The Mystery of the New Birth part 3

Well, take your Bible this morning. Turn with me to the Gospel of John. John chapter 3. And this morning we will end the chapter that we have been in for, this will be the third week, this portion of scripture that is teaching on the new birth, and that is verses 1 through 10. John chapter 3, and we will be in verse 10 as we finish up these most treasured verses. Now, in introduction this morning, I want to take us back a step or two from the specifics of the text and the verse that we're going to primarily be in this morning, and I want us to remember, I want us to review the background of the verses that we have been studying.

Now, you might say to yourself, why would we need to study the background? Why would we need to review the background? We need to see what precipitated this night meeting with Jesus and Nicodemus. A lot of people, they disconnect chapter 2 from chapter 3, and that is a terrible travesty, because the background is extremely important. Now, the background to verses 1 through 10 of chapter 3 is what has been taking place in chapter 2.

Remember that Jesus had performed miracles, he had performed signs there at the Passover, and there were some whom the text says believed in his name, they believed in Jesus, but Jesus did not entrust himself to them. Now, these were superficial believers. They believed on the surface, and they were caught up in the signs, but they were not truly converted. I really want to clarify myself with that. I have used the term superficial believers, non-believing or unbelieving believers. These were not converted individuals. And we have determined that Nicodemus must have been a part of that crowd to some degree.

The language connects chapter 2 and chapter 3, and Nicodemus confesses that he was at least knowledgeable of these signs. And of course, being a good Jew, he would have been at the Passover. And I believe that this puts him right in the middle of this situation in John 2. Now, was he one who "believed"? Or was he one of those who were on the outskirts of that crowd? We do not know. He does not necessarily profess a belief when he comes to Christ, but we know he was attracted to Christ, that is a work of God the Father in him, because of the signs, the revelation of Christ there at the Passover. That is the background.

That is the background of these verses, verses 1 through 10. Now, we need to step back also, and we need to look at this famous meeting between Jesus and Nicodemus. Nicodemus sought out Christ. We know that is a working of the Father in his life, and he was looking for answers. He was desiring to know, "Could this be the Christ?" Now, Jesus unloaded the wagon on Nicodemus by going straight to the problem. He did not placate him in any way, but he immediately went straight to his grave spiritual problem. And in Jesus' teaching, we must notice that Jesus gives Nicodemus arguably the most important message in the Word of God.

This is straightforward teaching on how sinful man can be made right with God. Now, in last week's message, your pastor gave you a warning, and a warning that I want you to remember. And that warning is this. We must take notice of churches and ministries' positions on conversion. I told you last week that countless churches and ministry endeavors, which have had good beginnings, have ultimately derailed because they have moved away from biblical conversion. I don't care whose church it is. I don't care who was a part of the beginning of a ministry. If a church or a ministry moves away from biblical conversion, it is derailed.

And that's why this teaching is so important. Now, most of you here should remember our study on what I call the 10 Pillars of the Church. Remember, we took a lengthy series, a lengthy period of time, and we studied what I call the 10 Pillars of the Church. I believe that's what a Bible church should be built on, those 10 pillars. Now, what was the first pillar? I hope you remember that first pillar was conversion. Why conversion? Because without true conversion, you fill the church up full of nothing but goats, unconverted people. And it is my job to teach the Word, and it is my job to also teach what true conversion is.

Now, it's not that we have an automated system where every person that comes into the life of the church are truly converted. We know that there are some who are the wheat and some who are the tares. That's always been a problem in the life of the church. And that will always be a problem. Why? Because we live in a sinful world. But we as the church must always, always, always teach on true Biblical conversion. This was John's heart. Remember the theme verse?

John chapter 20 verse 31, "But these things have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have eternal life." What is he saying? I'm writing so that you could believe conversion. Conversion. Biblical conversion. Now, why do I repeat this? We see people come into the life of the church, and many of them are not truly converted. And I've had this experience all through my years of ministry and walking with God.

As a matter of fact, I have even seen people come into the life of this church, and because of conversation with them, I have discovered that they did not have Biblical conversion. I never forget one of the families who came a couple of times. I journeyed my way around to them, and I began to talk to them and listen to their background and where they had come from. And I never forget the father of the family began to tell me about his spiritual journey, and he did not have conversion. I quizzed him on the matter. He was not converted. He could not articulate conversion. It was unbiblical.

