The Rest of the Story

John 3:16

This is the most-quoted and best-known scripture in the Christian world today.  Have you ever really thought about it?  When was it spoken?  To whom?  Where?  Under what circumstances? You will be inspired by "the rest of the story."

Transcript

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Title of the sermon is John 3 16, The Rest of the Story. We know Paul Harvey used to address his audience and have a little series on the radio called The Rest of the Story, and he would bring up some fact and then he would tell the background and how that certain article that he was reading or that he was giving was explained to its fullest. So you understood everything about it. So today, I want to address, and I'll make this a little interactive also. I'd like you to comment, if you will, which is a little different than we typically do. The most common scripture, the most known scripture in probably the world, if not the United States for sure, is of course John 3 16. Everyone knows it, right? And you walk out into the streets and you ask someone about, well, what scripture can you tell them? What scripture do you know? And most people will tell you John 3 16. Today, when they play college football and tomorrow when they play pro football, you will see banners out there that have John 3 16 on it, right? You know John 3 16, right? Hopefully everyone here does. Most of you have it memorized.

Can you teach it? Can you teach it? So we are called to be in the kingdom of God a royal priesthood. We are called to be not only priests but teachers and rulers. We will teach the words from this book. But now we're training. We're teachers in training. We're priests in training. And as priests, we need to know more than the people on the street know. Wouldn't you think so? Well, you expect that I know more than the next guy walking down the street down there as your minister. You should. That's why part of my job every week is to study hours and hours. These books of the Bible.

And most of you hopefully read every day. Are you preparing now to teach tomorrow? Are you preparing now to teach next week? Not only in the kingdom of God. But if someone comes to you, as I've had them come to me on an airplane, sitting beside me on an airplane, and they see me reading my Bible, some comment, some know something about it, most say they really don't know, don't understand, and occasionally they'll give me a question out of the blue, ask me to answer this or that. But most people do know John 3 16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes on Him should not perish but have everlasting life or eternal life. Okay. What else can you teach about that? If you know it, can you teach it? If someone comes up and asks you that question tomorrow, perhaps a relative, perhaps a friend, perhaps a stranger, and they say, okay, who said it? Anybody? Who said it?

Jesus Christ said it, right? Jesus Christ said it. So we answer who? Who said it? Right? That's something you know. Who did He say it to?

Anybody? He said it to one man. He said it to Nicodemus. Nicodemus. Where was it said? When was it said? And why was it said? We're going to answer those questions today. So that hopefully you will... This is more of a teaching sermon. Hopefully you will write these notes down. You will put them in your Bible. You will put them wherever you need to, hopefully up here. So that you can teach, not only verse 16, you can teach the entire chapter. You can teach the first 17, 18 verses. You can teach the world what you will later be teaching. The New World.

So, let's go into this. As we answer these questions, who? Who was Nicodemus? As the old saying says, he was Nic at night. He was Nic at night. Yes. I want you to turn to John too, if you will. Let's get a little bit of background here. Because I do want you to be able to teach this. It's very interesting. There's a lot of research that is going to be laid out before you today. But we know that John wrote this book around 90 AD. 30 years, a good 30 to 40 years after the other Matthew, Mark, and Luke was written. So John is looking back, and he's giving us what we need to have to fulfill the synoptic gospels here.

And so here at John, one, he lays out that Jesus Christ was God and the deity of Christ. Then he goes in to tell the story in chapter 2 about the miracle that God on earth performed. And he turned the water into wine. And then he comes down to this point in chapter 2 in verse 13. He said, now the Passover of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. So where are we? Where? Jerusalem. Jerusalem. When? Passover. They're Passover. We're in talking springtime. Okay? So see, we're already who, where, when? Simple enough, right?

In verse 13, now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and he found in the temple those who sold ox and sheep and doves and money changers doing business. Crooked business. That's what it was. They were steel. They were thieves. They were charging people coming in for the Passover as they exchanged animals. They wanted money, and they were crooks. And in verse 15, when he made a whip of the courts, he drove them all out of the temple and the sheep and the oxen and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables. Now, I hope we have the perspective here. We are in Jerusalem. It's springtime. It's time for the Passover. People were bringing animals in, exchanging them, or actually exchanging money because there's certain money, certain pieces of silver that would not be accepted as donations because they had the emperor's face on it. And so they would exchange these pieces of silver. Also, the ones that had the emperor's face on it had a little more silver in it, so they would actually give you a cheaper piece of silver for that silver. So they were making money off of it.

