Picture # 3: The Religious Sinner, Nicodemus
John 3:1-21
The Surgeon General teaches us that the key to good health and physical fitness is plenty of exercise, a balanced nutritional diet, and the proper amount of rest.
The Surgeon General doesn’t mention that we have a body and a soul.
It’s just as important to stay spiritually fit as it is to stay physically fit.
If you want to stay spiritually healthy, put John 3:16 into practice!
John 3:16, the most famous verse in the Bible, was preached to the religious sinner.
Even the religious sinner can be born of the Word and of the Spirit.
Romans 3:9-18 gives us a good picture of what the human race is really like.
The religious sinner is a type of sin problem (Romans 5:12, 13). “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned – for before the law was given, sin was in the world.”
Isaiah 53:6 “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Nicodemus was somebody rather special in Jewish society.
He was a Pharisee, the aristocracy of Jerusalem.
The name Pharisee means “the separated one”, and the Pharisees were those who had separated themselves from all ordinary life in order to keep every detail of the law of Moses, as worked out over the centuries by the Scribes.
Their goal in life was the formal observance of religion, not a spiritual walk with God, but a holier-than-thou attitude.
Paul, the apostle, was once like this, but as he progressed in the Christian faith, the more unworthy he knew himself to be, calling himself “the chief of sinners”(I Timothy 1:15).
It reminds me of a dream I had last night about myself and our minister of music, Gratten.
Last night, I dreamed that I was on my way to heaven and before I could enter into heaven, I had to climb a long flight of stairs.
In my dream, as I started to go up the stairs, I was given a piece of chalk and told that I must put a chalk mark on each step for each sin I had committed in life.
When I was about halfway up the stairs, I met Rev. Tomlinson coming down the stairs.
When Gratten got to where I was, I stopped him and asked him why he was going down the steps, away from heaven, and he said, “Jimmy, I’m going back to get some more chalk!”
Nicodemus belonged to the "Burger King" theology and the salvation by works alone party.
He was also a member of the Jewish ruling council called the Sanhedrin.
We are, in many ways, like Nicodemus.
We may know many beautiful hymns of praise and prayer.
We may listen to many sermons preached, that rightly divide the Word and Truth of God.
But if we fail to continuously go to the foot of the Cross, and confess our sins before God, then we remain a religious sinner.
The word “sin” carries with it the idea of “missing the mark”, or “coming short of doing our duty.”
The Bible says, “All unrighteousness is sin.”
Yet, before any one of us can enter into heaven, we have to put on righteousness.
Where then can we gain that righteousness?
We don’t have it, we can’t earn it, yet we cannot get to heaven without it.
Nicodemus came to Jesus at night.
It’s significant perhaps that he came to Jesus at night.
First, for fear of being found out by his religious peers, or because he was afraid he might be criticized by other members of the Sanhedrin if he were discovered, he engaged in a conversation with this unconventional and unlicensed teacher, Jesus of Nazareth.
Or, perhaps it was because Jesus was busy during the day.
Also, we can mention that the night represents the darkness of sin that Nicodemus held within his heart.
Nicodemus asked Jesus some very important questions about his spiritual life.
He wanted to know how a person could be born again.
“Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God” (Verse 2).
The answer Jesus gave Nicodemus was, “Nicodemus, you need to be born again” (Verse 7).
This is one of the secret things(Deut. 29:29).
How can a person be born twice?
Born of the flesh, and then born of the Spirit?
Nicodemus was one of the greatest religious leaders of his time.
But Jesus saw into Nicodemus’ heart, and knew that Nicodemus had only covered himself with a religion based upon works, and he didn’t have true fellowship with God.
Jesus knew that Nicodemus’ problem was an eternal problem, that of a person who wants to be changed but cannot change himself.
Nicodemus needed a radical change to come into his life, and that change was Jesus.
In order to seek the kingdom of God, a person must be born from above, that is, the Spirit of God must implant his or her heart with the life that has its origin in heaven.
It wasn’t a matter of improvement in outward behavior, because Nicodemus already lived a good life.
It wasn’t a matter of keeping the law because Nicodemus already did that to the best of his ability.
“I tell you the truth,” Jesus said, “unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
This concept of being born again is something that Nicodemus is having a difficult time grasping.
Nicodemus was an intelligent man, but sometimes the trouble with very intelligent people is that he or she can’t accept simple truths.
They look for complicated solutions that aren’t there.
It must have sounded like a riddle to Nicodemus, who immediately tried to tackle the problem from the earthly angle.
“How can a man be born when he is old? Nicodemus asked. Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”(verse 4).
Some people change on the outside and they conform to the many standards of the church.
They follow church rules, but inside they have never changed their heart.
This is a picture of the maturing Christian.
You can be very religious and not be saved.
You can paint the pump house but that doesn’t make the water pure!
However, you can accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and you can go back to picture # 1 in this Bible study series and get the new wine of salvation.
And you can then go to picture # 2 in this Bible study series where Jesus can cleanse your heart, so the temple of the living God can take up residence inside His Holy Temple of your heart.
It’s good to take a spiritual inventory of your life from time to time, even if you know for sure that you’ve been born again.
Look now at Verse 14 “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up…”
Read Numbers 21:4-9.
It wasn’t the bronze snake Moses made that gave life, but when the people looked up to God, they were able to live.
There’s a remarkable similarity between the uplifted serpent on a wooden pole and Jesus on a wooden cross.
Christ on the cross becomes power, life changing power, transforming power, healing power.
The cross, the instrument of torture and death, becomes the instrument of life.
For on the cross, Christ canceled the written code of Law that was against us, as He nailed the Law to the cross.
I leave you in this Bible study with the classic text: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, KJV).
Between Picture # 3 and Picture # 4 we have an interlude, where John the Baptist is bearing witness that Jesus is the Christ (John 3:25-36).
John the Baptist testifies that he is not the Christ.
John the Baptist teaches that he must decrease and Christ must increase.
This is the testimony of all of us who are Christians.
We should decrease in our own pride and self desires.
Christ should be seen in our lives as increasing.
What a wonderful testimony for all Christians.
Rev. Jimmy Davis
Bayview Baptist Church
5300 Two Notch Road
Columbia, SC 29204
Telephone: 803-754-8690
Email: BayviewBaptist@aol.com
