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And please be seated. Thank you,
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Alan. Well, let's turn in our Bibles once again to John's Gospel, and we want to turn to the third chapter today,
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John chapter 3. Well, this is the 14th message in John's Gospel.
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We've been able to get through two chapters, and so we're making progress.
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I'm enjoying the study myself, profiting from it.
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This is a very important passage here in John chapter 3. It speaks about the manner in which
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God brings salvation to sinners. And so here we read of the
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Lord Jesus instructing perhaps the foremost teacher of Israel, Nicodemus, in matters he should not only have understood when
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Jesus taught him these things, but Nicodemus should have known these things from his own study of the
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Hebrew Scriptures. And so here we read of the necessity and the manner of the new birth, or another term for that is regeneration, being born again.
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This is the subject of this chapter. And so it's a work of God's grace from first to last, and the new birth results in the sinner putting faith in Jesus.
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And this is a correction to much error on the part of many well -intentioned, sincere
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Bible believers. They think that if you believe on Christ, the result is the new birth. We're going to see here in John chapter 3 that's certainly not the case.
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God, in his sovereign grace, causes the new birth and one of the fruit of the new birth, the results of the new birth, is faith in Jesus Christ.
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Faith results from new life, not the cause of it. And so a proper understanding of our passage will underscore the
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Reformed teaching of God's distinguishing sovereign grace in salvation and the need for every sinner to experience regeneration by God, that's the new birth, and the need that we have as Christians to pray and seek the grace of God to reach the loss for Jesus Christ.
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Salvation is of the Lord. J .C. Ryle, the Church of England bishop of the 19th century, although a very sound
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Reformed evangelical, he wrote of the emphasis or the importance of this passage, the conversation between Christ and Nicodemus, which begins in these verses, is one of the most important passages in the whole
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Bible. Nowhere else do we find stronger statements about those two mighty subjects, the new birth and salvation by faith in the
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Son of God. The servant of Christ would do well to make himself thoroughly acquainted with this chapter.
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A man may be ignorant of many things in religion and yet be saved, but to be ignorant of the matters handled in this chapter is to be in the broad way that leads to destruction.
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That makes it pretty important, at least from his perspective, and we would agree with that. Now, we're going to be here in John 3 for a while, and in fact we're only going to, today, with the
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Lord's help, address the first three verses. But we want to understand the context of this passage, and so we'll read
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John 3, 1 through 21. There was a man of the Pharisees named
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Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him,
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Rabbi, we know that you're a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.
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And Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly,
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I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
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Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?
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Jesus answered, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the
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Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh.
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That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again.
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The wind blows where it wishes, you hear the sound of it, but you cannot tell where it comes from, where it goes.
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So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said to him,
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How can these things be? Jesus answered and said to him, Are you the teacher of Israel and you do not know these things?
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Most assuredly, I say to you, we speak what we know and testify what we've seen, and you do not receive our witness.
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If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
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No one has ascended to heaven, but he who came down from heaven, that is, the
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Son of Man, who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
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Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
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For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
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For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
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He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten
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Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
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For everyone practicing evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
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But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."
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In other words, God was the author of it. I can't help, but even every time I read this passage, and Jesus says,
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Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he can't see the kingdom of God. I remember in the fall of 1971, in our little town in Northern California, we only had one radio station, a secular station.
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But at 7 o 'clock every night, J. Vernon McGee came on, and I can remember his voice. You must be born again.
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When I was unsaved, and it registered. And I can hear his voice making that declaration, even now.
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Well, before we examine the details of our passage, we might consider a few variants.
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But we don't have time. And so I put those asterisks there in your notes, right toward the top of page 2.
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And from there until the asterisks on the next page, we're dealing with, we deal with actually four variants in the various Greek manuscripts.
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And we talk about those and their meaning, and they're not significant. But I thought that I would include that for anyone that might be interested.
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And so we want to dive in at the top of page 3 in our notes, after the asterisks.
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We have in this passage an interchange between Jesus and perhaps the foremost teacher in Israel, Nicodemus, who was a member of the leading
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Jewish body in Jerusalem, which was the Sanhedrin. The teacher of Israel came to Jesus by night, and on this occasion, he became the student in spiritual matters rather than the teacher.
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Jesus became his teacher. There's clearly a shift of roles here. And here we learn that regardless of who a person may be, even if he has the greatest of privilege, stature, and education, even if he's led what many may regard as a very devout life,
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Nicodemus would have been the top tier in that society. He's in need of the sovereign grace of God in order for him to be born again and thereby be saved from death onto eternal life.
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If any one of us stood side by side against Nicodemus, he would be standing, spiritually speaking, or morally speaking,
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I should say, head and shoulders among us, morally speaking, in the way he lived, the way he thought.
