NOV 18 2018 | John 3 in 3D S1E1 | There Was A Man

Sea Change Church · John 3 in 3D · "There Was A Man" Pastor Elliott Stearns · November 18, 2018
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Now the scripture reading will be read by Clem Hoffman. The reading today is from John chapter 3, verses 1 to 19. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. Jesus answered and said to him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

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? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, thee may must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but thou canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth.

So is everyone that is born of the spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Aren't thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen, and ye receive not our witness. If I had told you earthly things, and you believed not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?

And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. And for everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds be made manifest, and that they be wrought in God. The word of the Lord. Amen. Thank you, Clem. Virginia was a designated Bible reader, but she had to stay home this weekend preparing for surgery, so we need to keep her in prayer. I'm Elliot Stearns, and I appreciate very much the opportunity to be here this morning. I was wondering about sharing something at the beginning.

How many of you have a little bit of fear of speaking in public assemblies? Anybody? There's a few, okay. You know, believe it or not, I do too. And I was putting on the armor of God this morning to sort of strengthen me. You know, it's described in Ephesians 6. It says, put on the helmet of salvation and the breastplate of righteousness, and the loins gird about with truth, and the feet shot with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

Take the sword of the spirit and the shield of faith that you might quench the fiery darts of the enemy. And I was just putting that on, and I was just thinking about that, and I said, Lord, I'm sorry, but I really like an armor of love right now. I really need a hug as I'm preparing for this. And I really just felt, the Lord said, look, Elliot, love fashioned all those pieces of armor. I crafted them with my own blood and tears and on Calvary.

He's the one that created those pieces of armor in his love. And so I'm really confident now. The Lord is with us. Amen. And he's with me, and we're going to have a wonderful time in the word of God together here. Last time I preached here was, and I think it was Palm Sunday back in the Easter season there, and then before that, a little less than a year ago, I preached on the Magnificat of Mary at the Christmas season.

Remember the Magnificat, my soul doth rejoice in God, my Savior, my spirit exalts in God, my Savior, my soul doth magnify him. And I had a little skit prepared there with our indefatigable lead elder, Sean, was reading the scripture, and I said, Sean, I just want you to read it as dull and flat and as in a monotone as possible. Does anybody remember that? Okay. And he did it, and I interrupted him in the middle, and said, Sean, there's no way to read about someone exalting in the spirit, and so on and so forth.

And I thought it went well, except we didn't communicate it very well that it was a skit. So I know at least one person came up to me and said, you're the rudest preacher I've ever heard in my life. And so I dare not do that again, but I do want to say the reason I did that, and the reason I'm reminding you of that is because the scripture is a living thing. And when we read it, yes, we should always read it with reverence and awe, but it is something that has a dynamism to it that we need to enter into when we read it.

And when Mary exalts in God her Savior, we need to read it with that sense of exaltation. We don't want to make little scriptures sort of marbleized figurines we put in nooks and crannies or on charts or on parchment on our walls or anything like this. The word of God, Jesus said, is living. My words are spirit in their life. Paul in 2 Timothy 2.16, he says that all scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for, what's the next word?

Reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness. But we've got that word reproof. We've got correction there. The word of God is living. It's to do something to us. It's to operate on us. The first Hebrews 4.12, which Pastor Adam went over a little while ago and he talked about that. But again, the word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword. It's active. It penetrates between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart.

God operates on us through that word. He comes to us and I think it's, it's, we have to think about that. But God operates, He comes to us and we just sang the hymn that says, I thought this was providential, He chastens and hastens His will to make known. And that's, so this chastening of the Lord through the word of God, that operating upon us through the word of the Lord, that discerning of the true thoughts and intents of our hearts, that's what the word of God is about.

And I want to let you know on a little secret here, don't tell anybody, but when God operates, He doesn't believe in using anesthesia. It's intended to hurt. It's intended to convict, to reprove, and to correct. I've, several times I've mentioned that one preacher said that the hardest thing he had when preaching was over-familiarity with the text. Everybody, if it's a familiar text, they'll say, oh yeah, I know what that says, I've learned that since I was in kindergarten and so on.

