John 3:14-21.                     Loving darkness or light???                                          15/3/15

¹⁴ Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall 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 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. ¹⁹ This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.²⁰ Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. ²¹ But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

Here in this reading we have the Christian message in a nutshell. It is a text that we know as the Bible or the Gospel in one verse. We love to focus on verse 16: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. And that certainly sums up the Gospel very simply and it is vitally important that we know that verse.

However, there is a lot more to this text that we need to reflect on here in the midst of Lent. We need to, so to speak, put some meat on those bones.  Yes, God did love the whole world so much that he sent his Son to save it. But remember that he goes on and says: that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. And a little further on: but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

Now what would cause someone to not believe in the one who has come to save them? Why wouldn’t we want believe in this one who died on the cross and rose again? Why don’t we all take this seriously?

Predominately we would have to say that our selfish human pride does not want to acknowledge that we are sinners and in need of being saved. We don’t want to admit that we are so bad that God cannot accept us as we are. We all like to think we are reasonable good; well at least as good as most other people: Minor problems here and there, but no big deal.

However that is not what God says to us in his Word. That is not what Jesus Christ and his death is all about.

This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.

There we have it in a nutshell. But again it is a message that we do not want hear, or be challenged by. We don’t want to hear the truth, so that we can have our excuses when we have to finally face reality. We want to hide the real truth of our lives, because we don’t want the real person that we are to ever see the real light of day.

You see, we want to live our own lives and do our own thing; so we don’t want to hear the truth of what God has to say to us. Yes we like to hear that God loves us and accepts us, but we don’t want to hear the truth about our motivations for how we live out our lives every day.

We want to live in the dark so that we are free to do as we please. We love do that which goes against what God says is good. So we don’t listen and take to heart what God’s Word says and when it goes against our thinking we try to twist and change it so that it fits what we want it to say.

Is this why many people don’t go to church? Is this whey we like pastor’s who preach ‘nice and soft’ messages? Is this why we don’t like to go to Bible studies?  Is this why we try to change what the bible says to suit the current culture of the day? We don’t want the light to expose the way of life that we want to live for ourselves. We want our sin to be hidden.

But what then do we do with our sin? What do we do with that nagging guilt that lies within each and every one of us? If we don’t deal with it festers away and finally destroys us. Even if we don’t hear God’s word directly, our conscience knows that it is wrong and it plays on our mind.

All too often we try to keep our distance from God and his church so that don’t have to think about it or address it. We hope the guilt’s will go away, even though they don’t. We try to convince ourselves that God is dead or not for real, so that we hopefully might not feel so bad. Or at least we try to convince ourselves that it is not so bad, or that God doesn’t really mean it when he says something is wrong.

We might even encourage others to sin in that area and then try to console ourselves that others also have this sin; and so I am not so bad. But again we still know that it is wrong. So drink, drugs, work and all kinds of vices are undertaken to try to hide and bury the guilt. But it doesn’t work. If we persist, we die in our sin and the end is far from good. In fact it is hell.

No, the answer is to come into the light so that our sin can be exposed and dealt with. The answer is to come to Jesus Christ and his word and there recognise and acknowledge our sin and then receive his forgiveness. The answer is to seek after the truth that God is and has for us and there find the life that we need in order to go forward with.

The answer is to lift our eyes beyond ourselves and our world around us and find that which is truly amazing and life transforming. When we lift our eyes and take Jesus and the cross seriously we find freedom from all the sin and guilt that has been weighing us down. Instead of ridicule, rejection and punishment we find love, forgiveness and eternal life.

As we lift our eyes we find that: God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  He didn’t come to give us our ‘just deserts’. Yes, we deserve God’s Judgement and rejection. He should have come and pronounced his punishment on us for our sin, rejection and self-centredness, but instead he came to save us.

So we find that God’s love is truly incredible: he sends his Son Jesus to take the punishment that we deserve on himself, so that we can have forgiveness, life and salvation. He takes our sin, guilt and hell on himself, so that we can have eternal life in heaven.  Our sin had to be punished, and so rightly we fear the consequences of sin, but God takes it on himself, so that it doesn’t come on us. In turn he gives us his righteousness – his goodness so that we can live happily with him for all eternity.

In a nutshell - God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Amazing, but true.

All he calls for, is for us to believe – to trust him and what he has done for us and live in light of it. It is all there, and it is all done for us: and it is freely there for us. But it is funny isn’t it. We know this, but all too often we can’t accept it. We don’t want our lives to change. We want to be free to be our own person.

Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.

And we are told here that: Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. If we persist in our rejection of him, and turn our backs on him and what he has done for us, and what he offers us then we stand condemned already. If we continue to live in and love the darkness and life of this world and reject what God has for us, we are in big trouble.

But here today in the midst of Lent we are again reminded and encouraged to look up and live. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. Look up to what God has provided for us and we can live. We can live free of guilt and condemnation. We can live knowing that God loves us and forgives us. And live with the certainty of eternal life in heaven when our time us up here on earth.

Now we can live in a way that is good for us and for our relationship with God and one another. Now we can truly love and be loved. Now we have a reason and purpose to live; and live with confidence and hope. In connection with Jesus life truly changes for the better.

So yes, let us now turn away from our self-focus and worldly focus, and be prepared to be real about our sin and guilt. We all have fallen short of what we should and are meant to be. Let us not pretend that this is not the case and so try to hide from this reality. But instead to look up and find forgiveness life and salvation That God has won for us in Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. Let us believe all the Jesus Christ has done and won for us so that we can have eternal life with him in heaven. And then may all glory and honour go to our great God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. AMEN.

Pastor Roger Atze

Glandore/ Underdale Lutheran Parish.