Born Again (John 3:1-21)

And we're gonna be in John chapter 3, starting in verse 1, talking about the story of Nicodemus.

John 3 · chapter mention

And before we read that, I just want to encourage you, for some of you that have been walking with the Lord for a while, maybe you've heard this story a handful of times, 20 times, 30 times, whatever it might be.

Just want to encourage you to really paint the picture in your mind of what's going on here this morning.

Um, well, not this morning, 2,000 years ago with Nicodemus and Jesus, and really paint that picture, and maybe even put yourself in the shoes of Nicodemus to really just understand and to paint that picture of what's happening here.

To if you're familiar with it, to maybe approach it like it's the first time that you're that you're picturing this guy that's coming in in the night to Jesus.

And whether they were indoors or outdoors or where they were, we're not told that, but to just picture what this might look like.

So, with that, let's all stand for the reading of God's word if you are able.

We're gonna be reading John chapter 3, verses 1 through 21.

John 3:1–21

So we've got a uh a large chunk here this morning.

There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

This man came to him at night and said, Rabbi, we know that you are the teacher who has come from God.

For no one could perform these signs you do, unless God were with him.

Jesus replied, Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

How can anyone be born when he is old?

Nicodemus asked him.

Can he enter his mother's womb a second time and be born?

Jesus answered, Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the spirit is spirit.

Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again.

The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don't know where it comes from or where it is going.

So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.

How can these things be?

asked Nicodemus.

Are you a teacher of Israel and don't know these things?

Jesus replied.

Truly I tell you, we speak what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony.

If I have told you about earthly things and you don't believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

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

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

For God loved the world in this way.

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but any one who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

This is the judgment.

The light has come into the world, and people love darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil.

For every one who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed.

But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for this account that we have here this morning of a G of Nicodemus coming to Jesus.

Lord, I pray that we would approach your word here this morning with open hearts and open minds to the things that you have for each one of us individually, but for the things that you have for us as a whole, as a body of believers here in this church.

Lord, would you do your work?

Would you do the speaking here this morning and help me to stand out of the way so that your word can go forth and your message can go forth for each and every one of us, we pray.

In Jesus' name, amen.

You may be seated.

So I think the first thing that we need to do this morning is define what the kingdom of God is, because we're going to be talking a lot about that here this morning.

And Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God more than any other subject that we find in the four gospels.

So we need to make sure that we have a good understanding of what the kingdom of God is.

And I think the best definition that I've arrived at that I've come across is that the kingdom of God is wherever God is on the throne.

So that's obviously heaven.

But what about earth?

Is the kingdom of God on earth?

Can it be found on earth?

And I think the answer is yes and no.

The earth itself, or maybe in a broader sense, we should say the world, we know from Scripture, is the kingdom of Satan right now.

We know that through looking at Jesus' temptation in the wilderness.

We know that from verses like Matthew 12, 26, it says, if Satan drives out Satan, is uh he is divided against himself.

How then will his kingdom stand?

And then John 12, 31, which we're going to get to here in the Gospel of John, Jesus talks about the ruler of this world being cast out, speaking of Satan.

So the question becomes, can the kingdom of God then exist anywhere on earth?

Can it be experienced on earth if we live currently in the kingdom of Satan?

And I think yes, it can, but only within a follower of Jesus Christ.

If you've placed your trust in Jesus Christ and you've placed Jesus on the throne of your life, then you have the kingdom of God inside of you.

So we, as believers, if we place our trust in Jesus Christ, then we are the kingdom of God that's on this earth.

And the good news is that Satan's kingdom on this earth is temporary.

Satan's rule will end as we see in Revelation.

He will be eternally bound.

And as we see in 1 Corinthians 15, 24, it says, Then comes the end when he, that means Jesus, hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when he abolishes all rule and all authority and power.

So this is when the kingdom of God will be established, and there will be no other kingdoms anywhere.

It'll all be under the kingdom of God.

But in the meantime, the kingdom of God is in heaven, and it's in our hearts if we allow it to be.

And today's message is going to really address this.

So here's the question before we jump into verse one, or the questions, I should say, that I want us to be able to answer today before each one of us leaves this place.

The first one is how much of the throne of your life are you allowing God to occupy?

Okay, that's question one.

And then question two is how much of your life are you allowing the light of Jesus to shine in and to shine through?

So those are the two questions that I hope we can answer as we leave here today.

