You Must Be Born Again

John 3, verses 1-15.

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, for no one can do these signs that you do 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. 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 water and the 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 what I said 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 said to him, How can these things be?

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 bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.

If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

And as Moses lifted up the servant in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. May God add a blessing to the reading of his word.

Would you please be seated? My first semester in seminary was brutal. I was reading books that were hard to make sense of, becoming acquainted with great Christian pastors and theologians from the past that I had never heard of, and was being bombarded with terms that I had never considered before, but was expected to understand.

It was like trying to drink water out of a fire hose. I was overwhelmed, to say the least. In between my classes, I would try to play catch-up.

Many of my classmates had received their bachelor's degrees in some kind of field of biblical study, but I hadn't, choosing early on in my college career to abandon God's call to ministry and opting to go my own way.

So I'd be sitting in class, and the teacher would throw out these terms that everyone else seemed to understand but me. I'd nod my head knowingly as if I understood what was being said, but reality was I had no idea what was being talked about or what it meant.

So when those large terms or words would be thrown out, what I would do is I would write them in the margins of my notes, and then I would go to the library in between my classes, I would go to the computer lab, and I would Google search them to try to figure out what they meant.

And in one of those words that I remember struggling with, identifying and understanding, was the word soteriology. Soteriology is the study of salvation.

My initial response when I looked up that word was to think, so what? What's the big deal? I've been saved. That part has been taken care of.

I'm ready to move on to the next thing. But I had no idea the struggle that I was about to enter into. Other terms. It kept popping up in my courses.

Words taken directly from the Bible. Words like election and words like predestination. And they just kept popping up over and over and over again as I read and as I studied.

And I didn't like them. But I couldn't ignore them. I slowly began to realize that the salvation that I had experienced was a salvation that I hadn't fully understood.

I slowly began to realize that there was a lot that I didn't really know and it was a painful experience to go through.

But I'm eternally grateful for it. You see, before this time I knew I was a sinner. But I don't think I understood how great of a sinner that I was.

Likewise, I knew that God was gracious, but I didn't understand just how gracious He truly had been to me. Pastor Dan leads us often in a song here called, My Worth Is Not In What I Own.

And I don't think I've ever heard that song before coming here, but the last verse of that song sums up my experience then well.

Two wonders here that I confess. My worth and my unworthiness. My value fixed, my ransom paid at the cross.

My attitude towards God before and after this struggle reminds me of Jacob's struggle and attitude toward God when he first departs from his home while on the run from his twin brother Esau who wanted to kill him.

And then, the attitude that he has afterwards, after he's been away from home, as he's about to return back to his homeland and then receives news that Esau is coming to meet him and he's brought a small army with him.

See if you can spot the differences with me as we look at these two prayers. The first prayer. Jacob is on his way out. He's on the run. So early in the morning it says, Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set up a pillar and poured oil on top of it.

He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first. Then Jacob made a vow saying, If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God.

And this stone which I have set up for a pillar shall be God's house. And all that you give me, I will give a tenth to you. So if you remember this story, if you've heard it before, what immediately preceded this was that Jacob had received a vision, a dream from God.

And in that dream, there is a ladder that stretches between heaven and earth and God's messengers, his angels are ascending and descending from it. And God gave Jacob this dream to encourage him.

Jacob was on the run. He felt like he was alone. But God was with him. God's will and God's promises for him would come to reality.

He just needed to trust in him. At this point in his life, Jacob thinks more highly of himself than he does of God. Doesn't he?

Did you catch that as we read that prayer? The gist of his prayer is this. Lord God, if you want to be my God, then you're going to have to earn it.

You're going to have to give me, feed me, you're going to have to protect me. And if you do these things for me, then I'll let you keep your job. Jacob thinks he is worthy.

Doesn't he? And therefore, God must prove his worthiness to him. Jacob goes on to live with his father-in-law.

He deals with many family issues and drama. Finally, he realizes that this town isn't big enough for the two of us anymore. And he realizes that he has to leave.

And so he heads back home. And while he's heading back home with his family, he gets word that his brother is coming to meet him. And he's brought a small army with him.

And so you've got to think that Jacob goes back and he remembers this brother of mine, wants me dead. And so what's happening here is that he's found out and he's coming to me to call in an old debt.

And so he turns to the Lord in prayer.

But notice as we go through that his attitude and approach to God has changed dramatically. And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, return to your country, to your kindred, that I may do you good.

