John: A Conversation of Law and Love

So I'm a little bit of a trip nerd, meaning uh as soon as there's even talk about a trip, I don't know, some of y'all probably noticed it, I I enter the discussion.

I'm ready for the conversation.

I in fact want to get my hands in there.

I want to I want to plan it.

I want to I want to know what's going on, I want to know the itinerary.

And so in our household, you know, we're thinking about a trip or something.

I'm I'm the planner.

I come from a lineage of planners.

We can plan, we can over-plan, we can rehash the plan, we can plan.

So about eight years ago or so, uh, my family started talking about um going to Europe.

This was pre-grandchildren, we're we're seeing the future ahead of us.

Really, this is our this is our shot here.

And so uh my uncle who came to the rest of the family and said, okay, here's the deal.

I'll I'll get the house, I'll rent the house just south of CNI.

I found this place, I'll rent the house.

Y'all just have to get there.

And so the planning begins, right?

And so for me, I'm I'm I get the books, Lonely Planet, Father's Fromers, I'm online, I'm reading, I'm researching, I'm talking to people who's been, who's backpacked around.

I'd been once before, so I had a little knowledge, but I was I was ready.

I'm studying places to stay, I'm studying little towns to go to, transportation.

I'm I'm I'm going through all of it.

And so I asked a few people, you know, where are your where are your favorite places that you've been to in Europe?

And I'm trying to get my highlight list of where we're gonna go.

So that first week we just kind of we all stayed together at the house and these little day trips, and it's a beautiful week.

And then after that, the next week we all split up.

So Christy and I we had a week that we were on our own to travel throughout Europe or wherever we wanted to go, and so we rented a car, and so we went up to northern Italy for a few days, and then uh my uncle said his favorite spot was Zermont, which is in Switzerland, is this little village is at the foot of the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps.

And so I'm researching Zermont, I'm I'm getting to know every I'm I am in Zermont literally for a year before we get there.

So it's the foot of the Matterhorn, 14,690 feet, this granite just peak that shoots up into the sky out of the Alps, has these four granite uh faces, and the snow can't stay on the faces, they're so steep, and so they avalanches continually are coming down to the glaciers at the foot, the biggest glacier.

I don't know if you're aware of it, it's the Zermont Glacier.

And so from Zermont, you see the north face and the east face of the Matterhorn.

And it's just a cool little village.

There's no cars in the village.

So we drove and we drove to Lisp, which is a little town, and you get on a train, take the train up into the mountains, and we get there at night.

So it was nighttime, so you couldn't see.

I'm I'm ready to see the Matterhorn.

I mean, I've been planning about it, I've been dreaming about the Matterhorn, I've been telling Christy about the Matterhorn, all the stats, the glaciers, I mean, the faces, the grandfaces.

I've been telling her all this.

So we get there at night, we get out of the train, get a little trolley car thing to the hotel, and it was, it was, ended up being our anniversary, so we splurged on the hotel, and so so we have a balcony out of our room, looks out over this valley up at the Matterhorn.

But it's nighttime, we can't see it yet, but I'm ready.

I mean, I she doesn't she doesn't even know.

I don't think she's seen a picture, I don't think she she doesn't even care.

She just knows I'm planning, it's gonna be good.

And so I'm like, I'm waiting for morning to come.

So that so the sun comes up and you know, and daylight starts coming in, and I'm ready to open that door, step out on that balcony.

And so I'm like, are you are you ready to see this?

I mean, this is gonna be this is gonna be life-changing.

And so open the door, step out on the balcony.

We look up and just clouds.

I mean, just solid, I mean, there's there's nothing there.

It's just solid clouds, and so we couldn't, we didn't see anything.

And so we we decided to go hiking, we take a lift up into those clouds, and we hike like way above treeline along the ridges and back down to the village, and you know, thinking, well, it's gonna clear.

It'll clear.

We'll we'll be able to see it later on.

And so we get back to the hotel in like late afternoon, and still clouds.

