John chapter 3. If you've never read John chapter 3, I would encourage you to read it.
It's a good chapter. It's a beautiful story. And John chapter 3 verse 16 may very well
be the most well-known scripture that there is. Now, I don't know any way to test that,
but I'm going to go on a limb and say that it's probably the most well-known scripture.
And for good reason. There are some scriptures that are just good. Now, I'm not saying that
there are some scriptures that aren't good, but what I mean is there are some scriptures
that are good and that we read them and we understand them and we can connect with them
and they make sense to us and they help us to see and understand the gospel of Jesus
Christ in a way that even a child can understand the truth in some of these passages. And John
chapter 3 verse 16 and really that whole chapter of John chapter 3 is a beautiful story and
we're going to talk about that a little bit today. But the scripture is on the screen
this morning and if you would like to repeat it with me while I speak it this morning,
you're certainly welcome to. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Let's pray.
Father God, we come to you. We thank you for your good word and I pray God that today your
word is front and center this morning. I pray that we would hear this word and listen to
it. God, maybe for some of us we've read this scripture, we've heard this scripture, we've
heard sermons on this scripture a hundred times, but nonetheless God, your word is good.
And so I pray that your Holy Spirit would be with us today, that you'd free us from
the worries and distractions of this world, free us from all these beautiful decorations
that were not overwhelmed, but that today in this moment that we would focus on you.
So I pray God that you'd hide me behind the cross, take away any fears or pride that is
within me and I pray that your Holy Spirit would speak to us, that you would be glorified
today. And I ask these things in Jesus name, amen. What we see at the beginning of John
chapter three is we see a man by the name of Nicodemus. Now we don't see Nicodemus a
lot in scripture, but we do see him three times of importance in the book of John. So
he's somewhat of an important character. And this event that we see in John chapter three
is referenced the next two times that Nicodemus is referenced. Now Nicodemus, we are told,
is a Pharisee. That's a word we see sometimes in the New Testament. Pharisees were really
religious people. If you go back and you read in Matthew chapter 23, you're going to see
that Jesus, it's pretty hard on these type of people because oftentimes these Pharisees
were very religious, but they weren't really godly people. They weren't really people who
were living by the word of God. They thought they were. They really knew the word of God
well. And when I say the word of God, I mean what we would call the Old Testament, the
law, the Ten Commandments and all the other laws like that. They really prided themselves
in knowing those things. They really prided themselves in looking the part of being really
holy people. But the problem was is that they did not really understand God's word. And
they certainly did not like Jesus. Now Jesus had come onto the scene and Jesus began to
do things that no one else had done before. If you flip back to John chapter two, you're
going to see that Jesus goes into the area of the temple and he cleans house because
there are people there that are buying and they're selling and they're not showing any
reverence for God. And it says that Jesus makes a whip and drives the people out of
that area. And this is certainly not received well by some. The Pharisees never really liked
Jesus very much. And maybe part of that was because they were the ones who were looked
at as the holy ones. And now Jesus comes onto the scene and he begins to preach God's word
and share God's word and explains God's word from the Old Testament in a little bit different
way. And in a sense, Jesus really is holding people to a higher standard than simply living
by the letter of the law. Jesus tells people, well, you need to begin to look at your heart.
It's not just about what you're doing on the outside. It's what's on the inside that matters.
So Jesus comes onto the scene and he begins to do these really radical things, driving
people out of the temple. He begins to preach these things that some of the people don't
understand. Some of them kind of understand there's something going on with what Jesus
is preaching. They realize that he's preaching and teaching unlike any who has come before.
He's beginning to do these miracles and to heal people and to bring people back to life.
And these are the things we see in the ministry of Jesus. And so it's undeniable that there's
something about who Jesus is. Well, we get to John chapter 3 and we see this man Nicodemus,
who's a Pharisee. And it seems pretty likely that he's a member of the Sanhedrin as we
read what little bit we can about him in the scripture. And so he was a higher up of the
holy people. And Nicodemus, it says he comes to Jesus at night. Now, I don't know why he
came at night. Maybe he was coming because he didn't want anybody to know he was coming.
None of us suggested that. Maybe he didn't get through work until late. I don't know.
But for whatever reason, Nicodemus came to Jesus at night and he says, he says, look,
Jesus, he says, we know that you are from God. We know that you are a teacher from God,
he says, because nobody else could do the things that you do if they weren't from God.