Although he did many things outwardly that we would respect. Now, you know that we have been looking at three main truths right here out of these verses, from verses 1 through 10. We started off with the investigation in verse 1 through 2. Nicodemus came to inquire, came to investigate, and then we saw the exchange last week, verses 3 through 9. That is when Nicodemus does ask a few questions, but Jesus unloads the wagon. He tells him exactly what his spiritual problem was. He needed to understand and be taught about the new birth, being born from above.

Now, tonight, or this morning, excuse me, we will end with the third main truth, and that is the indictment. That is the indictment, and that will be out of verse 10, but we will visit a couple of other passages of Scripture, and we will see this tremendous indictment that Nicodemus was under. So that leads us to the title of the message, "The Mystery of the New Birth, Part 3." And like I said, we will look at this third truth, this main truth, the indictment out of verse 10. Let's go to the text. Let's read verses 1 through 10 together for the last time. Before we move on into the message in the remaining portion of chapter 3.

Verse 1, "Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to him by night, and he said to him, 'Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.' Jesus answered, and he said to him, 'Truly, truly.' In our language, you could say, 'Amen and Amen.' I say to you, unless one is born again or born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to him, 'How can a man be born when he is old?

He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?' Jesus answered, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of the water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into 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 say to you, you must be born again or born from above.' Verse 8, "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." And here's where we will be this morning.

Verse 9, primarily verse 10, "Nicodemus answered and he said to him, 'How can these things be?' Jesus answered and he said to him, 'Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not understand these things?'" Now, we will move into this third main truth, this indictment, and you will notice that there were three things that we will explore from this indictment. We will notice his position, we will notice his power, and we will notice his problem. His position, his power, and his problem. And like I said earlier, we will be in verse 10, 9 and 10, but we will turn over into Luke chapter 23. You can jot that down in your notes for your study.

Now, in exploring the meaning of verse 10, I want us to see the truth about the man Nicodemus, but not just from verse 10, but what we see, this tremendous indictment. But let's notice about this man. Let's look at his position, first his position. Now, to notice his position, we must go back to verse 1. "Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews." That is an indication of his position. And then verse 10, "Are you the teacher of Israel?" That is an indication of his position. Notice what do we see? He was a Pharisee. We've already looked at this information, but it needs to be repeated.

The Pharisees were an elite religious party among the Jewish leadership. Some believe that you can trace the origin of the Pharisees all the way back to the Babylonian captivity. And the word Pharisee really comes from a word that means separated ones or holy ones. They were extremely zealous in keeping the law of Moses, and they had lots of traditions and writings of their own, and they were very zealous in teaching and keeping their own traditions. And their interpretation of their traditions were, if they were to obey their teachings and their traditions, that would ensure that they would teach the law of Moses.

Now there was another religious group. They were the Sadducees. We have heard of those two. The Sadducees were more liberal. The Pharisees were more conservative. The Sadducees came from the more wealthy priests and Levites, but the Pharisees were the more common people. They were more of the middle class. And Nicodemus was a Pharisee, but also he was a member of the Sanhedrin. Now verse 1 does not use the word Sanhedrin, but that's what this phrase, "a ruler of the Jews," means. Nicodemus was not just a Pharisee, but he was a part of the Sanhedrin. He was a part of the ruling body of the Jews.

This means that he was of the top of his class, if I can use that phrase. He was of the top group of the Pharisees. And the Sanhedrin was the governing body of Israel, but they were subject to the Roman government. Now you know that Israel, the land of Palestine, was dominated by the Romans. But the Romans did leave a puppet government in place, obviously under their authority. But the Sanhedrin, they were rulers over civil and criminal and religious issues among the people. They had the right to make arrests and imprison individuals, even to take them to trial, yes. But capital punishment was reserved for the Romans.

And we're going to see that, fleshed out, in just a minute. Now why do I share this with you? Most of this is in review. This is his position. But Jesus comes along and he adds to this in verse 10 by saying, "Are you the teacher of Israel?" The New American Standard, the English Standard Version, say and read the word "the teacher." The King James reads, "Art thou a master of Israel?" Now this is important here. The language in the original, here in verse 10, literally reads, "the teacher of Israel." In the original, there is a definite article here before teacher indicating that Nicodemus was an authorized teacher in Israel.

