 John chapter 3 I'm going to be looking at the first 15 verses and Afterwards, I'm hanging out so if you guys want to come and say hi, whatever. I'll give you more details But I want to get into the word John chapter 3 verses 1 through 15 the message tonight is when two worlds collide Let's read verses 1 through 15 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 and said to him most assuredly 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's old can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born Jesus answered most assuredly I say to you unless one is born of water in the spirit He cannot enter the kingdom of God That which is born of the flesh is flesh that which is born of the spirit is spirit Do not marvel that I said to you you must be born again The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it But cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes So is everyone who is born of the spirit Nicodemus answered and said to him how can these things be Jesus answered and said to him are you the teacher of Israel and do not know these things Monster surely I say to you we speak what we know and testify what we have seen and you do not receive our witness If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe how will you believe it if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven But he who came down from heaven that is the Son of man who is in heaven and As Moses lifted the up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of man be lifted up That whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life You can divide the world into two categories of people There are those who love the Word of God and who live by the Word of God and There are those who hate the Word of God and who hate the people of God as Christians we are in an increasingly aware. We're actually aware of this increasingly growing opposition and not just that but our culture is becoming very very harsh towards Christians and Christianity isn't it and What I find myself thinking through these things we're becoming marginalized as Christians There's a persecution that's mounting in various ways and frankly the culture is Realigning itself in order to support immoral practices You can go basically to any college or university secular that is and you begin to talk about Christianity and the Christian values you're going to see what's going to happen people are going to go against you in a very very harsh way And the question is well, what is the issue? Why are people so against? Christianity and the answer is because there are two worlds colliding the Christian world view and the secular world view They're clashing even more so today than any other time We look at this here in John chapter 3 it reminds me of this collision because we're going to see this collision in chapter 3 of John We see a religious man colliding with the heavenly man Jesus Christ And we see that this was an interesting conversation that he had with this man by the name of Nicodemus And I've always looked at this first 15 verses of John and I I've looked at it I've read it before I've taught through it before but this Conversation has a lot more depth to it than just reading through John and get into John chapter 3 16 that we all know For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son and so on and so forth This conversation that Jesus had with Nicodemus is a very interesting conversation And what I want to do tonight is I want to kind of unpack it for you I want to pull out some things in this conversation that will help you understand the gospel and We'll help you understand where people are at who are not Christians And so we come to this conversation and for us to understand this conversation We have to go back to the end of chapter 2 and Chapter 2 if you guys go to chapter 2 verse 23 to 25 I want to read this to you I want to kind of show you how this is an important part of chapter 3 It says that when Jesus when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast many believed in his name When they saw the signs which he did But Jesus did not commit himself to them because he knew all men and had no need that anyone should testify of man For he knew what was in man the key verse there is when it says many believed When they saw When they saw the signs that Jesus did it doesn't say that many believed when they heard The teachings of Jesus what Jesus said, but they only believed when they saw have you ever heard the phrase seeing is believing? You get this from people who are skeptics, right? Well, I'm not gonna believe in God unless I see it Unless I see this then I will believe and there's this this phrase this expression From skeptics that they will say seeing is believing but the problem with that expression is that it is not an absolute truth And let me tell you why let me give you an example when you see a person driving a fancy car The first thing you see is this fancy car and you think that guy has money Listen, I know a lot of people that drive fancy cars who are in debt I was reading an article recently about the lifestyle of billionaires and It was talking about how these billionaires in all that they do right they travel the world they make a lot of money and When you see this you think they are living a happy life I've heard people say man if I was only rich My life would be much better if I was only rich I would have all the money mad life would be better and great Well, this article came to the conclusion that as they were studying the top billionaires of the world They came to the conclusion that most of these billionaires are sad and depressed individuals These are people with money So because you see someone who is a billionaire and you think oh man They must be on top of the world which they kind of are but they must be happy. They're