The Gospel IS Good News!
Notes
Transcript
(S1) — VIDEO
(S2) — SERIES
Evangelism (sharing faith)—Giving God something to bless
BUS STOP (CINCINNATI)
Last week—The Substance of Gospel
Scriptures are ACCURATE—Jesus DIED —Jesus was BURIED—Jesus Rose—There were WITNESSES
The Gospel IS Good News—Why we don’t share it talk about Jesus more? (Janine)
(S3) —Today… a well known verse…
JOHN 3:16 (SIGN)
Context — A man who in seeking out Jesus, learns that the Gospel IS Good News for those who believe IN him.
16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
Do you believe in your HEART the Gospel is Good news?
Do you believe in your HEART the Gospel is Good news?
PRAY
(S4) — The Man Nicodemus
1 There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. 2 After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.”
(1) Pharisee—influential among his people, respected and devoted to God.
— He could not afford to be seen with a controversial figure like Jesus of Nazareth
—(2a) Dark/light (John)
(2b) Nicodemus doesn't seem to have an agenda like other Pharisees...
—didn’t come to argue law or theology, only to come face to face with the one he had heard about.
— He represents the others, seeking to know more about this miracle man; Jesus of Nazareth.
(2c) Many were seeing Jesus, but not all were believing in who Jesus was as God’s Good News
This era of modern technology, that there is more to believing than seeing—Photoshop/AI
“Long-term assumptions such as “seeing is believing” and "a picture is worth 1,000 words” no longer hold true in the age of the internet.” Pychology Today
Some, the Pharisees, believed what they saw…but not that Jesus was God’s salvation to the world.
(S5) —
They believed things ABOUT Jesus, but they did not believe IN Jesus
They believed things ABOUT Jesus, but they did not believe IN Jesus
In a similar way, we can believe about something, but not believe IN it.
LIFE RAFT IN THE OCEAN
Do you really believe IN Jesus as God’s Good News?
Do you really believe IN Jesus as God’s Good News?
The early church did...and people came to not just about Jesus but believe IN Jesus as Good news
— DISCIPLES…would become apostles and evangelists
Good news in the good news is that God is patient with us in our belief...
John 14:11 “Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe because of the work you have seen me do.”
Nicodemus believed things ABOUT Jesus, but did not believe IN Jesus
(S6)
3 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again (reborn), you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” 4 “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”
The pharisees were all about God’s truth, unless it contradicted their own truth
—Jesus...”you know I was sent from God, why don’t really believe it!”
Jesus is upfront with Nicodemus about his need for a spiritual birth (rebirth) to be part of God’s kingdom
—Earthly perspective (Nicodemus) — Heavenly perspective (Jesus)
The metaphor of rebirth taken literally confounded Nicodemus, as it does those who read the Bible only literally.
— We can’t get to God on our own strength: we can’t be, good enough, moral enough, religious enough, smart enough or disciplined enough. We can not do enough, or be enough
— We can’t think or behave our way to God, we only have to believe our way to God by believing IN Jesus, not just about him
On our own we can’t be with God (SIN)
John 3:18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.”
Sin condemns us not God—The need for a spiritual rebirth
(S7)
“Jesus didn’t come to make us better, he came to make us NEW, so we can be better!”
Why do we question God? Trust in only our human perspective? Because before we believe IN Jesus, we are like the man!
(S8)
5 Jesus replied, “I assure (speak truth) you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born (reborn) of water and the Spirit. 7 So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’
To be born of water is human birth…to be born of the spirit is SPIRITUAL BIRTH
Baptism in water points first to our physical birth, then with repentance, dying to self (under), to rebirth (resurrection), into a New Life of living with the Holy Spirit
— Jesus baptism—God is the present administrator of the spirit at ours
So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’— Nicodemus is...
(S9)
9 “How are these things possible?” Nicodemus asked.
Nicodemus, as smart as you are, your just never going to get it—you just have to trust me
— Its hard to trust we cannot see…
John 3:8 “The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.””
“God does what God does”— God’s ways are not our ways
Isaiah 55:9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
As it was for Nicodemus, to us some things will remain a mystery…for now
(S10)
10 Jesus replied, “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things?
Jesus is pushing beyond the position, power, and intellect of the man...challenging Nicodemus to open his heart.
—Exactly the same challenge Jesus makes to us...
— pushing us beyond our own precepts, assumptions, and beliefs, taking us from only human living to eternally bound.
Jesus is offering himself as the Good News to Nicodemus—A way to a NEW LIFE—to ALL who will believe IN him
Then, Jesus answers Nicodemus’ HOW question this way...
(S11)
16 “For this is how...God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
“The concept of world in the N.T. refers to everything that stands in contrast to God’s BEST for humanity.”
— Jesus loves us when we are good..and he loves us when we are not so good...
There is a down-side—the reason Jesus was sent
What does Jesus say about those who don’t believe IN him? — They will perish
WHY WE BUY INSURANCE?
Jesus is our LIFE ASSURANCE
(S12) —
17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
The result of SIN entering world (humanity), is condemnation or death.
Romans 5:12, 15-17
(S13) — Jesus DID NOT come to condemn us...but to SAVE us!
But, Nicodemus had to give up something, his way of life...to get something even greater…NEW LIFE
Do you believe in your HEART the Gospel is Good news?
Do you really believe IN Jesus as God’s Good News?
“Jesus didn’t come to make us better, he came to make us NEW, so that in him we can be better!”
What does this mean? What is this Gospel as Good News for us?
Your inadequacies are not a measure of Gods love for you or I!
— It doesn't matter what you’ve done in the past—GOD loves you!
— It doesn't matter how many promises you’ve broken, people you’ve hurt, or times you’ve fallen—God LOVES you!
— It doesn't matter if your addicted, damaged, messed up and lost—God loves YOU!
Do you struggle with the weight of fear, worry, grief, unbelief?
— Are there things about you that if others new, they would certainly reject you? GOD LOVES YOU!
God didn’t send his only son, who gave up his own life to condemn you…but to SAVE you…and the destination is ETERNITY
(S14)
God’s Good News is...an INVITATION into a NEW life of Passion, Purpose, Power, and Peace!
Do you believe it? Do you believe IN Jesus? Do you want to?
HOW MANY TIMES I WAS SAVED
GOD LOVES YOU! God sent Jesus who is the Good News. Apart from him we cannot be with God
—It takes a rebirth on the inside—being born again anew!
Prayer (handout)
Almighty God, thank you for loving me and I love you too. I am a sinner and I ask you to forgive me. Jesus, enter my life and make me into the person you created me to be. I receive all you have for me. In the strong name of Jesus, Amen.
(S15) — Revive Vision
To be a place where people are welcomed, loved, forgiven, transformed, healed, delivered, fed, saved, and set free.
To be a place where people are welcomed, loved, forgiven, transformed, healed, delivered, fed, saved, and set free.
SIGN
Do you love Jesus enough to love people? Do you love people enough to share Jesus