(John 3:4)
�Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother�s womb, and be born?
A little boy was being christened at a large church. His parents thought that he was frightened by the size of the crowd so they dismissed his crying during the ceremony. But, when the crying continued almost all the way home, the little boy�s mother finally said, �Son, what is wrong? Did the minister frighten you? Why are your crying?�
The little boy admitted that it was something that the minister had said. His mother again asked, �What did the minister say that frightened you so?�
The little boy answered that the minister had said that the boy would be brought up in a Christian home.
The mother said, �How could a thing like that frighten you?�
The boy answered, �I don�t want to be brought up in a Christian home. I like living with you guys.�
Sometimes we have problems understanding what God is saying in His Word, as well. Such was the situation here with Nicodemus. Nicodemus had no idea what it was that Jesus was trying to communicate with him. The phrase, �Ye must be born again,� completely perplexed this religious professional.
Sadly, such is often the case in our time as well!
To the statement of Jesus, Nicodemus answered with incredulity. �Nicodemus saith unto him��
Nichodemus could not fathom the message of Jesus. He could just not believe his ears. �Born again? What in the world are you talking about?�
The problem with Nicodemus was that he was hearing with his natural, and naturally trained, ears. His religious experience had given him no training in what that phrase meant.
The mind of Nicodemus could only comprehend the message of Jesus in the light of his own previous experiences. He looked at the question from the natural standpoint while Jesus was speaking from the spiritual standpoint.
Folks, that�s a problem that we�re going to have in our own testimony in this day. Our best arguments won�t fall upon deaf ears for the most part. But they will fall upon ears that have no idea what we are talking about. They will try to look through the naturalistic prism of their own life experiences. This will filter out any concept of spiritual meaning.
Well, what can we do about this? After all, the Great Commission has argued that we are to �go into the world� with the Gospel message. But, if we go to people who can only hear it as incomprehensible gibberish, what good can this do? Or, if our telling of the message is misunderstood because the world at large puts a different value upon the words of the message, what can we do?
There is only one thing we can do. We must pray! Remember, we are working in spiritual realms when we proclaim the Gospel message. Working with our best abilities is worthless because those abilities are of the natural world. They are useless in the spiritual arena.
However, prayer calls in the convicting power of the Holy Spirit to stand, and work, with us as we witness. We still try to access the best of our abilities as we possibly can. But we commit the results to the Spirit.
If that�s true, why do we use the best of our natural abilities when we witness? Simple. We are offering our best because we are not offering this simply to those with whom we witness; we are offering, in reality, our best to God. That is our offering to Him. We know that He does the real work. But we give Him our best. That is simple worship.
I remember one time when I was a young pastor that we were having a clothing drive for a missionary family. These were �faith missionaries.� They had no mission board backing them. They simply went where God had sent them. They asked that some churches help out with expenses.
We had decided to help by giving these good people some clothing. While we were packing this for shipment I overheard one of our ladies. �This stuff is too good for missionaries. We ought to sell it at a �back yard sale� and send them the money.� The concept sounded good. But, the premise of the concept was flawed. �Too good for the missionaries!� Nothing was too good for these servants of God.
When we give the best of our abilities to Him, God then energizes our witness, since it is offered to Him even as it is presented to whomever we are speaking with. There will be eternal results. Sometimes the result will be that the one refuses God. Remember, they are not refusing us; they are refusing God. We�ve given the work over to Him, where it rightly belongs. We are only relaying His message.
If I slap a policeman in the face, he may feel the pain. But, in reality I have attacked that jurisdiction for which he works. I am not going to be placed under arrest for simple battery of the policeman; I am arrested for attacking the symbol of the authority of the municipality.
Such is the case when our witness is rejected. We may feel the string of the moment. In reality it is not our burden. It is the witness, if we have acted in prayer and subjection to God, of the God of the Universe Who has been rejected.
With this in mind we may be better able to stand for Him without feeling disdain for the person who has rejected Him.
There will also be those who accept that message. Every single one of these is one more soul that will rejoice forever in the eternity of bliss.
At this point, however, Nicodemus could not face the concept of Jesus� request.
Of course part of the reason, as we�ve just discussed, was because he didn�t understand it. He had no real idea about the meaning of that request.
Another part of the reason was because Nicodemus had conceptualized the request according to his own understanding. The picture in his mind was repugnant. Well, of course it was. But the problem was not with the request of Jesus; the problem was with the misunderstanding of Nicodemus.