not You guys remember the man by the name of Thomas when I think I've seen is believing we call them skeptic Thomas Right you call them secular Thomas, whatever you want to call the poor guy We get to heaven this guy's got a bad rap right But we have a situation when Jesus rose from the dead he was the one who says I'm not gonna believe it until I see it Remember that he was one of those who used that expression seen as believing He was doubting and what did he say he said unless I see in his hands the imprints of the nails and Put my finger into the place of the nails and put my hand into this his side. I will not believe He says I want to touch. I want to see with my own eyes for me to believe Well, he got his chance to believe, you know the story, right? Jesus appeared to him and Basically, Jesus and go ahead touch look look at my fingers look at my hands look at the imprints and what did he say? He said this in John 20 26 to 29 my Lord and my God Jesus said to him because you have seen me and have you and you have believed he says Blessed are those who did not see and yet believe. That's you and me Hey, Thomas Man, yeah, you got me right in front here. There isn't save you right in front of you But blessed are those who have not seen me and yet believe See you and I have not seen Jesus We've never seen Christ after the resurrection. He didn't appear to us. We believe by faith Because of what happened in our own lives. We know Jesus is real because of the transformation has taken place in our lives, right? That's what Jesus is saying. Blessed are those who have not seen me and yet they believe Where Thomas had him right in front of them? We see that believing in Jesus Even though we've never met him is something that Hebrews 11 says that faith is the Substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen You know Jesus had many followers who believe because they saw the things he did the supernatural healings Somebody who was blind mute a leper were all healed the casting out of demons walking on water The multiplying of food and stopping a storm. They saw and believed because of what they saw But Jesus prefers people to believe not just from what they see but but just what he says what they hear and In verse 24 Jesus said in chapter 2 He did not commit himself to man in other words He did not he didn't need man's help to tell him what man is like He knew his divine knowledge. What was in man's immense hearts? Jesus knew that the multitudes that followed him believed him because they saw the miracles that he did The belief of these people was based upon witnessing the signs he performed making their faith shallow Making their faith very shallow see the people stopped at amazement and never progressed to commitment They were all amazed at what Jesus did, but they never truly committed to him I think it's important because this is something that we have to be very careful as Christians You know, this is a problem and Jesus kind of talked about this if you guys go to John chapter 4 I'm gonna read this real quickly verse 48 This is what Jesus said and this is why this is this kind of belief is a problem where you're just amazed But you never commit he says in chapter 4 verse 48 He says this he says then Jesus said to him unless you people see signs and wonders you will by no means believe And that's sad. I Have to perform a miracle for you guys to believe, but my teachings are not doing anything to you There's a danger to this why would Jesus say, you know what unless you see the signs and wonders you will not believe See, there's that whole Christianity where it's all about signs and wonders, right? There's a healing service There's a miracle service that's coming up and and these church leaders are getting people conditioned to just follow Signs or to see signs so that their faith can get stronger that that is a problem. It's dangerous because of Mark chapter 13 verse 22 listen to this For false Christ and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive if possible even the elect Second Thessalonians 2 9 the coming of the law is one is according to notice the working of Satan with all power Signs and lying wonders Do you see why it's a dangerous thing to? Follow after signs or to only be amazed at these things and not really commit to Christ This is the warning that Jesus is giving to the people that were following him and here in John chapter 3 We see here as John chapter 2 says he knew what was in man notice of how he starts chapter 3 verse 1 There was a man Chapter 3 the first 15 verses is an illustration of those who believed in Jesus because of what they saw him do That's exactly the same boat that Nicodemus was in as you're gonna see here in this conversation We know that you're a teacher or we know rabbi that your teacher because of what you do what what we see We're not get into this here in a moment and so we go from the end of chapter 2 That Jesus knew what was in man to verse 1 of chapter 3 there was a man of the Pharisees name Nicodemus Nicodemus is that example of the many who believed what they saw John 3 illustrates the many and Nicodemus is one of them now the name Nicodemus means conqueror of the people and Nicodemus was not your typical religious person He was a Pharisee a ruler of the Jews as it says here Nicodemus was a member of the most influential Jewish party in Jesus's time and The Pharisees when you talk about the Pharisees in the Bible They're mentioned 22 times 21 times in the Gospel of John and are nearly always portrayed as opposed to Jesus But here in chapter 3 verse 1 Nicodemus the Pharisee comes to Jesus not to oppose him But to affirm something about Jesus that the other Pharisees did not have the guts to do This is what we see that Jesus is coming to this or fair or Nicodemus coming to Jesus and And Nicodemus