WE MUST CHOOSE
Text: John 3:14 - 21
How many times have you received one of those mail items where you had a key and a possibility of winning the prize if the key fit? When you received that item in the mail, you had to decide whether or not you were going to go to the dealership to see if your key fit so you could win the car. There were others who threw their chance keys away because they figures that it was more of a gimmick---a “bait and switch trick” with a hidden agenda than a contest. Who likes these kinds of gimmicks? We all want something that we can trust and something that is true.
We have to make decisions every single day. We have to decide what we are going to eat, what we are going to wear and how hard we are going to work. As Martin Luther once said, John 3:16 is the gospel in miniature. As someone else said, God’s love needs a response. We have to decide if we are going to be born again or not. We did not have a choice in our fist birth, but we do have a choice as to whether or not we are going to be born again. This passage of scripture talks about our rebellion, or God’s remedy and our choice.
REBELLION
Have we not all rebelled at one time or another?
1) Rebellion: We usually think about rebellion as how we have protested or gone against authority. John Mellencamp has a song that you hear on the radio every now and then called the “Authority Song”. In that song the lyrics go “ …. I fight authority and authority always wins”.
2) Activists: If someone goes picketing or boycotting against a business or a political ideal, the we consider him or her to be a rebel.
3) God’s authority: How can we fight with God’s authority and expect to win? How can we rebel against God’s love and expect to win? What is it that makes us rebel against God’s love? Could it be that one of the reasons that we rebel against God’s love is because we can’t have our way?
Was Nicodemus a rebel?
1) A rebel with a cause?: If you consider that Nicodemus is going against the grain, meeting Jesus privately at night instead of in the daylight, then the answer would have to be yes.
2) Curious or cautious?: Was Nicodemus calculating the consequences of coming at night meeting Jesus in private? Was Nicodemus being cautious or wimpy? Does he not appear to be afraid of what his Pharisee peers might think? The answer to all of these questions seem to be yes.
3) Banishment: Christians in the late first century were banned from the synagogue if they acknowledged that Jesus is the Messiah, he could have gotten banned from the synagogue. A good example of this is how the man born blind in John 9 was banned from the synagogue ( see John 9:22). It is very likely that Nicodemus’s dialogue with Jesus would have caused some of his peers to question whether or not he was a disciple of Moses (John 9: 28 cf. 22).
REMEDY
If there is a remedy, then does it not suggest that there is a problem?
1) Contrast: The light is contrasted with the darkness often in the Gospel of John which suggests that light and dark are in opposition to each other. Darkness is associated with sin, evil deeds and rebellion. The light is therefore the remedy for the darkness.
2) Speculation: One pastor (Brett Younger) mentions how the problem can be solved through predestination or universalism. In Predestination, God chooses---elects some for salvation whereas in the universalist point of view, God chooses everyone. (David N. Mosser. ed. The Abingdon Preaching Annual 2012. Brett Younger. “Choices”. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2011, p. 86) Both of these ideas are appealing but is that really how God works? Someone anonymous once said “God predestines every man to be saved. The devil predestines every man to be damned. Man has the casting vote”. (Compelling Quotes). God sent Jesus Christ to enable people to see the light, repent, believe and live by the truth (see John 3:21). The story that follows with the woman at the well in John 4 is example of this.
Our remedy is a Savior!
1) Born again: Nicodemus heard what Jesus was saying about being born again but he did not comprehend it.
2) Choice: We did not have a choice in our first birth. But, we did have a choice about whether or not we would be born of God’s Spirit. Unless someone is born again he will not enter the kingdom of heaven. To enter the kingdom of heaven, we have to be born of water and God’s Spirit. There is nothing magical about the water that we were baptized in. Consider Romans 6:3 – 4: “Don't you know that all who share in Christ Jesus by being baptized also share in his death? When we were baptized, we died and were buried with Christ. We were baptized, so that we would live a new life, as Christ was raised to life by the glory of God the Father” (CEV).
The son of man must be lifted up! In the Old Testament Moses interceded on behalf of the Israelites who complained about being delivered. was told to make a snake and put it on a pole so that those who looked at it could live. The snakes were what some have called a plague. In the New Testament Jesus talks to Nicodemus about being lifted up in John 3:14. Jesus mentions it again in John 12:31 -34. Jesus was lifted up on the cross which draws men to the cross of Christ because it illustrates that God’s love for us is so great that God gave God’s only begotten son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (john 3:16). So why does that draw people to God? Another good question to ask is why does the cross of Christ not draw others who resist God’s grace?
Those who believe are not condemned! Everyone who believes in Jesus Christ who was lifted up on the cross shall be saved. Some would say that surely God’s love must be selective for the elected. Others look at it differently and proclaim that John 3:16 means exactly what it says. “A woman who used to work with drug addicts mentioned how she had seen Christ transform many who lost hope. One day she received a letter from an observer who said that she and her ministry to the drug addicts was a waste of time because they were worthless. The one who wrote the letter went on to say that these addicts should be given a lethal injection and tossed on the city dump”. (paraphrased from: Joanie Yoder. God Alone. Grand Rapids: Discovery House Publishers, 2006, p. 77). This story tells us three things. First, God loves us all as John 3:16 points out. Secondly, does not make junk. We are all important to God whether we are in a relationship with God or estranged from God, God loves and values each and every one of us. Third, the cross points out the lengths that God will go to save us, from sin, from ourselves, and for eternity! If there is a fourth things that this passage of scripture point out it is this “No dumping allowed!” (p. 77).
Those who live by the truth come to the light of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Christians do not just come to the light, they continuously live in the light. As God’s children we share our love not with just our words or tongues but with our actions as we seek to live in spirit and truth (I John 3:18, and John 4:24). That was and is why Jesus is the only key that fits! That is why we must tell the world to help all of those who are trying to find the key to a life that allows them to see the light what is true and pleasing to God. Jesus is the Prize, and the key to the prize because Jesus is the way, the truth and the life!
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
