Experiencing What You Know

Date: September 13, 2020

Series: The Journey: Strolling through the Scripture with the Savior

Title: Experiencing What You Know

Text: John 3:1-21

ATTN

In case you don’t know this, my background is in music. I studied church music in college and we played classical music at Welch. If you know anything about classical music, you know that Mozart is probably considered the best overall composer of all time. He was a child prodigy, composing his first piece at the age of 5.

PIC - Mozart

When he was 6 he was invited to the Schoenbruen palace where he performed for the queen. It is said that he ran and jumped in her lap after he finished playing his piece.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, For our 40th anniversary, Kathy and I took a little detour when we went to Romania back in 2019. We took about 4 days and rode the bus from Timasora to Vienna, Austria. While we were in Vienna we went to visit the Schoenbruen palace. We took a tour of the grounds and the room. It was so cool to actually be in the place where Mozart actually performed. As we were taking the tour, we walked through this one room and our guide said, “This is the room where Mozart played when he was six, then went and jumped into the queen’s lap.”

PIC - Mozart’s piano room

You see, throughout my college career I played some things that Mozart had written, I sang some things that Mozart had composed, and I read some things about his life. But there was something about being in the room where he actually played that was an experience. I had heard about it; now I, at some level at least, experienced it. You see, there’s a great difference between just knowing about something and actually experiencing it.

And, again, why am I telling you this? Well, it is because there are people—people in good, Bible preaching, evangelical churches who know a lot of information about Christianity and even about salvation as a doctrine, but they know little about salvation as an experience. They have gone through classes and may even have gone to a Christian school or a Seminary, but they have never EXPERIENCED the new birth. There’s a great difference between knowing and experiencing.

BACK

There was another guy who was long on knowledge and short on experience. You find his story in the book of John, chapter 3. It says

John 3:1–3 NKJV

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 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.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

The guy I’m talking about is Nicodemus. He was a prestigious leader among prestigious leaders. The debate about Jesus raged in his circles so he felt like he would check things out. He probably thought he would be greeted as a colleague and commended for his open-mindedness. Jesus, however, confronts him with his real need. He needed to experience the new birth. His conversation with Jesus demonstrates the difference between knowing about God and experiencing a relationship with God.

NEED

And I realize my dilemma this morning. You’ve had John 3:16 drilled into you over and over again, especially if you’ve been to church. I get it. But just because you’ve heard messages on this and even seen the text painted under some quarterback’s eyes, that doesn’t mean that you’ve experienced what these verses talk about.

I believe a message on Nicodemus is in order because there are still many people who secretly think, “Surely, my religious activity is enough to get me to heaven. Surely God wouldn’t overlook all the good things I’ve done; Surely saying the sinners prayer and saying ‘I believe’ should be enough for God.” Now they say that without really understanding what was going on in this story. Listen and learn from Nicodemus’s interview of Jesus.

Others have experienced the new birth, but the joy of that relationship has faded into the guilt over their current lifestyle or been eclipsed by the stranglehold of bitterness. Listen and remember just how great it is to be born again.

So just how can a person experience the new birth? How can a born again believer come to appreciate just how wonderful their relationship with God is? Well, in the first place, you can experience the new birth when you:

You experience the new birth when you admit your need.

D1 ADMIT YOUR NEED.

EXP

Now, it is pretty clear when you read this account that, while Nicodemus begins his interview with flattery, Jesus begins with confrontation. Look at v 1:

John 3:1–2 NKJV

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

While other Pharisees may have begun the conversation with accusation, Nicodemus begins with accommodation. He’s trying to give a little to get a little. Maybe he thinks that Jesus will value his coming and telling Him that He must come from God.

But Jesus has another end in mind. He wants to tell Nicodemus the truth, even if it hurts. He wants Nicodemus to understand exactly how vulnerable he is when it comes to his eternal destiny. So Jesus bluntly tells him in v 3:

John 3:3 NKJV

Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

This was much more than what Nic bargained for! He had come to have a conversation between peers. He had come to evaluate Christ and now Christ is telling him that he has to be “born again.” Even further, Jesus is telling him that, if he isn’t “born again,” literally “born from above,” he will never get to heaven. This was quite an insult. To the Pharisee who thought he sat in the seat of judgment helping determine who would go to heaven, he is told that all his law keeping and community service would not get him there at all.

Knocked off his “I’m-ok-you’re-ok” routine, Nicodemus responds with a literalness that may belie his total disorientation. He says,

John 3:4 NKJV

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?”

