How Can It Be?
Communion Fellowship Church Podcast
John 3:1-15 (September 29, 2024_
John chapter 3 with the reading in the preaching of John 3 verses 1 through 15. Here now the word of the Lord. 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 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 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 the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Two numb marble that I said to you, "You must be born again." The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear it 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. 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 everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. Faith comes from hearing and hearing the word of Christ. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we are a people of lots of questions. Father, we tend to argue with you or even come up with, I am sure, a lame response to your answers. Help us this day as we hear your word for us not to scoff too quickly at Nicodemus. May our ears be quickly opened and our hearts open to the reality and the call that we must be born again. Help us to understand this passage, this even mesmerizing passage to even this day. We still wonder exactly what you mean fully in this answer. Father, I pray most of all that all in this hearing this day, that we would have your grace of the power of what your son has accomplished and by the power of your spirit, that we would all be truly born again. In this in Jesus' name we pray, amen. You may be seated. It is a common saying, especially among teachers telling their students, there are no stupid questions. I'm sure you all have heard that before. Some have maybe even added the adage to, there are no stupid questions, just stupid people. But in this situation it even seems that, and I am sure that if I had known this when I've heard my teachers make that statement, I probably would have been sarcastically smart-olek about this, it seems that maybe Jesus actually argues with this a bit. Nicodemus asked the question the way that he did. In 1970, Dear Abbey column created this statement in the Milwaukee Sentinel by saying there is no such thing as a stupid question if it is sincere, better to ask and risk appearing stupid than to continue on your ignorant way and to make a stupid mistake. This particular sermon is a very simple sermon, but it is a complex answer that Jesus gives. I think that we would probably be quick not to criticize Nicodemus necessarily, but we would say this is an interesting statement. But we must not remember who Nicodemus is from the very beginning of this chapter that he was a teacher and a leader of all of Israel. He had been given the calling to be immersed in the scriptures in the Old Testament about the coming of the Messiah and what would be necessary. This answer I believe to Nicodemus's first statement was meant to be very simple to a very wonderfully complex reality of what is necessary of all men of being able to see the kingdom of God. My sermons three points are based upon the three back and forths that we have here with Nicodemus and Jesus. The first statement and an answer, a question and an answer, and then a final question and answer and those are going to be the three points. So I don't really have them named per se, but I did a title, this particular sermon, "How Can It Be?" That we would be asking this question, "How can it be that we would be born again? How can it be that we would be able to see the kingdom of God?" And hopefully overall go ahead and give you the cheat sheet of the sermon. How can it be that sinful people who have been separated from God by sin, how can they see the kingdom of God? How can we even know anything and enter into this kingdom of God when we are so full of sin and corruption? That is ultimately what is being dealt with here and probably one of the most famous chapters of all of the Bible, John chapter three. Next week we will deal with what has truly got to be the most popular verse in all of scripture, at least amongst football games and sports events from the television signs that you would see sometimes. So let us go through each one of these because it begins to be more revealed to us the answer to the question of how can it be as we go to each different stage of one, two and three. Reading from verse one, once again as a reminder 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 and no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him." We're given a little bit of an indication here of the circumstances that we have this very prominent and important man of Israel and supposedly one who should be very knowledgeable about God and about his word and about his ways, but he is coming to Jesus by night. We don't want to overly input into what is in the scripture, but based upon what we know about the Pharisees and what we know about the circumstances, what we know about the Pharisees and being adversarial to Jesus that this must have been due to being under cover at night so that others would not know that he is having this kind of conversation with Jesus. But we also see here that Nicodemus is better than maybe the average person in thinking that yes this one is truly with God because of the signs that Jesus had been performing. Of course, we always need to remember what signs are. Signs are pointers to us to something that is of a greater reality. I know that as we come here, as we go different places, we will see signs. If we become unfamiliar, especially in the dark, we will look for signs to get us from point A to point B. Nicodemus is seeing these signs and where he stops is that obviously this one, this Jesus, must be at least with God and as wonderful as that is and how even distinct as it may be from other people who might believe that signs can even come from Satan himself, but there may be this duality of powers in this world. At least recognizes that the things that Jesus is performing and doing is something of God and not some kind of mischievous way of Satan. But that's not enough. That's not enough for Nicodemus. Jesus would have answered, "Well, you've done well. That's right. You've answered well. The conversation would end there if that is all we need." We should see here that none of us probably would ever be able to say that we are light and Nicodemus and being a leader of the Jews, and maybe even most of us would not even feel that we would be as knowledgeable in God's Word, but many of us in the world today, and I would say many of us in the evangelical church