Grace Give Us a New Birth

Today we are going to look a time where Jesus had a conversation with someone who should have had all the answers, but when Jesus brings up the idea of being born again it completely confused him. The entire birthing in process is confusing. It changes everything so quickly. When my youngest was born I remember one minute I am sitting on the coach at the hospital watching Tennessee get destroyed by Florida and 20 minutes later I am holding my second daughter. It changes everything it is confusing. Today if you are in that boat and you think the whole born thing is confusion if you lean in with me you are going to get clarity on how you can come face to face with Jesus

John 3:1–8 NIV

Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Nicodemus was a man that had a very different background to everyone we have looked at so far in this series. The first week we looked at the woman at the well, a known sinner and outcast who needed the grace of God. Then we looked at Zacheus another known sinner and outcast who needed the grace of God, Last week we looked at a woman caught in adultery a convicted sinner and future outcast who needed the grace of God. Now we have Nicodemus he was a member of the 70 member Sanhedrin think supreme court justice, he was considered holy and respected by all, a perfect Jew, who needed the grace of God.

1. The Grace of God is for both the Outcast and the Esteemed.

No status, success, or reputation exempts anyone from the need for grace. Nicodemus came to Jesus to figure out what he was about, and Jesus did what he often did and that is he said something completely unexpected. In verse three he tells Nicodemus that no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.

As a devout jew, a leading religious professional, a member of the ruling council, there would be few Jews in the city that night whose credentials were more impressive as far as acceptance with God was concerned, He assumed his place in the kingdom of God was assured, and yet Jesus tells him he needs to be born again.

The reputation you’ve built, the respect you’ve earned, the money you have given, the time you have spent. None of that can pull you up to a point where you don’t need to be born again. A new spiritual life that comes from God through personal faith in Jesus is the only way.

Nicodemus was confused by what Jesus said. and he said the craziest thing. There have been times where I have asked students questions and they will have the craziest answers. and when you are in that moment as a teacher. In your head you are thinking where in the world did that come from. and you have to find a way to respond that corrects them without making them feel stupid and unwilling to answer questions in the future.

Jesus here is in similar situation and he handled it far better than I could ever cause if one of my students raised their hand and said does that mean I need to come out of my mother again. There is no chance I wouldn’t have lost it. That may have been my last day. but Jesus to no one’s surprise handles it better than I would have and goes on to explain what it means to be born again.

It meant to Nicodemus the same thing it means to us to experience God’s salvation is not simply a matter of illumination; it is a matter of regeneration it is not new seeing, but new being. You must be born again.

Jesus goes on to explain that to be born again isn’t visable like a natural birth, he uses the example of wind. He points out that those that are born again may not look different visually, but you can see the effects that being born again has on their lives. Just like you cant see the wind but you can see the effects of the wind. We have seen in this series the effects of being born again on the woman at the well, Zacheus, the woman caught in adultery, and now we will see it in Nicodemus. But he doesnt quite get it yet.

John 3:9–15 NIV

“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked. “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

To help Nicodemus understand what we have to do to be born again he uses another illustration. This time from the Old Testament. It is awesome when scripture illustrates scripture. Jesus reminds Nicodemus of a story that he knew well. In wilderness on the way to the promised land the Israelites sinned. as they often did as we often do. and God allowed poisonous snakes to attack the Israelites. To quote a great theologian “why did it have to be snakes?” So God had Moses make a metal snake and put it up on a pole, and whoever looked upon that snake would survive.

Here Jesus points to this story to make a very important point.

2. We are Bitten by Sin, We are Born Again Through Christ.

Imagine you were one of those Israelites who had been bitten by a poisonous snake. There is no poison control, no antidote you know you are going to die. you can feel your organs start shutting down, you are losing the ability to move. Then you hear an announcement. God has shown his mercy and grace by giving you a way out. Simply look upon the snake and receive healing. You would do everything you could to reach the middle of the camp to find that source of that salvation.

Jesus is telling Nicodemus, that everyone even the most religious people like him have been bitten. The effects of the poison are setting in. We are running out of time. We are condemned already. but God in his grace and mercy made a way for us who brought this death upon ourselves through our sin to be saved and given a new birth into a new life. If we simply look upon the son of God, who was also raised up high on pole for everyone to see on the cross.

