CSI: EASTER part 2

You may have heard this phrase “the gospel.” What does that mean? It’s just the old English word for “good news.”
Gospel just means good news. “By the gospel you are saved.” In other words, by the good news you are saved.
(last week we looked at the Trial ans Death of Jesus Christ)
Why did God allow that? Why did Jesus go through all that suffering, the grueling, gruesome, horrendous, brutal suffering? Why did God allow it?

The most famous verse in the Bible is John 3:16. You’ve seen this verse probably at a lot of football games. Some guy usually with colored hair holds up a John 3:16 sign in the end zone.

What in the world is John 3:16? It’s the verse in the Bible that says this
\“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.”
That’s the most famous verse in the Bible. It’s often called the gospel in a nutshell or Christianity summarized.
If you were only going to memorize one verse in the entire Bible this would be the one I would recommend – John 3:16 –
because it is the gospel – the Good News – summarized.
In fact, you can even see the word “gospel” spelled out. Notice the letters “God’s … only …Son …perished… eternal… life “– which spells “gospel.”
What we’re going to do today is we’re going to tear this verse apart. Because it explains why God created you, put you on this earth, why Jesus Christ died for you, and how you can have a ticket to heaven. It’s all there.
I want you to notice first of all there are 25 words in this verse – John 3:16. The middle word,
the thirteenth word is the word “Son” talking about Jesus Christ. The first half of the verse is all about God. “For God so love the word that He gave His only begotten.” Then there’s “Son” in the middle. And the last twelve words are all about man. “That whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” That in itself is a picture. Jesus Christ came from heaven to earth to be the bridge between God and man so we could know what God is like.

Today we’re going to look at how this verse shows us God’s plan for your salvation and how you can have a ticket to heaven. If you’ve ever wondered, and everyone does eventually, “What is going to happen to me after I die?” you picked a really good week to come to church. Because
this is the week that we’re going to talk about that particular theme.
One of the greatest weaknesses of our culture is short term thinking. There’s far more to life than just here and now. We act like this life is all there is. We spend our time and our money and our effort and energy acting like, “You only go around once in life. You better go it with gusto!” But we don’t realize that you’re going to spend far more time on the other side of death in eternity than you do on this side here on this earth. You get maybe 60, 80, 100 years here.

You’re going to spend trillions of years on that side. So it does make sense wisely to spend part of the time on this side getting ready for that side. That’s what we’re going to talk about – the four essentials for preparing for eternal life.
Let’s tear apart the most famous verse in the Bible. Today is Christianity 101. The first essential for you in getting to heaven is this…

1. You need to acknowledge God’s passion.
What do I mean by that? You need to realize how much God loves you. It all starts with you understanding how amazingly extravagantly God loves you. God’s passion for you.
A lot of people think God is mad at them. God is not mad at you. He’s mad about you.
The whole issue of the cross explains that.
The Bible says in this famous verse “God so loved the world…” He so loved the world. What does that mean? First we know the Bible says, “God is love.” It doesn’t say He has love. It says He is love. It is His nature. It is His essence. “God is love.” The Bible says that He created everything to be objects of His love, including you. The whole reason you are alive, the reason your heart is beating right now, there’s only one reason for it. God made you to love you.

That’s why you’re alive. There’s no other reason why you’re alive. God made you to love you.
He brought you into existence, obviously using the DNA of your parents, to love you. And God so loved the world. His love is extravagant. It is lavish. It is beyond comprehension. In fact, you will never, ever be able to understand fully how much God loves you because you don’t have the brain capacity. It’d be like an ant trying to understand the Internet. You just don’t have the brain capacity to understand how much God really loves you. But the Bible says He created
the entire universe just so He could create humans in order to love them.

Look at these verses from the Bible. 1 John 4 says “God showed how much He loved us by sending His only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him. This is real love. He sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” God didn’t just say He loved you.
He showed He loved you. He proved He loved you in the most expensive way – by sacrificing His own Son for you. We’re going to talk about that in a minute, what that means. When Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross with His arms outstretched He was saying to yo u, “I love you this
much! I love you this much! So much it hurts.” Even if you were the only person who had ever lived on earth and you had sinned, you’d blown it, you’d made mistakes, you needed a savior,
Jesus Christ still would have come to earth and died for you. That’s how much He loves you.

