Expect the Unexpected | John 4:1-42
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Well, one Easter morning, a Sunday school teacher decided to see how much her class knew about the true meaning of Easter. And so one of the little girls in the class quickly raised her hand and she said, Yes, Sarah, that teacher call and she said, Easter is when all of my aunts and uncles come to my house, to eat turkey, watch football and take naps. And she said, No, that's Thanksgiving. And so another raise his hand and she said, Yes, Billy. And she said last Easter, Little Billy said We decorated a tree. We sang songs, and got lots of presents, nobility. That was Christmas, the teacher replied. Now the teacher was a little bit nervous. And she says, Does anyone know what Easter is? A little girl named Emily raised her hand is that I know. Easter is a special day to remember that Jesus was hanging across, died and put in a tomb for three days. And the teacher said, Very good, Emily. Now class we're going to talk about and Emily said, and on the third day, everyone gathers around the tomb. And they wait to see if Jesus comes out. And if he sees his shadow. That means six more weeks of winter. And if not, the teacher interrupted Emily and said, Okay, we're good. We got it, right. It's kind of funny, I can see how she gets confused. Easter is not just another holiday, on the calendar. It's the most important day of our lives today for Christians to celebrate why we have eternal life, through the death, resurrection of Jesus Christ as we're going through the life of Jesus as a church this year, I'm preaching through his entire life. And we just happened on this day as I was planning out and the Lord was planning it out for me and, and because I have the whole year planned out if you know that, but I do not can make adjustments if I need to. But this Sunday happened to be John chapter three, which is a very familiar verse about being born again, which normally you wouldn't think would be a Easter sermon, but it makes sense. It's very fitting. So I'm just gonna read chapter three, starting in verse one, is going to be through verse eight, before we get started. How 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 them, Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And Nicodemus said to Him, well, how can a man be born? When he is old? How can you enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born? And Jesus answered, Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water, and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 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. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from, or where it goes. So it is with everyone who was born of the Spirit. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for what you've done for us today as we celebrate Easter Sunday. And, Lord, we pray that as we continue to worship you today, Father, that You would show us today, what exactly it is we need to see in this passage here. On John chapter three, I pray, Lord, that that my words today will just reflect your heart that will see this passage for what it's worth for we need, I pray that you'll fulfill me with your Spirit. Lord, I pray that this room will receive your word today and we ask these things. Jesus name, Amen. All right. And we had a little issue this morning with our system. So we need the house lights on for 11 o'clock sermon. I think there's a little issue there. So just go ahead. And I'll go ahead and say that or I'll be so distracted. So let's go ahead and get into this. I want to I want to give you three things about being born again three. Thanks about being born again. Number one, being born again, is a supernatural act of God. Being born again is a supernatural act of God, verse one. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. And this man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you're a teacher, come from God, for no one can do these signs that You do, unless God is with him. Now, not only was Nicodemus a Pharisee, which was a leading biblical scholar, he was also a ruler, which meant he was of the ruling class of scholars, the Sanhedrin. So he was a powerful and influential man. So he was like a pastor, who's also a lawyer, who's also in control, if you can imagine somebody like that, in control of the whole town. And so he came to him at night for reasons we can only speculate. And he addresses Jesus as Rabbi. And this would be a sign of respect from a real Rabbi, who had been taught and schooled. Now Jesus had no formal schooling and it was clear that he had God's power, as Nicodemus freely admits, so Jesus answered him in verse, verse three right here. He said, Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And we read this. And we think, of course, be born again. We've heard this before. But Nicodemus had never heard this. And he knew nothing of this. It was a foreign concept to him. Now, there's this phrase, seeing the kingdom of God is synonymous with saying, if you're going to have eternal life, you must be born again. So Jesus is telling a confused, Nicodemus, unless you're reborn, you can't live forever. So Nicodemus and verse four says, Well, how can a man be born again? When he's old? How can he enter a second time? into his mother's womb? And be born? Now we're not sure if if Nicodemus is taking Jesus, literally, not sure if he's taking him figuratively, he could be asking, how does that happen? I don't understand. He could be understanding the metaphor and saying, well, well, how can a man do this? What do you mean, he's not quite understanding. So Jesus, restates the truth and expands on it on verse