SERMON NOTES

The Gospel of John 6 - Jesus and Me

Scripture

John 3:22-36

What Is Baptism?

22Then Jesus and his disciples left Jerusalem and went into the Judean countryside. Jesus spent some time with them there, baptizing people. 23At this time John the Baptist was baptizing at Aenon, near Salim, because there was plenty of water there; and people kept coming to him for baptism.

What is baptism?

Baptism doesn’t save you

It’s a sign, but it is important!

In India—baptism makes conversion official.

25A debate broke out between John’s disciples and a certain Jew over ceremonial cleansing. 26So John’s disciples came to him and said, “Rabbi, the man you met on the other side of the Jordan River, the one you identified as the Messiah, is also baptizing people. And everybody is going to him instead of coming to us.”

It is very possible that the ceremonial cleansing talked about here was baptism. Possibly even questioning if John’s baptism was relevant any more now that Jesus was on the scene.

Nicodemus?

Further, look at it from John’s disciples perspective (a wrong one).

Jesus was not long ago baptized by John! Which one’s the teacher/student then? It’s wrong, but I can understand it. India venerates those that went before. “I need my gray hairs!”

27John replied, “No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven. See… Those gray hairs were given by God!

Job said, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21 NASB 1995)

Job is referring to physical possessions, John is saying it about ministry roles. Both are true.

Ministry—everyone should be in ministry, not just those who do it as their main job. Our Identity in Christ

28You yourselves know how plainly I told you, ‘I am not the Messiah. I am only here to prepare the way for him.’

Mic drop

Sermon is the appetizer. The response is the main entree—baptism.

It’s my role to point to Jesus—

As a parent

As a brother/sister

As a coworker

As a friend

29It is the bridegroom who marries the bride, and the bridegroom’s friend is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at his success.

30He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less. The main point!

Work yourself out of a job.

Our Response to Christ

Why—

31“He has come from above and is greater than anyone else. We are of the earth, and we speak of earthly things, but he has come from heaven and is greater than anyone else. 32He testifies about what he has seen and heard, but how few believe what he tells them!

33Anyone who accepts his testimony can affirm that God is true. 34For he is sent by God. He speaks God’s words, for God gives him the Spirit without limit.

35The Father loves his Son and has put everything into his hands. 36And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.”

20th Century Scarves

What this doesn’t mean: you are not insignificant. You are valuable.

You were purchased for a price.

1 Cor 6&7 - You were bought with a high price

Rom 6:23a

For the wages of sin is death,

Rom 6:23b

but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Gospel of John 5 - The search, the birth, and the gift.

JOHN 20:30-31 NIV

John 3:1-18NLT

John 3:1-2 NLT

Jesus responds to the searching.

Proverbs 2:4-5 NIV

Deuteronomy 4:29 NIV

Luke 11:9-10 NIV

"God has not hidden Himself from us; rather, He waits for us to seek Him."

— C.S. Lewis

"To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek Him the greatest adventure; to find Him, the greatest human achievement."

— Augustine of Hippo

"If you seek God with all your heart, He will not let you miss Him."

— Charles Spurgeon

Matthew 6:33NKJV

Matthew 22:37-39 NIV

John 3:3-7 NLT

We must be born again.

John 3:3 NLT

John 3:4 NLT

John 3:5 NLT

John 3:6-7 NLT

1 Peter 1:23

Titus 3:5 NIV

2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV

1 Peter 1:3 NIV

"We are born once into the life of the flesh, but we must be born again into the life of the spirit if we are to live eternally with God.”

-C.S. Lewis -

"You must be born again; not patched up, not mended, not made over, but born anew by the Spirit of God.”

-Charles Spurgeon

"The new birth does not reform the old nature; it creates a new one. It is not a change of opinion, but a change of being.”

-A.W. Tozer

"Jesus did not come into the world to make bad men good. He came into the world to make dead men live!”

- Leonard Ravenhill

John 3:8- 12 NLT

We must be born again.

John 3:9-15 NLT

NUMBERS 21:4-6 NLT

NUMBERS 21:8-9NLT

John 3:16-17 NLT

JESUS IS THE GOOD AND PERFECT GIFT.

"John 3:16 is a twenty-six-word parade of hope: God loved, God gave, we believe, we live. It’s the verse that turns strangers into heirs.”-Max Lucado:

"The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God. John 3:16 reveals the lengths to which God’s love would go—giving His only Son for our sake.” C.S. Lewis:

"God proved His love on the Cross. When Christ hung, and bled, and died, it was God saying to the world, ‘I love you.’ John 3:16 is the gospel in a nutshell—a message of love, sacrifice, and salvation.”- Billy Graham

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 4 - A TIME TO TURN OVER TABLES.

