Amen.

So, let's jump right in this morning and turn to John chapter 3.

And as you turn in there, I want to say hi to Biplane Phil.

He's watching online. He's moving on down to Punta Gorda, but he spends many of the summer months in here.

You'll see him here on Sunday mornings.

But Phil and his friends in Punta Gorda are watching live right now, and so we want to say hello to our friends down in Punta Gorda, Florida.

I told him I'd do that this morning for him. I won't do it every week, Phil, but there you go.

So, John chapter 3. John chapter 3.

We've been dealing with this conversation that Jesus is having with Nicodemus.

We spent a lot of time looking at who Nicodemus was, the importance of him.

He was a ruler of the Jews. He was a well-sought-after teacher of the law.

He was a lecturer that people listened to. And he comes to Jesus by night to have this conversation.

I believe that Nicodemus saw some of the many miracles that had taken place that Jesus had did during these eight days.

You have the one day of the Passover feast, and you have the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

These feasts were back-to-back.

So Jerusalem, again, to set the scene, is packed full of people.

It's just millions of people, millions upon millions of people have poured into Jerusalem.

And Nicodemus comes, and Jesus answers the question that Nicodemus doesn't ask with his mouth, but he asks it with his heart.

And how does Jesus know that? Because chapter 2 ends up telling us that Jesus knows the hearts and the intents of man.

Now, isn't that crazy? How would you like to have a friend that knew your every thought and your every, not even just your thought, but your intent as well, too?

Yeah, I just wanted to ask you.

No, you didn't.

No, I knew what you were asking.

That would be scary.

That would be very unnerving to have somebody like that.

But hanging out with Jesus like that.

So he comes, Nicodemus comes, and Jesus tells him about kingdom stuff.

He hadn't even asked about kingdom stuff.

But he knows that's what Nicodemus is saying.

And he tells Nicodemus, last week the theme of it was, he tells Nicodemus that what?

You must what? Be born again.

Born again.

Born from above.

Born from above.

And so, Nicodemus' whole religious system is now just shot.

Because he thought that good works, all this knowledge, all these things, that was what was going to lead him to the Lord.

That was what was going to bless him and bring him into the kingdom.

All these things, all this knowledge that he had, all this stuff.

And so, everything is about to change.

So, we talked about, Jesus comes in and he talks about, there's a new birth that needs to take place.

And so, we talked about the fact that, I don't want to spend a whole lot of time recapping,

but Jesus says, born of the water and born of spirit.

Okay?

And so, we know in order to have physical life, there has to be a physical birth.

Right?

So, you're born of the water, the amniotic fluid bursts, and a child is born.

Okay?

And so, but to be born of the spirit, there has to be a spiritual birth as well, too.

Now, that's what I want to talk about today.

And that's the title of today's message, as we look at the anatomy of new birth.

The anatomy of this new birth that we're talking about.

How many of you know that change is just part of life?

Things are always changing, aren't they?

I mean, holy cow, just look around us right now.

But things are always changing.

I mean, you might change locations.

You might move from one place to another here in Brunswick.

Or you might move to another town, whatever.

You might change jobs.

You might change jobs.

I read in a poll that the average American worker by the age of 40 has had eight different jobs.

Crazy.

Change.

And so, change is part of life.

But all that is outward change.

What about personal change?

You know, do people change personally?

Well, I think that really depends.

There's a lot of polls that have been asked about, to people.

And it says, if you could change one thing about your life, invariably, what do you think that change is?

When somebody says, something to do with their physical appearance.

You know, I'm not this.

I'm not that.

I'm not this.

I'm not this.

I want a hair club for men.

Whatever, right?

You know, I want to change something about our physical appearance.

That's where everybody goes.

But what about the soul?

What about the part that nobody sees, okay?

What about that part of you that's going to live forever, our soul?

I mean, it was even Jesus who said, what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?

And what will the man give in exchange for his soul?

All right?

And that's really the conversation that we're dealing with between Nicodemus and Jesus.

Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night in John chapter 3.

And Jesus cuts right to the chase and he talks about that inward change.

That soul.

