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Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, comes to Jesus at night because he's at odds with the Pharisees. He acknowledges Jesus as a teacher from God but struggles with the concept of being born again. Jesus explains that to enter the kingdom of God, one must be spiritually reborn. Nicodemus questions how this is possible, and Jesus emphasizes the need for a divine transformation. Nicodemus's faith is based on signs and wonders, but Jesus teaches that true faith should be rooted in what is true. You all part that family tradition. Please take pictures and videos for the rest of us who are not going to participate. This is just how much fun that is and why we made the right decision by not participating in a Paul and Laine leftover. John chapter number three is where we're going to be in a zillion things coming up this week. One of the things as Christians we have to be most thankful for is that of a spiritual rebirth. A lot of people, you know, we talk about things we're thankful for, family, etc. We should be thankful for all of those things, but all of those things ultimately are a gift from God. And God gifts us with all of those, family, health, all of those. Beyond that, if you are a Christian, you've been gifted more than anyone else by having salvation. Salvation is the ultimate gift because God loves the world so much that he sent his only son to die in our place. We kind of covered that last week in Isaiah 53, talking about substitutionary atonement and God sending the sacrificial servant to be the one who took on our sin so that we wouldn't have to do that. So today we're going to look at a religious leader by the name of Nicodemus. In John chapter three, you know, it's a very familiar passage of scripture. And so I want you to think about a guy who studies maps his whole life. Obviously, he has no wife. He doesn't have any friends. He's a recluse at home, and all he does is study maps. But he never goes anywhere. He never travels. He never experiences the joy of the travel or traveling with children and the joy or lack thereof that comes with that. He doesn't understand the adventure of the travel because all he does is look at the maps and go, wow, I have maps. That's kind of like a Nicodemus. Nicodemus understood things. He's seen things from afar, and he even had enough knowledge of what he was talking about to go to Jesus directly. So let's go ahead and turn to John chapter number three, verse number one. And if you find your place and are able, would you please stand in honor of the reading of God's word. 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 the water and the spirit, he cannot enter 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 marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear it 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 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 heavenly things? No one has descended into heaven except he who has descended from heaven, the Son of Man. You may be seated, and let's go. Heavenly Father, God, we are grateful just for the opportunity to approach your Word. Lord, we are so blessed to have a full copy of it. Lord, we are blessed to live in a nation where we can openly come and worship you. Lord, we have many things to be thankful for this week, but Lord, I pray that the thing that we are the most thankful for is our spiritual rebirth. Lord, I pray for any who may be here who have never truly been born again. Lord, that you would work in their heart. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, we have Nicodemus. Nicodemus is what we know from him. He is a ruler of the Jews, and he comes to Jesus by night. Now, why on earth would he come to Jesus by night? Well, Jesus had been at odds with the Pharisees and the Jews. Now, Nicodemus was a ranking member of the Pharisees. He was on the Sanhedrin. He was an elite, if you want to say it that way. He was the cream of the crop. He was a teacher of the law, and what you have to understand about the Pharisees is they understood the law. They had been reading the Old Testament from the time that they were young children all the way through, and they were the most pious, the most legalistic. They had it down to a T, so to speak, and took what God had made simple, ten of them, ten commandments, and by the time Jesus got on the scene, there were over 500 commandments that they were telling people, you're not keeping these correctly. One of the ones that we reference frequently is the one on the Sabbath. Don't break that. Don't work on the Sabbath, and if you had a mat or a bed that you had laid out, if you rolled it up and carried it above your knees, that was considered working. If your lamp ran out of oil and you filled it on the Sabbath, well, that was work. So you had to sit in the dark on the Sabbath day. You couldn't fill your lamp until the next day. So it kind of got a little carried away from where the intended purpose was. So Nicodemus was coming to Jesus by night because they were at odds. But not only that, but the Pharisees also said anyone caught dealing openly with this man would be banned from the temple. That was a big deal. That's where commerce happened. The temple was the booming metropolis in the town. This is where everything happened, commerce, trading. You climbed the social ladder, so to speak, even in the temple. So to have you excommunicated from the temple would be a big thing. So Nicodemus is coming to Jesus by night. Not only that, but it gives kind of some symbolism here of John uses lightness in dark, where we're seeing the condition of Nicodemus' heart. He's still living in darkness. He's coming to Jesus by night. He's still living in darkness. And he asks a very reasonable question. He makes a statement, and he says, Rabbi, we know. In this point he's saying it's 100% true. We know that you are a teacher come from God. For no one can do these things, do these signs, that you do unless God is with him. Now this is a statement of belief. We know. This is encompassing all of the Pharisees. We know. And this tells you the condition of their heart. They