1 Experience God's Love and Grace

John 3:1–8 CSB

There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 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.” Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” “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?” Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Would you say that you are saved? How do you know? What does that even mean?

Prayed a prayer? Baptized? Follow the 10 commands rules?

Would you say that you have experienced God, experienced His love and grace?

In my life, I can look back and see many times God was very close and active in my life.

Baptism, conversion, baptism, commitment, various failures and restorations, in Papua

I would say that God, by His Spirit, both saved – really rescued – me from the darkness, from the kingdom of the world, and from myself, and that He is daily transforming me into the likeness of Jesus Christ.

New Series – Live the Jesus Life – learning what it means to follow Jesus Christ. Basic, and yet so important as a starting point together for this year.

Focusing on the beliefs and practices that the BIC church holds as our highest values.

Core Value 1 – We value the free gift of salvation in Christ Jesus, and He transforms us through the power of His Holy Spirit.

The God We Experience

We learn more of God by what He does rather than His words or someone else’s words about Him.

Genesis 1:1 CSB

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

In the beginning, God created. He created the universe, He created man and woman and walked with them.

He doesn’t just make some rules and sit back to watch who obeys and who doesn’t. God is active in the stories of the Old and New Testament – calling people to Himself, showing His power, especially showing His love, and most of all, coming in flesh as a man to rescue mankind.

Encounter

Job 42:5 CSB

5 I had heard reports about you, but now my eyes have seen you.

job knew and now sees

Encounter – we say personal encounter because our experience with God/Jesus/Holy Spirit is based on our situation and experiences and God pouring into those. However, personal encounter does not mean isolated encounter. God does His work through His people by His Spirit

We know God through experience, through direct and personal encounters.

We cannot know God in our heads and minds. We can know ABOUT Him that way, but that is not experiential knowledge/understanding.

Example of knowing about vs. experiencing relationship – Donovan. 2015 at Men of Promise conference.

You can know about God. You can know every story in the Bible. You can memorize the whole Bible and quote it back on the spot. You can expound on every aspect of theology and doctrinal positions. And still not know God. Still not be converted. Still not be transformed into the image of Christ. Still not be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Read Ephesians 2:1-3

Ephesians 2:1–10 CSB

1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins 2 in which you previously lived according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. 3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, 5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! 6 He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.

Ephesians 2:4 CSB

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us,

Ephesians 2:4–5 CSB

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, 5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!

transferred from death to life. Converted from old life to new.

transferred from death to life. Saved, Rescued, Converted from old life to new.

transferred from death to life. Converted from old life to new.

Converted does not mean that you said a prayer. It does not mean that you believe God exists. It does not mean that you believe Jesus died for your sin. Converted does not mean you accepted a set of rules to live by. Conversion is not a mental decision based on knowledge and facts.

All of those come with being converted, but they do not define your conversion.

Rescued and transferred from death to life

Romans 10:17 CSB

17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.

Faith comes by hearing the Word of God.

The process of the work of God by His Spirit in us. Holy Spirit uses the Word to give us understanding, help us begin to believe, act upon that belief, and continue to transform us through the ongoing process.

Ephesians 2:8–9 CSB

8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from works, so that no one can boast.

v.8-9 grace through faith

grace through faith

Romans 10:17 CSB

17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.

Faith comes by hearing the Word of God or message about Christ

The process of the work of God by His Spirit in us. Holy Spirit uses the Word to give us understanding, help us begin to believe, act upon that belief, and continue to transform us through the ongoing process.grace through faith

Gift

free gift – free to us does not mean there is not a cost. Cost the Father dearly, cost the Son His life. A gift can be material and held in the hand and becomes the possession of the recipient. Or gifts can be relational – time, experiences, care, love, respect. This type of gift is only enjoyed in the relationship.

John 3:16 CSB

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.

Read

John 3:1–8 CSB

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.” 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?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. 8 The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

John 3:1–8 CSB

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.” 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?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. 8 The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

John 3:3 CSB

3 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

,

John 3:5 CSB

5 Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Born again – born of water, flesh in a body of flesh. Born of Spirit in the spiritual body. Born again or born from the top or from above. To start over again.

Born into the Kingdom – cannot see, cannot enter

John 3:8 CSB

8 The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Example of wind – you see the results but not the wind. The new life of a born again follower of Jesus. So again, God is active, we experience His Spirit in us.

salvation in Christ Jesus – both an event and a process. At some point in time, maybe over a number of points, we respond to God’s loving and gracious invitation and he rescues us from our darkness and sin. Our relationship to God begins our new life in Christ Jesus. That is just the beginning.

2 Corinthians 5:17 CSB

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!

Transformed into a new creation

Ezekiel 11:19–20 CSB

19 I will give them integrity of heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh, 20 so that they will follow my statutes, keep my ordinances, and practice them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

Ezekiel 11:19-20

heart of stone replace with heart of flesh SO THAT...

transformed and given purpose

Ephesians 2:6–7 CSB

6 He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:vv.6-7

raised up with Christ

God displaying His grace in us for others to see and be drawn

Ezekiel 11:19–20 CSB

19 I will give them integrity of heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh, 20 so that they will follow my statutes, keep my ordinances, and practice them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

heart of stone heart of flesh

Ephesians 2:9–10 CSB

9 not from works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.

Read 2 Corinthians 5:16-20

2 Corinthians 5:16–20 CSB

16 From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! 18 Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf: “Be reconciled to God.”

new creature, reconciling us and giving us ministry of reconciliation

2 Corinthians 5:17 CSB

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!

new creature, reconciling us and giving us ministry of reconciliation

We are saved/rescued no by our own good deeds

When you are converted your whole perspective changes, your worldview, your attitude, and then your outworking of that in your behavior.

but we are created as new to do His good works.

The work of God’s transformation in us by His Spirit is ongoing.

2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV

18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Living the Jesus Life means laying aside religious behavior and pretense and experiencing God’s love and grace through a personal encounter with Jesus Christ.

Life Change from attempting to earn God’s grace to receiving God’s grace.

God offers each one of us the free gift of salvation in Christ Jesus, and He transforms us through the power of His Holy Spirit

Have you experienced the love and grace of God?

Have you been rescued, truly converted, transformed, born from above, received grace by faith?

If not, are you willing to yield to Him today?

Would you describe your faith as heartfelt or cerebral?

Would non-believers be impacted by your ideas or by the evidence of change?

1 Experience God's Love and Grace

Introduction

Experience God’s Love and Grace

The God We Experience

God is Active

God is Relational

The God Who Saves

The God Who Transforms

Conclusion

Big Idea: God offers each one of us the free gift of salvation in Christ Jesus, and He transforms us through the power of His Holy Spirit

What About You?