is affirming that the miracles performed by Jesus was not normal and something was different about Jesus And here's a ruler a member of the Sanhedrin This is the supreme judicial and administrative counsel of the Jews in other words the Jewish Supreme Court Just kind of giving you an understanding of who this Nicodemus man was The Sanhedrin here is said to have consisted of 71 members the high priest being President the president of this group and it was the Sanhedrin who tried Jesus on the charge that he claimed to be the Messiah Which he was and then Peter and John in the book of Acts were brought before this council because of their preaching of the Gospel And so we see that Nicodemus here was a rabbi a teacher an elite religious leader of Pharisee and a politician member of the Sanhedrin He was the cream of the crop there was no rate He was no regular person coming to Jesus could you imagine as Jesus is seeing this this elite religious man coming to him by night I mean that must have been an interesting sight Again the Bible paints a bad picture of the Pharisees with the exception of Nicodemus Another one is the Joseph of Arimathea who took the body of Jesus and Gamma Liel in the book of Acts Those are the only three religious leaders that the Bible does not say bad things about So he comes to him by night. Why? There's a lot of theories to this Why would John tell us by night? There's a reason for it, but John doesn't tell us the reason He just speaks as a matter of fact But there's a reason why Nicodemus came by night not during the day While John doesn't tell us this there are some good reasons why perhaps he came by night I'm gonna give you some of the reasons why one is that it could have been that Nicodemus did not want to see Be seen talking to Jesus by the other religious leaders. He was a shame I could also be that during the night the crowds were less They weren't all over Jesus as Jesus was always followed by a bunch of people. So maybe Nicodemus said nighttime would be better another interesting reason is That some say that has to do with the way John uses the word night in his gospel The word night appears to have negative connotations In John chapter 9 verse 4 for example Jesus urges people to work in the day for the night is coming when no one can work John 1110 says that those who walk in the night stumble because they have no light John chapter 13 verse 30 after receiving the bread from Jesus's hand Judas went out into the night to betray him Some believe based on how John uses the word night in his gospel They say that Nicodemus coming to Jesus by night suggests that he was in a spiritual darkness That when he approached Jesus his heart was darkened and we know Nicodemus was not saved Nicodemus was not born again. Obviously because you're going to see this conversation in a moment This is true today. There are religious people who are still in a state of spiritual darkness Doesn't matter what they have what they wear. They have not responded to the gospel. They're still in their sin And this is where Nicodemus was at He was not saved and Jesus knew his heart. So how does she how does Nicodemus approach Jesus? Notice what he says there in verse 2. He says rabbi, which means teacher He says rabbi which I find it interesting in what he said. He says we know that you are a teacher come from God We isn't it just Nicodemus? Who's we? John doesn't give us much information So two possibilities here one is that Nicodemus was with other people and they were with him They John just didn't care, you know of giving that detail or he's going there as a representative of the religious people I kind of lean towards that. He was coming as a rep Because I think Jesus would have addressed them as well Because it's just right to Nicodemus We he says What was their conclusion their conclusion was three things you're from God Your miracles are not human in origin and God is with you. I Find that interesting that Nicodemus has come to that conclusion, but then he says we I'm just wondering if the rest of the Pharisees kind of knew this who this is who Jesus is and the reason why They didn't come out with the truth is because they did not want to be put as second, right? Because they were the the prideful They lacked humility and they wanted to kind of rule the people and for them to stoop down and say yes Jesus is the Messiah would be bad for them and perhaps they did not want to You know affirm that as Nicodemus is But what Nicodemus is saying is that we know there's something different about you. You're not an ordinary man And what you're doing nobody can do You know, this is something that was common in the gospels When people confronted Jesus they would kind of marvel at Jesus let me give you an example Matthew 21 10 When he had come into Jerusalem all the city was moved saying Who is this? Mark chapter 4 verse 41 And they feared exceedingly and said to one another who can this be that even the wind and sea obey him Even his own disciples were bewildered at Jesus. They're like who is he? Luke 7 49 and those who sat at the table with them began to say to themselves Who is this that even forgives that he forgives sins? Again, they were marveling You know, I wish people would take an honest look at Jesus at the person of Jesus to at least admit that Jesus is different and what he did was not humanly impossible. There's no way a man can do the things he did Nobody can ever come to that conclusion Try it sometimes As you're coming closer to your thanksgiving and your Christmas with that uncle who's a Agnostic or atheist whatever just say hey, let me ask you a question Can you admit that Jesus was different than any other person on earth? Well, yeah, he was different and You know that what he did whether you believe miracles are those miracles were not really