How Jesus Witnessed to Nicodemus
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Now you will remember that this section of John’s gospel, starting in verse 1 and running to verse 21, is the Lord teaching about salvation, teaching about salvation.
And it all happens in a conversation with a Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus. Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night; he’s a very formidable man. The fact that he was a Pharisee meant that he had achieved a very elevated status in his devotion to the Old Testament and to rabbinic law and tradition. He was an expert. Jesus even calls him the teacher in Israel. There are some historical indications that he was one of the three wealthiest people in Jerusalem, which means that he has reached high levels of influence--a member of the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court--a very, very elevated Jew.
He has been watching Jesus, if only for a brief period of time, as Jesus has been in Jerusalem around the Passover
How Jesus Witnessed to Nicodemus
How Jesus Witnessed to Nicodemus
15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Introduction and background
The cleansing of the temple has occured
Some saw the miracles
23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did.
How should we witness?
in this text we see how Jesus witnessed to a man that was searching
3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Use a analogy or something they can understand.....
Draw them in with the bible
Make a conclusion
Now you will remember that this section of John’s gospel, starting in verse 1 and running to verse 21, is the Lord teaching about salvation, teaching about salvation.
And it all happens in a conversation with a Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus. Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night; he’s a very formidable man.
The fact that he was a Pharisee meant that he had achieved a very elevated status in his devotion to the Old Testament and to rabbinic law and tradition. He was an expert. Jesus even calls him the teacher in Israel.
There are some historical indications that he was one of the three wealthiest people in Jerusalem, which means that he has reached high levels of influence--a member of the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court--a very, very elevated Jew.
He has been watching Jesus, if only for a brief period of time, as Jesus has been in Jerusalem around the Passover
Jesus tells him he must be born again....
3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
New birth was mentioned five times in the opening verses;
Belief is mentioned seven times in verses 11 to 21.
So here we go from ---- it all God to believe ....
In verse 3 He says, “You have to be born again [anothen, “born from above”].” Later in that section, verses 3 to 10, you have to be born by the Holy Spirit. You have to be born of the Spirit and cleansed by power from above.
This is devastating. This is turning his religious paradigm and all his theological thinking upside down and inside out because his religion like all false religions in the world are all about people achieving a relationship to God, human achievement, works, religion, ritual, ceremony, morality, whatever the categories of accumulation.
Now you will remember that this section of John’s gospel, starting in verse 1 and running to verse 21, is the Lord teaching about salvation, teaching about salvation.
And it all happens in a conversation with a Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus. Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night; he’s a very formidable man. The fact that he was a Pharisee meant that he had achieved a very elevated status in his devotion to the Old Testament and to rabbinic law and tradition. He was an expert. Jesus even calls him the teacher in Israel. There are some historical indications that he was one of the three wealthiest people in Jerusalem, which means that he has reached high levels of influence--a member of the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court--a very, very elevated Jew.
He has been watching Jesus, if only for a brief period of time, as Jesus has been in Jerusalem around the Passover
How Jesus Witnessed to Nicodemus
How Jesus Witnessed to Nicodemus
I. He Used a Earthly Example
I. He Used a Earthly Example
11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
And He uses the analogy of birth. Birth is an earthly analogy. We all understand that you make no contribution to your birth, none. And the same would be true in the spiritual realm. You make no contribution to your spiritual birth. That’s why the analogy of birth is so appropriate. You need to be born from above. You need God to give you spiritual life, the same way God gave you physical life--and you made no contribution to your physical life, and you can make none to your spiritual life.
” Shocking, shocking. “You” is plural, “you do not accept our testimony.” “You” is plural. Why is it plural? You, your friends the Pharisees, the leaders of Israel, your nation and the world: “He came into His own, His own received Him not, He was in the world, the world was made by Him and the world knew Him not” (). I have come to you with the truth, eternal truth that I have always known, truth that proceeds from Me as the eternal Son of God. I have given you that truth.
He had just had a conversation with the perfect teacher, the most powerful, the most competent, the most convincing, the most brilliant, the most wise, the most clear, the most persuasive voice that ever uttered a human word had been talking to Nicodemus--the very Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
He used something he should have understood birth
Starting over
A new beginning
38 I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.
But Jesus doesn’t treat him that way. Verse 12, He says, “If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?”
