John 3:13-17: You must be born again
A report in the newspaper CoventryLive on 19th Dec 2020 ran this article
Che Williams was using his magnetic fishing rod in an attempt to find an old rod he had once lost in that area of the river.
Instead, he ended up pulling up a hand grenade.
He pulled up 18 more, as well as a bullet and around three cans before calling the police.
Speaking to CoventryLive, Che said:
"I was actually trying to catch something I lost in the river years ago.
"I was fishing and hadn't caught anything/, so thought I may as well try to find what I'd lost /and ended up pulling out a hand grenade."
And in a similar way, I believe Nicodemus goes to Jesus fishing for some fresh insights. H e is looking for more insights into the coming of God’s Kingdom.
He would have known that the coming of the Messiah.
Why because it was a hot topic at the time. It had been predicted in the Hebrew Scriptures. And the Scriptures revealed that it was the start of the ushering in of the Kingdom of God.
But instead of a cosy discussion, Jesus lobs him a spiritual hand grenade.
"You must be born again".
Not: "Well thank you very much, Nicodemus for your kind words. So what can I do for you?
A bombshell. " You must be born again"
It was so unexpected that Nicodemus can only stammer out
4 “How can someone be born when they are old?”
Have you ever wondered why Jesus seemed to speak so abruptly to Nicodemus?
I think it is because Jesus knew his man.
He saw behind Nicodemus' question.
Nicodemus was like many earnest Pharisees in his day. He was looking for the day when the Kingdom of God would come.
So Jesus got to the heart of the matter:
If you want to see the kingdom of God - You must be born again.
1. Background
So let’s unpack a bit of the background to Nicodemus’ encounter with Jesus.
Nicodemus came to Jesus by night secretly.
Have you ever wondered why he came to Jesus at night?
i) Was it perhaps because he wanted to speak to Jesus in quiet and not be disturbed?
ii) Or was it because he did not want it known - that he was speaking with a Galilean carpenter?
After all, Galilee was hill billy country to refined Jews
Nicodemus is a perfect gentleman. He is very polite when he says to Jesus:
"Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him". (John 3:2).
Che Williams in Coventry Live article was surprised to find a live hand grenade when he went fishing.
And in the same way Nicodemus was surprised when Jesus tossed him an intellectual hand grenade . You must be Born again
II. What was Jesus trying to do?
Jesus wanted to challenge Nicodemus' whole mind-set.
And so Jesus gave him a conundrum to go away and think about.
Nicodemus was a Pharisee. And the Pharisees thought that they made themselves fit for the Kingdom of God by keeping the Law of Moses.
And in effect Jesus was saying - No, you don’t. The only way is that : You must be born again.
In other words, Nicodemus, you can't earn salvation, it is a free gift of God.
And that is as true today as it was for Nicodemus.
Just like Nicodemus /and the other Pharisees/ there is a danger today that people think that they can earn a place in heaven - simply by going to Church and being nice people?
But you can’t – you must be born again
As Robert Leroe once put it:
If you’re born once, you die twice.
If you’re born twice, you die once!
III. So what does being born again mean?
Being born again is a direct result of faith in Jesus and His death and Resurrection. Something I believe Nicodemus himself learnt later.
This is something that we experience – just
like physical birth is.
But unlike a natural birth, it is something we
receive when we ask Christ to come into our lives.
Many of us have our own personal story of how we experience this birth.
Story: John Wesley, founder of the Methodist church was 35 years old when he came into contact with the Moravian missionaries in London, who showed him the way to Christ.
He had even been ordained a priest in the Church of England year before he was born again.
His conversion experience was in a meeting hall where he discovered his spirit being "strangely warmed." as he recorded in his journal.
IV Conclusion
Jesus’ challenge to Nicodemus was that he needed to be born again.
Despite being a great theologian –Nicodemus didn’t understand what Jesus meant.
However, I believe that Nicodemus went away thought about what Jesus said – for a very long time.
I personally think that in time he became a believer.
My reasons are circumstantial – but I think not unreasonable.
i) Firstly, the next time that Nicodemus appears in the Bible (Jn 19:39) we read of him asking - together with Joseph of Arimathea- if he may bury Jesus' body.
I don’t think he wouldn’t have taken the political risk – unless Jesus had become someone special to him.
ii) My second reason is more circumstantial.
There is no account of any one else being present at this interview with Jesus that we have just read about.
So how did John find out about what happened?
Jesus might have told John, but I doubt it. That wasn’t Jesus’ style to betray confidences.
I myself wonder if this encounter didn’t form a significant part of Nicodemus' later Christian testimony?
As we have had the theme at church of Poems recently, I would like to end with a poem that was written in 1915 by the American poet Robert Frost
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Jesus speaks of one of two roads that we can take in Matthew 7
“Enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction and there are many that take it
For is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life and there are few who find it” (Mt 7:13-14)
When Nicodemus himself experienced being “born again” /that changed the road Nicodemus travelled on.
I’d like to leave you with a simple question.
Which road are you on today?
