Robert Lang gave his life to Christ in 1979, 45 years ago…he is a good friend who lives in Chicago.
It’s not a long time in human history, but a long time none the less…to see that something substantial happened all those years ago.
We met at WSU in 1978…at first we were sort of like each other’s nemesis.
I had begun to walk with God that Summer and he was far from God (at least in his external actions and attitudes)
We became unlikely friends, and he became, to my eyes at least, an unlikely convert to Christ.
He changed…people on campus asked me what happened to Robert.
And he was the same Robert…he struggled with ups and downs.
But he was not the same…not at all.
Forty-five years later…he walks with God, he some adopted sons and has grandsons…whose lives have been changed…because he was changed.
He was transformed all those years ago by the gospel.
Robert was not a man who turned over a new leaf.
He was born again from above.
It happened on a regular, gloomy, cold winter day in Wichita…no fireworks…but I saw it then…I see it still.
Just like when a child comes to Christ upstairs or at kids kamp…no fireworks, at least that we can see.
But eternity has touched time.
Chapter 2 ends with John telling us that Jesus knew the hearts of all people and in chapters 3,4,5 we see Jesus instantly getting to the heart of multiple people from very diverse backgrounds.
Nicodemus (who was a national level Jewish leader), a Samaritan woman, A Gentle official, a crippled man, and more.
Today, we see at Jesus peering into the heart of Nicodemus.
There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to him at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.”
Nick (one syllable versus four) isn’t, at this point, necessarily open to the truth about Jesus.
He is fascinated by the signs.
He will, as John’s gospel unfolds, come around or at least it seems he does.
In John 7 he will take Jesus’ side against the other Jewish leaders.
And ultimately, in John 19, he will, at his own great expense, help prepare Jesus’ body for burial and help put him in the tomb.
But here, at this point…he is trying to make sense out of Jesus.
He is undoubtable an older man because of his elevated position (would have taken years) and his own statement about being old.
We don’t know why he came at night…maybe because he didn’t want to be seen with Jesus, but the probable reason John mentions this detail is his ongoing use of light and dark as metaphors for spiritual darkness and spiritual life.
What John tells us is factually true, the meeting was at night…but remember there are plenty of details he could tell…why this one?
Because it tells the larger story of Nick’s life at this point…he walked in spiritual darkness…though it would not have seemed that he did.
Remember how the gospel began…”the light shines in the darkness…the true light was coming into the world.”
Nick treats Jesus with great respect here, calling him “Rabbi”…essentially, making him a peer.
He believes that Jesus has done miracles, and that these are evidence of God’s hand in his life…and Nick would have known lots of Rabbis and probably none of them had done any miracles…certainly nothing like this.
So, he realizes that Jesus is exceptional…but that is a long way from Jesus being the Messiah.
He hasn’t asked a question yet, but there is one implied in his statement.
“You are clearly from God, none of the other teachers have done this stuff…your signs indicate that God is with you…but are you more than an exceptional teacher?”
Nick is saying he can “see” something of who Jesus is in the miracles…but Jesus will soon set him straight.
No one can see anything of the Kingdom of God unless he is born again.
So, Nick, like all who have not been born again…sees something in Jesus, but he has no idea, really what he is seeing.
Robert Donnovan is one of my closest long-time friends.
We met in 1988 through our wives…Christy and Debbi have been close friends for longer than we have.
They wanted us to meet because they enjoyed each other so much.
I’ve told this story before, but Robert and I were roped into a couple’s dinner that neither of us were excited about.
As we prepared to go their house I was complaining to Christy about having to spend an evening with a car dealer.
I later discovered that Robert was complaining to Debbi about having to spend an evening with a Baptist preacher.
We hit it off immediately and have been friends ever since.
Over the next probably 6 years…Robert and I worked out, played basketball, had lunch, dinner.
Initially he told he that he didn’t believe Christ was the Savior of the world…God become man.
After a few years he told me (as he had been reading the gospels) that Jesus was the greatest person who had ever lived but that he was not God.
I continued to pray…and enjoy his friendship…I was confident that Robert was seeking truth and so he would find it…I told him so.
One night he called me, this was years into the friendship, and he said, “It’s all true, what do I do next?”
He saw Jesus one way…then another way…but to see Jesus as he is…took the Spirit of God working in his heart.
So, Nick, sees something in Jesus…but it will take more than human intellect for him to really see who he is.
3 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again,, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
This is mind blowing for Nick on several levels.
First, Nicks theology would understand participation in the Kingdom of God as an entirely future, end of the age, experience.
But John reveals in his gospel that entry and participation into eternal life is now.
