people came to Moses and said, "We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us." So Moses prayed for the people. 8 The Lord said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.
So here is the situation: the Israelites are complaining because they have no bread or water. They are speaking against God and against His chosen leader, and God does not take kindly to that, and so He sent snakes among all the people, and those snakes are biting the people and people are dying. And the ones who have not died yet begin to cry out to God and ask Him to take the snakes away, and God tells Moses to do something amazing. As the remedy for the snakebite He tells Moses to put up a pole, and on the pole to hang a snake, and then anyone who is bitten can turn and look at the snake and they would, get this word now…LIVE. Those who were bitten, who were under the death sentence, could look and live. Why it’s almost as if they gained a new life, I mean after all, they could feel the venom running through their veins, they knew it was just a matter of time and they were dead. But now as they look at that pole with a snake on it they live.
And here is how Jesus applies this story: we all are born snake-bitten; that is, we have inherited a sin nature from our parents, and this sin runs through our veins and we will die from it. There is a 100% mortality rate with the snakebite of sin.
But wait. 2,000 years ago, God erected a cross-like pole, and on this pole He hung a Savior, and if we will turn and look and believe we will live. We, who were under the death sentence, are given new life simply by looking to Jesus on the cross, acknowledging our sinful condition, and believing that He died for us, that His death is the remedy for our sin.
Jesus used this story as an illustration of salvation, as a teaching tool. So what can we really learn about salvation from this story? I have a few things here:
What does the passage in Numbers 21 teach us? Here are things we are to learn from this passage:
• We learn that apart from Christ we are dying in sin and that we will be condemned. Jesus used the example of the snake-bitten Israelites, and their condition was that they were perishing. That’s our condition outside of Christ.
• Then we can learn that what Jesus did on the cross saves us. The uplifted snake was the cure, it was the remedy. It saved the lives of everyone who believed.
• We can also learn that our sins are forgiven. The wages of sin is death but these people were cured and given life, so the picture is that we’re forgiven of our sins that bring death.
• We can also learn from this story that the curse has lifted. The Israelites were under a curse from God, and this curse was killing them. But when the snake was lifted up on the pole, and people turned and looked, the curse was lifted from the people. Jesus became a curse for us so that the curse has lifted from us.
• We can learn from this story that we have eternal life. The uplifted serpent brought physical life, and that life was a picture of the eternal life that we have by believing. Listen, death is the enemy of us all, and some of us here in this room may be closer to death than we even realize. Jesus said in John 11:26 “whoever lives and believes in me, will never die” so that as death gets closer to you please remember that you are getting closer to life, real life! Listen, only the Christian can face death full of hope, full of expectation, full of longing and eagerness, without any sense of dread whatsoever.
• Finally we can learn from this story that God’s wrath is all exhausted on Christ. The Israelites were dying under the wrath of God. God sent the snakes. But when the snake was lifted up on the pole the people escaped His wrath. We talk a lot about the love of God but He is also a God of wrath, a God Who hates sin. But Jesus took all of God’s wrath for us, and there is none left.
And so we see that this story really does illustrate salvation. It shows us the requirement of salvation. We are all bitten by the most powerful serpent of all, who has shot us through with the venom of sin. The wound is incurable by man and we do not need better education, we don’t need more religion, we don’t need to try harder and do better, we need life. The requirement is that we must be born again. This story also shows the method of salvation: look to the uplifted cross-like pole, and to the one who took our sins on Himself and is now dying in our place. Look to Jesus for forgiveness and you’ll also receive new life. And finally it shows us the results: the people looked and received life. They were no longer under the curse and condemnation and death, they were alive and free.
And then Jesus says, in the most well-known verse in all of the Bible: “16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
And so we see in this verse that the cross is proof of God’s love for the world. See, the scars on the hands and arms of William Dixon were proof of his love for the boy, even so the death of Jesus Christ is proof of God’s love. And Oh what love this is. It’s the love of a God Whose heart beats for His people, it’s the love of a God Whose heart bleeds for His people. It’s the love of a God Who would rather die for us than to live without us.
And here we come right to the very heart of Christianity. At the cross we see the most amazing exhibit of the character of God. You know what the cross shows? It shows that He loves His people with a passion, but it also shows that He hates sin with a vengeance. He is a loving God so He gave His Son for us, He is filled with hatred for sin, so His Son had to die to pay the penalty of sin. The cross is the most amazing display of the love and wrath of God. But John 3:16 focuses on His love and assures us by the very death of His Son, God loves the world.
