“Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; 2 this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into 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 be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?”
At the place I go to work out I have seen a truck. I don’t know whose truck it is; indeed, it may not even belong to any of the various people who come and go during the time I work out as there are several other public offices in the same building, and the truck may belong to someone who works in one of those offices.
But it is not the truck itself that concerns me. It is not the fact of the truck or where it is parked or anything else about the truck, except for the bumper sticker that is on the rear bumper of the truck. It says,
‘BORN OK THE FIRST TIME’
It is obviously a snide counter remark aimed at anyone who might want to tell this person they must be ‘born again’ in the sense that Jesus said it to Nicodemus in our text today.
It might even be there because someone in this person’s life – perhaps even a family member – has been persistent in telling them the Gospel and they don’t want to hear it any more.
Now why should that concern me?
Well, besides feeling sympathy-embarrassment for the guy because I know that he’s driving around town displaying his ignorance on his very own truck, there is the knowledge that he was not born ok the first time, and the knowledge that if he is so intimidated by the truth that he wants to discourage anyone from telling him the truth by using this bumper sticker as a sort of preventive measure [a preemptive strike, if you will], then chances are unfortunately very high that he will leave this world and enter directly into an eternity of Hell, realizing only then that he was not born ok at all.
Now just in case anyone is wondering why I am saying ‘he’ and ‘his’ and ‘the guy’ even though I don’t know whose truck it is, the reason should be fairly obvious; most women are too smart to put stupid bumper stickers on their vehicles. That’s a knuckle-dragging ‘thing’ we men reserve for ourselves.
But yes, it is a concern, and it should be something that causes concern in every true follower of Jesus Christ. Because you see, as brazen as this person is, in actually announcing on the back of his (or her) vehicle – in so many words – that they think they are fine and they don’t want to hear any ‘born again’ nonsense from you or from me or from Jesus Himself, that is really the heart-attitude, and usually an unspoken heart-attitude of very many people in our world. In fact, it is the heart-attitude of unbelief itself.
Now here is why I spent this time and energy to say all of this in beginning today. This is the attitude of the heart that exists in every religious person, and the more conscientious they are about following the precepts of their religion and holding to the tenants of their religion and practicing the rituals of their religion, the more deeply engrained is the attitude that they are ‘ok’.
This is the attitude, I say, of all religious people, and it was especially true of the sect of the Pharisees of Biblical times, and it was almost certainly the lifeline that Nicodemus clung to even while he came to the camp of Jesus and company at night as a sort of investigative reporter for the Jerusalem Sanhedrin.
EXTERNAL RELIGION IS FALSE RELIGION
Let’s look just briefly at the circumstances of this meeting. I say ‘briefly’, because much has been made of them in the past and still is and I don’t want to get bogged down in it today.
Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. If you ask 10 preachers why he came at night you would probably get at least six different answers. Some of them would agree with each other, because the most common theory is that Nicodemus was afraid to be associated with Jesus so he sneaked out and found Jesus under cover of darkness.
That borders on ridiculous. Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a leader of the Jews. He wasn’t going to catch much flack from anyone.
Besides, in his opening remarks to Jesus he indicates that he has been involved in some heavy discussion about who this Jesus of Nazareth is – most likely with other Pharisees and other members of the Sanhedrin, and Nicodemus was either chosen or volunteered himself to go information gathering. So here he is.
I don’t know why John specifically mentions that it was a nighttime visit. It may have been to draw attention to the fact that Nicodemus and Jesus were both busy men and this was a rare opportunity to speak privately and without having to answer peripheral questions from other Pharisees or attend to curious crowds. Or, maybe Nicodemus didn’t want to be seen and it really is that simple.
My point is one supposition is as good as another, so let’s just move on.
Nicodemus addresses Jesus as ‘Rabbi’, which means ‘Master’, and was used by students to address or refer to their teachers in their honor. In this case it was a teacher recognizing a teacher and was simply a polite way to begin the conversation. He said, “Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
Now there are really two statements being made here. One is that Nicodemus and the ‘we’ he aligns himself with here in verse two are prepared to recognize Jesus as a teacher, and even a teacher sent from God, but still, only a teacher.
