The One Who Needed A New Birth

This is Christ the King Sermons. Christ the King Sermons is a ministry of Christ the King Presbyterian Church located in Raleigh, North Carolina. CTK is a community rooted in the depth of the gospel, refined by hard conversations, fueled by meaningful relationships, and committed to redemptive work in Raleigh.

The passage that we're looking at this morning in John 3 is a dialogue between Jesus and a man named Nicodemus. It's a bit long, and I actually think it's helpful to imagine you're listening in on the dialogue. I think that's kind of what John would want us to do. And so I'm going to read it rather than following our custom of reading it together. You can just listen and follow along if you want on the screen behind me. I'm reading from the English Standard Version, not the version that's in our pew bibles, because every time I read this passage, I'm like, Jesus, some of this makes sense, and I'm not 100% sure what you're saying here. Some of the language in this translation makes some of the more difficult stuff, I think, a little bit easier to understand. So listen as I read God's word.

There's a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, "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." Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." 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?" Jesus answered, "Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I 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. So it is with everyone who's born of the spirit." Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 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. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only son of God and this is the judgment. The light has come into the world and people love the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come into the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes into the light so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out from God. — John 3:1-21

Jesus, we thank you for these wonderful things in your word, and we ask that you'd be present with us by your spirit to help us understand these things rightly and that your spirit would bring about the change in our hearts that you desire, that we would leave here a people deeper in love with you and deeper in love with one another. It's in your name, Jesus, that we ask these things. Amen.

Story and the Longings of Our Hearts

In addition to serving as a pastor here, I work for an organization called Leaders Collective and one of the things Leaders Collective does is work with leaders throughout the church, helping them maintain a pattern of ministry that will allow them to do their work with resilience, happiness, joy, and do it for the long haul. One of the things we do with leaders is we help them tell the story of their life. It's a valuable thing really for all of us to do. Everyone's story has value because every person has value and telling it to people who listen and care can help us grasp that. And telling it can help us understand a bit more of who we are and why we do what we do.

There are tells that we often give when we share our story, and those tells often reveal our deep longings and desires. For example, those who tell their story like a hero want to be recognized, or those who tell it like a comedian want to be loved.

Those who tell their story like a victim want to be cared for and protected, and those who tell their story as an unemotional collection of facts like a newscaster want the listeners to take their side and see things their way. And after everyone shares their story, we talk about another way to tell your story as the one loved by Jesus. That's how Saint John tells his story in this gospel.

Now look, of course, the gospel is the story of Jesus, but sometimes John refers to himself in these stories as one loved by Jesus. And so as we think about that, we think together: What would it be like to tell our story or to see our story as part of God's larger story and as one who is loved by him?

The passage we're looking at today is part of a larger series that we're going through this summer through John's gospel, and we're discovering together what it means to tell our story like John does—as the one Jesus loves. The passage today is about new birth and eternal life, and hopefully as we look at it, we'll see together how recognizing those things or understanding what those things mean, grasping those ideas, shows us what it actually means to be one that Jesus loved.

We'll consider this conversation that Jesus had with Nicodemus in four parts: Why Nicodemus needed new birth or why we need new birth—those are the first eight verses. How it's possible—verses nine through fifteen. The love that makes it possible—verses sixteen through eighteen. And then the life that follows—verses nineteen through twenty-one.

Background: Nicodemus's Position and Reputation

But first, a little background to orient us. This conversation takes place early in Jesus' ministry. Even so, he's already attracted a whole lot of interest and attention. He has a following. He has a reputation. This is both because of what he said—Nicodemus makes reference to it when he calls him rabbi or teacher—and because of what he's done, what Nicodemus calls signs, miracles like healing the sick and casting out demons.

But when Jesus comes to a town, he quickly becomes the talk of the town and he leaves all kinds of people with questions and curiosity. Nicodemus is one of those people, but we see in verse one that he's a Pharisee and a ruler. That means he's well respected, well known. He's a pious man. He's well educated and probably wealthy. He's memorized what we now call the Old Testament as well as scholarly opinion on what all those books and passages mean.

In verse ten, Jesus calls him the teacher of Israel, which probably means he's the subject matter expert on questions related to religion in the Hebrew scriptures. And he's also a ruler, which means he's part of the Hebrew council—seventy to seventy-two of them—that rules over Israel and are only subject to Roman rule. So he's not a minor man.

