Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God

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Dael Kurti; John 3:1-15 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God

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You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. Boy, we just get started it comes up quickly on you and then all of a sudden
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I'm here ready to go. I just want to start out by saying this, you know, some things in the scriptures are difficult to understand and those are the things that scholars and lay people alike like to argue about.
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But there are some things in the scriptures that are crystal clear and what we're going to talk about is one of them.
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Here's one of the things that the Bible teaches is crystal clear, that there is a day that will come when the skies will roll back like the unfolding of a scroll and Jesus will return in power and in great glory.
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On that day he will establish his kingdom over all the earth. Every eye will see
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Jesus, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is
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Lord over all to the glory of God the Father. And on that day when Jesus returns he will establish his throne in justice, he will judge the nations and he will wipe away every tear from every eye.
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Sickness, war, injustice, death, demonic evil will all be abolished when
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Jesus returns and establishes his kingdom. Now can
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I ask you is there anyone here that doesn't in their heart long for the day when the kingdom of Jesus will be established over this entire earth?
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Is there anyone here that doesn't long for the day when this world will be restored to its original design?
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You see I'm convinced that all human beings, even the most hardened atheist, every human being in their deep, their heart of hearts longs to return to Eden.
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They long to see the world renewed. They long to see a world when suffering, violence, injustice, and sorrow are replaced by peace and love.
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I believe this is written into our DNA as human beings that we long for the kingdom of God.
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But here is a sad, discomforting, very unpopular, but profoundly biblical truth that we need to be reminded of is that not everyone will see and be granted admittance into the kingdom of God.
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Consider these words from Matthew chapter 13 verses 40 through 43.
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Jesus says this, just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire so it will be at the end of the age.
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The son of man will send his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all that causes sin and all lawbreakers and throw them into the fiery furnace.
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In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father.
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He who has ears to hear, let him hear. These words can be terrifying precisely because we know them to be true.
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And it's exactly for that reason that our passage this morning, John chapter 3 verses 1 through 15, it's exactly for this reason that our passage this morning is of such enormous importance because John chapter 3 verses 1 through 15, in that passage
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Jesus explains how we may enter the kingdom of heaven.
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And in fact John chapter 3 explains to us two great truths. It explains to us what
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God must do in our hearts and in our lives in order for us to enter the kingdom of God.
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And this passage also explains what we must do in response to the work of God in order to enter the kingdom of God.
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So if you have your Bibles I would encourage you to turn with me to John chapter 3 verses 1 through 15. I'm going to read this passage, we'll pray, and then we're going to jump into and look at it verse by verse, section by section.
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So John chapter 3 verses 1 through 15. Now there was a man of the
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Pharisees named 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 are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.
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Jesus answered him, truly, truly, 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? How can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?
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Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
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That which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.
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Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.
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So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit. Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be?
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And Jesus answered to him, are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?
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Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.
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If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
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No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the son of man.
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And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the son of man, so must the son of man be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
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Would you pray with me? Father in heaven,
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I am mindful of your word this morning, where it says, unless the
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Lord builds the house, those who labor do so in vain. Father, I do not want this morning's message to be in vain.
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I ask that you would build your house this morning. I pray that you would encourage your people.
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I ask that this morning you would correct any errors in us. And I ask that if there is anybody here this morning that is visiting or listening in that does not know you,
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I pray that they would hear what your word says to them. Holy Spirit, we ask that you would blow through this auditorium this morning, touching our hearts, opening our hearts.
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I ask that you would keep me from speaking anything that is going to be an error or that might be hurtful.
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And I pray, Heavenly Father, that you would bless this time. God, we need you.
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We are hungry for you. God, all of our hope and all of our trust is in you this morning.
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May you alone receive glory. In Jesus' name, amen.
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So John chapter 3, verses 1 through 15. I'd like us to begin by thinking about the context of this conversation.
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Okay, so if we look back at John chapter 2, verse 23, we see what's going on. In John chapter 2, verse 23, it says this.
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Now, while he, Jesus, was in Jerusalem at the Passover festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name.