1 John 3 “What an incredible quality of love the Father has shown us that we should be permitted to be called and counted as the children of God.”
God wanted a family to love.
That’s why He created human beings. He wanted a family to love. He wants you in it. The most amazing thing to me is that the creator of the entire universe would care about me and would want me in His family.
But God’s love for you all through the Bible and through Jesus’ example explains that His love is four-dimensional for you. Eph. 3 “May you be able to feel and understand how long, how wide, how deep and how high [that’s the four dimensions ] God’s love really is and experience this love foryourself.”
God says, “I don’t want you to just know I love you. I want you to feel that I love you.” Most people have never felt loved by God. They’ve never experienced God’s love. They say, ”Oh, yes. I believe God loves me.” But they’ve never felt it. God says, My love is long and wide and deep and high. What does that mean?

How long is God’s love? Long enough to last forever. That’s what makes it different from human love. Have you noticed human love wears out? That’s why we have so many divorces.
God’s love will never stop loving you. It is long enough to last forever.
It is wide enough to be everywhere. There is no place that you could go in life that God’s love is not with you. You will not always feel it. In fact, sometimes you’re going to feel alone.
But you will never be alone. Because God’s love is everywhere. It’s wide enough to be everywhere. There’s no place that you can be where God isn’t. It’s wide enough to be everywhere.
It’s deep enough to handle everything. No problem, no pressure, no stress, no difficulty.
You say, “I’m in the pits right now!” God’s love is there. There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.
Then it is high enough to overlook your mistakes. God loves to forgive. He loves to help you start over.
I believe that God brought you here this morning to FOCUS* church so He could say this to you, “I love you. I love you.” God wants to say to you this morning “I love you.” That’s the
starting point to understand and recognize and acknowledge God’s passion for you.
This is the second key. The second key to understanding how you get to heaven. First you
acknowledge God’s passion. Second…

2. You appreciate God’s present.
God has a gift for you. It’s a present. The gift is His very own Son. That’s the second part of this most famous verse. “God so loved the world…” That’s His passion. “…that He gave His only begotten Son…” That’s His present. God says, I want you to appreciate it.
Notice it doesn’t say, God so loved the world that He sent an angel. It doesn’t say, God so loved the world that He sent a prophet, that He sent a godly teacher, that He sent a moral, ethical leader. No. It says He sent His only begotten Son.

What does that mean? It means God said, “I’m coming myself. I’m going to come to earth in human form.” Jesus was God in human form. God’s Son. He’s the physical representation of God here on earth.
Let’s just review this again. I know I said it last week but I want to say it again. Jesus never claimed to be a good teacher. Jesus never claimed to be a moral leader. Jesus never claimed to be a prophet. In fact, He never claimed to be anything but the Son of God. He said I am God!
That’s what makes some people really nervous about Jesus. Remember I said last week if you ever meet anybody who claims to be God you’ve only got three options. Really only three options in response to somebody who claims to be God.
Number one is the guy’s an idiot. He’s a nut case. He’s like the guy on the funny farm who claims he’s Napoleon. He’s diminished capacity. He’s mentally unstable. He’s whacked out.
That’s one option, you can think.
Second option is I don’t think he’s out of touch with reality. I just think he’s a fraud. He is a swindler. He’s a phony. He’s a crook. He’s trying to be something that he claims to be that
he’s not most likely to get my money. And there are a lot of religious con men in the world, would you agree with that? The only third alternative is, He tells the truth. If He’s telling the truth, if He really is God then what does that mean. That means I have to obey Him. I have to worship Him. I have to bow down to Him.

That’s why they crucified Jesus. They couldn’t get Him on any charges because He hadn’t done anything wrong. So finally they asked Him, “Do you claim to be the Son of God?” and He said,
“Yes. I am the Son of God.” They said, “That’s it! It’s heresy. It’s blasphemy. You’re going to the cross.”
That’s why they killed Jesus.
I know I’ve had some friends who’ve said to me, I don’t think Jesus was the Son of God. I just think He was a great moral teacher. He couldn’t be! In fact that’s the one option He could not be. Because no great moral teacher would say, “I’m God. Worship Me” unless He was. No great moral teacher would say, “I’m the only way you get to the Father except through Me.”
That’s it. So that one is not available. He’s either who He claimed to be or He’s nuts or He’s the biggest fraud in history and He’s got two billion people worshipping a fake, a phony.
Right now, everybody here already believes something about Jesus. You either believe He’s the Lord who He claims to be – God in the flesh. Or He’s a liar, the biggest one in history. He conned out a lot of guys. Or He’s a lunatic. He’s either delusional or He’s deceptive or He’s deity. Those are your choices. That’s what makes a lot of people nervous. Because they don’t want to admit what He is.
Jesus says, “I am coming to earth for your sin.” Romans 3 say
“Out of sheer generosity God put us in right standing with Himself, a pure gift. [It’s a gift. It’s a present.] He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where He always wanted us to be. And He did it by means of Jesus Christ. He sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin.”
The Bible says
“When we were unable to help ourselves at the moment of our need Christ died for us although we were living against God.”

