John 3:16-21 (Sermon Outline)
Structural Outline
John 3:16-21
I. Introduction:
a. This morning we are continuing on where we left off last week. We will be looking at John 3:16-21, in a message titled, “Rebirth”, where we find ourselves in the middle of a conversation between Jesus and a Pharisee named Nicodemus. Jesus is talking to Nicodemus about the importance of being born again, in order for him to get to heaven.
b. In this conversation, Jesus is using “earthly things” (or illustrations) in order to help him understand the significance of being born again.
c. In fact, LOOKING ON THE NEXT SLIDE: Jesus first uses the example of a mother giving birth to a baby in order to get across the point that there is an unmistakable, significant event that takes place in a person’s life when they put their trust in Jesus (3:3-7).
d. Next, Jesus will use the example of the Holy Spirit operating much like the wind in a persons life, in order to demonstrate that being born again does not take place in a geographical location that we can travel to, nor by doing any outward action on our part in order to make it happen.
e. Meaning, being born in a Christian family, or faithfully attending church your entire life, or being baptized, or being “confirmed” by the Catholic church, or being the very best version of yourself you can possibly be, or anything like that, is not how a person is born again. Jesus is saying no one can control the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, like the wind, shows up wherever He chooses, and when He does show up in a person’s life, that too is an unmistakable, significant event that cannot be seen, but is clearly experienced (3:8).
f. And there is no mystery behind “when” the Holy Spirit will show up and cause us to be born again. Jesus will answer that question for us today, by saying; “Whosoever believes in Him” will be saved.
g. So, we know that being born again, is a radical and unmistakable experience for each person, and even though this event (much like the wind) cannot be seen, it will definitely be felt within us, like the cool summer breeze sweeping past us that just sooths us on a hot summer day.
h. LOOKING ON THE NEXT SLIDE: After explaining to Nicodemus what being born again can be likened to, He then points Nicodemus to the Old Testament to help Nicodemus understand that God had always intended to bring about a spiritual “rebirth” as we learned last week from (Ezekiel 36:25-27) and the way God would accomplish this would be by “lifting up His Son” both on the Cross, and then from the Grave three days later on Easter Sunday (Numbers 21:9).
i. And as we continue looking at this passage today from John 3:1-21, we are going to put our attentions on John 3:16-21, and see that Jesus will clearly explain to us how to be Born Again, and what keeps a person from experiencing a spiritual new birth, as we continue answering the big question from this passage which is; Why (and how) do I have to be Born Again?
j. Last week we discovered the first answer to this big question, “Why do I have to be born again, by discovering that we have to be born again, because we cannot ENTER heaven without being Born Again (3:1-8). This week we are going to continue by looking at the final two answers to this big question.
k. And as we continue on with our study, we find ourselves in the middle of unpacking the 2ndanswer to this study’s big question, which is “How can I be Born Again? The answer we are looking at right now, and your first fill in for this morning, is “You can only be Born Again by BELIEVING in Jesus.”
II. Message: If you would please stand in honor of reading God’s Word.
a. You must be born again By BELIEVING in Jesus (3:16)
i. READ: John 3:16-21
ii. It has been accurately said that John 3:16 is the most famous summary of the gospel in the entire Bible. “For God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
iii. And so right off the bat we see that Jesus explains to us the reason for Christianity, the reason for redemption, the reason for God’s Word even being given to humanity. The reason for all of it is because God loves us and wants to communicate to us through His Word, and more specifically, through His Son, that He has sent Jesus to rescue us. It was His love that inspired it all, and is no doubt why the apostle John who wrote this gospel, can confidently state in his first epistle that “God is love!” (1 John 4:8).
iv. Love: I want to point out that this is the first time the word Love is used in the Gospel of John. And it is interesting that it is used in the context of a Father's and His Son. It is also interesting to note the very first time love is mentioned in the Bible, also has to do with a Father and son’s relationship. LOOKING ON THE NEXT SLIDE: In Genesis 22:2 we read, Then He said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you LOVE, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." And so here we see that even though God had Abraham go first (by faith), He had always intended on being the One who would sacrifice His Son.
