Introduction
How do you get to heaven? How do you get to the good place in the afterlife?
Now I know some of you might be sat there straight away thinking, well there's no such place, there's no such thing. Well humour me for a minute, if there were a place like heaven, how would you get there? What would be the entry criteria? Caroline and I watched a comedy a few years ago called The Good Place, that's the picture in the background behind that part there and they, part of the show was that they had an interview to see if they could stay in heaven and the questions were as follows, have you ever committed a serious crime such as murder, theft or arson? Have you ever had a vanity license number plates like mama's BMW Lexus for Liz or cool dude? Have you ever taken your shoes and socks off on a commercial airline flight? Have you ever reheated fish in an office microwave? Have you ever paid to hear music performed by the California funk rock band, the Red Hot Chili Peppers? And then the final question was, have you ever appeared on the American TV show The Bachelor or any of its spin-offs or suggested on social media that you were invested in any of the relationships on that programme? Now imagine for a second if those were the real questions. I'm especially worried because I own an album by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
But imagine if that was it, if this was really what it was all about. You know, the criteria of whether you have a personalized number plate, that would be a scandal for eternity, wouldn't it? But Jesus here actually in this passage that we're looking at this morning shows us that the real question is even more shocking than that. The question that gets us into heaven is this: how many times have you been born? How many times have you been born? That's the question that Jesus poses us here. And if the answer is one, then Jesus says you cannot see the kingdom. You cannot enter the kingdom of God. You cannot go to heaven. Now if that sounds bamboozling, you're in good company. Jesus in our passage is talking to a man who's given the grand title of the teacher of Israel. He was the nation's teacher. And he doesn't get it either. So you're in good company if you're confused. But Jesus is going to teach him about this new birth that he's talking about. And he's going to teach that however religious or righteous or unrighteous or unreligious, all of us need a new birth, a fresh start with God. And so our first point is you must be born again. Have a look with me at verses one to three again.
You Must Be Born Again
"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 are a teacher come from God from no one can do these signs unless God is with him. Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Jesus gets a visit after dark from a man called Nicodemus. Now Nicodemus, as we said, is no ordinary man. We're told here that he was a ruler of the Jews. That means he was basically a member of their parliament, if you like, called the Sanhedrin. It was a religious parliament. And it was made up of 70 of the most respected, most devout people in what was a very devout country. He was about as religious as you could get. On top of that, Nicodemus was a Pharisee. There were three main groups in Israel at the time, the Herodians, the Sadducees and the Pharisees. And the Pharisees were seen as far and away the most holy group in Israel. There were really, in many ways, the ancestors of what we call today ultra-Orthodox Jews. They took their religion very, very seriously. And Nicodemus was seemingly a leader amongst them, a rabbi, a teacher, the teacher of Israel. He's one of the most prominent religious figures of his day. Not quite the Archbishop of Canterbury, if it was in the sort of UK setting, that would have been the high priest who led the Sanhedrin, but maybe somebody like the Archbishop of York. If anyone was in the kingdom of God that Jesus was talking about, well, this would have been the guy. That's what people would have been thinking.
So Jesus gets visited by this ultra-holy Archbishop. An Archbishop who, despite Jesus' lack of formal education, he calls Jesus rabbi, teacher. He says that he knows that he's come from
God. He's saying, look, I know that you're the real deal. We can see by the signs that you're performing that God is with you. Now think about it. That's quite a big admission, isn't it, for someone in such a high position. This religious leader tells Jesus he thinks he's the real deal. And Jesus, in return, turns around to him and says, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And as we'll explain, he's talking about Nicodemus.
Nicodemus doesn't understand. He's never experienced this. He doesn't even seem to know what Jesus is talking about. So this is not Jesus just starting some random theological discussion. Jesus is telling one of the most religious people in his country that he's not going to heaven, that he's not in the kingdom. Now just pause and think about that for a second, because so, so many people that I've met get this wrong. People think that being religious is the way to heaven. But Jesus is saying it's not about being religious. It's not about keeping a set of rules. It's not trying to be moral or trying to be good. That won't get you to heaven, says Jesus. Because actually, if it was, this guy would be in. So the answer, it also means for us then, if we want to go to heaven, is not to become religious. Religion doesn't solve the problem. Half the time, it seems that religion is part of the problem itself, doesn't it? So Jesus tells this guy, if he wants to be in the kingdom, if he wants to go to heaven, it will be such a change in his life. It will be though his life is starting over again, like he's starting his life anew, like he was born again. Now I remember when I was about 17, 17 years old, I was talking to someone, and I described myself as a born again Christian. And they sort of looked at me a bit funny, you know, the sort of like, not quite sure what to make of it, sort of looking at me. And they said, you're a bit young, aren't you? And I said, what do you mean? They said, well, when did you have your drink and drugs problem? That was seriously what they thought. The idea of being a born again Christian was that, you know, you must have had some awful thing in your past that you've somehow got out of. That's often how the term is understood. But the shocking thing here is that Jesus doesn't tell this to some tear away. He's not telling this to a junkie or a thief or a wild child. He tells this to that society's version of an archbishop, to a deeply religious, respected man. There's no evidence that Nicodemus was a hypocrite or that he hid away some awful sin. He was an outwardly decent person. He was seemingly well respected. He even taught other people about God. And yet Jesus says to him, you must be born again.
