Believe Into Christ (part one)

So this is John chapter 3, verse 11 through 21.

John 3:11–21

Jesus says,

Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen,

but you do not receive our testimony.

If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe,

how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

And as Moses lifted up the servant 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 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.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned,

but whoever does not believe is condemned already.

Not because he has not believed in the name,

condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Verse 19.

And this is the judgment.

The light has come into the world,

and people have loved the darkness rather than the light,

because their works were evil.

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light,

and does not come to the light,

lest his works shall be exposed.

But 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.

This is the inspired, inerrant, infallible word of God.

Thanks be to God.

You may be seated.

Let's pray.

Father, we come before you once again.

You know what is in man.

You know what we lack.

You know what we need today.

So we ask, Lord, in the words of that ancient prayer,

once again, as your people,

this little congregation,

gathered in the name of King Jesus,

we ask that what we know not,

you will teach us.

What we have not this morning,

please give us.

And what we are not yet,

make us, Lord,

for your glory.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, on January 6th, 1815,

there was a snowy blizzard in England,

and there was a young man

who would normally walk to a church a bit farther away,

and he grew up in a Christian home.

But this young man

found himself not being able to go to his normal path,

so instead,

he went to this chapel that was a little bit closer.

And for months now,

he had felt so miserable.

He was under deep conviction of his sin.

He had no assurance that he was truly saved.

And in this little chapel closer to a home

that he'd never been to before,

there he sat.

Very few people showed up in that blizzardy morning.

And it was actually not even the pastor.

It was another member of the congregation,

a lay man who had just prepared.

He had one verse to preach,

and it was Isaiah 45, verse 22,

Isaiah 45:22

which says this,

Look to me and be saved,

all the ends of the earth,

for I am God,

and there is no other.

And the man just kept repeating that over and over.

Look to me and be saved.

This is what Jesus says to you.

Look to me and be saved.

And he called the young man out in front of everyone.

He said,

Young man, teenager,

you look miserable.

You look miserable.

Look to Christ.

Don't live in fear of condemnation forever.

Look to Christ and have eternal life.

Don't believe in your worth or all your shortcomings.

Don't let Satan attack you.

Just look to Christ.

He promises you will be saved

if you simply look to him.

Well, this teenager felt the call to follow Christ.

Christ became Lord of his life.

He started devouring his dad's and grandpa's libraries,

reading the old Puritans,

and he became a popular pastor in London,

in the Victorian era,

named Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

That's how God saved Charles Spurgeon.

And Charles Spurgeon said,

Once a year,

he wants to make it his humble practice

to preach a sermon on John 3.16.

The reason is because he says,

There is nothing I or any preacher can say on John 3.16

that has not been said already.

And when, not if, but when,

God moves by the power of his spirit

through those words,

he will know,

and everyone will know,

it's not the ministry of the people.

It's the work of Christ.

It's the gospel of Jesus Christ

so that no man can boast or take credit.

John 3.16 is our text for today.

It's been described as an ocean of gospel truth

in a drop of words.

Martin Luther called it the miniature gospel.

And on his deathbed,

Martin Luther wanted to hear John 3.16

over and over and over.

It's the whole story of how God saves sinners in a verse.

There was a missionary named Henry Knott,

and he traveled part of William Carey's mission movement

from London as well.

He traveled to the Polynesian Islands.

So picture going to Hawaii,

you're in the middle of the Pacific Ocean,

you go south.

That's where Polynesian Islands are.

One of the islands is called Tahiti.

So it's basically between Hawaii and New Zealand, Australia.

That's where Tahiti is.

And this missionary, Henry Knott,

the first sentence he wanted to learn

in the language of the Tahitians

was John 3.16.

And as they began that project

of trying to now translate verse by verse

into the language of the people of this island,

the first verse he wanted to translate

was John 3.16.

Look in your Bible.

In the ESV, John 3.16 reads like this.

Now, in verses 15, 16, and 18,

look at verse 15.

The phrase is,

whoever believes in him.