Now, this whole “born again” thing could have been an insult to Nicodemus for another reason. In Judaism, the whole idea of becoming like a child was language that some Pharisees used to speak of Gentiles becoming Jews. By telling Nicodemus that he had to become a newborn, He is telling him that, when it came to going to heaven, he as in the Gentile category. No wonder he was disoriented!

So seeing his disorientation, Jesus goes on to explain:5

John 3:5–7 NKJV

Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

Being “born of water and of the Spirit” has been interpreted in various ways, but the best interpretation is to understand them both speaking of the same spiritual birth that Jesus is talking about. He is telling Nicodemus, “Unless you experience this spiritual birth, you will not go to heaven”

APP

Now that was not easy for Nicodemus to accept. He had power; he had position; he had respect; he even thought he had eternal life, but he did not. He was trusting in his own efforts. And that might be you. You have some interest in Christ. You might even applaud His morality or his compassion, but you are not willing to admit that you need His help. Hear Him say to you today, “You must be born again.”

Or maybe you really have experienced this spiritual birth but can I tell you something I observe in so many Christians? They come to Christ in faith; He gives them His grace, but then they seem to forget the gospel that saved them and live out of their own efforts. Maybe you need to be reminded today of your own need to depend on God.

ILL

PIC - Henry worsley

Larry Parsley writes of a Brittish army commando and Arctic explorer named Henry Worsley. Worsley was obsessed with his leadership hero, another Arctic explorer named Earnest Shakleton. In fact, he adopted Shackleton’s creed: “By endurance we conquer.” (Sounds British doesn’t it!).

Worsley's obsession with endurance pushed him beyond reasonable achievements. He had internalized a line from a James Elroy Flecker poem: "always a little further … a little further." And so, at the age of 55, Worsley set off for what he hoped would be an 80-day solo journey. He endured temps of minus-40 degrees Fahrenheit, was often disoriented, windblown, dodging deadly crevasses, all the while pulling a sled nearly double his own weight. After covering over 900 miles in a little over two months, Worsley's body became battered by various illnesses, dehydration, and sheer exhaustion. Just 30 miles from his goal, a defeated Worsley radioed for an airlift. Sadly, his body was by then too far gone, and he passed away from organ failure before his wife Joanna could see him.

Parsley writes of Worsley’s attempt: At some point in our lives the real key is not "always a little further." At some point we need to hear "Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden." Real power lies in surrender, admitting our weakness and limitations and trusting the power of the Holy Spirit.

And that’s exactly where experiencing the new birth begins. It begins with us admitting our need, but it has to go further. You see, you can also experience the spiritual birth when you:

You experience the new birth when you accept God’s plan.

D2 ACCEPT GOD’S PLAN

EXP

Now it should be obvious to us that God’s plan is for us to experience a spiritual birth, but what does that really mean. You’ve probably been sitting there wondering that even as I’ve been speaking. Well, we are given a picture of this plan of God’s in v8:

John 3:8 NKJV

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Jesus uses the wind to give us a picture of spiritual birth. Now, of course, this was written before meteorology came along. Today we can explain scientifically what causes the wind. It is caused by differences in air pressure. Air rushes from high to low pressure creating wind. But the picture Jesus draws, here, really isn’t changed by that fact. It is still impossible to tell where wind starts and where wind stops. We can only see the effects of it.

That’s the Spiritual birth. There is an element of mystery. There is a spiritual connection that is made between the heart and God. You can picture it, perhaps, like this: In the spiritual birth, our hearts are like low pressure—or actually NO pressure. They are empty. When we are born again, the Wind of God’s Spirit rushes into our empty hearts and fills them. This is not a program or a formula; it is a relationship that begins. That’s what Jesus is illustrating to this religious leader who had reduced God to the formula of the law and his own sense of morality. Jesus tells him that it is much different than that. There has to be a relationship; there has to be a new birth. God’s plan has an element of mystery that involves us making a heart connection with Him and coming into a relationship with Him.

APP

And we really need to know that because it seems as if we prefer a formula. If you don’t yet know Christ, you may say something like this, “Hey God, Just let me check the boxes so that I can stay in control of my life. Let me jump through a few hoops, satisfy your requirements, then set me free to do what I really WANT to do.”

But God says, “No, I want a relationship with you. I want to have a heart connection with you and that heart connection will be one in which I will lead and you will follow. I want a relationship that can’t be reduced to a formula. I want a lasting faith that isn’t limited to a temporary need. I want a relationship that goes from one day to the next day to the next day.”

