Three16: I Saw the Light with Pastor Clayton Tyner

Welcome to the MetaCurch Podcast.

My name's Clayton.

I'm the pastor here at MetaCurch.

And my hope is that today's podcast finds you at the perfect time in your life that God uses it to inspire and enlighten you.

I hope that you enjoy today's message.

So glad that you've joined us today.

If you're new with us, my name's Clayton.

I'm the lead pastor here at Meta, and you are here on Baptism Sunday.

This is the most exciting thing we do across our two services today.

We have over 30 people who have signed up to show us that they have new life.

Yeah.

I'm gonna say this right from the jump and then we'll come back to it at the end.

But uh every time we have baptism services, there ends up being a few people who, throughout the course of the message or the music, they start seeing other people get baptized, and God begins to work on their heart to tell them today is your day as well to get in the water.

You didn't register, you didn't sign up, you didn't come prepared, but I want you to know we came prepared for you.

We have shorts, shirt, towel, we have everything but your chonis.

We don't provide that, you gotta bring that yourself, figure that one out on your own.

All those excuses that you're gonna start running through to not get up, be courageous, and get in the water, we have tried to answer every single one of them.

And so if that's you, just know that today can be your day and that it is never too late.

We have been in a series called 316, where we've been setting the context to understand the most famous verse in scripture, John 3.16.

We took four weeks just to get to verse 16, which meant we spent all that time going through, setting the context, fully understanding verses 1 through 15.

We're gonna read those together now.

In John 3, verse 1, it says, There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

John 3:1

Now, the Pharisees were not just the religious rulers, but they were also the social rulers of that time, and they did not like Jesus.

They saw him as a threat to their power, and they ultimately were the ones who ended up plotting the coup to get him crucified.

In verse 2, it says, This man, Nicodemus, the Pharisee, came to him at night.

Now, if I was one of those cheesy, corny preachers, I might say Nicodemus coming at night was the original Nick at night, you know.

If I was that kind of preacher, Nicodemus 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, these miracles, these wonders, unless God were with him.

Here's what Nicodemus is doing: he's trying to suss out exactly who this guy is.

He's trying to figure out this Jesus guy who's doing these miracles, speaking with authority, showing power like no one's ever seen before.

How is he going to use that power to the benefit of the kingdom of Israel?

And Jesus replied, Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see.

Not the kingdom of Israel, the kingdom of God.

Verse 4, how can anyone be born when he's old?

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

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

And Jesus is teaching something brand new.

That it's not just enough to be a Pharisee, it's not just enough to have been born an Israelite, it's not even enough to have followed the Jewish law, that you're born once from the water of the womb, and that's when you come alive.

However, you must be born again spiritually, and that is when you begin truly, truly living.

In verse 6, whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the spirit is spirit.

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

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

So it is with everyone born of the spirit.

Now Nicodemus is confused.

How can these things be?

He asks.

It took us three weeks to dial into those verses.

You can go to our Medit Church YouTube channel.

I talk fast already.

You can put playback on two times speed, knock this out on your drive to work, be fully caught up with us.

Jesus is showing them something brand new, and he has to get Nicodemus to the point of understanding that so he can get to John 3.16 and reveal the heart of God.

John 3.16 says, For God loved the world in this way.

Over the last four weeks, there have been dozens of people who have put their faith in Jesus, who have come to believe that there is a God who actually knows them, loves them, and paid the ultimate price in order to secure a relationship with them.

Today we're going to celebrate that with baptism.

And whether you're here and maybe you are a skeptic, you're not really sure about all the claims of Christianity, maybe you're here, you're a seasoned believer, you've been following Jesus for years and years and years.

Today's message as we continue the context of John 3.16 is going to be a tough one.

And yet, with the hardest application comes the greatest reward.

And so we're gonna buckle in today in a message.

I I've named after one of my favorite hymns growing up.

I saw the light.

Would you pray with me?

God, we love you and we thank you for loving us.