Now, it's interesting in that passage there. He says, we know that you are from God. Now,
I don't know who the we are. Maybe there are other believers who are around when this is
going on. Maybe there were other Pharisees that he is referring to. But he says, we know.
And at the very least, Nicodemus realized whoever the others were, we know who one was.
And that was Nicodemus. He realized that Jesus, there was something about Jesus. And he says,
look, I know you're from God. I know you're a teacher from God. And of all things for
Jesus to say, he starts in the next verse by talking about, and you must be born again.
Wait a minute. What's going on here? Nicodemus hadn't asked anything about that. But yet
Jesus was using this opportunity, I believe, to tell Nicodemus the most important truth
there is in scripture. And that is that there is salvation in no other than in Jesus Christ.
And there has to be a change in our life from who we are in the flesh to who we are in Jesus
Christ. There has to be a transformation for Nicodemus and for you and for me. Now, we
may look the part and we may know some scriptures and we may have everybody else fool, but what
God looks at is our heart. And there has to be a change in our heart and who we are. And
so Jesus takes this opportunity to tell a man who is seeking him what is important.
Now, pay attention to what Nicodemus did here. He came seeking Jesus. He had heard about
Jesus. He knew that there was something about Jesus. Maybe he didn't understand everything.
Maybe he didn't believe that Jesus was a Messiah. I don't know what he believed, but he believed
something about Jesus. He believed that Jesus was from God and he came seeking out Jesus.
Now, we need to be those people today. Now, maybe there are some of you and you know a
little bit about Jesus. You know that there's something about him and maybe you know a little
scripture and maybe you've come to church a little bit. But what I want you to do today
is I want you to listen to these words that we see in John chapter three verse 16, to
listen to this story and to go back and read this story and to see these words for yourself.
That we would be those today who would seek Jesus. That we would be those today that would
recognize there's something about Jesus. So Nicodemus came to seek Jesus and Jesus begins
to tell him all this kind of weird stuff. Really, it may not be weird to us because
we hear a lot of born again, born again. Well, that seems normal to us. But think about Nicodemus.
Think about this language Jesus begins to speak about. You need to be born again. Now,
this was confusing to Nicodemus. Now, wait a minute. How is it possible Jesus for somebody
who's an adult? Are you going to go back in the woman's womb and come back out again?
What are you talking about? And Jesus tells Nicodemus, he says, look, you're a teacher.
You should know these things. So obviously there was something that Nicodemus being a
man who would have certainly known the Old Testament scripture pretty good. There was
something that he should have known here that he had missed. And Jesus says, you should
understand these things. You should understand this idea of being born again. I don't know
exactly what Jesus was referencing there. Perhaps Jesus was referencing Psalm 87. Psalm
87 talks about Zion and the Holy Mountain and the greatness of Zion. And it says something
interesting, some language there that is similar to what we see today. It begins to speak of
all these other nations, Rahab and Babylon and Tyre and Cush and all these other nations.
And it says of those nations that they will say that they are born here, that is born
in Zion, born of Jerusalem. Now, wait a minute. These nations weren't born of Jerusalem. These
weren't Jewish people. These weren't Israelite people. These were foreign people of a foreign
land. But it says of those of a foreign land that they will say, we are born here. Perhaps
that's what Jesus was referencing, implying even in Psalm 87 that there would be this
idea that nations would be born again and that even foreigners would be part of God's
kingdom. Certainly, we see that in the Old Testament. God promised Abraham that all nations
will be blessed through you. We even see people from other nations who enter into God's people
in the Old Testament. And so this idea of foreigners far and wide and everybody being
born into the nation of God, being born as children of God is not just something we see
in the New Testament, but even alluded to in the Old Testament. And he begins to tell
these things to him and he says, look, you're born of the flesh, Nicodemus, but you need
to be born of the Spirit. There needs to be a transformation, a change in your life. Now,
we sit here today and we have all been born in the flesh, everyone that's in here today.
Now I don't know if you've been born of the Spirit. Some of you, I'm pretty sure you have.
Some of you, maybe you have, maybe you haven't, I don't really know. But you know, God knows
your heart. We've all been born of the flesh, but the question we must answer today is have
we been born of the Spirit? Have we been reborn into a new creation in Jesus Christ? Have
we been transformed? Because we need to be transformed from who we are into men and women
of God. Now our world is just pumping all kind of stuff into our mind all the time,
but the scripture calls us to have our minds transformed, that our minds would be renewed
so that our minds would not be those minds who are poisoned by the world and listen to
the world, but minds that are transformed, that are focused on Jesus Christ. And Jesus
says, look, you were born of the flesh. Now oftentimes what we see in scripture when it
talks about the flesh is talking about our sinfulness. Now I don't know if you knew that
or not, but you're a sinner. Praise the Lord you come today because that's something we
all need to know. That's something that God's word tells us. We probably don't like those
parts of it too much. We read it sometimes. We like the good stuff. We like the grace.