One of the commentators that I like to use is called, it's a word study commentary. And he goes on to say, he was a well-known and an authorized teacher of Israel, a teacher of God. What do we see here? The construction of the language helps us to see that he was one of the top of the teachers in Israel. He was one of the most respected teachers of the Law of Moses and the traditions of the Pharisees. So not only was he a Pharisee, but he was a member of the Sanhedrin. And not only was he a member of the Sanhedrin, but he was the teacher of Israel. He was one of the top of the group.

He could have been seen as one of the most successful men in Judaism. Now notice in verse 1, he's called a Pharisee and a ruler of the Jews. And then Jesus reveals this utmost elite position, respected position, and ported position in Israel. He was the top of the top. He would have been probably the best teacher in all of Israel. Now why do I bring this to our attention? We must see his position because his position is important for us to keep in our minds when we look at how Jesus reacted to Nicodemus. What we see is position does not garner a place of honor before Christ. Christ never placated him in his position.

Christ was not impressed by his position. For Christ to recognize him in his position in any way would have inflamed pride in Nicodemus and would have given him the feeling that he was right with God in some way when actually he was not. And we must see this position that he had before the nation of Israel and this position before Jesus because Jesus recognized that he was the teacher of Israel. And recognizing him being a teacher of Israel, he was not placating that position but expecting him to know the truth of what he was teaching because of his position.

Now for us and application, we must see that there are people who are in position in the life of the church that need to and must know what the Word of God says. I'll give you an example. We're talking about true biblical conversion here. If we miss conversion, we flood the church with goats. I've mentioned this example before but it bears repeating. Years ago when I was a student minister, I was a part of an associational evangelistic crusade countywide and the individuals who were in charge were brought in and they were trained from the Billy Graham School of Evangelism.

And the leading ministers of the association were a part of this event. And there were some serious discrepancies in how they dealt with conversion. I'll never forget they sat down with the counselors and they told the counselors to sit in the back of the facility. And when the invitation is given, the counselors were to come forward and that would start the move of the masses to the front. We were given information to counsel and it was basically leading people to make intellectual assent. And I'll never forget talking with individuals.

And I went to one of the leading ministers in organizing the event and I said these individuals do not know what they are doing. They do not know what they are saying. They do not know what they are doing. And he looked at me and he said, "Yes, we know that but we hope that this leads them into the church and they will be converted later." That individual was Israel's teacher, seminary educated, knew the Word of God but did not know how to deal with conversion. And it did not matter his position. He was off wrong. And all they did was lead people to cheap prayers and at best they became goats sitting in the pews of churches. Hopefully not.

What am I showing you? Position does not matter. And Nicodemus' position did not matter. And it does not matter someone's position in the life of the church if they have not been converted, if they have not been born from above, if the wind of the Spirit of God has not blown through their life and made them go from darkness to light, whereas they were blind now they can see they have a useless religious position. And that is what Nicodemus had because we see how Jesus reacted and what does he say? Even though you are Israel's teacher you do not understand these things. His position was useless. The second thing I want us to see is his power.

I want us to see his power. Now we must see that Nicodemus as a member of the Sanhedrin would have enjoyed great power. We have learned that the Sanhedrin was the governing body of Israel but subject to the Roman government. They were over civil, criminal and religious issues dealing with the people. They had the right to make arrests and to take individuals to trial but yet they could not exercise capital punishment without Rome. They even had authority over Jewish citizens who were dispersed in other portions of the Roman world. I do not know if you are familiar with the phrase "the dispersion" those Jews who left the homeland.

These religious leaders had some authority over them. I guess in our language we could say they could extradite them back home. So they had power. Now drop this verse down Luke chapter 3, there are several verses, verses 1 through 7 and verses 11 through 25. Now these verses illustrate the power that Sanhedrin possessed. And this is when Jesus was brought to trial before Pilate, the Roman governmental official over Israel or Palestine. I will read some of the verses, verse 23, chapter 23 verse 1. "Then the whole body of them arose and they brought him before Pilate and they began to accuse him, staying.

