The New Birth

In this episode we explore the conversation between Jesus and the Jewish ruler Nicodemus concerning the New Birth.  

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Hello, welcome to Scripture Simplified. This is Tim Wolfe. We want to continue our study in the Gospel of John today, and we're going to speak about the new birth. Our verses that we will share today are John chapter 3, verses 1 through 16. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher, come from God. For no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto 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, Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of 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. Marvel not that I said unto thee, you must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell where whence it cometh, and whither it goeth, so is every one that is born of the spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily I say unto thee, we speak that we do know, and testify that which we have seen, and ye receive not our witness. If I've told you the earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Now I want to start with the opening phrase, and it says there was a man. I'll just stop right there. The man we will look at in this episode was a religious man and a religious leader. But Jesus will encounter individuals from all walks of life, and they all have the same basic need, and that is the need for a new birth. Some feel the need more keenly than others. The self-righteous have a hard time feeling as though they have a serious spiritual impediment. There are those who compare themselves with others and develop a smug confidence that they're better than most people that they know. However, there are those who long for the prospect of a new beginning. Many can identify with Tennyson, who wrote in Maud a monodrama, and ah for a man to arise in me that the man I am may cease to be. Well, that is what Jesus not only offers to one man, as we will see in this passage today, but to all men, women, boys, and girls. Jesus points out the necessity of a new birth, but more than that he offers the possibility of a new birth for all that will humble themselves and receive heaven's gift. In this episode, we will look at this man, Nicodemus. We will look at Christ's message to Nicodemus, and we will finally look at Christ's mission. First of all, let's look at the man Nicodemus. Nicodemus is mentioned by name three times in the Bible, exclusively in the Gospel of John. He is a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin. He appears in key scenes, visiting Jesus at night, as we see here in John 3, defending Jesus to the Pharisees. We see that in John chapter 7, verses 50 and 51, and aiding in Jesus' burial. We see that in John chapter 19, verses 39 through 42. He belongs to a select religious party known as the Pharisees. The word Pharisee comes from a root meaning to separate. According to Josephus, they numbered around 6,000. They were zealously devoted not only to the law of God, but what was called the tradition of the elders. This laid out in extreme detail how God's laws were to be observed. One great conflict that Jesus had with the Pharisees were their customs or the interpretation of the law regarding Sabbath observance. William Barclay writes, the best example of what they did is to be seen in the Sabbath law. In the Bible itself, we are simply told that we must remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, and that on that day no work must be done, either by man or by his servants, or by his animals. Not content with that, the later Jews spent hour after hour and generation after generation defining what work is and listening to things that they may and may not be done on the Sabbath day. So as we shall see, to heal a man on the Sabbath day was prohibited not by the Bible, but by their interpretation of how to keep the Sabbath holy. As a Pharisee, Nicodemus has made a fastidious keeping of the tradition the focus of his existence. He was not only a Pharisee, he was also a ruler of the Jews. This means he was a member of the ruling council called the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was the supreme religious, legal, and political body in ancient Israel, consisting of 71 men who convened in Jerusalem's temple. As the final court of appeal, it regulated religious law, tried high-ranking officials, and oversaw community life until its dissolution around 425 A.D. It is most widely recognized for its role in the trial of Jesus. Now Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night. We don't know exactly why he came by night. Many think it was because he was afraid of his compatriots and on the Sanhedrin or his fear of his peers and the Pharisee party. Some think it was because Jesus may have been more approachable for a one-on-one interview at night. Certainly Jesus was dealing with many who needed healing during the day. Regardless of why he came at night, he came respectfully, with honest inquiry. He was polite in his approach to Jesus. He addressed him with respectful title of rabbi. He then makes what seems to be on the surface complimentary. He said, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. Now let's not forget that in the context of the Jewish culture of that day, Nicodemus was looked upon as a pious man, a man who was sincerely trying to keep the laws of God in accordance with the interpretation of the scribes and the rabbis. I believe he genuinely believed that Jesus was God ordained as a teacher because of the miracles that he performed. The only problem is that Nicodemus may have seen Jesus as something of a peer. Greater than him, yes, and someone with whom he could maybe learn from and discuss the law. So we see the man, Nicodemus. The second thing we see is the message. We see this in verses 3 through 12. Now Jesus doesn't immediately enter a friendly exchange with Nicodemus. He knocks him off his self-righteous pedestal. Nicodemus probably felt some degree of confidence that he would be part of the kingdom of the Messiah. And yet, with one sentence, Jesus devastates that confidence. Jesus said, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Now that's a pretty powerful statement. In his pronouncement, he makes this message