Rabbi Schneider - Why Did God Send Jesus?
John chapter 3, verse number 13. Hear the Word of God. Jesus says: No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. I want to talk about this concept for a second. Jesus said: No one has ascended into heaven... He's speaking of the very part of God's presence. ...except He who descended from heaven: even speaking of Himself, the Son of Man. Do you know that when Jesus descended from heaven, He bridged a gap for you and I between us and God? You see, the Lord said in the Hebrew Bible, in the Torah, in the Tanakh, that no one could see God and live. God's power is too big. He is the uncreated One that has always been. We're just His creation.
So you and I aren't built to fully absorb Him in all His power, in all His glory, in all His dimension. So what Jesus did in descending from heaven, being born of flesh, in other words, coming down as God, taking upon Himself human flesh. What He did, beloved, is He created a way that we could approach God, get it now, through Him and still be alive, number one. But secondly, actually be in relationship with God through Him. You see, it's kind of like something that you would, like let's say that you have a very low powered electrical device. And that low powered electrical device couldn't absorb all the electricity in the electrical socket. We, for example, have to do this when we travel around the world. A lot of their electrical devices are not 110 or 120 as we have in the States, but they're 220.
So what we have to do is we have to take what's called a transformer with us. We can't bring our, we can't plug our device right into their electrical socket because it would just disintegrate our electrical device. We have to take a transformer. We plug our device into the transformer and then plug the transformer into the wall. And what the transformer does is it dials down the electrical voltage, and then makes it something that our smaller device can receive. And that's what Jesus did. He descended from heaven, beloved, so that you and I could be in communion with God, Himself. I love it. And being God, He fully relates to God. But being man, in other words, He clothed Himself in humanity, He fully relates to us. So He becomes the bridge between God and man. I love it, and we love You, Lord Jesus.
Let's continue on, next verse. Jesus goes on. He's speaking to Nicodemus here. Remember we saw last week, Nicodemus, one of the Jewish leaders, came to Him by night and opened up a spiritual dialogue with Him, saying, You know, I know You're from God because of the miracles You're doing. Then Jesus begins to challenge him. Nicodemus, you've got to be born again. Nicodemus, don't you understand these things. You're a, you're a teacher of Israel. Jesus is gonna continue to pour life and revelation in Nicodemus. Let's continue on with the 14th verse. Jesus says this to this Jewish ruler: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whosoever believes in Him will have eternal life.
So what's happening here? We've been describing through John's Gospel the Hebrew roots that are revealed to us in John's Gospel. Of course, Nicodemus, he was all, you know, he was all about Moses; all the Jewish people. Moses was their leading figure. You know, they said to Jesus in other places in Scripture, you know, we're Moses's disciples. They knew Moses's ministry very well. So Jesus says this to Nicodemus. He said: Even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness... What is He talking about? He's talking about where there was a plague of serpents that were biting the Jewish people because of their disobedience. And they were dying by the thousands. So quick; a huge plague had overtaken them. But what did God tell Moses to do? Moses, listen, I'm gonna tell you how to stop this. I want you to take a bronze serpent, which is by the way where we get the symbol on, in the medical field today.
You know the serpent on a staff, that comes from this incident with Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness. So we see that even in the American medical field today. So the Lord says to Moses, Moses, take a bronze serpent and put it on a staff and lift it up. And whoever looks at that serpent will be, won't die. And so God stops the plague in this way. So Jesus says to Nicodemus, Nicodemus, even as Moses took the bronze serpent and put it on the staff and lifted it up to save the people, so too, Jesus said, I must be lifted up. And when I'm lifted up, Jesus said, I'm gonna give eternal life to everyone that will believe me and receive me. Jesus was lifted up on the cross. He's lifted up through the preaching of the Gospel. He's lifted up whenever the Gospel's proclaimed.
Let's continue on then: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whosoever believes will in Him have eternal life. Now let's continue with the next verse, most famous verse in the Word of God: For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life, or eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. This is an important concept. The concept, beloved ones, just the simple elementary truth, God so loved the world. God sent Jesus into the world because He loves the world.
