John #3
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Northside Church
The Gospel of John
Sept. 26, 2021
John #3
Jamey Mills
Good morning… My name is Jamey Mills and I’m one of the pastors here at Northside. I absolutely love that I get to be here with you guys today…
Our deepest desire is that somehow and in some way you are encouraged… one of the very first sermons that was ever preached at Northside had this point in it… That it was my hope and prayer that Northside would always be a safe place for people to ask honest questions from honest hearts… I believe and have experienced that when we ask honest questions that way… in time… His time… honest answers come.
God isn’t offended by… or put off by those kinds of questions.
We are in our third week of a sermon series we are doing on the gospel of John… in this bibliography of the life and death of Jesus… that's sort of what John does… he’s written down these interactions, miracles, conversations that Jesus had as a way of bringing us to this point of asking honest questions… from honest hearts… about who Jesus really is.
And John starts off with these outrageous claims… Saying that Jesus was there in the beginning, was with God, is God, that he created all that was and is, and that he brings light to everyone.
Last week, we talked about the first miracle that Jesus did… turning water into wine… A LOT OF IT… it really shows the generosity of God; how what he provides is better and more than anything we produce on our own… but also the transforming power of Jesus and how that really comes to light in our own lives when we dome to this place of being willing to do what He says.
And I think to some degree John really illustrates that by telling us about another interaction that Jesus had.
There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee.
John 3:1
There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee.
Right out of the gate… We learn some really important things.
Who was Nicodemus?
Nicodemus (PIC) wasn’t the average guy… Not even close. He was part of a fairly small but incredibly influential group of Jewish leaders known as the Pharisee’s (literally means separated ones) who felt like it was their God given right to translate… add to… enforce… and even hold people accountable to keeping their selective and amended version of the OT law. It became all about doing… changing what you do, while our hearts remain unchanged. Behavior modification. They had so much influence that one author notes the teaching of the Pharisee’s in large part became synonymous with Judaism.
And Nicodemus was highly trained in it…
He wasn’t just a Pharisee… he was part of a much more powerful and elite group of leaders (70 of them) called the Sanhedrin. These guys were the top of the top… High level leaders and teachers… He was a leader of leaders… a teacher of teachers.
Not just anyone got in. We are talking former high priests, members of highly influential priestly families and high ranking scribes… experts in OT Law. They were given all sorts of religious, civil and political power to deal with their own people under Roman rule. These were HIGH HIGH level, very influential, and extremely powerful leaders and teachers.
Wherever Nicodemus went… people listened. His presence was honored… He had as much power and influence as any Jewish man did in that day…
And knowing that about Nicodemus is critical to understanding what’s actually happening here… This would have been mind bending for John’s audience.
After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.”
2 After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.”
Nicodemus came at night for a reason. There was a LOT on the line. Out of all the times we read about the Pharisee’s in the NT… they are almost completely seen as antagonists… not just standing against the teaching and purposes of Christ… but willfully leading others in that direction too… which is what Jesus mostly took issue with I think…
The Pharisee’s are almost complelty seen as antagonists to the purpose and teaching of Christ.
In fact, Jesus’ most harsh words were reserved for this group..
In just one chapter Jesus calls them hypocrites, blind guides who ignore the deeper purposes of God and who slam the door of the kingdom in the face of the people by their demands, who focus on looking good without allowing the truth of God to change their hearts… who look good, but are dead inside…
And to some degree, it’s hard to imagine Jesus talking like that… every time I read that passage it's like… dang… but I actually think that's a telling thought…
Have we forgotten who Jesus is? Have we forgotten who’s in control? And have we underestimated what's really on the line? Have we deduced Jesus down to “I just want everyone to be happy regardless of what’s going on in them or the kind of captivity they are living in” kind of guy?
Why did Nicodemus come?
He told us himself. Nic saw something in Jesus… that he knew was different, Jesus did things that no one else could do. And whatever Nic saw… he thought… was worth the risk.
I think Nicodemus knew or at least was highly suspicious that Jesus might be the one... the Messiah and that's why he's here.
Nicodemus seems to be bringing an honest question… from an honest heart… he seems to be seeking truth… and that's important for you and I… to know that Jesus is not put off or intimidated by honest questions from honest hearts that are seeking truth.
Even though Jesus often drew hard lines with his peers, Nicodemus was allowed to come… and see.
Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
“What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”
Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”
3 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
4 “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”
5 Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6 Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. 7 So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”
A lot of authors suggest that Jesus’ reaction here… is trying to refocus Nicodemus… while the miracles are signs… They point to the reality of who Jesus is… seeing them and even understanding they are from God… doesn't replace a saving relationship with Jesus.
Jesus says… that unless you born again, you cannot even see the Kingdom of God, and that has a couple potential meanings…
Outside of Jesus, you won't get into heaven
Jesus, His Kingdom, His Kingdom values and priorities… won’t make any sense at all.
Is it 1 or 2 it… the answer is YES. I think it’s both.
And so this idea about whatever it means to be born again is HUGE…
Nic doesn't understand it and conjures up images no one wants to see… gross.
Over and over… Jesus uses this phrase that's often translated… truly truly… basically what it means is… Nidcodemus, you need to hear this.
Jesus used the phrase being born of water and spirit…
Some believe this is talking about baptism, but I think Jesus was speaking a language that Nicodemus, as a master teacher of the OT, knew well…to a truth he read about but didn’t understand.