Done by just anybody was just him right? Oh, yeah, okay And you know that if that was true then God was with him, right? I mean would you come to that conclusion? I mean to give an assessment of Christ an accurate assessment I just agree with me that Jesus is not Like the other so-called religious leaders that we have in this world He's not the same as Muhammad Muhammad never did any of these things Buddha was never part of this Joseph Smith Charles T. Russell All these religious leaders who started these religions Can't compare to who Jesus is But the problem is that Jesus gets lost among these religious leaders all these world religions And people reject Jesus too quickly without ever giving themselves a chance to really know who Jesus is Nicodemus, I love this because Nicodemus is coming and and he's coming with a true assessment of Jesus That that we know That you the works you're doing This is from God and God is with you He's being honest And so we see here that as he's coming to Jesus and he's Affirming these things You know, it's interesting because people don't Usually have this kind of conversation when you're sharing the gospel It's usually, you know, sometimes people will come to you and say, hey, can you tell me a little bit more about this Jesus? And then you get a chance to do that, right? I mean that doesn't happen all the time, right? Because you know when that happens, you're like, oh man, oh shoot. Okay. All right. All right. Let's go for it. Let's do it Yeah, yeah, you want to know who Jesus? Sure, right? And then you don't even do it, right? Because you're so excited, right? It's always us going to them. Hey, do you know who Jesus is? But for someone to come to you and say, can you tell me about Jesus? I mean think about the first time someone shared the gospel with you Did you receive the good news right away? Were you hesitant? I know for me, it took me years to finally come to grips with christ I was taken to a first church. It was an azurean church I was a young guy and I went to the youth group and Here in this this young guy teaching and all I came out learning was man I what do you mean? I can't watch rated our movies and I can't do this and I can do that This guy doesn't know what it means to live life That was that was my impression of this guy and and I was turned off. I was like, that's not going to be for me But people would come to me and share Jesus with me and I would always use the excuse I'm a roman catholic. I believe the same as you do. Thank you That was my excuse What I was saying is I don't know anything about God I was raised roman catholic and my mom would kill me if I changed my religion That's what I would say. That's what I'm really saying seriously My mom would tell me if you change your religion God will be mad at you. Okay. I won't do that but listen When people reject the gospel I'm always reminded of what Jesus said later in this chapter in chapter 19 verse 19. I'm going to read this to you John chapter 3 19 he said this Where is it out? There it is. Sorry And this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world that men love darkness Rather than light because their deeds are evil for everyone practicing evil hates the light does not come to the light Less as d should be exposed But he who does come to the truth comes to the light That his deeds may be clearly seen that they have been done in God You know, Jesus is the light and sin is the darkness And You know when I wasn't saved I loved my sin I didn't want to let it go It was comfortable for me to live in sin. It was fun But little did I know it was actually killing me. It wasn't doing anything for me I was on a path to destruction But I didn't know that But when the gospel was shared with me, it was like a flashlight was Put in my face and and either I would be positive about it or negative about it And most of the time I was like, no, thank you. No, thank you. No, thank you Nicodemus has come in living in darkness. He's not Pushing Jesus away. He's pressing. He's affirming something that's true and Jesus does not beat around the bush here We see here that Jesus says something very interesting in verse three Jesus answered and said to him most are surely I say to you Notice he didn't say most are surely I say to you guys Most are surely I say to you and the rest of your posse Nothing, right? Most are surely I say to you You know, I love when a skeptic will come to me and say and I've had this on the radio Well, you guys claimed to be the only way to God, huh? Yes, we do That's that's what Jesus came here to show us the way the truth in the life Well, what about those who are in the jungles of of brazil that have never been touched as far as any human contact How will God would God really send him to hell? My response is always like sir listen It is not my place to know how God is going to reach them All I know is God is fair God is just Whatever way he's going to reach them is going to be between him and that tribe But let's not worry about the tribe. Let's talk about you You know the gospel, right? You know Jesus and you bring it back to him to them And Jesus is now he doesn't care about the we Hey Nicodemus most are surely I say to you And he hits them right between the eyes And this is where the gospel comes in He says it very clearly He says this most are surely I say to you and I love this He says unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God, huh? Well, I'm just giving you enough formation. I'm not asking you to want me. No, what are you talking about here? It's like those conversations you have with people, right? You're talking about God and you're saying, yeah, God this and God that and none of that And then you read the name of Jesus like whoa, wait a minute. I could talk about God, but don't bring Jesus now You know