The Kingdom is already here…but not yet fully here.
It is not yet fully experienced…but to be born again is to enter into eternal life (kingdom kind of life) now.
Second, the whole born again thing…seems to blow a fuse.
The prevailing belief of the day was that apart from some extraordinary wickedness, or outright apostasy…all Jews would have entrance into the Kingdom of God.
But Jesus is telling this respected and conscientious religious leader that he can’t enter the kingdom unless he is born again.
What is so startling about this?
If someone with Nick’s knowledge, gifts, understanding, position, and integrity can’t enter the kingdom…what hope is there for anyone?
There is no hope for anyone apart from new birth in Christ.
By using the term “born again” Jesus reveals that we don’t need some partial amendment of our hearts, some remodeling,…turn over a new leaf.
What Jesus is revealing is that we are 100% defective…we require more than a makeover, we must have new birth.
We can’t be remodeled…we have to be remade
We are sinners to our core, from birth.
Now, it is thought that this kind of talk is hard on people…unkind, unhelpful…I’ve been told that.
Of course, I disagree.
It is commonly believed that to tell someone they are spiritually defective, sinners without hope on their own, will undermine mental health, and self-esteem and lead to depression and anxiety…and even worse.
Recent History has revealed the exact opposite.
The multi-generational project to tell people that they are okay, and you can do whatever makes you happy, and you are not a sinner…has failed miserably.
People are not getting happier…they are not becoming mentally, relationally healthier…it has been long trending the opposite way.
They are less resilient because what they are being told is a lie…we are not okay…we need to be saved.
I’ve told this story many times but decades ago, before Brenda was born again…she was visiting our church and also a church that did not believe the gospel.
She finally told me, “When I come here, you tell me I need to be born again, when I go there they tell me I am okay.”
I asked her, “Are you okay?”
She stopped going there, she was born again…now, thankfully, she leads our women’s ministry…and she leans in on the gospel…rightly so.
Brene Brown has a famous video on Empathy…I am not going to nitpick it…it has some truth in it…but it is way over applied.
In the video a cartoon fox is in a hole and a cartoon bear comes down and offers empathy…while another cartoon animal offers foolish statements from the top of the hole.
Brown says, at the end…”Rarely can a response make something better, what makes something better is a connection.”
I get that…I’ve been with people in horrific situations…and I am happy to offer a ministry of presence.
I sat through the night with a bride of 36 hours as we watched her husband die…I said very little.
But rarely is connection alone…going to make things truly better in the long run.
A gospel response…will.
And in due time…I gave that devasted young bride gospel hope.
Clearly we shouldn’t stay stupid and unhelpful things when people are hurting.
But if someone is stuck in a hole and the hole is not where they want to be or need to be…then any help in actually getting out of the hole is good…even if they “feel” like you are being unkind.
But it’s not a binary choice…either be the stupid antelope or whatever animal that was throwing down unhelpful words…or the nice bear in the hole with the sad fox
Who never, it appears, actually helped the fox get out of the hole.
There is a third way…Be kind and be courageous…and speak the truth of the gospel.
If people are not lost in their sins…then it would be unkind to say that they are.
If people are lost in their sins…and there is no hope for them…then by all means, it would be most kind just to sit with them and wait for the inevitable.
But since people are lost in their sins and since there is hope in Christ…it is both kind and good to tell them so.
Jesus offers Nick great kindness here.
Paul writes, God’s kindness leads us to repentance.
Repentance…starts with recognition of sin, need…and then a turning from it to Christ.
For Jesus to tell you that you must be born again…is not a quaint religious phrase.
He is saying…and he uses the very solemn formula, “I tell you the truth”
There is nothing in you that doesn’t require a brand-new work of God.
You need a spiritual rebirth…certainly this is not something we can do reform ourselves.
You don’t need a makeover…you need to be born again.
4 “How can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”
Maybe Nick was being overly literalistic here…but it’s doubtful.
He was a smart guy and understood non-literal speech when he heard it…this is a figure of speech…that points to a reality.
His response may have just been shock, or its likely he was being defensive.
“How dare you, I gave you respect, now give me the respect I am due!”
We don’t know who told this story, it could have been Jesus, later talking about this encounter with his disciples.
It also, very well could have been Nick telling this himself…maybe to John.
If so, he not trying to make himself look good…he is probably shaking his head as he said it…”Can you believe I said that?”
Jesus again, uses that phrase again, “Truly I tell you”…this means, pay close attention.