Last week I told you that one of the things that astounds me about the Bible is just how imagery, detail and things like foreshadowing it gives… check this out.
I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. 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. 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.
For I will gather you up from all the nations and bring you home again to your land.
“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.
Ezekiel 36:24-26
(ESV)
24 I will take you (God’s people) 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.
This OT passage is talking about God removing people from captivity (that effect sin has in our lives)… and about making them right with God…. giving them a new heart (new life) that sees and is responsive to God and His Kingdom and a new spirit that will dwell within them…
This is amazing to me… you can hear that right. Jesus is saying… that this… is what being born again is… it's what new life in Christ means. This OT passage that Nic would have known so well… and was written nearly 600 years before Jesus was born… was pointing to this very moment… and what Jesus came to do.
Jesus took a deep truth that Nicodemus should have known and I believe did know… that's why he came… and helped him realize that His hunch about who Jesus might be… is absolutely true.
Being born again has to do with…
1) Being free from the captivity that sin brings into your life.
2) Being made right with God.
3) The presence of God’s spirit in your life.
In vs. 14 Jesus uses another OT reference to help him understand (Num 21). Israel escaped harsh captivity in Egypt and they were wandering in the wilderness… instead of resting in His promise… the rebelled and longed to go back to captivity.
God is always teaching… guiding… sometimes in ways that seem harsh, but I hope we can understand that in so many ways… it is the most loving thing He can do… It far better than allowing us to continue to live in sin and in what sin brings not just to us, but into the world around us… we see that right?
It says he sent poisonous snakes… and people were dying but he Had Moses make a bronze snake and raise it up on a pole so that those who were bit could turn and look to it… and they’d be saved…
Nic and Jesus both knew the issue wasn't poisonous snakes…
Nic thought maybe Jesus was talking about delivering His people from massive Roman oppression…
But Jesus’ whole point was that He would eventually be raised up on the cross and that those who turn to Him, that look to Him… will be saved from the true source of all captivity which is sin. Sin is what made Rome what Rome was.
Jesus said… that flesh and fleshly acts can only produce flesh… and what He means by that is that being born again is not the work of man. It’s nothing you can produce for yourself or in yourself… it is a work of God…
Being born again… is literally the presence of God in you.
Not around you, not beside you, not near you… but literally inside of you. It is a spiritual rebirth…
In Jn 16, Jesus starts talking to His disciples about how the cross was coming and how He’d be going away… but Jesus said it’s better for you that I go.
Every time I hear that… my question is how… how could anything be better than walking with, talking with and seeing the signs… the miracles that Jesus did.
In that passage, Jesus connects His going, with the coming of the Holy Spirit…
What’s better than walking with Jesus? Having His very spirit residing in me.
One author said it like this… That God Himself through the person of Jesus and through the Holy Spirit will be personally present in the lives of His people…
And Jesus' point is… that it changes everything.
That the difference the presence of God in us makes… is so holistic and complete… that it's probably best understood through this idea of being born again… or having a new life.
Everything Nicodemus knew… He had spent a lifetime studying and teaching… that brought him influence and prestige… Was misdirected. It was wrong.
That night he learned that it wouldn’t be about being born into the right family… or even strict obedience to the law… or even believing that Jesus did miracles…
BUT the decisive factor is the very presence of God in your life…
Jesus went on to drive the point home by giving what’s become the most known and recited summation of the Gospel in a single verse…
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16(ESV)
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
And can you imagine the weight of the moment when Jesus looks at Nic and goes on to vs. 17… something like… Nicodemus, God didn’t send me here to tell you there is no hope… or that you're horrible… but to save you from all of that and the captivity it creates in you through what I am about to do on the cross.
One of the hardest things for me sometimes about the bible is that you see these interactions without ever knowing how it really ends… but thats not what we have here.
In Jn. 7 the religious leaders wanted to Kill Jesus and had sent the temple guard out to arrest Him in order to that very thing… they found him… but they were amazed by him and didn't arrest Him.
It was Nicodemus that stood up to his peers and said… it’s not legal to convict a man without a hearing… and right there… They accused Him of being a Christian.
Even later in Jn 19, it says that Joseph of Arimathea (who was a secret disciple of Jesus) came to take Jesus’ body off the cross… Do you want to know who that really was? Well, some guy named Joseph I’d guess, but it says that with him came Nicodemus… the one who came seeking Jesus. Nicodemus… was there… in a very… public… I chose a Jesus kind of way.
Most scholars believe that Nicodemus eventually chose Jesus… stepped over the line and experienced what it means to be born again…
How do we know if the presence of God is in us?
The image is Jesus and Nic standing outside… and that you could hear the wind blowing…
It’s interesting because the actual word for wind… Pneuma… is also the word for what, anyone know? Spirit… yea, that's not an accident.
Jesus said that Just like you can't see it… and you don’t really know where it’s coming from or where its going,
The evidence and impact it produces in our lives is clear.
The change of attitude, priorities, of selflessness… that is so distinctly and holistically different… so encompassing…
There is literally fruit… that the actual presence of God in us brings.
Things like real love, ture joy, unwavering peace, breath deep patience, generous kindness, real goodness, deep faithfulness, understanding gentleness, and self control.
Do you see the fruit of the very presence of God in your life?
Do you want to invite that into your life?
Nicodemus took that risk… he saw something different… powerful different in Jesus… that caused him to come and see…
It radically changed His life.