So here, Jesus Christ takes a whip, a cord, makes a whip out of it, and drives them all out from the temple. Now, you have to understand, this is at the very first of Jesus Christ's ministry, right? It's the spring. When did He start His ministry? The fall, right? His ministry was three and a half years. When was He killed? At the Passover. So His three and a half would put you the fall, right after the Feast of Tabernacles, somewhere in about this time, or a little earlier, Jesus Christ started His ministry when He was 30 years old. When was He born? Well, we'll go through that a little bit later, and I can show you that He was born in the fall of the year, right about Feast of Tabernacles, Feast of Trumpets, not December 25th. I think we all know that. So here, He has started His ministry. It's six months old, roughly. And so, one of the first things He does is runs all of them out, the temple. Now, there were two, there were more than two, but there were two main religious organizations. I call them that. Religious organizations at the time, they were the Pharisees and the Sadducees, right? We've all read about them. If you could look at it today, I would use the analogy of Democrats and Republicans, okay? Because they just did not like each other, but they all said they were there to serve. Serve God and serve the people. Something you hear today, we're here to serve the people. Now, I bring that up because they did not like each other, but there was something unique here that you need to know. Because at this point in time, first six months of Jesus Christ's ministry, He had some fans like Him. And that organization was the Pharisees. The Pharisees at this point in time, they just fell in love with Christ. Now, you may say, well, I didn't know they ever liked Him. Oh, yes! They just happened. Because you see, the Pharisees were a sect, part of the rulers, but they did not have charge. They were not part of the high priest. The high priest was not part of the... and neither were they responsible for the temple. That responsibility was given from Rome to the Sadducees. So the high priest and all those who took care of the temple and the money that came in, they were the Sadducees.

And so you can see how all of a sudden Jesus Christ was beginning to be known. He had been active for six months. And then, all of a sudden, He came in and He ran all the money changers out, which made the Sadducees look ridiculous. They were embarrassed because He had exposed them for what they were. Criminals, liars, cheats, and yet they profess to be men of God. And so, all of a sudden, here the Pharisees were like, Oh, yes! Just like you see today. If the Republicans win, the Democrats... vice versa. No matter what happens, the other ones don't like the other ones.

So here we have the Pharisees. He's our man. Because in front of all the people just before the pastor, He made them look like idiots, frauds, fakes that they were.

But as you soon find out, it doesn't stay long before He actually tells the Pharisees who they are, and they hate Him even more. But here in this unique position here, in John 2 and verse 23, Now, when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. So He had just made fools out of the Sadducees, exposed them. And so here all the people, they heard what He was saying, and they were all enamored. So they're saying, so the Pharisees are going, maybe this is the great leader. And it looks like He's on our side. And then we have John 3. With that backdrop, we have John 3. So let's go with verse 1. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. So he was a ruler, and the Pharisees were typically rich. The rulers were rich. And said he was a Pharisee. Actually, does anyone know what the word Pharisee means in the Greek? Anybody?

Separated one. A separated or the separated one. So they considered themselves out of a Pharisee man. They were so much more righteous that they were actually separate from the people, because they were so righteous. That's what it meant.

And here was Nicodemus. Can anybody tell me about Nicodemus?

No, it wasn't a high priest. I couldn't be a high priest. He was a Pharisee. He was a ruler. Yes, a ruler. He was also not just a teacher, as you will see later. He is called the definite article in the Greek, the teacher. The teacher. He was actually seen as history. I went back and researched, even in a Talmud, in about 40 AD. His name was listed as the third richest man in all of Jerusalem. So he was not only a ruler, he was rich. Very rich.

How about Nicodemus? Does he show up somewhere else? In the Bible? Anybody? He does. He shows up at the end, right? And one that claimed Jesus' body is hanging him and Joseph of Arimathea. Right? Now, what if he or Joseph of Arimathea had not been there to take the body? What would have happened to Jesus' body? Anybody? Anybody?

