Why Its Hard To Understand - John 3:16

- we've been looking at favorite Bible passages

- so far we've talked about Zech. 4:6 - "Not by might, nor by

power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord"

- and Gal. 2:20 - "I am crucified with Christ, and I no

longer live, but Christ lives in me, and the life that I

now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who

loves me and gave Himself for me"

- tonight, we're going to look at what would probably be

considered the most famous of the favorite Bible verses

- in other words, if we polled everybody and asked us just to

give us their one favorite verse, this one would probably

come out on top

- INPUT - what verse do you think I'm talking about? (John

3:16)

- INPUT - why is that such a favorite verse for so many of

us? (its easy to understand)

- you might think (based on the answers to the question) that

studying this verse is going to be easy. Actually, just the

opposite is true. I'll aggree that the main thrust of the

verse is easy to understand and has been a blessing for

many because its answered the central question of how can a

person know they have eternal life.

- But, while it answers that question, it also raises quite a

few questions:

- some of them have to do with the verse itself. For

example:

1) What world is it that God loved? Why were we told

in I John 2 to "love not the world" if God so loved

the world?

2) What does the phrase "only begotten Son" mean? Does

it mean, as some say, that there was a time when

Jesus didn't exist, but then was born, or begotten?

If thats not what it means, what does it mean?

3) What did Jesus mean when He said "believeth in Him".

How come these people who "believe" in Him don't

perish but James tells us that the demons believe

and tremble. How does that fit in with what John

has just said in John 2:23 - "...Many believed in

his name when they saw the miracles which he did,

but Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He

knew all men"?

- obviously, those are some questions that we are going to

have to wrestle with. But, at least in my mind, there's

one question about this verse that is harder to answer than

any of the ones we've mentioned...that is...Why did Jesus

speak these words?

- in other words, how do these verses fit into the

context? You know that Jesus didn't just speak things

out of the blue.

- its not like He was walking down the road and

suddenly said, For God so loved..."

- John 3:16 was spoken to Nicodemus, but we need to

discover what was happening in the conversation

with Nicodemus that caused Jesus to speak these

words.

- INPUT - why is it important to learn the answer to this

question?

1) It will help us in our understanding/interpretation

of the verse.

2) It will help us know how we should apply it. Its

critical to try to learn the author's original

purpose. By finding out his purpose, we then have a

much better idea of what purpose God might have for

that verse in our lives today.

- so, we have alot of digging to do:

- read John 2:23-3:16

Introduction - The context of John 3:16

1. Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night.

- what do we need to notice about Nicodemus?

- Pharisee, ruler of the Jews

- Pharisees taught the people the law of God. (that’s why

Jesus said - art thou a teacher of law, and you don't

know these things?)

- what was supposed to have happened - the law was

supposed to teach people about the character of God,

and also show them that they couldn't measure up to

that character, and therefore they had to put their

faith and trust in the promises God had made up to that

time.

- "Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto Him for

righteousness"

- thats why Paul called the law a schoolmaster, pointing

men and women to God's provision of salvation

- the problem was that the Pharsisees had put their faith

not in God and his promises, but in their own ability

to keep the law - thats why Jesus called them "Self-

righteous"

- you know that the Pharisees had come up with all kinds

of additions to the law - like you couldn't wear false

teeth on the sabbath because if they feel out, it would

be work to pick them up

2. Nicodemus addresses Jesus as "Rabbi"

- that was a respectful title. Nicodemus was coming as a

learner.

3. Jesus tells him that he must be "born again."

- we discussed the meaning of this phrase in our John

study earlier this year.

- did Nicodemus understand?

4. Nicodemus didn't understand, and Jesus mildly rebuked

him with "Art thou a teacher of Israel, and knowest not

these things."

- what I'd like to present to you tonight is that verse

10 is the hinge on which the rest of this passage

turns.

- Nicodemus has already been identified as a ruler of the

Pharisees, so he's supposedly an expert on the OT, and

an expert on the things of God. Its been his job to

teach the people of Israel about God.

- Jesus says - You're a ruler in Israel, and you don't

know these things.

- understanding that phrase is critical in understanding

this passage.

- Q. is - was Jesus saying that Nicodemus should have

known about being born again from reading the Old

Testament? I would answer that question, "No".

- the verse is better understood, "Are you a teacher in

Israel, and understandest not these things"

- difference - knowest/understandest

- its not that Jesus was expecting Nicodemus to know all

this before, but he was expecting Nicodemus to

understand the things he just shared.

- the point is this - the context of John 3:16 is a

person who is having trouble understanding the things

of God, Word of God, the plan of God.

