Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. Amen.

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Shona Bailey
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1 March 10,11, 2018 John 3:1-21 The Power of the Gospel 1 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. Amen. The Gospel is the Good News of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is the power of God that saves you for eternity (Romans 1:16). The power of the Gospel ministers to believers our entire Christian lives as we hear the words of the Gospel over and over and over again. If you ever tire of hearing the Gospel message it means your heart has grown dull toward the Lord God. If you ever tire of hearing the Gospel message it means you have allowed some darkness into your life that is exposed at the hearing of the Gospel. The power of the Gospel compels you to verbalize the Gospel to those who do not know Jesus. The power of the Gospel propelled someone I love so very dearly to foreign soil so they too can hear the Gospel and be saved for all eternity. The power of the Gospel wakes us up and brings us to worship the one of whom the Gospel is all about. The power of the Gospel assures us that our sins are forgiven. The power of the Gospel makes it abundantly clear on one s deathbed he or she is about to see Jesus. They will be looking into the eyes of Him spoken of in the Gospel. When the Gospel is spoken it is God speaking to the hearts of the listeners through the one speaking. Every person alive has a place in his or her soul open and hungry for the Gospel. You may be the one God uses to speak that word into their soul that will save that person. The Gospel is conveyed through speech and God uses those words to create faith in the listeners that saves them. Faith comes by the hearing of the Gospel found only in the Word of God. This week at the gym a 20 year old that I have spoken to in the past walked in front of me. His name is Luke. He tried to succeed in soccer down in South America. Due to certain hardships, one of which was the language barrier, he is back home and working out again at the same place I do. I had a prayer time with him before he left for South America. Wednesday night he walked by me as I was lifting I asked him to wait until I finished my rep. I got to number 14 and said to him. Luke can I have 30 seconds. That is the line I use now before I pray with people at the gym. I no longer ask can I pray for you I just say, Can I have 30

2 March 10,11, 2018 John 3:1-21 The Power of the Gospel 2 seconds. He stood right next to me and we prayed. What got to me was the look in his eyes after we prayed. The look was something like this. I don t know if I truly believe what you prayed but I do appreciate you talking the time to pray with me. That look actually motivates me to pray with him again and again at the appropriate time for this reason. The Gospel is so powerful. One day that Gospel is going to save that young man. The look in his eye melts my heart. Something inside of him is beginning to open up to the truth of the Gospel. Some of you may wonder if this praying stuff is rather awkward for these young people. Pastor, are you not just being rather annoying to these young people? No because they see me as more of a grandfather figure since I am old enough to be their grandpa. They like the fact that I am working out and they often give me pointers how I can improve what I am doing. I appreciate their input. It is the Gospel that builds bridges motivating us to speak to people we do not even know. The Gospel is not just something that we can keep to ourselves. It is bursting to get out from each and every person who knows Jesus. Teaching confirmation is one of the greatest thrills of my life. Now I know one reason why. It gives me two years to convey the Gospel to every student in class. What a privilege to have two years with these students speaking to them the truth that saves them for eternity. They have heard the Gospel in their previous Sunday school classes and each year their experience of the Gospel deepens. I hope when I am in my 80 s that I can still teach confirmation to fantastic young people. The Gospel renews even old bones and with it is an energy that keeps you going until you can breathe no more. A Pharisee name Nicodemus came by night to speak to Jesus. He may have approached Jesus at night so as not to be seen by his peers or he may have come at night not wanting to interrupt Jesus work and teaching during the day. Either way there was something about Jesus that drew Nicodemus to have a conversation with Jesus.

3 March 10,11, 2018 John 3:1-21 The Power of the Gospel 3 Friends, there may be a person or persons that God brings your way, that God draws them to you because they see something inside of you that they do not quite understand. At school, at work, in your neighborhood a person may ask you a religious question because you are the only one that they know to ask. You may be the only Christian that they feel comfortable enough to open up to. And the time may not be convenient for you, an interruption when you are in a hurry. God is good to send such a person your way Jesus knew the man was learned in the Old Testament. Jesus spoke truth to Nicodemus but Nicodemus did not understand. Friends there never has been a greater teacher than Jesus. When you explain God s truth and the listener may not understand you are in great company. The words of Jesus puzzled Nicodemus. Jesus bluntly tells Nicodemus that he must be born again. Jesus bluntly tells everyone here that you must be born again. Friends, when we come out of our Mama s wearing our birthday suits so to speak, this is what we call the first birth. When the power of the Gospel saves you, when God creates faith in you by grace through faith, that is your second birth. When you become a Christian, when God regenerates you, you are officially born again. I love the term born again because it is the term that Jesus uses. To be born again means to be born from above, born anew, reborn into the family of God and now you have the gift of eternal life. To be born again is to receive God s grace through faith, it is a free gift from God. To be born again means you are now a child of God and no longer a child of the devil. To be born again means God s Holy Spirit has moved into your life and taken up permanent residence. To be born again means you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever. To be born again means you will never die. To be born again means Jesus has taken care of all of your sins on the cross. To be born again is to have new life inside of you that leads to eternal life. There is nothing greater than to be born again.

