Nic at Night -- John 3:1-17 • Geoff Bradford

Father, we thank you for these words that are eternally true. Father, that if we are yours, nothing can take us from your hand. Lord, you are that faithful, you are that secure, our hope is that sure and grounded in you. Father, we pray you'd lift our hearts this morning. Lord, we are people who've been beaten down by life, by news. Lord, we are struggling and lord, we need more than anything else to hear from you and to see you. Lord, we pray that you would lift up our hearts this morning. Lord, we pray that you would be adored and praised and prized in all that we do and say.

Father, we pray for those who are here this morning in person or by screen who are struggling with fear and depression and anxiety and pain. And father we pray and lord we offer ourselves to you this morning that you would do a deep work in us. Lord, that you would remind us of your power and your presence. Lord, that you are a God who is taking things to an end. Lord, that there is a hope where we have a sure and certain hope and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

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We're turning our attention today to John chapter three and the very familiar story of Nicodemus and his interaction with Jesus at night. I'm going to read this for us and I invite you to join along if you'd like to. It's going to be from John chapter three, verses one through 17.

Now there was 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 could do these signs that you do unless God is with him." And 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 flesh is flesh and that which is born of Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I say 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 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 that 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." — John 3:1-17

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You know, we wrap up our fall series today on the compassion of Jesus. And this may be the most surprising ending to this series. In fact, I purposely chose this because I think it's kind of a shocking ending. Because all this fall, we've studied the acceptance of Jesus and the compassion of Jesus and the love of Jesus. And a lot of people are like, all down for that. I mean, these are things that we love to hear about—acceptance and love and compassion.

But I want to end today on John three, which is absolutely essential for us to understand Jesus' compassion. Because here's what I want us to understand today: His compassion is that he takes us as we are, but he doesn't leave us as we are.

You know, the author Anne Lamott, who's written a lot in memoir style about her own experience of God's grace in her life, she says it this way: "I don't understand the grace of God, the mystery of his grace, only that it meets us where we are and doesn't leave us where it found us." And that statement is super countercultural today. It's a unique perspective.

See, what everyone seems to want today is unqualified acceptance. I mean, if you've heard the phrase "you be you, you do you"—and we want a god who does that too. A god who's like, "Hey, I accept you just as you are and you're just okay just as you are." But lots of people think that's the highest form of compassion.

But not Jesus.

And this is what I want you to see: He's actually too compassionate for that. In fact, for Jesus, mere acceptance of us just as we are would be cruel. It would be mean. Because the reality is that I'm a mess and you're a mess.

And there are things that are so deeply flawed and broken in me and in you that for Jesus just to say, "I accept you and leave you as you are" would be actually cruelty. He's just way too kind for that and he's too compassionate for that. His compassion is that he takes us as we are but doesn't leave us as we are, and he always comes to us with deep love and yet an agenda to change us. He's going to work deeply in us. That's his goal.

So today, I want to listen in together on this conversation between the leading religious teacher of Israel at the time and Jesus. We're gonna learn today about the new birth, the being born again. And if you take notes, here are my three points for this morning: the universal need, the impossible task, and the only way.

The Universal Need

Now, we just read John 3, this encounter between Jesus and the Pharisee Nicodemus—what some people I've heard call "Nic at Night," for those of you who are children of the eighties and remember that Nickelodeon series. But it's a conversation that covers what is language of conversion that I think is really familiar to a lot of people, especially if you grew up in the South. Many of you know the word "saved." I don't like that word. It has sort of redneck connotations to me. I picture kind of a big, pudgy preacher in a white seersucker suit: "You must be saved!"

Or the word "born again." It has some weird connotations in our culture. In the nineteen seventies, President Jimmy Carter made that phrase "born again" known throughout our country. He was describing his own personal experience, and yet that term is also sort of laden with lots of baggage. When people hear the phrase "born again" or "getting saved," they think of a personal, cathartic, emotional experience for those kind of people who really need that—convicts and prostitutes and addicts.

But it's interesting. In fact, pollsters have shown that something like 70 to 80% of Americans indicate they really would not like to have a neighbor who's born again. They would really personally prefer not to have someone living next door to them who's born again. I heard this quote: "Born again people are so obnoxious. I wish they would hadn't been born the first time." That's because Americans don't want someone pushing on them this kind of fundamentalist, black and white moral structure, someone with that kind of absolute moral certainty.