But the point was, he says it's hard to break through that, sort of that, the packet of matters hide that people have, they put on, I know that text. And I think if anybody, if there's any text that people think they know, it's John 3, 16. And that isn't really what I'm going to get into today. We're actually, Pastor Adam asked the three preachers who are going over John 3 these next three weeks, myself, Pastor Jim, and Pastor Harry, to just go into chapter 3, verses 1 through 21, which were read today by Brother Clem here.

I don't think I'm going to get past verse 9, frankly, but we'll try, see where we go. But this is a very, very familiar set of verses that were read there. I even had it read in the King James Version. That's what I'm going to be using, but that's oftentimes what we think about. In John 3, Nicodemus comes to Jesus. The usual thought is he knocks on the door, you know, and Jesus lets him in. They sit down, maybe share a cup of tea or something.

He says, Jesus, I'm not sure about some things you're teaching here. Jesus says, well, it's really easy. You need to be born again. They go discuss a little bit. He says, thank you. They leave. And then the narrator or John writes, John 3, 16, for God so loved the world. It gets translated into 43 languages and put at the beginning of all the Gideon's Bibles and then we know about it. But it's much more than this. It's much, much more than this.

What we're talking about here is a text that, as I just said, that is personally applicable to you and to me in a deep and a thorough way. Now, first of all, we're going to look at it symbolically. We're going to look at Nicodemus as representative of you and me coming to Jesus by night. Then we're going to look at the historical Nicodemus and what actually happened there. First of all, it's very interesting, this name.

Nicodemus is obviously a through-and-through Jew, but he has a Greek name, Nicodemus. And Nicodemus means conqueror or conqueror of the people. And he says in John 3 verse 1, there was a man whose name was Nicodemus, a Pharisee, and he was a ruler of the Jews. And so, this is a picture again of a man who is a Jew with a Greek name coming to Jesus who is a ruler and part of a religious group called the Pharisees. Right there, when we think about being a ruler, he thinks he's master of his fate.

He thinks he's the strong one. And he is a picture, again, of a coming to Jesus both as a Jew would come to Jesus and what Paul would say as a Greek comes to Jesus. Greek meaning all the Gentiles, everybody who's not a Jew. And he comes by night. At night, we can't see things clearly. We know that there's something about Jesus we need to learn about, but it's at night, so we're kind of groping in our approach to him.

And, by the way, just as an aside, Nicodemus is the one who came by night to Jesus and he's mentioned two other times in the Gospel of John chapter 7 and chapter 19 and he's always called Nicodemus, comma, who came to Jesus by night, comma, said such and such. All right? So, just as doubting Thomas always has the word doubting attached to him, Nicodemus always has the word who came to Jesus by night. But, Paul says this about the way that the Jews and the Greeks approached or come seek God.

He says the Jews, I like this, the Jews demand signs and the Greeks, what do they do? They seek wisdom. But, Paul says, look, we preach Christ crucified. To the Jews, this is an offense. nonsense. Illogical. It can't be that, that way. And so, what is Nicodemus? He comes to Jesus and he, yes, he starts mentioning signs. The second verse of chapter 3 again says, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God for no one could do the signs that thou doest unless God was with him.

So, Nicodemus is coming and he's approaching Jesus about these signs that he's heard about or he's seen and he's, so he's interested, what are these signs telling me as a Jew? I'm interested in what these signs are. But with that name, Nicodemus being a Greek name, he's also asking for understanding. He says, what? Can a man who's old enter into his mother's womb and be born a second time? How can these things be? Twice it says in the several verses there, how can these things be?

He's trying to understand, he's trying to get wisdom. Jesus answers him with regard to the signs. He says, okay, you want a sign? I'll give you a sign. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man is going to be lifted up on a cross. And you want wisdom? Well, let's look at the wind, how it blows and you know not how. So, Nicodemus is a picture of us as we try to approach Jesus with our mind or with that sense of seeking after the signs.

