John 3:16

8/30/26 park service. 

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So I have called this little sermon Conversing with a Pharisee. And I've preached this before, and I've called it verses in context. And anytime you whatever verse you've memorized or a story that you know, you should kind of read the Bible, read before it, read after it, and see what situation those verses are speaking in. And you know, for America, you know, John 3.16 is such a quoted vote uh verse. And you know, I I like that verse. I love that verse. You know, I was saved, you know, through, okay, if I believe and put my trust in Christ, I'll be saved. I, you know, I love the verse. Um, but I like for America, I think Romans 10 9 should be John 3.16 because it says that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that Christ was raised from the dead, you know, on the third day, you will be saved. So, you know, America has more of a of a problem like Romans, you know, they have this whole way of life that they enjoy, they have this vortex that's just kind of sucking people in down the drain, taking them down the river, over the cliff, you know, straight to hell, but we all we care about is the thing of the things of this world. And so when Romans was written, it was like, look, you guys believe this whole certain way, and now you're about to trust in the Lord. You got to make him the Lord of your life. He calls the shots, and I think that's more of a uh uh appropriate thing to tell Americans in today and today's day and time, but in John 3.16, he's specifically talking to a Pharisee, the religious leader back in the day of you know 2,026 years ago. And I looked it up, it said there's there was probably about 6,000 Pharisees back in the day, back then, when you when you read the Bible, and guys, we only have the conversion of one in the Bible. One of those guys got uh converted, got saved. His name was Nicodemus, and he was who Jesus was telling uh, you know, for God so loved the world he gave his only son, he was telling a Pharisee. So John 3:16 is great for religious people who have been sitting in church their whole lives that you know think that they're saved, but really are trusting in their religious activity, trusting in the amount of money that they give to the church, trusting in church attendance, I mean, trusting in the fact that they teach Sunday school. I mean, Nicodemus was a religious leader, and he comes to Jesus at night, probably because he didn't want his buddies to see him there, um, because they didn't they didn't care for Jesus, they didn't like uh the thunder that he was taking um from the from the from the church. And right before I'm about to read in chapter two, Jesus went in, he went to the temple at the Passover, and the Pharisees had set up this whole system of exchange. Okay, they they would they would take this, I was finding this morning as much coin, foreign money as I have, and I'm gonna give it to the kids, but we're gonna talk a little bit about exchange rate, and we're gonna talk about why Jesus flipped those tables. Because, you know, they would they would they set up first, well, I know we use Roman money, but this is God's temple. We must convert it to Jewish money and church money because that's all that can be used here. But they allowed these people to come in and come in and just rip them off in exchange rate, you know. Well, yeah, you give me that one dollar, and you know, you you can have half of the amount for the temple tax. And so they would make all this money off of it, and then people would bring the animals that they wanted to sacrifice, but the priest would say, Oh, this one has a flaw, you can't use this one, and then go and make them buy another one that was supposedly better, but do all the exchange rates so that they would make money off of it. So that was all they cared about. And so, Jesus, of course, when he went in there and he saw that, I mean, he made the cord of whips, he flipped those tables, and he says, You are not gonna make my father's house a marketplace. So that was the Pharisees. That's what they had allowed in the temple, that's what they had done, and so in that sense, Nicodemus watched Jesus perform the miracles. He watched him do that in the temple courtyard, and he said, There's got to be something to this guy. I have got to go talk to him. One Pharisee sought Jesus out and said, I've got to hang out with this guy and have him answer some questions. So, with that in mind, when we go to John chapter 3, I'm just gonna read for a little bit and go as far as I can. Alright, so here's John chapter 3. This is the context of John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. That's verse 1. It also, you think about Nicodemus's titles. He was a he was a ruling uh person, you know, over Israel. He was a Pharisee, and his name was Nicodemus. You know, so he was one of these that when it when it was time to go to work, he put on the long flowing robes. He put on, they made their tassels one. They what they walked around and and would pray out loud, and people would just say, Boy, those Pharisees, they sure are, they sure are religious. They sure do love God. Look how they pray all the time. And it was really just a way for them to walk around and the people to look at them and say, Boy, they are so holy. I'll never be holy like that. So, you know, he had a sense of where he was that kind of person, but he was also somebody that the a ruler of the Jews. They would come and ask him for advice