Why did Jesus Christ have to die? Let’s review it again. In the first place, the Bible says nobody’s perfect. We’ve all made mistakes. We’ve all blown it. I don’t measure up to my own standard much less God’s. The Bible says all have sinned. That means me, you, the pope, the president, Billy Graham, everybody. I’ve really never met anybody who claims to be perfect, unless they are out of touch with reality. Because nobody bats 1000. We’ve all done things we regret.

The Bible says, “All have sinned…” It says if you do the crime you pray the time. In other words, if you get a ticket you’ve got to pay it. The Bible says, “The wages of sin is death.” Spiritual death. So that means somebody’s got to pay for all the things you’ve done wrong in life. Either you or somebody else. Somebody’s got to pay for all the things you’ve done wrong.
Either you go to hell or somebody pays it for you. That’s where God steps in and says, “I’ll do it. I created you. I made you. I love you. I will pay for all the things you’ve done wrong.”

What does that mean? It means everything you’ve ever done wrong and I’ve done wrong and everything I haven’t done yet but I’m going to do that’s wrong, that I don’t even know about, and what you’re going to do a that you don’t know about, has already been paid for by Jesus Christ on the cross. That’s good news.

It’s already been paid for The Bible explains it this way. “God took the sinless Christ and poured into Him our sins. Then in exchange He poured God’s goodness into us.” What a deal! The word for this is called, by the way, grace. When God gives you what you need, not what you deserve. So here’s the deal.
God says I’m going to take all of Joe Parks’ wrong things he has done in his life and I’m going to put them on My Son Jesus Christ, and He’s going to pay for them on the cross. Then I’m going to take all the good things Jesus has done and put them on Joe so he can get into heaven. What a deal! What a deal!

Friends, that is love in the first degree. That is love in the first degree! And when they drove those nails through the hands of Jesus they went straight into the heart of God.

Friends, there is no other way. There is no other way. There is no other way you’re ever going to get into heaven which is a perfect place and you’re not except on the ticket that Jesus bought for you. Otherwise Jesus’ sacrifice was an absolute, total, unmitigated waste if there was any other way for you to get into heaven.

The amazing thing is this. God planned the whole thing even before He created you. Because He knew what was going to happen in advance. The Bible says this in Ephesians “Saving is all His idea and all His work. [In other words, He does all the work] All we do is trust Him [circle “all we do is trust Him”] enough to let Him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish.” That’s the present. God’s gift to you.

Notice – this is very, very important. It’s not what you do that gets you into heaven. It’s what Jesus Christ already did. That’s the only way. It’s not what you do. It’s what Jesus Christ already did.

It’s already been done. It’s already been done, I’ve done it all for you. I’ve paid the price. That why Jesus, with His arms outstretched on the cross said, “It is accomplished. It is finished. I have already paid for all the sins of everybody. All you need to do is trust Me, to appropriate that gift.”
If somebody brings you a gift, if you don’t unwrap it, that’s dumb. If you don’t accept it, that’s dumb. God has a gift for you. How do you accept it? By believing.
This is why we should life with constant attitude of gratitude. And a constant attitude of thanksgiving to Jesus Christ and gratefulness and appreciation because He deserves it. He
earned it. He paid for my freedom with His life. He paid for my ticket to heaven with His blood and He is worthy of all of our praise. When Jesus Christ paid for your sins on the cross it split history into AD and BC. Why? It is the most significant thing that ever happened. Every time you write a date you’re using Jesus Christ as the focal point. You say 2006. From what? From Jesus Christ’s death for you. That was His present. These are the essentials for getting ready for the other side of death. First, you acknowledge God’s passion. He loves me more than I’ll ever be able to know. God so loved the world.
That’s His passion. Then you appreciate His present. That He gave His only Son. He came to earth and gave His life for you. What do you do next?

