• Nice MOVIE TITLE.
• John records the first of several encounters Jesus would have with different individuals This first is with a religious leader by the name of Nicodemus Passage feels like we are ease dropping on a private conversation
• HOW WOULD JESUS WITNESS? The conversation turns to the subject of a man’s need to be born again The need to experience a Spiritual birth. John’s gospel gives us the most comprehensive look at the Holy Spirit’s work and role in the heart of men
Jesus gives us an illustration to explain the work of the Spirit.
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."
That wind blew on the Damascus Road when Paul walked there. That wind blew thru a dorm room in Stillwater, Oklahoma on January the 29th of 1979. That wind blew thru a Dallas Holm concert in February 1983. That wind is blowing here today and could redirect somebody’s life in a whole different direction for 2011 and beyond. From what we see in this passage it seems to be blowing on this dark night.
1 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."
• Nicodemus was not just a simple man: Pharisee, ruler of Jews. He was wealthy, powerful and religious. He was a greatly educated man who knew almost everything but what was most important. He had genuinely been convicted and was seeking to understand who Jesus truly was.
Pharisees were a select group -- never more than 6,000 of them.
Men who had each one taken a solemn vow before three witnesses that he would devote every moment of his entire life to obeying the Ten Commandments, as a way of pleasing God.
They spent their lives studying the Ten Commandments and applying them to situations of life. They focused on the Minutest detail of the commandments that God laid out. -
It is amazing that he would come to Jesus at all, because of their dedication to the law the Pharisees regarded themselves as superior to other
• WHY BY NIGHT? (cooler/less crowds, peers) Many today fear PEER PRESSURES that surround them when it comes to their seeking of God. Part of the evidence that you truly found Him is that you no longer care about what other’s think about you and God.
A. Nicodemus reminds us of two obvious things about the ministry of Jesus.
1. He was a great TEACHER.
2. He did miraculous SIGNS.
There was no way for a truly honest person to no admit the obvious about the things Jesus said and did.
Amazing that in Jesus’ day no one doubted the validity of the miracles He did but only what the true source of them was. Even Jesus worst enemies would not deny them. BUT TODAY, 2,000 years removed and several thousand miles away, we have multitudes of critics who are constantly denying the validity of the miracles Jesus did.
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." Really really mean this..
• What is the first thing the world needs to know? There is no getting to God without a total change in everything that defines us. We don’t need to make this life more religious or better or more cleaned up but we need a NEW LIFE. KEEP THE MAIN THING THE PLAIN THING
• Titus 3:5, Titus uses the term “regeneration”. It means the same exact thing! It means that when you are regenerated, you get a new life! You get a new start!
So many people have this thing confused! They are seeking reformation. That is, they are trying to “turn over a new leaf” or “get a new lease on life”. What the world needs is not reformation, but regeneration!
2 men sought to prove to their king whether a man had to be ‘born a gentleman’ or could become one by ‘discipline and training’. The one told the other that he would prove his point regarding ‘training’ by showing the king his cat which he had trained to stand on its back feet and dance around in a funny hat with its nose in the air. This gave the other an idea but he did not tell the other about it. When they came before the king the one set his cat to dancing to ‘prove’ to the king that being a gentleman we just about training and discipline. The other pulled out a box he had brought with him, opened it and let loose about a dozen mice. The cat quickly reverted to its primary nature and took off after the running rodents.
Some pretty good dancing cats show up in this building and put on a pretty good show but sin will still show itself given the right opportunity. Wrong Word…look….not get their way…don’t like something….
EARTHLY THINGS: 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?" He focus’ on the NATURAL instead of the SUPERNATURAL
• Jesus first compares begin born again to some similarities in our first birth. There must be a COMPLETE CHANGE, NEW birth, NEW CREATURE.
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.
• Jesus then compares being born again to the natural working of the wind. You cannot control or assume upon the actions of the wind
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."
I grew up in OKLAHOMA and so I thought it was normal for wind to blow everywhere, everyday. When you ran a race that went in a total circle you just expected to have wind in your face at some point. EASTWOOD WIND
TORNADO WIND: Driving and watching to see if wind was blowing. Son rolled window down and stuck hand out to feel. Rolled window back up and signed with relief saying, ‘Good, the wind is still blowing’.
• No one can control the wind. No one can order the wind around. No one can chain up the wind. It goes where it wishes to go.
Congress can make a LAW this year restricting the wind and ordering it to only go so far and so fast. Tornados, hurricanes…nothing can happen without our permission. President can sign it and God will probably blow the paper off the table. Doesn’t matter what we say or do it will do what it chooses.
