Welcome, it is so good to be with you today, I’m so glad to be here and to see each one of you. Let’s open our Bibles to John chapter 3 today. We’ve are studying our way through the book of John and we have come today to verses 18-21. And as you’re turning in your Bibles let me tell you about one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had in flying. Now I’ve not told you any airplane stories up until now because I have no desire to frighten you out of flying, flying is very safe, much safer than driving, but I have a story to tell you today because it illustrates the passage of Scripture that we are going to look at.
I used to fly small planes, Cessnas and Pipers, single engine and multi-engine, and I would give flight instruction to people who wanted to learn flying and I would also do what is called “bank runs” where we would fly canceled checks to various places throughout the country. We would fly somewhere, sit around all day until the banks closed, then pick up their canceled checks and fly them to the banks headquarters in another city. Well one time I was flying along up in Oregon, at night, and the airport I was going to land at had bad weather, it had heavy fog and rain, low visibility, just poor flying conditions. I was also acquiring some icing on the wings of the airplane, which is a pretty dangerous thing to get on your wings. So here I am in this little single engine airplane, at night, all by myself, in the clouds, picking up icing, hoping I’m going to be able to land at this little airport that is all fogged in.
And its dark as can be outside, and I’m flying on the instruments, about 15 miles from the airport, coming in to land, when all of a sudden everything went pitch black. I could not see outside at all, I could not see the instruments at all. The cabin lighting system had completely failed and everything was so dark you could feel it.
Well I instinctively dropped down to my flight bag which was supposed to contain a flashlight. I say supposed to because I could not find it for what was probably 10 seconds but it seemed like an eternity. An eternity of groping in the darkness, feeling around for the flashlight, all the while my mind is telling me the airplane is rolling over and I’m about to spin into the ground. Have you ever been in darkness so thick it felt like you could slice it with a knife?
Finally my hand touched what I knew was my flashlight, I yanked it out of the bag and quickly turned it on and shined it on the instruments. Sure enough, I was in a 45 degree banking turn but was able to quickly level the wings. I then put the flashlight in my mouth and flew with both hands on the control yoke.
I discovered that I hate flying in pitch darkness. But this story illustrates both the danger of darkness and the saving power of light.
John 3:18-21
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." John 3:18-21
I want to discuss this passage in 3 ways: Theologically, practically, and then personally.
Here we have two groups of people defined for us, let’s look closely at the text and see these two groups:
Believers Non Believers
Not condemned Condemned
Lives by the truth Love Darkness
Comes into the light Deeds are evil
Lives through God Hates the light
Fears exposure
Now in this passage Jesus is still speaking to Nicodemus, the Jewish ruler, the teacher of Israel. Jesus had given Nicodemus the requirement to be saved in verse 3: He said, “You must be born again.” And Nicodemus did not understand this, so Jesus gave him an illustration in verses 14-16. He took him back to Numbers 21 where people were bitten by snakes and were dying, they had called out to God, and God provided the solution by telling Moses to lift up a pole and put a bronze snake on it, and anyone who was bitten could look at the snake and he would live.
So Jesus illustrated the requirement to be saved. He taught by story that all people by birth are like those snake-bitten Israelites. All people have the venom of sin running through our veins, and we are hopeless, the snakebite of sin is fatal and we will die from it. But God erected a cross-like pole as the solution, and on that pole He hung a Savior, and if we will turn and look and believe, we will live. We will no longer be condemned under the curse of the snakebite, but we will have eternal life.
So Jesus stated the requirement to be saved: you must be born again. Then He gave an illustration, a true, historical parable of the method of salvation, and now He is going to explain the parable. Jesus does that. Tells a story, then explains it to His disciples.
So here is the explanation: unbelievers are condemned, just like those Israelites who were snake-bitten. They love darkness, their deeds are evil, hate the light, and they won’t come out of hiding because they fear being exposed. They are under a death sentence.
