Michael Johnson
Series: John
Chapter 3

Starts at 0:41

John Chapter 3. The title of my sermon today is Jesus Teaches Nicodemus.

Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

Let’s stop here for just a moment. You know, let’s think. Why did Nicodemus come to Jesus? Was he attracted to his kindness? Possibly. The bible says in verse 2 he was attracted to the miracles. That Nicodemus saw miracles. Maybe he wanted some new wine. Maybe he was seeking God. You can come to Jesus at any time (Nicodemus came at nighttime), for any reason. Jesus says, “Come to me all of you who are weary or burdened.” If you’re burdened, come to Christ. If you are weary, or tired, come to Jesus. Whatever your situation or circumstances, at any time of day, at any part of your journey, come back, come to Christ.

Nicodemus was very significant. It says that he was a member of the Jewish ruling council. Nicodemus was a religious leader. He was a well-to-do man. He was probably pretty wealthy. He was intelligent. He was a professor of religion, mostly likely. Well, for sure he knew and he taught the law very well. He fasted regularly, probably. He most likely gave ten percent.

But Jesus Christ says to Nicodemus, “That’s not enough.” He says, “You must be born again.”

It’s interesting that he says this. This is something that’s going to come through that I’ve found throughout this entire teaching and talk with Nicodemus. That God is trying to show Nicodemus that God has done for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Nicodemus had his religion but he needed to be born again into a relationship. Religion is one thing. Relationship is another.

Nicodemus really missed the mark, didn’t he? He called Jesus Christ Rabbi—a teacher. But Jesus Christ is the Son of God. As David previously preached, Jesus Christ is God. And Nicodemus, was missing that .That was a big problem. That’s why Jesus says, “You cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus wasn’t seeing Christ for who he really was.

Who do you say Christ is? Is he a teacher to you? Is he a person of historical fact? Or is he your God? Is he your “abba”? Is he the Son of God? Who is he to you? Think about that.

Jesus talks about this “born again.” I looked it up and it means “to be born from above.” We’re all born from below. But have you been born from above? Being born again is described in other ways and other places in the Bible.

Ezekiel says an old heart to a new heart. I will give you a new heart and put a new Spirit in you.

The Apostle Paul says an old creation to a new creation. Those who are in Christ are a new creation. The old is gone and the new has come. Old to new.

Peter talks about darkness to light. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation., God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who calls you out of darkness and into the wonderful light.

St. John, says from death to life. Okay.

Back to Nicodemus. He wasn’t seeing Christ for who he was. I’m going to give an illustration. I work in the seeing business. I help people to see better. One of the major reasons people don’t see well is because they have a cataract in their eye. A cataract is something that everyone gets. A cataract grows inside your eye. The Bible says everyone sins and sin is inside of our hearts. And Jesus knows your heart.

I had a recent encounter with a man and he said to me, “I can’t drive legally.”

I looked into his eyes and I said, “You’ve got a cataract in your eye. We’ve got to get that out.”

And he said to me, “I can see just fine. I don’t need to get it out. I can see cars. I can see street signs. I can see the road just fine.”

I had to remind him that, didn’t he just come from he Motor Vehicle Department? “Didn’t the DMV just tell you that you failed your test?”

He said, “Yeah. But…”

I said, “This is what the law says.” I put up the eye chart. I put up the law of the requirement for driving legally. I said, “Go ahead and read those letters.”

He said, “I can’t do it.”

I said, “Okay, that’s because you have a cataract inside your eye and you need to have it removed. Otherwise you’re not driving.”

The BIble says that the law of the Lord is perfect and it revives the soul. It converts the soul, the King James Version says. Sometimes people think that they’re good, that they’re okay. But they’re not until they look at God’s perfect way, which is to love God and to love one another. Until they look at God’s perfect law, they don’t have a realization that they have a sin problem. They don’t know.

How about you? Do you think that you’re a good person? I would say that you probably are pretty good. But are you absolutely perfect? Have you ever stolen or lied? Have you ever coveted your neighbor? The Bible says that all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. That sin has infected all people.

Let me tell you, this person, when they go get their cataract removed, they are happy. They say, “I can see the trees! I can see the leaves on the trees! I can see faces much better! I can see things completely different. There’s more light that comes in.” And they have a testimony, right? And they are singing and praising the surgeon.

The same is true when someone is born again. They are telling people. I was in a conversation at a lunch and we were just talking about our faith. And someone walked by, because he heard us talking, he said, “Guess what? I’ve been born again!” And he was all excited. This is what happens.

Jesus says back in John Chapter 2 that he didn’t need any testimony about mankind because he knew what was in each person. The lying, the stealing, the greed, the vulgarity, the prejudice, the pride, the anger, the fear. All of that is causing war with God and strife and war with each other.

