What does it really mean to believe in Jesus?

John 3:16 tells us that God loved the world and gave His Son. Those familiar words invite us to consider our own response: do we trust Jesus as Savior, and how does that trust shape our lives?

In Come and See the Savior, Part 3 of our journey through the Gospel of John, we explore Jesus’ nighttime conversation with Nicodemus, His teaching about being born of water and the Spirit, and the connection to baptism and new life.

We also revisit the bronze snake in Numbers 21 to understand why Jesus said He must be lifted up—pointing toward the cross and the salvation He came to bring.

At the heart of this message is God’s love and an invitation to respond to Jesus with belief, trust, and surrender.

Scripture: John 3; Numbers 21:4–9

This week’s reflection: What would it look like for you to trust Jesus as Savior in your everyday life?

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OC Church of Christ

We are continuing a sermon series, Daniel mentioned it in

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the welcome, called Come and See.

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And so it's mentioned a couple

times in the Gospel of John, and

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specifically in John chapter 1, where

they ask Jesus, "Where are you going?"

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And he says, "Hey, why

don't you come and see?"

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He invites them, "Hey, why

don't you come check this out?"

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And then, uh, uh, Nathaniel goes and,

uh, and Philip in this conversation,

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and he's inquiring about Jesus.

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He's trying to share about Jesus

and he says, "You know, why

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don't you just come and see."

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And so this is an invitation for all of

us for the next couple of months here

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to come and see Jesus for ourselves.

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To be able to see him,

maybe for the first time.

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Maybe for some of us to get reacquainted

with Jesus, or for us to see some

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things about Jesus that we need to

be reminded of and maybe we forgot or

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maybe we get a chance to be in awe of.

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And I don't know about you, but I need to

be reminded of things in my relationships.

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Uh, just a couple…

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Actually, I think it was maybe last

week or two weeks ago, uh, we had a,

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uh, some type of meeting, and I always

like to have some deep conversation.

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And so I wanted everybody to share

what was their favorite ice cream.

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Getting real deep up in here.

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And Karina shares, my wife Karina

shares, and she says her favorite

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ice cream is mint chocolate chip.

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That's my favorite ice cream.

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But I'm confessing right now, and I

didn't tell this to Karina, I don't

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know why I do this to myself, but

I had forgot that Karina's favorite

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ice cream was mint chocolate chip.

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Okay.

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And I was like, "Really?"

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But I didn't say anything,

gotta keep it cool.

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You know what I'm saying?

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Yeah.

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I was like, "Wow, is that right?

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No wonder we're married."

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You know what I'm saying?

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But it was good to be reminded of this

truth, that we have this thing together.

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And so when we come and see Jesus,

whether you're coming for the first

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time or you're coming to Jesus for

the 45th year of your life in Christ,

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we need to come and see him, and

we're gonna see new things about him.

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We're gonna see old things that we know.

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We're gonna be refreshed, but we're

gonna be able to get a clearer

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view- Yeah … of who Jesus is.

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A clearer view of what he does and wants

to do in our lives, and then a clearer

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view of how to respond to this Jesus.

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And so, so far in our series, we've looked

at coming and seeing the greatest, how

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Jesus is the Word of God, the Logos.

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And go online and you can hear the sermon

about that, because there's so much

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to this idea of Jesus being the Logos.

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That's a Greek word there.

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I won't get into it again.

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Go to online and you can

watch the sermon there.

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And then last week, Kyle talked

about coming and seeing the divine,

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how the miracles or the signs, the

miracles are really signs, that point

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to Jesus's definity, and divinity.

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And so today, we're gonna be talking

about coming and seeing the Savior.

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Right.

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Come and see the Savior.

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Let's go ahead, let's go to God in prayer.

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Father, thank you so much for already

the chance to connect with you, to

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sing songs and be reminded of your

truth, and how you are the King,

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and your name is above all names.

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And God, we're grateful that we can

rejoice in Jesus because he is the Savior.

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And Father, I pray right now that your

Word will commun- be communicated in

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a fashion where every soul will hear

exactly what they need to hear about who

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you are and how you want them to respond.

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We pray in the name of Jesus.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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Come and see the Savior.