You see that in verse 15?

Whoever believes in him.

In verse 16, that's what we read.

Whoever believes in him.

And then verse 18, it's that same promise.

Whoever believes in him.

In the Greek, it's literally translated

anyone believing into him.

So believing in Christ is believing into Christ.

And that's significant because through faith,

you are united to Jesus Christ.

And his righteousness becomes your righteousness.

His love with the Trinity,

Father, Son, and Spirit becomes your love now.

You get pulled in to the work of Christ

by being in him,

by believing into Jesus.

So church, that's really the message for today.

And I want you to hear it

from Jesus Christ.

Jesus himself is the one

who urges you this day.

Look to me and be saved.

Look to me and be saved.

All the ends of the earth.

For I am God.

And there is no other.

Believe into Christ and have eternal life.

My prayer is simply that you'll understand

the meaning of our Lord Jesus

with those glorious words.

And I'm going to try to open this for you

in just two ways.

The first one is the first part of the verse.

For God so loved the world

that he gave his only Son.

And what I want to emphasize with that

is what is true of God.

And that's the first half.

The second half is what is true of you

that whoever believes in him

or into him should not perish

but have eternal life.

So what is true of God first?

Second, what is true of you?

What is true of God?

For God so loved the world.

Number one, this is true.

Jesus Christ came to reveal to you

that God is love.

Jesus reveals that God is love.

Look at verse 17 as confirmation.

I'm pulling in these surrounding verses

as context for verse 16.

So verse 17 we read that God did not send

his Son into the world

to condemn the world.

See, God so loved the world

that's why he sent his Son.

The very first cause of Jesus' mission

is the love of God.

And it's so significant

because of two things.

Number one, the loveliness of God's love.

Number two, the worldliness of the world.

Both of those things make the love of God

just something that's mind-blowing.

So first of all, the loveliness of God's love.

Well, we're told in 1 John 4, verse 16

1 John 4:16

that God is love.

We know that God is, from his scripture,

God is eternal.

So God is love and God is eternal.

Therefore, God loves beyond measurement

of time and space.

We know from the Bible that God is infinite.

You know what that means about God's love?

God's love has no limits in Christ.

We know that God is unchangeable.

So he loves in an unchanging way

all those who are united to Christ.

We know from the Bible that God is powerful.

So God loves powerfully.

When he displays his saving love through Jesus,

it works powerfully on all those

who will be believing into him

because the Spirit's regenerating them powerfully.

We know that God is perfect.

God is immeasurable.

And God is wise.

So the love of God shown to you in Jesus Christ

is perfect.

It is wise.

And there's no measurement in human standards

of the love of God.

Do you see how lovely the love of God is?

Now the verse says,

God, this God we're talking about,

so loved the world.

Well, the connotation for the word world,

in the Greek it's cosmos.

And so you can even picture that magazine

as you're going to check out of the grocery store,

cosmopolitan.

It really means worldly.

God so loved the worldly world.

God so loved the cosmos.

It doesn't mean to emphasize how big it is.

It means to emphasize how bad the world is.

That's how that connotation is always used.

So all nations,

no matter what tribe you're from,

Israel, Tahiti,

anywhere else in the world,

all are part of this fallen,

depraved, dark world.

And it's God divinely loving,

perfectly, wisely loving,

this fallen, worldly world.

To prove to you that this is

how that word is normally used,

the same author,

1 John,

in 1 John chapter 2,

1 John 2:15–17

verses 15 through 17.

He writes,

go ahead and turn there.

Let's turn a few pages.

1 John chapter 2,

1 John 2:15–17

verses 15 through 17.

Every time I come to the word world,

I'm going to say cosmos.

So you get the picture.

It's the same word.

1 John 2, 15, 17.

Here's what John wrote.

Verse 15,

Do not love the cosmos

or the things of the cosmos.

If anyone loves the cosmos,

the love of the Father is not in him.

Do you get the picture?

The world is worldly.

If you're loving the things

of this fallen, depraved world,

then the love of God

is clearly not in you.

