Jesus Came to Save the World

We are gathered on this Lord's Day to remember especially the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is Easter Sunday and I want to open up by asking, what does Easter mean to you? Some likely things, family gatherings, egg hunts, flowers blooming, chocolate bunnies having their ears bitten off. Maybe it's even more unusual things. Baskets of fake grass, bunnies that lay chocolate eggs. Clothes that you would not wear other days of the week. Peeps. And other non-digestible and indigestible and non-biodegradable marshmallow-shaped treats with sugar on them. Our culture, it takes everything that we celebrate, every opportunity of holiday and celebrate it. We want to add things to it. If it becomes a distraction, Anytime somebody can make a buck off something, they will. And so, there's cards and other ways of celebrating what we call Easter. Now, I want to be clear. I am not proposing that we start a war against the Easter Bunny. I have no problem with this fellow. He seems nice enough. He's an okay guy. I usually don't trust people who hand out candy to children and have that, you know, perpetual smile. But he's fluffy. He seems nice. Now, this morning, I'm more about telling us we need to remember the resurrection. We're so forgetful. If you read the Bible through, it's amazing how often the sin of forgetfulness is brought up. It's amazing how distracted we can easily be. And so I just want to call us to attention with all the pastel colors out there and all the celebrations, the food you're looking forward to. It's not about that. Jesus is risen. Death is dead. Sin's power destroyed. Protect yourself from being distracted. Friends, brothers and sisters, he's risen, which means death is dead. Sin's power broken. Satan defeated. Our guilt removed. Our hopes secured. A new life granted. That's enough to celebrate today and every day. So, to draw our focus, Let's quiet our hearts once more as we begin to meditate upon the resurrection from his word. Father, we thank you. That you did not leave us in our darkness. We thank you that you sent your light, that your son has come and he spoke in your true word, your command, your mission has been accomplished, and that is to save us. To love us who hated you. Be with us now. May your spirit move, may you remove all distractions and help us. To strengthen, bless us in a way that we can strengthen and have a new faith in Jesus Christ, the son of God, who is risen as our savior. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Our passage this morning is not a usual Easter text. If you are new with us, we are going through the Gospel of John, and we're just going to stay right on track with preaching through the Gospel of John. We're going to be in chapter 12, beginning in verse 44, and we're on page 899. If you don't have a Bible with you and you want to use the pew bottle in front of you, please take it home with you if you like. But you can find the text quickly, page 899, John 12, beginning in verse 44. And Jesus cried out and said, Whoever believes in me believes not in me, but in him who sent me. Whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him, for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. When he rejects me and doesn't receive my words as a judge, the word that I've spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have spoken for I've not spoken on my own authority, but the father who sent me has himself given me a commandment what to say and what to speak, and I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as a father has told me. Before we get into walking through this text, we really have to ask a question. There's a bit of a dilemma here in chapter 12, verse 44. And the dilemma is this, when did Jesus say this? Right? So if you're looking in chapter 12, You see that he was speaking to the crowds up until the end of verse 36, and then halfway through 36, John tells us when Jesus had said these things, after he had said, believe in the light while the light is still with you, when Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. When we flip over to chapter 13, It's now before the Passover, the Feast, He's come, and verses 13 through 16, He's talking in a closed room with His disciples. He's ended His public ministry, it appears, at verse 36, when He says, So the question is, if He departed, when does He cry out and say, Well, I believe Jesus said these words. I believe this is an accurate declaration, an accurate recording of what Jesus said as the Holy Spirit reminded John as Jesus said he would. But I don't know if he necessarily said it after John gives this narrative piece. You see, verse 36, John stops the narrative. John stops telling us what Jesus said and what Jesus did. And he has to stop and he has to explain. They didn't believe after all the signs he had done. The people's disbelief is so amazing after all that Jesus has said, all that Jesus has done. He has to stop and explain, they did not believe because their hearts had been hardened, because God had not granted them faith. And there's this pause and John is transitioning here. Chapter 12 has been a huge transition. It's the triumphal entry. It's the last declaration. And then here we have a a narrative explanation why they're not believing. And then John 6, one last discourse, one last public teaching. You see, this is Jesus recorded for John's purpose, the last evangelistic declaration to the Jews. This is his last plea, crying out, we believe. And we can see this in the big picture of John. He's been setting up, Jesus is the Son of God. He's been sent by the Father. You must believe in him. The whole purpose of John is that you believe Jesus is the Son of God. I don't think this is historically, chronologically placed exactly where Jesus said it. Because our gospel writers don't really care about the chronology as much as the theological purpose. Look at the writing. There's different ways of writing. They're not writing chronologically like we do now. or we prefer now, they're writing with a theological purpose. So I believe he's inserted this last plea, hoping that the Jews and the Gentiles that are reading his gospel years later would feel that last call. Believe in Jesus, the Son of God. So I believe here we have a final evangelistic plea to believe in Jesus. So our first point, we're called to believe Jesus is the Son of God. We are called to believe that Jesus is the Son of God. This is verses 44 and 45. And Jesus cried out and said, whoever believes in me, believes not in me, but in him who sent me. Whoever sees me, sees him who sent me. Now, verse 44 is a little