He Said:
Notes
Transcript
Timothy Allen
Timothy Allen
StoneBridge Baptist Church
Morgantown, West Virginia
November 27, 2022
Series: He Said
Subject: You Must Be Born Again
Text: John 3:1-17
1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”
3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”
10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?
11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.
12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
INTRODUCTION
Thank you all for being here to hear Gods word and dive deeper into “He Said” thank you to Pastor Jason and Pastor Ben for allowing me to stand up here and speak the Gospel as I hope God intended it.
Many of you know me from your Children being in my class at the 10:30 service and some know me from the time that I spend here through out the week with the men of the Church.
This is the Sunday after Thanksgiving where we celebrate a time with family and friends, where we enjoy the comforts of food, football, and love. This is a special occasion for Americans who have a time to give thanks to those of the past, present, and future. We reflect on those that came before us so that we may have the religious freedoms away from the oppressions of their day
INTRODUCTION OF TIM
I am a member of StoneBridge and currently teach the 5th through 8th grade group. This has been a difficult but fun stage in building the youth ministry and I have truly enjoyed every step and have enjoyed watching the children learn so much.
I am currently in the last part of my first semester of Seminary where I am studying for Christian Education. I retired at a young age due to some injuries from work and military but always followed the Gospel and tried my best to live it among the world.
When I was 17 I was saved in a charismatic Pentecostal church where God gave me his calling for me. Of course like many who go into ministry I ran like Jonah. Me a preacher, me a pastor, me a man of God. NO WAY! I felt I had to be in the military, I had to serve in a more manly way, I had to be someone that people would be proud of (PROUD). The military is noble, the military is an honor for me to call myself a veteran but I joined for the wrong reasons. To join based on pride was the wrong reason, it was the wrong course but I was running from God so to me it was right. No matter how far I was from church I felt I was always with God, always had Christ. I read scripture, I studied its meaning, and I always knew where I stood no matter what the world through at me.
Do you know why? I do, but do you? I am born again! Through my walk with Christ as my savior I have learned the true meaning of being born again, the true meaning of being saved. Do you?
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN (BORN AGAIN)
Open your Bibles to Chapter 3 of the Gospel of John, in this chapter we can see Jesus talking to Nicodemus. I will read the entirety of John 3:1-17 then I will break down each verse an expository of scripture.
NICODEMUS MEETS WITH JESUS
Nicodemus was a Pharisee in the Jewish faith and a member of the Sanhedrin, he was a teacher (Rabbi) thought to be one of the smartest of the time where many looked to him for his teachings on the Jewish faith. John calls him a ruler this means that he is influential at the time, when he spoke the masses listened, and they followed what he said.
To have this man a man so educated come before Jesus at night to talk was a big deal in the time. This was something that we would never see now,
its like President Ghee of WVU coming to my house in the middle of the night to discuss how he should run the University.
To come by night could many different things
Was trying to hide the meeting
Wanted peace and uninterrupted discussion (Jesus was growing in popularity and the crowds amassed everywhere he went)
Because he was timid asking Jesus these questions
either way it is significant and adds a little context behind what is coming next out of the mouth of Nicodemus. He says “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. One of the highest of teachers in Israel comes to Jesus and says I know that you are from God.
JESUS ANSWERS NICODEMUS
Jesus’s answer is one of the most important out of the entire Gospel and I am truly thankful that i have been asked to preach on it. To stand up here on a stage in front of believers to preach the gospel and to preach on a part that is truly one of the most important is a monumental task. I have researched for months to ensure I have the message right, if I am wrong, I will never hear the end of it but I feel as though God has guided me in preparation for this sermon.
John 3:3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Now we all now that Amen translate to Truly from Greek to English and was used at the end of all the writing in the testament when the writers would finish their letters. When Jesus said it, it meant that was coming after was truth. It would help to poke the ears up on the listeners as what was coming next was important, I liken it to that of a professor slamming his foot on the ground before he made a statement about material that was going to be on a test.
Unless you are Born Again you cannot see the Kingdom of God! You must be born again to enter with God. When we were created and before the fall of man we could walk along with God, we could hold conversation with God. It wasn’t until we fell from righteousness that we no longer could hang out with God.
Genesis 3:8-9 “8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
Due to the fall of man and the sinful nature that has become of us as we ate from the tree of knowledge which God instructed us not to
Genesis 2:16-17 “16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.””
We are spiritually dead, we died to sin when we were born of flesh, we have been born with the sins of our fathers all the way back to Adam. We as it stands cannot enter the Kingdom of God, God strongly dislikes sin, he is justice, he is wrath upon sin, he will judge all of us, and we will answer.
The great news in all of that is in this sermon today,
John 3:16 “16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
NICODEMUS WAS CONFUSED
I want you to imagine this statement from Jesus to an educated man of Nicodemus's stature. Here is a ruling member of the sanhedrin being told you must be born again or you will not enter the kingdom of God. He had to be confused and his statement proclaims that.
John 3:4 “4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?””
I see this as almost a huh what do you mean? Are you being serious right now? Much like many of us being told for the first time that works doesn’t send you to heaven, or that you don’t need to be baptized to go to heaven, or when we first heard that term Born Again. I still get that look when people ask if I’m a born again Christian.
My response is always “How can I NOT be Born Again, and still be a Christian”, that doesn’t work. If you claim to be a Christian you must be born again and if not are you a Christian. This is a Doctrine that every Christian Church believes in or at least should and if they don’t then they are not a Christian organization.
I'm not calling out other Churches but just simply stating “You must be Born Again to enter the Kingdom of God”. I mean to be honest I’m not just stating it “JESUS” is stating it.
