1/20: An Evening with Nicodemus

Scripture Reading

John 3:1–21 HCSB

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 have come from God as a teacher, for no one could perform these signs You do unless God were with him.” 3 Jesus replied, “I assure you: Unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 “But 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, “I assure 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 “I assure 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 things that happen on earth and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about things of heaven? 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 will have eternal life. 16 “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18 Anyone who believes in Him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the One and Only Son of God. 19 “This, then, is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who practices wicked things hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. 21 But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”

Intro

I don’t know about you, but sometimes when you do something over and over again, so much that it becomes second nature. Or, if you here something over and over again, there is a tendency to not appreciate it as much. One of the best things I can here from my wife is how much she loves me. I love hearing it and will never get enough of it. You know sometimes, we will be texting each other and she will say, “I love you” and then I will hit the text box to begin my reply and Google will pop-up with it’s auto-reply suggestions. One of them of course is “I love you too”. How convenient! Just hit it and don’t think about it. Not me though, I pray that it never becomes a casual thing! That it will never become an auto response, but something deep and heart felt every single time.

And it happens sometimes though. We hear something or we say something so often, that is what it becomes. Just an auto-response. How are you? “Good” What we read this morning maybe something that you may think to yourself, “I got this! I already know this, time to plan my day and zone out.” The gospel message is such a good thing. And alway is a good thing. I pray that you will be captivated just like you were the first time you truly heard it. That it is real and potent and vivacious in your life.

But on the other hand, for those who may be sitting here or listening online or on the podcast thinking to yourself I know this, but do not truly know it. I want it to become real. I pray that God will open your eyes so that we are not like Nicodemus.

Because there is a difference between knowing and knowing. In the case of Nicodemus, he was a teacher of the law and he knew a bunch of things, but he did not truly know it. And my prayer for those of you like this is that God will do a work. Do a work that only He can do. That the beautiful gospel message here is real in you.

Body

Now we do not know much about the events that occurred here. For example, it is unclear where exactly this evening meeting occurred or who else was present, but we do know a bit about the characters.

Jesus, of course, we know. John has already set up for us who he is. He is the Son of God. He is God! He has even provided signs for the people to know who He is.

Nicodemus, likewise, we get a little bit of information on. He is a pharisee. And already we know a lot about him from there. This is a person who knows the Word of God. This man knows the Tanakh. He has studied it and defended it. He is very well-versed in the written and oral laws of Judaism. He would have most probably had all 613 laws memorized. How many of us have even 300 Bible verses memorized? He was an astute learner and he was a professor of the Scriptures.

But we know a little more about him, we know that he is a ruler of the Jews. This indicates to us that he is well respected and a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin. Think of it as the Supreme Court for this people group. He was more than likely wealthy and had great influence on the Jewish community.

So this is a person who we would expect has all the answers. He is knowledgeable in the Scriptures and has proven himself to have excelled in this area to one of the highest positions of all the Jews.

And he comes to Jesus at night. Many speculate as to why he came at night, it does not necessarily mean that he was afraid or embarrassed, it could have just been the best time to go visit Jesus. During the day many people would throng around him and so it is rather inconvenient to have a deep conversation with so much distraction. And the text does not tell us the motive, so we can only speculate on this.

But we do know that he did go and also that Nicodemus exhibits some rather commendable qualities. What qualities?

Also, he calls him Rabbi. “Rabbi”- 1:49, Nathaniel also calls Jesus Rabbi, but also added “You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Nicodemus is not quite there yet. But in using this title he exhibits humility. Being a very well-respected man in the community with affluence and influence he puts himself in the position of student. And what better teacher could there ever be than Jesus? Later on Nicodemus believes in who Jesus is.

John 19:39–40 HCSB

39 Nicodemus (who had previously come to Him at night) also came, bringing a mixture of about 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes. 40 Then they took Jesus’ body and wrapped it in linen cloths with the aromatic spices, according to the burial custom of the Jews.

2. He acknowledges that God is clearly with Jesus. Even if he does not yet believe that Jesus is God, there is a humility in this. He is not going to blind himself to what he really sees. He discerns that God must be with Jesus otherwise there is absolutely no way that He could do the things that he did.

And this really must be a thorn to those who want to deny that Jesus ever existed. It is stories like these that provide further evidence. Nicodemus is no fool. He is not uneducated, he is not hallucinating or tricking himself. He is an eyewitness affirming to the miraculous and wonderful things that God is doing through Jesus.

And almost in continuation to what we read in chapter 2, Nicodemus states that the basis for this understanding is that no one can do the signs that Jesus does. So the basis for the faith he has in Jesus is based on the signs right now. He has seen and you will notice that this is not enough. Nicodemus has faith based on signs, but the whole context of the conversation is on salvation.

So anyone can have faith based on signs, but it is not enough. Now this is nothing novel to us. We very much understand that salvation is by grace and faith in Christ alone. Not Christ+ some work or even convincing piece of evidence.Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, is not quite there yet.​

Recently, Ligonier Ministries released this bi-annual state of theology survey and the results are very discouraging. All respondents were allowed to self-identify as they wished and so I went ahead and I filtered the responses to only include those who claim to be Christian. Not only that, but I also limited it to those who went to church one or more times a week. So these would be the ones who are considered regular attenders or those who really are devoted to the church.

