Salvation 101
CCCAG March 18th, 2018
Scripture- John 3:11-21 (say whole reference)
Introduction
Today we are going to be covering the most well-known and famous verses in the bible. It’s the sign people hold up at football games, parades, and it appears on most Gospel tracts as the central verse in all of scripture.
I would say that I and most conservative pastors and theologians view the entirety of the bible through the lens of John 3:16-18. These verses put the entirety of biblical history in context in completely describing the salvation mission of God, and His love for all of humanity.
Let me make one key point about the scriptures we will be reading today- Jesus is continuing a conversation started at the beginning of this chapter, and how we understand these verses has to be within that context.
If you were not here last week, I’d encourage you to listen to the podcast, but for now let me set the stage-
In the beginning of John Chapter 3, Jesus is talking to one of the top religious leaders in Israel. Nicodemus would be like a Bishop or Cardinal in a mainline church- a big guy with a huge educational background. Jesus tells Nicodemus that all he thinks he knows about his religion and scripture is wrong, particularly about trusting in the wrong things to make himself pleasing to God. Jesus emphasizes the point that Nicodemus, as well as all of humanity are dead men walking, and need a new birth- one of the spirit that will regenerate their earthly outlook to a heavenly one, and not one of the flesh that will be focused on this earth.
That’s the backdrop of what Jesus is talking about to Nicodemus. Last week we read that Jesus tells him you must be born again, this week we will continue Jesus’ explanation as the WHY and HOW a person is to be saved. The following message MUST be taken as an explanation of the fact that you must be born again to escape the curse that the fall of man left on humanity in Genesis chapter 3.
That is why Genesis 3 and John 3 are bookends to the salvation story.
The “why” is what we will be focused on this morning as Jesus peels back the mystery of salvation- breaking it down to its most basic principles, so that we can understand the heart and mind of our Father God.
Let’s read-
John 3:11-21
Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
Prayer
I mentioned few moments ago that we have to look at the framework of these verses according to the way Jesus meant them to be understood.
WE have a tendency as modern believers to cling hard to a single verse of scripture without understanding it’s broader context and application to us or most tragically how it fits within God’s revelation of Himself and His plan of salvation for all people.
We are going to break it down this morning, and I encourage you to take notes as these are the essentials you need to know to effectively share the Gospel
One note before we begin. The way we are going to approach these scriptures might seem backwards. That is intentional.
A slight teaching moment about how to read, interpret, and understand your bible-
Most of the scripture found within the bible is speaking from an Eastern language or mindset which is very different from what we know living with a Western mindset.
You and I are part of the Western world, culture, languages, and mindsets. Eastern mindsets present ideas and information and solve problems differently than Western.
In the West, we are very linear in our thinking, while the Eastern mindset is more abstract. The easiest way of understanding this is that we in the Western world create a logical, consecutive list explaining a problem and a solution. Those in the Eastern cultures and languages, which cover the culture and languages of the bible of the create a mental pictures and use that mental picture to form an idea and then decide on the solution that way.
That’s one of the biggest challenges of interpreting what the bible is saying- we look at it from a Western point of view and it get all messed up. It’s also the challenge of sermon preparation- making Eastern thought make sense in Western minds.
I said all of that to explain why we will starting at the end of the scripture we read today to identify the problem Jesus is addressing-
I. The problem- people are dead in their sins
We covered that a little last week, but Jesus really nails it down this week with telling us the reason people are dead in sin.
Vs 19-20 (Jesus said) This is the verdict (the truth of the matter): Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light
That is the truth, but why is that true? What makes people love darkness instead of light?
(the reason)-because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.
In my experience talking to unbelievers about matters of the Christian faith, One of the biggest obstacles is getting someone to believe that the need to be saved.
An example- How many funerals have you been to where someone stands up and says what a dirty rotten no good piece of dirt is laying her in the casket before us?
How many obituaries have you read that says how the local area is celebrating that this person finally died and left us in peace?
There is a story of a man whose twin brother died robbing a gas station. This brother, who as a huge guy and was every bit the scoundrel that his brother was, and he went to the local pastor and told him, “Preacher, you better say something nice about my brother at the funeral. IN fact, you better say that he was a saint, or I’ll destroy you, your family, and burn your church to the ground”
Understandably, the pastor was a bit intimated and when he stepped up into the pulpit during the funeral, he saw the brother in the front row giving him an intimidating gaze.
The pastor looked out at the crowd and started off saying, “Everyone knows the man we are here to remember today as he well known in our community. In fact, I would call this man a saint…if you compared him to his twin brother here in the front of the church!”
But doesn’t that ring true in life. When you tell a person how much they need a savior, they immediately pull out “I’m a good person card.”
A few years ago a ministry called “The Way of the Master” released an evangelism program where they used the 10 commandments show people their sin before God.
It looked like this- you walk up to a person in the street and asked them to take a quick survey to see if they were a good person. Then you would go through a series of questions-
Have you ever told a lie, even a small one.
Have you stolen anything ever in your life- even if it was a paperclip from work you took without asking?
Have you ever looked at another person not your spouse with lustful intent?
Have you ever hated another human being?
Have you ever used God’s or Jesus name as a curse word?
If you have done any of these things, even just once or by accident, you are guilty. If were were honest with each other, expecially with Jesus’ interpretation of the 10 Commandments as seen in the beatitudes, even we as believers break Gods law all the time. All violations of God’s law carry the same penalty- eternity in hell. One violation is all you need and you are doomed and damned.
The people in the training video’s- they were real people that they walked up on, they would be stunned when they realized that they were indeed in trouble, but then the excuses and justifications would start.