Those are incompatible.

Verse 16,

For all that is in the world,

the desires of the flesh,

the desires of the eye,

and the pride of life

is not from the Father,

but is from the world.

Verse 17,

And the world is passing away

along with its desires,

but whoever does the will of God

abides forever.

Now, if God is holy,

but yet God loves this fallen,

bad, dark world,

how does that even work?

How can it be that such a holy God

would love the world?

And that's exactly what Jesus shows us.

It's only with the selfless,

costly love of redemption

that God can love those

who are still in the world

and love them to save them

out of the world.

John Calvin put it this way,

Jesus does not say that God

was moved to deliver us

because he perceived in us

something that was worthy

of so excellent a blessing,

but he ascribes the glory

of our deliverance

entirely to God's love.

You see why it's important

that this holy God

shows his love to a fallen world?

It's so that none of us

can boast of anything worthy in us.

Why did God save me

and not the person next to me?

Why did he save my family

and not this family

on the other side of the world?

It has nothing to do

with how good you are.

It has everything to do

with the wise, powerful,

perfect love of God

to redeem anyone,

any sinner out of this fallen world

so that God gets all the glory.

See, left to itself,

this worldly world is in death.

And how is it that God loves the world?

Well, think about it.

Every one of these disciples

and everyone who is truly united in Christ

was of the world.

So God loved you

while you were yet in the world.

That's how he loves the world.

In John 15, 19, we read,

If you were of the world,

the world would love you as its own.

But because you are not of the world,

but I chose you out of the world,

therefore the world now hates you.

So they are the world.

You are the world

until God saves you

through Jesus Christ.

And it's the gospel

that comes first to those

in darkness,

pulling them out now

and giving them life eternal,

life of the age to come now.

So what is true of God?

It's true that God so loved the world

that Jesus Christ came to reveal

the love of God.

It's also this,

that Jesus was given.

See, our verse says that

God in his love gave Jesus.

That's our second truth of God

is that Jesus Christ is sent

on a sacrificial mission.

We can confirm this

with the second half of verse 17.

Look at verse 17.

We're told God sent his son

in order that the world

be saved through him.

The mission of Jesus,

it was sacrificial,

being sent by the Father

so that the world

could be saved through him.

See, Jesus in the gospel of John

is on the move.

He is going and coming.

He's ascending and descending

and it's language of a trip.

Scholars have noted

how there are three times

where John points out

Jesus is taking a trip

up to Jerusalem.

So he's singing those psalms

of ascent going up

through Jerusalem

and it's really his way

of journeying back to his Father.

The fourth time

when Jesus goes up to Jerusalem,

it's on his trip to the cross.

And so the cross

was one of the stations

on his trip of ascending

back to the Father.

See, God gave his son.

He said,

Son, you go into that dark world

and the way that you redeem

sinners out of it

is you will go through the cross

and you will bring many sons

and daughters to glory with you.

It was the active

and passive obedience

of Jesus in the body.

That was his mission.

And then through the cross,

he leads us like a parade,

ascending up to heaven

to be with the Father.

But before he could ascend

in glory,

first he had to descend.

This is what all the New Testament

is proclaiming.

Philippians 2.8,

being found in human form,

he humbled himself.

himself.

He's made low.

He's descending

by becoming obedient

to the point of death,

even death on a cross.

This is what the church

has called

the humiliation of Christ.

And Benjamin Keech's

catechism

in the 1600s,

he summarizes scripture

this way.

Christ's humiliation

consisted in his being born.

Even his incarnation

was him being made low.

That in a low condition,

made under the law.

He was born into Israel

under this principle of works

that they had to merit life

in Israel.

Under the law,

undergoing the miseries

of this life.

Have you felt miseries

of this life this week?

I'm sure every single one

of us has.

Jesus took on flesh

so he could be

your representative.

There's not a temptation

that you face,

you'll face this upcoming week

that Christ himself

has not fought

and conquered for you.

And on the cross,

he bore the wrath of God

for sin,

for your sin.

