How can this be?

Nicodemus learned a lot of things in a few minutes with Jesus. Listen to this sermon to find out the important lessons we learn from his experience. 

No rights owned to “Nichodemus” performed by The Sensational Nightingales.”

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Transcript

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Our subject today comes from the scripture that's in John chapter 3. John chapter 3 verses 1 through 9. And I'll be reading from the New International Version of the Bible. John chapter 3, verses 1 through 9. And this is what the word says. Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him. Jesus replied, Verily, true, very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless you are born again. How can someone be born when they are old? Nicodemus asked. Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother's womb to be born. Jesus answered, Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, You must be born again. The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. How can this be? Nicodemus asked. And I don't know about where you are, but it's storming here, and I hear the thunder. But I'm gonna ask the Lord if He will please allow us to continue this service to its completion on today and keep our technology safe so that it doesn't go out on us. So our subject for this noonday service is how can this be? How can this be? Which is the question that Nicodemus asked. So this story of Nicodemus has always blessed me. It reminds me that no one can know it all. We are not God who is all-knowing, but we see through a glass darkly, meaning we see some things, but many things we see as but a shadow, a blurry outline, a dim lit view of the real truth. That is another reminder of why we need Jesus. We need a savior, a comforter, why we need God in our lives daily. As magnificent as man is, with all of his intellect and knowledge, with his capacity to problem solve and figure things out, man is limited. He can only go so far. Man is made in the image of God and has many God-like qualities, but he is a created being. We are not equal to God. No one is equal to God. Remember the story of the devil challenging God to a duel? And according to the story, and by the way, I've never read this in the Bible, so don't go looking for it in the Bible. But according to the story, God accepted the challenge. Satan had said to God that everything you can do, I can do also. So God made light, and Satan made light. God turned the river to a red, blood like color, and Satan turned the river to a red blood-like color. God took some clay dirt and formed a man. Satan picked up some dirt to form a man. And God said, Hold up, hold up. You got to make your own dirt. And that, my friends, was the end of the challenge. We are limited. And sadly, success often makes us forget our limitations. We begin to think that we're doing everything right, working hard, it's coming, we're doing it. We start to think that it's all about us. We forget God's role in our lives. So we see Nicodemus. Nicodemus wasn't just your average old Joe, he was a man of intelligence and status. He was of the ruling council of the Pharisees. The Pharisees had studied the Bible, their Bible, which was our Old Testament. They had studied it extensively. Not only that, but they also knew and practiced all of the rules of Jewish life. They honored the Sabbath, they practiced the dietary laws of the Jews. They prayed according to the rules. They observed the holy days. They tithed, they worshiped in the temple, did all the things. They were revered. They were the leaders of the Jews, and the people honored them as such. So when this unknown person named Jesus, a carpenter's son, came on the scene and started making a stir, and people started following him and calling themselves his disciples, they were highly incensed and upset about it. Why he was even healing the blind and making the lame to walk. He was doing miracles that no man had ever done. But rather than examining their studies of the Bible and determining that this was indeed the long-awaited Messiah come to save them, they decided to oppose him at every turn. Except Nicodemus. Nicodemus was different in that he had to know for himself. What about you? Are you taking somebody else's word about what the Bible says? Are you reading it for yourself? Are you listening to somebody else tell you what it means to be a Christian? Are you asking God and getting to know him? So Nicodemus had to know for himself who this Jesus was and how he did what he did. So without telling his comrades what he was going to do, he visited Jesus one night all alone to question him. And we learned four important truths from his visit that bless us today. The first thing is, as the young people often say, if you don't know, you better ask somebody. Now Nicodemus realized that there was something uniquely different about this man, Jesus. He was not ordinary, he had unusual powers. Where did he come from? And who were his people? I'm sure he had all sorts of questions just like us. And who could answer those questions better than Jesus himself? So Nicodemus went to Jesus and admitted to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him. Nicodemus admitted that he knew that Jesus was at least sent by God, even if he didn't know if he was the Messiah. So Jesus answered him by basically saying, Yes, you're correct. But to really know God, you must be born again. And then quite puzzled, Nicodemus asked him, How can this be? I'm an old man. How can any man go back into his mother's womb? And we see right then and there the shallowness and the immaturity of our thinking. We know one way, and we know and we think that that is the only way it is. But Jesus blows his mind by talking to him about a spiritual rebirth, about how man could not go up to heaven to reconcile with God. So God came down to earth. That true repentance doesn't come from following any rules, but it is a free gift born of God's love. It was to Nicodemus that Jesus spoke the words of John 3, 16 that we all know so