It’s pointless for Me to go any further with you. It’s pointless for Me to dig deeper into the profound realities of theology and the mind of God and the purposes of God in salvation, I can’t go there because I gave you a simply earthly analogy and you can’t even believe that.
Born from above
What’s He mean when He says, “If I told you earthly things?”
Earthly things simply refers to the concept of birth.
That’s an earthly thing; that’s an earthly thing.
Birth happens on earth; it doesn’t happen in heaven.
John 3.11-12
It happens here. It’s a simple analogy, a simple earthly illustration and you don’t get it, and you don’t buy it, and you don’t believe it.
4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
4 And he must needs go through Samaria.
9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
John
john
And it’s so simple. And it’s so clear. How in the world will you believe if I now drop the earthly analogy and start talking to you about the Trinity?
Some of you may remember that name. He was one of the founders of Youth for Christ, along with Billy Graham. And he was believed at that time to be the greatest of the preachers. Billy was kind of the second preacher. He was the great mind, he was the great presence, he had all the drama. He had it all--brilliant mind, all of that, and he became a great preacher and a great evangelist and preached to stadiums full of people and he was carrying the weight of that kind of Graham/Templeton duo in the early years. And people fell at his feet. People loved to listen to him. He was...he was basically targeted for massive success.
Little by little it began to surface that he misrepresented Scripture. And he began to a little more, a little more out about what he thought about Scripture. It all came to a culmination when he wrote a book. The title of the book is a biography of his spiritual journey, and the title is Farewell to God by Charles Templeton. He ended up a journalist in Canada, a novelist, writer, television personality; Farewell to God.
What he does in that book Farewell to God is attack the Bible. And it’s amazing for someone who was trained and who prepared and who preached. He gets everything in the Bible wrong, everything. His view of everything is warped and skewed, and that is the legacy of unbelief. The legacy of unbelief is ignorance.
That is why if you go to a university and you listen to unbelievers talk about the Bible, they’ll get it wrong.
If you go to a seminary and you have unbelieving professors talk about the Bible, they’ll get it wrong.
And here was Nicodemus, he was one of those. Unbelief produces ignorance.
And so we see the passage open with this really startling confrontation of the condition of the heart of Nicodemus and the universal condition of every unbelieving heart, that it is locked in and it is prisoner to spiritual darkness, spiritual ignorance.
But on the other side the earthly illustration pricked Nicodemus heart
He did not walk away
He was curious
Illustrations are great but what we need is the bible
We should explain the bible with clear understandable language
That’s why there is power in your personal testimony ....
It relevant, clear and understandable....
5 minutes
How Jesus Witnessed to Nicodemus
How Jesus Witnessed to Nicodemus
II. How Jesus Witnessed to Nicodemus
II. How Jesus Witnessed to Nicodemus
II. He Gave a Biblical Application
II. He Gave a Biblical Application
13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
vs 13- He explained, people don’t go to heaven and come back. When you go to heaven, you stay there and you’ll be glad you did, really. Can you think of any reason in the world you’d want to come back? No, you can’t.
But anyway, people don’t go to heaven and come back. When you go to heaven, you stay there and you’ll be glad you did, really. Can you think of any reason in the world you’d want to come back? No, you can’t.
Well, there’s more to that than just that. There’s some very important truth here that I want you to understand.
No one has ascended into heaven but He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
Listen to this, the only...the only person who ever came down from heaven with the truth about salvation is Jesus. Every other religion comes either from this earth or below.
“I’m the only one whose come down from heaven. And the message that I bring is that salvation is a work of God in which you do not participate.
Jesus refers to Himself a number of times in that same phrase, “He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.”
33 For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.
38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
john 8.
Many times He says I came down from heaven. He is the only heavenly source of heavenly truth. And the message is salvation is by faith alone.
many times He says I came down from heaven. He is the only heavenly source of heavenly truth. And the message is salvation is by faith alone.
So Nicodemus is speaking with God in human flesh.
Nicodemus is talking to a heavenly being. He is talking to the eternal Son of God and the eternal Son of God is saying, “Don’t believe anything other than this, because no one has ever gone up to heaven and brought down the truth. I have come from heaven with the truth.”
so what follows this truth is a reference to the bible
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
First of all that means elevate Him above all others. Elevate Him above all others. He’s the only one that has come down. He is the eternal Son of God. He is the Lord of Lords. He is the second member of the Trinity. He is the source of truth. He is the truth as well as the life, and the light. Elevate Him; lift Him up. Lift Him up.
