Dakota Community Church
March 22, 2009
Status: Condemned!
John 3:14-21
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
"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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 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. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 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."
Everyone loves John 3:16, but this morning I want us to turn our attention to the verses preceding and following it. I want us to take a hard look at this beloved verse in context.
1. The Son of Man must be lifted up.
John 3:14-16
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
The lifting up of the Son of Man makes eternal life possible.
Numbers 21:4-9
They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; 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!"
Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. 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.
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." 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.
Does this seem a little severe?
Do leaders have to be thick skinned?
The pain of putting yourself out there to be a blessing and being scorned for it.
Recall the need for justice as well as mercy?
Matthew 12:36-37
But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."
How will we be acquitted by our words?
Romans 10:9-10
That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
Why a snake? Why didn’t God have Moses lift up a bronze spotless lamb?
2 Corinthians 5:20-21
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
If we have no sin, we require no forgiveness.
Jesus forgives sins committed against others!
We can all understand how a man forgives offences against himself. You tread on my toes and I forgive you, you steal my money and I forgive you. But what should we make of a man, himself unrobbed and untrodden on, who announced that he forgave you for treading on other men’s toes and stealing other men’s money? Asinine fatuity is the kindest description we should give of his conduct. Yet this is what Jesus did. He told people that their sins were forgiven, and never waited to consult all the other people whom their sins had undoubtedly injured. He unhesitatingly behaved as if He was the party chiefly concerned, the person chiefly offended in all offences. This makes sense only if He really was the God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin. In the mouth of any speaker who is not God, these words would imply what I can only regard as a silliness and conceit unrivalled by any other character in history.
Yet (and this is the strange, significant thing) even His enemies, when they read the Gospels, do not usually get the impression of silliness and conceit. Still less do unprejudiced readers. Christ says that He is ’humble and meek’ and we believe Him; not noticing that, if He were merely a man, humility and meekness are the very last characteristics we could attribute to some of His sayings.
—from Mere Christianity
If we have no sin we do not require forgiveness, yet over and over again we see Jesus offering it.
2. God so loved the world.
John 3:16
"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.
“Not perish but have eternal life”
So God’s love moved Him to give us Jesus, moved Him to die on a cross; because the world was perishing without eternal life.
We all love and memorize this verse but we need to remember why it is necessary.
A crossless Christianity is powerless.
A crossless Christianity is useless.
Crossless preaching and crossless churches are also useless. They have nothing to offer except the same self-help Pablum that is available from any good leadership or motivational training group.
These things are a matter of purpose. What is the church for?
If God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever listened to him might learn the secrets of a happy life; then our mission would look very different.
If God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever followed his example might find eternal life through their good works; then our mission would look very different.
If God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever received his teaching might have the keys and principles for success or life change; then our mission would look very different.
However; - God’s love moved Him to die on a cross; because the world was perishing without eternal life. This is our sole message and mission! Everything else is a distraction, a watering down of the good news of Christ crucified for our sins.
Step One – God loved the whole world. (Not just an elected few.)
1 John 2:1-2
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for [a] the sins of the whole world.
Footnotes:
-Or He is the one who turns aside God’s wrath, taking away our sins and not only ours but also
Step Two – God made faith the required human response to this act of love.
John 1:11-13
He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
Step Three – God gave everyman the faith to respond and the freedom not to.
Ephesians 2:8-9
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.
The faith that you have does not originate with you, just like everything else you have, the mind, the muscle, the physical ability; like faith they all are gifts from God.
We can see people who are not Christians exercising faith all around us.
Riding in a car or an airplane, leaving the house, taking the doctor’s advice, every time a choice is made that involves unseen parameters we use our God given faith – or we don’t.
Freewill is a requirement of love.
Thank God for this outrageous act of love on our behalf but let’s not forget what makes it necessary.
If we have no sin, we require no forgiveness.
If there is no judgment we require no grace.
3. Facebook Status: Condemned.
You never see anyone recognizing this status on Facebook, of course those of us who realize that status have mostly come to the light believing and been redeemed from it.
John 3:17-18
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 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.
I want you to think about things condemned. (Pictures of condemned buildings on screen)
They cannot fulfill the function they were created for.
They are not safe – people must be kept away from them.
They are slated for complete demolition.
They are beyond “fixing up”.
This is our condition before Christ comes.
If this were not the case God would not have had to rescue us.
Jesus did not come to complete the demolition; he came to buildings beyond natural salvation.
If we could save ourselves we would not need saving!
Conclusion:
New Status: Redeemed!
So how can we recognize our sins but not fall into “feeling” condemned?
We recognize our redeemed status which will allow us to stop acting as though our conduct is somehow earning us holiness before God.
We stop judging each other because when we see someone else sin we immediately remember that they are redeemed from that in the same way we are redeemed from “whatever sin”.
We stay focused on our own redemption rejoicing in God’s mercy toward us and in so doing we eliminate the possibility of “tsk, tsk- ing” anyone else’s sins.
Romans 8:1-4
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
PowerPoint available (Free of charge) on request dcormie@mts.net