well. He said, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not die, but have everlasting life. Jesus told him these things and said to him, You're a teacher of Israel, and you don't know these things. Which brings us to lesson number two from this story. And that is that Jesus sheds light on many facts to Nicodemus. He says that to Nicodemus that he was God in the flesh, come down from the Father, not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. In this third chapter of John in verse 17, he also made Nicodemus realize just how blind he really was, and that in order to know the truth about God, he really needed to know God for himself. And Jesus pointed out to Nicodemus that those who believe in him, in Jesus, were not condemned, but those who did not believe were condemned already. There's danger in unbelief. They were condemned already because they did not believe in the only begotten Son of God, that light had come into the world. But Jesus told him, But men love darkness rather than light. Why? Because their deeds were evil. Wow. That was a lot for Nicodemus to process. It's a lot for us to process. Think about it. He said that Jesus was God sent from heaven by the Father. That Nicodemus and all men needed to believe on him, Jesus Christ, in order to be right with the Father. That Jesus came to offer men a free gift of salvation to be born again. That Nicodemus or any of the Pharisees didn't know, like we don't know, the half of what we need to know in order to live in this world. That men like the Pharisees who rejected Jesus and those who reject him today, they love their own evil deeds. And I'm sure that Nicodemus had many, many more questions. But at that point he had enough answers that he could make an informed decision. And so the third lesson that we have not dealt with is the fact that Nicodemus came to Jesus at night in secret. Why? Because he was worried about what people would think, what people would say. How many of us don't acknowledge God, don't publicly worship him, don't step forward to join a congregation of believers, don't give our testimony because we're worried about what people will think about us, what they will say about us. We don't want to lose our position in the club, on the board, in the family. We don't want to make waves and cause drama or put a target on our backs. But guess what? God doesn't want any coward soldiers in his army. He doesn't want those who are double or those who quit at the mention of trouble. Jesus wants total commitment. Luke 9 and 62 says, no one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God. I'm sure Nicodemus, who had come to Jesus worried about what others would think. And now he was weighing all of this in his mind. And this is also what we have to do. What we have to decide. Are we going to please men or are we going to please God? Friendship with the world is enmity with God. That is being an enemy of God. You must choose. You can't have it both ways. So that brings us to our fourth and final lesson for today. Faith is a journey, it is a progression. For most of us, it's like a marathon, not a sprint. We don't come to great faith all at once. God meets us right where we are. And if we are willing to talk to him daily in prayer, to study him, to learn of him, to question him and believe him, and then he will reveal himself to us day by day. Our faith will grow stronger. Nicodemus didn't go back to the council in full effect, telling them all about his conversation with Jesus. No, but the next time we see him in John chapter 7, verses 50 and 51, he is courageously defending Jesus before the hostile Sanhedrin council. And then we see him again in John chapter 19, verses 39 and 40, after the crucifixion of Jesus. And here he was publicly assisting Joseph of Arimathea by bringing spices to prepare Jesus' body for burial. He risked his life and his reputation to openly identify with the condemned man he had come to know as God in the flesh and declared his allegiance to him, Jesus Christ. Years ago, when I preached my first sermon after acknowledging my call into the ministry, I said that this story shows us that the saved life of faith is not about instant success, but about steady progress. So I ask you today, how are you doing with this? Are you making progress on your journey of faith? Do you realize that it starts with being born again and letting go of what people will think? Do you realize that growth needs to take place? You need the truth of the word, and you must realize that this journey is not a stagnant place, but a steady uphill climb, like Jacob's ladder. Every round goes higher and higher. Come on, do like Nicodemus. Meet up with Jesus, ask him your questions, bring him your fears, your doubts, your unbelief, your troubles, your worries. And I promise you your life will never be the same again. God bless you. Let us pray. Dear Lord, I thank you. I thank you for who you are in the Word, Lord. I thank you for who you are in our lives. I thank you that you are the author and finisher of our faith. You're the great I am, our Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, Lord. You control all things. We see that you control the weather, Lord, and you let us finish this sermon, and the lights didn't go out, and the technology didn't fail us. We say thank you, Lord, for who you are. And we appreciate you. We acknowledge you. And we thank you for loving us, for protecting us, for keeping us, and we ask that you will continue to be in our lives, to grow us up, to take care of our families, to be with each one of us. Help us to be the people that you're calling us to be. We thank you, we praise you. We give you all glory, honor, and all praise. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you, everybody. Thank you for being with us. We thank you for sticking with us, and we just appreciate your support. Now, unto Him who's able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory, majesty, dominion, and power both now and forevermore. Let us all say Amen. Now go and be great for God and go to church on Sunday. God bless you.