v. LOOKING ON THE NEXT SLIDE: we read in Genesis 22:10-13: And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.
vi. And so we see that the entire test that God had given to Abraham, which he passed with flying colors was to simply point to the bigger picture of God sending His only begotten Son to rescue us. And it is important to remember that God was never going to allow or require Abraham to sacrifice his son. The proof is that when Abraham was moments away from doing so, God stopped him!
vii. READ: John 3:16
viii. Begotten: Jesus refers to Himself as God’s only “begotten” Son. As I’ve mentioned before, the Greek word “only begotten” (monogenes) does not refer to a person’s origin (i.e. it is not saying Jesus was created), but it describes a person’s uniqueness. In this case, Jesus is the ONLY begotten Son of God, and is uniquely different than all other adopted children who by faith in Jesus become God’s sons and daughters. And though Jesus is uniquely different than us, we are “joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17), who have been given “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3) because of our faith in Jesus.
ix. Jesus said the reason God sent His only begotten Son is so that we would “believe” in Him. Again, I’ve said this before… this word believe is truly the main reason for John’s gospel being written. John wants us to believe in Jesus so that we can have everlasting life.
x. When John says, “Whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (3:16), the Greek word have is in the present tense, which indicates that those who trust Jesus begin to experience eternal life the moment they put their trust in Jesus. In other words, we are presently experiencing eternal life now, in the present. It is ours now, even though we have to wait for the fullest experience of eternal life until we get to heaven, we get to enjoy eternal life now.
xi. It’s no different than every trust fund baby that has ever lived. They have to continue growing up and living their life as kids, and even though they do not have full access to their millions of dollars, it does not negate the fact that they are millionaires. And the moment they come of age, they will have complete access to their fortune. It is the same for us with eternal life. The moment we enter into heaven, we will have full access to our inheritance. Until then, we are still every bit as rich and privileged we just don’t have full access to all that is ours yet.
xii. But we do have assurance that our flight ticket (at the rapture) has been purchased by Jesus, and our reservation has been made with God the Father. That’s why Peter says in his epistle we have an “inheritance” awaiting us.
xiii. READ: 1 Peter 1:3-5
xiv. Peter is telling us that because of our faith in Jesus, we now have an inheritance in heaven that is in-co-rrup-tible (meaning in cannot be spoiled or fade away). And we also have a reservation that is kept by the power of God.
xv. This is rare but it does happen. There may be times in some of our lives, were we might have gone to dinner with our spouse only to find that our reservation has not been kept. I can’t remember when or where it has happened to Lyndsey and I before, but I do know that it has happened to us. And therefore, we were out of luck and had to go somewhere else to eat. Well, what the Bible is telling us here is that when you put your faith in Jesus, you will never be out of luck again! Because you will have reservation in heaven that is kept by the power of God, and because God is greater than all according to Jesus (John 10:29), there is no one that can cancel our reservation in eternity.
xvi. That is why it is so important for you and for me to believe in Jesus and trust Jesus for our entire life!
xvii. Again, the Big Question we are answering here is, “How Can I be Born Again? You can only be Born Again by BELIEVING in Jesus.
xviii. Let’s move onto the final point for this morning, which is found in (vv.17-21).
xix. READ: John 3:17-21
a. Because you will remain in DARKNESS your entire life and for all eternity (3:17-21)
i. Let’s not forget that Jesus is in a conversation with Nicodemus right now, and up to this point, Jesus has shared with him how a man can be born again. In this final portion of this mornings’ scripture, we will see that Jesus shares with him the obstacle that is before every man in being born again.
ii. That obstacle is they would rather remain in darkness and feed their sin nature, as opposed to repenting from their sins and turning to Jesus for salvation.
iii. And it’s this idea that has inspired the final answer to this mornings Big Question, “Why do I have to be Born Again? Because you will remain in DARKNESS your entire life and for all eternity (3:17-21).
iv.