Believers on the other hand are not condemned, they have eternal life. They live by the truth. So Jesus explained the parable, He made the meaning clear.
So this is the theological truth, the doctrinal truth of the Bible. But practically, what is darkness. It says “men loved darkness rather than light”, what is darkness? Here are some categories of darkness according to the Bible:
Social darkness: ignoring the needs of others around us, not being concerned for the poor, not caring for the elderly, the orphans or the widows. It’s churches that love to huddle together and study the Bible without being concerned for the needs of their communities. That’s social darkness.
Relational darkness: Men won’t love their wives, instead they have what the Bible calls “eyes of adultery”. Men won’t lead their families. Oh they are great in leading big businesses, looked up to for their leadership ability with their companies, but they won’t come home and lead their families in righteousness.
Women won’t respect their husbands, and won’t submit to them. A man consults with his wife and family and makes a decision the wife doesn’t like, and she puts out all 4’s and has 15 reasons why she won’t follow. Or children don’t want to obey their parents, they think they know better and they will just do what they want to do. Relational darkness is churches that are not united around the gospel, there is divisiveness and bickering and dissention.
Intellectual darkness: “See to it that you are not taken captive by hollow and deceptive philosophy.” People today want to study the psyche, the soul of man, to try and figure out why man is the way he is and how to fix him. But they don’t have the light of the gospel, the understanding that Christ brings, so worldly psychology is like blind men groping in the darkness trying to find a hidden key. This is intellectual darkness, trying to use our intellect to solve problems instead of seeking the Lord.
Spiritual darkness: Muslims, Moonies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Hare Krishna, the B’hai faith, new agers, Atheism, Catholicism, Seventh-Day-Adventism, Buddhism, and a whole lot more. These are groups that try to worship God apart from the gospel. It is spiritual darkness.
Personal darkness: pornography and sexual immorality (lust), eating in secret, lying, self-pity, discontent, envy, jealously, coveting, legalism.
This is what the Bible calls darkness. It’s not having the light of understanding, and having no desire to be right with God. It’s being without Jesus Christ, it’s having hobbies and habits and thrills and excitements in everything other than Jesus, not having the light of the gospel.
So we have discussed this passage theologically, we’ve discussed it practically but now let’s examine it personally. Let me ask you this question: which group are you in? Do you love darkness or light? And just as important, let me ask us this? How do our desires change? How do we go from loving darkness to loving light? How does our heart change to where we actually go from loving darkness to loving God Who is light?
Well let me take you to a passage in the Old Testament that tells us exactly how this change happens. Look with me at Job chapter 33. And as you’re turning, this passage will show us the problem, then the Solution, then the results. So first, notice the problem:
19 Or a man may be chastened on a bed of pain with constant distress in his bones, 20 so that his very being finds food repulsive and his soul loathes the choicest meal. 21 His flesh wastes away to nothing, and his bones, once hidden, now stick out. 22 His soul draws near to the pit, and his life to the messengers of death.
So there’s the problem, he’s sick and not eating and wasting away and drawing near to the darkness of death. What is the Solution?
23 "Yet if there is an angel on his side as a mediator,
one out of a thousand, to tell a man what is right for him, 24 to be gracious to him and say, ’Spare him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom for him’-- 25
Ah, wait a minute, who is this Unique Mediator, this one in a thousand, this intercessor. Who is this that stands between the sick man and death, Who pleads for his life? Who is this Ransom, the One Who would pay something for this man’s life? The NT tells us it is Jesus, our Ransom who paid for our lives by His own death on the cross. He is our Mediator, our Go-Between, Our Ransom, our Intercessor, the One Who prays for us day and night. He is the Solution to all of mankind’s problems.
