John 3:1-8

http://biblehub.com/parallelgospels/Nicodemus_Visits_Jesus_at_Night.htm

The physical world in which we live is so important to us because it is all that we truly know.  Our bodies require food, drink and rest and we spend a great deal of or time making provision for those needs.  It is hard for us to think about what we cannot see and touch.  Huge portions of our population today reject that there is anything or anyone outside of our physical world.  Those of us who believe and trust in God know that there is an entire and eternal reality beyond the physical world in which we currently live but we have a hard time understanding and truly living in light of that world.  Nicodemus was a Pharisee who was one of the spiritual leaders of the Jews.  He had spent a great deal of His life in the study of God’s Word and yet he still has a very hard time thinking about anything outside of his own physical experience.  At least he recognized that he needed more information than he currently had and went to seek out Jesus for some answers to his questions.  So many people are too proud to admit that they don’t understand something and end up just going through the motions of understanding without seeking out the truth.  We can all benefit from the questions and answers that Nicodemus was humble enough to ask.

JESUS TELLS NICODEMUS OF A SECOND BIRTH: The relationship that Jesus had with the religious leaders of His day was not exactly friendly.  He questioned their authority, condemned their hypocrisy and stirred up the “status quo” with which they had all become comfortable.  It was fine for them to be waiting for Messiah, but they were not really anxious for Him to come and certainly not in the manner that Jesus came.  Nicodemus was different than the majority of his colleagues.  He genuinely wanted to understand who Jesus was and what He had come to do and had an open mind as to the possibility that Jesus was Messiah.  While his mind was open; he was not yet convinced so he seeks Jesus out in the cover of night.  It seems that the Pharisees were in a very difficult position because many people followed Jesus so they couldn’t come right out and condemn Him but they certainly were not about to recognize Him for who He was.  Apparently they had just decided to ignore Him in hopes that He would go away and things could continue on as they always had.  Nicodemus is truly interested in learning the truth about the identity of Jesus but, at this point, he is not ready to be openly associated with Him.  He begins by admitting to Jesus that the signs He had performed up to this point gave proof of the fact that He had been sent by God.  Nicodemus recognized that Jesus was a Rabi and authoritative teacher who had some sort of a special connection to God that was beyond his own experience.  I believe that Nicodemus was more than just curious about Jesus.  It seems he has a true desire to understand more about God and how he could gain access to God as Jesus obviously had.  Recognizing our need is truly the first step towards coming to God.  Jesus answers him by stating that in order to see the kingdom of God it was necessary to be born again.  A relationship with God does not come through fixing our old self, but through a new birth.  This second birth requires recognition of our own sinfulness and of our need to have a new nature that comes from God.   

JESUS TELLS NICODEMUS OF A SPIRITUAL BIRTH: Nicodemus cannot seem to grasp the idea of a second birth because he is so focused on the physical aspect of life.  He tries to explain spiritual truth from a physical perspective so he sees a second birth as literally climbing back into his mother’s womb.  Jesus strives to make it clear to him that the new birth about which he speaks is not the same as the old birth that brought us into the world.  Jesus speaks of our physical birth as having been born of water and our spiritual birth of having been born of Spirit.  The only way for man to be rightly related to God is through spiritual birth.  We all come into the world spiritually dead because of the sin we have inherited from Adam through our parents.  Physical life always starts with us being spiritually dead.  There is a distinct difference between flesh and spirit.  There is a physical world of which we are all aware an in which we all live.  But there is also a spiritual world into which we must be born just as we were born into the physical world.  Jesus compares this spiritual world to the wind because it is unseen but none the less real.  We know that there is wind and we can see the effects of the wind but we do not see wind.  There are things about the spiritual world that we do not know and understand but we must accept them by faith.  This is not a blind faith just like our conviction about the existence of wind is not blind.  God has given clear evidence as to the existence of the spiritual world through the creation of the physical world, our own consciences and the revelation of Jesus.  Spiritual birth occurs when we believe that Jesus is the Son of God, recognize the sinfulness of our own flesh, trust in the cross of Christ to pay for our sin and desire to be reconciled to God.  This spiritual birth is the super-natural work of the Spirit of God and is the only means by which we can be rightly related to God.

APPLICATION: Do not be enamored by and focused exclusively on the physical world in which we live.  Be humble enough to admit our lack of complete understanding of the spiritual world.  Recognize the sinfulness of our flesh and our need of spiritual birth in order to be saved from sin.  Trust Jesus as the only means by which we can be saved through the power of God’s Spirit.  Tell others about our need and the means by which we can be born again into a spiritual birth.