And the curse of death

on the cross,

and being buried,

and then continuing

under the power of death

for some time,

three days,

made low,

as low as can be.

So what was

the mission of Jesus?

Please turn to Isaiah 53.

We read,

in our assurance of pardon,

that by his wounds,

we have been healed

from Isaiah 53 as well.

So turn to Isaiah 53,

and I want to show you

the covenant of redemption

in these verses.

Isaiah 53,

looking at verse 12.

So in your Bible,

you can look,

we read earlier,

verse 3 through 5.

He was despised

and rejected

by men made low.

And then verse 5,

it was the chastisement

of Christ

that brought us peace,

and by his wounds

we are healed.

How did this fulfill

the Father's plan

and the Father's will?

Look at verse 12.

The Father now says,

I will divide him.

So the Father

will give to the Son

a portion

with the many,

and he shall divide

the spoil

with the strong.

So you need to understand

the language Isaiah

is grabbing here

to paint this picture.

If you have a mighty emperor

with a general,

the general would be sent out

by the emperor,

you know,

by the king,

the supreme ruler,

send out a mighty general.

The general would conquer

and fulfill the mission

and bring back the spoils.

And the spoils

would be divided

with his soldiers

and being brought back

to the empire.

So that's the language

Isaiah is borrowing

to say the Father

sent the Son

on a mission.

He gave his Son

sacrificially

so that then

when the Son returns,

he ascends back

to heaven victorious.

The Father rewards him.

He lacked nothing,

but he made himself empty

so that his reward

could be you.

You who believe,

you who are purchased

by the blood of Christ,

you are the reward

that the Father

gives to the Son

for his mission accomplished.

Look at the rest

of verse 12.

Why?

Why can this be?

Because he poured out

his soul to death

and was numbered

with the transgressors.

He put his lot

with yours.

He was humbled

and he said,

those who have offended

the mighty God,

I am with them.

I'm among them

and from their midst

I will redeem them.

And now where is Jesus?

Because he bore

the sins of many,

he makes intercession

for the transgressors.

So he loved the world

and he bore the sins of,

what's the next word?

He bore the sins

of many out of the world.

See, his love is wise

and not a drop

of Christ's blood

is wasted

and God is powerful

and when God saves,

he actually saves.

And now he intercedes

and he's wise

and perfect.

He doesn't waste his prayer

because when he prays,

it happens.

And that's what

our hymn captures.

We sing,

before the throne

of God above,

I have a strong

and perfect plea.

Who is it

that prays powerfully

this strong plea?

That's a perfect plea.

What Jesus prays happens.

It comes from the lips

of the high priest

whose name is love.

And like Hebrews says,

he ever lives

and pleads for me.

Can you find comfort

that the Father

in his love

gave Jesus

to redeem you,

to ransom you

out of the worldly world?

And he gave his only son,

our verse says,

so Jesus Christ

is the promised son.

And we hear son of God

and son of man.

Scripture uses both

to describe Jesus.

Both are fulfilling prophecies.

Our catechism captured that.

He must be fully divine

and without sin.

And he also must be

a representative head.

He must become one

with the transgressors

to redeem us.

So one person,

the son,

according to his human

and divine nature,

Jesus Christ,

fully satisfying the will

and the wisdom

of the Father.

Verse 13,

look at that.

Jesus says,

no one has ascended

into heaven

except the one

who descended from heaven,

the son of man.

He's most likely alluding

to Daniel chapter 7,

Daniel 7:13

verse 13.

Daniel has this vision.

Listen how both are combined.

In Daniel's vision,

he says,

behold,

with the clouds of heaven,

so a heavenly spiritual being

with the clouds of heaven,

there came one

like a son of man.

See,

he's a son of man.

He's identifying

with the transgressors,

but he's from the clouds

of heaven.

He's from the spiritual,

eternal realm

where God dwells.

Jesus says,

you can believe me.

I'm trustworthy

because I'm from heaven.

That's why I'm here.

And he says,

no one can share with you

unless they've ascended.