of supreme importance. There cannot be a message of greater importance than the destiny of one's eternal soul. Jesus states, for what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? The stakes are high for all men. The great goal is not only entry into the kingdom of heaven, but eternal life. Jesus speaks of both in his conversation with this ruler. Now when he talks about being born again, the word for again here is the Greek word another, which comes from a root meaning from above. In other words, to be saved, we need help from above. We need something from heaven. Remember in chapter one, John writes this speaking of the word of the Lord Jesus, he was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came into his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Now note this, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. So what Jesus is saying here is that our help must come from heaven. Nicodemus immediately retorts in earthly terms, How can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? It is then that Jesus begins to emphasize the spiritual or heavenly aspect of the new birth. He says, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. We see in verse 9, Nicodemus' ongoing misunderstanding of what Jesus is trying to convey. The Jewish ruler inquires, How can these things be? Then Jesus answered in verse 10, Art thou a master or a teacher in Israel and knowest not these things? Jesus is saying, there are Old Testament teachings that refer to this heavenly birth. And it doesn't give it specifically here. Jesus doesn't give that particular thing, but he assumes that, you know, this teacher, this Jewish teacher should know this and should be conveying this and should understand the new birth. We find in Ezekiel chapter 36, for example, verses 24 through 27. See if this doesn't sound like a new birth. God says, For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and I will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments and do them. Cleansing water and the spirit, a new spirit. I'll put my spirit within you. There it is in Ezekiel. The water speaks of cleansing, the spirit speaks of power. Jesus further explains the need of the heavenly birth by pointing out that our first birth is flawed. He says that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. No matter how religious or refined someone may be, they're still defiled. In fact, we're all defiled by a sin nature that puts self and its desires at the center of our being. It's inherited from Adam and Eve. We received it from Adam, and this nature that we have, this flesh nature, this sin nature, is bent toward evil. Sin will find its expression if left to itself. The apostle Peter said about false professors, he said, But it has happened unto them according to the true proverb. The dog is turned to its own vomit again, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. I've been to the State Fair and I've seen some mighty well-cleaned pigs all polished up. But let me assure you, if one escapes its handler, it's going to find a mud pudding, and it finds a mud puddle, it's going to wallow in it, because that's the nature of a pig. Jesus further illustrates the effect of the new birth by using an analogy of the unseen force of wind. He says the wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it's going. So is it with everyone born of the Spirit. What is this saying? A person born of the Holy Spirit is under new governance. You may not see him, but you can feel or see the wind, but you can see its effects. You may not see the spirit, but you can see the spirit's effects. Please excuse me if I use another Barclay illustration here, but he says Dr. John Hutton used to tell of a workman who had been a drunken reprobate and was converted. His workmates did their best to make him feel a fool. Surely they said to him, You can't believe in miracles and things like that. Surely, for instance, you don't believe that Jesus turned water into wine. The man said, I don't know whether he turned water into wine when he was in Palestine, but I do know that in my own house and home he's turned beer into furniture. Paul writes this, and I think this speaks so much of the new birth. As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, and the spirit who now is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive, there it is, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions, it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. I can't think of a better life example of the new birth than Paul, the Apostle Paul. When Christ confronts him on the road to Damascus, he asks the Lord Jesus, he says, Lord, what wilt thou have me do? He went into the city of Damascus and was prayed for and received his sight and received the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Then the scripture says this, and straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues that he is the Son of God. I'll make just a comparison here briefly with Nicodemus. Nicodemus he had reputation, he had power, he had respect of the people. And for him to be born again, and I trust he was, he evidently showed some love and affection toward Jesus. But in being born again, you have to be willing to let the Spirit move you where he wills. That's the thing. You you give up your own governance. You turn it over, turn your life over to Jesus. I don't think a lot of people are looking at things that way in this day. It's almost like God, you need God to help you do the things that you have planned to do, the things that you want to do, and God's along to help. No, the idea of the new birth is that we submit ourselves to Him and His spirit begins to control our life. The new nature begins to control our life. Paul later in his writing to the church in Philippi says, if anyone thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews in regard to the law of Pharisee, as for zeal, persecuting the church, as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. But whatever things were gained to me I now consider lost for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things, I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ. And that's exactly what happened to him. He had the reputation of a Nicodemus. He was highly esteemed by his