Man, John chapter 3, the title of the sermon is Jesus and Nicodemus, Jesus and Nicodemus.
This is one of the most famous conversations in the entire Bible.
Of course, we have the most famous verse in the Bible in this conversation, John 3.16.
But this whole chapter is very famous and a lot of people have spent a lot of time thinking
about this passage and it's one of the classic scriptures.
If you were to list maybe the 10 classic chapters or the five most classic chapters in the New
Testament, this would probably be on most people's list of favorite scriptures.
But it starts out in chapter 3 verse 1, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus,
a ruler of the Jews.
The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher
come from God for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him.
Jesus answered and said unto him.
It's kind of interesting how it says Jesus answered because it's not much of an answer
to what Nicodemus actually said.
It says in verse number 3, Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto
thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
That doesn't really have anything to do with what Nicodemus just said, does it?
But see, Nicodemus is coming to him and he's somewhat insincere.
You say, well, how do you know that?
Why do you say that he's insincere?
Well, he comes at him right away with what appears to be flattery in the beginning here.
We know from later in the passage that Nicodemus does not believe in Jesus.
He does not have his trust in him.
He does not receive the witness of Jesus.
But yet he comes to him and says, well, we know that you're a teacher from God for no
man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him.
Maybe he didn't want it to be like the Pharisees who came to John the Baptist and before they
even get there, before they even say a word to him, he sees them coming afar off and says,
oh, generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Right?
I mean, he sees them coming afar off.
He's already rebuking them just for being Pharisees.
So basically, he comes hat in hand.
We know you're a teacher coming from God.
And elsewhere in the gospels, we see the Pharisees coming to tempt Jesus and they say very similar
things to this, even when the Bible even tells us that they had a malicious intent.
And they came with a similar statement.
What he's saying doesn't really make sense with his behavior.
Okay, if you know that he's a teacher come from God, if you know that God's with him,
why are you coming to him in the middle of the night?
Why not come in the daytime?
Why are you not his disciple?
Why do you not believe in him and confess him openly?
So this doesn't really make sense to say, well, I mean, we know you're a teacher come
from God.
Nobody can do these miracles except God be with them.
But then again, you're teaching stuff we don't like, or you teach stuff that goes against
our Pharisee doctrine.
So I'm confused here.
It's because you're wrong, Nicodemus.
It's because the Pharisees are wrong.
They're in a false religion.
They're vipers, they're serpents, and Nicodemus is being lumped in with them.
He's choosing to follow them instead of following Christ.
That's to stop Nicodemus from saying, hey, I'm done being a Pharisee.
I'm ready to follow Jesus Christ now.
He's the one who's deciding to be a Pharisee.
So he comes to Jesus, and he gives him this statement, which is just trying to butter
him up in the beginning, trying to sound positive.
But he's not ready to go all the way to confessing Christ as his savior.
He's not ready to go all the way and become a believer.
He's not even ready to talk to Jesus in the daytime.
So he says to him, we know your teacher come from God.
You say, well, is that salvation?
No, because remember, even the people in Romans 1, when they knew God, they glorified him
not as God.
Neither were thankful, but became vain in their imagination, and their foolish heart
was darkened.
So just knowing something about Jesus is not the same as trusting in him, believing in
him, and confessing him.
And so it says here, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with
him.
He answered and said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Now seeing the kingdom of God here has to do with understanding.
It's sort of like if someone tells you something and you say, I see.
It means you understand, right?
So seeing has to do with seeing with the eyes of faith, right?
Through faith, we understand, the Bible says in Hebrews 11-3.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
So we see him who is invisible by faith, but except a man be born again, he says, he cannot
see the kingdom of God.
He's not going to get it.
He's not going to comprehend it.
He's not going to understand it.
He can't see it, okay?
Now obviously there's a literal seeing of it as well covered in verse 5 when he says,
verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he
cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
So you're not going to see it.
You're not going to understand it.
You're not going to go there.
You're not going to enter into it.
You're going nowhere unless you're born again.
Now the reason why he's emphasizing the new birth with Nicodemus is because here's Nicodemus
and he's coming to Jesus by night.
He's looking for something and what's the next step for this guy?
I mean, well, I mean, we know you're a teacher come from God.
Hey, why are you here?
Hey, the next step is, okay, it's time to get born again.
It's time to pull the trigger.
It's time to get saved.
It's time to become a new creature in Christ.
Then your eyes will be open.
Then you'll understand these things.
Let me get to that because it's explained a little bit more further in the passage.
But he says, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Now Nicodemus proves him right immediately by showing his complete lack of understanding
and inability to see the kingdom of God because he says, how can a man be born when he's old?
Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?
So this is obviously a very foolish reply.
He's taking an overly literal view of what Jesus says.
And what he's really doing is taking a carnal view or a fleshly view of spiritual teaching.
And this is the mistake that the Pharisees keep making over and over again because they're
carnal and the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for their
foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned.
So the Pharisees and other Jews struggled to grasp Jesus' spiritual teachings because
they're in the flesh.
They haven't been born again.
They can't see the kingdom of God.
Well how can a man be born when he's old?
Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?
Jesus answered, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Now this verse is very easy to understand.
There are people who twist it and they're just as unsaved as Nicodemus.
They're just as carnal and unable to understand scripture because it's explained in the next
verse.
Look at verse 6.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
So he's saying, in order to be saved, you have to be born of water and of the Spirit.
