Seeing isn't always Believing

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Seeing Isn't Always Believing

John 3: 1-21

 

 

I. Introduction

 

A.    Being Too Familiar

 

1.     A youth pastor was preparing to speak at camp one summer like he had done every summer of his ministry.

2.     He knew the kids at camp would, for the most part, be kids who were raised in the church and had heard the scriptures taught most of their lives.

3.     His concern was that they had grown a little too accustomed to talks like his and wouldn't really pay close attention.

4.     He decided to shake things up a little and began with a question; "What's reddish gray, furry, runs in the forest, climbs trees and gathers nuts?"

5.     No response.

6.     Asks again; "What's reddish gray, furry, runs in the forest, climbs trees and gathers nuts?"

7.     Again, no one says anything.

8.     Asks a third time; "What's reddish gray, furry, runs in the forest, climbs trees and gathers nuts?"

9.     Finally, a junior high girl in the front raises her hand and says, "I think it's a squirrel, but I'll say Jesus Christ."

B.    John 3:16

 

1.     I'm afraid that's what happens to us when something becomes so familiar and well known.  We risk making the extraordinary, simply routine.

2.     Not going to embarrass anyone for fear that they'd choke under the pressure, but I bet majority of you this morning could stand up and quote John 3:16.

3.     For those of you who grew up going to church, it's probably the first verse of the Bible you memorized.

a.      Which is weird because they ought to start us out a little easier with verses like John 11:35, "Jesus wept."  Or 1 Thess. 5:17, "Pray continuously."

4.     How many of you remember that guy with the goofy rainbow colored wig who showed up at the choices locations during sporting events in the 70's and early 80's? 

a.      I was watching a replay of the 1982 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach when Tom Watson chipped in on the 71st hole to win and there was Rainbow Head right behind him on the tee box!

5.     Remember him?  His plain white t-shirt had those big black letters, JOHN 3:16!

6.     I have no way of knowing if people across America went scrambling to find a Bible and look it up.  But the verse got a lot of attention.

7.     Well, this morning we're going to look at not only John 3:16, but the context surrounding it.

8.     It involves a private conversation Jesus had with a man named Nicodemus and it’s the first of three successive encounters that illustrate what John wrote at the end of chapter 2.

9.     We left off before Easter in ch.2 with Jesus in Jerusalem for Passover and showing his passion for true worship and his zeal to deal with people who would be obstacles to others' worship by clearing the Temple of animal salesmen and money changers.

10. The Jewish authorities challenged Jesus and asked what authority he had to do that and wanted proof through a miraculous sign…a trick!

11. Jesus told them a sign was coming and alluded to his death, burial and resurrection.

12. Ironically, he did perform miraculous signs while in Jerusalem, but they weren't sideshow antics, they were acts of love and compassion (vs.23).

13. As a result, people believed in him, but vs.24 tells us Jesus didn't put his trust in them.  In fact, vs.25, he knew what was in a man.

14. The conversation with Nicodemus in ch.3 illustrates clearly how Jesus knew what was in the man's heart…more so than even Nicodemus himself!

C.    Nicodemus' Story and Ours

 

1.     Nicodemus' story is our story because he had the same desires, hopes and questions we all have, whether he was totally conscious of them or not.

a.      The desire for a meaningful life.

b.     The hope of there being more than just this life.

c.      The questions of where to find these answers!

2.     King Solomon wrote in the book of Eccles. 3:11, "God has made everything beautiful in its time.  He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end."

3.     That nagging question you have of "What's after this life," was put in your heart and head by God so you'd search for the answer!

4.     Nicodemus had the question and he knew, not as deeply as Jesus knew it about him, but at some level Nicodemus knew that he hadn't found the answer.

5.     When he saw Jesus miracles done from, and for, love, he decided to pursue him and talk to him himself.

6.     What emerges in this conversation, and the conversation in ch.4 with a lonely, five time divorcee, is Jesus' own teaching on the real issues of life.

7.     Prayer - honest and open hearts.

II. Jesus' Teaching on the Real Issues of Life - John 3:1-21

 

A. Jesus Addresses our Deepest Need…Regeneration  (v.1-9)

 

1.     The chapter starts by telling us who this Nicodemus was.

2.     Part of an elite group called Pharisees, known for their, shall we say, enthusiastic adherence to the law.

3.     It's not that they woke up one morning and decided to be religious bullies for the rest of Israel.  They were concerned that God's favor had left Israel - due to Roman occupation - and believed that only strict obedience would restore his favor.