The Jews demand signs. The Greeks seek wisdom. Now, let's look also, let's go to the historical Nicodemus. There was an historical person in Jerusalem at that time. Scholars have determined name, Nicodemus. Nicodemus. And he was a, there's an interesting background. A scholar named Richard Baucom wrote a very long article with lots of detail, lots of detail in it and about looking back at the history of this family. If you wanted to take Nicodemus' full name, it would be Nicodemus ben Gurion.

And the Gurion family started out two or three centuries before this New Testament. the progenitor, Gurion, must have been a, a mighty soldier. He was rewarded for his efforts and given lands and estates and then his descendants have wealth and reputation thereafter. And so the Nicodemus that came to Jesus was Nicodemus ben Gurion and he was a Pharisee and he was also part of the ruling council of the Jews at the time.

Now most of the rulers were Sadducees but Nicodemus was a Pharisee. But he was up there in that, those higher echelons of authority. What we want to do is we want to explore why is it that Nicodemus went to Jesus and who were, who is the we? Because what it says in verse 2 again is, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God for no one could do these signs that you do unless God was with him. So, I want to, I want to try to build up the background here in terms of bringing up the reason that Nicodemus had to go to Jesus in the first place.

In chapter 1, chapter 3, verse 1 again, it says, there was a man, do we have the projection working okay on this? There was a man named Nicodemus, of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. Now, I am always nervous bringing up scholarly things or the Greek here, okay? So, you'll bear with me a little bit. In this verse, there's a missing word, a missing conjunction. This is a little two-letter conjunction that's kind of a connective and it was left out of this verse and leaving it out of this verse is really significant.

And because it tells us something about Nicodemus that we wouldn't usually understand. Now, remember, there was no chapter divisions in the original manuscripts at all. You just read through the text and it just moved in. So, we're moving from chapter 2 right into chapter 3 and this little connective that's left out of this verse tells us something. Now, this little connective is, can you show the graphic there? The little connective is right at the beginning of the verse and this little connective is not translated.

Now, that's very common actually. This connective, this little conjunction is used about 3,000 times in the New Testament and about 300 of those times they don't translate it. Now, the reason they don't translate it is one of two. They couldn't figure out how to translate it or they didn't think it was important to do it. But this word, this little connective here is, I put a question mark there shows exactly where it was in the Greek.

There was connective a man of the Jews. Now, the reason it's difficult to translate is because one word doesn't do it justice. What it should, what it, what it says really is this. Pay attention to what's coming following this verse because it intimately ties in with what comes before this verse. You understand? If, and, and what, it's going to tie in, tie what comes after there was a man with what came before. Now, what came before?

Well, what came before was in chapter two, last three verses. And this is what it's saying. Jesus is performing all of these miracles and signs, and many people believed in him because of the signs that he was performing. But, and, not that one, the next one, anyway. And so they believed in him and he, but it says this very important verse at the end, but Jesus would not believe himself, would not entrust himself to them because, and this is the important line, because he knew what was in man.

again, many people believed into Jesus, but he would not entrust himself to them because he knew what was in man. Chapter three, verse one, there was a man. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus. Nicodemus comes to Jesus as a example man. The kind of man Jesus would not entrust himself to. We're seeing something of the nature of Nicodemus right there. I think I'm going to surprise you a little bit in terms of understanding who Nicodemus was and why he came to Jesus.

To understand Jesus, the reason that Nicodemus came some more, we have to go further back into chapter two. We could go into chapter one as well, but we'll just limit ourselves to chapter two. What happened in chapter two? Three things major happened in chapter two of John. One, Jesus turned water into wine. And if Jesus had a public relations consultant or something, that's wonderful, Jesus. All right, that's the kind of thing we want you to do.