I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servants. For with only my staff I crossed this Jordan.

And now I have become two camps. Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau. For I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children.

But you said, I will surely do good and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. Here we see that Jacob has a better understanding of his worth and his unworthiness, doesn't he?

He thought originally that he was worthy and God had to prove his worth to him. But now he has a greater sense of how things really are. That night, if you remember, Jacob wrestles with God.

Literally wrestles with God. I believe that this is a Christophany. This is Christ in the Old Testament. And the next day, after wrestling with God, remember, he's left with a permanent limp forever.

A reminder to him. And the next day, he is met by his brother Esau, who greets him with open arms and welcomes him back home.

That's a miracle. That's God moving in the lives of people. As we go through this passage, you too may grapple with the Word of God.

But in the end, the joy, I believe, will be exceedingly great for you. The key question that will help you as we go through this passage together is this.

Is this what the Word of God says? Is this what the Word of God says? If it is what God's Word says, then it has to be true.

If you truly believe that the Bible is the Word of God. Because to stand against it is to stand on the side of error.

And so I expect that some of you will wrestle. And that's a good thing. But my encouragement to you is don't tap out too early.

Don't tap out without giving God's Word a full hearing. As a matter of fact, I encourage you that if you have questions, please come and speak with me.

Come and speak with your elders, with your deacons, with Pastor Dan. This is our job. And we want to have these conversations with you. You are not bothering us with your questions.

This is a soteriological passage. This is a passage about salvation. And it matters because understanding it will impact your attitude and your approach towards God.

In the Church of the United States of America, there are a lot of believers whose attitude I believe and whose approach is more reflective of Jacob's first prayer. God, you have to prove your worthiness to me.

It's all about me. My comfort. My concerns that need to be met. They approach God like they would approach a business. If you don't satisfy me, then I'll take my business someplace else.

And I believe that as a result of this, this attitude that plagues many churches today in the United States of America that our influence has been crippled. Our influence and the potential impact that we could have for the Lord in our nation has been severely damaged.

If we are me-centered, then we can't be Christ-centered. If we aren't Christ-centered, then we won't look much different than the rest of the world.

Last week's message, if you remember, was about the difference between genuine faith and disingenuine faith. And I mentioned some of the things that pastors and churches will do because they just want to fill their pews with people.

And so what they do is they make everything about the people instead of making everything about Christ. And so I talked about the fact that, you know, they feed their belly with light, fluffy, cotton candy sermons.

Well, as I was preparing for this sermon this week, I came across an interesting article. There is a pastor of a church down in Florida who's begun a new sermon series called At the Movies.

And so, this particular Sunday, the movie that they were considering was Aladdin and finding ways to apply that movie to the Christian life.

And so what he did is he came out on stage and there's video, you can watch it. He came out stage dressed as a genie. Dressed as a genie and sang his own rendition of one of the songs in that movie.

You know, putting Jesus' name in there and making it seem like it's Christ-centered. But get this, as a matter of fact, as people were brought into the sanctuary, they were given cotton candy and popcorn to eat.

And here's the thing. To me, this is pathetic. What does the world think when they see stuff like that? They see desperation.

Desperation to be relevant. Desperation to be popular with the world. And if you've read the Bible, you see that Jesus was never concerned with that. Was he?

They wanted to take him and make him king. He was very popular for a moment until he kept speaking the truth that they didn't like to hear.

Our job isn't to seek to be winning a popularity contest, but being used by the Lord to declare the truth of Jesus Christ and the good news that he has come to save sinners like you and like me.

So here's the main idea for this morning's sermon. In John 3, verses 1-3, Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born again. Through this encounter, we are given two truths about salvation.

Two truths about salvation. And so my hope and my prayer is that you will wrestle with this passage of Scripture. I hope that that happens. I hope that the Holy Spirit will lead you as a result of that to the realization that salvation is all of God.

That God in His great grace has provided salvation for sinners through the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, His Son. If we lose sight of this, seeking to be relevant to the world, then we will lose the relevance of the message that we have been entrusted with to go and to share with the world.

We, again, aren't to engage in some kind of a popularity contest. We aren't called to be consumers. We're sinners who've been saved by grace. And this is the truth that should drive every single aspect of our lives.

So the first truth that we are given here about salvation is that salvation is not produced by men. Verses 1-3 and verse 9. We reread verses 1-3.

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. For no one can do these signs you do unless God is with him.

