WEBVTT 00:00:19.839 --> 00:00:27.440 Well, if you could uh find John three again, uh either in a in a hard copy Bible, it's on your phone. 00:00:27.519 --> 00:00:29.760 Uh, so you can turn up John three. 00:00:30.079 --> 00:00:33.520 Um we're going to pick up at verse 17. 00:00:33.679 --> 00:00:39.359 Uh, really, there was enough in the sermon last week if you were here last week, so that's why we kind of cut it off at at 16. 00:00:39.439 --> 00:00:41.920 So we were uh we're picking up again. 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:48.560 This is kind of the the the to-be continued episode uh in John 3, thinking about the the new birth. 00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:52.159 But why don't we pray as we come to God's word together? 00:00:52.240 --> 00:00:54.320 And if you need a Bible, you can nip down. 00:00:54.399 --> 00:00:56.320 My eyes will be closed, nobody will see. 00:00:56.560 --> 00:01:04.000 Uh Heavenly Father, we thank you uh that when your word is read, your voice is heard. 00:01:04.159 --> 00:01:06.719 Give us ears to hear this morning. 00:01:06.879 --> 00:01:18.319 Give us those soft hearts that we prayed for earlier to receive your truth, uh, that you would change us by your spirit, that you would help us to live into that new birth that Jesus has brought about. 00:01:18.560 --> 00:01:20.799 But we ask it for his sake. 00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:21.760 Amen. 00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:32.640 I imagine that lots of people, uh, certainly your colleagues or maybe even family members, maybe even some of you this morning, think that what Christianity is about, it's about a moral system. 00:01:32.799 --> 00:01:36.640 You learn the moral system and then you follow the rules that that's how this works. 00:01:36.879 --> 00:01:39.920 A little bit like uh following the five pillars of Islam. 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:46.799 You've got to learn the five pillars, you've got to go on the pilgrimage, you've got to observe Ramadan, you've got to pray five times a day, you've got to give alms. 00:01:47.120 --> 00:01:54.480 You know, you do the you do the the moral code stuff, and that's what it means to be a follower of that religion. 00:01:54.719 --> 00:01:59.920 Or maybe you think it's like reading some sort of philosopher, like uh like Marxism or something like that. 00:02:00.079 --> 00:02:05.280 You read the philosopher and you you emulate that philosopher's thinking and teaching. 00:02:05.519 --> 00:02:07.519 That's not what Christianity is. 00:02:08.240 --> 00:02:11.520 That's not Christianity, not at its core. 00:02:12.479 --> 00:02:26.080 You might even think about Christianity as a claim on people's lives, that it's a claim to earthly power, the desire to subdue or to subjugate people who are weaker. 00:02:26.319 --> 00:02:28.319 Again, that would be a mistake. 00:02:28.639 --> 00:02:33.520 The essence of Christianity is not power, it's love. 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:38.800 The father loves the son and has given all things into his hand. 00:02:39.599 --> 00:02:42.560 In contradistinction, again, to Islam. 00:02:42.719 --> 00:02:45.840 The essence of Islam is power, not love. 00:02:47.439 --> 00:02:48.080 Why? 00:02:48.400 --> 00:02:54.400 Because the father loves the son, and in eternity, in eternity, there is an object of the father's love, and it is the son. 00:02:54.639 --> 00:02:55.759 That's not so with Allah. 00:02:55.919 --> 00:02:56.800 Allah is alone. 00:02:56.960 --> 00:02:59.120 He becomes loving when he has a creation. 00:02:59.599 --> 00:03:03.199 He becomes loving after he exercises his power. 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:05.919 Two very different starting points. 00:03:06.400 --> 00:03:13.680 Christianity is not a system of belief laid down by man over the last 2,000 years. 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:16.479 It's about a man who's alive today. 00:03:16.960 --> 00:03:25.280 It's about the God who is the creator of all, coming into mine and your life and creating something new. 00:03:27.039 --> 00:03:33.199 It would be a mistake to think that it is simply a moral add-on to your day-to-day. 00:03:33.439 --> 00:03:38.080 You know, Christianity actually invites you to experience something supernatural. 00:03:39.199 --> 00:03:49.680 That is, something you cannot create yourself, something you cannot achieve or muster up by your own effort, but something that is given to you by the God who made you. 00:03:50.240 --> 00:03:58.639 That is, as we saw last week, to be born again, to experience the new birth. 00:03:59.680 --> 00:04:04.479 That is a result of the work of his spirit in your life. 00:04:05.599 --> 00:04:08.639 The result of this new birth is quite surprising. 00:04:09.439 --> 00:04:18.160 We think differently, we act differently, we even feel differently. 