We like the happy stories. We begin to read about those sins that we're guilty of. We
don't really like to read those pages. We don't like to acknowledge those things. We
don't really like the hard teachings of love your enemies and pray for those who persecute
you. You know, there are some parts of God's word that are hard, but God's word is good
and he gives us this word because it's our instruction on how to live. God's word tells
us that we are sinners, every one of us, every one of us today. Now I don't know where you're
from. I don't know your background, all of you, but I know that we're all here and I
know that we're all sinners. It doesn't matter if we're rich, poor, tall, short. It doesn't
matter if we're smart. If we're dumb, it doesn't matter. We are all sinners and the wages of
sin is death. Now that's pretty grim. That's pretty grim. Now we can begin to look back
and make a list of the sins that we've done this week and we can probably fill up a page
in no time. So we're a pretty evil people. We're a pretty wretched people and we don't
like to call ourselves that. We don't like to say we're evil or we're wretched or we're
sinners. We like to say, well, everybody makes mistakes, but God's word uses stronger language
than that. And so there's sinful things that God's word says you should not do. We should
not lie. We should not steal. We should not cheat. We should not take God's name in vain.
We should not worship other gods. God's word is full of instructions and commands that
we break. And even as Christians, we strive and we try to do our best and we sin and we
break the commands of God. And God's word tells us again and again what sin is. And
God's word reminds us that we are sinners. And when Jesus says to Nicodemus here, you've
been born of the flesh, what he's saying is Nicodemus, you're a sinner. Now Nicodemus
was a holy man by all worldly accounts, but what Jesus says is it's not enough to be holy
in this world, but you have to be born again. There has to be transformation. You have to
be born of the Spirit. Praise the Lord through Jesus Christ, through his crucifixion and
through his resurrection. The Holy Spirit comes and indwells in those who have put their
faith and trust in Jesus Christ. And what Jesus tells Nicodemus is, Nicodemus, there
has to be a change. You may know about God, you may know the word of God, but there has
to be something more. You have to know who Jesus is. You have to be transformed, you
have to be changed, you have to be made anew. And that message to Nicodemus is the same
message to you and I today. That we need to be changed. That we need to repent of our
sins in this world. That we need to ask Jesus Christ to forgive us through his crucifixion.
That we need to gain the victory through his resurrection. We need to know that we can
trust in him. That his word never changes. That he'll never leave us or forsake us, but
that he will begin to work in us and change our hearts and make us into the men and the
women that he wants us to be as the Holy Spirit and dwells in us. So he's telling Nicodemus,
there has to be a change in your life. There has to be a change in who you are. And then
he references a story as it continues on. He references a story from Numbers chapter
21. We talked about this just a few weeks ago. It's probably fresh on some of your minds.
It's a story of God's people and they were just disobedient and complained. Now you can
flip to just about any page in the Old Testament and turn five pages. You can find similar
stories. They're everywhere. God's people are always complaining. They're always grumbling.
They're always disobedient. And in Numbers chapter 21, God's people are complaining.
And what does God do? He sends snakes and the snakes begin to bite the people and the
people begin to die. And the people all of a sudden say, Oh dear Moses, we have messed
up. We need you to help us. Would you intercede for us, Moses? Would you speak up for us?
Would you help us? We've done this great wrong. We sinned against God. And Moses speaks up
for the people and God tells Moses, he said, I want you to take a steak and I want you
to take a bronze snake and I want you to lift that up so the people can see it. And all
the people who would look to that steak will be saved. And Jesus references that story
in John chapter 3. He says, just as Moses lifted up the snake to save the people in
the wilderness, he says, so the son of man must be lifted up so that people can obtain
eternal life. Jesus said, look, there's plenty of examples. He's using the Old Testament.
Nicodemus knew the Old Testament. There's plenty of examples in the Old Testament that
are pointing us forward to Jesus Christ. That's just one of them. That's just one story. And
Jesus says, you remember this story, how God saved his people in the Old Testament, how
something was lifted up? And by looking to the one lifted up, to the thing lifted up,
the people would be saved. Jesus says there's something better that is coming. And it's
Jesus himself that is coming. And he even says, before his death, several years before
his death here, he says, look, the son of man must be lifted up. Who's he talking about?