It all started with Adam and Eve, right? Adam and Eve were in this garden and the sinned. Right? And then their sin was passed to the next generation. Cain and Abel, where Cain murdered his brother. And then the next generation received sin, the next generation, and so on and so forth—right to you and right to me. I’m a sinner. I admit it.

Do you admit it? That’s what God wants. He wants us to come into agreement with him. And then he wants us ultimately to thank him for what he’s done. Because, once again, God has done for us what we cannot do for ourselves. The Bible says that sin and death have entered the one man, Adam, but forgiveness for sin and life has come through the one person of Jesus Christ. Your body may be alive, but inside you’re dead. Your soul and your spirit are dead. And you’re searching in the wrong places. You may be searching in the wrong places, like sex, right? For fulfillment. Or money, or position, or power, or material things. All those things cannot fix you. You need Jesus Christ. You have to come to the cross. You must be born again.

Now, in verse 4, Nicodemus asks this question:

“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 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.”
“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.

He told Nicodemus who he was. But Nicodemus still is not seeing Jesus Christ for who he really is. He’s asking these questions. “How can this be? How can someone be born?

You don’t have to know everything about God to come to God. No one is going to know everything or know God completely, ever. You have to trust God. You have to come like a little child. The Bible says unless you change and become like a little child you won’t enter into the kingdom of God.

I have a three-year-old son. He is learning how to swim. He will come to the edge of the pool and he will jump to me. And guess what? If I don’t catch my son, he’ll die. He trusts fully in me. He comes. By faith, I say, “Come on, son.” And he just jumps right into the pool.

That’s how we have to come to Christ. You don’t think about it. You don’t have to have everything explained. You don’t have to figure everything out. You just come to Jesus and Christ and you trust him for what he’s done for us. You trust him that he died for your sins. You trust him that he came back back to life. Just like a little child. Come to Jesus Christ.

We don’t have any trouble using these cell phones, do we? I don’t understand how this thing works. I don’t understand how this camera works that I’m looking at right now. You can see me and you’re looking at your phone, or you’re looking through that computer. But I’m trusting right now that you’re looking right at me. We just trust. You put your faith completely all in Jesus Christ. Trust Christ and Christ alone.

Why couldn’t Nicodemus understand Jesus Christ? Jesus is talking about the Spirit. He says you have to have the Spirit to be born again. The Spirit does the work. Once again, Jesus is saying that God has done something for us that we cannot do for ourselves. He’s telling Nicodemus about the Holy Spirit. His Spirit. So I’m going to talk a little about the Spirit.

The Spirit convicts people of their sin, the Bible says. When the Spirit comes he will prove to the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgement. The Spirit empowers us to live the Christian life, to resist temptation we have to have the Spirit. The Spirit teaches us moment by moment. The Spirit lives inside every believer. If you’re not a believer, he wants to live inside of you. Do you not know that your bodies, you Christian believers, are a temple for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit wants to fill you up. Do not be drunk on wine, the Bible says, which leads to debauchery. But instead be filled by the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit wants to flow through you.

This verse is our church verse, right? Look at John 7:38 for just a moment:

Jesus says, “Anyone who believes on me, just as the Scripture said, streams of living water will flow from within.”

What flows from within is the fruit of the Spirit: the love, the joy, the peace, the patience, the kindness, the goodness, the faithfulness, the gentleness, self control. And I would even say sharing your faith, sharing Christ with others, having a desire to read your Bible, your prayers. You know what? The world around us needs those things.

Jesus is teaching Nicodemus that you have to have the Spirit, that the Spirit does this for you, makes you born again. The Holy Spirit is responsible for the conversion.

I found here the condition of the natural man. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians that the person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, but considers them foolishness. Jesus Christ, God, is having this conversation with Nicodemus, who does not have the Spirit. And Nicodemus is not getting it because Nicodemus does not have the Spirit.

Have you ever had a conversation with someone, and you put out there on the table something spiritual and they just don’t get it. Or they even tell you, “That’s crazy.” Or, “That’s foolishness.”

I’ve had all those interactions. The Bible says that the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but for us who are being saved, it’s the power of God and that God delights in the preaching of the gospel. The preaching that is foolishness to the world, God delights in. So I’m here knowing that I’m a delight to the Lord preaching what the world would say is foolish. And you know what? I don’t care because Jesus Christ is my Lord. He’s the one that I live my life for. I don’t live my life to please man. I’ve been called many things. Foolish is one of them. Crazy. A crazy zealot for God. But I have had a powerful experience with the Lord many times and I know deep, deep down that Jesus Christ is alive, and that Jesus Christ is in me and he’s working through me, and the angels in heaven really do rejoice when people come to Christ. They will for you today when you come to Christ if you do.