know Jesus is who he says he is. He's doing the things that he does because he comes from God. They know this, yet they still don't believe. I love that that's not how this passage ends, but I love how Jesus deals with Nicodemus because it shows what Nicodemus' faith is based on. True faith goes beyond signs and wonders, signs and miracles. I hate to be down in the mountain. I grew up in a church setting where those were very sought after, signs and miracles and wonders and things like that. And Jesus even said, don't look for those things. We want to try to find righteousness, find good things, find how God is working. And we say the simplest way that God works. And what I mean by that is God doesn't need to do signs and wonders. Could God clear out a children's hospital? Absolutely. If he felt like to. Yeah, absolutely to. But what we want to see from God is change. We want to change the life. We don't need to see signs and wonders. Those are great things. If God does them, absolutely. They always bring glory back to God. But our faith shouldn't be rooted on just needing to see those things or going from one emotional high to another, but they should be rooted in what is true. So Jesus gets to the point of that. And this is what he says to Nicodemus. Nicodemus' curiosity prompts Jesus to reveal this truth. Entering God's kingdom requires a spiritual rebirth. And he doesn't even deal with what Nicodemus says. And I love that he says, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. That had absolutely nothing to do with what Nicodemus had said. Nicodemus... I mean, we need to say Nicodemus gave a testimony to who Jesus is. But Jesus revealed the heart of who Nicodemus is. Nicodemus is one who needed to be born again. Even remember, if we were a pastor search committee and you're looking for a pastor and you get an applicant like Nicodemus, everybody would be like, that's the guy. Man, he has got the right credentials, the education, everything that we would want. But here's the problem. Jesus hits it right on the head. He's not saved. He needs to be born again. Spiritual rebirth is what Jesus is talking about. One is born again. He cannot see the kingdom of God. Born from above. This is a new birth. Remember, the Bible tells us very clearly that we are dead in our sins and trespasses. And unless there is divine intervention, we have no hope for eternal life. I can do a lot of good things. Nicodemus was a ruler of the Jews. He taught. He knew the law. And there are many people who have excessive knowledge of biblical truth but have never had a divine transformation. For Nicodemus, you're not this way. Nicodemus is struggling. This is a new truth, by the way, that Jesus is presenting to Nicodemus. Nicodemus is obviously struggling with this. How can a man be born when he is old? Can't he enter a second time into the womb of his mother and be born? Now that sounds like sound logic, right? If this was something we had never heard before and all of a sudden it is spoken to us and it's a new truth, you're going to rustle with that. Nicodemus is thinking like we would think because he's a man like us. And he's struggling with this divine truth. Up until this point, you had never heard anybody speak about being born again. It was believe the law, follow the law, keep the commandments. Now Jesus is saying it's not about just doing those things. Those things follow the new birth. So Nicodemus answers just like we would answer. And it's not just funny because you have to understand why I find this funny. I'm 6'2", was taller when I had hair. I lost about three quarters of an inch of height after I lost my hair. My mom is 5'1", ish, being generous. That math doesn't math. There's no way that a grown man can enter again into his mother's womb and be born. And Nicodemus is kind of, I'm not, kind of being rude with Jesus, saying how is this going to work? How does this work? And Jesus answered, truly, truly. Now understand, in the Bible, when something is repeated, it is emphasizing a strong point. Truly, truly, I say listen up, Nicodemus, is what Jesus is saying here. Unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Hold on, what does he mean by water and spirit? Well, what is your body made mostly of? Water. How many of you drink enough water in a day? And apparently running your water through coffee beans does not count as water consumption. Tastes far better. Your body is made of water. So what he's saying, unless one is born of water, you have to be alive, and spirit. That's where the new birth comes in. Because we are born with a nature that is against God. We don't speak after the things of God. Romans chapter 3 does a very good job of teaching us who we actually are before we come to Christ. And the guy that wrote Romans is in the same boat here as Nicodemus. Paul was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. And as far as following the law, he was zealous for the law to the point of persecuting the church. So for Paul to say prior to conversion, no one is good, no one seeks after God, and there are none righteous, no not one. That's a divine epiphany because the law would not tell him that. Because Paul, in his mind, prior to Christ saving him, was keeping the law. So nobody seeks after the things of God until God changes them. And so you have to have this new birth. That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel, Nicodemus, that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear it sound. But do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. So there's a lot of things to unpack there. Here's an analogy of the wind from the Spirit. Now there are some people who get carried away with this. In our Baptist churches, unfortunately, the Holy Spirit is probably the most misunderstood person of the trident of the Godhead. And nothing to be misunderstood about, the Holy Spirit does divine things. The Holy Spirit is spirit, God is spirit. John even tells us that later. So for the Holy Spirit to be equated with wind is what he's saying. We go outside, we can kind of guess where the wind's coming from. Do we know where the wind's going? Not always, no. Because