John 3:11-21

00:00:00:12 – 00:00:34:07
Clint Loveall
Hey friends! Thanks for starting the week with us as we continue through the Gospel of John in the third chapter. John and the John is presenting a conversation that Jesus has with a man named Nicodemus. And most of that kind of happens, at least Nicodemus part tends to happen in the front end. And then this gets into a little bit of just discourse or narrative from Jesus, including, what is probably, I think not probably what is certainly the best known verse in the Gospel of John.

00:00:34:08 – 00:00:50:51
Clint Loveall
But we’ll get to that along with the rest of it in a moment. Let me read a few verses here, and then we’ll come back and talk it through. I tell you the truth. We speak of what we know and we testify to what we’ve seen. Yet you do not receive our testimony. If I told you about earthly things and you do not believe.

00:00:50:56 – 00:01:08:34
Clint Loveall
How can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life, and this is going to stop there.

00:01:08:34 – 00:01:35:26
Clint Loveall
So if you remember, Nicodemus and Jesus, Jesus talking about being born again, born from up from above. And Nicodemus is asking questions. And now Jesus almost kind of launches here into sermon mode. And you get a lot of the themes of John, the idea of testimony, the idea of witness, the idea of reliability and making a choice to believe or not.

00:01:35:31 – 00:02:08:07
Clint Loveall
And here Jesus lays all that out. Yes, talking to Nicodemus. But I think for John also providing some parameters of just how John understands that Jesus ministry works. I’m talking to you about earthly things, and you can’t even believe that. How could you believe heavenly things? This ascending and descending. And then this phrase, this reference to Moses lifting up the serpent, which, if you remember that story, is when the Israelites are being punished and they are being bitten by snakes.

00:02:08:07 – 00:02:44:40
Clint Loveall
And as they look upon the snake that is lifted, they are, they are delivered. They they do not experience death. And so here the idea is that in a similar way, people will look to Jesus for life. And I think this is an interesting example, Michael, of John condensing some of his themes and some of what’s important to him into a relatively small passage here, that that Jesus gets to speak, but John clearly gets to use.

00:02:44:45 – 00:03:25:37
Michael Gewecke
Kind of you agree with this? I think this is the kind of discourse that we see from Jesus in the Gospel of John that can strike people in many different ways. Some people, I think, receive this kind of teaching as very constructive, very maybe illuminating. It may create a lot of space for reflection and spiritual discernment. And I think a lot of people may find this kind of discourse in the gospel, John, which we’re going to see very, very often, this style of preaching and teaching from Jesus to be that long, to be very discursive and sometimes even to be difficult to read through.

00:03:25:37 – 00:03:55:27
Michael Gewecke
And I think that one of the interesting things that that you’re going to note as we go deeper into this is that Jesus is going to say things that only make sense if you know the breadth of the whole story. If you understand that Jesus is going to be raised up on a cross, if that’s information you have already, then when you come to this section of the text and this idea of the Son of Man being lifted up, you immediately have that in the background.

00:03:55:31 – 00:04:22:42
Michael Gewecke
If you didn’t have that, then this is going to just seem like a riddle or a puzzle. It may be a head scratcher that’s not leading anywhere. And I think it’s really important that we contextualize that. We put ourselves sort of in the shoes of the people who first receive this, especially if these are people in the first, now nearing second generation of the church, that they know the story of Jesus.

00:04:22:42 – 00:04:44:22
Michael Gewecke
They’re hearing now in this telling of the story of Jesus’s deeper spiritual teachings for them, when they when they hear this text, they’re going to see, because of their knowledge of the Old Testament, an allusion to an Old Testament story. But they’re also going to understand immediately what is being talked about in reference to the Son of Man being raised up.

00:04:44:22 – 00:05:08:04
Michael Gewecke
I think that context matters here. When you’re reading the gospel of John, because what it does is that enables us, the reader, to access different parts of information from the story. At the same time. If you try to read the Gospel of John on one pass and you never let John take you down, the smaller parts that that are tributaries of it claim it.

00:05:08:09 – 00:05:31:22
Michael Gewecke
This is going to be a tough story to follow, but if you allow your imagination, if you allow there to be some flexibility, some spiritual reading, some symbolic reading, if you allow that as we go through this gospel, I think this is very rich, because one way that we could interpret this is that ultimately, Nicodemus, you are supposed to be the expert on what the law says.

