Sunday Gathering - John 3 : 1-21 - Cornelius Tanis

Amen. First question. Before I start, the question, what is the most iconic first in the Word of God?

Come on. Who? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Amen. John 316. Now we have many nationalities here. Who knows it in a different language?

Yes, Sarah.

Amen. Did you get that? More people?

Yes. Yes.

Amen.

Well, many years ago I was in California and they heard where I was from and different languages have spoken

and they asked me to come up and to speak to do this in different languages.

So I thought I'm going to do that today as well but I'm not going to do it but I'm going to ask if people know it.

So let's first start because today we're going to have John 316 in our readings. So it's a good reading today.

Sarah, when you come up, it is John 3121.

Sarah.

Jesus teaches Nicodemus. Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish Ruling Council.

He came to Jesus at night and said, Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God.

For no one could perform the signs that you are doing if God were not with him.

Jesus replied, very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.

How can someone be born when they are old Nicodemus asked? Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother's womb to be born?

Jesus answered, very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the spirit.

Flash gives birth to flesh but the spirit gives birth to spirit.

You should not be surprised at my saying, you must be born again. The wind blows wherever it pleases.

You hear it sound but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going so it is with everyone born of the spirit.

How can this be Nicodemus asked?

You, a Israel's teacher said Jesus and you do not understand these things.

Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and we testify of what we have seen but still you people do not accept our testimony.

I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe. How then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?

No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven, the Son of Man.

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness so the Son of Man must be lifted out and everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.

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.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

This is the verdict, light has come into the world but God loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed but whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be plainly seen that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

Amen.

Thank you.

Thank you. We get a lot of information in this part of Scripture through Nicodemus.

Nicodemus who had lots of questions to Jesus.

Nicodemus was a Pharisee.

The Pharisees were the people who lived by the law, they were the ruling class in Jerusalem.

They had, they were the learned, they knew the Torah and the prophets and the traditions.

Many laws, they had added, they lived by the law and here Nicodemus had seen Jesus, Jesus who was a rabbi.

He had seen Jesus doing miracles but he had seen Jesus having authority.

The Pharisees were teachers of the law but they were different to Jesus.

Jesus had an authority they did not have and he had seen Jesus operating in Jerusalem during his time he was there for the feast.

At night he didn't want to be seen, he came to Jesus to ask those questions.

And Jesus immediately because he says, you are obviously, you are a man of God.

And Jesus immediately hits him, now I call this Nicodemus, this whole passage.

Nicodemus, the carnal mind versus the spirit because the whole conversation is really about the intellect of Nicodemus with Jesus who speaks in the spirit.

And they talk next to one another, above one another, I must say.

They do not get one another, at least Nicodemus is not getting Jesus.

Next one.

Jesus immediately hits Nicodemus and say, this very important, very theological, amazing verse.

I mean, if we did not have this verse, we would miss something and it says, very truly, Jesus says, I tell you, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless

they are born again.

Now I want to break it down a little bit this verse.

First of all, that born again is not just an adon or being born again many times is sort of thought of as an experience you have.

Or something people have talked about and maybe you could have or but born again, Jesus very clearly says, you must be born again.

And he repeats it three times, you must be born again.

Not just that, he says, he starts with very truly, I tell you.

Now that's English. This week, I have to do my exam for my citizenship for my English.

I'm going to use this word, very truly, I tell you.

They think like, what are you from? Very truly, Jesus wants to say something here, he's very serious.

And whatever translation you look at, it's the same thing. Jesus is serious here.

He wants to express something to us, to all of us, to Nicodemus, who doesn't get a thing of it, but as well to us, you must be born again.

First of all, I want to look at that word, see. How do you see the kingdom of God? How do you see salvation?

How do you see getting into salvation, or get salvation, attain salvation?

To see, he speaks to Nicodemus here. Nicodemus is learned who knows a lot, who has studied the word.

He is well informed and he says, how do you see? Now Nicodemus walked with the law, he obeyed the law.

And through the law, he thought that he would attain his salvation. Now, Jesus says here, no one can see the kingdom unless they are born again.

