You Are Seen
Notes
Transcript
16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. 19 This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. 21 But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”
What is your biggest fear?
What is your biggest fear?
losing someone or something you love?
being hurt or killed
I think for many, if not most of us, it is being seen for who we really are.
But that is also the very thing I think we all want more than anything, to be seen, like REALLY seen.
To not hide, to be known, valued, accepted, and loved for who we really are.
But that is scary and unnerving isn’t it?
Living in the Dark
Living in the Dark
John 3 and 4 records the accounts Jesus encountering 2 very different people who had something very much in common.
Our passage today is either a continuation of the conversation started in the beginning of the chapter, or a summary of what was said in the conversation.
A powerful, respected, religious man named Nicodemus came to meet with Jesus.
He had heard of the miracles and the teaching Jesus was doing and wanted to meet Him for himself.
It was his job to ensure anyone who was teaching about God was qualified to do so, plus what he had heard was quite interesting.
The disciple John, who wrote the Gospel, includes a really important fact about the meeting, IT HAPPENED at NIGHT.
Most commentaries agree that Nicodemus came at night in order to hide his meeting with Jesus.
This powerful, respected, educated, wealthy, and connected man, who likely didn’t think of himself as lacking in much, comes to Jesus in the cover of darkness.
Just one chapter later, as Jesus and His followers are on their way through Samaria, a region the Jews believed to be unholy and dangerous, Jesus encounters a woman at a well.
She had come to the well to draw water like everyone in the town, but she had come in the middle of the day, the hottest part of the day, knowing (at least hoping) no one else would be there with her.
It wasn’t nighttime, it wasn’t dark outside, but there was a reason the woman came when no one else would be at the well. She didn’t want to be seen, didn’t want to be shunned, she just wanted to stay in the “dark”.
These accounts reveal something about us humans, we like to live in the darkness.
Whether it shame, pride, or fear, there is a tendency in all of us to create an identity or conceal our real identity to feel safe and/or secure in life.
We are are scared to reveal our deepest struggles and doubts, we work hard to cover up our flaws and blemished, and we go to great links to convince others and ourselves that we are adequate, acceptable, and accomplished.
We love and hate the dark:
We love it because it keeps us hidden, sheltered, and concealed, providing a false sense of security and safety.
But we hate it because it keeps us isolated, shameful, searching, lost, and condemned.
I want to make the case today that being SEEN really is a wonderful thing, not something to fear, as hard as it might be.
In order to be SEEN we have to come to the LIGHT.
What does it mean to be chosen? — You are SEEN?
What does it mean to be chosen? — You are SEEN?
Right in the middle of these 2 account are Jesus’s words in John 3:16-21.
Everyone here likely knows verse 16, the most quoted verse ever.
A beautiful and powerful summary of the gospel.
The most incredible picture of God’s love.
16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
Jesus in a sense is saying “The reason I have been sent is because God has seen you and has loved you.”
In order to love us He must SEE us. God initiates a relationship with us by His love and then calls us to respond.
The act of “believing” in 16 is the act of coming to the light
12 Jesus spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”
John 3:16 is an invitation to each and every person to come to the light of Jesus, but the rest of the verse talks about the obstacles get in our way.
There are 4 Obstacles that keep us from the LIGHT that Jesus reveals in John 3:17-21.
4 Obstacles to the Light
4 Obstacles to the Light
1) IGNORANCE
1) IGNORANCE
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Jesus points out ignorance in this passage, an ignorance to the purpose of God in sending His Son, and an ignorance to the reason Jesus was sent.
It's not that we are dumb, it's that we just don't understand the truth of the gospel.
We are ignorant of who God is, His nature and His love.
And we are ignorant of our condition, either believing ourselves to be good enough or worthless and hopeless.
Gospel ignorance means we don't understand God's love for us.
Ignorance believes that in some way we have earned God's love or we are two broken to ever receive it.
We didn't do anything to prompt God to send Jesus. He was motivated by love.
We are ignorant both of our own ability as well as God's compassionate love towards us.
Jesus did not come to condemn.
He came to save.
Nicodemus believed with the right combination of good behavior, believing the right things, and some good traditions, God may just love Him and accept him.
The Samaritan woman on the other hand was just hoping God wouldn’t be like all the others who had rejected her, but she didn’t have a lot of hope in that being the case.
In the face of Nicodemus’s pride in his own goodness, Jesus tells him He must be born again.
Your life isn’t good enough. Your good works are insufficient. The best you can do is start over.
And to the Woman at the Well, who had been searching for love in man after man, yet was left lost, rejected, and longing, Jesus offers her Living Water.
She didn’t know, but she walked away knowing.
2) STUBBORNNESS
2) STUBBORNNESS
18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
There is the misunderstanding in the world about the innate goodness or badness of humanity.
There is a belief that every human is born neutral, neither good nor bad, but in the middle
Then we do bad things that move us one way, or good things that shift us the other.
This is what Jesus is confronting in verse 18.
We are not condemned because of a bad decision or because God separates out the good ones from the bad ones.
