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Tag: John

  • A Witness through John – King of the Darkness

    A Witness through John – King of the Darkness

    And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon.

    The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 9:11

    Light from Darkness

    What do you believe about light and darkness, about good and evil, about God and the opponents of the LORD?

    John begins his gospel much like Genesis with contrasts between light and darkness and introduces evidence of the presence of Christ and the Spirit of God.

    In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… 

    That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.

    John 1:1,5 CSB

    John compares Jesus to light, God’s answer to formlessness and darkness. Moses illustrates darkness in the beginning (Genesis) as chaos prior to God’s intervention by creation. 

    Genesis 1:

    2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness.

    And the Spirit of God moved like the wind over the gathering wave of a deep unending sea.

    And God saw that it was good.

    Light and darkness, good and evil, God’s plan and chaos: always separated. The Apostle John makes this separation very clear to the church as he writes in his third letter:

    3 John 1:11 Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God.

    Choose Light or descend  into darkness?

    We like the Apostle John because he points us toward Christ’s love for the world. His gospel emphasizes Jesus’ love with little mention of the devil.

    Some christians and others of this twenty-first century doubt the existence of the devil or question the influence, if any, of Satan and demons. We think we know these influencers of evil from other books of the Bible and tend to dismiss demons and devils.

    John’s gospel is all about the Light.

    John 1:9 The true light that gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

    Yet Jesus cautions us, pointing to contrasts between light and darkness, good and evil, and yes, between following Him or the prince of darkness.

    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.”

    “I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me would not remain in darkness.

    John 8:12 & John 12:46

    These warnings against darkness from the Son of God ought to be enough, yet the prince of the world would tempt us to worldliness.

    These warnings from John’s gospel do not differ from those of the Prophets.

    Woe to you who long for the day of the LORD!
    What will the day of the LORD be for you?
    It will be darkness and not light.

    Amos 5:15 CSB

    Revelation – ἀποκάλυψις apokalypsis

    When we think of young John, the loving faithful follower of Jesus, we forget that he lived a long life as the only surviving Apostle. Rome finally banished John to Patmos where he received a terrifying apocalypse from the risen Christ.

    Orazio Fidani, Saint John the Apostle, c. 1640-56

    God judges the world; that is, those of the world who have turned away from the only Savior, our Lord.

    Do you fear the uncertainty of darkness?

    Consider the uncertainty of death!

    Should God punish sin?

    Dare you consider the darkness of death, experienced by your soul?

    Judgement of the World

    “Go and pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth.”

    Revelation 16:1
    Last Judgment painted by Michaelango on ceiling of Sistine chapel
    Last Judgement – Michelangelo

    10 The fifth [angel] poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness.

    People gnawed their tongues because of their pain

    11 and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they did not repent of their works.

    Judgement! And punishment, even after death.

    No redemption from sin, no help from the beast or false prophet.

    Certainly no post-death incarnation into a new or different body, not even that of a lowly animal. (Such selfish idolatry of those lost souls who strictly adhere to such ancient lies or worship false gods.)

    John proclaims Jesus’ love for the world! Yet the world rejects Him, because their deeds done in darkness are evil.

    And who is behind it all? Who would lead sinners into a place of darkness and evil since the beginning of the world? John tells us.

    That Great Dragon of Darkness

    12:9 καὶ ἐβλήθη ὁ δράκων ὁ μέγας ὁ ὄφις ὁ ἀρχαῖος ὁ καλούμενος Διάβολος καὶ ὁ Σατανᾶς ὁ πλανῶν τὴν οἰκουμένην ὅλην ἐβλήθη εἰς τὴν γῆν καὶ οἱ ἄγγελοι αὐτοῦ μετ’ αὐτοῦ ἐβλήθησαν

    He was thrown to earth, and his angels with him. – Revelation 12:9

    Revelation 9: The Fifth Trumpet

    The fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth. The key for the shaft to the abyss was given to him. 2 He opened the shaft to the abyss, and smoke came up out of the shaft like smoke from a great furnace so that the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the shaft.

    The Dragon Thrown Out of Heaven

    7 Then war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels also fought, 8 but he could not prevail, and there was no place for them in heaven any longer. 

    You with eyes to see, souls seeking the Light of salvation: observe the terrible intensity of the battle between good and evil – Satan’s opposition to the Lord God and Christ Jesus. It is a battle to the death for our souls!

    Yet by the mercy of the LORD’s Sacrifice of love on the Cross for you, Christ Jesus purchased victory eternal over the dragon of darkness.

    9 So the great dragon was thrown out—the ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the one who deceives the whole world. He was thrown to earth, and his angels with him.

    The many names of the evil one

    He hides in the shadows of darkness and speaks lies to false prophets. We know this dark imitator of light by many names, confusing even more our blurred vision of his subtle evil.

    The great dragon – δράκων  from familiar imagery of Greek mythology to John’s audience. The ancient serpent – ὄφις , a familiar reference to the cunning tempter in Eden , a clear reference to original sin חַטָּאָת.