Now, the kingdom, the kingdom, what kingdom is he talking about? Now, I have been thinking and sort of going into that kingdom.

There's a lot to say about kingdom, you could have just a study on the kingdom. But very clearly, is Daniel in that the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, who brings the kingdom.

And it is helpful in this situation. Now, that story was about the king who had a dream. Do you remember it?

The king who had a dream, he had a dream of a statue and a statue consisted out of different metals. The top was gold, the second part was silver, bronze, iron, a mixture of iron and clay, and clay at the bottom.

And those different metals, they were different kingdoms. It was a big statue. But then from the mountain, the top was a rock coming down.

Jesus says, a rock, not cut out by human hands. So it was a rock, God himself prepared, was cut out, coming down, down to hill. And as it came down the mountain, it became bigger and bigger. And it smashed that statue, it destroyed that statue.

And it says not a speck of dust of that statue was left behind. That rock was the kingdom of God. And it says that rock would take over, would grow into a mountain and take over the earth.

That is the kingdom of God. Now, with that picture, you understand where we are going. The kingdom of God. You cannot see the kingdom of God unless you are born again. The kingdom of England.

The kingdom of England will pass away. All those kingdoms, Daniel was talking about, they have all passed away. The kingdom of Babylon, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Romans, the Greek, the Romans, all passed away.

And here we are today in the kingdom of England. He talks about, you cannot see that kingdom, Nicodemus, unless you are born again. You need to be born in a kingdom. If I was born in England, like my wife, I would have been English.

But I am not, so I have to work hard to get my English citizenship, I am working on it. And then it is still like, do you get it or you don't get it?

Were you born in it, if I was born here, I would have been British. Sadly I wasn't.

To be in that kingdom of God, which will be there for eternity forever, you must be born in it. And that's why you cannot become a Christian by just learn something of the Scriptures or repeat the verse.

Or you must be born again. Now we are going in there. We are going in there.

Second one. Second slide.

Of course, Nicodemus doesn't understand it. He has many questions. How can this be? How is this possible? He has questions.

And it's really good to see because we have many questions. We are exactly like, how can this be? We have questions.

So therefore, to follow Nicodemus on his trail of asking those questions, it's good for us.

Now Jesus is trying to explain it. And he's trying to bring that spiritual to teach him, to show him the spiritual.

And John 63 says, the Spirit gives life. The flesh counts for nothing. And that's exactly it. The flesh counts for nothing.

Because they like those kingdoms of the world. They all pass away. They all perish. We perish. With those kingdoms, we perish too.

But the Spirit gets life. We must go on that road of the Spirit. We must find the road towards the Spirit.

To be born again is how we entered it, kingdom of God.

Next one.

Then Jesus says, he's even more confused, Nicodemus. And then Jesus says, you are a teacher.

You are a teacher of the Lord. You, this is what you do. You teach the people.

Now Paul says, can't remember where to be a teacher, be careful because you're going to be judged even more because you're teaching people stuff.

You're responsible for it. Very, very true. So he says, you are a teacher. You have lots of knowledge because that's what they did. The Pharisees. They gained lots of knowledge.

And they had knowledge about what? They had knowledge about Abraham, about Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, and the prophets.

They had knowledge about people. But what did those people have in common? Those people had relationship with God.

They had a relationship. Abraham walked with God, was called by God. Moses was called in the burning bush and he was daily before God in the desert when he set up the tabernacle.

The prophets, they were in contact with God. Those people, the Pharisees were learning about, they were studying, those people had relationship.

The Pharisees on the contrary did not have that relationship. They were studying stuff about God and many people are like that. They know about God but do not know God.

And that is why we have to be born again. You can know about God, like the Pharisees, and have your works, like the Pharisees.

The Pharisees lived by the law. They were abiding and thought through all their programs they would be saved and they would judge other people on it.

And that's why Jesus called them hypocrites because it's not about your works but it is about your heart.

Your heart needs to have relationship with God. It's vertical, vertical. We must have relationship with God.

