“Everlasting life” John 3:1-17
INTRODUCTION
1 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God;
for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” John 3:1-2
1. Nicodemus the Pharisee
a) A religious leader
b) Observant person
2. His quest
a) To know the Lord Jesus better
b) To engage Him in conversation
A VITAL TEACHING OF THE LORD JESUS
3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it,
but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.
So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:3-8
1. The concept of the Kingdom of God
a) No automatic entrance
b) The Second Birth
2. The Concept of being Born Again
a) Not a physical birth
b) Born of the Holy Spirit
c) An invisible but vital work of the Spirit of God
PROBLEM IN UNDERSTANDING THIS CONCEPT
9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”
10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?
11 Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness.
12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.
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.
17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. John 3:9-17
1. This spiritual concept is not easily understood
Even for a religious teacher like Nicodemus
2. But it is nevertheless an essential doctrine
a) There are earthly lessons
b) There are also heavenly-spiritual lessons
3. The Lord Jesus
a) He has come from heaven
b) He will be lifted up on a cross one day
c) Whoever believes in Him will have everlasting life
4. The Love of God
a) God does not want to condemn the world
b) He wants to save the world
c) He loves mankind
d) He wants to offer eternal life to all who believes in the Lord Jesus
WHY SOME WILL NOT BELIEVE
18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already,
because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world,
and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” John 3:18-21
1. Some will not come to believe in the Lord Jesus
2. They will reject the Light that the Lord offers
3. The reasons
a) They practise evil
b) They will not come to the Light
c) They will not have their evil deeds exposed
CONCLUSION
1. To receive the Lord Jesus as Saviour
2. To be regenerated by the Holy Spirit
3. To have eternal life
4. To glory in the Gospel and the love of God