.. so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16 b

The Bible’s best known verse

STOP! You lost them on “whosoever and believeth.” (No one talks like that anymore except fanatics and crazy people with signs.)

Nearly everyone has heard it. God so loved the world. – John 3:16  

“So what?” think all the worldly viewers of your very public witness.

And you want everyone to know the same love of our savior you have experienced (and they are so worldly). Yet every time they give you that “so what?” look.

You may have even memorized John 3:16 as a child, but do you even get it as one mature in Christ? 

In fact, have you truly read all of this chapter of John recently or have you ever studied John 3?

As I mentioned in the previous post, Jesus’ dialogue with Nicodemus about Spirit continues past John 3:16.  Nicodemus, a faithful Jew, would have listened and considered every word of the Messiah of Israel.

Let’s step back from witnessing to the world for just a moment of personal reflection in the Spirit.

A Contemporary Conversation

Even Christians fail to consider that Jesus spoke every word of witness fully aware that the end of His earthly mission was death — even death on a Cross.

And so is your end, son or daughter of dust – your end is death and your destiny an awakening to the Judgment.

Yet only in God’s Son will you have eternal life, mercy to save your soul from damnation you deserve, penalty for the sins of this mortal life.

Those you have wronged cry out for justice. Almighty God, ‘el Shadday, from whom you walked away, grieves as a Father over the hardness of your heart.

Why, just as Satan and your enemies have accused, you deserve no mercy.

Has your unconverted friend or estranged family member given weight and consideration that we will perish? Do they see in Jesus eternal life in the Light of His love?

This challenging dialogue from John’s Gospel confronts every mortal with a life or death decision: accountability to facing the LORD, with … or without repentance.

Jesus’ Dialogue with Nicodemus, Good News for the world witnessed by John

Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.

The Apostle John certainly records this dialogue with Nicodemus as a witness. John would have been present. His understanding at the time would not have been as complete as after the Resurrection, but John records a remarkable conversation.

This learned Jewish official refers to Jesus as his teacher – a Master instructing him. 

And in the room with Jesus sit John, Nicodemus, and perhaps others seeking to learn more from their Messiah.

You should join them.

In this dialogue with Jesus, you should listen to Jesus’ answers to informed questions of this learned ruler of Israel, who acknowledges his own place at the foot of the living Son of Man.

And be certain to set aside what you think you know about Jesus and listen.

John 3:

Nicodemus: “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God…

Jesus: “.. no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.

Nicodemus: “How can a man be born when he is old? ..

Jesus: “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Nicodemus: “How can these things be?

Jesus: “Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?

“Truly I tell you, we speak what we know and we testify to what we have seen, 

“and you receive not our witness.

Jesus confronts us with truth!

Do you receive it? Or do you need to hear more from the Spirit to be convinced?

Beloved listener, now witness to this dialogue with Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews at the feet of Jesus for His teaching, what further proof do you need?

Jesus: “I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?

“No one has ascended into heaven…

except the one who descended from heaven —the Son of Man.

So Jesus’ truth and question to the listener is:

Do you believe that Jesus IS the Son of Man, the Messiah of God, descended from heaven – in the flesh?

What will Jesus say to Nicodemus and the world of why He has descended lower than the angels to be born into the womb of a woman of dust?

Miracle of the Cross

14 And as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 

Sign of a Raised Serpent

The LORD intercedes for sinners… repentant sinners.

Nicodemus and every religious ruler of the Jews since Moses understand. Sin must be punished! A remedy for sin requires not only repentance, but sacrifice זֶבַח.

Silence in the Presence of the Lord

The leader of the Pharisees also remains silent in the presence of Jesus.

Perhaps one scripture or another of response to hearing God’s Word comes to mind for Nicodemus, such as these words of the Prophet Isaiah.

Then I said:

Woe is me for I am ruined

because I am a man of unclean lips

and live among a people of unclean lips,

and because my eyes have seen the King,

the LORD of Armies.

John 3:16

We have listened with expectation to Jesus’ dialogue with Nicodemus, wondering along with the Apostle John what the Messiah will reveal next. In these most beloved words Jesus reveals the reason for His own Sacrifice at a time still unknown to them.