They'll proclaim you as miracles. Let's do some more turning water into wine. But the second thing ruins it all. Jesus and he sees what? Money changers, birds, sheep. And you know, I've read this chapter many times, but I never noticed. It also says there was oxen in the temple. And I tried to see myself coming into the temple and they think it was probably in the court of the Gentiles where the Gentiles were invited in to try to worship God that this was taking place.

I thought oxen? big cows? and sheep? Goats? And birds? And money changers? Think of the smells. Think of the noise. And it grieved Jesus. And so what's he do? He fashions, he makes a court of whips and he drives out all the animals and overturns the tables of the money changers. and again from a public relations viewpoint this was not a good thing. He has managed in one incident to offend the political the commercial and the religious authorities all at one time.

In bowling we call that a strike. you offended everybody. All the powers that be. Everybody who was up there in authority in Jerusalem was now offended. And they couldn't arrest him because the third thing that happened there was what we already said there. Jesus continued to perform these miracles and signs and the people were believing in him. They couldn't arrest him because he was too popular. What do they do? We got a problem.

This young upstart from Galilee is really upsetting the apple cart. We've got to address this. How do we do it? I know. Imagine them talking amongst themselves, the political, the commercial, and the religious leadership all gathered together. Remember, we've got to find someone to go to Jesus, somewhat secretly, but to go to Jesus and have a serious talk with him. We just can't have this kind of thing going on. We've got everything is neat and in order and we don't want to have this having disorder brought into our midst.

Now, who are we going to appoint to go to Jesus and talk to him? Oh, I know. Nick. He's known as the teacher of Israel. Let's appoint him. he's eloquent, he's learned, he's known for his teaching ability. He'll go to Jesus and he'll talk to him and maybe get him to understand just the way things really ought to be and help us to keep the order in the city here. Go by night and try to persuade him that this is the way we do things.

And look, Nicodemus, if it really proves difficult, maybe just you can invite him, just appeal to his vanity, invite him into our circle where we can keep an eye on him. So he does that and that explains the plural pronoun we. He comes to Jesus by night. The same came to Jesus by night and he said, I'm going to be repeating this many times, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no one could do the signs that thou doest except God be with him.

And your reply maybe back to me is, Elliot, that's so humble and that's so respectful. How can you think that Jesus has some ulterior motive coming to Jesus? Well, if you study ancient rhetoric, you see that this is always the way if you have an argument or you're going to hold a debate or you're trying to confront somebody, you always compliment them right at the beginning. Right? That way your victory is all the sweeter.

You see this in the U.S. Senate, of course, as well, right? I would just like to say to the most learned and esteemed colleague of mine from the state of Rhode Island. They've only been listening to me in the last committee hearing instead of falling asleep as is his custom and so forth. We go on. All right? But you always start out with high compliments when you debate somebody. So Jesus, Nicodemus comes to Jesus to confront him, to talk to him, to quote, reason with him.

We can't have you doing these kind of things to our beloved city. Put that on pause. Can you put it on mental pause for saying? Because I got to go over two other things with you right now before we get to Jesus' quote, answer. One, first of all, to understand the rest of this chapter, you have to understand two things. One is that Jesus performs signs. Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher sent from God for no one can do these signs.

I think the King James says miracles, but really it's signs that thou doest unless God is with him. Now a sign usually in the Gospels is a miracle, but a sign is a particular type of miracle. A sign is a pointer. A sign is a miracle with a message. A sign says something and it really is pointing out some important thing that identifies it as something that's important to know, not just to demonstrate a work of power.

So the Gospel of John is known for its eight major signs. I don't think you even see the word miracle in the Gospel of John, though miracles were performed. They are always called signs because they signify something. There are signs. That's the first thing. The word is simeon. If you ever see that sign, a pointer, it's a signifying miracle, a miracle with a message. You've got to know that because what Jesus is going to be addressing has to do with the signs.

The second thing is that three times in these 21 verses you'll see the familiar phrase, verily, verily, I say unto you, or truly, truly, or some of the versions, I solemnly tell you, but it's always, that's verily, verily, amen, amen. It's an affirmation. I agree. It's right. It's good. It's amen to that. There's a, but I, well, let's go back. In chapter, in verses two and three, Nicodemus says what I've been repeating there, and Jesus says, verily, verily, I say unto you, unless you be born from above or born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God.

