The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 5: Love Sacrifices

Episode Date: October 22, 2017

God LOVED so God GAVE. If you BELIEVE, you RECEIVE eternal life.

Amen, amen. How we do it? Church, doing all right? Everybody's looking good. Not as good as Tony in that vest, though. Let's be honest. You wish you could pull that off. I would not advise it. But he wears it well. Hey, if you got your Bibles, grab them. We're going to be in 1 John and Big John. First John is smaller. It's towards the back of the Bible. We'll be in 1st John 316, and then we'll back up to Big John, the Gospel of John, and go to John 316. So we'll be in both of those places. The reason that we show you that video is because of a little less than two. years ago, our church began this two-year journey, and it was primarily a discipleship journey to ask this fundamental question that every single one of us should ask. What is the most important thing in your world? What is number one? What is before all things in your life? And we have been diving in and digging into the scriptures for this last two years to put on display the glory of God for the whole world in this fundamental truth that Jesus, that Jesus, is before all things, that he is preeminent. And so we are seven weeks away from the culmination of the before all things.

It did include a generosity initiative. And so for those of you that committed and pledged, praise God, and thank you, and finished strong. But it wasn't primarily about that. It was primarily about just declaring individually in our lives and then corporately together as a church that Christ is before all things. And so over the next seven weeks, as we kind of count down towards that culmination Sunday, we would just be celebrating some of the things that God has done in us, through us, and to us. And a part of the reason we're digging into what we're digging into now, this Love Your Neighbor series, that for us to love our neighbors, it is a result of putting Christ before all things.

You see, when we kicked off this series, a lawyer comes up to Jesus and says, hey what's the most important commandment in all of the scriptures and jesus answers by quoting the shaman and a verse from leviticus 19 and he says this is it this is the number one thing of all things that we are to love the lord our god with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind and all of our strength and the second one is like it in other words if you do that one then you got to do this one so it's like one a and one b and the second one is like it love your neighbor as yourself So the whole thing that has fueled our love for our neighbor is first and foremost God's love for us. And so we're finishing up this series today.

And so let me just do a little recap real quick. So 1 John 316 kind of recaps this whole love your neighbor idea. It says this, by this we know love. That he, that's Jesus, that Jesus laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brother. the foundation of our love for our neighbor is the cross. By the way, way, way to go church yesterday, loving our neighbors all around our city. We had thousands of people all over the city, serving like crazy. And there's nothing like spattering applause on a Sunday morning to display the glory of God. I was there. It was amazing. All right. So get better at that. But great job. So the reason

that we did that, you didn't lay down your life yesterday, but you laid down your Saturday morning. And it is a picture of Christ laying down his life for us. And the reason that we ought to love our neighbor is because of Christ's love for us. If you keep going in 1 John chapter 3 and you get to verse 23, he says this, and this is his commandment. Now what's interesting here is that John is going to sort of quote the great commandment that Jesus quoted, but he's going to sort of, he's going to change it just a little bit. Jesus said, the first commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mine is straight. The second one is like it. Love your neighbor is yourself. And then John says, and this is his commandment, talking about that commandment Jesus was talking about,

that we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ and love one another just as He commanded us. So if you were to ask, how do I love the Lord, my God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength? John would say the way that you do that, the way you accomplish that is that you believe, that you trust in Jesus, that you trust in the name of Jesus. That is how we love. And when you do that, when you have a relationship with Jesus, when you have received the love of God towards you, then and only then are you fully equipped to be able to love one another. Because you cannot be a source of love if you don't have a source of love. I heard a guy tell a story about a friend of his that went scuba diving.

And this was, and I'm not a scuba diver, so I'm not a scuba diver, so I am. I'm going to totally mess up all of the details, so don't email me, okay? And I'm not going to go scuba to dive with you, so I'm not. And here's why. This girl goes on the scuba diving trip, and it was like this little kind of fly-by-night ghetto scuba in the Caribbean islands, pay $30,000, do a 30-minute video with somebody else's equipment, and then you're under the sea, all right? And so she goes, she sits down, she watches the little video.

She has had some experience in this, according to the guy that I know. And what they did to keep people from drowning is they would just pair people up as swim buddies. And in the video, they gave you some different hand signals for you to, you know, like a third base coach. If you're drowning, then you just motion at your swim buddy, give them the signals, and then you guys can share the little air thing and slowly ascend back to the top of the water, right? And so sure enough, they watched the video, they cut them loose. the bottom of the sea, and they're just, you know, doing whatever they do. Oh, there's a fish, and I see you.