3. You accept His proposal.
You accept God’s great proposal. God has an incredible offer for you, one like you will never ever receive anywhere else. It’s this. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son…” then here’s the proposal, “…that whosoever believes in Him should not perish.” God says, You believe what I did for you, you will not perish.
Notice who this proposal, this offer is for. Titus 2, says
“The free gift of eternal salvation [notice it’s a free gift. That’s the present] is offered to everyone. ”
Jesus is an equal opportunity Savior.
It’s offered to everybody. In fact, He gets more specific in the next verse Col. 3:11
“One’s nationality or race or education or social position is unimportant. Such things mean nothing. Whether a person has Christ is what matters and He is equally available to all.”
Notice it doesn’t matter how much money you make – a lot or a little – rich or poor. It doesn’t matter what your economic status is. It doesn’t matter your ethnic or racial background. It doesn’t matter your social prestige, whether you’re famous or not. It doesn’t matter what your religious background is. Jesus died for you. I don’t care if you’re Catholic or Jewish or Buddhist or Baptist or Moslem or Hindu or no religious background, Jesus still died for you. And He wants you to have a relationship with Father God.
Notice how you accept God’s proposal. First it’s who it’s for – it’s everybody. How do you accept it? The Bible says this in Romans 3
“God says He will accept us and acquit us [in other words declare us not guilty, wipe out all the things we’ve done wrong. Our record is cleared] if we trust Jesus Christ to take away our sins. We can all be saved in this same way by coming to Christ no matter who we are or what we’ve been like.”
I’m grateful for the last part of that verse.

No matter who we are or what we’ve been like. It says you trust just in Jesus Christ. Somebody says, “I’ve messed up my life too much.” No, you haven’t. Or you say, “I’ve lived my life too long without God.” No, you haven’t. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, who you’ve done it with, where you’ve done it. What matters is what direction are your feet headed right now? Are they headed towards Jesus Christ?
There’s only one condition to accepting God’s proposal of eternal life for you. Only one.

What is it? You trust. You trust Him. It says “Whosoever believes in Him will not perish.” Believing is not knowing. It’s trusting. It’s not just knowing about Jesus. It’s not just saying, “I believe He’s God.” Big deal! You say, “I believe in Jesus.” So does the devil but you’re not going to find him in heaven. The devil knows Jesus Christ is the Son of God. The latest poll in Newsweek says 82% of America would say, “I believe Jesus is the Son of God.” So what? It means more than a head knowledge. It’s a heart knowledge. The word in Greek “believe” literally is the word, pisteuo which means, “to trust in, to cling to, to rely on, to commit to.” I could have a chair here and say, “I believe in that chair. I believe it will hold me up.” But until I sit down on it I don’t really believe in it. Let me explain it this way, I believe in Karl Marx. I believe he existed. I believe he’s the founder of communism. But I’m not a communist. I believe in Hitler, but I’m not a Nazi. I believe in Osama bin Laden but I’m not a member of Al Qaeda. But I believe in Jesus and I’m a Christian. Why? Because I trust Him. I’ve committed myself to Him.

Let me give you another example. It’s the difference between having a close friendship and just being acquainted. Difference between meeting and engaging with someone famous, maybe you’ve met a well-known musician or actor or politician, shook their hand, maybe chatted for a while - So u can say, I know So n So. But I don’t really know them. I’m not in their inner circle. I’m not a close personal friend.
I don’t have a deep relationship with them. I just know about them. Here’s the problem.
A lot of people know about Jesus, but they don’t know Him. Many people got it in their head but they don’t have it in their heart. They now about Him. They believe He’s the Son of God. But they don’t trust Him with their lives. Jesus died for you so you could have a relationship with Him. God made you for purpose and the number one part of that purpose is to get to know and love and trust God. Right now He offers you the proposal of a lifetime.

“Right now God is ready to welcome you into His family. Today He is ready to save you.” Have you ever personally accepted what Jesus Christ did for you on the cross and told Him so. If you haven’t you ought to. In fact, you ought to do it now. In fact, why don’t we just pause right here
and pray together. Just bow your head and talk to Jesus Christ. You say, “I don’ t know what to say!” I’ll say some words and you follow me in your mind. You don’t have to say it aloud. God knows your heart. He knows what you’re thinking. Just say this.
Dear Jesus, I don’t understand it all, but I want to thank You for loving me. I want to thank You for coming to earth for me. And I want to thank You for giving Your life for me so I
could go to heaven. I want to accept Your free gift of forgiveness and salvation. I want You to be the savior of my life and the Lord, the manager of my life. I want to learn to trust You
and to love You and to fulfill Your purpose for my life. I say to You to day, Come on in to my heart. Amen.

What do I do after I’ve accepted God’s proposal? Here’s the last thing you do.

