Changed by Faith (John 3) | Mike Mazzalongo | BibleTalk.tv
Jesus, the God-Man, the Gospel of John chapter 3, We’re gon na, do verses 1 to 16. Today We’re always keeping our eye on three main ideas that John is weaving into a single narrative.
I continue to mention this as very important.
Today,’s lesson is in chapter 3, where Jesus has an encounter with Nicodemus Nicodemus, an elder and a teacher of the nation of Israel, and we’re going to see in their exchange.
That John is allowing Jesus, the God-Man to allow us to see Him teaching with authority and revealing what only God could reveal to someone who is seeking.
So Jesus reveals His divinity through miracles, but also teaching, and we wonder 39.
How does He do that? Through teaching well by teaching things that only God could teach by revealing things that only God could reveal So we’re going to see that in John chapter 3.
So the essence of their dialogue is about change.
The change that’s necessary to enter into the kingdom of heaven.
We often hear the expression saved by faith and it’s true, of course, saved by faith.
But the reason that we are saved by faith is that faith changes us that’s. Why we’re saved by faith because our faith has the power to change us, and the change that is wrought in us that is created in us by faith.
We go from death to life that’s.
Why faith saves us Without faith? We’re dead, spiritually With faith.
We come to life spiritually so that’s the meaning of that idea:’saved by faith 39.
So I want you to keep these ideas in mind as we study Nicodemus’ meeting with Jesus in Chapter 3 in your Bibles, I’ll throw these up on the board in Chapter 3, beginning verses, 1 and 2 read along with me.
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him’Rabbi.
We know that You have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him and Jesus answered and said to him Truly truly, I say to you: unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God,’ So notice Nicodemus, he comes after dark.
He’s in fear, of his position and wants to hang on to his position.
He’s a leader public person. He was a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling religious body made up of 70 priests.
Scribes elders, He was a Pharisee Interesting about the Pharisees.
The Pharisees were a party or a sect of scribes who were extremely conservative and zealous for the law and Jewish tradition.
So they were scribes.
All Pharisees were scribes, not all scribes were Pharisees.
You understand what I’m saying So like all politicians are politicians, but some are Democrats and some are Republicans and some are something else.
So a certain number of scribes belonged to the party of the Pharisees, So Nicodemus at least believed that Jesus was a prophet and a teacher.
His miracles were a manifestation of God,’s, power and authority, and he thought well.
You’ve got to be some sort of Prophet because prophets in the Old Testament did.
Miracles, Elijah did miracles, so he was stepping up to believing. You know that there was something special about Jesus, Wasn, ‘t quite sure what it was, but he was at least ready to acknowledge that He was some kind of prophet.
The miracles that He did were a sign of that.
So Nicodemus has expressed his limited faith in coming to Jesus admitting what he does believe about Him, which is good, So Jesus in response to this begins to explain to him the principle of regeneration for which he uses the term born again, 39.
So the Lord says that unless one is born again, in other words, unless somebody has changed unless someone is regenerated, he can’t see the kingdom of God Now in other lessons in the past, I’ve explained that the kingdom of God has created and Present, when the will of God is being completed, when God’s will is being acknowledged and fulfilled, the kingdom of God exists in that place.
It’s, not a geographical place.
It’s where God’s will is being done Now in the Old Testament period, the Jews perceived the kingdom of God as a glorious earthly kingdom, where God would guarantee His people prosperity, and protection power in this world.
This was their notion of heaven, The kingdom of God, Solomon’s period, a regeneration of Solomon’s period where they had a golden time of power and prosperity under King Solomon.
They saw it as this.
This is what was going to happen Now with the revelation of the New Testament.
We’ve come to understand that the kingdom of God, as I say, is God’s will being pursued and carried out in whatever place. Now it perfectly exists in heaven and it partially exists here on earth in the form of the church.
The church is the kingdom of heaven because, in the church, God’s will is being been being done.
Jesus Christ is recognized as the Son of God.
Jesus Christ is being recognized as the Messiah that’s, God’s – will that we believe in Christ, so His will is being done in the church.
Therefore, the kingdom of God exists wherever the church exists.
Now Christ promises that the earthly kingdom of God, in the form of the church, will one day be perfected when Jesus returns and we’ll join the heavenly kingdom.
So the heavenly kingdom of God and the earthly kingdom of God will join together as one when Jesus returns.
Paul talks about this in First Corinthians, 15 verse 28.
