1. Everyone who believes in God s Son will not die but have eternal life.

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1 John 3:14-21 Eternal Life through faith in Christ. 1. Everyone who believes in God s Son will not die but have eternal life. (14-17) a. Eternal life for whoever believes in Jesus as God s son, b. Think back to Moses and the snakes in the desert. c. It is a leap of faith 2. Whoever does not believe stands condemned already. (18-21) a. Not everyone who hears these words of Jesus will believe. b. People love the darkness rather than the light. c. Those who do not believe have already been judged, because they have not believed in God's only Son. 3. This salvation is a gift of God given by grace but received by faith (Ephesians 2:1-10) a. For it is by grace you have been saved b. We receive it through faith in Jesus. c. Our response should be to do the good works God prepared for us to do. 1. Everyone who believes in God s Son will not die but have eternal life. a. Eternal life for whoever believes in Jesus as God s son, The saying goes that there are two things in life that are certain; death and taxes. Certainly death is something that people spend a lot of time and money trying to avoid or postpone but somehow always get caught by it sooner or later. I do a lot of funerals and hear a lot of responses to death. Probably the most common response today is that of denial as mourning families read lots of well meaning poems that deny the reality of death with phrases like Death is nothing at all, I have only slipped into the next room. We are uncomfortable with the idea of death and we long for the continuance of our loved ones. The bible doesn t deny the reality of death but rather points to Jesus victory over death and introduces us to God s gracious gift of eternal life. The good news of the gospel is simply that God offers eternal life to all who put their trust in Jesus, his Son. John tells us that whoever believes in the Son will not perish on the day of judgement but will have eternal life. This would have to be the greatest gift ever given and to receive it all we have to do is believe in the Son of God.

2 This is not just believing, however, that Jesus is the Son of God, or having knowledge about God s son. Even the devil believes that Jesus is God s son. It is a turning to & a trusting in Jesus as God s son, and as our king & Saviour, the only one who can bring us back to God. b. Think back to Moses and the snakes in the desert This is a dialogue recorded by John between Jesus and Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish high Council who has come to Jesus quizzing him about who he is and about salvation. To explain what he means about the need to believe in the Son, Jesus takes Nicodemus back to an important event in Israel s history recorded in the book of Numbers when the people of Israel were plagued by an infestation of venomous snakes. We had this reading earlier. Many people died, but God gave to Moses a sign & a test. The LORD said to Moses, Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live. 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived. Numbers 21:8-9. In order to be saved from the snake bite, people needed to believe in God s promise & look to God s salvation. It didn t make a whole lot of sense to them. They were asked to trust in God s promise, believing even without fully understanding or seeing. This was a preparation in part for the much greater rescue mission that God would bring to fruition through Jesus. c. It is a leap of faith. In Numbers, it was a bronze snake that would be lifted up. Looking at the bronze snake on a pole, which even today is a sign of healing, would bring you healing & you would live. Of course, you had to trust in God s instruction to even do such a thing. In Jesus case, he himself would be lifted up for all to see & all who believe the promise of God & look to him for salvation will receive it. It sounded silly to the Israelites that you could be healed by looking at a bronze statue. It sounds silly to some today that you can find eternal life by looking to Christ. The issue in both is that of believing God s promise & putting your faith in him even when you don t fully understand how he will do it. It requires a leap of faith, but the reward is great. Whoever believes becomes a child of God and receives the gift of eternal life. The book of Hebrews describes faith in this way: To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see. Hebrews 11:1 Even though we cannot see Jesus before us. Even though we cannot know that he will fulfil his promises, he asks us to trust him and to step out in faith and follow him.

3 2. Whoever does not believe stands condemned already. a. Not everyone who hears these words of Jesus will believe. Not everyone can do this. Many simply will not believe. People will reject God s message for a number of reasons. Some will have trust issues and are just not prepared to step out in faith for anyone. Many will prefer the comfort of the life they know, afraid to step out of their comfort zone even to something better. Better the devil you know than the devil you don t know. Others will prefer to continue living their lives their own way. Independence & autonomy are over-valued in today s society & many, in pride, or in pure selfishness, prefer to be the master s of their own destiny. They are not prepared to submit to Christ as Lord or to obey him. Others enjoy the dark-side a bit too much, loving the darkness instead of the light. They want to continue following the wicked desires of their own hearts & enjoying the guilty pleasures of sin. They are not prepared to give up their sweet but destructive addictions. Many people in Jesus day rejected him, even seeing him face to face, for these & other reasons. Many who were healed by him or fed by him even rejected him. The same happens today. As much as we would like all people to turn to Jesus, they won t. It is God s will that all should turn to him & be saved, yet many will choose the wide path that leads to destruction rather than the narrow path that leads to salvation. b. People love the darkness rather than the light (19) When Jesus the light of the world came, many rejected him because he exposed their wickedness & their selfishness. We read in vs. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to be its judge, but to be its saviour. Some take from this that Jesus will never judge anyone. This is not the meaning. The purpose of Jesus coming was to bring God s salvation, not to bring condemnation. Some versions prefer for God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save it. So why speak of condemnation? The condemnation was already here. It came with the Law.

4 And the law came because it was necessary. It limited the growth of evil and of rebelliousness. It also meant that all who have broken the law are under the condemnation of the law, and when you look closely enough, that includes all of us. Some just haven t been caught yet. Jesus came to bring salvation to all who were under the condemnation of the law but who would put their trust in him. c. Those who do not believe have already been judged, because they have not believed in God's only Son. Jesus doesn t come to condemn us. The law already does that. He comes to save us, but for all who reject that salvation or don t put their trust in Him, they remain under the condemnation of the law and will be judged on the day of reckoning by Jesus. John emphasises later in his gospel, in Chapter 5, that Jesus will judge: Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man. John 5:25-27 Have no doubt about it! Jesus will return to judge the earth, but this same Chapter 5 also says in the preceding verse: Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. John 5:24 We have a choice. If we believe, we will not be judged but we will receive God s gift of eternal life. But if we don t believe, we continue to be under judgement. 3. This salvation is a gift of God given by grace but received by faith (Ephesians 2:1-10) a. For it is by grace you have been saved. Jesus will judge, but what he longs for is for each of us to believe in him & receive the gift of eternal life. There is nothing that would gladden God s heart more than that people would turn to him in faith. He offers this gift freely, but like any gift, it must be received. We receive God s gift of salvation only by God s grace, through faith in Christ Jesus. Paul sums it up nicely in Ephesians:

5 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:8-10. b. We receive it through faith in Jesus. No one is more deserving of this grace than any other. We are all unworthy of such a generous & lavish gift. All we can do is respond to God s generosity with faith and believe in his Son. Many people worry about being unworthy of God s kingdom & his gift. Let me assure you, we are all unworthy, but when we put our faith in Christ, we are washed clean of all our sins & clothed with Christ s worthiness & God delights in granting us the gift of eternal life. c. Our response should be to do good works God prepared for us to do. Is there anything we can do, you might say, to repay such generosity? We can never repay it, but an appropriate response is to give our lives as a living sacrifice & dedicate ourselves to do the good works that he has prepared in advance for us to do. These good works in themselves will never save us. They might make us look good before others & even get us an award, but it is only by faith in Christ that we can be saved. The most important question before us today then is: Have you put your faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. To think about: When you say you believe in Jesus, what are you really saying?