You know, it's that thing. Well, it's a young single girl and a middle-aged man, and they're the swim buddies. And the middle-aged man underwater panics. And I don't know if something was wrong with his oxygen tank and all of that or what, but he panics. And so, out of nowhere, he swims over to the girl, and he just begins to shake her. To which she thinks, this was not in the video, okay? you're supposed to give me the like steel third base something like we've we've worked this out before but he doesn't do any of that he just begins to shake her in a panic why because he has no source of

life for him and he knows that she does have a source of life so he's going to try to take her source of life and he does so she pulls that little thing out of her mouth and boom sticks into his and so and he's not sharing it's not like a little bit for me a little bit for you it's just all for me don't worry about you okay and then he's trying to climb her to get to the top it doesn't work that good. It just pushes her to the bottom, bottom, bottom. So meanwhile, she needs air. So she's like, you know, Rocky Bobboa, body bow, body bow, trying to get this back. They're in this tussle under the water. And then in a panic, he just grabs her and as fast as he can swims to the top. They get the bends, they get very sick. That's the end of the story. Now, some of you think,

what does that have to do with anything? First of all, has that ever stopped me from telling a story before? No. But the reality is this, if I have a source of life, I can be a source of life, but if I lack a source of life, then I must use you for life. This is the essence of love your neighbor. If you don't have the inexhaustible source of life that is the one-way love of God towards us, then when we get in relationships with other people, then we will begin to try to use, abuse, do whatever we need to, to these people to gain life for ourselves. And John says, no, no, no, that's not how it works.

You see, if you love God because he first loved you, then you have this inexhaustible resource that is love so that you can love one another. Why? Because he first loved us. And so you ask, okay, well, how do I do that? Well, if you keep going in 1st John, you get to chapter 4 versus 9 and 10, this is what he says here, 1 John 4, 4, 9, and 10. And in this, the love of God was made manifest.

The Greek for that word manifest, it's the same as the word light. So in other words, he's going to say, this is how God make the light come on for you to be able to see his love. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. Verse 10, in this is love. Not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Say propitiation. You've gotten so much better over the years. So I'm like preacher happy right now. Way to go. You know this. If you're a regular here, we study this word all the time because it matters a bunch.

It's also, by the way, while we use the ESV version of the Bible because it doesn't skip over theological terms like propitiation. Propitiation is a word that you should know. And don't give me this like, I'm not good with big words. Whatever, man.

You order a caramel mocky. And if you can do that, you can know propitiation. And if you're a grown man, you should be drinking coffee black. See the stand up and act like men series, all right? And if you've stooped and ordered a pumpkin spice latte, Pastor Britt, then you really, really, he confessed it in a staff meeting like he'd done something wrong because he had. All right, so anyway, propitiation means a payment that satisfies, but you need to know where the word comes from. You see, gives the law to Moses and literally carves into stone the Ten Commandments. And it's evident very, very quickly that all of us break all of the commandments. And so when the nation of Israel builds the

temple inside this room, inside this room, inside this room, they build this special little room called the Holy of Holies. And in the Holy of Holies, there's a box called the Ark of the Covenant. And in the Ark of the Covenant is the Law of God. And the only people that are allowed in that special little room are people that have perfectly obeyed God's law, which so far is a big fat, none of us. And then one time a year, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest would cleanse himself, would sanctify himself, and then he would go into the Holy of Holies, and he would shed the blood of a lamb, and he would take the blood of the lamb, and he would sprinkle it over the top

of that box. And on the top of that box, it had a lid on it, and that lid was called the mercy seat. The hylisterium is the Hebrew word, which literally means propensity. He would take the blood of the lamb and he would sprinkle it over the propitiation to show the nation of Israel, to show God's people, that when God looks down on us, he does not see his broken laws, but he sees the blood of the lamb as a covering over the broken law. So when John, when John is describing Jesus, he says, but it's not that we loved him, but he loved us and sent him. his son to be a covering for our sin, a propitiation for our sin. That when Jesus died on the cross and he says, it is finished, that means that his blood covered over our sin.

And so the reason that I define perpetuation as a payment that satisfies is this, is that when God looks at you, if you are in Christ, he sees you as he would see Christ, that he sees you as perfectly satisfying the perfect law of God. which means if Jesus perfectly satisfied the law of God and you were in Christ, then God can't be dissatisfied in you. A part of the reason you have a hard time loving your neighbor and me too is because you think God's frustrated with you. You think God's disappointed in you. That you think God's just a little bit, just kind of mildly aggravated with, now he's stoked over you this morning because here you are. But part of the reason you hear is cousin last night and he knows.

And you're like, ugh. And the problem with that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. You see, when Christ shed his blood on the cross, if we surrender our lives to Christ, then we are seen by God. Because Jesus is the perpetuation for our sin, then he cannot be dissatisfied in us that God sees us just like he would see his perfect son.

And when we know that kind of love, when we have that kind of inexhaustible resource of love, of a loving Heavenly Father towards us, then and only then are we able to be a conduit of that love, to love one another. And so, the best description I know of, of that one-way love, that God initiating love, is found in one of the most famous Bible verses in the whole Bible. This is John, chapter 3, verse 16. So flip over there, and we're going to, I'm going to show you from the text how God initiates that kind of love. It says this, and Chapter 3, verse 1.

