“When a Religion Becomes a Relationship”
John 3:1-15
Steve Hanchett, pastor
Berry Road Baptist Church
April 22, 2001
There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no on can do these signs that You do unless God is with Him.”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
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, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. Sop is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Nicodemus answered and aid to Him, “How can these things be?”
Jesus answered and said to him, “are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these thing? Most assuredly I say to you, We speak what we know and testify what we have see, and you do not receive Our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
I heard a story this week about three men that died and were standing at the gates of heaven. They were asked what they had done to deserve being allowed into heaven. The first one said that he was a police officer and had spent his life helping enforce the law and keeping crime down. Peter looked at him, nodded and said, “OK, go on in.”
The second man said that he was very wealthy, but had given a lot of his money to help good causes. Again, Peter shook his head and gave the go ahead.
The third man said that he had been a director of an HMO organization. He said he had saved millions of dollars in health care costs for insurance companies and clients and had cut down on waste, fraud and abuse in the health care system.
Peter looked at him and said, “OK you can go in, but you can only stay for three days.”
We laugh at jokes about people showing up at the “pearly gates” abound. Behind most of these jokes, though, is the assumption that we must do something to get in to heaven. It is almost shocking to some people to hear that they can’t do anything to merit entrance into heaven. Most people don’t think with grace.
Nicodemus was one of those people who had a hard time comprehending the idea of free grace salvation. We are introduced to Nicodemus in John chapter three and he shows up again in chapter seven and chapter nineteen. We know several things about Nicodemus.
First, we know his name was a Greek name that meant, “victor over the people.” This does not mean that he was a Greek. He was most certainly a Jew. But his name demonstrates how much Greek culture had influenced Greek life. Possibly his parents were hellenized Jews who took a Greek name for their son.
The second thing we know about Nicodemus is that he was a Pharisee. Of course, most of what we know about the Pharisees we know by reading the New Testament. And if one has read what the gospel’s record about the Pharisees they probably have a pretty negative picture in their mind.
It is interesting that one doesn’t find any record of the Pharisees in the Old Testament. Somewhere between Malachi and Matthew, a period of about four hundred years, the Pharisees came into being. Historians tend to believe that the sect of the Pharisees developed during the period of the Maccabean wars. Greek culture was sweeping the world and had infected the Jewish people along with everyone else.
But among the Jews there were certain people who abhorred the idolatrous customs of the Greeks. That abhorrence was coupled with resistance against the fierce religious persecution brought on by Antichocus Epiphanes. Those who stood the line against compromising with Hellenistic culture and refused to abandon the faith were called “Hasidim” or saints. It is believed that these Hasidim were the forerunners to the Pharisees of Jesus day.
So with that in mind, one should realize that not all Pharisees were evil men. They were born out of a desire to be faithful to God. There were among them men of great courage and conviction, sincere and noble men who were willing to give their lives for their faith.
The Pharisees had a lot of things right. They believed strongly in the sovereignty of God. They taught that men were responsible for their moral choices. Pharisees were the conservatives of their day, teaching that man’s soul is immortal and the resurrection of the dead. They believed in the existence of the angels and that there would be a day of reward and punishment in the future. With these things most of us here today would not argue.
Nicodemus was not only a Pharisee; he was one of the most important leaders of his day. He held a prominent position. He is called a “leader of the Jews.” From what we read about Nicodemus in John chapter seven we can conclude with some confidence that Nicodemus was also a member of the Sanhedrin, a Jewish legal court. It is also important to note that Jesus refers to him as “the teacher of Israel.” The definite article is used. He is not called just “a teacher,” but “the teacher.” The meaning seems to be that Nicodemus was probably the most popular religious teacher of Judaism at that time.
The picture that begins to develop in our minds, then, is one of a devoutly religious, deeply sincere, highly respected religious leader. This was a man who was well educated in the Old Testament law, the rabbinical teaching and the customs of his people. He was a very moral man. Nicodemus is a man to be admired for the way he conducted his life. It is this man that came to Jesus at night.
His approach to Jesus begins with a statement of the opinion of Him that had already developed in his mind. It is a mistake to disconnect chapter three from what had just happened in chapter two. The first verse of chapter one could be translated, “But there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus.” If that is accurate then it is drawing a contrast between Nicodemus and the other people referred to in the last two verses of chapter two. Those people had a superficial faith in Christ, but their commitment was shallow and would not last. Therefore, Jesus refused to commit himself to them.
Nicodemus, on the other hand, though not saved at this point, was a sincere seeker. He truly desired to know the truth about Jesus. He was not satisfied with a mere surface understanding of Christ and His mission. Nicodemus, as we will see, had deeper longings of the soul. He wanted more than just spiritual entertainment from Christ.
What has sparked this spiritual seeking on the part of Nicodemus is what he calls the “signs” that Jesus did. In John’s gospel “signs” means more than just miracles. Signs are miracles with a secondary purpose. What specifically the signs were we are not told. But in John’s gospel all of the miracles are shown to have had a specific spiritual teaching behind them. The miracles were intended to point to Christ as the Messiah.