Now we realize through the course of this conversation that Jesus has with Nicodemus that Jesus reveals to him that he's not saved. But everyone else who knew Nicodemus thought that he was.

His name meant victory over the people but apart from Christ his victories amounted to nothing. Why did he think that he was saved?

Why did other people come to that same conclusion? Well, John provides us with the details we need in order to answer that question. First, we see that he was a Jewish man which meant he was a descendant of Abraham which meant that he bore the outward mark of the covenant which was circumcision.

And back then it was the sentiment that if you were a circumcised Jewish man that you could not go to hell. That you were saved.

You bore the mark of salvation. Second, we see from John he tells us that he's a Pharisee. So not only is he a Jew but he was a good Jew.

He was a Jew of Jews. Meaning he not only knew the law and kept the law but he was a teacher and administrator of the law teaching them to do the same.

Pharisees, they were an elite party to belong to. That word Pharisee literally means separated ones. Their order originated during the time between the Old Testament and the New Testament period.

There was another group called the Sadducees. They were also very influential religious order at this time as well. But that group was made up primarily of wealthy priests or family members of those who were in the priesthood.

interestingly the Sadducees were the liberal faction whereas the Pharisees were known as being their conservative counterpart. Those who became Pharisees were generally from the middle class.

They were blue collar people and so because of that the Pharisees had a lot of respect and a lot of appreciation from those who were in their community.

They thought these are people like us, right? And so they were well thought of. He was a Jewish man. He was a Pharisee. And on top of all of that John says he was also a ruler of the Jews.

He had the right heritage. He had the right title. And he was also a ruler of the Jews which meant that he was a part of the most prestigious religious group that anyone could be a part of.

He was a member of the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was a group of 71 members who were the governing council of the Jewish people.

He was one of them. He had the heritage. He had the titles. He had the membership to the most prestigious groups that anyone could belong to in this culture.

However, as Jesus tells him, he lacks genuine saving faith. The fact that John includes the detail also that Nicodemus came to Jesus at night is important.

Throughout the gospel, John uses light and darkness metaphorically to describe moral and spiritual darkness. For example, in chapter 1 verse 4, he says of Jesus, in him was life, and the life was the light of men.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. In chapter 9, verses 4 through 5, when Jesus heals a blind man, he says, we must work the works of him who sent me while it is day.

Night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. In chapter 11, verse 10, Jesus comes to raise Lazarus from the dead, dead.

And he says, but if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles because the light is not in him. And then in John chapter 13, verse 30, Judas leaves to betray Jesus, if you remember.

And so it says there, so after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out and it was night. It was the hour for Judas to hand over Jesus to the powers of darkness.

So Nicodemus approaches Jesus at night probably because he was afraid of being seen with him in the day, concerned that his colleagues who were becoming increasingly irritated and agitated by Jesus would see him fraternizing with the enemy and that could cost him those things that he held so dear.

But his night was darker than even he understood.

Again, he had the heritage, he had the titles, he had the respect of his peers, he was even respectful of Jesus, he refers to him as Rabbi, a respectful title.

He speaks to the fact that he's been impressed by the signs that he's seen him perform just as the crowds were impressed by those same signs at the end of chapter 2. But Jesus wasn't interested in discussing any of those things.

Instead, he goes straight to the real issue. Nicodemus was spiritually dead and needed to be born again. And what's shocking here about Nicodemus' spiritual condition is that verse 9 tells us that he was considered to be the teacher of Israel.

He was the one who was supposed to know it all. The teacher of teachers. But yet, he lacked understanding. Nicodemus' life to this point illustrates the truth expressed in John 1 verse 12 regarding salvation.

Verses 12 and 13. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

What that passage says and what we've seen in Jesus' interaction with Nicodemus is that salvation does not pass on through the bloodstream. And I tell you, I wish that it would.

I have a Christian wife, I'm a Christian, and there's nothing I want more or pray for more than that my children would know Jesus Christ savingly.

But it doesn't work that way. That's not what the Bible teaches. Salvation does not pass on through the bloodstream. Neither is it acquired by good works.

Things like consistent church attendance, knowledge of the Bible, those things are good, but they do not equate to salvation. Nor is it something that one person can bestow upon another person.

Many are told that they can be saved simply if they repeat a prayer or if they come forward during a time of invitation. However, I'm telling you that those practices are not based on Scripture.

You can't show me a place where Jesus led anyone in the sinner's prayer. You can't show me a place where Jesus says that it's necessary to come forward walking down an aisle in order to receive salvation.