So let's take a look at verse one.

There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

So first this man says was a Pharisee.

Now, Pharisees at this time were a strict sect of Judaism that set themselves apart not only to preserve the law of God, but to also live it out.

Pharisees were very strict in all that they did, and they also set themselves apart to follow oral tradition.

So these guys are overachievers, so much so that they added to God's law, kind of like what we saw when Jesus turned the water into wine, the ceremonial washings that they would go through and wanted other peoples to go through as well.

And at this time, the historian Josephus says that there were about 6,000 Pharisees in Israel that were a part of this sect that set themselves apart for the preservation of God's word.

And though the Pharisees set out with good intentions, it appears, to preserve God's word, we'll see that a lot of them became legalistic.

They were sticklers for the law, which led to pride.

You know, Jesus called them out at various times throughout the Gospels for their self-righteousness.

He said that they didn't practice what they preached, and he also said that they neglected the more important matters of the law, which are justice, mercy, and faithfulness.

And Nicodemus is a part of the sect, and not only a part of it, but he was, it says here, a ruler of the Jews, meaning that he was a part of the Sanhedrin.

Then that was a council of 70 of the highest regarded Jewish elders in the nation, which included the high priests.

It's the same group that tried Jesus, condemned him, and wanted him to be killed.

So when we look at Nicodemus, he's a somebody in the Jewish community.

Probably very well known, probably very well respected.

And he really comes to Jesus as a representative.

Because he's going to say, We know that you are a teacher who has come from God.

So he's saying we, not just I, but he's saying we know.

He's not only asking for himself, he's probably asking for the Pharisees as a whole, because in verse 1, it says that he was from the Pharisees.

But in the grander view of things, if we kind of zoom out a little bit, we should think of Nicodemus as a representative of someone that has done all the works.

You know, as much as humanly possible, he has tried to be the best religious person that he possibly could.

He tried his best to be right with God.

I think you would be hard pressed to find someone more religious than this man.

Like Paul, he could probably say, I'm a Pharisee of Pharisees.

Look at verse 2.

It says, This man came to him at night.

You know, some say this was a cowardly move by Nicodemus to come in the cover of night to Jesus.

Why didn't he do it in broad daylight when everybody was around?

But I personally think that Nicodemus was just being cautious.

You know, he's going and talking to this guy that some people are already proclaiming to be the Messiah, to basically ask him if he is the Messiah.

Who knows if this happened in broad daylight and with everybody around, how this could have turned or how the conversation may have been interrupted if it was done in public.

And it appears that Nicodemus has some honest questions for Jesus.

You know, it seems like he was truly searching.

He really wanted to know the truth.

And he wanted to do this alone with Jesus, with no outside pressures, with no outside opinions or disruptions, with no outside gossip even coming into this picture.

And I think it also says something about Jesus that he allowed this, that he didn't condemn Nicodemus for coming at night.

You know, like we saw with Jesus' first interaction with Nathaniel a couple of weeks ago.

You know, Philip told Nathaniel, hey, we found the Messiah.

And then Nathanael says, you know, can anything good come out of Nazareth?

He kind of has this cynic's attitude.

He was skeptical, Nathaniel was, but truly wanted to find the Messiah, if the Messiah could be found.

And Jesus met Nathanael there in his cynicism, and he revealed himself to Nathaniel.

Now Nicodemus came to him in the privacy of night, and Jesus met him there.

You know, we'll see Jesus meet cynics in the Gospel of John, and he'll meet people that are scared, he'll meet people that are doubters, and not condemn them.

If their heart is truly to find the truth.

And I think that is what we're seeing here with Nicodemus.

He comes with the right heart, it appears.

Other people might tell you something different, but it appears that he has honest questions.

As we see here in verse 2.

Look at verse 2 again.

This man came to him at night and said, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform these signs you do, unless God were with him.

Now notice Nicodemus doesn't say, You are a teacher who is God.

He says, but is from God.

You know, the signs Jesus was doing made them know, at least in that moment, that he was from God.

Now, Nicodemus may have even witnessed some of these signs that Jesus had done.

But the question that Nicodemus came to find out, really, when it comes down to it, is are you God?

Are you the Messiah that we've been waiting for?

Are you, you know, that one that all of Israel is in anticipation of?

Look at Jesus' reply in verse 3.

Jesus replied, Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Doesn't this seem like a strange response from Jesus at the first pass over this?