We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar and saying that he himself is the Christ the King. Pilate asked him saying, 'Are you the king of the Jews?' And he answered him and he said, 'It is as you say.' And Pilate said to the chief priests and the multitudes, 'I find no guilt in this man.' But they kept on insisting saying, 'He stirs up the people teaching all over Judea, starting from Galilee, even as far as this place.' But when Pilate heard it, he asked whether the man was a Galilean.

And when he had learned that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who himself also was in Jerusalem at that time." Now if you go on past the time, the place when Jesus stood before Herod and get to verse 13, we see that Jesus is back before Pilate. And Pilate summoned, and I notice, the chief priests and the rulers of all the people.

"And he said to them, 'You brought this man to me as one who incites the people to rebellion, and behold, having examined him before you, I have found no guilt in this man regarding the charges which you make against him.' 'No, nor has Herod, for he sent him back to us, and behold, nothing deserving death has been done by him. I will therefore punish him and release him.' But they cried," verse 18, "out together, saying, 'Away with this man and release for us Barabbas.' What am I showing you? This is the power of the Sanhedrin. What did they do?

Notice some things out of these verses. 'They brought civil accusation before Pilate.' Verse 2 says, "They began to accuse him, saying, 'We found this man misleading our nation.'" What are they doing? They are accusing him of civil disobedience before Pilate. Notice they brought a religious accusation before Pilate. What does it say, verse 2? "And saying, he himself, saying that he is declaring himself Christ a king." So they accused him of a religious accusation. And then in verse 18 we see, "At the second appearance before Pilate, they sought the death penalty before Pilate." Why?

Because it was the Romans who reserved the right and the power to exercise the death penalty. What do we see? This is the great power that these men in the Sanhedrin possessed. But it seems, now notice, that Nicodemus lacked a power that he surely wanted. That power being the power to make himself right with God. He had great power at his fingertips. Do you realize this? But he was powerless all at the same time. What should we learn? There are many people in the life of the church today who are just like Nicodemus. They enjoy and they exercise great power, even great religious power. They enjoy power in their lives, power in their jobs.

They even enjoy power in the life of the church, but they do not have the power of the new birth. It's amazing. The Sanhedrin could be a man before Pilate and have him executed, but they could not lead someone to Christ. Power, but yet powerless. And we must realize there are people exactly like Nicodemus in our churches today. And if we've been in churches very long, we know that there are lost, unregenerate people in the life of the church who seem to have power, position, authority. But they do not have the power of the new birth, much like Nicodemus. Now, the third thing I want us to see is his problem. That is his problem.

Let's go back to verse nine and verse 10. Verse nine and verse 10 Nicodemus answered. Now, this is after Jesus had taught him about the new birth, top to bottom, as thorough as he can be. And he said to him, excuse me, how can these things be? Nicodemus said, how can these things be? And Jesus answered, are you the teacher of Israel and you do not understand these things? Verse nine and 10 reveal to us that Nicodemus had a great spiritual problem. According to Jesus teaching, he was not right with God. He was lost. He was doomed and he was damned.

Jesus told him he was outside of the kingdom that and that would have been a tremendous punch in his gut. Remember what we said last week? Nicodemus would have seen himself being in the middle of the kingdom. But Jesus says, you can't see the kingdom. You can't enter the kingdom and you are outside of the kingdom. This is a terrible problem for Nicodemus. Notice a couple of things about this problem. Notice Nicodemus could not understand Jesus teaching. He could not understand. What does he say? How can these things be? Jesus says, and you do not understand these things.

Nicodemus response to Jesus indicates that he had not understood any of what Jesus had taught him. Jesus had repeated his teaching from verse seven and he was very direct in this re-teaching of what he had already taught in verse three. Jesus has used illustrations to try to open up his mind to the truth. Jesus had repeated himself and he would even use great illustrations to open up his mind, but to no avail. Jesus had gone back to the Old Testament references which Nicodemus would have surely known and he would have surely understood and he desired him to understand what was being taught in relation to those Old Testament passages.

But Nicodemus did not understand his teaching. Notice Jesus expected him to not just understand his teaching, but to respond to his teaching. Go back to verse nine and ten. How can these things be? And what does he say? You are the teacher of Israel and you do not understand these things. Now what do you mean by respond? He would have expected him to respond in a positive manner. He is under guilt here by Jesus' words and it is clear by Jesus' response that Jesus expected him to understand and to respond. Notice the premise that Jesus worked from.

