John 3:17

Note: due to technical difficulties, audio files for this sermon are not available. The manuscript for Shaun’s sermon is below with the caveat that the sermon preached is always a little different than the manuscript…

Introduction

Jeff isn’t here so I can talk about him without him being embarrassed (until he listens online). Jeff is handy and I’ve had the good fortune of watching him work on projects around the church and around the manse. In fact, it’s gotten to the point that anything that is fixed is automatically attributed to Jeff. In my attempt to become a little more handy I’ve tried to notice things Jeff does. For example, even when he is excited to get started on a project he opens up the boxes and sets out all of the pieces and maps out the way he is going to put them all together. I’ve learned that you have to take stuff back apart less often that way. I should have been doing that all along I guess.

That seems like a wise way forward for us this morning too. We’ve been looking at two verses for the last four weeks and I think that before we try to put them all together, it would be good for us to lay them all out and make sure we have them in order before bolting them into place. So let me go ahead and tell you what my plan is for this sermon. First, I’d like to lay out the pieces and make sure we know what we have. Second, I’d like to address a potential objection that may arise. Then third, let’s try to understand what we’re supposed to do in response.

Looking at the Pieces

First the pieces. Max started off this Advent sermon series by rooting us in God’s love. That is the hub of these verses to be sure. God “so loved” the world in all of it’s rebellion and brokenness. That’s one piece. But the next piece follows by pointing out that God’s love for the world is demonstrated in that he sent his unique Son. I preached on that in week two. God the Father sent the Son who extended the offer of inheritance to the very same rebellious and broken world. That’s the second piece. Then last week Max preached on the third piece which was to show that God’s love is also seen in that, for those who would receive God’s love, the result is that they no longer have to live in a state of ongoing perishing. Life is available to the rebellious and broken world that God “so loves”.

This morning we come across the fourth piece in verse 17. It tells us that the point of Jesus coming was actually not to condemn the rebellious and broken world. The point was to save the world through the Son. The whole united lump of Jesus’ life, sacrificial death on the cross, and resurrection are the means by which God seeks to save.

So if we step back and look at these pieces we can start to get a sense of how to put them together. What I want you to see this morning is how good God’s intentions are towards a rebellious and broken world. God’s intention is to save. God’s intention is to share his love, even with a rebellious and broken world. When we look at these pieces we see a God with good intentions in the absolute sense of the term. Not just “nice” but truly good and loving. The point is not condemnation but salvation. This is God’s love.

A Potential Objection

Now, there have been plenty of times (not when Jeff is involved, mind you) when I have looked at the pieces to a project and been very skeptical if they really do go together the way they are supposed to. I suspect that some hearing what I’ve said so far could have some objections as to whether or not these pieces even can go together. You might be thinking, “But isn’t Jesus indeed coming to judge?” Maybe you have heard more than your share of judgment sermons from frothy preachers. Or maybe you have read passages like Matthew 25:31ff; Acts 10:42, 17:31; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Hebrews 9:27; Jude 15; 2 Peter 3:7; or the Apostle John’s own writings in John 5:22-27; and 1 John 4:17. These passages speak of Jesus and judgment. Jesus actually is coming to judge. Isn’t this a problem for our verse? It’s not for at least two reasons.

Timing

One reason the objection doesn’t hold is timing. John is writing here about Jesus’ incarnation and earthly ministry. His point is that it’s not about blasting away in judgment, but rather it’s about salvation. We might even say that the incarnation and earthly ministry of Jesus was a way to get the whole judgment thing right after years of God’s people saying, “Look at those nations Lord! Blast ‘em and make things right!” But Jesus comes and requires that God’s people take a peak in the mirror. The wickedness of the Nations is a real problem, but Jesus’ ministry prevented people from dismissing their own wickedness that was tucked under layers of religious cover. So the truth is that Jesus will one day sit to judge like all those verses say, but the incarnation was not for that purpose.

You might even notice that I switched words on you. I’m using the term judgment. The Apostle John exercises an economy of words in his writings that make the Greek simple to read but also more layered in understanding than it may appear at first glance. I think the ESV is helpful by translating this word in our our verses as “condemnation”. It gets at what I think is the correct connotation of the word John uses in this spot. The incarnation was not for trial and sentencing. There will be a time for that. But what John is writing about here was about presenting God’s love to the world so that the world could see there is a different way forward. There is another possible end. The Christ who was God-made-flesh would become the Christ-who-died-and-rose-again so that the rebellious and broken world could know peace with their creator and not have to fear Christ-the-just-judge.