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Now Jesus, what signs had Jesus performed? Well, in chapter 2, he had cleared the temple of the money changers.
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And in so, he had pronounced judgment on the Jewish leadership.
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He was teaching, he was publicly performing miracles, miracles that were designed to point the discerning observer to Jesus himself as messianic king.
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Now, Nicodemus was well aware of what Jesus had been doing.
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Nicodemus would have been well aware that Jesus had cleared the temple and probably Nicodemus, in his heart, agreed with what
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Jesus did and this action, this prophetic act, resonated with him. Nicodemus had heard the teachings of Jesus.
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Very likely he had heard of Jesus' miracles or maybe even seen them firsthand. And through these things, the
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Holy Spirit was stirring in the heart of Nicodemus, drawing
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Nicodemus to Christ. Nicodemus responded to the Holy Spirit's work and came to Jesus to investigate further.
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Chapter 3, verses 1 and 2. Now, 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 are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.
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Now, I want you to notice two things about this conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. The first thing is that it occurred at night.
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I believe the reason for that is that this was a secret meeting, one rabbi to another.
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You have to understand, the Jewish leadership, the high priest especially, they were adamantly opposed to Jesus.
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And Nicodemus, as a respected teacher of Israel, had a lot of pressure not to believe in Jesus.
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He was a man of influence. He had much to lose. Therefore, it makes sense that this would be a more secret, private meeting.
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Secondly, notice the tentativeness in Nicodemus' words. Nicodemus says, we know that you are a teacher come from God.
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Now, it's possible that Nicodemus is representing a sympathetic faction in the
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Jewish Sanhedrin, but I think what's really going on here, what
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I suspect Nicodemus is really saying is not, we recognize you are a teacher come from God.
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I think what he's really saying is, I recognize you're a teacher who has come from God. It's less personal and hence safer to kind of blend in with a crowd and hence the use of the plural pronoun.
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It's kind of like if I say to you, are you struggling with sin?
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Instead of saying, yes, I'm struggling with sin, it's much more safe to say, well, we all struggle with sin.
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I think Nicodemus was hiding behind the personal pronoun here because it was safer.
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Nicodemus preferred to blend in with the crowd and so he's approaching Jesus tentatively. And maybe you're like Nicodemus this morning, honestly.
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Maybe you're listening online because you prefer kind of the anonymity of your own computer screen or maybe you're a visitor and you're thinking, what am
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I doing here? And you're just kind of hoping to kind of blend in with a crowd. Maybe you're tentative, uncertain, uncomfortable.
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And I want you to see something. Jesus welcomed Nicodemus and Jesus welcomes you this morning.
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Now, before we move on, I want to say a few words about Nicodemus. We need to understand the characters in this story in order to understand the full impact of what
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Jesus says. Who was Nicodemus? Well, Nicodemus was a dignified, highly respected, influential, scholarly, morally upright older gentleman.
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He was a highly regarded teacher and he was a member of the Sanhedrin, the 70 -member ruling council of the
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Jewish people. This council was led by the high priest and it was given authority over the civil and religious and with certain limits, criminal matters of the nation.
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So Nicodemus was a scholar and a leader of the people. Now, just as our
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Congress in America is divided between liberals and conservatives, between Democrats and Republicans, so the
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Sanhedrin in Jesus' day was divided really into two groups. There were Sadducees and Pharisees.
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Now, Sadducees tended to be aristocratic, pro -Rome, wealthy, priestly leaders.
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And honestly, they were not very popular with the people. People didn't like the Sadducees very much. The Pharisees, on the other hand, of which
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Nicodemus is a part, the Pharisees were quite common in Israel. It's estimated there were 6 ,000
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Pharisees in Palestine in the days of Jesus. Now, these Pharisees were more working -class.
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It's true some of them were wealthy, but usually the Pharisees were working -class men who were passionate about the
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Scriptures. They studied them intricately, deeply, exposited them, and took great care to obey everything that God had written in His Word.
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Now, Jesus often had harsh criticism for the self -righteousness, the rigid character, the hypocritical character of the
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Pharisees, but history tells us that the Pharisees were actually quite popular among the people. They were the preachers and teachers of the people.
