7 Things I Wish Jesus Never Said
John 3:1-21
“Unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” vs. 5
How Do You Get To Heaven?
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It is surprising to me that many people really don’t understand how to get to heaven. Jesus discusses this with a man named Nicodemus. Let’s see what He says.
Read Passage – John 3:1-21
Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “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.” 3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” 4 “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!” 5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 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.” 9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked. 10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” 16 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. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
Taking A Risk
Jesus interacts with a Pharisee in this story named Nicodemus. Verse 1-2:
“Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night…” vs. 1-2
The Bible says that Nicodemus was no ordinary citizen. He was a religious Pharisee, a leader of the Jews, a Sanhedrin; a man who committed his life to studying & obeying the law. In fact in verse 10 Jesus calls him a teacher of Israel so he carried a lot of clout. We need to really give Nicodemus some consideration about his seriousness in approaching Jesus. The text tells us he came to Jesus at night. That’s important. He is really taking a risk here. No where else in scripture do we see a Pharisee approach Jesus with openness and sincerity about who Jesus is and the desire to truly inquire and consider that this Jesus just might be the Son of God. Most of the Pharisees were out for three things; power, money, and control. But Nicodemus is sincerely seeking the truth. So he goes to Jesus at night because going to him in the day would jeopardize his status in the Pharisaical world and he could even be dismissed or kicked out. But remember, he was a well educated man with quite a bit of clout.
Ill. In today’s world would be like Pastor or Priest checking out another religion but of course we have more avenues to do so without being seen.
So he goes in the cover of night
Somehow in all of his teachings & religion, he knew the Messiah would be coming but he wasn’t quite sure Jesus was the Messiah. So he says to Jesus “no one can do the things you do.” From his teaching he gets that Jesus might be the messiah so he decides to investigate further.
Answering The Non-Question
This is where it takes a tricky turn and really gets interesting. He makes a statement but within that statement Jesus knows there is a deeper question, that somehow within his statement there is an implied question; “How can I get to heaven?” Nicodemus doesn’t ask that very thing but it is implied and Jesus understood what he was getting at so in verse 3 He answers him:
“Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” vs. 3
Jesus tells Nicodemus something that He desperately needed but didn’t understand in all his religious learning. The thing I like about this is that even if we can’t verbalize our thoughts or questions, God knows. He’s ready to give us what we need
Ill. Billy Graham Tells of a time early in his ministry when he arrived in a small town to preach at a meeting. He had arrived a little bit early to finish writing a letter for back home. As he finished the letter, he asked a young boy standing on the sidewalk of the location of the town post office. When the boy had given him the direc-tions, Mr. Graham thanked him and said, “If you will come to the Baptist church this evening, you can hear me tell everyone how to get to heaven.” “I don’t think I will be there.” The little boy replied, “You don’t even know your way to the post office, let alone how to get to heaven.”
“How?”
A few times in this passage Nicodemus asks a question, verse 4:
““How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked.”” vs. 4
How? How can this be, how can I be “born again.” The words “born again” get thrown around a lot in our world. They are still hard to understand.
Ill. Charles Colson wrote a book called “Born Again” about his conversion in prison
Bono says he was “born again”
Madonna said after the birth of her daughter the experience made her “born again.”
The question is what does that really mean. In Nicodemus’ words, “How can that be” or “How does that happen?”
Understanding “Born Again”
This is our last sermon of the Series Things I Wish Jesus Never Said. This born again thing is hard to understand in I wish Jesus never said it. Why? Because it would be a easier if he had said something like “Just complete this list of things,” “Just give this much money,” “Just perform this act or action and you can be assured of getting into heaven.” Not only is hard to understand, but it leaves a lot of questions and uncertainty. We can’t really judge others eternity can we? It’s between them and God.
Ex. How about Ghandi? Is he in heaven? He did a lot of good things. He was a good man. But was he “born again?” There have been a lot of arguments about that one.
Being a good person doesn’t assure us of heaven. But being a good person can be a reflection of our commitment to God. So I think Jesus puts this out there so that we can understand what “born again” means and it’s importance. And so we will be to able to explain it others too. So let’s try to understand “born again”.
- It’s Water and Spirit
The first thing Jesus points out to Nicodemus is that there are two births. Verse 5:
“Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.”” vs. 5
Jesus is making clear that there are two births. He explains this further in verse 6 where he tells us the first birth is the flesh. All of us go through that and that is the easy part to understand. We are created in a way that we develop in our mother’s belly’s in a sack of water. So when it comes time to be born, a woman’s water breaks.