so he might you know direct them, lead them, guide them, you know, like a pastor does today. But his name was Nicodemus. And I thought of all the hats that I wear. I be I'm Adam the pastor, I'm Adam the math teacher, I'm Adam the bus driver, I'm Adam the husband, I'm Adam the the friend, I'm Adam the the musician, I'm and like every single one of those carries like some sort of expectation. But when do I just get to be Adam the person who comes to Jesus with all of my questions and all of my faults and all of my flaws and just ask some simple stuff? Ask him if I'm on the right track, ask him if I'm if I'm doing his will, if I'm in his will. And so that's what he's doing here. He came to Jesus at night, probably so his friends wouldn't think he was uncool. All right. And he says, Rabbi, he calls him teacher, rabbi. You know, this is how I look at you, not Lord, he's just teacher, okay? You're a teacher like me. We know you're a teacher who comes from God, for no one could perform the miraculous signs you were doing if God were not with him. Everybody acknowledged the miracles that Jesus was doing. I mean, when you get somebody sitting there for 38 years that can't walk, and he finally just says, get up and take your bed and walk, and the guy starts walking, everybody starts noticing. When he sees people that are blind and he finds different ways, put mud on their eyes, speak it into existence, go wash your eyes, and people start seeing it like messed with people, you know. So, like, okay, there is really something to that guy. He is absolutely from God. Now, so he's coming to them trying to get Jesus on their side. Look, you're a great teacher, like you really kind of need to join us, you know, because you know, with your power, you know, we could make the church so wealthy and so unstoppable. Jesus just absolutely demolishes his religious argument right there. He says, I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he's born again, which means born from above. And Nicodemus is just like he finally turns into Nicodemus the person because he says, How can a man be born when he's old? Nicodemus asks, surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born. He's like, this doesn't even really make sense, okay? But Jesus answered, I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he's born of water and the spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, you must be born again. The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you can't tell where it comes from or where it's going. So it is with everyone born of the spirit. He says, Look, you gotta be first born of water. You gotta be cleaned up by me. And that is any of us who have ever said, Lord, will you forgive me of my sins or you wash me in the blood? I want to be forgiven. I want to be made clean. I want to enter your kingdom. I don't want to be like everybody else, you know, because wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and most people are going to hell. I want to be on the narrow way that leads to life. I want to put my trust in you. You've got to be born of water. Baptism represents that when you ask for forgiveness. You know, you you the old person has died, comes up clean, and walks this brand new life in the Lord. It's death, burial, resurrection. You know, it's it's it's everything it means. And he says also of the spirit. You need the spirit planted inside of you. It's like the wind. You see like the direction it's going, but you don't really know how it works. And when you're born of the spirit, you have Jesus inside you guarding your heart, your mind when you're about to go someplace that you know you ought not go, when you're about to see something, you ought not see. You've got him in here leading you and guiding you and directing you. And what a wonderful thing that we have. You have to be born of water and of the Spirit. Okay, and Nicodemus is still like, how can this be? He's still asking questions. He said, You're Israel's teacher, said Jesus, and you don't understand these things. I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but still, you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things, and you don't believe. How then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone to heaven except the one who came from heaven, the Son of Man. Okay? So let's kind of stop there because I was really trying to think of this. Like, what kind of illustration could we get that would help us understand? And I think God kind of showed me this. Like, imagine if we were all like still in utero, you know, our our mom's pregnant and we're still inside. And imagine we could talk and we could converse. Now it's completely dark, it's kind of always the same temperature, but then what if somebody told us about this outside world? You'll hear sounds like that. You'll see green. Well, what's green? You'll see these trees growing up out of the ground. They're really tall, like 40 feet. What a tree. What's 40 feet? What does that even mean? Well, you're about to go into this whole new world where you can feel warm and cold. You'll be able to hear things, see things. You know, that woman that you hear talking all the time, she's got a face. Well, what's a face? Like, you're about to enter this new world, you're gonna be born into this new world. And you know, you can talk about the good things, you can talk about the bad things, and some people might be like, Well, I don't believe that. This is all there is, you know, this is it. You know, there's no real