Like Jesus is answering a different question from what Nicodemus asked him.

You know, I think Jesus just bypasses all the pleasantries of this conversation.

He bypasses Nicodemus's attempt to ease into this conversation, to the greater questions that he was truly wondering.

And Jesus says, you know, not only am I the Messiah, but until you are born again in me, you cannot see, you cannot know, you can't even understand the kingdom of God.

And I bet Nicodemus thought that he saw and understood all of those things.

So Jesus just jumps way ahead to what's really in Nicodemus' heart, what Nicodemus really wanted to question.

And this word born again that we see here, it's also translated in other places in the New Testament as above.

So Jesus is saying, unless you are born again, unless you are born from above, unless you are born of me, the Messiah, who is from above, you can't even see the kingdom of God, much less enter into it.

You know, the Jews thought that they were born into the family of God if they could claim Abraham as their ancestor.

If they could claim that their ancestors walked through the Red Sea and were under the cloud in the wilderness.

They thought these things were their ticket to the kingdom of God.

But here Jesus is telling someone that most likely had the whole Old Testament memorized, that the Jews had to be born of something else and into new life.

He's basically telling them, your ancestry, Nicodemus, is not enough.

And think of where we've come from so far, just in the Gospel of John.

You know, the first sign that we saw was Jesus turned water into wine.

Washing with water was not enough.

Basically, it was saying we have to be washed by the blood of Jesus.

Something only Jesus could do.

Then Jesus cleansed the temple.

That's the next thing that we saw.

We are the temple of the Holy Spirit that has to be cleansed by Jesus.

Something that only Jesus can do and that we can't do on our own.

And now Jesus says, you have to be born again.

Born into new life in Christ.

Again, something only Jesus can do, and something that we can't do on our own.

You've seen the theme so far as we're going through John together?

And now we have this extremely religious man that had done everything in his own power, that's key, to be right with God.

And Jesus tells him all that he is and all that he has done throughout his life is not enough.

And Jesus is speaking metaphorically here about rebirth, and almost comically, Nicodemus has not picked up on that yet.

So look at verse 4.

How can anyone be born when he is old?

Nicodemus asked him.

Notice he doesn't say why to Jesus.

He says how.

And I think this is an honest question.

Nicodemus is still thinking of old life being modified when you think about it.

Still going back to his ancestors for rebirth.

But Jesus is talking about a new life in him.

The old life, the old religious life passing away, and Jesus himself making everything new within Nicodemus.

And I think this is just blowing his mind at this point.

Now look at verse 5.

Jesus tells him the how.

Jesus answered, Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the spirit is spirit.

You know, the meaning of born of water, it's one of those phrases that has been debated for a really, really long time of what this actually means.

So I want to present a couple of theories that seem to make sense.

One is that Jesus is referring to Ezekiel 36, verses 25 and 26, where God says, I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean.

Ezekiel 36:25

I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all of your idols.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.

So some people think Jesus is referring back to this scripture, which Nicodemus would know.

Some say this is referring to Jesus being the living water.

You know, so you must be born of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

And they use John 7, verse 38, and they say, the one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within.

John 7:38

And then a third option, remember how two weeks ago we talked about the parallels between the book of John and Israel within the Exodus and their journey through the desert in the wilderness.

You know, there are some that believe that Jesus is talking about Israel crossing the Red Sea when he says born of water.

And they use 1 Corinthians 10, 1, where it says, Now I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

So Jesus could be saying, It's not enough to be Jewish, Nicodemus.

You have to be born of the Spirit.

You know, and there could be validity to all three of those, and there's more out there too, if you want to dig deeper.

But I think context may tell us that Jesus simply means you have to be born in the flesh, you know, of water, of Amniotic fluid.

You know, Nicodemus mentioned the womb in the previous verse, didn't he?

Jesus says of water and spirit.

And then in the next verse, we'll see what's born of the flesh is flesh, Jesus will say.

So I'm not sure that we need to look any further or any deeper than what's right here in the verse before and the verse after.

As long as we realize that Jesus is telling Nicodemus, what you are and what you've done is not enough.

You have to be born of the Spirit.

And Nicodemus was amazed by this because Jesus says, look at verse 7, do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again.

So here's this Pharisee, this member of the Sanhedrin, you know, this person that most Jews would aspire to be like.

He looks like he's got it all together spiritually.