Ill. My wife told me that women who are pregnant and are close to giving birth are told to carry a pickle jar while in the supermarket so if there water breaks they can drop the jar and people won’t know. (Ha! Ha!)
The second birth is your Spiritual birth or you might want to say rebirth. Not everyone goes through that and many might not even realize they need that. Jesus uses the term “Spirit” here for a few reasons.
1) It’s signifying that this happens in the spiritual realm. It’s in your heart, your soul, the spiritual part of you that intangible.
2) It’s also the time where you receive the Holy Spirit.
- It’s What God Does For Us
Second, being born again is what God does for us. This verse rivals Ps. 23 and The Lord’s Prayer as the most popular or well quoted verses of all scripture. John 3:16:
“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.” vs. 16
Ill. Charlie and the Chocolate factory and Veronica Salt (the bad egg) She has broken the rules and is sitting on a scale and the needle goes back an forth between good and bad and finally tips on bad and she goes sliding down a tube.
The reality is that you cannot save yourself. So many people still think that somehow if they live a good enough life, do the right things, etc. that when they get to heaven God will have this big scale and he’ll load everything you did bad on one side and everything you did good on the other and if it tips the right way, bells go off, lights flash and a big sign starts flashing “enter” or a dull thud goes off and the bottom drops out from under you and you go sliding the wrong way.
But you can’t earn it, you accept it. And as hard as that is for some to accept, we have to tell them that. We need to be sure people understand that. We need to understand that.
Ex. Religions like Islam promote that if you are good enough God will let you in.
God has said in the Quran:
“And give good news (O Muhammad) to those who believe and do good deeds, that they will have gardens (Paradise) in which rivers flow….” (Quran 2:25)
“But those who believe and do good deeds, We will admit them to gardens (Paradise) in which rivers flow, lasting in them forever….” (Quran 4:57)
Christianity: 2.1 billion
Islam: 1.5 billion
Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion
Hinduism: 900 million
Chinese traditional religion: 394 million
Buddhism: 376 million
Think about the pressure to perform and the uncertainty of saying that good deeds get you to heaven.
We on the other hand believe there is only one way to heaven. Eph. 2:8-9:
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” Eph. 2:8-9
Jesus is the only way. So again, how do you get to heaven. By believing that Jesus was the Son of God, that he lived, died on the cross and rose again 3 days later, and by praying and asking Him to come into your heart, and then giving your life to him. Choosing to live for Him based on what he did for you.
- It’s Accepting the Gift
That leads us to the final understanding of “born again.” You accept the gift. Look at what Jesus says in verses 17 and 18:
“Whoever believes in him is not condemned…” vs. 18
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” vs. 17
God provided the gift; Jesus. The only thing we can do is accept the gift.
Ex. We are heading into the holiday season and we give gifts. But you giving the gift is also dependant on someone receiving it.
Ill. Ever give a great gift and the person wouldn’t accept it?
The Great Love of God
So here is what it really all boils down to; God’s great love for us. Romans 5:8:
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
In our world today people want to know if you are going to heaven or hell. But that is not up to us. It is hard to answer questions like “Why would a good God send people to hell?” The bottom line is that God decides, not you or me. And His decision is not based on our actions but on our heart and accepting of his gift of Jesus His son.
Ill. Professional golfer Paul Azinger was diagnosed with cancer at age 33. He had just won a PGA championship and had ten tournament victories to his credit.
He wrote, “A genuine feeling of fear came over me. I could die from cancer. Then another reality hit me even harder. I’m going to die eventually anyway, whether from cancer or something else. It’s just a question of when. Everything I had accomplished in golf became meaningless to me. All I wanted to do was live.”
Then he remembered something that Larry Moody, who teaches a Bible study on the tour, had said to him. “Zinger, we’re not in the land of the living going to the land of the dying. We’re in the land of the dying trying to get to the land of the living.”
Golfer Paul Azinger recovered from chemotherapy and returned to the PGA tour. He’s done pretty well. But that bout with cancer deepened his perspective. He wrote, “I’ve made a lot of money since I’ve been on the tour, and I’ve won a lot of tournaments, but that happiness is always temporary. The only way you will ever have true contentment is in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I’m not saying that nothing ever bothers me and I don’t have problems, but I feel like I’ve found the answer to the six-foot hole.”
