Part 1: Jesus Can Save Me! Series

Jesus Can 2007

Part 1: Jesus Can Save Me!

John 3:13-21

Sermon by Rick Crandall

McClendon Baptist Church - Jan 21, 2007

*Many of you know Andrew Whitworth, because he grew up here, and played football for West Monroe and LSU. Now Andrew is a 6’7”, 330 pound offensive lineman for the Cincinnati Bengals. Think I could be an offensive lineman for the Cincinnati Bengals? Not a chance. At this point I couldn’t be an offensive lineman for the Kiroli (Elementary School) Comets!

*There are so many things that we can’t do in life, but Jesus can. Over the next few weeks we are going to exalt Jesus by exploring some of the great things He can do in our lives. And today we will see that Jesus can save me!

1. Jesus can save me. How does He do it? First, by giving me His love.

*As vs. 16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

*God loves us with a love like no other! God’s love is so wrapped up in Him, it is such an essential part of His character, that 1 John 4:8 tells us that God is love. God the Father loved you enough to send His only begotten Son into the world. What a sacrifice! -What could have been more dear to the Father than His only Son?

*And Jesus has the love of God for you too, because He is the Son of God. The Lord helps us see this in vs. 13. Listen to this verse from the Amplified Bible,

-“No one has ever gone up to heaven, but there is One Who has come down from heaven -- the Son of Man [Himself], Who (has His home) in heaven.”

*God the Son, Jesus Christ loves you so much that He was willing to leave His home in Heaven and come into this world to die on the Cross for you. The Lord took the punishment for all of your sins when He was lifted up on that Cross.

*Jesus was pointing to the Cross in vs. 14&15, when He said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus said that the Son of Man must be lifted up. The Lord was reminding us that there was no other way for men to be saved. And the only one in the whole universe who could make that sacrifice for us did make that sacrifice for us, because He loves us.

*Jeffrey Ebert will always see a picture of that sacrificial love in his own mother. It happened many years ago when Jeffrey was 5, and they were in a horrendous wreck. This was long before cars had seat belts and air bags.

-Jeffrey’s family was driving home that night on a two-lane country road, and Jeffrey was sitting on his mother’s lap, when a drunk driver swerved into their lane and hit them head-on.

*Jeffrey said, “I don’t have any memory of the collision. I do recall the fear and confusion I felt as I saw myself literally covered with blood from head to toe. Then I learned that the blood wasn’t mine at all, but my mother’s. In that split second when the two headlights glared into her eyes, she instinctively pulled me closer to her chest and curled her body around mine.

-It was her body that slammed against the dashboard, her head that shattered the windshield. She took the impact of the collision so that I wouldn’t have to.

*It took extensive surgery for my mother to recover from her injuries. In a similar, but infinitely more significant way, Jesus Christ took the impact for our sin. (1)

*He did it for love, and we are spiritually covered by His blood when we put our trust in Him.

2. Jesus can save me by giving me His love, and His life. The great news is that Jesus Christ didn’t just die on the Cross for our sins. The Bible tells us that He rose again in victory over death, so Jesus is able to give eternal life to all who trust in Him. Think about this life, as we listen to the Lord in vs. 14-18:

14. "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

15. "that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

16. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.