6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
First of all that means elevate Him above all others. Elevate Him above all others. He’s the only one that has come down. He is the eternal Son of God. He is the Lord of Lords. He is the second member of the Trinity. He is the source of truth. He is the truth as well as the life, and the light. Elevate Him; lift Him up. Lift Him up.
Believing in Christ alone, Christ alone, Christ alone; sola Christus, sola fide: faith alone, in Christ alone.
Then he gives a reference to numbers 21
, “Neither is there salvation in any other.” There’s no other name under heaven whereby men may be saved, only in the name of Christ. Believing in Christ alone, Christ alone, Christ alone; sola Christus, sola fide: faith alone, in Christ alone.
the children of Israel in their disobedience were punished by God.
God sent snakes, remember, to bite them. And they were bitten with this toxic and deadly poison and they were in a panic.
They cried out to God and what did God do?
God in His compassion and His mercy said to get a pole, put a bronze serpent on the pole, and for anyone who looks up at the pole, I’ll provide immediate healing.
That’s just a story from Israel’s past, and it’s an analogy.
It’s not an allegory; it’s just an illustration.
In the same way that the children of Israel, carrying about the deadly poison of the bite of this snake, could be delivered from death by looking up at a brazen serpent, so it is that sinners carrying the poison of the arch serpent and the sin that he perpetrated on the human race can be delivered from death by looking up at the crucified Savior.
The bitten Jews were healed from the poison by a look of faith.
They had to believe I’m going to go where that thing is. I’m going to go there, I’m going to look, and if they would do that, they would be healed.
And so it is that all God asks of us is to look at His Son, lift Him up.
The Jews who were bitten didn’t have to do anything. There were no works. Nothing for which to atone. No restitution, nothing; just look and you have life. What a beautiful analogy.
And here’s the heart of the heavenly message that Jesus brought down.
Verse 15, “So that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. Whoever believes will have eternal life. That’s all the sinner can do. Belief, belief--that’s the heart of the gospel.
The bible and its teaching will convict ......
The is a shock. Jesus says, “Whoever believes in the Son of Man whose come from heaven and is lifted up”—an allusion to His cross—“whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.” Whoever believes.
What’s the shock there? Well, believe could be a shock because this is salvation by faith. But the real shock is “whoever”; that’s the shocker. Eternal life, they knew what that was. By the way, John uses the reference to eternal life fifteen times in his gospel.
In Nehemiah when they hear the word they fell on their face a repented
Illustration of conviction when hearing the word....
23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
jesus used an earthly story then then he used the bible to back it up....
How Jesus Witnessed to Nicodemus
How Jesus Witnessed to Nicodemus
III. He Gave a Final Conclusion
III. He Gave a Final Conclusion
15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Now you have to understand that Nicodemus is in a state of turmoil when he arrives. He’s wondering what more legalistic thing, or what more religious thing, he can do to take the last, final step to get into the kingdom and get some peace in his troubled soul.
The shock is in the “whoever.” Why? Because the Jews believed that when the Messiah came He would save Israel and punish all the nations.
He would punish them for their blasphemy.
What’s the shock there? Well, believe could be a shock because this is salvation by faith. But the real shock is “whoever”; that’s the shocker. Eternal life, they knew what that was. By the way, John uses the reference to eternal life fifteen times in his gospel. The Jews knew what eternal life was. It was the life of God, not so much a duration of time as a quality of life. The life of God, the very life of God, divine life, everlasting life, transcendent life, supernatural life, union with the Trinity, possessing the life of God now and forever, this is available to whoever believes. The shock is in the “whoever.” Why? Because the Jews believed that when the Messiah came He would save Israel and punish all the nations. He would punish them for their blasphemy. He would punish them for their idolatry. He would punish them for their mistreatment of Israel. And now Jesus says, “Whoever believes.” And He says nothing about Moses, nothing about Abraham, nothing about the Temple, nothing about the tabernacle, nothing about the Law. He simply says it’s about believing in the Son of Man who is lifted up and whoever believes will have eternal life.
He would punish them for their idolatry.
He would punish them for their mistreatment of Israel. And now Jesus says, “Whoever believes.”
