And welcome back, we are
studying the Gospel of John
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and we are in chapter 3,
we're studying Nicodemus.
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And Dr. Jon Paulien is with us.
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I have a question
for you, Dr. Paulien.
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We're talking
about how Jesus answers
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some of His,
some of His questions.
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And He goes on to explain
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that unless one is
born of water and the Spirit
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and Jesus says that,
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which that which is
born of the Spirit is spirit.
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But what is the water,
being born of water mean?
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Well, you have
Nicodemus in the story.
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Jesus is speaking to him,
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so it's got to make
some sense to Nicodemus.
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And you remember in
the previous segment
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Nicodemus is the leader of
these Pharisees in a real way.
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He's the dean of the seminary.
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The Pharisees sent a delegation
to meet John, the Baptist.
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You know, baptism
is not normal for Jews
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at that time as we
think of baptism today.
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They did have these
ceremonial washings.
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And so John is
over there baptizing
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and Nicodemus
has that in his mind.
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So I think it's
very, very likely
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that when Jesus talks
about water and the Spirit here,
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He is referring to baptism.
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And you need to be
baptized in the Spirit.
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You see here's the thing.
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You can be baptized,
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you can do all the washings
that Nicodemus used to do.
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Maybe he was even
baptized by John, you see.
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And if that's
little detail is not here,
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it would be very
interesting historically.
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So Jesus then would be
saying, you can be baptized,
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you can have your name
on the books and stuff,
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but if you
haven't given your life
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to be transformed by the Spirit,
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then you haven't received
all of that is there for you.
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I would like to point
to a text in Ezekiel 36,
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where water and
Spirit are tied together
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and may well have
been in John's mind
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or in Jesus' mind at this point.
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Ezekiel 36:25-27.
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It says, "I will
sprinkle clean water on you,
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and you will be clean,
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I will cleanse you
from all your impurities
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and from all your idols.
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I will give you a new heart
and put a new spirit in you,
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I will remove from
you the heart of stone
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and give you a heart of flesh.
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And I will put my Spirit in you
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and move you to
follow my decrees
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and be careful to keep my laws."
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So here water and Spirit are
united together as a cleansing
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and it's an empowering
to a new kind of life.
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And Jesus was saying, you know,
you can be dean of the seminary,
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you can have your
name on the books,
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you can be baptized all of that.
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But until you give
yourself totally to Christ
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and allow Him to transform
you through the Spirit.
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It's only an outward shell.
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In the Gospel of John,
there's this constant contrast
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between the
outward shell of religion
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and the real genuine article.
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And this born again
concept, being born from heaven,
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being born of the Spirit.
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So, it's very important
part of the Gospel of John.
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And Jesus is looking
for genuine followers.
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Not just in number,
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but people with the
sincerity to follow Him,
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to take up their cross
and keep His commandments.
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That was a sharp,
really sharp pick up right now,
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because we haven't yet
talked about verses 18 to 21
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but there that's
exactly where he goes with this.
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When John himself interprets
the story of Nicodemus,
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he goes there it's
all about genuineness.
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And we will see
that in just a moment.
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But before we get
there, let's stop at verse 16
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because
everybody loves John 3:16,
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even people at
football games sometimes.
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And, you know, John
3:16 is the big thing,
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you know, you see
the signs sometimes.
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So why don't you read it for us
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in the New King
James, I think you have that.
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"For God so loved the world
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that He gave His
only begotten Son,
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that whoever believes in Him
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should not perish but
have everlasting life."
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That only begotten peace,
that bothered some people.
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You know, what does He mean
Jesus was His only begotten Son?
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Did God have a son?
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You know, in a literal sense
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and doesn't that contradict
what John was saying in 1:1
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where Jesus is
not part of creation,
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He has no beginning
and all the rest of that.
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Well, there's a long
history to this passage.
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And you may be aware that
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well, the New
Testament was written in Greek.
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It got translated
into Aramaic, into Latin,
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into Ethiopic
languages, etcetera.
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So there were lot of
different translations
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and the translation
that most powerfully affected
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the main line Christian church
was the Latin translation.
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Particularly one
called the Vulgate
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which in the middle
ages was a primary way
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that people got into the Bible.
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And it's interesting
that in translating this text,
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the Latin gives you two options
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for this mono-ganese in
the Greek is this one of kind.
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Mono-ganese really
means one of a kind,
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if you take it literally.