We also know from John two that Jesus had cleansed the temple and called it “my Father’s house.” Nicodemus, being the man he was, must have either witnessed this event or heard all about it. Interestingly enough there seems to be no animosity on the part of Nicodemus toward Jesus for this act. Most of the other religious leaders resented him for turning things upside down. Nicodemus, strangely enough, seems to, at a bare minimum, admire Jesus and at the most has had a beam of spiritual light penetrate his soul.
So what we see in these first two verses is that Nicodemus is a very religious and moral person and he is very sincere about his faith and he really does want to know the truth about Jesus. This is what brings me to our subject today. The truth we find through the life of Nicodemus could not be more relevant for church folks like us. The truth we learn through Nicodemus is that it is not enough just to be religious; you have to be redeemed.
There are two kinds of religious people. The Pharisees were made up of two kinds of religious people. Among religious people you have those who are sincere seekers and you have those who are self-righteous snobs. There are some religious people who are humble and devout and you have some that are arrogant and hypocritical. It has always been this way. It is like that today.
In studying for this message I began to ask myself what the difference was between Nicodemus and the Pharisees that Jesus so roundly condemned. I went back and read through Matthew 23 again. That chapter contains the most scathing rebuke of any group of people in the New Testament. It is clear that the Pharisees, as a whole, had some serious spiritual problems.
Let me point out some of the errors of these Pharisees.
They were hypocritical. But understand hypocrisy does not consist of believing in a high moral standard and falling short. Hypocrisy is pretending to believe in a high standard with no intention of striving to reach that standard. It is not hypocrisy to believe something is right and to fall short of the mark. It is hypocrisy to act as if we have arrived already when the truth is we aren’t even trying.
The Pharisees lacked compassion for others. They were harsh critics of other people’s failures and they were ready and willing to destroy anyone who got in their way. That is the method of self-righteous religion. It is a spirit that says, “if you don’t agree with me then you will be destroyed.”
Another element in this religion is that these men majored on the minors. The things of lessor importance they exalted to a position of being of utmost value. But the things that really mattered – justice, mercy and faith – they completely ignored. Much like many people today who are more than willing to get mad and fight about their personal preferences, but don’t give a hoot about the real moral and spiritual problems we face. This kind of religion emphasizes the externals as well. The person caught up in this is more concerned about how they appear to other people then how they look to God.
Probably the greatest problem of this kind of religion is the way the adherent becomes enslaved to his own pride. A lack of humility is the greatest evidence that one has gotten religion and not Christ. This pride causes one to do their religious deeds to be seen by men. This person can only be happy if others know that they have given and what they have given. They are not able to keep it to themselves. They are focused on men knowing and not on God. They do what they do so that others will think they are spiritual and not so that they might honor and please God. This is the worst of all conditions. This is one of the most hopeless conditions to be in. If this is you I pray that you might be freed from the chains of your self-delusion before it is too late.
Some people wonder why Christ was so harsh with the religious leaders. Why was he not that way with the sinners? Because the sinners for the most part knew they were sinners, and they knew they needed help. The religious people didn’t know they had a sin problem. The only way Jesus could break through the cold religious exterior was by blasting his way in.
Nicodemus was a different sort though. His religion was his sincere way of seeking the truth. The fact that he desired to know the truth is evidenced by his humble approach to Jesus. The longing of his heart was to truly know God. And it is to that kind of heart that Jesus responds. Jesus has the answer for you who are religious, but still don’t have peace with God.
There are many people who have grown up in Christian homes, they have high moral standards, they are good people, and they are highly respected in the community – but like Nicodemus they do not have eternal life. Today if you are religious and without a relationship with Christ and you were to receive Christ it would not be all that shocking. You would be one among many who have followed in the footsteps of Nicodemus and came to Christ as very religious people. Christ can turn what is only a religion into a relationship with God.
Charles Spurgeon, considered by many to be one of the greatest preachers in church history, grew up in a religious home. His father and grandfather were both preachers. He was a moral person and a good person and yet he did not have any assurance that he was going to heaven when he died. Listen to his testimony:
I sometimes think I might nave been in darkness and despair until now had it not been for the goodness of God in sending a snowstorm one Sunday morning, while I was going to a certain place of worship. When I could go no further, I turned down a side street, and came to a little Primitive Methodist Chapel. In that chapel there may have been a dozen or fifteen people. I had heard of the Primitive Methodists, how they sang so loudly that they made people heads ache; but that did no matter to me. I wanted to know how I might be saved, and if they could tell me that, I did not care ho much they made my head ache. The minister did not come that morning; he was snowed in I suppose. At last, a very thin looking man, a shoemaker or tailor or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach. Now, it is well that preachers should be instructed, but this man was really stupid. He was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason that he had little else to say. The text was – “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.”
He did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter. There was, I thought, a glimpse of hope for me in that text. The preacher began thus: “My dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says, look. Now lookin don’t take a deal of pain. It ain’t liftin your foot or your finger; it is just, look. Well, a man needn’t go to College to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. A man needn’t be worth a thousand a year to be able to look. Anyone can look; even a child can look. But then the text says, look unto me. Et! Many on ye are lookin to yourselves, but it’s no use to lookin there. You’ll never find any comfort in yourselves. Some look to God the Father. No, look to Him by and by. Jesus Christ says, look unto me. Some on ye say we must wait for the Spirit’s workin. You have no business with that just now. Look to Christ. The text says look unto me.