Good. Yes. Buried? No. Could not be buried.

Nope. What was he? He was, at the time of his death, he was considered a criminal. He had been found out by a court. He had been found guilty, and he died. And if it had not been for two of the powerful men of the Sanhedrin, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, the teacher because Nicodemus was actually, I guess you would say even today, the T.D. Jakes or the Billy Graham of his day. He was the teacher. If his body had not been claimed by them, ask. See, they couldn't just claim it. They had to ask. His family could not have that body because he was a criminal. And outside of the temple walls, outside the walls, Jerusalem, there was a valley, a little low-down part called Gahinah. That's where they burnt all the trash. That's where they burnt all the animal bodies. That's where he would have been thrown. His family had no right to it. He was a criminal, so he deserved a criminal's death. Interesting. That's what would have happened to Christ's body. But this man, these two men, claimed his body.

And not only did he claim, this claim to fame of Nicodemus, who showed up at the end, right? He did something that had never been done before or has not done ever since. The greatest teacher of that era, besides Nicodemus, because he was older than Nicodemus, was Gomelia. Anybody remember Gomelia? He actually taught Paul. He was the sage of the time. He was considered in the book of Josephus, it's actually.

He was considered the greatest of all the rabbis other than Hillel and Shema. He was the greatest. So when his burial took place, he was so well thought of, he was so well respected, that they actually put around him 40 pounds of spices. The typical person, when they bury you to keep you from smelling the body deteriorating, when they put, they would actually put a pound of spices in, because spices were very expensive.

Murr and the like. Gomelia was so celebrated that nobody, the greatest one before him, had had 20 pounds of spices put around his body. They did 40. Nicodemus bought the spices for Jesus Christ's birth. Do you know how many pounds he is? 100 pounds. An incredible amount of money. Ten times what anyone would have even tried to procure for someone of great notoriety. A lot of money. You can imagine now we have flowers that we put out. When somebody dies, you buy flowers.

So can you imagine ten times the amount of flowers showing up? This is how much he thought of Jesus Christ. Actually, it says 100 pounds, if you want to know the accurate, in Rome. They don't know whether transport was it because Roman actual pound was only 12 ounces compared to our 16.

So no matter what, it was either 75 pounds or 100 pounds of spices used. A lot of money was spent. Does he show up somewhere else? See, Nicodemus realized that he wanted to show honor to a true king. See, if anyone knew he was a teacher of the day. I mean, he was the big wheel.

And so here he had actually heard of Christ. He had actually listened to Christ. And he knew what a true teacher really was. He knew just how fantastic this individual was and that he was not just another priest, not just another teacher. He was the teacher because he was considered the teacher. And he knew what greatness truly was, being laid out before the people. But Nicodemus does show up.

You can see it in the Margin of the Year Bible. Nicodemus shows up here at the very start of Jesus Christ's ministry. He shows up at his death. Well, guess what? He showed up about halfway through. You can find that in John 7. Not halfway through, almost towards the end of his life. Again, just before the Feast of Tabernacles, the last Feast of Tabernacles that Jesus Christ was going to be able to observe, which was 30 A.D.

Okay? This is 28 A.D. when this Passover is taking place. So 30 A.D., just before the fall feast, the leaders all get together because by this time, Jesus Christ has already had three years of ministry. And man, people were following him, and that's why he didn't come up late up to the feast at that time. He showed up a little later because people were going to mob him. And he knew that the people would try to kill him, and it wasn't his time yet.

So what happens? The rulers all get together. The Sanhedrin, the most powerful ruler, the Sadducees and the Pharisees got together by this time. He had already taken the Pharisees to task, and they hated him. The Sadducees hated him. So let's all get together. So they got together and said, let's kill him. You can read that in John 7. It's about verse 50s, 50s, 45, 50s, something in there. Let you read that on your own. And so I said, we need to kill this man. And only one, a man by the name of Nicodemus, stood up and said, doesn't this man at least deserve a trial?

On the mouth of two or three witnesses? Does the matter resolve? And what did the leaders do at that time? They turned on him.

Basically said, what, you one of his followers? He was like him? I'd like you to look at something about halfway through Jesus Christ's ministry. I'd like you to turn over to Mark. Mark here.

