Title: The Gospel in a nutshell
Text: John 3:1-18
Date: 11/12/2000
Location: Sulphur Spring Baptist Church
Introduction: One Friday afternoon, after a long day at the office you are driving home and you turn the radio on. You hear about a little village in India where a few villagers died suddenly from some kind of mysterious flu. You don’t think much about it, but on Sunday, coming home from church, you hear about more people who have died as a result of this illness, only this time it’s not just three people, but 30,000. That night CNN says that an investigative team from the Disease Control center in Atlanta is heading to India because this particular strain of flu has never been seen before.
By Monday morning when you get up, it’s the lead story on every Morning news program because the disease has spread to Afghanistan and Iran. The news media quickly begins referring to it as "the mystery flu". During a news conference a reporter asks the President about it, and he encourages everyone to be pray for the people infected with the disease and to pray that a vaccine can be found.
But you along with everyone else including the news media begin asking whether or not it’s going to be possible to contain the disease, and if so how?
Monday afternoon the President of France makes a shocking announcement. He has decided to close all their borders. No flights from India, Pakistan, or any of the countries where the flu has been reported will be allowed into France. But unfortunately they didn’t act quickly enough, because later that night you hear about a man lying in a hospital in Paris dying of the mystery flu.
Great Britain followed France’s lead and closes their borders, but once again, they were too late. South Hampton, Liverpool, North Hampton, all reported cases of mystery flu by nightfall.
The authorities explain that from all indications a person can be infected for up to a week without even knowing it. Then, after the disease spreads throughout your body, you have four days of unbelievable and unbearable symptoms before you die.
On Tuesday morning the President of the United States makes the following announcement: "Due to a national security risk, all flights to and from Europe and Asia have been canceled. If you have friends or family members overseas, I’m sorry. They cannot return to the states until we find a cure for this thing."
Within four days, our nation is paralyzed by the fear that this disease will somehow make its way across the Atlantic. Some preachers begin referring to the disease as “the scourge of God."
On Wednesday night, you are at a church prayer meeting when somebody runs in from the parking lot with a transistor radio shouting for everyone to be quiet and listen. The entire church listens as the announcement is made. Two women are lying in a Long Island hospital dying from the “mystery flu.” Within hours, reports sweep across the country of people on the East and West coasts that have come down with the deadly disease. The best people in the world of medicine have been working around the clock trying to find an antidote. But so far nothing has worked.
And then, on Friday afternoon, a week after the epidemic broke out a news conference is called, and the Surgeon General announces that A cure has been found, and that a vaccine can be produced. He goes on to explain however, that the vaccine will require the blood of someone who hasn’t been infected. So as you might imagine, throughout the Midwest, the authorities use the emergency broadcast system to ask everyone to go down to the local hospital and have their blood type taken.” Of course you are a good law abiding Christian, so you and your family make your way to the hospital late Friday evening. When you get there, you notice a long line. A group of doctors and nurses are busy pricking fingers, taking blood and then labeling it. After they take your blood type they say, "Wait here in the parking lot, and, when we call your name, you may go home." You stand around nervously talking with your friends and neighbors, wondering what in the world is going on and if this is in fact the end of the World. Suddenly a young man comes running out of the hospital screaming. He’s yelling a name and waving a clipboard. What? He yells it again! While he’s yelling your son begins tugging on your jacket and says, "Daddy, that’s me." Before you know what’s going on, a couple of men in white coats grab your 4-year-old son and start toward the hospital. You stop them and say, "Wait just a minute. You’re not taking him anywhere until you tell me what’s going on!” One of them stops and says, “Hey, calm down your son is okay, in fact his blood type is a perfect match. Now we just have to make sure he doesn’t have the disease. Five minutes later, a group of doctors and nurses come out of the hospital crying and hugging one another--some are even laughing. It’s the first time you have seen anybody laugh in a week. Then a gray haired very distinguished looking doctor walks up to you and says, "Thank you sir. Your son’s blood type is perfect. It’s clean, it’s pure, and we can make the vaccine." As the good news quickly spreads around the parking, some people begin screaming, others laugh, while a few form a circle and begin praying and praising God.