And it really starts in verse 9 where it's the second question of Nicodemus is what launches into this discourse. When Nicodemus says, you know, how can these things be? How can these things be? And so really verses 10 through 21, what we'll cover this morning is really the answer to the question. It tells us how a man can be born again. And herein lies the anatomy of the new birth.

This mechanical look at what it is to be born again. And I'm saying this morning, I'm going to help you today and say it comes in what I see as four stages that we're going to look at. And the first one, the first stage is the source of new life. I want us to look at the source of new life. And listen, the source of this new life is from heaven. It's from heaven. It's not from earth. It's not from any man-made systems of religion.

Jump with me in chapter 3 and verse 9.

Now that's just a pretty simple message, right? And I don't want to complicate things here. And the message is simply this. New life is possible because Jesus Christ, who is life, brought it down from heaven.

Jesus brought down new life from heaven. Jesus is the source of this new life. The source of the new birth that comes from heaven.

That's the message of Christianity. That's the message of the gospel. What's impossible for man to reach for, okay, God has brought down to us.

Because, see, we have a problem. We are creatures of time and space. We live in a box, don't we? It's called the time and space continuum. Easy for you to say, right?

But being natural creatures, we can't escape into the supernatural.

Now, there are people who try to, and every time somebody comes along and says, well, I found this way to escape the natural and transcends into the supernatural.

Then, you know what? A new religion is born when that happens, okay?

And that's what religion is. Religion is man's attempt from earth to reach God, okay, to reach heaven.

But you're never going to reach from earth and reach God.

The natural cannot peek or peer into the supernatural.

So we're in this box. We're kind of stuck.

And so if we can't get out of this box, then what has to happen?

God has to come down into the box, right?

And so he has to come down into the box, and that's only happened one time.

God came down, and he came inside the box, and that's called the incarnation.

The incarnation.

When God, in the person of Christ, stepped out of eternity onto earth in time and space,

and showed us exactly what God is like, and brought new life, and made it possible for all of us.

That's the gospel, the explanation in a basic nutshell.

So, Nicodemus, okay, you've been trying so hard to reach out through your religion,

through your good works, to find God.

And the reality is you can't reach far enough.

You just can't.

And here's the deal.

We either take what Jesus said, or we're stuck.

Because no man, it says, has ascended into heaven.

You can't go up to heaven, and see what the plan is, and bring the plan back.

You just can't do it.

God, through Christ, had to step down from heaven to us.

But you know what?

Most people would rather spend their time reaching up from the earth,

rather than accepting and taking what has been handed down from heaven.

And that's why you continue to live your life so frustrated here on this earth.

You're trying to reach out and find God.

And God has already provided a way for His plan.

God has MJQs.

but now I want us to look at the force. The force of this new life. And the force of this new life is the atoning death of Jesus Christ. The atoning death. Beginning in verse 14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.

in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through Him. So Jesus brings down this new life from heaven to earth. But the question is how does it work? How does it work? What's the power behind it? What's the force behind this new life? You ready? I'm going to tell it to you right here. You ready? Here it is. Death.

It's death. Death. Death is the force behind it. New life will operate on the basis of death. Somebody has to die enabling others to live. First death must occur. Now that's a theme in the New Testament and it goes all the way through the New Testament. We read even in the scriptures that we live because Christ died. Right? For all of us. And it can be summed up in a lot of different verses but I've chosen one that's

kind of tucked away succinctly in 1 Peter that puts it this way. It says for Christ also suffered once for sins. The righteous and the unrighteous that He might bring us to God. Bam.

So here's Jesus Christ. He's predicting His death to Nicodemus and you might say it's a veiled prediction but it'll be uncovered as time goes by because He says as Moses lifted up the serpent, the Son of Man must be lifted up.

He's predicting His death and it's His death that will enable life. Now this is interesting to me when I read this because the example that Jesus gives to Nicodemus because it's right out of Numbers 21 and when Jesus, this whole wilderness and serpent thing, alright, and when Jesus says this to Nicodemus, Nicodemus would have perked up because he's a teacher of the Old Testament. He's a teacher of the law.