world out there that we go to. Well, then you're actually born into that world and you found out it's all true. I see it. Wow, they're really I I know what a tree is now, I know what all that is. Well, in that same way, right now, we're in utero in the process of being birthed into our heavenly kingdom forever. You know, when we were inside of our mom's, oh yeah, yeah, you're gonna be in here for about 10 months, and you're gonna be in the world anywhere from zero months to 80 years. Who knows how long you'll get? Well, I don't know if I believe that. I don't even know what a year is. You know, you could take that attitude, but then you're like, well, in this 70 years, hopefully that you get here on this earth, you need to receive the Lord because you're gonna be birthed into this new kingdom that lasts forever. And if you're washed, if you're born of water and you're born of the Spirit, you get to be with God forever and keep the good things going. Though there's a place you can go where nobody will ever get sick, nobody will ever die, there's no sin in that place, everything gets renewed, it's gonna be so beautiful, it's gonna be wonderful. And we got people now. I don't believe that. I don't I don't think that's true, you know, but he he tells us if you're born of the water and the spirit, you will see the kingdom of God. Now, since Nicodemus was a teacher and he wasn't getting that explanation, he said, I'm gonna give you an explanation that you know. Okay? Here's one because you've memorized the Old Testament, you know the things of the Old Testament. Here's you an example. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. Okay, so I'm gonna go back to Numbers chapter 21. Now, we may have to read it because we don't know it, but Nicodemus would have known this. Okay, so Numbers 21 and verse 9. Check this out, okay? 21 verse nine. Uh actually, I'm gonna start in verse 4. They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea to go around Edom, but the people grew impatient on the way. They spoke against God and they spoke against Moses, and they said, Why have you brought us out of the out of out of Egypt to die in the desert? There's no bread, there's no water, and we detest this miserable food. Now, this miserable food literally showed up on the ground for them every day when they got up. Absolutely amazing. But they got tired of it, and they didn't like wandering around in the desert anymore, and they didn't like God's provision. Look what the Lord did. He sent venomous snakes among them. They bit the people, and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us. So when Moses prayed for the people, the Lord said to Moses, Make a snake and put it up on a pole. Anyone who is bitten can look at it and live. So Moses made a bronze snake and put it on a pole. Then, when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived. Okay, so they were bitten by sin. And listen, every single one of us has been bitten by sin. Just because of what Adam and Eve did back in the garden, we have inherited spiritual cancer and we have been bitten. Okay, and he's finally telling Nicodemus. They said, Do you remember in the Old Testament when they started complaining and getting bit by snakes and they were all about to die? Yeah, well, Moses had to build this snake, this bronze snake, and as long as everybody looked at it and trusted in it, then they they were healed and they got to move on with life. If they didn't, then they just died. Okay? He said, That's what I'm about to do. I am about to be lifted up on the cross. Everybody who has ever been bitten by sin, which is everybody who looks at the cross and sees that Jesus is giving his life for their sin and asks for forgiveness and asked for their sin to be covered and is washed, born of water, they will be saved. They'll be saved. For and then right after that verse is John 3 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned. But whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the God's one and only Son. This is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light, because their deeds are evil. Everyone who does evil hates light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God. He's like, just like that whole serpent thing, this is how people are gonna get saved. Now, the crazy thing about that number story is that people, instead of trusting in God, started literally just worshiping that pole, the serpent. They're like, oh well, this saved people from their sin. And they carried that thing for years and decades, and like they started worshiping it. And here's how we know because when you go to 2 Kings chapter 18, I'm just gonna read this. So this is years, maybe even centuries after that. And look at what this what this reads. This is 18 verse 4. Alright. It says that this king, Hezekiah, did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done. He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones, and cut down the ashera poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time Israel had been burning incense to it. It was called Nehushtan. So people started like, oh, we're just worshiping this little bronze snake, and that wasn't the point. The point was that you were bitten by sin. You look at the snake to be uh cleansed, to be saved, and then you move on with life. You don't keep worshiping the snake. All right. So, Nicodemus hears this story. We don't really know that he says, you know what? I want to be born in the of the water and the spirit right now, Lord. Will you save me? I want to be saved, I want to be part of the kingdom of heaven. But we kind of do. And this is so cool because we get to piece his life the rest of his life in the Bible together. Okay? So remember that was Nicodemus who just heard all that. When you go to John chapter 7, verse 50, this is so cool to me. Okay. John 7 verse 50. The temple guards went back to the chief priests and Pharisees who asked them, Why didn't you bring Jesus in? No one has ever spoke the way this man does, the guards declared. You mean he's deceived you also, the Pharisees retorted. Has any of the rulers of the Pharisees believed in him? And the answer is no, as far as they know. No. But this mob that knows nothing of the law, there is a curse on them. Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier, who was one of their own number, asked, Does our law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he is doing? And they replied, Are you from Galilee too? Look, you'll find that a prophet doesn't come out of Galilee. So I just love that Nicodemus, even in front of all the other Pharisees, is like, How about we at least look into it further? Because he knows that he did. He knows he went and talked to Jesus. And he's like, Oh, we're all bitten with sin. We need forgiveness, we need to be washed of water and of the Spirit. All we do is care about the laws. And I mean, they made laws. To keep the laws. I mean, it was it was crazy the things that they did to uh to try to justify themselves before God. And then there's one more that I'm gonna finish with this. This comes from John chapter 19, verse 38. And this might be my favorite one. It says, after Jesus died and they took him off the cross, it says later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now, Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. So I love the Lord, but I'm not really doing it in public. Okay, but Joseph of Arimathea wanted the body. He wanted to take care of the body because he loved him. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 75 pounds. Taking Jesus' body, the two of them wrapped it with the spices and strips of linen. This was in accordance to Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid because it was the Jewish day of preparation, and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. So I imagine everybody, you know, this was a big deal, and they had to do this in front of everybody. And Nicodemus, who went to see him at night, figured out how to be a part of the kingdom, is telling his Pharisee friends the best he can. How about we really look into it? And they're like, no, you know, we know we know this guy is not from God. This is not true. Nobody comes from Galilee. He's trying with his friends, okay? And then at the very end, they're like, that's Jesus' body. They're just gonna chunk him into some tomb. There's no way we're gonna take care of him. So, and hopefully, in front of his friends, in front of the other Pharisees, they go and they carefully prepare that body because they love him. Okay? So I think this teaches us so much. For one, maybe we have been forgiven. We have asked the Lord to forgive our sins and come into our lives. But you know, maybe we also need to say, Lord, I want to be born of the Spirit. You know, I want to be born again. Will you give me everything I need to be a part of your kingdom? Let me think what I need to think, know what I need to know, discard what I need to discard my old life because Nicodemus did. I don't know if that was like three years or one year in between all that, but he he began to grow in the Lord and he began to care about the Lord and he began to love the Lord. And that's my prayer for each one of us that we will learn to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, and all of our strength. So, Lord God, I want to thank you just for this message, just for the ability to be able to read your word. And Lord, take it to heart, because there was a time I did not care about any of this. I cared about what the world offered. I cared about people that that hated you, that that sung about sin, that sung about uh sung about diving into the things that that you hate, Lord. Immorality and evil and violence, Lord. I I loved that stuff. And then still tried to put on a face like I loved you too. But I want to thank you, Lord, that I feel like when I was 16, you washed me in water. I asked for forgiveness of my sin. But sometime around 20, Lord, you you filled me with the Holy Spirit, Spirit, and I began to care about what you want more than what I want. And even though I've messed it up countless times, you've convicted me. You've helped me to make it right the best I can, Lord. I am not coming to stand before you when I die based on my own merit and my own efforts. I'm coming to you based on what the Bible says, that I have put my trust in you. I have looked on the cross just like those people bitten by the snake looked at Nehushtan and were cleansed and lived, Lord. I'm looking at the cross now and asking you to forgive me and wash me and make me pure all over again so that, Lord, when I open my eyes, Lord, let me just be as clean and as pure as I possibly can, because there's no reason for any of us to leave here unclean. All we have to do is say, Lord, will you wash me right now? I want to be a part of your kingdom. Help me forsake this world that's got such a hold on me, and help me to walk in your ways, Lord. Give me all that I need to follow you for the rest of my days. In Jesus' name. Amen.