He says When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him so that God may be all in all.
So everything comes back together again Harmony in the heavens, harmony on earth. Both kingdoms joined with God, as Lord and ruler of all No rebellion.
There’s a rebellion going on and it’s here.
It started in heaven and came to earth in the form of a fallen angel Lucifer.
It came to earth being played out here Now.
The point here is that Nicodemus was told that, to enter into this heaven or this kingdom, he had an understanding as a Jew.
He had to be reborn changed regenerated.
This was difficult for him to grasp because the Jews, in general, believed that, because they had been chosen by God did they need to change Well.
No, The thing that makes us already in heaven in the kingdom is that God chose us.
He chose Abraham and I’m a descendant of Abraham and I can prove I’m a descendant of Abraham.
I can go through the tribes I’m of this tribe or that tribe I can prove culturally and genealogically. I can prove I’m a Jew and that’s it because I’m a Jew.
I’m in I’m in Now think for a second, No change is necessary and for a person who was a scholar, an elder, a leader like Nicodemus, the thinking was that this type these guys were guaranteed.
Are you kidding me? I mean there was just you couldn’t do anymore, So Jesus says to Nicodemus.
Unless he’s reborn, he cannot enter into All the power and position and training and tradition all of this counts for nothing.
So all of this training and tradition is what it should be, it should lead you to understand that you need to be reborn, but that’s, not the understanding that Nicodemus had We look at him and we grow 39.
But what if it happened to you? What if someone said to you 39, All the religious training you’ve had has not done the trick 39.
That happened to me.
As a Catholic I mean I was born in Quebec, born as a Catholic served as an altar boy went to seminary taught Catholic school baptized as a baby, I mean.
Are you kidding me? I was not only Catholic.
I was an Italian Catholic French Catholic. You can’t get more Catholic.
When I was little anyways.
I was a good Catholic.
I went to Mass Good Friday.
All the time went to confession in the summertime.
We’d go to the monastery and we do what they call apostolic work, which was cleaning out the seminary, so the seminarians could go on vacation, but still, we were there.
I remember staying in just a little room where the priests in training would stage during the school year and then in the summertime.
We would go there and work in the fields and clean and at night we would stay there and get up at 6.
00.
A m and have mass and it was exciting. I was a young person and then to be 30 years old and to be told you were sincere, but you were mistaken ‘and At first I was insulted.
I mean I was insulted.
I would say: 39.
Wait a minute You guys you with this dinky little building here you’re telling me with the big Cathedral 300 of them in Quebec.
You’re telling me I’m wrong 39, And the answer to that was 39.
Just read your Bible! That’s all Just read your Bible’And that’s, what I did I just read the Bible and I began to see’Well yeah that’s, not what I was taught that’s, not what I was taught 39.
So Nicodemus.
Imagine this Jew elder leader, the scholar is told by this young Rabbi 39.
You have to be born again.
You have to be changed.’The same thing, I was told to me:’Yeah. You were sincere and a lot of the things you learned were correct.
Yes, there’s only one God and yes, Jesus is the Son of God.
Yes, you learned that, and that was good, but how do you respond to God?
You didn’t learn that correctly.
Just look at the Bible, 39.
The thing that was most convincing to me, as my teacher Jim Medder, said 39.
All I want you to do is compare your experience honestly to what the Bible teaches about that experience.
That’s – all I want you to do and if they match don’t change anything if they don’t match, then the change you have to make is according to what the Scripture says, not according to what you’ve been taught and That was the deal we made at the beginning when I started studying the Bible, and I mean yeah, and it made sense to me And so in verse, 4 Nicodemus said to Him: How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born.
Can he Nicodemus acknowledges that it’s impossible to repeat natural birth, So what’s Jesus talking about, he understood that a change was necessary, but he couldn’t grasp what kind of change and how could this change be accomplished.
So I want you to look at Nicodemus’attitude, Even though he was older and he was in a better social position than Jesus Jesus was just this Rabbi from nowhere Nazareth. He didn’t count for anything in this social scale of anything He wanted to know the truth, and so he humbled himself to find it.
He came by night to this young Rabbi because there was something about this young Rabbi, something He was doing in something He was teaching which rang true, and he wanted to know what that was, and so this teaches us a very important lesson.
We cannot go forward in spiritual knowledge and understanding unless we humble ourselves In James 4, 6 James says, But He gives greater grace.
Therefore, it says- God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble 39.
