Jeff Schreve - Jesus and Nicodemus

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How did Jesus interact with people and how did they respond to Him? Hey, did every encounter lead to salvation and healing? Or did some encounters lead to conflict and difficulty? Today we begin my new series called «Divine Encounters: What Happens When People Meet the Master»? We’ll start it off today by exploring what happened between Jesus and Nicodemus.

Now, Nicodemus was religious to the hilt, but he had the same problem I had. He didn’t know about heaven. He wanted to go there, but he didn’t know how to get there. He might have thought he did, but he really didn’t, and Jesus set him straight right off the bat in His encounter with Nicodemus when He says to him, «Unless you’re born again, you’re not gonna see the kingdom of God. Unless you’re born again, you’re not gonna enter the kingdom of God. Do not be astonished, do not be amazed, that I said to you, you must be born again».

Now, no doubt, probably everybody under the sound of my voice, you’ve heard that term «born again». Some Bible translations in John 3, they don’t use «born again,» they use «born from above». That word in the Greek can mean again, anew, or above. But we don’t know, so many of us, we don’t really understand what that means. So in this divine encounter with Nicodemus, Jesus introduces this subject of being born again. And it was important, critically important for Nicodemus. It’s critically important for you and me.

John chapter 3 beginning in verse 1: «Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus». His name means conqueror of the people, «A ruler of the Jews; this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, 'Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.' Jesus answered and said to him…» There wasn’t a question that Nicodemus posed, but he had a question in his heart, and Jesus read his heart, read his mind. «And He answered and said to him, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.'»

Now, big question for us today, do you understand what it means? Do you understand why this is so critical? What is the whole deal about being born again? Someone has well said there’s only one kind of Christian, and that’s a born again Christian. Being born again is not incidental, it is fundamental, and it’s very, very critical that you understand what it means. So three insights for this morning. Insight number one: every person must understand his or her lost condition. To understand what it means to be born again, to understand what is going on here in this interaction with Jesus and Nicodemus, you have to understand, you have to back up and understand your lost condition and humanity’s lost condition.

See, John chapter 3 gets its roots in Genesis chapter 3, and if you’ll remember, Genesis 2, everything is perfect. The man and his wife were both naked and they were not ashamed and God had brought Eve to Adam and «this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh». She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man and everything is great and the sun sets on Genesis chapter 2 and it’s perfect. It’s a perfect man with a perfect woman in a perfect garden with a perfect God. And then in Genesis 3 everything blows up. You know, God had given them one command: «From every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, you may not eat from it, lest you die».

And so to understand John 3, you must be born again. You have to understand Genesis 3. Why must I be born again? Oh, it’s because I’m dead inside, dead toward God. And Nicodemus is going to learn about this. Now, he is a poster child for the very best of humanity. It’s interesting that he comes to Jesus because you could not get a better subject, exhibit A, than Nicodemus, and he shows that the very best of humanity is lost. The very best of humanity is a sinner in desperate need of the Savior. So it says: «Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, conqueror of the people,» that’s what his name means. He’s a Pharisee.

Now, the Pharisee, that means a separated one, and the Pharisees were very legalistic. They were very meticulous. They got rotten but they didn’t start out rotten. Nicodemus is different than most of the Pharisees. He’s not rotten to the core. See, he says, «Rabbi, we know that You’re a teacher who has come from God». How do we know this? And he doesn’t say, «I know this». He says, «We know this»; he’s speaking on behalf of some others, «We know,» how? «Because of the signs that You’re doing. No one can do the things You’re doing unless God is with him». He was honest enough to say, «These are miracles from God».

But see, he represents the very best of humanity and so when the best of humanity comes before the Lord, the Lord says to him, «Truly, truly, you must be born again. You must be born from above. If you’re not born again, if you’re not born from above, guess what? You who want to go to heaven, you’re not gonna go there. You’re not gonna see the kingdom of heaven, you’re not gonna enter the kingdom of heaven». So the very best of humanity is helplessly lost, helplessly, hopelessly perishing. That’s what the Lord says to this guy, «Hey, you’re so religious, you’re the most religious guy on the planet. You’re the most moral guy on the planet. You’re the most respected person in all of Israel. You’re the teacher, not a teacher, the teacher of Israel».

You don’t get any higher on the food chain than Nicodemus. But Nicodemus is hopelessly perishing. Nicodemus is a sinner. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and the wages of sin is death. Nicodemus, he may not realize it, but he is in trouble. He’s in serious trouble, and here’s the thing. No amount of good works can change that. And for you and for me, as those born in Adam, born with a dead spirit, no amount of good works, no amount of church activities, can change the fact that you are a sinner and the wages of sin is death and the soul that sins shall die. Your destination is fixed. When you’re born into this world, this is for all of us.

See, in Adam, all die. Every single person is born in this world in Adam. We’re all related to Adam, and in Adam’s Fall, we sinned all. Genesis 3 applies to you, it applies to me. There is no good person. There are no good people because there’s no one good except God alone. «There is none righteous, not even one». So heaven is a place for good people, but guess what? There are no good people if you wanna use that… go down that road. Well, okay, it’s a place for good people, but you’re not good. So nobody goes to heaven.