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Nicodemus was a member of this very influential group. Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night tentatively seeking more information, and Jesus cuts right to the heart of the issue, not mincing words.
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Listen to what he says in verse 3. I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God.
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The kingdom of God was the most precious hope that the Jewish people possessed.
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The Jewish people dreamed of a day in which their Messiah would come in power and great glory.
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He would vanquish the Romans. He would liberate the nation. He would establish a just and virtuous government.
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This Messiah would heal the sick, free those oppressed by demonic influence.
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This Messiah would bind up the broken -hearted. This Messiah would destroy even death and enter and introduce an era of great glory and power for the nation of Israel that would exceed even the prosperity that the nation enjoyed under the reign of Solomon in their golden age.
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Now that sounds good, but the problem is this, that the Jews in the first century held a view of the kingdom of God that was nationalistic, that was ethnocentric, that was earthly.
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They believed that the kingdom of God, entrance into the kingdom of God was theirs by birthright.
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In other words, if you were lucky enough to be born as a Jew and you walked in covenant faithfulness to the covenant of Moses, then you would be welcomed into the kingdom when it was established.
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Jesus takes this thinking, this ethnocentric kind of entitlement thinking, and completely upends it.
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I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God.
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Do you feel that? I don't know if we feel the force of those words and what a shock they must have been to Nicodemus.
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It's like in a flash of lightning, Jesus rebukes the self -affirming beliefs of the
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Jewish nation and he calls for a complete transformation that can only be performed by the
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Spirit of God. Wow, the reverberation, the thunderous reverberation of that statement echoes down through history, even down into today.
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I mean, consider who Jesus was talking to here. Jesus was not talking to some prostitute on the street.
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He was not talking to a Roman soldier who had Jewish blood on his hands. He wasn't talking to a swindling tax collector.
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Jesus was talking to Nicodemus, a ruler of the people, a scholar, a dignified, respectable man.
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He was a devout Bible scholar, a respected teacher, a member of the
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Sanhedrin. And Jesus says, Nicodemus, if you want to enter the kingdom of God, you must accept this truth.
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Your religious resume counts for nothing. Your pious works of service count for nothing.
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Your religious heritage, your ethnic identity count for nothing.
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Nicodemus, the influence of sin is far more pervasive than you know.
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And you stand exposed and naked before a holy God, your self -righteousness is stripped away.
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You aren't good enough to enter the kingdom of God by your own merits. You must humble yourself before God, abandon confidence in your own merit, and receive the new birth, that supernatural renewal that God performs in your life through the power of the
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Holy Spirit. This is so important for us today, and that's why
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I've chosen to focus on this point in this passage.
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Come to me sometime. Come with me sometime to Western Michigan University. And we'll go out and we'll meet students, and we'll talk to them about the gospel.
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Now, here's what I've found. If you talk to the average American student at Western Michigan University, if you ask them the question, do you believe in God?
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Honestly, more than half will probably say yes. They may not be sure who God is, or what he's like, or whether they believe everything in the
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Bible, but I would say more students than not believe that there's a God, or at least some kind of higher power.
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So you ask them, even those students who have some, like, church background, you ask them, do you believe in God?
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Of course. Do you believe that there's a heaven and hell? I'm a little uncomfortable with the concept of hell, but yes,
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I absolutely believe in heaven. Then you ask them the question, do you think you'll go to heaven when you die?
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Nine out of ten will say yes. I have met students that say, no, I'm going to hell.
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But most students, 90 percent, believe that they're going to heaven. Doesn't matter the religion, okay?
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Everybody believes they're going to heaven. Almost everybody. Now, here's the key question. You ask them, if you died tonight and God asked you, why should
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I let you into my kingdom? What would you say to him? And what do you think they answer?
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They start to give you their resume. They start telling you the good things that they've done, or they start immediately saying, well,
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I'm a pretty good person. I haven't done anything too bad. So they start telling you the bad things that they've avoided, and they start telling you how good they are.
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Friends, it's the prevailing belief of our day and our culture that God is like some kind of big doting grandfather who accepts everyone and places moral demands on no one.