The ONLY ones who are NOT condemned (judged guilty by God) are the ones who BELIEVE IN HIM (trust in Jesus).
EVERYONE else, regardless of how good, bad, ugly, smart, dumb, hard working, lazy, poor, rich, dirty, clean, lefthanded or right…is condemned ALREADY, BECAUSE they have NOT believed in Him.
Thus our second obstacle, stubbornness, or UNBELIEF.
For most in this room, and even those online, your obstacle might not be ignorance, it might just be stubbornness.
You have weighed the cost of following Jesus and know it means giving up things that have been a part of your life for a LONG time.
It means you are going to have to come to terms with your sin.
It means you are going to have to give up the very things in life you have built your security and hope on, just like the man Andy introduced us to last week.
It means being Born again
It means having the light of Jesus shine on your failures and flaws and self-indulgence.
Stubbornness is a huge obstacle to overcome.
3) SHAME
3) SHAME
19 This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.
Her life was a wreck. After five failed marriages she stopped with the formalities. She came to the well when the sun blazed so she could draw water alone and hide from the comments, the whispers, and the condemning looks.
He was a powerful, prominent, respected man with a lot to loose if he was caught meeting with a potential false teacher, or even a heretic.
Shame has always caused men and women to run and hide.
Man’s first encounter with shame is recorded in Genesis 3.
7 At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. 8 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees.
It is interesting that in verse 17 Jesus says He did not come to CONDEMN the world (a judicial term that would require judgement, but in verse 19 He talks about judgement.
He isn’t contradicting Himself, He is pointing out something that all of us are very aware of.
When light shines into darkness, it reveals what is truly there.
The woman at the well came to the well so she could stay in the dark.
But Jesus shined light of His truth and grace into the face of her shame.
Nicodemus came under the vail of darkness, hoping to hear words of life, but fearful of loosing the life he has built.
Shame is an obstacle that can only be overcome when the light shines grace and forgiveness into the darkness it creates.
4) DEFIANCE
4) DEFIANCE
20 For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed.
The last obstacle keeping us from the light is our own rebellion.
Have you ever spoken to someone about the faith that had countless questions that they would bring up in opposition to the gospel?
How can God allow this or that?
What about this verse in the bible, doesn’t it contradict that one?
Philosophical arguments and scientific arguments.
We can sit all day and answer every question they would have, but ultimately there will always be another.
Or there are those who have had bad experiences with the church or Christians, so the have no place for anything to do with Jesus.
There are legit reasons people have for being leery of Christians and mad at the “church”
But what about Jesus?
We are bad representatives, but what about Him?
At the heart, maybe it is just a fear of the light.
What if this all IS true?
Defiance is an obstacle that can only be overcome if you are willing to listen, willing to explore the reality of who Jesus was and is.
21 But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”
I can’t help but hear in this verse an urgency in those who come to the light.
I imagine kids running to the door when there parents come home from work.
Jon Johnson running to the table for a chocolate chip cookie.
And eagerness to come, without hesitation, without question, without fear of being seen for who we really are.
Because who we really are is redeemed by the light.
John 3:16 is an invitation to come, to be seen, to be loved, to be saved, and to be transformed.
Come to the light of Jesus and be KNOWN, be LOVED, be SAVED, and be TRANSFORMED.
Come to the light of Jesus and be KNOWN, be LOVED, be SAVED, and be TRANSFORMED.
Here's the invitation.
Here's the invitation.
Maybe you came in here today and you just didn't know.
Maybe you just had some false understandings of who you were, who you are and who God is.
The thing that's been keeping you in the dark is ignorance.
But today light has shined into your ignorance and opened your eyes to the truth of Jesus.
The truth of God's love you, welcomes you into his family through faith
COME TO THE LIGHT FRIEND, come to the light of Jesus.
Or maybe you know, maybe you have known and yet the thought of submitting to Jesus or giving your life over to Christ has just bee too much.
Thought of you giving up to and submitting to the love of God, too risky.
You just stubborn, but today the light of Jesus is shined on your stubbornness
Come to the light friend, come to the light of Jesus.
Or possibly you just look at your life and think there's no way God's going to love me or could love me, could receive me.
You have a misunderstood of God's love, thinking it is based on how well you performed, how good a person you are, what family you grew up in, how clean and suitable you are.
But God’s love is based entirely on his own character.
His invitation is to anyone who would believe, even you today.
Let the love and light of Jesus has shine in the darkness of your shame.
Come to the light, come to Jesus.
If defiance is what's kept you in the dark.
Rejection of what you know is real.
Maybe you grew up in church, but have wandered away or never really gave your life to the Lord.
Or your parents are religious folks.
Maybe you've been turned off to church because of someone that just made a bad impression on you at some point in your life and the whole idea of faith has just been repulsive to you.
But today, the light of Jesus has shined on your defiance and has revealed the rebellious heart that you have towards a God who loves you.
And all the questions and arguments that you have have built your defiance upon, knowing that they're all just questions and arguments to keep you from having to believe.
If that the light of Jesus is shined in on your defiance today on your rebellion...
Come to the light, come to Jesus.
16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.