We Will Not Perish — John 1-4

0:00 Good morning. Good morning. It's nice to be back. Turn in your Bibles to John chapter three. We're gonna look at a familiar passage.

0:25 So there was a man of the Pharisees, and we all we all know about the Pharisees. These were the the religious conservatives. They weren't the most conservative. There were there were people more conservative than the Pharisees, but the the different sects or parties you had, you had the Sadducees, the Liberals, you had the Pharisees, the Conservatives, you had the Essenes, which were even more conservative. You had the Herodians, which were, I don't know, kinda turncoats.

1:01 You know, they were the Roman sympathizers. You had the Zealots, which were the Roman haters. And, you know, I think when Jesus chose the disciples, he had a sense of humor there. Here you got Matthew, a Roman sympathizing tax collector, and Simon the Zealot. You know, and and when he sent the disciples out, I wonder if he said, you two go together.

1:29 Let's just see what happens there. But... So Nicodemus, he's a pharisee, he's a ruler of the Jews, So he's a member of the Sanhedrin. He's part of the the the ruling elite. But he became a believer.

1:49 He was sympathetic to the things that Jesus was teaching. Later on, we we we come to to know Joseph of Arimathea. He was also part of that ruling class and he too became a believer. So Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night and and I think there's a number of reasons why he did that. One of them, he was actually sincerely seeking information.

2:22 During the day, you've got the the scribes, the pharisees, the sadducees, the Herodians, all of the religious leaders, they're coming up to Jesus and they're they're testing him, they're trying to trap him, they're demanding a sign even after he's already just performed one. And Nicodemus comes along, he's not interested in all of that. He wants some information. So he comes at night, Jesus is alone, nobody's gonna bother him, he's not there to test him, he's not there to trap him. If he came during the day, there'd be tons of crowds and in fact, multiple times in John's gospel, he talks about large crowds followed him.

3:10 You you couldn't get in a word edgewise with all these crowds around. And Nicodemus didn't wanna get caught. You know, he was he was afraid of what the other religious leaders would say and if, you know, they found him talking to Jesus, they might kick him out of the synagogue and he didn't want that. So he comes to Jesus and he says, rabbi, we know that you've come from God as a teacher. And when he says we, it's possible he's using we in rhetorical universal we sense or maybe there's this small group of religious leaders.

3:58 We, you know, me and Joseph, we we know that you're a teacher, come from God and and no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. So he acknowledges that and one of the interesting things about the gospel of John, if you read through it, John never uses the word miracle. He always uses the word sign. Everything that Jesus did was a sign. Now the other gospels call them miracles, John always calls them signs.

4:34 They're pointing to something. So we know that you've come from God, no one can do these signs unless God is with him and it's almost as though Jesus cuts him off. Okay. Stop right there. I'm not gonna discuss the fact that I've come from God.

5:15 And and and a little later on he says, unless you're born again, you can't enter the kingdom of God. It's not that you just can't see it, you're not gonna be able to enter it and Nicodemus, he's kind of shocked by that and so he says, I I don't understand. How can a man be born when he's old? How how can these things be and you can't enter a second time into your mother's womb and be born, can he? And this is one of those places and you're gonna see this a lot in the gospel of John.

5:59 Jesus is presenting a spiritual reality but the people are thinking physical and they're missing the point. You you... You're gonna see it again. Well, you you you saw it back in in chapter two, destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days. They're thinking Herod's temple took forty some odd years to build and you're gonna build it in three days and and John clarifies that he was talking about the temple of his body.

6:31 In chapter four, the woman at the well, you know, I'm gonna give you living water and she's thinking, how is that possible? You don't have anything to draw the water with. Or in chapter six, he's talking about the bread of life and they're thinking, well, always give us this bread And he was talking about his body. And then he starts talking about eat my flesh and drink my blood and and they're thinking, okay, that's just way too far. You know, cannibalism that that, you know, we don't do that kind of thing.

7:06 They they missed the point and Nicodemus is doing the same thing. Jesus is talking about being born again and in fact, a little later on in this chapter, he uses the same word for from above. So it's it's... I I like to put the two together. You're born again from above.

