In order to introduce this message I do not believe that I could do any better than to quote from "The Gospel of John" by J. C. Ryle.
A New Creature
In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless
he is born again." {John 3:3}
The change, which our Lord here declares needful to salvation, is evidently no slight
or superficial one. It is not merely . . . reformation, or amendment, or moral change, or outward alteration of life.
It is a thorough change of . . . heart, will, and character.
It is a resurrection. It is a new creation. It is a passing from death to life.
It is the implanting in our dead hearts of a new principle from above.
It is the calling into existence of a new creature, with . . . a new nature, new habits of life, new tastes, new desires, new appetites, new judgments, new opinions, new hopes, and new fears. All this, and nothing less than this, is implied, when our Lord declares that we all need a "new birth."
Let us solemnly ask ourselves whether we know anything of this mighty change.
Have we been born again?
Can any marks of the new birth be seen in us?
Is the image and superscription of the Spirit to be discerned in our lives?
Happy is the man who can give satisfactory answers to these questions! A day will come
when those who are not born again will wish that they had never been born at all.
In my exposition of John’s Gospel I am laboring to give to you the spiritual interpretation that is missed by many scholars and writers. It is not so much that they are wrong in what they say but it is that they have missed much in the life and words and actions of Jesus of Nazareth as He fulfills Moses, the prophets, and the psalms.
The encounter of Jesus with Nicodemus is perhaps the most important theological lesson that you will ever learn, if you are blessed to learn it.
Perhaps I spend too much time reviewing previous lessons. However, in order for you to understand today’s lesson you must see that God is changing the way He will be worshipped.
You must see that the Old Covenant is gone forever and the New Covenant is being unveiled. The New Covenant is not being originated here in time but it is no longer veiled in the types and shadows of the OT sacrificial system.
The mission of John the Baptist was two-fold.
John the Baptist was the voice of one crying in the wilderness as Isaiah had foretold who would announce the arrival of Messiah or the Christ.
But John the Baptist was also sent to announce the end of Judaism and the OT sacrificial system. That system was surely ordained by God but was corrupted by the Jewish leaders and true religion had been dead for centuries.
Very few people had knowledge of the true God.
It was certain that they were not going to hear it from the Jewish leaders.
The means of establishing the new and correct way to worship God was introduced by John the Baptist. “Show me evidence of repentance or I will not baptize you,” says John.
One day while John was baptizing, Jesus of Nazareth comes walking towards him, and John declares, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” The OT system is over, “Behold the Lamb!”
Then Jesus is preaching, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” {Mark 1:15}
Jesus performs His first miracle by turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana, because the New Covenant is a wedding. Then He goes to the temple in Jerusalem and throws out the merchandisers thus making His claim to be the fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy that there will be no Canaanite {merchant} in His Father’s House.
Today we come to the most necessary thing for any human being to know. The lesson comes when Jesus tells “the teacher of Israel,”
“You must be born again!”
John the Baptist told the emissaries from the Pharisees about the power and the authority of Jesus Christ.
John 1:24-27
24 Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees.
25 And they asked him, saying, "Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?"
26 John answered them, saying, "I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know.
27 It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose."
Then skip to verse 32:
John 1:32-34
32 And John bore witness, saying, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him.
33 I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.'
34 And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God."
The New Birth, being born again, being born from above, and regeneration are all terms that refer to what the apostle alluded to in:
John 1:12-13
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:
13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Let me say this, and pray that your ears are not stopped up and that your heart is not already hardened. If the text today teaches anything at all it teaches, “Salvation is of the Lord.” {Jonah 2:9}
You may be as religious as Nicodemus and you may be just as lost. If you are truly saved it is only because you have been born again by the Holy Spirit and if you have been born again it is by the sovereign grace of God!
Open your Bibles and follow with me as I read the text.
John 2:23-3:13
23 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.
24 But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men,
25 and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.
3:1 {Now} There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
2 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."
3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
4 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?"
5 Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'
8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."
9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, "How can these things be?"
10 Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?
11 Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness.
12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.
There is so very much to preach in what I just read that no preacher but Jesus Christ could fully preach it.
Many times the chapter divisions may cause you to miss the context of a passage. You must see the connection between the last verse of chapter two and the first verse of chapter three.
2:25 and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. 3:1 {Now} There was a man
Eight of ten translations, including the ESV that I checked have the word “now” at the beginning of 3:1.
What is the significance of “now” in 3:1?