That which is born of the flesh, that's the water birth, is flesh.
That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
That's the spiritual birth.
Now Catholics and other people will twist the scripture to try to teach that you have
to be baptized to be saved.
That's what it means to be born of the water, you have to be baptized.
Well then that would be a triple birth.
He didn't say you have to be born again and again.
Well okay, so first you're born from your mom, then you've got to be born of the water,
then you've got to be born of the Spirit.
How many births are we talking about here, friend?
He's saying be born again, that means you've already been born the first time.
You can't do something again that you haven't done the first time.
So here's the first birth, born of water.
Your mom's water broke and you were born.
You were born in a gush of water, all right?
All of us were.
And so we were born of the water when we were born of the flesh, we're born of the Spirit
when we get saved.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.
So he's not telling him, hey Nicodemus, you have to get born of the water and of the Spirit.
He's saying a man has to be born of the water and of the Spirit, which you've already got
the one down, now you've got to be born again of the Spirit, the spiritual birth as opposed
to the physical water birth.
Marvel not, he says in verse seven.
Marvel not, don't be amazed at that, don't let that shock you, don't wonder at that.
Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again.
The wind bloweth where it listeth, listeth means where it wants to.
He's saying the wind blows where it wants to, the wind bloweth where it listeth and
now here is the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth.
So is everyone that is born of the Spirit.
He's saying, look, the wind blows, you hear it, you don't really know where it came from,
you don't know where it's going, you hear it, you feel the effects of it, you see it,
you know it's there, but you don't fully understand it, you don't fully grasp it, you can't lay
hold on it.
And he says, so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.
And Nicodemus' question in verse nine shows you exactly where he's coming from and this
is where a lot of people are coming from today that don't get saved.
Nicodemus answered and said unto him, how can these things be?
How can these things be?
Now it seems like everything is just going over his head, isn't it?
The whole point that Jesus is making is you're not going to understand it, Nicodemus, you
just need to believe it.
You don't have to fully understand what it means to be born again, you just need to be
born again.
You just need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
You need to put your faith in him and through faith we understand Nicodemus is trying to
understand it all first.
And until he understands it all, he's not ready to get saved.
You know, he wants to see proof.
He wants to read the entire Bible and know everything that it says and understand everything
and grasp everything and see all the evidence and then he'll believe, right?
He wants to make a really informed decision.
Well, that's not how the Gospel works.
That's not how salvation works.
Okay, you must trust Jesus as your Savior.
It involves trust.
If everything were shown to you, everything were explained to you, and everything were
proven to you, there wouldn't be any trust involved.
But yet we have to believe.
We have to have faith.
We have to trust.
And so he's explaining to him, look, you see the effects of the wind.
You see that the wind is there.
You don't know where it's going.
You don't know where it came from.
That's what it's like.
Everyone that's born of the Spirit is like that and he says, well, how can that be?
How can it be?
It doesn't matter.
You just need to believe it, Nicodemus.
Jesus answered and said unto him, art thou a master of Israel and knowest not these
things?
Remember elsewhere Jesus taught, don't be called master.
Don't be called rabbi.
Don't be called father.
So I think he's a little bit, you know, oh, so you're a master of Israel and you don't
know these things.
You are supposedly this authority.
You're taking on this title that God prohibits you that's a puffed up title, master.
And yet you don't know these things.
Why don't you know these things?
Why?
Because you're like the blind leading the blind, Nicodemus.
You're a teacher.
You're a master.
You're a leader.
You're a ruler of the Jews and you don't even know what salvation means.
And so that's what he's rebuking him for.
He says, verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know and testify that
we have seen and ye receive not our witness.
So by using the plural ye there, he's lumping him in with all the other Jews or the other
Pharisees specifically.
And saying, you know, you're not receiving our witness.
Who's the hour there?
What's the plural there?
Well, some people say it could be Jesus and his apostles because they're all preaching
the same message or Jesus and the father because he talked about how he doesn't just bear witness
of himself, but he bears witness and the father bears witness also.
So the hour witness could be referring to him and the father.
He says, you receive not our witness.
If I've told you earthly things and you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you of
heavenly things?
So now notice how Nicodemus is fully lumped in with the Pharisees.
Now with all those plural pronouns, instead of being verily I say unto thee, verily I
say unto thee, it's plural now, right?
You don't receive our witness.
You don't understand.
You don't believe.
And so he's clearly not saved.
I mean, you can see right here, he's an unsaved man.
He does not believe he does not receive the witness.
It says in verse 13, and no man had to send it up to heaven, but he that came down from
heaven, even the son of man, which is in heaven.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be
lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
So he's preaching to him and explaining to him what he needs to do to get saved.
I mean, this is some of the clearest scripture in the whole Bible on how to get saved.
I mean, he's giving salvation to this guy on a silver platter, as dense as he is.
And as much as he's struggling to understand it, it's being handed to him on a silver platter
here with John 3.16 being pulled out and preached to him.
Now it says in verse 13, no man had to send it up to heaven, but he that came down from
heaven, even the son of man, which is in heaven.
It seems here that Jesus is purposely hitting him with more difficult concepts.
Jesus is not softening this up for him.
He's not saying, oh, you know, this, this is hard for you to understand.
You want to grasp everything well here, let me just make it really easy for you.
He's making it really easy for him to know how to get saved.