five. And he says, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Now this phrase, water in spirit refers to Ezekiel in the Old Testament, chapter 36, which talks about God cleaning us with water, putting his spirit in So Nicodemus would understand that, and then he says in verse six, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit? is Spirit. Nicodemus, Do not marvel Don't be surprised. Don't be confused. When I tell you, you must be born again. Jesus says that just like a newborn baby, that comes a member of the family and by His birth, spiritually speaking, one must be born again, to become a member of God's family. Solely way we become a member of his family to be born again. He says in verse eight, that the wind blows where it wishes and you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from, or where it goes. So it is with everyone who was born of the Spirit. So Jesus underscores that the new birth is not something a person accomplishes, on their own. You cannot make yourself a Christian. You cannot BORN AGAIN yourself a Christian. You cannot climb up into your mother's womb, spiritually speaking, God makes that happen. It cannot happen. Being reborn is a super natural act of God. The truth that salvation being made right with God is achieved. Not through our own self efforts. It's achieved by God Himself. And that's the difference between The truth of Christianity of our faith is the difference between this truth and every other religion, on the face of the planet. For instance, Hinduism that says that, that you one's goal in life is to merge to become one with the universe to escape this reality. That's what they're trying to do. They're trying to not exist to try to exist with the universe. And this occurs through a person meditating and, and practicing and perfecting the art of meditation, and living a disciplined life. And maybe you can reach that state. But it's all up to the person. The Buddhist believes that he to controls his own salvation, and he must pass through a series of tests and heavens and hells to escape this reality, which is mainly just filled with suffering. So we want to get out of this reality. For the Muslim, they submit to Allah as a way to escape punishment, but there's no guarantee because Allah to them is merciful, to whom He wants to give mercy, you might try, but there's no guarantee and it might not be enough. But the truth of salvation is expressed in Christianity, and that being born again, is by no doing of our own. We cannot control it, we cannot bring it about it is the act, the gift of God, look at Ephesians, two, eight. For by grace, you have been saved through faith, which we'll get into in a second. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God. It's not your own doing. Sometimes I'll walk into my house and there'll be a mess. And I'll say, Well, how did this happen? And nobody claimed it as their own doing. But when it comes to matters of faith, we're quick to claim those things I did this. Bible says, No, you didn't. God did. So hope my parent, my kids, don't tell me God made the mess. Next time I walk in, I don't know. The beam born again, is a super natural act of God, not of man, but of God. Secondly, being born again is a supernatural act of faith. This is where we come in faith. Verse nine, Nicodemus said to Him, being Jesus, how can these things be? I don't get it? I don't understand. And Jesus says to him, Nicodemus, you are the teacher, you are the Teacher of teachers, you are the man, you are the one that should have all these answers, and you don't get it. You don't understand you are the smartest, most intellectual, most powerful man, you are the alpha and all these in this community, and you don't know it. Well, it made no sense to him. And Nicodemus would have taught that, in order to enter the kingdom, you just had to keep the commandment, you just have to keep trying and doing the best you can. But if I just do the best you can, maybe I make it. And many people live their lives thinking that is the truth. I just do the best I can. Maybe the man upstairs will let me in. That's what they think. That's got nothing to do with it. Because you cannot do good enough, you cannot do well enough. And that is the purpose. He says in verse 11, Truly, truly I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen. But you do not receive our Testament you just says I've been teaching this, and you're not hearing me. You're not receiving me. Even though the way to salvation is clear. Not everyone will believe it. Not everyone will receive the way of salvation that God has provided. This man had been staring at the truth for years and his Old Testament Bible and never saw it. Jesus says in verse 12, if I have told you earthly things, and you do not believe how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? He says, I've been talking to you about things that you should know how you don't understand that. How am I gonna give you a new truth? How are you gonna understand that and it could Dimas, how am I going to have a spiritual conversation with you? When you're not even in the spiritual realm? You're in the man made religion realm. He says in verse 13, no one has ascended into heaven except he was descended from heaven Salam And it says that you don't have to climb up into heaven. You don't have to reach up into heaven. It's not about how much you pray or, or mastering self discipline or anything like this, that you don't have to reach up into heaven that heaven has come down and given you the answer. That's why we celebrate Christmas, because Jesus came down and lived a life and then Easter, we celebrate the fact that he's been