If you’ve ever taught a class, there is one kind of student that can absolutely drive you crazy. And it seems like there’s one in every crowd. That’s the person who has an answer for everything. I got a kick out of a couple of the kids during the youth rally who were like that. In the very first breakout group I taught, there was a girl from another church who broke in the middle of almost everything I said. I’d say a few words, then she’d provide commentary. Now, she was a sweet girl and didn’t mean anything by it, but some people do that because they really, truly think they have all the answers. They think they’ve got it all figured out. That was the way Nicodemus was.
Nicodemus was the man who had all the answers. Verse 1 tells us that he was a man of the Pharisees and that he was a ruler of the Jews. That was two different things. Typically, the Pharisees weren’t rulers. They were religious scholars. They were PhD seminary professor types. The name itself comes from a Hebrew word that means “to separate”. They considered themselves the separated ones. They separated themselves from the world and to the Old Testament Mosaic Law. As a matter of fact, they were so careful to avoid breaking any of the Old Testament laws, that they made up their own. Think of it like they built a fence around the law. If the law said you can’t work on the Sabbath, the Pharisees added to it just to make sure you didn’t even accidentally break the law. Of course, this is where they went overboard. They began to see their fence as important as the law itself. And not only that, they actually believed that they could attain righteousness by keeping the law. That was their goal. They thought they could earn their way to heaven by their own works. Of course, if you think that, you’re going to be extra careful to know everything you can about the rules. That’s why the Pharisees were such great scholars. They knew everything there was to know about the Old Testament. They knew everything there was to know about the Law. And they knew everything there was to know about their own rules—that fence around the law. If anybody knew all the answers, it was a Pharisee. So, as a Pharisee, Nicodemus thought he had it all figured out. And then Jesus came along. Jesus came along and messed up his whole worldview. Because Jesus came doing two things that Nicodemus just couldn’t reconcile. First, He came performing miracles. Nicodemus could understand that. Many of the Old Testament prophets like Elijah and Elisha performed miracles. In Nicodemus’ mind, that just meant that Jesus was another great prophet from God. He said as much in verse 2 when he said that nobody can do the miracles that you do unless God is with him. But here was what didn’t fit into Nicodemus’ worldview. Here was what brought an unanswerable question to the mind of the answer man. Jesus wasn’t claiming to be a prophet sent from God. Jesus was claiming to be the Son of God. That meant that He was claiming that He was equal to God. And in Nicodemus’ mind, that was blasphemy. It was impossible and it was blasphemy. Nicodemus was a thinker. And the more he thought about it, the more it blew his mind. It didn’t fit. He couldn’t make sense of it. So, being a thinker, he went to the source.
Now, remember that verse 1 not only said Nicodemus was a Pharisee, it also said he was a ruler of the Jews. That meant that he was part of a very powerful and exclusive group called the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was a group of 71 people who were headed up by the High Priest. Under the Roman rule of Jesus’ day, the Sanhedrin was given far-reaching governmental powers over the Jews. As a matter of fact, they could do just about everything except perform capital punishment. They had to refer those kinds of cases to the Roman courts. So, as a member of the Sanhedrin, Nicodemus was very well-known and very influential. When he walked the streets, people knew him. And just like happens today, when someone is seen with a highly influential person, it serves almost as an endorsement. We don’t know exactly why Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. Many commentators and preachers throughout the years have said it was because he was a coward. Scripture doesn’t even indicate that. He probably came at night for several reasons. One, because he didn’t want to appear to endorse Jesus until he knew for sure what He was about. Another, because he wanted to spend some time with Jesus when the crowds weren’t around. I don’t think he was being a coward. I think he was being cautious. Because if he was being a coward, he wouldn’t have even come at all. It certainly would have been easier on him. He could have just written Jesus off as a blasphemer and moved on. But instead, he wrestled with the inconsistencies that Jesus caused in his worldview. And when he wrestled, he came to Him. The answer man realized that something was wrong with all his answers. So the answer man came looking to Jesus for answers. And