JOHN 20:30-31 NIV

John 2:13-22 NLT

MATHEW 11:28-29 NLT

John 2:13-14 NLT

"The love of money has overturned the order of things: it has made the shepherds into wolves, and the sheep into prey.”

-John Chrysostom

The early Church was married to poverty, prisons and persecutions. Today, the church is married to prosperity, personality, and popularity. - Leonard Ravenhill.

When the church becomes a business, it ceases to be the church. The gospel is not a product to be sold, but a gift to be given."- Tim Keller

CORRUPTION AND GREED ARE READY HOUSE GUESTS.

Luke 12:15 NLT

John 2:15-17 NLT

THERE’S A TIME TO TURN OVER TABLES.

JOHN 2:17NLT

Psalm 69:9 NIV

John 2:18 NLT

JOHN 2:19NLT

JOHN 2:20-22 NLT

JESUS STILL LONGS TO DWELL IN HIS TEMPLE.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NLT

WEEK THREE: THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 3- LESSONS FROM A WEDDING

John 2:1-12 NIV

John 2:1-2 NIV

First Invite Jesus.

Revelation 3:19-20 NIV

Deuteronomy 31:6 NIV

Psalm 46:1 NKJV

Revelation 3:19-20 NIV

John 2:3-4 NIV

Bring Your Need to Jesus.

JAMES 4:2b NKJVYou fight and [a]war. [b]Yet you do not have because you do not ask.

2 Timothy 1:12 NLT

"The Church is the Body of Christ, and the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. He fills the Body, directs its movements, controls its members, inspires its wisdom, supplies its strength. He guides into truth, sanctifies its agents, and empowers for witnessing. The Spirit has never abdicated His authority nor relegated His power. Neither Pope nor Parliament, neither Conference nor Council is supreme in the Church of Christ. The Church that is man-managed instead of God-governed is doomed to failure. A ministry that is College-trained but not Spirit-filled works no miracles. The Church that multiplies committees and neglects prayer may be fussy, noisy, enterprising, but it labors in vain and spends its strength for nought. It is possible to excel in mechanics and fail in dynamic. There is a superabundance of machinery; what is wanting is power. To run an organization needs no God. Man can supply the energy, enterprise, and enthusiasm for things human. The real work of a Church depends upon the power of the Spirit. The Presence of the Spirit is vital and central to the work of the Church. Nothing else avails. Apart from Him, wisdom becomes folly, and strength weakness. The Church is called to be a "spiritual house" and a holy priesthood. Only spiritual people can be its "living stones," and only the Spirit-filled its priests.

The Church always fails at the point of self-confidence. When the Church is run on the same lines as a circus, there may be crowds, but there is no Shekinah. That is why prayer is the test of faith and the secret of power. The Spirit of God travails in the prayer-life of the soul. Miracles are the direct work of His power, and without miracles the Church cannot live. The carnal can argue, but it is the Spirit of God that convicts. Education can civilize, but it is being born of the Spirit that saves. The energy of the flesh can run bazaars, organize amusements, and raise millions; but it is the presence of the Holy Spirit that makes a Temple of the Living God. The root-trouble of the present distress is that the Church has more faith in the world and in the flesh than in the Holy Ghost, and things will get no better till we get back to His realized presence and power. The breath of the four winds would turn death into life and dry bones into mighty armies, but it only comes by PRAYER!" -The Way To Pentecost- Samuel Chadwick

John 2:3-5 NIV

Do What Jesus Tells You To Do.

John2:7 -9 NIV

“Maturity comes from obedience, not necessarily from age.” - Leonard Ravenhill

WEEK TWO: THE GOSPEL OF JOHN - JESUS THE TRUTH

John 20:30-31

John 1:1-18

1. Truth is a Person

John 1:1-5

John 1:14

2. Truth is Available

Matthew 7:21-27

a) We are seekers

John14:6

b) We are hearers

John 10:27

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”

c) We are doers

John 14:15

John 14:21

Matthew 28:18-20

3. Truth is Liberating

1 John 5:1-5

The Holy Spirit Helps Us

2 Peter 1:19-21 19

John 14:26

WEEK ONE: THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1 - LIFE IN HIS NAME

JESUS FIRST

CHURCH AS FAMILY

AUTHENTIC DISCIPLES

LIFE IN THE SECRET PLACE

IT’S YOUR LOVE FOR JESUS THAT MAKES YOU GREAT

Mark 12:30 NIV

“ YOU CAN’T HAVE CLEVER AND JESUS WONDERFUL AT THE SAME TIME.”

THE GOD THAT MADE EVERYTHING WANTS MORE THAN ANYTHING FOR YOU TO LOVE HIM.

Psalm 18:1 NLT

If we should lose all the books of the bible except John and Romans Christianity could be saved. - -Martin Luther

John 20:30-31NIV

John 1:1-18 NLT