It's good to see you all here this morning, both in person and on the live stream.
This morning we're going to celebrate the Lord's Supper at the end of the service.
If you're in the pews and you don't have one of these little packages of the elements,
you can go back to the back and the ushers would be happy to serve you with those.
And for those of you at home, this is just a heads up.
We'll transition from the sermon right into the Lord's Supper.
So that's where we're going for the rest of our time.
So the snow is falling, but we have a rich text for us to look at this morning.
So we will endeavor to get out of here in a timely manner,
but we will linger now over the Word of God for a few minutes.
So going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to McDonald's makes you a hamburger.
So I heard from Keith Green a long time ago, and Keith Green was a Christian musician.
The logic of this is not very strong, so the philosophers out there don't put too much weight in this.
It's a poor analogy, but the question that it's raising is a good one.
What is being a Christian really about?
It's easy for us to think about all sorts of reasons why or what being a Christian is really about.
For some of us, it may be something that we've grown up with, a family or a social identity.
For some of us, it may be that we love the aesthetics and the beauty of the gospel
and the sense of transcendence in worship.
Some of us may love the ethics, the call to righteousness and justice in a better world and a better society.
Some of us may love the morals and family values that shape and are espoused by the church.
Some of us may love the ritual, the music, the comfort of the familiar and the regular.
Some of us may love the community and people who love us.
Some of us may love the system and the logic of doctrine that makes sense of our world.
And all of these things are beautiful and wonderful things and aspects of what true Christianity is about.
But when we come to our text this morning, which is in John 3,
Jesus is going to help us understand the very heart of what being a Christian is really about.
And remember that this is now, if you want to turn in your Bibles to John 3, that's where we'll be.
The context, the gospel of John is shaped to help us see Jesus, to lift up Jesus and the person of who he is
and the work that he did while he was here on earth.
And it's shaped, if you remember, Pastor Nick opened by preaching this grand prologue about the word became flesh,
how God came to earth and incarnated himself, took on flesh and blood so that we might know God
and so that we might have life in him.
And we've seen in the chapters unfolding and continuing throughout this,
John is slowly peeling back the onion, giving us layer after layer of who Jesus is.
And this brings us to our chapter.
We're actually going to begin, if you're going to read along with me, at the end of chapter 2.
The end of chapter 2 is verse 23 will actually be the beginning of our passage this morning.
So we're going to read and look at this.
This is the first of three encounters with individuals where Jesus clarifies who he is more and more.
And as we go, Kevin, are we using the...
Can I get rid of this or...
What are we using?
All right.
Good.
All right.
So we're going to read John and then pray and then we'll dive in.
John 2 verse 23.
Now when he, that is Jesus, was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast,
many believed in his names when they saw the signs that he was doing.
But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them because he knew all people
and needed no one to bear witness about man for he knew, for he himself knew what was in man.
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 the 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?
And 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 when 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?
And 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 had told you earthly things, and you do not believe,
how can you believe if I tell you of heavenly things?
No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only Son,
that whoever believes in him should not perish,
but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned,
but whoever does not believe is condemned already,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
God, this is the judgment.
Light has come into the world,
and people love the darkness rather than the light,
because their deeds were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light,
and does not come to the light,
lest his deeds should be exposed.
But whoever does what is true comes to the light,
so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God.
Let's pray together.
Lord, thank you for your word.
Lord, we thank you for this passage that so beautifully reveals to us,
Lord, the greatness of Jesus and his work for us.
Lord, I pray this morning that your Spirit would enable us to hear your word,
and Lord, that you would apply it by your Spirit to our hearts.
Lord, that we would know the greatness of your power,
the depth of your love,
and the wonder and amazing grace that you have shown us in Jesus Christ.
Lord, be with us, we pray.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Friends, here is the good news.
We can be born again.
We can be changed from the inside out,
not because we are good enough,
but because God is gracious and powerful enough to work in us.