The funny thing is that he is obviously making a reference to the miracles that Jesus has been performing both in Galilee and here in Jerusalem, because in verse 23 of chapter 2 [and remember that the chapter/verse divisions came very much later] says that people were beholding ‘His signs which He was doing’.
So Jesus was in Jerusalem for the Passover, the highest of the Jewish holy days which drew thousands upon thousands of travelers from all over the civilized world every year for its observance, and He was both teaching and performing ‘signs’ and many believed in His name – at least on some superficial level – we’re not talking about life commitment here; just a belief that sits in the mind but makes no heart change (see 2:24).
So Nicodemus says ‘We’re all agreed that whoever You are God has sent you and is attesting to Your validity by doing miracles through you’. That’s all they’re willing to concede to, and it’s not far-fetched, Remember, in their history are the accounts of Moses and the 10 plagues, Elijah and the priests of Baal on Carmel, and the works of Elisha and so forth. So the amazing thing, in their thinking, would have been that there hasn’t been a prophet in Israel for 400 years, and suddenly here is this guy coming on the scene and performing miracles and teaching authoritatively.
Now there was a second statement being made in the opening lines of Nicodemus. Because earlier this very day Jesus had gone into the Temple courts and made a very public spectacle of driving out all the merchants profaning His Father’s place for worship, chasing out animals, tipping over money tables, calling them all crooks, and Jesus would have understood very well that part of this statement from Nicodemus would have been an insinuation that he and the other members of the Sanhedrin wanted to know where Jesus got His authority to act as He did.
Listen! Not just any Joe off the streets could march onto the Temple grounds and start kicking everyone out. Keep in mind that these sellers of animals and money-changers were there with the blessing of the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin. In fact, they were making some pretty healthy amounts of money from the whole gig, and what Jesus did during the most profitable celebration time of the year would have caused a big dent in their fiscal earnings.
So please don’t labor under the false thinking that ol’ Nicodemus was a seeker who went to some website that invited him to find something and was directed to the Jesus of Nazareth camp to get his answers, and now he’s just there to soak it all up so he can go away filled with hope and purpose and peace!
No, in fact there may very well have been some sarcasm in his tone as he got to the part where he said, “…no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him”.
What he and his friends wanted to know was, what right this raggedy traveler had to do any of the things he was doing, ESPECIALLY driving people out of the court of the Gentiles which they, the righteous Pharisees had placed there? Because they had the inside track with God and if God wasn’t pleased with them God would tell them, not send this upstart to cause a near-riot on the holy Temple grounds and then walk away without so much as a ‘by-your-leave’!
Are you beginning to see why Jesus didn’t directly answer Nicodemus according to what he had actually said? First of all, let’s make note of the fact that the Pharisee didn’t ask any questions. He just made a statement, but the statement was meant to draw some defensive confirmation from Jesus, if indeed there was any defense to give.
Here is what was really going on. The Pharisees’, and this holds true for all religious people who think they have the answers and their religion consists of the things they do and the diligence they show in doing them – keeping the laws and seeing to it that others either keep the same laws or account for why they do not – the Pharisees’ entire religion was one of externals. It was all about what they wore and how they wore it, and it was about the sacrifices made in the Temple and it was about their public tithing and their public prayers and anything else they could do that would put them before the public as pious, God-fearing, clean-cut pillars of Judaism.
I want to share a couple of tidbits of information with you that emphasize the ridiculous extreme to which external (and therefore false) religion will take a person. I can't cite a source for this information, as I got it from someone who, himself, did not cite the particular source. I have no reason to doubt the other preacher's credibility however, and this type of information is not entirely new to me, so I'll just share what he said.
He was talking about all the laws the Pharisees kept and said there were nearly 600 of them – just one small indication of their diligence to the external adherence to their religion – and he listed these several things.
They believed that a woman should not look into a looking glass on the Sabbath because she might see a gray hair and be tempted to pull it out, which would constitute working on the Sabbath.
They didn’t have a lot of different medications in those days, but when a person was ill one of the common remedies was vinegar, particularly for a cold or sore throat. You were allowed to swallow it but you could not gargle with it on the Sabbath for that was labor according to Pharisaic law.
