Nic at Night
Series: One on One with the Master
January 24, 2009
One of the best ways to get to know someone is to spend time with them. This year, we’re wanting to get to know Jesus better, so for the next few weeks, we’re going to spend some time studying 3 people who spend personal time with Jesus while He was on earth. The 1st incident is found in John 3:1-21. Read about it with me…
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to spend some one-on-one time with Jesus in the flesh? I have! In the next 3 weeks we’re going to meet some people who had that kind of experience. The 1st person is a religious leader, the 2nd an immoral woman and the 3rd a hopeless, greedy tax-collector. Each of them had a short encounter with Jesus and it lit. changed their lives for eternity. Now I always thought that having a one-on-one with Jesus would be a wonderful, joyful, edifying experience… but after reading about the 3 people, I’m not so sure anymore. I’m not saying that spending time with Jesus wouldn’t be an awesome thing… I’m just saying that after seeing what happened to these people, it might be a little more “uncomfortable” than I’d like it to be!
See a lot of people have this image of Jesus as a sweet, kind man with his long hair blowing in the wind, as He speaks to his disciples in a soft, monotone voice. But that’s not the Jesus we meet this morning. There’s no doubt in my mind that Jesus would be the most kind, compassionate, understanding person I’ve ever met… but don’t make the mistake of limiting him to that…because Jesus was also a man of extreme passion and strength. He’d also be the most genuinely open and honest man you’ve ever met. As we’re going to see in the next 3 weeks, Jesus was able to establish intimacy with people amazingly fast, & he was incredibly perceptive. He saw past the false walls we all like to put up, and if you were with him for any length of time, you’d feel like He was looking right through you (and He is!) Depending on what you’re trying to hide, that would make you a little bit uneasy.
That’s why I think about a one-on-one with Jesus with mixed emotions…I know the minute I sat down with Him… he’d go for the jugular! Whenever Jesus got into a conversation with people…he produced a crises. He compelled them to decide, to make a choice. And at the end of the conversation… you’d either be with him, or against him. That’s what happened one dark night in Jerusalem, as Jesus and one of the religious leaders named Nicodemus met face to face…
It’d been a busy week for Jesus. For the 1st time on record He’d been performing a number of public miracles. As a result, He was quickly gaining both fame and followers. Now, most people I know would be overjoyed by that fact, but not Jesus! Jesus was smart enough (and wise enough) not to let it go to his head! In the last vs. of John 2, John lets us in on what Jesus was thinking… READ John 2:23-25. John’s telling us that although a lot of people were responding and believing in Jesus, (because of what He was doing for them)… Jesus wasn’t believing in them! In otherwords, He had no faith in their faith! You know, we think it’s all about us sometimes. “All I have to do is ‘say’ that I believe in Jesus, and I’m good!” But have you ever stopped to think that maybe Jesus doesn’t believe in your belief? That He sees it as kind of “flighty”. Here today, gone tomorrow? One day you’re a soldier in the Army of the Lord… the next day you’re going AWOL! Our so-called ‘belief’, lasts just about as long as it takes for the miracles to stop. Listen… you can’t fool Jesus with your words! He knows the human heart! And His encounter with Nicodemus is a classic illustration of that!
Each of us at some point in our lives needs to come to a spiritual crises… where all the hoopla, all the good intentions, all the false motivations are put aside and we REALLY… I mean REALLY meet Jesus face to face… Nicodemus is about to have his… and I want us to follow in his steps. You’ve heard of an “emotional breakdown”, well I want to talk to you this morning about having a “Spiritual Breakdown” It’s something we all need to go through and if you’ve never had one… hopefully, you’ll have one this morning!
The 1st step in any authentic, meaningful spiritual breakdown is to..
