The Plan of Salvation Lifted Up
The True Light: reboot m.24 • Sermon • Submitted
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· 1 viewNew Birth isn’t simply acknowledging Jesus, it’s dying to self and living in Him.
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Introduction
Introduction
Open your Bibles and read with me our text for today...
1 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.”
3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
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?”
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.
7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
8 The wind 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.”
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?
11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you 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.
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.
Here’s what we must understand:
New Birth isn’t simply acknowledging Jesus, it’s dying to self and living in Him.
New Birth isn’t simply acknowledging Jesus, it’s dying to self and living in Him.
The story of Nicodemus is a story that is replayed in the lives of many today who come to Jesus openly believing he is something unique, but no more than some type of spiritual broker who can buy, sale and trade, away our sins for forgiveness. Using him to wheel and deal on our behalf with God when it comes to spiritual things.
This type of amazement and wonder that we find ourselves in, just as Nicodemus, is one that is inadequate to salvation. As we read last week at the end of chapter 2, many people believed in Jesus for the signs that he did, but their surface level wonder was not enough for Him to entrust Himself to them.
Nicodemus also comes to Jesus the same way in wonder because of signs, yet this man was a “Teacher of Israel,” a Pharisee. He understood that God was with this unknown teacher named Jesus, but he faith was at the beginning of a journey to spiritual realities that he could not yet understand. Maybe you can relate.
What does it mean to be “born again?” He is not referring to anything biological or of the flesh, He is in fact speaking in this somewhat cryptic, supernatural, and spiritual language. What does Jesus mean when He says, “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God”?
New Birth isn’t simply acknowledging Jesus, it’s dying to self and living in Him.
New Birth isn’t simply acknowledging Jesus, it’s dying to self and living in Him.
Buried within this text are 4 key truths to this idea of “New Birth.” That when we look below the surface reveals the mysteries of what Jesus means when he tells Nicodemus and us that in order to enter the Kingdom of God, one must be “born again.”
1. New Birth is More Than Just Water Baptism ():
1. New Birth is More Than Just Water Baptism ():
New Birth (to be born again) for the Christian is not simply completed by an outward work of water baptism, but must be initiated by an inward work of the Spirit. ; ; ;
In v.5 Jesus deals with Nicodemus on this very subject.
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.
In verse 4 Nicodemus is taking Jesus answer of New Birth literally.
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?”
But that’s not what Jesus means… when he says this. To be born of water and Spirit automatically takes those who have been in our church or especially the Baptist church to the thought of “Believers Baptism.” Where one comes to profess their faith in front of the church and is immersed in water, and both by Biblical example and symbolism conveys the being buried in the waters which cleanse us of sin and raised to the newness of life in Christ.
So as a good Baptist being born of water evokes this imagery.
Nicodemus wasn’t a Baptist, technically neither was Jesus, but Nicodemus was a Jew, and we see Baptism as a Christian ordinance…yet, this purification by water was steeped in the Jewish faith. Yet Nicodemus is struggling connecting the dots.
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?
This is why it should not have been a surprise to Nicodemus what Jesus was saying because it should have brought to mind the words of the prophet Ezekiel. When God instructed the people through the prophet of how he would purify His own people who had sinned against him.
Ezekiel 36:
22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.
23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.
24 I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land.
25 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.
27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
You see water and Spirit in the language of God would have meant the same thing. Water was not just a resource for cleansing, but in a land of desert terrain water was a life giving source. That understanding is lost on us today where we find it plentiful.
What Jesus is saying is water and Spirit are the true giver of life…water gives life to the flesh, but the Spirit gives life eternal.
We see this in the OT and the NT. The Apostle Paul said it this way to the church of Ephesus:
4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Eph
“....one body…one Spirit…one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God...”
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
John
New Birth is new life in the Spirit. Much like water sustains the flesh in the dry periods of life, so too does the Spirit in the holy realms.