He would have known this and this would have got his radar up and he's really tuned in right now. And it's an interesting story and I'm not going to go through the whole thing but let me just familiarize you with what's going on here and we can see the analogy.

The children of Israel were in the wilderness and they're wandering and they're wandering in the wilderness and they're doing what the children of Israel do best.

You know what that is? Murmuring, complaining, complaining and murmuring and murmuring and griping, okay? That's what they're doing. And for years, and so God miraculously gives them manna, right?

No matter where they go, this manna miraculously appears, this bread from heaven. And one day they wake up and they say that our soul hates this worthless bread.

Bread. God's providing their every need. Does that ring to you? Anybody ever get sick and tired of God? You know, I'm tired of you blessing me this way, God. I want you to bless me a different way.

You know, I got a plan for my life and if God would just get on board with my plan, my life would be a whole lot better.

Hmm. You know, maybe they're thinking, these guys, let's give the Israelites some grace. I mean, you can only do so much with manna, right?

Right? It's manna every day. Manna, manna, manna, manna, manna, manna.

I mean, so you go to the recipe book. Maybe you can make banana manna bread, okay? Maybe that.

Or maybe you can pull out some manicotti. How about that? Yeah.

But there's only so many things. The recipe book's going to get really thin very, very quick.

But it kept coming and they kept complaining.

So God, in judgment, sends a bunch of venomous snakes, okay, to bite the people that causes a fever and burning and causes death to thousands of them.

Thousands of them were dying and yet God, in his mercy, said, Moses, I'm going to tell you what you need to do to save the people from this death.

You take a brass pole and you make a brass serpent and you put it together and you lift it up in the wilderness.

This brass serpent on the brass pole. You tell the people.

So for anybody, you know, some of these people were so far off they couldn't see it. So for a lot of them, to just look in that direction, it would be a look of faith. And they would have to believe two things. Number one, that I'm a sinner. And I'm in this position because I'm a sinner and this condition is happening to me because I'm a sinner. And secondly, they would have to believe that it's going to work. That it's going to work, okay? And it would be counterintuitive, wouldn't it?

I mean, you think about it. You have this physical condition creating fever and death. But if you just look over here at this thing that's way out there, you see this thing and you're told if you look at that thing, you'll be cured. It's not logical. It doesn't make any sense. But it was a look of faith. And the best part about it was that it worked. And it worked because God said it would work.

And that's the analogy. It's very, very similar to how people feel about the cross of the Lord Jesus today. You mean to tell me, they'll say that all I have to do is that simple look of faith to Jesus on the cross and that'll save me from hell and eternal distress, just that?

And they'll say the same things just like Nicodemus said. How can these things be? How can these things be? So simple. It just doesn't make sense. You see, it's much easier for people to look to themselves.

I'll fix it myself. I'll get myself out of this problem. I'll get myself out of this situation. And that's why they do it so much. And they won't trust Christ.

They look to themselves. They look to themselves. Well, I'm religious. I'll go to church. I'm a hard worker. I'm a good person. You're arrogant.

The scripture says there's none good. No, not one. And you know what that no, not one means in Greek? No, not one.

None. Yeah, that's what it means in South Georgia. None. Yeah, are good.

It's much harder to admit that I am a sinner and I need a Savior than to cast the look of faith on Christ.

I want to do it myself. I'll fix it myself.

I want you to notice real quickly also, notice that word in verse 14, the word must.

We talked about that. I'm not going to recap last week.

We talked about it last week in the first part of John chapter 3.

But here again, notice the word in verse 14 when he says,

And as Moses lifted up the servant in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.

Must.

Listen, the cross was a divine imperative.

The cross was a divine imperative.

Worth it. Jesus had to die.

I get questions from people all the time who are struggling with their faith.

Well, why? Why did Jesus have to die?

Okay? And just two simple reasons.

First of all, he had to die justice.

Justice had to be served.

Justice must be served.

You know, the Bible tells us in the Old Testament that without the shedding of blood,

there is no remission of sins.

And do you know why that is?

It's because sin is so bad.

Now, you may not think it's so bad, but God thinks it's bad.

You may not think, well, that's just a little white sin.

There's no such thing as white sins.

Where does it say in Scripture?

