The Whole Story of Salvation

A Message of Love
I John 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
Many people heard the words on Valentine’s Day, “I love you.” They are beautiful word, but what they truly, truly mean is what is important.
“I love you” means I will die for you. I will lay down my life for you. I will give up every thing I have for you. I will be patience with you. I will be kind and gentle with you. I will be tolerant of you.”
“I love you” means spit in my face and I won’t spit back. Slap me and I will turn the other cheek. Take a dagger and thrust it through my hand and I will stretch out the other hand. Hang me on a cross and you will hear me cry, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.”
Too many people who say, “I love you,” truly, truly don’t understand the meaning. What “I love you,” means too many is: You please me. You meet my needs. You give me what I want. You satisfy me. You keep me from being lonely. You are always there when I need you. You pay the bills. You take care of my wants.
In Ephesians 5:25, God’s word talks about a husbands love this way: Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
A husband’s love should be spiritual love and leadership love. A husband should set the tone for love in his home. The wife who is under God’s authority will reciprocate that love.
The love God showed man was agape love. He gave expecting nothing in return. He served and went the extra mile. He loved and loved to please the Father.
His love was so powerful that it turned the world upside down and it shook up a man by the name of Nicodemus.
AN EXPOSITION OF JOHN 3:1-21
[OUTLINE: THE CONNECTION / THE CONVERSATION / THE CONVERSION]
I – THE CONNECTION 1-2A
3:1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: 2 The same came to Jesus by night,
 Nicodemus was a consecrated Pharisee.
• A Pharisee was a very religious and pious man.
• He fasted twice a week.
• He gave his tithes and more to God’s work.
• He memorized Scriptures.
• He had great knowledge of the Word of God.
• He wasn’t just a Pharisee but a ruler of the Jews.
• He was not just religious but political.
Nicodemus today would have been a renowned religious figure. He might have been a mixture of Baptist and Methodist, Presbyterian and Lutheran, Catholic and Protestant. Plus, he had a little bit of a republican and democratic alike in him.
Some say he was one of the wealthiest and maybe highest respected men in Israel.
 Nicodemus was a curious person. What stirred his curiosity?
• He heard of a man that some said was virgin born.
• He heard that the Messiah of Israel had come into the world.
• He heard of many miracles that this man from Galilee performed.
• He heard that Jesus had fed 5,000.
• He had healed the sick and made the blind to see.
• One night when most people were at home with their families, Nicodemus just had to personally, one on one, talk with Jesus, so he sought Him out.

II -THE CONVERSATION – 2B –
 Nicodemus Speaks - 2b …said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
• Nicodemus immediately acknowledges that there was something miraculous about Jesus Christ.
• He knew that God was instrumental in everything that Jesus did.
• He acknowledges that He was a great teacher.
• He admits that he believes in miracles the miracles of Jesus.

 Jesus Speaks - He discerns Nicodemus spiritual need and gets right to the point:
3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
 Jesus gives a physical analogy to a great spiritual truth.
• He compares the new birth to a physical birth:
• For a baby to be born there must be a love relationship.
• During that love relationship, seeds are sown.
• Those seeds take root and grow over a period of time.
• Through travail and labor and pain, new life comes forth.
 The spiritual birth comes to pass the same way.
• Seeds of scripture are sown in one’s heart and life.
• A love relationship must form.
• A desire to know God and to please God fills one’s heart.
• For some people it takes weeks, for others maybe years.
• Then through prayer and travail, a person rejects the comfort womb of the world he/she is living in and is birth into the kingdom of God by God’s spirit.

