13
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
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
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
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
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?