Now you have to understand that this lifelong, legalistic Pharisee is having a very difficult time letting this even enter into his mind, let alone processing it.
But Jesus is saying anybody who believes, anybody who believes in Him, the Son of Man lifted up, will escape judgment, escape hell, be given forgiveness, blessing, everlasting life in heaven.
Salvation is by faith.
Nicodemus then is given the shocking thing from the lips of our Lord, that salvation is by faith alone. A faith that commits itself to the Son of Man, and the Son of Man lifted up and crucified, makes that full commitment, and anybody, whoever he is, who makes that commitment will have eternal life—Jew or Gentile.
They also use some other Latin phrases to describe saving faith. Now remember, chapter 2, verse 23 to 25, says, “Many believed; Nicodemus believed.” But what did they believe? They believed Jesus was a teacher, came from God, and did miracles. But that’s not enough to save. Nicodemus rejects the message of faith for salvation. He believes something, but he doesn’t believe what he has to believe.
So the Reformers came up with some terms. They said saving faith has three components: notitia, fiducia, and assensus; Notitia is knowledge, you have to know. Faith comes by hearing the message concerning Christ, . So you have to know. Then you have to have fiducia, you have to believe. That means to trust in or to believe. But the third one which is so important was assensus or assent, meaning to commit to, to commit, to take up your cross, to follow, to be obedient, to invest your entire life in that thing which you know and believe.
Nicodemus then is given the shocking thing from the lips of our Lord, that salvation is by faith alone. A faith that commits itself to the Son of Man, and the Son of Man lifted up and crucified, makes that full commitment, and anybody, whoever he is, who makes that commitment will have eternal life—Jew or Gentile.
This is just devastating. Nicodemus was a racist, very much so, as the Jews were. Their hatred of the idolatrous blasphemous nations was settled long before he came long. And now the shock is “whoever.”
Then comes
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
And this is an explanation of verse 15, ’cause Nicodemus is going to be saying to himself, “Why in the world would God do this? Why would God give eternal life to anybody who just believed in Him?
And it’s while Nicodemus is trying to process that that Jesus gives us the most familiar verse in the Bible, . And this is an explanation of verse 15, ’cause Nicodemus is going to be saying to himself, “Why in the world would God do this? Why would God give eternal life to anybody who just believed in Him? Why would God not reserve eternal life for the people who kept the rules, right? For the people who followed the Law, for the people who kept the Sabbath, for the people who were traditionalists, for the people who were zealous for holy things, did the ceremonies, offered the sacrifices?”
Why would God not reserve eternal life for the people who kept the rules, right? For the people who followed the Law, for the people who kept the Sabbath, for the people who were traditionalists, for the people who were zealous for holy things, did the ceremonies, offered the sacrifices?”
Wait a minute. Why does eternal life get to be given to whoever believes, and not just Jews that believe but whoever believes? How can this possibly be?
And the answer is this, here’s why, verse 16, “For God so”...What?...“loved the world.”
What’s behind this whole thing? What’s behind it all? God’s...What?...God’s love, God’s love.
Now this is a heavenly thing; this is a heavenly thing. Whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life, because God who so loves the world gave His only begotten Son to make that possible.
God loves the world; God loves the world.
This is way beyond their confined racism. This is way beyond their hatred of Gentiles and the nations around them and the Romans living among them. God loves the world; God loves the world. How long had they justified their hatred for the world and defended it on the basis that this is how God felt? Right? They were the people of God. They were the representatives of God. This is the teacher. He hated the world ’cause God hated the world.
Not true. The reason that God makes salvation available to anyone who believes and the reason that anybody can believe is because God actually loves the world. Shocking, absolutely shocking. That’s the motive.
The object is the world and anybody in the world whoever, whoever. The world here is a term simply for humanity, humanity, that’s all—just God loves humanity. uses a similar expression, mankind. God loves mankind. It doesn’t mean that He’s going to save everyone who ever lives. That’s pretty clear because verse 18 talks about the ones that are going to be judged ’cause of their unbelief.