Remember what we talked about last week. It’s the Spirit that awakens us to the realities of God’s rescue stirring up affections for Jesus and His life-giving work on the cross. Baptism is response to the acknowledgment and the Spirit feeding faith to that work.
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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?
John 3:9-10
New Birth isn’t simply acknowledging Jesus, it’s dying to self and living in Him.
New Birth isn’t simply acknowledging Jesus, it’s dying to self and living in Him.
New Birth isn’t simply acknowledging Jesus, it’s dying to self and living in Him.
New Birth isn’t simply acknowledging Jesus, it’s dying to self and living in Him.
2. New Birth is More Than Earthly Wisdom ():
2. New Birth is More Than Earthly Wisdom ():
Many who are skeptical to the Gospel of Jesus are because they find those who claim Jesus both today and from the apostolic time (and what they teach) to be untrustworthy. However, those who have be born again have been awakened by saving knowledge given by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Jesus tells Nicodemus:
11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you 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?
Notice the plurality of the personal pronoun in this statement. Jesus starts the statement with an empathic “I,” then quickly switches to “we.” Who is the “we”? Many scholars believe Jesus is speaking of the testimony of His apostolic community of the church.
Frank Bruner in his commentary on John in dealing with the who the “we” is, in the text quotes the thoughts of John Calvin, who Bruner says, “frequently refers to the “Minority Church” in God’s plan, citing Jesus’ present double-plural “you folks do not accept our testimony,” and [Calvin] comments:
We learn this important lesson from this phrase: faith in the Gospel must not waver among us if it has few disciples on earth…the fate, as it were, of God’s Word has in all ages been that it won belief among only a few.
Bruner also brings another theologians thoughts to this text, Frey. He says of Frey’s analysis: that “Jesus and Johannine community writing John’s Gospel are the “we” of our text, perhaps along with Jesus’ historical disciples during his ministry (and of course , including the the Father and the Spirit)”…giving the addition of the trinitarian plurality.
Let me simplify this by putting these thoughts this way. Jesus’ “we” as recorded by the apostle John is in reference to His church, faithfully left to the apostles to build upon His foundational work through His death and resurrection and this “we” contains also the Godhead who constructed the restored people of God’s church in eternities past.
Again v. 12 connects the skeptic of today and yesteryear with the person of Nicodemus as Jesus asks:
12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
The church bears witness to Christ’s glorifying work here on earth for the hope of heavenly realities made known through the good news of Jesus. Yet many turn to themselves and their works instead of His. His work on earth far outweighs any work you or I could do. Our earthly works are futile, reaping only death…while Christ’s earthly works reap glory for those who believe.
Bruner asks us this question in his commentary:
If we as humans do not, first of all, believe our deep human need, how will we ever seek or believe any deep divine provision?
New Birth isn’t simply acknowledging Jesus, it’s dying to self and living in Him.
New Birth isn’t simply acknowledging Jesus, it’s dying to self and living in Him.
Which lead us to our next key truth taught in this text...
3. New Birth is More Exclusive than Inclusive ():
3. New Birth is More Exclusive than Inclusive ():
13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
To be born again in Christ one must understand that "Jesus is the exclusive personal bridge between heaven and earth, between God and human beings.” - Frank Bruner, (John, 192.)
I love how Bruner presses us into the spiritual realities of this verse as he pens these words:
Having seen Rebirth’s Need (Human Nature’s Insufficien[cies]) and Rebirth’s Means (The Holy Spirit’s Baptism), we have at last come, via the Church’s testimony in the last verse, to Rebirth’s Provision and Source (by the Son, from the Father [here in v.13]).
Basically, we learn that Christ (The Son of Man) is the only person with direct access to heaven (Bruner, John, 191).
Paul reinforces this thought (and I have often used this verse to those who think they can reach God through other means):
5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.