And Adam just created a white sin.

That's all he did.

But Moses, it was a black sin, so he couldn't go into the promised land.

No.

There's no coloring.

It's either sin or it's not.

Well, who makes the rules?

You or me?

No.

God.

Because if I make the rules, guess what?

The bar's going to be right here because I want to look good going over that thing, man.

Look how good I am.

I'm righteous.

I'm a righteous man.

So, for God to be just, he has to punish sin.

He has to punish sin.

And he's either going to require our blood or the blood of a substitute, which he has.

And he needs to be innocent blood.

Are any of us innocent in this room?

I think we just went through the Scriptures.

And it has to be a substitute.

And so, that's what he did through Jesus Christ.

The second...

He so loved. I mean, haven't you ever had that little relationship, that new relationship you have with that significant little cutie pie? And you're trying to explain, no, I don't. I so love you. Yeah. I'm so head over heels for you. I'm not just head over heels. I'm so head over heels. You know, you try to emphatically say, God is saying, I so love you. The Bible says the most beautiful thing. The Scriptures tell us the most beautiful thing. That for the joy that was set before him, Jesus endured the cross.

Have you ever thought about that? The joy that was set before him, Jesus endured the cross. What would give anybody joy to face some cruel, humiliating, torturous death? What joy could it be? Well, here's the joy. It is the joy of Jesus being able to look through the lens of history.

And to be able to see you and to be able to see you and you and you and you and you and you one day call upon his name and trust in him and be saved.

And he said, I'll do it for that. That's worth it. That will push me, drive me to do the will of the Father out of joy, out of love. I will do it. I will do it.

So here's Nicodemus thinking this whole time, this whole time. How can these things be? You know, this whole new birth thing. How happened? How does it happen? Here it is.

Jesus bringing it out of heaven to earth. And second, Jesus going to the cross to die, being lifted up.

He'll say it again in John chapter 12. He says, if I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw men to myself.

He's speaking about the cross when he says that. John even tells us that later on.

I've heard this misquoted by worship leaders over the years. They'll get up and they'll say, hey, the Bible says that if we if we lift up Jesus, he'll draw men to himself.

That's almost a blasphemous thought, blasphemous thought, because that's not what he's saying. In context, he's talking about death.

If I die, if I die for you and for the sins of the world, if I do this, God will draw people to himself.

There needed to be a death.

And so that's what he's referring to. That's the force of this new life.

You know, I've told you guys this so many times.

This is a classic book. If you've never read it, get it, read it, get it, read it, get it, read it.

OK, Pilgrim's Progress. Tremendous book.

It's so Charles Spurgeon thought it was so good. He said he read it twice every year.

OK, I'm not going to go into a lot of dialogue, but in the story that has a relating to what we're talking about here.

It's a story of a young man called Christian, and he's a pilgrim and he's on a journey from his hometown in the city of destruction.

And he's on his way to the celestial city and he has a backpack and the backpack is called the law.

OK, you see where the story is going. OK, it's an allegory. OK, and he can't keep it.

It's a burden to him. The backpack's a burden.

And wherever he goes, it's just burdening him down. It's weighing him down.

It's like Nicodemus here in our story right here.

And I want to read you part from the book. It says this from Pilgrim's Progress.

He says, I saw in my dream that just as Christian came up to the cross, his burden loosened from his shoulders and it fell off of his back and it began to tumble until it came to the mouth of the tomb where it fell in and I saw it no more.

Then Christian was glad and lightsome and said with a merry heart, he has given me rest by his sorrow.

He has given me life by his death.

That's the key thought here. Life by his death.

And we should have a revival break out right then and there.

All you guys should be dancing. I got that. I got that.

I got it. I got life because of his death.

That's the only reason why y'all have that. This man right here has life is because of his death.

That's it. And just a glance at verse 17 before we move on.

I tend to think that this is where Nicodemus' jaw drops again.