He comes to Jesus, John tells us at night, which is probably both a reference to the time of day as well as the uncertainty and confusion he has about Jesus. And all of that's mixed in probably with just a little bit of arrogance. I mean, after all, he's the one who answers the questions with certainty. He doesn't ask them.

So he comes to Jesus in verse two and says to him: "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."

Rabbi—a sign of respect. This is what I know. I've seen your miracles. I know that they're real. In fact, I'll even call you a thoughtful teacher. You've done something significant, dare I say academically intriguing. Maybe even one day, Jesus, you and I can be peers.

Why We Need New Birth

Jesus responds explaining why Nicodemus and us need a new birth. Jesus says to him:

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

It's almost like Nicodemus is saying, "Hey, I'm pretty sure, Jesus, that I see the biggest letter on the eye chart. Now help me know which lens is going to make it clear. Is it one or is it two?" And Jesus says, "You're asking the wrong question. You've been blind since birth. You don't need new glasses, you need new eyes."

Again, unless one is born again, Jesus says, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Now Nicodemus knew about the kingdom of God. He longed for God's kingdom to come. He's looking for signs of it and wondering if that's what he's seeing from Jesus. But Nicodemus and his peers believed the Messiah—God's anointed kingdom bringer—would arrive and bring about change at a national level. They'd get rid of the evil Roman government. They'd establish a righteous government supported by righteous people like Nicodemus, filled with rules that Nicodemus had already been following. And in fact, the kingdom would be so good and so powerful, it wouldn't just bring Israel back to its former stage of dominance, it would surpass it.

As Bible scholar Don Carson explained, Nicodemus was so focused on political change, on national change, even on national righteousness, even on the glory of God, he couldn't see the need for life transforming change. Nicodemus was focused on who was bringing the kingdom and when it was coming and how it was coming. Jesus says to Nicodemus, you aren't even ready to be part of it.

Nicodemus in verse four is confused. He said, "How can a man be born when he's old? How can he enter a second time into his mother's womb?" Jesus said to him:

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is of flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. — John 3:5-6

Don't be too hard on Nicodemus. It's important to note that there's a lot about him that's worth commending, but it may be the commendable stuff that's keeping him in the dark. Jesus' response—that he must be born again to see the kingdom—doesn't make sense to him because it doesn't fit into what he believes about Jesus or about God and his kingdom. It doesn't fit into what he believes that God should do, and therein lies the problem.

Maybe I can explain it this way. You're standing at the Grand Canyon and you find yourself unimpressed or thinking of all the ways that you could make it better. The issue isn't with the Grand Canyon. In that moment, it's not the Grand Canyon that's being critiqued. Jesus isn't deterred by what Nicodemus thinks of him. He isn't deterred by what Nicodemus thinks God should do. God in the person of Jesus isn't the one being critiqued.

The Necessity of Being Born Again

Jesus continues: being born again is neither something you can do nor something you can make happen. It's not a physical reality. It's a spiritual reality. Just as you didn't do anything to create life for your physical birth, you can't do anything to create new life or spiritual birth. It's something God has to do.

Jesus explains that by using words like water and spirit, and I think what he's doing there is referencing passages that Nicodemus would have been familiar with in the Hebrew scriptures that talk about God's promise of replacing people's heart of stone with a heart of flesh and giving life to a pile of dry bones. What's Jesus saying? He's saying that being good or getting better isn't good enough. We need a power outside ourselves to give us spiritual life, to be part of God's kingdom. Only God can make dead things alive. Only God can make dry bones dance.

Those who are born again believe in Jesus. They're part of God's kingdom, and they have eternal life. Jesus continues:

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, so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. — John 3:7-8

What Jesus is getting at is that there's also a little bit of mystery to this idea of being born again—like the wind would be to someone in the first century. You don't understand where and why it blows, but you see the results. Being born again is a work of God's Spirit. You don't see it happen. The result that follows, what you do see, is that you actually believe in Jesus.

Theologians give a term to this new birth: regeneration. It's something that has to come from above. God has to make it happen. We can't do anything to cause it. It's the act of God's Spirit that allows us to see ourselves as condemned sinners, to see Jesus as our only savior, and to believe in him as our only savior. It's like Jesus tells Nicodemus, "You need to do more than just think kindly of me. You need to believe in me. But in order to do that, you need to be born again."

