Michael Youssef - Who Is Going to Heaven?
I want you to turn with me to John chapter 3. Keep it open in front of you. Jesus told this religious man who came to him by the name of Nicodemus. What Jesus said to Nicodemus leaves us in no doubt whatsoever as to the answer to the question, "Who goes to heaven"? "Verily, verily", some old translation, "Truly, truly", another translation, "Very truly", this is all because of the emphasis. Jesus is emphasizing and he's saying, "Listen to me, Nicodemus. I will tell you that no one can see the kingdom of heaven unless they are born again".
Jesus uses the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven interchangeably, why? Because in heaven, Jesus will rule supreme as King. That is why it is the most vitally important question in life, of anyone's life. Every human being on the planet must be asking the question and discovering the answer, what it means to be born again. Why? Because Jesus, who's the only Messiah, Jesus is the only one who is the the Son of God, Jesus who coexisted with the Father before the world was made, Jesus who came from heaven to earth to save us from sin and judgment, Jesus, who's the only Man God told us that unless (say that with me) you're born again. That means you are either born again or you're not. It's, like, a woman cannot be half pregnant. You cannot be half born again, you cannot be partially born again, you cannot be occasionally born again.
Listen to me, please. There are many people who are attracted to Jesus in our culture today. There are many people who think that Jesus was a great teacher, that Jesus was a great ethicist, that Jesus was a miracle worker, that Jesus was a great moralist. But like Nicodemus, they are not willing to admit that their desperate need is for Jesus to cause them being born again and eternally save them. Yet the question that haunted Nicodemus, which haunts millions of people today, is this: "If I die today, will I go to heaven? If I die today, can I be absolutely certain that I am going to heaven"?
My friend, somebody here or watching around the world who say, "Michael, but I'm a church member. Michael, I've been in church all my life. Michael, I'm a deacon in the church," or "Michael, I'm a elder in the church. I was brought up by my parents to do the right thing. Oh, to be sure, I'm not perfect, but I'm a good person". None of this is gonna get you to heaven. Read my lips. None of this is gonna get you to heaven. Jesus said you must be born again. You what? When Jesus said this to Nicodemus, it was like he triggered a bomb under everything that he believed all his life. It's like it bombed everything that he lived for and everything that he built his life on.
"Born again? Well, what is that? What is that"? Being a literalist... see, the Pharisees all were very literal, literal-minded people, religious people. He asked, "Well, how could I do that? Does it mean something so ludicrous that as an old man, I need to get into my mother's womb and be born again? Is it so ludicrous like that"? For the second time, Jesus said, "Very truly, I said to you", listen carefully, your life depends on it. Why? He is trying to get Nicodemus's full attention and Jesus said, "If you want to go to heaven, you must allow God to do something in you".
Being born again is not you doing something, but allowing God to do something in you, allowing God to do something drastic, to do something radical in your life. It's allowing God to transform you. It's allowing God to change you radically and completely. And that's what born again means. It's not just believing in Jesus. It's not just claiming, "I'm a Christian". It's not just saying, "Well, I'm trying to be a follower of Jesus". No, no, no, no, no. There has to be spiritually radical transformation, and that only can be done by the Holy Spirit of Jesus. I'm gonna show you a short video. Please listen to every word. This is 2 1/2 minutes from 45 minutes. They did a great job.
Becket Cook: So, I'm gonna tell you what God did in my life, shockingly did in my life 13 1/2 years ago. I was a gay man living in Hollywood, and I was an atheist. Homosexuality became my identity, and each time I got into a relationship with a guy, "This is gonna be the answer to everything. And this guy is gonna save me", almost like a Messiah kind of thing. I started to really kind of wonder about the meaning of life. We look over and there's a table next to us with five young people at the table, and there's five Bibles, physical Bibles, on the table. It's like a Christian's fantasy come true. I turn around, I'm like, "Hey, are you guys Christians"?
And we had this great conversation for, like, an hour. And then, of course, I get to the $64,000 question and I said, "Well, what does your church believe about homosexuality"? And they said, "Well, we believe it's a sin". And I just loved how, like, matter-of-fact they were. They were so blunt about it, which I appreciate 'cause I like honesty. And I had this kind of flash of like, "Well, what if homosexual behavior is a sin, and what if I've built my entire life on a false foundation and I don't know it? That's a possibility".