And I think that these things have produced a lot of confusion. Now hear me out. I know. And I have spoken to people who have been saved.

They were encouraged to repeat a prayer. They were encouraged to come forward. I know people personally who were saved. but they understand, I believe, that it wasn't those practices that saved them.

It was what God was doing to them when they heard the gospel. And they were transformed. And yeah, they responded. But this is a confusing thing for people to come into one of our places of worship.

And I've seen it happen a lot in conferences, especially conferences geared towards teenagers. teachers. We are so numbers oriented, right, that we are so desperate to have people come forward in order to give us the proof that we want that we've been successful in what God has called us to do.

And so an invitation will be given at these events, and there will be some who come forward, but you can tell that the speaker is discouraged, by the number.

And so it's, you know, play it again. And it's more guilt trip. And one of the things that I saw that I was hurt by was the encouragement given, hey, if you know somebody here, you don't think that they're saved, why don't you just grab them and bring them forward?

Just grab them and bring them forward. And that person is told, hey, just say these words, repeat after me, and now you know you're saved. And they have no idea what has transpired.

Now listen, we have a time of invitation here at the end of each sermon, don't we? And our hope is that God has communicated the gospel to those who have heard that they were saved as they heard it.

But it's not just an invitation to come forward to let people know that you've been saved. Those are invitations to respond to the message that you've heard. And I believe that at the end of every time that Jesus speaks, he gave some kind of an invitation.

Usually that invitation was to follow me. Do something about this. And so the invitation time is a time for you to come pray and just respond to what God has put on your heart or revealed to you.

And so I also don't want you to be afraid that in your coming forward that people are going to think, oh, we thought that they were saved all along, but look, they weren't! or something like that. Who cares what people think?

You respond to what God is doing in your life. Secondly, we see that the next truth is that salvation is a work of God.

verses 3-8. Jesus answered him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, and we'll cover this more next week, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be? How can a man be born when he is old? Jesus answered, Truly, truly, 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. 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 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. So here, Jesus speaks of the new birth as an act of God by which the Holy Spirit imparts eternal life to spiritually dead people.

In Ephesians chapter 2, Paul explains this in good detail. Talking about our condition before we were saved and how we were transformed by the salvation that we experienced through the work of the Holy Spirit in us.

And he speaks to those Christians in Corinth saying, And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, sins among whom we all, all of us, once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

Christ, by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

You see, the Bible speaks of salvation as a total transformation, as a regeneration, as a going from death to life.

And these terms are important because God could have used a number of different terms to express to us how we're saved, or why we're saved.

Even if salvation was even a little bit dependent upon us, he could have said something like that. He could have said, not that you're spiritually dead, but you're spiritually ill. You're very sick.

He could have said something like that. Sick people are able to do something, aren't they? about what ails them. They can go to the doctor, which is a good idea. They could go to Google and type it in, which is not a very good idea.

They can take medicine. They can undergo an operation of some sort. There are many different things that they can choose to do that another can perform for them to make them better.

But the Bible doesn't speak of us as being spiritually ill, but as beings spiritually dead. And so we must be born again. A dead person can do nothing to bring themselves back to life.

Dead people can't think. Dead people can't hear. Dead people can't see. Dead people are dead. And there is nothing that another person can do to bring that dead person back to life.

life. I was watching, flipping through and watching TBN one day and Benny Hinn was on the channel and he had a prophecy for everybody that the time will come when dead people, you can place their hand on the TV screen while TBN is playing and they will be resurrected back to life.

life. Well, that's yet to happen that I know of because we understand that dead people aren't able to respond on their own.

They cannot bring themselves back to life. So Jesus speaks of the salvation that we need as a new birth in order to teach us that salvation is all of God.

life. And again here, the terms are important for us to reflect upon. Think about your physical birth. What control did you have over your conception?

Were you able to will yourself into existence? Were you able to choose your parents? Were you able to choose the time and the place in which you would be born?

Were you able to choose how you would look? Your physical traits? Were you able to choose how your personality would be?

Just as none of us is able to control our physical birth, I believe Jesus uses these words to convey to us the truth that so likewise we cannot control our spiritual birth.

If you couldn't will yourself into existence, you can't generate your own salvation. If you couldn't generate your own physical birth, then how could you expect to generate your own spiritual birth?

Jesus says, clearly, listen to his words, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit.

spirit. The implication for Nicodemus here was gut wrenching.