here in a few days, the wind is going to shift from the south up to the north. And it's going to be nasty and cold, and I'm going to be cranky until about April. And that's okay. It's winter, it happens. But we don't know exactly where the wind's going to do and what the wind is going to do. Who controls the wind? God does. So God controls the wind, so it is the same with the Spirit of God. God is sovereign over all of his creation at all times. And likewise, in salvation, God is sovereign in salvation by saving whom he saves. It's no accident that if you are a Christian here today, there is no accident that you are a Christian here today. God saved you with his Spirit. By the way, you cannot be saved unless the Holy Spirit of God draws you. You cannot be saved unless you have a changed heart. And you cannot be saved unless you have the grace and the faith to believe in God. How do you get those things? Well, you are saved by grace through faith, not by works. It's not of yourself, because what would happen if it was of ourselves? We would boast. So the grace and the faith to be saved is not from anything we've done. It is a gift of God. So God is the one who graciously saves us, gives us the grace and the faith to believe in him, and makes us a new creation. Nicodemus is getting some truth here, and he's still struggling. How can these things be? The Bible teaches us that the things of God are foolishness to the natural man. Think about that for a second. Before you came to Christ in salvation, did you care about what the preacher had to say? Or were you like, hey man, you are the one that is getting in the way of my lunch? Absolutely, like, hey, let's wrap this up here, guy. My stomach's growling, and you have to stop talking in order for food to get into my mouth. You are the one hindering that, and I know there is good food downstairs, and some of you are already thinking that, and that's okay. The things of God are foolishness. Does it make any sense at all that anybody would give up their one and only child in order for people that do not like you to have, like, let's use our own example. Who's my least favorite child? I'm just kidding. No, that's, don't do that. When I was a youth pastor, I used the example, I had a black lab named Bubba. Loved that dog, great dog. And I said, listen guys, I love you all very much. But I would not in any way, shape, or form, if your eternal destination was dependent upon me killing my dog so that you could have eternal life. I'm not doing it. You're a jerk. Why wouldn't you kill your dog? My dog's nicer than most of you, first of all. But secondly, I don't possess that kind of love. And so it's hard to understand God's love because it's weird to go around and ask all of the parents, would you give up one of your children so that somebody could have eternal life? All of you would say, absolutely not. How much do we love our kids? A lot. So to fathom that, make sense of that God would give up his one and only son so that people that hated God or opposed to God could have eternal life doesn't make sense to us in the actual. We don't understand those things. They don't compute in our head. But when the Holy Spirit of God makes you a new creation, your heart changes and then the way you think changes because your desires have changed. You're not interested in just living for yourself. Your desires change so that you understand, want to know the things of God, understand them better, and they make sense to you. So when we understand that Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins, we go, wow, God is so good that he would send his one and only son to die for a poor, wretched sinner such as myself. So he's saying, Nicodemus, you're a teacher of Israel and you don't understand what he's saying. All throughout the Old Testament, we're going to get into that here in the next few weeks, the prophecies concerning Christ's coming, prophecies of the Messiah. Even going back to the Genesis chapter number three where sin enters into the world, Jesus is already referenced as the seed of the woman who is going to bruise the head of the serpent. There's so much foreshadowing and prophecy. As a ruler of the Jews, Nicodemus would know these things. This shouldn't be borne to him. He already knows that Jesus is one who comes from God because of the signs and miracles that he does, but he can't understand the spiritual truth because he's still a natural man. Biblical terminology, he has not been made a new creation in Christ. Verse 11, truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness of 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. It's kind of weird how Jesus ends with verse 13, but why Jesus says that is because what he is saying is not just a mere man speaking. No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. This is Jesus referencing his divine origin. This is Jesus giving authority, saying, listen, when I'm talking, I am God speaking, so if I say to you, you must be born again, there's a plot behind it. Jesus never made a statement that didn't have a purpose. So when he's saying, you must be born again, what he is saying is you cannot continue to live the life that you've lived. Yes, you are a ruler of the Jews, you understand the law, but you are missing it big time. And likewise today, I don't care if you've grown up in church your whole life, you might have great knowledge of what the scripture teaches, but if you are not a new creation in Christ, I'm going to echo the words of our Lord and say, you must be born again. It's not about making a profession of faith if you do not possess faith. I can tell you all day long that I've got a long, luxurious mullet, and it looks great. And some of you are like, there has never been a mullet that looks good. And I would say, how dare you talk smack about my hair, that looks great. Long, luscious, flowing locks, and it'll stand in the wind just so it can go. And all of you are looking at me like, you are speaking ridiculous things, you are as bald as bald can be, you have not a single head on your hair. I take that up with God, he knows how many, I don't, that's okay. And I would say, how