• The same thing is true of the Ministry of the Spirit. The Spirit of God is Sovereign – He is free to move and work where He wants / when He wants and How – He wants
• He touches a heart here, a live there, a community or a nation, a church whenever He decides to.
The only certain thing about what God does is that nothing is certain. He will never be kept in a box no matter how pretty or expensive that box is. We can build a beautiful box/building and that does not mean God will do anything here. Scripture tells us that He chooses to do things in response to our prayers that are in line with His settled will.
• Who in the early church would have every thought that SAUL would turn out to become the APOSTLE PAUL and change all of history? A SHEPHERD BOY? The good money was on GOLIATH.
Amazing that the same tornado can damage one house and leave another virtually untouched. MANNFORD TORNADO. Two people can sit in the same church, on the same pew, hear the same sermon and one can be changed for eternity and the other think only about what is for lunch.
9 Nicodemus said to Him, "How can these thingsbe?" The same question is still being asked today. How does this happen? Why is it necessary?
YOU HEAR THE SOUND OF IT: They say a tornado sounds like a passing TRAIN. Not all of us have heard that but we have heard the wailing of the wind as it blows past our house or through the trees. Although we cannot see the wind we see what it is doing to all it touches and we can hear the sound of its presence. When the heavenly wind blows we can know it by the sights and sounds it brings. Conviction in hearts, prayers from people, surrendered lives, worshipping praise to God. Those things begin to surrounds us like we were standing in a windstorm. Things the world has torn apart this heavenly wind blows back together: Families, relationships, lives, churches.
I read of a Christian in England who was asked to sign a church guest register. He noticed that a number of guests had entered their degrees after their names.
He wanted to put some letters after his name, but had never been to a university. So he wrote, "John Smith, BA and MA."
Asked what the letters stood for, he said, "John Smith, Born Again, and Marvelously Altered!"
Nicodemus had all the DEGREES but these two
HEAVENLY THINGS: 10 Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? 11 "Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. 12 "If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
• Are you not a DEACON? Sun Sch Teacher? Pastor? 30 yr pew sitter?
• Not giving him our OLD LIFE but accepting the NEW LIFE He offers.
Anybody who has lived up north knows what the term WIND CHILL means. Normal temperatures can be made much worse when you add the wind. Life can become very uncomfortable when cold and wind operate together. Heavenly wind is bettered described by the term WIND WARMTH. God begins to bring comfort and purpose and direction to our lives as the Spirit begins to finally show up what truly matters and we respond.
13 "No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. 14 "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; 15 so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. ETERNAL LIFE: comes from looking in faith to Christ’s finished work at calvary.
Greek historian Herodotus said that the ancient Egyptians believed in the new birth. They believed that when a person died they became whatever animal happened to have been born at the same time, and then they went from that animal to another animal life and then to another animal's life until they had gone through all of the animals of the animal kingdom, and then the Egyptians believed that you could be born again, that's what they called it, born again as a human being, and they believed the process would take 3,000 years. You can be born into the family of God and become God's child. And you don't have to wait 3,000 years, you don't have to wait 3,000 days, you don't have to wait another second, you can be born again right now.
• This wind only blows in one direction: TOWARDS JESUS. The purpose of the Holy Spirit is to draw us/blow us to Jesus.
2001: Lynne and I and the family were moving to Tulsa from Missouri and were looking at potential homes. One thing we came across was a house with a ‘safe room’ or actually only a ‘safe closet’. A closet, which served as a coat closet near the front door, was built with steel walls and a steel door that was there in addition to a normal wooden one. The purpose was that in case of a sudden tornado that you could run and squeeze in and protect yourself from the effects of the win.
Many have built their ‘SAFE ROOMS’ from God’s wind. The retreat to their same old arguments or beliefs or attitudes whenever the SPIRIT BLOWS truth and conviction in their direction. The put up a sudden guard of ridicule or criticism and quickly shut the doors around them. If we had spiritual ears we may have heard the sound of many shutting doors this morning, especially in the last few moment.
Zechariah 4:6 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' Says the LORD Your life won’t change when you choose but when you raise your sails and catch hold of the blowing wind of God. Pray for that wind to blow in your life.
IMPOSSIBLE:? Wind blows huge clouds thru the air like ships moving thru the water
Waves in the ocean – tossed to and fro by the wind. Giant trees – bending by the wind.
Huge metal airplane soaring at 30,000 ft – going 400 mph – by the wind YOUR HEART CAN BE CHANGED BY THE POWER OF GOD THIS MORNING.
JOHN 3:16….simple…use for children….new believers? Truth given to one of the most knowledgeable and religious men in all Israel.