We go to bed that night, we go, okay, well, the next day, we have a whole nother day there, we you know, we'll we'll we'll get to see it.

You know, wake up the next morning, clouds.

Okay, so we take another lift up, you know, and we hike, ridges, come back down, and we go, you know, sure, the clouds are gonna clear.

They're gonna clear.

The news is they're gonna clear, right?

I mean, everybody's here in this situation, right?

We're all here waiting to see this.

And I think by the afternoon some clouds cleared, but but we never saw the Matterhorn.

I've been waiting, I've been planning for this 14,690 feet.

I was I was ready for this, and we we never saw it.

All the data, all the explanation, I mean, all the information I knew, and we never saw it.

I mentioned this because this is this is John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

There's this conversation between Jesus and this religious man named Nicodemus, and there's this cloud.

And Nicodemus, he just can't see what Jesus is talking about.

There's just this cloud in the way.

So Nicodemus is a, he's this religious teacher, he's Pharisee, he's this Jewish guy.

His life is one of Old Testament, his life is one of the Old Testament laws.

So he's living kosher, he's eating kosher, you know, everything's about what he's putting into his body being the right thing, and then his behaviors being the right thing, and this is the way in which he is made right with God, is this external world of what comes in and then my behaviors coming out.

This is the way he's made right with God.

And so, but he's curious about Jesus.

Jesus is coming along, he's done some miracles, and there's word about this new rabbi teaching, and he comes to him at night.

We don't know if he came to him at night because he wanted uninterrupted time with Jesus during the day.

Maybe Jesus was busy and there'd be other people around, or probably more likely, he just doesn't want the rest of his religious friends knowing, right?

I mean, we know how religious people can be.

So religious people are going to talk and chatter about it if they hint anything of it.

And so he comes at night to Jesus to have this conversation, and Jesus starts to tell him about a love that's more powerful than law, than obeying rules, than moralism or legalism?

He can't see it.

There's just this cloud.

So we have three questions, I have three questions this morning about Nicodemus.

Uh the first one is, where is he?

Where is he at?

You know, in his heart, where where is he at?

Number two, why can't he see what Jesus is talking about?

And then number three, what is it that he cannot see?

What can't he see?

So, question number one, where is he?

This is verses one and two.

Now there was a man of uh a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher from God, for no one can do these things that you do unless God is with them.

So this is a little bit of a review.

Uh maybe a month ago or so we talked about the closed circle of the law.

And this is kind of a theological term, but it's very practical.

I mean, it's it's the life of a human being.

And this is Nicodemus' life.

See, the closed circle of the law works like this um eat the right things, be accepted by God.

Right?

It's a closed circle.

Uh obey the right rules, God will love you.

And it's closed.

Do this and you get this.

And so around and around you go.

We talked about it.

It's closed and it's never ending.

It's futile.

You keep going forever and ever and ever, and you never get out.

This is the way the law works.

It makes a demand on you, and then you think, well, if I meet the demand, then God will love me and accept me.

The problem is you never feel love and accepted because you're just basing on what you do on merit, and it's never enough because we're never righteous enough.

We can't get there, so we just keep going.

It's futile.

It's futile.

The law's standard of righteousness for our lives is too high for us to meet.

We're not going to meet it.

We're not going to get there.

And maybe you're here and you hear the story, you look at this Nicodemus guy, and you, and maybe you've been religious.

Like you've been, you've been into rules more than looking to Jesus Himself for your acceptance and your validation.

Maybe this was the beginning and the end of Christianity for you, or your view of it, because of kind of what you thought it was.

Uh maybe you're like me and Christianity started by grace.

Like you're forgiven, and then you got in, and then like maybe other people just started putting you to work, and then before long you kind of looked up and you realize my whole relationship is more based on what I do than like what he already, what Jesus did for me.

Or maybe you're here and you hear all this and you look at Nicodemus and you think I'm nothing like this guy.

I'm not religious, I'm not even sure why I'm here.

A church, I'm at a school, I'm not even sure what that is.