peers, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, all of these things. And yet he rescinded that. And yet he said, I've got a new life now, and my life is under the lordship of Jesus Christ. And that's the way born-again people ought to be looking at things. We are under the Lordship of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. We've all sinned and we all may sin from time to time, but it's that question of management. Is it my desire? Is it my heart? Is it my longing to be under his control, to do his will, to say thy will be done in my life? You're in control now. I remember when I first got saved, and I had uh in my first uh year at in college, I was uh planning on being uh uh in music education. And over the Christmas break, that first year, I got saved. And I remember going up from Christmas break, going up back up to school, and I was thinking, what do I do now? Because I realized that I was not under my own orders anymore. It wasn't up to me. It's up to the Lord. And I pray that we can all understand that all of us who know Christ, that will understand that it's the Spirit of God that's in control now. The new nature. The new birth will happen. When an individual comes like the prodigal with the tattered racks rags of their life and allow God to give them the grace of divine life. The last thing I want to speak about is the mission. What makes this new birth possible is not the will of man, but a gracious, the gracious will of God. Now let me go first here in these last verses to the famous verse 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. You see, it's all about the work of God's Son. He's the one who came from heaven into this world of sin, to give his life as a ransom, to bring redemption, to shed his blood for the forgiveness of the sins of those who come to him. Now I want you to notice the early prediction of his sacrificial death on the cross. We see it in verse 14. It says, And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Now Jesus here is referring to a story in the book of Numbers. God instructed Moses to fashion a bronze serpent and mounted on a pole to heal Israelites dying from poisonous snake bites, which were sent as punishment for complaining against God. Anyone who looked at the bronze serpent after being bitten was healed. Thank God we can look to the cross and believe on him and receive a new beginning and a new purpose and a new power for living. January sixth, eighteen fifty. He turned the corner and made his way into a small primitive Methodist church on Artillery Street. He recounted the story hundreds of times, each time a little differently, but here's one of the most vivid recollections. He said, I sometimes think I might have been in darkness and despair now, had it not been for the goodness of God in sending a snowstorm one Sunday morning when I was going to a place of worship. When I could go no further, I turned down a court and came to a little primitive Methodist chapel. In that chapel there might have been a dozen or fifteen people. The minister did not come that morning, snowed up, I suppose. A poor man, a shoemaker, a tailor, or something of that sort, went up to the pulpit to preach. He was obliged to stick to his text for the simple reason that he had nothing 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 the text. He began thus, my dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says look. Now that does not take a great deal of effort. It ain't lifting your foot or your finger. It's just look. Well, a man need not go to college to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. A man need not be worth a thousand a year to look. Anyone can look. A child can look, but this is what the text says. Then it says look unto me. I, he said in broad Essex, many of ye are looking to yourselves, no use looking there, you'll never find comfort in yourselves. Then the good man followed up his text in this way. Look unto me, I'm sweating great drops of blood. Look unto me, I'm hanging on the cross. Look, I am dead and buried. Look unto me, I rise again. Look unto me, I sinned, I'm sitting at the Father's right hand. Oh look to me, look to me. When he had got about that length and managed to spin out ten minutes he was at the length of his tether. Then he looked at me under the gallery, and I dare say with so few present he knew me to be a stranger. He then said, Young man, you look very miserable. Well I did, but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made on my personal appearance from the pulpit before. However, it was a good blow struck, he continued, and you will always be miserable, miserable in life and miserable in death if you do not obey my text. But if you obey now this moment you will be saved. Then he shouted as only a primitive Methodist can, young man, look to Jesus Christ. 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 moment and sung with the most enthusiastic of them of the precious blood of Christ. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for this wonderful blessing from heaven. That in your grace and in your mercy you looked down upon us and you drew us to yourself by the Holy Spirit. You spoke to the dead bones and said, live. And thank you, Lord Jesus. Your life has come. I pray for that one that may be hearing this message that does not know you. And Father, they just heard the simplest thing here. Look to me and live. Look to me and live. I'm thankful, God, it's it's not something we have to dress up. We can't change ourselves and make us into something acceptable, ourselves into something acceptable. We simply must do what the old song says, just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me. And that thou bidst me come to thee, old Lamb of God. I come, I come. My friend, you can be born again this moment. Whenever you're hearing this message, you can be born again right where you are. You don't have to go to church, you don't have to go talk to a preacher. You can talk to the Lord Jesus. He's right there with you. And look to the cross and say, Come into my heart, Lord Jesus, and take control. And he will. Because his word says he will. We thank you, Lord Jesus. Father, bless each one that's listening to this message. Keep them by your power. We'll pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.