Okay. And I'll tell you why in just a second.

messiah would do when he came would be to wipe out all of the heathens wipe out all the pagans

wipe out all of the gentiles and establish only israel as the pinnacle and the peak

that's what they believe and jesus comes and says nicodemus i didn't come to do that

i didn't come to condemn i came to save the world and guess what my salvation is for the whole world

it's for the whole world not just for israel but for the whole world and see nicodemus you should

have known that and the rest of the jews you should have known that as well we just went as a church a

long study through the book of genesis we took a year and a half almost two years we studied through

genesis and that was part of the abrahamic covenant that's why the jews should have known and nicodemus

should have known because the abrahamic covenant says that in you in you all the families of the

earth shall be blessed so why would i come and wipe everybody else out and just make you the pinnacle

you see how this is this is happening and that's the prediction of christ that in you all the families

of the earth would be blessed that christ would come through the lineage of abraham and that's not

what nicodemus thought that's not what he believed he thought that the messiah would come and wipe out

the gentiles and it's just gonna be us good folk

in fact the very opposite happened the very opposite because israel rejected her messiah and the door of

salvation was open to the gentiles and blindness happened to israel and because blindness happened to

israel guess what happened therefore you and i can be grafted in and the gospel could come to us

and could come alive to all of us and and before we move on i just want you to really grasp the thought

and capture it here i want you to know how much jesus really does love you how much he loves you

you know i want you to know that jesus would do anything to get you to heaven in fact he did everything

that he could to get you and i to heaven stepping out of heaven coming to this earth being robed in a man's

body suffered the rejection of people and death on a cross to get you and me to heaven

and none of us deserve it

which brings us to the third port point

and that's the course of this new life

the course the course of this new life

and the course of this new life is

faith

belief

that's the road that it travels on

the course of believing in him i mean you'll notice

we probably didn't have it this week because we didn't have the announcement slides but every week when we go into this series

this series is called faith to believe we believe that teaching this series will increase our faith

in order to believe in the one true god and his son there are 879 verses in john's gospel and the key

theme is the word believe that you would believe that you would believe believe it was so we're not surprised that over 98 times

in this book john says believe believe believe believe you know that's the thing he wants people to believe well so we're not surprised then to

find it here even what we read here on a few occasions

when uh...

when uh... verse 12 it says if i have told you earthly things and you do not believe how can you believe if i tell you heavenly things uh... verse 15 same thought that that whoever believes in him may have eternal life uh... john 3 16 has the same thought behind

it verse 18 even says whoever believes in him is not condemned but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only son of god so the key thought is is belief but there's another key thought right here next to it in this paragraph and that's unbelief

unbelief

unbelief

unbelief

unbelief

unbelief

unbelief

unbelief

unbelief

unbelief

unbelief

unbelief

unbelief

unbelief

unbelief

unbelief

unbelief

because he says so in verse 12 after nicodemus asked the question jesus says if i have told you

earthly things notice and you do not believe you do not believe that you in the greek is plural

it's a plural you and it means you and the rest of you all the leaders that are with you all of

israel all those people like yourself you don't believe you don't believe and something else i

want you to follow look at verse 10 11 and 12 and verse verse 10 the phrase you you don't understand

you see that verse 11 you didn't did not receive verse 12 you do not believe nicodemus didn't know

because nicodemus didn't receive because nicodemus didn't believe do you follow that nicodemus didn't

know because nicodemus didn't receive because nicodemus didn't believe listen to me carefully

This thing is pregnant with truth in here, okay?

Unbelief, unbelief is what causes ignorance.

Unbelief is what causes ignorance.

There's a lot of people who say,

well, no, I don't think I believe that.

I think it's ignorance that causes unbelief.

Nope.

Unbelief causes ignorance.

Because you see, the gospel is simple.

The gospel is simple.

The gospel is so simple, even I understand it.

The gospel is so simple,

I can have a conversation with a five-year-old

that's been to children's church,

and they will tell me what they've learned that morning,

and I'm like, wow, they are getting a grasp

on what the gospel is saying.

They get it.

It's so easy to understand,

but when a person says,

I can't understand it,

often what it means is because they don't believe it.

And if you probe a little deeper,

it's because they won't believe it.

They refuse to believe it.

And you'll see why in a couple of verses.

But here's Nicodemus.

He's thinking, oh man, this whole born-again thing,

this thing's crazy, starting all over.

