OPEN: A man was obviously lost. He saw a little boy was standing by the side of a road and a and pulled up beside him. “Sonny,” he said, “do you know how to get to town?” The kid said, “No sir, I don’t.” Then the man said, “Well do you know the way to route 20?” The little boy said, “No.” And the man said, “Well where does this road go?” The little boy said, “I don’t know.” Somewhat frustrated but with chuckle the man said “Well, you don’t know much of anything do you?” The little boy smiled back and said, “Well, I know I ain’t lost.”
APPLY: This week we’re talk about a man who was lost. He was a very religious man who should have known where he was going. But once he met Jesus… he began to doubt that. In fact, he began to question the reality of everything he’d once believed in.
Just a little background here: Nicodemus was a Pharisee. These were very religious people In fact, the Pharisees were part of the hottest church in town. Anybody who wanted to be seen as pure and righteous wanted to be part of their group. In fact, they were so dedicated to being pure and righteous, that they were often called the “pious” ones!
Their name (Pharisee) came from the Hebrew word “Purash” – meaning “to separate,” and they separated themselves from anything and anyone who was impure. They refused to have anything to do with any kind of sinner especially tax collectors, prostitutes, and Gentiles.
In Luke 18:11 Jesus told the parable of a Pharisee who stood before God and thanked God that he was ‘not like other men.’ That man was committed to being separate from anyone who was “impure.” In fact, the Pharisees were so righteous and so religious, that everyone around them held them in awe. Well… everyone… but Jesus that is.
Jesus made the Pharisees uncomfortable. They didn’t much like Him… and the feeling was mutual. Jesus repeatedly condemned them for their self-righteousness and hypocrisy. In Matthews 15:14 Jesus said “They are blind leaders of the blind.” In Matthew 23:15 he declared “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” And in Matthew 23:27 he condemned them by saying “… you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.”
As you can imagine, this didn’t make Him popular with the Pharisees.
But Nicodemus wasn’t quite so sure that Jesus is wrong - he may have been thinking the same things himself. And so, he comes “to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.’”
Now, notice, Nicodemus comes … at night. He’s still a Pharisee and if he was seen with Jesus in public, it could ruin him. And so he seeks Jesus out at night when he can quietly ask questions.
But, Jesus doesn’t let him ask HIS questions. Jesus cuts right to the heart of the matter by declaring: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." John 3:3
What is Jesus telling Nicodemus? He’s saying to him – it’s time for a change. You’ve grown up thinking your religion is right… but it’s not!!! It’s time to be born again.
Nicodemus seems a bit confused at this point. He says “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” John 3:4
Now, that’s an odd question for Nicodemus to ask, because “being born again” shouldn’t have been that hard for him to understand. Jews used that kind of phrase all the time when Gentiles converted to Judaism.
ILLUS: According to the Encyclopedia Judaica early Jewish rabbis declared that “A proselyte (a gentile converting to Judaism) terminates all former family ties upon conversion and ‘is considered a newly born child’” (volume 13, page 1184, article "Proselytes").
According to Jamieson, Fausset and Brown (a respected Bible Commentary): “The Jews were accustomed to say of a heathen (Gentile) proselyte, on his public admission into the Jewish faith by baptism, that he was a new-born child. But our Lord here extends the necessity of the new birth to Jew and Gentile alike—to everyone.”
In other words… a Gentile who changed his religion was like a NEW BORN CHILD. They were literally considered “born again.” So Jesus was aiming right at Nicodemus when he said “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ (John 3:7) Essentially, He’s saying “Nicodemus… you got to change your religion!” What you’ve always believed is WRONG!!!
That makes me uncomfortable. The idea that someone’s religion or church might be wrong seems so judgmental. And yet… it is nonetheless true.
For example, just what was wrong with Nicodemus’ religion? Well, I can think of a couple of problems they had. First, they made their own rules! They had gotten into the habit of NOT appealing directly to Scripture. Instead they appealed to their own rule book; they had their own set of directions on how to obey God; they didn’t think God was explicit enough in His commands… and so they decided to help Him out! Just as an example of how they were thinking: they literally had a list of 1521 rules and regulations on how not to break the Sabbath. None of those rules and regs were in the Mosaic Law, but that didn’t stop them from using their creative imagination… and this really ticked Jesus off.