00:05:31:37 – 00:05:51:43
Michael Gewecke
But now when the the risen Christ that the perfect encapsulation and even the that the in fleshed version of that law now stands in front of you, you’re now unable to talk about the truths that you claim to have. And so there’s a real depth to this if you’re willing to see all of that.

00:05:51:57 – 00:06:25:15
Clint Loveall
I think one of the helpful ideas, for me, at least as I read the Gospel of John, is the idea of of conflict or of against it. And what I mean by that is that John is going to consistently present moments where Jesus is against the teachers, the world, that that’s not unique to John’s gospel, but I think he leans into it, particularly, particularly hard, you know, so here it’s Jesus.

00:06:25:28 – 00:06:52:10
Clint Loveall
Not not quite versus Nicodemus, but we speak of things we know you don’t know them. The Son of Man. You can’t believe earthly things. How can you believe heavenly things? That general framework that we see in microcosm in this conversation, I think, is a good foundation or a good underpinning of of how to approach this entire gospel. Where does Jesus get his authority?

00:06:52:15 – 00:07:33:49
Clint Loveall
What happens to those who question it, and what side is the reader on? Is the reader one who believes or doesn’t believe is the reader. One who sees Jesus for who he is or who doesn’t understand what what side of that choice of that of that decision does the reader live on? And I think, again, John has done this really well in just 3 or 4 verses, presenting that kind of, again, maybe conflict is too strong a word, certainly argument that that kind of division here, which we are going to see again and again.

00:07:33:54 – 00:07:57:45
Michael Gewecke
So, Clint, an interesting note raised by commentators here in this text is that phrase son of man, which we are seeing now multiple times in the gospel of John. We’re going to see a lot more of that. It’s used 82 times in the four Gospels and only that all of those times, save one. There’s one exception, but all of those times, Jesus uses it regarding himself.

00:07:57:59 – 00:08:22:35
Michael Gewecke
And I think that that may seem to us to be a surprising detail, but but make note of this Jesus in John is always talking about divine knowledge. And we have that here, right? This idea that, you don’t even understand heavenly things, that that that knowledge that you could only have by direct contact, but that knowledge you could only have if you are ascended, if you’ve seen it, experienced it.

00:08:22:35 – 00:08:51:52
Michael Gewecke
Well, Jesus is because of his nature being the word from John one we have. He is part of the creative power of God. He’s been there since the very beginning. The Triune relationship has always existed. Jesus is fully God. Well, so Jesus emphasizes throughout his entire time teaching and much to the confusion of someone like Nicodemus, that he is also in verse 13, the Son of Man, that that he is fully human.

00:08:51:52 – 00:09:20:24
Michael Gewecke
He is also incarnate. He is God who has taken on flesh and and that consistent and persistent definition, self-definition of Jesus. It matters because here you have Jesus demanding that Nicodemus see both sides, that Nicodemus see that he’s missing the heavenly truth. But he’s also in this moment missing the Son of Man, that the God standing before him.

00:09:20:24 – 00:09:38:04
Michael Gewecke
That’s the tension of the text. And so Jesus is teaching, but his teaching is always for the purpose of revelation, revealing who he is. And in this moment Nicodemus is experiencing it, but he’s not receiving it at this moment.

00:09:38:15 – 00:09:58:16
Clint Loveall
Well, and I think that that duality in terms of the two ways to talk about Jesus is made very clear in the text we have here. The son of Man must be lifted up. But then as we move to this next verse, which again John 316 is the most quoted, most known verse in the Gospel of John. Maybe in the New Testament.

00:09:58:21 – 00:10:19:10
Clint Loveall
But as we continue the reading now look, so we have Son of Man, and now we have Son of God, for God. So loved the world that he gave his only son, that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

00:10:19:15 – 00:10:41:21
Clint Loveall
Those who believe in him are not condemned, but those who do not believe are condemned already because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment that the light has come into the world, and people love the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil have the light and do not come to the light.

00:10:41:25 – 00:11:04:01
Clint Loveall
Hate the light. I’m sorry, and do not come to the light so that their deeds may not be exposed, but those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God. So as we get to this incredible passage, there is a little bit of unfortunate ness, unfortunate in this.