This new found approach to being able to walk with God in Heaven must have blown the mind of Nicodemus. He was was always taught that he was a descendant of Abraham therefor he would go to Heaven and be with God. The Jews were taught that Abraham stood watch at the gate of hell, just ensure no Jews got lost and traveled to the wrong place.
I envision Nicodemus with his mouth wide open just staring at Jesus with utter confusion hence the reason that Jesus breaks it down for him with clear detail even places scripture from Numbers to better solidify his reasoning.
JESUS EXPLAINS
Jesus breaks this down farther with detail and tells Nicodemus:
John 3:5 “5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”
Once again we see this truly truly so everything that comes after this will be the truth and nothing but the truth. To unpack this part we must dig into the scripture or even the Greek that it comes from to understand it. Many believe this means that you must be baptized in order to be saved. I do not believe this is a sign of salvation by baptizing as works do not save you by grace from God alone does.
This statement of “unless one is born of water and the spirit” can be seen in several different places throughout scripture.
Ezekiel 36:25 “25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.”
The water signifies the Holy Spirit that God will send down and clean those that believe in God and are born again through that water.
Numbers 19:7-9 “7 Then the priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. But the priest shall be unclean until evening. 8 The one who burns the heifer shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water and shall be unclean until evening. 9 And a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place. And they shall be kept for the water for impurity for the congregation of the people of Israel; it is a sin offering.”
The red heifer is to be slaughtered outside the camp, blood sprinkled toward the front of the tent of meeting, not for consumption but instead be burned in whole, ashes to be placed outside the camp in a clean place, and the ashes are to be used with water for cleansing. This was to cleanse and purify the people by meaning of water.
Now this is a good meaning and could be the reason that Jesus mentioned it like this as well as numbers 21 in the same conversation. Paul uses it in Ephesians as well.
Ephesians 5:26 “26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,”
This fits as well with the washing of the word. You must be Born again through the rebirth in the word of God and the Holy Spirit. YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN OF WATER AND THE SPIRIT IN ORDER TO ENTER THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
This is why we sit down and read the Bible, why we should like to do expository learning of the Bible, and why we need to fellowship so that we can discuss it.
HOW I FELT ABOUT FINDING THIS OUT
I confess that I have always read the Bible but didn’t truly understand the words, the meaning, the context. Sometimes I would lose the meaning in the reading and not research it to find the context behind the words. Reading the word is amazing and can bring a lot of joy in your life, it can slay the evil that waits at your door, it can cure the problems of senses when the dull. But does it really help you understand what God is saying to you?
If we don’t break down the water that we thirst for are we truly being quenched, or are we truly sharpening the sword against evil, are we doing our best to listen to God. No, we are doing a disservice to ourselves as well as God by not digging into the word through Greek, Hebrew, study, fellowship, worship, and family.
If you spend your time reading but not absorbing you miss the opportunity to see the beauty in the word, God in the word, Jesus’s true sacrifice, the apostles true sacrifice, the true evil that we need to look out for.
JESUS SEEING THE PERPLEXED LOOK ON NICODEMUS
I guarantee you when were told about the life saving power of Jesus and he sacrificed himself so that our sins would be paid for the look on your face was one of disbelief. Now imagine a man hearing the Gospel or the meaning of Born Again from God himself, from Jesus our savior. This man that we have already established as brilliant, religious, and one of the leading men in the Jewish faith is sitting there when Jesus says this:
John 3: 6-7 “6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’”
Jesus is saying listen to me I don’t want you to focus on this, it matters but your overthinking it and will only confuse you more. Jesus then uses an example of what comparing something that you can not see would be like compared to this.
John 3:8 “8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Jesus is saying you know everything that the wind can do, what direction it is blowing, what it is doing, how fast it is moving, yet you cannot see it. The Holy Spirit is much like the wind, you cannot see it, but you can feel it, and you know its effects on you. Yet you cannot SEE IT!
APPLYING THE WIND TO YOUR LIFE WITH THE SPIRIT
As said before I was saved at 17 and I felt the Holy Spirit convict me, change, make me a new, but others could not see it. They knew it was there but they could not see it or feel it. I was saved, I was made a child of God. I was given the right to become a child of God.
John 1:12 “12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,”
As I have gone to seminary school and turned my studies of the Bible in to a FULL time job so that I can better glorify God and his Kingdom I have began to realize my own faults in neglecting the proper study of God’s word. I fell away from God I fell away from the word of God that helped me understand the Holy Spirit further. Between the stress of school work, family, ministry, owning my own business, military, law enforcement, and life I lost the ability to read the word and know the word.
When we do this we fall out of line with the spirit or have difficulty trying to decipher what God is telling us. If we lose the ability to understand we risk walking further out of line and rationalizing our immorality and sin with its okay I can come back later i’m just going to do this one thing then ask for forgiveness. God is there reaching his arm hand out, God is there telling you NO, yet you still move forward.
If you had just focused on the word and learned from it, Gods voice would have been amplified times ten, he would have showed you the right way, or maybe you would’ve never even thought that.
AGAIN NICODEMUS QUESTIONS JESUS
John 3:9 “9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”
Still confused, I mean I would be completely lost and still was when I was saved. I was completely unsure of what was going on but I’m sure I’m not the only one who felt that way. It wasn’t until recently that I got the full understanding of it and I had to go to seminary and study it to truly get my head around it.
John 3:10 “10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?”
Jesus to a point scolds Nicodemus with his answer. The Old Testament does line out a need for a new birth:
Ezekiel 36:25-26 “25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”
As a teacher Nicodemus knew this therefor he should have understood what Jesus was saying. Jesus was telling Nicodemus that the time had come for him to be reborn and believe in Jesus as the Messiah.