By the way, if that was the modern treatment for the common cold or sore throat I think I’d just suffer the symptoms through until it cleared up.
The most ridiculous rule quoted by that preacher in his sermon was that you could eat an egg that a chicken laid on the Sabbath only if you intended to kill the chicken the next day because that chicken should be punished for having laid that egg on the Sabbath.
This is the sort of thinking that this Pharisee was coming from when he challenged Jesus with his statement. Not only now, but throughout the entire earthly ministry of Jesus, He and His disciples were to be a constant source of disgust and frustration to these strict and dedicated adherents to a religion of externals; ritualistic washings, timed prayers, daily scheduled observances, rule upon rule upon rule designed to ensure their separation from the common people so they would not even by accident be made ritualistically unclean and unfit for the carrying out of each little duty, each minute little Temple practice that kept them (ritualistically speaking) head and shoulders above the rest.
Even the word Pharisee means ‘separated ones’. They called themselves what they wanted to be; which in itself is a show of pride, isn’t it? When a school chooses a name for their sports teams for the first time, they don’t say, ‘Hey, let’s call ourselves the ‘Losers’, do they?
They pick fierce sounding names like ‘Bobcats’ or ‘Cougars’ or ‘Pirates’ or ‘Cowboys’, not ‘Milksops’ or ‘Dandelions’.
So ancient Israel had the ‘Pharisees’… the ‘Separated Ones’. Ta-daaa…!
Is it any wonder, that it threw Nicodemus for a loop when not only was his challenge not answered, but the first words out of Jesus’ mouth were that he, Nicodemus, was lacking in something; and not only lacking, but lacking in such a way as to make him unfit for heaven?
This had to have been a frightening thought for any first century Jew, much less a leader of the nation. It was an all-consuming question of the Jews, how a person could attain to the kingdom of Heaven. It was the driving force behind their tenacity and their dedication to all these finely tuned laws and regulations. They wanted to go to heaven, and they were working hard so that they might be approved, but they had no assurance. They had no real hope.
So for this Pharisee to hear from Jesus that in order to see heaven he had to be born again must have rocked him right down to his socks! It was supposed to be about the externals. It was supposed to be about being zealous for good deeds and keeping the Law of Moses. It was supposed to be about what he could do; in fact, what he had been doing all along.
It wasn’t supposed to be about something done to him, because that wasn’t in his control.
But folks, external religion is false religion and what Jesus did was cut right to the very heart of what Nicodemus needed to really know and understand.
His religion was false, so what did it matter from whom Jesus got His power or His authority? Nicodemus was lost and had put all his hope in a false system. He had to be born again.
REBIRTH IS NOT EXTERNAL
Now here is where we get the initial reaction from Nicodemus and we won’t spend a lot of time on it. Let’s just not pretend he’s stupid. When he asked “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” His question did not mean that he really thought that Jesus meant he had to be physically born again. Remember, this is a teacher and a philosopher when it came to the application of Jewish law and tradition. His life consisted of ruminating over the finer points of the Mosaic Law and theology as it was understood by ancient Judaism. Of course he knew there was something more to it than that.
He didn’t get it! Don’t for a second think he got it. Nicodemus was not converted at this meeting. There is nothing in the text of John 3 to indicate that he did.
Ok, so we know he knew Jesus’ claim meant more than physical rebirth, but he didn’t really get what Jesus was saying, and we know that by subsequent comments that Jesus makes here. So what was Nicodemus saying by his question?
He was saying, “I’m old, I’ve been around a long time, I’ve been dancing as fast as I can, and you’re talking about a starting over; a reboot! How can that be? You’re trying to tell me that I’ve been on the wrong track the whole time? You’re saying that I need to go back to the beginning and get on a different track altogether – an old dog learning new tricks – a leopard changing his own spots?” (Jer 13:23)
Nicodemus didn’t get it, and I’ll tell you why he didn’t get it. Nicodemus didn’t get it for the same reason that all unbelieving people don’t get it. It is because to them religion is always a set of externals. It is the things they do and the things they select to believe in their head, and they will never, NEVER, [are you listening?] they will never get so much as a glimpse of heaven.
Why? Because external religion is based on renovation of what is breaking down, revival of what is dead, renewal of what is fading.