The grace that He gives to the humble is the ability to understand His word that’s, the grace How many times have I said to myself?
39.
Thank you, God, for allowing me to understand what Your word says.
Had I not been able to do that.
I would have been lost.
Thank you for bringing Jim and others into my life to gently, say to me. You’re, sincere, Michael, you, ‘re looking for God, Michael, and you’ve got part of the story right, Michael, but this part over here is not correct.
Look at the Bible and have the humility to obey simply what the Bible says rather than your tradition, 39, and that was tough and it’s tough.
For anybody I mean I’ve studied with a lot of people from different backgrounds, different faiths.
It’s always a difficult thing, So I think the story of Nicodemus really kind of zeroes in this idea about someone who has a preconceived notion of what religion is all about being told 39.
You’re going to have to change and I was 30.
I was still a young man, but Nicodemus is not a young man.
He’s an older man.
He’s a man whose ways have been set for many many many years Sure go ahead.
I’m.
Sorry, Yes, yes, Apollos, not only a mature man but Apollos in the book of Acts was a great speaker. He was a man who was known for his ability and his power in the scriptures.
It took a lot of humility for him to be taught by Aquila and Priscilla by two tentmakers blue collar workers were teaching this scholar a little more perfectly about the gospel Yeah.
Good point, Don thanks And so to go forward means you know when we say go forward.
Going forward means leaving some things behind.
You can’t go forward unless you leave something To get to the other shore.
You have to leave this shore, So change requires that we re-examine what we have learned, what we think, what we believe and we leave behind those things which are false or shallow or inaccurate or sinful that’s.
What going forward is that? What growing in knowledge is That? Why do we have these Bible classes? It’s not just punching in it’s, hopefully, by the end of a Bible class.
You walk away, whether it’s one lesson or a whole series.
You walk away with some knowledge that replaces some old knowledge and hopefully, some changes have to be made So verse five.
We got to move ahead. Jesus answered truly, truly, I say to you: unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God, 39, So Nicodemus humbles himself and Jesus gives him more.
Information concerning the change.
Nicodemus could have said:’Nah nah.
This is no good.
I don’t get it.
I’ll see you some other time at 39, but no, he says 39.
Well.
How does this happen? This change 39.
He humbles himself to be able to say to this young Rabbi to say: 39.
I don’t understand 39. This great man says 39.
I don’t understand.
You have to teach me 39, So the change occurs not by being a Jew, Jesus explains, or a Pharisee or a teacher.
You don’t enter the kingdom.
This way you enter the kingdom by water and the Spirit.
So in this short explanation, Jesus gives Nicodemus two insights Insight number one, is the power of regeneration, in other words, the One who makes the change happen, is the Holy Spirit of God.
Not your culture, not your studying, not your position, not your tradition! That’s not what changes the Holy Spirit of God, Insight number two: the place of regeneration is baptism.
It doesn’t happen in your mother,’s womb.
It happens in the waters of baptism, So now Nicodemus would have been familiar with these two concepts As a scholar and a Pharisee.
He knew and believed that the Spirit gave power in the Old Testament to the judges and the kings and the prophets to transform their lives and serve, Isaiah. 61 verse 1.
What does Isaiah say? 39, The Spirit of God, is upon me, So the Pharisees believed in angels life after death, the power of the Holy Spirit, to empower someone to do something or to change, and as a contemporary of Jesus Nicodemus also knew that John the Baptist, as well as Jesus, Preached that all should repent and be baptized to prepare for the kingdom to come.
That was the connection between the Spirit and the water, So in His reply to Nicodemus’ requests for more info, Jesus simply puts these two ideas together for him.
The message to the leader of the nation was no different than the message to the common people: repent and be baptized for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
He just goes in.
We get an up close and personal view of Jesus’ teaching.
John’s message.
So when the Bible talks about John the Baptist, they only say and John went about preaching repentance and baptism for the forgiveness of sins 39.
In this little image story, we get how Jesus breaks this apart to explain it, but it’s.
The same thing, So let’s go to verse. 6.
Verse 6 says That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
So Jesus continues to repeat the idea that the power source for change the change necessary to enter the kingdom comes from God, and doesn’t come from man, Whatever comes from the flesh cannot be transformed into something spiritual and vice versa.
Whatever comes from, God is spiritual, and it remains that way.
In other words, man cannot by himself change himself and avoid condemnation in some way, not by doing good, not by keeping spiritual laws, not by keeping religious traditions.