Jesus is teaching Nicodemus here and we are going on that journey with him and he's trying to show Nicodemus the spirit you need.

You need your heart. It says, for with your heart, Romans, with your heart, you believe.

Then Jesus is starting to show actually a most precious verse, 13 and 14, John 3, 13 and 14. Jesus shows how to believe.

And I love that verse. Jesus says, like in the desert when the people of Israel complained to God, to Moses.

When we complain, when we complain, remember, the people of Israel complained against God, and Moses, and God was upset.

And he sent snakes in, venomous snakes, and many people got killed. I live the Mozambique. We had all the venomous snakes you can think of.

You took care because snakes are dangerous. I'm not afraid of them but they can bite.

So you better take a little bit of respect to those snakes. Snakes had come in, snakes had killed many people.

And then they cried out to Moses and said, Moses, into seed for us, Moses, go to God and God spoke to them and said, make a snake of bronze.

And put it on a pole. And put it up high. And let people look at that snake. And while they're watching, looking that bronze snake, they will be healed.

Just that simple. Just that simple. I want to make that clear. The difference between works, salvation by works, does not exist.

Salvation of works, does not exist. He says, look at that copper bronze snake. And they will be healed. You just need to look at it. Look at it, Moses said.

Now I can imagine, many people think like, give me a cream, give me some medicines. What is this for nonsense? What is this for nonsense? I need to do something.

You know, give me some medicine. Moses says, look at that. Just look at it. Simple. Look at it. And you will be healed. And then Jesus says, likewise. Now listen to me.

Likewise, the son of God will be lifted up. The son of God will be lifted up. The cross of Jesus was lifted up. And he says, likewise, Jesus is teaching us faith here.

He said likewise, look at that cross. And you will be saved. Because just simply looking at that cross, no works, no works, no works, simply looking at that cross.

And you will be saved. It is phenomenal. It is the grace of God. I love it. It's the grace of God. Nothing else. It's the grace of God. That's grace.

You don't do anything. You don't do anything. You just look at that cross. Can we do the next one? Believe. God made him who had no sin to be sin.

So you might become the righteousness of God, 2 Corinthians 5, 21. God made him who had no sin. Jesus Christ. He sent his son, Jesus Christ. We're going there to our verse. We're going there. Jesus Christ had no sin. Became sin. So you might become the righteousness of God. Next verse.

Then the old has gone and the new has come. Next verse. There we go. For God so loved this world that He gave His only one and only son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

And why is this verse so iconic? Because it got everything in it. In this verse it speaks about God your creator who loves you. Each one of you. If you have a doubt that God loves you, look at that verse. It speaks about you. This is you. God loves the world. He loves you people so much that He gave. Love gives. God gave His only son.

That whoever believes, remember believes what Jesus said just look at that cross. Just look at the cross. He doesn't say go through dirt, go through dust, go on your knees, beat yourself, do this. No, he said just look at that cross. And you shall not perish. All the kingdoms of the world will perish. All the kingdoms will perish with us with it. We too will perish.

He says you stand, condense already. You are condemned. But when you look at that cross, you shall not perish. But have eternal life. You will be born again. It's so beautiful. It's so amazing. I love it. Amen. That is the gospel. I'm already too late.

The exchange has taken place. When we look at that cross, the exchange has taken place. When we look at that cross, my sin, my all from the past, present and future, my sin on that cross. Jesus has taken it. Me to be free. I'm free. I'm free. That's what Jesus has done for us. He gave Himself.

He gave Himself to us. And then when you've done that, you are born again. Then when I was born again, a piece came upon me beyond all understanding. A love came over me like liquid gold. The joy. When I come to church sometimes, I don't feel like going to church. But just the idea, we're going to worship. That brings me here because I just love to praise the Lord. It gives me joy.

Then persecution comes as well. When I've got born again, I told my friends what happened. I was so excited. It's nice for you. But no, it's not for us. It's not for me. You know that phrase? It's not for me.

You sort of like, you have nothing in common anymore.

And sort of like, you lose your friends.

You get a persecution, they make fun of you.

You are now happy, happy, you are now, you know?

But anyway, so that thing, persecution comes in.

But you know what?

As well, God's convicted me.

All sorts of things happened.

But he brought some conviction.

One type, one, people who I've really felt I should ask forgiveness or should speak to

were my parents, because I had been very rude to my parents.

I had had many fights with my parents.

And I felt like I had to apologize, I had to ask forgiveness, difficult.

And I wrote them a letter.

A friend of mine said, why don't you write a letter, then you don't need to do it face-to-face

and you will meet them anyway.

So then it would brought up.

So I wrote them a letter and it just brought such a piece and such a love in our relationship

and when I met my parents, they have been so supportive.

And the rest of my life and all our ministry, they were our biggest supporters.

And you know what?

They told me they have been praying for me to be saved.

And there I realized the correlation between prayer and being saved, that when you pray

and pray for your loved ones and pray again, God answers prayer, like God heard Moses,

he hears you, when you pray, he hears you.

And it might not be immediately, but God hears you.

That correlation between prayer, that set me up for intercession.

And when I went to Africa and we were with many children, we had the children home for twenty

one years, the first thing that really hit me was those kids have no one to pray for them.

Those kids who have been dedicated to their ancestral spirits, those kids who have come

from darkness, Jesus speaks about the light in the darkness.

They have been in darkness all their lives, all their ancestors, those people, those kids,

you know, who stands in the gap for them?

And I really felt like building a prayer house and praying for them.

That's what I did.

We had lots of difficulties and I prayed for them.

They didn't go well, no, it didn't go well.

I fasted it.

Fasting, just humbling myself, praying for those kids, then we had many problems and God

take those three kids, those three difficult kids, bring them into prayer house, make them

fast and pray.

Ask them if they want to fast and pray or leave your household, they fasted with me.

About the thirteen, they, the power of the Holy Spirit came into the house of prayer.

Those kids were saved, they were born again and after that so many people wanted to pray

and fast and our whole ministry changed because of that, because of simple prayer and fasting.

And that's, can we do the next one?

That's the gospel.

This painting, this is a painting I painted, just after I got born again, it's a cross.

I painted lots of crosses because I was blown away with a cross, the cross, but this

cross has a gate in it, you see, it has a gate in it because the cross is your, the

gateway to your life.

The cross is your new life, you're not going to stand at the cross for the rest of your

life, you're not standing here for the rest of holding onto the cross, no, the cross

is the beginning to your new life.

On the cross, you go, the oldest gone, the newest come, the plan and purpose start at the

cross.

Now, forty years on, I look back and see like God has done, you have a testimony, God has

done so many things, you have a testimony, that's what I want to ask you.

If you feel burning in your heart, you feel like I need Jesus, I'm not born again.

If you feel like I've never experienced that, I've never given my life, I want you to come

forward while the worship is going, I want you to come forward, we'll pray for you.

And secondly, I feel like people who have loved ones who are not saved and they feel like

I want to pray and stand in agreement, I want to pray and stand in agreement for those

loved ones, come forward, we pray with you for your loved ones to be saved.

It is your prayer, it's the beginning of their salvation.

I've seen God move and work, experience it myself, I got saved because my parents prayed

for me, probably you the same, many people have those experiences.

So therefore we want to stand with you in agreement.

If you have people, loved ones, you want to bring to the Lord to be safe, comfort.

Jesus says, no one comes to the Father except when no one comes to Jesus except the drawn by

the Father.

John 644, God draws, the Father draws people in.

He draws them in by the Holy Spirit when we pray, like Moses prays, stood in the gap for

the people of Israel.

God hears, when we pray together, we stand in agreement.

God will hear our prayers.

So I want to ask the worship team to come, we'll hear, to pray with you.

Let me just finish prayer with a prayer.

For we thank you, for this moment in time, as you see our hearts, as you know each one of us,

as your heart is for each person in this room, each person watching online to be saved.

Lord, you gave your Son, Jesus Christ, for us, that when we believe we would be saved.

And Lord, I pray today will be a new day for each one of us in Jesus' name. Amen.