There’s only one world, one realm of humanity, and God has determined to set His love on that world. He didn’t do that with angels. The angels that sinned were cast into hell and have never known God’s love since their rebellion. But God chose to love the world. So the motive for salvation is love, and the object of salvation is the world. God’s love shows up across the world in common grace and gospel invitation. That’s the broadest sweep of God’s love. The rain falls on the just and the unjust. The sun rises on the just and the unjust. People fall in love, have children, enjoy the beauties of life and the world, the satisfactions, the successes, the wonderful things that God has placed in man’s care in this world are all evidences that God has a general love for humanity. He gives them gospel opportunity. The gospel reaches to them. He demonstrates Himself and who He is inside of them. He writes His Law in their hearts and He makes Himself accessible to human reason so that you can look at the world that is and determine there’s a God behind it and know something of His power and eternal Godhead, .
But there’s a special love that He has for His own in the world and they’re all over the world. In fact, when you get a scene in heaven in and 5 and 6 and 7, all the way through there, you see all the saints gather around the throne, eventually you find out they’re from every tongue and tribe and people and nation, not just Israel.
So this confined racism that was true of Nicodemus and others, not a reflection of the heart of God. Nicodemus is messed up in his theology very severely. He can’t earn His salvation. It has to come from heaven and it’s a sovereign work of God, not a work of man. And God loves a world that he hates, and God makes salvation accessible by faith when he always thought it would be by works. And so the action for salvation comes next.
The motive is love. The object is the world. The action is He gave His only begotten Son. That’s a little misleading, “only begotten Son.” It’s monogenes, monogenes. Genes is a Greek word from which you get genetics. Mono is one. And what the word actually means, when you put monogenes together, it means unique, it means one of a kind, the only one. That’s easier for you to understand. God gave His unique Son, His one of a kind Son, His beloved Son. “This is My beloved Son,” He says, the Son of His love; His own Son puts it.
And there’s something to be said here, very important. See the word “so”; “God so loved the world.” What does “so” mean? “To the degree that,” “to the end that,” “in this way.” That is God so loved the world. To what degree did He love the world? To the degree that He gave His only Son. In other words, the extent of His love is measured by the extent of His gift. The most magnanimous thing that God could possibly do would be to give the thing He loved the most, the One He loved the most, the Son of His love. He gives the person that He loves the most, the Son of His love, and that shows you the extent of His love. He loves the world so that He gives His one of a kind, unique, beloved Son.
The means for salvation? Whoever believes—believe, believe, believe; that’s the means. Believe, believe what?
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe that God raised Him from the dead. Believe in the significance of the cross and the resurrection. Believe the gospel. Whoever, whoever.
Listen carefully.
The free offer of the gospel is broad enough to include the worst sinner who believes. Did you get that? The free offer of the gospel is broad enough to include the worst sinner who believes.
Even the chief of sinners; Paul said he was.
Listen, the gospel is narrow enough to exclude the most moral religious unbeliever
But he hopes in his works, in his merit to get to heaven, and the gospel excludes him. The most profligate, wretched, corrupt person on the planet who trusts only in Christ—the gospel is wide enough to embrace him or her. It’s by faith alone.
And what is the result? “Shall not perish but have eternal life.” Negative—“shall not perish.” “Perish” is the Greek word apollumi, it refers to hell. Positive—eternal life, eternal life.
So maybe there’s a fresh look at . Now follow very carefully in these last few moments.
So the message of our Lord is this, you need to be born from above and that’s a work of God.
And you don’t participate in it. But anybody can be saved who believes and no other way. Anyone who believes. Why would God do that? Because then He gets all the glory, as Paul said in Ephesians; we don’t boast, but because He loves the world.
The Summary of this text is
36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
So jesus witnessed using
I An Earthly Story - Your Testimony
II. A Bible Example
III. A Specific Conclusion
Now you will remember that this section of John’s gospel, starting in verse 1 and running to verse 21, is the Lord teaching about salvation, teaching about salvation.
And it all happens in a conversation with a Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus. Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night; he’s a very formidable man. The fact that he was a Pharisee meant that he had achieved a very elevated status in his devotion to the Old Testament and to rabbinic law and tradition. He was an expert. Jesus even calls him the teacher in Israel. There are some historical indications that he was one of the three wealthiest people in Jerusalem, which means that he has reached high levels of influence--a member of the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court--a very, very elevated Jew.
He has been watching Jesus, if only for a brief period of time, as Jesus has been in Jerusalem around the Passover
And He uses the analogy of birth. Birth is an earthly analogy. We all understand that you make no contribution to your birth, none. And the same would be true in the spiritual realm. You make no contribution to your spiritual birth. That’s why the analogy of birth is so appropriate. You need to be born from above. You need God to give you spiritual life, the same way God gave you physical life--and you made no contribution to your physical life, and you can make none to your spiritual life.