This is not how you enter into the kingdom of God.
Only God can change.
Man.
10 000 years of human history have taught us that So in verses, seven and eight Jesus continues.
He says: Do not be amazed that I said to you 39. You must be born again 39, The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going.
So is everyone who is born of the Spirit, So He continues to repeat this idea and Nicodemus is amazed.
I mean he’s, amazed that he needs to change.
He thought he was OK and he was, amazed that he can’t do it by himself.
He thought he had achieved righteousness through the law.
My tradition tells me I’m.
Ok, and my spirit tells me I’m.
Ok, because I keep all the rules of my religion, So Jesus replies that not only is the Spirit doing the work, but you can’t see the Spirit working to affect the change in you.
But the change is there nevertheless, and He compares the work of the Spirit to the wind.
You don’t see the wind. You just see its effects, You don’t see the Spirit, but you see the results of the Spirit, faith in Christ, love of others, hatred, and remorse.
For the sin I do not want to repeat the sins of my past.
That is not me who doesn’t want to do that.
That’s.
The Spirit in me doesn’t want to do that.
The flesh in me, if you offend me or hurt my feelings, the flesh in me, it wants to get even that.’s, my flesh, I want to get even I want revenge.
I want to hurt you back, You hurt me.
I’m gon na hurt you back That’s, the flesh, but the Spirit takes over and says turn the other cheek.
39.
The Spirit takes over and says 39, Forgive your enemies, 39. The Spirit takes over and says to be long-suffering and there’s a Proverb that says: 39: It is to a man’s glory to overlook an offense.
The Spirit that’s in me talking So Nicodemus in verse, 9 says: How can then these things be He’s incredulous? How does the Spirit do this? He wants more details, Not enough that the Spirit does what He does.
How does He do it? So we don’t hear from Nicodemus again until a lot later, but for now, we see Jesus, giving him more answers and more insights into the process of regeneration, In other words, that short little message by John the Baptist’Repent.
The kingdom is at hand Jesus here breaks down and gives us almost the whole sermon.
If you wish almost the whole lesson, Verses 10 and 11 Jesus answered and said to Nicodemus 39.
Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things Truly? Truly, I say to you: we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen and you do not accept our testimony.
So Jesus points out that it isn’t intelligence that’s lacking in Nicodemus it’s.
Faith Jesus tells him that what He is teaching him He does so from personal knowledge and experience not like the Jewish rabbis, who debated each other on the strength of what rabbis wrote.
In other words, when rabbis would debate rabbi A would say,’ Well.
According to rabbi D and E, this is his opinion on this matter.’ rabbi B would say:’Well, according to rabbi, F, and G. This is the opinion 39, and this is how they would do.
They would bookmark end notes.
They would quote other rabbis to build their case, but Jesus isn’t doing it.
He’s, not quoting any other rabbi.
He speaks from personal experience of what heaven is like because He comes from heaven.
He tells Nicodemus 39.
This is what you have to do to enter into heaven.
How do I know I’ve been there?
I come from there 39.
His miracles were proof that what He said was indeed the truth, And so the problem that Nicodemus was facing was that he believed the miracles, but he was having a little bit of trouble, believing in the One who did the miracles, and that was Jesus. So Jesus brings to Nicodemus the core of his problem, of not being able to perceive the truth.
It begins with this belief in Jesus.
It starts there.
There’s, no understanding of spiritual things without first believing in Jesus.
He’s the key that opens up all of the knowledge He’s, the key that explains all the parables And so in verses, 12 and 13.
Jesus continues.
If I told you earthly things and you do not believe how will you believe, if I tell you heavenly things, No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven the Son of Man, So here’s what I was saying 39.
I’m, not speaking quoting anybody.
I’m telling you how to get into heaven because I come from heaven 39, So the Lord explains to Nicodemus the necessity of faith for understanding spiritual things.
He says 39. I’m explaining things that I have seen and experienced, and you don’t believe me.
If you don’t believe me concerning things that can be explained using earthly examples like the wind and the waves.
How will you ever understand when I speak to you of heavenly things which I have seen, such as glorified bodies and angels? How will you understand when I start talking to you about what heaven is like if you don’t even understand when I talk to you using earthly examples, Because when I start talking to you about heavenly things that are in heaven, for which there are no Earthly equivalents, things that require faith to understand, not mere intelligence.