It says, now, there was a man of the Pharisees. Now, you've got to know who the Pharisees are. You see, the Pharisees, that's a word that means separated. That's just what the word means. And the Pharisees, they were like Bible guys. They were religious people. And they believed that a Messiah was coming. The reason is because the whole Old Testament says a Messiah is coming.

And it gives us a bunch of rules and a bunch of laws. But it's a bunch of ways to keep your eyes wide open to know when the Messiah, the anointed one, God incarnate shows up on this earth. And here's what the Pharisees thought. They believe that if they knew their Bible better than anyone else, if they could keep themselves ceremonially clean, that when the Messiah actually showed up that they would be the very first people to recognize the Messiah. Now, you ever notice this? The Bible says that God is love, yet in my life and probably yours, the most religious people I know. are most often the least loving people that I know.

You ever notice that? And in fact, some of the most loving people I know are like the least religious people. Like the guy that runs the smoke shop. You're like, that's the nicest guy I've ever met in my life. You should quit doing that and follow Jesus. You look like him a little bit already, so just come on in, all right? So.

And so Nicodemus is this, okay? He's a religious guy. He knows the Bible better than you and I. And he says, now there was a man of the Pharisees. named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. And this man came to Jesus by night and he said to him, Rabbi, now this is a title of respect. It goes, rabbi, we know that you were a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. And Jesus answered him. Now, by the way, did Nicodemus ask a question? No. But Jesus answers questions that he doesn't even ask.

And even though Nicodemus doesn't ask a question with his mouth, what we know is that Jesus knows the heart of every single man. And so he answers this. Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven. You see, here's what Jesus knows about Nicodemus. Jesus knows that Nicodemus is showing up, and his actual question is not whether you're a rabbi or not. His actual question is the thing that he was put on this earth for as a Pharisee. What Nicodemus really wants to know is, are you the one? Are you the Messiah?

And here's the language that a Pharisee would use. Ready? Are you the one that will establish the kingdom of God? And so Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Jesus knew exactly why Nicodemus showed up that night. Now let me tell you something real scary. Ready? Jesus knows exactly why you showed up this morning.

And for some of you, you have the exact same question. You've never asked it with your mouth yet. But you know, man, you know. Deep down in here, there's some stuff stirring around in you. And you've got some frustration in relationships, and you've got some frustrations at work, and you have good days and you have bad days, and almost everybody in Jacksonville's been to church a little bit somewhere.

but there's still something just unsettled deep in here. And you showed up today, and deep in here, you know you've got this question. And it's like, Jesus, are you really who you say you are? And he knows. He knows you're asking that question. And so what Jesus is going to do now, he's going to engage with Nicodemus, and he's going to meet him right where he is. Verse 4. And Nicodemus.

Now, when Jesus uses this born-again language, Nicodemus has no. idea what he's talking about. You see, when he hears, unless you're born again, you can't see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus is like, no, no, no, no, no. If I obey the rules, then I'll be able to see the kingdom of God. I don't know what this born again thing is. You see, Jesus is talking about a salvation that happens to you. And Nicodemus believed, no, no, no, I happen to it. That if I keep myself clean, if I obey the rules, then I'm going to be first in line to see God. And yet, he is face to face with God. He could smell the breath of the incarnate God, and he doesn't even recognize in whose presence he is. And so, Nicodemus says back to Jesus, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a

second time into his mother's womb and be born? And Jesus answers, that's just gross. It's not what he says, but he had to be thinking it, because that's the worst answer I've ever heard in my life. All right, but here's what Jesus says. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit. You see, what Jesus is saying is, if you're only born once, then you're going to die twice, but if you're born twice, you're only going to die once. That if you're born physically, we all have that in common, then we need to be reborn spiritually, and if that happens, then we're only die physically, and then we're resurrected to the newness of life in Christ. But if we

are never born again spiritually, then in essence we die both physically and spiritually. Verse seven. He says, do not marvel that I have said to you, you must be born again. And so at this point, it's obvious that the illustration just right over, right over Nicodemus's head, because he's marveling at this. He has no idea what he's talking about. So now Jesus is going to go to a second illustration. So the first illustration to describe salvation was childbirth. The second one is about the wind. Verse eight. The wind blows where it wishes. And you hear it sounds, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit.

And then, again, Nicodemus is like, he has no idea what he's talking about. And here's a part of what Jesus is saying. You know what childbirth in the wind have in common? You are not in control of either one. You were not in control. Do you remember when you were born? No. And do you know what you had to do with it?

Not much. You were just kind of there. it happened to you and you didn't get to set the date or the time you weren't like I'm ready to come out that is not how it works okay that it happens to you the same thing with the wind you can't control the wind you can't even see the wind you can see the effects of the wind but you cannot deny that the wind is blowing and Jesus is saying to this man who has lived his life in control you were not in control of this that it is initiated by the love of God and so Nicodemus is going to have some follow-up questions, and he goes, how can these things be? Which is like Hebrew for, huh? He has no idea what he's talking about. So Jesus's going to wear him out a little bit here before he answers his question, verse 10.