But here's what's so odd: when you read John chapter 3, this passage where the phrase "born again" comes from doesn't fit any of our cultural stereotypes at all.

Let's look at Nicodemus. What do we know about this man? He's a cultural elite. He was an old, wealthy male in the dominant culture. He was highly educated. This is the man who Jesus says, "You are the teacher of Israel"—not "a teacher," but "the preeminent teacher of Israel." This man surely would have fit in. Definitely would have had a PhD. And he also had—I didn't notice this until recently—he has a Greek name, which tells you that this is not some backwoods Hebrew. This man is of a cultural class that's at the top.

Second thing we see here: Nicodemus is not spiritually seeking in any way. Case in point, he goes to meet Jesus when? At night. He goes to meet him at night. And in John's gospel, the writer John communicates a lot through imagery of light and darkness. Good things happen during the day, bad things happen at night. Night is a symbol to describe things that are underhanded or evil or wrong. In fact, the only other person who does something at night in John's gospel is Judas Iscariot.

So why would a wealthy, educated, cultural elite seek out a backwoods carpenter at night? This is where we see Nicodemus show his cards. When he shows up, he says something where he sort of shows his hand. He says, "Rabbi, we know that you're a teacher." Think about that. Who is "we" in that statement? He is coming on behalf of the religious establishment and he's coming to Jesus to do a little backroom dealing. On behalf of his group. They're like, "Hey, Jesus, we know you have a following. We know that you're really popular. We know that you have some credibility, and we wanna play ball with you. We wanna see if we can work out a deal together." This is not a man who's trying to find meaning in life. This is not a man who's spiritually seeking. This is not a weak man. He's not a man looking for a spiritual crutch.

The third thing we say about this man is that he is a fundamentalist religiously. Nicodemus isn't an emotionally broken down person.

He's not a person who's needy or a bad person whose life is falling apart. He is not a notorious sinner. He's a person that we would call in our day a fundamentalist—somebody whose life is upright. He's as moral and traditional as you get, and yet Jesus says to this man, not to the convict or the addict—he says to this man, "You must be born again."

We think of the phrase "born again" as that process whereby really sinful people begin to turn their life around. But that can't be what Jesus means by born again. This call—"you must be born again"—is not a call to morality or to clean up your act. It flies in the face of that. He's saying this to the biggest fundamentalist. Jesus invites us to the new birth, and he shows us: this is not for those kind of people out there, but for all kind of people. This is for everybody.

We make distinctions between who are the good and the bad. Those, on a human level, are like floors on a skyscraper. You could picture the really bad at the bottom, the really good at the top, and all of us somewhere in between. We measure on that spectrum. Jesus is like looking from outer space at a skyscraper—and compared to being in outer space, it doesn't really matter what level you are on that skyscraper. All of us are people who need a savior, who must be born again. That's what Jesus says to us. So that's our universal need: we all need to be born again.

The Impossibility of the New Birth

But what Jesus says is a universal need is also an impossibility for Nicodemus and for us. It was widely taught at the time that all good Jews went to heaven. Father Abraham stood by the gate of hell just to make sure that no good Jews wandered in there. Being a good person was sort of a fast pass to all the rides in the theme park—it meant you are good to go.

By contrast, what Jesus is teaching is radical stuff. What he says here—to be born again—is impossible. You can almost hear the sarcasm in Nicodemus' response to Jesus. He's frustrated: "What are you saying? I'm a grown man and I've got to go back into my mother's womb and be born again. What are you talking about?" You can hear his frustration, but it's clear: "You must be born again" isn't a command that anyone can obey. There's no imperative here. There's nothing to do. It's a description of what needs to happen to you, but it's not something you can do for yourself. It's not what you do or earn.

Think about the imagery of a baby. Probably everybody here has been born at one point or another. It's a universal experience we've all had. When a baby's born, the child does nothing in the process. The mother does all the work. Or in the case of a C-section, all the bleeding. The baby is just there for a ride—a terrible ride, but a ride. Salvation is the same. We are entirely passive in salvation and being born again. It's not about what you do or earn.

Not About Feelings or Morality

It's not even about your feelings. Jesus signals nothing in this passage that has to do with Nick's feelings. There's no cathartic emotional experience he needs to go through. He doesn't need to be broken down. We think of conversion as that moment when you break down, and that's so important to us because we inhabit a feelings-based culture. We feel our way to everything. We even talk about what we're thinking in terms of our feelings: "I feel like I'm going to sign up for this course in the fall." That's a thought, but we use feeling language for everything. Jesus has nothing in here about cathartic feelings, about a deep emotional experience, about Nicodemus needing to be on fire for Jesus. None of that.