awkward. You could read it in an incomplete way and it says, whoever believes in me, believes not in me. There's a little funniness going on there that seems a little, it seems easy to misunderstand. See, he's speaking in a certain mode of speech. He's seeking genuine faith and he's saying, you're not just believing in me as if I'm another prophet or another great man. This isn't like you believe in a coach who says, I've got a strategy to help us win or a quarterback who says I can lead us to victory. He's saying something much, much more. When you believe in Jesus, you believe he is the son sent from God. When you believe in Jesus, you're believing He's God. That's a weighty claim. It's not just anybody who's saying something good and helpful or true. You're believing that God Himself has come to speak and to save. He's claiming to have a unique relationship with God. Their message is united. Their mission is united. They have one nature. He's claiming to have authority as God. The point, I think, of what he's saying in verse 44, it's no small thing to believe in Jesus. Let me try to illustrate this. I was sharing the gospel with a good friend. And he says he does not believe the gospel because he can't understand it. And he gave his own analogy. He said, you know, I hear that the universe is constantly expanding and I don't understand that, but I believe it. I don't understand why I can't believe the gospel, even though I don't understand it. My answer to him was this. The universe makes no claim on your life. That's why it's easy to believe. You can believe that which you don't understand when it doesn't make a claim on your life. But when it's God, God makes a claim on your life. When you believe someone is God, it means you worship them. You change the way you talk, the way you act. It demands an allegiance. It's no small thing to believe in Jesus. He's not just a sage. When you say you believe in Jesus and it's a true faith, you're saying he's God and he's worthy of your absolute allegiance and your worship. Look at verse 45. Again, the connection with the son and the father. If you see me, you see him who sent me. You see the father. Now, in John, a question we have to ask is he's talking about physical sight or something spiritual like faith? Well, John writes with layers, and so I think there's a bit of both here. Because if we go again to verses 35 through 36, Jesus says, believe in the light while the light is still with you. He's saying, as you see me in the flesh, as you can hear the word of God with your actual ears, while I am here present with you, believe. There's an urgency. He's about to leave. So I believe there's a physical aspect that while they see Jesus with their eyes, hear Jesus with their ears, there's a physical contact with God, they need to believe in Him. That was a hard issue that kept them. But I believe there's a physical aspect, but there's also a spiritual. Because Jesus is saying, when you see me, when you hear me, you know God through me. God doesn't have a body. The Father doesn't have a body. But he's saying, when you see me physically, when you hear me physically, you can know God. And so I believe there's a physical representation of God, and then there's the spiritual knowledge of God. If we go to page 907 in the Pew Bible, John 20, I think Thomas' dilemma really helps us here. Thomas says, I'm not going to believe unless I see. I'm not going to believe unless I see Jesus and I can stick my fingers in the holes that with which he was nailed to the cross. Jesus accommodates Thomas and Thomas can only proclaim a great profession of faith. Verse 28 of chapter 20. My Lord and my God. He knows he's God. He knows Jesus is everything and all the deities that he's always claimed to be, and now he has the physical evidence before him. He saw it, he touched it, and now he knows who God is. Listen to what Jesus says in verse 29. Have you believed because you have seen? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. That's us. We don't see Jesus. We don't get to put our fingers in the wounds. But we get to hear the Gospel. We get to hear about the birth of Christ and how He lived perfectly and how He was nailed to a cross and He was nailed there by the Roman officials, but God the Father sent Him to die there because of our sin. So that the sin that we have committed against God will be placed upon Him and the wrath that we deserve will be placed upon Him so that we can now be forgiven if we believe in Him. We can hear that that he's risen to demonstrate he's conquered death. He's defeated sin. He's removed our guilt. This is what you believe. If you're not a Christian, this is what you must believe, and this is how you can know God, you must first look to Jesus who shows us who God is. And the beautiful thing is he shows the love of God while we were still sinners. Christ died for us. This is how he demonstrated his love. Our second point is all commands to believe. Believe Jesus came to save. Look at verse 46. I have come into the world as light so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. The first thing you have to believe about Jesus is he's God. There's a weighty demand upon us to believe Jesus is God, but here we see He's God for us. He has come into the world as light so that we will not remain in darkness. The world is that system against God. The world is us who hate God and He's shown His love by coming to us. He came into the darkness to save us. Now there's two important things that we need to focus on here. He says, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness." There's an assumption here. At some point, we were all in darkness. We are, in our fallen nature, we are, as rebellious towards God, everyone against God. By nature, apart from Christ, we are in darkness. We have a predisposed affection For the things of this world, we have a predisposed affection for the darkness. It says in John 3, Jesus is saying they did not come to the light because they loved the darkness. That's us. We have to first realize by nature we're sinners. If you doubt this, if you're not a Christian this morning and you're wondering, am I a sinner? Ask yourself a few questions. Don't compare yourself to somebody else near you who you know is more sinful than you. So you think at least. You're a sinner if you break God's law. You're a sinner if you refuse God's right to rule over you. If you doubt this, ask yourself if you live up to the law of Christ, do you speak truth or do you speak lies? Do you pursue purity or are you perverse? Are you living to love or are you angry? Are you worshipping Him or are you worshipping