And Jesus answered him, you are the teacher of Israel, and yet you don't understand these things. Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know. Time out. Who's Jesus talking about? He just went from talking about I to we. Why? Because Jesus is not just a rabbi in Jerusalem. Muslim, that Jesus is the second person of the Trinity. There's one God and three persons, God the

Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And the complete Godhead is always active in salvation. That God the Father sends God the Son through the power of God the Spirit to save God's children. And so Jesus says, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen. But you do not receive our testimony. Verse 12, if I I have told you earthly things and you do not believe like wind and childbirth, then how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things like the Trinity and the justice of God and the mercy of God and the grace of God? Verse 13.

No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the son of man. In other words, Jesus is saying, I am God. Nicodemus, you are face to face with the creator and the sustainer and the justifier of life. Now what he's going to do next, what Jesus is going to do next, because Nicodemus totally whiffed on the first two illustrations, the kind of common illustrations, Jesus is going to meet Nicodemus right where he is. Now remember, I told you that Nicodemus was a Bible guy.

And I mean, he's a Bible guy like, like some of you here, you grew up in Baptist churches and praise God, and you won the sword drills back in the day, and you know what that is. That makes me laugh a little bit, all right? And you know many verses, many verses. many, I mean, you could quote verses for many minutes. You know the whole Roman road.

That's Roman 323, 623, 5, 8, and 109. You could quote them right now. You know 1st Corinthians 13. You know John 316. If you're varsity, you also know John 317, but that's kind of out there, all right? You know some verses. Let me tell you about Nicodemus. He memorized the entire Old Testament.

The only reason he didn't memorize the New Testament is because it was happening. It wasn't written yet, okay? He spent every day, all day, just memorize from Genesis 1-1 to the Italian prophet Malachi and everything in between. It's really Malacob, I think that's funny. He did. They would play, they would play like Bible nerd games. Like, I would quote a verse, and you would quote the next one, and then I would quote the one behind it.

You know, this is what they did. They knew the Bible like, like you don't even know. And listen, honestly, you, and some people are like, well, I can't memorize verses. Man, you remember what's important to you. And in fact, most of us in the room, we know every word to songs that we haven't heard since 1987. It's just true, isn't it? In fact, if I just go, ding, ding, ding, ding, then your mind goes to a place immediately. If you're older than me, you go, pressure, and if you're my age, you're younger, you go, all right, stop,

collaborating, listen. I'm right in the middle, so I got them both, all right? So that's what they did. And oftentimes they would use music to memorize the scriptures, but that's what they did. They studied and studied and studied and studied the scriptures. And so Jesus, talking to this teacher, he starts with this, you've got to be born again, and salvation is like the wind, and again, just right over his head. So now what Jesus is going to do is he's going to take the truth of the kingdom of God,

and he's going to put it down on the bottom shelf. He's going to go old school Sunday school for Nicodemus. And now he's going to use illustrations from the Old Testament that Nicodemus would be, that he would be so familiar with forward and backwards. So this is what he's doing in verse 14. He says, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up

that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. And the moment he says this, the moment he goes, Moses serpent, then boom, Nicodemus' mind immediately goes to Numbers chapter 21. He knows this event, he knows this story, he studied it over and over and over, and Jesus is using this Old Testament event. It's not like a fable or once upon a time story.

It's an actual event. And he's using this event as a parable to connect the dots for this Old Testament expert in why Jesus came. Here's what happened in Numbers chapter 21. Beginning in verse 4, it says this. From Mount Orr, I'm pretty sure the H is silent. If not, it should be. Okay, that's how we're reading it. From Mount Orr, they set out by the way to the Red Sea to go.

around the land of Edom, and the people became impatient on the way, and the people spoke against God and against Moses, why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there's no food and no water, and we lov this worthless food. Remember, they spoke against God. This is a picture of us rejecting God. God, my way is better than your way. What are you doing? It is wagging your finger in the face of God. which, by the way, is not specific just to these people. Every single one of us do this. In fact, think about this. Do you know most of your complaints were previous prayer requests?

Those kids that you complained about, you prayed to have them. Dear God, please give me a baby. He went here and what have you done? It's true. If you're married at some point in your life, you're like, dear God, please let her say yes. And then six years later, you're like, this woman you have given me. You're misquoting the Bible.

The people of God cry out as slaves in Egypt. Dear God, please save us. And he says, I have answered your prayer. And then they are complaining about his answer to their prayer. So then here comes the judgment. Verse 6. And then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people. And they bit the people so that many people of Israel died.

And the people came to Moses and said, we have sinned. For we have spoken against the Lord and against you. you pray to the Lord that he take away the serpents from us. And so Moses prayed for the people and the Lord said to Moses, make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole and everyone who is bitten when he sees it shall live. Verse 9 and so Moses made a bronze serpent and he set it on a pole. And if a servant bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. You see what's going on.