00:04:19.199 --> 00:04:22.959 The new birth turns everything on its head. 00:04:23.759 --> 00:04:25.839 Maybe you've experienced that. 00:04:26.560 --> 00:04:41.439 And in this passage, as we close out John 3, John continues to show us some of the surprising changes that experiencing the new birth by the Spirit of God brings about in your life. 00:04:42.879 --> 00:04:48.240 First of all, it helps you to act differently. 00:04:49.519 --> 00:04:53.279 That is to say, we willingly come into the light. 00:04:53.519 --> 00:05:01.519 We're going to pick it up in John 17 through to the end of that little section in verse 21. 00:05:02.160 --> 00:05:09.600 John, the gospel writer, told us in chapter 1 that Jesus was the light that had come into the world. 00:05:09.920 --> 00:05:18.639 That is, that Jesus is the one who brings the light of salvation, forgiveness, relationship with God. 00:05:19.439 --> 00:05:22.959 But what do we learn about the darkness in John chapter 1? 00:05:23.199 --> 00:05:26.000 The darkness can't comprehend it. 00:05:26.240 --> 00:05:33.680 It can't overcome it, can't master it, can't obliterate it, but can't get its head around it either. 00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:39.040 And here in this section, that theme of light and darkness emerges again. 00:05:39.199 --> 00:05:42.560 Cast your eye down, would you please to verse 19. 00:05:42.959 --> 00:05:46.720 This is Jesus saying, and this is the judgment. 00:05:47.199 --> 00:05:56.399 The light has come into the world, and people love the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. 00:05:58.639 --> 00:06:09.439 We read last week in verse 1 of chapter 3 that Nicodemus, this ruler of the Jews, the uh the dean of the school of theology, uh, comes to Jesus at night. 00:06:09.519 --> 00:06:17.199 And what we saw there was what John was kind of hinting at and pointing at was that Nicodemus was coming in the darkness. 00:06:17.360 --> 00:06:21.839 He was emerging from that darkness of ignorance and of sin. 00:06:22.160 --> 00:06:33.839 And it can be easy to think that what was happening with Nicodemus was that he was simply uninformed, that he needed to be educated by Jesus. 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:36.959 He needed to be taught what the kingdom of God was like. 00:06:38.480 --> 00:06:48.079 But human beings are in the darkness not just because we are ignorant, but because we actually prefer the darkness. 00:06:48.959 --> 00:06:51.040 That is the diagnosis of the Bible. 00:06:51.279 --> 00:06:54.160 We prefer darkness. 00:06:55.920 --> 00:07:05.920 We would rather actually run and hide from God than face what we deem to be the scrutiny of his light. 00:07:07.439 --> 00:07:10.800 We hide from the light because we actually don't want to change. 00:07:11.040 --> 00:07:13.120 We prefer to live our way. 00:07:13.279 --> 00:07:17.600 Our darkness is not accidental, it's willful. 00:07:20.399 --> 00:07:36.800 You may have had the experience now that you're uh a believer in the Lord Jesus, that you're looking back over your life beforehand, and there's a sense in which you knew that you should interact with the claims of Jesus. 00:07:37.040 --> 00:07:43.439 You knew really that you should uh put your faith in Jesus, that you should follow Him. 00:07:43.600 --> 00:07:55.839 You knew at some core level that it was true, but you didn't want to go there because you didn't want to interact with what it would make you, quote unquote, give up, or how it would make you change. 00:07:56.000 --> 00:07:59.040 Maybe you're here this morning, and that's exactly where you are. 00:07:59.279 --> 00:08:05.920 You've come along, you don't really quite know why you've come, but you know that there's something kind of tugging at your heart. 00:08:06.079 --> 00:08:10.240 You know you should consider uh the gospel and the claims of the Lord Jesus over your life. 00:08:10.399 --> 00:08:16.560 You know that you should trust him, but there's a there's the part of you that's like, no, not yet, don't make me change yet. 00:08:17.759 --> 00:08:24.000 There's a willfulness that wants to keep you in the darkness because you prefer it. 00:08:25.519 --> 00:08:26.480 I mean, sin. 00:08:27.199 --> 00:08:29.439 You wouldn't do sin if it wasn't fun. 00:08:31.360 --> 00:08:32.960 There's a willfulness. 00:08:35.600 --> 00:08:40.399 Men love the darkness because their deeds are evil. 00:08:40.720 --> 00:08:43.200 We like it, and we don't want to be found out. 00:08:43.440 --> 00:08:45.279 We don't want to be exposed. 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:52.480 And what's the what's the result then of this kind of willful love of the darkness? 00:08:52.639 --> 00:08:56.240 Well, actually, uh it's there in verses 17 and 18. 00:08:56.480 --> 00:09:03.679 So Jesus again saying in verse 17, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:13.840 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever whoever does not has not believed in the name of the Son of God is condemned already. 