Sermon: Sunday, 3rd August, 2025
Speaker: Neil MacDonald
Scripture: John 3:1-21
For years now chat shows have been a popular type of TV programme. Chat show hosts aim to get their guests talking freely so that they reveal something of themselves and let the audience see what makes them tick. Something that makes the Gospel of John different from the other Gospels is the extended discourses, or conversations, it records for us. John wants us to hear Jesus talking. He doesn’t tell us everything he knows about Jesus. Instead he selects just a handful of events and records them in great detail. There are several conversations which reveal to us the heart of Jesus and how he understood himself.
A curious individual
Here in chapter 3 we have the first of these conversations, Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus. In the opening verses we’re introduced to a curious individual. Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a member of the Jewish ruling council. He was an ultra-orthodox Jew. He belonged to the party which stood for strict adherence to God’s law. He was a rabbi and a man of influence and standing in the community.
Nicodemus had witnessed Jesus’ ministry and was impressed. He realised Jesus was no ordinary Jewish rabbi. He’d come to the conclusion that he was ‘a teacher who has come from God’: no one could perform the miracles he did unless God was with him. Jesus clearly aroused Nicodemus’ interest, and he wanted to find out more. And so he came to see Jesus at night.
Nicodemus may have come by night because he didn’t want people to know he was interested in Jesus. Perhaps coming at night was the only way to get Jesus on his own for the kind of serious and unhurried conversation he wanted to have with him. But I suspect the main reason John mentions when the meeting took place is that he sees a symbolic significance in it. In his writings John speaks again and again about light and darkness. Darkness stands for sin and wickedness; light speaks of purity and righteousness. In his Gospel, John tells us how Judas left the gathering in the upper room to betray Jesus to the authorities; he writes, ‘As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out, and it was night.’ (John 13:30) It was dark when Judas left the company of Jesus and the other disciples, but the physical darkness which surrounded him was as nothing compared with the spiritual and moral darkness which engulfed his soul.
Nicodemus wasn’t in the desperate situation Judas found himself in, but when he came to see Jesus he was still in darkness, spiritually speaking. Although he was a rabbi and no doubt kept the law of God to the best of his ability, he was still in spiritual darkness; he was still a sinner cut off from God. It’s possible to be very religious and yet in spiritual darkness. But Nicodemus was curious. He was prepared to acknowledge Jesus was a teacher come from God: he could see that God was with him. But he needed to see that Jesus was even more than that. And so Jesus spoke to him.
A vital experience
Jesus’ response to Nicodemus’ initial comments is uncompromising: ‘I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.’ (John 3:3) The Jews of Jesus’ day were looking for what they called ‘the kingdom of God’. Some of them understood the kingdom in a political sense: they looked forward to a day when they would be delivered from bondage to Rome and would have their national independence restored under the rule of God’s Messiah. Others put more stress on the personal, religious side of things. For them the kingdom of God meant the achievement of moral perfection through obedience to God’s law. As a Pharisee, Nicodemus probably understood the kingdom of God in both ways. The Pharisees sought to prepare the way for a political kingdom by their personal dedication to a religious kingdom. By obeying the law they tried to be the true people of God preparing the way for the Messiah.
We might have expected Jesus to congratulate Nicodemus on his theological credentials and upright way of life. But that’s not what he does. Instead, gently but firmly, he says, ‘No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.’ He tells Nicodemus that, without the experience of rebirth, he cannot hope to see the kingdom of God. That would have come as a shock to a devout Jew like Nicodemus. He would have presumed his place in the coming kingdom was assured by virtue of his race and law-keeping. In the eyes of other people he had impressive credentials as far as God was concerned. But however ‘good’ Nicodemus appeared, Jesus clearly did not think he was good enough to share in the kingdom of God. For that he needed to be born again. He needed a new nature. He needed radical transformation from the inside out.
