Advent 2019: LOVE

John 3.16

Turn to the gospel of John chapter three. I want to read this text for us this morning. We're going to be looking at John three 16. Once again, the Bible says this, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Would you bow your heads now as we pray? Heavenly father. Now what wonderful words these are for us. They're the words of life. They are the words that transformed our hearts. They're the words of the gospel, Lord, and we believe them. We know them to be true.

We know them to be true, not based on some silly philosophy, but rather because of historical events that took place. Our faith is a reasonable faith because it took place in history and so I pray now that as we spend a few moments here together that you would open the hearts certainly of those that do not know you so that they might know the love of God and that you will build your people in the strength of this love and by love and through love and with love. We will take the gospel to the world we live in. We ask these things, of course, in the name of Jesus and by the power of the Holy spirit. Amen. Christmas is a great season for for many reasons. It's a time of celebration of gifts and giving, getting together, as I'm sure you've done throughout the whole month with family and friends and there's lots of food and enjoying that through all of it. You get the time to watch some cheesy Christmas movies on hallmark. You get to enjoy yourself. For those of you that get some time off and relax and there's really a lot going on throughout the month of December. Sometimes we can miss through traditions and myths that we give ourselves to that. The story of Christmas is, is a true story. It is a love story.

It's one that took place with real people and a real God based upon real historical events. We have been saying all this month that advent means coming certainly for the church. What we're referring to is Jesus coming. This particular Sunday would obviously recognize back to the birth of Jesus Christ, but the story isn't just culminated with that God's people wait for Jesus to return and that's what makes this story so unique because it is real because it is true and for these next few moments together, I want us to consider why did, why did Jesus come? God sent Jesus his son out of love for his people and love for his creation. Next week, we will culminate the year of 2019 with a reflection of God's love for that creation. Pastor Alex will preach on the new world of the new heaven and the new earth next Sunday. It's culminated.

Our focus now is God's love for his people and we reflect on that this morning from the story that really is a nutshell of what the Bible is about in from John three 16 the gospel is good news and it's really the story of all the varied movies and books that you might read this weekend that has a a type of N's and happily ever after. It's the gospel story. The true story of the gospel is the only story that ends in, in happily ever after. Jesus. Here in John chapter three is having a conversation and what I want to do is kind of just walk us through so that you have an understanding of the essence of what the gospel is and why we celebrate Jesus coming.

Jesus is having a conversation with Nicodemus and Nicodemus is one of the great leaders of Israel, which is a theocracy. He was one of the brilliant minds of the day and he tells us some very interesting things here as we just read. He said in this conversation with Nicodemus as he's told Nicodemus that he must be born again. He said, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Jesus uses the illustration of God's love in a really, really interesting way. It's found in verse 14 Jesus says this, 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 of course the text, which is verse 16 and I want us to begin this illustration that Jesus uses because it really focuses on on the word perish that's given here. Okay, so, so hold your spot in John chapter three and turn back to the book of numbers, the book of numbers in the old Testament, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, numbers.

Jesus is illustrating God's love to Dick, Nicodemus, and he uses what I think is a very interesting illustration of his love. It comes from this conversation as Jesus tells Nicodemus, as Moses lifted up the servant in the wilderness, even so the son of man must be lifted up. This highlights for us, this account, this symbol really in the old Testament, this type or picture of the purpose of Jesus’s coming and the demonstration of God's God's love. The text in, in numbers, chapter 21 is the account where the nation, Israel is in a type of anger and complaining toward their leader, Moses. But the essence of that complaining and murmuring that sin was really directed at God. And in so doing, God sent these fiery serpents that the Bible tells us in numbers chapter 21 and they are, they're biting the people and people are dying and they're dying in their sin.

Verse six, look at numbers 21 verse six it says, 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. Okay. And as you can imagine, the terror of what's going on, he says, they acknowledge we have sinned and we have spoken against the Lord, Yahweh. By the way, those caps that you're reading in your Bible as a reference to the Lord, as Yahweh, Yahweh is the great I am. And of course we know that the great I am, that Jesus refers to his himself.