This analogy was too deep for one of the most spiritual men of Israel to understand.
 Nicodemus’ question: 4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
That seems like a silly question, but Nicodemus understood Jesus to say a man had to be born twice. But, he did not understand the spiritual birth.
Today, many folks think just like Nicodemus. They hear words like you need to be saved, born again or you need to believe and they say what does all of that mean?
• Some believe if they join the church and have their name put on the church role they will go to heaven. The Bible never teaches this.
• Some believe if they are baptized they will go to heaven. Even though a person should follow the Lord in Baptism, water baptism does not wash away a person’s sins.
• Some believe if they turn over a good life, they will make it to the other side.
I’ve known alcoholics to quit drinking and drug users to give up drugs, but the question is have they been born again?
• The false teaching the past man years has been, pray the sinners prayer and you will go to heaven. I believe a person should pray the sinner’s prayer, but outside the conviction of the Holy Spirit, the travail of repentance and one’s belief or commitment to Christ, a prayer is only words.

 Jesus’ Quote: Now, Jesus continues the conversation:
5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
• Water: Is Jesus talking about physical water here? Of course not! The voice of God is compared to mighty waters.
In Revelation 1:15 John tells us that the voice of Jesus is like the sound of many waters.
Jesus was the living Word, the Bible is God’s written word.
The “water” represents the word of God.
Paul wrote in Romans 10:17, “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.”
The water is God’s Word. Seeds are sown from God’s Word. Those seeds must reveal truth.
-God’s Word reveals to man the sinfulness of his heart.
-God’s Word reveals to man the lovingness of God.
-God’s Word reveals the only way of Salvation.

• Spirit: The Spirit of God brings conviction, sorrow, travail and repentance.
Jesus says in verse 6 and 7: That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
Jesus gives another analogy in dealing with the Spirit.
As the flesh of a mother and father produces their fleshly offspring with fleshly desires, so the Holy Spirit of God produces spiritual off spring with spiritual desires. As you were born physically, so you must be born spiritually.

Key to salvation: Now notice the work of God’s Spirit. He is mysterious. He comes into a person’s life when God’s word is preached. Notice verse 8.
8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
• Pneuma: The analogy is wind. The Greek word is pneuma. It is interpreted not only wind I the Bible but also spirit.
As wind just blows and you can’t tell if it comes from the sea or the mountains at times, so God’s spirit in God’s time blows into your life. So, a man can’t get saved when he chooses, but when God’s spirit convicts and draws.
• Pentecost: On the day of Pentecost, the spirit of God blew into the upper room. He worked, moved and convicted men of sin.
-After the seeds of God’s word were sown, the spirit of God brought conviction.
-Under the conviction of the Spirit the people on the day of Pentecost cried, “What must we do?”
The same wind blew into the Roman jail cell one night in Philippi, and the Philippian Jailer cried, “What must I do to be saved?”
Thus, when a person comes to Christ it is a willing desire to do so.
It is under the mighty working of God’s Spirit that a person’s eyes are open and it is at this time, they cry out to God for salvation and their life is made new.
Romans 10:13, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

 Next we see an honest question: 9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
Nicodemus was honest with Jesus. He said, I don’t understand.
-A lot of people go to hell because they will not be honest with God.
-They can not remember the conviction of the Lord.
-They cannot remember a conversion.
-They still live today, as they lived 20 years ago or 5 years ago.
-They are too proud to stay on their knees until they have truly surrendered their lives to God.

Jesus gives Nicodemus a humble quote in verse 10:
10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
-Most people would be offended by this statement.
-Most people would not admit that they were lost.
-They would hold onto their church membership, their religion, their water baptism or their good works.
-But, Nicodemus had something good going for him. He was humble and meek and wanted to know absolutely for sure the way to heaven.
JESUS’S SERMON
Look at Jesus’ sermon to Nicodemus. It was not just for Nicodemus but for every person who would read the Bible.
11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.
Jesus told Nicodemus, you lack understanding:
Jesus, in using the word “we” was referring to the nation of Israel. The Jews said, “We have the answer, we know the scriptures, we are God chosen people, but then Jesus shocks Nicodemus by saying, “You won’t receive our witness.
Why did Jesus say, “our witness?” He was the Messiah that was prophesied about and promised by Moses and David and Isaiah and all the prophets of the Old Testament.
Nicodemus, like most of the religious Pharisees of that day, were religious and lost.