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You know, we're all looking

for, sometimes, some saviors.

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I know the Angel fans were hoping

that Stan Krokeng, the new owner,

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will be the savior for the Angels.

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And so he's raising his hand,

yes, because if you didn't

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know, the Angels are being sold.

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And so all the Angel fans are fired

up right now because we're like,

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"We're gonna have a owner who's

actually gonna care about the team."

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You know what I'm saying?

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Who actually wants the team to win.

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If you're a Rams fan, you thought

that Miles Garrett would be the

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savior, and then you saw the game

on Thursday Yeah, that's right.

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Yeah, they didn't look

too good, Kyle, did they?

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No.

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They sure didn't.

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And in fact, they played

those mighty, mighty 49ers.

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Yeah.

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Oh, yeah.

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Oh, yeah.

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And the 49ers showed them you ain't

got no savior in Miles Garrett.

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Uh, as you can know, I'm

a 49ers fan, right, Drew?

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That's how we get down.

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Here we go.

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The faithful is in the building.

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The 49ers fans are called the Faithful.

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How could you not appreciate that?

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Yeah.

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That's a spiritual term, so if you're

not a 49er fan, repent and come and see

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the 49ers and be a part of the Faithful.

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Amen.

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Yeah.

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Now that I've alienated many of

us, let's get into the word of God.

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But that's okay, I got the Savior with me.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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We're gonna go to John chapter 3.

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Now, this is a chapter that many

of us are very familiar with.

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We're gonna read a lot here.

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We're also gonna have to summarize

some stuff here for the sake of time.

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And so I definitely wanna encourage you

to write down some things that, that,

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that strike you so that you can go over

and look over these things for yourself

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and be able to study these things out and

be able to come and see 'cause there's so

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much about Jesus, there's so much about

theology here and how we should view God

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and how we should view, uh, God's will.

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But we won't be able to get into

all those particulars today.

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So in John chapter 3, we're

gonna start off in verse one.

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It says, "Now there was a Pharisee,

a man named Nicodemus, who was a

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member of the Jewish ruling council."

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So this is a big wig right here, okay?

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This is a big-time guy in

the Jewish community there.

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He's a part of what we would…

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uh, what's been called the Sanhedrin.

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And so he's one of the top leaders there.

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A lot of respect and then

probably a wealthy guy from

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what we learn later about him.

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It says that, "This man came to

Jesus at night," in verse two, "and

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said, 'Rabbi, we know that you are

a teacher who has come from God, for

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no one could perform the signs you

are doing if God were not with him.'"

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Again, this ties back in to what we

looked at last week in John chapter 2.

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These signs are pointing to Jesus,

and, and Nicodemus is understanding and

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observing something, okay, he's doing

these miraculous things, so it must

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mean that God is at least with him.

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So we're not sure if he's fully

believing that Jesus is more than just

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somebody who did a couple signs or he's

skeptical, but he can recognize that

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those miraculous signs are pointing

to God's presence and activity.

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We go, we continue in verse three.

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"Jesus replied, 'Very

truly I tell you…'"

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Whenever Jesus, you see these

words, very truly or truly,

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truly, he's like, "Hey, listen up.

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Make sure you're paying attention

to what I'm about to tell you."

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He says, "'Very truly I tell you,

no one can see the kingdom of

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God unless they are born again.'

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'How can someone be

born when they are old?'

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Nicodemus asked."

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That's a reasonable question.

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"What do you mean you

have to be born again?

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That doesn't make sense in order

for me to see the Kingdom of God.

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Surely they cannot enter a second time

into their mother's womb to be born again.

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I, are you telling me that I, I'm

supposed to somehow be born again?

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I'm supposed to go back into

my mo- that, that doesn't make

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a lot of sense to me, Jesus."

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We continue.

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"Jesus answered, 'Very

truly I tell you…'"

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Listen up.

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"'No one can enter the kingdom

of God unless they are born

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of water and the Spirit.'"

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Flesh gives birth to flesh, but

the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

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You should not be surprised at

me saying you must be born again.

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The wind blows wherever it pleases.

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You hear its sound, but you cannot tell

where it comes from or where it is going.

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So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.

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Let's just stop right there.