He's making it really easy for him to know what the step is to pull the trigger and receive
Christ and be saved.
All he has to do is believe on him.
So he's making that really clear, but you know what?
He's hitting him with more difficult concepts that he's not going to understand.
Why?
Because Nicodemus has to learn to accept the word of God by faith and understand later.
Believe now, fully grasp later.
Why?
Because you're not going to understand it until after you're saved.
And so you're not saved.
So you've got to believe and get saved, then you'll understand it.
It's interesting that the story of the transfiguration in Matthew, Mark and Luke, it's right after
the part where Jesus says, who do men say that I am?
And then they say who other people say they were, and then who do you say that I am?
And then Peter of course confesses, you're the Christ.
And then he blesses him for that.
And then he begins to break down to them about the death, burial and resurrection and so
forth.
And then right after that, they get to see Jesus, Peter and James and John get to see
Jesus transfigured on the Mount of Transfiguration in all his glory.
But isn't it interesting how they confess Christ first, then they see the glory.
And this is how it works.
You believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, then you see the kingdom of God.
Then you see God and Jesus in all of their glory and understand the glory of it all.
But the unsaved man has to take that step of faith and receive Christ as savior.
It has to start with being born again.
That has to be the first thing.
So he's got to believe.
It isn't hard, but he has to just simply take that one step of believing, not knowing and
understanding everything about it, but just believing it.
So he hits him with this difficult thing.
He's already hit him with being born again.
He talked about the wind.
He talked about these things.
But then he says, no man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven,
even the Son of Man which is in heaven.
And this is a major theme in the book of John, how Jesus has come down from heaven over and over again.
He's come down from heaven and he's going back up to heaven.
Now, this is a difficult passage because he says that the Son of Man is in heaven.
How can these things be?
Nicodemus would ask, right?
How can these things be?
I'm sitting here talking to you.
How can you be in heaven?
How can that be?
Well, first of all, I believe it because I'm not Nicodemus.
I believe what Jesus says, and then I understand it later, but I'll believe it immediately.
If Jesus said it, it must be true.
I believe that this is because Jesus transcends space and time being deity.
Now, I think one of the strongest proofs for this is the fact that Jesus Christ, the Lamb
of God, is said to be in the presence of those that are burning in hell for all eternity.
Keep your finger here and go to Revelation chapter 14.
Go to Revelation chapter number 14.
Revelation chapter 14.
Now, obviously, the Lord Jesus Christ, when he became flesh and dwelt among us and lived
on earth as a human being and went through a human existence of being born and growing
up and living his life and dying, he went through an entire human lifetime among us
in history.
He basically entered time.
He enters history and he lives that timeline.
But he was in the beginning with God and he was God.
And what you have to understand is that in the beginning, eternity past, space and time
are probably not even a thing.
That's all part of the creation.
God creates time.
He creates days and nights and the evening and the morning or the first day, the evening
and the morning.
That was truly the beginning.
That's when time begins.
But Jesus already existed before that.
He was in the beginning with God and he was God.
And what we see in Revelation chapter 14, let me flip over there myself, is this warning
about people burning in the lake of fire.
It says in verse 9, and the third angel followed them saying with a loud voice, if any man
worship the beast in his image and receive his mark and his forehead or in his hand,
the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture
into the cup of his indignation and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone.
Watch this.
In the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb.
So we see that those who are burning in the lake of fire, outer darkness, the Bible says
they are in the presence of the lamb.
From the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever and they have no rest
day nor night who worship the beast in his image and whosoever receiveth the mark of
his name.
So Jesus Christ is their present in hell in the sense that when they're being tormented
in the lake of fire, they're in the presence of the lamb.
They're in his presence.
He's there.
The Bible talks about the spirit of God.
If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
If I ascend into heaven, behold, thou art there.
Whither shall I go from my spirit?
So the spirit of God is everywhere, but also the Lord Jesus Christ himself being deity
is not limited to a certain space and time.
And so that's how I believe he's able to be in heaven and he's able to be speaking with
Nicodemus right there.
And in a sense, metaphorically, you know, where two or three are gathered together in
Christ's name, hey, there he is in the midst.
But of course, physically, literally seated at the right hand of the father in heaven.
So obviously this is difficult for us to understand all these things, but we don't want to be
like a Nicodemus that says, well, if I can't fully understand it, then I'm just not going
to believe it.
Well, I'm going to believe it first and understand it later.
And the thing about Jesus is that even though Jesus was born in Bethlehem, that's when the
word became flesh and dwelled among us, right?
And he was born and lived his physical lifetime, but yet we see him in the Old Testament appearing
in bodily form in the Old Testament.
Now, doesn't that seem a little bit out of order?
Because we know that obviously Jesus was in the beginning with God, he was God.
At some point he became flesh though, because at some point he came into the womb of the
Virgin Mary, right?
And he's there just as a tiny little baby that's growing in his mother's womb and he's
there for nine months growing in his mother's womb and then he's born and he grows up into
an adult.
But yet we see Jesus in the Old Testament showing up, not just spiritually, not just
showing up as an apparition or a ghost or a spirit, but we see him showing up in the
Old Testament actually in the flesh as a grown man.
Doesn't that seem a little bit out of order to you that he's walking up to Abraham in
Genesis 14 in the form of Melchizedek or walking up to Abraham in the tent door in the heat
of the day in Genesis 18 or showing up in the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach and
Abednego?