Again, we still have this problem in our day. People, in general, do not understand the Christian or his faith. They consider the Christian to be �pushy.� Often they are correct. They consider the Christian to be ignorant of the things that are important to them. Sometimes they are correct; more generally the problem is that the Christian understands the reality of the situation, via the illumination of the Spirit, and they do not.
On the first point, some Christian will buy the biggest Bible possible so they can hit someone over the head with it. It�s true! We do not need to attack people. We need to win, with the power of the Spirit, people to Christ.
We do need to be persistent in our witness. But, we also need to be polite in our witness. Those we disrespect will not be those that we win. They will flee from everything we say to them. The main thing is to speak as the Spirit gives us an opening to speak. If we are in prayer, again, by name whenever possible, for people, the Spirit will do His job of convicting so that we can do our job of witnessing.
Be attuned to the Spirit. This means keeping your own spiritual house in order. How often do we spiritually say, �Do as I say, not as I do?�
It�s hard to witness about the love of Jesus when we keep asking God to damn someone or something!
Sometimes we find some social problem that we feel we must attack. Folks, abortion and homosexuality are sins. There just ain�t no doubt about it! But when our primary focus is attacking others we are not witnessing to them. They do not see these issue�s as sin. The world at large sees these issues as choices and lifestyles. They do not understand the factor of sin.
There are two problems we have when we attack here. The first is that we are prone to appear to be preaching a �works� salvation. The second is that we are prone to appear as ignorant of reality.
What we need to be doing is gently pointing out the sin, but not attacking. And, we need to be majoring on the love of Jesus Christ for the sinner. At the same time - remember, this is a spiritual issue not a moral issue - we need to be heavily invested in serious prayer. If the Spirit does not convict on an issue our own witness will ring hollow.
Don�t worry. The Spirit is perfectly capable of doing His Own job!
The world can never understand our Christian morality. It is a separate morality from that of the world in general. Only the Spirit can convict. But, even here, adapting a moral position is not accepting Christ. We should not preach to change people�s minds - or even lives. We should preach, and witness, to allow the Spirit to change people�s souls.
That was the ultimate problem in this verse. Nicodemus had no faith in the suggestion of Jesus. How is this incredible and wicked (in the understanding of Nicodemus) act going to be positive?
People look at our witness and can not understand. �How can the death of one lonely Jew, two thousand years ago, have any real meaning to me?� �Why should I even consider such a �bloody religion?��
Folks, the world at large does not understand the issues of the sin nature and alienation from God. These are concepts of the spiritual and eternal. The people of the world are beings which can only understand time and the physical. They have no other frame of reference.
I�ll go back to it again because we must come to grips with this: WE NEED TO BE A PEOPLE WHO RELY ON THE SPIRIT! This means we need to be often in prayer. We need to study the Scripture; therein we find the answers to the problems of the day. But, we also need to be in prayer. Without the Spirit energizing our witness we are as worthless as a car with no starter. That car just ain�t going to start without power. Neither are we going to �run the race� without the Power of the Spirit in our lives.
We look at Nicodemus� response to Jesus and we see the astonishment of his reply. ��How can a man be born when he is old?��
Nicodemus thought that the Jesus was weird in His request. �Born again? Why, I�m thirty-five years old. Ain�t likely.� Once again, Nicodemus was looking at the problem with physical eyes. The concept he understood was startling, stupid, and sordid. It was beyond his comprehension.
In this instance it really was beyond his comprehension. Nicodemus could not but look at the concept as a physical reality because that is all the reality he understood. Later in this same chapter we will see that Jesus takes the time to explain the concept of physical understanding and spiritual understanding.
At this point, however, Jesus was explaining a spiritual truth using a physical illustration. To be physically born is to, from the human standpoint, enter into the physical life. Now, we know that physical life begins at conception; what I am talking about here is perception - what a person is able to see with his physical eyes. Jesus was telling Nicodemus that it was necessary for him to move from simple physical life and accept a spiritual life of regeneration in salvation.
That word, �regeneration,� is to experience new life. That is what it means. It means to make a new generation of life. Jesus was talking about renewing the spirit of man from being bound by sin to being freed by grace.
Not understanding this spiritual application, Nicodemus thought Jesus wrong. He could not �see� what it was that Jesus was saying because his eyes were spiritually blind. He could see the physical; he could not see the spiritual.