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Man, I would love to be able to

have that be our entire sermon,

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but we're, we're not going to.

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And so I'm just gonna go ahead and just

point out a couple of quick things here,

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and I want you to maybe go ahead, take

a picture, if you will, or write these

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things down here on the screen here.

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And this idea of being born

again or born of water and

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Spirit, Nicodemus doesn't get it.

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How can someone be physically born?

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Obviously, Jesus didn't mean literally

you have to be physically born.

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What He was pointing to

was a spiritual birth.

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And He ties it in, He says this

whole water and Spirit thing.

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Now, the initial readers and listeners

of this letter from John would have

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automatically connected the dots and

said, "Jesus is referring to baptism."

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And even Nicodemus, you can argue,

or some scholars would argue,

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that he should have received this.

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He should have understood this.

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And so I just wanna point you

to a couple things that will

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help you out on your own there.

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Because in Ezekiel, there's this

connection of what God's gonna do,

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not only for the people then, but a

future fulfillment of this prophecy

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that ties in water cleansing and

a new life with the Spirit of God.

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Acts chapter 2, after Jesus died

and resurrected, and He ascends to

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heaven, and the s- church starts,

and we have the, the inauguration

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of the church, how did they enter?

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They entered through baptism, which Peter

says that you will, you will also receive

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the Holy Spirit, again, a new life.

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Romans chapter 6, the Apostle Paul

talks about baptism and how that's

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the point at which we have a new life.

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And then in John chapter 3,

where if you keep going down,

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this is so interesting, right?

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Jesus is talking about this whole

born of water and spirit, and

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immediately after this interaction,

they start talking about Jesus'

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ministry and John's ministry baptizing.

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And so all you have to do is connect

these clues, and you can get it.

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But then also a little, little fun fact

here is that all the church fathers of the

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first 400 years of Christianity considered

this to be a reference to baptism.

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Yeah.

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And so this is this idea of being born

again or born from above, 'cause it

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also could be translated as above or

born anew, and it's this spiritual

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rebirth that takes place at baptism.

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That's our little teaching

for the moment here.

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I gotta keep moving.

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All right, Church, are you still with me?

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Yeah.

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All right.

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We're gonna go to John chapter 3,

and we're gonna go down to verse

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13, but let's just catch you up

to speed in verses 9 through 12.

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Nicodemus, he's still not understanding

kind of what's going on, so Jesus

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says, "If you don't understand

these things that I'm telling you,

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and how are you gonna believe when

I give you some deeper teaching?"

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And so we take it up in verse 13.

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"No one has ever gone into

heaven except the one who came

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from heaven, the Son of Man.

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Just as Moses lifted up the snake

in the wilderness, so the Son of Man

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must be lifted up, that everyone who

believes may have eternal life in him."

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Okay, let's stop right there

for a quick second here.

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Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man.

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To help the Jews and those who knew

their Bible, that it's a reference

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back to Ezekiel and how many times

it talks about the Son of Man.

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Again, pointing to him being the Chosen

One, the Anointed One, the Messiah,

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the Christ, the Savior of the world.

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But he makes this reference to this

whole idea, this story about Moses

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lifting up a snake in the wilderness,

and what's he referring to is that back

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in Numbers 21, when God's people had…

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You know, remember the

Prince of Egypt movie?

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Remember that movie?

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Okay, all right.

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There you go.

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Some of you are with me there.

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All right, so this is when Moses takes the

people, he leads the people out, right?

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And they're on their way

to the Promised Land.

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And so in Numbers 21, the

Israelites, they sinned against God.

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They were rebelling.

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They were, they were mad.

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They were grumbling against God.

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And so these poisonous snakes

happen, and they start biting

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people, and people start dying.

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And they realize,

"Uh-oh, we're in trouble.

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We sinned.

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Hey, Moses, we sinned.

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Hey, can you pray to God so

that we can no longer have this

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occurrence in our community?"

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And so God tells Moses,

"Here's what I want you to do.

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I want you to go ahead and

make this snake, put it…

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a bronze snake.

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Put it on a pole, and then

I want you to lift it up.

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And everyone, when you lift it up,

everyone who looks at the bronze

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snake, they will be healed and live."

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And so that's what happened.