And you say, well, how do you know that these are physical manifestations?
Because in Genesis 18, he actually eats a meal with Abraham, he actually shares food
with Abraham and obviously that's not something that just a spirit or a ghost would do.
That's why Jesus after his resurrection eats with the disciples repeatedly.
He's constantly asking for food because he wants them to understand that he is flesh
and bone there.
He said, a spirit hath not flesh and bone as you see me to have.
You know, come handle me.
Here, do you have anything to eat?
He eats with them, he drinks with them, but even in the Old Testament, Jesus shows up
and eats with them.
Now, here's what I think.
And again, this is hard for us to wrap our minds around and fully understand.
You know, I believe that that's Jesus basically just going outside of time, you know, that
he could basically go back and appear to Abraham or appear to Melchizedek because he dwells
outside of time.
You know, God is basically standing outside of time and I believe this would include the
Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, that God can stand outside of time and look at the
whole picture and see all of it at once, see all of history at once.
That's why to him a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day because
he's not limited to it.
We're stuck in this moment in time.
We're proceeding forward moment by moment, day by day, and Jesus did go through that
experience when he came to this earth and lived that way, but he also has an existence
that transcends time and space.
And I think there's a lot of evidence for that in the Bible, Revelation 14, John 3,
all the Old Testament appearances.
When you put it all together and understand that Jesus was in the beginning with God,
he was God, you see that even the Son of God transcends space and time.
And so that's what I think is meant there in John chapter 3.
I'm not going to try to explain that to Nicodemus though because I don't think he's going to
get it.
He doesn't accept these kind of teachings, okay, because Jesus tried to explain other
things to him and he didn't get it, but I believe that.
He says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man
be lifted up.
This is a great play on words.
Jesus being lifted up, because lifted up in one sense means exalted, right?
To lift him up would be to exalt him, right?
To glorify him, he's going to be glorified.
And that's what Jesus talks a lot about in John, you know, now the hour has come for
the Son of Man to be glorified, right?
But it's also a physical lifting up from the earth because he's actually going to be lifted
up.
He's going to be nailed to a cross and physically lifted up.
That's why later in the book of John, he says, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto
me.
And it says that he spake that signifying his manner of death, that he would be lifted
up and draw all men unto him.
But it's a play on words because also if he's lifted up or exalted, that will draw men unto
Christ.
It's talking about his crucifixion, just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
which is a picture of Jesus becoming sin for us, because when he's lifted up on the cross,
he takes the sins of the world upon him.
He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him.
And what better picture for sin than a serpent, right?
Serpent representing the devil and deception that sin brings.
And so we see that as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal
life.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
So did Nicodemus get saved?
Did he believe this?
I mean, when John 3 16 came, did his heart burn within him?
And he broke down and said, Lord, save me.
I believe, help thou my unbelief.
I'm ready to follow you, right?
I'm ready to believe in you.
I don't believe that Nicodemus ever got saved.
Now let me give you some other scriptures on Nicodemus, because he's mentioned two other
times.
Let's look at these.
And then I'm going to give you some thoughts on this.
Go to John chapter 7.
So he's mentioned in chapter 7, and he's mentioned in chapter 19.
And I'll tell you who he reminds me of the most of any Bible character.
If I were to liken Nicodemus to a Bible character, it's Pontius Pilate.
He's so much like Pontius Pilate in that he wants to be nice to Jesus.
He kind of has a soft spot for Jesus.
He's a little bit drawn to Jesus.
He thinks that there's something to Jesus, but he's just not willing to go all the way,
is he?
He's not willing to say, I believe in Jesus.
He's the guy who's halfway to getting saved, always halfway to getting saved, and never
gets there.
And you know, there are a lot of people like that.
These people that are always just kind of, you know, almost persuade us to be a Christian.
And they're always halfway there, and they never get to the destination.
And that's what Nicodemus is like, and that's what Pilate's like.
Because look at him over, just like Pilate pipes up and tries to defend Jesus to the
Jews, but in the end, he delivers them to be crucified.
And he won't believe in him.
When Jesus tries to preach to him spiritual things, you know, Pilate says, well, what
is truth?
You know?
Don't you know I have the power to destroy you?
Right?
So he's a far cry from trusting Christ as his savior, Pilate.
He has good feelings toward Christ, well, so did Nicodemus.
Look what it says in John chapter 7.
The officers, verse 46, this is one of my favorite statements in the book of John.
Boy, this really sums up the book of John.
They sent these officers to go arrest Jesus.
At the end of verse 45, they said, why have you not brought him?
The officers answered, never man spake like this man.
Then answered them, the Pharisees, are you also deceived?
Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him?
But this people who know not the law are cursed.
So isn't this funny how in verse 48, have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed
on him?
Huh?
This is Nicodemus' chance to say, I believe on him.
What does Nicodemus say?
Nicodemus saith unto them.
So here's, oh man, Nicodemus is going to pipe up.
He that came to Jesus by night being one of them.
Every word in the Bible is for a reason.
He's one of them.
He's still one of them, right?
Does our law judge any man before it hear him and know what he doeth?
They answered and said unto him, shut up.
Are thou also of Galilee?
Search and look, for out of Galilee arises no prophet.
So he gets shut.
They shut the door on him pretty hard.
I added the word shut up there, but they, they, they, they shut the door on him pretty
hard.
Don't they?
