Is Knowing Jesus Enough?

John 3:1-15

Announcements

December 13th we will be having a mixed service in the gym. We will be giving out prizes, and so forth, invite your whole family, mom and dad, grandma, guardian so forth

Next week, i will be handing out a note card for you all to fill out. The reason for that is so i can learn some of the things you all might have questions about. It will help me know more of where you are… Nothing to be sweat about. If you want one today, I can do that for ya.

In January we will be doing a youth night. January 19th. Food, fun, murder in the dark. If it goes like i think it will, we will do a next step up in February.

Introduction

Illustration

Basketball, i know John Calipari, do not have a relationship with him. Taylor.

If we proclaim to be a Christian we claim to have a relationship with the God of the universe. Imagine a marriage

John 3:1–8 “Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 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.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 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?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.””

Pray

John 20:31 “but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

We can NOT have JUST knowledge about Jesus to be saved. V. 1-3

Verse 1- Nicodemus was a pharisee, any idea of what that is? They were the main teachers and studiers of the Tanakh, which is what we believe in as Christians to be the Old testament. He was apart of the Sanhedrin, which is the Jewish Supreme Court. They made decisions and tried to have teaching and understanding. To see if the law was being followed. Which is why he came to Jesus, he was seeking if he was the messiah that was being prophesied about in the Tanakh, which is the Old Testament.

Verse 2- When we have a speaker, we give credentials. Like when Pastor Nick at the fall retreat spoke, i gave a brief description of who we was. Nicodemus does the same thing, what he says is not wrong… but it is not all of who Jesus is. The things he Jesus was doing in performing those miracles, he could not have done those apart from God.

Verse 3- Jesus gives this response to what Nicodemus. Dude you know all of these things about me. And thats cool, but you wont even be able to see the kingdom, let alone walk in the kingdom...

How many us are like that? How many of our parents, families, friends are like this? We can not just have knowledge…

Illustration- the chair illustration

Me playing football, or me being in the Orchestra. I not only have to know, i must play, i must practice. I must have a life reflected of it. Do I, do we have a life that reflects of Jesus?

We must be a born again believer to be saved. V. 4-5

Nicodemus in verse 4, wait wait, how though? DO NOT BASH HIM, YOU MIGHT HAVE STUDENTS WHO THINK THAT.

Example of it’s raining cats and dogs.

The Water is with Spirit. Spirit is against flesh.

Verse 5, Jesus is instituting the New Covenant.

Ezekiel 36:25–27 “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

But it is an ORDINANCE of Jesus… Matthew 28:19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”

An ordinance is a Christian rite, associated with tangible elements (water; bread and wine), that is celebrated by the church of Jesus Christ. The term is closely associated with the word sacrament, which is an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace.-TGC

Acts 2:37–41 “Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”

Lord’s Supper is the other one.

Expresses UNION with Jesus. Romans 6:3–4 “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

Romans 6. Also reinforces immersion as the symbolic act. We see Jesus being immersed in Baptism. Matthew 3:16 “And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water.

Where should we be? If you have put your faith in Jesus, you should be baptized. Sure it may be nerve racking.

Application

This baptism of water DOES NOT SAVE YOU

If it did i would have a pool in here dunking all of you all.

Faith is what saves.

If we are born again, are we broken for those who do not have the same faith as us?

But the water and Spirit is deeper than just being baptized. How do we need water?

To live, over half of our body is water.

Remember context is key, Nicodemus knew the Tanakh, which is the Old testament.

They knew passages, also lived in a desert.

Psalm 23:2 “He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.”

Psalm 42:1 “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.”

Psalm 63:1 “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”

Illustration

Thor love and Thunder. Or just an Oasis...

The Lord is our spiritual oasis, we are dying apart from him, we can have no life. Must have water

Revelation 22:1 “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb”

Where it is flowing from The Lord’s throne.

Our life flows from God, our ability to live a holy life comes from Him. And he will sustain us.

The Spirit brings the new birth V.6-8

Verse 6 Look at the state of man. We are in flesh from the the time we are in the womb. Our flesh is finite

Genesis 6:3 “Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.””

The flesh is sin

Job 34:14–15 “If he should set his heart to it and gather to himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust.”

If the flesh represents the World, God is using the Spirit to represent the opposite. The Spirit is eternal, it is Holy, perfect.

John 6:63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”

Joel 2:28–29 ““And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.

Remember the new Covenant.

Ezekiel 36:26 “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

The Spirit and water are linked as one uniform thing.

The breath of God gives life.

Genesis 2:7 “then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”

Ezekiel 37. God breathed life into dead bones.

Verse 8

Tornado leads into the new commandment to love.

The deadliest tornado ever happened on March 18, 1925. It is called the Tri-State Tornado because it occurred in three different states: Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. The F5 tornado, which is also the longest ever, stretched for 219 miles across these three states. It lasted for 3.5 hours and killed 695 people.

1952 is when the NWS had a radar.

Imagine being those people.

John 13:34–35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.””

Takeaways

Application- Similarly, we must have a dedicated life to the Lord, he must change us.

Be in the Word,

Be in prayer

Be with like minded believers.

Have mentors.

Any adult in this room will be more than willing. We are currently praying through what this looks like not just for the youth program. But students, adults, children, senior adults.

We must be born again from the Spirit to see the Kingdom of God. And we must not walk in the flesh.

Galatians 5:16–23 “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

Small Group Questions

Is knowing Jesus enough for salvation?

Are you walking in the flesh for salvation? Or are you walking in the Spirit?

In what ways do we tend to walk in the flesh?

How can we walk in the Spirit?