When asked:

Religious belief is a matter of personal opinion; it is not about objective truth.- 34% said yes

Even the smallest sin deserves eternal damnation- 51% said no

God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam- 54% said yes

The Holy Spirit is a force but is not a personal being- 58% said yes

Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God. -72% said yes

And on and on you can read the results on your own. What we see clearly here is that many people say that they know God and they know His word, but the reality is that they do not. You think about what it means to be born again that confounds Nicodemus. According to Barna, if you say that you have made a personal commitment to Jesus and believe that you are going to heaven. You are saved. But neither of those things, in and of themselves, constitute what Scripture teaches about what it means to be born again.

David Platt said in rather convicting manner, “You believe in Jesus. Who doesn’t? Every intoxicated person I have met on the street believes in Jesus. Unmarried couples, sleeping together, believe in Jesus. Men and women who haven’t been to worship in forty years believe in Jesus. Multitudes of world-loving, lukewarm church attenders believe in Jesus. Multitudes of church attenders today believe in Jesus but have never been born again.”

And lest, we get too proud and think more highly of ourselves let me show you another statistic. Are we so concerned with the salvation of those who are lost and dead, not physically dead but spiritually dead, that we have a consistent witness? That we truly understand what it means to be born again more than juts to know it, but we know it. We know it deeper than our brains and intellect allow us, we know it so much that it convicts us deeply where we can not but help but witness.

John 3:3–8 HCSB

3 Jesus replied, “I assure you: Unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 “But 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, “I assure 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.”

For some of us, this is so simple. We got this. But do we? Nicodemus did not get it initially. Jesus has to sit him down like a child and tell him, “No, Nico. You got it wrong. I am not talking about being born again as a baby or physically. I am talking about spiritual rebirth.”

Nicodemus is close and I am sure he wants to enter the kingdom of God. Jesus explains the way. Rebirth. And so what we are seeing implied in this statement by Jesus is that Nicodemus is not saved. He still needs to be born again. He had been upright. He had been very influential in the community. He was in good standing by external accounts, but God sees straight through that. Your good deeds do nothing. You need a rebirth by the Spirit. You cannot even do it.

And in no way is Jesus speaking about being dunked in a tank of water. He is not talking about being baptized as though being baptized is how you earn salvation. Jesus is not saying that at all.

Holman New Testament Commentary: John A. Conversation with Nicodemus (3:1–15)

“Nicodemus was a Pharisee. He was used to this way of speaking. The allusion would be natural for him. We should accordingly take the passage to mean being born of ‘spiritual water,’ and see this as another way of referring to being born ‘of the spirit.’ Jesus is referring to the miracle which takes place when the divine activity re-makes a man. He is born all over again by the very Spirit of God.

What does it mean to be reborn? We are in Christ! We are new! Born of the Spirit. Not meaning that we are perfect because we still live in this flesh that has been corrupted totally by sin. But that we truly are made new.

Ezekiel 36:25–27 HCSB

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.

It is not this superficial knowledge or a title we give to myself, it is so much more than that?

Cleansed- We are made clean. We could not do it on our own. Ceremonial cleansing of water. We could not do it on our own though. We needed a Savior. What is required? Faith!

Changed- Our dead hearts are gone. We live! We are new creations with changed hearts and so our desires are even different. We want to serve our fellow brothers and sisters and to give cheerfully for the building up of one another. We do good now in order to glorify God because we have changed motives.

Committed- Being born of the Spirit means that we have a new cause. We are not looking to grow our bank account, follower count, or material estate. We are looking to grow the Kingdom and to walk in faithfulness and obedience to our Lord. You see salvation does not come without a transformation.

If a person were to say that they were saved, but their lives are not changed at all, are they really? Not to grant myself any authority equal to God right now in judging a person’s salvation, because God is the judge of that. But Scripture definitively reveals that that those who have been sealed by the Spirit, washed by it, those who are reborn, they are transformed. And if there is not, than that person has not experience the new birth and they are not born again.

This is very much a gospel centered message. We must be born again. Not that we change our habits. Not even that we change our name. Not that we change our weekly cycle. We must be born of the Spirit. It is not enough to say that I am faithful in reading my word, faithful in prayer, faithful in coming to church, faithful in presenting my offering. It is not just going through the motions.

You must be actually born again. Not intellectually, not as he said in chapter 1, not of “blood, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.” (13)

We walk by the Spirit

We live by the spirit, submitting our body to the spirit and no longer to the flesh

We are children of God!

Conclusion

This leads us to the ultimate question though. Are you born again? And this must be answered individually, I am not asking this waiting for the church to answer, but I am looking at each of you as individuals, are you born again?

Like I mentioned before, sometimes we can casually glaze over messages like this and my prayer is that you do not. But you take it seriously and consider it extensively. To wrestle with this question.

Personal Testimony

I pray that this day, you will examine your heart and your life. To look at all the sins, not generally, but specific sins in your life and let God work in you. Let him expose the dark deeds in you and the things that you need to see in your life and I pray that you will weep in them and hate them but move towards the grace found in Christ. He died for sinners. He took on sin and bore the wrath of God. He paid it all. How can we not be transformed?