We thank you for baptism service today, the opportunity to just celebrate what you've been doing amongst us, what you're doing in these people's lives, a declaration that they have been made new.

I ask God that no matter where we're at on our faith journey, we'd be humble enough to lay down our pride, lay down our preconceived ideas, that we would seek after you today, and we believe you will speak to us.

We love you.

And we pray these things in Jesus' name.

And if you're ready to see the light, say amen.

Amen.

You see, context is not just the verses that come before the verse you're studying.

That would be John 3, 1 through 15.

Context is also the verses immediately after that.

And this is especially true with John 3, 17.

You don't really truly understand the full thought of John 3.16 until you go to the next verse.

Again, verse 16 says, 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.

And we learned last week, as we looked at the parable of the prodigal son, that that word perish is the same Greek word for lost.

Like when the father in the parable had a son who took his inheritance off into the far country, lived a life of debauchery, ended up at rock bottom, hatched a plan to come home, assuming he would be disowned and just live as a servant to the father on his land.

And yet, when he got home, he was shocked that his father was waiting and watching.

He ran to him, clothed him in the best clothes, threw a feast for him.

And why did he do it?

The father said, Because my son was lost, and now is found.

That same word lost is the word translated perish.

And so so many of us have this idea of a big, bad, angry, judgmental God who cannot wait for you to get what you have coming to you.

And the truth is, Jesus said, This is how God loves the world.

This is how God loves you.

He loves you like a broken-hearted father whose children are lost off in the far country, trying to live life without him.

Context matters so much.

In verse 17, it starts with for.

In other words, continuing the thought.

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

We talked a lot last week, Easter, about how our society has a view of a wrathful, angry, judgmental God.

And that was the same view that people had in Jesus' day.

As a matter of fact, for them to think about God coming to earth was not good news, that would be very, very bad news.

Oh, God is coming?

It's kind of like getting called to the principal's office.

You don't know what it's about, but you know it's bad news.

We don't want God showing up, God who sees all of our actions and knows all of our thoughts.

I mean, we're we're decent people, you know.

But we say it all the time here at MetaCurch.

We're all jacked up.

And if anyone could see our inner life, our inner thoughts, it's amazing sometimes how quickly we can sit in traffic and go from singing to K Love to throwing a finger like instantly.

Here I am to worship to man, if their tire blew out, I'd laugh.

You know how bad it sucks to get pulled over by the cops, but then when you see someone else get pulled over, you're kind of like, hmm.

That was fun.

Man, we've got some real life going on inside of us, the parts that nobody ever sees.

Jesus came and like raised all the standards, you know?

Like, odds are there's no murderers here today, you know?

If you are, you're welcome, you know, but just odds are.

And Jesus said if you ever look at your brother with hatred in your heart, you are guilty of murder before God.

Which means there's actually no non-murderers here today.

He says, you know, adultery doesn't have to be going and committing the act.

As a matter of fact, when you look with uh at a woman with lust in your heart, you're already guilty of adultery in front of her.

Like God showing up would be bad news, judgment, condemnation, and Jesus, who's revealing the heart of the Father and also revealing his entire mission for being here on planet earth, Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, says, God didn't send me into the world to condemn the world, he sent me into the world to save it.

We have to understand that.

That has to be our starting place of understanding the heart of the Father, of understanding the mission of Jesus.

And yet, what does that mean for us?

Does it mean we're all off the hook?

Does it mean that it doesn't really matter exactly how we live?

Not quite.

The next verse, verse 18, says, anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone 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 what we believe.

Before you can understand the good news of the gospel, you have to understand the true news of humanity.

Jesus did not come down to a neutral world, to a world that was just sitting, not good, not bad, just sitting, waiting, and then he made an offer, died for us, extended an offer, and we could decide whether to accept it or to reject him.

Jesus came to a world that was living in active rebellion against our Creator.

He came into a world that was already choosing our own path away from him.

To say it clearly, Jesus didn't come to condemn the world.

Jesus came to a world that was already condemned.

This is the part where you know we want to go back to the sermon that was about grace.