You know, he's just like, um, excuse me, but, um, does our law judge anybody before
it hears him?
Maybe he's just going, no, there's no prophet that comes out of Galilee.
Okay.
Sorry.
Sorry about that guys.
This is weak.
If you're going to get all excited here about Nicodemus piping up for Jesus, it kind of
reminds me of when the Hollywood actors pipe up and say some super weak statement about
God or Jesus.
And everybody's like, oh, that's so great.
Oh, look, Nicodemus is really going to bat for Jesus.
Really?
He gives us this weak question of like, well, I mean, you know, shouldn't we kind of hear
him out a little bit?
What kind of like you, it didn't help you.
You're still a Pharisee.
There's no record of him getting saved.
And you know what?
I'm going to base what I believe on what the Bible says, not on what it doesn't say.
Bible doesn't have anything to say except you believe not, you receive not our witness.
And then he's one of them and kind of goes to bat for him.
Well, you know what?
So did Pontius Pilate and he's in hell right now as well.
But look at the last time he's mentioned John 19.
This cracks me up because Nicodemus is almost like a caricature of the guy who just doesn't
get it.
He doesn't get it, right?
You got to be born again.
Doesn't get it.
The wind, you know, doesn't get it.
Son of man came down from heaven, he's in heaven.
Doesn't get it.
John 3 16 still doesn't get it.
Why?
Because he can't see the kingdom of God because he doesn't have faith.
John 19, this is the final mention of our friend Nicodemus here.
Jesus has died on the cross and they put the spear in his side and immediately blood and
water issue out of the hole in Jesus' side after they stabbed him in the side with the
spear because they wanted to make sure that he was actually dead.
They wanted to remove him from the cross so that they can get him buried just quickly
before the Sabbath day.
They got to just quickly get him in there before it's past the time when they could
do any work or anything.
And it's leading into not the Saturday Sabbath but actually the Passover.
That's why it says that particular Sabbath was a high day.
A high day is another word for a holiday, you know.
And so holidays were Sabbaths unto the Lord.
They weren't supposed to work on the Passover.
They weren't supposed to work on other holidays.
So basically they have to get him off the cross and get him in the tomb before the Sabbath,
before the rest period begins.
And that's why he gets put in a tomb that's really close by.
The tomb is just right there because they're just going to put him straight to the tomb,
right?
And it says in verse number 38, and after this Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple
of Jesus but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the
body of Jesus.
And Pilate gave him leave and he came therefore and took the body of Jesus.
And there came also Nicodemus who was secretly a disciple of Jesus but for fear of the Jews.
Is that what it says?
No, it doesn't say that.
See, it specifically said about Joseph, hey, this guy believed in Jesus.
This guy was a disciple of Jesus.
He just was doing it secretly for fear of the Jews.
Who is Nicodemus?
Well, he's just the one that at first came to Jesus by night back in chapter 3.
So there's no change in his status here of, hey, now he believes but he's keeping it a
secret.
It's not there, is it?
But this just kind of cracks me up.
He came to Jesus by night and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a 100-pound weight.
That seems a little bit excessive.
Now, you know, admittedly, I'm not an expert on embalming a corpse.
But showing up with 100 pounds of myrrh and aloes, that seems a little bit, that seems
like a lot.
I mean, that seems excessive, 100 pounds.
I mean, you could just see Nicodemus showing up with just 100, you know, he's got a dolly
or something and he's just, he's bringing up 100 pounds.
I mean, they only have literally minutes to get this guy in the tomb, right?
I mean, they're taking him down from the cross and it's like, we're going to bury him in
a tomb that's right here.
We're going to wrap him in linen, stick him in the tomb.
And he's like, well, I got 100 pounds of this stuff.
Now, you know, the Bible tells us that weight, it's kind of strange, isn't it?
Why did he bring so much?
Why?
What is it?
You know, I think what it is, is he's trying to do everything to fall all over himself
just to show how supportive he is and what a nice guy he is and how friendly he is toward
Christ.
But guess what?
He's not saved.
And this is kind of like what I was talking about this morning.
The people who want it, they want to give you water and they want to give you everything,
but they don't want to hear the gospel.
They don't want to receive the gospel.
They don't want to believe in Christ.
They'll do anything else though.
And it seems like he's kind of just going overboard here just to show what a nice guy
he is and how supportive he is, but he's still not saved.
This is the guy who goes to church and he throws a ton of money in the offering plate.
You don't think that they're unbelievers who go to church and they just want to be an upstanding
guy in the community and they'll even tell you, hey, you know, I think Christianity is
great.
I think the morals are great.
I think it does great things for society.
And so, yeah, I'll donate $20,000 toward the new fellowship hall.
You know, I'll donate $50,000 toward the new renovations of the building.
You know, if I get my name on a little plaque, that'd be great.
You know, and maybe we can even name some wing of the building after me or something,
you know, the Nicodemus hall or, you know, Nicodemus fellowship area or whatever.
You know, these people, they want to throw money at Christ because this is expensive
stuff.
And he bought too much.
And he's just throwing all this expensive stuff like, here you go, Christ, you know,
I got 100 pounds.
I know we've only got about 20 minutes here, but I've got 100 pounds of aloe and myrrh
to involve him.
Now I heard someone say, you know, that the attitude was, Hey, just stay dead.
You know, I don't, I don't buy that interpretation necessarily that, that, that, that this symbolizes
his desire to keep Jesus dead.