And then notice the result:
then his flesh is renewed like a child’s; it is restored as in the days of his youth. 26 He prays to God and finds favor with him, he sees God’s face and shouts for joy; he is restored by God to his righteous state. 27 Then he comes to men and says, ’I sinned, and perverted what was right, but I did not get what I deserved. 28 He redeemed my soul from going down to the pit, and I will live to enjoy the light.’ Job 33:19-28
So picture this with me: see a man who is sinning, perverting what is right, living in darkness, heading for the pit of death, and he had an encounter with Jesus, and he confesses and repents, and now he enjoys the light, he loves the light. And do you know what is needed in our lives today? It is an encounter with Jesus Christ.
I fear that too many Christians today have the doctrine of Jesus Christ, but not an actual experience with Him. I fear that too many know about Jesus but don’t know Him. Anyone who encounters Jesus becomes joy-filled and begins to love the light. And that is the very purpose of our Revival Weekend, to encounter the Living Christ. I hope you can come. May 2-4.
That’s how to go from darkness to light, is to encounter Jesus, to see God’s face in the Person of Jesus Christ and shout for joy. He knows how to rescue us from darkness, and how to change our hearts and heal our sin-sickness. He is amazing!
13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, Colossians 1:13
See have you ever wondered why, when Jesus was put on the cross, darkness came over the whole land from noon to 3 PM? It was because sin is always associated with darkness, and Jesus was taking our sin upon Himself. He was entering our darkness in order to rescue us from darkness.
So picture Him here with me for a minute: He had been rejected by his own brothers, betrayed by one of His own disciples, and abandoned by the rest of them. He was suspended naked between heaven and earth, rejected by both. Abandoned by His own Father. His body was wracked by the pain of all His wounds, His soul was weighed down by the guilt of all humanity on Him. And now, the sun is withdrawing its light and darkness is covering Him. His life’s blood is pouring out on to the dusty, rocky soil.
Why did He do this? He entered the darkness in order to rescue us and take us out of darkness: out of social, relational, intellectual and personal darkness.
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14 for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." Ephesians 5:8-14
Cassie was in the school library reading her Bible when two young killers burst in. According to witnesses, one of the killers pointed his gun at Cassie and asked, do you believe in God?" Cassie answered, "Yes, I believe in God." "Why?" the gunman asked. Cassie did not have a chance to respond; the gunman had shot her dead.
But what you may not know is that just a few years before this Cassie had dabbled in the occult, including witchcraft. She had once embraced the same darkness that drove her killers to commit such horrible crimes. She wrote one time, “I love the power of darkness!” But two years later, Cassie had an encounter with Jesus Christ, and was dramatically changed.
According to the Boston Globe, on the night of Cassie’s death, her brother Chris found a poem she had written just two days before she died. This is her poem:
"Now I have given up on everything else
I have found it to be the only way
To really know Christ and to experience
The mighty power that brought
Him back to life again, and to find
Out what it means to suffer and to
Die with him. So, whatever it takes
I will be one who lives in the fresh
Newness of life of those who are
Alive from the dead."
Cassie Burnall had gone from loving darkness to living by the truth, she encountered Jesus Christ, she experienced His power, and now she is in the Light.
Well maybe this morning it’s time for you to give up on everything else, and come and really get to know Jesus, to know Him in His death and resurrection, to experience Him, so that you can always live in the newness of life with those who, like Cassie are right now alive from the dead.
Do you need to move from one group to the other? Or maybe you’re in the right group but you’re holding on to some darkness in your life. Some hobby, habit or sin that is taking you away from letting you experience the passion of knowing Christ. Isn’t it time to let it go? Isn’t it time already?
I invite you to just listen to the first verse of this song, consider the words, and then we’ll join in on the chorus.
12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." John 8:12
Let’s pray: Oh God, we’ve been too long in darkness. Darkness of unbelief, darkness of rebellion, darkness of ignorance, but now we see Jesus Who came to this world to die on the cross for us, thereby rescuing all who believe out of all their darkness. Help us Oh Lord to have nothing to do with the deeds of darkness but to follow Jesus and to have the light of life.