today, this is about where we stop in our proclamation of who Jesus is. But he was good that he had the blessing of God that obviously he is working with God and that the things that he is doing are amazing and mesmerizing, maybe even all inspiring, but that's as far as we get. There are many people who will acknowledge that Jesus existed, that Jesus performed great miracles. A lot of them will think about what we just recently covered in a couple of Sundays ago with the turning of the water to wine, maybe even focus on the amazing thing of walking on the water. There are plenty of different signs and we'll see that and people will look at that as a wonderful thing and also even that Jesus was a good and wonderful person, but Jesus is going to take this conversation in this dialogue to a much deeper, greater reality. It's not going to be enough for Nicodemus to have just this answer about who Jesus is. And I would encourage all of us not to, whether we must say, "Well, I know Jesus is much more than that. I know that he is God and I know that he died for our sins, but even we too and how we converse with one another can sometimes allow it to just stay there on the surface that Jesus was just a great blessing. He's just a great and wonderful prophet of God. I know that we would not make that confession many of us here in this church, but we often may tolerate that and how we think about who Jesus really is. And we may tolerate that and how we converse about who he is with other people. Jesus is not happy with just this statement of one. He says in verse three, "Truly, truly I say to you unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Born again is especially in our day. I think one of the most prominent descriptions and a redundant explanation of what it is to be a Christian that you will hear people say that, "I became a born again Christian, or are you a born again Christian?" Think about this passage. This passage is so important for us to understand who are we really in the Lord, because it says here that we must be born again. We definitely want to be identified as one who was a born again Christian, even though it shouldn't be a distinction in of itself, but we are saying that there is something has to happen in us. It's transformative. And so when we see this particular statement, we might even think, "Well, man, Nicodemus should have gotten this run off the bat. We must understand, though, that we have many years before us where this passage has been dwelt upon and studied upon, and for us to understand born again in a whole different way." Nicodemus did not have that in that conversation. This is the introduction of that terminology. Jesus doesn't, though, give Nicodemus too much slack from his not knowing what he meant. Nicodemus responded, it says, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" We know this is kind of silly rhetoric. Surely, he didn't really think that. Maybe he was, it doesn't say in the scriptures if he's being a smart alec, like I would be when I was in school. Maybe he really did try to think this through in a very literal way, but we can often find that many times we will respond to God in that kind of way. Get into arguments with God. You'll hear arguments people overly literalizing different types of responses to what God has proclaimed. This is when we have to keep in mind that Nicodemus was supposed to be studied in the word. He was supposed to be studied in understanding the coming of the kingdom. We could company, even with the disciples, who didn't quite understand the nature of the kingdom. And if you were left only with the Old Testament, we too may have not been able to understand it as well. Jesus answers, "Truly, truly, I say to you unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." I would venture to say that we don't want to go too quickly beyond this verse without realizing that that probably wasn't a tremendously helpful answer in of itself. We can think about how many teachings and preachings that many of us as American Christians, especially in this region, have heard this passage proclaimed or even discussed or had Bible studies on, but that is still not a very clear answer in many ways for us. Even to this day, as I was reading the commentary from Marcy Sproul, he says, "This is the hardest passage for him to wrestle with." But he doesn't really know the answer. He thought he knew the answer when he was young and studying to be a minister. What does it mean? What does Jesus mean to be born of water and the spirit? I would venture to say that the church has concluded at least three primary answers to this question of what it means to be born of water. One, we can see in the context here in what Jesus says, it says that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit, that is talking about a physical birth and a spiritual birth. And I would think that I would lean toward that primarily because of the context of that particular verse right after that, but some have said, well, it could also, in the broader context of this particular gospel, could be talking about our need for cleansing. We see in the very beginning, in the beginning of the introduction of the gospel, that John comes, John the Baptist comes preaching a baptism of repentance and faith. That there has to be a cleansing of people because of our tainting and corruption of sin, we must be cleansed and there has to be renewal of life. There has to be something that takes away the sin and there has to be something that brings back to life that which is ultimately dead by also being born of the spirit. Some has taken this particular passage to combine all of that into a greater direction of even saying that you had to be baptized and also you have to be regenerated. Now, I don't know in this specific moment here in this conversation precisely what Jesus is meaning specifically, but I would say that in many ways, to some degree, those other answers are somewhat correct. Not that baptism saves, but in obedience to the Lord that we should be those who are following Jesus in baptism, but also we should be those who are definitely regenerate in the spirit. So if I think this is not a very good answer, Charles, you're telling me you don't really know what he's talking about. I don't know 100% that he meant birth only or whether he was also talking about our need for cleansing of sin. But I think that the general answer is still here in the fullness of this passage. And I think we can understand here that the reason why that Jesus in verse 7 says do not marvel that I