John 3:1 - Who was Jesus talking to? What kind of person was Nicodemus?

Pharisee, religious ruler of Israel, good man, upright, memorized

Old Testament, etc.

John 3:2 - How did Nicodemus regard Jesus? What had he seen Jesus do?

Like most of us, he believed Jesus was from God.

He was seeking answers to questions deep inside him.

John 3:3 - What is Jesus’ answer to Nicodemus’ unsaid question?

Is it enough to be religious like Nicodemus?

Is being "born again" an option or an absolute condition?

If we are "not" born again, can we enter the kingdom of heaven?

John 3:4 - What did Nicodemus understand the words of Jesus to mean?

Obviously physical solution can’t work for something spiritual.

John 3:5-6 - What does it mean to be born of water and the spirit?

Verse 6 clarifies: talks of physical and spiritual births.

We have already been born once from our physical parents.

We need to be born a second time - of the Spirit - to be born again.

John 3:7 - Jesus repeats the absolute condition. Can we consider it crucial?

John 3:8 - One born of the Spirit is compared to what?

- Can you hear or control the wind? But is it real?

- Can you see the wind? How about its effects?

John 3:9 - Did Nicodemus understand? What could be some possible reasons?

Trying to understand it from his "preconceived" notions, beliefs.

John 3:10 - Even though Nicodemus was a religion teacher, he didn’t understand.

Was getting to heaven dependent upon position, achievements?

We need a humble attitude, open to what God says.

John 3:11-12 - What was the problem of Nicodemus?

He refused to accept what Jesus said. Like most people, they do not

believe what Jesus said in the Word. Belief is the issue.

John 3:13 - What was Jesus’ credential?

He came from above, we haven’t.

John 3:14 - What is the comparison that Jesus makes?

We cannot understand because we do not know the Old Testament. We need to look at what the Old Testament is saying.

Draw comparison table. Fill up Moses side first.

Problem? snake’s poison in them Spiritual poison? sin

Consequence? Physical death Spiritual death - hell

Man’s state? Helpless Helpless

Solution? Look to the serpent Believe in Jesus

Who made solution? God God

Made human sense? No, medically. Man can’t understand.

Good works needed? No No (Eph 2:8-9, Titus 3:5

God’s part? Remove the poison Forgive our sins

Man’s part? Admit his sin (v.7) Admit sin (James 2:10)

Trust in God’s solution (v.9) Trust in God’s solution

Result if obeyed? He lived physically. He lived spiritually.

Eternal life!

John 3:16 - How did Jesus summarize the true meaning of "born-again?’

In closing:

Do you want eternal life? Do you want the spiritual poison removed?

Rev 3:20 - Jesus is making you a promise

- To show your trust in Him, you can say this prayer.

John 3:1 - Who was Nicodemus? What kind of person was he?

Religious - Pharisee, followed all ordinances

Intelligent - minimum requirement to be a Pharisee

Scholar - Pharisees memorized Pentateuch

Honorable, as exemplary, good man as you can find.

John 3:2 - How did he regard Jesus Christ?

Did he recognize the stamp of God?

John 3:3 - Note uncommon stress … truly, truly, - used only with crucial truth

- Jesus directly answers the real question, the one behind which was

spoken: "How can one get to heaven?"

- Jesus’ answers. Notice his stress on absolute words - can never get

into the kingdom unless born-again.

- Notice that Nicodemus characteristics were not qualifications.

John 3:4 - Did Nicodemus understand? Why not?

He approaches the issue from a completely different plane.

Jesus was speaking from a spiritual plane while Nicodemus from a

physical plane, yet all Nicodemus could see was the physical plane.

John 3:5 - Note just how serious all this was to Jesus. He says it a 2^nd time.

- Why does he say born of water and the Spirit?

- What is meant by born of water? Jesus gives the answer in the very next verse.

John 3:6 - Jesus explains by direct correlation, "that born of flesh is flesh,

referring to born of water.