“For God loved the world in this way:

or “God loves the world this much:

John’s Gospel would have been completed perhaps three decades after this conversation with Nicodemus. The world would be those to whom it is written at the time, a Greco-Roman world, believers in Greece, Asia-minor or modern-day Turkey. These gentile believers, along with Jews who accept Jesus as the Messiah, know that we are the world κόσμος kosmos to whom Jesus speaks.

Nicodemus and Jews wondering if John the Baptist or Jesus could be their Messiah would have considered Scripture as Jesus speaks these words.

וְהוּא יִשְׁפֹּֽט־תֵּבֵל בְּצֶדֶק יָדִין לְאֻמִּים בְּמֵישָׁרִֽים׃

Psalm 9:8

And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.

Judge of the World

You want someone to judge righteousness, don’t you?

Yet who can judge the sins of others? Certainly not christians, as we often do. This is just one of the reasons the world hates Christ, but it is not the only reason.

Who do you want to judge your own sin? Can you stand before the Judge of the world (whoever He may be)?

He gave his one and only Son,

Healing of the Serpent, Healing by the Cross

John Wesley makes the connection of the Serpent lifted up in the wilderness [v.15] and the healing for believers by gazing upon Christ.

He must be lifted up, that hereby he may purchase salvation for all believers: all those who look to him by faith recover spiritual health, even as all that looked at that serpent recovered bodily health.

Yea, and this was the very design of God’s love in sending him into the world.

God so loved the world – That is, all men under heaven: even those that despise his love, and will for that cause finally perish.

John Wesley

Eternal Life or Judgment?

… so that everyone who believes in him will not perish,but have eternal life.

Yes, all believers: Jews (Messianic Jews, as we know know them), Gentiles (the rest of the world), Greeks and Romans.

You do not want to think of eternal life, but only this waning existence we call life. It is in the flesh and all realize it will end. But eternal life? That would be something else to consider, especially if it could contain the just punishment of our considerable sin and unrighteousness.

17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

So Jesus was not sent to condemn the world. This the Lord confirms to Nicodemus and those of you listening intently to the Messiah. Jesus came to save the world through him. Substitution for a required sacrifice, justification required for acquittal from our deserved sentence for sin.

18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned,

Good News!

This is Good News to the Pharisee Nicodemus, who by his knowledge of Scripture believes in the resurrection.

And it is Good News to and who listen to the Messiah, the Son of God our Father in Heaven.

Yet Jesus adds something here christian-sounding false preachers reject. In fact, as much as we would like for this Good News to apply to all of our loved ones and friends, it does not.

… 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. 

Sorry … your mom or your dad, your brother, sister or friend, your misleading ‘good’ religious teacher – all are condemned, if they do not substitute this God-sent Sacrifice, Christ Jesus, for their own sin.

19 This is the judgment:

And why? Why does a loving God accept some for eternal life, yet punish others for not accepting the Messiah Jesus as their Lord?

Darkness or Light?

The light has come into the world,

Jesus IS the Light of Almighty God!

“In him was life; and the life was the light of men,” John testifies.

John 1:4

… and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.

It’s true. We would hide our sin in the shadows.

Yet in the Judgment hiding sin is not an option. In the Light of Christ, the Messiah of the Lord God, we have life eternal only because He paid this dear price and severe penalty for our sin.

Here we sit listening to Jesus, along with Nicodemus. Or here we now sit reading the truth of the Word.

To which mortal souls of the world will you run?

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.”

We must believe in Jesus to have eternal life.

Nicodemus, now in his later life, will leave the meeting in darkness to come to the light and practice the truth, true religion in his later life. John is the only Disciple who will not lose his life for his witness of Christ Jesus.

Shortly after this conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, John the Baptist will be beheaded for his witness that Jesus is the promised Messiah of God.

The Invitation of John 3:16

And what of your witness and mine in these last days?

What has the Spirit put on your heart as you have listened with Nicodemus to the only begotten Son of God?

God's Love Through John
to be continued...