in history and we were I stayed out of uh, we had old neighbors We lived in Irvine before we moved to New Jersey and um We stayed at a old neighbor's house and he's an agnostic. Both are agnostics He's been very clear about that. I had him over in Jersey for three days. That was fun And so we came here and we my wife's like I stay with them because they open their homes I'm like, I don't know if I want to stay with them You know But I did I said, oh, let's do it And so we stayed not just one night two nights and they're really beautiful people. They really are They don't know Christ And he throws some jabs in you know, he tries to make fun of me because I'm a Christian all But they're not could play with him on that you know, I'm not worried about it. It doesn't offend me really But we were having breakfast and my wife did an amazing job She's like tells him he says now I know that you you're an agnostic and I know you don't really believe in God But but you guys seem to kind of like really care about the earth and and it seems like you you know You want to support, you know This and that when it comes to the earth So you kind of believe in some kind of creator because you're trying to protect the earth, right? That was awesome. I know where you going with this one, you know Let me finish eating And he said, you know, it was interesting and he said, you know Yeah, you're right. Yeah, I and he this is the first time he's ever said this He says we do I do believe in a source of life And then I jumped in I says, but We know who the creator is you just don't He says that's true It says we've identified who the creator is you haven't identified the creator yet. There's no we haven't I'm like, wow gives you more information right people who don't know Christ and it's interesting because You know, I've shared the gospel with him and I've talked to him about the gospel And it's interesting because what I've seen in this whole pandemic thing with the rise of of all the you know The the mandates and everything in the vaccine I get questions all the time is the vaccine the mark of the beast if you've taken the vaccine you're safe you're it's not And I say no, it's not the mark of the beast The mark of the beast doesn't go on the arm The Bible doesn't say that But this neighbor of ours X neighbor All of a sudden was listening to end times teachings Like an agnostic and he would text me once in a while and say hey, have you listened to this guy? Have you listened to this guy? And I'm thinking this guy is kind of waking up spiritually here because he's interested about end times scenarios and it's interesting because We see people heightened to that You know, I was I was like lord. What are you doing here? This is this is interesting times The way everything is going And we would pray for things to stop to stop but it kept going it kept going and it's interesting because This is where nicodemus is at with jesus nicodemus is coming to jesus affirming and jesus is not going to give into that He's going to just get him right to the heart of the issue his spiritual states You cannot see the kingdom of god notice They remember the contrasting chapter 2 That many believe because they saw now jesus is saying if you want to see the kingdom of god, you must be born again I love the conversation how jesus brings it here Jesus is saying that without being born again. You cannot see the kingdom of god just because you see miracles That won't get you into heaven Because that was the whole approach of nicodemus We know you're from god because of well everything you're doing you know the miracles What jesus is doing here? He's shattering the jewish assumption that their racial identity their old birth assured them a place in god's kingdom It must have just Blew him blew up in his mind nicodemus must have been like wait, what? I'm a Pharisee. We have our place in heaven Jesus made it plain that a man's first birth does not assure him Of the kingdom of heaven you must be born again, and that is how you are assured of heaven. That's what he's saying to him That's why in acts chapter 7 when steven gave that amazing old testament bible study to the jewish people there He told them how they rejected jesus and all and the truth of god collided with the religious minds and what happened Chapter 7 of acts first 54 when they heard these things They didn't believe They were cut to the heart and they gnashed their teeth at them and then they got and they stoned them This is the the negative way. This is where light enters darkness, right? Have you ever had somebody rebuke you because you shared jesus with them? Get away from me. You're born againer. I don't want to hear about it Don't talk to me about jesus. I mean, it's like they're mad at you, right? You're like, what did I say? I'm just asking you a question But it's just the sin right the darkness that's being exposed. That's how people react To be born a jew did not get you into heaven And nicodemus would have been stunned by jesus's statement as a religious jew That he would not see the kingdom of god Unless he was born again now. I don't know from here whether nicodemus was being sarcastic When he'd be gonna say how can I go back into my mother's womb? I don't know if he was being sincere. He was just so confused by this That he just didn't know what to say But then he says jesus makes it clear here He says that you must be born again He says unless one is born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of god The word born again in fact that phrase when your bibles might be born from above because that's what it literally means born from above Or born of god This message is for everyone today Is is being born again And to try to explain it to people because that whole phrase has been run over many times and and the world doesn't