Evangelical Free Church of Embarass

The title of our current series is “They Met Jesus.” We’re looking at some of the characters in the Gospels who encountered Jesus, and how meeting Him affected them. We have been introduced to a pagan gentile woman who humbly asked Jesus for the crumbs of His mercy. Last week, we looked at an encounter between Jesus and two powerful Roman men. One humbled himself, recognizing Jesus’ authority, and asked for His help. The other held on to his pride and image, refusing to be swayed by Jesus.

Today, we’ll talk about a religious Jewish man named Nicodemus who had an encounter with Jesus at night. We’ll learn about that experience and see what impact it had on him. Let’s pray first.

Our Father, we give You thanks as we come to Your Word. The ancient words that have been passed on for centuries are still as powerful today as they ever were, because they are Your Words. Father, we come to Your Word today with open hearts. We want to hear and understand what You have to say to us, and we want You to impart truth to us. Reveal to us whatever we need for our lives. We pray that Your Holy Spirit will work in His gentle, convicting way, and that Your plan for the lives of many here this morning will work out just as You want it to. We commit this time to You. In Christ’s name, Amen.

One of the main characters in the “Left Behind” book series is a pastor. He is a man who knows the Bible, teaches the Bible, and is very religious. But as the series begins and Christ returns, bringing to Himself all who belong to Him, this pastor is left behind.

Is that possible? How could a church pastor, who knows and teaches the Bible and is as religious as he can be, be left behind when Christ returns for His people? The reason is that he wasn’t saved and did not belong to Christ. It is possible.

Nicodemus, whose conversation with Jesus is recorded in John Chapter 3, found out how true that is. You can be very religious, but not belong to Christ. You can know Scriptures and you can teach Scriptures, but you might not go to heaven. Nicodemus learned that one night.

Nicodemus, before his visit with Jesus

Let me tell you a little about Nicodemus, before he met Jesus face to face. In John 3, verse 1 we learn that Nicodemus belonged to a religious group called the Pharisees, the conservative faction of the Jewish faith. They were highly committed to both Old Testament law and the oral law – the rules, regulations, and traditions of the Jewish faith.

The Pharisees were strongly opposed to Jesus and His ministry. As a Pharisee, Nicodemus was presumed to be part of that opposition. He was part of the Jewish ruling council made up of 70 men, called the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was the highest civil and religious court at that time. Nicodemus was thus a prominent man. In John 3:10, after he and Jesus had met, Jesus said, “You are Israel’s teacher.” For Jesus to refer to him that way suggests that he was also well known among Jewish people as a teacher of their faith.

Nicodemus – Pharisee, member of the Sanhedrin, teacher, prominent man in Israel – was probably as religious as anyone could be. As a teacher of Old Testament law and the rules and traditions of the Jewish faith, he often taught the people how to enter the kingdom of God. That was an important subject to the Jewish people. He probably told them that they had to follow the law, commandments, traditions, and rules of the elders. Most likely he also told them that they must try their best to live good lives as a way to get into the kingdom.

I saw a comic strip this week. A guy comes home, and finds his wife sitting in the easy chair, obviously all worn out. She says, “I’ve had a trying day, Leroy. I tried on shoes, I tried on lipstick, I tried on dresses.” I want to suggest that Nicodemus and his Pharisee friends belonged to a “trying” religion, because what they believed and what they taught was that if you try your best to do the right things and follow the rules, you will earn your way to the kingdom of heaven. Nicodemus taught people that trying was a very good thing.

Nicodemus, after the visit

Nicodemus is mentioned in Scripture in only two places other than John 3. They are also in John, and both after his visit with Christ. (John was the only Gospel writer to mention Nicodemus.) Chapter 7 tells us that some temple guards had been sent by the Pharisees to arrest Jesus. They came back empty-handed. The Pharisees were upset, and they continued to plan their conspiracy against Jesus. Verse 50 says, “Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their number, asked, ‘Does our law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he is doing?’ They replied to Nicodemus, ‘Are you from Galilee, too?’”

Here, Nicodemus was subtly defending Jesus. He did not come right out and express any acceptance of Jesus and His ministry, but as the Pharisees were conspiring to get rid of Jesus, Nicodemus cautiously defended Him by asking them if it was right to do so without first hearing from Him.

The other time John mentions Nicodemus is in Chapter 19, verses 38 through 40, after Christ’s death on the cross. “Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now, Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, because he feared the Jews. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 75 pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it with the spices and strips of linen.”

Nicodemus was one of the two men who asked for the body of Christ, and who actually saw that the body was cared for and placed in the tomb. What he was doing there was much more overt and open than were his actions in Chapters 3 and 7. What might have brought about this change? We’ll see, as we look in on his encounter with Jesus.

