“Nicodemus: A Man Who Needed to be Born Again”

(Sunday Morning September 26th, 2009)

 

Passage: John 3:1-10

 

O.S.  In the Mid 1970’s a Man Named  “Jimmy Carter” Caused Quite a Stir by Making Two Announcements

->      First, He Announced That a Peanut Farmer From Plains, Georgia, Would  be Running for President

 

->      And Second, He Announced That He Had Been “Born Again”

 

->      Of Course, a Lot of People Had Never Heard of Plains, Georgia, and They Had no Idea at All About What This Phrase “Born Again” Referred to

 

->      But Eventually, They Caught on; and Then, Everyone Started Talking About What It Means to be “Born Again”

 

->      Some Evangelical Christians Even Began Trying to Revive This Biblical Expression by Referring to Themselves as Being “Born Again Christians”

 

->      This Seemed to Imply That There Were Other Types of Christians; and So, This Began to Cause Some Resentment

 

->      In Fact, It Was Not Uncommon at the Time to Hear Someone Say “I’m a Christian, But I’m Not One of Those Born Again Christians”

 

->      I Suppose That in Their Mind This Phrase “Born Again” Was Associated With Some Kind of Charismatic Sect or Something  

 

->      But They Were Really Showing Their Biblical Ignorance When They Said That

 

->      Because, According to the Scriptures, a Person Cannot Legitimately Call Themselves a Christian Unless They Have Indeed Been “Born Again”

 

->      For It Was Jesus Himself Who Said to Nicodemus, in Essence, That…“…unless one is born again he cannot enter the kingdom of God."

 

Q.n = So, Why Does the Bible Say That a Person Must be Born Again in Order to Enter the Kingdom of God?

Ans = Because We Have All Been Born With a Sin Nature

 

->      That is Why King David Said This in Psalms 51:5; He Said,  “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me”

 

->      Now, David Did Not Mean That He Had Been Conceived in an Illegitimate Way; He Wasn’t

 

->      What He Meant Was That He Had Been Born With a Sin Nature Just as We Have All Been Born With a Sin Nature

 

->      In Fact, I Want to Show You What the Apostle Paul Had to Say About This in Romans 5:12; He Said This, Listen Carefully, He Said,  “Therefore, just as through one man

          (That is Referring to Adam) sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned – “

 

->      This Means That We Have All Been Infected by Adam’s Sin, and We Have Come Into This World Spiritually Dead and Incapable of Pleasing God

 

->      So, if Something Does Not Happen to Change This, We Will Never be Allowed to Become a Part of God’s Eternal Kingdom

 

->      And What Needs to Happen to Change This is What the Bible Calls Being“Born Again”

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T.S.    That is What This Passage is All About

 

->       And So, With This in Mind, I Want Us to Draw Three Very Important Truths Out of This Conversation That Jesus Had With Nicodemus

 

->       And the First of These Deals With What Jesus Had to Say About the Origination of the New Birth

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I. The Origination of the New Birth

 

1) Nicodemus’ Problem

 

->      We are Told in Verses 1-2 That a Certain Man by the Name of Nicodemus Came to Jesus by Night; So, What We Have Here is Nick at Night (Pause)

 

->       Now, I Believe That Nicodemus Had Been Trying to Come to Know God All of His Life, But Deep Down He Knew That Something Was Missing

 

->       So, He Came to Jesus Seeking Some Answers

 

->       Now Listen, if Ever a Man Could Have Come to God Apart From Being Born Again, Nicodemus Would Have Been That Man, and I’ll Tell You Why

 

    a. Nicodemus Was a Religious Man

 

->      We are Told That Nicodemus Was a Pharisee

 

->     This Means That He Was an Extremely Religious Man

 

->     There Were Only About 6,000 Pharisees, and They Were the Most Rigid Ultraconservative Jews of Their Day

 

->     This Man Would Have Been in His Place in the Synagogue on Every Sabbath Day

->    He Would Have Fasted Three Times a Week, and He Would Have Given Alms to the Poor

 

->    He Would Have Tithed, Not Only From His Income, But Jesus Tells Us in Matt 23:23 That He Would Have Tithed of His “Mint, Dill and Cummin” (10% of His Vegetables)

 

->    These Guys Were so Concerned About Keeping the 10 Commandments That They Added 613 Sub-Commandments, and These Included All Kinds of Strange Restrictions