00:09:17.120 --> 00:09:27.679 The reason why Jesus doesn't come to condemn the world in verse 17 is because condemnation has already happened. 00:09:28.639 --> 00:09:35.360 We're self-condemned, in a sense, by our willful turning from the light. 00:09:35.840 --> 00:09:40.000 John picks this up again and really clarifies it in verse 36. 00:09:40.080 --> 00:09:41.519 It's really quite stark. 00:09:41.679 --> 00:09:44.320 Right down at the very end, the very last verse of the chapter. 00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:47.120 Whoever believes in the sun has eternal life. 00:09:47.360 --> 00:09:54.720 But whoever does not obey, that's he's paralyzing belief and obedience because if you uh if you obey, you also believe, right? 00:09:54.799 --> 00:09:59.039 So it's whoever does not believe in the sun shall not see life. 00:09:59.440 --> 00:10:03.120 For the wrath of God remains on him. 00:10:05.600 --> 00:10:12.879 It would be a mistake to think that the world, you and I, are by nature and birth morally neutral. 00:10:13.919 --> 00:10:28.559 It would also be a mistake to think that Christians are the morally superior people, that we're the good people and everyone else is bad, like those old Westerns where everybody's wearing a black hat except for the sheriff who rides in and he's got a white hat on. 00:10:28.720 --> 00:10:30.799 That's not how any of this works. 00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:35.440 No, we have all turned from the light and chosen darkness. 00:10:35.600 --> 00:10:38.080 We've turned from life and chosen death. 00:10:38.240 --> 00:10:45.440 We've turned from justice and righteousness and chosen injustice, selfishness, wickedness. 00:10:47.039 --> 00:10:48.799 And so we stand condemned. 00:10:49.039 --> 00:10:53.200 God's settled anger is upon us. 00:10:55.519 --> 00:10:56.399 Unless. 00:10:58.720 --> 00:11:16.559 Unless the wind of the Spirit blows into our hearts, and we look at the lifted up sun like the serpent in the desert that we saw last week, and we believe and trust in God's provision, then we come into the light willingly. 00:11:17.440 --> 00:11:26.559 Jesus did not come into the world to condemn it, but to save it, to give us an escape route from the condemnation. 00:11:29.600 --> 00:11:34.799 And as we look to him with the eyes of faith and as we experience the new birth, what do we do? 00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:38.240 We come willingly into the light. 00:11:39.120 --> 00:11:45.759 Verse 20 for everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come into the light, lest his work should be exposed. 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:53.120 But whoever does what is true comes into the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. 00:11:54.559 --> 00:11:56.799 Why do we come into the light? 00:11:57.039 --> 00:12:00.000 Well, because we have nothing more to fear. 00:12:01.840 --> 00:12:10.879 When you realize that Jesus died for you in that John 16 way, you realize then also that he took your shame. 00:12:11.120 --> 00:12:15.279 That thing that makes you hide, he took your guilt, he took your sin. 00:12:16.639 --> 00:12:19.919 You no longer need to be afraid. 00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:23.440 No condemnation now I dread. 00:12:23.679 --> 00:12:34.320 Jesus and all in him is mine, alive in him, my living head, clothed in righteousness, divine. 00:12:36.080 --> 00:12:43.360 We come into the light, not pridly, saying, Look what I've done. 00:12:45.919 --> 00:12:55.039 Look at my good works, look at my merit, but humbly saying, look at what God has done for the likes of me. 00:12:55.759 --> 00:12:57.919 Look at what God has done for me. 00:12:58.559 --> 00:13:01.039 And look now at what God is doing through me. 00:13:01.200 --> 00:13:02.320 Isn't he amazing? 00:13:02.480 --> 00:13:03.279 That's what John means. 00:13:03.360 --> 00:13:06.720 That we might see that all of our works are carried out in God. 00:13:07.440 --> 00:13:12.159 And we go, look at the great work that He has begun in my life. 00:13:12.240 --> 00:13:14.799 Look how much He has transformed me. 00:13:14.960 --> 00:13:18.639 Not that I have transformed myself, but that He has brought me. 00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:28.720 We can think that actually coming into the light is a very scary thing. 00:13:29.279 --> 00:13:32.559 Because there's a sense in which it is exposing. 00:13:32.879 --> 00:13:35.679 We come into the scrutiny of God's light. 00:13:36.320 --> 00:13:38.720 Let me encourage you by a couple of things. 00:13:39.679 --> 00:13:54.399 When we come into the light and we see the light shining upon us spiritually speaking, one of the things that we realize as we look down is that actually Jesus has truly made us clean. 