The visit with Jesus

We have seen a pagan gentile woman encountering Jesus, and we have seen two powerful Roman men meeting Jesus. Now, we see a religious Jewish man encountering Jesus. Let’s take a better look at that visit. The first thing you might notice in John 3 is that Nicodemus initiated the visit. Verse 2 states that Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. The reason he came at night seems fairly obvious. If you consider his position and the opinion other Pharisees had of Jesus, it probably was risky for him to be seen with Jesus at all. By making the visit at night, he reduced the possibility of being seen.

Nicodemus began the conversation this way: “Rabbi (which means ‘teacher’), we know You are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform the miraculous signs You are doing if God were not with him.” You can see from what he said that he had already come a long way in his thinking about Jesus.

Jesus carried the conversation and determined its direction from this point on. His first statement got right to the point. In verse 3, “Jesus declared, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.’”

How could Jesus immediately make a statement like that to this religious leader? The last verse of Chapter 2 of John answers that: “Jesus did not need man’s testimony about man, for He knew what was in man.” He did not have to ask Nicodemus what he needed. He knew what was in man, He knew what was in Nicodemus, and He knew what Nicodemus needed to hear. I think He knew Nicodemus was ready for what was going to happen next. So, Jesus just came right out and said, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” That one important statement became the subject of the entire conversation.

Nicodemus heard the “born again” phrase, and he interpreted it literally. In verse 4, he asked, “How can a man be born when he is old? Surely he can’t enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born.” He thought that Jesus meant a person needed to experience a second physical birth by getting back into his mother’s body. He couldn’t understand how there could be two physical births.

I have to believe that Jesus smiled when Nicodemus said that. Jesus said in verse 5, “I tell you the truth, Nicodemus, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.” He meant that you can have only one physical birth (being born of water), but you must also have a birth of the Spirit. Jesus stated it another way in verse 6: “Flesh gives birth to flesh (the natural physical birth), but the Spirit gives birth to Spirit.” That’s the second birth He was talking about – a spiritual thing. If you are going to enter the kingdom of God, there must be a spiritual birth. That’s what Jesus meant by “being born again.”

He brought up an illustration in verse 8, still trying to help Nicodemus understand: “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear it, but you can’t tell where it is coming from or where it is going. You can’t see the wind. So is it with everyone born of the Spirit.”

And so is it with everyone who is born again. You can’t see the birth with your eyes, or touch it with your hands. It’s hard to understand where it comes from or where it’s going to, but like the wind, you can see what it does. Jesus told Nicodemus that being born again was like that: You know it when it happens, even though you can’t see it or touch it.

Jesus made a very interesting statement in verse 7. He said directly to Nicodemus, “You must be born again.” Jesus had started the conversation generally, saying that no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. Later, however, He got specific and said, “You, Nicodemus, and anyone like you, must be born again.” He implied that since Nicodemus had not been born again, he was not in God’s kingdom.

I’m sure Nicodemus always thought he was in the kingdom. People came to him asking how they could enter the kingdom, and he told them what he believed they needed to hear. Yet, Jesus told Nicodemus that he couldn’t get in until he experienced a spiritual rebirth. You see, friends, it is possible to know and even teach Scriptures, but still be unable to comprehend the truth of a spiritual rebirth.

Jesus used some form of the word “believe” seven times after this in his talk with Nicodemus. “Belief” became the focus of the rest of the conversation and it helps us understand what He meant about being born again. Seven times the message was, “You have to believe in Me.”

Let’s look at ways He did that. Verse 13: “No one has ever gone into heaven except the One who came from heaven – the Son of Man.” Then He brought up something from the Old Testament that Nicodemus knew about and had taught. Jesus said, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.”

The reference to Moses and the snake came from Chapter 21 in the Book of Numbers. Jesus asked Nicodemus if he remembered when Moses lifted up a bronze snake on a pole. It was a time when the people of Israel were dying after being bitten by poisonous snakes. They pleaded with God to help them. God ordered Moses to raise a pole with a bronze serpent on it, and He said that anyone bitten by a poisonous snake could look up at the serpent on the pole and be healed. And they were.

Jesus reminded Nicodemus of that Old Testament account, saying “It’s just like that, just like when people in the wilderness looked at that serpent on the pole, and they were delivered. Whoever believes in Me, when I’m lifted up, will have eternal life.” Then comes John 3:16 – 18, which we know well:

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned but whoever does not believe stands condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

Now, this idea of being born again and believing in Jesus for eternal life was a new one for Nicodemus. It was a message he had never heard before, and obviously a message that he had never taught. Nicodemus learned that even as a religious man, even as a religious leader and teacher, he wasn’t in the kingdom. All the things he had done, all the things he had been taught, and all the things he had taught had not gotten him in. This person Jesus, who Nicodemus believed had been sent by God and must have God with Him, was telling him, “You’re not in. You have to be born again. You have to believe in Me.” Then Nicodemus must have concluded the conversation and left Jesus.