This is the big idea that John wants us to get from this picture this morning,
that through Jesus, we can be made new and transformed.
What does this mean?
Well, let's look at it.
Let's think about this and explore this passage together.
We're going to ask three questions.
One, of the new birth.
One, what is the new birth?
Two, how can it happen to us?
And three, will you respond?
So the first one.
What is the new birth?
Verses 1 through 8 tells us this well-known story of Nicodemus the Pharisee,
a law-abiding citizen,
one who would be a faithful member of the Jewish ruling class.
He would know the law and keep it carefully.
He would be an upstanding man of character.
He'd be the guy that you would trust to mow your lawn,
put your mail in, and watch your pets while you went away for two weeks.
He would be someone who would be trustworthy.
And he was trusting in the religion that he knew
and the practices that he knew to know God.
And he knew a lot about God because he knew the Old Testament Scriptures.
And he comes to Jesus and he says,
I've seen the signs.
And this is a theme we've already talked about a little bit.
It's why I read the very end of chapter 2
because John recounts that many people saw these signs
and believed in Jesus because of the signs that they saw.
And Nicodemus comes and says,
you must have come from God
because of the things that you're doing,
because of the things that we have seen you do.
You've got a good thing going,
and I want to know more.
I might even want in on whatever it is you've brought.
I think that's the heart of Nicodemus coming to Jesus.
He comes at night,
maybe because he was afraid,
but I think probably more symbolically,
he comes at night
because he comes as a figure,
as a type of one who doesn't fully understand who Jesus is yet.
And he comes and he asks these questions.
And Jesus, as he is so prone to do,
here's a question,
and then he turns it back
and he reframes the question.
And he restates it to say,
you know what,
what you're bringing to me is helpful.
Okay, you think I'm from God.
That's good.
You want in on this.
I'm actually going to push this into a place
you never thought it was going to happen.
Jesus changes the question.
He says, you know what?
If you want to see the kingdom of God,
you want to be a full participant
of all the promises that God has given to Israel.
You want to know that God
the way you think you do,
you must be born again.
If you look at your footnote,
it might say born from above.
The word there could mean either of these things.
Born again or born from above.
And Nicodemus responds by taking the first part,
the being born again idea,
and he says,
Jesus, that's the craziest thing I ever heard.
His questions reveal his incredulity.
You mean I, a grown man,
have to go back into my mother's womb?
That's crazy.
I've been studying and knowing God for 70 years.
You want me to now start over like a baby?
He doesn't understand what Jesus is talking about.
And so Jesus, in verse 5,
begins to clarify.
What does Jesus mean by being born again
or born from above?
He means, he says,
it means being born of water and the Spirit.
Okay, what does that mean?
Well, there's been lots of conversation
in the church about this.
Some people seem to think that it was,
that Jesus was referring to the baptism of John
in the river Jordan
and then the baptism of the Spirit.
Some people think that it might be referring
to our physical birth
because we're born in water,
because we swim in a uterus
that has amniotic fluid.
And so that's the water
and then we're born in the Spirit
because we have,
along with that physical birth,
we have a spiritual birth that comes later.
Some people seem to think
it relates to baptism in the church
and how the church is,
brings, or is a part of baptism
by water and by the Spirit.
All of these things are
relatively possible,
but I don't think that they're
the easiest way to do it,
easiest way to understand it.
Jesus is not referring to two things
when he says born of water and the Spirit.
He's referring to one thing.
This is why I say that.
First of all, because the grammar tells us that.
If you look very carefully in the ESV,
it's helpful because it points it out.
It says,
unless one is born of water and the Spirit.
He doesn't say of water and of the Spirit,
which would have one preposition
for each element.
It's one preposition
that then encompasses
both of the two things afterwards.
The second reason why I think it's one thing
is because it's parallel to being born again
in verse above.
And then in verse 8,
he says being born of the Spirit
without clarifying more,
I think Jesus is just talking about one thing.