Some of us think of God, some people think of God, you know, as just angry, and vindictive, and you know, just waiting to strike someone down and punish them for their sin, you know, walking around in condemnation. But God sent Jesus into the world not to condemn, but to save, right? And if God was gonna condemn, we'd all be condemned because all of us are guilty in terms of having committed serious sin in God's eyes and having offended Him. But God didn't send the Son in the world to judge you, but because He loves you and wants to save you. And notice also that Jesus says here: For God... Who's He referring to when He says, For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son? Who is God here? It's the Father, right? It's Father God. Jesus said He came to do the will of the Father; that the Father is the one that sent Him.
Remember when Jesus was on the cross, He cried out to the Father. He said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Listen, the Father Himself, Jesus said, loves us. So the Father loves you. And because the Father loves you, because Father God loves you, He sent Jesus into the world for you. Sometimes as the church we put so much emphasis on Jesus, which we absolutely should, but sometimes we forget that it's the Father that sent Jesus; that it's because of the Father's love for us that Jesus came. So Jesus says here: For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. I just feel right now that the Father through the Holy Spirit and Jesus is knocking at the door of some of your hearts right now; that the Holy Spirit, at the Father's bidding, is knocking at the door of some of your hearts; that you're experiencing in a, in a real way this revelation that it's the Father that sent Jesus for you; that the Father loves you, and that you've been chosen to be a son or a daughter of the Father.
You perhaps heard about Jesus before, but you never really got the revelation that it's the Father that sent Jesus for you; that it's the Father's love that brought Jesus into the world for you; and that the Father wants to bring you to Himself. Remember Jesus said this. He said: I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, and no one comes to the Father but through Me. And so you see, the Father is drawing us to Himself. And I just want to invite you right now, if you're feeling the Holy Spirit knocking on your heart right now, if you're feeling the love of Father, the wooing of Father, if you're feeling Father's immense love for you right now, I want to encourage you, just open your heart to Him. Just say:
Father God, forgive me for not realizing how much you love me. I believe you love me now. And Jesus, I receive you into my heart to bring me to the Father. Thank you, Father, for sending your Son to die on the cross for my sins and for bringing me to Yourself through Him. I repent. I turn my life over to You now, Father. I turn my life over to You now, Jesus. Thank You for saving me, in Jesus's name.
If you just said that prayer, beloved, write us at Discovering the Jewish Jesus and let us know.
Let's continue on, verse 17: For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. In other words, God hasn't sent Jesus to judge us. He sent Jesus to save us because He loves us. He sent Jesus, beloved, to die on the cross for you because He loves you. Continuing on: He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. In other words, beloved, regardless of what sin you or I have committed, when we receive Jesus into our life and truly repent, we say, Jesus, I want to live for You. Help me to live for You. And we mean it, and we're seriously trying to follow Him, the Bible says, you're not gonna be judged. Why? Because God already judged Jesus for your sin. He's not gonna judge you, too.
When the Lord looked away from Jesus when Jesus was on the cross and Jesus said, Why have you forsaken me? Your sin was judged there. The abandonment that you would have felt had Jesus not died in your place, that abandon, beloved, was experienced by Jesus for you. That's why one of my favorite verses in the New Testament comes from Corinthians, and it says, speaking of Jesus, that He that knew no sin became sin on our behalf, on your behalf and my behalf, that we could become the righteousness of God. So there's no judgement of you. Jesus has given you His righteousness. He took your sin, although He had committed no sin, He took your sin. Then He died on the cross for the death that you should have had to die. And in His place, He gave you His righteousness that you did nothing to deserve. It's the divine exchange of mercy and grace.
And so Jesus said, I didn't come to the world to judge the world. I came into the world to save the world. And this helps us to know how to relate to people because when we understand God's love for us, it helps us to understand how we ought to walk in terms of our love for one another. You see, Jesus said, what use is it if you love only your friends? He said even sinners love their friends. He said, I've called you to love your enemies. In other words, we were enemies of God 'cause we were in rebellion against Him. We were living in offense against Him. But God's love is so great and His compassion is so deep that He loved us, the Bible says, while we were yet sinners. So God is challenging us, now listen, if you just love your friends, you're, you're like sinners. You're no different than anybody else. Why do we love our friends? We love our friends because they make us feel good. People love their friends because they're affirmed by their friends, right? Being around their friends makes them feel good.