Mark 10.

Because I make the speculation. I make the statement here. I make the statement that Mark 10 verses 17 through 22, we meet Nicodemus again. Does he give his name? No. This story takes place in Matthew 19 and also in Luke 18 about a rich young ruler. Who is rich? Nicodemus. Who is a ruler? Nicodemus. I make the statement here. Cannot absolutely prove it, but there are other men I've read that brought up the point. I researched it. I think it has merit to it. Because in Mark 10 verse 17, this is about halfway through Christ's ministry, said, Now as he was going out the road, one came running, knelt before him, and asked him. This is a rich young ruler. How many rich young rulers there would have knelt before Jesus Christ? Most of them hated him. Most of them despised him. Now before him and asking, Good teacher! Recognized him as a true teacher. What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? So Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good? No one is good but one. That is God. You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Do not defraud. Honor your mother and father. He gave these as examples of the Ten Commandments. Didn't give them all, but he gave these examples.

And he answered and said to him, Teacher, all these I observed from my youth. So obviously he had been trained in these. Then Jesus, looking at him, and it makes that statement that's not said any other time, loved him. Agape'd him. Now it says, Agape your enemies. But here is a statement laid out that this rich young ruler that came to him, and you can read the other detailed statements in Matthew and Luke, and Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said, One thing you like, go your way. Sell whatever you have and give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. And then come and take up the cross and follow me.

But he was sad at this word and went away grieved, for he had great possessions. As Luke said, he was very rich.

I tell you, I believe that that was also Nicodemus. He was a changed man. Let's go back to... Let's go back as we have laid the background for Nicodemus. Back to John 3.

John 3. As it was, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night. Why do you think he came there at night? He didn't want people to see him, perhaps. He didn't want the Sadducees to see him. But it's interesting. He says, Rabbi, we...we... Did you get that? We, plural, we, plural in the Greek. We know that you are a teacher come from God. He is talking about the Pharisees. He represents them. He is coming there to them. It's also been a tradition of the of the Jews that people did their study at night. That they would actually bring in and you were to study your Bible. So if you had something serious to talk about, you would do it at night because during the day it was so busy. And also Jesus Christ was crowded and people were around him all the time. So it's possible that he did this not only for secrecy but also because he wanted to have a serious conversation and not be interrupted. Because as we can see, he was sent by the Pharisees.

A teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. So he's proclaiming, God is with you. We know that. I know that because I'm supposed to be the greatest teacher of them all at this time. And I know you're incredible. I've never seen anything like this. And it's interesting if he was there to make the sales pitch, which I kind of believe he was since the Pharisees, he says we, the Pharisees sent him. He was perhaps there to make the sales pitch. Come on with us. Come on with us. Come on with us. Because he saw how all the people were following them. He had already disgraced the Sadducees these days before.

But Jesus Christ does something. He says something here that if he's making a sales pitch, that'll throw a salesman totally off your game. Because if he's making the sales pitch to join us and to be a part, all of a sudden Jesus Christ just throws something up, whoo, right in front of him. And he says in verse 3, Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. What's not said here? See, Jesus knew, knew their thoughts, knew what they were thinking. See, Jesus Christ didn't say, well, thank you. Well, yes, I am from God. Well, thank you very much for that compliment. Yes, you guys are right. He didn't say that, did he? He just jumps right in and goes, wham! He said, most assuredly, I say to you, singular in the Greek, he's saying it to Nicodemus. And lest one is born again, and born again is actually not in the Greek. That's actually a mistranslation, whereas born again, you can see it. It means born from above, born from above, which means born from God, from above spirit, as he's about to teach here. Matter of fact, the Greek actually says, unless you receive birth from above, you will not see the kingdom of God. What had Jesus Christ been teaching about? The kingdom of God. He did it at the last, he did it in the middle, and he did it at the first. Most assuredly, one is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can he man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? See, Jesus Christ has already, he didn't want to hear how great he was. Right? He wanted, you remember the same, the rich young ruler came to him and said, good teacher, and he said, there is none good but the Father for God. So here he's saying, he don't want to talk about it. He's wanting to get down to their problem, the Pharisees' problem. And Nicodemus is talking about earthly stuff, born from physical birth. Jesus Christ is talking about spiritual stuff here. And it's interesting when he says this, in the original Greek, the context of the word how is not like, well that's unbelievable. The actual context of the Greek word means he really, he really, how? He was trying to understand, how? He was clueless about this spiritual. He was clueless where Jesus Christ was going.