He's being,
he's talking about this work of God
that renews us,
makes us alive again spiritually.
And the reason why I think Jesus did that
is because I think Jesus had in his mind
the passage from Ezekiel
that was read earlier in the service.
I'm going to read again the passage,
verses 25 and 26 from Ezekiel 36.
This is the promise of God to his people
of the coming new covenant promise
and the coming new age that will happen.
He says,
I will sprinkle clean water on you
and you shall be clean
from all your uncleannesses.
And from your idols,
I will cleanse you
and I will give you a new heart
and a new spirit I will put within you.
And I will remove the heart of stone
from your flesh
and give you a heart of flesh.
You see,
Jesus talking to this Old Testament scholar
says,
this is what it's about.
This is the promise from the Old Testament.
You must be born again,
which means being cleansed from your sin,
being freed from your idolatry
and being given a new heart.
That sin has made our hearts hard like a stone.
And that by God's spirit,
he's going to take that heart out
and give us a new one
that's made alive by his spirit.
And this is the picture.
These are two elements of this one work
that the Bible calls regeneration.
An internal transformation
whereby we are transferred
from darkness or from death to life.
And remember,
in Ezekiel,
maybe you don't remember,
in Ezekiel 37,
there's this famous vision
that God gives to Ezekiel
where he takes him to a valley
and this valley is filled
with dry, desiccated bones.
There's nothing but just skeletons
lying around.
And God says,
Son of man,
can these bones live?
Ezekiel says,
only you know.
He says,
prophesy and pray.
And the spirit,
the wind of the spirit of God
blows over these skeletons.
And they are regenerated.
They are brought back to life.
And not like zombie,
scary horror film,
but they're actually brought back
to full human health
as if they had not died.
They were resurrected.
The spirit of God comes
and brings life
into these skeletons.
And Jesus says,
this is what it means
to know God.
That God is able to breathe
a spiritual life into us.
I wonder,
as you're sitting here,
if you know this experience.
Some of us experience this
in maybe a more dramatic way,
and some of us experience it
in a more gradual way.
But the signs of being born again
are very clear.
I can remember distinctly,
I grew up going to church,
I read the Bible,
I heard about Jesus,
and it didn't mean anything to me.
And then,
as God began to work in my heart,
He began to pull me
towards Himself.
And I have a moment,
but some of you may have a process,
where, like C.S. Lewis,
at one point you knew
you didn't believe in God,
and then at the end
you knew that you did.
And at one point you know
you didn't trust in Jesus,
and then further on you did.
But you know what comes with that?
A new spiritual life.
A hunger to know God.
An ability to read His Word
with greater clarity
and understanding.
A desire to love God
and to order your life
in a way to worship Him.
This is the fruit of a new life
where God becomes the center
and we are unseated.
And this is what God promises us
when He gives us a new heart,
when He cleanses us from our sin.
This is the new birth
that Jesus says we need.
He looks at Nicodemus
and He says,
it's not enough for you
to be good on the outside
or to try to reform yourself
to be a little better
than you used to be.
It's not enough for you
to simply keep the law
and to keep your hands clean
and think,
I've done enough.
Jesus says,
no,
you must be born again,
made new by God's Spirit and power.
Friends,
this is the power
that turns a political hatchet man
like Chuck Colson
into a prison minister
for the gospel.
This is what turns
a bitter and depressed
paraplegic woman
like Johnny Erickson Tata
into a joyful artist
and minister of hope
to many
as she ministers
to the disabled.
And with Nicodemus,
it's what turns
a fervently zealous
religious leader
into a humble follower
of Jesus.
You can be born again,
Jesus says to Nicodemus
and to us.
And Nicodemus then
asks the question
that leads us
to our next section
of the text.
And the question
that maybe is in all
of our hearts,
which is,
well,
how can this happen to us?
How is it
that we get
to be born again?
Again,
verses 9 through 15,
I think,
help us see this.