say to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who was born of the spirit. We see here one that Jesus is somewhat admonishing Nicodemus and how he responded to the statement of being born again, that he went off track, that he actually did give somewhat of a stupid answer or stupid question to his statement about being born again. But this is not what he was trying to tell Nicodemus. He wasn't trying to get him caught up, but he shouldn't have gone in that particular direction because he knows that Nicodemus should know a little bit about the need of mankind's redemption. That there is something that has to be done, that something has to be transformed. So he tells him not to marvel at this statement in of itself, but to go to the next level and to understand that something has to happen that is outside of your control, something has to happen that comes from God. We know that Billy Graham uses this passage as one of his most famous quotes. I know as a teenager and a listening to V.C. talk that it was a snippet of that quote that when he's talking about God that he can't see God, but he said it's like a wind. You can see the effects of the wind, but it's a mystery to him. Our salvation here, just as his passage in this response from Jesus, is somewhat of a mystery to us that God is doing his own work in his own way, and even our salvation, even our regeneration, even our ability to be born again lies fully in the Spirit in creating that renewal. We see here a foundational core doctrine of faith that we cannot save ourselves, that we must be born of the Spirit, we must be transformed by the work of God, that God will go wherever he wishes. We do not know when or how he will come at times, but it is so of everyone who was born of the Spirit, that we shouldn't even not only have a response like Nicodemus and getting overly physically and scientifically technical in our question of how can this be. We can also not be too tangled up with when and how God is going to accomplish this. He will do this on his own. We are only called to proclaim and to respond. God will be the one who transforms. We can't make it happen, just like you yourself could not make yourself be born when you were in your mother's womb, nor can you make yourself be born again. We see in John chapter 1, and also in this very chapter in verse 27, that it must be given to him from heaven. That even though this is such a crucial thing that we identify with as being born again Christians, that it is impossible for us to actually make it happen in of ourselves. You can't crawl in your knees upstairs. You can't beat yourself. You can't even perfectly repent in such a most articulate way in such a way that will actually make you born again. God will have to be the one to transform it with man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" We should be at that place. This is an invitation for us to be mesmerized by that reality. We see following here in this particular passage that Jesus said, "You should know these things ultimately." In his response he says, "Here you are a leader and teacher of all of Israel, and you don't understand what I'm talking about." Let's stop and make sure to take a moment to understand what he's talking about. From the very beginning of the Scriptures we know that we have been separated from God. There should be countless reasons for us to be reminded of our need of a Savior. I do not want to speak at all. We're even born in Scripture not to look at travesties like this past weekend and say, "Well, I wonder who sinned or did that to deserve this in all of reality." We should be in all news, in all circumstances day by day, in every communication that we have with one another, or even how we feel when we wake up in our grumpy old sinful self. We are reminded that we are messed up, corrupted centers. As we are reminded of a righteous and holy God, we should see that there's something really wrong that the God who created all things, who has the power to destroy all things, he is righteous and just. We are those in deserving that judgment and destruction. When we see the things that happen on the news, we shouldn't be quickly trying to find out whether this city or that city deserved it. We should be thinking we deserve destruction and judgment. How can it be that we would be able to see the kingdom of God? If it's impossible for us to do anything to be deserving of the kingdom of God, how can these things be that God would pour out his spirit upon people to be saved? To be born again, Jesus answered him on this third dialogue. 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. We have here three different things that Jesus is answering to Nicodemus that should have been already provided to him. Based upon what he was seeing and hearing from Jesus and what he knew about the scriptures, there should have been these particular realities in the forefront of his mind. That he shouldn't have answered or questioned Jesus the way that he did, that he should have if he would have been one in the scriptures, if he had been one listening to Jesus, he would have not asked the question about being born in the mother's womb again, but that he would have seen the reality. But here we have this tension that Nicodemus doesn't know these things because, as in verse 27, he has not been given these things. So the question that we will ultimately see in these three things that Jesus highlights may it be a question to you both as a provocation, hopefully with the provocation of the spirit in your heart, but also let it be as an insurance to you that if you do know these three things, then you can see some fruit of the spirit's work already in you. The first thing that he highlights that Nicodemus did not have was the reception of his testimony. He did not receive the teaching and the proclamation, the word of Jesus Christ. He saw Jesus perform miracles. He acknowledged that Jesus was with God and had the blessing of God, and he was impressed by those things, but he did not receive the testimony. He did not receive God's word. The most crucial thing for us as we consider our place before the Lord, do we receive his word? Do we acknowledge it to be his word? Do we acknowledge it to be authoritative? Both, does it convict us of our sin, and does it also assure us of our salvation? This is very crucial for us because I know a lot of times when people are doubting their salvation, they're very good at pointing out to me in the word of how they are condemned before God. Then if you're going to take such a firm