Jesus said that's nothing to just love your friends. Everybody loves their friends. Jesus said, I'm calling you to a higher dimension. I'm calling you to agape love, to divine love. I'm calling you to love your enemies even as I died on the cross for you when you were living in rebellion against Me. And so we want to elevate ourselves by God's Spirit to being able to operate in grace towards people even when they've offended us. And here's an important secret to understand. We can't look to other people to affirm us, nor can we look to other people to affirm our identities, because the reality is the people around us, by and large, they're not concerned about us. They're not thinking about us. And their responses to us are not about us. It's about them. They're all about themselves. But we so often times are getting offended with people around us because we're taking everything they do personally. We're taking it personally in terms of the way they treat us or the things they say. But beloved, we need to understand that it's not about us. It's about them. They're trapped. They're lost.
Just like Jesus said, forgive them for they know not what they do. And the way that they treat you is no indication of who you are. If we're gonna take our cues as to who we are by looking to other people to tell us who we are, by the way they speak to us, by the way we treat us, we're always gonna be trapped and we're always gonna be suffering. Beloved, Jesus and the Father have already affirmed us. We're chosen in Him. We're loved by Him. And knowing this will help us to love the people around us, even as it helped Jesus to love the people around Him when He died on the cross and said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Well I want to get back on point, but I'm just simply making the point that the love that God has for us, it's not because we loved Him first. He loved us when we were yet sinners. And He sent His Son for us when we were in rebellion against Him. And God is calling us to live in this kind of love and in this kind of power.
Let's continue on, verse number 18: He who believes in Him, speaking of Jesus, He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgement, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God. What's going on here? I know in my own life, beloved, that before I knew Jesus, if I heard somebody talking about God, I mean, I would just feel hatred in my heart towards them. I mean, even though I always believed in God, if there was someone walking around that was talking about God all the time, I thought, you're so weak, and something in me hated them. Why? Because the enemy was in my heart and there was evilness in me. And because of that, I hated the Light.
People that reject God, they hate the Light. They hate Jesus. They hate people that talk about Jesus. But I want you to know, beloved, those people who, who, in whom their heart has been touched by the Holy Spirit, they come to the Light. Why? Because there's Light that's at work in their hearts. The darkness hates the Light. The Bibles says that the Light shines in the darkness, John, 1:5, and the darkness can never comprehend it, nor can the darkness ever extinguish it. So I want you to know, you are light that's shining in the darkness. And you can't ever be afraid of the darkness. Don't ever be afraid of the people around you. Don't ever be afraid or intimidated by the people that try to intimidate you by putting you down or putting down your faith, because the darkness hates the Light. But the truth is, beloved, the Light shines in the darkness. Don't ever back up. What you have is greater than what the world has.
Let's continue on: After these things, verse 22, Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He was spending time with them and baptizing. And I just love this concept, as we conclude today, that Jesus was simply, get this now, church, Jesus was simply spending time with His disciples. I love this simple sense of friendship that we get here. Did you know that John the Baptist, as he was introducing Jesus, they asked John the Baptist, they said to him, Are you the Messiah? John said, No, I'm not the Messiah. John said, I'm just the friend of the Bridegroom. And the Bridegroom that he was speaking of, beloved ones, was Jesus. The Bridegroom that he was speaking of was Jesus, Himself. Jesus is the Bridegroom that we're getting ready to be married to.
And so I want you to see that more than anything else, as we conclude today's lesson, there's this sense of love, this sense of intimacy, this sense of being married to King Jesus as our Bride, and beloved ones, this sense of friendship. The Gospel that we're looking at today, we're looking at the last verse which concludes, Jesus simply spent time with His disciples. I want to ask you a question. Is Jesus the same for you and I today? Does He simply just want to spend time with us? Is He waiting for us to just simply get alone, to just sit down on a couch or a chair to take a walk and say, Jesus, I love You. I want to know You better. Jesus, I just want to spend time with You.
Sometimes we have to make a conscious decision, beloved ones, to spend time with Him. Sometimes it's an act of the will on our part to come out of the world. Just like Jesus, we read in the Gospels, He often times went by Himself to a mountain to pray. I want you to know, Yeshua, Jesus, loves you and He wants to spend time with you. Take time to be with Him. Start today. Make it a habit. I tell you, it's gonna come back to you pressed down, good measure, running over into your lap, and you're gonna know that Jesus loves you. I love you too. Until next week, Shalom.