v. Back in the Summer of 2011, Lyndsey and I drove down to San Diego in order to go to our doctor’s appointment for another Ultrasound. After leaving the doctors appointment we realized that we were very low on gas, and so we headed over to the gas station in Rancho Penasquitos at which time we discovered there was a power outage in the area. We were planning on heading over to Encinitas to visit my friends church that night. When we couldn’t find gas in PQ, we decided to head over to Carmel Valley to get gas as it was on the way to our friends church. Carmel Valley was out of power as well. We then traveled further to Del Mar, and the power was out there as well. It was at that point that we found out that the power outage was all the way up to Orange County, as far east as Arizona, and as far south as Mexico. So now we were in a dilemma, as we have already been traveling quite a long way on empty, and there were no gas stations open, and I didn’t want to run out of gas on the freeway with my pregnant wife, trying to get to my friends house. So we ended up pulling into a gas station about 4pm, and were hoping that the power would soon come back on. After about an hour of waiting we realized that we had better start calling some friends or we were going to be spending the night at a dark and lonely gas station. We were so blessed that Jeff and Tracy Turner offered to drive all the way down from Temecula to San Diego to pick us up, but we weren’t quite ready to pull that wonderful card yet, as even though it is so kind, I know that is a long drive, and I also knew that Jeff had been doing a ton of driving already that day. So I decided to call one of our really good friends from San Diego. When I called him he was just putting steaks on the BBQ for his father-in-law and other family members who they haven’t seen in years. He ended up driving all the way over to where we were and to attempt to siphon out enough gas from his car into our car so we could make it home. However, his car has one of those anti-siphon devices so the only thing he and I were able to share together was a mouth full of Gas fumes from trying to suck the gas out of his van. Wow, you want to talk about something that God never intended to have placed inside of the human body? Gas fumes! I was only alive for two years during the 60’s, so I missed out on the getting high era, but I can imagine that this was somewhat similar! When we realized that we would not be able to get any gas out of his car we decided to call my friend Dave who is the pastor of the church that I was heading over to. When I finally got a hold of Dave, he was able to round up enough gas for Lyndsey and I and bring it down to us so that we could get home. We ended up getting back up to Temecula around midnight. That entire ordeal was quite mentally exhausting for us do to the fact that Lyndsey is pregnant, and even though we were both fine the entire time and even ministered to other people during the ordeal, there was still an unspoken level of stress that we had to deal with. As we were forced into this situation, and stuck at a gas station for over 6 hours, I began to think that there must be an illustration God wants to give me through this ordeal. And so as I was thinking about the events of this day, there was one theme that continued coming back to my mind over and over again. And that was the importance of keeping ourselves spiritually fueled up each day, so that we do not caught off guard and run out of gas when the blackouts or power outages of life come our way. Because for the Christian to be out of gas spiritually and then get caught off guard by life’s blackouts, is to be in a place that is spiritually dangerous, and defenseless. And as we get into today’s message we are going to look at what Jesus did in order to make sure that He was never running on empty or taken off course from His purpose in life while ministering to so many people each and every day.
vi. God did not send Jesus to condemn people and send them away to everlasting punishment. Quite the contrary, because of our sin, we are already condemned and heading for everlasting punishment. God sent Jesus to rescue us from it.
xx. We just read in John 3:16, that God loves us! Jesus clearly revealed to us the heart of God in that verse. God’s heart is filled with perfect love and motivated by His unstoppable love for us. Imagine now, the most tender loving person you have ever met. Who is that person who has just blessed your life with such immoveable tender love. For some of you in hear, it might be a grandparent. For others it might be your mom or your dad. For others, it might be your child or your best friend. God’s love for you is even stronger, and more tender, and more kind, and more touching. His love for you not only wants to rescue you from sin and Satan, but it also wants to radically impact your life and transform you. God wants you to experience the joy of a new life and brand new start with Him.
vii. And here in this passage, we discover the reason that people reject Jesus and fight against God, is because they love darkness! You see, turning from darkness to light, is at the heart of Repentance, and is a visible evidence that a person is faithfully following Jesus.
viii. John, who wrote this gospel, continues this powerful word picture of darkness and light in his first epistle, known as first John. But in his epistle he turns the attention from explaining why non-believers reject the light, to exhorting believers to walk in the light. Looking on the screen, 1 John 1:6-7 says, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
ix. Walking in the light is essential to remaining in fellowship with Jesus and having assurance of our salvation (1 John 2:28), and is our evidence that we have been born of God (1 John 2:29). The Bible is overwhelming clear that when a person puts their trust in Jesus, they are called to turn from darkness, not remain in it.