1. Start OVER
When we 1st meet Nicodemus…he’s coming to Jesus quietly, late at night. The crowds had retired for the evening and Nicodemus sees his opportunity to speak with Him all alone, under the cover of darkness. Now, there’s a reason for his secrecy… see Nicodemus was a integral part of the religious machinery in Israel. John identifies him as a card carrying member of the “Jewish ruling council”. In otherwords, he was a part of the Sanhedrin. 70 men who basically ruled the daily lives of every Jewish person (under the authority of Rome). This was the same group who eventually condemned Jesus to death. So Nicodemus was a ‘high mucky muck” and doesn’t want to be seen asking Jesus questions for fear of embarrassment! At the same time he’s clearly intrigued by what he’s seen Jesus do. So he approaches him with the utmost respect…acknowledging Jesus’ authority (something we don’t see any other council member ever doing).
In John 3:2 he says…“Teacher, we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are proof enough that God is with you.” Calling him “Teacher” or “Rabbi” would have been an expression of honor… regarding him as an equal…but true to his nature…Jesus doesn’t mess around with formalities and titles. He gets right to the point… vs. 3 “I assure you, unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God.” Wow! Ignoring the verbal honor… right out of the starting blocks Jesus hits him with his spiritual inability and blindness! (I told you He was blunt!) Nicodemus was probably used to being shown great honor and respect…but Jesus doesn’t care! He hits him right between the eyes by basically saying, “Religious ruler or not… you’re so spiritually blind… you can’t see your hand in front of your face!” If that sounds harsh, it’s because it was meant to be! Jesus was giving Nic here a gut check!
Jesus figures that if He’s really sincere in his questions… he won’t be offended, but He’ll come back for more. And he does! (as we’ll see in a moment) Now if you’ve been around Christians, or been in Christian circles for any amount of time, you’ve probably heard them speak about the, “born-again experience”. You may even have some negative feelings towards that term, (especially if you’ve been around a so-called “born-again Christian” who turned out to be a fake!) The way they describe being ‘born-again’ is to have some kind of out of body, ecstatic experience, where you go from a mild-mannered, ordinary person to “SUPER JESUS FREAK” in one instant! To most non-believers it sounds a little scary (if not corny) and something to avoid at all costs! If that’s you, THEN you’ll be relieved to hear that the way Jesus is using the term here has nothing to do with the way most Christians use it today!
Jesus wasn’t telling Nicodemus that he needed some kind of “spiritual experience”… he was telling him that He needed a whole new start in life! Like a newborn baby… he needed to start over! And then… he needed to…
2. Stop WORKING
You gotta understand, Nicodemus had spent his entire adult life accumulating “brownie points” for God! (Just like some of you… but worse!) He paid attention to every little detail of the law… and when that wasn’t enough, he and his companions made some more up! I mean, these people believed that it was O.K to eat an egg that had been laid on the Sabbath…but ONLY if the chicken was put to death the next day for “working”! We’re talking about some SERIOUS religious fanatics here! When Nicodemus heard Jesus talking about a new birth, his mind must have locked up! He’d staked his entire eternity on the idea that salvation was something that had to be earned by your good works! Now Jesus is telling him to throw away everything he’s ever done for God and start all over!
With 5 simple words…”You must be born again!” Jesus was demolishing Nicodemus’ entire worldview and value system! His Jewish birth and upbringing, his attainments as a religious ruler, the respect he’d earned… everything! Jesus was demanding that he forsake everything he thought he stood for, walk away from everything he’d ever done… and start over from the beginning! And that’s what He’s demanding of you this morning too! In order to enter into God’s kingdom… you have to get rid of everything you’ve ever done to try and earn God’s favor!
It’s almost more than he can handle, but he keeps his composure and continues to show Jesus respect by asking Jesus to clarify it some more. Spiritual blindness is a very tough thing to overcome. He says in Vs.4… “Born again? “What do you mean? How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?” Now I used to think (and I even taught) that Nicodemus some kind of a “dunce” and he really thought that Jesus was wanting him to get back into his mommy’s belly as a grown man and come out again. (Not only would that be awkward, but I imagine it would be very painful!) But Nic was a teacher himself, and he understood that Jesus was speaking symbolically. So, picking up on Jesus’ analogy, Nic. begins to do a little verbal sparring with him. He’s saying, “Start over? You don’t understand Jesus! I can’t do that! It’s too late! I’ve gone too far in my religious training and career to just “start over”! I’m sure that at this point Nicodemus would have gladly given money, fasted, or performed any ritual Jesus asked. But to call him to a spiritual rebirth was asking him to acknowledge his own insufficiency and turn away from everything he was committed to. And that’s exactly what Jesus asks us to do. Stop trying to work our way to heaven.