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He still wasn't a Christian. He wasn't born again. He was still lost in his sins. That's significant.
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This was one commentator's description of our passage. In this pericope, and that's what an episode is in a narrative portion of Scripture, in this pericope, we consider—I lost my place here.
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There it is. In this pericope, Jesus speaks of himself as the true teacher, guiding even the religious elite, that would be
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Nicodemus, to grasp the significance of his authoritative person and gracious work.
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Nicodemus needed to know who Jesus was. He went on to set forth the main idea conveyed in this passage.
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Jesus is the representative of God who challenges and shames the darkness of the world with its system of religion.
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That's what he did when he confronted Nicodemus. And yet Jesus is also the manifestation of the love of God that meets the very challenge he initiated and receives upon himself the shame that belonged to the world.
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The Lord Jesus here speaks very directly and clearly to Nicodemus, and yet he does so in a very loving, humble manner.
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There is a narrative connection. In other words, the story is unfolding. We just don't want to look at the episodes, but we want to see how they're related to one another.
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There's a narrative connection and movement as this gospel story unfolds. And so the evangelist, that would be
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John the Apostle, moved from the general in chapter 2 to the specific in chapter 3, where the
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Lord Jesus addressed the Jews in chapter 2, he addressed an individual Jew in chapter 3, general to specific.
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And where Jesus addressed mankind generally in chapter 2, he addressed an individual in chapter 3.
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But although Nicodemus came to Jesus as an individual, we should recognize in a sense Nicodemus was a representative
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Jew. Actually, in many respects, the ideal Jew of the day.
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And yet he's shown to be unable and unqualified to enter the kingdom of God unless God caused him to be born again.
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Hence we see the absolute essential importance of the new birth.
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We cannot be saved apart from it. We can begin to consider this passage.
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We have a three -point outline. Nicodemus comes to Jesus, verse 1.
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The dialogue of Nicodemus and Jesus, verses 2 through 10. And then thirdly, the dialogue becomes a discourse of Jesus to Nicodemus.
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And so let's consider first Nicodemus comes to Jesus. We read in verse 1, There was a man of the
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Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. Here we read he was a Pharisee, and a member of the ruling
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Sanhedrin, Jewish Sanhedrin. The Pharisees were many in number, perhaps numbering tens of thousands, and they were scattered throughout the
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Roman Empire. Wherever there was a community of Jews, there would probably be a Pharisee in their midst.
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They were the teachers of the people. They were the leaders of the synagogues.
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The people had a high regard for them. They were devout and zealous men, highly regarded.
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But generally they were very flawed in their understanding of the grace of God. They were ignorant of the sole authority and sufficiency of the
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Holy Scriptures. And so here's one description of these Pharisees. Although the Pharisees were right in many points of doctrine, the divine decree, men's moral accountability and immortality, the resurrection of the body, the existence of spirits, rewards and punishments in the future life, and produced men of high renown,
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Gamaliel, Paul, Josephus. They made one basic and very tragic error.
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They externalized religion. It was just outside, rather internal. Outward conformity to the law was far too often considered by them to be the goal of one's existence.
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In actual practice, though not in theory, the oral law, that's not the Holy Scriptures, but a separate written code, the oral law, which via the men of the
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Great Synagogue, the Great Synagogue was a group of rabbis that were elevated in the minds of Jews after the
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Babylonian exile, after their return to the land. It's called the Great Synagogue. As well as the prophets, the elders, and Joshua, was traced back to Moses, and thus
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God to himself, and was often honored even more highly than that which was written.
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In other words, the oral tradition, which was written, codified, came to be regarded as an authority even above the
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Holy Scriptures. And the Lord renounced them again and again for their exhibitionism and holier -than -thou attitude.
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That Nicodemus was a Pharisee makes his coming to Jesus quite remarkable, for the
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Pharisees were vehemently opposed to Jesus throughout his ministry. Nicodemus wasn't your average
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Pharisee. This is what John Gill wrote of Nicodemus. This man was not a common and ordinary man, but a man of note and eminence, of dignity and figure, and who was of the sect of the
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Pharisees, which was the strictest sect for religion and holiness among the Jews, and which, as corrupt as it was, that is the
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Pharisaic order, was also the soundest, as having not only a regard for the
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Messiah, to a Messiah, and to all the writings of the Old Testament, but also believed the doctrines of angels and spirits, and the resurrection of the dead, which the
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Sadducees denied. But yet they were implacable enemies of Christ, and therefore it is the more to be wondered at that such and one should come to him and desire a conversation with him.
