Nick at Night

Sermon Style Sheet

Write that down in your formation Journal

Illustration

Sermon Text

Sermon Text: Scripture

Call to Worship

test

Psalm 150:1–2 CSB

1 Hallelujah! Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise him in his mighty expanse. 2 Praise him for his powerful acts; praise him for his abundant greatness.

––––––––––––

Passage:

Formation Journal Page Number: 1:58-2:53 4:01

John 3:1–15 CSB

1 There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to him at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.” 3 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 “How can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. 8 The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” 9 “How can these things be?” asked Nicodemus. 10 “Are you a teacher of Israel and don’t know these things?” Jesus replied. 11 “Truly I tell you, we speak what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony. 12 If I have told you about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

Opening Illustration:

the worst car I ever had - 1992 probably wouldn’t even be sold

then the radiator broke, the brakes broke, the power stearing had problems, we had to rebuild the engine, it didnt’ have the four wheel drive

I hated this thing with the fire of a thousand suns.

It didn’t need to be repaired it needed to be replaced.

Here’s the thing we are going to see - when it comes to Your heart doesn’t need to be repaired it needs to be replaced.

We need to be transformed

time

Getting into the Sermon

time

John 3:1 CSB

1 There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

So let’s set the stage of what is going on here. There is a lot of information given just in this first verse that’s important to understand to really know what is going on here.

First he is a pharisee. If you have been in church a long time, you probably have an idea of who they are, but let me explain.

After the return from the exile, Israel had a volitaile history. They were conquered by the greeks, then had a revolution where they were ruled by priests as kings.

During that time, there were different religious factions that came up. The most prominent was the Pharisee’s. They had a huge emphasis on holiness and purity.

The pharisee’s focused on behavior formation not transformation

Essentially, they looked at the exile and said, we were disobedient and God punished us. So let’s set up extra rules as buffers to make sure we don’t sin against God.

Here’s kind of how to think about it. Think about someone in school who was the teacher’s pet. They were goody-two-shoes. On the one hand, they were annoying because they made you look bad. They might remind the teacher that she forgot about a test or to give homework that kind of thing.

Even though you didn’t like them, you still assumed that they were a really good student. That the person was probably a pretty nice person. You thought they were good, even though you were annoyed.

That’s kind of like the relationship the people had with Pharisee’s. The Pharisee’s were trying to be holy, were trying to love God, were trying to be holy. But they were kind of pretentious about it and would look down on people. So normal people both respected them and were happy to see Jesus knock them down a peg.

But one other thing about Pharisees, it seems to me that now-a-days people try to make connections of pharisees to christians. If you are a christians but care about holiness you are a pharisee. If you are a christian but struggle with legalism, you are a pharisee.

Or people wills say, “the pharisees are like the evangelical Christian movement. They are the good church people of their day.”

In one way, they were but not in any real way. Here’s the big difference, Christians have the holy spirit and are changed by Jesus. The Pharisee’s were not.

Look, i’m a christian optimist. I believe Christians are generally trying their best. And what’s more, I believe, I am fully convinced, that average everyday Christians can do great things for God through the power of their union with Christ.

Christians can struggle with the same things that the pharisee’s struggled with, pride, legalism, self-righteousness. But the difference is that Chrsitians also can have victory over that through the power of Christ.

So we need to be really careful about labeling Christians, true, Holy Spirit filled, redeemed Chrisitians as pharisees. It’s not the same thing.

But he wasn’t just a pharisee he was part of the sanhedrien. That was a rulling body made up of the priestly elites, the rich nobility and the educated elites which were the pharisees.

israel was under the rule of Rome. Rome had the final say on everything but they did delegate some governing authority to the Sanhedrin. Think about it as a city council. A city council has real power but it’s severly limited compared to the state or federal level.

So that’s who he is. Nicodemus was a big important person, he is probably 50-60 years old, so he is older and that was a bigger deal in those days.

John 3:2 CSB

2 This man came to him at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.”

Now he comes to Jesus at night. We don’t know why he came at night. He may have been busy at work and didn’t have time. He might have wanted to have a long uninterupted conversation with jesus. Or he may have been afraid.

We don’t know but he does come to him and he is talking to Jesus respectfully. He calls him Rabbi.

But he comes to jesus and he says “we know you are from God.” And how do they know it? Through the signs.

They saw Jesus do some miracles and based on that they thought he was from God.

Now that’s not a bad assumption. That’s pretty reasonable. And I think it’s important to pay attention to that detail because we can all fall into that way of thinking.

Nicodemus had intellectual belief not saving faith.

We can become “signs christians.” We can fall into the habit of believing that God loves us based on what we see. We are can fall into the trap of seeing is believing - not that we see God but that we see his signs.

That’s what Nicodemus was doing here. He was saying that we believe because we have seen something.

But that type of faith isn’t true faith. It always starts to demand the next sign. As soon as you stop seeing the signs you stop believing. This isn’t the type of faith that saves you. Look at how jesus responds

John 3:3 CSB

3 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

So Jesus is explaining something important - its not intellectual belief that saves you. It’s being completely changed and transformed. You have to be born again.

