Jesus teaches Nicodemus

John 3:1-21 – Jesus teaches Nicodemus

                We will be spending the three days on this passage.  It is one of the richest passages in the Bible.  It contains the most familiar and best love verse in the Bible.  John 3:16 has been called the gospel in a nutshell.  God love is shown in the sacrifice of His Son.

                There was a great teacher who was a Pharisee and his name was Nicodemus.  He was a great teacher in the land of Israel.  He came to Jesus by night and asked Him about who He was.  Nicodemus came to Jesus by night because Jesus was a controversial person and public opinion was mixed about Him.  Jesus told Nicodemus the teaching about being born again.  Jesus would tell Nicodemus that He Jesus would have to be lifted up and how men would be drawn until Him.  Nicodemus came into great truth that night.

1.        Jesus is a teacher sent by God and all men saw that.  Nicodemus told Jesus that only someone from God could do the great miracles that Jesus had done. 

2.        To be a person of God, a person must be born again.  Born by the Spirit.  It is the Holy Spirit who draws a person to Christ.  The Holy Spirit regenerates their heart and they become a new creature in Christ.

3.        Jesus reveals to Nicodemus that a person must be born of the Spirit and water or they will not see the Kingdom of God.  This statement has application in two ways.  First, water is a symbol of life and so life comes through life in the Spirit.  Secondly, water baptism.  When a person has been baptised in water they have identified themselves with the Christian faith.

4.        Flesh gives birth to flesh and the Spirit gives birth to the things of the Spirit.  The two are not compatible.  You can only understand the things of God through the new birth.

5.        The Spirit is like the wind.  He does what He wishes and saves who will listen.  No one can know the mind of the Spirit except those to whom the Spirit has been revealed.