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But not only was Nicodemus a Pharisee, he was also a ruler of the Jews. This would mean that he was a member of the
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Jewish Sanhedrin. This was a body of 70 men, Jewish men, plus the high priest, so there were 71, who ruled over the religious and social order of the
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Jews. The Sanhedrin was dominated by men who were members of the
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Sadducees, not the Pharisees. The Sadducees dominated the Sanhedrin. The Sadducees total probably numbered just a few thousand, and most of them lived in Jerusalem.
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They dominated the Jewish priesthood. Their religious beliefs were quite different from the
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Pharisees, for the Sadducees say there's no resurrection, no angel, no spirit, but the
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Pharisees acknowledge them all. And so there were some Pharisees in the
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Sanhedrin, but not many. Nicodemus was one of them. And there was always tension and always infighting between the
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Pharisees and the Sadducees among those 70 of the Sanhedrin. Now we open beginning with verse 1 of this third chapter, but there are some who connect the last few verses of chapter 2 with the
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Nicodemus account of chapter 3. And I think this is legitimate. Oftentimes chapter divisions, you know, we separate things and we lose the connection between them.
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Here are the last few verses of John chapter 2. Now when Jesus was in Jerusalem at the
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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.
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And then John 3 verse 1, now there was Nicodemus, this man of the
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Pharisees. Actually in the Greek text here in chapter 3 verse 1, there is a
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Greek conjunction, just a two -letter word. A conjunction joins things together, shows a relationship between different phrases or clauses or sentences.
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And it's just a two -letter word in Greek, the word da or de, which is commonly translated and.
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Sometimes it's translated but, however. The new King James and some other translations translated it now.
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All right. If it were translated as but, then the connection with verse 1 with the previous verses seemed to make more sense.
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And so the idea would be like this. Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs which he did.
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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.
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But there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the
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Jews. And this man came to Jesus by night. I think that's what's being conveyed by the apostle.
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In other words, even though Jesus did not generally commit himself or open himself before the
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Jews, there was this exception with Nicodemus. And it would seem that our
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Lord did not speak on a level with Nicodemus, or he did speak to Nicodemus on a level that was quite unique and special.
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F .F. Bruce thought this was the case. Nicodemus, like the others, had been impressed by the signs, which he saw without realizing their deeper significance.
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But there was in him a sincere willingness to learn more, to which Jesus responded by entrusting himself to him more than he did to many others.
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Jesus did open himself up to Nicodemus that he didn't do to others. Thankfully, we have this account before us.
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So, since John 3, verse 1 can be connected with the end of chapter 2, we may conclude that the evangelist, that's
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John the apostle, intended to set forth Nicodemus as one of the many Jews who had believed in his name when they saw the signs that he did.
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Nicodemus was a believer. That is, he was a believer that this man was from God. No man can do the things you do unless God is with him.
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He was a believer, but he wasn't born again. He wasn't converted.
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He did not have salvation. And so we read that Nicodemus had a measure of faith, or a form of faith.
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He said, Rabbi, we know you're a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.
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And so Nicodemus had a kind of faith, we might say a measure of faith, but it was not saving faith.
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Nicodemus, you need to be born again. From this we may also conclude that there is a faith in Jesus that does not save.
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Those who believe on Jesus because they believe, because they've seen miracles, like so many claim throughout the world today, who would assert all day long that they believe on Jesus because they've seen what he's done, may actually not have saving faith.
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They could be like Nicodemus, they need to be born again. They too, like Nicodemus and many in Jerusalem, need to be born again.
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And there are many in churches this morning, all over the world, that will say all day long they have faith in Jesus, but it's a faith that is because they believe they've seen
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Jesus work in miracles in their midst. And so they believe. That's not saving faith.
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Saving faith has to come from a renewed heart. You have to be born again that produces and generates a faith that is far greater than believing on Jesus because he performs miracles.
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Now we do read of course later in this gospel that Nicodemus was concerned about Jesus and he was concerned about what the leading
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Jews were plotting against him. In other words, we see some growth and some good things in Nicodemus' life.
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He spoke up in defense of Jesus before the Sanhedrin, even though he seemed to be rather timid in doing so.
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We read in John 70 verse 50 and 51, Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night, being one of them, that is one of the
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Sanhedrin, said to them, does your law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he's doing?
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Of course he was put down, but he did speak up.
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And then we read later still that Nicodemus assisted Joseph of Arimathea with the body of Jesus in order to give
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Jesus a dignified burial after he died upon the cross. The 20th century commentator
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Leon Moore spoke favorably of Nicodemus, even though Nicodemus was not portrayed by the evangelist, that is
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John here in John's gospel, to be a dynamic and courageous follower of Jesus. He wrote this, we hear of Nicodemus only in this gospel, he's only mentioned in John.
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He comes before us again raising a hesitant and apparently ineffectual voice on behalf of Jesus when he was being discussed by the authorities after the abortive attempt to arrest him during the
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Feast of the Tabernacles. He is not recorded as saying anything at the trial of Jesus, but he assisted
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Joseph of Arimathea at the burial. We may, I think, fairly infer that he had a love for the truth, but that he was a rather timid soul.