We don’t hear about him any more until John 7, when he subtly defended Jesus to his Pharisee friends, and then again in John 19, when he and Joseph asked for Jesus’ body and cared for it. These are the only places we hear about Nicodemus after he met Jesus at night.

Questions we could ask

We’re not told what happened to Nicodemus after he met Jesus. Did this visit change Nicodemus’s life? Was he born again? Did he decide to trust Jesus, to believe in Him for eternal life? Did he move from religion to a relationship with Jesus? Obviously, Nicodemus was very religious, but Jesus said, “There’s more. It’s a relationship with Me, believing in Me.” Did Nicodemus move from being religious to having a relationship with Jesus? We’re not specifically told. I would like to think he did. The accounts in Chapters 7 and 19 suggest that maybe these things did actually take place.

Turn with me to Romans Chapter 9. I want to suggest that Nicodemus, a very religious man, learned something that the Apostle Paul would later write about in the Book of Romans. Let’s start with verse 30 and continue through the first four verses of Chapter 10. I’m going to take some liberties here. There are places where Paul referred to the Jews in general. I’m going to substitute “Nicodemus” specifically, because I want you to see how what Paul taught later really applies to Nicodemus. Just as Paul applied it to all Jews, I’m applying it to a specific Jew, Nicodemus:

“What, then, shall we say? That the gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Nicodemus, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because Nicodemus pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Nicodemus is that he may be saved. For I can testify about Nicodemus that he is zealous for God, but his zeal is not based on knowledge. Since he did not know the righteousness that comes from God and he sought to establish his own, he did not submit to God’s righteousness. Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.”

What Paul taught is that gentiles didn’t care about God’s righteousness. They weren’t pursuing it, yet many of them were coming by faith to Christ for their salvation. On the other hand, Paul said that the Jewish people wanted God’s righteousness. They went after it, but they never got it, because they thought it came from their works – the things they did. Paul said that his heart was breaking for his Jewish people. They had a zeal for God and they were very religious, but they did not understand that salvation came through faith in Jesus, not through their righteousness.

That was Nicodemus’s situation. He was one of those Jewish people, very religious, zealous for God, wanting to be in the kingdom of God, wanting God’s righteousness, but pursuing it in the wrong way – through his religion, through works, through tradition, through the practices and rituals of Judaism.

From Jesus’ own mouth, we found out that Nicodemus was missing it. He wasn’t in. Jesus said, “You, Nicodemus, and anybody like you, must be born again. You must believe in Me if you’re going to have eternal life.”

That’s what Nicodemus learned from his visit with Jesus. I pray that we will see him some day in heaven. I pray that he responded in his heart to that conversation with Jesus, and was born again.

Personal questions we could ask

Perhaps you consider yourself to be religious. If someone asks if you are, you would reply, “Yes, I am religious,” and you would list a whole number of things to justify your answer: “I go to this church, I do this, I remember doing this when I was young….” If the truth were known, you would have to add, “…and I’m depending on that to get me into heaven. That’s going to give me God’s salvation.” Nicodemus, a man more religious than any of us could ever be, was thinking the same thing, until Jesus told him that he was not in, because he had to be born again to achieve salvation.

So, I ask this question of you today. Have you had a life-changing encounter with Jesus? Was there a time when you had an encounter with the truth of God’s Word about Jesus, that you could have salvation only one way, by believing in Him? Have you had a life-changing encounter with Jesus, when you repented of your sins, placed your faith and trust in Him, and received Him into your life? Have you been born again?

Being “born again” is not some mystical, hard-to-understand term. It just means receiving new life by believing in Jesus, and receiving His salvation. Have you moved from religion to relationship? You can’t depend on religion to get you into the kingdom. Only a relationship with Jesus Christ will bring you there.

God loved us so much that He sent Jesus. Jesus came, and He went to the cross. He paid the penalty for our sins that we might not have to. He offers us salvation, forgiveness of sins, and eternal life. We can have what Jesus promised, if we will repent of our sins, place our personal faith and trust in Him, and receive Him into our lives as our Lord and Savior.

This week, our friend Wilbert Nelson died. I’m going to miss him. On Friday, Wilbert was ice fishing, doing what he loved to do. God blessed him by letting him die the way he wanted to. His wife Hannah said Wilbert wanted to go with his boots on, and quickly. On Friday, Wilbert went with his snow boots on, and he went quickly – his heart stopped, and that was it.

Today, he is in the presence of Jesus. He’s with the Lord. Why? Because he attended the Embarrass Free Church? No. Because he tried to do his best all his life? No. Because he had some religious experiences when he was young? No. Wilbert would be the first to tell you that he is with the Lord today because he had met Jesus, repented of his sins, and received Jesus into his life. He had a personal relationship with Christ – he was ready, and he is with Jesus today. He was a born-again man.

Have you had that life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ? Have you been born again? Have you moved from religion to relationship with Him? It’s the only way to salvation.