When it comes to spiritual things, excuses and justifications come from one source- pride. When you expose a person’s true nature to themselves, the façade that most of us spend years putting up falls to the ground and we are exposed for who we really are.
That is why
People love(d) 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 their deeds will be exposed.
Jesus is telling us the exact reason people hate it when you come to them with the Gospel. Spiritually speaking, you are walking up to a person who is sound asleep, shaking them hard while shining a spotlight in their eyes.
That is why they hate us. That is why the Gospel message is ridiculed.
It’s one of the curses of being human- we are more comfortable with an easy lie than the hard truth- that hard truth is this- we are sinners, we are broken, fallen creatures and unable on own to do anything to pay off the fine or punishment for our sin. We cannot save ourselves. themselves.
That’s why salvation is God centered and not man centered. God had to do the work because there was nothing you or I could do to cleanse ourselves of that fallen nature that would continually pull us back into a life of rebellion and sin.
That leads us to-
II. The Premise- For God so loved the World
John 3:16-17
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Drink in that for a moment. These most cherished words in all of the scripture.
God loves you.
How much. (Spread arms) enough to spread His arms onto an old rugged cross and die for your mistakes.
He who was without sin became sin for us, so that we might have the righteousness God requires for us to enter heaven.
Jesus did it all, all to Him I owe, sin had left this crimson stain but he washed me white as snow.
It is all God.
God is indeed a God of love. That love is most perfectly seen in His Son who died for us. What the world gets wrong is that they don’t understand what love really is.
To a fallen, self centered, sin loving world, love is a get out of jail free card, but that isn’t what love is as defined by God and scripture.
One of the more well known chapters in the bible tells us what love is-
1Cor 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Jesus said the verdict (truth of the matter) is people love the darkness instead of the light, and when you hold that truth to the definition of what love is the bible, we see that in order for God to truly be a God of love, then HE must also shun evil. The reason is that evil is not a force in of itself, evil is simply the absence of God in any situation.
God cannot bless that which he is not a part of.
That is why Love can never exist apart from justice. In order for God to be loving, then He must also punish those who do not show love to others. Otherwise, God doesn’t love everyone if he allows some to do evil to others free from consequence. The bible plainly says that God so loved the world.
When someone who is obviously an unbeliever tells me that God loves them too much to send them to hell, my reply is God loves the rest of us too much to not send you to hell.
That’s why evangelism is not my gifting. Imparting truth is, even when it is harsh.
That’s not being harsh, that is being scriptural.
God did it all for us. All we have to do is believe and accept the free gift He is offering us.
IF God had made salvation contingent on some work we had to do, most of humanity would be in heaven. If God said, “In order to enter heaven, you must come to the Vatican at some point in your life, climb the stairs of St Peter’s Cathedral on your knees, and kiss the statue at the top and you will be saved” most people would be fine with that.
But when you ask a person to be honest with themselves, to examine the deepest source of their motives and actions and then admit that they are a sinner- out comes the anger, resentment, sometimes even violence.
Because as a man thinks, so is he- what is really inside a person comes out under pressure.
A friend of mine named Gaylord and I were witnessing and handing out tracts at the lakefront in Kenosha and he approached a woman in her 20’s and handed her a tract that says Jesus loves you. He echoed that statement to her and suddenly her husband was in his face, shoving him backwards screaming profanity and threatening to kill my friend. Gaylord made it worse quoting the bible, “Though you slay me, yet will I trust him!” and the guy drew back a fist to hit him before I got in between them and got Gaylord out of there.
It just shows the reaction people have to the Gospel, because the good news is the light shining deep into the evil of people’s hearts. We don’t like being reminded of who we really are.
The result of this is
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
That leads
III. The solution
And this scripture Jesus refers to sounds like a really strange way to explain it, but remember- Jesus’ eastern mindset is painting a mental picture using a common frame of reference that Nicodemus was very familiar with.
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
Jesus refers Nicodemus back to Numbers 21, to a incident in which the people of God expressed unbelief and were complaining
Numbers 21:4 They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; 5 they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”
6 Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. 7 The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.
8 The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.
The key to understanding why Jesus referred to this story is found in verse 8- God told the people to look upon a serpent on a pole to be healed of the consequences of their rebellion against God and Moses.
In other words, the people had to look, and most importantly had to believe that what God said was true.
That is the definition of saving faith.
Whosoever believes in Jesus will have everlasting life.
That is what this whole book is about.
Unbelief in God’s word is what got Adam and Eve thrown out of the garden in the first place. If you break all the evil in this world down to it’s root cause, it all comes back to Genesis chapter 3 and a serpent saying, “Did God really say?”
That is why belief is the requirement for salvation- because lack of belief caused humanity to fall in the first place.
That is why faith is the necessary action for salvation. Faith is the practical exercise of believing that God’s Word is true.
If you are trusting in anything other than the saving work of Jesus, that is damnable sin.
If you are trusting in being a good person to win God’s favor, you are doomed.
If you are hoping that somehow your good outweighs your bad so that the scales tilt just enough to the good side so God can love you, you spit in the face of Jesus.
Because salvation must be done according to God’s plan, and God’s plan is described in
Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast. Conclusion
Grace is the unmerited favor of God. In other words- you cannot earn it, you cannot buy it, you cannot do something to make it yours
Other than believe Jesus when he said, “It is finished”.
Do you believe?
Rise
Today we studied one of the most beloved scriptures in the whole bible, and we will end by singing one of the most beloved hymn ever written.
Amazing Grace
Altar Call