resurrected, and he went back up. That's the beautiful thing about what we call Christianity, which I just call the truth. We don't have to search for it. We don't have to attain it and grasp it. We don't have to work for it. It's just here, we just have to receive it in faith. We must hear the gospel and receive it now we if you're from the south, most of us probably are here today. Some of you aren't. Man, you've heard the gospel a lot or what you think's maybe the gospel. We have multiple chances to receive it. Can you imagine living your whole life and never hearing it? This is why we have missionaries. But more and more people in our community have never heard this. And they never hear it. If you don't tell them or get them to a church that will tell them. Verse 14, Moses says this. I mean, Jesus says this. He tells a story that he knows about. He says Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. And what's he talking about? Well, in the book of Numbers, way back when the Israelites were plagued by fiery serpents, they were the snakes were biting people, you know, and we have fire ants around here. And they seem mad enough, right? But I'd rather have fire ants and a plague of snakes. That's just me. And they were all getting bitten. And they were dying. And Moses prayed to God and said, God help us. What can you do? There's this plague of serpents and snakes. And God said, fashion, make a staff make this broad staff of a serpent, and you're gonna hang, put it over here on this top of this hill. And when any Israelite is bitten by the serpent, all they have to do is look at that bronze serpent, that bronze staff and they'll be saved. That's all you have to do. They have to look at that serpent and have faith that God will save them. That's God's grace. Now, years later, King Hezekiah destroyed that staff because people started worshiping it, which people are prone to do. But the point was a just as God's grace gave people a new lease on life, when they were bitten, they look to the staff and they were saved. Just as they were saved by looking at that staff, that bronze serpent staff on top of the hill, when they were bitten, just as they were saved by looking at that, that that we also are saved. When we look at Jesus hanging on the cross. We see him hanging there, and we put our faith in Him and we're saved. That's it. Amen. You have to give them a bunch of money. You have to pay them off. You don't have to bribe them. You don't have to, to work it off. You just look at the cross and believe in Him. And you're not saved from the sting of the serpent. You're saved from the sting of sin and death. Being born again is a supernatural act of faith. And on some level, it's so easy. But sometimes we make it so hard. And that leads us number three. Being born again is a supernatural act of love. supernatural act of love. Now we get to what for years, was the most quoted verse of the Bible, John 316. You'd see it in football games and things and people kick field goals and the hit the sign and everything right, John 316. But you know what I've read recently that it's no longer the most quoted verse of scripture. The most quoted verse of scripture is Matthew seven, one judge not lest you be judged, that tells you where we're at as a country. People you know where it is probably. But that's the most quoted verse. John 316 says this, in this conversation with Nicodemus about being reborn again. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. The reason why this is such a popular verse and this one verse, we hear so much about the character of God, that He loves the world. loves, it just doesn't like it doesn't have a crush on the world. It's this supernatural love, that he will do anything for people. That's what love is. God loves the world so much. And he made a way to save the world. And he loves the world so much that he allowed the death of His Son to be the only way to be made right with God. And this verse also tells us about our spiritual condition. It says that he doesn't wish for anyone to utterly perish. Some people say, Well, how can God send people to Hell, he sent Jesus so you won't go. He doesn't want anyone to go there. But you've sinned, and we've all broken God's moral law. We are that way from birth, if you don't believe it, have you talked to a child lately? Have you had babies that come out the womb setting. And they like it. Before they even know right from wrong. That is where we're at. And he says that he doesn't wish anyone to perish. Well, you will perish unless something changes. God's love was displayed in a transaction. You know, when you go buy something, go buy your Easter dress or you go buy your Easter suit. You get money. And in exchange, what do you get? An ugly tie? Right? Something you might never wear again, right? It's a transaction. When Jesus hung on the cross, he took the wrath of God His justice that we deserved. See, when when you break the law, there's a consequence, there's a punishment. We took our punishment on the cross for all who believe. And the transaction was he got that? What did we get? We get eternal life. We get nothing, no punishment. That those who believe on Jesus hanging on the cross and and raised on Easter Sunday that they were spared God's wrath, Jesus took it. But those who do not believe are still guilty and will perish. Because he says in verse 17, we don't read the next part of the free verses, we put John 316 on a coffee mug or bumper sticker, we don't read the rest. It says 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. God did not come here in the form of Jesus to wag his finger and say you got to do better next time. He came to save