We have sinned and we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he take away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people and the Lord said to Moses, notice this with me. Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole. And everyone who is bitten when he sees it shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a certain serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live with this in mind turned back to our text to verse 14.

Jesus says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so the son of man must be lifted up. And you've probably witnessed this in this day. There are, there are signs in doctor's offices and, and certain medicines that there's a symbol of, of a snake that that's up a pole. And that's been referenced ever since. Because that symbol as in medicine is a, is a symbol of healing. Moses here is told by God to make a bronze serpent on a pole and that when the people in their sin are are bitten by these fiery serpents, he's the hold this up and when they looked to the pole with the serpant on it, they would live. Thus the text tells us that they would look and they would live. Jesus makes this comparison here. He likens that the son of man be lifted up. Now God creates this promise here of of life, and yet we kind of get all of that, but it seems kind of weird that we don't understand what, why does he use a serpent? The serpent for the people was a reminder that evil lies whenever within every one of them. And that's true here this morning, all of us sitting in, standing in this room, if we're honest with ourselves, there's an evil that's present within us because we're, we're born in sin. Jesus dies as the son of man. He is lifted up and he makes the payment for sin. He thus uses this illustration to Nicodemus, who as a PhD of the old Testament should have recognized what Jesus was talking about.

There is this present evil that lies within all of us. Jesus begins to describe now what's the remedy to it? Even so, the son of man, verse 14 must be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Jesus uses an illustration of God's love. Jesus now gives the invitation of God's love and the invitation of God's love is this, that whoever believes in him referring to Christ should not perish. They should not perish.

The Bible says that we must believe for the forgiveness of our sin. We must believe so that that evil and that sin that lies within us may be forgiven. We must believe for the salvation of our lives else we will perish if we reject God's love. Well, what is it? We must believe there are certain truths about who Jesus is that are vitally important. I want to walk us through some of them. The essence of that, that belief is that we must believe that Jesus died for sin and that he was resurrected for the forgiveness of sin. Those are the two aspects of it, but there are really other legs that stand on this that the Bible presents to us, that if the truth be known, if any one of those legs fell apart, then his death and resurrection would not mean something.

It begins for us. As soon as Adam fell in his willful rebellion against God, when he fell God out of his love, sent a promise to Adam and Eve, he did so out of love for his people. He does so out of love for his creation again, that we'll see next week. And that promise was he would send a Messiah, he would send a Christ one who would crush the serpent's head while that serpent would cause him to suffer. And as the son of man was lifted up, he suffered for sin. He suffered for your sin and for my sin.

Jesus first of all, was sent by his father. He was sent by his father. That is the reason for advent. That is the reason for the incarnation, which means God coming in the flesh. He was sent by his, his father. Jesus was born of a Virgin and it is very important that Jesus was born of a Virgin for two reasons. Number one, in Mary's case, it was proof that she was impregnated, impregnated by the power of the Holy spirit because she had never had sex with anyone else and to greater proof. It was proof that this child, this baby of Bethlehem was the God man sent by the father, and so it's very important that Jesus was born of a Virgin.

It's interesting when we think about the gospel, it isn't as if Jesus has just rushed the head to pay for salvation. No. Thirdly, Jesus has to live a sinless life and his living of the sinless life is proof that he was the God man born of a Virgin and sent by his father. Theologians call this his active and passive obedience. Jesus suffered for sin and Jesus also fulfilled all righteousness. That's why we stand condemned. That's why you know, even now, even if you haven't believed in Jesus, you know something within you is terribly wrong. You can't even measure up to your own standards, much less measure up to God's, and the truth is none of us can. None of us can.

Jesus was sent by his father. Jesus was born of a Virgin. Jesus lived a sinless life, and then Jesus died on a cross. As he tells Nicodemus, even so, the son of man must be up. He must die on a cross to save you from the present evil Nicodemus that's within you to save us from the present evil that is within you. If what if you believe you see my friends, Jesus died for believing centers and here's how you know this. For those of us that won't believe, for those of us who reject God's love, Jesus tells Nicodemus, you will perish. You will be condemned. You will be given ultimately to eternal damnation.

