Telling Your Jesus Story (Part 1) - John 3:16- Pastor Greg Addison

Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.

You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.

Thank you for listening.

So turn with me in your Bibles this morning to John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

And this morning we're going to use this verse, since this is your favorite verse, to have a uh have a sort of a theme that we're going to walk through this month in August.

Each Sunday morning in August, we're going to be talking about telling your Jesus story.

I believe that in most churches, if you took a poll like we did, most churches, this would be number one, or at least number two, because it is a verse that means so much to all of us.

And I believe one of the reasons that it is such a powerful verse for us, it is such a favorite verse that we stand on, is because it is a part of the story of so many people who were saved.

If you think about it, uh John 3.16 has played a role in an incredible number of people.

It was the way they understood the gospel, or they were in vacation Bible school, and they learned it there, or learned it in Sunday school, and they've carried that verse with them.

I know I grew up in church, and growing up in church, they used to teach us from the earliest memories that I have not just to learn John 3.16, but they would try to bring it home to us, and they would say, listen, Greg, learn it this way, for God so loved Greg that he gave his only son.

That if Greg believes in him, Greg will never perish but have everlasting life.

And they're trying to drive home to us that God doesn't just love everybody, God loves each person as well.

And it's an incredible way to learn that.

And so it has become the part, I think, of so many people and of their story.

So turn with me, if you will, or if you're not already there, to John chapter 3, and let's uh read on the screen.

John 3 · chapter mention

We'll go back and pick up the context later, but let's read here on the screen this verse.

For God loved the world in this way.

He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.

For God did not send his son into the world that he might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him Jesus.

So let's talk a little bit about this verse and about what it means.

First of all, it is an incredibly iconic verse.

Um, it shows up in so many places and in so many ways.

Some of you may remember uh years ago when uh Tim Tebow was the quarterback for the Florida Gators.

How a Christian could go to the University of Florida, I have no idea.

I guess you go where lost people are, right?

Is that, you know, Florida Gators, y'all can apologize after Jacob, after it's over.

But if you'll remember, he put in his IBLAC John 316 in his IBLAC.

And they said after that uh championship game where the world was watching that, there were over 90 million searches on Google for uh what John 316 means.

And then a few years later, when he was a backup quarterback for the Denver Broncos and was called into service in a playoff game, uh, again, I black with all of the viewership of an NFL playoff game.

And he had an incredible game.

It was one of the iconic games, and the world was amazed because wearing John 316 in his I Black, he threw for 316 yards, and the average length of pass play that he was involved in was 31.6 yards, and it captured the world's imagination, and that week, John 3.16 was the number one Googled verse in the world based on that.

So it is a verse that has captured the attention of the world in numerous ways.

It is a verse that we can all recite by heart in whatever version that you learned it in, if you've been in church any amount of time.

It is a verse that encapsulates the gospel and of Scripture.

Martin Luther referred to John 3.16 as the Bible in miniature, that it captures all of those truths of Scripture and the narrative of the story of redemption told in the Word of God.

There's a quote that I found this week in doing some studying from A.W.

Tozer.

Preachers love, on the one hand, to preach from John 3.16, but on the other hand, it is an intimidating process to teach and to write a sermon and preach from John 3.16.

Not because it's not incredible, but because it's so incredible, you can't get to all of it.

I read one theologian who uh estimated that there are 50 separate theological doctrines represented in just John 3.16.

In some ways it is rich to preach, and in other ways it is so rich and so full, it is intimidating to try to preach all of that and capture that.

Here's what um A.W.

Tozer said.

I think my own hesitation to preach from John 3.16 comes down to this.

I appreciate it so profoundly that I'm frightened by it.

I am overwhelmed by John 3.16 to the point of inadequacy.

Along with this is my knowledge that if a minister is to try to preach John 3.16, he must be endowed with great sympathy and a genuine love for God and man.

How else can you preach for God so loved the world if you have not spent time before the Lord developing that, as he says, sympathy and love for God and man?