In one sense, we could say that the incarnation was a kind of judgment (19) in that it tells the naked truth about us and our condition – we are helplessly sinful. But the incarnation was not a judgment in the sense that, instead of leveling a just sentence, it provided the singular means by which the world could avoid the condemnation it is already experiencing (18). There is a day coming when Jesus will sit on the Judgment Seat and all of life will be adjudicated for our heart-produced actions (e.g. Matt 25). But John tells us here that when Jesus showed up at his incarnation it was so that there could be hope, and life, and confident peace well ahead of that Great Assize. So the timing in reference matters to how we understand John’s meaning.

The Problem/Not-problem of Judgement

The other reason I don’t think the objection holds is more of an emotional reason. That is, the tug of our hearts affirms God’s judgment in Christ even if we don’t always recognize it. People bristle at the whole idea of judgment but the history of humankind is full of examples of people trying to make the world right. The annals of history demonstrate how people have tried to do it: wielding power through political might, conquering nations that get in the way of political might, and even rebelling against people who have wielded power through political might. There is the use of music and literature and other art forms to expose injustice and try to convey visions of what the ideal world should be. We use education, and science, and even financial policies as means to make things right. Everybody wants justice. We just argue over who gets to define it and how it should be meted out. Apart from Christ our notions of judgment truncate justice into little self-shaped corners of what “the right” might be.

But Jesus came to make all things right. Jesus came to bring the life that God intended for all of creation. Jesus comes to enact the exact kind of judgment our hearts are longing for but cloud over with hypocrisy, and self-centeredness, and lesser visions of what “the right” even means. Jesus will come to adjudicate that kind of justice. But Jesus also came the first time to provide a way out of the ways we participate in creating the need for renewed justice. Jesus came to end our condemnation so we can experience his righting of the world at peace with God and not under God’s just verdict.

What We Are to Do

Those might be meaty theological things to say. What do we do? In our verses, the line between remaining under condemnation and right-now-no-longer-being-condemned comes down to belief. According to verse 18, if true condemnation remains it is because a person has not believed in “the name of the only Son of God.” On the other hand, the one who does believe is not being condemned. Interestingly, even the grammar indicates that there is right now no condemnation for the one who believes. In one sense Jesus’ future acquittal of believers at judgment is right now being brought to bear in their lives. Because of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection you can right now know freedom from condemnation. That means that the question of how you will experience the God of heaven comes down to whether or not you will believe.

Now belief can be like music in a coffee shop. We know it is playing, and from time to time we pay attention long enough to say, “Oooh I like this song”. Or we bristle because they are playing Mariah Carey…again…but then we get back to our work as our awareness fades. Likewise for some, belief in Jesus is an idea you pay attention to when the sentiment hits, then ignore when the sentiment fades. Some of you may be fine with belief in principal but you aren’t acting on it in your lives. You might believe intellectually that Jesus makes theological sense but that has little bearing how you engage the world.

Belief in Jesus is about more than just ascent to sentimental ideas. It is about wholesale trust pressed into the crevices of life. Would you be willing to press belief in Jesus into how you work, how you play, how you make the decisions of your lives, even (dare I say it) how you feel about things? If you aren’t sure how to do that, let’s talk.

Conclusion

This week I got several emails and a few messages. It probably says more about my internal world the last few weeks, but a couple of them put me on the defensive. As I read them I wanted to protect myself from what they seemed to insinuate between the lines about me. My internal gears set to spinning with thoughts, and deflections, and even a bit of self-doubt. I say “between the lines” because digital communication leaves a lot of room to add in what the other person’s motives are. I mean, one of the messages even replied to what I said by writing, “ok”. What is that supposed to mean? “Ok” as in it’s fine or sarcastically “Ok” as in I’m way off base? I’m being a little silly I know, but what you assume about the motives of the person sending the message says a lot about how you receive it.

That brings us back to what I believe is the heart of this text when all of the pieces are fully assembled. This Jesus that God sent, as a baby, and as a teacher, and as an outsider, and as a king; this Jesus comes as God’s message to a rebellious and broken world. And what you think God’s motives are will say a lot about how you receive Jesus; whether you will reject him and remain in condemnation, or whether you will believe. Whether you will dismiss him or put your trust in him and know the life he offers.

For some of you this is a problem because, while you may have loads of well-organized theology in your mind, you live your lives like God is probably still out to get you, at least just a little bit. Would you be willing this morning to dare believe Jesus demonstrates that God’s intentions towards the world and towards you are good? That means you can stop living as though God is most likely scowling at you? Maybe you need to walk through that some more. Let’s talk.

Still the point of this Advent series has been to remind us that God actually loves us. That is why Jesus came. That is what we celebrate during this season. Will you believe?

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.