If you think you’re good enough, or kind enough, or compassionate enough, or moral enough, or religious enough to get to heaven on your own 2 feet… you need to put yourself in Nicodemus’ place, and realize that all of that stuff is as worthless as the garbage you put outside your house every week, if you want to get right with God!
Doing good works to earn salvation, is like those home remedies that don’t work! Some of you know that all last week I was sick. Whatever it was, made my sinuses lock up tighter than a drum! I took some decongestant and then it all emptied into my chest so I started coughing. The 1st night I was coughing so bad that my wife kicked me out of the bedroom! (just kidding! I went voluntarily). On the 2nd night I started coughing again, so my wife (the nurse) suggested that I try an “old home remedy” she heard about. She told me that if I rubbed mentholatum on the bottoms of my feet and then covered them with socks… that it would stop the coughing! It sounded so stupid, so ridiculous, that at 1st I resisted. But when 12:00 a.m. rolled around, I was desperate enough to try it! So that’s what I did, I went into the bathroom and rubbed mentholatum on the bottoms of my feet and covered them with my socks! Then I remembered that when I was a kid, mom used to stick some of that stuff up my nose… so that’s what I did. Then I remembered that she also used to rub it all over my chest… after-all, the jar says, “Chest Rub”… so that’s what I did! So out I come smelling like “Vicks Vapo-Rub Corp. Headquarters”. I get into bed… and for the 1st 5 minutes… all is quiet. And then…you guessed it… I started coughing worse than before! Night #2 in the upstairs room by myself!
Why didn’t it work? Because if your body is trying to reject the gunk in your lungs, nothings going to stop you from coughing! In the same way…there’s nothing you can do to get rid of your sin.
No matter what kind of good works you try to “rub” all over yourself… God can smell you coming a mile away, and it stinks!!! You need something that will deal with the root of the problem, not just cosmetically cover it over!
Knowing that Nicodemus isn’t fully convinced, Jesus presses the point further… He says in vs.5…“The truth is, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.” Jesus isn’t talking about literal water here, He’s talking about a supernatural kind of cleansing here. Man, if salvation could be accomplished by getting a bath, or by even being baptized… I’d rent a fire hose and douse everybody as they went down the street. We’d get the whole town saved! But that’s not what Jesus was saying… No, when Jesus used the term, “water and Spirit” (being a O.T. scholar) Nicodemus would have understood exactly what He was talking about, because in the O.T., God’s Spirit is always referred to as being poured out like water. Isa.44:3 says, “For I will give you abundant water to quench your thirst and to moisten your parched fields. And I will pour out my Spirit and my blessings on your children.”
This ‘spiritual’ new start and renewal doesn’t come as a result of anything you and I can do… it’s only something that God can do! Jesus points that out in vs. 6… 6 Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven. 7 That’s true isn’t it? Everyone of us here this morning has been born physically. We talk, we walk, we eat, we exist… physically. But how many of you know that there’s more to a man than just His physical being? Sure… there’s emotions to feel with, a mind to think with… and there’s a spiritual part of us too! That’s the part of us that can know and understand God. But if man can only give birth to the physical part… who gives birth to the spiritual part? Only one person… the Spirit of the living God! So it’s entirely possible this morning for you to be totally alive “physically”… while at the same time be totally DEAD “spiritually”… to the point that you can’t know and understand God. Right?
