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John 3:9-13 THE IMPORTANCE OF BELIEVING JESUS

Introduction:

In our text last week Nicodemus came to Jesus recognizing

that Jesus was a teacher come from God. What he failed to

recognize at that time was that Jesus is God. He is one of the

Godhead. He is one of the Holy Trinity.

Jesus told Nicodemus that except a man be born again he

cannot see the kingdom of God. That is, he cannot see heaven and

he cannot enter heaven. Nicodemus did not understand. Nicodemus

thought that Jesus was saying that one must enter again into his

mother's womb and be born again physically. He could not see

that such a thing is possible.

Jesus explained to Nicodemus that He was not talking about of

being born again physically. He was talking about the necessity

of a birth that is produced by the Holy Spirit of God could

produce.

Nicodemus still did not understand. Jesus pointed out that

neither does one understand the working of the wind, but he

accepts the existence of the wind as a fact. He can hear the

wind howl and see the leaves on the trees move. He can see the

evidence that the wind is real. Even so, one cannot fully

understand the working of the Holy Spirit as He of God produces

the new birth, but he can accept it as a fact. He can hear a

difference in that person's speech and he can see a difference in

his conduct. He can hear and see the evidence that this person

has been born again.

I. The difficulty which Nicodemus had in understanding Jesus

Nicodemus still did not understand. V. 9, "Nicodemus

answered and said unto him, How can these things be?" Nicodemus

still did not understand that the new birth is necessary in order

to get to heaven. He had been brought up to believe that being a

descendant of Abraham is necessary in order to get into heaven.

This had been a basic teaching of his forefathers for many

generations.

Furthermore, the Jews of his day taught that not all the

descendants of Abraham would make it to heaven. According to

their belief it was necessary to be in the nation of Israel to

get to heaven. The Jews were only one of several races who were

born of Abraham. There are several Arab races. But most Jews

believed that only the Jews would make it to heaven. They

believed that the only way that anybody else could get to heaven

was to become a proselyte Jew. That is, they must become a

member of the Jewish religion.

If anything else was necessary, then surely being a member of

a Jewish synagogue and doing the good deeds recommended by the

Pharisees would be a great help. Nicodemus had what must have

been considered even by himself as meeting the very ultimate in

qualifications for heaven. He was a descendant of Abraham, he

was an Israelite by birth, he was a member of a Jewish synagogue

and he was a distinguished member of the Sanhedrin Council.

Surely nothing more than all this was necessary. Or so he

thought.

But Jesus had informed him in no uncertain terms that all of

the things that he was counting on to keep him out of hell and

get him into heaven would not help at all. Jesus informed him

that the only thing that would get him into heaven was some

mysterious new birth. He just did not understand and because he

did not understand he would not accept it as truth. But, at

least, he was still inquisitive about the matter and so he asked,

"How can these things be?"

II. The irony of his failure to understand

V. 10, "Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master

of Israel, and knowest not these things?" The Greek word which

here is translated "master" means "teacher." Nicodemus, himself,

was a master, a teacher. He was a teacher in the Jewish

religion. He was a "Jewish rabbi." It was because he was

considered to be a competent rabbi that he had been selected to

sit on the Sandrin Council and help rule the nation in matters of

religion. He was considered to be one of the best rabbis.

Yet here he was, one of the most knowledgeable rabbis in the

land, and Jesus, whom he considers to be a prophet of God, tells

him that he does not know even the most fundamental teaching of

God. He is a teacher, a ruler in the Jewish religion, and Jesus

tells him that he does not even know how to get into heaven!

What a blow to his pride! This is hard for him to take. It is

hard for him to deny that Jesus is a prophet of God in view of

the miracles that Jesus has been doing. Yet it is also hard for

him to suddenly discard what he has always believed and accept

the fact that he must be born again in order to get into heaven.

It was also hard for him to understand how a fully grown man

could be born a second time. He thought that in order for one to

be born again he would have to re-enter his mother's womb. So he

asked, "How can these things be?" and Jesus responded, "How can

you be a teacher in Israel and not know the most basic teaching

of God? How can you pose as a teacher of religion when you don't

even know how to get into heaven?"

The sad thing was that Nicodemus was not the only teacher in

Israel who did not believe this basic principle. Nicodemus was

teaching a falsehood about how to go to heaven. What is worse,

there were hundreds of others who were doing the same thing.