“Now” means that Jesus knows the hearts all men just as he knew the hearts of Philip and Nathanael. It means that Nicodemus is the representative man of dead religion. Nicodemus has gone about as far in religion as a man can go and he is still lost!
3:1 {Now} There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
Names in the Bible usually have significance in the narrative in which the person is involved. Nicodemus means “victorious among his people” and so he was “a ruler of the Jews.”
Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin, the Council of Seventy, made up of priests, Levites, scribes, and elders of Israel.
Judaism, the Pharisees and the religious leaders had externalized religion.
Religion was something that you observed. You prayed long prayers to be seen of men. Enlarge the borders of your garments and broaden your phylacteries. Put a frown on your face so men would know that you were fasting. Dead religion makes you feel good about yourself and how good you are. No repentance!
Not much has changed since the days of the Pharisees because many people who claim to be Christians live like lost people. There is no demand for a changed life. No repentance!
Religion, dead religion without a hint of repentance and personal holiness!
Jesus is about to take all of that error away from Nicodemus!
2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him,
Much has been speculated as to why Nicodemus came to Jesus at night.
William Hendriksen says that no one really knows why he came at night. I do not accept the idea that Nicodemus was afraid to be seen by his fellow leaders because even though He had cleansed the temple of the merchants the opposition to Jesus had not really started.
Augustine says that Nicodemus’ coming at night was prophetic in nature and that he is the emblem of Israel’s night of ignorance and unbelief. It was “night” in Israel. Nicodemus and all the rest of the Jewish leaders were in spiritual darkness.
"Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs { 2:23} that You do unless God is with him."
This page of my Bible has several words with circles drawn around them with lines drawn to connect the words.
These are play on words and are extremely important to the correct understanding of this passage.
Why don’t you make some notes and meditate on the significance of these play on words. It will be very instructive. “Man” in 2:25 and 3:1. “Signs” in 2:23 and 3:2. “We know” in 3:2 and 3:10,11. “Unless” in 3:3 and 3:5.
Nicodemus, “the teacher of Israel,” teaches Israel all there is to know about religion but he does not know the most elementary fact of all of theology. Nicodemus does not know what regeneration means and Jesus said he was supposed to know that!
Whether Nicodemus knew it or not he uses words that can only come from the OT prophecy of Joel.
Joel 2:23
23 Be glad then, you children of Zion,
And rejoice in the LORD your God;
For He has given you the former rain faithfully,
Now here I must trust the scholarship of someone who has mastered the Hebrew language who says that an alternate translation of Joel 2:23 “the former rain” is “For He has given you a TEACHER OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.” This translation is supported by perhaps the greatest Hebrew scholar that ever lived so many centuries removed from the original language, Dr. John Gill.
Is not Joel from the same chapter the prophet that Peter calls on to explain the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost?
How many references to the fulfillment of OT prophecy has the church been denied due to literalism?
Nicodemus calls Jesus “a teacher come from God” and indeed He is.
3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
“Amen, Amen!” John is the only gospel writer to use the double “Amen.”
The double Amen declares that the One who speaks is Himself the Amen, the conclusion of all things, the only truth, the possessor of all wisdom the full and final authority who speaks from above. [Charles Alexander]
John the Baptist had told the multitudes:
Luke 3:7-9
7 Then he said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
9 And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."
Jesus has just destroyed the Pharisees claim that they are the children of Abraham and are thus the children of God. Jesus says that Jew and Gentile alike become children of God in only one way, you must be born again!
Jesus, in a single phrase, has destroyed Judaism and shattered the confidence of this proud Pharisee!
“Unless!” Without exception! Unless God the Holy Spirit quickens your soul that is “dead in trespasses and sins” you will die in your sins and go to hell for all of your religion!
Can you “see” or comprehend the “kingdom of God?”
Then it is only because God had done something for you.
The Jews expected a literal return of Elijah; a literal earthly kingdom with Messiah as king, and they thought Jesus meant a literal destruction of the temple. No spiritual understanding of things that “the teacher of Israel” was expected to know. Now listen to the Jewish leader, “the teacher of Israel,” who is ever the literalist.
4 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?"
And so this spiritually blind and lost religious leader takes the words of Jesus literally. How could Jesus mean being “born again” as a literal physical rebirth?
Some writers are so dense that they say that Jesus meant that you had to be born the first time. That is simply a ridiculous interpretation.