Think of it. All of his life, he had diligently pursued these things that he had now acquired. And it was worthless to save him, Jesus said.

Could you imagine what a punch to the gut that must have felt like? And I was trusting in these things. My hope was laid up in these things.

And you're telling me that they're worthless now? Well, in college, one of my jobs that I had is I worked in a warehouse unloading containers that were shipped in from China.

And we'd have all kinds of strange things coming in that we would sort and then would be sent out to the stores for people to buy. And one of the projects that we were given is to take these coffee decanters, coffee pots.

Two of them came in one large box, right? And this 40-foot container is contained, stacked full, eight feet wide, 40 feet long, of these boxes of coffee pots.

Now, the problem was that the coffee pots, there was two parts. There was the glass and there was the handle. Well, the parts had been made in China, but the pots were assembled in Taiwan.

So, in order to clear U.S. customs, they sent them to our warehouse and we had to go through with stickers and cover up every place that said made in Taiwan with a sticker that said made in China.

So, that meant that we had to go on the outside of the box and cover everything up. We had to cut the box open and then the boxes that the decanters came in that would be on the shelves, we had to cover up every place where it said made in Taiwan with a sticker that said made in China.

Yeah. Eight hours a day in the summertime without air conditioning, unloading boxes, cutting them open, putting stickers on them, resealing them, stacking them, and sending them back out.

This is what we did for eight hours a day. Tedious and boring are not words sufficient to describe the work that we were tasked to do.

We did this for weeks. Finally, we got to the back of the container. The end was in sight. And guess what happened?

Boss comes out. Boys, there was an air on the stickers that we had you print. And so, we've contacted the places that have already sent out these boxes.

They're coming back. And we've got to do it all over again. If I didn't have the father that I have, I would have quit that job at that moment.

But if I would have gone home, it would have been worse. And so, that was just a small thing. That was just a small period of time.

That was one of the things that motivated me to get through college so that I don't come across that situation again. But you know what I'm saying? It was gut-wrenching. All of that hard work.

All of those hours spent. Yeah, we got paid and that was good, but it was all worthless. And so, I can only imagine in a very small way how Nicodemus must have felt.

I can't fit the rest of Jesus' response into this sermon today, but I hope that you have seen at least that according to Jesus, spiritual birth is something one undergoes, not something one produces for themselves.

Our efforts had nothing to do with our natural conception, so our efforts have nothing to do with our regeneration. And so, now that I've finished my introduction, let me go to my conclusion.

Many of you were looking at me, right? Like, what? There's a little boy who was riding his bike one day, and he saw a strange sight.

He saw a bird, a little sparrow, laying on his back with his feet up in the air, stiff. So, being a little boy, he was curious, you know, as some boys are, to inspect this animal that he supposed was dead.

And he gets up close to it, and he sees that it's breathing. And so, he asks the bird, what are you doing? And the bird responds. This is a story, okay?

The bird responds, haven't you heard the rumor? And the little boy goes, no, what rumor? And the bird says, well, the heavens are about to fall upon us all.

And so, the little boy says, so what are you doing? He says, well, I'm on my back, and I've got my feet in the air because I'm going to do my best to keep the sky from crushing me. And the little boy looks at those little stick bird legs and says, you've got to be kidding me.

You think that you can hold up what is about to come with your itty-bitty legs. Right? And I tell you that story because it's foolish to think. And because I'm telling you the Bible says the same thing in a different way.

You think that you can do enough good to put God in your debt. It's just not possible. What do you have to offer God that He doesn't already own?

All that we have to offer Him is our sin. And thank God that He was willing to send His Son, Jesus, to live the perfect sinless life that we couldn't live, to die on the cross, to pay for our sins, where He was literally crushed by God's wrath for the sins that we've committed.

Enduring our hell and our place. And because He was more than a man, the God-man, He was able to come back to life from the grave.

As proof that His payment was sufficient. as proof that He is exactly who He said He was.

Have you been born again? Do you know that wonderful truth? And I hope that you realize, man, I am an unworthy sinner.

But I know a God who has made my life worth more than I ever thought possible. My worth and my unworthiness.

And when you experience that, I'm telling you, you'll marvel. You haven't already. About just how loving and gracious God is. And if you're hearing these words and you're not sure where you're at, I encourage you to come and speak with me.

I believe that God wants you to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and to not be deluded by the thought that you can save yourself.

It's not possible. But Christ has done it. This is the good news of the gospel. is the best of the gospel.

of the gospel