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And so now Jesus says,

"Hey, you know what?

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The Son of Man," referring to

himself, "he too must be lifted up."

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And we know that's a

reference to the cross.

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And when he is lifted up, and when we

look to him as the source of salvation, we

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too will be healed and live for eternity.

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Let's continue in John 3:16.

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Brothers and sisters, are

you still with me here?

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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All right.

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Here we go.

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"For God so loved…"

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Uh-oh, here you go.

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Everybody know this one.

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John 3:16, you can see it

on the street sometimes.

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You can see it on the,

on the football field.

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In fact, many football games going

on today, I'm sure we'll see at

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least one sign with John 3:16.

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The famous John 3:16.

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Here we go.

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It says, "For God so loved the world

that He gave His one and only Son,

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that whoever believes in Him shall

not perish but have eternal life.

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For God did not send His Son into

the world to condemn the world,

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but to save the world through Him.

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Whoever believes in Him is not

condemned, but whoever does not

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believe stands condemned already

because they have not believed in

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the name of God's one and only Son.

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This is the verdict.

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Light has come into the world, but

people love darkness instead of

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light because their deeds were evil.

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Everyone who does evil hates the light

and will not come into the light for

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fear that their deeds will be exposed."

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Isn't that real?

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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But whoever, uh, here we go.

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Uh, let's go, let's go to 20.

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All right, here we go.

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"But whoever lives by the truth comes

into the light so that it may be

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seen plainly that what they have done

has been done in the sight of God."

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Yeah.

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Ain't that just rich

scripture right there?

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Yeah.

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This is the gospel wrapped

up in a couple of verses.

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And it says here, "For

God so loved the world."

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You ever so loved something-

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Some of you like, "Yeah."

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Some of you like, "Uh, I

don't know if I so loved it."

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So loved means, man, this is big.

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You mean, you, you value it so much

that you'll do something, that you'll

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sacrifice, that you'll spend the time

and the energy because you so love it.

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And for God, He so loved you and I that

He said, "I'm gonna send my Son so that

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they can have eternal life with me."

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He didn't just love the

world, He so loved the world

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We continue.

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It says, uh, we're, we're gonna

skip on down to verse 31 here.

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Let me give you a recap

here of John 3:22-30.

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So it goes on and talks about Jesus'

ministry, He's baptizing people, and

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then John the Baptist, uh, this is John

who's the, the forerunner for Jesus.

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He's like the opening act for, for

God's people there so that they

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can know that, that the true main

headline event is here in Jesus.

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And so John the Baptist, his

disciples come up to him and they're

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saying, "Hey, that guy you told

us about, yeah, he, he, he…"

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There's so many people going to him,

and they're coming to him, and, and

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they're basically a little nervous that

John the Baptist and his crew, that

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they won't have the same popularity

or that these people will go to Jesus.

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And John the Baptist replies,

"I am fired up about this.

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This is good news."

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He says, "I'm a, I'm, I'm, I'm

not, I'm, I'm like a, a, I'm

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like a groomsman in a wedding.

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Jesus, He's the groom.

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Nobody cares about the groomsmen.

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We care about the groom."

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And so he says, "Look, I, I'm fired up.

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This is good.

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And in fact, I need to become less,

and Jesus needs to become greater."

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Man, that's a sermon right there,

but we don't have time for that.

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Okay.

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All right.

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In verse 31, it continues.

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It says, "The one who comes

from above is above all."

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Amen.

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"The one who is from the

earth belongs to the earth and

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speaks as one from the earth.

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The one who comes from

heaven is above all.

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He testifies to what he has seen and

heard, but no one accepts his testimony.

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Whoever has accepted it has

certified that God is truthful.

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For the one whom God has sent

speaks the words of God, for God

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gives the Spirit without limits.

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The Father loves the Son and has

placed everything in his hands.

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Whoever believes in the Son has

eternal life, but whoever rejects

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the Son will not see life, for

God's wrath remains on them."

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We'll stop right there.

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John chapter 3.

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If we take a step back and we

look and we say, "Come and see,"

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what do we see about Jesus?

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We see this: Jesus is the Savior.

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Yeah.

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Jesus is the Savior.

