The Burden Of Unbelief

Without Jesus you don't have any hope on judgement day.

 

John 3:16-21  "For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.

17  God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him.  18  "There is no judgment against anyone who believes in Him. But anyone who does not believe in Him has already been judged for not believing in God's one and only Son.

19  And the judgment is based on this fact: God's light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.  20  All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.  21  But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants."

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This new Rabbi that had just popped up on the scene was so totally different than all of the other Rabbi's that were in Jerusalem that Nicodemus went to learn more about what he was teaching. Before Nicodemus could ask Jesus any questions Jesus went straight to the gospel. Jesus began to tell Nicodemus who he is and why he had come.

John 3:3 "I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God."

Jesus made it clear that he came from heaven with a mission, he told Nicodemus that the number one "Blessing of Believing" is that you will see the kingdom of God and you will stay there with him for eternity. Jesus came with a message of love and forgiveness so you might wonder why anybody would reject his message.

Jesus could have come with a message of judgement and condemnation he had the right to shake his finger at everybody he saw and judge them but he did the exact opposite.The sad truth is that men love to indulge in sin and we don't want to be exposed.

The light of the world came to earth but too many people pushed him away. Imagine how uncomfortable it would be to stand there with Jesus while he was on earth, to come in contact with Holy, Almighty God and know that he knew everything about you.

Romans 8:1, 34 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. Who then will condemn us? No one--for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and He is sitting in the place of honor at God's right hand, pleading for us.

The good news is that Jesus came to redeem the world and we are not condemned. Jesus is on our side everyday despite how we feel from one day to the next he is always there for us. (Romans 8:1)

If you are having a good day he is there, if you are having a bad day he is still there and just remember that he isn't giving you a bad day because you suddenly deserve some of his wrath.

Judgement Day
Acts 17:31  For He has set a day for judging the world with justice by the Man He has appointed, and He proved to everyone who this is by raising Him from the dead.

One day we will all come into the presence of Jesus, at that time your decision will be locked in and your acceptance or rejection of Jesus will be your final answer. There isn't any other way to meet the requirements of a righteous God.

The choice is yours:

✔  You can take on the burden of trying to be perfect, you can follow all of the teachings of any religion that you choose and you will still bear the burden of God's judgement.

✔  You can take Jesus up on his offer: "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

Thank you Lord for your great love that drew you out of heaven to bear the burden of sin that I could not pay.

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The Blessing Of Believing

Jesus came from heaven so we could go there too.

John 3:10-16  Jesus replied, "You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don't understand these things?

11  I assure you, We tell you what We know and have seen, and yet you won't believe Our testimony.  12  But if you don't believe Me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

13  No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man [who lives in heaven] has come down from heaven.  14  And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,  15  so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life.

16  For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that

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There is a new Rabbi in town and he is stirring things up, his teaching is different from every other Rabbi in Jerusalem, yet he speaks with so much authority. (Matthew 7:28-29) And he already has some disciples but since they are just fisherman, they have never sat under the teaching of a real Rabbi, what could they really know?

As a Pharisee, Nicodemus was deep into the teaching that the law was the way to make God happy with you and therefore gain access to Heaven. Nicodemus came to Jesus seeking answers to his questions but this Rabbi was saying some things that were difficult to understand.

Jesus doesn't mind skeptics, he doesn't mind our questions but there comes a time when we have to have faith to believe God for the things that we cannot comprehend. We cannot understand everything there is to know about the world around us so we certainly cannot understand heavenly things and so we need to believe the testimony of the only person who has ever been there and came to earth to tell us about it.

Nicodemus is a teacher of heavenly things but he doesn't really believe it, surely he must have taught the people about the bronze snake that Moses lifted up in the wilderness but he didn't understand the symbolism.

Admit Your Sin
Numbers 21:7-8  Then the people came to Moses and cried out, "We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take away the snakes." So Moses prayed for the people. Then the LORD told him, "Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!"

The people confessed their sin to Moses and God made a way for salvation. They had a choice, they could die from the snake bite or they could crawl to the pole and look up at the snake. By coming to the pole they were acknowledging that there was sin that needed to be confessed and they had to have faith in God that he would forgive them.

Jesus predicted his death in this conversation with Nicodemus. I wonder if Nicodemus looked back at this prediction three years later when the rest of the religious leaders were plotting Jesus death. Did the light bulb suddenly turn on? Did he have an "aha" moment?

Awakening to the reality of our true spiritual condition, we see ourselves and our need for a Savior with renewed honesty. This realization leads to action, obeying God’s commands and following the example set by Christ.

-Kyle Idleman "AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything."

I have to wonder if Nicodemus heard the conversations about having Jesus crucified and all of a sudden he had an awakening. He remembered Jesus words and he realized that they were true, Jesus was going to die and there wasn't any way to change that fact. Maybe Jesus prediction about being crucified was the "aha" moment that made him realize that Jesus is the Son of God and that he was dying to save him from his hopeless condition.

Ephesians 1:7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son and forgave our sins.

The Bible is full of blessings that are for God's children. Are you his child? A summary of John 3:16 makes it so simple: God loves, God gave, I believe, I receive. Jesus told us that we can avoid death by believing in him. We need to believe that God is our loving Father and that Jesus is who he said he is, we need to believe in him alone for our righteousness.

Thank you Lord for so many undeserved blessings that come with believing in you and your purpose for coming to earth.

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Celebrate Crazy Love Day

 Everyday should be crazy love day.

Romans 12:9-13 Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good.

Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.

Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.

Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.

When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality.

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The world thinks that they have love figured out. If you ask them to show you an example of love you will probably hear them talk about Anthony and Cleopatra or Romeo and Juliet or maybe the Cleavers will come up. 

They think that they know real love but they don't know about the love that a child of God has. We have been loved in a bigger and crazier way than anybody else could love.

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life."

As a child of God, I have been shown the greatest example of love that man will ever know, Jesus took the death penalty for me even though I wasn't even his friend. The family of God knows what love is and they have no excuse for not doing it, I need to make love a verb.

I need to show genuine love with the right attitude. If you are doing something good for somebody and you aren't enjoying it then you are probably not doing it in love, most likely it is legalism, doing it just because you are supposed to.

Go out and love like crazy today!

God Didn't Hold Anything Back

SCRIPTURE

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Genesis 22:1 Now after these things, God put Abraham to the test, and said to him, Abraham; and he said, Here am I. 2 And he said to him, Take your son, your dearly loved only son Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and give him as a burned offering on one of the mountains of which I will give you knowledge. 7 Then Isaac said to Abraham, My father; and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, We have wood and fire here, but where is the lamb for the burned offering?

Genesis 22:15 And the voice of the angel of the Lord came to Abraham a second time from heaven, 16 Saying, I have taken an oath by my name, says the Lord, because you have done this and have not kept back from me your dearly loved only son, 17 That I will certainly give you my blessing, and your seed will be increased like the stars of heaven and the sand by the seaside; your seed will take the land of those who are against them; 18 And your seed will be a blessing to all the nations of the earth, because you have done what I gave you orders to do.

OBSERVATION

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“Take your son, your dearly loved only son.”

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

You see from the previous chapters in Genesis just how much Abraham wanted a son and how much love he must have for him now that he has Isaac.

God’s love for us is bigger than that of Abraham for Isaac yet he was still willing to give him up for ugly, undeserving filthy rags. We needed a Savior and the God of the universe provided the only sacrifice for our sins.

APPLICATION

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I thank God that he is the ultimate expression of love.

PRAYER

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Thank you God for your gift of Jesus sacrifice for us.