00:13:56.559 --> 00:14:11.279 In the darkness, we we think that we still bear the guilt and shame and defilement of our sin, but when we come into the scrutiny of his perfect light, we realize that Jesus actually has made us white like snow. 00:14:12.559 --> 00:14:18.720 Come, let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as wool. 00:14:19.200 --> 00:14:22.159 Though they be red as crimson, they shall be white as snow. 00:14:22.399 --> 00:14:26.480 The light of the gospel makes you realize that God has made you clean. 00:14:27.200 --> 00:14:34.320 The other thing, to encourage you, is that you can think that it's a very vulnerable thing, that it's that it's you alone standing in. 00:14:34.480 --> 00:14:48.559 But let me tell you that when you come into the light, that is, when you trust in the Lord Jesus, when you put your faith in him and step in and see that cleansing, the other thing that happens is you look to either side of you and you realize that everybody else is there. 00:14:49.200 --> 00:14:58.240 That you're part of a new community, a new society, a new family of those who have been bought by God's own blood. 00:14:59.279 --> 00:15:07.120 And so we step into the light with courage, the courage that God supplies, and we stand shoulder to shoulder with one another. 00:15:07.919 --> 00:15:12.639 Experiencing the new birth makes us act differently. 00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:18.799 It also means that through the Christian life, I mean, we're not immediately sinless, oh, that that would be the case. 00:15:18.879 --> 00:15:20.080 Wouldn't that be nice? 00:15:20.399 --> 00:15:24.000 But you've got this civil war going on in your heart? 00:15:24.320 --> 00:15:45.440 You've got this clash between your old self and your new self going on, and sometimes you lose when you realize that in those in those objective heavenly courts that Jesus has made you clean, you can come into the light with your church family and can say, I lost this week. 00:15:46.159 --> 00:15:51.840 I lost as a father, I lost as a husband, I lost as a colleague, I lost in private. 00:15:53.200 --> 00:15:54.799 But I'm coming into the light with you guys. 00:15:55.679 --> 00:15:56.720 Would you help me? 00:15:56.879 --> 00:15:58.639 Would you pray for me? 00:15:59.679 --> 00:16:01.600 Do you know what tends to happen then? 00:16:02.559 --> 00:16:03.840 People go, yeah, me too. 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:05.039 Can we pray together? 00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:07.759 Can we spur one another on? 00:16:07.840 --> 00:16:09.120 Can we help one another? 00:16:12.960 --> 00:16:14.399 We act differently. 00:16:14.960 --> 00:16:16.799 We come into the light together. 00:16:17.120 --> 00:16:22.399 Secondly, we feel differently. 00:16:22.879 --> 00:16:27.120 That is, we find joy in unlikely places. 00:16:27.679 --> 00:16:41.279 I'm sure we've all had the experience, haven't we, of seeing someone close to us, someone who we who we love, achieving something great, or to use this illustration, getting married. 00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:51.279 And you have this sense of you're their friend, and uh and maybe you're involved in the wedding party, or maybe you're you're with them when they open the envelope and they say, Oh, it's good news. 00:16:51.360 --> 00:16:54.159 I came into the I'm in the fifth percentile in my class. 00:16:54.320 --> 00:16:57.840 And there's a sense in which you're genuinely glad. 00:16:59.279 --> 00:17:05.039 And also, there's a little part of you that says, I wish it was me. 00:17:06.880 --> 00:17:08.240 I wish it was me. 00:17:10.160 --> 00:17:17.519 Sometimes people allow that I wish it was me to fester, and actually they become quite resentful. 00:17:17.680 --> 00:17:25.599 They find it hard then to find joy when God blesses other people. 00:17:27.599 --> 00:17:31.039 Others become prideful and self-obsessed. 00:17:31.119 --> 00:17:45.519 You've met those people that only ever want to tell you about their thing and how great their thing is, but they have no desire to ask you about yours because they have no desire to find joy in your life or in your ministry. 00:17:47.920 --> 00:17:50.640 There's a me monster in all of us. 00:17:52.240 --> 00:17:57.279 We're always running a feedback loop thinking, how does this make me look? 00:17:57.519 --> 00:17:59.200 What are they thinking now? 00:17:59.920 --> 00:18:01.839 Why couldn't that have been me? 00:18:04.400 --> 00:18:09.279 John the Baptist has experienced the new birth. 00:18:09.519 --> 00:18:12.559 And so he thinks and feels differently. 00:18:13.359 --> 00:18:22.079 His disciples uh come to John the Baptist and they say, Well, now that Jesus is on the scene, everybody's going to him. 00:18:22.799 --> 00:18:24.640 What's happening to our ministry? 00:18:25.119 --> 00:18:29.279 Our bottom line's being affected, your platform is being undermined. 