Jesus rebukes Nicodemus
saying,
you should know
these things.
You should know
the story of Ezekiel.
You should know
these promises
from the Old Testament.
He rebukes him
for not knowing them
and he rebukes him
for not listening
to Jesus.
Think about it.
Nicodemus in the very beginning
said, hey,
you've done all these
great signs.
You come from God.
And then Jesus says
something that he
doesn't understand
and Nicodemus
is incredulous.
Why won't you listen
to my testimony?
You want a sign?
You're looking
for some reason
to believe
my authority
about this?
And this is kind
of the flow.
The passage is not
simple to work through,
but the flow
is that Jesus
is leading up
to verses 14 and 15.
Jesus is saying,
if you want a sign,
to know why you
should listen to me,
if you want to know
how this happens
in your life,
verse 14,
as Moses lifted up
the serpent
in the wilderness,
so must the Son of Man
be lifted up
that whoever believes
in Him
may have
eternal life.
Just as Moses
lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness.
Now, how many people
know that one
from their Sunday school?
I didn't.
I mean, I knew it.
Jack Lauer knows it.
So, yeah, there we go.
Praise God.
We have a great
children's ministry.
We're doing well.
So, but this is not,
this is in Numbers
chapter 21,
and I'm going to read
this to you really quickly
because it's a really
helpful passage.
passage.
The people of Israel
have been wandering
in the wilderness
for 40 years,
and now God is moving
them again towards
entering into the
promised land
after a whole generation
has died in the wilderness,
not experiencing
the fullness of the promise
because of their disobedience
and grumbling
and doubting of God.
And this is what happens
from Mount Hor.
They were set out
by the way
to the Red Sea
to go around
the land of Edom,
and the people
became impatient
on the way.
And the people
spoke against God
and against Moses,
saying,
Why have you brought us
up out of Egypt
to die in the wilderness?
For there is no food
and no water,
and we loathe
this worthless food.
Then God sent
fiery serpents
among the people,
and they bit the people
so that many people
of Israel died.
And the people
came to Moses
and said,
We have sinned,
for we had spoken
against the Lord
and against you.
Pray to the Lord
that he might take away
the serpents from us.
So Moses prayed
for the people.
And the Lord said to Moses,
Make a fiery serpent
and set it on a pole,
and everyone who is bitten
when he sees it
shall live.
So Moses made
a bronze serpent
and set it on a pole,
and if a serpent
bit anyone,
he would look
at the bronze serpent
and live.
in light of the disobedience,
the grumbling
and complaining.
Think about it.
This generation
had seen God
provide for them
for 40 years,
and then he moves them along
and they're like,
Ah, we don't like
the burgers.
We'd like Chick-fil-A
instead.
Grumbling
and complaining
and doubting
God's goodness
to them.
God sends
a judgment.
He sends poisonous snakes.
And the people,
they cry out,
God, save us.
Help us.
God tells Moses
to make a metal snake,
an image,
and to put it
on a wooden pole
and to lift it up
among the gathering
of God's people.
And everyone
who was bitten
and poisoned
who saw that snake,
who saw that it was
a symbol of God's
saving presence
among them,
would not die
because of the poison
in them,
but would live.
It is a picture
of a gracious salvation
for people
who can't save
themselves.
And friends,
this is what Jesus
wants us to know
about being born again.
We are born again
because just like
that serpent
was lifted up
in the wilderness
for a disobedient people
so that they could
look on it in faith
and be saved.
So the Son of Man
will be lifted up
on a wooden cross
among people
who are dying
because of their sin,
people who are helpless
to save themselves.
When the Son of Man
is lifted up
in the Gospel of John,
it is always lifted up
on the cross
of Christ.
Lifted up on the cross
where Jesus died.
You see,
here's the logic
that undergirds us.
You see this
played out
and fulfilled
in the apostles.
We are spiritually dead
and under judgment
for our sin.
All of us,
every one of us,
and all of us
need salvation
without exception.