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And in the end he came right out for Jesus, and at that at a time when all the disciples forsook him, which is saying a lot for a timid man.
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And I think that's right, I think that speaks well of Nicodemus. And so I think
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Nicodemus had become probably a secret disciple, as his friend Joseph Arimathea was.
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Well now let's consider the dialogue, and again we're only going to begin here today, and we'll continue probably past next week.
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After the introduction in Nicodemus we read in verse 2, This man came to Jesus by night, said to him,
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Rabbi, we know that you're a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.
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Why did Nicodemus come by night? It doesn't say directly, does it?
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But that doesn't stop commentators. There are those who say he must have been characterized by the fear of man, that's why he came at night.
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He didn't want others to see or know he came to talk with Jesus. And there may be truth in that assessment.
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Others say Nicodemus wanted to be sure that he could discuss these matters with Jesus, and that would not have been possible during the day when there'd be crowds surrounding him.
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And that's possible also. John Gill wrote of this
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Nicodemus coming to Jesus at night, Through fear of the Jews, of being reproached or turned out by his place by them, or through shame that such a doctor as he was should be known to go to Jesus of Nazareth to be instructed by him, or lest he should offend any of his brethren of the
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Sanhedrin, though some things may be said in favor of this conduct of Nicodemus, for since Christ would not trust himself with those that believed in him upon seeing his miracles, among whom
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Nicodemus seems to be, or would not admit them into his company and enter into a free conversation with him, it was necessary that if he, that is
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Nicodemus, would have any discourse with him, that he should take this method. In other words, come at night.
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And it was the same night in which he had seen his miracles in the day, as is probable, he took the first opportunity he could, which shows great readiness and respect, add to which that it was very common with the
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Jewish doctors to meet and converse together and study the law at night. That apparently was a common practice among rabbis.
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They would study most of the time at night, conversing with one another. Well, it's likely the evangelist included this detail that he came to Jesus by night to suggest that although Nicodemus was greatly privileged and highly placed as a
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Jewish man, Nicodemus himself was in darkness. He came to Jesus at night.
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With respect to the truth, Nicodemus was in darkness. This understanding, of course, would be due to interpreting the detail in the night as metaphorical.
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And there are some evangelicals that would just shudder at the very thought of seeing in the night in a metaphorical sense.
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But actually John's gospel uses a great deal of metaphorical language. And so one concluded, perhaps most scholars today think that the word should be taken symbolically.
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Jesus is the light of the world and it was out of darkness in which his life had been lived that Nicodemus came to that light.
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It would be quite in this manner for John to have more than one of these meanings in mind.
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This was the understanding of Augustine back in the end of the 4th and end of the 5th century.
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Because he came by night, he still speaks from the darkness of his own flesh. He saw that as metaphorical, didn't he?
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Donald Carson wrote that we should consider other uses of the word night in the gospel writer in order to assess its meaning here.
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And so Carson wrote, the best clue lies in John's usage of night elsewhere. In each instance, and he cites the four verses, the word is either used metaphorically for moral and spiritual darkness or if it refers to the nighttime hours, it bears the same moral and spiritual symbolism.
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Doubtless, according to Carson, Nicodemus approached Jesus at night, but his own night was blacker than he knew.
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Again, John's gospel is filled with metaphorical language and symbolism and it's very easy to read over that and miss it.
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However, perhaps William Hendrickson was safe when he said of Nicodemus coming to Jesus at night, we just do not know why he came by night.
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Well, that's true, it's not stated, but I don't think that those other conclusions are necessarily wrong.
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Nicodemus acknowledged Jesus to have been a rabbi, that is a teacher from God. Nicodemus, apparently some others of his persuasion, knew that Jesus spoke and taught the word of God.
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In other words, they saw him as a prophet. What convinced them were the signs which
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Jesus did. In other words, the miracles he performed. Here we see the miracles of our
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Lord brought a measure of recognition and acknowledgement of the legitimacy of his preaching and teaching ministry.
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They had a high regard for Jesus because of what he did. Nevertheless, their regard for Jesus was actually far lower than what it should have been, for he was
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God incarnate. Some evangelicals today, and I should change that word some to many evangelicals today, claim that if we are to impact the world for Christ, we must pray and seek for the
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Lord to do mighty works of miracles so that people will believe. That is common, a common philosophy of church ministry throughout the world, and here in America too.
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This is terrible thinking. Seeing miracles will result in nominal believers.
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Nicodemus was a believer, so -called, but he still needed to be born again. He did not have saving faith.