really take it seriously anymore We have to explain to people what it means to be born again because that's the issue It's not going to church. It's not how many times you read your bible It's not how many times you pray a day Are you born again? That's the question and that's the question I asked you guys here tonight If you're here tonight and you're not even a christian and you were brought here by a friend a girlfriend a mom a dad And you're sitting here and you're thinking like I don't even know what this guy's talking about that usually happens My question to you is are you born again? Have you been born of god? Because that is what's going to get you into heaven nothing else You must be born again And jesus begins to try to explain it to him And and he says in verse 4 how can a man be born again? He didn't understand the nature of regeneration Like I said, maybe he's being sarcastic But jesus nicodemus missed jesus's reference to being born from above And so he begins to explain it to him versus five through nine He explains to him. It's like born of water and of the spirit Now there are several views here about this and and i'll tell you one thing that it doesn't mean Which which you know scholars call this baptismal regeneration, which means that you must be Born again and baptized to be born again to to go to heaven The bible never says anything about you being baptized for salvation baptism comes after you're born again After you're regenerated after you are now saved then the next step is being baptized But that is to identify yourself with christ publicly. That's all it is right still important But if you're not baptized it does it doesn't mean that you're not going to heaven But I encourage people if you haven't baptized to be baptized And the guy in the thief the thief on the cross wasn't baptized, right? Jesus didn't say today before you come up here. You will have to be baptized and you'll be in paradise doesn't say that But here this is not what it means and a lot of these Uh baptismal regeneration groups like the church of christ and some of the busting church of christ They'll take verses like this and say see you have to be baptized to be saved If you want to get in the heaven you have to be baptized and then they go further and say in our church That's a cult. You can't go there, right? So He's what it means here is basically speaking of a spiritual birth. It's what it's really saying here And nicodemus might have been reminded of the symbol of water in the baptism of jewish expectation of john the baptist remember that And we see here though this it's not speaking of that kind of Gentile baptism But of water and a spirit is another way to describe the process of being born from above which is a spiritual birth Jesus says it twice in verse six and seven born of the spirit born of the spirit The element of water and operation of the spirit are brought together As a prediction in ezekiel Chapter 36 verses 20 five and 27 that got promised to renew people And he's written he uses this which is pretty interesting So this is some this isn't something that you and I can do on our own You cannot be born again on your own in other words. You don't have the power to save yourself The work of the spirit is invisible and mysterious like the blowing of the wind And man can't control the wind. I remember one time my my my boy six years old He was actually five at the time and it was really windy. He says daddy. Can you just pray to stop the wind? I'm like, wow Son, I'm like, what do I say to that right like am I lacking faith if I say no son? Or do I say well son, you know, really we can't control the wind. I mean, but jesus did you're right I mean, what do you say to that right? But we don't control the wind. We can't control the wind And jesus is saying just like you cannot control the wind. You cannot control this spiritual birth It's from above it comes from above And this is what he's saying and nicodemus in verse nine says Or actually verse eight jesus illustrates the reality of this new regeneration By the holy spirit and then he says in verse nine, this is where nicodemus is just kind of really losing. He says How can these things be? How can these things be? And then he says in verse 10 Jesus has some final words notice He says after nicodemus is just blown away by everything Jesus said are you the teacher of Israel? And do you not know these things? Oh, that's a cut right right. Whoa, wait a minute. What do you mean by this? You know nicodemus held a high Position of great responsibility He was a teacher of the law as well and when jesus says Do you not know these things? What jesus is saying is not an uncommon theme in the old testament nicodemus should have known God promised regeneration through various prophets and i'll just give you the list isaiah 43 3 or i'm sorry 44 3 59 21 you can look at those on your own time Ezekiel 11 19 36 26 to 27 you look at those passages and god is promising that his people Would be born again or regenerated What jesus is saying is like you're a teacher of israel and you do not know these things You should know your Bible your isaiah your ezekiel Jesus expected him to know these things they should have clicked, but it didn't click for nicodemus Jesus rebuked the Pharisees of this very thing of their ignorance of the scriptures that were about him It's a hard heart, right And so jesus addresses nicodemus again in verse 11 and 12 again by saying you notice what he says in verse 11 He says this he says when jesus said you know are you a teacher of israel and do not know these things Most are surely said to you we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen and you do not Receive our witness notice the trinity Notice what he said there we jesus is saying now we speak We know And we have seen and you