So, they invited me to their church the following Sunday, and I sat by myself in the fourth row on the aisle. I'll never forget. As he's preaching, every word that he's saying, every sentence he's saying, is resonating as truth in my mind and my heart, and I don't know why. And it was the first time in my life that I had heard and understood the gospel. And I was like, "Wait, this is the gospel? This is good news". And it turned everything I thought religion was on its head. In that moment, God revealed himself to me, and in my mind God said, "I'm God", I'll never forget this, he said, "I'm God, Jesus is my Son. Heaven is real. Hell is real. The Bible is true. Welcome to my kingdom".
I was crying over two things: over this conviction of sin but also over the joy of meeting the King of the universe, Jesus. And it was like the curtains had parted and I finally knew homosexual behavior was a sin, I knew that it was wrong, I knew that it was not who I was, I knew that being gay was not my identity. It was a false identity. It's like Paul, when he says, "I count everything as lost. Everything is rubbish because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord". Like, nothing else, everything else pales in comparison.
And we had this great conversation for, like, an hour. And then, of course, I get to the $64,000 question and I said, "Well, what does your church believe about homosexuality"? And they said, "Well, we believe it's a sin". And I just loved how, like, matter-of-fact they were. They were so blunt about it, which I appreciate 'cause I like honesty. And I had this kind of flash of like, "Well, what if homosexual behavior is a sin, and what if I've built my entire life on a false foundation and I don't know it? That's a possibility".
So, they invited me to their church the following Sunday, and I sat by myself in the fourth row on the aisle. I'll never forget. As he's preaching, every word that he's saying, every sentence he's saying, is resonating as truth in my mind and my heart, and I don't know why. And it was the first time in my life that I had heard and understood the gospel. And I was like, "Wait, this is the gospel? This is good news". And it turned everything I thought religion was on its head. In that moment, God revealed himself to me, and in my mind God said, "I'm God", I'll never forget this, he said, "I'm God, Jesus is my Son. Heaven is real. Hell is real. The Bible is true. Welcome to my kingdom".
I was crying over two things: over this conviction of sin but also over the joy of meeting the King of the universe, Jesus. And it was like the curtains had parted and I finally knew homosexual behavior was a sin, I knew that it was wrong, I knew that it was not who I was, I knew that being gay was not my identity. It was a false identity. It's like Paul, when he says, "I count everything as lost. Everything is rubbish because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord". Like, nothing else, everything else pales in comparison.
Beloved, that's the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. That is what being born again is all about. You cannot be half born again. You can't say, "Well, I'm a Christian, but then I can't live this lifestyle. But I'm a Christian, but I can't do this. I have to do this". Listen, that is not being born again. That is not qualification to get to heaven. But there's something else that I need you to understand about the discussion that Jesus was having with Nicodemus. Now, this is not a totally new concept to a man who knew the Old Testament, taught the Old Testament in the synagogues. And that is why Jesus rebuked him. He said, "You are a teacher of the Jews, and you don't understand Ezekiel 36:25 to 27? Don't you understand that when the Messiah comes, as Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Isaiah and all the prophets have said, and particularly Ezekiel 36:25, which Nicodemus would have taught"?
Let me read it for you. "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all idols. I'll give you a new heart and put my spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees". It's what God does in us. It's not what we do for God. It's what he does in us and through us. Ezekiel was saying when the Messiah comes this is precisely what he's gonna do. He's gonna ask you to be born again. He's gonna tell you that you must be born again. That's what born again is all about. Please listen to me. To be born again of water and spirit is not initiated even by Jesus in his conversation with Nicodemus. No, it was the promise of God about his Son, the Messiah, and he made that throughout the Old Testament.
Ezekiel proclaimed that 600 years before Christ ever came from heaven. We all, all, every one of us, are born with the sin DNA in us. It's in all of us and only the Creator God can alter the DNA and transform us completely. Who is going to heaven? All those who have experienced the transforming power of God in their life, all those who are reborn of water and spirit, all those who have been cleansed by God the Holy Spirit, and they have been given a new heart and a new indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Nicodemus came to Jesus with deep hunger. Nicodemus did not know what could truly satisfy his hunger, but he knew that Jesus may have the answer to his hunger. He did not know that the answer was not gonna be given to him by Jesus, but Jesus is the answer. For Jesus, not just a rabbi or a teacher, as he addressed him, but he is the Lord, he is the Savior, he is the Redeemer. He's a transformer of lives and he is the powerful living and he's the only one who can take you to heaven.
