John 3:1-15

Last week we dealt with the pre-incarnate glory of Christ. Meaning that we affirmed his deity [his Godship, his divinity, his supremacy, his glory] that has eternally existed even before He came as Jesus of Nazareth.

And we fleshed that out as we spoke about John 1:1 “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.” And we saw the text conclude Christ as the literal manifestation of the word of God, that he has been eternally present… had equal responsibility in the creation of the universe and that Christ came as the light of men, verse 9 tells us…

This means that he is the light in a Dark World, he came to provide salvation to the hopeless, peace to the restless, mending to the broken, healing to the wounded, rescue to the desperate, pardon to the guilty and this was only possible because the “light of the universe” chose to descend from Heaven and take up his cross as the Savior of the World.

That get us into our text this morning:

John 3:1-15

3 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.”

· The name Pharisee comes from a Hebrew word meaning “separated.” And these men who were very influential in Judaism at the time of Christ and the early church. They are mostly known for their desire to uphold the 613 laws of the Torah or the Old Testament - but they also regarded Jewish tradition to be of equal importance and to have equal authority to the Old Testament.

· Now why is this problematic… it's problematic because I would hope that every person here today would affirm the Bible as the living, breathing, authoritative, inspired Word of God… and it would be problematic for us to take a tradition of First Baptist Church Diboll and hold it to the same authority and importance as the Word of God…Now that is a very understated example…but you get the point.

· So what happened is that because they believed that Jewish tradition was equivalent in authority to God’s Word, they allowed their traditions and opinions to add to the Word of God down through their generations which is forbidden in Deut. 4:2, “you shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.”

· This is where Nicodemus was…He had been raised in Judaism as a boy and a pharisee to uphold the law and tradition…but now He was seeing this Jesus, who was calling people to repentance, who was performing miracles that could only come from God and who was calling everything that he had been taught and believed into question by what He was saying and doing.

· So he goes to Jesus [notice to examine and observe this teacher Himself] and begins a conversation by affirming that there is something special about Christ.

3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

· Have you ever been in a conversation or around a person like this? Nicodemus is just trying to have a conversation and say something nice about Jesus. And you have Jesus going straight to the jugular. Straight to the point. LOL

o Nicodemus: Hey Jesus, How are you? Man…You obviously must be from God because….

o Jesus:Unless you are born again you will not see the Kingdom of Heaven!

o Nicodemus: [Look around confused] immediately overwhelmed and confused

· And Nicodemus knew about the Kingdom… he knew that it would be ruled by God… he knew that it would be restored on earth… he knew that it would incorporate God's people…

· but then Jesus throws him a curveball… and he tells Nicodemus that even as a Jew, that unless he is born again, he will not see the Kingdom that he knows so much about.

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?”

· Now the physical element is on display here as a confused Nicodemus in verse 4 tries to wrap his mind around this idea of how a person who has grown can reenter a mother's womb as a baby?

· But in addition to this, is also that Nicodemus is, at this moment, facing a hard reality. And that is that he is grown up into Judaism [this belief that he has to be good enough to earn heaven by following the God’s Law and Jewish Tradition] and the Messiah is standing directly in front of him and telling him to stop being that man of Judaism and to being living his life as a babe in Christ.

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.

· Throughout God’s Word “both Water and Spirit” are used to represent birth from above or spiritual regeneration in Christ.

· And this statement would have fell in direct contrast or opposition to the perspective of nicodemus on how a person was supposed to live their life in order to gain heaven.

· Now as the Jew this idea of being cleanse by the “living water” and being given a “new spirit” was not foreign to Nicodemus. He knew the law, he had read the Old Testament and was undoubtedly familiar with the context in Ezekiel 36:25-26, where God says:

o Ezekiel 36:25-26 “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.”

· I have heard it preached that the “water” Jesus speaks about in verse 5 is talking about talking about physical birth… because a baby is born in amniotic fluid… right before a mother gives birth her “water” breaks…

· And I don't think that you can deny that verse 5 has undertones that relate to a person being physically born… but the point of verse 5 is not physical birth… the point of verse 5 is that we must be washed by the living water that only Christ can provide to our lives… that there is a spiritual cleansing that must take place that only happens through the “living water,” who is Christ and the “Spirit of God” that lives in the heart of the believer.

· The water that verse five talks about is not talking about physical birth, it is not talking about baptism as the Church of Christ or the Pentecostal would say… it is talking about being washed in the water and by the spirit of the living God…

· and this is the message that Jesus is trying to get through a hardened law abiding Nicodemus…

Jesus says: 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You[d] must be born again.’ 8 The wind[e] 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 continues: And he asked nicodemus are you surprised at what I have just told you… brother you were trying to earn heaven through your own actions, through what you've been doing by abiding by the law and the traditions of Judaism…

· verse 8 Jesus says - you cannot control the work of the Holy Spirit he works in ways that we can't predict he works in ways that we can't understand... in the same way that you did not control your physical birth you will never control your spiritual birth…

· folks when God gets ahold of you… it won't be about what can I do to glorify God… it will be you looking at your life and seeing that God is working through you in order to bring glory to himself…

· and there is a difference we are not good, moral people in hopes that we will be saved… we are saved people, and because we are saved people the spirit of God molds us and makes us and sanctifies us to goo good things in order to bring him glory… it has nothing to do with you and your ability and everything to do with God and his ability.

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?

· Folks…

11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you[f] 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.[g] 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.[h]