Be Great By Faith

BE GREAT BY FAITH
JOHN 1:12-14

A preacher was on a radio program
where the interviewer was an atheist.
The atheist demanded that the preacher
NOT quote any scripture during the interview.
“I don’t want to hear any Bible on my airways.
You got that?
No Bible on my airwaves.”
So, then the interviewer started the program by saying:
“I submit that you Christians are not respectful of my opinion.
I believe I should be able to get into heaven
because I’ve been a good person.
What do you say to that?”

The preacher thought about it for a moment
and then said “Let’s say you go to the wealthy side of town
and approach a beautiful mansion.
You ring the doorbell and when they answer the door
you inform them that you expect to be able to move in.
What do you think they’d do?
You don’t know them and they don’t know you –
WHY should they let you move in?

It’s the same with heaven.
You’re trying to tell me that God should let you into heaven
just because you’ve come to His gates
and demanded to be let in.
But you don’t know Him and
you’ve spent your life attacking His character.
Heaven isn’t about how good you’ve been.
It’s all about knowing Jesus.
Jesus said that no one gets into heaven
except through Him and you don’t know Him.”

Now that makes sense doesn’t it.

Why would anybody let you stay in their house
if they don’t know you?
Particularly if you make it clear that you don’t like them
and you don’t WANT to know them.

That’s essentially what our text this morning is all about.
“To all who received him, who believed in his name,
He gave the RIGHT to become children of God.”
(John 1:12)

We get into heaven because we WANT to know Jesus.
And once we decided we want to know Him,
and we want what He has to offer,
then we weren’t some stranger
knock, knock, knocking on heaven’s door.
We get to move in with Jesus
because we are given the right… to be children of God.

The Declaration of Independence
has an intriguing phrase that says:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator (God)
with certain unalienable RIGHTS,
that among these are Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

In other words – the Declaration declared
that God gives us rights.
But there’s one right that’s not mentioned
in the Declaration of Independence.
And it’s a far greater right than any rights
That are listed in that document

We find it in John 1:12
“To all who received him,
who believed in his name,
he gave the RIGHT to become children of God.”

Essentially, we have the right to a vast
and powerful inheritance because of our faith,
all because we’ve BELIEVED in His name –
all because we wanted to receive what Jesus offered us.

we need to realize how thankful we should be
for that inheritance. Think about this –
what do you have on earth
that’s more important than heaven.
What would you be willing trade for an eternity with Jesus?

Jesus said: “The kingdom of heaven
is like treasure hidden in a field,
which a man found and covered up.
Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has
and buys that field.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant
in search of fine pearls, who,
on finding one pearl of great value,
went and sold all that he had and bought it.”
Matthew 13:44-46

What’s Jesus saying?
He’s saying that there’s nothing on this earth
that could possibly begin to equal the value
of eternity with Jesus.
What we have with Jesus is worth EVERYTHING,
And NOTHING we have (on this earth)
compares to Jesus and what He offers.

Paul said it this way:
“Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss
for the sake of Christ.
Indeed, I count everything as loss
because of the surpassing worth
of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things
and count them as rubbish,
in order that I may gain Christ.”
Philippians 3:7-8

I once read that the printing press
was one of the greatest inventions ever.
Up until that time,
all books were painstakingly printed by hand –
which made books very rare and very hard to find.
But the Printing press changed all of that.
Information was suddenly made available to 1000s of people.

And (pause) one of the most significant accomplishments
of the printing press was that it allowed people
to have their own copies of Scripture.

During one of the printings,
one of the Bibles had been ripped
and a scrap of paper from that Bible
ended up on the shop floor
where it was found by the daughter of the owner.

And on that scrap of paper… were these words,
“For God so loved that He gave...”
The rest of the verse was missing,
but that simple phrase moved her,
and the rest of the day she went around
with a smile on her face.

Her mother noticed … and asked what had made her so happy? The girl pulled the crumpled paper from her pocket
and showed it to her mother.
The mother read it and asked,
"What did He give?"
And the girl replied
“I don’t know,
but if God loved us enough to give us anything
He must love us deeply.”

So, the question is - how much is eternity in heaven
worth to you?
What would you pay to get Jesus and what He offers?
Well, our passage says that the way we can get Jesus
is to RECEIVE Him on His terms, to BELIEVE in His name!
“To all who received him, who believed in his name,
He gave the right to become children of God.”
John 1:12

So, what does that mean?
What does it mean to receive Jesus/ to believe in His name?
Well, it helps to know what it DOESN’T MEAN!
Notice the next part of our text:
“Those were given the right to become children of God
“were born, not of blood; nor of the will of the flesh;
nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:13)

So, there’s only one way to become a child of God.
How???
By being born OF God.
But, there are 3 ways
you CAN’T become a child of God.

You can’t become a child of God BY BLOOD!
In the Old Testament, you became a Jew
because you were born into a Jewish family - by blood.
But you can’t do that with Jesus.

You can’t become a Christian
by being born into a Christian family.
You could come to church for decades
with your Christian family.
But YOU are the one who has to decide
that YOU want TO RECEIVE;
and YOU want to BELIEVE;
YOU are the one who has to make the decision.

And you can’t become a child of God
by the “Will Of The Flesh.”

This means that you (in your flesh)
can’t decide that YOU’RE good enough
to be good enough to please God.
A lot of people believe –
if they do enough good things
they can EARN salvation.