I mean, but here's the key to the story.

The key to the story is you're more like him than you know.

And it's not because you're Jewish, it's not because you're religious, not because you're moralistic, it's because you're a human being.

I'm more like him than I know, but just because I'm a person and he was a person.

And everybody lives in the closed circle of the law.

Some standard you're trying to meet to validate yourself.

And until that cloud is lifted, we're stuck in the circle.

Round and round.

This is the difference between a life lived by law and a life lived by grace.

So, question number one where is Nicodemus?

Nicodemus is at the foot of the matter horn.

Clouds.

He can see nothing of what Jesus is going to tell him here in these next verses about being born again.

So, what is Jesus telling him?

Verses three and four.

Jesus answered him, Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he's old?

I mean, can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?

So, question number two, what can't he see?

Well, he can't see that salvation is not by merit.

He can't see it because his whole life is based on merit.

His whole life is based on doing something to feel accepted or to be accepted.

And even this idea of salvation, right?

I mean, I grew up with the idea of salvation was being saved, that was the term we always use.

Being saved was about eternal life.

It was compartmentalized.

For me, at least, it was it was eternal life.

You know, the judgment of my sin, I'm forgiven, the blood of Jesus covers me, therefore, my eternal life is secure, I will go to heaven.

But the idea of salvation for now was less of an idea that I was familiar with.

And when I started to understand the gospel and how it alleviated and relieved me of having to justify myself, all of a sudden I was being saved from anxiety and fear.

I'm still being saved from anxiety and fear, and that literally being relieved, being saved from these things.

That we're not just saved from guilt, toil, but we're also saved for life.

And this all comes as we begin to see that salvation is not by merit, but by new birth.

Something given to us.

That's where the salvation occurs.

That's where the that's where the life occurs.

Life occurs when you stop trying to base relationship with God and validation of your personhood on merit.

So you could take me apart as a person, and we could just start over here, and we could put kind of my my hair and my skin, my face, my nose, my ears, shoulders, my chest, my lungs, my my organs, uh, my legs, my femur, my knees, my ankles, my feet, my toes.

We could lay me out piece by piece, and you will never find me.

Right?

I I I could take you apart piece by piece, and it we would it at all that we would get a bunch of body parts, but where would you be?

We would have like a leg and shoulder and a nose, but where are you in all of that?

The reason why that that's true is because we have a spirit.

There's more to us than just the physical.

This spirit is what this passage is talking about, that it needs to come to life, to be born again, a new life inside of us.

So Jesus answered him about this idea of being born again.

Verse 5 Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit.

Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again.

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes, so it is with everyone who's born of the spirit.

So there's three kind of terms in here that jump out.

Uh one is this idea of water, one is this idea of spirit, and one is this idea of wind.

Now, the idea of water is it's a word of procreation, and there's some little kids in here, so I won't go too in detail of it, but literally it's a word of procreation, if you're with me here, um, of new life, what creates new life.

Um the author's going in detail here.

So these ideas, water, spirit, wind, this is the emphasis here is on that new life is being created, and it's not being created by you and what you do, and by me.

And it's not being created by a program, it's not being created by a bunch of rules, it's not being created by merit.

Jesus is saying being born again is an action of God's spirit alone.

And no person's outside the possibility of this.

And Nicodemus is baffled by this because he is under the law.

He's trying Jesus talking about grace, but he's stuck inside this closed circle.

It's at the foot of the matter horn, there's clouds, he can't see anything.

And so then Jesus goes in in verse 14, he goes in the story, it's from the book of Numbers.

And so the Israelites are in the desert, and there's these poisonous serpents, and many people are dying from getting bit by these serpents.

And so they they come to Moses and they say, Moses, will you please go and pray?

You go and deal with God and get some relief for us here.

And so Moses goes, he gets this kind of rather curious kind of command to come back, and he says, and God says, Well, make a bronze serpent and set it on a pole.

I mean, this is bizarre, right?

I mean, you're getting bit by things causing you to die.

