3 Needs of Lost Persons
3 Needs of Non-Christians
INTRODUCTION:
(March 12, 2005)
We are entering the Holiest 2 weeks of the Christian calendar. Next week is Palm Sunday, and after that, EASTER. On the other hand, there are so many people who aren’t Christian. Whatever label you choose to give them, Un-churched, lost, unsaved, people who aren’t Christians are in a very difficult situation: the Apostle Paul said: The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God[1] THIS VERY WEEK, people are going to start asking questions about Jesus, they are going to want to talk about the Passion of Christ movie, they are going to asking questions about where we go to church. I am convinced that God has strategically placed you and I in places to be Missionaries for His purposes.
Before he left this earth, Jesus told the disciples,
9 Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them ina the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Turn in your Bibles to John chapter 3. In this chapter in the Bible, we see a lost person, an unsaved person, and we get to hear his questions. May God open our hearts to what He would say to us.
LET US PRAY
1. Non-Christians have a need for assurance
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
The Pharisees were the most “together” of the 4 types of people in the early church. Unlike the Sadducees, the Pharisees had a definite belief in the after-life. The resurrection. They had the look, they knew their Scriptures, and they understood their doctrine. One of the reasons they followed Jesus around all the time was so they could get the answers to the questions that puzzled them. Proof of the resurrection, how to solve inter-personal conflict, what was true doctrinally, etc. But Jesus came to bring good news and it surprised the Pharisees, later in his ministry, they turned against Jesus because they refused to accept that He was the Son of God. I see in this passage in the life of Nicodemus the ultimate dilemma faced by non-Christians. Non-Christians are not without knowledge of God, although they might have been hurt by the Church, Non-Christians are trying to logically reason their way around life. They are looking for the “thumbs up” that everything is ok with their life. We see it all the time. Regardless of religious tradition, education or income level, ethnicity, or age, people want to be assured that all is well. Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. A member of the ruling council. Publicly the Pharisees asked Jesus hard questions and were distant, but Nicodemus came to Jesus looking for assurance. Give me the secret, tell me the truth. You are a teacher come from God, your miracles attest to it. ………Right??? I find in this question the ultimate grasp from the human to the divine….Come on Lord, show us the secret. Tell us how to get there, I have your ear, now, it’s about church attendance…..yes? It’s about being a good person, correct? It’s about doing a lot for you…..? I have to really like going to church??? Or like many of our friends say, “Jesus, you’re just one path to God, there are other paths, whatever path works is fine as long as you get to God and do good”
But Jesus gave Him the truth
Let’s not miss the distinction between what Nicodemus was asking for and what Jesus gave Him. Jesus did not pat him on the head and say “Good answer” or yield to the veiled compliment “Oh, Thank You” no, Jesus saw through Nicodemus’s question the longing, the searching, the grasping for reality, the NEED for ASSURANCE.
How much the lost person is grasping out like Nicodemus.
Jesus did not give him the assurance he was looking for but Jesus gave HIM THE WAY TO ASSURANCE. O, like the wonderful evangelistic phrase I remember “I don’t have all the answers, but I can take you to the One who does”
Jesus said:
3 In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.a”
2. Non-Christians need to have the Gospel explained
That doesn’t make sense! What your describing doesn’t fit? Jesus said “You must be born again” and Nicodemus said “Thank you for sharing” what does that mean. Nicodemus is old. He’s been manipulated before, he’s had more than one viewpoint put at him, He has lived his life and he knows that pat answers and lofty assurances do not fix problems. He needs assurance and He’s not getting it, so He asks for an explanation.
4 “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spiritb gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘Youc must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.d 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.e
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,f that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18
3. Non-Christians need to believe and be reborn
Jesus had explained the Gospel, but mental accession and education is not enough. Now Nicodemus stood at a crossroads. DO I accept what Jesus said, or just dismiss him as another teacher with lofty ideas. IS He the way the truth and the life, will I choose to accept Him or not.
Look at verse 18
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.g 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”h
[2]
Many people are lost. Many people are lost in the idea that they can be good enough to get to God, that they can know enough to find their way, . How many times has each of us heard some person say: “I’m sure it doesn’t really matter what religion you are as long as you are sincere”……
Jesus had already told Nicodemus “the wind blows where it is, you don’t know who is going to believe or when” but they MUST be born again.
This is why the church does what it does. We create avenues and ministries and appeal so that the “light will come on”
There is a need to be re-born. Like the men on the day of Pentecost after Peter’s sermon, you may be confused and asking “What should I do?”
Peter said: Repent and be baptized.
It’s a miracle. Paul said it this way:
But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,”e that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. [3]
Nicodemus is mentioned 2 other times in the book of John. One in which he stands up for Jesus by asking a question in the council and they say “Do you want to be one of His disciples too?”
And then, with Joseph of Armathea, going to prepare His body for burial.
We don’t know for sure. We can only hope that the man to whom John 3:16 was quoted, reached up and said “I’ll believe”
What about you?
Do you need assurance
Do you need explanation
Or do you need to be born again?
Or all three
Do Christians have it all together, oh no.
Paul said
O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out…..;..
But this moment is about YOU
What about YOU
Do you need to have Christ in your heart?
In the next few moments we want to give You the opportunity. If you’ve never accepted Christ into your heart this is your moment. You can have your needs met today. Jesus is calling. In the book of Revelation, Jesus said “Behold I stand at the door and knock, if any man opens the door I will come in and eat with him and he with me” but you have to open the door to Him.
If you would like to ask Christ into your hear this morning I’m going to ask you to raise your hand, I’ll pray a prayer with you, if you pray that prayer and believe it, you will be saved,
Pray:
Jesus, I recognize that I’m a sinner, I need your forgiveness. I believe that you died on the cross for me and rose again for me. I open my heart up to You. Would You Come in, and forgive my sins. I choose to follow You. Thank You Lord, for forgiving me of my sins.
If you’ve prayed that prayer and you believe it, we believe you are saved, your next step is to be baptized in water, I’d love to visit with you and we’ll get you baptized in water.
Let’s thank God for what He’s done this morning.
Now Church, it’s about us. What can we do when we leave today?
We’ve a story to tell to the nations,
That will turn their hearts to the right
A story of peace and mercy a story of love and life
For the darkness has turned to dawning
And the dawning to noonday bright
And Christ’s great kingdom has come to earth
The kingdom of love and life
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[1]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 . Zondervan: Grand Rapids
a Or into; see Acts 8:16; 19:5; Romans 6:3; 1 Cor. 1:13; 10:2 and Gal. 3:27.
a Or born from above; also in verse 7
b Or but spirit
c The Greek is plural.
d Some manuscripts Man, who is in heaven
e Or believes may have eternal life in him
f Or his only begotten Son
g Or God~s only begotten Son
h Some interpreters end the quotation after verse 15.
[2]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 . Zondervan: Grand Rapids
e Deut. 30:14
[3]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 . Zondervan: Grand Rapids