So that everyone looks up and believes that what Jesus did on the cross was enough to save them they will be saved. If you have never looked up at jesus to save you from the poison of sin. This could be your day. You can’t make an antidote strong enough to save you from this poison. It is too powerful for you. But it is not to powerful for Jesus. Your sin is not too strong for you to be saved from it and be born again. When you put your faith in Jesus to do the saving.

If you have looked up and come face to face with the grace of God by coming face to face with Jesus. Then your role is to do everything you can to get your poisoned friends to the one who make them born again. If you believed the people you love. even your aquaintences were poisoned and you had the cure. Would you not do everything you could to get the cure to them. and yet we interact with people everyday who are poisoned and heading towards death just like we were without being born again. and we would rather keep them as comfortable as possible by not saying anything instead of pointing them to the cure.

Point them to the cure, point them to the truth. Point them to Jesus.

John 3:16–18 NIV

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

John 3:16 has become so famous and so quoted for good reason it is an great summary of what Jesus has done for us and an explanation for how we can be born again. but we shouldn’t isolate it from verses 17 and 18 because together they paint a full picture of Gospel.

Verse 16 explains what God used to bring salvation into the world Jesus, verse 17 explains why he sent Jesus to bring salvation and verse 18 explains what the reality is for those who believe and for those who don’t.

3. God’s Grace is Available not Automatic.

God is the one who starts and completes the work of salvation—it’s His plan, His gift, and His doing. We don’t save ourselves. But at the same time, He has given us the freedom to respond. Salvation isn’t forced on anyone; it’s offered. John 3:16 makes it clear—God loved, God gave, and we must believe. Both God’s role and our response matter. We don’t initiate salvation, but we are responsible for what we do with the invitation.

John is not saying if you dont put your belief in Jesus now you may be condemned in some remote future. John makes it clear that condemnation has already taken place for unbelievers. It is the default state. We are already poisoned with sin. We do not need to be born again to avoid a projected future condemnation but the unbeliever needs to be born again to escape an already exisiting condemnation.

Being born again is the radical difference between Christians and non-Christians. We are either one or the other. Born again or dead in our sins, we are walking in light or walking in darkness, we are saved from condemnation or we are under condemnation.

People get so hung up on what they deem unfair that we start condemned, we start poisoned that God’s grace isn’t automatic. God isn’t loving because he lets us go to hell. When in reality what is unfair is that God made a way for us to be moved from condemned to saved. That is grace, and it isnt automatic but it is available. and what made it available is that God gave us Jesus for the purpose of saving the world so that we could be born again.

God’s grace is available to you today because of what is said at the start of John 3:16 “for God so loved the world that he gave” if the depth of love is measured by the value of its gift, then God’s love could not be greater. Because his gift of love was his most precious possession, his only eternally beloved Son. He could not love more.

Conclusion

God’s love made salvation available to Nicodemus, He was able to be born again because not of his race as jew, his ability to keep the law, his status a respected religious person. None of those things were able to get him to place where he deserved to be born again. it is the grace of God extended to him by Jesus because of his love for Nicodemus that allowed Nicodemus the opportunity to be born again, We don’t have a verse telling us that happened, but we see the effects like the wind, we see a few chapters later him argue in the court on Jesus’ behalf, and after the cross we see him help bury Jesus. The evidence points to him being born again.

Just as God’s love made salvation available to Nicodemus. God’s love has made salvation available to you. Your church attendance does not make grace available to you, your money given does not make grace available to you, your reputation as a good person does not make grace available to you, who your parents or grandparents are does not make grace available to you. It is the gift of God’s grace extended to you through the sacrifice of Jesus because of his love for you.

he has done all the work he paid the steep cost. Every drop of blood that Jesus shed on the cross made grace available to you. But it isnt automatic. You have to do what the poisoned Israelites did you have to choose to look up and believe what you are looking at has the power to save you.

His blood shed his body broken. Makes God’s grace available to you so you can be born again. Lets spend some time looking up to Jesus as we remember his sacrifice on the cross through communion.

1 Corinthians 11:23–25 CSB

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”