So I approach it as one who is filled with great fear and yet great satisfaction.

I take off my shoes, my heart's shoes, at least, as I come to this declaration that God so loved the world.

That's an incredible description, isn't it?

And it is ref and it reflects, I think, our love for Jesus, our love for the truth of salvation, and what that means to us in our lives.

And that brings me back to that thing, that theme.

I think it is so much a favorite of so many believers because it is a part of our story.

As we think about John 3.16 this morning, I want you to think about first the context in which it happens.

Sometimes we get to that verse and it is so powerful just in and of itself, and it encapsulates so much for us that we forget to go back and evaluate the whole story and what was going on when Jesus delivered this message.

Well, if you read through that chapter, you find out what the context is.

Jesus is responding to a fundamental existential question from a man who is trying to understand who God is and how to have a relationship with him.

He is trying to understand, he has watched Jesus do miracles, he has heard Jesus preach.

This man, his name is Nicodemus, was a Pharisee and a scholar of the Word of God.

He was faithful in his love for Jehovah God of the Old Testament, the God of Israel.

And as he is confronted with Jesus and with Jesus' ministry and Jesus' message and these moments, as he is confronted with the truth of Jesus as the Messiah, fulfilling the prophecies of the Old Testament, pointing to God's plan of salvation, all throughout the Jewish faith, all of that was designed by God to be a picture of and a prophecy of and point to when he would send his son to be that savior.

That's why that verse says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only son.

And so in seeing all of this unfold in front of him, this man Nicodemus is trying to grapple with these questions of redemption and scripture, and who is Jesus and what is eternity, and how do I get there?

If you'll look with me in John chapter 3, and if you'll go back to that first verse of John chapter 3, you'll see the context and the story unfold.

John 3 · chapter mention John 3 · chapter mention

Here's what the Bible tells us about this story.

There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

And so right there, we have a sense of who he is.

He has a deep understanding of Scripture.

He is faithful in his love for the Lord and searching to follow him.

And in all of that, he is confronted with this person of Jesus.

This man came to Jesus at night and said, Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher.

See, he does not yet know or understand who Jesus is.

He has not found his way to an understanding and to an affirmation that Jesus is the Messiah for whom they're looking.

He cannot in any way, shape, or form, wipe away or dismiss the incredible miracles that Jesus has done.

And then the Bible tells us that when Jesus would teach in the synagogue, that they were amazed as he taught.

And one phrase describes it this way: He taught as one having unique authority.

Or in other words, he taught the scriptures as if he wrote the scriptures.

That was the authority that he had, and of course we know that he did.

And so as he is grappling with all this, he comes to Jesus and he says, Rabbi, and then he calls him teacher.

But he cannot stop from asking the question that seeing the person of Jesus, hearing the message of Jesus has created in his life.

It begs the question: why is this verse such a fascinating verse?

And why does it have the ability to grab a hold of people just by putting it out there?

Because it encapsulates in a powerful way that message that speaks to the human heart cry in every person.

What happens to me when I die?

What is life?

How can I be forgiven?

In some way, shape, or form, those fundamental questions are constantly on the heart and mind of people.

That's why John 3.16 has such an impact when you do things like put it on IBLAC or put it on a window or put it on a window shield.

In fact, there's a restaurant, uh, In N Out Burgers.

How many of you know In N Out Burgers?

Right?

Oh, come on.

Y'all don't have to be embarrassed.

We eat here all the time.

You know In N Out Burgers.

If you don't know In N Out Burgers, you should know In N Out Burgers, right?

They're awesome.

Um But here's what happens.

That was a company founded in the 40s in California, and it has expanded uh across the United States slowly and carefully, but it's expanded as a family-owned company.

And one of the uh one of the people in the family line who uh was running the company for that generation was saved and began to do things like they took their uh drink cup when you get your uh root beer or sweet tea or whatever it is you drink your burgers and fries with, and on the base of that cup they have imprinted John 3.16.