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In Latin you could translate
that unicus which means unique.
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Well, you could
translate unigenitus
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which means only born or
one of a kind once again.
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So in Latin there's an ambiguity
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between one of a
kind and only born.
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So the Latin translators
chose this only born.
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But mono-ganese,
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the Greek word here is
used in the story of Isaac.
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Isaac was Abraham's mono-ganese.
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Wait a minute.
Was that his only son?
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Who else does he have?
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He had-- Ishmael.
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Ishmael. Right.
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First, Isaac wasn't
even the first born son.
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He was not the
only son of Abraham.
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In fact, did you know
that after Sarah died,
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Abraham remarried
had six more sons.
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Lot of people don't
know that little detail
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'cause it's only
mentioned in passing.
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So he was not
Abraham's only son,
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mono-ganese doesn't fit
there, but he was one of a kind.
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He was the only son of Sarah
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and he was the
only son of a promise
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that God gave special promises
to fall on Isaac and only Isaac.
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So Abraham and Isaac,
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their relationship was
one of a kind, it was unique.
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And so Jesus has a relationship
with God like no one else.
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He has that unique
relationship with God.
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And the beauty of
this passage is as it says,
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God so loved the world
that He gave His unique One,
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His uniqueness
that Jesus is unique.
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He is God Himself.
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He Himself contains within
Himself a fullness of God.
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In Jewish thinking of
the time, God is the creator
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and God is the only
one who can be worshipped.
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And He is the only
true ruler of the universe.
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And Jesus is
portrayed in all three ways.
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In the New
Testament, He is the creator,
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He is the ruler of the universe
and He can be worshipped.
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Angels can't be
worshipped but Jesus can.
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That means Jesus
carried in Himself
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the fullness of
what God is like.
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And so in His coming,
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He helps us to understand
what in fact God is like.
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One more thing
I want to mention,
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then we want to
get to verses 18 to 22.
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"Since God so loved the
world that He gave His only Son
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that whosoever believes
might have everlasting life."
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I think that
whosoever is crucial
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to what John is doing here
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because Nicodemus is
an example of whosoever.
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Jesus came for the
Jews and for the Pharisees.
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The Samaritan woman is another
example of the whosoever.
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She is the
opposite end from Nicodemus.
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Yeah, she is not
a religious teacher.
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She is a woman who's
been living a very loose life.
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In every way she is
the opposite of Nicodemus.
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Yet the whosoever includes her.
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And then at the
end of the chapter 4,
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you have a Gentile
prince who comes to Jesus.
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So Jewish leader, woman
at the outcast of society,
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Gentile prince,
whosoever includes them all.
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I don't care what
background you have,
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where you've come from,
the gospel includes you.
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But let's finish
off with verses 18 to 21
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'cause this is often overlooked
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and we want to
capture that if we can.
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"'He who believes in
Him is not condemned,
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but he who does not
believe is condemned already,
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because he has not believed
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in the name of the
only begotten Son of God.
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And this is the condemnation,
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that the light has
come into the world,
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that men loved
darkness rather than light,
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because their deeds were evil.
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For everyone
practicing evil hates the light
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and does not come to the light,
lest his deeds be exposed.
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But he who does the
truth comes to the light,
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that his deeds
may be clearly seen,
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that they have
been done in God.' "
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So what does light do?
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Light exposes
the reality of things
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that were not known
in the dark, you see.
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One thing you don't know
is the character of a person.
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Jesus is the light.
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When He comes Nicodemus
or Nicodemus comes to Him,
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Jesus exposes the spiritual
deficit in Nicodemus' life.
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So this is an illustration
of everyone that Jesus met,
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Jesus very presence
calls them to judgment.
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Jesus' very existence
there is a decisive moment.
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If they reject Jesus, they're
turning away from the light,
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they are going
back in the darkness.
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If they accept Jesus,
they come to the light
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and they are accepted by Him.
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Then it raises the question.
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Why wouldn't
people come to Jesus?
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Why would you reject the gospel?
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It's free.
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Just ask and you will receive.
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Why would people reject that?
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Tells us in verse 20.
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John 3:20.
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"For everyone
practicing evil hates the light
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and does not come to the light,
00:10:34.87\00:10:37.20
lest his deeds
should be exposed."
00:10:37.23\00:10:39.46
So what's the problem?