I don't get it.

I don't get it.

Forget it.

It's just too hard.

It's just too hard.

Because listen, he's down here on earth,

and he's been trying to get to the kingdom from down here.

You can't do that.

The kingdom has come.

It's come in the form of Jesus Christ.

And the invitation has been given to all.

It'll never work if you're always trying to get to the kingdom from right here.

It's like, let's say you had a pet fish.

You had a pet fish,

and you kept that pet fish in an aquarium.

And one day you decide,

I'm going to take that pet fish for a walk.

And you take him out of the aquarium,

and you put him on a skateboard,

and you strap him on so he's safe.

He'll be safe.

And you start pulling it on a leash,

and you're walking through the neighborhood.

Surely somebody is going to stop you and say,

Hey, the fish can't breathe air.

The fish is unable to breathe.

It requires a different system to breathe.

It's called water.

It's called water.

Nicodemus has the wrong system.

He's got the wrong system.

He's been trying to breathe kingdom air from down here on earth.

That's the word there.

So many of us are trying to breathe kingdom air

while we've still got one foot in the world.

Why isn't God really speaking to me?

Why do I not feel the power of the Lord?

Why do I continue to be led by all these really weird gospels?

Because you're still trying to breathe kingdom air

while you're knee deep in the world.

It doesn't work that way.

It doesn't work that way.

When Jesus says that you have to be born again,

the kingdom from heaven comes to earth

and is optional because Jesus himself will go to the cross

and you and I must believe.

We must believe.

Engage by faith.

And a lot of people say,

well, I believe.

I've always believed.

You believe what?

What do you believe?

Well, I believe that Jesus was a guy who hung around with 12 dudes.

I read it in the Bible.

12 dudes and did a lot of good things

and he was a good example and he was a great teacher.

No, it says believe in him.

Believe in him.

And that's very different from chapter 22, verse 23,

where many people, it says many people in Jerusalem,

it says many believed in his name when they saw the miracles,

but Jesus wouldn't commit himself to them

because he knew their hearts.

They believed he was a hero.

He gave them what?

The power to become sons of God.

You receive the power to become a son and a daughter of God

when you receive Jesus Christ.

Not just because you say you believe in Him.

Even the devil confesses He's Lord.

He believes in Him,

but he's not going to surrender to Him

and live His life for Him.

He's not sold out to Him.

He's not surrendered to Him.

It's time for the church to stop giving

the gospel lip service

and start giving it heart service.

You know,

William Barclay puts it this way.

He says,

it's that faith,

the faith of a cleansing intensity of a drowning man.

The faith of the clenching intensity of a drowning man.

And you think,

if you were drowning,

you were drowning,

and somebody,

somebody had the remedy for you,

wouldn't you hold on to that with everything you got?

Man,

some of us have lost that intensity.

There's a,

I don't want to get off track.

There's a story I love about these monks

that went off into the mountains

and they removed themselves from everything

because they think that's what's going to make them holy.

Okay,

but that's not part of the story.

I'm not going to get into all that.

But anyway,

there was this one master monk.

He was so holy.

He was so spiritual.

And there was a young guy.

He sees that he's got this demeanor about him.

He says,

hey,

can you teach me how to do that?

Can you teach me how to be so sincere in your faith?

And this,

that,

and the other.

I want to be holy like you.

And the master monk says,

sure,

meet me,

meet me tomorrow morning down at the lake.

And so that morning,

he get up early,

he meets him down at the lake

and the monk says,

are you ready?

Are you ready?

To the,

to the student,

he says,

yes,

master,

I am.

So they walk out into the water about waist deep

and he puts his hands on his shoulders.

He says,

brother,

are you ready?

He says,

yes.

He says,

okay,

bend your knees.

And he pushes him under the water.

And the guy's under the water.

He's thinking,

what's going to happen?

Well,

I can't breathe.

I can't get up.

And the monk continues to hold him under the water.

The guy's scratching him.

He's scraping.

He's holding him under the water.

He's kicking.

He won't let him up.

And next thing you know,

he lets him up out of the water.

The guy gasps for air.

He says,

what are you doing?