00:18:29.599 --> 00:18:34.000 John, everybody's heading over to Jesus. 00:18:34.799 --> 00:18:39.599 Even some of your own disciples, they're they're leaving us and they're going to him. 00:18:40.720 --> 00:18:44.559 But look at John's response in verse 29. 00:18:46.640 --> 00:18:49.359 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. 00:18:49.599 --> 00:18:56.640 The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. 00:18:57.440 --> 00:19:01.599 Therefore, this joy of mine is now complete. 00:19:02.319 --> 00:19:06.160 John the Baptist says, Look, guys, I'm the best man. 00:19:07.920 --> 00:19:19.680 I derive my joy from the groom, from the fact that I'm his best friend, and that he's getting married, and that I get to be so close to witness it. 00:19:19.920 --> 00:19:21.839 That's where I get my joy from. 00:19:24.079 --> 00:19:28.640 Moreover, John here in saying this is alluding again to who Jesus is. 00:19:28.799 --> 00:19:29.039 Why? 00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:42.240 Because, well, God in the Old Testament is described as Israel's bridegroom, as the one who will love and protect and serve and care for his people, for his bride. 00:19:42.480 --> 00:19:46.319 And so John the Baptist is saying, Jesus is the bridegroom. 00:19:46.559 --> 00:19:49.359 He's the bridegroom of the people of God. 00:19:50.160 --> 00:19:57.200 And if the bride, if the bride is going out to meet him, then I rejoice. 00:19:57.440 --> 00:20:01.279 Not only that, but it completes John's joy. 00:20:01.839 --> 00:20:06.240 John's joy doesn't come from the fact that the people are at his church. 00:20:06.559 --> 00:20:10.640 John's joy comes from the fact that people are meeting Jesus. 00:20:12.559 --> 00:20:25.680 Sometimes it can be really hard to say goodbye to people from your church or from your ministry, from your sphere of friendship group, but those goodbyes, goodness knows, we have been through those goodbyes as a church. 00:20:26.240 --> 00:20:37.519 Some of you remember those more painful goodbyes, those friends that we have that we have sent off and that uh that have gone to other parts of the world, and we miss those friendships. 00:20:37.599 --> 00:20:39.599 I still miss some of those friendships. 00:20:43.440 --> 00:20:55.279 But when they leave and are still following Jesus and following his plan for their life and pursuing him, we can still have joy. 00:21:00.559 --> 00:21:04.240 How can John think like this? 00:21:05.519 --> 00:21:11.599 More importantly, uh, how does being born again help us to kill our me monsters? 00:21:11.759 --> 00:21:13.440 Well, look at verse 27. 00:21:14.720 --> 00:21:22.079 John answered, A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given to him from heaven. 00:21:22.880 --> 00:21:28.640 In one sense, John is saying here something quite broad and quite general and certainly true. 00:21:28.799 --> 00:21:31.759 He's saying that God stands behind everything that we have. 00:21:31.920 --> 00:21:34.559 He's saying, My ministry is up to God. 00:21:35.279 --> 00:21:37.039 My life is up to God. 00:21:38.240 --> 00:21:43.119 John the gospel writer puts in this little editorial note on up that John hadn't been arrested yet. 00:21:43.279 --> 00:21:45.759 It was about a few weeks before he'd going to be arrested by Herod. 00:21:45.839 --> 00:21:48.559 He's saying, Everything that's going to happen to me comes from God. 00:21:48.960 --> 00:21:50.000 And that's true for us. 00:21:50.160 --> 00:21:59.759 I mean, if we if we are Christians and we believe that we live in a genuine, genuinely theistic universe, that is, that there is a sovereign God who stands behind all things, then of course this is true. 00:22:00.799 --> 00:22:03.119 We don't receive anything except from God. 00:22:03.440 --> 00:22:10.000 Your life, your family, your home, your housemates, your career, the food that you'll eat later, it all comes from Him. 00:22:14.880 --> 00:22:19.519 But as broad as this is, we're still prone to forget it. 00:22:20.319 --> 00:22:28.319 How many times do we grumble and become discontent because we haven't gotten what we want or have some unmet desire? 00:22:28.960 --> 00:22:35.920 So we want to stand where God is, go into his place to try and achieve it and gain it ourselves. 00:22:38.160 --> 00:22:42.319 John realizes that his whole life comes from God, and so he holds on to it loosely. 00:22:42.559 --> 00:22:44.799 That's how the new birth frees you, right? 00:22:45.039 --> 00:22:56.720 If you realize that everything you have is given to you by God and kept in trust by you, that you're a steward of it, you'll hold it loosely. 00:22:57.519 --> 00:23:02.400 The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, even so, blessed be the name of the Lord. 00:23:03.359 --> 00:23:04.640 As Job said. 00:24:07.279 --> 00:24:10.079 But I must decrease. 