Then Jesus answered and said, most assuredly, I say to you in verse 5, unless one is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Do you understand what that means? What does that mean?

Say that. You're baptized, that's water, right? And you're, what's after? We did it to you last year. You were brought out of the water and then we did what? Laid hands on you to receive the spirit. Jesus Christ is saying to this great leader of the Pharisees, unless you're of the water and the spirit, you will not see the kingdom of God. Why would he say this? You know why? Because they did. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, the teachers, all of them at that time, what did they do to John the Baptist? They laughed at him. They scorned at him, right? Because they didn't need to be baptized. Why do you need to be baptized? Why, Lewis? You're a sinner, right? I had to be baptized. I was a sinner. I had my sins washed away. These leaders, these Pharisees, especially this leader, they didn't need to be baptized. They didn't have sin because they were born a Jew.

Isn't that amazing? So they were like, what? What can this be? Turn over to Luke 7. Just real quick. Didn't plan on going there. Luke 7. Luke 7. Luke 7 in verse 29. Luke 7 in verse 29. And when all the people heard him, even the tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John, but the Pharisees, in verse 30, and lawyers rejected the counsel of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him. They didn't need forgiveness. They were righteous by their acts. They were righteous in here. They didn't need... Who needed to be baptized? Proselytes, sinners, not them, but Jesus Christ is telling him, this teacher. No! Unless one is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Then he says in verse 6, That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. If you live after the flesh, what is it? What? Romans 8 verse 5. You're going to set your mind on the things above, or the things up above, or down here. If you're going to live in the flesh, you're going to die like the flesh. If you live in the Spirit, you're going to live forever. Eternal life.

And then he says in verse 7, Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again, or born from above. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. See, he's saying, this is the Spirit. The Spirit's, as a matter of fact, pneuma in the Greek is breath. It's like a breath. We can't see the Holy Spirit. You know, when I lay hands on someone to receive the Holy Spirit, how do I know they received it? Only one way. The fruits. Later on, they'll receive it. And then they start producing fruit. Then they start really living closer to God. They study more, and next thing you know, all these verses open up, and you can see how they're living.

But with them, see, he was teaching this Pharisee that, how could you tell this Pharisee was righteous? Right? It was simple. It's how they dressed. They had all these little things. They had fringes. They had all this stuff. So that they would be right. Oh, you had to look at... Oh, that's a righteous man. So what they did is Christ said, you don't understand. And then we come down to verse 9.

Nicodemus answered and said, How can these things be? How? How? It's like he doesn't understand how somebody could take a pen and write on this. See, if I brought this... I brought a pen to Nicodemus back then and a piece of paper. What is that? How does that work?

See, as simple as it is to us, see, with Jesus Christ to explain these things, he's saying, How can you not even understand? It's because his mind wasn't on the things above. It was on the things of the earth as all the Pharisees were on the things of the earth. Guys, just get your mind up here. But all they did was look around at each other and how righteous they were. How? Then Jesus answered in verse 10 and said to you, Are you... Definite article in the Greek? The... Are you the teacher of Israel and you do not know these things? What a slam that was! Here, you are the teacher. You are their greatest teacher, their best teacher. That's why they sent you here. And you don't even understand these things.

Wouldn't that be a slam? Can you imagine TD Jakes meeting Christ here or Billy Graham sitting here today if he came up here? He goes, Saturday?

The Sabbath? Holy days? You mean that was really true about them cleaning and uncleaning things? Wouldn't Christ go, Aren't you supposed to be the teacher? This is what it was to Nicodemus. That's why it's so important. Who? Who?

In verse 11, Most assuredly, I say to you, singular, saying to Nicodemus in the Greek, We speak what we know and testify what we have seen. And you, plural, do not receive our witness. Who's a we? Anybody?

Who?