What Jesus is saying here to Nicodemus is like, hey, it's just like when Moses was the people of God. And they came complaining, and then they were snake-bitten. And I don't know if you've been snake-bitten, but if you're snake-bitten by a venomous snake, then the problem is, is you got a problem inside of you. The venom is on the inside of you. And if you've got venom in your blood, then there's nothing you can, what are you going to do about it? You could clean up the outside, you could rub some ointment on it, you could change clothes, you could take a bath, and it fixes nothing. And Nicodemus is probably thinking, that's what I've been doing my whole life. My whole life, I've been approaching God from this outside end.

I've got to obey the rules so that I will be accepted. And Jesus is giving him this illustration for the old test of going, bro, you're doing it wrong because you can clean up the outside, but it does nothing for the blood that's running through your veins. That you have to have a cure for the venom. That is your only hope. And so what you have to have is you've got to have somebody do something for you that you cannot do for you. And so Moses makes this bronze serpent and he holds it up on a pole. so that anyone that would humble themselves and say,

I can't do this on my own. I am snake-bitten. I'm a dead man walking. And my problem is going on on the inside. The heart of the problem is I got a heart problem. And I don't know what to do about this. I can't make the venom go away. That you would humble yourself and you would look up at the way that God had provided.

And then you could be saved. And the crazy thing is this. is that the problem that they had was rooted in snakes and the instrument that God used to save them was that Moses fashioned a bronze snake. In 2 Corinthians 521, the Bible says that God made Him who was without sin to be sin for us,

that we would be made the righteousness of God. That God put our sin on the cross, that if we would humble ourselves, and say, Jesus, I need a cure that only you have, then you'll be saved. You see, this is what Jesus is talking about when he says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up. And whoever, here's the word, believes, whoever, the Greek word is, Pestuo. Pestuo.

I kind of don't like that most of our New Testament English translations use the word believe, because it gets confusing to us. The word Pistuo means believe in. Trust. Trust may be a better word. Trust in. Commit your whole life into. And when I'm afraid, especially around Jacksonville, and honestly, probably at all of our campuses, there's a whole bunch of people, and you think that you have a right relationship with God because you believe that Jesus is who he says he is. That's not what that means. This word Pistuo, translated here, believe, it would be like if you're a kid standing on the diving board,

and you know you can't swim, and your dad's down there in the pool going, come on. Oh, and by the way, if you're in your 20s, there used to be these things called diving boards. They went away. I don't know why, but the world got worse when they did. So, you don't just believe that, that's your dad. Is that my dad? Yep, there he is. I know, that's him.

I kind of look like him, and he brought me here, and he's making me do this. All right, that's him. That is not belief. That is not Pistuo. That's not trusting. And he's down there going, come on, buddy, come on, I'll catch you. I got you. This word, when he says, whoever believes in him may have eternal life, that kind of word

is the kid that goes, okay, I don't just believe that you're there, dad. I'm going to trust, I'm literally going to trust my life in your hands. Because I know if you don't catch me, I can't swim. I'm going to drown. So here I go and you leap off the diving board into the hands of your father. That's what this word means. Not just believe that, but to believe in. So this is what he's saying.

He's saying, every single one of us are snakebitten. Every single one of us are snakebitten. We just wake up by nature and nurture. A part of it is because we have inherited a sin nature, and then the other part is because we gladly and willfully sin. And so we've got the venom of the enemy running through our veins, and there is only one cure. If we humble ourselves and look up to the way God made by making his son sin itself.

When Jesus says, it is finished, that that would count for anything. anybody that would say, okay, I trust you. I trust you. I can't do this on my own. And in this one verse, you see, it's called a remez. It's like a rabbinical tactic to teach a student. So he just begins this. And as Moses lifted up the serpent, and then boom, Nicodemus's mind unpackes the entire event. And he says that whoever believes in him may not, may have eternal life. And then he quotes, and then he quotes verse 16, John 316. Even if you're brain. new to church, man, you know this one or you know of this one. You've seen it, you've seen it on posters, you've seen it on bumper stickers, you've seen it on eye black, you know this one. Well,

what you might not know is that just like Jesus gave two illustrations, childbirth and the wind blowing that Nicodemus didn't understand, now he's going to give two illustrations, Moses, and then this one's about Abraham, to get Nicodemus's mind in the right place. So here's what he says. He says, for God's soul of the world that he gave his only son, that whoever, that whoever, believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. So the Rames was one rabbinical tactic to help students understand. In other words, I'll start the beginning of the verse and just like your mind goes to a song you would fill in the rest. There was another kind of rabbi trick, not trick but just tactic and it was called some

commentators will call it the proto-logos and it means first word that if you were a true student of the Torah of the scriptures, if I were to give you a significant word, then you would know the first place that word was ever used. And the first place that word was ever used was very, very important to what that word was all about. And so when Jesus says, for God so loved the world, he gave his only son. Immediately, Nicodemus, a Pharisee, an expert in the law, immediately he would go to Genesis chapter 22. And in Genesis chapter 22, we find Abraham and his son, Isaac. And it says this, and after these things, God tested Abraham. and he said to him, Abraham, and he said, here I am, and he said, take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love.