00:24:12.079 --> 00:24:23.039 The way the world works is that we think that the more we are congratulated, the more that we are admired, the more we're followed, we think that means the more joy we'll have. 00:24:23.519 --> 00:24:25.039 Actually, that very rarely works. 00:24:25.119 --> 00:24:29.039 It tends to create uh quite insecure or prideful people. 00:24:29.200 --> 00:24:38.480 It tends to create quite anxious people because they've got to hang on to that adulation and that admiration, and that can so easily be taken away. 00:24:38.720 --> 00:24:41.519 But we think that that's what's going to bring us joy. 00:24:41.680 --> 00:24:54.559 But the way of the new birth is that the more you point away from yourself and towards Jesus, the promise of the new birth is the more joy you will have. 00:24:55.599 --> 00:24:59.039 The more you point away from yourself, the more joy you will have. 00:24:59.359 --> 00:25:05.359 The more you say, not me, but Christ, the more joy you will have. 00:25:05.519 --> 00:25:17.039 The more you make it about the bridegroom, the more you seek the flourishing of the bride, then the more gladness and joy and delight God will give you in your life. 00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:23.440 You will be more joyful the less self-obsessed you become. 00:25:29.519 --> 00:25:39.119 Our desire to live this out, and we don't live it out perfectly, but our desire to live this out goes right to the very core of who we are as a church. 00:25:40.160 --> 00:25:42.799 This is why we're seeking to plant another church. 00:25:43.039 --> 00:25:45.440 We don't want you all here long term. 00:25:45.920 --> 00:25:47.920 I don't mean that the way it sounds. 00:25:49.519 --> 00:25:59.440 We want to give away, we want to give away resources and people, we want to send out so that more people can come to know Jesus. 00:25:59.599 --> 00:26:02.000 And so that is why we're doing what we're doing. 00:26:02.079 --> 00:26:04.319 That's why we're making these plans and preparations. 00:26:04.400 --> 00:26:12.960 That's why Duncan and Becky are laboring in ways on scene on a Sunday morning to work with the launch team and to gather people in church time. 00:26:13.279 --> 00:26:19.680 And that's why we want to bless that and be to saturate that in prayer and to be behind that. 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:23.359 Because we're not about building our own platform. 00:26:23.519 --> 00:26:29.599 We're about pointing people to the bridegroom and saying, look at him, look how glorious he is. 00:26:29.839 --> 00:26:30.880 Go and follow him. 00:26:31.039 --> 00:26:34.960 And if that means going to church time, then do that. 00:26:36.480 --> 00:26:38.559 That's the kind of posture that we want. 00:26:38.720 --> 00:26:46.400 And brothers, sisters, particularly if you are members here, keep us, your leaders, accountable to that. 00:26:47.920 --> 00:26:48.799 How are we doing it? 00:26:48.880 --> 00:26:50.960 Pointing away from ourselves and pointing to Jesus. 00:26:51.119 --> 00:26:55.440 How are we doing it and not just and not just growing our own ministry? 00:26:57.680 --> 00:27:05.440 But seeking to magnify the fame of the bridegroom all over the city of Dublin and perhaps even beyond. 00:27:08.319 --> 00:27:13.920 We feel differently because we find joy in unlikely places. 00:27:14.079 --> 00:27:16.640 We find joy in loss. 00:27:19.039 --> 00:27:19.680 Finally. 00:27:20.559 --> 00:27:28.160 So we're acting differently because of the new birth, we're feeling differently because of the new birth, and now we finally think differently. 00:27:28.640 --> 00:27:29.279 Why? 00:27:30.480 --> 00:27:34.000 Because we see God and humanity differently. 00:27:34.880 --> 00:27:46.559 Verse 31 to 36, John the gospel writer, essentially what he does in these last five verses is he summarizes the themes from the whole chapter. 00:27:46.720 --> 00:27:54.720 And so I'm gonna quickly just draw out four things from these five verses that help us to think differently. 00:27:54.960 --> 00:28:00.480 First of all, what we think is that Jesus is above all. 00:28:01.039 --> 00:28:05.119 Not us, not anyone else, not our spouse, not our lover. 00:28:05.359 --> 00:28:06.880 Jesus is above all. 00:28:07.519 --> 00:28:26.880 Before becoming Christian, before becoming a Christian, there are so many things clamoring and competing for our attention, so many different authorities speaking into our lives, constant voices telling us who we are, who we should be, expectations that we need to live up to. 00:28:29.359 --> 00:28:36.480 When we experience the new birth, we realize the seat of final and ultimate authority. 00:28:37.039 --> 00:28:39.599 Remember when Jesus came to Nicodemus? 00:28:39.839 --> 00:28:46.960 Sorry, remember when Nicodemus came to Jesus and Jesus says to him, I could speak of heavenly things. 00:28:47.519 --> 00:28:48.000 Why? 00:28:48.240 --> 00:28:50.799 Because he is the one who has come from above. 00:28:51.119 --> 00:28:53.039 And so he is above all. 00:28:53.359 --> 00:28:58.000 He is in the place of supreme, final, and ultimate authority. 