You know,

you have to know God in heaven

in order to make him

revealed on earth.

And so to ascend to heaven

means that Jesus alone

is the pure knowledge

of the mysteries of God.

and he is the light

of spiritual understanding.

We know Jesus,

his permanent dwelling

is with the father

because Mark 16,

19 says,

then the Lord Jesus,

after he had spoken

to the disciples,

so there's again,

according to his human nature,

even after the resurrection,

speaking with them,

he shared food with them.

So Jesus,

in the glorified body

with his disciples,

so that's the son of man,

he was then taken up

from them

into heaven

and sat down

at the right hand

of God,

who is spirit.

See how glorious

our Christ is?

Jesus' return

to the glory

that he had with the father

before the world began

was accomplished

by him being lifted up

on the cross.

And it is this exaltation now

that draws sinners

to him.

In the book of John,

just like in the book of Isaiah,

is the suffering servant

who's also exalted.

It's through his humiliation

that he's been lifted up

on high

so that all can behold him.

To be lifted up

means that he's set

on display

so that all the world

can see

and believe in him.

And that's why Christ now,

from heaven,

urges you

this morning, church,

look to me

and be saved,

all the ends

of the earth,

for I am God

and there is no other.

Believe into Christ

and have eternal life.

You might be thinking,

it's hard for me

to accept such glorious truth.

And it is,

unless the Spirit

gives you a heart

to believe.

But I want to share

with you a story

from missionaries

in the 1700s

of a very dark,

worldly part

of the world.

So we could read

this verse like this,

For God so loved

the Tahitians.

And this comes

from the biography

of Henry Knott

that I mentioned

a moment ago

called The Herald

of the Love of God

to Tahiti

by Eugene Meyer Harrison

written almost

a hundred years ago.

There were reports

from Captain Cook

who had traveled

the Pacific Ocean

that there's a people

in Tahiti

that were a warring people.

They're always at war.

They idolized revenge.

And they had this weapon

and it was specifically

to be used for revenge.

So we go to war,

one tribe against the other.

The losing tribe,

you'd have a few that win

and they flee into the mountains.

They would not leave them alone.

They would go hunt them down.

And they made a special weapon

taking the tail

of three different stingrays

and they loosely attached it

to a long pole.

And they would chase their enemy

and they would spike it

into their body

so that it would come

detached from the pole.

And those stingray tails,

they have barbs on them

so it goes into the flesh

and does not come out easily.

These Tahitians,

they had a very strong sense

of their own judgment

that they would receive

for their wickedness.

But they did it

by appeasing these gods.

So they fashioned gods

out of birds,

turtles,

and sharks.

And these animals,

and also the sun and the moon,

these gods

that they made idols out of,

they had axes and swords

and hammers

that were used to punish you

if you did not pay them

for your sins.

So they had that,

you know,

Romans 1,

that sin was imprinted

on their heart.

They killed two-thirds

of their babies

upon their birth.

They would make alcohol

out of this fruit

called kava.

And they were said

to be almost universally drunk

and acting more like demons

than human beings.

There was a special,

like,

religious class among them

that would paint their bodies

in dark charcoal

and then make their faces white.

And they were terrifying.

There were these two sailors,

one from Sweden,

who landed there

and they were translators

because they just had to survive

and so they learned the language.

And they had made

several observations.

They wrote down

that they would take

the infirmed

or the weak

or the elderly among them

and they would walk them

out to the ocean

like these beautiful beaches

of Pacific Ocean,

huge palm trees,

and they'd pretend

like they're going to bathe them.

But instead,

they had already dug out

a hole in the sand

and they would tip

their own family members

into that hole

and kill them with stones

and bury them

and leave them there

and then go back

and steal all their possessions.

Now, hold on.

We just read that God

so loved the world.

God loves the Tahitians?

How could this be?

They had a temple

to these idols,

these gods of theirs,

and the pillar

of one of the temples

was made up.

I'm not going to share

more details,

but it was made up

of human sacrifices.