And if you do know Christ, I must say that some who claim to follow Jesus may have the same desire as those who don’t follow Christ. They don’t really want an open-ended relationship with Christ that means that He can step in and mess up their lives. They also want the certainty of a formula, you know: Go to church on Sunday morning and do my own thing the rest of the week.

But experiencing spiritual birth means that we accept God’s plan. It means we make a heart connection with Him which He controls and we surrender. It we experience spiritual birth we must admit our need, accept God’s plan and then we must:

You experience the new birth when you appreciate God’s justice.

D3 APPRECIATE GOD’S JUSTICE

EXP

I think it is safe to say that, by this point, Nicodemus is blown away. He’s learned that his ritual is worthless and his law-keeping pointless. The only thing he can think to say in v9 is: How can these things be? We are tempted, here, to give Nicodemus a pass. After all, this carpenter from Nazareth certainly didn’t fit the mold the Pharisees constructed for their Messiah.

But Jesus doesn’t let Nicodemus off so easy. He tells him in v10 that he actually SHOULD know these things. Jeremiah had written that under the New Covenant, the law would be written on the heart. That sounds like an experience that would lead to a desire to please God that would not have to be demanded by a list of laws. That’s the new birth. Jesus tells Nicodemus He should have known.

But he goes even further in v 11. There He says,

John 3:11–13 NKJV

Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.

Don’t miss what is being said here: Jesus proclaims in v13 that He is the one Who has come down to initiate this new covenant of the heart and in v 11 He tells Nicodemus what his real problem is. He says straightforwardly, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and YOU DO NOT RECEIVE OUR WITNESS. In other words, He says, “Nicodemus, your problem is not that you don’t understand; your problem is that you choose not to believe.”

And if you jump down to v 18, Jesus tells Nicodemus the consequence for that unbelief:

John 3:18–21 NKJV

“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

Jesus tells Nicodemus, “I am the light that has come into the world but, because men are wicked and do not want to be exposed they reject me. Those who reject me are condemned, but those who believe in me are born again and rescued from condemnation and judgment.

And here’s the point for us: A person who experiences the new birth; A person who is experiences this heart connection with God must come to the point that they understand that they are doomed without God.

ARG

Now as soon as I say that, I can hear the push back, especially if you aren’t a believer, but you’ve been checking it out. You might say, “O, now I get it. God is an ogre who says, ‘It’s my way or the highway. If you don’t turn you burn.’”

APP

My reply would be that if you see it that way, you have an inadequate view of God. He is not CHOOSING to be so Holy and Just, He by very nature IS that Holy and Just. To refuse to punish sin is so violently opposed to Who He is that He would no longer be God if He didn’t do that. You see, if you think that God is an ogre, you just not seeing Who He really is.

And if you think that God is an ogre, you have an inadequate view of what Jesus did for you on the cross. Hebrews 2:2 says:

Hebrews 2:2–3 NKJV

For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him,

You can only think of God in those terms when you fail to see what He sacrificed for you to know Him. How could He possibly turn a blind eye to someone who refused the great sacrifice of His only son. Hebrews 10:28 says it like this:

Hebrews 10:28–31 NKJV

Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

And the person who experiences the new birth has to come to grips with his position apart from Christ. He is lost and he rightfully stands under the judgment of God.

TRANS

But I am so glad for this next truth that Jesus shares with Nicodemus. You see, you can experience this spiritual birth not only when you admit your need, accept God’s plan, and appreciate God’s justice, this new birth becomes possible when you:

You can experience the new birth when you grasp God’s love.

D4: GRASP GOD’S LOVE

EXP

To help Nicodemus understand what He is saying, Jesus refers him to a familiar story. V14 says,

John 3:14 NKJV

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

When the children of Israel were on the way to the Promised Land, God judged them by sending poisonous snakes into their camp to bite and kill them. Moses prayed for mercy and God had him to fashion a bronze snake and put it on a pole. Anyone who looked at that snake lived.

Jesus tells Nicodemus that He is the one who is going to be lifted up on a “pole,” if you will, when he is crucified so that whoever believes in Him would also not perish. I don’t think Nicodemus could miss what Jesus was saying. He was going to be lifted up in death so that whoever believed in Him would life forever.

I believe that the question that had to invade Nicodemus’s mind at that moment was “Why?” Why, if Jesus was God’s Son as He claimed, why would God allow His own Son to become the sacrifice? Jesus tells Nicodemus why in the most familiar verse in Scripture, Jn 3:16:

John 3:16–17 NKJV

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

Don’t miss what Jesus is saying! Yes, the world is lost and the world is under judgment, but God loves the world so much that He sent His Son to die.

APP

And listen! If you are here and you’ve never experienced that love in your heart, I so want that for you today.