He does all the right things.

He says all the right things.

And Jesus tells him, that's not enough, Nicodemus.

And Nicodemus is amazed that what he's lived his life for is not enough.

Now I really think Nicodemus came to Jesus in the first place to ask if Jesus was the one that would overthrow the Romans and establish his kingdom in Israel.

And essentially Jesus responds, I'm not here to rescue you from the Romans.

I'm here to rescue you from your sinful, wretched self, Nicodemus.

Probably an opinion that Nicodemus did not have of himself.

Because you can't be a part of or enter into or even see the kingdom of God if you don't have Jesus.

And at that point, Nicodemus did not have Jesus.

So no wonder he was amazed.

No wonder Nicodemus is not understanding so far what Jesus is telling him.

So Jesus moves on to verse 8 to try and clarify a little bit more.

Look at that with me.

The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don't know where it comes from or where it is going.

So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.

You know, really, Jesus is telling Nicodemus, you don't have to understand everything at this moment for what I'm saying to be truth.

You don't have to understand being born of water and the spirit.

Just like you don't have to understand wind to know that it's real.

Look at verse 9.

How, another how question, how can these things be?

asked Nicodemus.

And then here's Jesus.

Are you a teacher of Israel and don't know these things?

Jesus replied.

You know, it doesn't appear to me that Nicodemus is arguing.

I think he's truly astonished.

He's sitting there amazed at what Jesus is telling him.

That so much of what he's believed about Israel and the Messiah just got turned on its head.

Just got completely turned upside down.

And Jesus challenges him here.

Look, he says, Are you a teacher of Israel?

Some translators translations say, the teacher.

The King James Version says, Art thou a master of Israel?

So Jesus is calling him out.

He's saying, you should know all of this already.

You have the scriptures.

You've memorized the entire Old Testament.

He's saying, You should know Jeremiah 31, where God says, I will make a new covenant.

In Ezekiel 36, 26 through 27, where it says, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.

I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

I will place my spirit within you and cause you to follow my statutes and carefully observe my ordinances.

Ezekiel 37, he should know this also when God says, I will make a covenant of peace with them, referring to Israel.

You know, these things should not be so shocking to Nicodemus because he spent his life dedicated to the word.

Being born again, being born of the Spirit of God should not be shocking to him.

And I just imagine after this encounter with Jesus, Nicodemus going back and just going through those scrolls again of like, wait, what did I miss?

Like, what is he talking about?

Is he right in all of these things?

And I just missed it my whole life?

Look at verse 11.

Jesus continues, Truly I tell you, we speak what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony.

So who's the we here?

That should be our first question of who's the we that Jesus is including.

Well, Jesus and the Father are one, aren't they?

And at Jesus' baptism, the Holy Spirit descended on him in the form of a dove.

So who's the we?

It's the Trinity.

It's the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

And if we want, we can throw in the Word of God to that.

Jesus is the Word, but the Word of God testifies of Jesus as well.

Jesus is going to say in chapter 5, verse 37 of John, he's going to say, The Father who sent me has himself testified about me.

You have not heard his voice at any time, and you haven't seen his form.

You don't have his word residing in you because you don't believe the one he sent.

You pour over the scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, and yet they testify about me.

But you are not willing to come to me so that you may have life.

They have all been testifying.

But Jesus says here, you do not accept our testimony.

Look at verse 12.

If I have told you about earthly things and you don't believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

You know, Jesus used the illustration of the wind just now, and Nicodemus says, How can this be?

You know, Jesus talks about flesh and about birth, you know, these earthly things, and Nicodemus is just not getting it yet.

And if he's not getting these earthly illustrations, Jesus is asking him, how are you going to understand the things of heaven if you can't even understand what I'm telling you about this earth?

Verse 13, he goes on.

So this is Jesus telling Nicodemus, I'm from above.

I'm from heaven, and you must be born from above.

You must be born again into me.

And what Jesus is getting at is that if Nicodemus can't take Jesus at his word, then Nicodemus is hopeless if he's not believing and understanding the things that Jesus is telling him.

Look at verse 14.

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

Again, going back to Israel in the desert, in the Exodus.

Numbers 21 tells us this story of how Israel was on the move, and the Israelites became impatient because of the journey that they were on through this wilderness.

And it tells us that they spoke against God and they spoke against Moses.