And God loved,

somehow,

these Tahitians

and he would save them?

How could this be?

See, Jesus says

that this way of the cross,

going through the cross,

before he ascends

to be in the glory

of the Father,

in John chapter 12,

John 12:26

verse 26,

he says,

whoever comes after me

must take up his cross

and follow me.

So the way of life

in Christ

is the way of the cross.

And in John chapter 20,

John 20:21

verse 21,

Jesus says

to all who are his disciples,

as the Father sent me,

so I am sending you.

And there was this man

back in England

at the same time

who was a simple laborer,

worked in the trades

as a bricklayer.

And his name

was Henry Knott.

And he,

along with William Carey,

they were part of

a Reformed Baptist church

like this one,

the same confessions

that we hold to.

And he went

to be a missionary

to the Tahitians.

He saw three of his friends

killed by the Tahitians

the very first year

that they got there.

But he did not leave.

There were several times

over decades

where he was the only missionary

still there,

somehow,

still alive.

Others kept leaving

and others would arrive.

Well, finally,

after much prayer

and persistence

and trying to learn

their language,

on March 19th,

the Lord's Day,

it was a Sunday,

1797 was the year,

under the cover

of these enormous trees,

they gathered

to have their first

public worship service.

And here's what Mr. Knott

started that service off.

He had a translator

for the first part.

He said,

O Tahitians,

I come with a message

of infinite compassion

to those in deep distress.

I bring glad tidings,

glad news of salvation

to those who are in

sin's control.

I proclaim a gospel

of comfort

to those in sorrow's gloom.

And then,

he quoted the first verse

he had translated

and memorized

into the Tahitian language.

For God so loved

the world

that he gave

his only son

that whoever

believes in him

should not perish

but have eternal life.

that's the truth

for you today,

church.

Christ urges you

from heaven,

look to me

and be saved,

all the ends

of the earth,

for I am God

and there is

no other.

Believe into

Jesus Christ

and have

eternal life.

see how the gospel

is simply

opening up to you

what is

and always

has been true

of God.

We're going to have

to divide this

into two parts

so next week

we'll see what's

true of us.

Let's pray.

Oh Father,

we believe

your promise

in Isaiah chapter 2

Isaiah 2:2

verse 2

that it shall

come to pass

in the latter days

that your kingdom

like a mighty mountain

where you,

O Lord,

dwell from

where you rule.

Your everlasting kingdom

shall be established

as the highest

of the mountains.

Your kingdom

shall be lifted up

and all the nations

will flow to you.

Lord,

I plead with Christ

right now

that none

of our loved ones

here today

or around the world

will be caught

loving darkness,

that none

will be caught

choosing death

and despising

your precious

son Jesus Christ

whom you sent

because you

so loved us

in this sinful world.

May each one

whom you have

given spiritual ears

to hear this

very moment

believe into

Christ

and have

eternal life.

We beg you.

Amen.

Amen.

As you prepare

your heart now

to proclaim

this gospel

by taking

the Lord's Supper,

I want to

share with you

what Thomas Watson,

one of the Puritans,

wrote

of the Lord's Supper,

that it's a visible

sermon

in his words.

It's a sermon

wherein Christ

crucified

is set before us

it's a New Testament

sacrament

wherein our

communion with

Christ

is signified

for us

in these elements.

It's a divinely

instituted sacrament

wherein Christ's

death

is showed forth

by giving

and receiving

bread

and the fruit

of the vine.

Now listen to this.

When you partake

of Christ,

you receive

all the benefits

that flow

from the throne

of God's glory

to you

through the mediation

of your Savior,

Jesus Christ.

So take a moment,

still your heart,

ask the Lord

to prepare you

for this celebration,

this visible sermon,

and by taking it,

you are proclaiming

this glorious gospel

of Jesus.

When you're ready,

we're going to come

through this center

row right here

and we can take

the elements

and then after

you've taken them,

you can go around

the outsides

back to your seat

and we'll hold on

to them and then

enjoy together

with the words

of institution.