Jesus said, «Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect». Well, how many perfect people do you know? Any perfect people in here? If you’re here, fly around, let us see you in your perfection. No, there’s none righteous, not even one. Nobody is perfect and this is what the Bible says in Galatians 2, the apostle Paul said this: «Nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but by hearing with faith, since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified». What is Nicodemus doing as a Pharisee? He is trying so hard to keep the law, so meticulous with the law, so meticulous with the keeping the Sabbath and keeping all the commandments, and he probably was doing a good job externally. But you know, Jesus said, you know, «You’ve heard it said, 'You shall not commit adultery.'»

And Nicodemus was like, «Yeah, I’ve never done that». «But I say to you, anyone who looks on a woman and lusts for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart». Oh. You know, internally, he wasn’t keeping the law. That’s the same thing Paul said: «Hey, all the external things, I kept all those». Paul was a Pharisee, but he said when it came to the tenth commandment, «You shall not covet,» he said «that slew me because I didn’t do any of those outward things, but I wanted to. I wanted to. And there was sin in my heart».

So when you understand what it means to be born again, when you start to really dig into this thing… what is this? Well, you have to understand that every person is lost. People don’t like to hear that. «Oh, Jeff, that’s so negative. You have a weird view of God». No, I have a right view of God. We’ve sinned against heaven’s King, and the wages of sin is death, and until you understand that, you’ll never be born again. Why would you need to? You have to understand that you’re sick and desperately sick and seriously sick to look to the great physician.

So, first insight: every person must understand his lost condition. Second insight: every person must be born again. And Jesus made that very clear to Nicodemus. And so He says the first of the «Truly, truly» statements here in John chapter 3, He says it three times. And if you’ll notice, 25 times in the book of John, you run into this statement where Jesus says, «Truly, truly I say to you». Truly, truly… King James: Verily, verily, pay attention, pay attention. Literally, the word is «amen». Amen, amen. It’s what they would say at the end of something when somebody would say something, you know, let it be so, amen.

Jesus started it off that way. It’s kinda like what we say today, truly, truly is like Him saying, «Truth bomb coming, and so pay attention, turn your hearing aids up. Truth bomb is coming». «Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a man is born again, born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God». And Nicodemus responds, «Born again, what? How can a man be born when he is old? He can’t enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he? I mean, that doesn’t make sense at all, Jesus». Jesus answered, here it comes. Truth bomb again. «Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into 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 be amazed that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'»

Now it’s a must. You must be born again, but Nicodemus is not understanding. Now he’s not some guy that, you know, made Cs in school. He’s a smart guy. He’s the ruler of the Jews, part of the Sanhedrin, well respected, the teacher of Israel, but he’s not getting it. He’s thinking in terms of physical and, see, the new birth is not physical, it is spiritual. And Jesus is giving him a physical illustration to help him see a spiritual truth, just like the parables. You know, the parables were earthly stories so that we could understand a heavenly meaning. And once you latched on to the earthly story, then He’d say, «The kingdom of heaven is like that,» and so you can make the parallels. Well, He uses physical birth here, but Nicodemus gets stuck on the physical birth. And He says, «No, Nicodemus, I’m not talking about being born again physically. I’m talking about being born spiritually».

And being born again takes the Word of God and the Spirit of God. Those are the parents of spiritual birth: the Word of God and the Spirit of God. Now, Romans 10:17: «Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God». The Bible says in the book of James that «we are born again through the Word, the imperishable Word of God». And so how does this work? Because, obviously, the Spirit has to be there for us to be saved. If you’re not born of the Spirit, you’re not born again. So the Spirit and the Word. The Word comes by the power of the Holy Spirit to speak to your heart, to show you that you are lost. To show you that you’re on the highway to hell, to give you that «Ruh-roh» moment, «I’m in trouble,» to get you to look up and to say, «I’m dead inside. I need to be made alive inside».

So it takes the Word of God and the Spirit of God. And the Word of God and the Spirit of God speak to the heart of the sinner to show that sinner he needs the Savior. But now we have a situation here. John chapter 3, verse 5, people struggle because they say, «'Well, ' Jesus said, 'truly, truly, '» truth bomb, «'I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.'» He’s not talking about being baptized. But now here’s what Nicodemus would have understood. There was a baptizer going around that everybody was talking about. His name was John, John the Baptist, John the Baptizer. And he was telling people to be baptized for repentance, as a sign of repentance. And this is what it says in Acts 19:4: «Paul said, 'John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.'»

So the water could very well be referring to repentance. Unless you’re born of repentance and faith, faith in the Lord, and repentance and faith are the two essentials for salvation. Obviously, you can’t get saved without the Spirit working the Word in your heart, convicting your heart, showing that you’re a sinner and you need the Savior, that you won’t get saved. Jesus said, «Unless My Father draws that person, he can’t be saved. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day». So the Spirit of God takes the Word of God, speaks it to your heart, and then you have to respond. And so He’s talking to Nicodemus about spiritual things, not physical things. He’s talking to him about the fact that you need the Word of God and the Spirit of God, and He’s talking to him about the fact that you need repentance and faith.

