2nd lent 11
The first episode of Nick at Night
John 3: 1-17
We have all heard jokes about people showing up at the pearly gates seeking entrance into Heaven. While many of these jokes bring a smile to our faces, behind most of them is the false assumption that we must do something to get into Heaven. It is shocking to people to hear that they can’t do anything to earn entrance into Heaven. Grace goes beyond human comprehension. By our nature, we want to merit God’s favor. The scandal of grace challenges our normal way of thinking.
In our text today, we come across one of those persons who had a difficult time understanding the truth of free grace salvation. His name was Nicodemus, and as we move through our text, we will discover that Nicodemus was a very religious man who had a hard time realizing the difference between religion and relationship.
It was at night that this ruler of the Jews, Nicodemus, decided to pay the teacher Jesus a visit. There has been a lot of speculation as to why he came at night.
- rabbis studied at night
- to avoid the crowd
- so their conversation would not be limited
- b/c he feared being seen with Jesus because the Gospels mention that he, along with Joseph of Arimathea were secretly disciples.
When you read the Gospel of John you must realize that it is the most spiritual of the 4 Gospels and uses imagery to make a point. In John’s gospel, darkness opposes light. Perhaps the mention of the fact it was night symbolizes the darkness that shrouded Nicodemus’ heart and soul. You might call this encounter the first “Nick at Night.” But for whatever reason, Nicodemus comes at night in hopes that this miracle worker can answer some of his spiritual questions. He was a seeker.
Now, it must be said up front that Nicodemus was no ordinary citizen. He was rich. He was respected. He was religious (Pharisee, 1 of 70, gave his life to studying and obeying the Law and traditions). He was a ruler of the Jews.
In today’s scripture we’re going to discover three steps you can take to start your life over. The first step is…. Start your life over by having your own private talk with Jesus. I want you to notice that Nicodemus was a man of distinction and outstanding character. He was intelligent, honest and upright. John in his gospel tells us: “Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; 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" (3:1-2).
No doubt, Nicodemus, who was a member the Sanhedrin, had heard about Jesus. Perhaps he came at night so he could have a private meeting with Jesus and ask all the questions he wanted to ask. He was a religious man. We know that he took his religion seriously because he was a member of the Pharisees sect. They were strict, narrow, traditionalists. John says he was “a ruler of the Jews." In other words he was one who is first or preeminent among his associates. He stood in a high position among the ruling class in Jerusalem. This would indicate that he was a member of the Sanhedrin. We also know that Nicodemus was a man of discernment is seen in his estimation of Jesus. “We know that You have come from God as a teacher."
Most importantly, in this episode, we see that Nicodemus was a seeker - a person who was sincere in his quest for the kingdom of God but, nevertheless, a spiritual failure in spite of all his religious knowledge and enthusiasm. Here was a sincere man with a sincere hunger for truth who came to have a private talk with Jesus in the quietness of the night away from those who would distract. He came to Jesus at night so that he could have a private conversation concerning his own very personal needs.
Jesus had something he did not have. Nicodemus, like each of us, was seeking for that something more in life – looking, longing for spiritual bliss and truth to fill the hole that’s felt in the heart. Nicodemus was a man whose whole life was a religious exercise yet he realized that Jesus had something he did not have.
One of the messages of John 3 is just that! You may have all sorts of Christian activity like John Wesley. John Wesley grew up right and go to the right university much like Nicodemus, having all the trappings of a good faith. You may have founded your own ‘holy club” like Wesley; done excellent work in church organizations; perhaps even figured out a method of spirituality like Wesley and Nicodemus. You may have even have a routine of Bible reading and praying, but that is not enough to give you true eternal life that is born from above and felt deeply in the heart.
The first step this scripture teaches us is that to start your life over you need to leave your own empty religious efforts behind and have our own private talk with Jesus. The second step is… Start your life over by understanding your need The phrase ‘born again’ was not invented by former president Jimmy Carter or by Ronald Reagan to get the votes of the Southern Baptists. And it doesn’t refer to a narrow, emotional, or living on the fringe of Christianity. There is actually a necessity of new birth, an absolute necessity. This is what was so shocking of a statement to Nicodemus’ ears.
Nicodemus was a man who had supposedly all the right credentials to be accepted by God. If anyone would be accepted, he would be: he has so much to commend him. Surely he doesn’t have to start over, not him! He’s a disciplined man: he’s a Pharisee. He’s on the Jewish ruling council. He was a learned man; so much so that Jesus said to him in verse 10, “You’re Israel’s teacher.” And so he would have been deeply shaken when Jesus says to him, “You need to be born again.” It would have been a terrible shock when Jesus steps back and draws a separating line between this man and real relationship with God, and says, “Unless you are born again you cannot know God.”
Nicodemus is shaken when Jesus says, “You need to be born again.” And so he replies in verse 4, “How can a man be born when he is old? Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!” So Jesus says in reply, “I’m not talking about physical things, I’m talking about spiritual things. You need to be born physically, “Flesh gives birth to flesh …” “Yes, you do need to be born physically, but you also need to be born spiritually: “… but the Spirit gives birth to spirit” (v. 6). Now why is this so? Well, the Bible says that there is not one person who is righteous.