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And what's really cool about

this, at least for me as you're

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going through the chapters…

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Now, remember when it was

originally written, they didn't

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have chapters and verses, but it

helps us to identify scriptures.

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So as we read chapter 3, we see

this progression of realization

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or unveiling of who Jesus is.

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We already see it in John chapter 1.

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We see some more in John chapter 2.

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But we see it again progress even in the

lives and the people in John chapter 3.

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From Nicodemus, what does he

start off by telling Jesus?

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"Hey, you are a rabbi.

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You're a teacher."

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Now, this is interesting,

because Jesus didn't go to their

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formal schools of teaching.

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So again, those signs point in

Nicodemus to go, "Okay, you weren't,

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like, you weren't in school with us,

but we can tell that God is with you."

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Yeah.

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And then we keep seeing, and it moves

on from teacher to Messiah to the Son

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of God, and we see this progression.

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We see it from teacher and rabbi to now

Jesus is the one who comes from heaven,

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and it needs to be lifted up so that

people would then have eternal life.

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We see it now, he's also mentioned

that he's the one and only Son of God,

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that he's the Savior of all the world.

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He comes from heaven

and he's the Son of God.

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Therefore, he has authority to speak on

spiritual things, on things that matter

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to God or the things of God because why?

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He is from heaven, and he has

everything in his hands from the Father.

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Jesus is the Savior He

wasn't just a teacher.

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He wasn't just a religious figure.

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He wasn't a guy who was just very nice

trying to spread love to everybody.

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He is the Savior.

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Yes.

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Amen.

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And what does this Savior offer us?

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He offers us eternal life.

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Jesus, the Son of God, offers every

one of us a gift of eternal life.

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Oh, sorry, let me go back here.

387

All right

388

Now y'all wondering what

we gonna say about that.

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Actually, I think the slide might

be out of order there, Cathy there.

390

It should be, uh, belief in Jesus.

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That should be the next slide there.

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All right.

393

Can we go to that slide

there real quickly there?

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All right.

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And so what does Jesus offer?

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He offers us…

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No, no, that's not it.

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That's not it right there either.

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Let's come on back here.

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All right, here we go.

401

All right.

402

We having technical difficulties.

403

It should be believing

Jesus leads to eternal life.

404

That should be the slide right there.

405

Believing Jesus leads

to eternal life there.

406

If you're listening online, there

was some technical difficulties.

407

It's all good.

408

All right, you guys back with me here.

409

Yeah.

410

Amen.

411

All right.

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So Jesus offers us eternal life,

and it says that if we believe in

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Jesus then we can have eternal life.

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It's mentioned three times just in

this chapter, this idea of I believe in

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Jesus, then I can receive eternal life.

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And that eternal life means

more than simply living forever.

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It means more than that.

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Number one, it's in the context of what?

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A new birth.

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So this eternal life is a new

life with God dwelling within

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us, with God's Holy Spirit.

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It's being saved from condemnation

and saved from judgments.

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You know, Dwight mentioned, hey, we

can sing and not feel judged by anyone.

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Well, it- when we believe in Jesus,

we don't have to worry about being

425

judged for our singing, and hallelujah,

'cause a brother can't sing that well.

426

But we don't have to stand insecure

before the judgment of God because why?

427

We are saved from

judgment and condemnation.

428

Right.

429

Amen.

430

But this life with God begins

when we have a new birth.

431

So what does that mean?

432

Eternal life begins at

the point of salvation.

433

In John, we, it's a sneak peek

here, later on in the chap…

434

in, in, in, I think it's John chapter

7, John tells us this and reveals

435

where he, he, he quotes Jesus saying

that, "Eternal life is to know God."

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And so this eternal life is

living forever, but it starts now.

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So if you are saved, you have

already begun eternal life.

438

Amen.

439

Because you have now have life with

you that will continue forever.

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That is what Jesus offer us.

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And none of us can produce that new birth,

we can't remove our own condemnation,

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or we cannot earn eternal life.

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We need a savior, and God

has given us that in Jesus.

444

Amen.

445

We need a savior.

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Some of us, we're more in tune with that.

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We understand that.

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Some of us, we don't realize that.

449

We don't get that that much,

and we think we can earn it.