7:28 This is this is a a new birth from God. And Nicodemus, he's thinking, how is that possible? I'm an old man. And even if I were a young man, I still can't go back into my mother. How is this possible?

7:47 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless is... Unless one is born of the water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. And there's there's lots of different ways of interpreting that statement. I'm gonna give you three. One of the things again that you're gonna notice about the gospel of John, more so than the other gospels, is sometimes John is intentionally ambiguous.

8:24 He'll say something that can be interpreted in different ways, all of which may be true. Pick one or pick them all. So one way to look at this is the water, it's a reference to physical birth. And so you would put the emphasis on the word and. Unless you're born of water physically and the spirit, you can't enter the kingdom of God.

8:58 Basically he's saying, yeah, you have to be born physically, that's just assumed but that is not sufficient. In fact, frankly, it's irrelevant. You have to be born of the spirit. If you wanna enter into the kingdom of God, if you wanna see the kingdom of God, not only do you have to be assumed born physically, you have to be born of the spirit. It's the water and the spirit.

9:32 You can't just be born into this world and assume you're gonna get into heaven And I think that's one of the points he makes back in chapter one where he talks about as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man but of God. In other words, your physical descent, your lineage, irrelevant, insufficient. You have to be born of God. Another way of looking at it is to look at the word as an analogy or the water as an analogy for the word. And and sometimes it's it's used that way.

10:27 The question is, would Nicodemus have understood that? We're gonna say water's the word, Nicodemus. Would you have grasped that? Maybe, you know, Ezekiel 36 talks about, I will sprinkle clean water on you, you'll be clean, I will cleanse you from all unfiltiness and from all your idols. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes.

10:58 So Ezekiel kinda links water with the word but I'm not sure Nicodemus would have grasped that. Another way of looking at it is water is a symbol of the spirit and and that is even more seen in the in the Old Testament where he talks about in Jeremiah two, they forsaken me, the fountain of living waters. Jeremiah 17, the fountain of living water, even the Lord. So yeah, that that kind of works and and Jesus even talks that way later on in in the gospel of John where he talks about from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water, by this he spoke of the spirit. So, yeah, maybe that's that's true.

11:57 Or he's talking about all three. You have to be born, obviously, into this world, but that is not sufficient. You have to be born of the spirit. You have to be born through the word. That's what's gonna get you to see the kingdom of God.

12:14 That's what's gonna get you to enter the kingdom of God. And then he says, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the spirit is spirit, that which born of the flesh coming into this world, great. But like I said, it's insufficient. You're going to die. Everyone is going to die.

12:39 If you're born of the flesh, there's only one end and the end isn't going to be eternal life in the kingdom of God. That only comes from being born of the spirit. So that which is born of the flesh is flesh, results in death. That which is born of the spirit is spirit, results in eternal life. Don't be amazed.

13:36 We don't see faith. You know, faith is something of the heart. I can't see it. I can see the results of it but I can't see faith. It would be great if every time somebody believed they got a little halo.

13:54 Oh, he's a believer. It's not how it works. So he says, you know, look at the wind. The wind goes where it wishes, you hear the sound of it, you can you can hear it passing, there's there's a result but you can't see the wind. You can see the effects of the wind, I can see the grass blowing and then and the branches blowing but I can't see the wind.

14:25 Same thing with the spirit. You don't know where it comes from, you don't know where it's going, so is everyone who is born of the spirit. So yeah, Nicodemus, I I get that you don't grasp this. It's it's an internal thing. It's a result of faith.

14:45 Faith we can't see. Once we place our faith in Christ or as as chapter one verse 12, when we receive him, the spirit comes. We're born of God. How can these things be? I don't get it.

15:06 So Jesus kinda rebukes him. Are you the teacher of Israel and you don't understand these things? And and notice he he doesn't say, are you a teacher? Are you the teacher of his... You're supposed to be this renowned teacher and you can't even grasp some of the simplest concepts.