the answers he got were different than anything he had ever heard. Because Jesus didn’t beat around the bush. He told Nicodemus, “Do you know what your problem is? You need a completely fresh start. Everything that you’ve been up until now is wrong. The only way you can make it right is to completely start over. Your complete worldview is wrong. All of your answers that you have spent a lifetime learning and defending. They all started with the wrong foundation. So you’re going to have to blow them up and start over. What you need is to be completely born again.” Can you imagine Nicodemus standing there with his mouth open? “I just came to this man to answer one question. I was just looking for one simple answer. Now He tells me that in order to make sense of that one question, I have to completely start everything over? That’s not even possible. How in the world can that happen?” So, over the next few verses, Jesus answered him. Even though Nicodemus didn’t come that night with the right question, he left there with the right answers. What questions did you come here with this morning? In this practical world we live in, most of our questions are about day-to-day issues. How can I get my kids to listen to me? Why does my husband treat me the way he does? How am I going to be able to keep gas in my tank and food on my table? Why does my child continue to break my heart? How can I live with the continual pain of my broken body? I don’t know what questions you walked in here with this morning. But I do know who has the answers. And I do know what the first, foundational answer He gives is—you must be born again. So, whatever question you walked in here with this morning, I want to give you three new questions. The first question is, “Why do I need to be born again?” Let’s look at verses 3-4:
JOHN 3:3-4
Why do I need to be born again? Here’s the quick answer—because you’re dead. Nicodemus almost got it right. He asked Jesus, “How can a man be born when he’s old.” He should have asked, “How can a man be born when he’s dead.” But that only showed how deep his problem was. In the state he was in, he couldn’t understand what Jesus was talking about. He couldn’t understand, because he wasn’t hearing with spiritual ears. He couldn’t understand because he wasn’t seeing with spiritual eyes. He was, as Paul described in Ephesians 2:1, dead in trespasses and sins. Does that mean that he was as bad as he possibly could have been? No. As a matter of fact, Nicodemus was a Pharisee. He was a good person. He had to be. That’s how he thought he was going to get to heaven. But all of that goodness amounted to nothing. Because it was all his righteousness. And the Bible says that all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Nicodemus was just like each of us. He was born into sin. When Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden so many years ago, it affected each of us. Because of Adam’s sin, two kinds of death entered the world. Physical death and spiritual death. From the moment we’re born into this world, we begin to physically die. At the same time, we are spiritually dead and completely incapable of having a relationship with God. And then as we begin to learn right from wrong, we only add to our spiritual deadness. We move from simply being sinners to being sinners who sin. By itself, either one of those is enough to warrant God’s judgment. Either one is worthy of condemnation. How much more so is both? You ask yourself, Why do I need to be born again? It might be possible to change a few of your bad habits. It might be possible to become a better person. It might be possible to be a good neighbor and be honest and help people out. But guess what? You can do everything in your power to be a better person and still be dead. Because there is only One who can bring the dead to life. Unless you are born again, you are dead. And there is nothing good about being dead. Why do you need to be born again? Because you are dead in your trespasses and sins. That brings us to the second question. What happens when I’m born again? Look with me at verses 5-6:
JOHN 3:5-6
What happens when I’m born again? Jesus just got finished telling Nicodemus that he needed to be born again. And Nicodemus responded like you’d expect him to. He didn’t get it. He responded to a spiritual answer with a fleshly question: “How can an old man be born again. It’s physically impossible to go back into your mother and have her give birth to you again.” And Jesus took his fleshly answer and turned it back on him. He said, “You’ve got the physical birth down. You were already born of water. You’ve taken care of that already. But here’s what you don’t have. You haven’t been born of the Spirit. And until you’re born of the Spirit, you can’t enter the kingdom of God.” So, what did Jesus mean when He told Nicodemus that the result of being born again is entering the kingdom of God? Just like you entered physical life when you came through the birth canal, you enter the kingdom