00:11:04:01 – 00:11:45:05
Clint Loveall
I think John 316, of course, is a beautiful, wonderful verse. You will know that most of you will know that the numbers are not original. The original versions of these stories of these books did not have chapter and verse. And one of the unfortunate things that has happened is that John 316 has been separated from John 317. Most Christians can quote John 316 to you very few of them will know that the next verse says, God did not send the son into the world to condemn it, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

00:11:45:06 – 00:12:14:16
Clint Loveall
And that’s such a wonderful compliment to 316 that I wish we did a better job of keeping them together, because together they really, I think, form the crux of the gospel that John understands and is trying to share with us that God so loved the world that he sent His Son, and he did this not just to save some, but in the hopes of not condemning but saving the world.

00:12:14:16 – 00:12:44:58
Clint Loveall
And this matters in John that Jesus is a cosmic Savior, that the the scope of salvation is intended, or at least directed at all. And this we can sometimes read 316 and make it a privatized, personal faith kind of verse. And, and that’s fine, except that 317 cautions us, cautions us a little bit to be careful with that.

00:12:44:58 – 00:12:49:18
Clint Loveall
And I wish we did a better job of keeping these verses together.

00:12:49:22 – 00:13:26:37
Michael Gewecke
I think that when we talk about a verse with as much impact as John 316, we have to linger there a little bit. Clint, we have to recognize that this text has been read as a kind of summary of the entire gospel. And then in some ways, it does that. It certainly gives us the the movement of the gospel, this idea that that because of God’s love, that the origination of of God’s desire for connection and relationship, that he gives his only son, that that’s a very good shorthand account of the gospel.

00:13:26:42 – 00:13:57:45
Michael Gewecke
And then this idea that that belief, faith, is a critical response, an important part of our discipleship and faith, and that that results in eternal light. This verse is doing some amazing things, no doubt. But friends, if you don’t put John 316 in context, I think you miss a lot of things. If you don’t remember, this is being said to a Jewish religious leader who come to Jesus at night, that Jesus has already said some very difficult things about being born again, and even says, how in the world to be born again?

00:13:57:59 – 00:14:17:08
Michael Gewecke
And you figure now Jesus is going to move very quickly to you see verse 20, this idea that those who do evil and hate the light, they don’t come to light and their deeds are exposed. Whose deeds are we talking about here? Right? I think we need to pause and wonder when Jesus emphasizes God’s desire to save the world.

00:14:17:13 – 00:15:00:27
Michael Gewecke
Why the world? What? What’s the emphasis happening here? I think if you put all of this together, what we’re going to begin to see here is that Jesus is already being met with hostility from the Jewish leaders and the Gospel of John. It starts day one, moment one and so when Jesus comes to the ones who should have known him and they reject him, when Jesus teaches the people who should understand him and they’re completely clueless when when the deeds of those who claim to be in the light are shown to be in darkness, then the hope that Jesus has come for the sake of the world, the people who weren’t waiting for God to

00:15:00:27 – 00:15:44:45
Michael Gewecke
come rescue them, right? The world, the Gentiles, the people outside of the Jewish faith that they weren’t looking for a messiah and yet the Messiah came for them. I think, Clint, there’s so much more depth to a John 316 when you understand that it’s not just about God’s desire, God’s love for you, and God’s desire for you to be saved, but this kind of cosmic understanding that in the midst of relationships of dispute and conflict, Jesus is offering that the Messiah has come for good news for those who aren’t even looking for it, for those who have not even been on the table within the conversation of the Jewish leaders and the Jewish leaders who

00:15:44:45 – 00:16:11:31
Michael Gewecke
are bringing the deeds of darkness, they will be exposed for it. It’s there’s a kind of John 316. There’s, I think, historically received as a very aversive comfort for many people. In many ways. I think it’s also an inversion of comfort. It’s very much a verse that sets up Jesus repudiation of those who hear and see the revelation and reject it, and that’s happening all at once.

00:16:11:38 – 00:16:37:58
Clint Loveall
When we go back to the very first imagery of this book, the light and the dark and we’re going to have to put a pin in this for quite some time. But don’t forget that this story we’re reading starts with the detail that Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night. Nicodemus himself is in the dark, and John is urging those who are in the dark to come to the light.

00:16:37:58 – 00:17:11:47
Clint Loveall
John is urging that as we step into the light, as we lose our deeds of darkness, as we turn to truth, we are enlightened. And this is the work of God, who loved the world enough to send his own son in the hope that there would not be condemnation, but deliverance. And so this is a powerful sermon, and I think you have to be careful taking one verse and making it a summary without being aware of its connection to other parts of the text.