And with trepidation, I go to the Lord and I say, Lord, with all, you are perfect, you are God, everything is right here, but I really, forgive me, but I don't understand what verse three has to do with verse two. And here's really what's, here's how you understand it. In the Old Testament, amen, or amen, amen, always followed something. Like Psalm 41, it says, let the whole earth be filled with his glory, amen, and amen.

And, bless you, there it is, amen, and amen. And when the law was read in Deuteronomy, they would read one of the statutes and the people would all say amen. And it's the same thing in the New Testament, in Romans and 1st Timothy. We have scriptures that, where Paul is, Paul, or, here we go, this is from, yeah, Romans, who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the creator more than the creator who is blessed forever.

Amen, says Paul. And then we have the 1st Timothy one there somewhere. What, now unto the king eternal immortal invisible the only wise God be honor and glory forever and ever. What? Amen. Throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament except in the Gospels. In the Gospels Jesus changes it. He seems to say amen, amen, then he makes his pronouncement. And scholars are saying, well, if Jesus wanted to do it, he's God.

Okay, he can do that. But there was a scholar in Jerusalem named Robert Lindsay who was a pastor of a church there and also a head of a group called the Jerusalem Institute for synoptic research and so on. But he looked at all of the uses of amen in the Old Testament and the New and he said, now Jesus grew up in the Jewish culture. He saw, he knew how this was done. Why did he change it? And so he studied the New Testament passages where amen or amen, amen were used and he said, well, we've been missing something.

Every time Jesus says amen, I say unto you, it's really in response to something that came before. So in other words, there's a fact or a statement or an event and then he says amen, amen or amen. And I say unto you and he explains or he elaborates about what happened before. And he gives lots of examples on that. And that was really a key to understanding why Jesus answers as he does when at first it seems like he's not on subject.

watch what happens then as we look at verses two and three on this. If you well, let's go ahead on this. Verses two and three. I want you to note the tone again. Nicodemus, he comes and he compliments Jesus and then how Jesus answers. I will repeat the verses again just so you get the context. Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God for no one could do the signs that you do unless God was with him. And then the verse says, I'm going to paraphrase the answer here.

Right? No one here's Jesus's reply, my paraphrase. No one, no one could do the signs you do unless God was with him. Amen. Amen. You see, expecting Jesus to shuffle his feet and sort of look down and say, oh, shucks, Nicodemus. How nice of you. No. Instead, he says, Amen. Amen. You're perfectly correct. I am a teacher sent from God and no one could do the signs that I do unless God was with him. I am indeed that Emmanuel promised to the Jews by Isaiah.

But Nicodemus, you haven't understood the real significance of the signs I do because God is with me. They all point to the kingdom of God. And guess what, Nicodemus? That means they point to me for I am the kingdom of God. I'm the king of the kingdom. I'm the personification of the kingdom and God is with me. Emmanuel. All the signs point to me, Nicodemus, but you and your fellow Pharisees, because you came to me with a we, you and your fellow Pharisees will never really see and perceive and appreciate the kingdom of God and who I am unless and until you are born anew or born from above.

Interesting that this is a brand new way of looking at Jesus' reply, but then I read Eugene Peterson's The Message translation and here's how he translates verse 3. Ready? You're absolutely right. Take it from me. Unless a person is born from above, it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to, to God's kingdom. That's Peterson's translation. Now what does Nicodemus reply here? Nicodemus says, what? Nicodemus saith unto him, how can a man be born when he's old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Now this question, I'm not sure whether Nicodemus is just confused or whether he's actually trying to answer sort of in a sarcastic voice here. How can this be? trying to make it a burlesque kind of of what Jesus was saying there. But nevertheless, it does allow him to, he is set up again so Jesus can elaborate on what he was saying. And again, we have a verily, verily, and I know what you're thinking.