        About Keeping the Sabbath

 

Ex.    It Was Considered Unlawful for a Woman to Look Into a Mirror on the Sabbath
Ex.    It Was Considered Unlawful to Wear False Teeth or a Prosthesis on the Sabbath
Ex.    It Was Alright to Swallow Some Vinegar, But You Couldn’t Gargle It on the Sabbath
Ex.     It Was Alright to Eat an Egg That a Hen Had Laid on the Sabbath Just as Long as You Made It a Point to Kill That Same Hen and Eat It the Next Day…

 

->     And These Guys Were so Concerned About Sexual Purity That They Were Sometimes Referred to as the “Blind and Bruised Ones”  (Elaborate)

 

    b. Nicodemus Was a Respected Man

 

->    We are Also Told Here That He Was a “Ruler” Which Means That He Was a Member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court

 

->    This Narrowed the Number From 6000 Down to Only 70

 

->    And I Want You to Notice That He is Also Called “THE” Teacher of Israel, Not Just “A” Teacher of Israel But “THE” Teacher of Israel

 

->    This Helps Explain Why He Came to Jesus at Night

 

->    For You See, Nicodemus Knew That Wherever He Went, He Would Have Been Noticed

 

->    He Was Probably Used to Hearing Jewish Mothers Whisper to Their Small Sons, “Do you see that man over there? That’s Nicodemus THE Teacher of Israel”

 

->    And So, He Knew That if Someone Would Have Seen Him Speaking With Jesus, the Word of This Would Have Spread Very Rapidly

 

->   And He Also Knew That Most of the Other Pharisees and the Members of the Sanhedrin Viewed Jesus as an Enemy and a Threat

 

  c. Nicodemus Was a Rich Man

 

->   Rabbinical Tradition Teaches That Nicodemus Was One of the Three Wealthiest Men Among the Jews of His Day

 

->   And the Biblical Record Supports This

 

->    In John 19:39, We are Told That Nicodemus Provided a Mixture of Myrrh and Aloes to Prepare Jesus’ Body for Burial That Weighed Over One Hundred Pounds

 

->    That Amount of Myrrh and Aloes Would Have Cost a Fortune; Therefore,  We Know That Nicodemus Had to Have Been a Very Wealthy Man

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T.S.   a. Nicodemus Was a Religious Man

         b. Nicodemus Was a Respected Man

         c. Nicodemus Was a Rich Man

        d . Nicodemus Was a Rational Man

 

->     Nicodemus Was One of the Most Brilliant Men Intellectually of His Day

 

->     If Ever There Was a Man Who Could Have Reached God by Intellectual Ascent, It Would Have Been Nicodemus

 

->     In Fact, He Came to Jesus, Because He Had Managed to Put a Few Things Together in His Mind About Him

 

->     The First Thing He Said to Jesus Was, “Rabbi, we know…”

 

->     In Other Words,   “Jesus I Have Come to Recognize Some Facts About You. By Deductive Reasoning I Have Come to the Conclusion That You are a Teacher Who Has

        Come From God”

 

->     Now, That Was Not Too Bad; That Was a Very Intelligent Assessment, But It Was Also a Wrong Assessment

 

->      For You See, Jesus Was Not a Teacher Who Came From God; Jesus Was God Who Came to Teach and to Redeem Mankind (Big Difference)

 

Q.n =  Now Listen to Me, are You Listening?

 

->      There is a Very Important Truth Being Communicated Here, and That is That a Man Cannot Come to God by Means of His Natural Intellect Alone (Ex. Demons)
 

->      That is Why Jesus Said in Verse “…Unless One is Born Again, He Cannot See the Kingdom of God”

 

->      Paul Said Essentially the Same Thing in 1 Corinthians 2:14 When He Said, “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God,  for

           they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are  spiritually discerned” (NIV)

 

->      You See, It is Not That Nicodemus DID NOT Understand Who Jesus Really Was; It is That Nicodemus COULD NOT Understand Who Jesus Really Was

 

->      Because These Truths Had to be Revealed to Him by the Holy Spirit (Ex. Peter)

 

->      So, No Matter How Brilliant Nicodemus Was, His Unregenerate Nature Prevented Him From Being Able to Comprehend Who Jesus Really Was

 

2) Jesus’ Solution

 

->      Now, Before We Get Too Far Into This, I Want to Make a Connection Between What Jesus Said to Nicodemus Here and What We Read in John 2:23-25 (Read)

 

->      So, With That in Mind, Let Me Ask You This

 

Q.n = What Does Jesus’ Question to Nicodemus Have to do With What Nicodemus Had Just Said to Him?