Nicodemus is taken aback. He asks: ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born?’ (John 1:4) He seems to understand Jesus’ words literally as if he were speaking about a second physical birth. And the very idea strikes him as absurd, as indeed it is. Jesus has to explain that what he is speaking about is a spiritual rebirth which can only be achieved supernaturally. ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.’ (John 3:5-6)
The reference to water and the Spirit probably echoes the words of the prophet Ezekiel. While we may not readily pick up on that, Nicodemus would have done, for he was thoroughly versed in the Old Testament scriptures! In his prophecy Ezekiel refers to water and the Spirit. The Lord promises: ‘I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean… I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.bAnd I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees…’ (Ezekiel 36)
The prophecy speaks of the coming Messianic age, when there will be a new experience of cleansing and a new experience of the Spirit. Men and women will be given new hearts and new spirits. Jesus is telling Nicodemus that the day of cleansing and power which Ezekiel anticipated has now come. That’s because the long-awaited Messiah has come in the person of Jesus himself. Spiritual renewal is now possible by the power of God’s Holy Spirit. This spiritual renewal is supernatural from first to last. It’s nothing short of miraculous. Human nature cannot evolve naturally into the life of the kingdom of God. There is discontinuity between sinful human nature and the new nature required for entry into the kingdom of God. But God’s Spirit has the creative power to enable an individual to make that quantum leap into a new world.
The new birth is supernatural. It’s beyond human control and beyond human knowledge. But it’s not impossible. To illustrate this, Jesus points Nicodemus to the wind. He says, ‘The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.’ (John 3:8) In Greek and Hebrew the word for ‘wind’ is the same as the word for ‘Spirit’. There’s a kind of elaborate pun here. Jesus is in effect saying, ‘Nicodemus, you cannot control the wind, you can’t even see it, but that doesn’t stop you experiencing its effects at first hand. In the same way, you can’t control or fully understand the work of the Holy Spirit, but that doesn’t mean you can’t experience its effects. You can see the effects of his intervention in people’s lives.’
A little boy once asked a sailor the question, ‘What is the wind?’ ‘The wind?’ replied the sailor, ‘I don’t rightly know what the wind is; but I can hoist a sail.’ That’s pretty much what Jesus is saying to Nicodemus.You don’t have to know how the Holy Spirit creates new life in people. It’s miraculous and mysterious. But you can experience it. You can enjoy the benefit of it. You can hoist a sail. And so Jesus says to Nicodemus, ‘You shouldn’t be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ (John 3:7) Notice that word ‘must’. Jesus doesn’t say ‘may’; he says ‘must’. ‘You must be born again.’ Being born again isn’t a spiritual extra for the super-keen. It’s a spiritual necessity.
The 18th Century evangelist George Whitefield was once asked by his sponsor why he was always preaching on the words, ‘You must be born again.’ Whitefield’s reply was simple: ‘Madam, because you must.’ In the most literal sense of the word, this is a vital experience, because it’s a matter of life or death.
You may have a lot in common with Nicodemus. You’re religious. You’re educated. You’re a pillar of the community. Even so, Jesus says to you, ‘You must be born again!’ Or you may be as different from
Nicodemus as chalk from cheese. You’re no scholar. You wouldn’t claim to be a particularly good person. Jesus says the same thing to you: ‘You must be born again.’ For, as he says to Nicodemus, ‘… no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.’ (John 3:3) It’s a vital experience.
A unique person
‘How can this be?’ Nicodemus asks. To this Jesus replies, ‘You are Israel’s teacher, and do you not understand these things? I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.’ (John 3:10-11) Nicodemus thinks his problem is that he can’t understand Jesus’ teaching. What Jesus is bringing him round to realise is that that isn’t his real problem. His real problem is that he has an inadequate view of who Jesus is. That has been his problem right from the beginning of the conversation. Remember what he said: ‘Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God.’ That was a flattering enough comment in its own way; but it was also rather patronising. ‘We know…’ Presumably Nicodemus was referring to himself and at least some of his fellow Pharisees. Jesus now echoes the plural with which Nicodemus had introduced himself. ‘We speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen.’ (John 3:11) In other words; ‘Your problem, Nicodemus, is not that you can’t understand what I am saying, but that you don’t think highly enough of me to believe that I know what I’m talking about.’
When Jesus speaks about the things of God, he offers first-hand knowledge. It’s divine revelation of a quite unique kind. ‘We testify to what we have seen.’ That being so, what matters most is not our ability to understand, but our willingness to believe. ‘I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak to you of heavenly things?’ (John 3:12) Jesus has used the analogy of the wind to explain the work of the Spirit to Nicodemus and he has struggled. But there are many aspects of the revelation Jesus brought for which there’s no earthly analogy. There are heavenly realities which defy comparison to anything Nicodemus has ever experienced. If Nicodemus can’t trust Jesus when he tells him about the way of the wind, how will he trust him when he tells him about the way of salvation?