And since our number two favorite verse last week was Proverbs 3, 5 and 6, it's worth noting that on their milkshake cups, they imprint Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 as well.

You see, God loves people who love burgers and fries and chocolate shakes.

It's a part of life.

But what draws someone to do that?

It is an understanding that this verse, as scripture and miniature, calls to the question that people are trying to answer.

And this context shows that, and it's an incredible picture here of a man confronted with the gospel and asking for forgiveness and the holiness of God and the means of redemption and the Lamb of God who was prophesied, who would take away the sins of the world, and he sees the person of Jesus, and he sees how he interacts with people and heals people and preaches repentance and forgiveness and all of that, and these questions in his heart call him to ask, Is Jesus real?

Is he the Son of God?

Is this the path to God?

How do we understand how I create a relationship with God?

Because I need that in my life, in my heart.

It is the existential fundamental question on the heart of every person who has ever been born.

This is not an American thing.

When they translated John 3.16 into all those languages and on television it showed up around the world, people around the world were searching and listening to this verse.

Janet and I love history and we love going to museums and that sort of thing.

And one thing that you learn when you go to a natural history museum or one of those kinds of things, wherever you go, even if that museum has a philosophy of God is not the creator and all that stuff, they can't help but show you man has always asked the question, what happens when I die?

What happens to my life after that transition point?

Every culture on every continent in every epoch of time, we have historical evidence of worship and the search of worship and the different ways that they have tried to approach eternity and what happens after that.

It is the fundamental question that rests on the heart and soul of every human being.

We answer it in different ways, we look in different places, but there is only one answer.

And it's important for us as we think about John 3.16 and its power that we think about the context and the search for the answer to that question.

And so Jesus then is listening to him.

He says in verse 2, Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.

And Jesus understands his question and he says, I assure you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

And he begins to introduce a spiritual gospel conversation into the discussion.

And so he uses this picture of being born again.

And again, Nicodemus does not understand, and he's trying to grapple with this.

And he says, How can anyone be born when he is old?

Can he enter his mother's womb a second time and be born?

And then Jesus begins to unpack for him that this is a spiritual rebirth, that this question of redemption and being in a relationship with God is a spiritual matter of faith.

I assure you in verse 5, unless someone is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

He's now introduced the picture of baptism.

And baptism was a form of worship in that day.

So now all of a sudden he begins to connect with Nicodemus.

And Nicodemus is beginning to try to listen and track.

Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the spirit is spirit.

Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again.

The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don't see where it comes from or where it's going.

He is saying, listen, spiritual matters are as fundamental and tangible to life as physical life is.

That's what he's trying to explain here.

You see the wind.

It is a tangible experience.

Even though you don't see physically the wind, you see the effect and the representation.

You don't know where it comes from, but you know it is there.

And in that same way, in that tangible way, by faith, this spiritual life, so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.

How can these things be?

asked Nicodemus.

And Jesus says, Are you a teacher of Israel and don't know these things?

In other words, you've been studying the scripture.

Salvation and redemption through the Messiah has been prophesied and taught throughout the Jewish faith, throughout the scripture of the Word of God, it is pointed to Him, and He's trying to help Him understand.

Listen, this is a fulfillment of God, all that God has promised.

Verse 11, I assure you, we speak what we know and we testify what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony.

If I've told you about things that happen on earth and you don't believe, how will you believe if I tell you about things of heaven?

No one has ascended into heaven except the one who has descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

And so he uses this name from this title from Old Testament prophecy to define himself to Nicodemus as the Messiah.

And then he uses a picture that Nicodemus will understand.

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, and that is a story to when the children of Israel were wandering through the wilderness, and in uh in a moment of their rebellion, God allowed snakes to come in as a judgment, and they were biting and all of that.

And what happened was he had Moses build this serpent on the structure of a cross.

When you think about that ID thing that some of you wear, that necklace that has that picture on it as a sense of medicine or healing or prescriptions that comes from the Old Testament.

And when they would lift that up high and the people would look to it, they would be saved.