And they were saying things like, Why have you led us into this wilderness to die?

You know, they're saying things like, There's no bread or water.

They say things like, you know, we detest the wretched food that we have.

And because they were complaining against God and against Moses, God sent poisonous snakes that bit the Israelites, and we learned that about 23,000 Israelites died because of this.

Then the Israelites come back to Moses and said, You know, we sin by speaking against the Lord and by speaking against you.

Will you intercede for us to the Lord?

And then God responded and said, Make a snake image and mount it on a pole.

When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will recover.

So Moses made a bronze snake and mounted it on a pole.

Whenever someone was bitten and he looked at the bronze snake, he recovered.

So this is what's being referred to right here in the Gospel of John.

And Jesus is telling Nicodemus, the snake on a pole was pointing to me and what I will do for this world.

You know, this is a foreshadowing of the saving power of the cross that Nicodemus needs, whether he believes it or not right now.

It's not about works, it's about a savior.

Nicodemus doesn't need more works, he needs a savior.

You know, the Israelites came with this repentant heart, at least it appeared that way.

And God didn't say, well, do this, this, and this, and then I'll forgive you, and the snakes will go away.

He said, Look to the bronze snake on a pole, which is a symbol of judgment, and you will be saved from the evil your sins have produced.

Jesus will say in John 12, As for me, I am lifted up from the earth.

Same word right there, and I will draw all people to myself.

And here's another nugget in this verse.

Jesus being lifted up would not only be for the Israelites, there's another group of people, a larger group of people, that God has the same love for.

The rest of the world, for all peoples.

And I think Nicodemus is just sitting here and his mind is blown.

This is not at all what he was expecting from the Messiah that he had been waiting for.

So Jesus explains further.

Look at verse 16.

For God loved the world in this way.

He gave his only one and only Son, so that everyone, not just the Israelites, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

The snake in the wilderness offered continued life to the Israelites.

Jesus offers eternal life to the world.

See how that scope just exploded wide open there in verse 16?

Jesus offers eternal life to the world.

And this would be, I think, a very tough pill for Nicodemus to swallow.

You know, I could just picture him saying, even the Samaritans?

Jesus?

What about the Romans that are oppressing us right now?

What about those Gentiles in a Tascadero in 2024?

Them too?

And maybe you've even had thoughts along these lines of, you know, how could God love me?

You know, he knows what I've done.

He knows how sinful my current thoughts can be.

I don't deserve his love.

And I think we have the right to ask those questions.

We deserve to be dead in our sin.

We deserve to be attacked by snakes in the wilderness.

But God so loved the world, so loved you and me, that he reached down into the muck that we were living in, and he lifted us out, and he washed us white as snow with the blood of Jesus Christ.

So we wouldn't perish, but have eternal life with him.

I hope you know how much he desires us.

And that love doesn't waver based on our behavior, and it doesn't increase or decrease based on our behavior.

It's not based on what we do.

And there's nobody that's too far gone for God to love and for God to desire.

He so loved the world.

He so loved you and me.

Look at verse 17.

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Have you ever wondered what it would look like if Jesus did come to condemn in his first coming?

Have you thought about what that would be like?

Nicodemus would be condemned.

Along with every other person that ever walked the face of the planet.

We would all be in trouble.

And don't mistake this to say that Jesus won't ever condemn anyone.

That's refuted right here in verse 18.

But the purpose, the reason of him being sent was not condemnation, but salvation to all that will accept it.

Look at verse 18.

Anyone who believes in him is not condemned.

But anyone who does not believe is already condemned.

If you underline and highlight, already, that's the word for you.

Because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

Do you remember at Easter a couple weeks ago we talked about how we are all dead in our trespasses?

This is where we stand as humans, is the deep debt of sin.

We're already dead, as it says here in verse 18.

We are already condemned.

You know, we start off in the position of being condemned because of our sin.

And that's why Jesus came.

To give us a choice to be saved from that condemnation that we were already in.

Or we could take the choice of staying in the condemnation.

You know, so many people, and I've heard this question so many times, how can a loving God send somebody to hell?

We are already on that path without Jesus Christ.

We have condemned ourselves to hell because of our sin.

And Jesus came to rescue us from the path that we were already on.

We were sending ourselves to hell.

We were hopelessly walking into judgment, and Jesus came so that we could have a choice to get off of that path, to get out of that condemnation that we were already heading into.

