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Please open your Bibles to John chapter 3. We are studying through the Gospel of John together each Sunday.
Over the past several weeks we have been looking at Jesus’ interaction with Nicodemus.
One of the most well-known passages of scripture.
Today we will conclude our study of John 3:1-21.
Let’s read the passage together in its entirety.
Prayer
Let’s look at 3:19-21 more closely.
Light has come
John opened his account of the good news of Jesus talking about him as the Word of God.
He mentioned how he created the world, and that in him was life and that life was the light of all mankind.
In another of his letters, he says that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
Jesus is the light of the world.
What is it about light and life?
When God created the world, the next thing he created was light.
He lived for eternity before the creation without light.
He did not need it.
So, why make it?
For us.
For life.
Most living things need light, crave light.
In northern places like Alaska that has prolonged darkness for the winter months, suicide rates increase.
We need and crave light for life.
After a series of cloudy days, most of us revel in a day of sunshine.
It warms our hearts and lifts our spirits.
It is like it breathes fresh life into us.
This is the way God has hardwired us.
We are attracted to light.
Light is connected with our life.
And just as we need light, we need our Creator.
We need God for life.
So, when the world was dark with sin and despair, because sin brings death, and death brings despair, Light has come!
Even though we are sinful, we rebel against God in so many ways everyday, God so loved the world, that He gave His One and Only Son, that whoever believers in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life.
Jesus came into the darkness of this world, as the light to shine and bring the hope of life!
But sadly,
People loved darkness.
Why did people love darkness when the light, the hope of life, came?
Because their deeds were evil.
And,
People fear exposure.
Most of my life, when I read this, I thought of evil people.
Do you know what I mean?
Well, something like Job described.
I usually thought of this passage as describing people like Job was talking about.
And, actually, I think this does address those people.
They do not want to come to the light so that their deeds are exposed.
They want to remain hidden.
When people are arrested, they usually don’t thank the police.
When convicted they don’t typically thank the judge.
When children are caught, they don’t usually thank their parents.
When any of us are caught doing wrong, we do not like it.
Why?
Because our deeds are exposed.
It may come out as anger, and blaming the other person of being unfair, unkind, judgmental, etc.
But really, what is going on in our hearts is hatred at being exposed for who we are.
But, I think this passage is hitting a little closer to home than that.
Look at the next verse.
Whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that what it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in God!
I think this last expression is the key to understanding the other verses in their context.
Let me put it this way.
The one who does what is right comes to the light, so it can be seen that what they did was done in God
The one who does what is evil does not come to the light, so it will not be exposed that what they did was NOT done in God.
Do you see what I mean?
Context is always key in interpretation.
When Jesus is speaking of people doing evil, and not coming to the light for fear of exposure, he is talking with Nicodemus.
What was Nicodemus?
A Pharisee.
Pharisees were some of the most righteous people in that day.
Paul was also a Pharisee, who wrote in Philippians that as far as the written law went, he was blameless!
These guys were good!
But most Pharisees did not want to come to Jesus who was the light of the world.
They wanted to get into the righteous kingdom, but they did not want to come to the Light, because as good as they looked to other people, they, like Nicodemus knew the truth.
As Job put it,
No matter how good we are, no matter how good we act, we are still not righteous.
In fact, even our ‘righteous’ deeds can be evil, right?
Isaiah says,
God is the one who commanded that they observe certain feasts, and that they bring the sacrifices as a reminder of their sins.
They had turned those sacrifices around to appear righteous before other people.
Or, as Jesus described,
Too often, even when we do good things, we do them for the wrong reasons.
Too often we do them to look good before others, or to impress others.
Too often, we do ‘the right thing’ for what we can get out of it.
We do ‘the right thing’ thinking that in doing it we will earn righteousness.
We do ‘the right thing’ for the wrong reasons.
We don’t do them out of love for God, or to glorify Him.
We don’t do them in His strength.
We do them on our own, for our own glory, to earn our own righteousness.
Examples.
I think this is what Jesus is speaking of here in John 3. When he speaks of those who do evil, he isn’t just talking about the thief, the murderer, and the adulterer as Job did.
He is speaking of those who think they are righteous because of what they do.
Unfortunately, when we do the right thing for the wrong reasons, well, that is what Isaiah speaks of in Isaiah 64:6.
Those righteous acts aren’t so clean.
They are tainted by our motives, resulting in them being evil.
And, like the Pharisees of the days Jesus walked on the earth, we don’t like coming to Jesus for fear of exposure, because He is the one who judges not by outward appearances of goodness, but by the heart.
Where is the hope that light is supposed to bring?
What can we do?
Come to the light.
Again, in the context, Jesus told Nicodemus that if he wanted to enter God’s righteous kingdom, he needed to be born from above.
He needed the spirit to give him new life.
How?
By believing in the Son.
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