43 So there was a division among the people because of him. 44 And some of them would have taken him; but no man laid hands on him. 45 Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said unto them, Why have ye not brought him? 46 The officers answered, Never man spake like this man. 47 Then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived? 48 Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? 49 But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed. 50 Nicodemus saith unto them, (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them,) 51 Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth? 52 They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet.
50 Nicodemus saith unto them, (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them,) 51 Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth?
This is devastating. This is turning his religious paradigm and all his theological thinking upside down and inside out because his religion like all false religions in the world are all about people achieving a relationship to God, human achievement, works, religion, ritual, ceremony, morality, whatever the categories of accumulation.
john 7.43-
39 And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
New birth was mentioned five times in the opening verses;
belief is mentioned seven times in verses 11 to 21. So now we came to that second parallel track, you remember that?
Now with that in mind, let me read verses 11, and we’ll read least down through verse 18. “
I Number one, the confrontation of unbelief. Vs 11-12
II He commends belief vs 13-18
III He condemns unbelief vs 19-20
So the whole thing is about believing and not believing--confrontation of unbelief, commendation of belief, condemnation of continued unbelief.
I But notice how verse 11 ends. “And you do not accept our testimony.
He had just had a conversation with the perfect teacher, the most powerful, the most competent, the most convincing, the most brilliant, the most wise, the most clear, the most persuasive voice that ever uttered a human word had been talking to Nicodemus--the very Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
And He had told him the truth about salvation, that salvation is not a matter of works. It is a matter of a divine miracle that God does independent of the sinner. He had told him that.
Powerful statements. It’s as if He said, “Look, with all divine authority, firsthand information from Me as God, eternal God, I have told you the truth about salvation. It’s not works; it’s a divine miracle. I have told you what I have always known and I am eternal. I have told you what I have understood from all eternity in union with the Father and the Spirit. I have not learned this, I have not heard this, I have not read this, I have not received it, I have not been taught this. I have eternally known everything I have said to you.
In , Jesus said, “I speak the things which I have seen with My Father...with My Father...and you do not accept My testimony.”
But Jesus doesn’t treat him that way. Verse 12, He says, “If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” It’s pointless for Me to go any further with you. It’s pointless for Me to dig deeper into the profound realities of theology and the mind of God and the purposes of God in salvation, I can’t go there because I gave you a simply earthly analogy and you can’t even believe that.
Born from above
What’s He mean when He says, “If I told you earthly things?” Earthly things simply refers to the concept of birth.
That’s an earthly thing; that’s an earthly thing. Birth happens on earth; it doesn’t happen in heaven. It happens here. It’s a simple analogy, a simple earthly illustration and you don’t get it, and you don’t buy it, and you don’t believe it. And it’s so simple. And it’s so clear. How in the world will you believe if I now drop the earthly analogy and start talking to you about the Trinity?
I was doing a little research, thinking about Shepherds’ Conference next week, and maybe talk to the men about an interesting character in the last century, a very prominent preacher by the name of Charles Templeton.
Some of you may remember that name. He was one of the founders of Youth for Christ, along with Billy Graham. And he was believed at that time to be the greatest of the preachers. Billy was kind of the second preacher. He was the great mind, he was the great presence, he had all the drama. He had it all--brilliant mind, all of that, and he became a great preacher and a great evangelist and preached to stadiums full of people and he was carrying the weight of that kind of Graham/Templeton duo in the early years. And people fell at his feet. People loved to listen to him. He was...he was basically targeted for massive success.
Little by little it began to surface that he misrepresented Scripture. And he began to a little more, a little more out about what he thought about Scripture. It all came to a culmination when he wrote a book. The title of the book is a biography of his spiritual journey, and the title is Farewell to God by Charles Templeton. He ended up a journalist in Canada, a novelist, writer, television personality; Farewell to God.
What he does in that book Farewell to God is attack the Bible. And it’s amazing for someone who was trained and who prepared and who preached. He gets everything in the Bible wrong, everything. His view of everything is warped and skewed, and that is the legacy of unbelief. The legacy of unbelief is ignorance.
