Your Future Depends On This

YOUR FUTURE DEPENDS ON THIS

Text: John 3:14 - 21

John 3:14-21  And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  (15)  that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.  (16)  "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.  (17)  "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.  (18)  Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.  (19)  And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.  (20)  For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed.  (21)  But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God." (NRSV).

“The Biggest bulldozer in the world is the D575a. It’s 16 feet long, 25 feet wide, and 41 feet high. It weighs 225,000 pounds. It’s a huge machine to bulldoze dirt. A few years ago it came to a country where there was an overload of garbage, and the bulldozer was brought in to

dig a hole that would collect the garbage and remove it from the lives of the the citizens.

On the cross, God dug a hole so big He could collect the sins of the whole world---past, present and future. On the cross, He gathered all the sin …. and made Him who had no sin to be sin for us [2 Corinthians 5:21]”. (Tony Evans. Tony Evans’s Book of Illustrations. Chicago: Moody Press, 2009, p. 186). In John 12:32  “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (ESV). Why does Jesus all that He mentions in John 3:14-21? There seems to be two reasons. First, condemnation happens because of neglect. Secondly, this can be no doubt that Jesus mentions this fact because of the promise of John 3:16!

John 1:5  says The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (ESV). John 3:19  says And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil (ESV).

Someone (F. F Bruce) said, “In a well-ordered polity those who practice evil practice it secretly [in the dark; they do not wish to be found out and brought to book. …. If men ad women are judged by the light, they are judged by the light available to them”. (F. F. Bruce. The Gospel & Epistles of John. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1983, p. 92). Why do those things that we practice in the dark matter? Those things matter because if we believe in Jesus Christ, we will not be condemned---judged ( John 1:18 a). If, on the other hand we do not believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior we are judged by our own decisions (John 1:18b) because Jesus Christ did not come to judge the world but to save the world (John 3:17). Those things matter because our future depends on the decisions we make regarding those things!

Jesus Christ did not come to judge the world but to save the world (John 3:17). Our future depends on the decision we make about Jesus Christ! Today we want to focus on character, amnesia and the cross!

CHARACTER

Don’t light and darkness contradict each other? How much light have you been given?

1) The Inquiring Pharisee: Like Nicodemus, we will be judged by how we respond to how much light we have been given!

2) The character of Pharisees: By their character in scripture, we can observe that they were often arrogantly self-centered and self-righteous and powerful. They often loved those who were just like them while excluding others that Jesus would welcome.

3) A well ordered polity: Nicodemus was connected with a “well-ordered polity” that was shady because from what we know about Pharisees is that their motives were not always pure. Like Nicodemus we are confronted with a “well ordered polity” that demands us to choose in harmony or opposition with that order. Now that Nicodemus (a Pharisee) came into contact with Jesus who is the light and life of men, he had a choice to make.

4) Nicodemus’s choice: Nicodemus became a secret disciple. He might have been in the same camp as the Pharisees but he was secretly a dissenter of the Pharisee point of view.