This is the kind of thing that would happen if you're spending a lot of time out in the wilderness.

And so, okay, well, make a bronze kind of statue of that thing, put it on a pole, and then if anybody gets bit and they look, they look at the bronze serpent on the pole, they will be healed.

And so Jesus tells Nicodemus in verse 15, just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man, Jesus him, be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

Here's what he's saying, life is not found in your own means to rescue yourself.

You've got to look somewhere else.

Look to the pole.

Look to the cross.

This is the gift of God.

This is Jesus on the cross, his love poured out for us.

Last question.

Why can't Nicodemus see this?

Right?

I mean, Jesus kind of lays it all out there.

Why can't he see it?

Well, because of the cloud.

And the cloud is human pride.

It always has been.

I mean, the cloud was human pride.

Satan in the beginning, he wants to be like God, and you know, prides himself, want to be like God.

Adam and Eve, they want to be like God.

I mean, it's always human pride.

It's the same cloud that sneaks back into our lives, even as Christians, you know, this idea of, I think I can solve this problem myself, these issues in me, I think I can solve it myself.

Again, that's merit, rather than looking somewhere else, receiving something.

It's the same cloud that when I'm driving my old truck around and I'm just I'm not having a good day emotionally, I'm feeling kind of I'm just not feeling adequate in some way, and I look over and I see like a really nice Range Rover sport, and I go, man, if I if I was in that one, like now, now all of a sudden, something would change.

I mean, it's partially the same thing that happens with you know a really busy day with little kids and and just demand, demand, demand, demand.

And Christy and I, we have the scene where we just look at each other and we just say, You want to go to Costa Rica?

That's what we say to each other because you're just in it and you're you're worn out.

It's like, hey, you want to go to Costa Rica?

And then part of that is just this thought, well, if I'm somewhere else, all of a sudden this inadequacy or this, you know, this fear or whatever, I'm feeling all of a sudden it would be gone.

If I'm just somewhere else.

Or I come up against somebody who just dresses better than me, or has a better job than me, or is more popular than me, or more approved, or more successful, or any of these things.

Or you think maybe, well, maybe if I was just more passionate or more dedicated or you know, any of these things, basically what you're saying is you're saying, I'll solve the problem.

I'll solve my problem.

My problem that I'm not righteous enough, or my problem that I don't feel adequate enough, or my problem that I'm not approved enough.

I'll solve this.

I will on my merit.

And do you see this is the cloud of human pride?

This is human pride coming in and saying, you know, God, your love for me is not sufficient enough.

I will re-enter the closed circle of the law, and I will go around and around.

And we wear ourselves out.

Nicodemus is just stuck with this pride in front of him, trying to be his own deliverer by law and by merit.

And he has no shot at seeing until he comes to the end of himself.

This would be Nicodemus' story.

This is our story.

We have no shot at understanding the gospel until we are at the end of ourselves.

And go, I can't get righteous enough.

I have to receive righteousness.

I can't get enough approval to feel validated.

I've got to receive my approval.

So Jesus boils the message down very clearly going into verse 15, 16, kind of the popular Christian verse we're about to read it.

17.

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.

I mean, we get so familiar with this uh this verse that you almost kind of read through it, right?

And we put it everywhere.

I mean, some people play football and they put it on the under their eyes.

It's just everywhere.

And and that that's a good thing, but at the same time, you get it's it's like that song.

There's this song on the radio right now, and I I don't I forget the name of it.

Something Royals.

You know what I'm talking about?

Feel free to interact here.

Do you know the song?

Girl from New Zealand sings it.

Anyway, I've been killing the song.

I mean, you wouldn't believe I I listen to this thing all the time.

And I'm not there, but what I know is in about another week, at the rate that I'm killing this song, it will lose all effect on me.

All.

I mean, it would be gone.

I'll I mean I'll turn this radio station on and the song will be on.

I won't I won't even like it anymore.

I'll be numb to it.

John 360 could be a little bit like that, so familiar that we lose what this is saying.