Look at verse 19.

This is the judgment.

The light has come into the world, and people love darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil.

You know, there are some that love darkness, and they want to do everything that they can to stay in their darkness.

They hate Jesus because he shines light into the darkness that they love so much.

You know, people with the attitude of, well, you know, if I follow Jesus and he shines that light into my life, then I have to stop living to get drunk on the weekends.

I have to stop my sexual relationships outside of marriage.

I have to stop talking bad about others.

I have to stop cheating on my taxes.

You know, I have to stop letting my anger and bitterness control my whole life.

And they love that darkness so much that they don't want any part of Jesus.

Why?

Look at verse 20.

For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may be exposed.

Have you ever met a person like this where it seems that they love their darkness so much that they just stop their ears and go, la la la la la la la la la la.

Don't shine light into my darkness.

I don't want to hear it.

I don't want to know about it.

Just let me do my darkness thing and don't shine light on it.

But look at verse 21.

But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.

Coming to Jesus is coming to the light.

Coming toward the light, not running from it.

It's allowing the darkness and evil deeds to be exposed.

And allowing the light to chase those things out of our life.

Now, when we're saved, there should be a noticeable change in our lives as the light chases away the darkness that we've been living in for so long.

What did we learn in the first couple verses of John chapter 1, starting verse 4?

John 1 · chapter mention

In him, in Jesus, was life.

And that life was the light of men.

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

Jesus is light, and he wants to shine in your life, and he wants to shine through your life, and has made it a free gift that we just need to accept.

Why?

For God loved the world in this way.

He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.

That word right there, believes, it doesn't mean just believing in the existence of Jesus.

Satan believes in the existence of Jesus.

This word is also translated as commit unto.

There's that connotation of committing to one's trust.

So everyone that believes in and commits their trust unto Jesus will not perish but have eternal life.

You know, Nicodemus seemed pretty confident in his works, didn't he?

The idea of committing himself unto Jesus for a spiritual rebirth absolutely rocked him.

But that is what we are all called into.

A rebirth in Jesus Christ.

That is ultimately an invitation to not only see the kingdom of God, but to be a part of the kingdom of God.

So back to the original questions.

How much of the throne of your life are you allowing God to occupy?

Another way to say that is how much of your life are you allowing the light of Jesus to shine in?

What areas of your life are you keeping in darkness and not surrendering to Jesus?

That maybe you think you're hiding.

The light's on in the room, but what's behind the baseboards?

So we need to ask ourselves, what areas of our life are we keeping in darkness that we're not surrendering to Jesus?

Is it all of it?

Is it part of it?

Is it a few dark corners that we don't want to be messed with because we can find some comforts and some pleasures in those dark corners?

Let him shine in all of the areas.

Let him sit on the whole throne of your life.

I think that's what we can take away from here this morning.

And if you're here this morning and you realize I don't have the light on at all.

Or I have the light on, but I have a lot of dark corners.

I have a lot of things behind the baseboards that I don't want anybody to see, and I don't want the light of Jesus to shine on.

Today's the day to come into that full surrender of just saying, Lord, take my whole life.

Shine in all the crevices and all the corners and all the places that I think I might have hidden at this point and give your life completely to Jesus Christ.

Will you please pray with me?

Lord, it is silliness to keep or think or try to keep things from you.

To try to keep things from being exposed to the light.

You know us through and through.

The best place that we can begin and is in a place of fully being surrendered to you, allowing you full control of our life and allowing you to shine your light in every corner of it.

So, Lord, I pray that we leave here today closer to you.

We leave here today more surrendered to you, and tomorrow being even more surrendered, and on Tuesday being even more surrendered as we become more and more like you.

Lord, we want to give you the full, complete reins, steering wheel, whatever it is, Lord, to do whatever it is that you want in our lives.

So, Lord, help us to come to that deeper place of surrender.

And if there's dark corners in our life that we aren't even aware of yet, Lord, in your time, would you expose those things?

Would you bring those things to the top that you want us to deal with?

And may we trust in you and know that even though we're dealing with those things, that your love doesn't change for us.

That it's because of your love that you want to take care of those things in our life.

So, Lord, do your complete work in us and help us to become more and more like you on a daily basis.

Not through our effort to be better, to be more religious, to add laws, but Lord, in an effort to be more like you, to abide in you closer and allow you to do those things in us, we pray.

In Jesus' name.