That is why if you go to a university and you listen to unbelievers talk about the Bible, they’ll get it wrong.
If you go to a seminary and you have unbelieving professors talk about the Bible, they’ll get it wrong. And here was Nicodemus, he was one of those. Unbelief produces ignorance. And so we see the passage open with this really startling confrontation of the condition of the heart of Nicodemus and the universal condition of every unbelieving heart, that it is locked in and it is prisoner to spiritual darkness, spiritual ignorance.
So Jesus is saying to him, “Look, there’s really not a lot of point in Me launching on deeper theological explanations because I’m talking to a brick. You have no capacity to absorb this. Your mind is darkened. You’re double-blinded by Satan, we might say, if we borrowed Paul’s insights.
So, what’s the remedy?
Vs 13-15
II The confrontation of unbelief then leads to a commendation of belief, and starting in verse 13 the Lord says the only thing you can do is believe. That’s all you can do. “No one has ascended into heaven but He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.”
What can Nicodemus do? What can the sinner do? All the sinner can do, according to verse 15, is believe, but that is enough.
But anyway, people don’t go to heaven and come back. When you go to heaven, you stay there and you’ll be glad you did, really. Can you think of any reason in the world you’d want to come back? No, you can’t.
Well, there’s more to that than just that. There’s some very important truth here that I want you to understand.
No one has ascended into heaven but He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. Listen to this, the only...the only person who ever came down from heaven with the truth about salvation is Jesus. Every other religion comes either from this earth or below.
“I’m the only one whose come down from heaven. And the message that I bring is that salvation is a work of God in which you do not participate.
Jesus refers to Himself a number of times in that same phrase, “He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.”
For example, in He calls Himself the bread of God which comes down out of heaven.
, “I have come down from heaven.” Again in verse 51 of that same chapter, chapter 6, “I’m the living bread that came down out of heaven.”
Chapter 8, verse 42, “I came down from heaven.” Chapter 13, verse 3; 16:28; 17:5--many times He says I came down from heaven. He is the only heavenly source of heavenly truth. And the message is salvation is by faith alone.
So Nicodemus is speaking with God in human flesh. Nicodemus is talking to a heavenly being. He is talking to the eternal Son of God and the eternal Son of God is saying, “Don’t believe anything other than this, because no one has ever gone up to heaven and brought down the truth. I have come from heaven with the truth.”
And then in verse 14, our Lord says, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” You’ve got to lift Him up.
First of all that means elevate Him above all others. Elevate Him above all others. He’s the only one that has come down. He is the eternal Son of God. He is the Lord of Lords. He is the second member of the Trinity. He is the source of truth. He is the truth as well as the life, and the light. Elevate Him; lift Him up. Lift Him up.
, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by Me.”
, “Neither is there salvation in any other.” There’s no other name under heaven whereby men may be saved, only in the name of Christ. Believing in Christ alone, Christ alone, Christ alone; sola Christus, sola fide: faith alone, in Christ alone.
I am the one that has to be lifted up. And in saying that, there is a reference to His crucifixion. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” What is that about? Back in the children of Israel in their disobedience were punished by God. God sent snakes, remember, to bite them. And they were bitten with this toxic and deadly poison and they were in a panic. They cried out to God and what did God do? God in His compassion and His mercy said to get a pole, put a bronze serpent on the pole, and for anyone who looks up at the pole, I’ll provide immediate healing. That’s just a story from Israel’s past, and it’s an analogy. It’s not an allegory; it’s just an illustration. In the same way that the children of Israel, carrying about the deadly poison of the bite of this snake, could be delivered from death by looking up at a brazen serpent, so it is that sinners carrying the poison of the arch serpent and the sin that he perpetrated on the human race can be delivered from death by looking up at the crucified Savior.
The bitten Jews were healed from the poison by a look of faith.
They had to believe I’m going to go where that thing is. I’m going to go there, I’m going to look, and if they would do that, they would be healed.
And so it is that all God asks of us is to look at His Son, lift Him up. The Jews who were bitten didn’t have to do anything. There were no works. Nothing for which to atone. No restitution, nothing; just look and you have life. What a beautiful analogy.
And here’s the heart of the heavenly message that Jesus brought down. Verse 15, “So that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. Whoever believes will have eternal life. That’s all the sinner can do. Belief, belief--that’s the heart of the gospel.