4.     Unfortunately, that motive became tainted and the Pharisees became a proud bunch who enjoyed flaunting their superior faith in front of everyone else.

5.     Nicodemus was not only a Pharisee, but he was a member of the ruling council called the Sanhedrin.

6.     Giving him the benefit of the doubt, it's my opinion that Nicodemus came to Jesus at night not out of fear of what others would think, but out of a desire to see if this Jesus was really part of God's plan and activity for Israel.

7.     The Sanhedrin would all be at Jerusalem during Passover and no doubt had some debate about Jesus and what to do with him.

a.      After all, he had disrupted things at the Temple earlier and the reports were that he WAS doing miraculous things.

8.     Jesus had aroused some deep yearnings in Nicodemus.  I say that because of how the conversation begins.

9.     When you read vs.2&3 something has to strike you.  Jesus seems to answer a question that Nicodemus isn't even asking!  At least not openly!

a.      But remember, Jesus knew what was in a man, and so he tells him what Nicodemus really wanted and needed to hear.

10. The term "born again" is another of those things that is well known, but not necessarily known well!

11. Ever since Jimmy Carter told a reporter during his presidential campaign that he was born again, the phrase has become a loaded one and a misunderstood one.  It was for Nicodemus as well.

12. Even in his best intentions, Nicodemus had a mindset that still prevails today, which is that all humanity needs is education and our issues can be settled.

a.      You learn about something in order to master it.

b.     Knowledge is power!

13. But Jesus isn't offering knowledge, he's offering much more…regeneration!  He continues (vs.4-9).  That's a whole lot!!

14. In one fell swoop, Jesus tells Nicodemus - and us - that the only answers to our deepest needs are spiritual in nature.

15. Here is Jesus telling one of the most prominent Jews of the day, one who would hold up his religious piety and moral integrity up against anyone, and is saying to him, you can't enter God's kingdom unless you're born of water and the Spirit!

16. The water would have been a reference to John the Baptist ministry of baptizing in water for repentance.

a.      Mark 1:4f, "And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins…I baptize you with water, but he (Jesus) will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

17. In essence, Jesus is asking Nicodemus, "Where were you when John was baptizing?  You were conspicuous by your absence - along with your Sanhedrin friends.  You wouldn't humble yourself before that wild prophet, but if you're going to get into the kingdom of God, you have to repent, you have to admit your need!"

a.      That's probably the number one thing that keeps people from being born again - it's not that they don't understand, it's that they understand too well!

b.     They don't want to admit their need!

c.      They don't want to admit that there is something basically wrong with them.

d.     They still believe that there is something good about them and that God ought to accept them because, after all, they have a nice job and nice Johnson County house with three cars!

18. Even if you do admit your need, Nicodemus, you have to understand how that need is addressed.

a.      I wouldn't be surprised if Nicodemus were thinking wistfully how nice it would be for a new beginning; to not be limited to all the sins of the past.

b.     But what he didn't understand is that if he had to do it all over again, nothing would change; he would do it all the same way because "flesh gives birth to flesh!"

c.      The problem with him, and us, isn't in what we've done.  It's with who we are!

d.     The solution isn't to think, if I had just made a different decision about where I went to school, or what I majored in, or who I married things would be different!

e.      That's simply not true!  We'd make the same mistakes because there's only one way to escape the flesh!  God's spirit!

19. And if that weren't all enough, Jesus keeps after Nicodemus telling him that God is indiscriminate about who receives his spirit!  It blows wherever it wants!

20. It's not the private privilege of Pharisees, members of the Sanhedrin, men, a particular race, background, anything!

21. Anyone with a repentant heart!

22. You've got to sympathize with Nicodemus.  "How can this be?" 

B. Jesus Promises His Greatest Gift…the Cross  (v.10-15)

 

1.     In Jesus' response to Nicodemus's quandary, he once again reveals that his ministry pointed to the cross. (vs.10-15)

2.     Let me throw something out for you to consider about vs.12.

3.     One of the things that's difficult about sharing the faith with others is what Jesus refers to here.

4.     It's hard to reveal to others truths about spiritual matters when they don't accept truths about earthly matters.

a.      God is indeed concerned with earthly matters.  If he weren't he wouldn't reveal any truths about how to live while on this earth!

b.     And so Christians address "earthly" matters like morality (premarital sex, adultery, lying, cheating, drunkenness, etc.  And ethics like abortion and injustice.

c.      Truth is, if you don't accept those teaching, "how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?"