And it was an Old Testament picture of the redemption that would come when Jesus, the Son of God, would hang on the cross and die there to pay the price for our sins.

And so he teaches him this spiritual truth of salvation.

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.

And what he's referring to there, lifted up, is the act of crucifixion.

And he's explaining to him, I have come to be that price for sin, and I will be lifted on the cross, and it is a spiritual matter of salvation.

And then he explains how that occurs.

For God so loved the world in this way, that he gave his one and only Son.

He's just said to be lifted up on the cross, to pay the price for our sins, he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting or eternal life.

There's the context, and so the answer that Jesus gives him to his question is very clearly the character and love of God and the truth of salvation, the good news of salvation.

For God so loved the world that he gave in this way, in the way that was most important, on the only way that would create for us salvation.

So that when he was raised again from the dead, conquering death and sin, he could offer to us that forgiveness.

In the same way that the children of Israel would repent of their sin and rebellion against God, and they would look to the serpent and the provision that he had given for salvation.

Jesus said, I am the eternal version of that.

That once and for all, when I pay the price for your sins, if you will.

Believe in me as the Savior, you will have eternal life.

And He gives that answer.

And again, that's why we love this verse because it is the answer to the question.

Then you see, I believe an application that we all have to make.

We must tell this story of meeting Jesus to others who have this question.

In many ways, it is an anathema to say we love John 3.16 and then never give the answer to someone's questioning heart.

We must understand that an application of this verse is not just standing on it for our own salvation, but it is the important compulsion and requirement and passion and desire to share the good news of Jesus with people with whom we interact.

To share the gospel with those in the river valley that have this question and are searching.

Again, this verse is given in response to a man's question about the Lord.

And we cannot remove the answer from the question.

And if the question is there, and the call to then the call to give the answer is there.

We must, as believers, understand and stand on and become obedient and passionate about sharing the message of God's character of love and forgiveness and the good news of salvation to folks with whom we come in contact to the river valley and the world around us.

That's why we have WMU and we go on mission trips and we send our students there because we do that.

Now here's the deal: if it is incumbent on every one of us who have been saved by the truth explained in this verse to share that salvation with others in telling our story, then it is incumbent on our leadership in our church to make certain that everyone is equipped on how to do that.

We must all have the ability to share the gospel.

Whether you're knocking on doors, sharing with Jesus, or you're answering the questions of your children or grandchildren.

Whether you are ministering to a neighbor who is going through a struggle and God opens a door for a gospel conversation, every single person in our church must be equipped to be able to share the gospel.

It is not the preacher's job, it is everybody's job.

And so here's what we've done.

If it is incumbent on us as leadership to do that, I have an opportunity here that I want to give to all of you and ask you to strongly consider doing this.

There is a training methodology, an evangelism training program called Evangelism Explosion.

Raise your hand if you know EE, right?

Okay.

That is, church has a heritage of that here.

They worked with Love Worth Finding to create an online, accessible to everyone, simple evangelism training model.

And so what we have done is work with Love Worth Finding to tap into that, and they have created for us as a church our own training cohort.

And so here's what happens: if you have your little card, your love list that you received when you got in, you'll see a QR code on there.

You'll see the website on there, and we also have a link from our church website.

All you have to do is point your camera at that QR code, and it will pull it up on your phone or your iPad and get you started.

This is a very simple five-lesson, four or five-lesson evangelism training model.

It takes about five to fifteen minutes to do each one.

That's all it takes.

You can do it anytime.

It's right there.

When you click on that, it will pull up that screen right there.

Alright, and you'll see as these screens roll through, it's a very simple, easy thing.

It comes up just like that.

It'll start with a lesson and it'll give you some instructions.

It'll give you scripture to read, and then it will go to a place for you to make a few comments.

At the bottom, you'll see on this one, if you see that red button there, you probably can't read it, but that red button says complete step.

So each time you finish that page, you click on that red button and it takes you to the next page.

I mean, it is the simplest thing you can possibly do.

I've done it twice.

