You Must Be Born Again

I. Nicodemus visits Jesus to ascertain His identity. (vs. 1-2)

John 3:1 ESV

1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

A. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews (v. 1)

John 3:2 ESV

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.”

B. He came by night for “we” (v. 2)

C. Nicodemus presents to Jesus what he thinks “we” know.

II. Jesus gives Nicodemus the requirement for seeing the kingdom of God. (vs. 3)

John 3:3 ESV

3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

A. What is it to “see the Kingdom of God”

Matthew 19:16 ESV

16 And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”

Matthew 19:24 ESV

24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

B. Born again

III. Nicodemus questions Jesus. (v. 4)

John 3:4 ESV

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?”

IV. Jesus explains the new birth to Nicodemus (v. 5-8)

John 3:5–8 ESV

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.”

V. Nicodemus is puzzled! (v. 9)

John 3:9 ESV

9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”

VI. Jesus Teaches the Teacher! (v. 10-15)

John 3:10 ESV

10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?

A. Why does Jesus act as if Nicodemus should have already understood this? (v. 10)

Ezekiel 36:25–27 ESV

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.

Jeremiah 31:31–34 ESV

31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

B. We speak of what we know and have seen. (v. 11-13)

John 3:11–13 ESV

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.

1. Son of Man

Daniel 7:13–14 ESV

13 “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

2. Jesus asserts His unique qualifications to bear witness to heavenly and spiritual realities.

John 6:38 ESV

38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.

John 6:41–42 ESV

41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

C. The Son of Man must be lifted up. (vs. 14-15)

1. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness.

Numbers 21:6–9 ESV

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.

2. Jesus predicts the means by which eternal life will come to mankind.

a. lifted up on the cross

b. faith in Jesus is the only way of eternal life!