As a great teacher in Israel, Jesus expected him to understand the teaching based on what he knew from the Old Testament. Jesus expected Nicodemus to connect the dots, to understand and to respond. And we must see that Nicodemus' problem was on multiple levels. He did not understand Jesus' teaching, which were the words of eternal life, and he could not properly understand even what was taught from the Old Testament because the Old Testament was supposed to enable him to understand Jesus' teaching. Now why could he not connect those dots? He was blind. He was lost and he was a dead man.

That's why it was so important for us to go back and understand what the Bible says about man. There was nothing good in Nicodemus. There was nothing good about Nicodemus. There was no life in Nicodemus. He could not connect the dots from the Old Testament to the New. He could not understand and respond properly because he was dead. That's why he needed to be born. Now listen. Again, born from above. There are people, many people in the life of the church today, just like Nicodemus. They know the teaching of Jesus, but they cannot understand the New Birth.

They are just like Nicodemus in that they are caught up in legalistic religious rules, positions and convictions, but they have not experienced a New Birth. And many times these individuals, they can perform these religious convictions and they can articulate these religious positions in such a way where they look like they know God. Just like Nicodemus. But they have not experienced the New Birth. Now as we transition from this verse, I want to read you a quote from one of the Bible commentators I enjoy. As a commentator, he's been around for years named D.A. Carson. We used him back in our seminary days.

He has a good commentary on the Gospel of John I've had for years. But Carson describing Nicodemus in this situation. He says, "Doubtless, he himself had for years taught others the conditions of entrance to the kingdom of God, conditions cast in terms of obedience to God's commands, devotion to God, happy submission to his will, but here he was facing a condition he has never heard expressed, the absolute requirement of a birth from above." You get that? He had for years been teaching individuals what they must do to be right with God, but now Jesus teaches him something he has never heard, an absolute requirement of a birth from above.

And I'm afraid that helps us see exactly what people are in today. There are many people in the life of the church, they have been taught, join the church, pray this prayer, join the church, be baptized, read your Bible, come to Sunday school, do these external things, and you would be right with God, just like Nicodemus has taught. Nicodemus taught individuals how to do the externals. But many people in the life of the church, when you teach on the new birth, it's foreign, it's strange. Why? Because it's been left out of the equation in many places. Nicodemus was a great teacher, a pure Jew, a true Israelite.

Now listen, he would have had good doctrine, he would have been impeccable in keeping the law, he would have been strong in evangelism. Did you know that the Pharisees were noted for their strong evangelism? As they would go out and they would seek proselytes and they would convert them to Judaism, and he was a respected teacher. Do you see that? Strong in doctrine, impeccable in keeping the law, strong in evangelism, and a respected teacher. But what a terrible indictment Jesus brought upon Nicodemus. He was not born again. And you know there are people in the life of the church today.

They articulate sound doctrine, they might even articulate and express and live externally according to the word of God, they might even be evangelistic in their zeal, and they might even be respected in the life of the church. But yet that individual without the new birth is exactly like Nicodemus. See? Now I've purposely taken three messages to look at these verses, verses 1 through 10, the mystery of the new birth, and I strongly encourage you to listen to these messages. Go back and study your notes. Allow God to help you to understand the truths that are taught here.

And allow God to form this in you where you truly believe and understand that unless an individual is converted from above, that there is no hope. Because what will happen is if we're not careful, we will step over or step around and we will minimize conversion. And then what we do is we are satisfied with goats in our family who profess Christ. Goats in the church who profess Christ. People who have never ever been converted. So this is a must church.

If we're going to proceed in reaching our friends and our neighbors, our family, if we're going to proceed to go out into the world and take the gospel to the world, we must be able to take, now listen, true biblical conversion. Not this cheap substitute. Not this humanistic gospel that's been preached, which has damned so many and is a damning others around the world. So what do we see? The mystery of the new birth. And may God form this in us where we can reach our sons, daughters, our neighbors, friends, spouses and even people on the other side of the world. Because that is there and our only hope. Amen. Amen. Let's pray.

Let's ask the Lord to bind this message and these truths to our hearts for today in the future.