There is perhaps something that intrigued Nicodemus. What if a man could actually start over? What if you could have a new beginning? Well, you can if it pleases God to call you from darkness to light!
5 Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'
“Amen, Amen!” “Unless!” Unless what?
, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
There has been much dispute over “born of water and the Spirit”.
The dispute is over the little word “and.”
The Greek word kai may be translated into many English words.
The context of the passage will help you determine how to understand what the “and” means. It is a simple conjunction and may be translated, yet, indeed, likewise, manner, moreover, very, yea, and the word that I believe is consistent with the context is “even.” “Even” explains what the meaning of “water” is. Born of water, even of the Spirit.
Let me disabuse you of any notion that Jesus is referring to water baptism.
Those who teach that baptism is essential to salvation insist that Jesus here means water baptism. These false teachers sidestep the salvation of the thief on the cross by saying that the thief was saved in the OT way. That only shows their ignorance of the Bible because there is no OT way and a different NT way to be saved.
Stay with the context. What does 1:33 mean?
How many new births are there? Is there one new birth of water and another new birth of the Spirit? In the other verses of this passage [6 and 8] Jesus only refers to being born of the Spirit. There is only one new birth!
John the apostle consistently uses water metaphorically as a symbol of the Holy Spirit. In Chapter Four Jesus refers to living water. In Chapter Seven John explains that when Jesus speaks of water He is referring to the Holy Spirit [7:37-39].
Unless one is born of water, and by that I mean the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven!
Nicodemus, all that will ever result from the flesh is flesh, or sin.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'
Jesus continues to instruct Nicodemus: while you are standing there in amazement and confusion, I will tell you how God saves sinners!
8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."
Jesus uses the metaphor of the sovereignty of the wind to teach about the sovereignty of God in bringing about the new birth.
The most famous evangelist still alive today wrote a book that he called, “How To Be Born Again.” The problem with that book is that the author doesn’t know what Jesus is teaching Nicodemus. At least he has never given any evidence that he does.
You are not in control! You are not born again because of anything that you have the power to do. You do not make a “decision” to allow the Holy Spirit to change you from death to life. You don’t have any more power than Lazarus did before Jesus cried out, “Lazarus, come forth!”
You must be born again, but it is entirely up to God as to whether that will ever happen to you. Being religious without Christ will not give you the new birth. Religion without regeneration produces Pharisees not children of God!
Many years ago I was trying to help a woman understand the sovereignty of God in salvation. She honestly believed that salvation came as a result of a person making a “decision.” Finally, she said to me, “You know, I think I understand what you are saying. How does the Holy Spirit know whom to regenerate?” Does the Holy Spirit depend on man to signal to Him or is the Holy Spirit sovereign like the wind?
We will deal more fully with this when we get to chapter 6 but listen:
John 6:43-45
43 Jesus therefore answered and said to them, "Do not murmur among yourselves. 44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
45 It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.
There it is. Your salvation and mine and the salvation of anyone who is saved is entirely up to God. Do not murmur among yourselves.
The wind is under the sovereign control of God and so is the new birth.
Nicodemus is still the amazed literalist.
9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, "How can these things be?"
And now Jesus begins to rebuke Nicodemus for his ignorance of spiritual matters. There are some things that “the teacher of Israel” should know.
10 Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?
11 Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness.
12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
I will not go into several things that are taught in 11 & 12. Who are the “We”? The Holy Trinity! What are the “earthly things”? The earthly things are what Moses wrote of the Christ. If Nicodemus did not understand the symbolism of the OT there is surely no way he can understand regeneration!
Unless, unless he is born again!
Before we get too smug, keep in mind that if you or I know anything about the word of God, it is because we were taught of God. Yes, Nicodemus was responsible and expected to know but he could not learn what he must know apart from God being his teacher. That in no way excuse Nicodemus from the responsibility to know about regeneration.
When Jesus referred to being “born of water” what could He have had in mind? We have already laid aside the notion that He means water baptism.
What would “the teacher of Israel” be expected to know about the symbol of water? Allow me to call on Charles Alexander once more.
The Water as a symbol of the Spirit.
