Amazing Love - An Overview (John 3:14-15)

Pastor Ty Blackburn, Providence Duluth

June 12, 2011

Amazing Love - An Overview (John 3:14-15)

“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.” (John 3:14-15)

“From an evangelistic standpoint, what is the message and methodology of Jesus in this passage? Five points or questions can help explicate this:

(1) What is your predicament?
(2) How can you be saved?
(3) Who can save you or to whom must you look for salvation?
(4) Where must you look for salvation?
(5) Why would God do what He has done in Christ?

Today’s message will focus on the first four questions.

What must happen in the heart of a person for him to be saved? The recent emphasis on 'felt needs' and marketing, whether aimed at 'seekers' or post-modern thinkers, aims to show people how Jesus is the answer. We should start with how Jesus evangelized and this leads us to two applications: What should my message be for evangelism, and in caring for my own soul, how do I appropriate these truths to make my calling and election sure?

What (Nicodemus) had expected to be a theological discussion, an enjoyable excursion into deep biblical truth, was really a painful exposition of his own barren soul. Jesus spent a lot of time helping Nicodemus understand his predicament. Nicodemus was hoping, perhaps, to exegete Messianic prophecy with Jesus. Instead, Jesus exegeted Nicodemus’ own heart. He pointed out the darkness of the unregenerate heart. A person who has not been born again, even though theologically informed, is still in the dark spiritually. The nature of the unregenerate heart is that it can’t understand the things of God. The affections of the unregenerate heart are alienated; it hates the things it ought to love and loves the things it ought to hate. Jesus demolished the strongholds of Nicodemus’ self-reliance, self-righteousness, and self-satisfaction.

When evangelism has started where it ought to, a person that is being evangelized and being moved by the Spirit to consider their own soul in truth is left barren, with the question: 'How can I be saved?' Jesus is modeling for us that you don't start with 'God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.' Jesus models for us what the Puritans called 'law-work;' that is, the evangelist must, by God’s grace, demolish what people are trusting in. We don’t have the ability to do that; what we must do is bring the Word. You must be born again. It isn’t about baptism, church membership, or church office. At this point, Nicodemus knows that he is lost. But Jesus doesn’t leave him there in despair; he begins to present the Good News.

The great need of Nicodemus, indeed of all fallen men, is to obtain the new birth, or to be 'born from above.' This is the Life of Heaven coming down. Since there is no one in history who has ascended into Heaven and come back, Jesus is telling us, in Verse 13, that there is only One who can bring down the resources of Heaven…the Son of Man. Evangelism that doesn’t direct the object to Jesus is not evangelism.

'As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.' This is 'where' a person in his great need must look: to the Cross where the Son of Man is lifted-up. This may seem odd and foolish, to look to the cross, which was a symbol of shame. But, as Paul tells us, the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who believe, it is the power of God.” (Ty Blackburn)

(Listen to entire sermon here)

 Additional Resources 

Amazing Love

We Can't Know Truth?

The Power of the Word of God

A Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness, Part 1

A Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness, Part 2

Providence Duluth

Posted on 6:06 PM / 0 comments / Read More

Piercing The Darkness

Pastor Ty Blackburn, Providence Duluth

May 22, 2011

“Piercing the Darkness”

“Nicodemus said to him, 'How can these things be?' Jesus answered him, 'Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you[a] do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?  No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.'” (John 3:9-15)

“If it’s true that a man must be born again, that we’re utterly and completely in the dark, that we do not understand the things of God, we will not receive the things of God, we will not believe in the Lord unless He gives us a new heart, if being born again is monergistic, that is, entirely the work of God, then what can we do? It is only half true to respond to that question with: We can do nothing.

There are many who believe in the Sovereignty of God in salvation, which this passage clearly teaches, and conclude “It doesn’t matter what I do.” But, that isn’t what today’s passage says. This passage has tremendous implications for us as it relates to our salvation and our evangelism. Even though it is all up to God, it is our responsibility to lift up Christ.

What do I do to escape the darkness? Scripture says “Look to the Son of Man.” The answer is to keep looking to Jesus, keep lifting up Jesus. We need to see ourselves completely dependent and only look outside of yourself to the Son of Man. The emphasis on being “born again” is that there’s nothing in us; everything’s in Jesus…that is the key. As you look at your own life and wonder about your salvation, ask God to give you Grace to keep looking to Jesus. John records this event with Nicodemus to say to us that we need to be born again, and to continually tell us to “keep looking to Jesus, keep looking to Jesus…”

How does the new birth happen? It is mysterious; it happens in God’s time. But it also happens in relation to the lifting up of Christ. What can we do if we want to be born again and see other people born again? Lift up Christ; lift up the cross of Christ. God will use that as His means when He is willing to bring people to Himself.

