Essentials #7. Salvation, Part 2

Teaching #7. November 5, 2006.

I am posting my notes on Pastor Mike’s teaching from Sunday, November 5th. These are MY notes. Not a transcript. Not his notes. Any misquotes, mistakes, or mystifications are my fault (or something like that). All verses are from NASB 1995 unless noted.

Essentials #7: Salvation (part 2)

Galatians 3:1-2
1 You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?
2 This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?

Foolish! You saw Jesus crucified, you saw Him dead. Did you receive your salvation, did you receive the Spirit by faith? Or by works?

John 3 and Nicodemus - Jesus told him, all of the elite with him, that he needed a new birth. Something by faith.

Galatians 3:26-29
26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.

Now, you are all sons, through faith. Paul saying “understand again, that we all began as sinners; we all need to know Jesus.”

John 3 and Nicodemus - Nicodemus came to Jesus because he needed to know who Jesus was. “You are a teacher from God.” But he did not know who Jesus was; that He was the Son of God.

Mike: Do not listen to me. I began where you all began. I came from the same dirt. Only those who are born of the Spirit can say anything about these things, about Jesus, about the Holy Spirit. Don’t listen to me because of my position, my rank. I have not the right to say anything except that I know the grace of God. He did what He did when I was on my knees.

The love of God, poured out in Jesus is the most precious thing. And if there is something in our lives that we consider to be more important, God cannot allow that.

John 3:1-7. Recap. Nicodemus: We know that you are from God. Nicodemus did not have problems with Jesus being a teacher, but with what Jesus said about Himself, that He was God.

John 3:7. “Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” Jesus is essentially saying, “You know nothing about spiritual matters.” This was a shock to him (“amazed”). But He did not say this to humiliate him, but to enlighten.

John 3:9-10
9 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can these things be?”
10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?

Nicodemus paraphrased: He is from God, and I am teacher of Israel, but I do not understand what He is saying.

John 3:8. “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

We see the effects of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the lives of others, but we have not seen Him.

John 3:11. “Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony.”

Jesus paraphrased: I have experiential knowledge of the things that I have seen and that I have experienced.

John 3:12. “If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?”

Salvation is an earthly thing, because it has to do with man who is earthly.

John 3:14-15
14 “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up;
15 so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.

This is the gospel, presented by Jesus to Nicodemus in a way that he, as a good Jew, would understand. During the exodus from Egypt, the people of Israel, dying from snake bite, could “look on” the bronze snake and be healed (saved from death). [Numbers 21:6-9] Jesus will do the same for Nicodemus.

John 12:32. “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.”

“Lifted up” - not the normal Greek word for this (like being “lifted up” onto the cross). This is a word that means “to be lifted up and out from the earth.” It refers to His ascension, not to His crucifixion.

John 3:16-21. At this point, the tenses and pronouns change. It would appear that John’s quotes of Jesus ends and some commentary on what Jesus said begins. Experts disagree. However:

John 3:16. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

“Love” Greek word is “agapao.” “The love in one’s heart is a measure of the preciousness of the object loved.” This love is based on the value of the object. “I love so-and-so because he is precious to me.”

God loves us because we are precious to Him. Is it because we are good? Because we perform so well? Where did this preciousness come from? It came from the original design. The born again of “the same as the original act.” We were made in His (Their) image. We were disgusting in our sin. But God looks past that to what could be redeemed, changed, altered. That is, we need to be born again like the original.

He would change us from children of wrath to the children of God because of our preciousness to Him.

The Greeks did not have a word for this kind of love. It is not expressed in their language. Paul, Jesus, and John gave Greek a new understanding.

**Assignment
1 Corinthians 13. Redefines love
Ephesians 2:1-7. A description of the process of our transformation. We can see the salvation of God.

So what about our part? What is our response?

1) Thank you, God
2) Deeper. What do we have control over in this world? Houses? Money? Jobs? What of value do I have? What is precious to God?

Genesis 2. We got physical life and spiritual life. The spiritual life died. We have only the physical life left from the original intent, the original creation. The only thing I have left to give is my physical life, the “dead in sin” life.

The only thing that we have to give in response to this great gift is our life. “Everything that I have about me is Yours. Change and transform us.”

Matthew 10:39. “He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”

God knows how we needed to change and knows how to do it. And in Jesus, He changed mankind forever.

The only thing a church should be is a people who know that they are redeemed; with Jesus as the cornerstone and the Holy Spirit bringing transformation.