In Matthew 15:7-9 Jesus addressed the Pharisees and said “You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the COMMANDMENTS OF MEN.’”
Their rules were “doctrines of men.” Such rules made their worship “vain,” empty, worthless… and God hated them.
(PAUSE… and then mutter) Stupid Pharisees! How could they think God would be pleased with this foolishness? Well… it’s not just the Pharisees who fall into this trap. It could literally happen to anybody. It’s as old as the Catholic church. In the Catholic church, they have a specific order of authority for doctrine. First, there’s the Pope, then there are the various church councils that have met over the years (such as the Council of Nicea) … and then there’s the Bible. In that order. If the Bible seems to contradict either a Papal decree, or a decision made by a church council it’s obvious to them that you’ve misunderstood something. The decisions of mortal men are always going to trump the Bible in their church. That’s why, for years, the Catholic church has discouraged independent study of the Bible.
In denominational churches, Creeds, Catechisms and “Books Of Doctrine” have been the rules that have determined what the teachings of a church should be. Now, there’s nothing wrong with these things if you only look at them as commentaries on what folks have thought about Scripture down through the age… but for these guys, its way more serious than that. Again, the concept is that the decisions of mortal men always trumps the Bible.
ILLUS: I asked a denominational preacher to explain a unique doctrine their group had. He said “I’ll do better than that. Here. Take a copy of our ‘Book Of Doctrine.’” I said “That’s kind. I’ll get back to you on Monday.” “Oh no,” he replied, “keep it. We have a new one coming out soon.” And then he explained why: “We vote on our doctrine every 2 years!”
I was too polite to say: “YOU WHAT?!!” But that’s what I was thinking. Why on earth would you think that you could vote on Scriptural teachings? Why would they do dumb stuff like this? Well, it’s because the leadership in those groups have a need to control doctrine. They don’t think the Bible is sufficient for teaching God’s thinking. Only their rules and regs can do that. They have seemed to have neglected II Timothy 3:16-17 which says “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
Scripture is ALL YOU NEED! It’s sufficient for teaching and correcting and training in righteousness. It’s ALL YOU NEED to be complete and fully equipped to serve God. You do NOT need men to make up additional rules and doctrines! It ends up making your worship vain, empty and worthless! It’s a trap.
But you know, this trap could happen to us as well. It can happen to any church that is serious about believing that the Bible is God’s dependable and inerrant Word.
For example, I was reading a post on Facebook from one of our brotherhood’s preachers. He said that he had a Deacon who was really angry about the fact that children (who weren’t old enough to be Christians) were taking communion as it was passed down the aisle. Now I understand why he was upset. The Lord’s Supper is perhaps one of the most important things we do in worship. This is serious stuff and we don’t want it mistreated or regarded as trivial. Communion is our time to eat with our Lord. BUT… there’s a problem here. As seriously as we regard Communion, there is NOWHERE in Scripture where God commands us to police the Communion Table. It’s just not there… anywhere.
Our elders here have struggled with this issue and they ultimately concluded that, if they saw children taking communion, they would speak privately to the family or the children and explain that we’d rather they not take of the bread and cup and explain why. BUT, if the children still took of the elements, the Elders decided that they’d ignore it. I mean – what are we going to do? Go down the aisle and slap the hand of every child who eats the communion? Of course not!
You know why we wouldn’t police the passing of the communion? Because we believe every child and every parent here are precious in the eyes of God. They are more valuable than our feelings on the matter. But the Pharisees didn’t think that way. They not only had their own rule book, they regarded their rules as more important than people.
In Matthew 23:23 Jesus said “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the MORE IMPORTANT MATTERS of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.”
Now, tithing was important. Tithing was commanded under the Old Testament Law. It was not optional. It was required. But as important as giving those tithes to God was, MERCY was more important to God (along with justice and faithfulness).