Well, what does that say about the rest of us? If Nicodemus needs to be born again, then how much more all of us? Jesus wants us to see here in this passage that even the brightest and the best of us need a fresh start with God. Even the super holy religious leaders need a new start. How much more ordinary folk like you and I? I don't know about you, but I'm going to guess that I'm not as righteous as Nicodemus was. There are things that I've done that I would gladly forget. Ways that I've treated other people in the past that I'm ashamed of. But the amazing thing that Jesus is saying here is not just that you need to be born again, but he offers that experience to us. He's saying you can be born again. You can have a fresh start with God, a new life. But what is that fresh start that Jesus is describing? What does it mean to be born again? Well, that's our next point. Born of the Spirit by looking to Jesus. I'll read to us verses four to nine again from John chapter three.
Born of the Spirit by Looking to Jesus
Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of the water and of spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I say to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit. Nicodemus doesn't understand. He's taken what Jesus has said far too literally. So Jesus explains it in another way. Unless you're born of water and of spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. And what Jesus is describing here is a promise that God made to his people hundreds of years before. This is what he wrote in a book called Ezekiel, which is in the Old Testament, the first half of the Bible. He said, "I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away and you will no longer worship idols. And I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations."
God promises there to cleanse his people, to give them new hearts and to put his spirit within them. And that's the experience that Jesus is talking about here. A cleansing from the past, a new heart that responds to God and his own Holy Spirit living inside them. That's what it means when Jesus says about being born again, a new spiritual life from God. Even that phrase born again can mean born from above. I know it might sound confusing, but it's a bit like the phrase from the top. So if you take something from the top, it can mean you do it again. You know, let's sing this song from the top. Or it can mean from the top, from above. So it can mean either here. But Jesus shows us that being born from above, it does mean being born again, being granted new spiritual life. And it is granting, not earning. So I don't know if this is a too personal question, but what effort did you put into your own birth? Okay. What did you do to earn it? We've got two sons, one of them, I won't say which one it is, but they were being monitored while they were being born. And they fell asleep partway through. Okay. They fell asleep in the birth canal. Okay. They were doing nothing. All the effort comes from above, in this case from my wife actually really. But the work is done by someone else when we're born. Birth is something that is done to you, so to speak. It's granted. And the new birth here is granted, not earned. Says there in verse eight, "the wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes." It's like the wind. There's a mystery to it. You can't control the wind. We're probably going to find out this afternoon that we can't control the wind. It blows where it wishes. And so too with this new birth. So it's not saying that people who are born again are like the wind, sort of a bit flighty and all over the place. It's saying that the coming of the new birth is mysterious. You don't know where it's from. You don't know when it will happen.
The Bible teaches us that we experience the new birth when we hear the good news about Jesus and believe it. And that new birth is what brings about belief in us. It's like we see things with new eyes. We hear things with new ears. We can hear the message hundreds and hundreds of times, but it makes no impact. And then suddenly, wham, we believe it. There's a mystery to it. It's like the wind. That is the spirit, the Holy Spirit who brings us this new birth. God, yet God working inside us and living inside us, bringing us new spiritual life. But Nicodemus, he still doesn't get it. He doesn't understand it. How has he not understood? Jesus can't quite understand. He can't quite get his head around how Nicodemus could know so much and yet not know this. If Nicodemus isn't getting such basic truths about the world, how could he cope with heavenly truths? Jesus is speaking with first-hand knowledge. Look at verse 10. "Jesus answered him, are you the teacher of Israel? And yet you do not understand these things. Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and beware witness to what we have seen, but you do not believe our testimony. If I've told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?" He talks then about him being the Son of Man who has come down from heaven. The Son of Man was a glorious figure foretold hundreds of years before in that first half of the Bible again. One who would approach God in heaven and receive power and rule and glory to rule the cosmos, and yet would be flesh and blood, a son of man. So the son of man coming from heaven would be familiar to them. What would be weird would be somebody speaking to them and saying, this is me. This is me that's talking to you, this one with all that power and authority. It'd be like someone claiming they'd come from the future because they thought that this would happen at the end.
And it gets even stranger because he starts to talk about snakes. So verse 14, "and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up that whoever
believes in him may have eternal life." He's referring to a story that happened during the time of Moses. It's only a few verses, so I'll put it up on the screen for us together. "Then the people of Israel set out from Mount Hor, taking the road to the Red Sea to go around the land of Eden. But the people grew impatient with the long journey, and they began to speak against God and Moses. Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die here in the wilderness? They complained. There's nothing here to eat and nothing to drink except this horrible manna. So the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many were bitten and died. Then the people came to Moses and cried out, we have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take away the snakes. So Moses prayed for the people. Then the Lord told him, make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it. So Moses made a snake out of bronze and attached it to a pole. Then anyone who was bitten by a snake could look at the bronze snake and be healed."
