If you have received an Evite to a party or event, you know that one perk of receiving an Evite is that when you receive that invitation in your inbox, you will usually also be able to see the entire guest list. You will even be able to see who has accepted the invitation and who has declined it. Seeing who has accepted the invitation helps us understand who will be at the party. You see, we can view a guest list, but unless we know who has RSVP'd, we cannot confidently determine who will be attending the event for which we have received an invitation. For any invitation, we have to accept the invitation to join the event. This is also true with the invitation to follow Christ. He has extended the invitation, but we must accept it. In our Bible study today, we will talk about how one turns to Christ and receives eternal life so that they can spend eternity with Him in Heaven one day.
Jesus explained clearly how one can spend eternity in Heaven with Him one day in John 3. This passage of Scripture records an interaction between Jesus and a religious leader named Nicodemus. Nicodemus came to Jesus "after dark one evening," Scripture tells us (verse 2). This is likely because Nicodemus did not want any of the other religious leaders to see him talking to Jesus. The religious leaders despised Jesus and were threatened by Him and His power. They did not understand that He was the Son of God, even though they should have been the first people to recognize who He was. Nicodemus, it seems, was an exception among the religious leaders. He knew there was something different about Jesus. That's why he went to Jesus in the evening to have a conversation with Jesus. During this conversation, he said to Jesus, "We all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you” (verse 2). In response, Jesus shifted the conversation. He said, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God" (verse 3). Nicodemus answered the way most would have to this statement from Jesus. He said, "How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?” (verse 4). Then, Jesus taught Nicodemus about a different kind of birth. This kind of birth was being born of the Holy Spirit. Then, Jesus explained how one can be born of the Holy Spirit. He said, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (verse 16). That, my friends, is how one will experience eternal life with Christ one day: by believing in Jesus and committing their lives to Him.
Jesus made it clear: faith in Him and committing one's life to Him is the only way to Heaven. Good works will not earn an eternity in Heaven. Status will not earn eternity in Heaven. Believing and committing your life to Him is the only way to experience eternal life with Him. In the midst of a world that claims that there are numerous ways to experience eternal life with Him in Heaven one day or that everyone will enter Heaven one day, we must spread the truth that there is no salvation apart from Jesus.
By now, you are hopefully very familiar with the Bridge Diagram, which is a clear and straightforward way to share what Christ has done for us and how to place our faith in Him. Commit to sharing it with one person in your life who does not have a relationship with Christ. After all, He is the only one who brings eternal life.
1There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. 2 After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.”
3 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
4 “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”
5 Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6 Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. 7 So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”
9 “How are these things possible?” Nicodemus asked.
10 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 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 this is how God loved the world: 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.”
22 Then Jesus and his disciples left Jerusalem and went into the Judean countryside. Jesus spent some time with them there, baptizing people.
23 At 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. 24 (This was before John was thrown into prison.) 25 A debate broke out between John’s disciples and a certain Jew over ceremonial cleansing. 26 So 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.”
27 John replied, “No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven. 28 You yourselves know how plainly I told you, ‘I am not the Messiah. I am only here to prepare the way for him.’ 29 It 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. 30 He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.
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. 32 He testifies about what he has seen and heard, but how few believe what he tells them! 33 Anyone who accepts his testimony can affirm that God is true. 34 For he is sent by God. He speaks God’s words, for God gives him the Spirit without limit. 35 The Father loves his Son and has put everything into his hands. 36 And 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.”