And this is this is the song we need to hear over and over and over again because we revert back to law and merit and earning our own way over and over and over again.

And this is so foreign.

This this idea that there's no higher love to work your way to, or that love can be available to anybody, God's love can be available to anybody.

I mean, this to Nicodemus, this Jewish man who's obeying all the rules and he's kosher and he's following that, he's following the law, this idea that a Gentile, you know, an outsider, I mean, they would call him a dog.

I mean, that these people would have the same love from God.

This is this is crazy thinking to him.

And his human pride of how he's approached all this, this is this cloud in front of being able to see the amount of relief that would be waiting for him if he could receive it.

Nicodemus is in this world of kind of like where there's this hierarchy, and I'm so happy that we're in a spirituality.

There's no hierarchy.

Even in our church, we will work very hard to make sure there's no hierarchy.

I'm not any more spiritual than you are, you're not any more spiritual than anybody else.

There's no like like, you know, oh, well, you know, those people, those are those people, they're like really in.

I mean, oh they oh they fast, or oh they, you know, whatever they do, all of a sudden now you're really in the club of God loves you, and now before.

I was in a ministry in college, I was involved in it, and I could just remember it was like um there was a few things, and if you did them, it was like you were in the club.

And if you didn't do them, you just you could come, but you weren't, you weren't really passionate or dedicated, or or maybe even kind of loved by God to some degree.

And then if you did them, it's like, oh, all of a sudden, oh, you you're really here.

You're you know, you're you are, you you really love God.

We're not doing that here.

I mean, that's not what Jesus is talking about.

Jesus is constantly leveling at the playing field.

So the Sermon on the Mount is Him just completely leveling at the play.

There's people.

That's what there are.

There's just people who aren't all that they should be.

And because of that, I'll die for you, and God will love you.

That's the scenario.

And all of this, this elitism that Nicodemus has and hierarchy of spirituality is just, it creates a culture of condemnation.

It's toxic.

It's toxic.

Verse 17, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world.

More good news.

He doesn't condemn us, 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, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

See, people are already condemned.

See, we don't have to go condemn people.

It's huge to learn that.

I had to learn that somewhere along the way.

I thought at first I had to, you know, I had to really beat you down in order for you to want Jesus or the gospel.

You're already being condemned.

And maybe you feel it morally because you've really screwed up, right?

And you feel the condemnation because the moral law has been written on your heart as a human being, and you feel that.

Or maybe you feel like what I would call, so that would be like moral law, the closed circle of the moral law, or maybe you feel like the closed circle of the worldly law, of you know, being approved enough or successful enough.

And this is still law working its way in your heart, and you'll be condemned that way.

We feel condemned because we're human beings that we'll never feel like we're enough.

This is what the gospel's speaking to, relieving us of our unrighteousness and our inadequacy.

And it's just good news that even if you or somebody else condemns you, if you believe in Jesus, you're not condemned by God.

You don't have to worry about that.

Forgiven and free really means forgiven and free.

Really means that.

And I just need this.

I mean, I need this all the time.

I'm not as patient with my five-year-old and three-year-old, especially not with my nine-month-old.

She keeps crying.

I don't want her to cry.

It hurts my ears, it gives me a headache, drives me nuts.

Is anybody with me on this?

Do you have this going on in your life?

I'm not as patient as I should.

I'm not as considerate and kind to my wife as I should be.

I'm hoping to be more and more.

I'm not what I should be.

I mean, I'm a perfectionist with an endless desire to succeed, which is not a good combination.

Because what that means is I think that, you know, I think that we should be 800 people by now, and I think that, you know, uh I should have won the Nobel Prize for something.

I don't know what.

Maybe all the categories, just go and cover all of them.

I mean, I should have already done, I should have done this five years ago, actually.

It shouldn't even be today.

This should have already happened.

And just to be relieved of that, I don't have to have to be everything perfectly.

This is about embracing his love for us.

There's a few, there's these pastoral moments.

Wedding moments are great.

Love, love the wedding moment.