Recently when talking to a suffering friend, who was flooded and I really wanted to communicate the importance of my words I said, “Look at me”
Everything Jesus said was important…but he was saying here, “Nick, look at me…reel in your thoughts and emotions…hear what I am about to say.”
5 “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
There is debate over the meaning of “born of water and Spirit”
We won’t get lost in the weeds, but what it doesn’t mean is baptism.
If baptism is essential for entering the kingdom it is strange that
Jesus doesn’t mention it again, but his entire focus is on the work of the Spirit, himself, and of God himself.
And Jesus will soon berate Nick for being Israel’s teacher, an expert in what we call the Old Testament and yet failing to understand what Jesus is saying.
Jesus expected Nick to grasp the significance of what he was saying in regard to new birth out of his knowledge of the Old Testament…not from the then unwritten New Testament.
The Old Testament prophets often used water figuratively to refer to renewal or cleansing and it was often used in conjunction with the Spirit.
Like Isaiah 44:3
For I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground.
I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants and my blessing on your offspring.
The water and Spirit means…cleansing and renewing…the OT prophets spoke of this often and here it is.
Nick is likely confused because he was confident of his own obedience and couldn’t imagine he needed to repent…let alone have his entire life cleansed and his heart reborn.
But Jesus presses in.
6 Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again.
“Flesh” here is not “sin nature” as it is used in other places in the New Testament, this is a contrast between natural human birth and supernatural spiritual birth.
Humans bear physical Children; the Spirit makes us Children of God.
Don’t be amazed (surprised) by this Jesus says.
8 The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So, it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
You can’t control the wind…but you can see and feel its effects.
You cannot control or fully understand the Spirit…but the effects of the Spirit in a life are undeniable.
9 “How can these things be?” asked Nicodemus.
10 “Are you a teacher of Israel and don’t know these things?” Jesus replied.
This is a guy who had taught others for many years about the conditions of the Kingdom of God.
He was an expert in the commands, he was very likely devoted to God in his heart and actions…there is no sense that he was a hypocrite, or that he was playing at all this.
Yet now he hears a condition he had never taught or even thought of before…New Birth.
Jesus isn’t mocking him here…he is making it very clear that the Gospel, the reality of New Birth was built into the Old Testament…he should have seen it.
We will see this again in chapter 5, Jesus will say, about the Old Testament.
“These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”
Anyone who is confused about the role of the Old Testament today needs to pay attention to what Jesus says here.
“Nick, how can you have been an expert in the OT and not know it was talking about me?”
So, last week…Jesus says, “The Temple is about me.”
This week…”The Old Testament is about me.”
This brings to mind CS Lewis’ famous “Liar, Lunatic, Lord” argument.
Certainly, this is true…Jesus, cannot merely be a good man and make statements like this.
He was crazy or a bad man…or he is the Lord…there is no fourth option.
11 “Truly I tell you; we speak what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony. 12 If I have told you about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
Jesus is seeing into the heart of Nick.
“Nick, your problem is not intellectual…it’s not a failure to understand…it is a failure to believe.”
13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven—the Son of Man., 14 “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
Jesus didn’t go to heaven and then return and tell people about his experiences.
He isn’t Joseph Smith, or Mohammed…who supposedly received their messages from heaven.
Jesus originated in heaven, and he came to earth…the Word became flesh.
There are plenty of weird books out there about the supposed experiences of people who died and came back to life.
Jesus came from heaven…he is the Truth…why would we need those weird books?
Jesus told us all we need to know.
So, stop guessing…regarding what is ultimately real, true, important…Jesus says, “I will tell you.”
*Humans are trapped in their own experience, our own finite nature…this means we can only guess at ultimate things…or God has to reveal it us.
God who has made the cosmos entered the cosmos and told us what we need to know but could not discover on our own.
That’s how John started his gospel…the Eternal Word became flesh.
When we guess we guess wrong, the results are often catastrophic…in time and certainly in eternity.
Jesus then uses the well-known account of the bronze snake in the time of the Exodus.
God used the bronze snake (as they looked to it as a sign of their faith) to give them physical life if they were bitten by the actual snakes that were sent as a judgment for their sin.
Nick, you believe that story, because it happened…it was how God provided life in the midst of judgement.
Now, the Son of Man, (the Messiah, Jesus’ favorite name for himself) must be lifted up on the cross to provide life for those under judgment.
To be born again, people must look to him in faith.
Everyone who believes “in him” will have eternal life.
In this, Jesus is very different than the bronze snake.
That thing eventually had to be destroyed by King Hezekiah.
“He broke into pieces the bronze snake that Moses made, for until then the Israelites were burning incense to it.” 2 Kings 18
They had given it a personal name, “Bronze God” and they were worshipping it.