 

Ans = Absolutely Nothing

 

->      And This Tells Us That Jesus Was Able to Read Nicodemus’ Mind

 

->      He Knew Why Nicodemus Had Actually Come to Meet With Him at Night

 

->       And So, He Got Right to the Point, and He Began to Explain to Nicodemus That What He Really Needed Was a New Nature; He Needed to be Born Again

 

      a. We are Told Here That the New Birth Must Occur in the Will of God

 

        i. The Greek Word for “Born” is the Word “Gennao” From Which We Get the Word “Genes” or “Generation” and It Means “to be Born”

 

        ii. The Greek Word for “Again” That is Used Here is the Word “Anothen”

 

->     The Word “Anothen” Literally Means First “To be Born From Above,” But Not Only That, It Also Means to Be Born by the Original Source

 

->     So, What Jesus Was Actually Saying to Nicodemus Was This; He Was Saying,“Nicodemus, You Must be Born Again From Above, and God Must be the Source of This  

         New Birth”

 

->      Now, Here is a Truth That Might Blow Your Mind

 

Q.n=  Did You Know That You and I Do Not Even Have the Capacity to Place Our Faith in Jesus Christ Unless God Gives It to Us?

 

->       In Ephesians 2:8 , the Bible Says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, {it is} the gift of God”  (Elaborate)

 

St =   Now, Don’t Let This Fact Discourage You From Coming to the Lord, Because Jesus Himself Also Said This in John 6:37; He Said, "All that the Father gives Me will come

         to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out”

 

Pt = If You Have an Inclination to Come to Christ and to be Born Again, He Will Receive You; and Yet, Even This Inclination Had to Come From Him

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T.S. a. We are Told Here That the New Birth Must Occur in the Will of God

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      b. We are Told Here That the New Birth Must Occur Through the Word of God

 

->      Now, I Will State w/o Equivocation That Jesus Was Not Referring to Baptismal Regeneration Here, Because This Would Contradict the Biblical Record

 

->      In Romans 10:13, for Example, the Apostle Paul Said, “for Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved”

 

->      Now, if Water Was a Necessary Element for Our Salvation, I Suppose That Verse Would Have to Read Something Like This, “for Whoever will call upon the name of the  

          Lord will be saved so long as they are near a body of water and have an ordained Minister present who can baptize them”

 

->      No, I Believe That the Word “Water” Can be Interpreted to Mean Any One of Three Things, But Baptismal Regeneration is Not One of Them

 

     i. First, This Could be Interpreted as Referring to Natural Birth

 

->     The Jews at This Time Used the Word “Water” as a Euphemism for Referring to the Male Seed

->     And as Most of Us Know, One Thing That Happens Right Before a Baby is Born Involves a Woman’s Water Breaking

->     So, Jesus Could Have Simply Been Saying, in Essence, That… “…First, a Person Must be Born Into This World Physically, and Then, They Must be Born Again   

         Spiritually to be Able to Enter the Kingdom of God”

 

     ii. Second, This Could be Interpreted as Referring to Spiritual Cleansing

->      For You See, We Need to Try to Think Like Nicodemus, and This is One of the Things That Would Have Come to His Mind

->      He Would Have Thought of Ezekiel 36:25 and 27 Which is Where God Said, “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; (and)… I will put My Spirit

         within you and cause you to walk in My statutes”

 

->       And Another Thing He Might Have Thought of Was Repentance, Because John the Baptist Was Baptizing People on This Basis

     iii. Third, This Could be Interpreted as Referring to the Word of God

->       This is How I Interpret It, Because the Word of God is Described as Water, and It Too Represents a Means of Spiritual Cleansing

->       In Ephesians 5:26, for Example,  Paul Talks About Jesus Cleansing His Bride, the Church,   “…by the washing of water with the word”

 

->      So, One of the Things That is Necessary for Someone is to be “Born Again,” is the Preaching and Teaching of the Word of God (Ex. Rom 10:17)

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T.S. a. We are Told That the New Birth Must Occur in the Will of God

 

       b. We are Told That the New Birth Must Occur Through the Word of God

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      c. We are Told That the New Birth Must Occur by the Work of God

 

->       Every Birth Requires Two Parents; the New Birth Requires One Parent Which is the Word of God and Another Parent Which is the Spirit of God

 

->      When the Word of God Meets With the Spirit of God in a Person’s Heart, the Result is Faith Which Leads to Salvation or Being Born Again

 

->      James 1:18 Helps to Clarify All of This for Me, Listen to What It Says“In the exercise of His will (There’s the Will of God) He brought us forth (There’s the Work of God)  by  

          the word of truth, (There’s the Word of God) so that we might be, as it were,  the first fruits among His creatures (That’s the New Birth)

 

II. The Operation of the New Birth  

 

        vs 6-8 (Read)

 

->       The Way the New Birth Occurs is a Mystery

 

->       That is Why Jesus Used the Wind as an Example

 

->       And the Wind in the Bible is a Metaphor for the Holy Spirit

 

->       In Fact, the Hebrew Word for the Holy Spirit is Exactly the Same as the Word “Wind,”  Ruach = Spirit or Wind

 

->      And the Greek Word for the Holy Spirit is Exactly the Same as the Word “Wind” Pneuma = Spirit or Wind

 

->       Now, There are a Two Things That Wind Has in Common With the Spirit of God

 

    1) The Wind and the Spirit are Both Invisible

 

->      We Cannot See the Wind

 

->       We Can Only See the Results of the Wind (Ex. Still See Tarps on Rooftops)

 

->       In the Same Way, We Cannot See the New Birth Take Place, But We Can See the Results of the New Birth in a Person’s Life

 

->       I Don’t Mind Telling You That I Do Not Understand Everything About the Operation of the New Birth

 

->       I Don’t Know Everything About the Process By Which a Human Soul is Redeemed

 

->      I Can’t Tell You Why All It Takes is Simply Repenting of Our Sins, Believing the Gospel Message and Receiving Jesus Christ by Faith That Brings Salvation

 

->      But We Don’t Have to Understand It to Reap the Benefits of It

 

  Ex.  I Don’t Understand How a Computer Works; I Don’t Understand How the Internet Works, But I Reap the Benefits of It Every Day

 

  Ex. I Don’t Understand Why a Brown Cow That Eats Green Grass  Produces Yellow Butter and White Milk, But I Enjoy Them Every Day

 

St=  If You Were to Corner Me and Ask Me if I Understand Everything About My Own Salvation Experience, I Would Have to Admit to You That I do Not

 

->      But I Can Tell You That I Know for a Fact That When I Placed My Faith in Jesus Christ as My Personal Lord and Savior, God Changed Me

 

->      He Obliterated My Past Life That Was Filled With Sin, and He Gave Me a New Life That is Filled With Him

 

->      2 Corinthians 5:17 Says“Therefore if any man is in Christ, {he is} a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come”

 

Pt = He Did Not Merely REFORM Me; He REGENERATED Me; and So, I Can Say That I Have Been Born Again.

 

->      I am as 2 Peter 1:4 Says “…a partaker of the divine nature…” and so are You if You’re a Believer in Christ

 

->      He Made Me a Child of God, and He Did the Same for You if You’re a Believer in Christ

 

->      And I am Complete in Him, and so are You if You’re a Believer in Christ

 

->       In Fact, Colossian 2:10 Says “and in Him you have been made complete, …”

 

Q.n = What Does That Mean?

 

Ans = When a Baby is Born, God Gives Them All of Their Parts so That They Can Develop Into a Mature Physical Being, and the Same is True Spiritually

 

->      God Doesn’t Leave Anything Out; He Gives Us the Whole Enchilada at Birth

 

Q.n= How Did All of This Happen?

 

Ans= I Don’t Know

 

->       Like One of Our Beautiful Hymns Says

 

             “I KNOW NOT HOW THE SPIRIT MOVES CONVINCING  MEN OF SIN,  REVEALING

               JESUS THROUGH THE WORD, CREATING FAITH IN HIM,  BUT I KNOW WHOM

               HAVE BELIEVED AND AM PERSUADED THAT  HE IS ABLE TO KEEP THAT WHICH

               I’VE COMMITTED UNTO HIM AGAINST THAT DAY”

 

      2) The Wind and the Spirit are Both Unpredictable

 

->        Jesus Says, “The wind blows where it wishes”  (Ex. Weather Channel Predictions)