I've been a pastor long enough to hear a variety of ways that this happens. For some, it's obvious. You hear the good news about Jesus as if for the first time. You believed in Jesus. He's the only one who can save you from your sins. Why at that time, at that moment, you aren't really sure. You may have heard some of those words before, but at that time, it became real and you believed.

For others, you can't pin down the exact moment. It seems like you can't remember a day when you didn't know Jesus is the Savior of sinners, but you also know at some point that knowledge became faith and you believed it was true. You must be born again, Jesus says. You may not fully understand how that happened, but you do know that you believe in Jesus as your Savior.

Hearing all this, Nicodemus asked Jesus a second time, "How's this even possible?" That's verse nine, and that gets us to our second point.

What might Nicodemus be getting at here? Well, as one commentator put it, "Nicodemus is the sum of his yesterdays." I like that. He's as familiar with his failure as he is with his success. He knows the good that he wants to put forward as well as the bad he hopes no one discovers.

And he's asking the question, which sometimes we may ask, I know I do, in light of my yesterdays, is change really possible? What about my guilt? What about my shame? What about that one thing?

Well, change is possible, Jesus explains. He does so by referencing a story that would be familiar to Nicodemus found in the Old Testament book of Numbers. It's a time when God's people are in the wilderness wandering to the glorious land that God promised them. They're tired, they're hungry, they're complaining. They don't like their leader Moses, they don't like the food that God has given them, and really they don't like God himself.

So God sends poisonous snakes among them as a punishment for their rebellion, and many people get bit and they die. The people then confess their sin and ask Moses to ask God to take away the snakes. Moses asks God, but instead God says to Moses, "Here's what I want you to do. I want you to make a serpent out of bronze and I want you to put it on a pole and I want you to lift that pole high. And when anyone gets bit, tell them to look at the bronze snake, and when they do, they will be healed and they will live."

That's the background to verse 14. As Moses lifted up the serpent, Jesus says to Nicodemus:

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. — John 3:14-15

What's Jesus saying? He's saying the snake was lifted up so that when those who were as good as dead looked at it, they could live. What magic in the snake? Nothing. But looking to the snake was the means by which God chose to heal his people. So Jesus says he must be lifted up so that everyone who looks to him, even more strongly so that everyone who believes in him, can live.

What's he referring to when he talks about being lifted up? Well, he's talking about his death on the cross. For in this death on the cross, he was lifted up, and in his resurrection from the dead, he was lifted up. And now, as the reigning King of God's kingdom, those who look to him in faith can have eternal life.

But Jesus makes this point even stronger. It's not that he says, "You know, it should be nice if I was lifted up." He says, "I must be lifted up. It's necessary."

Why? Why is it necessary? Well, when Jesus talks about being lifted up, he's talking about his death on the cross. He says he must be lifted up because forgiveness doesn't happen without someone bearing the cost for it. Forgiveness requires more than just overlooking a wrong, for there's always a cost associated with it. Jesus took the penalty for our sin upon himself.

If you're a believer in Jesus, that means he was treated as you deserve because of your sin. Therefore, if you're a believer in Jesus, you no longer stand condemned for your sins. You are not and never will be the sum of your yesterdays. God has and will continue to forgive your sins, all of them forever. Even that one.

Death and separation from God are the penalty for sin. If you're a believer in Jesus, you will not perish. You have eternal life. You'll be with God forever, all because Jesus paid the penalty for your sin.

You starting to make the connection? For the Israelites, full of poison from the snake bite, there are two options: let the poison run its course and die, or believe in God's plan for healing, look up at the snake, and live.

As Jesus makes clear in the passage in the verses that follow, there are two options for us with regard to our sin. We can stay in our sin and die, or we can believe in Jesus and have eternal life.

Back to Nicodemus. His certainty as well as his self-righteous knowledge and behavior were keeping him from Jesus. They're keeping him in the dark. In love, Jesus says to him, "The only way you can live is if I die for you. I must be lifted up. I must be sacrificed to atone for your sin. I am what's gonna make all of this possible. The only way you can live eternally in God's kingdom is to stop looking at yourself and look at me. Stop believing in yourself," Jesus says, "and start believing in me."