Nicodemus rightly call Jesus a “Teacher who has come from God” he just doesn’t realize how true that statement is. Because “he doesn’t think of Jesus as a Teacher who has come down from God in heaven or as the Teacher who alone has access to heaven or as the Son of Man and Son of God who has any of the other supernatural attributes that this Gospel claims for Jesus.”
“Nicodemus’ faith is in a Jesus that is flat [not 3-D or 4K or UHD]; [his faith] is not high as the heaven with the Father, from whom Jesus has in fact ‘come’ down, nor is it as deep as the hell to which Jesus will descend in His Passion.”
Bruner says:
If faith does not have the divine Jesus as its object, it is untrustworthy faith; if faith does not have the crucified-for-our-sins Jesus as its object, it is not the Christian faith of the [Bible].
New Birth isn’t simply acknowledging Jesus, it’s dying to self and living in Him.
New Birth isn’t simply acknowledging Jesus, it’s dying to self and living in Him.
This bring us to the most important key truth that this text is trying to convey...
4. New Birth is More About Belief than "the Whoever" ():
4. New Birth is More About Belief than "the Whoever" ():
New Birth is a picture of Salvation. Nicodemus being a “Teacher of Israel” should have understood this from the Old Testament. The entire Bible is about Jesus. Everything in Scripture points to the cross of Jesus.
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.
New Birth is a picture of Salvation. Nicodemus being a “Teacher of Israel” should have understood this from the Old Testament. The entire Bible is about Jesus. Everything in Scripture points to the cross of Jesus. We must understand belief is given by the Spirit. We make it about the “whoever” believes, while forgetting belief is initiated by God in the “whoever.” It is God who grants belief, which leads to “eternal life." ;
John 3:14
This verse is quite perplexing to one who is unfamiliar with Scripture, especially the OT. Which again, points that Jesus is appealing to Nicodemus as the “Teacher of the Jews” that he was. Again, trying to help him connect the dots. But in this picture Jesus paints a picture of a past event pointing to the salvation of God for His people, and pointing to a future picture to Nicodemus (a present reality for us) in the ultimate salvation of his people; the cross. Both pictures point to the need of true repentance in the work of salvation.
In v. 14 we see Jesus pointing us to an OT passage in Numbers where God was using Moses to deal with His disobedient people. Turn with me in your Bibles to this OT text …(the 4th book of your Bible).
4 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way.
5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.”
6 Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.
7 And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.
8 And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”
9 So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
This indeed is a picture of salvation in the OT. Sinners focused on themselves cursed against God and His leader Moses. Unsatisfied with God’s provision and “impatient” as the text describes.
How much does that resemble us? How unsatisfied are we with our desert seasons of wanderings, how much do we curse God and or even forget about Him and try to fix it ourselves?
This text is as much to do with repentance as it is salvation.
7 And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.
Numbers 21:7
Just as Jesus prays for us in .
And for the repentant people of Moses, they realized they could do nothing on their own, so God provided a way to save them from the venomous snakes.
8 And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”
9 So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
“And if the serpent bit anyone he would look at the bronze serpent and live.”
Conclusion
Conclusion
New Birth isn’t simply acknowledging Jesus, it’s dying to self and living in Him.
New Birth isn’t simply acknowledging Jesus, it’s dying to self and living in Him.
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.
What does this mean?
Just as Moses lifted up the serpent, Christ to would be lifted up on a cross, beaten and bloodied for our venomous sins against God.
What does this mean?
As sinners we must realize the reality that even if we believe in Jesus, yet do not put our whole lives in Him we are still pulsing with the venom of sin.
What must we do?
The only thing we can do. We must look to Jesus and live. We must look to Jesus. We must look to Jesus only. We must quit looking inwardly. We must repent and believe and look only to Jesus.
Because the Scriptures tell us in v.15
15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
Let’s pray.
We must understand belief is given by the Spirit. We make it about the “whoever” believes, while forgetting belief is initiated by God in the “whoever.” It is God who grants belief, which leads to “eternal life." ;