00:28:58.240 --> 00:29:02.000 We live out of the identity that He has given us. 00:29:02.720 --> 00:29:05.440 He is the one who declares who we are. 00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:12.400 He declares that we are forgiven, redeemed, adopted, children of the Father. 00:29:13.359 --> 00:29:16.400 He declares that over your life. 00:29:17.759 --> 00:29:20.880 Why would we run after any other opinion? 00:29:22.400 --> 00:29:36.160 Why would we let other opinions gnaw away at our soul when because of the new birth, the only opinion of you has already been declared? 00:29:36.559 --> 00:29:42.480 It was declared on a hill far away, some 2,000 years ago. 00:29:44.079 --> 00:29:52.240 And so we receive our identity, we do not achieve it, we listen to his voice and follow his lead. 00:29:52.559 --> 00:29:58.079 He is above all because he is from above. 00:30:00.960 --> 00:30:05.839 Secondly, because of the new birth, we believe that God is truthful. 00:30:07.359 --> 00:30:09.519 Have a look down at verse 32. 00:30:10.319 --> 00:30:15.200 He bears witness to what uh he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. 00:30:15.359 --> 00:30:20.799 Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. 00:30:21.440 --> 00:30:25.839 It seems like a weird way of talking, but really it means this. 00:30:26.079 --> 00:30:33.680 Back in the garden, our first parents in Eden, they believed that God was a liar. 00:30:34.160 --> 00:30:44.160 They believed that God was a killjoy, that he was holding back their best life, that he was stopping them from living into their full potential. 00:30:44.400 --> 00:30:50.160 And ever since then, we, humanity, have believed that lie. 00:30:50.640 --> 00:30:52.319 We're still believing it. 00:30:52.559 --> 00:30:59.359 That God won't love us as much as this thing or that thing or this person or that person. 00:30:59.519 --> 00:31:06.319 We believe that God won't be good to us, that he doesn't want our joy, that he doesn't want our flourishing. 00:31:06.559 --> 00:31:13.519 We believe that God is actually against us, that he is a stern and grumpy father. 00:31:15.759 --> 00:31:17.680 We believe those lies. 00:31:18.880 --> 00:31:27.119 So John says, people don't receive the testimony of Jesus, the testimony of the love of God that sent him into the world. 00:31:27.839 --> 00:31:30.960 That all who believe in him should not perish but have eternal life. 00:31:31.119 --> 00:31:32.720 People don't receive that. 00:31:33.039 --> 00:31:37.680 Don't you feel that in your interactions with people who don't know the Lord Jesus? 00:31:37.759 --> 00:31:42.000 It feels like those things bounce like bullets off a Kevlar vest. 00:31:47.680 --> 00:31:51.839 The new birth helps us to think differently. 00:31:51.920 --> 00:31:54.880 It opens our eyes, it opens our ears. 00:31:55.759 --> 00:32:02.960 And so we go from believing that God is a liar to believing that God is faithful and true. 00:32:03.039 --> 00:32:05.200 That's what verse 33 means. 00:32:05.519 --> 00:32:16.480 Sets his seal to this is it confirms this reality that God is true, that God speaks the truth to you. 00:32:20.319 --> 00:32:24.720 And so we trust him, and our trust is never broken. 00:32:26.880 --> 00:32:31.759 The third thing that the new birth helps us to realize is that Jesus isn't just a prophet. 00:32:32.720 --> 00:32:34.000 Verse 34. 00:32:36.640 --> 00:32:49.519 For he whom God sent has sorry, for he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. 00:32:50.240 --> 00:33:02.960 The Jews believe that the reasons why the prophets of old in the Old Testament spoke the words of God is because they were given a portion, a measure of the Spirit of God. 00:33:04.079 --> 00:33:11.359 But here we're told in verse 34 that Jesus receives the Spirit without measure. 00:33:13.519 --> 00:33:14.960 How can that be? 00:33:15.920 --> 00:33:21.039 That Jesus would receive the infinite, eternal spirit. 00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:25.279 Only if he is the infinite and eternal son. 00:33:25.920 --> 00:33:33.440 Here we're beginning to we're beginning to glimpse the tip of the Trinitarian iceberg in John's gospel. 00:33:33.680 --> 00:33:38.720 That will be on part more in John 5 and uh in just a couple of chapters' time. 00:33:39.200 --> 00:33:41.200 But do we see what's going on? 00:33:42.079 --> 00:33:44.559 Who's involved in the new birth? 00:33:44.880 --> 00:33:52.480 God in sending his son, the son in willingly going and perishing, that you might have eternal life. 00:33:52.640 --> 00:34:05.440 In God the Father giving the Spirit to the Son without measure, so that he might truly and perfectly speak the words of God, that he might be the full and final disclosure of who God is. 00:34:05.599 --> 00:34:10.000 And so the words of the beginning of the book of Hebrews is true. 00:34:10.800 --> 00:34:24.719 That many times and in various ways God spoke to our forefathers by the prophets, but now in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed as heir of all things. 