He's the only one who can take you to heaven. All other ways are fake, fraud, and fraudulent. It is that messed up DNA that we're all born with, we inherited from our first parents. That is the problem. It's not trying to be better, trying to do better, trying to be good... no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We all have that DNA, and that problem of our DNA nailed Jesus to the cross until he died and was buried, but on the third day he rose again to assure everyone who would become born again that he will raise us from sin, that he and he alone can raise us from the chains of addictions, that he can raise us from the power of Satan and satanic lies. But then comes another big question: "Does this mean that once I become born again and become a new creation that I'll never sin again"?
Wouldn't I love for that to be the case, and so most of you, if not all of you. Beloved, sin is still in our flesh. But don't miss this. Don't miss this. Our born-against self with the power of the Holy Spirit will struggle to win the victory. Every time we fail, every time we sin, we genuinely, if you are genuinely born again, you cannot stand it until you have repented and you confessed and you ask for God's restoration by confessing. When you confess to God, what you're saying, "God, you are true," 'cause God knows you already sinned. So, when you confess, you're agreeing with him, and when you repent he gives you the strength. Every time sin raises its ugly head in our life and turn back to the Lord, he will never say to you, "Oh my goodness, this is the 1,000,780th times you came to me". He doesn't count.
One more thing about the Lord Jesus's conversation with Nicodemus. Here's what Jesus said: "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so that the Son of Man must be lifted up". Let me give you a very quick context and even quicker bottom line. I always get to the bottom line. In the book of Numbers chapter 21 in the Old Testament, Nicodemus would have known that instantly. Book of Numbers chapter 21, something Nicodemus must have taught. The Israelites, after they were delivered from the land of slavery supernaturally, with the power of God, they saw things they have never seen in their life, and then they ended up stuck in the wilderness for 40 years.
Why didn't they go straight to the Promised Land? Ah, because of the hardness of the heart, because of their unbelief. And so, they're stuck in the wilderness. They were complaining against God, and as a consequence of this, they were bitten by fiery serpents and they were dying. God told Moses to make a bronze serpent and lift it up so high that all the children of Israel in the wilderness able to see it and look at it, and whoever looks at that bronze serpent is gonna be healed and, therefore, live. Anyone who refused to look at that bronze serpent will die certain death. Don't miss this. Please don't miss this. This is a powerful reminder that only God can deliver us from sin and take us to heaven. Moses obediently does what God told him to do and everyone who looked at that bronze serpent was healed and lived.
Question... now, you can answer me if you want to, was there power in that bronze serpent? No, the power was not in the bronze serpent. The power was where? In the obedience of God's people who were willing to look at that serpent and be healed and live. There are many people today to think that it is foolishness to look at the cross of Christ and be eternally saved and assured of heaven. And yet, it is through the power of the cross, only through the power of the cross, anyone can make it to heaven. Beloved, in many ways today, whomsoever comes to Jesus in repentance and faith, God's healing power will come upon them and will work through them and will work in them, and that's what you call become born again.
I want to conclude by telling you a true story. It's a true story that happened with me because I also know there are some believers who know and love Jesus, who were born again, but they really have huge doubt about heaven. They have huge doubt about their eternal life. In the early '90s, this precious lady was struggling with doubt about heaven. She put her faith in Jesus, but she was not sure if she really going to heaven, and it was just causing her some fear and apprehension.
So, I asked her a question: "When did you change your name from your maiden name to your married name"? She said, "On my wedding day". "What happened in your wedding day"? I asked. She said, "I took my wedding vows". "So, when you took your wedding vows, did you say, 'I hope to take you, Mr. Smith'", that's not his name, "'to be my husband?'" She said, "No, of course not". I said, "Did you say, 'I would like to take you, Mr. Smith, to be my wedded husband?'" She said, "No"! "Or did you say, 'Well, it might not work out, but I take you, Mr. Smith, to be'", she said, "Absolutely not". She said, "Of course not. I said, 'I do,' and I meant it. And that was final". I said, "Praise God". So, I looked at her and I said, "This is how eternal life in heaven works". When you look at the cross of Christ and you said, "I take you, Lord Jesus, to be my only Savior and Lord of my life," everything changed on the inside of you, not just in this life, but for all of eternity.