In that case, you need a spiritual re-start. A spiritual birth! Just like what Jesus is talking about here! That’s where Nic found himself. In need of a spiritual rebirth. How about you? Try as you might, it’s not something you can do by yourself. It’s totally beyond the control or ability of human willpower, or religious ceremonies, or good deeds. That must have made Nicodemus’ mouth hang open in shock because in vs. 7,8 Jesus says…”Don’t be surprised by my statement that you must be born again.” 8 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.” i.e… Jesus is saying, “Nic, I don’t know why you’re so surprised…you of all people should know that God can’t be controlled. He does what He wants to do, and goes where He wants to go. He’s like the wind!” Can anybody here this morning control the weather? No. We can predict the weather (somewhat), we can see the effects of weather, we can react to the weather… but no one can ‘control’ the weather…so why would we think that we can ‘control’ the God who makes the weather? When it comes to salvation, the Spirit of God isn’t controlled by what we do through our rituals and ceremonies…He makes the rules… not us! So don’t try and explain how people are born of the Spirit. It’s God doing it… not you or me!
At this point, Nicodemus was on the verge of a “spiritual breakdown”…not only did Jesus tell him that to enter God’s kingdom, he would have to start over… but he would also have to stop thinking that his good works were good enough! He was just where Jesus wanted him to be! In vs. 9, Nic. (this great teacher of the law) is almost reduced to “human pudding” by Jesus’ arguments… all he can manage to blurt out are the words…”What do you mean?”… another version puts it this way…”How can these things be?” It’s more of a whimper than a question. It’s not that Nicodemus doesn’t understand what Jesus is saying… it’s that he’s coming to terms with what He’s saying means to him. In fact, it’s the last thing we hear Nicodemus say! From this point on, he’s completely speechless! He’s like Job before God at the end of the book…when God speaks it so overwhelms him that he has nothing more to say. Nicodemus, “the great intellect”, has come to the 3rd stage that we all have to come to if we’re going to have an authentic walk and relationship with Jesus…and the true sign of a real spiritual breakdown is…we
3. Stop TALKING so much… and start listening to God more
Jesus chides Nicodemus for his pride in vs.10-13, by saying… “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things? 11 I assure you, I am telling you what we know and have seen, and yet you won’t believe us. 12 But if you don’t even believe me when I tell you about things that happen here on earth, how can you possibly believe if I tell you what is going on in heaven? 13 For only I, the Son of Man, have come to earth and will return to heaven again.” You know, we think we know sooo much when it comes to God…to the point that sometimes in our arrogance we’re guilty of even sitting in judgment on Him. “Well, God why didn’t you heal that person when I asked you to? Why did you allow all those people to die in Haiti? Why did you allow that to happen? We’re so “all high and mighty”…that we don’t realize how much we don’t know! So many people, in their pride, and on the basis of their own limited perspective… reject God for the silliest reasons!
In reality, just like Nicodemus, we’re blind as a billiard ball to the spiritual world. Shoot! We don’t even understand the physical world we live in, so how are we going to understand the spiritual world that we’ve never seen? The only person who can do that for us with any credibility is someone who’s already been there. Jesus tells Nic, “I’ve lived with God in the spiritual realm, in fact I’m going back there someday, but while I’m here, I’m going to tell you spiritual truth… and if you have any sense at all…you’ll sit down, shut up… and listen to what I have to say!’
Nicodemus could have walked off in a huff, his pride offended (like so many people do). Oh, they won’t tell you that, they’ll come up with some lame excuse as to why they don’t go to church or believe in God anymore, or they’ll blame somebody else… but Nic. resists his proud nature and instead, humbled and silenced, listens as Jesus proceeds to explain to him the difference between believers and unbelievers, the humble and the hypocritical, the truly reborn and the merely religious. Are you ready to listen too?
See, because true followers of Christ do 1 more thing that religious people and non-believers can’t and won’t do…proof of a spiritual breakdown… They…
4. Start LOOKING
Jesus reminds Nic of an incident in the O.T…READ vs. 14-15 He’s referring to something that happened in Numbers 21. The Israelites got discouraged as they were wandering around in the desert and rebelled against God and Moses. In judgment God released a bunch of poisonous snakes into the camp. With people dying all around them, they desperately repented and begged Moses to do something! God told him to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole in the middle of camp. When that was done, God told him to tell the people that if they would simply LOOK AT THE POLE… they would live!