In Matthew 9:13, Jesus said “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ (Hosea 6:6) For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Sacrifice was required in the Old Testament… but God regarded mercy to sinners more important!
ILLUS: Have you ever heard of a church that – if someone engages in a certain kind of sin – tells them “There’s the door. Don’t let it hit you on the way out! We don’t want YOUR KIND here.” What kind of people don’t they want in their church? SINNERS! They don’t want sinners in their midst to taint the congregation.
I’ve got news for you – you’ve all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That’s why you’re here! You and I are the kind of people Jesus died to save.
I thank God that we have the kind of leadership here that we do. Over the past 20 years or so, I’ve watched as your Elders have had to confront members who were living together or had been homosexual, or had stumbled in other kinds of sins. In each of those cases they’ve told the person “What you are doing is sin. Now, you have a choice. We want you to be able to stay here, but only if you repent and change your life. We’ll get you whatever help you need IF you want to change. But if you DON’T want to change… you can’t stay here.”
You see, Jesus came to save sinners. And that’s our objective. As a church, we must confront and condemn sin. But if someone has sinned and wants to change, we must show mercy to them. Because, that’s what Jesus was saying here. In fact, this concept of mercy is so important that in the sermon on the Mount Jesus promised: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” Matthew 5:7
If WE want MERCY from God in our lives… we have to show mercy.
LAST POINT: What does it mean to be born of the water and Spirit? Jesus answered (Nicodemus), “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” John 3:5
Jesus has gone from talking about Nicodemus changing his religion (born again) to explaining the steps for that. You must be born of the WATER and the SPIRIT. What’s that mean?
Well, the water part, Nicodemus would have understood. According to Jamieson, Fausset and Brown: "The Jews were accustomed to say of a heathen proselyte, on his public admission into the Jewish faith BY BAPTISM, that he was a new-born child.” In fact, to this day, when a Gentile converts to Judaism, they’re required to be baptized. (see footnote)
And that was the purpose of Christian baptism. It converted us, it initiated us, into Christ.
Galatians 3:27 says “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have PUT ON CHRIST.” Notice, until you’d been baptized, you hadn’t “put on Christ.” You were not clothed with Christ until you’d made the plunge.
In I Peter 3:21 we’re told “Baptism, which corresponds to (Noah’s flood), now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an APPEAL to God FOR A GOOD CONSCIENCE, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” Baptism is an “appeal to God for a good conscience.” In other words, until you were baptized you didn’t have a good conscience, but once you went under the waters, Jesus washed away your sins and your conscience became cleansed.
Baptism is your initiation into Christ. It’s where you “PUT ON” Christ (you didn’t have Him ON before) and it’s where you APPEAL to God for a good conscience (a conscience you didn’t have).
ILLUS: Now, I often compare baptism to signing a contract. Have you ever signed a contract to buy something? You might walk into a lawyer’s office or a bank office… and there in front of you is a piece of paper with two sets of lines at the bottom. One is for you to sign to accept what is offered, and the other set is for the owner to sign saying that he accepts your offer. In essence, water baptism is your signature on the bottom line – saying you want to have Jesus.
But what about the Spirit? Well… that’s God’s signature on the contract. Ephesians says that when you “believed in him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” Ephesians 1:13-14
When God places His Spirit inside of you - that SEALS you. The Spirit GUARANTEES your salvation. When you stand before the throne of God in the Last Day, God’s not going to be looking at your face. He’s going to be looking for His mark on your soul – His promised Holy Spirit.
In fact, you can’t be a Christian without the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:9 “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.”
So, your CONTRACT with God for salvation involves two things: 1) Being born of the water ---- baptism into Christ, and 2) being born of the Spirit – where God promised to put His Spirit inside of you. That’s why – when the crowd at Pentecost asked Peter “What must we do to be saved?” (Acts 2:37) Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38). It was the same message: Be born of the water and the spirit.
INVITATION
Footnote: "As your forefathers entered into the Covenant only by circumcision, immersion and the sprinkling of the blood, so shall they (the proselytes) enter the Covenant only by circumcision, immersion and sprinkling of the blood" (Keritot 9a - Soncino Talmud).