Elliot, it's a nice idea, but Nicodemus is clearly wrong. How can Jesus possibly say amen, amen to this? Pregnant pause. Here's how I see Nicodemus was answered by Jesus. You got to know anyway. Amen. Amen. Nicodemus, you've hit the nail on the head. Being born anew from water and the spirit is as radical a change as a baby experiences coming out of the mother's womb. As the baby leaves that small enclosed space and comes into a grand and glorious new world filled with colors and smells and tastes and sights and sounds like nothing it's ever known in the world like coming into experiences of hugs and loves and cuddles being tossed hilariously into the air and smiles and songs and birds singing and flowers blooming and the clouds floating and the breasts nourishing and the puppy tails wagging and cats meowing Nicodemus just like that you're absolutely right it's just like coming out of the womb into the whole world in the colorful bright world yes you're right being born anew means seizing the most radical change imaginable from that small enclosed comfortable womb to the bright noisy wonderful world God has made that's being born again of water and the spirit and that ushers a man into the kingdom of God to me and my father Nicodemus into my love and my grace and my peace but there's just one thing you misunderstand Nicodemus when you talk about the new birth we're not talking about a physical birth what's born of the flesh is flesh but what's born of the spirit is spirit we're not talking about coming into the physical world but into the very presence of God and his heavenly kingdom with ten thousands of angels and bright array it's joy unspeakable and full of glory it's about forgiveness of sins but most of all it's knowing about knowing the love of God that passes all knowledge but Nicodemus know this you're still in your womb world you're living comfortably in the little womb of your assumptions your preconceptions your theology your established reputation your environment your friends who think you're just great you're reveling in your name of the teacher of Israel which you so proudly bear ah Nicodemus all that is nothing once you've been born anew regenerated and able to leave that little comfortable womb for the kingdom of God with all of its glories and inexpressible joy oh I know Nicodemus it's comfortable there in that little enclosed space you call home you have diplomas and certificates on the walls noting how educated you are and celebrating your various accomplishments and contributions to the civic welfare you can sigh with satisfaction thinking of the accolades of your fellow rulers in Jerusalem when they say here comes the teacher of Israel Nicodemus it is a comfortable life I'm sure but it's as compressed insular and tiny as a mother's womb compared to that big wide spirit world outside you have to make a decision Nicodemus all the signs that I have performed point to one thing the kingdom of God the love of God and me you have to make a decision Nicodemus but take heed to this one thing once you leave the womb of your environmental mother you can never go back you either forsake the womb of your present lifestyle gain me in the kingdom as you where you stay and never taste of what all those signs that you've mentioned are pointing to later in my ministry Nicodemus a very rich person is going to approach me and I'm going to advise him to sell all that he has and come and follow me and he leaves me sorrowful because he had many possessions Nicodemus are you going to be like that now let's look at that concept because the verse 5 says this unless you're born of water and the spirit you can never enter the kingdom of heaven the kingdom of God there are many passages good and proper passages in the old testament that refer to water and the spirit what Jesus says because Nicodemus again says how can these things be and Jesus replies you the teacher of Israel don't know these things you can find it right there at the beginning the second and third verses of Genesis in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was without form and void and what happened and the spirit of God did what moved upon the face of the waters you can look at Ezekiel 36 chapter 11 but I think the best scripture is to go into the new testament and talk and say in John chapter 7 I think you're all familiar with this verse as well and the last day the great day of the feast Jesus stood up and he cried out and he said all who are thirsty come to me and drink verse the scripture says out of his innermost being out of his belly shall flow rivers of what living water but this spake he of the spirit which had not yet been given for Jesus was not yet glorified so there we have the water and the spirit again being likened or associated Paul talks about in Romans 5 5 he says the love of God is poured and like water poured into our hearts by the Holy Ghost by the Holy Spirit whom God has sent it's just again the experience of knowing the love of God that moves as verse 8 says like the wind Titus 3 5 also speaks of this not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit which he shed or poured on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior there's another verse that speaks of this it doesn't it doesn't mention either water or spirit but I think it speaks of it clearly it's Isaiah 51 3 says for the Lord shall comfort Zion he will comfort all of her waste places and he will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the Lord joy and gladness shall be found therein thanksgiving in the voice of melody is water that makes a desert into a garden he'll make our wilderness like Eden I was thinking about that there's four rivers of water in Eden and their name meanings are to increase a bursting forth fruitfulness and rapidity water is such a symbol in the gospel of John it's present it's a major symbol in every chapter from one to twenty one except with one exception but every chapter it's not something on the side it's a major symbol in every chapter but one in John four the next chapter of course the woman at the well Jesus says the water I give you will be like a spring of water springing up unto eternal life Nicodemus unless you're born of water and the spirit the flow of the spirit of God into you you cannot enter into the kingdom of God and note again how Peterson in his message translation renders this verse five here here's what he says Nicodemus you're not listening let me say it again unless a person submits to this original creation the wind hovering over the water creation the invisible moving the visible a baptism into a new life it's not possible to enter into God's kingdom when you look at a baby it's just that a baby you can look at and touch but the person who !