That's a great, hard but loving word for Nicodemus, and it's a great word for us as well.

The Love That Makes This Possible

And Jesus' point is furthered in verses 16 through 18. We read about the love that makes this possible.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. — John 3:16-18

In verse 17, we read that Jesus came to save the condemned world.

In verses 16 and 18, we read that whoever believes in Jesus will not perish or not be condemned, which are similar things, but instead have eternal life. In John 3:16, probably the most well-known verse in the Bible, we read that all of this can happen because of this:

God so loved the world that he gave his only son. Whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. — John 3:16

All of this is possible because of God's love. God's love is the basis for all of this—eternal life, forgiveness.

Let's stop and think about this love for a second. In verse 16, we read that it's love for the world. It's love for a world that needs saving. It's love for a world that Jesus didn't need to condemn because it stood condemned already. The end result of that condemnation is death, and the end result of God's love is being saved by Jesus—it's eternal life.

Because God loved, he gave. He didn't give anything less; he gave his best, unique, and only beloved son for sinners like you and like me. Because of God's love, Jesus came to earth, lived the perfect sinless life we cannot live, and died the death we deserve to die—the right penalty for our sin. God is the one who's chiefly most offended by our sin, yet out of love he sent his one and only son to bear the penalty for our sin so that if we believe in him, we will not die in our sin but will have eternal life.

God so loved an already condemned world that he gave, so the condemned world might be saved. He gave his only son so that anyone who believes in him—anyone—will have eternal life.

This love in its nature is self-giving love because God in his nature is a self-giving God. It's not self-giving for those who are worthy and already in a good place; it's self-giving love for the condemned. It's shocking. It's nonsensical. It's scandalous. But that's the way God's love for sinners always is. It always has about it the scent of scandal. But in a way, it's the scandal that makes it so wonderful, so glorious, so absolutely amazing.

God so loved the world he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. — John 3:16

Sin was great. Love was greater. The gift was greater. The result: anyone, anyone who believes in him will have eternal life.

Yes, the love and the gift carry with it a scent of scandal. Yes, the love and the gift are nonsensical, but they have to be if salvation of sinners is the end result. And so this is the way that we get in on that love and eternal life: we believe in Jesus. That's it. That really is. You don't prove yourself worthy of believing; you can't. But again, that's why Nicodemus and all of us need to be born again. We can't believe in Jesus without being born again.

What Does It Mean to Believe in Jesus?

So what does it mean to believe in Jesus? Well, it's more than just believing that people are sinners or that Jesus is the savior of sinners. It's more than just being fascinated by Jesus or thinking well of him. It's more than just considering someone important to be studied. It's believing that you are a sinner needing a savior and believing in Jesus as your savior.

It's what we heard this morning when Grace Talbert took those vows: "Do you acknowledge yourself to be a sinner in the sight of God, justly deserving his displeasure without hope except for his sovereign mercy? Do you believe in Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Savior of sinners? Do you receive and rest upon him alone as he's offered in the gospel?"

Again, because of God's amazing love, Grace Talbert is no longer condemned to death; she has eternal life. And if you're a believer in Jesus, if you look to Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, you're no longer condemned. You have eternal life. But if you aren't a believer in Jesus, your condemnation stands.

Those are the only two options: believe in Jesus and live as one forgiven, or stay in your condemnation and die in your sin.

Those who are born again believe in Jesus. They don't perish; they have eternal life. And there's a future promise to this eternal life: it means that we're going to live with God forever. To be clear, this isn't a promise that our eternities are going to look like some precious moments scene. It's not that we're going to forever be some fat baby with wings and a halo, sitting on a cloud, strumming a harp, jacked up on some eternal version of Prozac.

No. It's that we'll live forever in the new world—heaven come to earth—which is the world we've always longed for. Look, the signs that Jesus did, the healing of the sick for example, were a foretaste of what life in his kingdom will be like. No more sickness, no more pain, no more death.

In fact, the promise is that God will come down from his throne and forever wipe every tear from our eyes because he will have eliminated every reason that we could have to cry. And so we walk through this life, experiencing joy and sorrow, health and sickness, life and death. But we do so clinging to the promise of eternal life, secured for us in Jesus, certain that one day we're gonna be with God forever.