If I can pull it up, there's no one on the planet who cannot do it.

Okay?

I mean, it is literally that simple.

Five to fifteen minutes is all it takes.

It will start with a reading, it'll give you a scripture, give you a couple of questions, just to make sure you read it carefully.

You click that red button on the bottom, it'll go to a five to seven minute video where someone will take down the pieces of a gospel conversation, and each week it just breaks you down.

One week it'll give you this is how you write your testimony, and it'll ask you to do that.

And then you'll click on that red button and it'll go to a couple of little questions to make sure that you read and paid attention to the video, helping you be careful with it.

And then you'll click on that red button and it'll give you a little homework assignment.

Write your testimony.

How, as a believer, can you not have prepared your testimony to share with someone else?

I mean, we have to do that.

We have to be able to do that.

And so then the next week it'll give you, okay, this is how you start in a gospel conversation.

And then it'll give you, this is how you help someone think through what salvation is.

Tap into that question just like Nicodemus.

And then you'll watch another little video and a little reading, and it'll show you how to share the gospel.

It is so incredibly easy.

The first time I did it, I did the whole thing in 45 minutes.

Now I didn't do the homework and whatever, but I plopped through that thing in 45 minutes.

Certainly, each believer can give 45 minutes to ensuring that we have a method to share the gospel.

There's just no way that we cannot be prepared to do that.

What I would encourage you to do is just do it a couple of days, click on it, pay attention to the homework, do that, get a friend, hold each other accountable, work through that together.

Now, what will happen is in this training cohort that we have, it is just us as a church family.

So there's a place on there where you can post a comment.

Boy, this is exciting.

We did that.

You can post your testimony if you want to.

You can post uh you got a chance to talk to someone about Jesus or whatever, and those are only read within our church.

Okay?

So we have a chance to encourage each other in this journey and talk through that if you don't if you want to.

There's also an opportunity for me to send you an encouraging email every now and then if you sign up to do that.

You're not going to get sales calls, you're not going to get any kind of stuff, we're not selling any of this.

This is all just us as a church.

There is no danger or risk for you in this.

It is only the encouragement of us as a church walking through, honing our skills to be able to share Jesus together.

Because we have so many evangelism exposion trained people in our church, I'm going to ask all of you who have been trained to send me an email or send me a text or whatever and let me know that you are ready to help.

And so, what I would like to offer to all of our church members is since you're doing this online, we will assign to you one of these EE trained folks to answer your question, to help you, to walk through this with you.

You can practice your presentation with them.

And I've talked to enough of our EE trained folks here in the church that I know we have plenty of people willing to help you through that.

And so here's what you can literally do: take this thing, punch the class, go through it, send me an email.

I'll assign you someone who'll walk you through it, answer questions, encourage you, pray with you, let you practice.

I cannot make this any easier.

I have tried.

This is as easy as it gets.

And so I'm gonna ask you as a church family, I'm gonna ask you to sign up and do this.

I'm gonna ask you to prepare yourself to share Jesus.

And I am going to be able to track how many folks have signed up because it's a training cohort for us.

And so I'll be able to report and evaluate and pray through and encourage the ones that sign up and know how much of that we have.

Now, listen, some of you may say, Oh, I know how to do that, but let me ask you this question When's the last time you walked through a gospel conversation and shared Jesus with someone?

Or at least tried.

If you know how, but you haven't any time recently, you may not need this class for preparation, but you may need this class for passion.

You may need this to stoke those fires again, to get you excited.

You should take the class to encourage other people around you in your Sunday school group or people that you sit near in the sanctuary, or if you're a teacher, your class, and you do that to encourage them that we are going through this as a church, and we are going to prepare ourselves to be able and to be ready to share the gospel.

Each week in the month of August, I will encourage you, I'll put this back up there, we'll encourage you to do that.

Pastor Greg, who do I share with?

Well, that's your love list.

If you remember it, Easter.

We started the idea of a love list.

And so here's what you have now.