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Seeing miracles will not produce a true Christian. The new birth is wrought by the sovereign grace alone, and that will produce true believers, that is, committed disciples of Jesus Christ.
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The Lord causes the new birth to take place through the faithful preaching of the Holy Scriptures, not through doing miracles.
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Peter wrote of this, Since you have purified your souls and obeyed the truth of the Spirit and sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, through the word of God, you're born again through the word of God, which lives and abides forever.
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Because all flesh is grass, all the glory of man is the flower of the grass. The grass withers, its flower falls away, but the word of the
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Lord endures forever. Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.
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Peter declares that we're born again through the word that's preached to us, the word of God preached.
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We're not born again because we see miracles. The fact is, if we had the ability to raise a physically dead person to life every week, every
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Sunday morning, we're going to raise a man from the dead. I suspect we'd have this place filled in a couple weeks.
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Might not take that long. And they would all claim to be believers through what they saw.
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But perhaps none of them would have salvation. But many of them would think that they had.
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Oh, they believe on Jesus. I know because he did miracles. He's raising the dead. But people need to be born again spiritually.
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And that doesn't take place by seeing miracles. Seeing miracles does not produce saving faith.
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You remember what our Lord taught in his account of Lazarus who was in Abraham's bosom that is in paradise after Lazarus died and the rich man died and the rules were reversed.
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The rich man wanted Abraham to send Lazarus back from the dead in order to warn his five brothers lest they also come to this place of torment.
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And Abraham said, no, I'm not sending Lazarus. Here we read of the interchange. The rich man said,
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I beg you therefore, father, a reference to Abraham, Jesus is telling the story, that you would send him to my father's house for I have five brothers that he may testify to them lest they come to this place of torment.
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Abraham said to him, they have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. They have the Holy Scriptures.
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They've got the Bible. Let those brothers hear them. He said, no, Father Abraham. But if one goes to them from the dead, they'll repent.
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If they see a miracle, they'll repent. That'll cause them to believe. But Abraham said to him, if they do not hear
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Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rise from the dead. Miracles do not produce saving faith.
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God uses the Holy Scriptures to produce saving faith. And that's why we have to be faithful in proclaiming them and teaching them.
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In this account, by the way, the Lord Jesus was asserting the soul, authority, and sufficiency of the
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Holy Scriptures alone to bring salvation. Seeing Jesus perform miracles does not produce true
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Christians, true disciples. It can only produce perhaps fascinated followers who only continue for a while.
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Look at John chapter 6 for further evidence of that. They all forsook Jesus by the end of the day. However, we don't want to take away from Nicodemus his due.
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He knew Jesus was a teacher with the calling and blessing of God upon him. And although Nicodemus was himself a great teacher, it would seem that he was desirous and willing to be taught.
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That's a good quality. By the way, it was at this point in his commentary,
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Matthew Henry, he always inserts these little words of application. Personal converse with skilled faithful ministers about the affairs of our souls would be of great use to us.
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He's absolutely right. By the way, before we move on from here,
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I want to draw a principle for us in our own dealings with people who need to be born again.
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Let us be as our Lord in the tender and concerned yet faithful manner in which he dealt with this man
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Nicodemus. I love this quote. The history of Nicodemus is meant to teach us that we should never despise the day of small things in religion, in other words, in Christianity.
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We must not set down a man as having no grace because his first steps toward God are timid and wavering.
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And the first movements of his soul are uncertain, hesitating, and stamped with such imperfection.
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We must remember our Lord's reception of Nicodemus. Jesus did not break the bruised reed or quench the smoking flax, which he saw before him.
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Like him, let us take inquires by the hand and deal with them gently and lovingly. In everything, there must be a beginning.
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It is not those who make the most flaming profession of religion at first who endure the longest and prove the most steadfast.
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Judas Iscariot was an apostle when Nicodemus was just groping his way slowly into full light.
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And yet afterwards, when Nicodemus was boldly helping to bury the crucified Savior, Judas Iscariot had betrayed him and hanged himself.
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This is a fact which ought not to be forgotten. And sometimes, you know,
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Christians that might be a little bit more informed in the Word, they can be a little intolerant and not giving due when you see perhaps some first movement of grace in a soul.
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Work that, encourage that, and seek to, you know, seek to water it.
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God gives the increase, of course, but we can have a role in that. Well, let's arrive now to verse 3.
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Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
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Notice we don't see Nicodemus asking Jesus a question. And yet we read that Jesus answered him.
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He didn't ask a question, but Jesus answered him. It seems the Lord saw it in Nicodemus' heart and answered the question that was really on Nicodemus' mind.
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If we were to guess at verbalizing that question from Jesus' answer to him, we might say Nicodemus desired to know what works he needed to do in order to enter the kingdom of God.
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Nicodemus knew that Jesus was from God due to the signs he'd done. What would he, Nicodemus, need to do to also be found in God's favor?