00:10:39.49\00:10:40.86
Why don't people come to Jesus?
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They don't want
their deeds to be exposed.
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Ah. You see, every one of
us has little dirty secrets.
00:10:44.36\00:10:50.45
Every one of us has dark places
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we don't want
the light to shine.
00:10:52.59\00:10:54.37
We feared ever since Adam and
Eve hid in the garden from God.
00:10:54.40\00:10:58.87
We have been filled
with shame and with guilt
00:10:58.90\00:11:01.42
and we try to hide from God,
00:11:01.45\00:11:02.85
that's natural for
human beings to do.
00:11:02.88\00:11:05.70
And so when Jesus comes
many people shied away from Him
00:11:05.73\00:11:09.40
because they recognized
00:11:09.43\00:11:11.19
that they would have
to give up their secrets.
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That's what
confession is all about.
00:11:13.97\00:11:16.34
It's simply telling
the truth about yourself.
00:11:16.37\00:11:19.50
It's allowing the
dirty secrets to come out.
00:11:19.53\00:11:22.18
If we confess our sins,
00:11:22.21\00:11:23.81
He is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins.
00:11:23.84\00:11:26.70
Why would not
confessing be a problem?
00:11:26.73\00:11:29.65
Because we are saying
00:11:29.68\00:11:31.05
I'm keeping, this is
mine, you can't have it, okay.
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When Jesus shines to light,
00:11:34.55\00:11:36.03
He exposes the
things that we are hiding.
00:11:36.06\00:11:38.36
Now we have a problem.
00:11:38.39\00:11:40.18
We can be like a bug.
00:11:40.21\00:11:41.58
If you ever taken
a walk in the night
00:11:41.61\00:11:43.34
and you see a rock on the
ground with your flashlight,
00:11:43.37\00:11:45.75
you pick up the rock.
00:11:45.78\00:11:47.22
And you shine the
flashlight, what's going on,
00:11:47.25\00:11:49.26
there's often
lot of little bugs,
00:11:49.29\00:11:50.66
you know, just going crazy.
00:11:50.69\00:11:52.06
They don't like the light,
00:11:52.09\00:11:53.46
they're like, hey,
put that rock back, man.
00:11:53.49\00:11:54.86
I like being under the rock,
it was nice and safe in there.
00:11:54.89\00:11:57.55
The light is
scaring me, you see.
00:11:57.58\00:11:59.84
People are like
bugs under a rock.
00:11:59.87\00:12:01.78
When the light
shines, we tend to freak out.
00:12:01.81\00:12:05.17
And that's the reason people
turn away from the gospel,
00:12:05.20\00:12:08.48
because they don't want
their deeds to be exposed.
00:12:08.51\00:12:11.87
And that's a challenge to me,
00:12:11.90\00:12:13.44
because I need to ask myself
everyday, am I living genuinely?
00:12:13.47\00:12:17.79
Is my faith at home
00:12:17.82\00:12:19.95
the same faith that
I live when I'm on TV?
00:12:19.98\00:12:22.32
When I'm out in public?
00:12:22.35\00:12:23.72
When I'm preaching to people?
00:12:23.75\00:12:25.19
Or is there an act that
I can put on in this place,
00:12:25.22\00:12:27.81
but back at home the
real me shows up, you see.
00:12:27.84\00:12:30.69
Who we are when
no one's looking,
00:12:30.72\00:12:32.57
who we are at home,
00:12:32.60\00:12:33.97
that's the real test of whether
we are following Jesus or not.
00:12:34.00\00:12:37.82
And Jesus invites
people to come to Him,
00:12:37.85\00:12:40.51
but in the process He
shines the light on us.
00:12:40.54\00:12:43.57
And He calls for authenticity
for the faith to be real.
00:12:43.60\00:12:47.13
So what the verse is saying
is that men will be judged for--
00:12:47.16\00:12:50.99
not for the darkness He loved
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but rather for the
light that they receive
00:12:52.73\00:12:54.88
when they are not in
darkness which they rejected.
00:12:54.91\00:12:58.29
And well, Dr. Paulien I
pray that light that God--
00:12:58.32\00:13:01.29
that God gives me
that I cannot reject
00:13:01.32\00:13:04.55
and that I can
continue to grow in that light.
00:13:04.58\00:13:07.41
And I pray that to you
too, my friends till next time.
00:13:07.44\00:13:09.71