But then insight number three: not only must every person be born again, but every person can be born again. That’s the good news of the gospel. That’s what we have to share with every single person: «Hey, Jesus died for you. You can be saved». Every person can be born again. Now, not everybody responds to Jesus, obviously. Not everybody responds to the Spirit and the Word. Not everybody responds to the fact that they’re lost, that they’re on the highway to hell and they need the Savior. Not everybody repents and believes. That’s obvious. John chapter 1, «He was in the world and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own and those who were His own did not receive Him». You have to respond in repentance and faith, but every person can be born again.

See, Jesus died and rose again for you. For you. Now, John 3:16: «For God so loved the world,» well, that’s pretty big, that’s pretty broad, that’s the world, that’s a faceless humanity. Yeah, but then Paul says, «He loved me and delivered Himself up for me. He died for me». For God so loved Jeff Schreve that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believed, that if Jeff Schreve would believe on Him, he would not perish but have everlasting life. And you can stick your name in there too, because He died for you and rose again from the dead for you. You can be born again, and you can look to Jesus in faith today.

Now he goes on to say this, Nicodemus, verse 9: «'How can these things be? ' Jesus answered and said to him, 'Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know.'» That’s another truth bomb. That’s another one of those «Truly, trulys». «We speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how would you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one», now He’s gonna present His deity here. «No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man».

And then He gives him another another illustration that Nicodemus would be very familiar with, from the book of Numbers: «As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life». You remember that, Nicodemus? You remember in Numbers when the people were grumbling and grippling and complaining and God had had enough and He sent fiery serpents among the people and they were biting the people and they were dying? Do you remember what happened?

This is what the Lord said: «Then the LORD said to Moses…» The people come to Moses, say, «We have sinned. What are we gonna do»? «The LORD said to Moses,» Numbers 21, «'Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard, '» on a pole, «'and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live.' And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about if the serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived». Jesus said, «Nicodemus, you remember that»?

Well, obviously, Nicodemus knew that. He memorized it. He knew that, and he said, «What did they do? They put a bronze serpent on a pole and they lifted it up. And if I,» John 12, «be lifted up from the earth,» Jesus said, «I will draw all men to Me. I’m gonna be lifted up one day because God so loved you, Nicodemus, that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The Father did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through Him,» how? Through His death and burial and resurrection.

Jesus was going to be lifted up on the cross, just like that serpent that bit the people. Lifted up. What do you have to do? You have to look to it. You get bitten by a serpent. What do you have to do? «I have to go to the lab and try and come up with a medicine to fix me». No, you don’t have to do that. «I gotta go kill all the serpents». No, you don’t have to do that. «I gotta go climb to the top of Mount Everest and back». No, you don’t have to do that. You have to look to the serpent on the pole. You just look, and if you look to the serpent on a pole, you will be saved. That’s what Jesus was teaching him. You just look to Him, and you can experience the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of the new birth.

«The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it. You don’t know where it comes from and where it is going». You can’t describe the wind, you can’t understand the wind. There’s a mystery to the wind. He said, «So is everyone who is born of the Spirit». It’s invisible, you can’t see it, and it’s a mystery. It’s hard to describe, but you know what? You walk out on a windy day and you know for sure the wind is blowing. You can see the effects of the wind, you can see the power of the wind. Jesus said, «So is everyone who is born of the Spirit».

Hey, when you’re born again, it’s way different than what Nicodemus had, because what Nicodemus had was religion. And it’s effort and it’s, oh, it’s trying so hard and it’s trying to be meticulous and «I’m gonna do all these things to hopefully pull myself up by my bootstraps and make myself respectable to God». You will never do that, because you are a sinner, and the wages of sin is death. And although God loves you, you are under the judgment of God, but He loves you too much to leave you there, so He sent His Son to die on the cross and rise again from the dead for you. And if you’ll put your faith and trust in Jesus, He’ll come in.

And here’s what the Bible says: «In Him, in Jesus, was life and the life was the light of men». And so when you receive Christ as Savior and Lord, the Lord comes in through the person of the Holy Spirit, and when the Lord comes in, the life comes in, and when the life comes in the light comes on, and everything changes in your life. How do you know that you’ve been born again? Because you can’t be the same person that you were. You’re under new management and everything changes. And there’s power that wasn’t there before. There’s conviction of sin that wasn’t there before.

What happened to Nicodemus? He listened to Jesus. And Jesus, the words that He speak were words of life, and he began to process. When we read about Nicodemus in John chapter 7, he defends Jesus among the religious leaders, and then in John 19, when Jesus died on the cross, Nicodemus came with Joseph of Arimathea and at great personal cost to them in reputation and in their circles with the Pharisees, they requested the body of Jesus. And they anointed the body of Jesus and they put Jesus in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man. By all indications, Nicodemus came to know Christ. He responded with repentance and faith, and he was saved, he was born again.