So what then is new birth? What does it mean to be born again? Well, let me tell you, the first thing is this: it doesn’t mean turning over a new leaf. It doesn’t mean “I’m going back on the diet; I’m going to give up the smoking or turn over the new leaf for the umpteenth time. I’m not talking about another set of resolutions, it’s not about saying, “Well, I must get more moral.” You couldn’t have got more moral than Nicodemus. No, this new birth is a radical change that God does. It’s not something that I do. It’s what God does through the power of the Spirit. You can see it in verse 8: “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it’s going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” So it’s not something I do, it’s something God does – and it is miraculous.
God brings us back to life as new people in the spirit. He radically changes us and our thinking. So this is a supernatural act of God in which He takes the Holy Spirit and implants the Spirit in our hearts. In other words, God gives us a heart transplant. That is what is being spoken of here. And He gives us a changed mind, will and emotion; and our whole personality wants to go in a different direction. So we start to like the way that He thinks. And consequently we start to try to act in His way.
So, how do you start your life over? First, leave your own empty religious efforts behind and have our own private talk with Jesus. Secondly, realize that you need a miraculous transformation of your heart and the third step to starting your life over is … You start your life over by responding to Jesus’ invitation. Jesus answered and said to him twice in the same conversation with Nicodemus, and as a side note if the Bible says something more than once it means that you need to pay closer attention to it. Notice in verse 3 says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’’ Again in 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. Twice Jesus answered. Twice the condition was given by Jesus was the new birth. Twice the ultimate fulfillment of these conditions was entrance into the kingdom of God. But what was the question? The very obvious question on the mind of Nicodemus was: “How do I get into the kingdom of God?” Jesus answered and with the answer gave the invitation: “Come on in!”
John, reflecting on the meaning of the Jesus/Nicodemus conversation, states God’s most dramatic invitation to us in verse 16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” So what did God do? The first thing we see, He loved the world (that’s us). What did He do? He gave His one and only Son, the Lord Jesus. So God allowed Jesus to die on the cross to take the punishment we deserve. Perhaps you’ve seen pictures of Jesus hanging on the cross: Jesus in the middle between two thieves; the soldiers are all around, Mary, His mother, is nearby – and He cries out on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:45). Now if Jesus is the Son of God, why is He forsaken? The Bible says Jesus was forsaken so that we need never be. He died and took the sin I deserve for saying, “I will do it my way. I’ll run my life my way. I know you’ve given me life, God, but I’ll take the gifts and I’ll ignore you, the Giver.” That is a problem before God, and Jesus died so that we can be forgiven for that.
Some of you may have heard me mention some of the errors in translation from the original Greek to the New Testament. When verse 16 says believe IN him it should be translated “believe INTO Him.” In other words the belief is an ongoing thing in your life ant not just a one time commitment. Salvation is easy! Christ didn’t come into the world to condemn the world, yet we spend our lives worrying about whether we’re good enough to get into heaven… No! God sent His Son Jesus into the world so that the world may be saved through Him… Through a personal relationship with Him – that means you have to know Him, personally!
Being born again is not about religion – it’s about a RELATIONSHIP with Jesus Christ. And that’s the best part of being a Christian – having that personal relationship with Christ. So how do you start your life over? Like Nicodemus go to Jesus privately and confess that you’ve done it your way long enough. Like Nicodemus you will find that Jesus will know what you need even before you ask. Go to Jesus and ask him how you can know and experience God’s presence in your life. You will find that with your request will come Jesus’ invitation to enter into God’s kingdom, God presence. God’s Holy Spirit will then do a transforming work in your heart and in your life you will, indeed, get a second change, you will get to start your life over.
What we have this morning is a hard lesson to learn… The lesson is that salvation is easy – but we make it hard… Salvation is not about us – it’s about God. We’re worried about being good enough to get into heaven… we worry about our religion – do I read my Bible enough – do I spend enough time in prayer – do I do enough good deeds – do I go to church enough – do I tithe enough? Please, please, please, don’t misunderstand me, all of these things are important and none of us do enough of it. But many of us are so worried about what we’re doing, that we forget what God has done. We make it hard, God makes it easy. All we really need is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and these others things will come.
I’ve seen 70 year old men and women walk down the isle and accept Christ for the first time because they knew that they had not truly been born from above and in a relationship with God. They’ve been pillars in the church, taught Sunday school for 20 years – they were known as prayer warriors – they read their Bible, they had memorized scripture, they had lived a good moral life. They were religious – but they were lost. And then one night at a Methodist revival service, a light bulb lit up in their heads and they realized in their hearts – they didn’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ… Wow!
This morning I want to give everyone the opportunity to make things right with God. Maybe during this message something has stuck in your heart that I may not be in the relationship with God that I should be. I ask you this morning to give your heart over to God.