You see what's happening there? The people sin against God and against Moses, their leader. And God sends poisonous snakes among them as punishment. But then God also provides an escape from that punishment, a chance of life. Moses is to make a model replica of a snake and put it on a pole. They were told to hold the pole up, and anyone who looked at the snake on the pole, even if they were bitten by the snakes, would live. It was like a miraculous snake venom medicine. Look at the snake on the pole, and the real snakes would not harm you. And Jesus here in John says, I am that snake on a pole. Soon I will be lifted up on the cross to die. And when I am, whoever looks to me will live. Whoever believes in me will have eternal life, will live forever with me and my Father in heaven.
When Jesus came into this world, he didn't come as a snake, bronze or otherwise. He came as a human being. Because our problem is not snake bites. Our problem is within ourselves, what's inside. So he took on humanity, the likeness of our broken humanity, except his humanity wasn't broken. He was fully man, but without the brokenness. And he took on our likeness that he might rescue us. That like the snake on the pole, he might become the new source of life for all those who look to him. So Jesus came on a mission to save broken people and take them to heaven. But what does it mean to look to him? We can't physically see him, can we? We can't physically see that snake on a pole. What is God doing here? Why is he doing it anyway? And so our final point, for God so loved the world. Have a look at verses 16 to 18.
For God so Loved the World
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only son of God."
Jesus sets it out really starkly here, doesn't he? This is why I came. God loved the world so much that he sent me. None of us have done enough to earn heaven. All of us have fallen short. So God sent Jesus to save us from perishing. That's Jesus' way of talking about that other reality, hell. Jesus says, I came that whoever believes in me should not perish, but have eternal life. I came that whoever believes in me should be born again, should enter the kingdom, should go to heaven. And the big motive behind it all is God's love for us. February's a month that we talk about love a lot. You see a lot of cards that talk about love. We're supposed to send cards to each other, but this is true love. Jesus sacrificed himself for us. This is how another verse in the Bible puts it. This is real love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. God doesn't want us to stand condemned. Yes, that's how we are if we've only been born once. No, we need to be born again. We need that second birth, and that's what Jesus came to bring. And we receive it by turning away from ourselves and turning towards Jesus, by believing in the good news about him.
So can I ask you this morning, have you been born again? Have you had a fresh start with God when he wiped your slate clean,
when he forgave your sin, when he gave you his Holy Spirit to live inside you as you trusted in Jesus? Someone once said, if you're born once, you'll die twice. First physically and then spiritually when you're cast into hell. But if you're born twice, you die once. Yes, you'll die physically, but not spiritually. You'll live on in heaven and then heaven on earth when Jesus comes again. If you're born once, you'll die twice. But if you're born twice, you only die once. And that's true whether you're a bank robber or a murderer, whether you've taken your shoes off on a plane with the socks as well, whether you bought an album by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, or whether you're Nicodemus, who was basically a bishop. We still need to be born again. We still need that fresh start with God. But the good news, actually, the end of this story really, is that Nicodemus was born again. Right at the end of John's Gospel, we find him coming out of the dark, coming out as a Christian. He helps a man called Joseph of Arimathea to get hold of Jesus' body after he's crucified. There's a happy ending as Nicodemus does get a fresh start with God, as Nicodemus is born again.
Now, it might be that you're all too aware this morning that you need a fresh start with God. You've known it for a long time. Or perhaps it's never occurred to you before this morning, just as it never occurred to Nicodemus. Well, Jesus here offers us a fresh start this morning. Jesus says, come to me, look to me like that bronze snake in the wilderness and receive eternal life. Believe in me because whoever believes in me will not perish but have eternal life. I'm going to finish with a prayer before we sing. We don't do this very often at our church, but we're going to do it this morning. It's a prayer that you can pray along with in your heart, in your mind, as I say it. And it's if you want to become a follower, start following Jesus this morning, looking to him alone for rescue. This is what I'm going to say:
Father God, I admit like Nicodemus, I need a fresh start. Thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross for me and in my place. I look to him now like the snake on the pole for rescue and new life. Forgive me for my sin and the things I have done and not done that offend you. Send your spirit to grant me new life and empower me by him to live for you in Jesus name.
So if you agree with those words, if you want a fresh start, new life with Jesus at the centre, then why not pray along in your own minds, talking to God as I read those words again. Father God, I admit that like Nicodemus, I need a fresh start.
Thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross for me and in my place. I look to him now like the snake on the pole for rescue and new life. Forgive me for my sin, the things I have done and not done that offend you. Send your spirit to me to grant me new life and empower me to live for you in Jesus name. Amen.
Well, if you prayed that prayer, why not come and have a word with me afterwards? Or if you want to know a bit more, I can point you in the right direction. Thank you.