    John clarifies the identity of the enemy with two additional names more familiar to us, first: the devil – διάβολος diabolos in the familiar Greek, which means slanderer or accuser. He is known as the tempter πεῖρα, one who would bring you to a trial or terrible experience. It is a word from a root word πέραν meaning,  ‘to pierce,’ which contains significant symbolism in the war between good and evil, between Christ and Satan.

    John’s second identification is the most familiar and most feared: Satan. The contemporary name in the Greek,  Σατανᾶς  Satanas, also known to fellow Jews, believers along with John, as Satan שָׂטָן.  

    Revelation 16:10 refers to Satan’s princely throne as ‘throne of the beast,’ θηρίον thērion, implying his wild, venomous nature, even brutal, savage and ferocious, sometime illustrated as a bestial man.

    Is is any wonder that the evil one wants man, created in the image of God, to dismiss him as myth?

    More names of the prince of darkness

    While relating the prophesy known as the fifth trumpet, John refers to Satan as: ‘the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he has the name Apollyon.’

    Luke’s Gospel describes the actions of demons, evil spirits influencing a human soul, confronting Jesus.

    28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before him, and said in a loud voice,

    “What do you have to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torment me!”

    29 For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man…

    31 And they begged him not to banish them to the abyss.

    Deep in the darkness of the pit of the abyss sits the throne of its angel and prince.

    John identifies the destroyer of souls as Abaddōn, from the Hebrew אֲבַדּוֹן ‘abaddown most associated with the sheol and the grave.

    The LORD brings death and gives life;
    he sends some down to Sheol, and he raises others up.

    1 Samuel 2:6

    Knowing its familiarity to the learned Greek culture of the Roman empire, John also refers to the prince of darkness as Apollyōn, the Greek adjective for destroyer.

    War in Heaven

    war in heaven warriors depicted by Rebens
    War in Heaven by Pieter Paul Rubens, 1619

    Then war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels also fought, but he could not prevail, and there was no place for them in heaven any longer.

    Revelation 12:7-8

    Though Satan rules the darkness and entices sinners to turn against Christ Jesus and bow down at the throne of darkness, dare you doubt the consequence of the war between good and evil? 


    Michael and Satan, by Guido Reni, c. 1636

    Revelation 19:

    Satan and the false prophet are defeated and punished.

    The saints then reign with Christ.

    The Lord reigns over a new creation and a new Jerusalem.

    The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 Night will be no more…

    Revelation 22:3b-4a

    The Apostle John pleas to his beloved churches, to beloved saints who claim Christ. The commandment of God is love, as Christ has loved us.

    This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him.

    1 John 1:5

    Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!

  • A Witness through John – Samira سمير

    “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work,” Jesus told them.

    John 4:34 CSB

    Shopping for Groceries

    If you’re reading the Gospel (Good News) wondering why Jesus did something or other you will often find mentions of food. John answers our cravings into the personalness of Jesus with stories using symbolism for food, signs like  turning water into wine or feeding of the five thousand.

    In our series on the Gospel and writings of John you may find satisfaction for your hunger to know why Jesus did what He did. We left off with John’s most famous story of Nicodemus coming to Jesus in Jerusalem at night.

    John 3:

    22 After this, Jesus and his disciples went to the Judean countryside, where he spent time with them and baptized.

    23 John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water there.

    John then continues his stories of witness with Jesus having a conversation with someone unexpected as they travel north through Samaria, a woman at a well. Even though John was not present, he tells us what they said and provides context into why their conversation is important.

    This story connects the first journey of Jesus and the Disciples in their travel and mission from Judea and Jerusalem, then back to the Galilean towns where they live. 

    Food for Thought

    I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.

    1 Corinthians 3:2 KJV http://blb.sc/008Bfe

    To begin, just a brief mention here from a letter of the Apostle Paul to the church at Corinth.

    Paul uses a Greek word τροφή trophē which the King James Version translates literally as ‘meat.’ Trophe figuratively means nourishment, which most Bibles translate symbolically as food.

    We have more here than just milk or a little ‘evangelism moment.’ This is meat for the mature believer with ears to hear, nourishment for our famished souls.

    Jesus’ teaching to the Disciples after this encounter with the Samaritan woman and Paul’s encouragement to the church are the same; that is, both provide food to the mature listener.

    John 4:

    When Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard he was making and baptizing more disciples than John (though Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were), he left Judea and went again to Galilee.

    “He, Jesus, left for Galilee. John records that his disciples were baptizing (presumably in the Jordan near where the Baptist drew crowds). As at other times Jesus may have gone ahead and set a meeting place with the Disciples for a later time.

    Samaria from Jerusalem via mountains or Jordan River valley wilderness

    4 He had to travel through Samaria; 5 so he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property that Jacob had given his son Joseph.

    Retelling the Gospel

    John would have learned this Gospel witness in the time that followed; for only Jesus and the woman at the well were present at first.

    In order to put this conversation into an observable context I have chosen the name of Samira for the woman at the well.

    Samira  means ‘someone you chat with in the evening’ (in this instance, a Samaritan woman).

    يرة‎ – a conversation in Samaria with the Messiah

    Samira سميرة‎ – a woman at a well in Samaria

    7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water.