- hopefully, you'd say - "Aha, I fit into that category

sometimes. There are times I have great trouble

understanding the Word of God." I think all of us would

say that. And we can probably think of Bible verses or

concepts that we have really struggled with.

- let me ask you this - what do we normally blame that

on? (the Bible) With the rest of these verses, Jesus

is going to diagnose the real problem:

- thats the only way that the next verses make sense: (read

3:11-13)

- Jesus' point is:

I. You Have A Wrong View of the Revealer

- see Nicodemus, its not that the concept of the new

birth is so hard to understand, the problem is--it

doesn't fit your grid

- you came to me thinking one way about salvation, namely

the Pharisaical way, and what I'm telling you doesn't

fit that at all.

- so you're trying to compare this with all the other

great rabbis have taught, what your parents taught you,

what you've been teaching Jews all your professional

life...

- you're struggling, not because what I'm saying is

hard - but because it contradicts what you've

always thought

- And Nicodemus, you'll always have trouble

understanding God's word as long as you think I'm:

A. Just another "teacher"

- there's the problem

- Jesus is saying, Nicodemus, you don't know who

you're dealing with

- I'm the Son of Man

- I didn't just ascend up to heaven to get this

- I was in heaven - I and the Father are one

- you have a wrong view of the revealer

- if you understood who I was, you be listening more,

and mentally arguing less

- thats the same approach Jesus took in Mark 10:17

B. Same problem in Mark 10:17

- remember that passage - thats where the rich young

ruler came to him and said, "Good master, what must

I do to inherit eternal life?"

- do you remember what Jesus said back to him?

"Why do you call me good. There is none good but

God"

- why would Jesus say that?

- the reason is that the rich young ruler had the same

problem Nicodemus did

- see, only God is good, and you don't believe

I'm God, so don't call me good

- that was Nicodemus' problem

- its not that the idea of being born again was so

hard ( a small child can understand it), its that it

was hard for him to understand with everything else

he thought was right.

- that was happening because he had a wrong view of

the revealer

- Bottom line is - had he believed that he was

talking to the Son of God, he would have chucked

his preconceived grid to the wind

- he would have spent a lot more time listening, and

a lot less time mentally arguing

- that has some real implication to you and me

- you know we're not talking about checking your brain

at the door

- but we need to ask a question:

- is it possible that some of the things we say we

don't understand about God's Word is really because

they don't fit with what we previously thought is

right

- by saying we don't understand--its an excuse not to

obey?

- you probably wouldn't ever say it this blatantly,

but...

(Pastor Kilpatrick)

- what was that fellow's problem? He had a wrong view of

the revealer.

- If he had a higher view of the revealer, he'd have a

much lower view of whether it mattered that he

agreed.

- see, I wonder if we'd have individuals who would say,

generally I believe the Bible and try to apply what it

says, but when it comes to this particular biblical

issue, I'm pretty dense

- I don't want to do what the Bible says in that

area

- I don't want to bless those who despitefully use

me

- I don't want to count it all joy when I fall

into various trials

- I don't want to change

- I think Jesus would say - you've got a wrong

view of the revealer. This isn't just some

teacher saying this. This is the word of God.

- TV program - Sometimes you got to stray from what the

good book says. (Bethany's response)

- now, you might say, PV, we haven't talked about John 3:16 yet

- I know, but now I think we're in a better position to

understand why Jesus spoke John 3:16

- see, whats about to happen is, Jesus is about to make a

series of statements that all disagree not with the OT, but

with Nicodemus' misinterpretation of the OT

- Essentially, Jesus is saying - Now, Nicodemus, let me give

you an understanding test. These things are as simple as

can be. (In fact, this verse is going to be a favorite

Bible verse some day because its so easy to understand.)

- but every phrase in this statement is going to go against

what your Pharisaism believes - let's see what you do

- Quote John 3:16

II. Wrong View of the Revealed

A. Understand God's Love

- the verse says, God so loved the world

- we said earlier that thats obviously different than

what John said in I John 2, "love not the world"

- that can be understood when we understand the word

"world" is used three different ways in Scripture

1. 3 different uses of "world"

a) "the planets" (cosmos) the world God created

b) the "world system" or "Philosophy"

c) the "world of people"

- now, obviously, I John 2 is talking about not

loving the world system or philosophy, but John

3:16 is talking about God loving the world of

people

- we need to understand that that would have had:

2. impact on Nicodemus

- the Pharisees believed that God loved the

Jews, but this idea was completely foreign to

them

- God loving the heathen, the Romans?