True religion; the religion Jesus is telling Nicodemus about and that He tells you and me about, is rebirth. It is being born again. It is equally proper to phrase it ‘born from above’, because that is from whence the new birth comes. It is a new creation.
That’s what Nicodemus didn’t get, and it’s what the guy with the bumper sticker doesn’t get.
Now skip to verse six for a minute. We’ll come back to verse 5 because verse 5 contains the fundamental truth I want to get across to you today – so we’re building, and we’ll finish with a look at verse 5. But for now go to verse 6.
Actually, we’ll see the same thing in verse 8. Jesus is appealing to Nicodemus’ sense of reason now. He knows the Pharisee isn’t
understanding what he is being told, so He refers to simple natural truths of which any observant and thinking person is aware.
Flesh begets flesh. That’s simple enough, isn’t it? If you see a pregnant dog you expect that when she comes to term she’s going to have puppies, not monkeys; right? If you plant seeds you’ve harvested from an apple and allowed to dry and as they begin to sprout and grow into a tree and you recognize the leaves as those you’ve seen on apple trees, you expect the fruit to be apples. Simple? Yes.
Moving right along to verse 8, let’s talk about the wind. Coincidentally, the day I was typing this sermon it was early Spring and the wind was blowing outside. As I worked I listened to the effects of the frequent gusts as they rattled the plastic panels covering our rear deck. If I looked out the window I saw neighborhood trees swaying back and forth.
I saw a paper sailing down the street and I could hear something somewhere squeaking as the force of the wind put stress on some hinge or some nails holding down some nearby structure.
But do you know what I didn’t see?
I didn’t see the wind.
I didn’t know where it came from or where it went, I only knew it was there by the effect of its passing and the changes it left in its wake. When the wind stopped blowing there were small limbs from our willow trees all over our front porch and lawn. Someone’s trash can had blown over.
Natural things! Simple truths! And Jesus was saying, ‘this is the Spirit-life’. This is what you need to know, Nicodemus, this is what the guy with the bumper sticker needs to know. The only way to comprehend a spiritual place is to be spiritual. Only the spirit will inherit that which is spiritual. That’s all! It’s not hard!
Nicodemus said, “How can these things be?”
So Jesus said, “Well, let me see; what else can I say? Maybe a self-help book or a 12 week class…”
NO HE DIDN’T! He said, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?”
Now I don’t know if you’re hearing it or not, but I think I’m detecting just a hint of sarcasm there. Not biting sarcasm; more like light-hearted sarcasm, but striking home nonetheless. Nicodemus, you are THE teacher of Israel, and you still don’t get it? You are the ‘man’, you are the one people come to for answers, and you don’t get ‘flesh begets flesh and spirit begets spirit’?
I might get an opportunity to tell you more about why Nicodemus didn’t get it in the next week or two, God willing. But for the time being I’d just like to make this brief statement and you can mull it over in your own mind later. Just not now, because we have to go back to verse 5.
Are you ready? Here it is. People are not unbelievers because they don’t understand. We think, ‘Oh, if I just give so and so this book or show them this movie then they’ll understand and believe’. No! That’s backwards.
They don’t understand, because they don’t believe. I’m going to say that once more but I’m not going to expound on it here; just think it through. People are not unbelievers because they don’t understand; they don’t understand because they are not believers.
YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN!
Verse 5
“Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God’.”
Now I’m going to tell you straight out what Jesus was telling Nicodemus and then we’ll break it down. But this is it, and this is something that the Jewish teacher in Nicodemus would have recognized as one who knew his Old Testament (or what he would have called the Law and the Prophets).
Jesus was telling Nicodemus that salvation is an inside job. It is a work done on the inside of a person by the Spirit of God.
But what about this reference to the water and the Spirit, you may ask. And if you don’t, I’ll ask it for you to save time, because at some point if you’re paying attention you would get around to asking it. What about that? What does it mean?
Well, some churches have taught that it means baptism. Jesus was teaching that a person can only go to heaven if he has been baptized and given spiritual rebirth.