That's a pretty fantastic moment.

Um, the other moment which is which is horrible and great at the same time is when somebody has truly screwed up.

Uh a couple years ago, a guy is involved in our ministry, he's probably in his late 20s, and single guy, and he comes and he calls me.

I need I need to get together.

We get together, and he walks in and he is he is crushed physically.

You can just he's just he's crushed.

And he walks in and starts immediately sobbing, and um, you know, he got his girlfriend pregnant.

And he's he's embarrassed, he's condemned, right?

Because morally this is wrong.

We won't argue with that.

Um so what I did was is I I just let him have it.

I said, You you have screwed up so bad.

You know, you are a horrible person, you're immoral, you have you've caused such destruction on her life, you you've ruined your life, your future.

I just, of course I didn't do that, right?

I mean, why would I do that?

I don't have to con He's already condemned.

The moral law has already condemned him, and he is crushed.

What he needs is he needs the gospel.

He needs to be reminded of the gospel.

The thing that will help him live morally in the future is not me reiterating condemnation, is me giving him the gospel, him being relieved, a grateful heart that births out a desire for obedience.

And to be able to sit across from him, he's already crushed.

I don't have to do any crushing.

And to be able to say, you know what, you screwed up, right?

There's some consequences here.

We're gonna have to work through those, but you know what?

You don't have to worry about being condemned by God.

That you don't have to worry about because Jesus on the cross is sufficient for your sins.

Still, still is sufficient for your sins.

He went on to marry the girl and they're building a healthy family.

There's still consequences for this.

We know this, right?

We know this.

The gospel relieves us as we live out the consequences of actions we shouldn't have done.

And whether we've been living right or we've been living wrong, it's such good news to go.

So Jesus came not to condemn us, but to relieve us, to love us out of the condemnation.

This is the very thing that will help create a life that wants to obey Him.

For me, for so long, Christianity was an accumulation of what I did.

It had just become that.

I wouldn't have said that.

But my daily reality of feeling secure, feeling loved, or feeling validated or important or something, that was totally based on what I did.

What I earned, what I accumulated, what I manufactured.

See, all even all the things within Christianity, praying, do your Bible study, attend church, give some money, all these things, good things, all these can be done with human pride.

All of them.

It's a heart of humility that brings God's glory.

It's a heart of humility that the clouds split, and you can see.

But that's when we can see, when we have humbled ourselves.

And you know how you can humble yourself and make that sort of honest reflection and confession is that the love of God is not gonna go away from you if you get honest about yourself.

See, so you can be honest.

You don't because of what Jesus did, it's secure.

You can get honest about your condition, your brokenness, your fear, your anxiety, the way that's coming out in behaviors, or the way it's working in your heart, your mind.

You can get honest about this because God's love is secure.

This is the thing that gets the cloud to get out of the way so we can see the glory of God.

We can see God's love for us.

When we begin to see that God truly loves us without reservation, without an end, then you can get honest about your own condition because the love and acceptance is never, never in jeopardy.

So, my hope for you, hope for me, is that the Spirit of God would blow fresh into our lives.

And that that cloud would lift, and you would stand in awe at the foot of the Matterhorn of the gospel.

But let me warn you, you're gonna feel really small.

I never saw the Matterhorn.

I've been at the foot of some other mountains where you look up and you just feel so small.

You will feel small when you understand the gospel because there's not a lot of you to offer here.

It's God's goodness to you.

That's the magnificence and the vastness.

But we'll be born again and we'll be free.

Let's pray together.

God, we thank you that though we are unimaginably weak, we are unconditionally loved, and that this is not because of what we've done or what we will do, but this is because of what you've done for us.

This is amazing.

We thank you that you have come not to condemn us, but to relieve us of condemnation, to free us from it, and that this will create in us a grateful heart.

God, we're so thankful.

So thankful that what we need to do is we need to look to the pole.

We need to look to you on the cross, and that is that is your love to us without reservation and without end.

Give us eyes to see.

We pray this in Jesus' name.