Man is groping around in a self-imposed spiritual darkness. Psalm 107 tells us people are in the dark because they spurn the council of God. The fact that we question this is due to our own wickedness. How utterly ridiculous it is to question God. What a vivid picture this is of the audacious pride of the human heart, to judge Him who knows all.

A Christian is not a person who follows a code of ethics or who has been persuaded of a theological system. Ethical behavior and theology are important, the Bible is clear on that. But Christianity at its essence is a relationship with a person who is fully God and fully man. But, the new birth happens in conjunction with the preaching of the Word of God. The outward call of the Gospel is accompanied, when God chooses, with the inward call of salvation, which is regeneration (being born again). We are to lift up Christ, because there is no other name given under heaven by which men must be saved.

Jesus is telling Nicodemus that He must be lifted up in the same way that the bronze serpent in Numbers 21 was lifted up to save those who looked to it. He had already told Nicodemus that even with his great learning and knowledge he “didn’t understand,” “didn’t receive,” and “didn’t believe.” Your only hope is to look to the Son of Man lifted up.”

 Additional Resources 

Providence Duluth

How Can You Know If You've Been Born Again?

A Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness, Part 1

A Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness, Part 2

The Power of the Word of God

We Can't Know Truth?

Posted on 7:10 AM / 0 comments / Read More

How Can You Know If You've Been Born Again?

Pastor Ty Blackburn, Providence Duluth
May 8, 2011
“How Can You Know If You've Been Born Again?”

Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.” 

In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” 

“How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!” 

Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (John 2:23-3:8)

“The evangelical church has largely, but not entirely, adopted a view of assurance that is completely unbiblical. They answer the question “How can I know that I have been saved?” in an unbiblical way. Assurance is largely based on a decision at a point in time or an emotional experience.

What does the Bible say about assurance of salvation?

1 John was expressly written “so that you may know that you have life in His Name.” 2 Corinthians 13:5 says to examine yourself to see if you’re in the household of faith. 2 Peter 1:9 says to make every effort to make your calling and election sure. Our passage today is about the new birth; to be born again or more correctly to be born from above. God gives us a passage like this which encourages us to do some examination of our own souls.

Jesus shows us in John 2:23-25 there’s a kind of shallow faith. Chapter 3:1-3 teaches the necessity of the new birth. Chapter 3:4-7 shows the nature of the true birth; the instantaneous and dramatic change that sometimes manifests itself progressively that is entirely done by God. It consists of the impartation of life, which is why it is called the new birth; it is entirely a supernatural act of God. That’s what it means to be born again.

“The wind” in Verse 8 is both a metaphor for the Holy Spirit and a play on words, as the original text uses pneuma, which means both “wind” and “spirit.” The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. The Spirit is like the wind; in the same way the wind is mysterious to us, even though it is very real and you see its effect, the Spirit is just like that. The evidence of the Spirit’s work in regeneration is movement. When the Spirit changes someone, they can’t stay where they were. Another evidence of the Spirit’s work is ongoing movement. The tense of the original text tell us this is referring to continuous, perpetual action.

From church history, Jonathan Edwards helps to differentiate between the “operations of the Spirit” that are experienced by all men, and the “saving work” of the Spirit, which is experienced by those who are born again. The former is temporary; the latter permanent. Being born again radically alters the heart. The essential change is that the heart is redirected, moving away from the world toward Christ. The question is what is the direction of your life? Edwards concluded that the only way to have real assurance is if you are walking with God.

The Apostle John wrote 1 John so that those who have faith can know that they’ve been born again. The idea of being born of God is really about movement; movement away from something toward something else. “Overcoming the world”, “not loving the world”, “wanting to love God more than you did”, “not practicing sin”, “practicing righteousness”, “loving brothers and sisters in Christ”, and “movement away from trusting in self to treasuring Christ” are the marks that John provides as tests for our salvation.”

(Listen to entire sermon here)


 Additional Resources 

A Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness, Part 1

A Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness, Part 2

Providence Duluth

The Power of the Word of God

We Can't Know Truth?

Posted on 7:14 AM / 0 comments / Read More