Nicodemus knew the story well. The problem was that as a leader of the Jewish nation, he thought he was more like “Moses” than the sinning, rebellious Israelites! We don’t like to think of ourselves as ‘sinners’ do we?
That’s a name for murderers, prostitutes, the child rapists of this world… but not us! Jesus is saying, “No, Nic…you’re not Moses…you’re one of the rebels, and just like them, you’re gonna die or live depending on how well you obey God’s simple instructions!” Folks… salvation is not a complex concept! It’s a very simple concept. We’ve sinned, and we’re dying in our sin…so why are we acting like “I’m okay and you’re okay?” That’s a lie!
I guarantee you, if I let out a bunch of rattlesnakes into this room this morning and one was moving right at you… If I told you that all you had to do is look at this pulpit and you’d be immune to it’s bite… (if you were really convinced you were going to die)…you wouldn’t stand around arguing with me about the kind of stain I should have used to finish it with! You’d look! The problem with most people in this world… is that either they don’t know, or aren’t convinced… that a snake has been let loose in this world. His name is the Devil, Satan! It’s not a matter of whether you WILL be bitten… you’ve already been bitten! And his venom (sin) is killing you & me! It’s only a matter of time. But thankfully, there’s an antidote. His name is Jesus. As he hangs there on the pole, He looks like ‘the snake’, because He’s taking on the sin of the world. But if you’ll trust Him with your life…you’ll be saved. It’s not rocket science! It’s a simple choice. Will you look to Him and live?… or will you look away, trying to find another antidote…and die in your sin? Listen, we’re in no position to dictate terms… we’re in a desperate state… and the quicker you believe that… the better!
It’s in that context that Jesus utters the most famous, the most hope-filled, the most revolutionary words that have ever been spoken… John 3:16,17 …“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.” Jesus is telling Nicodemus, He’s telling you and me…”Can’t you see? I’m that snake on the pole! If you’ll only put away your pride, put away your skepticism…and come to me… desperate… I won’t condemn you… that’s not my mission… I’ve come to save you! So why are you acting like I’m your enemy? My Father loved you so much that He gave Me to die in your place! So…look to ME! Love you and I want to save you from the inevitable destruction to come!”
Do you want to know how you can know if you’ve really been ‘born again’? If you’ve really looked to Him and are saved? In his ending comments he gives Nicodemus the sign of a saving belief. It’s not in what you say, it’s not even in what you “say” you believe… it’s how you LIVE what you believe! The tell-tale sign that you’ve been ‘born again’, ‘saved’ (whatever you want to call it)… is a changed life! If you don’t have a changed life. If your life is not lived in obedience to Him… it’s a false salvation and you haven’t been ‘born again’.
Jesus says… READ John 3:18-21. The proof of your salvation isn’t in whether you were baptized at age 3, or in whether you were confirmed in a certain church, or in where you took your 1st communion… it’s found in whether today, right now… you’re walking IN the light, or you’re walking AWAY from the light. Are you running towards God, allowing Him to shine His light of truth on your every action, humbly, anxiously, willingly allowing Him to change you… OR… are you running away from the light… trying to avoid him, angry at anyone who even ‘hints’ that you might be in the wrong? Bottom line…If you’re a true follower of Jesus… you love the light! You long for the light! You live for the light! You want the truth of God’s Word to penetrate you and transform you.
Nicodemus eventually came out of the darkness and into the light. How do I know that? Because at Jesus’ trial, Nicodemus stopped being afraid to be seen with Jesus and stood up for Him in front of His peers. And then at his death, it was Nicodemus along with Joseph of Aramethia who publically identified himself with Jesus by asking for permission to take his body down off the cross. As he did that, I’ll bet you 2:1 that he remembered that 1st life changing talk with Him.
Will you come out of the dark today? Will you publically identify with Christ? We don’t ask people to do this all the time, but this morning I’ve felt led to ask you to make a public confession. If never done that before… today’s the day!