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He dismisses our sin as merely like mistakes or brokenness.
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And people are, at their core, morally decent and good. That's what people believe today.
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The belief is that people can clean themselves up, they can try harder, they can go to church, they can reform their life, they can score enough merit points with God to earn
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God's favor and to merit entrance into his kingdom. This belief is common today.
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It's comforting, it's self -congratulating, and it's dangerously unbiblical. Can you see what
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Jesus is saying to Nicodemus? God is holy.
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There's no evil in him. God is fiercely, blindingly holy, and every one of us will stand before him and give an account for every word, every action, every motivation, every omission in our lives.
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Our sin is not a trifling matter before God. It's pervasive, our guilt is deep, we can't fix ourselves, we're in trouble.
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The religious resume, the self -derived merit of Nicodemus was insufficient for entrance into the kingdom of God.
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Now, Nicodemus was probably a more moral and better man than I am. His resume was insufficient.
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My resume is insufficient. Your resume is insufficient. If Nicodemus needed to be born again to see the kingdom of God, then each of us needs to be born again to see the kingdom of God.
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What does it mean to be born again? This phrase can also be translated to be born from above.
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I prefer the wording born again because I believe it better fits with Nicodemus' immediate follow -up question in verse 4.
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But what does that actually mean and how does that work? Those are the things that Jesus and Nicodemus are going to talk about next, and so let's continue reading in our text.
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Okay, John chapter 3 verses 4 through 9. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he's old?
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Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, truly, truly,
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I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
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That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and 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, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.
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So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit. Now, when
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Jesus says you must be born again, Nicodemus didn't understand what Jesus said. He didn't understand what Jesus meant, and so his first response was a crude and literal interpretation that he himself knew was impossible.
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So Jesus explains further. Jesus says, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
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Now, this idea of being born of the spirit is not just found here, it's found throughout your
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New Testament, it's found throughout your Bible. Let's look at a couple of passages here. Romans chapter 6, verse 4.
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We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Jesus was raised from the dead by the glory of the
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Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
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We too might walk in newness of life. Second Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17.
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Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
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The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. Perhaps my favorite, and maybe the closest parallel,
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Titus chapter 3, verses 4 through 6. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our
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Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the
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Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our
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Savior, not by works of ours done in righteousness, but by the washing and regeneration of the
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Holy Spirit. 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 3. According to his great mercy,
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God has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
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1 Peter 1, 22 and 23. Love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.
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To be born of the Spirit is found throughout your New Testament. But what did
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Jesus mean when he said, not only that you must be born by the Spirit, but that you must be born by water and the
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Spirit? That's where it gets fun, because scholars disagree about this, and there's essentially three different interpretations of what
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Jesus meant when he said, you must be born by water and the Spirit. I'll tell you all three, it's the third one that I believe is accurate.
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Some would say that the reference to water here is a reference to physical birth, okay?
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So this interpretation makes sense of the next sentence where it says, flesh gives birth to flesh and Spirit gives birth to Spirit.
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However, I've been present for the birth of all three of my children and I wouldn't associate water with that process, okay?
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I don't see anywhere in the Old Testament where water is associated with physical birth.
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But some would see the reference to water as Jesus saying, you must be born physically and then you must also be born spiritually.
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Some would see water as a reference to baptism, and so hence Jesus, if that were true, what
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Jesus would be saying would be, you must be baptized and transformed by the power of the
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Spirit. Now, it is true that John the Baptist was a very influential public figure and Nicodemus would have been familiar with the baptism of John.
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So that interpretation could be true, but I believe it misses the mark too because it conflates the symbol of regeneration with regeneration itself.
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The symbol is water baptism, the reality is to which the symbol points is regeneration.
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I believe the best way to understand Jesus' reference to water in this passage is for us to turn to Ezekiel chapter 36 verses 25 and 26.
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Now remember, Nicodemus is a Bible scholar. Jesus chides Nicodemus for not understanding something that he should have understood.
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What should Nicodemus have understood from the scriptures? Ezekiel 36 verses 25 through 27.