What is worse yet is that there are thousands of other today

who are doing the same thing. Even within the ranks of

Christianity more than half the preachers preach falsehood about

how to go to heaven. They give their followers a plan for

getting to heaven that will not work. They base their hope of

heaven on their own works of righteousness. They count on their

Christian home or their church membership or their baptism or

some other works of righteousness on their part to get them into

heaven. Furthermore, , and they deny that one gets to heaven by

repenting of his sin, and placing his faith in Jesus Christ as

Savior. They deny that one gets to heaven by being born again by

the Holy Spirit of God. More than half of the preachers right

here in the United States of America preach a falsehood about how

to go to heaven.

III. The certainty of what Jesus said about the new birth

V. 11, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do

know, and testify that we have seen..." Jesus here uses the

plural term "we." "We speak that we do know and testify that we

have seen..." Jesus spoke, of course, of Himself, of John the

Baptist before him, who was His forerunner, and of His disciples

with Him." Jesus said, "We have not come telling you things that

we are in doubt about. We have told you things about which are

absolutely certain. We are telling you the truth."

John the Baptist and Jesus and His disciples were all in full

agreement that the new birth is absolutely necessary. John had

preached that men must repent of their sins and trust in the

coming Christ. They could not get into heaven by their Jewish

heritage or by their membership in the Jewish synagogue or by any

other good work. The apostles all agreed. They, too, preached

that men must repent and trust in the Christ. They were

preaching and teaching that of which they knew to be true. They

had seen the evidence in their own lives and in the lives of

others who had repented and trusted the Christ. They had seen an

outward evidence that an inward change had taken place. This was

something that all could see for themselves. It was something

that took place right here on earth where men could see the

evidence. They could not see the inside where the new birth had

taken place, but they could see the evidence on the outside ---

in the life --- in the conduct of that person.

IV. The importance of believing this basic truth

(V. 11), "...and ye receive not our witness." Nicodemus did

not believe John the Baptist. He did not believe the disciples.

He did not believe Jesus. He did not believe the words of One

whom he has already concluded is a teacher come from God. He had

been persuaded that Jesus is a prophet of God sent to Israel with

a message of God. Yet at this point he still finds it hard to

believe the message which the prophet of God has delivered.

V. 12, "If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe

not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?"

Jesus is saying, "I have told you about something which takes

place here on earth where you can see that it is so. You can see

the evidence right here on earth that what I have told you is the

truth. If you will not believe it just because I am a prophet of

God has said it, then believe it because you can see the evidence

that I am telling you the truth." Jesus said, "But since you

won't believe me when I tell you things that you can see for

yourself that they are so, how can you believe me when I tell you

things of which you can see no evidence or proof? If you cannot

take my word for that which you can see the evidence that it is

so, how can you believe me when all you have is my word?"

Listen, the Lord is gracious and good in allowing us to see

the evidence in some cases that He has told us the truth. But

when one believes that Jesus is sent from God, it should not be

necessary for Him to prove what He says. Especially when one

believes that Jesus is the Don of God then it should not be

necessary for Him to prove what HE says! Whatever He says we

should believe. We should believe it when we can reason it out

for ourselves and see the evidence. But we should also believe

just as readily when we cannot see the evidence. His word should

be sufficient. If Jesus says it we should believe it.

In Scripture He has told us that He will come again. He has

told us that He will call forth from the grave all the saved of

all the ages and they will be with Him forever. He tells us

about a great man of sin, the Beast, the Anti-Christ. He tells

us that He will imprison Satan forever in a Lake of Fire and

Brimstone and that the Beast and Anti-Christ and all of the

unsaved will be with them there forever. . He tells us that

this old world will melt with fervent heat and that from those

melted elements He will crate a new heaven and a new earth. He

tells us about a great Holy City, not made with hands, will come

down from heaven to the new earth and that He will sit upon a

throne in that city.

If we cannot believe the simpler things like the new birth

when we have plenty of evidence that this kind of change does

take place in the heart of a believer, how can we believe all of

the things about end-time events? Those are things of which

Jesus offers no proof whatsoever. He just lays out the facts as

they are and we can either believe them or reject them. But if

we are convinced that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the

virgin born One from heaven, the crucified and risen Savior, then

we ought not have any trouble believing whatever He says. We may

have a great deal of trouble understanding what He says, but we

ought not to have any trouble believing what He says.