4. You anticipate God’s promise.
“God so loved the world…” That’s His passion and I admit and recognize it. “…that He gave His only begotten Son…” That’s His present that He wants to give you. “…that whosoever believes in Him …” That’s the condition, that’s the proposal. “…should not perish but have ever lasting life.” That’s the promise. “Should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Did you know that you were made to last forever? One day you’re going to die. That’s going to be the end of your body. Your heart’s going to stop. But that’s not going to be the end of you.
On no! God wants you to be in heaven with Him. Not in hell.
What is hell? Hell was made for the devil and his demons. Really it was. A lot of people have a big myth about hell. They think hell is where you go if you’re really, really, really, really bad.
Like an ax murderer. But heaven is a place where you go if you’re pretty good. Most of us want to be good enough to go to heaven but bad enough to be fun.
The fact is, if you could be good enough to get to heaven on your own then Jesus Christ coming to earth and dying for you was a total waste. The truth is heaven is a perfect place and you’re not. And God doesn’t grade on a curve. Have you ever been to DisneyWorld or 6 Flags or some Carnival and they have those rides that say, “You’ve got to be so tall to ride this ride.” And little kids are jumping up: “I’m tall enough! I’m tall enough!” I can imagine getting to heaven and God having a 1000-foot sign and saying, “You’ve got to be this perfect to get in here.” I’m not and you’re not. That’s why we needed Jesus. Jesus paid for your ticket into heaven.
Notice God’s promise. 1 Peter 1
“We are now members of God’s own family. And God has reserved for His children the priceless gift of eternal life. It is kept in heaven for you and [this is the good part] God will make sure that you get there safely to receive it. [In other words God makes sure you’ll get there] because you are trusting Him.”

All of God’s children are guaranteed heaven. The problem is not everybody’s in God’s family.
You need to understand the distinction. Everybody is created by God but not everybody is a child of God. Only those who choose and say, “God, I want to be in Your family.” Only those who choose to believe and trust what Jesus Christ did.

The next verse shows the three benefits of being in God’s family. And these are big ones.
“What a God we have! Because Jesus was raised from the dead we’ve been given [here are the three things] a brand new life [that takes care of my past] everything to live for [that takes care of my present] and a future in heaven [that takes care of my future].” So God says here’s what I offer you: past forgiven, purpose for living, home in heaven. Not a bad deal. Past forgiven, purpose for living, home in heaven. That’s what God says I offer to you.
Bible says this in Psalm 34 “Open your eyes and see how good God is.”
In the movie The Passion of the Christ one of the most graphic scenes to me is when Pilate, the
governor of Judea, walks out in front of an entire mob and he asks the single most important question in history.
He asks, “What will you do with Jesus?”
I’m asking you that question right now. What will you do with Jesus? It is the most important question you will ever be asked in your life. It no t only determines the rest of your life but where you’ll spend eternity: What will you do with Jesus?
Let me explain something to you. You don’t have to have all of it figured out, all your questions answered, all your doubts resolved before you begin a relationship with Jesus Christ.
One day a guy came to Jesus who had a sick daughter. He said, “Lord, I want You to heal my daughter.” Jesus looked at him and said, “Do you believe I can heal her?” The guy said, “I want to believe. Yeah, I believe. Help me with my doubts.” Jesus said, “That’s good enough!” And Bam! He healed her.
You can come to Jesus Christ this morning and say, Jesus I want to believe. Help me with my doubts!
Prayer:
Thank You for Your amazing love and grace for them. Lord, there are people here who know about You but they’ve never really known You. They’ve never begun a relationship with You. I pray that You’ll give them the words right now to start that relationship with You. Thank You for loving us even before we know You.
Now you pray. Say, “Dear Jesus. I don’t understand it all but I want a relationship with You. I want to thank You for loving me. I want to thank You for coming to earth for me. I want to thank You for giving Your life for me so I could go to heaven. I want to accept Your free gift of forgiveness and salvation. I want You to be the Savior of my life and the Lord of my life and the manager. You call the shots from here on out. I want to learn to trust You and to love You and to fulfill Your purpose for my life. Amen.

SO HOW SHOULD I RESPOND TO HIS DEATH FOR ME?

1. I OUGHT TO LOVE CHRIST - with all my heart 1 JN 4:19
Even if God never did anything else for me…
He deserves my total devotion

2. I OUGHT TO HATE SIN - ROM. 6:6
It was my sin & yours that nailed Jesus to the cross
How can I laugh at sin on TV or in movies?
The cross shows how serious sin really is. no laughing matter

3. I OUGHT TO TELL OTHERS - 2 COR. 5:14
If someone died for you – wouldn’t you want to know about it?
This is the motive behind everything we do at FOCUS*:to reach one more for Christ.
ILL: Typical resident sits at home on weekends totally unaware of what God has done for him or her.
If that person lives & dies without knowing Christ
Then, for that person, Jesus’ death was a waste!

Tell someone this week, those close to you... family, friends, co-workers - who needs to know
that is in your realm of influence - tell them this week.