Jan 5, 2025 "The Measure of Life" (John 3:22-30)

 

• "The Measure of Life" 
• John 3:22-30
• Pastor David Kho
• Holy Is The Lord
• How Great Is Our God
• How great Thou art
• 10000 reasons (Bless the Lord o my soul)

Dec 10, 2023 "The Amazing Love of God" (John 3:16)

 

The Amazing Love of God

 

[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.

-John 3:16 ESV

 

The 5 Ps of the Love of God

 

Passion

Parameter

Price

Purpose

Product

 

The passion of the love of God is very deep. It is like a mother for her child.

 

The parameters of the love of God.

This is a wide path and covers the whole world.

 

The price of God's love. Love has a price. You cannot love without giving. We owed the dept. God paid our price.

 

The purpose of the Love of God is to be rescued and non should perish. 

 

The product of the Love of God is eternal life. This eternal life starts now.

 

16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
-1 John 3:16 NIV

1.In what areas of your life have  you greatly experienced the love  of God? 

2. How can you extend the love of  God to others around you?

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• King of Kings
• O Praise The Name

• Agnus Dei

"Assurance of Eternal Life under the Dominion of God" (John 3:13-16)

John 3:13-16

 Most Christians experience internal wars. These wars are those struggles that we have when we question our Christian life. We ask such questions like, "Am I really righteous?", or "Am I truly saved?” We try to live lives that would secure our salvation.

 The life of eternity is the call of every Christian. If Christians are not secure in their salvation, we have failed as Christians. Some days we are obedient and other days we fail miserably. 

 Last week we looked at how we can enter the Kingdom of God. Jesus told Nicodemus that it is by the spirit of God that we can be born again. Jesus goes on to say that we must be willing to accept the gift from heavens.

 Jesus also tells Nicodemus that one must believe in the Son of Man in order to have eternal life.

 Nicodemus probably went to Jesus to ask about eternal life and how to see the Kingdom of Heaven because despite Nicodemus' position, knowledge and piety, he knew that he was falling short of the standards of God.
  
Like Nicodemus we feel that we are not living the lives that we should be; however, we should not allow ourselves to fall into the level of questioning whether or not we are pleasing God enough to enter Heaven. Jesus tells us that salvation is given to us by heaven. We do not go to heaven by our own efforts. The good news is that our good deeds do not guarantee us into heaven, but rather the inheritance Jesus has given us.

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 1:11-14 ESV

 What gives us the assurance of salvation is the Holy Spirit. It is not our fragile deeds that guarantees or explains our salvation. Instead of questioning whether or not we are saved, let us convince ourselves that we have eternal life.
  
 The assurance of salvation is based on Jesus being lifted up like the serpent in the wilderness.
  

So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
Numbers 21:9 ESV


 Jesus is also telling Nicodemus through alluding to numbers that there are those who refuse the free gifts of life from God perish. Jesus predicts what is going to happen to him. Jesus would be lifted up on the cross, and also raised to Heaven. It was Jesus sacrifice on the cross which allows us to enter Heaven. 

Jesus met the judicial requirements to enter Heaven and his sacrifice paid our penalties. Jesus being exalted in His resurrection sustains us until He comes back.

But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.  "I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you.  But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?'  But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.  Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
John 16:4-7 ESV

 Jesus had to leave to allow the Holy Spirit to help us.

Our guarantee of our salvation is assured so long as we continue to look at Jesus. We need to go back to the cross to repent of our sinful ways. This is one reason why the spirit of God was given to us. It convicts us to go back to the cross and seek Jesus. God wants us to be pure and the truth is that we will fall short during our walk when we try to do things on our own. So long as we look upon the cross, Jesus will be our savior.

The Condition of Experiencing Dominion of God (John 3:1-8)

John 3:1-8 

We read in John 3 that Nicodemus goes to Jesus at night with a crucial question. Probably Nicodemus asked Jesus how one could see the Kingdom of God. Jesus gives an answer that we all know, but maybe it is one we still struggle to understand. We need to know a little about Nicodemus before we can start to study Jesus’ answer to his question.

We know from the Bible that Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a ruler. He was also a teacher of the law. 

Jesus answered him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 

John 3:10 ESV 

The Pharisees were holders of the law. The Bible tells us that the Pharisees were given the responsibility to keep the law. They committed themselves to keeping God's law. God gave 10 commandments, but the Pharisees expanded this to 613 commandments. The Mishnah was 840 pages long and detailed the laws. Not all rabbis were teachers of the law. Rabbis had to study and master these laws before they could be become teachers of the law. They were very much respected and were people who did things openly.

It seems a bit odd that Nicodemus went a night and not during the day: however, we do know that at this time the Pharisees had not accepted Jesus. This is probably why Nicodemus came at night, so that it would not be publicly seen. He and some other Pharisees could see that there was something special about Jesus. Nicodemus addresses Jesus as a Rabbi or a teacher from God (John 3:2). This verse tell us that Nicodemus along with others observed Jesus as someone from God. We know in John 2 after Jesus clears the temple, Jesus does many great things and wonders.  

Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. 

John 2:23 ESV 

Nicodemus saw something different in Jesus and wanted to ask Jesus questions, especially concerning the Kingdom of God. Jesus tells Nicodemus that to see the Kingdom of Heaven you need to be born again. This answer is not what Nicodemus had expected and goes against the Pharisees' beliefs about following the law.  

The Lord tells Nicodemus that one must be born anew to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The language used means to enter the sphere of God's reign and the dominion of God's ruling. Jesus explains that one needs to get help from above. In fact, in John 1, we read about Jesus' purpose on Earth. 

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 

John 1:11-13 ESV 

Jesus tells Nicodemus that it is not our actions to bring us into Heaven, but rather our willingness to be born anew from Heaven. Nicodemus could not accept this, but many of us have. However, even those who accept rebirth still ask how we can enter heaven. By accepting the rebirth we allow God to control of our lives. We have to let go of our old lives, traditions and beliefs. Often times we rejoice that God has forgiven our sins and accepted us, but we refuse to allow His dominion over our lives. We do not know Him as our Lord. We have to sacrifice our self all the time and allow God full control. 

Those of us who are reborn also need to be led and moved by the Spirit. The Spirit is like the wind which moves objects, but no one knows where it comes from or where it goes. We do not know what our future holds, but we can trust the Spirit of God will move us in  

Jesus warns us that we cannot earn our salvation. Paul tells us the same in Romans. 

as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." 

Romans 3:10-12 ESV 

We need to learn to live and be governed by the Holy Spirit. The sooner we submit to God and surrender to the fact that we always fall short, the sooner God can use us. We need to stop striving to enter Heaven on our own. Let Jesus' spirit shape us to develop a Kingdom culture. 

These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. "For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ. 

1 Corinthians 2:10-16 ESV 

Although we have been born from heaven, we still need to allow the spirit of God to move us. 

Sermon: "The Wind" - John 3:8 (Pastor Ryan Roberts)