15:37 I think Nicodemus may have been a little bit embarrassed at that. Truly I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we've seen And and the we here would be Jesus, be John the Baptist, would be the apostles. We're telling you what we know. We're telling you what we've seen and you don't receive our testimony. The you there is plural and and in fact, the you is plural in the next statement as well.

16:17 He's not singling out Nicodemus. Even though Nicodemus is the one talking to him, he's saying, you religious leaders, you're all the same. You don't receive what we're telling you. We're telling you the truth. We're telling you what we've seen.

16:40 We're telling you what we know, and you don't receive it. You're all the same. If I told you, and again, this is plural, if I told you all earthly things and you don't believe, how are you gonna believe if I tell you heavenly things? I I I'm sharing earthly things with you, things in terms that you can understand. I'm talking about rebirth.

17:11 You should be able to understand that. If you don't understand that, how are you gonna believe if I tell you heavenly things? Me coming down from heaven, ascending back into heaven. How are you gonna believe if you can't even accept the simplest things we're sharing? How are you gonna believe?

18:19 I'm the only one qualified, the son of man. Now, I I I wanna go back to the son of man in a minute, but because I wanna talk about the the term son of and and primarily because of a comment that was made during the Lord's Supper. Good comment. So as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up. So go back into numbers 21, people are whining and complaining and God sends fiery serpents among them.

19:01 And, oh, we've sinned. We've spoken against the Lord, intercede for us. Take take these serpents away. And and the Lord says to Moses, I want you to make a fiery serpent, you know, bronze serpent, put it on a standard and put it in the middle of the camp. When you think of the size of the camp, you...

19:28 We... My my mind always goes to things like that. How big was this camp? Well, think about this. When they came out of Egypt, there was over 900,000 men over 20 plus women plus children, enough children that within forty years, they completely replaced the 900,000 plus men.

20:04 So you had a camp that was probably close to 2,000,000 people. The state of Montana only has a million people. I'm not saying that the camp was the size of the state of Montana, but there's 2,000,000 people in this camp. At least, that's a big camp. And here's the standard stuck in the middle of the camp and, you know, people on the outskirts, they got a long way to go.

20:40 You've been bitten by a serpent, odds of you making it to the middle of the camp to, I don't know, touch the serpent and be healed, not gonna happen. You're gonna drop dead along the way. So God says, set it on a standard, it shall come about that whoever, everyone who is bitten when he looks at it, he will live. You've who have been bitten by one of the serpents, you don't have to try and make it all the way to the middle of the camp to touch it. All you have to do is look at it and you'll be healed.

21:23 And that's the point he's getting at. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up. That whoever believes in him will have eternal life. In in the same way, all they had to do in the wilderness was look at the serpent. They didn't have to go up and touch it.

21:49 They didn't have to go down and up and and fall down before it. They just had to look and they were healed. That's the point. Whoever believes in him, looks to him, receives him, will have eternal life. And then he says in verse 16, why?

22:48 He gave them a serpent in the wilderness, all they had to do was look at it in the same way God loves us. Moses lifted up the serpent, the son of man must be lifted up. Why? Because God loved the world. Why do they have eternal life by believing in him?

23:13 Because God loved the world. That he gave his only begotten son. God doesn't simply talk about his love. God doesn't say, I love you so much, it's too bad you're going to hell. No.

23:37 He does something with his love. Paul says in in Romans five eight, God demonstrates his love. And he finishes, while we were yet sinners. He didn't wait for us to get our acts together. He loved us and demonstrated his love while we were yet sinners.

24:03 Christ died for us. In first John chapter four, the love of God was manifested. God loved the world that he gave. It was a demonstration of his love. It was a manifestation of his love.

24:22 He doesn't just talk about it. God knows talk is cheap. He does something. He doesn't just talk about it. We we read a verse this morning during the Lord's Supper in Ephesians two.

24:41 God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us. Mercy and grace are manifestations of love. In Romans eight, who will separate us from the love of Christ? And then he goes through this whole list and he concludes at the end of the chapter, nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. So God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him...