5.     Jesus tells Nicodemus that he didn't have to ascend to heaven to gain wisdom, instead he came from heaven to impart wisdom!

6.     Nicodemus asks, "How can this be?"  "How can it be that people can be saved - born again?  Jesus explains in vs.14-15.

7.     Nicodemus, being a teacher, would have been very familiar with the story Jesus refers to in Numbers 21 - turn and look.

a.      Israel in the wilderness after leaving Egypt.  Vs.4-9.

8.     Jesus tells Nicodemus, just as that snake was lifted up, I'll be lifted up.

a.      Later in John 12:32-33 Jesus explains this phrase, "But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself."  He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.

9.     Nicodemus should have gotten the connection:

a.      In both cases death threatens as a punishment for sin.

b.     In both cases it is God himself who provides a remedy.

c.      In both cases the remedy consists of something/someone which must be lifted up.

d.     And in both cases, those who look with a believing heart on that which is lifted up are healed/saved.

10. That glance at Jesus on the cross determines everything about your eternal destiny!  There are only two ways to view the cross.

a.      You can ignore it.

b.     Or you can admit that you are in big trouble because of your sin which is killing you just as surely as those snake bites were killing the Israelites in the desert.

 

 

 

C. Jesus Declares God's Highest Goal…Salvation  (v.16-21)

 

1.     "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

2.     "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."

3.     God's highest goal, number one goal, is your salvation, NOT your condemnation!

4.     If anyone has given you the impression otherwise, they were wrong and I'm sorry!

5.     Any condemnation we experience from God is self-induced because of love for sin above love for God. (vs.18-21).

6.     In his book, No Wonder They Call Him the Savior, Max Lucado includes this story that was told to him by an old preacher from Brazil.

The story involves a woman named Maria and her daughter Christina who live in a poor village in Brazil.  Maria's husband died when Christina was an infant and she never remarried deciding to dedicate herself to raising her daughter.  The early years were difficult and painful, but by the time Christina was a teenager, Maria had a decent job as a maid.  Although the salary afforded few luxuries, it was reliable and it provided for their basic needs.

By the time Christina was 15, she was a very pretty girl.  A stream of young men came calling at her door.  She spoke often about going to the city and dreamed of trading in her dusty neighborhood for the exciting avenues of city life.  Maria was always quick to remind her of the harshness of the streets.  Jobs were scarce; life was cruel, she said.  Marie knew what girl like Christina would have to do for a living.  And that's why her heart broke when she woke up one morning to find her daughter's bed empty.  She knew where she had gone, and she knew she had to find her.

Maria gathered all the money in the house, threw some clothes in a bag and left.  On her way to the bus stop she stopped at a drug store where she went into a photo booth and spent all her available money on pictures of herself.  With her purse full of small black and white photos she boarded the bus to Rio de Janeiro.  She knew Christina had no way of earning money and was too stubborn to give up.  She searched in bars, hotels, nightclubs, any place that had a reputation for prostitutes.  At each location she left her picture, taped to a bathroom mirror or tacked to a hotel bulletin board or a corner of a phone booth.  On the back of the pictures she wrote a note.  Before long, the money and the pictures ran out and Maria had to go home.

Some weeks later, Christina came down the stairs of a hotel.  Her young face was tired.  Her brown eyes no longer danced with youth, but were full of pain and fear.  Her dream had become a nightmare.  A thousand times over she wished she could trade the countless beds she slept in for her secure pallet back home.  But the village was, in too many ways, too far away.  When she got to the bottom of the stairs she noticed a familiar face.  She looked again and there on the lobby mirror was a picture of her mother.  She removed the photo and read the note that was written on the back.  It said: "Whatever you have done, whatever you have become, it doesn't matter.  Please come home."

She did.

We began this morning with a verse that says God has set eternity in our hearts.  I believe that means God has set a desire to go home in our hearts.  He loved us so much he came looking for us that WHOEVER believes in him will know the joy of going home for all eternity!

The invitation still stands!  Invitation (heads bowed, eyes closed and raise hand)  prayer:

Dear God,

I have to admit I need a savior.  My character, good works, good intentions can't earn my place with you.  It is my desire to turn from the things I've placed my confidence in - even myself - and take up my cross and follow you.  Will you please forgive me.  Welcome me home I pray in Jesus' name.  Amen.

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