Listen to God's word as it's found in the Gospel of John, chapter 3, verses 1 through 15. 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, 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. Do not marvel 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 heaven linked things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the son of man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up. That whoever believes in him may have eternal life. This is the word of the Lord.
At this time, our children can meet Drew Taylor, our children's minister and the back of the worship center for a time of children's worship, if you their parents would like. And if you're new to Willow Creek and sending your kids back for the first time, if you would just take a second to go back, introduce yourself to Drew so that we can make sure to return your child to the right person after the worship services over. That would be very, very helpful. You can pick your child up in the gymnasium after our service. And as the children head out, I just want to pass along an encouraging note. We held a work day here at the church yesterday morning, organized by our deacons, had well over 20 folks come out, attended various projects around the church, radiating the facility and grounds for the holiday season. And I just on the behalf of the deacons, want to extend the most enthusiastic thanks to those who came out. We deeply appreciated your time, your hard work, and we trust that your efforts have beautified the grounds a little bit more to get us ready to host a lot of guests during the holiday season. And I want to thank you for your time. I also want to thank our deacons for taking the time to put that together along with so many other things going on around the church week after week. It's a great joy. Let's go to the Lord in prayer as we open up his word and look at this great passage for the second week in a row. Our Lord Jesus, we thank you that you love us and you care for us according to your rich mercy and your lavish grace. Lord we thank you that you did not seek us because of anything good in us. We know and know that we are sinners and that we are justly deserving of your displeasure and we are wholly without hope, except for your sovereign mercy. And so Father we thank you that through your Son Jesus you enter the world to redeem and restore, to rescue and to reconcile us to yourself. Lord is we understand a little bit more of the nature of that reconciliation. We pray that it would liberate us to lives of increasing joy and freedom that we would not be religious in order to earn your favor but rather our obedience would flow from hearts that are filled with the reassurance that you have done the work for us, that it is finished. Be with us this morning as we open your word. We pray for those who are curious that they would find their hope in Christ and for those Father who are already convinced, convince us a little bit more, help Jesus to become more beautiful in our minds and believable in our hearts. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Now if you've been with us the past several weeks you know that we've been going through the gospel of John and we've been doing this quite intentionally to show that there's a wonderful parallel in the New Testament to what we find in the Old Testament. As the Old Testament began with the work of creation so do the New Testament. God is making all things new. The creation itself is being restored, reconciled, renewed through Jesus Christ and so the gospel of John begins with a reference to God's light entering the world just as the book of Genesis began the Old Testament. In the beginning God created the heavens in the earth. He said let there be light and there was light. The gospel of John begins with an intentional parallel to that creation account saying that in the beginning was the word. The word was with God and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning and then goes on to say how that word has entered into the human story, entered into human history and brought the light of salvation to a dark world. We are very careful over the earlier weeks to say that there's much in the world about which we can be discouraged and there's much in ourselves about which we can be discouraged. But God doesn't want us to live in a state of pessimism, in cynicism about the world in ourselves. Rather he wants our lives to be characterized by hope. Hope not in ourselves, hope in the word that has entered the world. Christ Jesus our Lord. And so as the gospel of John unfolds, it's John's intention to show that Christ is worthy of our faith, that he is the soul and deepest hope of humanity, that he answers our deepest longing for reconciliation to God, the awareness that we are forgiven, that we are loved, and that we can be restored to what we should have been all along. God's willing and faithful servants, partners in his creation, his beloved children even. And so as John tells the gospel story, he mentions first that Jesus entered the world, but then he goes on very quickly to show that Christ in his light is shining and that the darkness while not understanding that light is powerless to stop it. Jesus is Lord of heaven and earth. No one and nothing can resist his will. So the encouragement to you this morning, before we go into some of that evidence, is simply this. If you've come to church this morning, you're discouraged. You're losing hope. Maybe something in your own life, maybe in something in the world around you. Maybe a multiplicity of different things are all ganging up in your heart and your mind to erode your trust, to give you anxiety, worry, and fear. What does Jesus say? Do not be