When my mother-in-law died she left behind a son who was blind. He was now going to be alone in the house. Tim had, to all appearances adapted well to his condition; he didn�t require much outside help. Still, one of his sister�s tried to help. �Tim,� she said, �I�ve left a list of everyone�s telephone number. I�m putting it right next to the phone for you.�
Her thought was, �If he knows where it is, he can find it.� Tim just turned his head toward her with a quizzical look on his face. His thought was, �Even if I find it, I can�t see it to read it.�
That was the problem for Nicodemus. He could not �see� the logic of what Jesus said because he had no idea what it was that Jesus had really said.
As did Tim to that sister, Nicodemus thought that Jesus was just wasting time. Why write a note that couldn�t be seen? Why ask for an act that can not be accomplished? Nicodemus had come seeking and all he found, he thought, was religious jargon.
We know, of course, that Jesus completed the conversation. He helped Nicodemus to understand what it was that He had said.
Sometimes we don�t! Especially preachers. We might talk on the wonders of the Kenosis without ever explaining just what the term means. How? Why? What?
Sometimes it is good to give a lecture that sends the students to the library to find answers to questions raised. Folks, ain�t hardly nobody going to go to the library to find what we mean in a religious discourse. If it is not laid out in an understandable fashion, it will not be understood.
When engaging in personal work with sinners our message needs to be understood. Yes, the Spirit will convict. But, remember, it IS our job, as Christians, to give an understandable report that Jesus Christ died in time so that others might live in eternity.
We do not have to discuss all the fine points of the Age of Grace as opposed to the Era of Law. We do need to say that Jesus Christ died in time so that others might live in eternity.
Nicodemus came as a man, asking questions as a man. Therefore he had an anthropological misunderstanding. ��can he enter the second time into his mother�s womb and be born?�
Nicodemus saw only the physical. How sad. Nicodemus had an interview with Jesus, the Lord of the Universe, and did not understand the spiritual importance of this encounter.
As we�ve already said, though, how could Nicodemus understand? His entire life experience had been physical.
There is nothing unusual about that, is there? Of course not. All of us born on this globe are familiar with our physical surroundings.
A few years ago I was driving a bus for a local college. I went to a nearby airport and picked up a new student who was coming to college for the second semester. He was from a tropical area and had never seen snow except in pictures. He arrived during a blizzard.
The snow was coming down so hard that the road was nearly obscured. I followed the center line most of the way. Since I wasn�t really going very fast, we were often overtaken by the �big rigs.� Every time one of those �18 Wheeler�s� went past us the wind draft from the truck would cause a few seconds of �white out� where the road was completely invisible. At those times I simply followed the tail lights of the trucks.
This pretty well terrorized my young passenger. At one point the asked why there was no law keeping those trucks off the highway. �Those trucks,� I tried to explain, �Are the main thing keeping the snow off to the sides of the road.�
He wasn�t impressed with my logic. Then again, he had never driven in the snow.
This was the problem for Nicodemus. He only understood in the physical so he thought that Jesus� solution was not practical.
If Nicodemus had thought it through he would have seen that Jesus was, obviously, not speaking of physical birth. After all, the word �again� would indicate that this had already happened.
That is a problem, often, in our witnessing. That which seems so obvious to us is not as obvious to others. We have already been born again. The Spirit is with us to illumine and guide. We might not understand all about the spiritual and eternal, but we can understand so much more than the average person on the street.
There is a concept in law; it is RPM. What would a reasonably prudent man do in such and such a situation? I might, as people do in movies, drive my car a little over the speed limit if a man is shooting a gun at me. That seems reasonably prudent. I want to get out of the situation.
What is prudent to the Christian is not necessarily that which is prudent to the man who has not had the Spirit speak to his life. We need to understand this. We can not force the morality of Christ upon a person who is in bondage to Satan. What we need to do is to introduce this person to Christ and then let the Spirit take over and guide that person into the Heavenly morality of Scripture.
That�s what I�d like to do right now. Nicodemus didn�t want on Jesus� program. It was foreign to his ears and thought processes. As the conversation continued, Jesus explained the meaning and Nicodemus was able to understand the great gift that Jesus was offering. It was salvation from sin and a new relationship with God.
This is what we want to see you accept today. Trust the sacrifice of Jesus at the Cross of Calvary. He has, at that place, done everything that is needed for your salvation. All He asks is that you trust Him and accept His salvation.
Right now, while the Spirit is speaking, accept Him.
It is the right thing to do!