do not receive our witness In fact your bibles might have the word our capitalized I mean this is just mind boggling isn't it Jesus is addressing him with with that personal you And jesus came to bear witness of whatever he had seen and heard from the father That's what it says in verses 31 through 33 of john chapter 3 When jesus spoke it was the words of god But up to this point nicodemus and those whom he represented had not accepted the words of christ They only believed because of what they saw not of what not because of what they heard You know people will say things like well i believe in god But i don't really believe in jesus You can't do that I mean maybe it's a little g right god Or i've heard people say well, you know i believe in god, but there's some things that jesus said i don't believe You can't do that either calling him a liar And not just that but you can't say i believe in god, but i don't believe in jesus This is not it doesn't go it just contradicts itself religious leaders of jesus day claim to know god But they deny the one whom god sent to the earth You can't deny jesus nicodemus And say i believe in god Because it was god who sent the son and this is where the whole trinity comes into play right god the father god the son god the holy spirit So when somebody says well, i don't believe in the in the trinity because the trinity is not in the bible We'll take them here Just take them right here The concept of the trinity is in the bible Even if they say well the word trinity is not in the bible so i don't believe it they use that argument It's like well there's a lot of things in the bible that's not there specifically but we believe it because of the concept of it You know And so we see that same thing for the trinity But in verse 12 jesus says you know how can i how can you know these things if if you can't understand earthly things like the wind How can you understand spiritual things he's saying And then he jesus brings it To a close By saying this He says he brings them to the book of numbers If i've told you earthly things and you're not believe how will you believe it if i tell you Heavenly if i tell you heavenly things and he says in verse 13 No one has ascended to heaven But he who came down from heaven that is the son of man who is in heaven And as moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness Even so must the son of man be lifted up that whoever believes in him Should not perish but have everlasting life and he goes into that obviously and before he gets to john 3 16 What jesus is saying here, he's basically giving nicodemus the gospel by using the old testament And he says no one has ascended. It's talking about the incarnation john chapter 1 1 In the beginning was the word and the word was with god His incarnation he came in he talks about the death on the cross Jesus made a remarkable statement here Explaining that the serpent in numbers 21 verses 4 through 9 Was a picture of messiah and his work and the jewish people were very familiar with this story in the life of moses moses raised a bronze snake on a pole as a cure for a punishment due to disobedience Serpents were often used or were often pictures of evil in the bible genesis 3 revelation 12 But here moses serpent in numbers 21 was made of bronze and bronze is a metal associated with judgment in the bible Because bronze is with a fire It's a picture of judgment. That's what it was A bronze serpent does does speak here of sin but but sin judged And so we see here that jesus is using this story and he's applying it to himself That jesus would be lifted up on a cross for people's sins so that As they looked by faith and in faith to the son of man on that cross They will be saved the bible says and you're born again You know eternal life and he says there at the end When he when he when you put your faith in christ, he says it there He says that he gave a rather Verse 15 that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life That's what he says the idea behind eternal life speaks of more than just you know a never ending life You know people think of eternal life sounds boring. You mean, I don't have I can't take naps I can't sleep it's like you don't need to worry about that you do it now because you're gonna fall in body Your body needs rest. We're aging. We're dying But in heaven, you don't have to worry about that. There's no there's no pain no tears You don't have to worry about taking naps anymore. If you like naps, then you don't belong in heaven Hopefully you don't miss heaven because of that because you won't be sleeping in hell either. But anyways, um But We see here. Yeah, ouch, right It does not mean here that life's just it's the focus is not so much forever forever forever But it's speaking of quality of life. It's that life that adam and eve had before the fall Think about that. They had a had a perfect relationship with god They walked in the garden They were giving all these wonderful freedoms and things just get away from this tree in the middle here. That's all it was Well, we are god is we're going to restore that back again because in the book of revelation in the last chapter You see the tree of life again at the end It's pretty interesting And we see here that this is what jesus ends talking about eternal life You know being saved. Listen being saved Is not that complicated You know when I get calls on the radio of somebody who's not a christian and I know right away They're not christians when they start saying things like you know Well, I don't believe like you guys then I know like, whoa, wait a minute. Okay. I I know where I want to go with this call But I want to make it as simple as possible It's like if you want to go to heaven Listen, all you got to do is put your faith in christ and if you do that the bible says you're