Was it not from Ezekiel 36 that the Lord was quoting to show Nicodemus his Jewish error, when He, the Lord, spoke of being born of water and the spirit? That water is not baptismal water, not the holy water of Rome, nor yet the ritual ablutionary water of the Mosaic code, nor yet even the not-quite-near-enough venture of many good evangelicals that it is the water of the Word. It is the water of the Spirit, the same water Christ was referring to when conversing with the Samaritan woman, and the same water He spoke about to the Jews in the last day of the feast, “He that believeth on me AS THE SCRIPTURE HATH SAID, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water…. This spake He of the Spirit which THEY THAT BELIEVE ON HIM SHOULD RECEIVE…” (John 4:13-14; John 7:37-39).
If Christ was quoting Ezekiel in these passages and also from the later passage in Ezekiel relating to the living waters which were to – and where else? – Then Christ was interpreting the O.T.
Without apology I will read a fairly long passage from Ezekiel. Can you grasp that Ezekiel is writing about regeneration?
The understanding of the new birth or regeneration was rare in the OT but it was not completely unknown. How else did John the Baptist come to know about the baptism of the Holy Spirit if it was not known in the OT?
John the Baptist didn’t have a single page of our NT to work from.
Ezekiel 36:22-32
22 "Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name's sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went.
23 And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD," says the Lord GOD, "when I am hallowed in you before their eyes.
24 For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land.
25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.
28 Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.
29 I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. I will call for the grain and multiply it, and bring no famine upon you.
30 And I will multiply the fruit of your trees and the increase of your fields, so that you need never again bear the reproach of famine among the nations.
31 Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good; and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight, for your iniquities and your abominations. 32 Not for your sake do I do this," says the Lord GOD, "let it be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel!"
Listen further as Ezekiel describes regeneration.
Ezekiel 37:1-14
1 The hand of the LORD came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones.
2 Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry.
3 And He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?"
So I answered, "O Lord GOD, You know."
4 Again He said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, 'O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!
5 Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: "Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.
6 I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the LORD."'"
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone.
8 Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them.
9 Also He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live."'"
10 So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.
11 Then He said to me, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say,' Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!'
12 Therefore prophesy and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.
13 Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves.
14 I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken it and performed it," says the LORD.'"
The “whole house of Israel” is the true church made up of the regenerate souls of everyone of all time who have been born from above!
So regeneration is clearly taught in the OT and Nicodemus did not have an inkling of that great truth.
Now hold on for another few minutes while Jesus causes an earthquake in the soul of this Pharisee. Not only will Nicodemus understand regeneration but also he himself is about to be born again. He is about to be born of water even the Spirit!
13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.
What OT passage did Jesus quote to Nicodemus?
You will find it in Proverbs.
Proverbs 30:1-4
The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, his utterance. This man declared to Ithiel — to Ithiel and Ucal:
There is even significance in the names listed here. Again, I will not go into this except to point out that Jakeh means “gathered” and is only used in one other place in Genesis 49 referring to Shiloh {Messiah} and those gathered to Him.
2 Surely I am more stupid than any man,
NICODEMUS
And do not have the understanding of a man.
3 I neither learned wisdom
Nor have knowledge of the Holy One.
4 Who has ascended into heaven, or descended?CHRIST
Who has gathered the wind in His fists?
Who has bound the waters in a garment?
Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is His name, and what is His Son's name,
If you know?
Before Jesus spoke these words Nicodemus could have quoted Proverbs 30 and would not have understood its meaning. Now he does!
And so we have, perhaps, one of the most religious men who ever lived come to Jesus as a lost sinner and he is confronted with the sovereignty of God in salvation. You may have everything in religion that Nicodemus had and still be lost. You must be born again.
Please know that I have barely scratched the surface of the spiritual interpretation of this passage. There are other allusions to the OT but if you have grasped what I have preached today you will be far ahead of a great number of religious people who will not give God all the glory in salvation.
As long as you cling to any idea that you are in control of your salvation beyond the simple receiving of a free gift you are no better off than Nicodemus was when he dwelt in spiritual darkness.
Jesus of Nazareth is approached by Nicodemus, the Pharisee, to question His authority, His signs. Jesus knew what was in “man” and Nicodemus represents the religious man.
In spite of his pedigree, learning, and achievements Nicodemus lacked the one essential thing that would determine if he was saved or lost. He needed a new heart! He couldn’t buy one, he couldn’t earn one, he couldn’t even learn how to get one; but God gives them away! [Charles Alexander]
The new birth, or being born again, or born from above, is called regeneration. The spiritually dead sinner is quickened or made alive by the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. Read Ephesians Chapter 2:1-10.
Remember what Jude said.
Jude 3
Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, …
Our common salvation is regeneration!
Amen