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Listen to this prophecy that God speaks through the prophet Ezekiel, a prophecy of the new covenant that is fulfilled in Jesus.
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Here in this passage, we have reference to the cleansing work of God and to the imparting of the
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Holy Spirit. I believe that Jesus was alluding to this prophecy in Ezekiel when he referred to water and the
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Spirit. So Jesus is not referring to really two separate things. He's saying to Nicodemus, you must be born again through the cleansing and washing work of the
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Holy Spirit if you ever want to see the kingdom of God. You see, friends, apart from Christ, apart from Christ, in his natural state, a human being may be passionate about a great many different things, but not about the things of God.
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Instead, there is great delight in the sinful pleasures, in the locker room humor, in the perverted ideas of our culture.
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There's no passion for God. In his natural state, a man feels little desire for God, and he certainly stands unaware of the weight of his guilt and his sin before a holy
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God. The center of the natural man is himself, and the self is hostile towards every rival.
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But the Holy Spirit powerfully works in human hearts, drawing people to Christ, revealing the depths of sin, the righteous standard of God, and the certainty of the coming judgment.
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And should a person respond in faith, the Holy Spirit awakens a God -seeking,
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Christ -delighting heart. He cleanses away sin and guilt with pure spiritual water.
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The Holy Spirit takes up residence in the heart of a believer and imparts new life, eternal life.
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When a person is born again, the Holy Spirit changes everything.
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Habits are changed. Sin is forsaken. Goals are rewritten. Hopes are redefined.
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Relationships are mended. Passions die, and new ones are born. God teaches us to desire new things and better things.
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This transformation is brought about by the work of the triune God, and it is a miracle.
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That's what it means to be born of water in the Spirit. It's to be born again, a brand new start, through the power and cleansing work of the
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Holy Spirit. Now let's return to our text. Jesus says, that which is born of flesh is flesh, that which is born of the
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Spirit is Spirit. Jesus gives two examples of things that we can see and things we have experience with in order to explain the spiritual reality that he's talking about in this text.
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So he gives two physical examples to explain a spiritual truth to Nicodemus. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the
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Spirit is Spirit. Jesus is referring to the natural process by which a man and a woman come together, become one flesh, and produce a child.
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That which is born of flesh is flesh. Being born of the
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Spirit is something altogether, because it's not something that we can do. It's not something that has to do with our birthright or ethnicity.
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It's a supernatural act of God. I like the way the New Living Translation translates verse 7.
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Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. The new birth is likened also to the work of the wind.
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And in doing so, in likening the movement of the Holy Spirit to the work of the wind, Jesus is highlighting the mysterious nature of the
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Holy Spirit's work. You can't control the wind. You can't predict when the wind will shift, especially in an ancient culture.
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So what is with the Holy Spirit? You can't control the Spirit. You can't predict His next move.
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You can't engineer this new birth. It happens at the initiative of God. It happens by the power of God.
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You know it when you see it, but you can't engineer it. Now, Nicodemus is still having a hard time.
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So let's look at verse 9. Jesus continues. Nicodemus said to Him, How can these things be?
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Jesus answered him, Nicodemus' question in the
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ESV is, how can these things be? But it could also be rendered how is this even possible?
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Now, we don't know the intonation of Nicodemus' voice. We can only infer that from kind of the sharpness of Jesus' rebuke.
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But I believe that there was some skepticism in Nicodemus. It was almost as if Nicodemus was saying,
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Jesus, what you're saying here is impossible. You see,
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I don't think Nicodemus wanted the mystery. He wanted something that was manageable, something that was actionable.
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Maybe he wanted a 10 -step program by which we can predict and engineer this new birth, the work of God.
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Remember, this was a scholarly man. He's used to expositing and teaching the scriptures.
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He's used to being in control. And Jesus rebukes that need to understand everything and to control things.
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Now, here's my paraphrase of Jesus' rebuke. This is just my paraphrase, my interpretation. Nicodemus, you don't have to understand how something works in order to experience it.
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You don't have to know how the wind works and yet you feel its effect every day. You don't understand how a baby is formed in a mother's womb, but you've seen many children come into this world.
