God’s Ultimate Plan
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction:
16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
-this scripture is the most quoted scripture of the Bible. Most people know it even unbelievers. Football players put it on their eye black. Folks spray paint it on the highway overpass, fans at sporting events put it on signs.
-It seems as if a scripture that gets this much attention might be something we should pay attention too.
-Jesus in the Third Chapter of John is talking with a Pharisee named Nicodemus.
-Nicodemus was like a college professor when it came to the Bible. He was a religous scholar.
1 There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
2 This man came to him at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.”
3 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
(v.3) “Truly, Truly I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God” Jesus is talking with him about the necessity of being born again.
-Nicodemus is very confused about what he is talking about.
what does it mean to be born again?
Have you heard that term before?
4 “How can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”
(4) Nicodemus is thinking about physical birth, but Jesus is talking about whole different kind of birth
5 Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
(5) Jesus says a person must be born from above. A spirit birth is not something you see but something you experience.
How do you receive this birth?
16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
Introduction: “For God so loved” God’s love for humanity was so comprehensive that it caused him to do something unheard of and unexpected. This is the kind of love that you don’t see. I call this a crazy love.
What did his crazy love cause him to do??
I. He Gave
I. He Gave
- He gave his only Son. God took the initial step to our salvation. We broke the relationship but he provided the way back.
-Why did he give???
You are a Sinner(that was in need of rescue)-Romans 3:23 “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”
a. God initiated our reconciliation.
b. God gave his very best.
c. God did not wait to you clean up before he acted.
Illustration
Boy/Friend and his Father
Whosever- God will not turn anybody away.
a. God desires that all come to repentance. Turn to 1 Timothy 2:3-4
3 This is good, and it pleases God our Savior,
4 who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
b. His offer is all-inclusive.
c. You will not be able to excuse your exclusion from heaven (if you end up in hell it is because you choose to be there).
II. Believes in Him
II. Believes in Him
To have a firm conviction; to be convinced of.
-This term is more than just intellectual agreement. This term in the original language is far deeper than who we use it.
-To believe meant that you made a commitment to it. The belief was synonymous with commitment and service.
- When you look at our culture many claim to believe things that they fail to commit to: Marriage, Financial Commitments, College, Jobs,
Why do we reject such a great offer?
19 This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.
(v.19) “This is a judgment that Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil”
-As people, we are sort of like Roaches when you turn the light on we scatter. In this verse, Jesus is the light. He shines his light on you it is both uncomfortable and comforting. There is something about the sun sometimes it beats down on you and weakens you then sometimes after a couple of days of rain it makes you smile. That is Jesus when we are doing wrong and he shines on us and exposes us we don’t like that, but it is also Jesus who when things get dark and that light shines and gives you peace letting you know that everything is going to be alright.
-You see we need both:
a. We need the exposing light to show us where we are wrong so that we can change direction…..What does the GPS say when you are going the wrong direction? You need to make a U-Turn
b. We also need the comforting light from Jesus that lets us know that we are his child and that everything is going to be alright.
-The only way to get this is make a decision for him!!!
Transition Statement
-Notice what happens when you make a decision for him
III. Shall have everlasting life
III. Shall have everlasting life
(v.16)
a. everlasting life represent a life with Christ.
b. The saved and the unsaved will inherit eternal life(Some to paradise with God, and some to eternal damnation apart from God)
c. Everlasting describes the quality of life not the quantity.
Illustration
Of the birds and the sand.
Commital
NUMBER 2
For as much as it has pleased our Heavenly Father in His wise providence to take unto Himself our beloved ___________________, we therefore commit his or her body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ who shall change the body of our humiliation and fashion it anew in the likeness of His own body of glory according to the working of His mighty power wherewith He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.