Jesus continues to tell Nicodemus of his lack of knowledge.
12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
Jesus says, I used a physical birth analogy, to reveal to you what it means to go to heaven, but you don’t believe it.
Seeds must be sown, love must develop and conviction or travail must take place. You must repent and be converted. Then you will be born into God’s kingdom.
Jesus was saying, If I give you three or four steps to follow, you will try to enter heaven intellectually.
Salvation is not an intellectual decision. It is a spiritual conversion. It is a change heart, mind and life.

III – CONVERSION:
Now Jesus reveals His resurrection:
13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
Jesus reveals to Nicodemus that he would die and rise again.
He then reveals the cross.
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
The story of the serpent was a shadow of the cross of Jesus Christ.
The nation of Israel was guilty of many sins. On one occasion they were complaining about how bad things were, but that wasn’t new, they did that all the time. God sent deadly serpents into their camp. Many were bitten and many died.
Moses implored God what to do to stop the poison from killing the people. God said make a brass serpent and lift it up on a pole and whoever looks at the serpent by faith will be healed or delivered from the poison of the serpents.

• That story pictures man’s natural ungrateful and selfish heart.
• Man has been bitten with the poison of the serpent, Satan.
• We are all filled with sin.
• The brass serpent pictured judgment. Rather than God, putting us on the cross, God put His Son on that cross.
• The brass represents the judgment God put on His son.
• Jesus died in our place.
• When a person by faith and I mean sincere dedicatory faith looks to Jesus and puts his trust and faith in him, he is close to Salvation.
-Jesus revealed to Nicodemus that his religion wasn’t good enough.
-He revealed to Nicodemus the conviction of the spirit.
-Now, He reveals faith, trust and belief.


Commitment:
15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Jesus said whosoever believeth in Him. The word “believe” in Jesus’ day is equivalent with commitment today.
Belief in Jesus is not a simple head knowledge that Jesus died was buried and rose again.
If you remember, Agrippa believed all Paul preached about the resurrection Christ and Agrippa said, “Almost thou persuadeth me to be a Christian.” But he would not commit his life to Jesus Christ. He would not repent. He would not unashamedly stand for Christ.

Here is a picture of God’s commitment to man:
16 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. That is LOVE!
• Salvation is not just a belief.
• The whole story reveals one must humbly seek the Lord.
• One must understand salvation.
• One must be convicted or drawn by God’s Holy Spirit.
• Then finally, one must believe or commit their life to Christ.
2 – Concern:
God not only shows His Commitment, but, His Concern.
Here is God’s great concern for mankind: Here is God’s promise to those who will believe. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

God never wanted anyone to miss heaven. God does not want to condemn anyone to hell. God wants people to be saved from their sin. God wants the whole world to go to heaven. That is God’s concern.

3 - Condemnation
Know the truth about a person being condemned.
Some folks have said, won’t God let anybody into heaven?
Doesn’t God love enough to just forgive us even if we don’t ask?
Won’t he just take everybody to heaven whether they believe or not?
Verse 18 reads, He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Why doesn’t everyone trust Jesus Christ?
Jacob Mesier, 5 years old, came to me last week after a service and said to be with great compassion, “Preacher, I don’t understand it. God holds the world in this hand and he holds the sun in the other hand and he loves everybody… and I don’t understand why everybody doesn’t love Him? Well, Jacob, the answer is found in the next verse.
John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
Sadly, many folks have chosen to live a life for themselves. They love the world. They enjoy being with unsaved people more that believers. They love the lights of the world of the light of God.

They simply don’t realize who God is, what God has done or why they are here. And therefore they are blinded to where they are going.

21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
When a person comes to Christ, he sees his deeds of sin and then comes to the light where God then fashions us to be like Him.
A believer isn’t perfect, but he has a hunger and desire to please the Lord. He knows he should be walking in the light.

Have you been born again!