4 March 10,11, 2018 John 3:1-21 The Power of the Gospel 4 One of the reasons I wanted to be a pastor in the Lutheran church is this. You can be baptized, receive Holy Communion, come to church your entire life and still not be born again. It is possible for any such person to reject the grace that saves you and simply go through the motions of being a Christian. I firmly believe when we get to heaven we will be thoroughly surprised who is there. You might even find yourself saying, I am so shocked to see you. On the other hand we may also be surprised who is not there. Jesus says to every one of us, You must be born again. I know we have lots of people in this church who remember the day the Gospel made sense to you and you prayed to receive the Lord Jesus Christ. God gave to you the gift of new birth and you have never been the same. There are others here who have always believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. You do not remember a time that you did not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. God caused you to be born again even before you knew it. You have belonged to Christ always so to speak. Our confirmation students have all been baptized. All of our confirmation students will have received Holy Communion by the end of their confirmation service. No one is confirmed in this church unless they have prayed what I call the sinners prayer. Lord Jesus, please forgive me for my sins and come into my life. It is my life s aim to lead as many people to Christ as I possibly can. Of course, none of us can lead any person to Christ. It is all God s work to save a person but God does use us as workers in his field to harvest the souls that are ready. When I was in high school I had a very close friend who was not a Christian. His name is John Teehan. He had a super huge nose and we called him schnoz. He was an excellent athlete and God gave to me a love for him to lead him to Christ. He let me pray with him frequently but he refused to accept Christ. I did my best to talk to him about eternal life and he would listen and then he would say, Shut up Breum. On a Thursday night we went to a person s home for dinner. The hostess is a wonderful Christian woman, Mrs. Williamson. After

5 March 10,11, 2018 John 3:1-21 The Power of the Gospel 5 dinner she looked at John and said. John, have you ever been born again? I got so nervous when she asked John this because I had probably pushed too hard and I did not want her to turn John off. This is what John said, No, but I would sure like too. Right then and there John prayed to receive Christ. I could not believe this happened right in front of me. Afterward I asked our hostess. How did you know to ask John that question? She said, The moment I saw that young man walk in I knew that he needed Jesus. I was ecstatic. John was born again that very night and did his life ever change. The harvest was ripe and our hostess knew it. The Gospel comes to us through the preaching of the Word of God. The Gospel comes to us in Holy Baptism and Holy Communion. The Gospel comes to us in the confession of sins and the announcement of forgiveness. The Gospel comes to us as we sing the words of the hymns and praise songs. I know many of you are moved to tears when you are singing because the good news of Jesus has touched you deeply, changed you entirely, and your heart is filled with gratitude and praise toward the Lord God. The Gospel comes to us in Bible study, Christian radio, Christian fellowship, and more. God has his ways of touching our lives through the Gospel in the most personal and meaningful of ways. Friends, I believe God has many ways to save us, but it is always through Christ. Some of you tell me that you came to Christ at a Christian concert. Some of you heard the Good News in third grade Sunday school and you were saved. Others of you came to Christ later in life. There are many ways that God uses to bring us to Himself but it is always and only through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only one who can save you for there is salvation in no one else. Hearing the Gospel, God opens your heart and mind to receive the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. To be born again and to be saved by God s grace through faith means the exact same thing. It is all a work of Christ. By grace you have been saved through faith. This is not your own doing; it is a gift of God, not a result of works. Amen and Amen.

"You Must Be Born Again

Rev. Terry Breum St. Mark Lutheran Church, Lindenhurst, Illinois Third Sunday After Pentecost June 22, 2014 "You Must Be Born Again John 3:1-21 (ESV) [1] Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus,