Simple Grace Radio

What do you want? Have you ever stopped and asked yourself that question? What
do you want from life? You know, we are busy people. Busy with work. Busy with family.
Busy with school and hobbies and chores and vacations and buying stuff on Amazon. And there are various desires behind all those busy activities. We work because we want to eat. We study because we want to graduate. We head to Florida because we want to see the sun. But what’s the great desire behind all those smaller ones? What do you want more than anything else in your life, and for your life?

Here's another question, related, but a little more focused. What do you want Jesus to do for you? If Jesus appeared to you today, and asked you: “What would you like me to do for you”, what would you say? He has all power in His hand. He can do absolutely anything you ask. What would you ask Him to do? Would you ask Him to change your physical appearance? Resolve your financial trouble? Heal your marriage? Bring back a lost loved one? What do you want from Jesus?

Every great story involves a great conflict: some great battle to be fought, or a great danger to face or journey to complete. Whether it’s Lord of the Rings, The Old Man and the Sea, or Beauty and the Beast, conflict is essential to a great story. And in these scenes of great conflict there are great decisions that need to be made – decisions that have profound consequences. Frodo makes the fateful decision to travel through Moria, leading to the death of Gandolph. Belle decides to return to the cast le to rescue the Beast – leading to his transformation and true love. Decisions have consequences – sometimes eternal.

This morning we’ve come to one of the great conversion stories of the Bible. This is, in fact, the longest recorded conversation between Jesus and another person in any of the gospels.
It’s a very important text for conservative Reformed churches in general, and for Harvest church in particular. You see, the vast majority of conservative, Reformed churches suffer from the same problem – we are poor at evangelism. We see very few adult baptisms. That doesn’t mean the Spirit of God is not at work – He clearly is. People are growing in the faith.
Young people are professing faith. Some have been truly converted here. But the fact remains that we see very few from outside of church circles come to faith – and I’m increasingly convinced that we can’t just be ok with that.

You may have noticed, in the first few chapters of John’s gospel, that John spends a lot of time explaining who Jesus is. He wants his readers to be perfectly clear about this. And so, he begins his gospel with those memorable words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” All through these first 3 chapters John has been striving to show us the truth about who Jesus is.

His reason for doing this is quite clear. If Jesus really is the Son of God come to earth; if Jesus really is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world; if He really is the Messiah who has come to save and the King who will come to judge – then it is critically important that we understand and believe these things. This isn’t something you can afford to get wrong.

What’s wrong with the world? It’s a very important question. We can all agree that
there is very much wrong in the world. For instance:
There is devastating poverty in the world. Although the number of deaths from
hunger is declining – it is estimated that 9 million died from starvation last year, many of them children under the age of 5. Millions of people are suffering under soul-crushing totalitarian regimes like North Korea, Eritrea and Afghanistan. Homicide continues to be one of the leading causes of death. 440,000 people died last year by an act of violence. Nearly quadruple the number of people killed in war. Sex-trafficking of young girls and women is on the rise around the world. We have recently been hearing of massive corruption in our governmental agencies.

These are just an example of the things that are wrong in the world. But what is the
underlying problem with the world? Why is the world this way?

Victor Hugo, 19th Century poet and author of Les Miserables said, “Life’s greatest
happiness is to be convinced you are loved.”
I think that’s true. But it’s an interesting statement. Why would this be the case? Why, for instance, is romantic love so cherished and sought after? Why are we so desperate to be loved?

Have you ever had the experience of missing out on something you had hoped to do because you lacked the sufficient requirement? Maybe you were heading to Canada but when you got to the border you realized you had forgotten your passport and were turned away. Or you arrived at a concert but realized, at the entrance, that you had left your tickets at home. Or you went to the car rental desk but were turned back because your drivers license had expired. These are all experiences of being turned away because you lacked a necessary document. In our text this morning, Jesus tells us of a necessary experience if we want to enter the kingdom of heaven. Everyone who has this experience will be allowed to
enter. No one who lacks this experience will. We must be born again.

Have you ever been in a relationship with someone and you thought you knew them fairly well – but then they said or did something that surprised you? Maybe they revealed a talent or skill you never knew they had. (Paul Potts) I hope you have a bit of that experience this morning. The Jesus we meet here is surprising. He’s maybe a little different than what we had imagined.

Well, we are about 2 weeks into the New Year and, I must confess, it doesn’t feel very new. In fact, the new year feels an awful lot like old one. Same old names in the news. Same old problems in the world. Same wars. Same disasters. Same diseases. Same crimes. And it’s much the same on a personal level: Same old aches in my body. Same old battles in my soul.
A lot of same old. Nothing really new.

But what if things actually could be new? I mean truly new. What if all the wickedness and brokenness the world and in our lives could be thrown out and replaced by something that is good and beautiful and strong and true? What if things, what if we, could really be made gloriously, completely, new?

Our text this morning is about the glory of grace. But I’d like to begin by asking you
a question. What does “grace” look like? How would you define it? It’s a word we use all the time, at least when we talk about the gospel.

“By grace you have been saved through faith….”
“Where sin abounds, grace abounded all the more.”

We often say in the benediction: “May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.” 

But what does that mean? The reason I ask is because understanding grace is critical to understanding the gospel. Understanding grace is crucial for experiencing the Christian life. The clearer the concept of grace is to your mind, the more precious it will be to your soul. And the more precious it is to your soul the more powerful it will be to mold your life and anchor your hope and fill you with joy and peace in believing.