Okay.
I think a more realistic interpretation here of why he brought so much and why the Bible
tells us about this crazy amount of embalming that he brought is just to show that he's
trying to give a huge donation.
He's giving money.
He's just trying to fall all over himself and go overboard to show just how friendly
he is toward Christianity.
But you know what, if you're not saved, it's not going to do you any good.
You've got to believe in Christ.
You've got to be born again, Nicodemus.
It's not enough to just go to church, show up around Jesus, put money in the plate, you
know, stand up for Jesus, sort of, kind of barely at the water cooler or be, be positive
toward Christians or something like that.
No, you've got to believe.
You've got to have salvation.
You've got to be born again.
And I don't see any of it.
This is the last time we see Nicodemus and I don't see any evidence of him being saved.
You know, he didn't get it right.
So back to John three, we'll finish up here in John chapter three.
So this is why I say he's like Pontius Pilate because Pontius Pilate is this guy who's kind
of vacillating.
He's going back and forth.
He wants to be nice to Jesus.
He sticks up for him a little bit.
But in the end, what does he do?
He ends up being just as guilty as King Herod because when the apostles preach about it
in Acts, they talk about how Herod and Pilate and the Jews killed him, you know, and he's
just lumped in and, and you know, the blood is not, he can wash his hands all his, all
he wants and say, Hey, you know, I'm free for the blood of this just person.
But guess what?
He wasn't, he was guilty.
He was, he was, he participated in the death of Christ.
There's no question about that.
Nicodemus, you know, Pilate can wash his hands, Nicodemus can, can bring a whole truckload
of embalming spices, but you know what?
It's not going to do him any good because he's not saved.
He didn't bleed.
So back to John chapter three here and we see a little bit further explanation and all
of this ties in with Nicodemus.
You know, he's saying all this to Nicodemus all the way up to verse 21.
So look at verse 17.
For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world that the world through him
might be saved.
He that believeth on him is not condemned.
He that believeth not is condemned already because he had not believed in the name of
the only begotten son of God.
And that's exactly where Nicodemus is because he has not believed on him as the son of God.
Look at verse 19.
And this is the condemnation that light is coming to the world and men loved darkness
rather than light because their deeds were evil.
And you know, what does this say about the Pharisees?
Because he's just finished saying, you receive not our witness.
You believe not.
I told you earthly things.
You don't believe.
You don't listen.
You're not getting it.
Everyone that doeth evil, verse 20, hateth the light.
Neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved.
But he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest, that
they are wrought in God.
This is an indirect indictment on the Pharisees for being wicked people.
That's why they're not coming to Christ.
If the Pharisees would have been doers of truth, they would have come to the light.
That's what the Bible says, right?
He that doeth truth cometh to the light.
He that doeth evil hateth the light.
And there's no question that the Pharisees in general hated the light.
Now, Nicodemus does not appear to hate the light.
We see him being positive even in chapter 19, bringing the spices.
We see him in chapter 7, kind of half-heartedly sticking up for Jesus a little bit.
He's here in chapter 3.
So he's not in that reprobate category that just hates the light.
He is kind of coming toward the light here, but he's not getting all the way in.
The Pharisees, on the other hand, in general, most of the Pharisees, the Bible declares
them as reprobates.
If you would flip over to John chapter 12.
And the way that John, the way the book of John breaks down is that the first 12 chapters
of John are Christ's public ministry, right?
And then in chapter 13 is when he starts to deal with just the disciples.
You know, he's at the Last Supper, and he's dealing with just the disciples, and he gives
them all those teachings in chapter 14, 15, 16, 17, where he's teaching the disciples.
You know, just a very small group there are hearing his teachings.
But everything up until that is more him, you know, confronting the Pharisees, doing
a lot of public miracles and things like that.
So he does seven major miracles, okay?
I'll try to get this right off the top of my head, what the seven miracles are in the
book of John.
But first of all, in chapter 2, he turns the water into wine, right?
In chapter 4, he heals the son of the man that comes to him.
And the son has the fever, and he's at the point of death.
So he heals that guy in chapter 4.
In chapter 5, there's the impotent man by the pool of Bethesda that, you know, there's
the stirring of the water.
He can't get there fast enough.
So he heals that guy in chapter number 5.
Chapter 6, we have Jesus feed the 5,000.
And then also in chapter 6, he walks on the water.
And then a little bit later in chapter 8 or 9, he heals the blind man, the man who was
born blind early in chapter 9.
And then in chapter number 11, of course, the climax, the big one, raising Lazarus from
the dead, right?
So we have these seven signs, these seven miracles that Christ does, you know, basically
showing manifesting forth his glory, the Bible says in John chapter 2 with these seven
miracles.
And then he also makes seven statements that kind of roughly correspond with these miracles.
He makes these seven I am statements, right, identifying himself with the burning bush,
right?
The angel of the Lord speaking to Moses out of the burning bush, giving the name of God,
I am.
I am that I am.
You know, before Abraham was, I am.
But then he gives these seven I am statements where he says, I'm the true vine.
And that makes you think of what?
You know, that you could tie that in with the miracle of turning the water into wine,
right?
He's the true vine.
And then, of course, you have the miracle of feeding the 5,000.
I'm the bread of life, right?
Healing the blind man.
I'm the light of the world.
Raising Lazarus from the dead.