afraid. Be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. Now the work is done at the cross, but it's being applied now. Much against the appearance we often see, we have to trust that there's a deeper invisible kingdom at work in the world and that it's slowly, steadily, and oftentimes you say stealthily advancing in this present age. And Jesus made that invisible kingdom visible in many spectacular signs and wonders. The gospel writers say too many for them to be enumerated or recorded. In fact, the gospel writers say that if anyone endeavored to write all the things that Jesus taught and did to prove his divinity and the hope that we have at him, they suppose not all the books of the world could hold it. You know, it's kind of interesting outside of the Bible's witness and record. You have other ancient historians like Josephus and others who testify to the man known as Christ. Sometimes they say he was a sorcerer, a magician, a great philosopher, a teacher, but there's no questioning that Jesus existed, and there's no questioning that he did extraordinary things. The only question is, to what do those extraordinary things point? And we believe as Christians, they point to Christ's divinity. His first miraculous sign, recorded by John, was turning water into wine. And some of you were here and you understand the deeper significance of that miracle, but some of you weren't, and I want to make sure you understand it because it lays a foundation for what we're going to see in this dialogue with Nicodemus. You see, it wasn't simply that Jesus turned water into wine, just as it was any water, aquafina or whatever you would find at publics, that's not the point. The point is what kind of water it was. It was water held within stone containers, large stone containers kept outside a home at a wedding. It was water used for ritual purification. Water that would be used to cleanse the people, that they could participate in the holy rights of God in their religion. They had been taught over many centuries through the prophets that there's a fundamental uncleanness to us who stand before God. We're defiled. We're defiled by our sin and its corruption. And if we will engage a holy God, if we will stand in his presence, if we will enjoy his benefits, we cannot do so in our own strength. We cannot do so in our own dare I say, filth. We have to be cleansed. Now though, washing with water is ceremonial right, leading up to the wedding, would it ever take away the sins of those engaged in that wedding? No, it was a sign of faith that a deeper cleansing was coming into the world, the cleansing of God's Holy Spirit, resting on the finished work of Christ. So when Jesus transformed the water of ceremonial cleansing into wine, he's prefiguring his coming death, a death on the cross that we represent in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, where Christ's blood has accomplished what our washing with water never could, a cleansing from sin. But make no mistake, we also said that it was a celebration. Isn't it amazing that Jesus' first public miracle was at a party, and that Jesus' first public miracle was not only to make wine, but more wine than anybody could have ever had, and the best wine Jesus is inviting us to not only share in his sacrifice. Listen carefully, he's inviting you to celebrate what that sacrifice accomplishes. In celebrate means just that. It means celebrate. It doesn't mean to be characterized by joyless, religious rigor. It means to live a new kind of life, free, liberated. Your toil is over because your rest is in Christ. We just got a puppy, many of you know that, golden retriever. I'm convinced this dog is largely untouched by sin. This is the most perfect dog I've ever owned in my life. I tell her to come here, she comes here. I tell her to go there, she goes there. I tell her to eat, she eats. I tell her to stop eating, she's up to, notice how I define perfection. A creature doing my will. That's just sick. But this dog's awesome, she's amazing. Every night we're trying to do the right thing, which those of you who are dog trainers know, you put the dog in the crate, right? You let them sleep in their own space, not up on your bed. Now, I'm not judging you if you let your dog sleep on your bed. Very, very tempting to have that nice beautiful warm animal there. But we put her in a crate and it's funny, she doesn't want to go in. She doesn't want to go into that constraint. She doesn't want to be there at all. And it's funny how this little puppy has not been alive very long, but has already figured out how to stop going into that crate. And let me tell you how she does it. It's adorable. Even though it's frustrating, but it's more adorable than it's frustrating. I take her toward the crate and I say, okay, Callie, we name her Callie because she came to us from California. So, okay, Callie, time to go in the crate. Immediately, her head goes straight up. She looks up toward heaven as if to cry out for a deliverer. She looks up straight toward heaven because she knows in her little dog mind, as big as an almond. I don't know. She knows I can't push her in if her head's back. She just won't go in that way. And so, I've got to push her head down and get her in the crate. She doesn't want to go. She doesn't want to be in those constraints. But finally, I get her in there. Usually with the aid of a milkbone or some other thing to motivate. She goes in. She sleeps. She's fine. She's wonderful. She doesn't lie. She's a perfect dog. The next morning, she gets up and my daughter, Nina, loves to go in and take Callie out of the crate. When Callie comes out of that crate, she bursts forth. She comes out of there squealing with joy. She gets down right at your feet like she can't get low enough. She