takes shape spirit and becomes a living spirit so he says marvel not in verse seven marvel not that I say unto you you must be born again and notice the difference between thee and ye he's talking to Nicodemus but he's addressing the ye he's addressing all the authorities and the rulers and that council that sent Nicodemus to him in the first place unless you religious leaders are born again you're never going to enter into the kingdom of God this message is for all of you the ruling caste keeping the people in bondage to their traditions and he says in verse eight the wind bloweth as it were the wind bloweth where it listeth or wants and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth so is everyone that is born of the spirit this verse uses the word pneuma for wind and pneuma can be translated wind or breath or spirit and he's explaining how the new birth takes place because we are flesh and born of flesh there is within us a yearning to know the holy spirit drawing us as we hear the sound thereof Jesus calls us to hear the wind and to hear the breath of his voice the sound of his voice interesting in Hebrew the word call means both voice and sound and Jesus says you can hear the sound but you don't know where it's coming from where it's going but listen and tune into it when it comes John 316 is kind of where we're aiming ultimately with this set of sermons but there's another verse that talks just as powerfully about being born again and Jesus salvation and that's John 524 524 says this and again starts with a verily verily verily verily I say unto you he who hears my word like the blowing of the wind and the coming of the sound of the word of God he who hears my word has eternal life and shall not come into judgment but has like the baby from the womb but has passed from death into life hear the word of God hear the sound of the wind old scholar named A.W.

Pink wrote this about the wind he says the wind has seven characteristics it's sovereign irresistible irregular invisible inscrutable indispensable and invigorating it's present it's present enough to be known but vague enough to be ungraspable it's not able to be seen it's mysterious when it comes and it cannot be controlled and has its own power it is at one and the same time a part of our experience and yet totally beyond us entirely outside of what we can know or do and again verse nine here's Nicodemus seeking wisdom how can these things be how can these things be we'll conclude with this verse but notice what's going on now we know Lord we know Jesus you're a rabbi you're a teacher and so forth and so on Jesus answers him you don't have any idea what those signs are pointing to unless you're born anew he answers him again about what it means to be born of water and the spirit and Nicodemus says how can these things be now I think he's somewhat broken because now instead of coming to Jesus to wrestle Jesus he finds himself like Jacob at the Javik river being wrestled by Jesus and and and what happened Jacob was wrestled by the angel and and he found out his name what's your name Jacob twister schemer and I think Nicodemus is starting to see himself the same way there and the whole idea was not Jesus wasn't you know if you try to argue with Jesus guess who's going to lose he can always win any argument that isn't he doesn't want to win the argument he wants to win you he wants to prevail on your heart and he'll do it just whatever is necessary he'll do whatever is necessary to win you to win your heart so I'd like to offer the benediction if the prayer team could come up to the front right now and that is like you