I'm the resurrection and the life.
So you can see how these statements in many ways correspond with the seven miracles, okay?
And then he makes the other statement, I'm the good shepherd.
He makes the other statement, I'm the door of the sheep.
And then he makes the statement, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father but by me.
So you have these seven statements backed up by seven miracles.
So four of them are very easy to connect.
The other three do connect just a little bit more obscurely.
Like the way, the truth, and the life, I would tie that in with chapter four when he heals
the guy's son because he says, go your way.
Your son's healed.
And while the guy's on his way, they come to him and tell him, your son lives.
And he says, what time did he amend?
And then when he hears that, it was the same hour that Jesus said unto him, thy son liveth.
While he's on the way, he learns the truth that his son is alive.
And then also like the impotent man who's by the sheep market with the five porches,
that has to do with I'm the door of the sheep.
And so you can draw the connections.
It's like the rest of the Bible.
Some things in the Bible are really simple and easy, and then other things in the Bible
you have to dig a little bit deeper.
I'm the good shepherd.
I would tie that in with the miracle where Jesus shows up and walks on the water, stills
the storm and so forth, because you could tie that in with, you know, he leads me beside
the still waters, because he's the good shepherd.
And yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil
for thou art with me.
Because they're afraid.
And he says, why are you fearful?
He calms the fear.
So some of them are a little bit more of a stretch, and then some of them are just crystal
clear and obvious, okay?
But all that to say this, he does all these miracles.
He makes these powerful statements.
The public side of his ministry is winding down in chapter 12, and then it's going to
be just, boom, the Last Supper with his disciples and on to crucifixion, right?
So that's why it makes sense that this comes in chapter 12, this statement in verse number
37.
But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him, that the
saying of his eyes the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our
report and to whom with the arm of the Lord been revealed.
Therefore they could not believe, because that as Ziah said again, he hath blinded their
eyes and hardened their heart, that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with
their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.
So we see that there were many, and it wasn't all the Pharisees, it wasn't everybody, but
it was the majority of the Pharisees, it was most of the rulers of the people, and a lot
of just the Joe Israelite that were there, that basically were to a point where they
could not believe.
I mean, they were done.
They blasphemed the Holy Ghost, their heart was hardened, their eyes were closed, and
he said they could not believe.
Isn't that what it says?
In verse number 39, therefore they could not believe.
Why couldn't they believe?
Because he'd already done all these miracles before them, and they didn't believe in that.
They heard the preaching, they rejected it, they rejected it, and just like Pharaoh hardened
his heart, eventually God hardened his heart.
These people hardened their heart to Christ, and then eventually God hardened their heart,
and so they had become reprobate.
So I think that that's what he's alluding to in John chapter 3, the immediate context,
when he talks about how men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are
evil.
These are the people you're hanging around with, Nicodemus.
These are your buddies.
This is your church, Nicodemus.
This is your religion.
The reason that they don't believe in me, Nicodemus, the reason that they get up and
boast and say, none of the Pharisees have believed in him, none of the chief rulers
have believed, none of us have believed in him.
You know, there are a few people that are kind of like, actually I believe in him.
Because some people, the Bible does say, did believe in him, like Joseph of Arimathea,
but they didn't do it openly for fear of the Jews.
I just don't believe Nicodemus was one of them.
He's on the fence.
Jesus is trying to point out to him that the reason why the Pharisees don't believe in
him, the reason why the leadership of Israel doesn't believe in him is because they're
wicked people.
And there's more evidence of that when it talks about how the Pharisees were full of
extortion and excess, right?
And they devoured widows' houses and for a pretense made long prayer, and that's why
they would receive the greater damnation.
Or even in the book of John, when the woman is taken in adultery and he says, he that
is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her, they're convicted of their
own consciences.
What, because they took a pencil one time from work because they thought a bad thought
one time?
You know, they'd probably done stuff that was on par with adultery themselves to be
convicted when he says, he that's without sin among you, let him first cast a stone
at her.
Chances are they'd been into some pretty bad stuff.
If they're full of excess, they're full of iniquity, they're rotten people, they're criminal
in some of the things that they would do.
But outwardly, they appeared righteous unto men.
He said, no Pastor Anderson, the Pharisees, they were just, they were really separated.
They just didn't believe in Jesus, but they lived a really clean life.
That's not what Jesus said.
Jesus said in Matthew 23, he said, well, the things that they bid you observe, that observe
and do, but do not according to their works because they say and do not.
They bind heavy burdens upon men and grievous to be born, but they won't touch them with
their little finger.
So he's saying the Pharisees preached clean living.
They preached righteousness.
They preached a separated life and he said, yeah, follow their preaching, just don't do
what they do because they are rotten people.
That's the teaching of the gospels in regard to the Pharisees, that they're rotten people.
I think that's what he's trying to get across to Nicodemus here is that the Pharisees don't
believe in me.
They're not coming to the light.
I'm the light of the world, but they're not coming to me because they're rotten, because
they are wicked, because they are evil.
So Nicodemus has a choice.
Is he going to align himself with evil?
Is he going to stay with the Pharisees or is he going to come to Christ?
And he appears to stay with the Pharisees.
That's what all the evidence points to.
And so the lesson here for us is that people need to get saved through the preaching of
God's word by putting their faith and trust in Christ.
They need to just believe the word of God.
The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it.
Salvation's not hard.
He's the bread of life, right?