And so immediately, Nicodemus knows that what this verse is about, for God so love the world, that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life. Immediately, Nicodemus' mind goes here, and he goes, okay, I know what this is about. You're talking about a father's love. Like Abraham loved his son, Isaac. and that's just a different kind of love, man. That's just a different kind of love. I mean, I know you love your car and I know you love the Jags and I know you love your wife,

but even your love for a child, it's just different. And then automatically, Nicodemus would understand, and it's also about Abraham's trust or belief in God. You see, what's going to happen here? If you knew the Bible study, this is kind of a crazy story, but it's foundational to the whole faith of the world, is that Abraham trusted God and God credited to Abraham righteousness because of that trust.

And so when Abraham is like 80 years old, he comes to him and says, hey, I'm going to give you a son. I'm going to make you the father of many nations. He didn't have any kids at 80. And his wife laughed out loud. In fact, Abraham at first goes, how can this be? Because my wife is older than age. That's what he says. I would not suggest you say that about your wife, but it is biblical, okay?

And so he goes, how's this going to work? And for 20 years, there's nothing. And boom, they have a kid. He's 100 years old. Abraham is like a hundred when the promised child is born. And then in Genesis chapter 22, God test Abraham and says, I want you to take your son, the one that you love, your only son, only begotten son, and I want you to give him to me.

I want you to take him up on a mountain and sacrifice him. Now commentators have to spend a lot of time saying, why would God do this? And there could be a number of reasons. Maybe Abraham just believed that if he did, that God would resurrect his son, maybe that's it, or a lot of commentators say this is God once and for all saying child sacrifice is a no-go for anybody that loves God. But whatever it is, Abraham trusts God. He trusts him, even though he doesn't understand him.

See, this is a really big deal if you're going to be a Christian. You don't have to fully understand to fully believe, to fully surrender. Those are two different things. I still have a ton of questions about stuff in this book that I cannot comprehend, I cannot understand. which makes a lot of sense, right? Because I've got like a Dixie cup-sized brain standing at the Atlantic Ocean of all that God is going, I don't get it, you think?

And so Abraham, trust God, even when it doesn't make sense to him. Also, I think Nicodemus is probably thinking about Isaac surrendered to his father. You see, in Sunday school, most of the time when we teach this story, Isaac's like a little toddler kid, right? But the problem is, is as they're walking up the mountain. There's a couple of things. One, Isaac is carrying a bundle of wood. Have you ever had a

toddler help you do anything? The answer is no. Secondly, Isaac understands his surroundings and he says, Dad, we've got the fire, we've got the wood, where's the sacrifice? Secondly, have you ever had a kid under 10 years old, recognize their surroundings whatsoever? No. Which means that Isaac's probably, most commentators would say he's like a preteen or a teenager. Maybe he's 12, 16, somewhere in there. which means when the Bible says that Abraham bound Isaac and put him on the altar, that means Isaac laid his life down on the altar because he trusted his dad. You see, because at this point, that means Abraham's 115. And if Isaac didn't want to be bound, Isaac wouldn't be bound.

You know this is true, right? Parents, if you're the parent of a middle schooler, which I am, let me just give you some dad advice real quick. Before they can get you, you better get them good so that they remember that. for the rest of their days. You understand? You know what I mean? Because like me and JP, man,

we are like ships crossing in the night. He is ascending. He's getting bigger, faster, stronger. I am descending. I am getting bigger, but it ain't faster or stronger. I hit a speed bump the other day and went, oh, why is it still going? Oh, gosh.

Do I need new shocks? One of the shocks, all right? So where JP's heading, you know, he's working out and all this stuff. We're resting around right now. You know, he'll be all like, come on hit dad. Why would you do that? Stop, you know, because it hurts. So I got to get him one more time so it twists him.

Anyway, that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about Abraham and Isaac. So this is an event where Isaac, the son, trust his dad, just willfully and willingly lays his life on the altar. And so as they're walking up the mountain, Isaac says, Hey, Dad, we've got the wood and we've got the fire, but where's the sacrifice? And Abraham says, and God will provide.

God will provide. He was trusting step by step. Sometimes day by day is too long. He's trusting God step by step that God would make a way where there seemed to be no way. Then they get up there. He binds his son, lays him on the altar, and then the angel of the Lord comes and says, stop, stop. I have given you a substitute, and there's a ram stuck in the thicket. Now listen, you know what that's called?