just wants to spend time. She wants to be reunited with the family. She runs around the house. I'm worried she's going to pitle on the floor. She's so excited. She does make it to the backyard where she does that. But remember, she's a perfect dog. She's great. She comes back in. She's just joy to be loosed from those constraints. You know, it's kind of funny when you consider that Jesus Christ said it's finished. It's over. It's done. And how most people who believe in Christ live their lives. They don't live with that reckless abandon of joy. They live as though they're still in a crate. The constraints of law, religious rigor, rituals. I need to do things to make myself acceptable to God. That's where Nicodemus was. Nicodemus, we read, was a member of the Sanhedrin. It doesn't mention the Sanhedrin by name. It says he was a ruler of the Jews. And then that political climate, that was the greatest ruling authority of the Jews. He was a member of the Sanhedrin, which was partially composed of Sadducees, and to a lesser extent composed of Pharisees. And if you don't know what a Sadducee is or a Pharisee, no big deal. Let's concentrate on the Pharisees and just tell you that these were people who took the teaching of God very seriously. They were heroes to the Jews of that age. They took the traditions of their fathers very, very seriously, earnestly. Did they defend them? They longed for God's people to be defined by holiness. So much so that they built what's oftentimes called a hedge around the law of God. God had revealed over centuries his laws and his commandments. The Pharisees added to them another layer, a protective fence, if you will, that would keep people from even coming close to disobeying the law of God. So for instance, if the Sabbath commandment is, don't work, the Old Testament Jew might have taken so many steps on the Sabbath to avoid even coming close to working. The Pharisees would add, not that many steps, just this many. Don't even come close. If the Sabbath day begins at sundown, we'll start, we'll cease from our labor a couple of hours before so that we don't even come close. Now the Phariseic attitude toward the law actually and ironically did not take the law of God seriously enough even though it seemed to in the eyes of the people. What the Pharisees were doing was externalizing the law, outward compliance, religious rigor, moral muscle. We're going to show everybody, including ourselves, that we're very serious about God and they almost believed in salvation by seriousness and sincerity. We'll show God we're his in what we do and what we do will justify us before God. That's dangerous. That goes completely against what God had said very clearly in his word for centuries prior. It wasn't that the Pharisees were misled by the word of God, it's that they mishandled the word of God and that's precisely what Jesus is going to call Nicodemus out on as a leader of the Pharisees. Now we read that he was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews. The man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you're a teacher from God for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with them. Now I want you to see here that Nicodemus does not come with a bad attitude or an antagonistic posture toward Jesus. Every indication here is that it's in good faith that he comes to Jesus and he actually honors him in ways quite obvious when you read the text but in also maybe a hidden way when you read it here, I want you to remember that Jesus did not have the formal academic training required of the Pharisees and others, the temple scribes, the religious rulers of the day, but Nicodemus, a member of the party of the Pharisees and not only a member of the party of the Pharisees, a member of the Sanhedrin, a ruler, he calls Jesus, who in his opinion is probably just a peasant Jew, he calls Jesus Rabbi. That's huge. That's like somebody with a PhD from Harvard or Yale calling you a doctor when you haven't gone to college. Just looking at your manner of life and teaching and judging that you're worthy of the title even though you haven't gone through the traditional route to get it, Nicodemus seems to have a pretty high view of Christ but not high enough. He says we know that you're a teacher come from God for no one can do the signs that you do unless God is with him. Now here's where Nicodemus makes a fundamental error if he had come to Jesus with an antagonistic spirit. He's acknowledged right away that Jesus is a messenger from God. For no one can do what Jesus has been doing. Now remember what the gospel writer says that if we recorded everything Jesus did, there wouldn't be enough books in the world to fill it, there are probably even other signs and we've read in the gospel of John leading up to this point, the Pharisees are a buzz. When Nicodemus says we know that you are a teacher, he's saying that there's a group within the party of the Pharisees that know he's something special. We need to figure out who he is. Is he for us? Is he against us? Where does he fit in the theological, political landscape of the day? Nicodemus is wondering. He goes there at night and that tells you right away that there's a divided opinion concerning Christ. Some are thinking he's a messenger from God but perhaps others have a lower view of him at the very least reticence. He's fearful of some degree of persecution. He comes at night and Nicodemus wants to understand who Jesus is. Now here's where there's something very unique happening because those who would seek after Christ are promised that they will find if they seek truly to know. Nicodemus said to him or excuse me, Jesus answered him, truly, truly I say to you unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Now