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I've explained the new birth by comparing it to two very common earthly things, the wind and childbirth, and yet you still refuse to accept my teaching.
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If these earthly examples are not enough for you, Nicodemus, how are you going to understand if I explain to you the supernatural workings of the
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Holy Spirit? He is God, after all, and he does what he wishes, when he wishes, and how he wishes.
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And there's an important lesson here for us. We don't have to understand how the new birth works.
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We don't have to understand how God changes a human heart in order to believe that God changes a human heart.
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Many of us in this auditorium have been, hopefully all of us, have been changed by the power of the
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Holy Spirit in profound ways. We all know people who have been just dramatically and powerfully changed.
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I have a friend, a good friend of mine, who now is in Christian ministry, one of the most humble and godly men
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I know, and if you listen to his testimony, he used to deal drugs. And I think to myself,
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I cannot believe that. If I look at this man, it is hard for me to wrap my mind around my friend in this old life.
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But you know what he also told me? He said, it's hard for me, I can't even go back to my own hometown because if I go back, people there have a hard time believing
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I'm a pastor. That should give us hope, is that we're not in this alone.
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God doesn't say, okay, try harder, memorize more verses, log more hours in church, you can clean yourself up.
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The Holy Spirit powerfully changes us if we trust in the promises of God.
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The new birth is real, is an act of God, it is powerful, it is mysterious, but we know it when we see it, and we've experienced it.
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Now you may be thinking, okay, I was never a drug dealer, what about my life?
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I grew up in a Christian family, I was surrounded by God's love, I barely remember giving my life to Christ.
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You don't have to have, here's my answer, you don't have to have a dramatic story, you just have to have a genuine one.
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Is the Holy Spirit creating a hunger for God in your heart? Are you growing in love and faith and holiness?
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If so, that's a mark of spiritual life. But we don't have to understand how the
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Holy Spirit does it, we just have to understand that He does it. Do we really need a manageable 10 -step program?
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Preach the gospel, the Spirit changes lives, embrace the mystery, done.
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Now, it might be possible to kind of feel resigned to fatalism after reading the verses like, well, salvation is entirely a work of God, which it is, the
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Holy Spirit comes and goes in mysterious and predictable ways, so I guess I'll just kind of sit here and be passive and hope that the
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Holy Spirit chooses to change my life and my family and my loved ones and my co -workers and my friends. There's nothing
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I can do about it, so I guess I'll just kind of watch TV. But friends, we're not passive objects.
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Throughout the scriptures, we see that people are able to respond to the Holy Spirit's work and they're also able to resist the
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Holy Spirit's work. That's why Jesus goes on with his explanation.
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In the first eight verses of this passage, Jesus explains God's role in salvation, causing a person to be born again by the power of the
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Holy Spirit. In verses 9 -12, there is recorded a rebuke of Nicodemus' unbelief and desire to control and manage everything.
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And then in verses 13 -15, this passage describes our response to the work of the
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Holy Spirit. Let's look at it. John 3, verses 13 -15, no one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the
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Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the
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Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
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Jesus here references a well -known story in Jewish history, found in your
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Old Testament in Numbers, chapter 21, verses 4 -9. The Jewish nation, some two million plus people had just come out of exile into Egypt.
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They had passed through the Red Sea under the leadership of Moses and they were traveling through the desert.
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Now the desert is not a very pleasant place and so they ran into some difficulties in the desert.
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Let's read Numbers, chapter 21, verses 4 -9. From Mount Hor, they sent out by the way to the
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Red Sea to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way.
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And the people spoke against God and against Moses. Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?
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For there's no food and no water and we loathe this worthless food. Then the
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Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people so that many people of Israel died.
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And the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned for we have spoken against the Lord and against you.
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Pray to the Lord that he will take away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people and the
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Lord said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole and everyone who is bitten when he sees it shall live.
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So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole and if a serpent bit anyone he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
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Now I want you to see what's happening. The people complained against God and they complained against Moses.
