Jesus and Nicodemus had a meeting, and it was held in secret because Nicodemus was part of the Sanhedrin, a group of seventy religious and civic leaders and rulers of Jerusalem. Each community had a Sanhedrin or “gathering” that had a precarious relationship with the Roman government. They had the idea that when Messiah would come, he would handle Rome, and set everything straight. In a very real sense, we are still crying out for that same thing – a “hero’ who will come in and fix everything.
But, Jesus said, “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I didn’t come for Rome. I’m from a different Kingdom.” Many times, we can get so caught up with the world and what’s going on around us, that we miss the bigger picture – and the very real Kingdom of God and of Heaven – but that’s what the Christmas narrative is all about. It’s about God sending Jesus – his only Son – to this earth and putting him in an “earth suit”, to be born as a baby that God would trust and release onto this planet.
Now in his ministry years, Jesus was in Jerusalem for Passover, and he had an encounter with Nicodemus who then began to see things in Jesus, the signs that he was doing, and he had big questions. He began to think outside of his religious box – that maybe there was something more going on. For the Jews, to get the attention of Rome was to get their scorn and their authority, so they tried to handle things themselves on a lower level. Nicodemus was a respected member of the Sanhedrin.
John 3:1-5 ESV
“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.’ ”
Anyone who wants to see God, connect to, or relate with God, must also be born again. Many people might well be church-goers and claim to be Christians in their minds, but are not truly in their hearts. It’s only eighteen inches between our brain and our heart, and we don’t want to end up missing the Kingdom of God by a mere eighteen inches! People can do Christian things but still not be born again – born of the Spirit. There are other things that come along with that, like hunger for God’s Word, which produces faith.
We don’t just live our lives like before. If we’re only introduced to Jesus, like a new acquaintance, then nothing changes. We might even get baptized, pray, and read the Bible, and yet still only have a head knowledge of Jesus, but, then just go about our business as before. We know we’re supposed to be “better”, but we don’t have any power for living, or power for change. We can know about Jesus, but not know Jesus. We’ll continue to wonder why it doesn’t work for us if we never make the jump from our head to our heart.
If we haven’t been spiritually born again, then we don’t have the power of the Holy Spirit working inside of our life that empowers us to succeed or to move forward – to overcome trouble, pain, difficulty, suffering, and injustice – the things that happen to us in our lives.
Without that empowerment and ability from God, then we’re merely trying to do it on our own, and the only thing that gets us at the end of the day is tired. Some of us are tired right now!
But, at the moment we realize that we’re sinners who need Jesus and need to be forgiven, and we receive the Good News of Jesus Christ into our hearts – that’s when something changes – we change – and the heavy weight of sin is lifted off of us, and a new connection is made, and we become born again – born of the Spirit like Jesus was talking about. That starts in our head. As we hear the Word, faith rises up in us and we respond in faith. We receive it into our hearts, and the connection is made.
John 3:6,7 ESV
“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.’ “
Luke 19:10 ESV
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
If we have a head-knowledge of Jesus, but not a heart transformation, we’re still lost. There are a lot of people sitting in churches who live with a false sense of security, that they’re born again and are going to Heaven. We need to check and ask ourselves if we really stepped over the line and are all-in with Jesus. Do we know in our “knower” that we’re born again – where we draw a line in the sand and say, “No more questions. No more going back. No more wondering. I’m going all-in!”
This is the time. It doesn’t matter what your age is. What’s at stake is our eternity. Are we going to live forever with God, or will we end up in a devil’s hell? This is the truth, and we must know Truth because God loves us, and we don’t want to miss it by eighteen inches. Jesus wanted to clarify this for Nicodemus, who was a righteous man in the sense that he did the right things. But, Jesus told him that there was another step that needed to be taken. Pride must never stop us from admitting that we’re lost.
John 3:8 ESV
“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its 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.”
As with the wind, we can’t see the Spirit, but we can believe in it by faith, and we can experience the effects of the presence of God in our lives – the presence and the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and the God-taps that happen when the Holy Spirit prompts us to do things for others.
Romans 5:1 ESV
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
John 3:9 ESV
“Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’ ”
Nicodemus had never connected the dots about Jesus in the Scriptures, but suddenly he was seeing the things he was doing and began thinking that something was different here.
2 Corinthians 5:7 ESV
“For we walk by faith, not by sight.”
John 3:10 ESV
“Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?”
John 3:16-18 ESV
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes [adheres to and trusts] in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
Colossians 3:2 ESV
“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”
We’ll get on a plane knowing that it will fly thirty thousand feet high at six hundred miles an hour, and not think twice about it. We do that because we trust, and we’re operating by faith. The question is, do we trust Jesus like that? Do we trust that he has our best in mind and that he has us? Do we trust that when the bottom falls out and the diagnosis comes – when things break – do we trust that he still has us? Do we adhere to him, and know in our knower that even if it doesn’t go like we think it should, that we can trust him not to let go? Do we fight and say what needs to be said without fear?
Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.”
Acts 16:31 ESV
“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”
Romans 1:17 ESV
“The righteousness of God is revealed – a righteousness that is by faith from first to last.”
Romans 6:23 ESV
“The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
John 6:40 ESV
“Everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have everlasting life.”
It’s by faith that we step over the line and move from head-knowledge to heart-knowledge – from being born of water in the natural to being born again in the Spirit. When that happens, we become unstoppable. No one has to beg us to go to church or tithe or to be generous – to step up, show up, and to help.
Mark 10:45 ESV
“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
John 3:17,18 ESV
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
Romans 10:8-10 ESV
“But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”
The heart and mission of Jesus was to help a Pharisee who had a head-knowledge of God but had not made a heart connection. But later in Scripture, something happened, and Nicodemus believed with his heart as he cautiously defended Jesus before his peers, and assisted Joseph of Aramathea with the preparation of Jesus’ body for burial. These actions suggest that
Nicodemus eventually became a genuine follower of Christ.
Something had happened. He believed with his heart, and then with his actions. Profession was made unto salvation! He became a follower of Jesus, and many of the priests believed also. Do we believe, and know in our knower that we’re born again – that we’re saved – that we’ve given our heart to Jesus?
Prayer
Father, thank You for Your Word. We are not ashamed and we say Yes to Jesus. We want to be born of the Spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit, and empowered by the Holy Spirit – to be changed and to live a changed life. Lord, we are all-in and we give You our heart. We want to know You up close and not from a distance. We invite You to come into our hearts and take up residence in our lives for the rest of our days.
Holy Spirit, we invite You to fill us to overflowing so that we will leak out Your life everywhere we go. We confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, and we believe with our hearts that God raised him from the dead. Thank You for saving us! In Jesus’ name. Amen
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on The Bridge
Featured Image by James Chan from Pixabay
Comments are closed.