Just like Nicodemus,
we may be a very good man,
but it's not enough.
We could not overcome
our sin on our own.
What we see
is that the only hope
that we have
is to look outside
of ourselves
for a Savior.
And Jesus,
being lifted up,
takes the sin,
takes our sin
and the punishment
for our sin
of death,
God's judgment
and condemnation
on our sin.
Jesus bears all of that
for Himself
so that we might be saved.
It is not our work.
It cannot be our work.
It must be His work
that is able to save us.
So Jesus is saying,
how does this happen?
Look.
Look at the Son of Man.
Lift it up.
Look at Him in faith.
Believe and trust.
and you will have
eternal life.
And eternal life here
is connected to this idea
of being born again.
We often think of eternal life
as being some future thing.
And in fact,
if we're honest,
many of us think
eternal life sounds boring.
It sounds like eternally
sitting in a
pillow soft,
you know,
sort of commercial
where it's clouds
and sunlight
and nothing very interesting happens.
But instead,
what He is saying is,
no,
this eternal life
is something that can happen now,
that begins now,
and will continue for eternity.
And it does have to do with us
being caught up
in the life of God
and all of the richness
of this world that we live in
and all the signs
of the goodness of life
that we see throughout this,
even this fallen world.
We get to take hold
of that life.
Jesus said,
I have come
that they might have life
and that they might have it
abundantly,
overflowingly,
richly,
with joy and peace
and patience,
with celebration,
with mission,
with purpose,
with creativity,
with beauty,
all of these things.
And Jesus is saying
to Nicodemus and to us,
look,
look at the Son of Man,
lift it up
and take hold
of this life.
You can be born again.
And with that,
Jesus' sermon is ended.
His message
and his interaction
with Nicodemus
is ended.
There's a footnote
in your ESV.
I think John
then steps in
in verse 16.
The apostle steps in
and says,
this is commentary
now on what Jesus
has just said.
He says,
God so loved the world
that he gave
his only begotten Son.
That whoever believes in him
would not perish
but have eternal life.
One of the most famous
verses in all of the Bible.
And now you've seen
some of the run-up to it
and what the context
of it is.
John is saying,
do you see
God has loved this world?
And we need to be clear
on the grammar.
It's true that God loves us
hugely and abundantly
and overwhelmingly,
but it's not that
God loved this world
so much.
It's actually saying
God loved this world
in this particular way.
God loved the world
thus,
by sending his Son
to be our Savior.
He sent his Son
to rescue us
and God loved
not just nice people
who are trying
to get to him
and are a little confused,
but God loved the world
which in the Gospel of John
means a place of rebellion,
a place of rejection
against God.
The systems
of our world
that are fallen
and broken
and dishonor
and refuse
to acknowledge
or submit to God.
God loved the world
not because it was
a nice place
he was trying to fix up,
but because it was
a place of brokenness
and rebellion
that he was trying
to rescue.
And God's intent
throughout this
is so clear.
He came
to save people.
That's what verse 17 says,
that though he is the judge
and rightfully will judge
the whole world,
his heart and his intent
in the coming of Jesus
is that people would be saved,
not that they would be condemned.
What a terrible thing it is
that in our culture today
people believe
that the church
is all about condemning sinners.
When Jesus Christ said,
I do not come to condemn them
but to save them
by offering this invitation,
come,
will you believe?
The final verses,
18 through 21,
may feel very deterministic.
May feel like,
well,
it says if I believe
then I'm in,
but if I don't believe
then I'm already condemned
and what's the hope?
I think that's a misreading
of this text.
John is trying to help us
see clearly.
Here's the thing.
If the problem
that we've diagnosed
is right,
that all people
are under sin
and the solution
is presented
as the only one,
Jesus,
because only Jesus
has died on the cross
for our sin.
Only Jesus could do
what he did.
Because of his sinless life
he could take our place.
Because of his humanity
he could die for us.