of God when you are born again. Is the kingdom of God just about going to heaven? No—because if it was, the minute we got saved, we’d be gone. The kingdom of God includes heaven, but it’s so much more. Paul talks about it in Romans 8:5-6. “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” Being born again means life and peace and new righteousness. Not the kind of righteousness that you do, to try and work your way to heaven. The kind of righteousness that Jesus works through you. Being born again is a complete, categorical difference. It is as different as darkness and light. As different as flesh and spirit. As different as death and life. When you are born again, you enter into a whole new life. A whole new way of living. A whole new way of thinking. A whole new way of acting. Your life is no longer lived in the moment. It is no longer lived for yourself. It is lived with a view of eternity. What waits is a glorious eternal reward in the presence of Christ in the kingdom of God in heaven. What happens now is life and life more abundantly in the kingdom of God here on earth. But, if being born again means life and peace and righteousness and an eternal home in heaven… how can we get it if we’re dead in our trespasses and sins? Well, that brings us to the third question that needs to be on your mind this morning. The third question is, “How can I be born again?” Look at verses 7-8:
JOHN 3:7-8
How can I be born again? This is where the rubber meets the road. This is where the Philippian jailer found himself. After Paul and Silas had been beaten “with many stripes” and thrown into prison… after they were placed in stocks in the most secure inner part of the prison… they prayed out loud and sang praises to God loud enough for all the prisoners to hear… loud enough for the cruel jailer to hear. And on into the night, there was a great earthquake. An earthquake that opened all the prison doors. An earthquake that broke loose all of the shackles and bonds of the prisoners. And when that jailer woke up to find the prisoners still there, the Spirit of God moved upon his heart. And when the Spirit of God moved upon his heart, the Bible says that “he came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas. And brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Do you see what happened there? The same thing that Jesus said here in verse 8. The Holy Spirit of God stirred the heart of that jailer. Was it the miracle that moved him? No, plenty of people have experienced miracles and never been saved. Throughout Jesus’ ministry on earth, multitudes saw His miracles. But most of them were never saved. It wasn’t the miracle of the earthquake that saved the Philippian jailer. The first thing that happened was that the Spirit of God stirred his heart. But I want you to notice what happened next. Listen to the rest of the story in Acts 16:31-34: “And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.” The Holy Spirit stirred his heart. And then he responded. He believed. Some people get hung up on the work of the Spirit in salvation that Jesus speaks of in verse 8 of our passage. But they conveniently skip over His command in verse 7. Jesus says, “Ye MUST be born again.” Yes—the Spirit moves. The Spirit convicts. Ultimately, the Spirit creates new life out of the old. But you have to respond. You have to believe. Romans 10:9-10 says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Why do you need to be born again? Because you are dead in your trespasses and sins. No amount of good works will get you into the presence of God. Apart from the saving grace of Christ, all your good works will do is heap condemnation on you in the day of judgment. You need to be born again because you’re dead. What happens when you’re born again? You will enter the kingdom of God. You will move from living in the flesh to living in the spirit. You will experience a whole new world of living and thinking. Old things will pass away—all things will become new. You will have an eternal home in the presence of Jesus. And you will have a new life of joy and peace and freedom here on earth. How can you be born again? Well, if you’re here this morning, I can tell you that the wind is blowing. The Spirit is moving. He is stirring hearts. If you are here and have not been born again, He is stirring your heart. You probably didn’t see this coming. And you don’t know if it will ever happen again. But you cannot deny that He is stirring your heart right now. If He is—you need to respond. Respond by confessing with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ. That is a public profession of faith. During the invitation—here at this altar. Respond by believing in your heart that God has raised Jesus from the dead. God has raised Him from the dead and He lives today in order to give you new life in Him. I’m not going to ask you to be born again. Because it’s a command of God. Jesus is saying to you, “Ye MUST be born again.” How will you respond to His command this morning?