- What happens just prior to childbirth? Bag of water bursts

Jesus therefore clearly distinguishes between physical birth and

spiritual rebirth, born of the Spirit, a second birth, clearly distinguishable from the first.

John 3:7 - Jesus repeats a crucial point He made in verse 3 - there are

no options! You must be born again to see the kingdom of God.

 John 3:8 - Jesus, the Master Teacher, now illustrates, using word pictures to

explain His meaning. You can feel the wind, you can see its effects,

swaying trees, ocean waves, but you cannot see the wind itself.

- To be born of the Spirit, it is to be like the wind. You can see the

effects - changed lives, new joy, love, new desires and attitudes,

peace but the Spirit Himself cannot be seen.

John 3:9-10 - Nicodemus still does not understand, but he asks the right question,

"How can this be?" The same question you are asking by being here.

- The next verses explain Nicodemus basic problem:

He knew Scripture but:

3:10-11 - He couldn’t understand

3:12 - He did not believe

3: 13 - He did not recognize Him whom the Scriptures spoke of.

- Note again that his religiosity, intelligence, goodness, scholarship

were of no help whatsoever.

John 3:14-16 - Having pointed out Nicodemus’ basic problem, Jesus now uses

- The Israelites in the midst of wandering in the desert

- Visualize them: These are very same people who had just seen great miracles,

the Egyptian plagues, the Passover, the division of the Red Sea.

- What are they doing in vv. 4-5? Grumbling, complaining.

- God’s love - How He put up with the continuous grumbling. How he suffered the

stiff- necked, ungrateful Israelites.

Num 21:7 - by acknowledging their sin

- by acknowledging their helplessness

- by turning to God

Num 21:9 - by trusting in God’s way

- by looking at the fiery serpent on a pole

Visualize the scene:

- Slimy, slithering serpents crawling all over the ungrateful Israelites

- People dying all around

- As they hovered for a few moments between life and death, they had a choice,

they could turn to their physicians or they could turn to God’s way: look at the

fiery serpent.

- They had to put their life entirely in God’s Hands. They had to trust that His way

would work.

- To be born again meant to recognize your helplessness and turn to God for the

- To totally trust, to totally rely on God’s solution or way, not any other.

The deliberate juxtaposition in John 3:14

- Lift up serpent on a standard - lift up Christ on the cross

- Nicodemus probably did not understand this fully at this time but later, he did,

particularly as he stood at the foot of the cross in John 19

1. We, too, must realize that we are hopelessly lost before we can be saved.

-- See Rom 3:10-11 - Can anyone make it on his own?

-- Review: Rom 3:23

James 2:10

2. We, too, must depend entirely on God’s solution for our sin problem in order to be

-- Gal 5:1-4 - Faith in Christ incremented is faith in Christ supplanted!

-- Gal 2:21

-- 1 Peter 3:18 - Christ died for sin - once for all.

- What does "once for all" mean?

The sacrifice is complete, sufficient. There is nothing

we can add to it (no good works, no prayers, no sacrifices).

-- see also: Hebrews 10:12,14

-- John 19:30 - It is finished - His sacrifice "paid in full"

forgave us all our sins

canceled all our certificates of debt

Rom 4:4-5 - What role do good works play? Absolutely nothing.

Eph 2:8-9 - Do good works save anyone? No!

Titus 3:5 - Good works have no contribution to salvation

2 Timothy 1:9 - Not according to what we do but according to his grace

Like the Israelites who needed to look at the serpent on the pole or perish, we too must act on our faith or perish.

John 1:12 - On what is salvation premised?

- To what is believing in Christ equated?

-- trusting in His death and resurrection alone to be saved

Rom 6:23 - What must we do to make a free gift ours?

-- cannot pay for a gift, you only need to accept it.

Thank you Lord for your love, for the good news, for the gift of salvation in Jesus Christ.

1 John 5:11-13 - Do you have the Son?

- Can you know for sure that you re going to heaven?