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But see, the r- the great thing is that

Jesus is the Savior, so that means,

451

though, that not my church affiliation,

not my good deeds, not my Bible knowledge,

452

not my avoidance of sins, but only Jesus

can e- have me enter into eternal life.

453

Yeah.

454

Yeah.

455

And that's good news.

456

That is good news.

457

'Cause our salvation and our

eternal life in Jesus are only

458

found in and through Jesus.

459

If it depended on you, you're gonna fail.

460

I don't know about you, but you

might have failed on the way up here.

461

You might have failed afterwards.

462

You might have not listened to Dwight,

and you might have judged somebody.

463

Come on.

464

And so if we were the ones who had

to be our Savior, we're in trouble,

465

just like the Rams with Miles Garrett.

466

You in trouble.

467

You waiting on Aaron Donald.

468

He's a savior.

469

See how it goes?

470

They waiting for Aaron Donald.

471

Y'all need to start waiting for

Jesus, you know what I'm saying?

472

I know.

473

I mean, we, we gonna be in trouble

if the Rams beat the 49ers next time.

474

Amen.

475

Here's the thing here, brothers

and sisters, is that look

476

again here at John 3:16.

477

"For God so loved the world that

He gave His one and only Son," sent

478

His Son, live a perfect life, but

then also to die upon the cross so

479

that our sins could be wiped out.

480

"That whoever believes shall not

perish, but have eternal life.

481

For God did not send the w- Son

into the world to condemn the world,

482

but to save the world through Him."

483

This is God initiating.

484

God wasn't asked.

485

God wasn't forced.

486

God was compelled out of His own love

to do something about our sin problem,

487

about our destruction problem, 'cause sin

destroys our lives and our relationships.

488

And so God initiated on His own,

and He said, "You know what?

489

Jesus gonna come down, and He's going

to save the world when He comes.

490

He didn't come to condemn the world."

491

And who'd He come to save?

492

The world.

493

So what does that mean?

494

All, not some.

495

Jesus came to save all and not some.

496

Jesus came to save and not condemn all.

497

He came to save you and me.

498

He came to save the Jew and the Gentile.

499

That's the non-Jew.

500

He came to save the religious

and the atheist or the agnostic.

501

He came to save those who are lovely

and those who are hard to love.

502

He came to save the goody

two-shoe and the criminal.

503

He came to save the liberal

and the conservative.

504

Right.

505

He came to save the American and Iranian.

506

He came to save the

heterosexual and the homosexual.

507

He came to save the rich and the poor.

508

He came to save the educated

and the uneducated, the

509

celebrity and the average Joe.

510

He came to save you, me, your mama,

your cousin too, and all of them.

511

Amen.

512

Jesus came to save, not to condemn.

513

This is why we call it good news.

514

This is why we call it good news.

515

You can't talk about this and not

smile, because it's good news.

516

Man, Jesus came to save all everybody.

517

Yes.

518

You can't be like, "Man,

Jesus came to save everybody."

519

"What's up with that?

520

That ain't cool."

521

That means we don't understand a savior.

522

That'll mean we don't, we don't

understand the heart of God.

523

Yeah.

524

If you think God came to condemn, then

you don't understand the heart of God.

525

Amen.

526

God came to pull us into an

eternal relationship with him.

527

Why?

528

Because he loves us.

529

Yeah.

530

Not because you're good enough.

531

That's right.

532

Not because you earned it.

533

Praise him.

534

That's right.

535

Some of us were more in touch with that.

536

You know, we all need to be born again.

537

Yep.

538

We all need to be born again.

539

That's right.

540

Yeah.

541

Not the person to your right

or your left, like, "Oh, yeah,

542

they need to be born again."

543

We all need this rebirth.

544

Amen.

545

Every single one of us.

546

You know, for Nicodemus and the Jewish

people, and especially the Jewish leaders,

547

this was radical, it was shocking to them.

548

Because they were familiar with the idea

of a new birth, but it meant for all

549

the non-Jews who converted to Judaism.

550

So when the non-Jews, when they would,

they would convert to Judaism in the

551

1st century, they actually got baptized.

552

Again, this idea of baptism

wasn't something new.