position on how you are condemned, do you believe that you are forgiven? Are you repentant? Have you confessed your sins? Then he says you are forgiven. Satan will do this all the time to create confusion and stumbling blocks, both for the lost and for the saved. He will twist things and only give partial truths to not full truths. Here we are told that Nicodemus' problem is that he does not receive the testimony of Jesus Christ. So how can these things be that we would receive his testimony if we do believe that this is truly God's word? That it is the inspired word of God that this is, as I said at the beginning of the sermon, Christ's word. And that by the hearing of it and the receiving of it, that is based on faith, that is a gift of God. He says if I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? He is shown throughout not only in the Old Testament by the things that he is showing in these signs that he is of God, that he is God, that he is of the things that were proclaimed in his word. It is more important to know, not that he just can perform miracles by the power of God, but that he is the one in God's word that proclaims him as God. He says no one in verse 13 has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the son of man. And Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so must the son of man be lifted up. Here we see the proclamation that Jesus was a favorite proclamation of himself was the son of man because it highlighted to all those who read the scriptures of the Old Testament that he is the one proclaimed to be both God and Savior. That he was going to be the Redeemer, Messiah of Israel and all of God's people that he is the son of man. This is big stuff if you are a student of the scriptures. The biggest stuff, he is God. He says no one ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven. He is not just with God, he is God. He is the son of man. The reason why Nicodemus did not understand this is that he didn't see this to be the fulfillment of the very proclamation of the Messiah. He was God incarnate, existing for eternity before and beyond. He is God who has come to save mankind. Do you believe this? Do you believe as Peter proclaimed that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God? That is what Jesus builds his church on. It's imperative that that is what we believe to be truly born again. Again, you cannot conjure that up into yourself. We see this. We see this book in it in this chapter and in the two preceding ones there in John 1. This must come from God. It must be a gift for us to come to understand this. If you understand this, praise God that you know that he is the son of man, the son of God, that he is God incarnate. Come to redeem this people. But as we see even with Peter's response that he quickly goes off track when he is talking to Jesus about being the Christ, the son of the living God, when Jesus starts to highlight that he must suffer and die, it is also Peter who says, "No, no, no, this cannot be. You can't die." But Jesus tells Nicodemus that he should have even known this. Peter should have known this because in verse 14 it says, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up." There was things in the Old Testament, granted when I go sometimes through the Old Testament, I don't see it as clearly as Nicodemus did, but there was the proclamation in many places that he must suffer and die. Do you believe that Jesus Christ was lifted up on the cross, that he was lifted up on the cross and he bore those very things that make it impossible for us to be able to see the kingdom of God? Then he took all of those things. Do you see the son of man lifted up? Do you see your sins placed upon him? Do you believe that he died for your sins? It says in verse 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. This is the simple proclamation of the gospel. This sermon could have been preached in probably five or six series. It's big stuff. But it's a simple proclamation of who Jesus is. It's a simple proclamation of what we must believe to be born again. We must acknowledge that his word is God's word. We must acknowledge that his person is the second person of the triune Godhead, the son of God, and we must believe that Jesus Christ was lifted up on the cross and died for our sins. It doesn't stop there. We know here that for the spirit to be poured out that there must be resurrected life. We know that because of Christ's resurrection and because of Christ's ascension and because of Christ's proclamation of his reign that the spirit has been poured out as those things were proclaimed in the scriptures that we read earlier today upon all of his people. That is being poured out to renew them to resurrected life. That must happen. The resurrection must happen or we are dead and left without hope of eternal life. This sermon, "How Can It Be?" I want to close really simply with the lyrics of Wesley's hymn, "And Can It Be." It says, "Tis mystery all, the immortal dies. Who can explore his strange design, in vain the firstborn serif tries to sound the depths of love divine? Tis mercy all. Let earth adore. Let angels mine enquire no more. He left his father's throne above, so free, so infinite his grace emptied himself of all but love and bled for Adam's helpless race. Tis mercy all, immense and free, for oh my God, it found out me, long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night. Then I diffuse a quickening ray. I woke the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off. My heart was free. I rose with forth and followed thee. No condemnation now, I dread. Jesus and all in him is mine, alive in him, my living head. In clothe and righteousness divine, bald I approach the eternal throne. And claim the crown through Christ, my own. And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood, die thee from me who calls his pain, for me who him to death pursued. Amazing love! How can it be that thou my God should die for me? Amazing love! How can it be that thou my God should die for me? Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, I don't want to embellish this sermon any further than the simple proclamation of what is seen here. Father, may it be that we would respond to Jesus's proclamation of who he is. May it have power, light, revelation, resurrection, new birth in us. May that new birth continue to grow and grow. May we continue to follow you, continue to hear the chains of sin fall off in our lives as we are free in him. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Please stand.