00:34:27.360 --> 00:34:33.679 And after making atonement for sin, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. 00:34:37.280 --> 00:34:47.519 We believe that Jesus is set apart from the prophets, from the religious leaders, from those who would claim divine insight on authority. 00:34:48.239 --> 00:34:58.639 He is the one who is able to bear the full, unmitigated, unbounded measure of the Spirit. 00:35:00.079 --> 00:35:08.239 And so He is the full, true, and final revelation of the character of God. 00:35:11.039 --> 00:35:11.679 Finally. 00:35:13.920 --> 00:35:20.800 The new birth helps us to realize that the world isn't full of good people and bad people. 00:35:27.280 --> 00:35:30.880 Look at the last phrase of verse 36. 00:35:32.639 --> 00:35:36.880 But the wrath of God remains on him. 00:35:39.199 --> 00:35:52.559 The wrath of God in the Bible, sometimes we kind of trip up on this term or even thinking about it, but the wrath of God in the Bible is not some divine temper tantrum, the way some toddler might uh might throw his toys out of the pram. 00:35:53.199 --> 00:35:57.679 Some of you, some of us say, know exactly what that's like. 00:35:58.559 --> 00:36:00.079 It's not like that. 00:36:02.239 --> 00:36:09.679 No, the wrath of God is his settled anger and opposition towards sin and injustice. 00:36:10.159 --> 00:36:14.559 And we want a God like that because it comes from his love. 00:36:15.280 --> 00:36:22.159 It is because God loves humanity that he is angry when we harm one another. 00:36:22.400 --> 00:36:26.960 It is because God loves us, that he is angry when we harm ourselves. 00:36:27.840 --> 00:36:46.719 If you've ever interacted with somebody who is caught in addiction, and they and they're continuing to manipulate and to lie and to steal, one of the feelings that you have towards them is you actually become angry, not because you hate them, but because you love them and you would say, Won't you stop? 00:36:48.159 --> 00:36:53.840 It is as a consequence of your love that your anger is aroused, do you see? 00:36:56.960 --> 00:37:02.079 God is committed to righting the injustices of the world. 00:37:02.159 --> 00:37:03.360 And you want a God like that. 00:37:03.440 --> 00:37:14.159 You don't want a God who will look at the suffering that has befallen you, the sin and the wickedness that has been perpetrated against you, and go, hey, it's alright. 00:37:14.480 --> 00:37:16.480 I'm just gonna let him go. 00:37:16.639 --> 00:37:18.079 I'm gonna let her off. 00:37:18.559 --> 00:37:27.119 You don't want a God who's going to wink at injustice, you want a God who's committed to justice, who's angry at sin. 00:37:28.719 --> 00:37:30.880 And that is why he sends Jesus. 00:37:31.119 --> 00:37:36.880 Jesus comes to face divine justice in our place. 00:37:41.039 --> 00:37:49.760 And in order to escape that divine justice and have eternal life, what we do is we believe. 00:37:50.639 --> 00:37:54.000 We look to the sun lifted up on that cross. 00:37:55.199 --> 00:37:58.239 Faith gives us life, eternal life. 00:38:00.320 --> 00:38:06.880 It assures us that we will never face the judgment of God on that last day, that we have been passed over. 00:38:10.639 --> 00:38:12.800 But that is the state of humanity. 00:38:13.679 --> 00:38:16.000 It is not good versus bad. 00:38:16.800 --> 00:38:19.519 It is bad people and Jesus. 00:38:22.000 --> 00:38:28.239 But there is a glorious reality that we have skipped over in verse 35, and with this we will conclude. 00:38:28.719 --> 00:38:35.519 Verse 35 the Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. 00:38:38.239 --> 00:38:42.079 Remember what John the Baptist said on up in verse 27? 00:38:42.719 --> 00:38:45.760 That God is giving followers to Jesus. 00:38:46.000 --> 00:38:51.360 That the reason why they're going from him and to Jesus is because God is giving them. 00:38:52.000 --> 00:38:56.559 What motivates God the Father to give those followers to Jesus? 00:38:57.440 --> 00:38:59.039 Because he loves them. 00:38:59.360 --> 00:39:04.159 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. 00:39:04.960 --> 00:39:08.719 I leave you with this thought. 00:39:09.760 --> 00:39:22.159 That if you are a believer in Jesus, you are a love gift from God the Father to God the Son in eternity. 00:39:24.239 --> 00:39:27.840 That is how precious you are to him. 00:39:29.119 --> 00:39:34.719 That he would gift you to his son because he loves his son. 00:39:35.840 --> 00:39:55.199 Imagine if you believed that, what that would do to your assurance, to your willingness to come into the light, your desire to live for him, and to find joy, not in yourself, but in him and what he has done. 00:39:55.599 --> 00:40:02.239 You are a love gift from the Father to the Son eternally.