553

And so when they got

baptized, they, they…

554

There's even writings where the Jewish,

uh, uh, writings, they would say, "Oh

555

yeah, this is like a rebirth for them."

556

But when Jesus and John the Baptist come

on the scene, they're like, "No, not just

557

the Gentiles, but you too need a rebirth."

558

That's right.

559

"But I was born into this.

560

I'm a Jew.

561

I come from the tribe of Levi,"

or, "I come from the tribe of…"

562

He said, "No, that doesn't earn your way

into the gates of heaven and eternal life.

563

You need to have a birth that

is spiritual, that comes from

564

God from above, that is spirit

initiated and worked through."

565

Amen.

566

So what does that mean?

567

That means something special too,

especially for those of us who grew

568

up in the church here, those who

like to call ourselves kingdom kids.

569

You too, like Nicodemus, need a new birth.

570

Amen.

571

Those of us here may be visiting for

the first time, and you're, you're

572

trying to investigate, "Hey, I don't

know about this Christian thing."

573

I want to encourage you,

you too need a new birth.

574

That's right.

575

Those of us who grew up or those

of us who have been in the faith,

576

we need to be reminded that our

new birth only comes through Jesus.

577

That's right.

578

You see, we all need this new life,

but only Jesus can provide it.

579

Again, this is good news.

580

If you're a guilty soul, this is

good news because now there's relief

581

If you're those who are the

perfectionist, now there is peace.

582

Yes.

583

If you're those who want to work

hard and, and running, there is rest.

584

Yeah.

585

For those of us who are

lonely, you are seen.

586

Yeah.

587

You see, this is good news,

that Jesus is the Savior.

588

Amen.

589

And this is something

that we should rejoice in.

590

You know, God wants to redeem you

from your sin and judgment, and

591

give you eternal life with Him.

592

Again, many of us, I know we know this,

but we need to be reminded of this.

593

We need to stay in awe of Jesus,

because we can lose the awe

594

of Jesus, and therefore reduce

Him to something He's not.

595

Again, He could become a teacher,

He could just become a good figure,

596

or He becomes a part of my life

as opposed to being my life.

597

That's right.

598

And when He gets reduced, what happens?

599

We get some stinking thinking.

600

We get the wrong views,

and we can go sideways.

601

We can start to make some poor

choices in our lives, and we start

602

to be, uh, resemble less and less

of Jesus, and more and more of our

603

old selves, or more and more of the

world that Jesus is trying to redeem.

604

That's right.

605

And so it's important that we

remember, we stay in awe of Jesus.

606

Because when we lose that awe,

we can start even thinking that

607

our, the salvation depends on us.

608

Yeah.

609

I need to do X, Y, and Z.

610

No, you can't do X, Y, and Z.

611

It is solely dependent upon the

salvation that Jesus offers.

612

Yeah.

613

Amen.

614

And we need to remain thankful for

Jesus, and who He is, and what God has

615

done through Jesus, not only for us, but

what He's doing for the entire world.

616

Amen.

617

And so what should we do in

response to Jesus being the Savior?

618

Well, first off, if you have not made

Jesus Lord, you need to believe in Jesus.

619

Make Him Lord and become a disciple.

620

Find out how to be born again by the

work of the Spirit through baptism.

621

And it wasn't mean to

believe in Jesus, though.

622

We gotta hit on this real quickly, because

th- this can easily be misconstrued.

623

And now we're gonna go to that picture,

and, and, and what I believe that

624

biblical faith includes, it includes BTS.

625

Some of you are like, "Who is that?"

626

BTS, that's the Korean pop group.

627

Yeah.

628

They're just, like, the

biggest group in the world.

629

You don't know who they are, that's okay.

630

Ask the person next to you.

631

We, we…

632

Biblical belief includes BTS.

633

Not this BTS, okay?

634

Not this BTS.

635

I'm just having a little

fun with you here.

636

But what I mean, this is

believe, trust, and surrender.

637

There you go.

638

Some of y'all are thinking,

"Uh-oh, this is heresy.

639

Watch out!"

640

I ain't gonna do that to you.

641

Biblical belief includes believing,

trusting, and surrendering.

642

It's not just an intellectual exercise.