It's not about your moral progress either. "You must be born again" means there is nothing that you do that gets you down the road. There is nothing that you do that counts. Think about what he's saying to Nicodemus: "You are Israel's moral teacher, and it doesn't matter. All your training, all your moral standards that qualify you for this position—it doesn't matter."

This is why the new birth message has always been really appealing to people whose lives are broken and they know it. And it's always been offensive to people whose lives are broken and they don't know it—like the Pharisees. That's my story: people whose lives are broken and they don't know it.

It's not even about your decision.

It's not about what you do or your feelings, not about your moral progress. It's not even about your decision—not that decision you made on a retreat or that time you came down front or raised your hand during the prayer.

Look at verse eight. Jesus says:

The wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound but you don't know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who's born of the spirit. — John 3:8

What's funny is in the original language, the word for spirit and wind are the same word: pneuma. So it's like, the pneuma goes wherever it wants to go and does what pneuma does, right? It's like the wind which you cannot control. This spirit is the one who's the mama in the rebirth, who brings new life into a person.

This is what we read in Ephesians 2:1—that all of us are not sick or weak or struggling but are dead spiritually. Last week, James talked about the tattoo he would get. Mine is always the same. I've said this if you've been around CTK for any length of time. My tattoo is always these two words from Ephesians 2: "but God."

But God made you alive. It's by grace you've been saved. — Ephesians 2:4-5

We're all dead. This is how we stand. See how impossible this is? I just want you to choke on this a little bit this morning. The sense that only God can do this. Only God can make dead people alive. Only God can give the new birth.

Jesus as Savior, Not Teacher

I've studied this passage many times, and every time I read it, I sort of think Jesus is kind of rude. Nicodemus comes to him and says, "Hey, Rabbi, we know that you're a teacher," and Jesus—it's like He suddenly changes the subject, like He did with the Samaritan woman. They're talking about worship and Jesus starts talking about her husbands. In both cases, I think Jesus isn't changing the subject—He's focusing the point. This is vintage Jesus. Jesus cuts off Nicodemus in the middle of "Rabbi, we know you're a teacher" because there's no small talk with Jesus in the New Testament. He goes for the jugular.

He interrupts Nicodemus because his assumption is that the way you come to know God is by relating to Jesus as a teacher. That's how Nick describes Jesus: "We know you're a teacher. You've come from God to teach us." But Jesus corrects him: "No, Nick. I'm a savior first before I could ever be a teacher. You have to be rescued and made alive and born again from God. As long as you relate to me as a teacher, you're never going to make it."

The same is true for us today. I can't tell you how many people I've talked to in a bar or coffee shop or neighborhood event who, when they find out I'm a pastor, say, "Oh yes, I love Jesus. He had such great things to say, such a great teacher." That's really popular. But if you think that, I want you to listen to Jesus. I challenge you to listen to Jesus because just as He interrupted Nicodemus, He would interrupt you. He would say there are two ways of relating to me. First is as a teacher—as in, I need more stuff to do. I need to get my life together. But the second is as a savior.

If you relate to Jesus as a teacher, you're like, "Jesus, give me the missing piece in my life." There are lots of people who want that silver bullet that's going to make everything finally work. But relating to Jesus as a savior is saying, "Jesus, only you could do something for me that I could never do for myself. I'm dead. I have nothing to bring." You may be a really great person like Nicodemus, but according to Jesus, you must be born again. This is the way—as the Mandalorian says, this is the way.

But rich, good, successful people like Nicodemus don't want to hear this. Most Americans don't want to hear this. And I have to say, people who come to CTK—we're the kind of people who don't want to hear this. My own experience is growing up in the church and being there all those years. It wasn't until someone asked me a really pointed question: "Why would you even need a savior?" That I began to realize I'd been relating to Jesus backward all my life. I was eighteen years old when this began to dawn on me.

And Jesus says to Nicodemus and to us with regard to our moral progress, hey, you don't impress me at all. That's not what counts. And yet, Jesus is filled with incredible compassion for Pharisees. As I've said over and over, as much compassion for Pharisees as for those who are down and out. He's every bit as compassionate. Yes, the new birth is impossible but it's not hopeless. We're never left hopeless. Not at all.