yourself? These are some of the most basic categories that we all fall short in. We're all guilty of lies and perversity and anger and self-idolatry. We are all in darkness. And praise God that He's come down to shine light so that we can see the darkness for what it is and be saved from it. The second thing we need to see here is that when you believe, you leave the darkness. He came as light so that we do not have to remain in darkness. You do not believe in Jesus and still live in the dark. You do not confess Him as Lord and still obey your lust. You do not profess Him and continue to pursue sin. He's God. When He came to save you, He said, follow Me. Stop following your lust. Believing in Christ means we submit to Him. Now, somebody might say, See, that's just the old Christianity I've always heard. Don't do this, don't do that. You just want to take everything away from me that I enjoy. No, God wants to save you from the things that are destroying you. See, God created us to delight. God created us to truly enjoy and to delight in life, but it's Him We rob ourselves of true joy when we try to find enjoyment and delight in the things of this world and things of sin. We're destroying ourselves. God saved us from those things so that we can know true delight. And true delight is only in the divine. Don't think you're going to lose something. You're losing hell. You're losing destruction. You're gaining everything. Love. Rejoicing a new identity as a child of God, a new purpose. You're getting back in line for that which you were designed for. And that is the divine. God has designed you for the ultimate delight, and that is to worship him. Third, beginning in verse 47. Know that there is a judgment. Verses 47 to 48. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I do not come to judge the world, but to save the world. Now, let's just stop there. This verse seems pretty nice. This is a Jesus we like, isn't it? The non-judgmental Jesus. Nobody likes judgmental Jesus. Christians, we can be embarrassed of the wrath of God. If you're embarrassed of the wrath of God, if you are afraid of talking about a God who is just, A God who has wrath, who is love and has wrath. I encourage you, listen to Ben's devotional sermon from Good Friday. A fine exposition on the doctrine of God's wrath and how it is rooted in his love. Christians, we're too often embarrassed of this essential, key doctrine. Non-Christians, of course, you don't like a judgmental Jesus because he's supposed to be there to help you. We like it. Jesus is there to come and help us and give us help and advice and what a therapeutic, moralistic Jesus. Now he's God. He has come to show us our darkness. He's come to make judgment upon our darkness and to shine the light. Look at verse 48. The one who rejects me does not receive my words. My word has one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge. The word that I've spoken will judge him on the last day. What Jesus is saying here is not that there's not a judgment. He came to save us from judgment. He's saying the first time I've come, I've come to say. When I come again, there will be a judgment and you will be weighed and measured by the words that I have declared, and if you have not believed in me, you will be found guilty. One of the clear commands of scripture again, be perfect for God is perfect. That's to help us understand how far we fall from God and how much we need Jesus. And then it's a call for Christians to say, I want to start thriving towards holiness so that I can please him and worship him. But the first part of that command is that as a sinner, we have to realize we're not perfect. Quit pretending to be perfect, because that keeps you from the one who will perfect you with his love. When Jesus is saying there is, I have not come to judge, he's speaking of that particular day. The beauty of it is salvation is available right now to whoever will believe. But there will come a time when that salvation will not be available. When Christ returns or when you die, that option is no longer available. Believe in him today. There's an urgency here. He's about to die. There's an urgency and a plea. Believe. Forsake the darkness. Finally, our fourth point. Believe Jesus is God's word to us for eternal life. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment, what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me. Jesus, the final discourse recorded here, it's pointing back to the most central theological declaration. He's the Son sent from the Father. He's God the Son sent from God the Father. To hear Him is to hear God. A key question is this. I know that His commandment is eternal life. We really didn't know what that commandment is. It's eternal life. I believe this word commandment could easily be translated as mission or campaign. The campaign and the commandment and the mission that he's speaking of is that he has come as a savior, the light into the darkness. That is the only way we can have eternal life is to believe in him, to believe he's God, to believe he's died for sinners, to believe he's risen again to demonstrate that great life he has for us. So how can Jesus give us eternal life? We have to participate in his death. If he has not died for us, we are still in our sin. The only way to receive the benefit of Christ for us is to believe in his death. And that is how we are forgiven for our sins. We share his resurrection by believing he's God risen from the grave. That is how we get new life. If you're not a Christian this morning, do not leave here without talking to someone near you. Ask them, what does it mean to believe in his death? What does it mean that you celebrate his life? Go home and study John 11 25. I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? Christians. We're no longer on master, we must submit joyfully to the king of kings, the one who is risen to conquer our enemy and to lead us into the light in the new life. Colossians 113. He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the son he loves. We pray with me. Father, we praise you that you sent your son. We praise you, you sent your spirit. May the spirit move among us to remind us not just today, but every Sunday, every Lord's Day and every day of the week that we. Now belong to the beloved son of God, we now belong no longer to the domain of darkness, but to the kingdom of light. Or if someone here does not know that new life in Christ, do not let them leave. Cut them to the heart. Convict them, Lord, of their need for You, of their desperation and sin, and call them to Yourself, Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.