- that cut against all he had been taught

- God so love the world

B. Understand God's Gift

1. meaning

- some folks have wrestled with the phrase "only

begotten Son" because it sounds like Jesus at

some point in time didn't exist, and then He

was born

- part of the problem is - this is an

anthro-pomorphism (attributing human forms or

activities to God)

- any time we speak of the hand of God or the

face, or the eye of God - we are speaking

anthro-pomorphically

- you might ask - then why doesn't the Bible just

stop using these figures of speech - then

things would be easier

- these figures of speech are in the Bible to

communicate important truth - but they are like

parables-they contain important truth but you

can't press every detail

- so the question becomes - what was God trying

to communicate with the phrase "only begotten

Son"?

- the phrase, "only begotten" is one greek word,

"monogenes"

compound - mono - one or first

- genes - born or generated

literally means "unique" or first in pre-

imenence

- another usage of this word will help us

understand it - Heb. 11:17

- "By faith, Abraham, when he was tested,

offered up Isaac; and he that had received

the promises offered up his only begotten

son"

- so Isaac was Abraham's "only begotten son"

- now wait a minute - Issac was not Abraham's

only son

- Isaac was not even the first son Abraham

had

- but what was he? He was his his unique

son, he was his speacial son, he was his

favored son

- now what does that have to do with this

verse?

- this has nothing to do with Jesus being

born or not born

- it has to do with his position in

the trinity

- He was unique

- He was the second person of the

trinity

- the unique son of God

- of course we know that John's been communicating this

all along in his book and in chapter 10 he is going

clearly record Jesus' words where he says "I and the

Father are one"

2. impact on Nicodemus

INPUT - now why would Nicodemus have struggled

with that? (monotheism)

- so here's another example of - truth that is easy

to understand if I'm willing to put my pre-

conceived notions aside

C. Understand God's requirement

- of course the verse says - the only thing the

person has to do is "believe"

- not that thats simple - but its radically different

than what Nicodemus has been teaching

- salvation is by grace through faith, not of works,

lest any man should boast

- you can almost picture what must be going on in

Nicodemus' mind

- Lord, are you sure you don't want to add some

dietary requirements?

- are you sure you don't want to add circumcision?

- at least tell the ladies they can't look in the

mirror on Sundays

- no Nicodemus, this is easy to understand, but its

different, much different than what you have been

taught or what you've been teaching

D. Understand God's Provision

- whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but

have everlasting life

- see Nicodumus - anyone can go there

- non-Jews

- people who had formally lived wicked lives

- people who had ham and eggs for breakfast

- anyone could go there

- I'm sure by now you're getting the point. When we

think of John 3:16, we think, thats one of my favorite

verses because its so easy to understand.

- but we need to remember that this verse was given in a

context where the individual was having great trouble

understanding it, not because it was difficult, but

because it went against what he had always thought,

what he had always believed, and what he had always

taught.

- It was only when Nicodemus got the right view of the

revealer, and the right view of the revealed, that he

was able to understand, and believe, and obey.

- I wonder how many of us here tonight would have to say,

There's a certain part of the Bible, a certain teaching

of the Bible, that I have wrestled with, argued

against, failed to put into practice.

- At times I've blamed it on my inability to understand

it.

- But I can see that my lack of understanding wasn't so

much because the teaching was difficult, but because it

didn't fit with what I had previously, thought, was

taught at home, or had said/taught to others

- we're not saying check your brain at the door, but

getting the right picture of the revealer and the

revealed can put our ability to reason and figure

things out in its proper place

- you might say, PV, why did God make Nicodemus go

through this great exercise of faith

- he had to put so much of his former beliefs aside, and

you and I had to put so much of our former beliefs

aside...why did God design salvation that way

- of course I couldn't answer that question fully, but I

think we can say this

- Nicodemus needed to go through that process then -

because thats what the rest of his life as a

believer was going to be like

- living by faith - at times doing things, thinking

things, saying things, that completely cut accross

his grain

- Nicodemus passed those tests

- we see him two other times in the NT

- once in John 7:50, where he's arguing with the other

Pharisees that they aren't treating Christ fairly

- see what he did - by faith he went against the other

Jewish leaders - he risked his reputation and his

stand in the Jewish community

- in fact if you look at that passage you'll find that he

was greatly ridiculed for that

- see, he had a lot more understanding by then

- because the person of Christ and the value of his

revelation had risen greatly in Nicodemus' mind

- second place is John 19 where we see Nicodemus come

with Joseph of Arimathaea and openly request the body

of Jesus

- and Nicodemus annoints Jesus' body with the equivilent

of 75 pounds of myrr and aloe

- while the amount indicates his devotion to Christ, what

is particularly amazing is that Nicodemus did this at

the Passover

- you realize what that meant

- he was a Jew, and he had just touched a dead body,

which made him unclean, which meant he could not

celebrate the cherished passover with his Jewish

brethren

- but those things just didn't carry the weight they once

did with Nicodemus...he finally understood