Listen, Jesus goes to Nicodemus and tells him exactly how to be born again. And it's with this weird story about the snakes. Did you notice this? This little story he references about the snakes. This is in verse 14. Here he's referring to Numbers. That's not the lottery. That's the fourth book of the Bible, Numbers chapter 21 and here's the story.

The people of Israel have come out of Egypt and they're headed toward the promised land and they're grumbling and complaining in their hearts against God and they're unsatisfied with God's provision for them. They're angry at the fact that God is not just sort of making things work out in their lives and they doubt God and begin to disbelieve him. That's a really great picture for us of sin. Looking at the God of the universe with a fist shaken in his face and saying, how dare you make the world this way?

So hang with me. The Bible says that God sent fiery serpents—that's what it says in Numbers. Fiery serpents into the camp. Vipers, poisonous vipers, and they're probably called fiery because when people were bitten, they got this incredible fever and incredible thirst before they died. They were everywhere. Thousands of these and the people begin to cry out to God. This is a picture for us of the curse and the pain that sin brings in our lives. It does bring death.

And so God in his mercy tells Moses to do something really odd. He says, make a bronze sculpture of a serpent and put it up on a pole and the people who look at it will be saved. Now, you've seen an emblem of this probably your whole life and didn't realize it. It's on your Blue Cross Blue Shield medical card. It's all over the place. It's called a caduceus. It's the symbol in American medicine of healing. A serpent on a pole. This comes from the Bible. And those who looked up at the pole would be healed.

I want you to picture people crawling in desperation, bitten by a viper, fever coming upon them, and looking up and being healed. Like this image of the serpent, Jesus would be lifted on a cross for our sins so that all who look to him would be made whole, would be cured.

You know, it used to confuse me or bother me that this passage back in Numbers 21—why a serpent? Why a bronze serpent? I mean, why? Isn't Jesus the lamb of God? I mean, shouldn't there be like a sheep up on a pole or something like that? But it goes back to the first pages of the Bible. Satan comes in the form of a serpent to tempt Adam and Eve and we read in Second Corinthians:

He who knew no sin became sin for us. — 2 Corinthians 5:21

Jesus, sinless, becomes like the image of the serpent because the serpent came and as the promise was made in the first chapters of Genesis, he crushes the head of the serpent by himself becoming that. Jesus became sin for us so that he would be put on wood, not on a pole but on a Roman cross and die the death I should die. I should die for my sins and rather I can be made alive spiritually speaking. I can be reborn.

Like the people of Israel, you don't need more improvement or enhancement or to turn over a new leaf spiritually this morning. You don't need a religious booster shot. The wrath of God is upon sinners. It is. It stands upon us. The curse of death is over us apart from Jesus. That's why I've never been able to get away from the word saved. I mean, can you think of a better word to describe salvation? Enhanced? I don't think so. Improved? No. Helped? I don't think so. I think saved is really the only one that I can come up with. Rescued.

You need to be saved. We are dead in our sins and we need a savior. That's why when people say the silly phrase, Jesus is like a crutch for people who are weak, I'm like, crutch. Jesus is like a stretcher and defibrillator paddles for someone who's dead and needs to be brought back to life. That's who Jesus really is.

So look, the human situation is impossible but it is not hopeless. Even though we can do nothing to bring about our own rebirth, we could do nothing to make it happen. We can look to him and ask him to make us to be born again.

This leads me to two questions and an appeal this morning. First, how do you know? How would you know if you've been born again? How would you know if you have been made right with God by Jesus? Well, I don't want you to get hung up or obsessed over the time or the date of your rebirth.

N. T. Wright gives a really good illustration of this. He's like, you know, how many of you have ever gone to somebody's house and seen a birth certificate framed up on the wall? Getting obsessed about the date of your rebirth is ridiculous as someone framing their birth certificate and putting it up on the wall and inviting people over. Come look, I was born on this date. Aren't you excited about my certificate?

Now, he says this: what matters is not that once upon a time you were born. Here's what matters—that you are alive now. That your present life day by day, moment by moment is showing evidence of health and strength and purpose.

Do you get it? Do you get this? For those of you who call yourself a Christian this morning, here's the question for you. Are you alive? Are you alive spiritually? Not—do you know the exact hour or the day that you were reborn—but are you alive spiritually?