You know, we go back to the part that was a little more.

Pastor, it's baptism Sundays.

Are we really going this heavy today?

Jesus didn't come on a mission to judge and condemn, he came on a rescue mission.

He came to a world that is living as the prodigal, taking our inheritance from our Father, all we are and all we have, going off into the far country, living not to make our Father's name great and known, but to make our own names great and known.

We are living, going down the paths that the world puts in front of us with all kinds of promises attached, like this is how you'll be significant, and you'll finally be fulfilled, and you'll have a sense of purpose, and your life will really matter, and you'll finally be able to numb all of that pain inside, and your insecurities will go away, and these same paths that if you live long enough and you travel them far enough, you end up at the end emptier than where you began.

This is a world that is not neutral, it is a world in rebellion, and here's what we believe that God created a world and created humanity to have intentional relationship with us.

And yet, he created us out of his love, and love requires freedom, real freedom, the kind where we get to make free choices.

Love requires freedom because love that is coerced is not love at all.

If God programmed you to always love him and always obey him, it was not out of your own volition.

That wouldn't be love, that would be slavery.

God created you free, in fact, so much freedom that you could rebel against your very creator.

We see in scripture that God is holy, and holy means set apart.

God is actually perfectly holy.

He is set apart from sin, which means he cannot even be in its presence.

And when we sin, and we all do, we separate ourselves from God.

Jesus came on a rescue mission to the lost children of God to give them a path back, to bridge the gap between us and him.

Romans 3 23 says that all have sinned, we have all fallen short of God's glory, the glorious, perfect standard of God.

If you want to understand the good news of Easter, the cross, resurrection, a Jesus who came, lived a perfect life, died the death that we all deserved, and now offers us freely, eternal life with God, all we have to do is believe.

If you want to understand the good news, you have to understand the true news, where we actually are.

And this is the part that people get uncomfortable with, but in those moments where you're alone with yourself, in those moments where you actually take inventory of your life, day by day when we look around at a world that has been broken and shattered by the sin inside of it, we know at an instinctive level, we know the world is broken.

We know things are not as they should be.

Jesus came to make a way for things to be made right.

We're gonna look at just three more verses in John 3 and a few verses to support it because he frames it in a way that I think is crucial for us to understand it.

In verse 19, he says, This is the judgment.

In other words, this is what's going on.

The light has come into the world.

And people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.

The light has come into the world.

When John uses the light, he means someone specific.

If you go back to John chapter one, this is how the entire book starts.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

He was with God in the beginning.

All things were created through him, and apart from him, not one thing was created that has been created.

In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

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

In John chapter 8, we hear Jesus speaking.

John 8 · chapter mention

Jesus spoke again and said, I am the light of the world.

Anyone who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

Jesus, the light of the world, came into a world filled with darkness, a world in rebellion against its creator.

And yet, when the light came, why did everyone not flock to it?

Hope came into the world, and why did everyone not cling to it?

The purest expression of love displayed itself.

And why did so many run from it?

John 3 19 says, 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 everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it.

Why?

So that their deeds may not be exposed.

Exposed is a big word.

To be laid opened up.

As humans, we hate something that we do.

Having hidden things in your life doesn't make you special.

It actually makes you satisfy.

For some of us, that's just thought patterns or insecurities.

For some it's actions, it's things that you're actually hiding.

For some it's habits that you've fallen into and you're not really quite sure how to get out of them.

And the last thing you would ever want to do is have those habits exposed, even though at some level you know that until they're exposed, you won't actually be able to change course on them.

People don't come to the light because the light exposes all.

And so we continue groping in a world of darkness, trying desperately to find something to grab onto that could be some source of hope, some source of help, some guiding path, something that will take us from the state we're in to the state we dream of being in, a life of purpose, a life that matters, a life of fulfillment, a life that you're confident will leave a legacy behind you.

We're putting our hope in the things of this world, and you will learn the world cannot hold the weight of your hope.

The light has come, and maybe it has even shown into your life at different times.