the world. years ago, my car broke down. engine died on me. And in like Lexington County on 26th and like July 20, or something really hot. I call my parents off. It's like I'm stranded. come pick me up. It's hot. They came. Pick me up. They came and picked me up. And they saved me. They rescued me. Because they love me. I didn't say well, did you get the engine checked out before you got on the road? I have been keeping up with a car. He's not know what's gonna happen? No. But when the RPMs are eight and I was at 20 miles an hour, I knew something was wrong. To pick me up. It took me home. That's what Jesus does. He came to save us were already condemned. It didn't come to condemn us. He didn't say you deserve it even though we do. And he says in verse 18, whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already. Because he's not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is a judgment verse 19, that light is coming to the world. And people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. He says that God is judging the world how by shining his light into it. Why do you think people desperately tried to keep the gospel out of every public place? And private places, they don't want the light shining in. When I was a teenager I had a hard time getting to school I did not want to go to school and middle school and probably younger. Sometimes on white my mother would come in and and splash water on my face. But you know what she would do? She come in and turn that light on. I'd be like, Oh man, I can see my kids sometimes. I'm waking up that light shining in my in my room like, I'm not adjusted to it yet. When the truth of the gospel hits people in the darkness, they don't. It's Oh, that's why I don't think an atheist has ever read through the Bible. They start reading and I say if not for that as a Light shines into their life, or they get all the way through it. And they put their faith in God. You can't read God's word, and not be changed in some way. Either you're gonna say, Nope, no more of that. Or you're gonna go through it, you're gonna say, This is what I need in my life. Verse 20, for everyone who does wicked things, hates the light and does not come to the light, as his works should be exposed. When one sees the truth of what they're doing, how they're living, that's called guilt. We get disgusted. And Jesus says, You don't have to be guilty. You just have to turn to me. I'll take your guilt, you just turn to me, and you come to the light, you can come to it, you know, a five year old, sometimes wakes up at five or six in the morning. And I hear him running down the hall. You know why he's running the hall, because there's dark, runs down the hall slams door gets in our bed. And then you know, he's on my head or something the rest of the night, I know that when I get up in the morning to get her by dressed, I go in his room, His room was lights on. Because he turned that light on. So he could see me hightailed it all down the hallway. Because the light is safe, the lightest safe. And he says verse 21, but whoever does what is true comes to the light. That may be clearly seeing that his works have been carried out in God, the same truth of the gospel that shows us our sin. And we think oh, leads us to the safe arms of the Father. leads us to those arms. Gonna have an invitation here in a few minutes, maybe you've never looked at Jesus, figuratively speaking, hanging on the cross. Knowing that he was resurrected, maybe you've never placed your faith in Him. If you haven't, you've never been born again. It's that simple. And you say, Lord, I believe in you and what you did. Bible says you're saved. You're born again. Bible says that you have a new heart, you have the Spirit of God living inside you. And you're not going to be perfect. You're still going to struggle, but you're gonna have this desire to know Jesus more, to become more like Him for the rest of your life. And you get the abundant life. And you get the eternal life. More importantly, maybe you're a believer, and you just have been following Jesus. And every now then you get distracted and you go off a different path, or something trips you up. He's still there. You're the one that's left. He says, Follow me. Follow the light. Follow me to the Father's house. Now Jesus was in the tomb. And when he came out of the tomb, we didn't get an early spring or six more weeks of winter. When he came out of the tomb, we got the abundant and eternal life. And that's what we celebrate on Easter Sunday. Heavenly Father, we thank you for that Easter Sunday. And we thank you, I thank you for those that are here today. On Easter Sunday, they they woke up this morning, and they made a commitment. They're going to be here today to worship you. And I pray that you will bless them for their obedience in their heart, Lord, for being here. By thank you that they're here. And that's why we leave here today. We get our pictures taken outside whatever it is we need to do Father, we will leave here today thinking about how good a god you are and how you've blessed us in our lives. They're not perfect. We have struggles when we turn to you and those times. We thank you for salvation through Jesus Christ. And the order there's one here this never placed their faith in you they would do so today. As we leave for today, we were we just continually remember who you are, what you've done for us, that supernatural act of God. That supernatural act of faith where you take art status before you iniquitous from our crime. That's super nice supernatural act of love that you love us so much that you died for us. So we love you. We ask these things in Jesus name, Amen.