 

->        This is Why no One Should Live Under the Erroneous Impression That They Can Turn to the Lord Whenever They Choose to and Receive Him as Their Savior

 

->        The Bible Says That No One Can Come to God Unless the Spirit of God Draws Him

 

->        In John Chapter 12, Jesus Describes the Unpardonable Sin, and We Find Some Very Interesting Verses There

 

->        John 12:37 Reads This Way; It Says“Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him” (NIV)

 

->        And Then, Two Verses Later, This is What We Read.  John 12:39 Says“For this reason they could not believe, …”  (NIV)

 

->        Verse 37 of John 12 Says They “Would Not” Believe and Verse 39 of John 12 Says They  “Could Not” Believe

 

Q.n= What Happened Between Those Two Verses?

 

Ans= The Wind of the Spirit Stopped Blowing

 

->        This is Why the Writer of Hebrews Says “…, Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, …” (Heb 3:15)

 

->        The Hebrew Writer Says, in Essence, “If You Have Any Inclination to Receive Christ as Your Savior Do It Today”

 

Q.n= Why?

 

Ans= Because the Wind of the Spirit Might Stop Blowing

 

->       By the Way, I Have Noticed That the Wind Blows in Different Ways, Have You Noticed That?

 

->       Sometimes, It Come Like a Rushing Wind  (Pentecost); But at Other Times, It Might  Come Like a Gentle Breeze

 

III. The Obligation of the New Birth

 

    1) Jesus States an Impossibility

 

->      Now, I Want You to Take Special Note of the Words “Truly, Truly” in Verse 3

 

->     Because This is Jesus’ Way of Guaranteeing That Something is True

 

->     Or Perhaps, It Might be Better for Me to Say That This is Jesus’ Way of Emphasizing the Fact That the Statement He is About to Make is Very Significant

 

->      I Also Want You to Take Note of the Word “Cannot” in Verse 3 and Verse 5

   

->      The Word “Cannot” Implies Incapability Not Prohibition But Incapability

 

->      In Other Words, Jesus Says, in Essence, “Unless a Person is ‘Born Again’ They Cannot ‘See’ the Spiritual Kingdom, and They Cannot ‘Enter’ the Spiritual Kingdom”

 

    a.  For One, a Person Who is Not Born Again Does Not Possess the Nature or Capacity to ‘See’ It

 

->       It Would be Like Asking a Blind Man to Describe the Beauty of a Sunset, Because He Doesn’t Have the Nature of the Capacity to do That
 

     b. For Another, They Do Not Possess the Nature or Capacity to ‘Enter’ It

 

->       This Would be Like Asking a Gold Fish to Fly; It Doesn’t Have the Nature or Capacity to Operate in That Realm

 

->       In the Same Way, We’re Talking About a Spiritual Kingdom, and That is Why God Requires  a Spiritual Birth

 

->       It is Not That God is Arbitrarily Rejecting People, the Problem is That He CANNOT  Receive Them Into His Kingdom Unless They Have Been Born Again
 

->       Titus 3:5 Says  “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing

          by the Holy Spirit”

 

Pt =  A Spiritual Birth is a Requirement for Entering Into His Spiritual Kingdom

 

   2)  Jesus States a Necessity

 

->      He Simply Says “You Must Be Born Again”

 

          . It is Not an Option; It is an Obligation        

          . It is Not a Suggestion; It is a Stipulation

          . It is Not a Request; It is a Requirement       

          . It is Not a Maybe; It is a Must

 

->      1 John 5:12 Says“He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life” (Period)

 

->      And in John 14:6, Jesus Himself Said, “…' I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me”  (Period)

 

->      This Simply Means That if You Reject This Plan, There is no Other Option

 

->     You Know When You Really Get Down to the Nitty Gritty of Things, There is Really Only One Thing You Need to do in Life, and This is It

 

          . You Don’t Have to Succeed

          . You Don’t Have to Make It Big

          . You Don’t Have to Get Married

          . You Don’t Have to Have Children

          . You Don’t Have to Get an Education

          . You Don’t Have to Buy a House

          . You Don’t Have to Buy a Car

          . But You Must be Born Again!

 

->      This is Why It Makes no Sense for Someone to Say, “Well, I’m a Christian, But I’m  Not One of Those Born Again  Christians”

 

->       Because Listen My Friend, There is Really no Other Kind of Christian