You've had people tell you about this God who loved you so much that he created you on purpose, and even though you rebel against him, that God came in human form, lived a perfect life, died a horrendous, horrific death, and did it all to pay the price of the sins that you've committed against him.

Maybe that light has shone into your life a little bit, but at some level, you know, admitting you need Jesus is admitting just how much darkness there is inside of you.

I told the staff a couple months ago when we were planning the series, this is gonna be a really different baptism talk, you know?

Like most weeks, we we talk about the Ethiopian eunuch and why shouldn't I get baptized?

Here's some water, instant baptism, you know, fun stuff like that.

This is where the context takes us.

This is the next step.

God loved the world in this way that he made a path for his lost children living in the darkness to come back to the light.

And here's why it matters because what you keep in the darkness is killing you.

You remember back in week three, the Israelites were in the wilderness and they rebelled against God, and these carpet vipers came into their camp and they were biting them and they were deadly, and people were dying from the poison of these snakes.

And God told Moses to make this bronze serpent and to put it on a post in the middle of camp.

And if anyone's bitten, all they have to do is go and look and they will be healed.

We don't know this, but I imagine some people still died.

And the reason is because to walk to the middle of the camp and point your eyes, one look of faith, at the serpent is to admit that you've been bit in the first place.

And we all have sin in our life, and we all have things that we keep hidden, and those things that we keep hidden are killing us.

They're killing us spiritually, and they're killing us physically.

The things that you keep hidden are the recipe that's creating the anxiety that's displaying itself in your life.

All the web pages that you have to double check that you shut down, the text message conversations you have to make sure nobody sees, the places you go where you have to cover your tracks, the ways that you gossip and gossip and gossip and have to walk back through to make sure nothing gets around to everyone else.

It's anxiety.

It's anxiety.

And anxiety actually physically kills us.

When I was 16 years old, I was uh I was wild.

I was a wild boy.

And It was like this weird dichotomy where I really loved Jesus, but I just really wanted popularity and status and all of the things that can really grip you around that age and beyond.

And so I don't really do things halfway, you know.

I go all in and I went all in on partying.

I would do anything I had to do to prove that I was one of the guys, that I was part of the team.

And I started getting sick, and you know, I was kind of young and healthy.

It's like I'll get over it, and and weeks turned to months, and I was, I mean, I was sick, like really sick.

As a matter of fact, I became anemic, I was bleeding out.

And I knew something was seriously wrong inside of me.

I didn't know if it was cancer, I didn't know what it was.

I knew I might be dying.

And I wouldn't tell anyone, wouldn't even tell the people who loved me most in the world, my parents, because I didn't want the life I lived in the darkness exposed.

I was convinced if I was taken to the hospital, I'd be drug tested and the whole gig would be up.

I was literally allowing myself to die to keep my sin hidden.

One weekend I ended up in Dallas, and I was with people a lot older than me who could party a lot harder than I knew how to party, and I tried to keep up and I was sick, but you know, I was a weekend warrior, so I was pushing through to the best of my ability.

And at the end of the weekend, I was so sick I could barely make it back to my hometown.

As a matter of fact, I don't even think I went home.

I think I went straight to the hospital.

Like, in my mind, I was on death's door.

Things were horrible.

It took quite a while for them to figure out exactly what was going on.

Eventually, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called ulcerative colitis, something I live with to this day.

You know, the whole pandemic, the immunosuppressed people they always talked about.

That's me, you know.

I've lived with it since I was 17 years old.

The craziest thing happened, I was so sick and having to go to so many treatments that my whole life stopped.

My social life was gone.

I was no longer going out and partying.

You know, the weirdest, weirdest thing.

Remember the story of the prodigal when all of his money runs out, the other thing that runs out are all of his friends.

All the people that I thought were my homeboys, all the people that I thought we were like together in this, the second I stopped showing up, they stopped showing up.

It was revealed for what it was a facade for purpose, a substitute for significance.

It was this pause coming through a traumatic event in my life that God got hold of me.

