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Two questions for today...
How do you respond to:
How could you believe in and follow the God of the Bible?
He is so angry, and full of wrath.
I could never believe in, or follow a God like that.
I think that our study in John 3, will help us to come up with an answer for someone who thinks this way.
A second question also needs to be considered;
How can you be so certain that you are saved?
Many people today struggle day to day.
Some from their own thoughts, others because this is what they are taught.
Many think that you cannot be certain you are saved until you face him as your judge.
Is that true?
What does Jesus, the judge have to say about that?
We will see one of several verses in John that deal with that question today.
Today we are continuing our study in John chapter 3, verses 1 to 21.
This is the record of the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus.
Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a man who held a high regard for the scriptures.
He studied, knew and taught the scriptures.
He taught how God had made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, also known as Israel, and their descendants.
God had promised to bless them, and make them a great nation.
Later, through Moses, God made a covenant with the nation of Israel, reminding them of the covenant with Abraham, and giving them further directions.
He gave them the law, and told them if they obeyed, they would enjoy their time in the land He was giving to them.
However, if they disobeyed, they would be punished.
They would be carried away by other nations, until the land had its Sabbath rests which they had not followed.
The nation of Israel did disobey.
Many times over.
Time and again, God in His patience, in His mercy and grace, delivered them from their enemies.
Yet, the day finally came when they received their just punishment, and God allowed them to be carried away from the land as He forewarned.
However, in His grace and mercy, He also restored them to the land, as He foretold in Deuteronomy, and through the prophet Jeremiah.
During all of these years with the prophets, God was patient, and kept warning Israel.
He also kept forewarning them of the punishment that was coming!
And, in the midst of the warnings, and during the time of the punishment, God kept telling them of the great future ahead.
He told them of the everlasting kingdom that was coming.
The eternal kingdom.
The kingdom which would be ruled by one of David’s descendants.
He told them of how their enemies would be punished, and destroyed by the Lord for how they had treated Israel.
As Nicodemus studied these prophecies, he would have seen the coming kingdom, and known that it would be an everlasting, and righteous kingdom.
He wanted to be a part of that kingdom.
However he knew that all men, himself included were like sheep that go astray.
There is no one who is righteous in His sight.
And as Malachi the prophet foretold,
So, the burning question in his heart was, how can I enter this kingdom, this everlasting, righteous kingdom of God?
Jesus knew his question without him asking and told him,
Nicodemus wanted to know, what is this being born from again, or more literally, from above?
Jesus told him,
Being born again, or from above, is to be born of the Spirit.
Well, how is one born of the Spirit?
Jesus told Nicodemus that this was nothing new.
God had spoken of these things before through the prophets.
He spoke of the Spirit coming and giving life.
But to help him understand, he told him of Moses lifting up a serpent in the wilderness.
When Israel had rebelled against God, He punished them by sending serpents.
When the people saw this, and cried out for mercy, God did not withhold it.
He in mercy gave them a way to live.
A way to have life.
All they had to to was have faith.
They just needed faith that God would heal them as He promised if they looked to a bronze serpent.
Those who did believe and look were healed.
They lived!
In the same way, Jesus went on to say,
Eternal life.
This was a concept that Nicodemus would have know.
This was also introduced in the Old Testament.
This spoke of the time when God would establish his everlasting kingdom, and how many would be resurrected to everlasting life, and others to everlasting shame and contempt.
To rise to eternal life was to rise and enter the kingdom of God.
So, to summarize the conversation thus far:
How to enter the kingdom of God:
Be born of the Spirit
How to be born of the Spirit?
Believe
Being born of the Spirit, is something God the Spirit does.
You cannot make it happen.
You cannot earn it.
You cannot bring it about by some ritual, or achievement.
The Spirit is like the wind.
It goes where it will.
It does what it will.
So, what does it take?
Simply believe.
Just like God said he would give life where there was no hope for those bitten by the serpents.
Just believe, and look to the serpent.
For everyone who believed, those who looked, they were healed.
In the same way, everyone who believes, who looks to Jesus, they will be given this eternal life.
The Spirit will give them new birth into eternal life.
And, not only is this for Israel,
This is for everyone in the whole world!!
Everyone who believes will not perish, but have the promised eternal life!
How?
By being born again, being born from above; being born of the Spirit!
How can we be born of the Spirit?
No ritual makes the Spirit act.
No achievement.
No amount of trying to bring it on.
No, the Spirit gives us new birth the moment we believe in Jesus.
Take a moment to look over those verses again.
This is the greatest news in the world!
Jesus said it twice in a row.
Whoever believes, has eternal life!
Whoever believes has the new life that the Spirit gives.
Now, let’s continue on, looking at the next verses.
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