But then the gray-haired doctor pulls you and your wife aside and says, "May I see you for a moment? We didn’t realize that the donor would be a minor and we need you to sign a consent form." You start to sign the consent form, but then you see that the number of pints of blood to be taken is not indicated anywhere on the form. So you nervously ask the doctor "H-h-h-ow many pints they will need?" And that’s when the old doctor’s smile fades, and he says, "We had no idea it would be a small child, but the fact is we need it all!" "You ask about a transfusion, but he explains that it’s just not possible. Then he asks again, “will you please sign and give us your consent to begin.” Standing there in a daze, you don’t know what to do, but when they explain that there’s no other way, you finally give them your consent. After you sign the paper, they ask you if you, "Would you like to have a moment with you son before they begin?"
Could you walk back to that room where your 4 year old son is sitting on a table crying and saying, "Mommy, Daddy What’s going on?" Could you take his hand and say, "Son, your mommy and I love you and we would never ever let anything happen to you unless it was absolutely necessary.. Do you understand that?" About that time the doctor comes back and says, "I’m sorry, but it is imperative that we get started. People all over the world are dying, and every second counts." Could you leave? Could you turn your back on your son and walk out of that room with him screaming " Mom? Dad? Why . . . why have you forsaken me?"
The following week, they have a ceremony to honor your son. Some people sleep through it, while others don’t even bother to come because they have better things to do. The majority of those that do make the effort to come, are only there because they feel obligated to be there, but if the truth was known they would rather be somewhere else, doing something else. Now, I don’t know about you, but if this had happened to me I believe I would want to jump up and say, "EXCUSE ME! BUT DON’T YOU REALIZE THAT MY SON DIED FOR YOU! DON’T YOU EVEN CARE? DOESN’T MY SON’S DEATH MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU?"
I wonder, if that’s what God wants to say to us this morning? "MY SON DIED FOR YOU! DOESN’ T THAT MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU?" DON’T YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I CARE?"
John 3:16 says, “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.”
Have you ever really thought about Why God allowed Jesus to die on the cross for you?
Well, I want us to spend the remainder of our time here this morning thinking about that question.
I. Let’s begin by looking at the Problem. God created us to have a relationship with Him. But when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden it was the beginning of a deadly disease has plagued mankind ever since.
In Romans 3:23 the Apostle Paul reminds us that we have all been infected by this deadly disease called sin. He says, “We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Then in Romans 6:23 he explains that the end result of this disease is death.
So the problem that existed before Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross was that sin was separating mankind from God. It grieved God that men had turned their backs on him and were more interested in fulfilling their fleshly desires than they were in having a relationship with Him. He used great men of faith like Moses and Abraham to try to get people to understand the importance of their relationship with Him. In addition God gave them the 10 Commandments, and sent Prophets Issiah and Jeremiah to tell the people to repent of their sin and turn back to Him. But nothing seemed to be working. That’s when God came up with the Solution.
II. He decided to Send His Son into the World to die for the sins of Humanity.
The Apostle Paul discusses this in the Fifth chapter of Romans where he says, “Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.”
1 John 4:9-10 says, “This is how God showed his love among us; He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love; not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
So the answer to the question of why God allowed Jesus to die on the cross for us is that He loves us, and doesn’t want to see us die in our sins and spend eternity separated from Him.
III. The last thing I want to discuss this morning is the remedy for our sin.
We have already said that we are all sinners, and that sin separates us from God, and that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. The cure for the ‘mystery flu’ was a vaccine that was developed from the pure blood of a 4-year-old child. The remedy for sin also required the death of God’s only begotten son, who shed his blood on the cross of Calvary, so that you and I can receive the free gift of eternal life.
But I want you to understand something this morning. God will not force you to accept the remedy for your sin. If you choose to live in sin, then He will allow you to die in your sin, and spend an eternity separated from Him and His love. The cure for sin is not complicated. The Apostle Paul explains it in Romans 10:9-10 by saying, “That 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.”
Does the fact that Jesus Christ, God’s Only Begotten Son, died for you mean anything to you this morning? Have you accepted Christ into your life, or are you still living in sin? The gospel in a nutshell is this: God loved us so much, that He was willing to send his only son to die on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
But the choice is yours. You can choose to accept Christ and receive the cure for sin, or you can choose to reject the remedy and continue living in sin. But let me remind you this morning that if you choose to do that, when you die you will spend eternity in Hell, separated forever from the love of God.