I want you to notice two things. One is Nicodemus didn't come to Jesus with a question. He comes with a declaration. You're from God. We see what you're doing. You're from God. And then Jesus seemingly out of context responds with, hey, let me tell you something. This is true. It's really true. No one can see the kingdom of God unless they're born again. What is Jesus doing? Well, Jesus is being Jesus. Jesus defies our categories. He defies our understanding. Oftentimes confuses us, creates tension, leading us toward a deeper understanding of the truth. What Jesus throws Nicodemus is a little bit of a category shifter. It's confusing to Nicodemus. And that's not resting well with him, as you'll see. After all, he's a teacher of God's people. And what Jesus has said to Nicodemus is so foundational that Nicodemus now has a crisis in his own heart and mind starting to grow. Jesus says to Nicodemus, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he's born again. Nicodemus says, what do you mean born again? Ergo, if I don't even know what it means to be born again, how can I know that I'm going to the kingdom of God? This guy I've already affirmed as one of God's messengers is kind of implying I might not even be a true Israelite. That's heavy. Nicodemus is no dummy. He understands the implications. And so Nicodemus responds as somebody would if they were thinking according to the flesh, not the spirit. If they were thinking in the categories of the world, what they could do to make themselves acceptable to God, that's the posture Nicodemus has. That's how he responds to Jesus. He says, how can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? It's not that Nicodemus thinks that's really possible. It's that Nicodemus plays as completely impossible. And so he's saying to Jesus, what you're telling me, nobody could do. Now that's where Jesus wants to lead Nicodemus. Because he wants to move Nicodemus outside of himself to God. And Jesus wants to do the same thing for you. Move you outside of yourself to God. How can I make myself righteous before God? Tell me and I'll do it. You can't do it, Nicodemus. You can't do it any more than you could climb into your mother's womb and be born again. What does Jesus go on to say? 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. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes. You hear it sound, but you don't know where it comes from where it goes. So it is with everyone who's born of the spirit. Jesus is speaking of the third person of the Trinity. The third person of the Trinity is the person of God, rather, who applies to us the benefits of Christ's redemption. The one who seals us as God's people, who takes away our heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh as we read last week in Ezekiel 36. In the spirit, of God is like a wind. In fact, you could interpret spirit as wind, both in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament, the Hebrew word Rua, the Greek word Numa, both wind as well as spirit, the wind goes wherever it will go. What does Jesus say? You can't manufacture your redemption. You can't manufacture your reconciliation with God. You can't manufacture your own salvation. It's a gift of God's sovereign mercy by grace alone. The wind goes wherever the wind goes, so it is with the spirit. Nicodemus, it's not up to you. It's up to me if you'll be born again. 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've seen but you do not receive our testimony. If I told you earthly things and you don't believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? What is Jesus doing to Nicodemus? He's not needlessly embarrassing him. He's not callously cutting him down in love in a severe form of mercy. He's humbling him. He's saying in effect to Nicodemus, you don't know what you think you know. In worse than that, you can't know it until I so radically change you in sovereign grace by the work of the spirit. You'll never know it. These things are spiritually discerned. Paul writes later, the ways of God are foolishness to those who are perishing who live according to the flesh. Jesus is saying to Nicodemus, you've created a form of religion that's very convenient for those who trust in their own flesh, their own self-righteousness, their own self-sufficiency, but it won't lead to God. You're not going to heaven when you die. No one will see the kingdom of God unless he's born again. And the gift of being born again is a gift of God's spirit according to God's sovereign mercy. And then Jesus answers the question that would have erupted in any thoughtful listener's mind. If I can't be born again of my own effort, how can you bring me to new life? And Jesus understands that Nicodemus has been trained to understand so many stories of the Old Testament that deep down he never fully understood. And Jesus alludes to one of them. In verse 13, no one's ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the son of man. Jesus, most popular term for himself, and his Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. In the book of numbers, God's people were grumbling against the Lord. And God allowed serpents to work their way through the camp of God's people, and they were bit. And the venom was coursing through their veins, and most certainly they were going to die. And then inspired by God, Moses lifted up a bronze serpent for the people to look to. And if they look to the bronze serpent in faith, they were healed. It's a wild story. We don't immediately understand it. But Jesus says that the ultimate fulfillment of that story is that he would be afflicted. He who shares in our nature, he who shares in our nature without sin will be lifted up on the cross. Before the nations, as