Then the good man followed up his text in this way: “Look unto me; I am sweatin great drops of blood. Look unto me; I’m hanin on the cross. Look unto me; I am dead and buried. Look unto me I rise again. Look unto me, I ascend into heaven. Look unto me; I am sittin at the Father’s right hand. O poor sinner, look unto Me, look unto Me.”
When he had gone to about that length and managed to spin out ten minutes or so, he was at the end of his tether. Then he looked at me under the gallery, and I daresay, with so few present, he knew me to be a stranger. Just fixing his eyes on me, as if he knew all my heart, he said, “Young man, you look very miserable.” Well, I did, but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made from the pulpit on my personal appearance before. However, it was a good blow, struck right home. He continued, ‘and you always will be miserable –miserable in life, miserable in death – if you don’t obey my text; but if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved.” Then, lifting up his hands, he shouted as only a Primitive Methodist could do, “Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look! Look! Look! You have nothin to do but to look and live.”
I saw at once the way of salvation. I know not what else he said. I did not take much notice of it- I was so possessed with that one thought. Like as when the brazen serpent was lifted up, the people only looked and were healed, so it was with me. I had been waiting to do fifty things, but when I heard that word, “Look!” what a charming word it seemed to me! Oh, I looked until I could almost have looked my eyes away. There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun; and I could have risen that instant, and sung with the most enthusiastic of them, of the precious blood of Christ, and the simple faith which looks alone to Him.”
(The Early Years, Spurgeon’s Autobiography. Pages 87-88).
Martin Luther, the great reformer and founder of the Lutheran church, had given his life to the Catholic priesthood at an early age. He lived continually under a heavy burden of guilt. He tried everything he could think of to save himself. He had fasted, prayed, and gone on pilgrimages. Luther had confessed his sins so often that, out of frustration, Johann von Stuapitz, said to him, “Look here, if you expect Christ to forgive you, come in with something to forgive – murder, blasphemy, adultery – instead of all these minor offenses.
Luther studied the Scriptures diligently and came to a spiritual understanding of Paul’s words, “the just shall live by faith.” When he finally understood these words Luther said, “then I understood that the righteousness of God is that righteousness by which, through grace and sheer mercy, God justifies us through faith. Then I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning. Before the righteousness of God had filled me with hate, but now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul’s became to me a gate to heaven.”
George Whitefield, the great revivalist preacher of the Great Awakening, was a very religious young man. He spent his early years striving to live a holy life. During his days of youth he constantly prayed, fasted, went to church and studied the Scriptures and other godly books. And still he had no peace with God. Charles Wesley, a friend of his, gave him henry Scougal’s book “The Life of God in the Soul of Man.”
Whitefield wrote: “At my first reading it, I wondered what the author meant by saying, ‘some falsely placed religion in going to church, doing harm to no one, being constant in their private devotions, and now and then reaching out their hands to give alms to their poor neighbors.’ Alas, I thought, if this be not true religion, what is? God soon showed me. For in reading a few lines further that ‘true religion was union of the soul with God, and Christ formed within us,’ a ray of divine light was instantaneously darted in upon my soul, and from that moment, but not until then, did I know that I must be a new creature.”
John Wesley, founder of Methodism, likewise was a devoutly religious man. He had dedicated his life to the ministry and gone to America to convert the heathen. On the ship back to England he was traveling with a group of Moravian missionaries. The ship found itself in the midst of a horrible storm. Wesley was deathly afraid. He was also amazed that Moravians were not at all afraid. They held a worship service that was calm and unaffected by the storm. The English passengers screamed in fear, Wesley hung on for life, but the German missionaries didn’t miss a note in their hymn singing.
Later Wesley asked the leader of the Moravians, “weren’t you afraid?”
“I thank God, no.”
“Were not your women and children afraid?”
“No,” replied the man. “Our women and children are not afraid.”
Back in London, Wesley was so struck by their sturdy faith that he attended a Moravian meeting on Aldersgate Street on May 24, 1738. He later said, “I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given to me that He had taken away my sins, even mine.”
Charles Spurgeon, Martin Luther, George Whitefield, and John Wesley were all in the same boat with Nicodemus. They were all deeply religious men. They were also completely lost men. Each one of them came to understand the truths that Jesus was teaching Nicodemus.
It is not enough to be religious and moral. You must be born again.
Wesley learned that peace with God only comes through faith in Christ alone.
Whitefield discovered that true Christianity is not just being a good person and praying. It is being born from above with the life of God.
Martin Luther learned that religion can never wipe away sin and give us forgiveness. Only Christ can do that and only faith will bring Christ into our lives.
Spurgeon found out that there are not fifty things to do to become a Christian, only one. Look unto Jesus. He is the one who has been lifted up on the cross. And the look of faith alone will save.
These are the truths that Jesus places before Nicodemus’s heart. These are the truths that stare us in the face today.