born again period Why do we make it hard? I don't want to make it hard. Jesus never made it hard. He gave he told nicotine is you must be born again If you want to enter into heaven, you got to be born again born of the spirit born up from above When you share the gospel you just tell people listen if you were to die tomorrow Do you know if you're going to go to heaven or not? Do you know? I mean, are you assured of that? Well, I don't know Do you want you want to you want to be assured that you're going to go to heaven if you were to die tomorrow? Well, yeah, just put your faith in christ. What does that mean means put your trust in what he did on the cross The work that he did on the cross if you believe in that and you put your trust in that the bible says you're born again I believe you're born again Based on what the bible says That's exactly what jesus is trying to get nicotine is to understand to be born again If you want to get into heaven nicotine is you must be born again born from above We have to explain it to people Jesus ends the conversation With nicotine is by giving them the gospel the good news Now the question has been asked. What happened to nicotine is the nicotine is get saved well Nicotine is appears two more times in the gospel of john John chapter 7 verses 45 through 52 When he raised the question in the sanhedrin about the the process of of jesus being tried He was really speaking up for jesus And then in john chapter 19 when jesus died on the cross He was with joseph of ermithias ermithia As he was preparing the body for burial. They were both together. So did he come to faith in christ john doesn't tell us I believe he did How can you not when you had a confrontation like this with jesus? How can you not be born again? And those two passages kind of tell me that something happened to nicotine is that night A transformation took place in the life of nicotine is And I believe that it showed there in chapter 7 and chapter 19 that this is something that happened to him And I believe he became a genuine believer And I believe that god himself did a mighty work in his life But what lessons can we take from here? Let me close up here There are two lessons for us here tonight one Jesus exposes the heart Because that's what he did Jesus saw right through nicodemus's heart his belief in jesus was very superficial and shallow Jesus did not leave him there He needed to bring him over to that place of being born from above He didn't beat around the bush. He exposed nicodemus's heart Jesus wasn't going to let him go without the revelation of his spiritual state nicodemus Right now you are not going to heaven unless you are born again Sometimes if you have a good relationship with a person you have to say it that way to people After maybe many times of witnessing to them that there are times that you have to say to somebody Listen for you to go to heaven. You must be born again This is that's the truth that the bible gives us The power of the gospel exposes the hearts And so when you share the gospel with somebody you have to be able to be straightforward with them The second lesson This is a reminder for us that we walk by faith not by sight I hear christians say things like well if god would only show me this If god would just show me this then i'll believe more Then i will really just get on and commit myself to christ listen We just need to trust god even though you may not see him working Or even feel anything in fact i had a call today i did a bridge bible talk from the pastor's conference with Johnny zack you one of the guys from yonkers in new york tomorrow is don steward by the way He'll be on with me tomorrow Just a little plug But What was i saying oh this lady called And She called really distraught saying i used to feel Close to god when i hear christians say feel I stop and say okay ma'am listen Our walk with christ our relationship with jesus should never be based on feelings Because if you begin to base your walk with jesus on feelings you're going to have a very hard time following christ Because feelings can be deceiving And i said to her listen ma'am there are things in scripture that the bible tells us facts of what we can Hold on to and believe even you're even though you're going through this season of silence That's what i told you're going maybe through a time of silence david went through those times of silence I said read romans eight Because romans eight establishes the fact that there is nothing that will separate you from the love of christ Nothing That's a fact based not based on feeling you don't have to worry about how you feel when you read that it's fact Well, thank you. I appreciate that be very careful As you're as you're walking with jesus day in and day out that you don't get caught up with feelings As feelings can be deceiving the same thing i tell people when they're going into marriage Don't marry somebody because you feel that you love them because one day you can wake up and say i don't feel like I love you anymore It's true right I mean you know that cheer seriously i've had that happen We've had friends that have gotten into marriage and my wife and i like Ah, you shouldn't be doing this because it just doesn't seem right and they're divorced two three years later We saw it They based things on feelings. I'm not saying god cannot use your feelings. Don't get me wrong But you cannot solely base your walk with jesus only on the feeling Because you're gonna have some funky feelings as a christian You got to be very careful. That's the second lesson People that walked with jesus and followed him were only going after what they saw Rather than what they heard Be a christian That you follow jesus because of what you hear from here the bible right? Not so much of what you see or feel But what you hear amen