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If this were the case, then Nicodemus might, say, be cast as a rich old ruler. Just like on another occasion, a rich young ruler came to Jesus and asked the question,
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Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life? And the answer of Jesus was that no good deed can be performed to enable or qualify a person to enter the kingdom of God.
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You need to be born again, Nicodemus. Entrance is due to God's grace, not man's work.
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And as one rightly wrote, in its own way, this chapter does away with the works of the law every bit as thoroughly as anything in Paul.
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Here you have Nicodemus, the supreme example of a man who lives a good life according to the law.
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But his works meant nothing. In no way did they qualify him for the kingdom.
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The New King James Version, which we use, records the opening words of Jesus to Nicodemus, Most assuredly
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I say to you. And occasionally we'll, you know, criticize or try to correct other
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English translations when we think it could have been rendered in a better manner. And we do so with the
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New King James Version as well. Here is the second occasion in John's Gospel when in the Greek text,
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Jesus repeats the word, the Greek words, Amen, amen, or amen, amen.
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The New King James Version translates these two words as most assuredly. And that's what
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Jesus was really saying, most assuredly I say to you. But there's an emphasis conveyed by the repetition of the word amen that has a narrative force that I think should be, you know, conveyed in the
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English translation. And the New King James Version fails to do that. The King James renders it verily, verily
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I say unto you. The New American Standard Version, truly, truly I say to you, just like the
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ESV. And I think either one of those translations, any one of those translations is preferable in this verse to the
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New King James Version. Jesus called Nicodemus to pay the closest attention to what he was about to tell him.
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He said, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Verily, verily I say to you, wake up Nicodemus.
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This is the most critical matter I could ever say to you. Listen up.
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Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Perhaps it would do us well to say a word about the kingdom of God.
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And somebody recently said, you know, if there's one thing that perhaps
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I harp on more than any, it might be this matter of the kingdom of God. That may be true, I don't know. When the
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Lord Jesus confronted Nicodemus regarding the eternal well -being of his soul, even his eternal salvation, he spoke of the need for Nicodemus to see, and later in verse 5, to enter the kingdom of God.
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The kingdom of God is a term that's recorded in the Synoptic Gospels much more frequently than John.
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And in fact, I gave a rough count in the footnote there. The kingdom of God is used 18 times in Mark, 41 times in Luke, 51 times in Matthew.
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The kingdom of God is only used twice in John's Gospel. John chapter 3, verse 3, right here, and two verses later,
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John chapter 3, verse 5. However, the Lord does later on in John's Gospel make reference to my kingdom.
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He doesn't say kingdom of God, but my kingdom. The fact is, the kingdom of God was the major theme of the teaching of the
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Lord Jesus. It's been said, modern scholarship is quite unanimous in the opinion that the kingdom of God was the central message of Jesus, the central message.
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It ought to be central to our message. And yet, I would argue, it's one of the most neglected and misunderstood teachings in today's evangelicalism.
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This may be attributed to several reasons. First, among Protestants, there's an emphasis, of course, of the
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Protestant Reformation recovery of the biblical doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone, and later, the recovery of the
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Puritan doctrine of sanctification. And those are wonderful, recovered, biblical truths.
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But because of this history, perhaps the Gospel is reduced to a message of justification alone.
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But I think more significant is the influence of classical dispensationalism, which
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I hit on all the time, which had dominated evangelical belief through the 20th century, in which it taught an understanding of the kingdom of God, which is wholly unbiblical.
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Until the 1980s, most evangelicals believed that although Jesus had offered the promised kingdom to the
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Jews during his earthly ministry, because the Jews failed to embrace Jesus as their king, as the promised
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Messiah, God withdrew the offer of the kingdom. Dispensationalists taught that the promised kingdom, therefore, was postponed until the second coming of Christ, when he will establish an earthly Jewish kingdom, the
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Millennium. And because evangelicals were taught that the kingdom was postponed, it became absent from evangelical teaching and preaching of the
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Gospel. Salvation has been presented as the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life, but those salvation blessings are viewed as distinct and disconnected from the kingdom of God.
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And I don't think that's biblical. There needs to be a recovery and an emphasis of the kingdom of God.
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This is not how the Bible sets forth the kingdom of God, as dispensationalists have done. For here in John 3, 3, and John 3, 5, and many other places in the
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Gospel, the Lord Jesus equates salvation with entering the kingdom of God. You have to be born again to see or enter the kingdom of God.
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And that's why you have the many references in the Gospels of the gospel of the kingdom. The gospel is the gospel of the kingdom of God.
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And those pages that I put at the end of your notes, we go into detail, some detail about the kingdom of God.
