Crucial Conversations - John 3

Intro

I was working in my office one day when one of the pastors stopped by and encouraged me to make a visit to a lady who was going through a rough time. He said, “I was praying, and it dawned on me that you should go visit her.” I had never visited her before, but I agreed to go. I knocked on her door. No answer. I knocked again and again for about 15 minutes. Finally, she opened the door and let me in. It was mid-afternoon. She was in big pajamas, and she looked at me and asked, “What do you want?” I said, “Well, I guess I’m just here to encourage you. I thought I’d come by for a visit.” So we sat down, she made some tea, and we hung out for a couple of hours. As I went to leave, she asked, “Do you know why I’m still in my pajamas in the afternoon?” I said, “No.”

She said, “Well, something drastic happened to me two or three weeks ago. I’ve been so depressed and lonely that today I came downstairs, went into my kitchen, and told the Lord that I was going to take my life today. I sat down on a chair and fell asleep, and I woke up to you knocking on my door.”

Am I prepared to have a Crucial Conversation about my faith?

Setup

Backstory on Nicodemus

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Three: A Matter of Life and Death (John 3)

Nicodemus was initially attracted to Jesus because of the miracles He did. He wanted to know more about Jesus and the doctrines that He taught. Nicodemus himself was “the teacher of the Jews” (John 3:10, literal translation) and he had great respect for the Teacher from Galilee.

Nicodemus was a Pharisee, which meant he lived by the strictest possible religious rules. Not all of the Pharisees were hypocrites (as one may infer from Jesus’ comments recorded in Matt. 23), and evidence indicates that Nicodemus was deeply sincere in his quest for truth. He came to Jesus by night, not because he was afraid of being seen, but most likely because he wanted to have a quiet uninterrupted conversation with the new Teacher “come from God.” The fact that Nicodemus used the plural pronoun “we,” and Jesus responded with the plural “ye” (John 3:7) may indicate that Nicodemus was representing the religious leaders. He was a man of high moral character, deep religious hunger, and yet profound spiritual blindness.

In order to instruct Nicodemus in the basics of salvation, our Lord used four quite different illustrations.

Layout

New Birth - 1-7

The Wind - 8-13

Lifted Up - 14-18

The Light - 19-21

Main Text

New Birth - John 3:1-7

I am not saved so that I may be born again. I am born again so that I may be saved.

R. C. Sproul

John 3:1–3 NLT

There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

Again is translated “from above”.

John 3:4–5 NLT

“What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?” Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.

Born of water is physical birth, being born again is spiritual.

John 3:6–7 NLT

Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’

John uses the word life 36 times in the his Gospel.

When we are born again, our sins are forgiven and forgotten, and our future is bright with a living hope.

1 Peter 1:3 NLT

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation,

Understanding the need for salvation is the true beginning of hope.

The Wind - John 3:8-13

John 3:8 NLT

The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”

New birth is a necessity, but it is also a mystery.

John 3:9–13 NLT

“How are these things possible?” Nicodemus asked. Jesus replied, “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things? I assure you, we tell you what we know and have seen, and yet you won’t believe our testimony. But if you don’t believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven.

Nicodemus knew the facts, but he could not understand the truths.

81% of Americans know that Easter commemorates the Resurrection, but 30% attend a church service once a month.

Knowing facts about Jesus is not the same as knowing Jesus.

We must live our lives in a way that displays that we know Jesus.

Lifted Up - John 3: 14-18

John 3:14–15 NLT

And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.

Numbers 21:4–9 NLT

Then the people of Israel set out from Mount Hor, taking the road to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom. But the people grew impatient with the long journey, and they began to speak against God and Moses. “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die here in the wilderness?” they complained. “There is nothing to eat here and nothing to drink. And we hate this horrible manna!” So the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many were bitten and died. Then the people came to Moses and cried out, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take away the snakes.” So Moses prayed for the people. Then the Lord told him, “Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!” So Moses made a snake out of bronze and attached it to a pole. Then anyone who was bitten by a snake could look at the bronze snake and be healed!

Jesus uses a story of sin, a story of grace, and a story of faith.

Jesus being lifted up is a story of sin, a story of grace, and a story of faith.

The cross was not the end of His glory; it was the means of His glory.

John 3:16–18 NLT

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.

Jesus bridged the gap between God and man as He was uplifted on a cross.

Being born again and being saved is the act of fixing our eyes on the uplifted Savior.

Closing

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Three: A Matter of Life and Death (John 3)

On January 6, 1850, a snowstorm almost crippled the city of Colchester, England; and a teenage boy was unable to get to the church he usually attended. So he made his way to a nearby Primitive Methodist chapel, where an ill-prepared layman was substituting for the absent preacher. His text was Isaiah 45:22—“Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” For many months this young teenager had been miserable and under deep conviction; but though he had been reared in church (both his father and grandfather were preachers), he did not have the assurance of salvation.

The unprepared substitute minister did not have much to say, so he kept repeating the text. “A man need not go to college to learn to look,” he shouted. “Anyone can look—a child can look!” About that time, he saw the visitor sitting to one side, and he pointed at him and said, “Young man, you look very miserable. Young man, look to Jesus Christ!”

The young man did look by faith, and that was how the great preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon was converted.

Isaiah 45:22 NLT

Let all the world look to me for salvation! For I am God; there is no other.

The difference between death and life is faith in Jesus.

John 19:38–39 NLT

Afterward Joseph of Arimathea, who had been a secret disciple of Jesus (because he feared the Jewish leaders), asked Pilate for permission to take down Jesus’ body. When Pilate gave permission, Joseph came and took the body away. With him came Nicodemus, the man who had come to Jesus at night. He brought about seventy-five pounds of perfumed ointment made from myrrh and aloes.

What began as a conversation in the dark, ended with a Pharisee seeing the light.

The Light - John 3:19-21

John 3:19–21 NLT

And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”

The tension of the light is that the closer you get to it, the more sins are exposed.