V. Jesus speaking with first-hand knowledge from heaven

V. 13, "And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that

came down from heaven..." Jesus, in effect, said to Nicodemus,

"If you are not going to believe me, who are you going to

believe?" There was no man on earth at that time who had

ascended up to heaven. Jesus was not denying that Enoch and

Elijah had ascended bodily to heaven in the long long ago. But

He was pointing out that there was no man on earth in the days of

Nicodemus who had ever gone up to heaven and returned so that he

could tell Nicodemus what God has said. Later the Apostle Paul

would ascend up and return to earth to tell the things that God

had said to him. But even Paul said, "I do not know whether I

ascended up bodily. Whether in the body or out of the body, I do

not know."

In our own day a goodly number of people claim that they have

died and that they went to heaven and returned back to earth.

They say that they talked with God. The problem with these

people is that they cannot seem to agree on what God has said.

Most importantly, they cannot seem to agree with the Bible on

what God has said. I believe the Bible. I do not believe them.

I do not believe that they ever went to heaven and returned. I

do not believe what they have to say.

But there was One in the days of Nicodemus who had been in

heaven and could speak with authority about what God requires to

get into heaven. That One is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who

had come down from heaven.

Jesus did not directly say to Nicodemus, "Nicodemus, I am the

only person on earth at this time who has come down from heaven."

but what He did say would certainly tend to leave that

impression. He made it very clear that Nicodemus should believe

Him because He was the only One available who had come down from

heaven.

Nicodemus had already concluded that Jesus is "a teacher come

from God." Now this teacher come from God is implying that He,

Himself, is that one who has come down from heaven.

(V. 13), "...even the Son of man which is in heaven." Jesus

used the term "Son of Man" with reference to the One who is come

down from heaven to reveal the truth of God. He did not tell

Nicodemus specifically, "I am the Son of Man." But if Nicodemus

kept up with the teachings of Jesus, he would soon know that

Jesus was referring to Himself. Jesus repeatedly referred to

Himself by this term throughout His ministry. Jesus is the Son

of Man.

But what did He mean by this term "the Son of man"? He meant

that He is both man and God. He is essentially God. He was a

member of the Holy Trinity from before the foundation of the

world. He always has been God, He is God now and He always will

be God. He is God in the fullest sense. But He also is man. He

was not always man, but He was conceived of a virgin and born

into human flesh. He is a man in the fullest sense.

But listen closely now to what Jesus said about Himself as

the Son of Man. He said, "Even the Son of man which is in

heaven." Note that He did not say, "Who was in heaven" or "Who

will return to heaven," but "Who is in heaven." Now get this.

He was here on earth indwelling a human body talking to

Nicodemus. Yet at the same time He was in heaven.

Solomon once said at the dedication of the temple that the

Lord could not be fully confined within the walls of the temple.

Solomon said that God fills heaven and earth. Even so, as Jesus

walked here on earth, as man, He indwelled the body of a man, but

at the same time, as Spirit God, He fills heaven and earth. He

was on earth talking to Nicodemus and at the same time He was in

Heaven with God the Father.

VI. Questions of vital importance today

Do you want to know what truth is? Jesus is truth. The

words that He spoke to men while here on earth are truth. The

words that He has, through the Holy Spirit of God, inspired men

to write in the Holy Bible are truth. The words of the Old

Testament and the words of the New Testament are truth.

Do you want to know who speaks truth with authority? Jesus

Christ, the Son of God, who came down from heaven speaks the

truth. He speaks the truth of God because He is God. If

anybody does not agree with what He says, that person is wrong.

Nicodemus had trouble believing what Jesus had said, but

Nicodemus was wrong. Anybody, no matter who he is, who is not in

agreement with what Jesus has said is wrong. If I should say

something that is not in agreement with what Jesus says then I

would be wrong. I have been wrong and I could be wrong again,

but Jesus has never been wrong and will never be wrong.

If anybody disagrees with what Jesus says, then that person

ought to change his beliefs. It is not Jesus who needs to

change. It is the man, woman, boy or girl who disagrees with

Jesus who needs to change.

I want to zero in on one particular thing that Jesus has

said. Jesus said that a man must be born again in order to enter

into the kingdom of God. He must be born again in order to go to

heaven. Have you been born again? Thank God, Nicodemus was

finally born again. Nothing is said in this chapter that tells

us whether or not he was ever born again, but statements made

later in this same book tell us that he was finally born again.

He found it difficult to believe Jesus, but he finally did before

it was too late. Have you believed Jesus? Have you trusted in

Him as you Savior? Have you been born again? If not, then come

this morning and trust Jesus as your Savior and you will be born

again.

Conclusion:

Will you lay aside every difficulty you have had in believing

and come trusting Jesus to save your soul? Will you who are

saved come and present yourself for membership so as to serve the

Lord?