Light Vs. Dark
John 3: 14 - 21
Intro: 2 gentlemen were seated next to each other on a plane. One turned to the other, “What do you do?” He answered, “I’m a pastor.” “Oh,” said the 1st man. “I don’t believe in that religious stuff. It’s for kids you know, ‘Jesus love me this I know, for the Bible tells me so…’” The Pastor politely laughed asking the other man what he did for a living. “I’m an astronomer,” said the man. “Oh, that stuff,” said the pastor. “I thought that was just for kids, you know, ‘Twinkle, twinkle little star…”
I Like the 1st man in that story, people think church is for kids. They tend to rely on what they learned about God when they were a child and their faith never really develops.
A Many churches have difficulty attracting and keeping committed members who attend regularly.
B So many individuals think the church is no longer relevant and it is a waste of time, money and labor to keep it going.
C VS. 16a “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son” is the only place in the gospel of John where the word GAVE is used.
II God gives Jesus to the whole world (to all people) in love.
A This portion of the lesson for today encourages me to ask you to ponder 2 questions:
B Does the good news of the gospel proclaim God’s gracious love for the WHOLE world? Attitude of “GOD LOVES ME REGARDLESS!” God knows everything about us and loves us anyway! God loves me and that is enough!
C Is God’s love reserved only for those who have faith? I am saved! I know Jesus and that’s enough! I’ve been born again!
III Those who quote John 3:16 often overlook the rest of VS. 16 – “that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
A John uses Verses 17 – 21 to explain his theological statement. God’s eager love, stretched to its utmost cannot save a soul or a world unless they believe in the Son whom God sent.
B The GK word SON is HULOS. It refers to those who show maturity in acting with God’s love as God would act and thereby show our lineage as daughters and sons of God.
C VS. 19 “This is the verdict (judgment): Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
Concl: The word translated in our text as “VERDICT” is the GK word “KRISIS” from which we get our English word “crisis.” What this tells us is that the coming of Christ Jesus into the world results in a crisis that demands a decision. Neutrality is NOT an option.
The “CRISIS” of faith that we face is that we must demonstrate God’s love to everyone so that they might come to believe in Christ Jesus and receive God’s grace. We cannot demonstrate God’s love through constant criticism, negativity or insisting on having our own way. We cannot believe one way and live another. We MUST live in the light of Christ instead of the darkness.