Now let me give you a warning right now: please learn this lesson now because you will need it. Do not look at your circumstances or the situation that you are in to determine whether or not God loves you. Look at the cross. You see if we have money and health right now and so we say “oh God loves me” well those things are temporary, they will soon be gone. If you don’t have money and health right now, please don’t conclude that God doesn’t love you. Look to the cross and see proof positive of God’s love for you and His promise to He keep you. Don’t look to your ever changing circumstances, look to the cross and see that the steadfast love of God endures forever. See His piercing as proof of His love.
Listen, you know what one of the most amazing pictures of the love of Jesus is in the entire Bible? It is in Exodus chapter 21, let me just read it for you:
2 "If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. 3 If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.
5 "But if the servant declares, ’I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,’ 6 then his master must take him before the judges. [a] He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.
So here is the scenario: a man takes a Hebrew servant who works with him for 6 years straight, but in the 7th year he can go free. But what if the servant loves the family and doesn’t want to go free, he wants to live with the family? Then, as proof of his love, he is taken to a door post, and they take a nail or a spike, and they drive it through his flesh into the wood, and now this servant is marked for life as belonging to the family. Can you imagine a young son asking his Dad, “daddy, why does he have that big hole in his ear?” “Oh son, he loves us and because he chose to stay with us he was pierced through. You see son, that hole in his flesh is proof of his love for us.” See Jesus Christ came as a servant and He could have left anytime, but He chose to stay and because of that one day they took him to the wood of the cross, drove nails in His hands and feet and ran a sword right through His heart. And those wounds in His flesh are proof of His love.
Let me ask you a question right now: when was the last time the love of God melted your heart? When is the last time you had a really good look at the cross and saw His sorrow and love flow mingled down, and you let it wash over you and dissolve your heart into tears? Do you know what my desire is for this body of believers right here? My heart longs for each one of you to be smitten in your hearts with the love of God. I long to see people struck and awed and melted by the fire of God’s love. Not that we all have to cry, that’s not what I’m saying, but rather that our hearts are moved by the amazing love of God for sinners. The songwriter wrote,
And now, did you notice in verse 16 that the method of our salvation is stated as God’s part and our part: God’s part is to give His Son, our part is to believe. “…whoever believes in Him will not perish.” God’s part is to crucify His Son on the cross, our part is to believe we’re forgiven. That’s the method of salvation: God giving His son, and our belief in Him.
And now, what are the results of salvation?
The results: verse 16 says “shall not perish” and verse 17 says “is not condemned.” Now this just makes sense doesn’t it? If Jesus perished in our place then we need not perish. If Jesus was condemned instead of us then we can go free. See in reality all who believe are like Barabbas. You remember Barabbas in the Bible. He was guilty, condemned to death, simply awaiting execution. And then the news came to him, “Barabbas you are free to go.” “What? What do you mean I’m free to go?” “Yes, it seems that Someone is dying instead of you.” “Who? Who is dying in my place?” “Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth is taking your place and you’re free to go.” And Jesus was condemned in his place and Barabbas went free. “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world,” no He sent His Son into the world to be condemned instead of the world, “so that we might be saved through Him.”
I’ll close today with an illustration of the results of salvation: one day as American pioneers travelled in their wagon train they noticed a long line of smoke that stretched for miles across the prairie. Soon it became quite clear that the dry grass was burning fiercely, and the fire was moving toward them rapidly. They had just crossed a river the day before but they knew they could never get back before the flames caught them. And then one of them devised a plan; he told the others to set fire to the grass behind them. Then when a large enough space was burned over, the whole company moved back upon the spot that was already burned. As the flames roared towards them a little girl cried out in terror. "We’ll all be burned up!" But the leader replied, "Don’t worry my child; the flames can’t reach us here, for we are standing where the fire has already burned!" Listen, in Jesus Christ, we’re standing where the fire has already burned. The fire of God’s wrath consumed His Son and there is not a spark left for us. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” That’s the results of salvation.
Let’s sing together. Let’s pray: “Lord Jesus, Your love is Amazing. Greater love has no man than this: that He lay down His life for His friends. Thank you, Father for giving Your Son. Thank you Jesus, for giving your life. Thank you Holy Spirit for giving us new life. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.”