Just take a bite.
He's the true vine.
You know?
Just take a sip.
Drink the water of life freely.
Take a drink of water.
Eat a piece of bread.
Open a door.
It's all these illustrations in John showing you how easy it is to be saved just by believing.
But the Nicodemuses of this world, man, they want to understand everything.
You've run into these people at the door, haven't you, out so many?
They're just like, you know what?
I'm just not the type of guy that just believes in something just because I heard it.
I need to see the evidence.
And they're very proud of that sometimes, aren't they?
You know, I need to see proof and I'm really a skeptical person and I really think for
myself.
Oh, that's great.
All right.
Well, that's not going to do you a lot of good on Judgment Day when you're standing
before the white throne and you say, there wasn't enough evidence.
Hey, you have to be converted and become as little children to enter into the kingdom
of God.
You have to have faith.
Without faith, it's impossible to please him.
He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them to diligently
seek him.
And you say, well, but what makes one man believe and another man not believe?
Well, you know, he that doeth truth cometh to the light.
You know, if someone's sincere in their heart, if they seek, they'll find.
If they knock, it'll be opened.
If they ask, they'll receive.
And sometimes we need to drag people into the kingdom of God.
We need to pull them out of the fire, you know, and, and, and really try our, but at
the end of the day, you can take the horse to the water, but you can't make them drink.
They have to take that water of life freely.
And there are a lot of reasons why people don't get saved and that's a whole sermon
in of itself.
Why don't people get saved?
What's stopping them?
There are all kinds of answers to that question.
Pride is probably the biggest thing, but there are a whole bunch of answers to that question
of different obstacles in the way of people getting saved, why they don't get saved.
But the, but at the end of the day though, they have to get saved.
It's not optional.
They must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ because he that believeth not, what did Jesus
tell Nicodemus here in verse 18?
He that believeth not is condemned already.
He's already condemned.
You're condemned Nicodemus.
Your Pharisee buddies are condemned.
The Sadducees are condemned.
You need to believe on Jesus.
You've already been bit by the serpent.
Now you need to look and live Nicodemus.
And this should be our message when we go out and preach to the lost is that they need
to hear the word of God and believe on Christ, right?
Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God.
They hear and believe and call upon the Lord as their savior.
It's easy, but that's what it takes.
And unfortunately, many people today have made a God out of science or Darwinism, atheism,
evolution, the big bang, whatever, uh, this, this rational religion or logic, this religion
of logic or science.
And we, we literally worship that as a nation today.
And because of that, it's making it hard for people to enter into the kingdom of God because
they're so hung up on the scientific method.
You know, of course, the scientific method goes out the window when it comes to stuff
that they want to believe in, like the big bang and evolution.
But when it comes to the word of God, all of a sudden they have a real high standard
for proof, but, but here's the thing, it doesn't matter what the standard is for proof.
Faith is the evidence.
Okay.
It's a spiritual matter.
Getting saved is of the spirit.
It's the heart.
It's not something where you can logic people into getting saved.
You know, at the end of the day, if someone just has to logic everything and, and just,
how can these things be, you know, what they're going to be is agnostic, agnostic.
You know what agnostic means?
I don't know.
And that's what, that's what probably most people in America are right now.
They're just like, I don't know.
Well, why don't you know, why are you agnostic?
Well, because I just don't understand everything.
I just haven't figured it all out.
You know, I just haven't seen the evidence.
Well, here's the thing about that.
If I were unsaved, if I were agnostic and I don't know what's going to happen for eternity,
I don't know what's going to happen after I die.
I don't know where we came from.
I don't know who created this or whatever.
Then you know what I would do?
I would make that the number one priority to figure that out.
And if somebody came to your door saying to you, Hey, can I take five, 10 minutes and
show you what the Bible says, you know, they ought to be all ears.
I mean, they ought to just be saying, Oh man, yeah, show me.
Cause I'm in fact, my whole life is dedicated to this very question, but if their life truly
were dedicated to that question and they were sincere, then they would end up at the cross.
That's and everybody that you run into who's saved and you get their testimony, you know,
is a truth seeker and they're seeking the truth and they get saved.
They come to Christ.
Okay.
You, you run into that testimony all the time, but it has to be by faith.
You come on God's terms, not on America's terms, not on the science department's terms.
You come on God's terms, you come to him on your knees.
You don't come to him telling him, well, you know, I know you're a teacher come from God
and everything, but I mean, you know, you got to explain this stuff.
He's just like, here, let me give you something even harder to understand.
And then let me just tell you how to get saved.
And if you get born again, you'll understand.
But he goes away back to his Pharisaical garbage.
That's where he ended up by all the evidence.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for the fact that we're saved Lord and Lord, thank you
that we do understand.
Thank you that we can see the kingdom of God and we will enter the kingdom of God.
We have been born of the spirit and we have everlasting life and we understand the mysteries
of the kingdom of God.
Thank you so much for opening our eyes and, and being, being our light and our salvation
and Lord, we just pray that you would help us to shine that light to the lost Lord and
help us not to fall into the trap of trying to argue people into salvation or logic them
into salvation.
Lord, help us to preach the word of God.
Help us to preach the gospel.
Help us to preach Christ crucified because that is what is going to regenerate the loss
when they are born again by believing on the son Lord.
Help us to always keep that spiritual focus and not become carnal in our thinking like
Nicodemus was.
And in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.