He goes,

now you understand

what it means

to grab the Lord

with all the intensity

that your life depends on him.

Are you there, church?

Are you there, friends?

Amen, Amara.

Amen, sweet girl.

All right.

Finally,

we'll debrief here.

The final stage

is what I'm calling

the remorse.

The remorse

of new life.

And the remorse

of new life

is this.

It's judgment.

Judgment.

Verse 18 says,

whoever believes in him

is not condemned,

but whoever does not believe

is condemned already

because he has not believed

in the name

of the only son of God.

Now, this is powerful.

Here's the reason.

And this is the judgment.

The light has come

into the world

and the people

love the darkness

rather than the light

because their works

are evil.

Everyone who does

wicked things

hates the light

and does not come

to the light

lest his works

should be exposed.

And so,

here's the great remorse

of new life

and the great remorse

of new life

is that not everyone

will enjoy it

because not everyone

will believe it.

and thus

will incur

the judgment.

And it's interesting

that Jesus

doesn't say

that one day

one day

they will be judged

at the great white throne.

Okay?

And that will happen

but he says

that they're condemned already.

You see that?

They're condemned already.

And that's interesting

because the great white throne

judgment

for unbelievers

won't happen

for a long time

and that's

at the end

of the millennium.

Okay?

So what does he mean

by that

when he says

that they're already

condemned?

Listen to me.

The sentence

will happen

at the great white throne.

Museum called in Paris, the Louvre or whatever where all the paintings are, the pictures are. They've got some silly pictures like the Mona Lisa and other things like that in there. They got all these classic beautiful paintings by all the greats, right? The story goes about a guy who goes in there to look at all of them and he's in there looking at everything. He's chomping on his gum and he walks out to the curator and he says, he says, yeah, I don't get it, man. I liked it all your famous paintings. I don't get it. They don't they don't they don't do a lot for me. I just don't I don't get it all. And the

curator smiles and he says, you know, it's OK. The art isn't on trial. You are. It doesn't matter what you think of them. The greats are still the greats. But your statement tells us a lot about you. So listen, Jesus is not on trial. Well, you know, I just think Jesus I don't care what you think. I don't care what you think. Your thoughts about who Jesus is doesn't diminish who he is, who the scriptures tell us.

He is. He is not on trial. We are. You have the gospel. What did you do with this gospel that you so desperately claim that you hold on to with the intensity of a drowning man? Do you live it out? Do you live it out? Or is it just a Sunday thing? And that Sunday thing is maybe one Sunday every I don't know.

No. Verse 19 is powerful because it says, and this is the judgment. The light has come into the world. The light, that's Christ. OK, and the truth that he brought. OK, that's the gospel. This the this this message and the light is coming to the world.

And people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

You know, a lot of people will say. You know, people say they don't believe in Jesus Christ because they don't understand.

That's wrong. It's wrong. People won't believe in Jesus Christ.

I don't know how to say this any more delicately than this. People refuse to believe in Jesus Christ because they will love their sin more.

I just love what I'm doing. So I'm going to give this Christianity a half hearted thing.

Well, bless me. Bless me.

You know, you ever, you ever, you ever been in an old building or something and you turn the light on and all the bugs are there.

Where do they go? Where do they go? They disappear, though, right? Any kind of light at all.

They run. They run. They run. They hide.

Men loved. They loved their darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.

And let's end on this. This is the best part. It's really invitational.

And I believe it's I believe it's to Nicodemus.

But in contrast, it says in verse 21, but whoever does what is true comes to the light.

Whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.

And that's an invitation that's directed toward Nicodemus as if to say, Nicodemus, do the right thing, man.

Do the right thing. Step out of the shadows.

Step out of the darkness. Step into the light.

It's the truest thing you'll ever do, Nicodemus.

It's the truest thing you'll ever do, my brother, my sister.

Step out of the darkness and into the light.

And so I just I want to close with a caption from a story.

I was going to try to just condense it down for you, but I want to articulate it as well as the author does.

But I think it really ties some things together.

And then we'll have the worship team come up here in a second.

But in the story, the author writes this.

He says, Long ago, or maybe not so long ago, there was a tribe in a dark, cold cavern.