Here's how you would know. Do you love Jesus? Do you want him? Are you growing? Living things grow. It's hard sometimes to tell if we're growing, that's why you need your great aunt who comes and says to your kid, "Oh, you've grown so much this year." You need friends. You can ask them, do you see me growing? Am I the same person as I was last year or five years ago? Or am I changing?

What about this? Do you experience conviction of sin? Do you find times where you realize your sin grieves God and you hate breaking his heart? Do you experience a love for worship, a desire for him and his word, a desire for his influence over your life?

See, if you can't answer those questions in the affirmative, here's my request of you: to really wrestle with the second question. Have you been born again?

The Gift of Being Born Again

Jesus is offering in this passage something I hear a thousand times in a thousand ways in our culture. How many people are saying, "I would love a reboot on life" or "a fresh start" or "to be able to start over"? Do you understand the tremendous gift of God that is offered to us in Jesus's simple statement: you must be born again?

No one is born a Christian. You always must be reborn a Christian. When we baptize our children, which we're going to do later on this morning, we claim the promise that God deals with sinners the same way every time, and we appeal to the Holy Spirit to come. Come save this one, Jesus. Come rescue this one.

Just like we're going to baptize a baby at our second service today—it's every one of us. Weak, helpless, has to be carried to Jesus.

What Being Born Again Really Means

Have you been born again? I'm not asking if you've gone through an emotional experience. I'm not asking you to go through another ritual or check a box or pray a special prayer this morning. We've got all kinds of people who can do that. Nicodemus, for sure, had gone through lots of rituals. But I'm asking, have you been born again?

I'm not asking if you're ready to turn over a new leaf. I'm not asking if you've gotten religious or if you go to church all the time. Being regularly a part of a church doesn't make you a Christian anymore than being in Starbucks makes you a five-dollar cup of coffee or being in Dunkin' Donuts makes you a cop. Right? Like, have you been born again?

I'm not even asking, do you believe in God? The Bible tells us the demons believe in God and they respect him. They shudder. They tremble with fear.

I'm asking, have you been born again? Have you acknowledged how much you need new life from him? Have you surrendered your opinions to his? Have you given up hopes of being good enough to get God on your side? Have you put all your trust in what Jesus has done for you?

Here's my question: Is Jesus alive and at work in your soul? I'm afraid a lot of people have religion. Many of you may, like the demons, believe. Yes, Jesus exists, but he's not the Lord of your life.

I've always heard that for many people, heaven and hell are separated by eighteen inches—the difference between knowing things in your head and your affections in your heart. Do you love him? Not—do you know about him. Do you love him?

Jesus said it: you must be born again, and you can be this morning. In just a minute, I'm going to ask you to bow your heads and pray, and I want to invite you to respond and surrender your life to Jesus. I'm going to ask you to pray this prayer: Jesus, I surrender. Jesus, I believe.

I want you to look to the man who, like that serpent, hung on the tree for you.

Nicodemus's Story

You know what we know about Nicodemus? This did come to pass in his life. A few chapters later, in John chapter 19, after Jesus died upon the cross, we see Joseph of Arimathea, and we find out another man—Nicodemus—goes to Pilate and asks if they could have the body of Jesus.

And it's taken down from the cross and given to them, and they go take it and put it in the tomb that was used for the shortest period of time that the tomb was ever used in all of human history for just a couple days. But we see in that Nicodemus' transformation. One who comes to question Jesus versus one who comes loving Jesus, adoring him.

Prayer

I wanna invite you to pray with me now. Let's bow our heads.

Father God, we thank you for the gift of life that's offered to us in Jesus Christ, and this calling for us, all of us, all kinds of people this morning to be born again. Lord, I know that there are friends that I know of who are in person or who are gonna be watching this morning on screen. For whom they know lots of things about Jesus. And Lord, I pray, Father, that you would give them courage this morning to be honest with themselves and honest with you and to say, yes, Jesus, I surrender myself to you. I need you.

Father, I pray that you would give him or her this morning courage to reach out to me or one of our other pastors or elders at our church and talk through what it means to be born again and describe what they felt with this morning as they've been pricked in their conscience by the Holy Spirit that says, yes, you.

I pray for children of Christian families in our church, Lord, who are watching this morning and have grown up knowing all the songs and the scriptures but for whom this has never become personal. And Lord, I pray for them that you would give them courage to tell their mom or dad this morning that they want to be born again.

Father, I thank you that your grace and compassion is that big for sinners like me and sinners like those who are listening to me this morning. Thank you, Father, for such an incredible promise that you are the one who makes us alive. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.