That's a miracle. I go hunting every spare opportunity that I can with many people in many states. And you know what? I've never seen one time, and I've never heard of anybody seeing this. I've never heard of a guy going to his stand, and there's an eight-pointer with his head stuck in a bus going, I can't get out. I'm like, thank you, Lord. I know. And they did not notice the ram on the way up. It's once they get there, they look, and God has provided a substitute.

And so when Jesus says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life, he wants Nicodemus to know all of those things that happen with Abraham and Isaac are fulfilled in me. Jesus' first cousin, John the Baptist, says, Behold, the Lamb of God, who comes to take away the sin of the world. Not just cover over the sin of a particular group of people for a year, but to take away the sin of the entire world. That when Jesus died on the cross, he was the substitutionary atoning sacrifice. That he goes to the cross so that we could go free.

And Jesus says, for God so love the world. That word so is a magnifier. He could have just said for God love the world. But when you get this word so in Greek, then it magnifies the word that follows it. It means there's like a volume of love that God has and he so loved you. He didn't a little bit love you. He doesn't love you just enough. He doesn't look at you and be like, fine.

I'll fix it when you get to heaven. No, he so loves us. John would say in another place in the scriptures, oh, what manner of love the Father has lavished upon us that we have. would be called the children of God. And that's you. And if you would say to me, he can't love me because you don't know what I've done. I would say, oh, darling, listen, then you don't know what he has done for you on the cross.

He demonstrated his love for you and this, that while you were all screwed up, that Christ died for you. You know how I know? Me too. Me too. It's for God so loved the world that he gave, his only son. That word in Greek only is monogenes. Monogenes. If you transliterate it to English, it just means one gene.

Here's what, if you grew up on the King James Version, this is where you get only begotten son. But Jesus isn't begotten like he was born, like he used to not be there and then he was born. The language they were trying to communicate here is, if a cat begets a cat and a dog begets a dog, then God begets God. That Jesus is God. that he is one gene from the father. Like you're not one gene from your parents. You're half your dad, half your mom. Jesus is 100% God man.

That whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. This is good news. Because if you fall in the whoever category, then when Jesus died on the cross, that counted for you. That's what this means. You see, it counted for you if you're really, really bad. And it counted for you if you're really, really good. Nicodemus. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him

should not perish but have eternal life. And then he keeps going. Verse 17. A lot of people stop at John 316. You got to keep going. 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. And so when you hear those whispers of condemnation, you have to know that that is not the voice of God. in your life. You see, the voice of God does not bring up your past. Why? Because Jesus did not send his son into the world to condemn you. Romans 8-1 says, therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That God so loved you. No matter who you are, what you've done, where you've come from, how long you've been in church, if this is the first time you've ever rolled

up. Irrelevant. God so loved you that he gave his only son, Jesus, that whoever, that means you believes in him should not perish but have eternal life for god did not send his son into the world to condemn you but in order that you might be saved through him here's the point this is how simple it is god loved so god gave and if you believe you receive eternal life that he came to seek and save that which was lost which was us do you know why because he is god and god is love and god's love for God's self spills out into his creation. And he created you to be loved by him for the glory of God. And when we are lost, if you are lost, what would a parent do for a lost kid? Whatever it takes, right? Whatever it takes. You know how I know? I'm glad this is,

I'm glad we dedicated children today. So I'm going to show you what a horrible example of a parent I am to all of you that dedicated kids. Years ago, this is probably seven, eight, seven, six, seven years ago, something like that. It was about this time of year, and I was in Dick's sporting goods, as you should be during deer season. And I had JP with me, and he was about this tall. And we're walking up to, you know, like at upstairs they have the hunting efficient section, and so that's where I was.

And I was looking at something very important, like binoculars or a scope or guns, or I can't remember, something very God-glorifying. And every time I would look at the person behind the desk, JP would just begin to wander off. And I'd be like, bro, come here. You've got to just stay right here. Don't move. Got it, got it. And I feel like I looked at the person that works there for two seconds.

And when I look back, he was gone. He's got some kind of Jackie Chan ninja skill thing where he can just go, poof, and be in another place, all right? And so, he's gone. And so I'm like, I'm so sorry. I'll be right back. I'll go find the boy. All right. Now, in that moment, I had a set of thoughts going through my mind.

Like, when I find that, oh, man, I'm like to, you know? And so I started doing the look. You ever do the look? You ever lose your kid at a department store, right? And so, and I know some of you don't because you, like, get your kids on leashes, and that's a, you're going to pay for that in counseling one day, but that's a different thing, okay? And so the first place I go is I do, you got to, like, look under the clothes because JP would used to love to go. you've been to the stores that have like the circular clothes rat.