We’re going to look at verse 14. Jesus continues to tell Nicodemus:

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

Jesus is saying a story that Nicodemus knows about and that he’s read many times. Remember he was a teacher of the Law. He was a professor of religion. He knows this story. Nicodemus is listening to the story about when Moses leads the Israelites out of slavery and they are in the desert. The Israelites at this time are complaining about the food, about the water, and then God allows them to go through a patch of venomous snakes, snakes that, if they were bitten by one, they would die. And then they started dying. So Moses prays to God and God instructs Moses, “Make a snake out of bronze. Put it up on a pole. And anyone who looks up at that pole and believes will not die but will live.”

That is a foreshadowing of what happens with Jesus Christ. He was buried but he came back to life and anyone who looks to Jesus Christ and puts their trust on Christ and Christ alone will live, will have eternal life. Once again God has done for us something that we cannot do for ourselves. Could those Israelites put some mud on their wounds and live? No. Could they go to Urgent Care? There was no Urgent Care back there. Could they go to the doctor for their wounds. No. God only had one provision. He said, “Look to that bronze snake and believe. And if you do, you’ll live.” There was not other way.

Jesus Christ says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one gets to the Father except through me.”

I think there’s only one way because he makes it simple for us. Simple, even a chid can understand. It’s simple but it’s so difficult. Christ is the stumbling block. He’s the cornerstone.

Why would God do such a thing? Why would he make a provision for humanity? Because he loves you. It says it right here in John 3:16. This is pretty much the whole gospel in one verse. It says:

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.

Nicodemus is getting an earful, isn’t he? Jesus says:

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

You don’t have to be afraid to come to Jesus Christ. He’s not going to condemn you. He wasn’t sent to punish you.

Sometimes I ride the light rail. It’s interesting because, when I’m on the train going down Central and the authority comes on the train, you see people scatter. They just jump off the train because they’re afraid. They know they didn’t buy a ticket. Then the authority walks around and says, “Show me the ticket.” So people that don’t have a ticket are gone! The people that do say, “Here’s my ticket.”

The point is that you can come to Jesus Christ. He’s not like the authority on earth. He’s not going to put you in jail. He’s not going to condemn you. The Bible says God didn’t send his son into the world to condemn the world. He came to save the world. You can come to Christ how you are. You don’t go and clean yourself up and then come to Christ. You can’t. Christ cleans you up.

If you’re an addict to pornography, if you’re a drug addict, if you’re self-righteous or prideful, you can’t go and try to get all clean and then come to Jesus Christ. No. It doesn’t work that way. You have to come to Jesus Christ first, put your trust in him, believe on him that he’s alive. He comes into your heart and he starts cleaning you up from the inside out. He’s the Great Physician, by the way.

When he called Levi he said, “It’s not the healthy who need a doctor. It’s the sick. I’ve not come to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance.”

You come because you’re drawn by his kindness. And when you’re with him, you want to stay with him. You put your trust and believe on him, he cleans you up from the inside out. Let’s continue on in verse 18:

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

Remember Nicodemus came to Jesus at nighttime. He’s probably a little bit embarrassed of his homies, right? The other Pharisees in the Jewish ruling counsel. He probably didn’t want theme to see. But you know what? Jesus doesn’t condemn him for that. He doesn’t shame him. He sits with him. But in the same token, you can come to Christ.

Whenever you come to Christ you come to the light because Jesus Christ is the light. He says, “I am the light of the world.” He says, “Anyone who walks after me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”

You come to Christ, you’re in the light.

Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

I just want to spend a couple of minutes in sharing the gospel. Nicodemus was a worker. He was a very hard worker. But we’re not saved by works. We’re saved by mercy and we’re saved by grace. Listen to this verse in Titus 3:5-6:

…he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior,

You Christians have heard this before. Ephesians 2:8-9

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.

Listen, I say it this way. If a generous person came to you and he said, “I’m going to forgive all of your debt, past, present and future.” Wouldn’t you be grateful? I know I would. I still have mortgage. I still have student loan debt. I’ve got a wife and five kids. I would be grateful. But I would say, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” I go down to the bank and I say, “Has my mortgage been paid?” And they'd say, “Yes, Mr. Johnson, your debt has been paid.” I wouldn’t go at that point and give the bank another thousand dollars. They would say, “What are you doing? Your mortgage has been paid!”

That’s what you’re doing if you’re not putting your trust in Christ alone. If you’re putting your trust in religion or being good, you need to repent from that. Or putting your trust in other gods, in addition to Christ, you need to repent from that as well. Trust in Christ—in Christ alone. He did it all.

The Bible says it this way—Paul says, “I don’t set aside the grace of God. For if righteousness could be gained through the law, then Christ died for nothing.” He did it all, folks. He paid it all.