Who had been proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom of God? Who? John the Baptist. John the Baptist came before Christ. He came to pave the way. He was the one telling him. They're the ones that were standing out there. We just saw in Luke 7, and they said, and he said, Who? You brood of vipers? Who told you to come here? See, Christ was saying, because John the Baptist was still alive. This was just six months. It's not going to be very long before John's thrown in prison, and his ministry ends. But he's saying to this leader who came to get them to follow, We told you this, and you didn't even know. What should he have known? Right? The Bible says, the Bible says, the Bible says, Yeah, the writings. Writings, yeah, they had this. That's what he should have known. That's what they said. See, that's where this teacher didn't understand about born again, didn't understand born from above, didn't understand about the Spirit, didn't understand about baptism, didn't understand any of this stuff, and yet he had it all in his teachings. You go to Ezekiel 36, 24-27. What does it teach you about? The Holy being baptized and washed and the Holy Spirit given. What was Jeremiah 31-33 all about? Right? The New Covenant. I will write my laws in your minds and in your hearts.

He had all these writings. He had studied them from a child. He was their teacher. Just like they said about the prophets. All these prophets talked about Jesus Christ coming. They talked about John the Baptist coming. And yet he didn't understand any of this. Why?

You know why? He had his mind and his eyes down here. And if we have our minds and our eyes on the things of this world, we will not be in the kingdom of God. It's that clear? Our promise is up there. As I tell people all the time, when you've got a problem, look up. Don't look down here.

He's got our answers.

It's what we need.

And in verse 12, If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? Okay, I can't even explain the simplest things here. What if I do this? And you know what he does then? Then he just fires one off. He just fires one off. You think you want to know? Let me tell you this. No one, no one in verse 13, no one has ascended to heaven, but he who came down from heaven, that is the Son of Man. So he is telling him what he will not say for quite a long time. I am the Son of Man. I came from God.

I am the one that's been predicted for the last, even from back at Moses' time. I am that prophet. And then he really throws it to him. He says in verse 14, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. I've had a lot of questions on that Scripture over the years. They're going, Wait a minute, why would God do that? Why would he have that serpent up there? You remember the story from Numbers? Remember the story from Numbers? Yes. Numbers 21, 4-9.

What were they doing? Children of Israel.

What did they complain about? Everything. Why did you drag us out here? We didn't get water. Then you give us this stinking manna that we're so tired of. They were a bunch of ingrates.

Makes me want to read that occasionally when I become an ingrate. Okay? So what did God do? God, you know, He gave them that manna. He gave them water. He gave them everything. And here was their opportunity. And what did they do? Just complained and complaining and blazed. See, oh! Well, then, how many of you have raised kids? You go, well, I'll give you something to complain about. That's what my parents used to say. So we brought in snakes, vipers, and they were biting the people! They were sleeping. They were coming in a night, biting you, killing you. Hey, what are we going to do? And they all turn, oh, poor is me. Told Moses. He said, put a stake in the ground and put this replica of a snake on there and put it up high so then that all they have to do is come and look at it. And they'll be healed of their bite, and they won't be bitten.

Why did he do that? They needed to know where the power truly came from. Where did the snakes come from? He sent them. How did they heal? By that! You need to look. That snake. And the reason he gives this story to Nicodemus is Nicodemus knew that part. Boy, he loves those first five books of the Bible. That Torah man, Pharisees were all over that. So he knew this story.

And he said, As a snake was lifted up, so I, the Son of Man, will be lifted up, giving him a preview that he was going to be lifted up and that he, if you want healed, brethren, if you want healed, you're going to have to look to him because that's how we're healed. You better look up. Stop looking down. That was his problem. He kept looking down.

Isn't that interesting? In Acts 4, verse 12. Jump over there just a page. I think we all need to know Acts 4 and verse 12. If you don't circle it, if you don't know it, know it. Acts 4, verse 12. Nor is there salvation in any other. There is no other name under heaven, given among men by which we must be saved or have salvation. We're not going to get in the kingdom by anybody except Jesus Christ. Forgiveness.

By his name.