How will you understand only by faith? How did God create something from nothing? Is there some sort of physical scientific way to explain that, In other words, is there an earthly way to explain that? Well, no That’s something we accept by faith because it’s the only way we can understand it.
Why? Because it’s a heavenly thing, How God a pure spirit, created a material world out of nothing I don’t know There’s.
No math equation for that They’re searching for it.
They’re searching for a math equation that will explain everything They’ll, never find it.
Why? Because they’re, not searching for it with the eyes of faith.
Now in saying this Jesus gives Nicodemus a third piece of information.
The fact that the power of the Spirit to change a person and thus save him is ignited by faith, not intelligence, not position, not power. Salvation is possible because there is a change and a change is possible because there is faith.
So in the last section of this passage, Jesus reveals the last point upon which all the process of change and rebirth and regeneration rests, and that is the only faith that will move the Spirit to change.
Us is faith in the Savior Jesus Christ.
You can have faith in a rock faith in the moon faith in Allah faith in Muhammad faith in Vishnu.
You have faith in all those things.
It’ll change your lifestyle, but it won 39.
T change your spirit So to illustrate this point.
Jesus uses a powerful image from the Old Testament.
He says As Moses lifted the serpent in the wilderness.
Even so, must the Son of Man be lifted so that whoever believes will in Him will have eternal life? So we need a little bit of background. I think most of you are familiar with the story in the Old Testament.
Jesus makes a parallel between this incident.
That happened while the Jews wandered in the desert with Moses, and He compares His death on the cross, which is in the future at the moment, to what happened in the desert with the Jews, and He shows how faith connects these two incidents.
So in the Old Testament Numbers 21 verse 9, the Bible tells the story of the people in the desert.
They’re, tired, they’re fed up and they rebel against Moses and God, and God sends poisonous snakes among them as punishment to quell the rebellion.
Now a lot of people were dying, so they went to Moses for help and Moses prays to God – and God tells him here,’s what you’re going to do! Do You’re going to fashion a bronze serpent place it on a pole or a standard and put it in the camp and whoever comes and looks at it will be healed? And we continue to read in Numbers that all those who came to look at the snake on the pole were healed Now.
The key element for Nicodemus to understand was that it wasn’t the snake that saved the people.
It was looking at the snake that saved the people.
In other words, it was the faith that they displayed in obeying God that healed them.
I mean, God could have said’Put a porcupine up there,’or’Put a cat,’ or 39. Put a piece of bread up there:’anything.
The key was not the snake.
The snake was symbolic.
What saved them was they obeyed God in faith. He said 39.
If you do that, then this will happen.
You’ll be healed 39.
So, in the same way, the death of Christ on the cross – in other words, He was put on a pole too, if you wish He was lifted in the camp or outside the camp.
The death of Christ on the cross, all by itself, doesn’t heal men of their sins, because if it did what would happen Well, everybody in the world would be saved If the thing that regenerated you that forgave your sins was simply the death of Christ.
Every man that ever was born man, woman, and child would have their sins forgiven.
Well, no that’s not the gospel. The idea is that His offering and payment for sin the cross is looked upon with faith by those who are infected by sin.
This is what moves God to forgive men and empower them through the Spirit to change and thereby save them That’s, the parallel In the desert they looked at the snake, and that obedience of faith healed them In the New Testament.
We look upon the cross and I’ll explain in a minute how we do that we look upon the cross and that obedience of faith saves us.
There’s, the parallel that Jesus makes, And so Jesus puts all these ideas together in that golden verse.
John chapter 3, verse 16, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son – that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
So there is the motivation, God loved the world, The method He gave His only begotten Son, the cross.
The method, the obedience of faith, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have what The reward is regeneration, eternal life.
So if you were the one who had gone instead of Nicodemus, what would you have learned So a couple of lessons here. As we got five minutes, You would have learned that no one goes to heaven unless a change takes place here on earth.
First, We can’t enter the presence of God unless we are changed.
How Well we’re changed from guilty to forgiven. We’re changed from disobedient to willing to obey.
Doesn’t mean perfect to obey, but we’re willing to obey.
We’re changed from condemned sinners to accept, as sons of God Spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
I mean I could just keep going here.
So if these changes have not occurred in your life, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven that’s.
What Jesus said, What else would you have learned? You would have learned that the change takes place in a particular way.
First of all, it’s, powered by God.
He’s the power behind the change, not us.
Secondly, the change is based on faith in Christ.
Not intelligence, not self will not power, not position, not tradition. It’s powered by faith in Jesus Christ.