I’m going to end with an illustration. Bear with me. Here we have three types of people. We’ve got the natural man like Nicodemus. On the outside he looks like he has it all together. But on the inside, he has sin. He has pride. Just like all of us. The Bible says that we’re born into iniquity. We have sin in us. So here he is. And he’s in our world.

Then suppose that he put his trust in Christ and he became born again. Here we have a person who has been born again and so instead of being filled with sin now, they can be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Both of these guys are in the world together. This guy, the natural person, we see it all the time, in our world, is kind of spewing off what comes out of his heart. The sin, the greed, the strife, the vulgarity, the anger, resulting in domestic violence, not taking care of your kids, family breakdown, the denial of who Jesus is. The disbelief.

Then you have the guy who is filled with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is flowing through him. Love, joy, peace, all around the world, patience and kindness and goodness, so on and so forth. God continues to pour into this guy. God’s grace is endless. His mercies never end, the Bible says. More love and more joy and more peace. He gets filled up again and he overflows. This guy is a living streams Christian right here, okay? God just keeps on pouring his grace right into him and into our world.

But I want to talk to you guys, because I believe a lot of us are like this guy right here. This guy, the born again Christian who is led by his flesh. The Bible describes him as the carnal Christian. He’s got the Spirit in him. He’s been born again. But he’s also got sin in him and look at him. Sometimes he’ll be in church. And maybe after church someone will cut him off and he’s got the finger.

Sometimes he really wrestles with his identity. He may have depression. He may at one moment be praising God and the next moment he may be having an idol. He’s pouring out also.

And this guy over here, the natural person is looking at the carnal Christian saying, “We’re no different. You’re a hypocrite.”

So how does the carnal Christian get to the Spirit-filled Christian? How do we get from here to here? The Bible says that we come to Jesus Christ. We come to the cross just like Nicodemus did and we confess our sins. And God is faithful and just. He forgives us of our sins and he purifies us from all unrighteousness. And here we are again and God is pouring through us faithfulness, gentleness, self-control and so on and so forth.

I’m going to be quite honest with myself and with you, that I go back and forth. I have my moments. I say, “Wow, that was the Lord in me.” And then I have my other moments, “That’s all Michael right there. Lord. Michael.” But as time goes on, God wants us to be more of the Spirit-led, Spirit-controlled, born again Christian. Because we have to, guys.

Listen. I was a product of the Arizona Child Foster system. I grew up in very dysfunction. My dad was an alcoholic. Long story short, he beat my mom. He beat us. I was adopted. The adopted dad was committing adultery against my mother . They got a divorce. My younger brother, alcoholic, died. Me, myself, I have a lot of sin to talk about as well. It’s not that we’re all black men and this is the product of the systemic racism, or this is a product of the white man putting their thumb on the black man. No! It’s a product of sin. We all have sin.

It took me until after I was born again to realize that. I always wondered, “Why am I this way? Why did all these things happen to us?” And God gave me the answer. When Jesus looked down at our world and looked at our world, it’s pretty messy. And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.”

If you’re up to no good, if you’re led by your flesh, guess what? Expect bad things to happen to you. If you’re a Spirit-led Christian and you have yielded to Christ, fully surrendered to Christ 24/7, but you live in this world, guess what? Expect bad things to happen to you. If you’re a carnal Christian. It doesn’t matter who you are. If you live in this messy world, expect bad things to happen to you.

The gospel message is that Jesus Christ, once he comes inside of you, he never leaves you. He’s always with you. And you have eternal life that you won’t lose. If you could lose eternal life, it was never eternal in the first place. That’s very good news and that gives me peace today. If I die this afternoon, I know where I’m going. And I have peace inside. All around me it’s chaotic. But the peace of the Lord dwells richly inside of me and I’m able to overflow that peace into the hearts of others around me: my wife and my children, so on and so forth.

I’m going to end this message by asking you guys: which of these three best represent your life? Are you the natural person who’s never believed on Christ? Are you the Spirit-filled Christian soho is overflowing love and joy and peace, so on and so forth. Or right now are you this carnal Christian who’s got some sin in your life. You’ve got the Spirit, you’ve been born again, but you need to come to Jesus.

If you are the natural, come to Christ today. Believe on him. If this made sense to you, not like Nicodemus—not making sense—but if it does to you, guess what? You’ve been born again. You believe. Tell someone. Send an email to Pastor David. Tell someone in your house right now. “Hey, that makes sense. I believe on Jesus Christ.” Then begin to grow in your faith. Read your Bible and keep coming to church,

If this is you, the carnal Christian, again, come to Christ. Confess your sins and live, not bound by sin, but live in the victory of Jesus Christ.

That is the message for today. I just want to thank you and thank Pastor David. I’m going to end by just saying May the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you always.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Watch