8.06.17 ~ John 3:13-21, Jesus Saves!

Bible Text: John 3:13-21 | Preacher: Pastor Mike Hale | Series: John

Read John 3:13-15… The only one who can genuinely tell us about heaven and about the Father, is God’s Son (John 1:18), “No one has ever seen God, but

God the One and Only [Son], who is at the Father’s side, has made Him known.” John 6:38, “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of Him who sent me.”
John 6:41-42, “The Jews began to grumble about Him [Jesus] because He said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ They said, ‘Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?’ How can He now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
John 6:46, “No one has seen the Father except the One who is from God; only He has seen the Father.”

When Jesus was in the upper room with His disciples (John 16:28), He said, “I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.” To the Father (John 17:5) Jesus prayed, “And now, Father, glorify me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world began.”

In 1Corinthians 15:47 Paul proclaimed to the church, “The first man [Adam] is of the dust of the earth, the second man [Jesus] is from heaven.”

We studied last week the sovereign significance of John 3:14-15, where Jesus illustrates how Israel was saved from the deadly bite of poisonous snakes when they looked to the bronze snake on Moses’ staff, believing God to save them. See Numbers 21:5-9…

In the same way, all those who look to [believe in] Jesus’ death on the cross (as payment for their sins), will be saved, (John 3:14-15) “for the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.”

This is the first of fifteen uses of the term “eternal life, in John’s gospel.” Eternal life is made effectual through our union with Christ, being born into the family of God, having the Holy Spirit take up residence in us, marking us as God’s eternal possession (cf. Ephesians 1:13-14).

John 17:3, Jesus prayed, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the Only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.”

Read John 3:16-18… John 3:16 is probably the most well known verse in the Bible, yet it is also one of the least understood. Notice, Jesus is still talking to Nicodemus here, and has been since verse 1.

Jesus has been illuminating the deep truths of Scripture for Nicodemus, about God’s righteousness and the salvation that comes only through Christ.

God’s Son, Jesus Christ, is (1Corinthians 9:15), “God’s indescribable gift” to the world. God loves the world (all of humanity) so much, He gave up His own Son, offering Him as the sovereign sacrifice for all sin, the Savior for everyone who believes in and follows Him.
2Corinthians 5:18-21, “All this (verse 17) is from God… …reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them… We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. For God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

John 3:16-17 is not teaching some kind of universal salvation for all men, women and children of age who live on this earth. Verse 18 makes it crystal clear that only those who “believe” in God’s One and Only Son [lit. one of a kind, unique] will be saved from an eternity in hell.
Acts 4:12, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved [only Jesus Christ].“
John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Read John 3:19-21… God’s Light and Life from God came through Christ (cf John 1:4-5). God’s Light reveals our sin, and when we repent and confess, trusting in Jesus, we are saved. Those who reject God’s Light remain in the darkness (verses 19-20), “men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.”
2Corinthians 4:4-6, “The god of this age [Satan] has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”

Most people would rather remain in darkness, apart form God’s love, than to acknowledge their sins and repent, trusting Jesus for salvation; but genuine believers in Christ having nothing to hide from God, and therefore we have nothing to fear by allowing our sins to be exposed by God’s Light in Christ.

Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Jesus says (John 3:21), “whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”

Those who genuinely belong to Christ have received forgiveness and eternal life, and will continue (Matthew 3:8), to “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”

There is no response to the gospel by Nicodemus mentioned in John 3, but as we read last week (John 7:50-51), Nicodemus, later spoke up among the Pharisees who were rejecting Jesus as Messiah saying, “Does our law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he is doing?’”

And after Christ’s death we are told (John 19:38-39), “Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night.”

I believe Nicodemus finally acknowledged and believed the truth that every man, woman and child of age must respond to, making a heartfelt decision, in order to be eternally set free from sin’s penalty, for only genuine belief in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, can save you!
Romans 3:10, “There is no one righteous, not even one.” 23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:1, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 10:9-10, “For if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 13, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord [for the forgiveness of sins] will be saved.”

God loves us so much, He went to the cross to take our punishment and pay our debt, setting us free from sins condemnation and granting us eternal life.

God’s Blessings,

Pastor Mike <‘(((><