That can’t be the case. Very simply put, if Jesus was teaching that then there would be no basis for any teaching of salvation by God’s grace through faith alone apart from works. Water baptism is a physical ritual, and if it was any part of salvation then salvation would be by works. So we can jettison that line of thought right away.
Another line of thought is that Jesus was talking about physical birth – you know, the amniotic fluid and all that. Jesus is saying, ‘Unless a person is born both physically and spiritually…’ Let’s think about how much sense that would make.
Nicodemus is old. Why would Jesus be telling him that he needs to be born physically as one of the prerequisites for going to Heaven? If someone isn’t born physically, then they aren’t a person, are they? They aren’t anything. They…aren’t
Wouldn’t it be ridiculous to start witnessing to someone at Starbucks and say, ‘Y’know what? In order to get to Heaven you have to begin by being born’. They’re likely to respond with some wisecrack like, ‘Wouldn’t I also need that in order to get to the grocery store?’
No. Jesus isn’t ridiculous so let’s not tarry here any longer.
What would have resonated in the mind of a teacher of the Jews as Jesus said that a person must be born of water and Spirit?
Well, there were the numerous ceremonies involving the use of water for purification. Some of them were even Scriptural.
He might have immediately thought of Scripture references with which he was familiar. What about Ezekiel 36:25-27?
“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”
God was talking about when He brought the people back into the land from their captivity. When He said He would sprinkle them with clean water it was understood that He was referring to an inner cleansing that He would do by His Spirit. I will clean you and I will put my Spirit within you.
So what is Jesus telling Nicodemus? A person needs to be purified and it’s an inside job. The Spirit does it and man cannot do it. You can’t do it, Nicodemus, and you cannot teach others to do it. It is a spiritual work. Spirit begets spirit.
This is exactly what John the Baptist was talking about… and by the way, the people who came to him for baptism knew why they were coming, and they were coming because he was preaching the imminent coming of Messiah and they wanted to be ready for that coming.
And how were they made ready? By John’s baptism. By dunking in water? NO! By demonstrating a desire to be purified on the inside by the Spirit of God.
“When all the people and the tax collectors heard this, they acknowledged God’s justice, having been baptized with the baptism of John. 30 But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by John.” Lk 7:29-30
Having been baptized with the baptism of John, they were made ready spiritually to receive truth. Those who rejected John and his baptism, the Pharisees and Scribes, rejected truth because they were not prepared to receive it.
And this is what John was talking about when he said, “I baptize you with water but somebody is coming after me who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit”
John 7:37-39
“Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. 38 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39 But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
Let me give you just one more Scriptural reference here from the New Testament; it is Ephesians 5:25-27
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.”
Did you hear there how this washing comes? ‘with the word’ It is God’s Word that sanctifies and purifies. In His High Priestly prayer recorded for us in John 17 Jesus prayed for His disciples and for all subsequent believers, “Sanctify them in the truth, Your word is truth”.
Now as we’ve pointed out, this was tough for Nicodemus to hear and it is tough for anyone to hear who wants to put his or her trust in their own goodness, their own deeds, their own efforts, their own religious piety, for acceptance in Heaven.
My friends, it is not and never has been a matter of acceptance or rejection. A person not born from above in the sense in which Jesus teaches it to the teacher of Israel, will never have the option of being accepted into or rejected from Heaven.
They will never comprehend it, they will never see it. There has to be a fundamental change that they cannot facilitate by any means available to them.
When my daughter was very small she took her doll, ‘Megan’ for a walk down the street. This how she did it. She held Megan’s heel, and Megan was dragged, face down, half a block to Nicole’s friend’s house. The result of the walk was not that Megan got to see the friend or the friend’s house. The result was that Megan forever had a scraped forehead, but that was all.
Megan was absolutely incapable of seeing, hearing, understanding, walking, acting in any way. She was just a lifeless doll.
People have religious ideas and philosophies and no matter how close they may seem to come to the truth, those ideas and philosophies can accomplish nothing except to drag that person back and forth from ritual to tradition to ordinance to dismal failure and despondency. They MUST be born again. Born ok the first time? No, I can’t even give you a glimmer of hope that any good can come from that at all.
I can only leave you with these words of Jesus ringing in your ears and pray the Holy Spirit will give you regeneration and sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.
“Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again’.”