Pontius Pilate commanded, a sign to be placed on the cross that testified to Christ, the King of the Jews, for all of the nations working in and around Jerusalem at that Passover weekend, Jesus would be lifted up. And the implication is, all that looked to Christ will be saved. Those who look to themselves will not. And those who looked to Christ have been born again by the Spirit. So what does all of this mean? Let me just give you one parting thought. What it means is that the religion to which we hold, the faith that we share, is not ultimately about us and what we do for the Lord. It's what God has irrevocably done for us in Christ. Now, you might be saying to yourself, well, I get that, and I've gotten that for a long time, but do you? Do you understand just how radical this new birth is? You know, your life means Christ death because it's only by Christ death that you can come to new life and be reconciled to God. Jesus on the cross satisfies God's wrath for your sin. In his righteous life, he lives a life of perfect obedience that can now be given to you by God's grace through faith, imputed righteousness. When God sees you, he sees you as having the same righteousness as his own son. His wrath forever turned from you. You're now a new creation. God's light is shining into the world and it's shined into you. But you know what your new birth also means? It means your death. Jesus ties being born again to his own death. And if you would be born again, you would also consequently die. That's why Jesus said, take up your cross and follow me. He didn't mean that to imply that if you're going to follow me, you're going to take up your own suffering and through your own suffering and religious rigor, you're going to make yourself worthy of being my disciple. No, it's just part and parcel of following Christ. If you love Christ and you're born of him, you're dying to self, you're flesh, it's lusts, the world and its wisdom. These are becoming like death to you. As you're more and more enthralled with God, you're less and less inclined to cling to the world. You're less inclined to cling to a form of ministry that's defined by the world. Your life becomes less confused with a quest for glory for yourself. It becomes more and more about laying down your life for the glory of God, rejoicing in the death of your former passions and rejoicing in the new life. That's to come. Brian Chappell is one of our denominational leaders. He was a seminary president in St. Louis. He actually said one time he was looking outside of his window up in Missouri and he saw a tree that was shedding its leaves. But through the winter, some of those leaves, dead leaves, were still on the tree. But when the spring came, the new buds pushed them off and they fell to the ground. And he was using that for a metaphor for the Christian life. Much of sin has fallen away. Some of sin is still at work and clinging on, but one day your new life in Christ will mean the complete death of your former self. And a new life will emerge. And that's where I want to close because Nicodemus, his story doesn't end here. Later on in the Gospels, we see him two other times. One is at the crucifixion of Christ when Jesus is brought before the Sanhedrin. And it's very clear that Nicodemus is of a divided mind concerning Christ. He's not quick like the others are to rush to judgment. And the next time we see Nicodemus is him after the death of Christ. When Joseph of Arimathea goes to retrieve Christ's body, laying dead. Nicodemus is there. Listen carefully. Nicodemus came to see Christ in his death. And in seeing Christ's death for what it was, he came to new life. When you understand what Christ has done at birth, not only new life, as in life everlasting forgiveness of sins, listen carefully. It produces a new kind of life, an abundant life, a life defined by love for God, a love that you could never have if you thought it all came down to you. But once you know it doesn't come to you, it comes to him. Love, awe, and reverence, bloom. And the old life falls to the ground. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your goodness and mercy. We thank you that through Jesus Christ and Him alone, we are set right before your throne. And that Father is we reflect on the awe-inspiring nature of our justification, that it does not rest upon our efforts, our striving, our moral muscle. No good thing that we've done could ever merit it. It's entirely by you and your grace. Father, we stand back with awe and reverence and deeper love. Would you captivate our hearts? And in captivating our hearts, give us victory over sin, not that we're chasing out the sin, but we're chasing after you. And the sin just falls away as a result. We pray it in Jesus name, amen. We're going to take the morning offering. As you make your offering this morning, do so with great cheer, knowing that God has pledged Himself to your care, whatever you give, God is faithful to provide for you. As we give this morning, we're going to sing a newer song about the great love that Christ has for us. And since it's new, I encourage you to listen through the first verse in chorus as Lindsay sings it for us and that we do want you to join us as we sing of God's great love. I'm God. I don't know if I should be able to pray. Father, we thank you. That was awesome. You are worthy of everything and you give us so much as we return to you just a little bit of what you've given us or unleashed in the world, unleashed in this church to let the gospels light shine and help us to burst forth from all of our striving and the constraints that we thought would bring us freedom. Father, just help us to just live lives characterized by joy. We pray for your glory in Jesus name, amen.