Jesus says it’s about transformation not affirmation

There are a lot of people who intellectually believe Jesus is God.

This is confusing and it was confusing to Nicodemus.

John 3:4 CSB

4 “How can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”

He’s being told that he’s on the outs with God.

Now, I think Nicodemus knew that he wasn’t telling him that he had to be physically born again. But he still didn’t know what he was talking about. What does any of this mean?

Nicodemus wants more information!

So jesus continues

John 3:5–6 CSB

5 Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit.

So now we get into it. He is speaking of a spiritual transition. Something that changes. It’s a miracle.

everybody was excited about water into wine -

The greatest miracle we experience is rebirth.

The clearest sign in your spiritual transformation.

He is using imagery from Ezekiel 36

Ezekiel 36:25–27 CSB

25 I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will place my Spirit within you and cause you to follow my statutes and carefully observe my ordinances.

Look at what God says he is going to do. First, he is going to sprinkle them clean with water. That’s going to wash them.

If you are thinking that sounds kind of like baptism, that’s what Baptism represents. The spiritual cleaning. The sprinkling with water and then you are clean.

So let’s just pause and talk about that spiritually. We carry with us scars from our sins. We have guilt and we have shame.

That’s not just a mental health disorder, that shame is like a spiritual wound that let’s you know that you aren’t healthy.

Or you could say it like this, Shame is the odor of sin. It’s the body odor of sin. You smell it because you know you are dirty.

But here is what Christ does, he washes you. You get to take a shower. He washes you clean. Spiritually, you are washed so that you don’t have to have the smell.

Shame for past sin for a christian is deception. You have been washed clean. You are no longer dirty. That’s important because one of the lies of the enemy is to constantly bring your past to try to convince you that you are aren’t loved.

In Christ, we have freedom from shame because we are washed clean.

That’s part 1.

Change your heart of stone- I am going to put my spirit inside you

But what else does he say - he will give you a new heart and put his spirit inside you. You get a heart transplant.

The core of your existence was broken with sin and now it is changed. Because you have God’s spirit inside of you. You are completely transformed.

Christians aren’t just well behaved humans-we are a different, spiritual species.

John 3:7–8 CSB

7 Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. 8 The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Here’s what this means, the Spirit is moving. He directs things. He is moving around changing hearts. Here’s what this means:

First, it means that salvation is God’s work.

He sends his spirit to move and to change us. His spirit comes in and makes us alive. He is the reason why we see God’s beauty.

Here’s how this works - Glasses for colorblind people

They couldn’t see it. In our sin, we can’t do it on our own. We are corrupted by our sin.

This means two things - Saved doesn’t mean superior. we shouldn’t look down on people who aren’t saved because we aren’t better than them.

You aren’t smarter, you aren’t better, the Spirit worked in your life.

No one’s abandoned because no one is out of reach

We shouldn’t give up on anyone because we weren’t closer than them.

The apostle Paul was on a business trip to hunt Christians and God save him.

The reason why want to pray for people who are far from God is because nobody is really all that far.

Nicky Cruze story

But this isn’t what makes sense to Nicodemus! It’s illogical.

Here’s how Nicodemus asks it

John 3:9 CSB

9 “How can these things be?” asked Nicodemus.

So someone can commit murder and just ask God to be forgiven and then they are forgiven?

He doesn’t understand. He is trained to think it is just by his own work. He was trained that good people get God. But Jesus isn’t saying that good people get God he is saying Good people don’t get the kingdom, God’s people get the kingdom.

John 3:10–13 CSB

10 “Are you a teacher of Israel and don’t know these things?” Jesus replied. 11 “Truly I tell you, we speak what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony. 12 If I have told you about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven—the Son of Man.

So first, Jesus acknowledges that this is hard to believe. He gives him a little rebuke but I don’t think he is telling him off, I think he is illustrating the point.

Listen, if anyone would get in on their own merit it is Nicodemus. He was a good guy. He was respected. He was honest. He knew the scriptures. He is a teacher of israel.

So why doesn’t he understand? The spirit hadn’t moved in his life yet. He hadn’t changed them.

Charlie Brown. Wah wah.

But Jesus isn’t just some guy, he is the one who descended from heaven!

And then he goes on to explain

John 3:14–15 CSB

14 “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

Numbers

Explain it bit by Fer-de-lance

ABC’s repentance Admit, believe, commit.

Faith, some people didn’t drag themselves out

Are you ready to have faith in Christ?

What if you are questioning:

Believes in Jesus

Victory over sin

Does righteousness

Loves other Christians

Ruled by God’s priorities

Guards their life from the enemy’s influence

Not perfectly, but that you see this in your life.

Now here’s what that means as a church plant- if salvation is god’s work then nobody is too far from God. We need to always keep that in mind.

You weren’t saved because you were closer to God than someone else, you were more lovable. So let’s believe and pray for conversions. Let’s live in this confidence.

Be praying- God save the people that other people think can’t be saved.

Restore the people other people think can’t be restored.

Change the community in a way people think it can’t be changed.

Let’s pray that together.

Lord’s Supper:

On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

25 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.” 

Benediction:

The LORD bless you and keep you;

the LORD makes his face shine upon you and be gracious to you:

The LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.