Now you have your love list, which everyone in the church, this is an expectation for all of us to be doing.

Mine sits under my computer on my desk right under my monitor.

That's where mine sits.

So you know I have one.

And so you are to do three things with your love list.

These are three lost people, three people that need Jesus that you know.

And you're going to pray for an opportunity to invite them to church.

You're going to pray for an opportunity to share your testimony, and you're going to pray for them to be saved.

All of us have three people.

We're praying for that.

Pastor, what happens when one of those folks gets saved?

Praise the Lord, we're going to see them baptized, we're going to celebrate, and then you're going to fill in the empty blank with another name.

It's just that simple.

We can do this.

The question is stepping out in faith and obedience to do it.

And so I'm going to ask every one of you, take that card and fill it out, and I'm going to ask every one of you to sign up and take that course.

It is simple, it is easy.

You can be a brand new Christian and walk through it.

It is not designed to give you a master's degree in evangelism.

We're working on some of those classes, and we'll teach those later.

This is a everybody can do it, and we're all in together level of a deal.

Why are we doing this?

Because John 3.16 encapsulates the gospel and it calls us all to share Jesus.

When you look at John 3.16, it has all the basic truths of the gospel.

Why did God send his son to die on the cross?

Because he is holy and he must punish sin.

Sin has punished us and condemned us to the cross.

It says in John 3.17, the verse we read, Jesus didn't come into the world to condemn the world because our sin had already condemned us.

He came to the world that through him we might be saved.

And so it speaks of God's grace and willingness to forgive and a plan to give that forgiveness.

And for God so loved the world.

He so loved the world.

The judgment for sin.

That's why there is death.

Death is the result of sin.

It happens because of sin.

Because sin must be punished.

It started in the Garden of Eden and it continues.

That's why Jesus came and he sacrificed himself on the cross.

That's why he explained to Nicodemus in ways that Nicodemus would understand that sin must be punished.

And you remember this story from the history of Israel where God had punished their sin, but the same God that is holy is a God who is gracious.

And the God who punishes sin is the God who creates the plan of redemption.

And he created that plan.

Then they lifted the serpent and they looked to God for their redemption.

And in the same way, I have come as the Messiah to be lifted up on the cross to sacrifice my life so that people can be saved.

Salvation by grace through faith.

It is God's grace that saves us.

It is his mercy to choose to love us and to create a plan of salvation.

But you must accept that gift of salvation.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whosoever believes in him, you must place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

You must trust that there's nothing you can do to answer those questions.

But Jesus can do everything needed for you to be saved and has done everything needed for you to be saved.

But you must surrender your life to Him in belief.

And when you do that is the promise of eternal life.

That is the gospel.

That is the gospel.

If you want to know the answer to that question, Jesus is the answer.

I want you to bow your heads as we move into a time of invitation.

I want to invite you, if you've never trusted Christ, if you never believed in his sacrifice for you, in just a moment, we're going to sing a testimony.

God's people are going to stand and sing, and it is a testimony of the truth of what we've discussed today.

Just as they have voted, this is our number one favorite verse.

It is our number one favorite truth to stand on.

How we know that we're saved.

And if you would like that assurance of forgiveness and eternal life, if you would like to receive the love of God, I'm going to ask you when God's people stand to sing that you'll come.

We have pastors and deacons here at the front of our aisles, somebody in the balcony.

We'll pray with you, we'll answer your questions.

You're not obligating yourself to anything when you come, but if you want to know how to accept Christ as your Savior, we are here to help you begin your story with Him today.

You come.

If you need a church home, come and join us in sharing the gospel.

Pastor, if I join your church, am I going to have to do that class?

Yes.

Come do it with us and let's see.

Let's see how many people we can point to Jesus.

Lord, we thank you for this incredible event in Scripture that shows us when we have these questions as Nicodemus did, that Jesus has the answers.

That you sent him to be our Savior, and you're offering us forgiveness and salvation if we will place our lives and our trust in your hands.

We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.

Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.

Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.

Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.