25:26 It it it's interesting, every time John talks about believing in Christ, with one exception, he uses a word that means into. The only time he uses the word that means in is actually in verse 15. Every other time, and there there are probably couple dozen maybe, believe into him. It it's it's almost as though I'm taking my faith out of myself and putting it into him. And that's kind of what God does with us as well.

26:16 He puts us into Christ. So when you read Paul's epistles, he frequently talks about us being in Christ. He uses it almost in a technical sense. Believers in the church are in Christ because they believed into him. And he says, they'll never perish.

26:48 And and never means never, they they will never perish. I I I like John chapter 10. You know, here he says, my sheep hear my voice, I know them, they follow me, I give eternal life to them, they will never perish. Now never means never. There is no scenario, however contrived you make it, there is no scenario in which a believer will ever perish.

27:25 And and there are lots of people who make up these weird bizarre scenarios, doesn't matter. Never means never. And no one can snatch them out of my hand and my father who's given them to me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of my father's hand. It's not gonna happen.

28:29 It does always mean preeminent. Now sometimes the one who is born first is the preeminent but not always. For example, Reuben, the firstborn of Jacob, But Reuben lost that right because of his indiscretions with Bilhah. And according to first Chronicles five, the right of the firstborn, the right of preeminence was given to Joseph. David, David was number eight, the last son of Jesse and yet God calls him his firstborn, not because he was born first, but because he was preeminent.

29:23 Firstborn always means preeminent. So when we think of Christ as the firstborn of all creation, the firstborn from the dead, doesn't mean he was born created first or risen first, but he's preeminent over creation because he's creation's creator. When we think of only begotten, only begotten doesn't mean you were begotten. It can but it doesn't always mean that. It always means unique.

30:04 So for example, Isaac. Isaac was the... He was called Abraham's only begotten, but he wasn't the only one. There was Ishmael. And and if you look at things chronologically in the genealogies in in first Chronicles, there was Ishmael, there was six sons of Keturah, and sons of concubines, and then Isaac.

30:35 And yet, Isaac is called the only begotten. Why? Because he was unique. He was the only one to receive the covenant. So when John calls Jesus the only begotten, he's not saying that God had a son and this was the only one, he's saying he's unique, there is no one else like him.

31:05 When he uses the term son or oftentimes you see son of back in verse 13, he calls him the son of man. Verse 14, son of man. He's not saying that man had a son or in other places, he's called the son of God. He's not saying that God had a son, he's using it as a designation of identity. For example, James and John, they were called sons of Thunder.

31:42 Thunder didn't have two boys. It identifies them as thunderous. I'm not sure why Peter wasn't called that because Peter had a hard time keeping his mouth shut but James and John were called thunderous. Can we call down fire from heaven? No.

32:03 John, just shell out. Cool it. No fire. The antichrist, son of destruction. Doesn't mean destruction had a little boy.

32:17 The antichrist is a destroyer. Barnabas, son of encouragement, doesn't mean encouragement had a child. He's an encourager. Son of God, doesn't mean that God had a child, it means that this is a designation of God. He's the son of God because he is God.

32:45 Just like the son of encouragement is an encourager. The sons of thunder are thunderous. The son of God is God. Same thing with the son of man. He's fully man, he's fully God.

33:36 And at some point, maybe it was here, but at some point before the end of the gospel, and I would say before the next couple of chapters, because he does he does come to Jesus' defense. Our law doesn't judge a man without hearing him first. You one of his disciples search and see that no no prophet arises out of Galilee? Well, yeah, there was. Jonah came from Galilee, but they didn't grasp that one.

34:13 So he does come to this realization at some point in the next few chapters. Okay, I get it. Don't fully understand it, but I get it. And he did what verse 16 says, whoever believes in him. Nicodemus came to faith in Christ.

34:41 Didn't completely understand everything, but he came to faith in Christ. He got the promise, you'll never perish, you'll have eternal life. Same promise that we've got from the exact same verse that Nicodemus heard. When we place our faith in him, we will not perish. We will have eternal life.

35:58 And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.