So, dumb.
Hezekiah…had to break it up, throw it away.
What should have reminded them of God’s glory and provision…became something that robbed God of glory and turned them from his provision.
God had spared them, looking to the bronze snake was the means that God used.
There was no life in it.
Jesus, on the other hand…says that life is IN him.
Now we are at what is likely the most famous verse in the world.
16 For God so loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
The mission of God is grounded in the love of God.
“For God so loved” is worded to emphasize the intensity of the Love.
“One and only” is worded to communicate the greatness of the gift.
John was precise, intentional in his words.
John is making it clear that God’s love toward us is not because we are so lovable…but because God himself is love.
Those who do not believe the gospel are already condemned…those who do believe the gospel, escape condemnation.
God takes no pleasure in condemnation…but again, since it is true that those who don’t believe are condemned…how he could be loving and not speak the truth?
“Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?” Ezek. 18:23
Why doesn’t he just give everyone a pass, then God would really be good.
That is a bigger question that what we have space for…but suffice it to say, he cannot.
“I thought God could do anything.”
God can do anything that can be done …he can take on human flesh, he can make the cosmos…but he cannot deny himself…or to stop being who he is.
He cannot give sin a pass…he can pay sins price on the cross, but he can’t give it a pass.
19 This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed.
John circles back to how he began his gospel.
Light has come, but some reject it because they loved darkness rather than light.
“Yeah Terry, I can get that…there are some bad people out there…but what about the nice guy who is a friend of mine…he doesn’t do evil things, but he doesn’t believe in Christ?”
Go back to the nice guy Nick, a nicer, more moral guy you probably couldn’t find…what did Jesus say to him?
“Nick, you must be born again.”
Now, we have Jesus coming down into the hole where the suffering fox is stuck…and saying…you can stay here and die in your sins, or you can believe and turn from your sin.
The fox says, “I’m a good person.”
“No” Jesus says, “You are not.”
The fox says, “I’m hurting, I’m suffering.”
“Yes”, say Jesus, “I suffered too…but you cannot use your suffering as an excuse to miss eternal life…repent, believe, be born again.”
And if you do believe and are born again…then what?
Look at verse 21.
21 But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”
If you are born again, then what has happened in your life is a work of God…all credit and all glory belong to him alone.
CONCLUSION
Perhaps this seems out of touch with the 21st century to you…we are aware of all the world religions; we have the internet.
We are scientific…we know stuff.
I read a quote from a scientist who said, “Evolution is impossible but I believe it anyway because the alternative is unacceptable to me.”
That is an honest statement…tells us that people are people…and they choose to believe what they find acceptable to believe…in the 21st or 1st century.
This is a piece of graffiti from the 2nd century…it reads “Alexmenos worships his god.”
Someone mocking Jesus, putting a donkey head on him…and mocking some believer named Alexmenos.
The gospel has always been deemed nonsensical by some…it’s been unscientific…stupid…cruel…every invective you can imagine.
All that matters is that it is true…not whether you want it be true or not.
The gospel is conclusively true…and you and me, like Nick, we have to decide what to do the demands of Jesus.
If you have believed the gospel, like I have…then you and I have to contend with our daily life choices and the ongoing demand of Jesus on our lives.
Will we be faithful or not?
Will we live and tell the gospel or not?
Don’t think it was easier in the gym, or at work, or on WSU campus back in the day…but it is a different day, harder today.
It has never been cool to really believe the gospel.
In 1981 a WSU professor wrote an article in the school paper rebuking me personally for my faith…I was insensitive…I was wrong…he said this to the entire school.
I am praying I would have more of the courage at 65 that I had then at 22…more of the zeal I had for the gospel then…that I have allowed to slip away as I have grown older and life more complex.
The truth of the gospel has not changed…times haven’t really changed…
The gospel is true or it is not…it is that simple.
If it’s not…then don’t waste your time here on Sunday mornings.
If it is…then don’t waste your life living a life that is not faithful to the gospel.
I read an article by non-believer saying to us, believers in the Gospel.
“If you really believed that people are lost forever without Jesus you would do nothing except tell people about him…you would drop everything else in your life.”
Thank you for the advice…but we will take our lead from God’s word, not you.
God’s word tells us that we are to be found faithful…we have talked at length about this this year…and the year before.
The gospel is true…and people need to hear it…and we are to work jobs, and raise kids, and mow grass, and rest.
And in the context of all that…we are to build trust relationships with people from which we can share the good news of the gospel.
I’m willing to climb into the hole with you…but I’m not staying here, and you don’t have to either.