can you say that to me? I made my profession that I have hair. You can't tell me different. I was very sincere when I made my profession of hair. I professed the hairstyle that I wanted, and I, you can't tell me different, even though I have no hair and I don't do anything that would give evidence that I have hair, like, you know, go to a barber, or I don't even get to shampoo hair anymore, which that's okay. I have no evidence that says I have hair at all, but you're not going to tell me different because I was sincere in my profession of hair. You're like, this is a ridiculous analogy. I agree, because there are many people who walk in the aisle, they pray a prayer, they make a profession of faith, will baptize, and then they walk out the door, never to step foot in a church again, they live like the devil, and at their funeral, some pastor will get up and say, listen, yeah, they were kind of rough around the edges, but they made a profession of faith, and they were sincere. They weren't born again. They were not a new creation in Christ. They may have had a knowledge of who Christ was, but there was no evidence of a changed life. That biblical salvation is a changed life. If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. The old have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. If you can comfortably live in sin, you need to check your salvation. You need to examine yourself. This dialogue, this conversation here between Jesus and Nicodemus, it gives us this timeless truth. Salvation is a work of God. And when God does a work, it is always done effectively and perfectly. It doesn't mean you're going to be perfect, but there is no person whom God has saved that has ever fallen out of grace with God. Why is that? That's a simple truth. Any of you want to sell your kids? Some of you are like, I did. Price is right. We can talk. But no, we never give up our kids. Absolutely not. And some of you have adopted children. And that's a lot of work to adopt a child. That's a lot of work, a lot of money, a lot of effort that goes into that. You would never get rid of that child. Jesus Christ died so that our sins could be forgiven, and that we could go from being slaves to sin, to being slaves of righteousness, and then being children of God, then going from being a child to a co-heir with Christ, so that we receive the inheritance that Christ is going to receive. And remember, we were people that hated God and did not desire to do the things of God. How do we go from that? Listen, I've been Baptist long enough now that when I get set in my ways, I don't want to change. Because, man, I'm comfortable, and I've done it like this for so long, that this is how I've always done it. How many of you have ever used that phrase? Be honest, I've heard it from some of you. It's okay. Because all the ones I've heard it from here, they've always said, but we're open to try new things, and that's a good thing. But if I've not been a changed creation in Christ, I'm going to continue to do the things that I like, the things that bring me happiness, the things that aren't going to cause me grief in my life. Did you know following Christ costs you friends, it costs you relationships, it puts you on an unpopular list? Your life isn't always easy. We celebrate Lottie Moon during this time of year. Her life was not an easy one, but she gladly sacrificed to live a life that was pleasing to God because of what God had done in her heart. And so, this Thanksgiving, as we approach this week, understand this, we have the most to be thankful for if we are a new creation in Christ. If we have been born again, if we possess faith. Remember, it's not because I met Jesus halfway. That's a horrible analogy. And I confess to you, I've used it before. The only problem with that analogy is I can't find Scripture to back that analogy up. Here's the analogy I can give you from the Bible. I was dead in my trespasses and sin. Not looking for God, not seeking after Him, enjoying my sin. God made me a new creation. Changed my heart, took a heart of stone out of my chest, put in a heart of flesh, figuratively speaking. Put His Spirit inside of me, give me the grace to be forgiven, and the faith to believe in Him, and I believe in Him, and I'm kept by Christ. So that even if I were to want to stop following Christ, I can't. Because I'm kept by Christ. These people who have deconstructed their faith and are no longer Christians, they were never Christians to begin with. Because their faith was something they were holding on to. And the Bible teaches us that we are in the Father's hand, and no one is able to pluck us from it. Satan can't pluck us out of it, and you can't pluck yourself out of it. So if you are here today, and you are a new creation in Christ, you have the most to be thankful for. If you are here today, and you're like, wait a second, unlike the one you described, where I walk the mile, I pray to prayer, I don't really live a life that shows much change. Maybe I need to be born again. I would encourage you to repent of your sin and put your faith in Christ. Because, listen, I've lived it. That's why I'm passionate about it, okay? There's no need for you to think, well, I want to go back to that time. I remember being sincere in this, but hold on a second. From that moment to here, things just don't line up. I still enjoy doing this, that, and the other. I don't really care about the things of God, but I'll go through the motions of it. If that's you, I encourage you to repent of your sin and put your faith in Christ. I've been there. It's a miserable place to be. If you're here today, and you've never been biblically baptized, and I know I say that every week, and you ask, well, you should know what biblical baptism is by now. It is immersion by water. And if you're here, and you see, man, I love what's going on at First Baptist Church Windsor. I love the people here. I love the body. And I'd love to be a part of what you're doing. We would love to have you come and be a part of our fellowship, if the Lord is leading you that way. Would you stand with me today?
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