Delivered from Darkness, Living in Light
John 3:14-21

Jesus spoke of heavenly things. (3:12)
If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

Here is a “heavenly thing” of which Jesus spoke. (3:14-15)
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.
• Meaning = Lifted up, Jesus is the cure for the fatal venom of sin.

(Oh, and one more “heavenly thing”) (3:14-15)
• Meaning = Lifted up, Jesus is the Lord’s Banner (Jehovah Nissi). He turned an instrument of death into the means of our victory.

So here’s the whole gospel in one sentence. It is the nature of God to act in love, even to those who deserve judgment. (3:16)
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

This explains why God sent His Son into the world. (3:17)
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.

God did His part to offer salvation, leaving a choice to us. (3:18)
• We can believe and not receive the consequence of our sin. (18a)
Whoever believes in him is not condemned,

• Those who refuse to believe will not be saved from the consequence of sin. (18b)
but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Jesus is light from God for this dark world. (3:19a)
And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world,
o Light is a symbol of knowledge, truth, hope, and purity.
o Darkness, absence of light, is a symbol of ignorance, futility, wickedness, and evil.

Jesus is the light that the world rejects. (3:19b-20)
and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

Jesus is the light that draws those living by the truth (3:21)
But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”