It was about six months later that I confessed.

I told my peers, I told my parents, I told my church.

It was six months later that I knew I had to bring things into the light.

And what you keep in the darkness is killing you.

Having things hidden in your life makes you average.

That's what everyone does.

Bringing things into the light and stepping into the full power of the life that you could be living, getting that weight off of your shoulders, that anxiety out of your life, moving towards your created and intended purpose, walking alongside the Spirit of God who is desperate to show you something new, it's worth it.

It is worth the exposure of what is hidden.

I can say confidently, I would not be a preacher, would probably not be in church.

Don't know if I'd be alive on the path that I was on.

You see, the the good news is still coming in verse 21, it says, but anyone who lives by the truth, not what's hidden in lies, but who lives by the truth comes to the light so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.

What that means to be accomplished by God is it means your life and the power inside of it reveals the glory of God to the people around you.

And we have this stranglehold of religion on our minds and hearts that has convinced us the way we show people our great God is by cleaning up and dressing the right way and talking the right way and becoming the religious elite who stand on our pedestals and look down at the rest of the sinful world.

And over and over and over again, scripture shows you the opposite.

The world doesn't need to see your tightly packaged social media highlight real.

They need to see what's really real.

That I am jacked up, that I am broken, that I have lived in the darkness, but I've seen the light of God.

When the world recognizes that God makes a real difference in real people's lives, that is when the world will become curious about what this God actually has to offer them.

We're a community here at Medicurch where you don't have to hide the parts of you that you are ashamed of.

We're a community who's willing to get real, that we all have our ways.

We are all jacked up.

We are all sinners in need of grace.

When you get in this water, what you're saying is I am a sinner ready to expose myself to the light of God.

What you're saying is, I can't do it on my own.

I can't rebirth myself.

I can't work my way to God's kingdom.

I cannot earn what Jesus has given me.

When you get in the water, you're saying, I'm ready to see the light.

That is what baptism means.

It's taking the real news of our broken lives and transforming it into the good news of Jesus' life in us.

And so here's what you have to do.

You have to believe, John 3, 16 and 17, that God loved you, where he moved heaven and earth, gave his only son to make a way for you.

You have to believe that Jesus came into this world not to judge or condemn you, but to bridge the gap between you and your father.

To make a way for you to be lost no longer.

You weren't made to live an average life.

An average life keeps things hidden in the dark.

That's what everyone does.

You were made to live an extraordinary life.

God placed a purpose inside of you, and to hide that purpose behind the things that you're unwilling to bring to light.

That could be the waste of the life that you've been given.

Jesus was hung on a cross for us.

And that was the sacrifice to cure us of our sin.

But before they hung him, they stripped him.

We paint the picture and we put a loincloth to keep it PG 13.

But Jesus went to the cross naked.

Jesus was fully exposed.

And we are called to live like Jesus.

To open up what is hidden in our life to God and to trusted people in your faith community.

And baptism is saying, I'm ready to see the light.

Let me pray for you.

God, I thank you for those who have come, they're signed up, dressed up, they're ready to get in the water.

I thank you for their commitment for this incredible step.

We are so excited to celebrate this new life.

God, I pray for anyone in this room who came today with no intention to get baptized, but they are sick and tired of living in darkness.

They are done hiding, they are done covering up, they are ready to come to you, the God who loves them, and to trust a community around them.

And I pray that you would stir their hearts to action to come and get in the water.

God, I thank you for Meta Church, a place for all people, a place where we can come and wrestle with these difficult, difficult questions.

I pray that we would have a release, that we could truly walk in the truth of your light starting today.

We love you.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thanks so much for listening to the message today.

If this was helpful to you and you want to help us get the word out, you can subscribe to this podcast.

You can rate and review or share it with your friends.

If you want to get connected further with what MetaCurch is doing, you can go online to metachurch.tv.

There you can learn how to take next steps.

You can learn where our different venues are at if you ever wanted to visit, and you can also give financially to help push this movement forward.

And I love you guys, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.