And so Jesus discloses to Nicodemus who he is and why he has come. He describes himself in verse 13 as ‘the one who came from heaven – the Son of Man’. He has come down from heaven and is also the Son of Man, the one the prophet Daniel speaks about who will win final victory and rule for ever. In verse 16 Jesus goes on to call himself ‘the one and only Son’, the unique Son of God. Nicodemus needs to realise the greatness of his person. He needs to see just who he is.
Jesus also tells Nicodemus why he came. He says, ‘God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.’ (John 3:17) He is God in human form, God’s Son come on a rescue mission. And then there are the well-known words: ‘God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’ (John 3:16) In these words Jesus roots his mission in the love of God the Father. Out of love for a lost humanity he sent his Son into the world to become its Saviour. We see how great God’s love is from the fact he loved the unlovely. He loved a world which had rebelled against him and was organised in opposition to him. We also see how great God’s love is from what it led him to do. He was moved to extravagant action: he gave his one and only Son. He had only one Son but he freely gave him up for sinners like us.
Claims such as Jesus makes here are ‘heavenly things’. They can be known only by revelation and appropriated only by faith. Is faith really such a difficult thing? Nicodemus initially seems to have found it so. But perhaps he needn’t have done. Consider these words; ‘Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.’ (John 3:14-15)
Jesus is referring here to an incident which took place while the people of Israel were making their way between Egypt and the promised land of Canaan. The people had rebelled against God and he had sent a plague of poisonous snakes into their camp to chasten them. In their desperation they confessed their sin and cried out to Moses to provide some remedy for the venom. The Lord told Moses to make a bronze snake and put it on a pole: any Israelite who looked at that snake would be healed. And that’s what happened. The Israelites couldn’t have understood how a bronze replica of a snake could take the bite of the real thing away. All they could do was take Moses at his word and believe: they had no other choice. But it was enough.
Jesus is, in effect, saying that it’s the same for Nicodemus, and indeed for each of us. ‘One day soon, Nicodemus, you will see me lifted up on a cross, just like that snake in the desert. You will not be able to understand it, at least not fully. But all you have to do is to trust me enough to believe that I know what I’m doing. For I tell you that every man and woman who looks to me on that cross conscious of their sin and failure, aware of their need of salvation, knowing they need the mercy of God to deliver them, will find rescue in that look, rescue in that faith. More than that, they will find the life of the age to come – the new life of the kingdom of God that we have been talking about.’
Nicodemus’ question had been, ‘How can this be?’ The question he should have been asking was, rather, ‘Who can this be?’ For, in Jesus, he had come face to face with a unique person.
A critical verdict
Jesus says of himself; ‘Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.’ (John 3:18) Jesus is saying that a person’s destiny is determined by whether he or she believes in him. The new birth is the work of the Spirit, but we have the responsibility to believe in God’s one and only Son.
Forgiveness and eternal life are freely offered to us if we do. For those who do not, there is condemnation. Jesus says: ‘This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.’ (John 3:19-20) The appearance of the light in the person of Jesus forces everyone to make a choice. Tragically, in an astonishing act of self-destruction, multitudes refuse the light and continue to embrace the darkness. That’s because they don’t want to have their sin exposed. They would rather stay in the dark than move into the light and admit what they’re really like. And so, by refusing the light they compound the condemnation which already hangs over them because of their sin.
Spiritual blindness, says Jesus, is a culpable blindness. It’s not that we can’t see the light, but that we will not see it. ‘This is the verdict: Light has come into the world but men love darkness.’ That’s a critical verdict.
Nicodemus was a curious individual, but his curiosity wasn’t enough. Jesus told him about a vital experience he needed to have: he needed to be born again, he needed a radical transformation from the inside out. Jesus then pointed to his own uniqueness: ‘God sent his Son into the world to save the world.’ (John 3:17) And finally Jesus made Nicodemus aware of the critical verdict: condemnation for those who don’t believe and forgiveness for those who come to the light and believe in God’s one and only Son. Nicodemus came to see Jesus by night. I wonder if he left him with light dawning in his heart.
And what about us? As we have eavesdropped on this private conversation, have we seen our need of being born again, have we seen the uniqueness of Jesus’ person and work, and have we come to the light and believed in God’s one and only Son?
‘God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’ (John 3:16)