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They're the very notes we dealt with last March, and I didn't want to repeat those, but I did want to have those available to some who receive our notes, because this is so critically important.
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What is most important for us to understand here in John 3, 3, and 3, 5, when Jesus spoke of entering the kingdom of God, he was speaking of Nicodemus experiencing salvation from sin and receiving the gift of eternal life.
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And although John does not use in his gospel the kingdom of God more than twice, nevertheless, the expression eternal life is found throughout
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John's gospel. And you could say every time he uses the expression eternal life, he's referring to the kingdom of God.
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Because that's what it is here in John chapter 3. Drop down to the quote, if you would,
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Donald Carson, D .A. Carson, at the bottom of page nine, if you will, as we're wrapping things up here. To a
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Jew with the background and convictions of Nicodemus, to see the kingdom of God was to participate in the kingdom at the end of the age, to experience eternal resurrection life.
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The same equivalence is found in the synoptics. That would be Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It is particularly strong in the fourth gospel, where kingdom language crops up only here and at Jesus' trial, while life language predominates.
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The word life is found throughout John's gospel. One of the most startling features of the kingdom announced in the synoptics that it is not exclusively future.
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The kingdom, God saving and transforming reign, has in certain respects already been inaugurated in the person, works, and message of Jesus.
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In other words, it's wrong to take the kingdom and present it as a future thousand -year millennium. It's been inaugurated by Jesus, and the gospels make that clear.
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John stresses this inaugurated or realized component of the long -awaited salvation even more.
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True, he can refer to the resurrection and speak unambiguously of what takes place at the last day, but it's far more characteristic of John to stress entry into life and participation in the eternal life now.
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I think a proclamation of the kingdom of God would take care of a lot of nominal Christianity. To enter the kingdom of God, Jesus Christ has to be
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Lord. You have to believe on Him, submit to Him, follow Him, obey Him, if you're going to be a citizen of the kingdom.
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I'll cite one more quote, F .F. Bruce, to see the kingdom of God meant to witness, and have a share in, the final consummation of God's kingly rule, when it would be accepted and obeyed universally.
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This future aspect of the divine kingdom is also set forth in the Old Testament, notably in the book of Daniel.
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To a Jew with Nicodemus' upbringing, seeing the kingdom of God would mean participation in the age to come, the resurrection life.
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In this gospel, as in others, the kingdom of God, in this sense, is interchangeable with eternal life.
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In other words, regeneration is another synonym. In other words, there it talks about in the regeneration, in other words, at the resurrection.
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But Jesus speaks of a regeneration to be experienced here and now, to be born from above, or born anew, in the sense which
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His words have here, is to be born from God, in the sense of John 1, 13, to enter immediately into the life of that coming age.
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We who have read the prologue to the gospel, that's John 1, know that those who are thus born into the divine family, becoming children of God, are those who have received the incarnate word, believing in His name.
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But Nicodemus knew nothing of this, hence his bewildered reply. The point is this, to enter and dwell in the kingdom of God is to enjoy the gift and the quality of eternal life, which is an enjoyable existence with God, living before God in accordance with the law of God, under the kingship of God, which is through Jesus Christ.
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And this cannot be experienced and enjoyed by anyone, even one as great as Nicodemus, as devout and regimented as he lived his life, unless he's born again.
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One must be born again in order to enter and enjoy the kingdom of God with his blessing.
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And so there are only two kinds of people in the world, those who have been born once and not the second time, and those who have been born once and born the second time.
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Two kind of people in the world. Stephen Charnock wrote about this, he wrote a book,
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The Doctrine of Regeneration, and it's rather lengthy. These were some of his opening words.
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There are but two states, one saving, the other damning, a state of sin, a state of righteousness. All men are divided into two ranks.
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In regard to their principles, some are in the flesh, some in the spirit. In regard to their obedience, some walk after the flesh, some after the spirit.
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Some are slaves to the flesh, others are led by the spirit. Some live only to self, some live to God.
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In regard to the exercise of their minds, their noble faculty, some mind the things of the flesh, others the things of the spirit.
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Some indulge themselves in sin, others place the delights of their spirits upon better and higher objects. The scripture mentions no other.
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A state of enmity wherein men have their inclinations contrary to God, a state of friendship and fellowship wherein men walk before God unto all well -pleasing and would not willingly have an inward motion swerve from his will.
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One is called light, the other darkness. You were sometimes darkness, but now you're light.
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One the children of wrath, the other the children of God. There's no medium between them. Every man is in one or the other of these two states.
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All believers, from the bruised reed to the tallis cedar, from the smoking flax on earth to the flaming lamp in heaven, from Thomas that would not believe without seeing to Abraham who would believe without staggering, all are in a state of life.
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And all from the most beautiful moralist to the most venomous toad in nature's field, from the young man in the gospel who was not far from the kingdom of heaven to Judas who was in the very bottom of hell, all are in a state of death.