Because of his resurrection
he shows that he
in the,
by din of his
indestructible power,
indestructible life,
is able to have victory
over sin and death
because he is a risen savior.
He alone is the one
that can save us.
Christians are not exclusive
because we think
everyone else is stupid
or we just want
our tribe to win.
Christianity is exclusive
because there's only
one solution
and it's Jesus.
Only he has done
what we need
to be saved.
John acknowledges
that some of us
don't turn to Jesus.
Some of us continue
to love the darkness
instead of the light.
Some of us are ashamed.
Some of us are clinging
desperately
to our own lives
apart from him
hoping that we can
make it on our own.
But as commentator
D.A. Carson
who by the way
if you haven't read
his commentary
it's the best commentary
on John.
D.A. Carson
he summarizes
this passage like this.
John expresses
these points
in the hope
that his readers
will beseech God
that all that they do
might be done
through him.
That is in short
that they will turn
to the lifted up
son of man
with the same desperate
unqualified faith
as the Israelites
displayed
who turned
to the bronze snake
in the desert.
By such faith
and such faith alone
can anyone
experience
the new birth
and thereby gain
eternal life.
friends
will you respond
to this call?
Jesus' encounter
with Nicodemus
then turns into
a sermon
and a call
by the apostle John.
Will you respond
to this call
today?
Maybe you're
one of those people
who loves church
because of the beauty
and the aesthetics
or because you love
the community
and the love
for one another.
but when you hear
me talk about
being born again
it feels foreign
it feels alien
it's something
you've never
really considered
before.
Maybe you've
grown up in church
and it's because
of your family
because of your
background
because of your
community
it's just kind of
who you are
but you've never
actually known
what it's like
to experience
this new power
this new life
in you.
Jesus says
come
come and believe
put your faith
and trust in me
and you will be
born again.
We're about to go
to the Lord's table
we're going to
celebrate communion
what communion is
is a celebration
of these things
is a celebration
of what Jesus
has done
for us
and for those of us
who have trusted
in Jesus
who know
that we are born
again through faith
in him
then the table
is a place
of remembering
and a place
of celebrating
together
the new
and eternal
life that we
have in him.
It is always
a sobering reminder
of the reality
of our sin
and that it
cost his death
for our salvation.
Our table
is open
to all
who've placed
their faith
in Jesus
as their Lord
and Savior
but I wonder
if there are those
this morning
who are wondering
who are hearing
about this new life
and going
that's not me
I've never
I don't know
what that is.
I pray that you
would take this time
as we celebrate this
don't eat the bread
and cup
as you're wondering
because it's an act
of faith
it's an expression
of trust in Jesus
but instead
take Jesus
into your heart
I'm going to pray
just a minute
and I'm going to pray
a prayer
that maybe
some of you
want to pray
with me
as we go to the table
I'm going to pray
that some of us
may invite Jesus
into our hearts
that we might
trust him
and be born again
today.
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus
we thank you
for what a great
Savior you are.
Lord we thank you
for your love
that you have
shown us
Lord we thank you
for the salvation
that has worked
at the cost
of the life
of the very
Son of God
Lord we thank you
for the hope
that we have
that we can't
be born again
that it doesn't
depend on our work
but Lord that you
have done the work
needed
for us to be
truly yours.
Lord for those
of us this morning
who may
sense your spirit
calling us
to place
our faith
in you.
Lord I pray
that we might
pray these things
Lord that we
confess our sins
to you
that our sins
are
have made us
Lord unworthy
to be in your
presence
and under your
condemnation
but that we
can trust
Lord
we put our
trust this
morning in
Jesus
in his life
and in his
death for us
and his
resurrection
from the dead
Lord we trust
him for the
forgiveness of
our sins
we trust him
to be brought
from spiritual
death to
spiritual life
that we might
be born again
Lord we pray
that you might
lead us as we
celebrate the
Lord's Supper
together
in Jesus name
Amen