Where are you looking in life?

Everything about our world tells you to look at yourself. Back in the 1980s there was this whole thing of you make your own luck. Being a self-made man “Get on your bike and work” as Norman Tebbit said.

The 1990s was the launch of popular narcissism. The show Friends was on tv and taught young people that life is all about getting what you want.

Now in the 21st century you can be what you want to be you define yourself completely your gender, your identity, sexuality, everything. Everything about our world tells you to look at yourself.

2,000 years ago, a man called Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. He’d heard the message of the Bible many times. He knew it all. He’d seen it all.

But despite hearing it all before, many times… …Jesus showed Nicodemus that he didn’t “get it.” Because he kept looking at himself.

Where are you looking in life?

Here’s how Nicodemus started his conversation with Jesus:

This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

John 3:2

Something about Jesus intrigued him, but, look at how Nicodemus started that sentence: “Rabbi, we know that…” Here’s what Jesus says in response:

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

John 3:3

“It doesn’t matter what you know” says Jesus “you need something to happen to you from outside yourself”

And Nicodemus is confused. He doesn’t understand what Jesus is saying. Because he is still looking at himself. What Jesus has said seems ridiculous to Nicodemus.

Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

John 3:4

And so Jesus replies and tells Nicodemus his problem directly:

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

John 3:5-8

“It doesn’t matter what you do” says Jesus “you need the Spirit to work in you from outside yourself.” Everything about our world tells you to look at yourself. Where are you looking in life?

But, now Nicodemus is even more confused. And so he gives up trying:

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 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?

John 3:9-12

Everything about our world tells you to look at yourself. Nicodemus relies on himself for understanding. He’s looking at his world and his experiences for answers. And he’s heard it all before… …but because he’s looking in the wrong direction. He doesn’t get it.

Jesus carries on explaining:

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 3:13-15

Jesus shows Nicodemus that just as everything about our world tells you to look at yourself, in the same way, everything in God’s Word tells you to look at Jesus.

In 1500 BC, the people of Israel were being bitten by snakes and dying. So, God told Moses to set up a bronze snake on a pole… …so everyone who looked down at themselves, or their world, or their own lives would die. But everyone who looked up at what God had hung on the pole would live. Where are you looking in life?

You probably know it all already. You’ve heard it all. You’ve seen it all before. But, that didn’t help Nicodemus: Where are you looking in life?

Because the next thing Jesus says is these famous words:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

John 3:16

Words that we could have heard a million times before… …but we get no benefit from hearing them unless we stop looking at ourselves. And we instead start looking at Jesus.

Listen to those words again, step by step… this is what Jesus is saying:

“For God so loved the world,

The good news doesn’t depend on your life. No matter what you’ve achieved. Or what you’ve done wrong. Or where you managed to succeed. Or what could have been that you missed out on. It doesn’t matter. God deals with us on this basis and this basis alone: “He so loved the world”

that he gave his only Son,

Jesus hung on the tree, he hung on the cross. Jesus died and took on himself all your wrong, all your shame, all your sin, all your embarrassment. As John the Baptist said when he saw him:

“See, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”

that whoever believes in him

Jesus has taken away your sins. You have been forgiven. But will you receive that forgiveness? Look at him, and believe that he has done it. Believe God’s mercy and love for you. Worked out by Christ on the cross.

should not perish

Because if we don’t look to Christ,iIf we don’t take hold of this promise by faith, then there will come a day when the opportunity will be gone. Don’t look to yourself and think you can persuade God to do something different in the afterlife. Jesus is very clear: If you don’t believe: you will perish.

but have eternal life.

Eternal life—experience it now, and forever. Eternal life is knowing God your Father through his Son by their Spirit. The God who loves you. The Son who died for you. The Spirit who makes you born again.

Friends: Where are you looking in life? Everything about our world tells you to look at yourself. Whether you’ve heard it all before, or this is the first ever time. Whether you look on your life as a collection of successes, or a string of missed chances. Whether you think of yourself as essentially good, or deep down you feel a sense of guilt and shame.

Jesus says: Stop looking at yourself. Instead look at him, hung on that tree for you, and 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.”

John 3:16