ILL

He and his twin brother grew up in a pastor’s home hearing his dad preach week in and week out. He played with his brother in the church sanctuary. He was saturated with Christianity, but he never experienced the new birth. He said that as a teenager, he believed in God, but “Christianity,” whatever that meant, went in one ear and out the other. Then, he says, there was his “arch nemesis”: the altar call. He said,

I had never experienced any meaningful or long-lasting change after raising my hand and repeating a prayer, so over time, I came to loathe phrases such as “walk the aisle,” “come forward,” “raise your hand,” and “repeat after me.” Each attempt at getting saved seemed to take life rather than give it. By high school, my belief system was that I didn’t want to go to hell but wasn’t too psyched about heaven, either.

In his 20’s he began to regard Christianity with secret contempt. But then as a 22 year old, he was a counselor at youth camp. On the last night of camp, he went through another emotional altar call and his friend went forward. More shocking than that was the fact that his friend had a complete life change. He stopped partying, started reading his bible and became very passionate about his faith. He expected the passion to fade, but it didn’t. His friend grew. He began to believe, “Change is possible.” This gave him hope that he could change too.

Because of his friend’s faith, he called out to God. He said, “God I don’t love you, but I want to.” He kept praying that for several weeks until one morning he woke up from a deep sleep. He heard a voice, not out loud, but in his heart say this: “Get up, pick up your Bible, and sit down at your desk.” He ignored it, but the voice kept coming back until he got up, picked up his Bible and sat down. His Bible opened to Matt. 22:37: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

He said: Like the destruction of a great dam, the flood waters of God’s love crashed into me. In that moment, my secondhand spirituality became firsthand. My knowing about God was replaced with knowing God, and like my friend’s experience, the change was permanent. He grew in His faith and today serves on the board of a well-known discipleship organization. What I want you to note is how ______________ described what happened: Like the destruction of a great dam, the flood waters of God’s love crashed into me.

APP

Now I want to be careful here. I realize that searching for some great experience can become an obstacle to faith because you’re always looking for something you have not experienced. But I must tell you that, when you truly come to Christ, there is a reality to that experience. It happens because you, in the face of God’s justice, grasp the fact that He LOVES you.

But that love is not an excuse for me to defiantly live for myself because God so graciously loves me. No! When you really experience that love it calls you to give EVERYTHING you are and have to Him. You just can’t help yourself!

And when you admit your need, accept God’s plan, appreciate God’s justice and grasp God’s love, the only thing left for you to do is:

You can experience the new birth when you trust Christ’s work.

D5 - TRUST CHRIST’S WORK

EXP

In Jesus’s story of the serpent on the pole, the Israelites only had to do one thing in order to live and not die: They had to look! That is, they had to believe that what Moses told them was true, lift their eyes and look!

In the same way, if you want to experience the new birth, all you have to do is believe in what Christ did on that cross. The Apostle Paul said it this way: Romans 10:8–10 (NKJV)

Romans 10:8–10 NKJV

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

VIS

CHAIR ILLUSTRATION

· DIFFERENCE IN THE CHAIRS – ME – CHRIST

· TRUSTING IS SITTING –

· BELIEVED IN THE CHRIST CHAIR

o EVEN PRAYED – PUT THINGS IN THE CHAIR

· DIFFERENCE IS THAT THERE MUST COME TIME WHN TRANSFR TRST

PIC - HAMMOCK

A missionary was once translating the Gospel of John into an African dialect. He had great difficulty in finding a word for the important word "believe" (which occurs frequently in John’s gospel--see for example John 1:12; 3:16,18,36; 5:24; 6:35,47; 7:38; 8:24; 11:25-26; etc.), so he had to leave it blank. He continued his work but was constantly baffled by his inability to translate this key word. One day a native came from another community with a message of great importance. He had been running through the tangled underbrush for hours and so was completely exhausted. He blurted out his message and, being at the end of his endurance, threw himself upon a nearby hammock. As he went limp he breathed a sigh of relief and uttered a word in the African dialect which was new to the missionary. He asked the natives what the runner had said. One replied, "Master, it means ‘I am resting all my weight here.’" "Thank God," said the missionary, "that is just the word I need for ‘believe’"; and he proceeded to complete his translation. So too, believing is just casting oneself unreservedly into the open arms of the Lord Jesus and saying, "Lord, on Thee I rest my soul for eternity. I am trusting Thee to hold me up and to keep me safe and secure forever! I am depending on You and on You alone to save me!"

APPEAL

Have you ever done that?

Have you switched seats again – Trusting yourself?