III. Life Application:
a. As we bring this mornings message to a close ... and this idea of light and darkness ... I am reminded of an event that took place in Lyndsey and my life back in 2011. Back in the Summer of 2011, Lyndsey and I were living in Temecula, but our Doctors were in San Diego. And so when Lyndsey was pregnant with Jeremiah, we have to drive down to San Diego in order to go to our doctor’s appointment for another Ultrasound. After leaving the doctors appointment we realized that we were very low on gas, and so we headed over to the gas station in Rancho Penasquitos at which time we discovered there was a power outage in the area. We were planning on heading over to Encinitas to visit my friends church that night. When we couldn’t find gas in PQ, we decided to head over to Carmel Valley to get gas as it was on the way to our friends church. Carmel Valley was out of power as well. We then traveled further to Del Mar, and the power was out there as well. But I tell you it was at that point that we found out that the power outage was all the way up to Orange County, as far east as Arizona, and as far south as Mexico. So now we were in a dilemma, as we have already been traveling quite a long way on empty, and there were no gas stations open, and I didn’t want to run out of gas on the freeway with my pregnant wife, trying to get to my friends house. So we ended up pulling into a gas station about 4pm, and were hoping that the power would soon come back on. After about an hour of waiting we realized that we had better start calling some friends or we were going to be spending the night at a dark and lonely gas station.
b. We were so blessed that Jeff and Tracy Turner offered to drive all the way down from Temecula to San Diego to pick us up, but we weren’t quite ready to pull that wonderful card yet, as even though it is so kind, I know that is a long drive, and I also knew that Jeff had been doing a ton of driving already that day. So I decided to call one of our really good friends from San Diego. When I called him he was just putting steaks on the BBQ for his father-in-law and other family members who they haven’t seen in years. He ended up driving all the way over to where we were and to attempt to siphon out enough gas from his car into our car so we could make it home. However, his car has one of those anti-siphon devices so the only thing he and I were able to share together was a mouth full of Gas fumes from trying to suck the gas out of his van. Wow, you want to talk about something that God never intended to have placed inside of the human body? Gas fumes! I was only alive for two years during the 60’s, so I missed out on the getting high era, but I can imagine that this was somewhat similar! When we realized that we would not be able to get any gas out of his car we decided to call my friend Dave who is the pastor of the church that I was heading over to. When I finally got a hold of Dave, he was able to round up enough gas for Lyndsey and I and bring it down to us so that we could get home. We ended up getting back up to Temecula around midnight.
c. That entire ordeal was quite mentally exhausting for us do to the fact that Lyndsey was pregnant, and even though we were both fine the entire time, there was still an unspoken level of stress that we had to deal with. When that BLACKOUT happened ...we really got to see the ugly side of humanity. I have a pregnant wife ....whose belly is popping out and she's starving... And when we walked over to the grocery store It was madness inside there. As we were forced into this situation, and stuck at a gas station for over 6 hours, And so as I was thinking about the events of that day, I couldn’t help but think about how rude and how selfish so many people were being when that took place. You would think it was the end of the world! People were fighting over food... ...and when we were trying to get Lyndsey food, it was like a free for all and I couldn't believe how rude people were. And that was the importance of keeping ourselves spiritually fueled up each day, so that we do not caught off guard and run out of gas when the blackouts or power outages of life come our way. Because for the Christian to be out of gas spiritually and then get caught off guard by life’s blackouts, is to be in a place that is spiritually dangerous, and defenseless.
d. In this study from John 3, and the importance of experience the New Birth or Being Born Again... we have discovered:
i. We must be BORN AGAIN if we want to ENTER into heaven.
ii. We can only be BORN AGAIN by BELIEVING in Jesus
iii. We must be BORN AGAIN or we will REMAIN in DARKNESS in this life and throughout all ETERNITY
e. It is for this reason God has sent Jesus to us. God has sent His Son to Rescue us ... So that we can be saved and have EVERLASTING LIFE.