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Mere nature, though never so curiously garnished, can place a man no higher. Faith, though with many infirmities, puts us in a state of enmity or friendship with God.
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Unbelief, though with many moralities, continues in a state of enmity. These two very opposite conditions mentioned include all the human race.
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And so we have to be born again. It's transformative. A person who's born again experiences new life, a love for God, a love for his word, a love for his people.
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This cannot be generated from a fallen heart. It is that which is produced by a new heart.
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You don't come to salvation by giving your heart to Jesus. You come to salvation because Jesus gives you a new heart.
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It transforms you utterly. And I fear for so many nominal
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Christians. Please understand, sometimes that new birth is not very perceptible, but it's there.
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It's like a non -physical birth. For the life of me,
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I can't remember when I was physically born, but I've got the evidence that I'm alive.
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I can still breathe and move and talk, sometimes think. And some may not be able to remember their new birth when it happened, but do you have signs of new birth?
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Do you have signs of life? Do you love God? Do you desire to please the Lord? Do you desire to be with his people?
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Do you want to know more about him? Are you looking forward to being with him? These are all the products of God's grace.
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It cannot come forth from an unregenerate heart. And so the new birth is all important.
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We're going to have to explore this in some detail, so we're going to be here a while. Let's just close with page 12, just a few words of importance, just to wrap things up.
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First, let us underscore at the outset of our study of this important matter that becoming born again is a result of the sovereign grace of God.
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Nowhere in this passage is Nicodemus told steps that you must take which will result in you becoming born again.
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The Bible does not give any instructions to you that if you follow these steps, you will be born again.
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Jesus teaches just the opposite here in John 3. You can't do anything, Nicodemus.
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It has to be done to you. God in his sovereign grace causes the new birth.
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And so there's no instruction in John 3 or anywhere in the Bible directing sinners that if they take certain steps, they'll become born again.
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God does, however, use the instrument of his word, as we saw in 1 Peter, particularly the gospel, to create this new life, to cause the new birth.
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He chose to give us birth through the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he created.
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Paul could write, For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. It's the gospel that God uses to create life.
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The Lord Jesus was making it clear to Nicodemus that he was wholly dependent on the mercy and grace of God to enable him to be born again.
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God, unless you do something to me, for me, in me, I'm a goner. And for people to come to Christ in faith, the
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Lord strips them first of all sense that somehow there's something about me that qualifies me, that God's going to accept me because of something
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I do, say, believe. No, he has to accept me according to his mercy for Christ's sake and that alone.
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And then last, the doctrine of the new birth, the regeneration gives glory to God alone for the salvation of sinners.
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God never made a plan of salvation whereby sinners can save themselves. Salvation is of the Lord, not a cooperation.
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God did his part, you do your part. Between the two of you, you come up with salvation. Salvation is of the
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Lord from first to last. You know, I thought about how so many, you know, throughout the world,
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I know it's the case in South Africa, I know it's the way in India, I know it's the way in Kenya.
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You know, these televangelists go through all the world and they make these claims for miracles and whatnot and they have hundreds and hundreds of thousands show up.
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Benny Hinn showed up in Durban, South Africa some years ago. He was going to preach in the evening and the streets in Durban were locked up by 8 o 'clock in the morning.
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There was no movement. Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of peoples came to hear him. And the promises of miracles.
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And, you know, it produced a kind of faith, but it wasn't saving faith. And, you know,
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I was thinking here in America, yeah, there are some who advocate those kinds of things, miracles, and somehow that makes believers.
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But it seemed today in a lot of churches that if you can get a group of people all excited about some form of Christian music and they're all excited about, that's true faith.
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What is this nonsense? You know, the new birth, regeneration is transformative.
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Old things pass away. Behold, all things become new. The Lord is sovereign in this and we have to be prayerful and dependent.
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But wonderfully, he has given us an instrument that we know that he will bless as we pray and rely upon that and proclaim it faithfully as he enables us.
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Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word. Help us, our Lord, to be faithful to proclaim it.
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We pray that you do a great work of grace in our days, our God, causing many to be born again.
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We understand, Lord, there's nothing we can do to bring about our new birth. But we understand, Lord, that we are in need of it and therefore
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I pray for mercy and grace, our God. There are some here this morning, Lord, who need to be regenerated by your sovereign grace.
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They need the Holy Spirit to give them new life in Christ and we just pray that you would do so, our
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Lord. We pray they'd begin to see the evidences of that new life, a true love for you, a true love for righteousness, a love for your word, a love for the brethren, a disinterest in and a hatred for sin and a desire to depart from it.
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We pray, our God, that you would help each of us to manifest true evidences of true life in Jesus Christ.