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This complaining was an expression of rebellion and unbelief. Think about all that God had done for the
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Jewish people. He had poured out supernatural judgments on the gods of Egypt.
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He struck down the first born child of every Egyptian family. He parted the Red Sea so that the nation could pass through on dry ground.
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He provided bread every morning from heaven. And in the chapter immediately previous to this, he supernaturally provided water from a rock.
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And yet the people complained about the food that God provided. It wasn't good enough for them. Now they were short on water and so they were complaining about their lack of water.
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If gratitude and praise are expressions of faith, then grumbling and complaining are expressions of unbelief.
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So as a punishment, God sent serpents into the camp and many people died from these snake bites.
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Many others fell gravely ill. So the people repented and God told
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Moses what to do. Now God could have said, okay the people have repented, I'm going to heal them.
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And he could have just healed them with a word. But God used the opportunity to symbolically show us something about the coming of the
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Messiah. God told Moses to craft a bronze snake, place it up on a pole, stationed at the center of the camp.
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Whoever looked at that snake on the pole in faith, whoever looked in faith, was healed.
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They didn't have to pay any money, they didn't have to say any magic words or do any elaborate rituals. Look, believe, and you're healed.
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Now that wasn't a casual academic nod like, okay I looked, I'm good. This was the look of desperation.
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It's the look of a person who beyond a doubt knows that they are going to die and that their only hope is to trust in the promises of God.
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God, I've sinned against you and your servant Moses. I don't want to die, have mercy on me.
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Save me, I'm looking upon your standard, it is my only hope.
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I believe your word, save me. Do you see the parallel with the life of Jesus?
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Do you see the parallel with what Jesus did on the cross? The people were snake bitten and hence under the judgment of God.
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There's only one way to be healed, go to the center of the camp, look at the standard that God had posted there, believe and be saved.
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So it is with us. We're snake bitten, the world stands snake bitten by the serpent.
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We're under the judgment of God, there's only one way to be saved. God has raised a standard at the center of human history, the cross of Jesus Christ.
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He put his own son on that cross to pay for our sins. He became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God.
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Repent, look at the cross of Christ, believe and be born again.
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As we conclude this morning, I just want to ask you an important question, maybe the most important question that anybody has ever asked.
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Have you been born again by the power of God? Have you forsaken your own self -formulated righteousness and merit?
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And with self -abandoning desperation looked upon the cross of Christ and believed the promises of God?
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Have you placed your faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins?
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If you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, then
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I invite you to worship God this morning with a thankful heart. What you've begun by the spirit of God, let's continue by the spirit of God.
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But if you are here this morning and you realize that you have never placed your faith in Jesus Christ who died and rose on your behalf, then
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I'm urging you during our final songs or after the service, please, please do not harden your heart against the work of the
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Holy Spirit. Come forward, talk to me, talk to Rob, talk to Zach, talk to somebody else here, talk to somebody, but don't let the opportunity pass.
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If the Holy Spirit is tugging on your heart this morning, if the mysterious and powerful work of the
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Holy Spirit is tugging on your heart, don't miss the opportunity. Because you know what the punishment is for missing the opportunity?
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If you harden your heart against the Holy Spirit today, the punishment is that you may not be able to respond tomorrow.
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If the Holy Spirit is moving your heart, then lean into it. Lean into him and obey him.
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Three years after this conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, Jesus was lifted up and nailed to a cross.
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And after he died, do you know who was there to take the body down, wrap it up in spices and bury it?
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Two members of the Jewish ruling council, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus.
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What do you think was going through Nicodemus' mind as he wrapped the body of Jesus in spices and buried
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Jesus in a new tomb? Well, there's no way to know for certain, but I believe that when
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Nicodemus was thinking, was this, the Son of Man must be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.
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Let's pray together. Father in heaven, we are unworthy of all the mercy and kindness that you have shown to us.
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We humble ourselves and we look upon the cross of Christ. Would you please move by your spirit in our lives, in our hearts, change us.
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Thank you for making provision for our salvation. We look to you. We place our trust in you.
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Jesus, thank you for what you are willing to suffer for us. God, we pray in Jesus' name.