    Jesus: Give me a drink

    Samira: How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?

    Jesus: If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.

    Samira: Sir (سيدى) (sayedy), you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this ‘living water’?

    You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.

    Jesus: Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again.

    In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life.

    Samira: Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and come here to draw water.

    John’s later commentary

    [John (to the reader): The men of Sychar told me how their wives resented the sinful life of this woman, but Samira later witnessed to me that Jesus lovingly smiles at her, then initiating their quick dialogue.]

    Jesus: Go call your husband and come back here.

    Samira: I don’t have a husband.

    Jesus: You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’ For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.

    [John: She told me she wondered if this man could have spoken with the men in town; then thought, ‘No, it is not possible; for he has just arrived from the Jerusalem road.’ It was then that she knew this was no ordinary traveler and drew some water from the well for this son of man, as prophets are called.]

    Jesus, a man like no other

    Samira: Sir, I see that you are a prophet.

    Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.

    Jesus: Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

    You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews.

    But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth.

    Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him.

    God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.

    [John: That was the same thing Jesus had just said to the Pharisee Nicodemus in Jerusalem.]

    Samira: I know that the Messiah is coming (who is called Christ). When he comes, he will explain everything to us.

    Jesus: I, the one speaking to you, am he. [ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ λαλῶν σοι]

    The Messiah, the Christ

    What a remarkable encounter John records. The Apostle will retell this story of Good News for years to come.

    Jesus, the Messiah of Israel, has come not only for those in Judea and Jerusalem, but to those of all of Israel, even the despised Samaritans.

    John’s Gospel records: 

    27 Just then his disciples arrived, and they were amazed that he was talking with a woman. Yet no one said, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

    Of course these were questions John also wanted to ask Jesus, but did not.

    The Samaritan woman returns to Sychar and later men and women from town come out to the well by the highway to meet the Messiah in person.

    John now records a conversation with Jesus and the Disciples with a focus no longer on water, but on food.

    31 In the meantime the disciples kept urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

    “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.

    33 The disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?”

    34 “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

    The Disciples most likely failed to understand this connection between their literal food and Jesus’ symbolic meat of spiritual nourishment.

    Why would Jesus even stop to talk to this Samaritan woman?

    35 “Don’t you say, ‘There are still four more months, and then comes the harvest’? Listen to what I’m telling you:

    A Harvest of Faith

    What is the harvest? What does the Messiah mean?

    Jesus speaks now to John and the Disciples.

    Jesus: Listen to what I’m telling you:

    • Open your eyes
    • and look at the fields, because they are ready for harvest.
    • 36 The reaper is already receiving pay
    • and gathering fruit for eternal life,
    • so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together.

    37 For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’

    38 I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from their labor.”

    The Harvest they Witnessed

    What did the Disciples likely see? Crowds of Samaritans, men and women coming from town to see their Messiah. These must have looked like a flowing sea of ripened wheat moving in waves toward them.

    Yet what harvest did Jesus see in Samaria?

    Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.

    John 6:27 KJV

    Jesus tells John and the Disciples that they must work in the fields. They must stop and tell the people they meet about the meat or the food of the Gospel, the Good News of everlasting life.

    Other translations of John 6:27 read: ‘Don’t work for the food that perishes..’ or ‘Do not work for food that spoils..’

    Jesus and the Disciples were traveling though Samaria. The Disciples nearly missed the harvest, Jesus tells them before dwelling there for two nights. We almost miss the harvest as well.

    Work for the ‘food that lasts for eternal life,’ ‘food that endures to eternal life..’ This is the joining of the Reaper and the Sower in Samaria in John 4. It is the joining with Jesus after the feeding of the five thousand in John 6.

    We have food – food the Son of Man has given us, “.. because God the Father has set his seal of approval on him.”

    Samira, first fruits of an abundant harvest – food for the faithful

    Along a road less traveled in a place unexpected on the way to where we thought we were headed, a harvest of faith appears. In a simple encounter Jesus simply asks a sinner:

    “Give me a drink”

    What is your answer, fellow Samaritan, rejected gentile, priest or Levite?

    What say you, when a stranger approaches and asks you,

    “Give me a drink?”

    Will you ‘love your neighbor’ with the food of eternal life, as Jesus did for Samira, a mere woman by a well on His journey to the Cross?

    To be continued...

  • John 3:16 – God’s Love

    John 3:16 – God’s Love

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

    John 3:16 b

    The Bible’s best known verse

    JOHN 3:16 green man
    John 3:16 KJV – For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth

    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.

    John La Farge [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
    Visit of Nicodemus to Christ

    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
    Moses lifts up the brazen serpent in the wilderness
    “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. – Numbers 21:7

    The LORD intercedes for sinners… repentant sinners.

    Christ nailed to the Cross
    “so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

    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?

    Jesus would love you!
    o mortal of dust,
    wonderfully formed
    with water and spirit.

    Yet will you love
    the Son who came down,
    born like you
    to be crucified on a Cross?

    Just to save
    your sinful soul?
    Just to save
    your sinful soul.

    Jesus So Loves the World

    Jesus would love you!      

    Roger@talkofJesus.com 

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