Jesus was sent by the father. Jesus was born of a Virgin. Jesus lived a sinless life. Jesus died a sinner's death, though he himself was sinless for our forgiveness of sin. Then Jesus was raised from the dead. The Bible tells us bringing life for those who believe upon him. There's two things. There's two legs left to this table, if you will. Jesus will one day return to judge the living and the dead, and the question that will stand before those who perish and those who have eternal life is did you reject God's love or did you receive God's love? Because only those who believe in him, Jesus says would not perish, or thirdly would have eternal life.

Jesus Christ through his life before the cross, as he journeyed to the cross, he was spit upon. He was slapped. He was beaten. He was flogged. He was mocked. He was insulted. He was stripped. He was betrayed, and he was abandoned all before Jesus died.

Don't doubt God's love. Love died on the cross that day and Love's name is Jesus in love. Jesus died for his father who sent him here on this redemptive mission, we call the gospel. Jesus died. Christ died for sinners out of love. This is what Romans tells us. For God showed his love to us in that while we were yet sinners that evil wise within us Christ died for us. You must believe by dear friends. You must believe firstly that there is an evil. There is a sin that lives within you and that Jesus or Christ alone is the only remedy for that sin. The people would foolishly worship out of numbers. They would take that brand serpent eventually and put it in the temple and then that bronze serpent was literally destroyed because people would foolishly worship the pole when that representation was only assemble to the type of the true one who could bring forgiveness of sin, which is Jesus. Dear friends, you need Jesus this morning. Jesus is the Christmas gift of love and you can have him if you'll just simply acknowledge, if you will acknowledge your sin and trust in Christ, death and resolute resurrection alone to save you.

There's an end game to God's love. This is often misunderstood, but I want you to turn with me to first John chapter three as we kind of wrap this up.

The story of Christmas is much fuller than just the birth of a baby. We have to look behind why Jesus came, the culmination of God's people. Salvation is found out of love. John who wrote that gospel then would write later three epistles. We're looking at first John chapter three and I want you to notice these words found in verse one and two. John writes this, he says, see what kind of love the father has given to us that we should be called the children of God. You see friends, when you acknowledge your sin and when you call upon Jesus to save you from your sin, you are already a child of God that you are already but not yet. In the sense of this, there's a greater culmination to the fulfillment of our salvation and so we are, it says that we should be called the children of God and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that as it did not know him. And you know this to be true, even in the present, many people will go through this season and they'll joy enjoy many aspects of the season that are really wonderful. There are things we participate in and enjoy, but there are mere traditions and myths to the real story.

The real story is that Jesus came on a purposeful mission to die for sin in order that your life could be saved. That in part is the story of God's love. So John then reiterates, look at verse two he says, beloved again, what is he doing? He's drawing them near with these words of truth that come from our loving God. We are God's children now and yet there's some anticipation that pastor Alex talked about for us, there's a longing for us where we take this season of reflecting upon the hope and the peace and the joy and the love of advent. There is a longing that is deep within our souls because we look around us, don't we? And things still aren't right. I am redeemed. But there still is this remnant of sin that if I'm honest, it needs to be done away with.

This takes place. Friends at the resurrection, beloved, we are God's children now and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears referring to Christ, return, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. You know what that means for God's people, for those who have acknowledged their sin and received Jesus as Lord and savior, that no longer one day will we not sin no longer one day in the resurrection, we won't even desire sin. That's the culmination of the birth of this baby called Jesus.

The eternal life. Eternal life is life in the age to come. It will be lived on a love that will never end and no one will ever die. Jesus was lifted up on a cross as a bridge uniting once again as it did in creation, heaven to earth. It's a reflection of God's love for his people and for his creation. Advent now is waiting. It's waiting for sin to end. It's waiting for all the suffering. That's in this world to cease. It's waiting for death to be no more. It's a waiting for the hero of the story, Jesus to return.

The question this morning for you is what's left as the story of your life is unfolding? Is your life's story caught up in the real story, the story of Jesus? Choose life, dear friends, over death. Look at Jesus and live.