That's what he's telling Nicodemus. And then he says, verse 15, that whoever believes in him, and it says, not perish but, counts that out. That wasn't in the original Greek. Because it says that whoever believes in him should have eternal life. That's how it should be read. The other was added. Where it says, mine has it not perish but, that wasn't in the original. Throw that out. People added that. People added that. It made a better story. No, there's enough. What did it teach? That whoever believes in him should have eternal life. That was what he was telling Nicodemus. What was the story here in verse 15? Why did he say that? Why did he say that? Why is one reason? Faith. Faith. Faith. Not works. Faith. That's the only way. That whoever believes in him should have eternal life if you have faith in Jesus Christ. It's a continuation of verse 14. We need to have faith. They didn't have faith. They didn't have faith. They had faith in themselves. Brethren, we cannot have faith in ourselves. Faith must come from above. What does Hebrews 11 and 6 say? Is it impossible to please God without what? Faith. Faith. And then we come to verse 16, which was the final smack down to our great teacher, Nicodemus, who was so righteous, who didn't need baptism, who didn't really need Christ, he had everything he wanted, had all this stuff, and then Christ says to him, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. What a smack! The actual, for God so, the New Living Translation actually has it, for this is the way God loved the world. You can actually read it in the Greek. It means, so far loved the world. God so far loved, so much loved the world. And see, that was a blast in his face. Wait a minute. It's our God. He's in our box. It's all about us. That's what the teachers of the day thought. And sad to say, if you go over to Jerusalem today, they still think the same thing.

He's our God. So he was telling him, in your face, for God so loved the entire world, all those who came, and that you despise all the prostitutes, all the tax collectors, all those who were not born, all the Gentiles, all everybody. God so loved the entire world, he was predicting that this is going to happen. That I'm going to die.

And you know what he had to think? Oh no. Can't be. You can't be. You can't be. The world? The world? Yes, the world, just like Jonah, had to be told about those nasty stinking Assyrian Germans that Jonah, that God was willing to give them a chance. Those stinking low-life Samaritans that John and James wanted to roast on a big old barbecue right in their village. And I'd said no. For God so loved the world, the entire world, all of us.

As it says in verse 17, For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved, which had to be shocking words to Nicodemus. This whole night had turned out to be a bad night. His whole belief system would just shout out from under it by the greatest teacher he ever heard. And he knew it was a truth. And what was he telling him here as we wrap the sermon up? You can go through the rest of it. You can see in verse 21, he says, but he who does the truth. So, brethren, there's some stuff we need to do. We have faith is the most important, but we also do things because we have faith in him. But it's interesting here that he says, For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save. The entire world, through him, they might be saved. He is telling him now, because he knew the Scriptures. He knew the Old Testament. There wasn't any New Testament there. It was all Old Testament. It was all the writings and the prophets. He is telling him, I come now for redemption. I come now for redemption, and I will return with judgment. He is coming back his second time. to judge the world. What an incredible story!

What an incredible story!

John 3 16. Now you can tell the rest of the story.

I just had to wonder, as I was meditating on these verses the other day, 18 years when this, about the time that this talk took place between Nicodemus and Jesus Christ. 18 years before, it is understood through history, and especially when they map out the death of Nicodemus later through the different writings. That he was a young man at this time. Perhaps even about the same age as Jesus Christ. That's why he's called the rich young ruler. He had to be 30 because he's a ruler.

But 18 years before, you can't tell me that there were not these Pharisees, these teachers, these scribes, and these lawyers sitting around just after Passover talking about the law of God as they did around the temple. And all of a sudden, there is this little 12-year-old boy teaching them, listening to them. And there's only one word that's used to describe that. I think it's in Luke 2. They were astonished at this young 12-year-old boy.

What an incredible story. And you know, some of those men were still alive 18 years later. And they were probably astonished. But the one thing they couldn't get through, they couldn't get their minds up there. They stayed down here. Brethren, our minds need to be up there, not down here.

What a blessing it is to know the rest of the story.

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Chuck was born in Lafayette, Indiana, in 1959.  His family moved to Milton, Tennessee in 1966.  Chuck has been a member of God’s Church since 1980.  He has owned and operated a construction company in Tennessee for 20 years.  He began serving congregations throughout Tennessee and in the Caribbean on a volunteer basis around 1999.   In 2012, Chuck moved to south Florida and now serves full-time in south Florida, the Caribbean, and Guyana, South America.