To Know Jesus as Savior

Introduction

Welcome everyone! I’m very excited for this time that we’ll have together every day. I know you guys are excited about your electives and everything, but for me, this is the reason to be here. And I’m sure it is for you too, if it’s not, don’t tell me.

This will be our Bible teaching time every day, and I want to let you guys know a little bit about what my philosophy for this time will be. Everyone here comes from very different faith backgrounds or levels of knowledge about God, the Bible, and Christianity. So here’s my goal: I want to send it right down the middle. My hope is that no matter where you are in your faith, you’ll be able to get something out of it. If you’re new to Christianity, or even aren’t a Christian, I hope you’ll learn something. If you’ve been a Christian for a while and haver been coming to camp for years and years, then you’ll get something out of it too.

BUT with that in mind, I need you guys to promise me something: if you don’t understand something that I say, make a note of it, and either ask me or a counselor. OR If something I say sounds interesting, and you want to dig deeper into that, ask me or a counselor.

If I say something really really confusing in here, raise your hand and ask for clarification. That will help you and the rest of the campers. No dumb questions as long as it pertains to the topic.

This week, we’re not going to use the standard Bible book that we have in years past, I’ve written some questions that I’m hoping will push you guys to think a little harder. Here’s what I need you to promise me though, you’re going to have less questions than if you did the Bible book, so I want longer and more well-thought out answers. If you want your Bible achievement for this week, you need to put down quality answers, but more importantly I want you guys to reflect on God’s word and what he’s doing in your life this week.

Introduction of the Theme

Who can tell me what the Bible theme is for this whole summer? “To Know Christ and Make Him Known”

Good stuff. So over the next couple of days we’re going to be going over what it means to know Jesus. We’ll look at different ways to know Jesus and what that means for our faith and our lives. But I want to give you guys are memory verse for the week. We’re only going to have one memory verse to memorize, and we’ll unpack it a little bit today. But just like you have fewer Bible questions but I expect a higher quality of work, I expect you to actually memorize and internalize this verse.

John 17:3 ESV

And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Know this verse. Learn it. Love it. We’ll come back to it towards the end of this lesson.

Nicodemus

Alright, with all that out of the way, let’s dive into today’s lesson. If you have your Bibles, which I hope you all do, turn to John 3.

DOES ANYONE NOT HAVE A BIBLE?

Ok so what we’re going to do during this time is talk through these passages. I’m just going to make some general points, ask some general questions, and then at the end we’ll summarize together.

First, just shout it out, what famous verse comes from John 3?

John 3:16 ““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Right, John 3:16, easily the most famous verse in the entire Bible, it’s the one that you see on shirts, posters at Sports games, and many other places. It kinda serves as the peak of this passage, which tell the story about a guy named Nicodemus. We’re gonna start reading, and you should read along, but I’m going to stop us along the way to ask questions. I want you guys to explain to me what’s going on in this passage.

1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.

Who were the Pharisees?

What rules did they follow?

How do the gospels portray them?

2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi”

What does Rabbi mean? “Hebrew for teacher” as we see in the next sentence

we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

So what’s the name of this Pharisee?

And how is he different from how we talked about the other Pharisees?

3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God

What’s the kingdom of God?

unless they are born again.[a]” 4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” 5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.

Alright, that’s a lot. How many of you have heard the phrase “Born Again Christian?” This passage is where that phrase come from. What does it mean?

Nicodemus give this kinda gross image of being born again as an adult man, not understanding Jesus’s meaning. Jesus then replies that people are born of water and the Spirit. This is a confusing and disputed statement, some people believer it ties into John the baptist’s ministry, others believe that water is physical birth and the Spirit it spiritual birth. But regardless, what I most want you to see here is Born of the Spirit. Cause that comes up again here:

6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit[b] gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You[c] must be born again.’

What does it mean to be born of the flesh? How many of you have been born of the flesh?

What does it mean to be born of the Spirit?

Why the emphasis on birth here?

From the day we were born, we were sinners. We need an entirely new birth to fix that.

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.”[d]

Anyone want to take a stab at unpacking this one?

Mechanism of New Birth, the intricacies we do not know, but we see and experience its results

Does anyone’s Bible have a note about this verse?

9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, 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?

Why does Jesus expect Nicodemus to know all these things? Is it reasonable for him to expect him to know all these things?

What is Nicodemus getting wrong specifically? You’ll probably have to dip into your knowledge of Pharisees to answer this one.

13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.[e]

Who’s the Son of Man?

14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,[f] 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”[g]

Does anyone know what story Jesus is referring to here?

Alright, here comes the big one. Everything that we’ve gone over so far is leading to this next section.

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, 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 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

Alright, let’s unpack John 3:16 a little .

John 3:16a (ESV)

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

What do you guys think “so (οὕτως) loved” means here?

So we talked about Nicodemus and the Pharisees big mistake here. They had an overemphasis on works to be saved. But what does Jesus say is the condition of salvation?

This has always been the condition of salvation. It was never works.

Conclusion

So now let’s come back to John 17:3. Does anyone still remember it?

When Jesus says “This is eternal life” what does he mean?

Two options here:

Jesus could be saying that knowing God is the way to have eternal life. This seems pretty consistent with John 3:16 like we talked about earlier.

Or Jesus could be saying that eternal life consists of knowing God. Knowing God is what we do in eternal life. This would line up with a verse like 1 Corinthians 13:12.

Is there perhaps a third option?