He's talking about himself. Jesus is telling Nicodemus, there has to be a change. And here's
the way that change is going to occur. It's going to come through one that God is going
to send, who is going to be lifted up. And when we look to the one who is lifted up,
there will be deliverance. There will be eternal life. And then we see this famous scripture
that we, some of us probably have seen a lot. Maybe you've never seen it before. And Jesus
is building up and he gets to this point and he says, you've got to change. You've got
to look to one who is coming. And then Jesus says, for God so loved the world. Isn't that
beautiful that God loved the world? God loves you today. You may not know it. You may not
think it. You may not feel it. You may feel unloved. You may feel rotten. You may be rotten.
We are in our sin. We're rotten. But let me tell you that God loves you today. God loves
you today. God loves you. There are times that we feel unlovable. There are times that
the enemy will tell you that you are worthless. You are too far gone. You are not worth loving.
But I want to tell you today that we are here worshiping a God who loves you. For God so
loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. That's Jesus Christ. He sent Jesus Christ
and Jesus Christ chose to come and Jesus Christ came and he lived in obedience to God and
he was faithful to God and he did the work of God and followed the will of God and he
was obedient all the way to death on the cross and Jesus was spit on and beaten and mocked
and a crown of thorn placed on his head and he was nailed to a cross and he hung there
and he bled and he died. Do you know why? Because he loves you. Because he knew that
sitting in this church on July the 7th, 2024 was going to be a bunch of people that didn't
deserve his grace but he looked at us and he said they need me. They're hopeless and
they're helpless without me and he says I will hang on a cross and let my blood drain
out of me and let the air come out of my lungs and I will do it so that their sins will be
forgiven. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. So God has
done his part. You know why? Because he's gracious. God didn't do that because we're
so good. He didn't look down and say well those people in enterprise, they're pretty
good so I'll send Jesus to die for them. No, we're all sinners. Jesus came because of the
grace of God and God has done his part. God has atoned for our sinfulness so that we may
be forgiven today because Jesus Christ died on the cross for you and for me. Praise the
Lord. That's good news today. That's the gospel. That's the gospel message. Praise the Lord
and didn't end there. God raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus was nailed to a cross but
God raised him from the dead. He has victory over sin and victory over death and that's
how you're going to gain your victory today. It's through Jesus Christ and that's the only
way you'll gain victory today. It's through Jesus Christ. So God has done his part. God
has provided a sacrifice for us and there was no other sacrifice that could atone for
us. God gave the Old Testament system and it wasn't good enough but he gave us a better
sacrifice than Jesus. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son and
here's where our part comes in. We have to do our part. God's grace is there. Salvation
is there. Eternal life is there. Forgiveness of your sins is there. Peace is there. Joy
is there. It's all there in Jesus Christ. God has done his part. For God so loved the
world that everybody that believeth in him shall not perish. For God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish. That's
where our part comes in. That whosoever believeth in him. The question that I ask you today
is do you believe in Jesus Christ? Now I'm not asking you if you know about Jesus. Do
you know about Jesus? Well maybe you've read the Bible, maybe you've heard a sermon, maybe
you've heard a Bible story, maybe you know about Jesus. I'm not asking you if you know
about Jesus. I'm not asking you if you come to church on a regular basis. I'm not asking
you if you serve in the local ministry opportunities. I'm not asking you if you'll put money in
the offering plate. I'm not asking you if you dress good. I'm not asking you if you
say the occasional prayer. I'm not asking you any of those things. I'm asking you do
you know who Jesus is? Do you know him? Do you believe in him? Do you trust in him? Have
you made the Lord of your life and the King of your life? There's a difference between
being religious and being a follower of Jesus Christ. These Pharisees that we see in the
Bible, most of them it appears were religious, but they did not trust in Jesus Christ. But
Nicodemus, he was smart enough to know, he was smart enough to see that there's something
about Jesus and he came to seek Jesus out. What about you today? Maybe you don't know
much about scripture, maybe you don't know much about who Jesus is or much about his
miracles, but maybe you know enough to know that you want to seek him out today. I've
told you the most important thing about him today and that is he loved you and he gave
his life on the cross for you. That's where you start. If you know that, you trust that
and you believe that, the Holy Spirit will work with you the rest of the way as you walk
and grow in him. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, and whosoever
believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. Do you believe in Jesus
today? Do you trust him? Do you live for him today? Because the reward of that is something
beautiful, it's eternal life. Eternal life in the presence of God, not eternal life here,
not the way it is now at least. Praise the Lord. Wouldn't it be horrible if you had to
live here forever with wars and sickness and pain and death and all this junk? But what
Jesus promises us is something better, something more beautiful. One day we're going to escape
this old world. One day we're going to be transformed into what I don't know, what that
process will look like when we leave this world and we're transformed and we're in the
presence of God. What that will look like I don't know. But I tell you this, it's going
to look a lot better than what we see now. It's going to be more beautiful than you can
imagine. There will be more love and more peace and more joy there than you can possibly
imagine, and that is the everlasting life that Jesus is speaking of here. We would live forever
in the presence of God, but only those who have trusted in Jesus Christ. I don't know
about Nicodemus. Maybe he trusted in Jesus. I hope he trusted in Jesus. I believe he trusted
in Jesus. We see at the end of John, in John chapter 19, that a man by the name of Joseph
of Arimathea comes to take the body down of Jesus and prepare it for burial. But we also
see one other interesting little tidbit there. It also says that Nicodemus, the one who came
seeking Jesus out at night, also came with all the spices that were needed to prepare
Jesus for burial. That sounds to me like a man who probably was a follower of Jesus,
who was right there with Jesus the day that he died. I don't know about Nicodemus. I don't
know if he ever followed Jesus or not. I don't know about you, but you can make that decision
today. You can make that decision today if you're going to follow Jesus. Scripture tells
us that we need to repent of our sins. It's not hard. There's nothing we can do. We're
not earning God the grace in any way. All we do is say, Jesus, I believe your words
in John chapter 3. I believe that you came to die for my sins, and Jesus, I believe that
I am a rotten wretched sinner, and I have done some rotten wretched things. We need
to confess those things to Jesus. We need to confess those things to God, and we need
to say, God, I'm a sinner, but I know who Jesus is. God, I ask for your grace, not because
I deserve it, but because it's grace, God. I don't know if you know Jesus today. I pray
that you do. I pray that you've repented of your sins. Maybe today the Holy Spirit's
speaking to you. Maybe today is the day that you realize you need to put your faith and
trust in Jesus. Praise the Lord. In a moment, we're going to have a song of invitation.
We're going to give you an opportunity to do that. Maybe today you've made that decision
to follow Jesus. When we have our song of invitation, I would encourage you to come
forward so that we can rejoice with you, so that we can baptize you, as the Scripture
says. Maybe today you know God. Maybe you really are a child, but maybe you haven't
been living like it. Maybe today is the day that you need to stop and realize that we
need to live for Jesus and stop living for the world. Maybe today we just need to repent.
Maybe today you just need to praise God for who he is, but you have a choice to make today.
Nicodemus was wise enough to seek out Jesus because he knew there was something special
about him. I pray that today we'd be wise enough to seek out Jesus, to confess our sins
to Jesus, to trust him and to live for him forevermore. Let's pray. Father God, we come
to you today. We thank you for this beautiful story of Nicodemus and who he is. I pray,
dear Lord, that maybe there are some today. Maybe they've known about Jesus. They've heard
about who he was. Maybe today they came seeking. I hope today that they found him through your
word, dear Lord, through the beautiful words of John 3.16. I hope today that they found
Jesus. I hope today that they would be those who are born again. I hope today that they
would be those who would look to the one who has been lifted up and nailed to a cross for
us, and that is Jesus Christ. God, there is no forgiveness. There is no salvation. There
is no eternal life in anyone or anything else in this world. Jesus is the way, dear Lord.
I pray that if there are some today that do not know who Jesus is, I pray that if your
Holy Spirit is speaking to them and in this moment of invitation here in just a second,
that they would just come forward, that they'd come, dear Lord, and tell me that today is
the day that they follow Jesus Christ. Maybe there are some that are already here today,
and maybe there's something going on, and you're dealing with them. I pray that today
they'd listen to you. Maybe they'd need prayer, dear Lord. I encourage them to come kneel
down and pray, dear Lord. I'll be glad to pray with them. But whatever it is, dear Lord,
if you spoke to anybody in this room today, I pray that we would respond. I pray that
we would know above everything else, dear Lord, that you love us, that you sent Jesus
for us, and that we are sinners, but that Jesus died for our sins, and you forgive us
through what Jesus did. I pray, God, that today we would all know that truth lived by
the truth. I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.