They're created by people that hate parents, right? And JP would love to get in there. I think he thought if I got in there, I'll be transported to Narnia, and it'd be awesome, right? So we just get in there and play. So I'm looking and I'm looking, and then I'm starting to go down the aisles. And he's got this really blonde hair, man, like Rick Flair hair. So he usually kind of stood out like a highlighter in a crowd,

but I couldn't find him. And I started asking people, like, hey, man, have you seen you, my boy, he's like just, you know, Rick Flair, this tall. And so we got folks looking and I'm going aisle to aisle. And then at the Dick's Sporting Goods at the town center, man, there's three different exits and two floors. So I am up like in a sniper position just looking down, looking for somebody scooping him to take him away and I'm just going to pounce on him, you know, like Batman or something. And so and then this like when I find him begins to shift pretty quickly to, oh Lord, let me find him. Because you know, you hear stories and your mind can just go to crazy places and it was that.

there. And so, crazy thing is back then I used to volunteer for the Jacks Beach Police Department as the chaplain. And they gave me two things. I volunteered, but they gave me two things. They gave me a uniform, which was cool, and a badge. And I don't know if it was real, but nobody else did either, okay? It was a real badge, and it said, chaplain on it. And so I didn't know what to do. So you know what you do, and you can't find your boy? You do whatever you can do. You exhaust all authority that you have, even if it's made up authority. I pulled the badge out, went to the manager, and I'm like, Jack's Beach, PD, shut her down, we got a lost kid.

Straight up. Now, is it illegal? I don't care. I don't care. And sure enough, they get on the horn and like, we got a cold, cold, cold. Now, do something. And straight up, the doors lock, the employees stand in front of the door, and they will not let people.

People are like, I got to go. I'm like, you can't leave. They block all of the exits, and then we're looking around, and then I go around the edge of the escalator, and I'd look down there before, but I hadn't lined up with it, and he was like this far away. He wanted to go down to the escalator, but he just kind of didn't know what to do. And so I come around, and I see him.

And in that moment, what do I do? Do you condemn him? No. No, you don't condemn him. Why? Because he's like four years old. He doesn't even know what he's doing. And he's lost.

And then in that second right there, man, you just scoop him up and squeeze like crazy. And then you go back to the manager and be like, crisis averted, and they're like, return to service, and everything goes. But what do you do? What do you do, man, when your child is lost? You do whatever it takes. Why?

Because I so love that little boy that I would lay down my life for him if that's what it took to seek him to save him when he was lost and hurting. And I, and I am a human. finite dad with a little tiny bit of love that God put in here by which to love my children and I would lay down my life in a second and so would you and God is an infinitely perfect father. He is a good, good father that was willing to do whatever it took to seek and to save his children when they were lost. And for God so loved the world that he didn't show a badge He sent his only son, fully God, fully man, live a perfect life, die a sinner's death on the cross,

that whosoever, that means you too, that whosoever would trust him. And say, all right, Jesus, I don't know how this all works. I still have a whole bunch of questions, but I believe, I trust that when you died on the cross, somehow that counted for me, that you would be saved. So let me ask you. You see, Jesus knew the deep heart question of Nicodemus. That's why he told him these verses. He knows your deep heart questions.

He knows why you showed up. Maybe you showed up here today because deep down in your soul, you were asking the same question that Nicodemus was asking 2,000 years ago. And maybe you're asking, are you the one? Are you really who you say you are? Can you really find me? Because I am lost. And the answer is yeah, yeah.

And then you ask, well, what do I do? It's already been done. You just believe. You just trust. You admit it. You admit it. You admit I am a sinner in need of a Savior. You believe when Christ died on the cross.

Somehow that counted for me. And in this moment, you confess him as Lord. And the Bible says, congratulations. You're back in the family. Would you please bow your head and close your eyes? And if that's you this morning, at all of our locations, if that's you, and you say, you know what? I'm tired of running. I'm tired of regret.

I'm tired of condemnation. and today I'm ready to lay it all down and be scooped up in the loving arms of my Heavenly Father through the person and work of Jesus Christ that today for the first time I believe that when Christ died on the cross that counted for me then would you lift your hand high and say Father here I am save me lift your hand high and say father here I am save me our good and gracious Heavenly Father God we love you because you first loved us not because of anything that we have done but because you are love and you demonstrated your love for us and this, that before we did anything towards you, you came on a rescue mission for us. God, I thank you that you did not come with condemnation, but you came to seek and save us. And God, I thank you that even today there's salvation in this place.

And Lord, I pray that you would remind those of us that know you, God. You would remind us of the simple gospel that you were a good, good father that came to seek and save those of us who are loss and that we would rest in that truth. And we prayed in Jesus' name. Amen. Hey, church, would you please stand as we respond? We respond in three primary ways at the end of our services. And in my opinion, what we're about to do is the most important thing of what we do. One of the ways we respond is we pray.

We pray. So let's you just come down, kneel down, and pray to your heavenly father, the king of the universe that if you're in Christ, this happens to be your day. and we bring, we bring our first and our best, our tithes and our offerings, whether you do it electronically or the giving kiosk or drop it in the box, we bring as a demonstration to God that he is before all things in our life. And we sing. We join our voices together to declare that he is before all things. So let us sing and let us bring and let us pray. Let us respond.