If you don’t believe it, then there is no change.
And thirdly, the change happens at baptism.
I should go back here there we go, the change happens at baptism, just as looking at the snake was an expression of faith ordained by God.
Remember, I said to you, He could have said 39.
I want you to go and touch the pole.
I want you to go and pray to the pole.
I want you to go run around pole 39.
He could have He didn’t say that He said 39.
You go and you look at the pole with faith that I will do this for you and it’ll happen 39. So in the New Testament baptism is that action of faith – if you wish, God could have said Jesus could have said’Clap your hands.
Three times, If you believe in Jesus Clap your hands three times to demonstrate your faith,’ or 39, Say I believe in Jesus to demonstrate your faith,’ or walk a mile with no shoes on to demonstrate your faith 39.
But that’s not what He said He said in order to demonstrate your faith, be baptized, be immersed in the water, the demonstration Is there any miracle in the water? No, there’s no miracle in the water.
We don’t believe in what’s called baptismal regeneration.
We don’t believe in that.
We believe that baptism is the biblical expression of faith that Jesus requires of us In the same way that they looked upon the snake we are immersed in water, for the forgiveness of sin, Baptism is that perfect expression of faith that results in our forgiveness and reception Of the Holy Spirit, Acts 2.
38.
That was the hardest part.
For me, I was 30 years old baptized as a baby by the Catholics baptized in a lake by the Pentecostals to join a certain sect.
When I was maybe twenty-six or seven I figured, I’d been in the water a lot, but then I read the Scripture and again Jim 39. Sword kept coming back to me,’ Is what you did.
This is what you did.
Is it the same as what Jesus outlines for you to do in the Scriptures 39, and when I did it, they didn’t fit it?
It was sort of kind of.
It was a baptism when I was a baby sprinkle, but it wasn’t.
But I didn’t repent.
I wasn’t an adult it wasn’t something I decided to do and then, when I was baptized in the lake well I was being baptized, so I could join that group.
So finally, I said now wait a minute.
In my whole life have I ever on my own decision, I believe in Jesus Christ and I will be immersed in water.
Based on that faith and the clear answer to me. I asked myself.
The question was 39.
No.
Alright, then, I’m gon na make sure that these two pieces fit properly.
It’s too important to play games with that command of Jesus and then the third thing you would learn is Jesus Christ, the center of the change, the Spirit that changes us is sent by Jesus, It isn’t faith in general.
That saves that transforms its, faith in Jesus that has the power to regenerate us.
He’s at the center of our faith.
When we are baptized, we are reenacting His death and burial, and resurrection.
We are saying we believe in His death, His burial, and His resurrection by going through a similar thing, which answers one question: That was the first bell: Some people say 39.
Why baptism Why didn’t He pick something more convenient? You know, clap your hands, raise your hand, whatever touches the TV.
Why didn’t He do that, Because baptism reenacts perfectly what Jesus did on the cross?
He was crucified, He died, and He was buried.
He was resurrected.
We crucify the old person by repenting of our sins.
We say 39, No, more of the old life, No more of the old sin, No more of the old ways We’re buried, We’re immersed in the water and then we’re resurrected from the water regenerated saved new creatures.
Children of God, absolutely assured of our salvation and eternal life, a marvelous way that God has given us to reenact Jesus death, burial, and resurrection.
If we had been with Jesus instead of Nicodemus, these are some of the things that we would have learned.
So let’s do a little epilogue.
Nicodemus’life changed after that night. You only see a few glimpses of him, but enough to observe the transformation that faith did to him In John 7 50.
He defends Jesus to the Sanhedrin, not as a disciple but as a point of law, a timid defense, but a beginning After Jesus’death, he and Joseph of Arimathea bury the Lord’s body again by night, a timid gesture, but this time counting himself As a disciple Now a tradition, not the Bible but tradition, in other words, historical writings, have it that he was finally put out of the Sanhedrin and he was baptized by Peter and John and at his death he was buried in a common grave with other Christians.
So let’s hope that Nicodemus experienced the change that he sought after when he came to Jesus by night and let’s also hope that our faith is changing us.
Not our circumstances, not our self-will, as we look to Jesus for the rebirth and the eternal life that He promises.
Remember what I said only you measure your experience with what the Scriptures say When they match you, ‘re good to go when they don’t match.
You need to adjust according to what the Scriptures say.
Alright, there we go John 3.
1 to 16 That’s it.
