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You Must Be Born Again
Intro
Years ago Corrie and I went through a phase of watching HGTV.
We loved to watch the Shows where people buy homes and then renovate them.
For many of the homes the renovations weren’t because of any damage but simply personal preference.
The couple wanted an open concept in a house that is completely segmented off.
So the house would look fine.
Everything would look in order, but then the walls would start coming down.
And once that happened the reality set in.
The house was damaged.
The studs in the walls were dry rotted.
Or filled with Termites.
There were problems on the inside that weren’t evident on the surface.
This is true for humanity as well.
We can hide the rot.
We can hide the pain.
We can hide our wickedness behind a facade.
It’s not enough to cover up the sin and polish the outside.
We need to be renovated.
We need to be renewed.
We need to be restored.
We need to be reborn.
And today we are going to meet a man in our Scripture that comes to confront Jesus.
He is curious about the teachings of Jesus.
He is intrigued by the signs that Jesus performs.
And Jesus is going to reveal to him the truth it’s not what he does but who he trusts that pleases God.
That no matter how good he looks on the outside.
How obedient, how reverent, how religious he looks, those things can never please God.
It’s interesting that John leads up to this story with this conclusion from the previous chapter.
John wrote Jn 2:23-25 “23 While he was in Jerusalem during the Passover Festival, many believed in his name when they saw the signs he was doing.
24 Jesus, however, would not entrust himself to them, since he knew them all 25 and because he did not need anyone to testify about man; for he himself knew what was in man.”
John paints a picture of what we read a couple of weeks ago about the Jewish people that believed in the signs of Jesus, but not in the person of Jesus.
A man comes to Jesus curious about who he is, what he is doing, but he comes without knowledge about the reality of who Jesus is.
The identity of Jesus is questioned all through out the gospel of John and here is an example of someone who should have known, but was truly blind to the reality.
Religious Qualifications
Who is this Nicodemus?
Well he was a Pharisee.
If you aren’t aware Pharisees were the religious elite of Jesus’ time.
They obeyed the Law.
They were zealous about God’s law.
They wanted God’s law to be taken seriously
They were trying to please God with their obedience.
They were the religious standard for the Jewish people.
The Pharisees were seen as teachers of the Law.
They were educated, devoted, and adherents to God’s Word.
Now Nicodemus was not just your run of the mill pharisee.
John tells us that he was a “ruler of the Jews.”
This probably alludes to him being on the Council of the Sanhedrin.
The Sanhedrin were a ruling council in Jerusalem.
It consisted of 70 officials that “served as the judicial authority for the Jews.”
They would “meet to decide on legal matters with religious, political, and social ramifications.”
They were the ones that governed over the Jewish people when it came to disputes or violations of the Jewish Law.
Nicodemus an important figure when it came to the Jewish life in Jerusalem.
He would have been well known and readily recognized.
Nicodemus would have been one of the most morally upstanding citizens in Jerusalem.
But when watching Jesus, he felt like there had to be more.
He was intrigued by Jesus.
Jesus piqued his curiosity, so Nicodemus had to find out more about this man.
Born Again
We have to hand it to Nicodemus he had an understanding that Jesus was an astounding man.
He saw what Jesus was doing and knew that he had to have come from God.
No doubt he was thinking about the Men in the OT that did mighty things because the Spirit of God was working through them.
Moses Splitting the Red Sea
Samson collapsing the Pagan temple.
David conquering Goliath.
Nicodemus knew that the signs Jesus did pointed to a reality that was greater than the sign.
But he didn’t know how much greater.
He didn’t know how much deeper.
So he wanted to inquire more about Jesus.
Did you notice when Nicodemus came to Jesus?
v.2 “He came to him at night.”
This could mean a couple of things.
And I’ve heard it preached a few different ways.
One way is that Nicodemus was curious but it wasn’t a bold curiosity.
He came under the cover of darkness so that people wouldn’t see this Elite Jewish Man talking with someone under his station.
I have also heard it talked about that John was just accounting for the time of day and that it has no significance other than an accurate recording of the meeting.
But as we know John is placing layer upon layer in his account of Jesus.
So this argument doesn’t really hold that much water.
I believe, along with others, that the meaning of Nicodemus coming to Jesus at night holds more than just surface significance.
Sure, maybe Nicodemus was a little embarrassed about his fascination with Jesus.
But maybe John is so precise with this language because light and dark play a big role in the theme he is teasing out in his gospel.
Throughout his gospel account, John contrasts the Light of Jesus with the darkness of the world.
Darkness in John’s gospel means many things but one of the meanings is spiritual blindness.
And here we see that Nicodemus is spiritually blind to the truth and light that Jesus brings.
John wants us to see that no matter how religious or knowledgeable we are that doesn’t mean we are in the light of Jesus.
You can know facts and figures about God.
You can have bible verses memorized.
You can read your bible for hours a day.
You can have a PhD in Theology.
But still live in the darkness.
Still not understand grace.
Still not comprehend God’s true revelation.
Still not know Jesus.
Religious Behavior and knowledge will not and cannot save you only Jesus Can.
And when we recognize this, we see that something is missing in our lives.
Just like Nicodemus.
He saw something was different about Jesus.
He approaches Jesus with the title of Respect.
He calls him Rabbi or teacher.
Jesus didn’t earn that Title.
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