Friday, February 03, 2012
John 3: 1-21
1 Now there was a man
of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2
He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has
come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if
God were not with him.” 3 In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the
truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” 4
“How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot
enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!” 5 Jesus
answered, “I
tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of
water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit
gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying,
‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You
hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.
So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” 9 “How can
this be?” Nicodemus asked. 10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not
understand these things? 11 I tell you the truth, we speak of what
we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not
accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and
you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13
No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of
Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son
of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may
have eternal life. 16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his
one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall 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 Whoever
believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned
already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness
instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does
evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds
will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the
light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done
through God.”
Nicodemus
was a religious person. He was a Pharisee.
In verse 10 Jesus tells us that he was an educated person. He was a
teacher of Israel. In verse 2 Nicodemus
realizes that Jesus comes from God. He says “we know” which indicates there
were other Pharisees who were discussing the amazing teachings of Jesus. We see Nicodemus mentioned three times in the
Gospel of John. Here, in John 3, we see his desire to know Jesus. In John 7:50,
we see Nicodemus defending Jesus before the Sanhedrin. In John 19 we see his
devotion to Jesus by bringing an expensive amount of burial spices to Jesus’
borrowed tomb (verse 50). There is no
doubt that Nicodemus became a follower of Christ. But it wasn’t through his
religious discipline. It was because of his faith in Christ.
Jesus
tells Nicodemus he must be born again.
Being born again is being born from above – spiritually. It requires an
act of faith on our part – that is looking to Jesus. Jesus used that wonderful story from Numbers
21 that illustrates faith. Snakes had bitten the people of Israel and God
instructed Moses to lift up a snake on a pole. Everyone who had been bitten
could look at the snake on the pole and live. Jesus was saying to Nicodemus
that he needed to look to Jesus for salvation.
He had been looking at his own religious zeal but that was not good
enough for salvation. Jesus shares the
most loved sentence in all of history. God loves us all so much he sent Jesus
to be our salvation – so we can look to him and live! Martin Luther said, “This
is the heart of the Bible – the Gospel in miniature. It is so simple a child
can understand it; yet it condenses the deep and marvelous truths of redemption
into a few powerful words.”
When
God loves – He loves the world.
When
God gives – He gives His Son.
When
God blesses – He gives eternal life.
Jesus
taught Nicodemus and us that it’s not about religion; it’s about regeneration
through faith in Jesus.
Religion
turns over new leaves – regeneration transforms our life.
Religion
is man’s effort to reach God – regeneration is God’s effort to reach man.
Thank
God we can experience regeneration (being born again) through faith in Jesus
Christ!
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