That way, it’s their own RIGHTEOUSNESS
that gets them in.
And frankly, God couldn’t keep them out
if He wanted to because they’ve EARNED their spot.
But Jesus said: "I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6
You become a child of God
ONLY by following Jesus!

And 3rdly – you can’t become a child of God
by the “Will Of Man.”
Somebody else (like your father/mother/best friend)
can’t decide for you that you will become a child of God.
That’s one of the problems with infant baptism.
The baby didn’t believe in Jesus.
The baby didn’t decide that they wanted to be a child of God.
All a baby really wants is a bottle of milk –
they're hardly able to decide to become a "child of God"... somebody else made that decision for them.

ILLUS: Rod Cameron (a former missionary to Africa)
was once approached by a leader from an African town
in which he was ministering
who wanted his 2 children baptized.
When asked how old the children were,
the man responded “ages 3 and 5.”

Rod thought on that a moment and replied,
“John, why do you want your children baptized?”

John responded “My wife and I
have been reading the Bible and we believe
that we need to have our children ready to go to Heaven.”
Rod said, “well then,
why don’t we just baptize everyone in the village?
You’re a strong man, we’ll start with the oldest
and work our way down,
and we’ll drag them down the river one by one
and put them under water.”

Puzzled, John asked “Why would we want to do that?
They may not want to be baptized!”
“That’s right,” said Rod,
“you really need to want to become a Christian
to be baptized, and your children aren’t ready for that yet.

Now, how about you and your wife?
Are you ready to make that commitment?”
Sometime later, John and his wife were baptized
and raised their family to love God.
Their children accepted the gospel
and were also baptized when they were old enough
to UNDERSTAND WHY they NEEDED to be baptized.

Jesus said: “Whoever believes and is baptized
will be saved, but whoever does not believe
will be condemned.” Mark 16:16

So, let’s review:

you can’t become a child of God…
By being born of blood (i.e. – being born into a Christian family);

you can’t become a child of God…
By the will of the flesh (you – in your FLESH –
can’t decide you’re good enough);
Nor by the will of man (your friends/family
can’t make that choice for you).
In short - you can’t become a child of God on your terms.
You’ve got to do things - God’s way.
But how do you do things… God’s way?
What does God say in the Bible
that I need to do to “receive” Jesus?

First I need to believe in His name…
(that’s what it says here in John)
John 1:12 says “But to all who did receive him,
who believed in his name,
he gave the right to become children of God.”

What do I need to believe about Him?
Well, it’s not that hard.
I’m supposed to believe that Jesus is God in the flesh
and that he’s come to change my life.
“The Word (Jesus) became flesh and dwelt among us,
and we have seen his glory,
glory as of the only Son from the Father,
full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

(PAUSE) Faith as the foundation of our salvation
shows up a LOT in Scripture,
but does that mean I don’t need to repent as well?
NO – I need to repent.

Acts 3:19-20 tells us “Repent therefore,
and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,
that times of refreshing
may come from the presence of the Lord,
and that he may send the Christ appointed for you.”
Repentance means to “TURN BACK” –
turn away from a sinful lifestyle.
God says that repentance is part of what we do
to have our sins forgiven.

(PAUSE) So, Faith and Repentance are vital for salvation,
does that mean I don’t have to confess Him?
NO… confession is important too.
Romans 10:9 says I need to confess that Jesus is Lord.
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved.”
Notice, it doesn’t say I am confessing my sins.
Instead, it says I must confess that Jesus is now my LORD.
I’m confessing that Jesus will now own me
and all that I have because He’s my Lord!

(PAUSE) So, Faith, Repentance, and Confession
are all part of our appeal to God for salvation.
Does that mean I don’t have to be baptized?
Well… that’s not what the Bible says.

When the crowd was convinced
that they’d crucified their Messiah,
“they were cut to the heart,
and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles,
"Brothers, what shall we do?"
And Peter said to them,
"Repent and BE BAPTIZED every one of you
in the name of Jesus Christ
for the forgiveness of your sins,
and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:37-38

Notice, these folks already believed at Pentecost
(they were convinced they’d crucified Messiah)
but apparently, they hadn’t “repented”
or been baptized.
But when they made that decision to repent/
and when they were baptized, they received a promise.
They were promised to be forgiven of their sins
and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

So those are GOD’S way of RECEIVING Jesus
as your Lord and Savior –
which we are required to accept with no substitutes.

One last thought.
Right after the book of John tells us
about how to become Children of God
it makes this statement
“And the Word (Jesus) became flesh
and dwelt among us…” (John 1:14)
Why would it be important
that we’d know Jesus dwelt among us?

CLOSE: An atheist told a friend about his visits
with his 18-month-old granddaughter.
He said that he regularly made a 90 minute drive
once a month to visit her.
And he said “I don’t push myself on her.
I don’t even go and pick her up…
because she might cry.
But I go and visit so that she will know WHO I am.

My hope is that – as she gets older
she will eventually come to me
because I SHOWED UP all these early visits.
Jesus was God –
who SHOWED UP in the flesh –
so that we’d know WHO He was.
He came to earth to be with us…
so we’d know how much He loved us.
And eventually (because we saw who He was)
we’d COME to Him because
we saw the God who cared enough
to die for us.

INVITATION