643

Yeah.

644

It's not just something, "Oh, I believe

in Jesus, so therefore I got eternal life.

645

Hallelujah."

646

No, it means, yes, to believe who

Jesus is, believe who He is, believing

647

that Jesus is the Son of God.

648

Believing that, no,

He's not just a prophet.

649

No, I need to believe that Jesus really is

the Son of God- Amen … God in the flesh.

650

And then next, I need to trust

in His Word and His sacrifice.

651

Trust what Jesus says about God.

652

If He really is from above, if He's

the Son of God, then He does have

653

authority to speak on things of God, so

we should trust what He says about God.

654

And when He says that God

loves us, we can trust that.

655

When He talks about how to

live, we need to trust it.

656

That's how I should live.

657

It shouldn't be, "I believe in Jesus,

but I also believe in doing this my way."

658

No.

659

No, we trust that His Word is true,

and that we should follow it, but

660

we also trust in His sacrifice.

661

Trust what He said, but also trust what

He did on the cross, that His sacrifice

662

was the sacrifice for all time, and

that what He did upon the cross and

663

what He did in the sending, in rising

from the dead and ascending to heaven,

664

that is enough, and that's the only

thing that can allow me to have this

665

eternal relationship with the Father.

666

I need to trust in that.

667

Again, that brings peace.

668

That brings security when I

truly trust that it's what

669

Jesus did upon the cross for me.

670

And lastly, surrender.

671

Surrender to Him as Lord.

672

Again, it's not just believing, it's

not just trusting, but I surrender.

673

Jesus is Lord.

674

He's the Son of God.

675

He's the one that makes

the way for our salvation.

676

He's the Savior, but He's also Lord.

677

That means I submit to Him.

678

I'm not gonna call Him Lord or

Savior and then do something

679

that opposes what He's about.

680

No, I surrender my own thinking,

my own ways to His ways, and when

681

I do, I taste how good it is.

682

Yes.

683

I believe we need to share this good news.

684

I don't know about you, but

my whole life's been changed

685

because of this good news.

686

Is there anybody that can

testify that their life has

687

been changed by this good news?

688

Yes.

689

How many more of your neighbors and

friends need to have their lives

690

changed because of this good news?

691

That's right.

692

Who's gonna share it?

693

Who's gonna share it?

694

Come on.

695

Yes, we can believe in Instagram

and TikTok, but who's gonna share

696

it on a one-on-one basis with them?

697

Who's gonna help them to see what

it means in their day-to-day lives?

698

I believe God wants us to

join him in this good work.

699

That's right.

700

Now, I'm convinced because that's

what Jesus says- That's right … that

701

we should be included in this great

mission of sharing the good news.

702

Yeah.

703

I believe when we have this true

belief, when we believe, but again,

704

we have biblical belief, this will

help us stay faithful to God and

705

keep growing in our nature and our

character and likeness of Christ.

706

This will help us grasp the depth

of who Jesus is and the eternal

707

life that's offered through Jesus.

708

I like to give action steps for the week.

709

I'm gonna give it a little differently

here this week, and we're gonna have a

710

reflection question for the week, okay?

711

And so this week, you start off today in

your lunchtime or, or throughout the week,

712

whatever it is, I want you to just reflect

upon this question, and this is it: How

713

will I trust Jesus as my savior this week?

714

How will I trust Jesus

as my savior this week?

715

Think of one specific response.

716

Maybe share it with someone so they

can be a healthy accountability part

717

or an encourager throughout the week

so that you can respond to how you can

718

trust Jesus as your savior this week.

719

Come and see.

720

Jesus is the greatest, he's the divine,

and he is the savior, and through

721

Jesus' death and resurrection, he

opens the road to salvation, which

722

is a gift of love available to all.

723

All who believe in Jesus will have eternal

life, but that biblical belief includes

724

believing, trusting, and surrendering.

725

Let's close out in John 3:16.

726

"For God so loved the world that

he gave his one and only Son,

727

that whoever believes in him shall

not perish but have eternal life.

728

For God did not send his Son into

the world to condemn the world,

729

but to save the world through him."

730

Brothers and sisters, may

we come and see the savior.

731

Amen.