Not Good Enough Series

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

ENGAGE

Except for the break we took for Christmas, we’ve been dealing with some pretty deep theological issues in our study of the book of Romans for a while now. The concepts that we’ve studied in Romans 8-11 are no doubt what Paul and some of the other Biblical authors would refer to as “spiritual meat”. And I think it’s really important for us to feast on that kind of meat if we want to develop a faith that is deep.

TENSION

But at the same time, if we’re not careful, going that deep all the time could cause us to begin to think that the gospel is a lot more complicated than it really is. And unfortunately, one of the effects of that kind of mindset is that it hinders our ability and our desire to share our faith with others because we are afraid that we might not have all the answers.

So one of our goals as a church this year is to help us to gain, or maybe regain, a sense of the simplicity of the gospel. And one of the best ways I know to do that is to spend some time in the gospel accounts written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John - something that we really haven’t done a lot for the last several years.

So from now until Easter, we’re going to be taking a look at some conversations that Jesus had with people who were largely ordinary people just like us. And we’ll see that in those conversations, Jesus had a real knack for being able to boil the gospel down to its basics.

TRUTH

Before we begin with the first conversation, I want to make a general observation about what we’re going to discover. In almost every case, what we have recorded for us in these four gospel accounts are probably only brief tidbits or excerpts from conversations that probably lasted much longer and included much more than what is recorded in these accounts. But that is fine because we can trust that the authors were guided by the Holy Spirit to write down exactly what is important for us to know from each of these conversations.

This morning, we’ll begin with a conversation that provides the context for what is undoubtedly the most well-known verse in the entire Bible – John 3:16.

So go ahead and open your Bibles to John chapter 3. John is the fourth of the four gospel accounts and you’ll find it right after Matthew, Mark and Luke.

Before I begin reading, I want to ask how many of you have a “red-letter” Bible, one that has the words of Jesus in red? If you do, you’ll notice that other than the words of Nicodemus, the entire section from verse 1 through verse 21 is in red letters, indicating that these are the words of Jesus. But we really can’t know for sure when the words of Jesus end and John’s commentary on the conversation begins. There just isn’t anything in the text that would give us a clear dividing point. And, not surprisingly, there are Bible scholars who actually spend their time arguing about where that dividing point is.

I only bring that up because if you study this passage on your own, you may very well run into some of those arguments. Personally, I don’t really care because I believe what Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3 – that “all Scripture is breathed out by God” and since Jesus is God, everything in the Bible is Jesus’ words. So maybe we ought to just make all the text in the Bible red.

Although I’m going to focus on the conversation in chapter 3, we need to set the stage by reading the end of chapter 2.

[Read John 2:23-25]

While Jesus was in Jerusalem for the Passover Feast, He did many signs and many believed in Jesus because of that. But Jesus didn’t believe in them because He knew the true condition of their hearts.

Remember that in the original text there were no chapter breaks. So it’s not surprising that we find a clear connection between the last part of chapter 2 and the beginning of chapter three that is accomplished with the use of the word “man”. At the end of chapter 2 we read that Jesus “knew what was in man” and then chapter three begins with “Now, there was a man…” The implication here is that Jesus could see what was beneath the religious veneer of Nicodemus and know what was in his heart. That is an important connection that will help us understand what Jesus is going to say to Nicodemus.