Okay. Nicodemus. He heard all this. How did he respond to it? Well, John doesn't tell us—at least not here. And I think one of the reasons he doesn't tell us is because Nicodemus' response at this moment isn't as important as how we respond to what Jesus said.

Later in the gospel, John does tell us that Nicodemus defends Jesus to fellow Pharisees, and after Jesus' death, after Jesus was lifted up as he told Nicodemus he would be, Nicodemus actually does what Jesus' disciples won't do. He publicly aligns with Jesus by helping prepare his body for burial.

If you're a believer in Jesus, the benefit of salvation just isn't in the age to come. Like Nicodemus, you see change in the present. There's a present life benefit to the life that follows it, that flows from believing in Jesus.

Light and Darkness

That gets us to our last point. Let me read verses 19 through 21.

And this is the judgment or the verdict. That light has come into the world and people love the darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God. — John 3:19-21

The metaphor there is light and darkness. Jesus is the light. Those who are condemned are in darkness. Those in darkness aren't just, to quote Johnny Cash, the long tongue liar, midnight rider, rambler, gambler, the backbiter. Remember when Jesus approached Nicodemus, he also was in the dark. Those who stay condemned, stay in darkness simply because they prefer it there. Their condemnation is self-imposed. Rather than having the wicked deeds exposed for what they are, they stay in darkness so they can continue to do what they want to do.

If you're a believer in Jesus, this is where you were. Because of God's great love, he saved you. He gave you new birth so you could be drawn to him and believe in him, and now darkness no longer has the appeal that it once did. You're drawn to the light. Now you do what is true, you act faithfully—not perfectly, but with a desire to live faithfully. You have a distaste for things that are evil, an ever-growing love for what is good. But you do this because you've received new birth. You don't do what is true to gain new birth or to prove yourself worthy of new birth. You do it because you have eternal life—not because you need to earn eternal life or show that you deserve eternal life. And that distinction's important.

And one way that you know that you're starting to get it, you're starting to understand it is this: when the good you do is shown, what Jesus says, brought into the light—when the good you do is shown or known—who gets the credit? Does it make you think, "Wow, I'm amazing"? Or does it make you say, "Look at what God is doing through me"?

Whoever does what is true comes to light. Why? So that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God. — John 3:21

It's not that those who are saved by Jesus are intrinsically superior people. Jesus says, "Whoever does what is true comes to the light." They're drawn from darkness to the light. They come to the light not to celebrate their good works but instead to celebrate all that God's done.

One Loved by Jesus

So returning to where we started. To be the one Jesus loves means that you'd have to be the one who needs new birth. To be the one Jesus loves is to be the one that Jesus saved. You need to be saved because you were helplessly condemned in your sin. God saved you because he loved you. He loves you because he chose to love you.

And that new identity—one loved by Jesus—is one that you're gonna carry with you forever. The more you own that identity as a reality, the more you find the other ones that you try on to be lacking. They don't hold the sway they once did. Your deepest desires are met as one loved by God.

And the implications of that—well, let me just highlight one. John Newton, the Anglican minister, wrote nearly 300 hymns. None is more famous than the one we call "Amazing Grace." It won instant popularity. In fact, it didn't gain widespread popularity until nearly a hundred years after he wrote it, when it was published in an American hymnal with a new last verse. The original version starts as we know it. It captures some of the stuff that we find in John 3:

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see.

And Newton's original ended with three verses that provide further reflection on that amazing grace and amazing salvation. For reasons I don't understand, they never made it to our hymnals. I love these words. I often repeat them to myself for they bring much needed encouragement to my soul. I'll read them as an ending to the sermon with the hope that they bring some of that same encouragement to you in light of what we discovered in John three.

Newton writes:

The Lord has promised good to me, His word my hope secures. He will my shield and portion be As long as life endures.

Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail And mortal life shall cease, I shall possess within the veil A life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow, The sun forbear to shine, But God who called me here below Will be forever mine.

I'm praying. Jesus, we ask that you would take the reality of our salvation—the reality of your glorious love for us—and push it deep into our hearts. Would you, by your Spirit, help those who might wonder if it's too good to be true, to believe it is true, whether for the first time or again and again and again. In your name, Jesus, we ask these things. Amen.