The cave dwellers huddled together and cried against the chill.

Loud and long they wailed.

It was all that they did.

It was all that they knew to do.

The sounds in the caves were mournful, but the people didn't know it for all they for they had never known joy.

The spirit in the cave was death because the people didn't know it because they had never known life.

But then one day, a different they heard a different voice.

I've heard your cries that announced I have felt your chill and I've seen your darkness.

I have come to help the people in the in the in the cave grew quiet.

They had never heard this voice.

And that's going to beところ.

I'm probably not going to be해징ول.

Next time if you got a little bit deeper information, but you're clearly against people

The stranger didn't ask. What are you making? One shouted even louder. Still no response. Tell us, demanded a third. The visitor stood and spoke in the direction and the voices. I have what you need. And with that he turned to the pile at his feet and lit it. The wood ignited, the flames erupted, and the light filled the cavern. The people turned away in fear. Put it out, they cried. It hurts to see it. The light always hurts before it helps, he answered.

Step closer. Step closer. The pain will soon pass. Not I, declared one voice. Nor I, agreed a second. Only a fool would risk exposing his eyes to such a light. The stranger stood next to the fire. Would you prefer your darkness, he asked? Would you prefer the cold? Don't consult your fears. Take a step of faith. For a long time, no one spoke. Not one.

The people hovered in groups covering their eyes. The fire builder stood next to the fire. It's warm here, he invited. He's right, one said from behind him in an announcing voice. It's warmer. The stranger turned and saw a figure slowly stepping toward the fire.

I can open my eyes now, she proclaimed. I can see. Come closer, the fire builder, said the fire builder. She did. She stepped into the ring. It's so warm.

She extended her hands and sighed as the chill began to pass. Come, everyone. Feel the warmth, she invited. Silence, woman, cried one of the cave dwellers.

Dare you lead us into your folly? Leave us. Leave us and take your light with you.

She turned to the stranger. Why won't they come? He said, they choose the chill for it's, though it's cold, it's what they know.

They'd rather be cold than to change. And live in the dark, she asked. Yes, he said, and live in the dark.

Now the warmed woman stood silently looking at the dark and then at the man. Will you leave the fire, he asked.

She paused and she answered, I cannot. I cannot bear the cold. But then she spoke again.

But nor can I bear the thought of my people living in darkness. You don't have to, he responded.

Reaching into the fire and removing a stick, he said, carry this to your people. Tell them that the light is here.

Tell them that the light is warm. Tell them that the light is for all who desire it.

And she took the small flame and stepped into the shadows.

This is exactly what Jesus did for us, leaving the glory of heaven, the light of heaven to the darkness of this earth.

But men loved the darkness more than the light because their deeds were evil.

And so as the worship team comes up when we close this morning, I simply say this and challenge you with this this morning.

The light has come into the world.

And it's come in the form of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And Jesus gives the invitation.

And in that invitation, I mean, all of us, all of us here today.

How many of you just, we could let out a collective sigh of relief and just say, man, I just, I'm just tired.

There's some, there's some junk going on.

I'm just, I'm tired of the junk.

I'm just tired.

I'm tired of being tired.

I'm tired of being tired.

Come to me.

All you who are weary.

And heavy laden.

And I'll give you rest.

I will give you a peace that the world doesn't know about.

And when I give you that rest and I give you that peace, I will touch your heart and I will touch your life in such a way.

Listen to me.

I will touch your heart and I will touch your life in such a way that you will take that small little light.

Compared to the glorious light that I have, you will take that small little light into the world and you will share it with others.

That's how the gospel changes one day.

one.

But I thank you, Lord, that it is available to all who would just come to Jesus. And Jesus doesn't say you gotta have it all figured out right now. Just come. Give me that first look of faith. That first look of faith. Jesus says, and I will do the rest. I'll do the rest. And so, God, we thank you for celebrating the lives of these children that we prayed over today. Let us not forget where we stood as a church family.

and said that we would do today and said that we would do today to continue to declare the word over them, to declare the love of Christ over them.

And in the coming days, may each of us be found faith. In Jesus' name, all God.