00:17:12:01 – 00:17:40:19
Clint Loveall
And the last thing I want to say here, Michael, is just it this I know this sounds exceedingly simple, but I think we forget it. It matters that John 316 and John 363 17 are spoken by Jesus. We often hear those as a commentary about Jesus, as if John was telling us something. Jesus is speaking of himself. This is spoken in first person.

00:17:40:31 – 00:18:05:35
Clint Loveall
These. If you have a red letter Bible, these are red letters. And so rather than take this as some theological statement that the church has issued about Jesus, I think it helps to back up and remember that we are hearing Jesus words about himself. And I just I think sometimes with the way we’ve treated this verse, that almost gets overlooked.

00:18:05:40 – 00:18:27:57
Michael Gewecke
Yeah. No doubt, Clint, I just want to make sure that we see this so, so that we understand it when we begin tomorrow with verse 22. I just want to note there’s no reply here. Jesus ends this section in verse 21 and then verse 22 tomorrow we’re going to find after this Jesus and his disciples went to the countryside.

00:18:27:57 – 00:18:56:35
Michael Gewecke
Right? It’s a it’s a narrative note next. And that is the kind of force of this teaching. Nicodemus has nothing to add. John sees no reason to offer anything more beyond what Jesus has said here. And I do think we should be careful to not trivialize a verse that is so clear and in many ways is so grasp.

00:18:56:40 – 00:19:28:28
Michael Gewecke
It’s a thing that we can teach in Sunday School. It’s a thing that we can hold on to in our own seasons of darkness in our life. But. But I, I just cannot help but but recognize this is in John three and not in chapter 19. Just the point being, this is early. Jesus is revealing early the kind of work that he’s come to do, and also the kind of work he’s trying to undo.

00:19:28:33 – 00:19:53:53
Michael Gewecke
And I do think this idea of hiding our deeds in darkness, the idea of hypocrisy, the idea of pretending to be things that we’re not. I think early on in Jesus’s teaching, we find ourselves with the response as well. I ultimately it all comes down to the Son of Man being lifted up. And of course, our belief comes in response to what he’s already done for us.

00:19:53:58 – 00:20:15:59
Michael Gewecke
I a verse like this is comforting in the fact that Jesus has already paved the way and made the way for us, and I think that’s the beautiful gift here. We find in this some strong words. And if we can see ourselves in the place of Nicodemus, we don’t understand all of this text either. But that’s not the point.

00:20:15:59 – 00:20:34:46
Michael Gewecke
The point isn’t perfect comprehension. The point is not perfect morality. The point is belief and trust in the one who has done for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves. The rest of it will follow. And and John makes it clear that we don’t need a follow up to this. We don’t need to hear somebody else’s opinions or thoughts.

00:20:34:51 – 00:20:37:55
Michael Gewecke
Jesus’s words stand on their own. And then we’re going to continue the.

00:20:37:55 – 00:21:04:06
Clint Loveall
Story, I think pretty, pretty regular in John, that Jesus will have the last word. And I think unlike a book like Mark, and maybe by connection, the other two gospels that ask us the question, Who is Jesus? And kind of ask the reader to gradually dig into the mystery of who Jesus is along the story, Mark starts with explanation and definition.

00:21:04:08 – 00:21:24:22
Clint Loveall
This is who Jesus is. And then he’s going to unpack that in multiple ways throughout the rest of the story. But John pulls the curtain back right away. John does not leave. Who is Jesus up to question in in the way that the other gospels do and the rest of the gospel, in some sense, is telling us what he’s already shown us?

00:21:24:27 – 00:21:42:43
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, I think that’s a really, really helpful summary. And I think it’s worth noting here at the end of this conversation, we don’t think I think we’re at 21.5 minutes here. We don’t think of this as being some kind of deep exposé of John 316. Listen, there’s a there’s been books and books and books, libraries filled with books about the truth of this text.

00:21:42:43 – 00:22:06:54
Michael Gewecke
So certainly, if you would like to study that more, let us know. And we can try to connect you with some of those resources and of course, friends. I mean, if you have other thoughts or authors or things you’ve read, put that in the comments. Share that with others. We would love, of course, for you to like this video if you have found it encouraging, insightful, helpful in any way, subscribe if you’d like to stick with us as we now continue on into the Judean countryside as John leads us there.

00:22:06:54 – 00:22:10:31
Michael Gewecke
But friends, thanks for being with us today and we hope to see you tomorrow.

00:22:10:42 – 00:22:11:25
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody.