Sermon Tone Analysis

To be born again.

What does that mean?

What is that Scripture all about?

Jesus answered a question of a man who wants to know about the key to the kingdom, the key to the entrance into the kingdom of heaven.

And he gets this seemingly cryptic answer.

/"You must be born again."/

Confusing even to the person who asked the question.

I want us to look at this conversation today as we look at the matter of The Entrance, that which every man, woman, every child, when honest with themselves, wants to know…wants to be able to enter into the kingdom of God.

I want to invite your attention this morning to the third chapter of John.

We're going to look together probably about the first 13 verses of this.

As we look at the story of Jesus' encounter with Nicodemus.

In John, chapter 3, beginning in verse 1, it says, /"There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews."/

So two things we know immediately about Nicodemus, first of all he was a Pharisee, and secondly he was a ruler, indicating he was a member of the Sanhedrin council.

So this man is in the upper echelon of the Jewish society of the Pharisees.

Verse 2, /"This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, 'Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.'"/

Just a couple things we note right here, he refers to Jesus as "Rabbi," a term of respect unlike most of the encounters we see between Jesus and the Pharisees, here is one that is not insincere, but a man who refers to Him and compliments Him, and refers to Him as a teacher.

And then you notice he says we…we know.

There were others of the council, and we'll learn at least one other name throughout the gospels who believed that Jesus was more than just a crazy man, that he was more than just a blasphemer.

There was something to His life.

And so he says, /"We know that you are a teacher come from God himself."/

It's obvious because of the signs, because of the miracles, the things You're doing that these are things that have the power only God can provide; therefore, You must be from God because You could not do these things unless God was with You.

In verse 3, /"Jesus answered and said to him, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.' Nicodemus said to Him, 'How can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?' Jesus answered, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.

So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.'"/

/"Nicodemus answered and said to Him, 'How can these things be?' Jesus answered and said to him, 'Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?

Most assuredly, I say to you, we speak what We know and testify what we have seen, and you do not receive our witness.

If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.'"/

Nicodemus comes and approaches Jesus and that, in and of itself, is strange.

The Pharisees were dogmatically opposed to Christ and everything He stood for, and yet we see that Nicodemus went.

He goes to Christ.

I submit to you at least three reasons why Nicodemus went to Jesus, and really three reasons when someone truly comes to inquire about Christ we find in any life, in any person who is seeking to know the entrance into heaven.

We see it in Nicodemus' life.

The first thing we notice is he comes because he had an open mind.

Now really, he had an open mind.

I'm disturbed about people who do not have open minds, people who have preset, predetermined notions it seems about everything.

You can't come to Christ, you certainly can't learn new things, can you, if your mind is already made.

I was watching TV just yesterday.

There was some news show they were promoting and they had snippets of these man-on-the-street interviews where people were responding.

One says, "You need to read the Bible."

The next one said, "I'm a free thinker."

They were set against each other, and it's as though they were two opposite things.

One, you read the Bible, or you're a free thinker.

When did reading the Bible mean you're not a free thinker?

When did reading the Bible mean you are not able to think?

If we're to follow that logic then it would suppose that the free thinker doesn't have the freedom to believe the Bible, does he?

Or if he were to believe the Bible he would not longer to free to think.

We need to have an open mind, and the things of God and the words of God do not necessarily close one's mind.

So here comes one who has an open mind.

Nicodemus had this kind of an inquisitive mind about matters he wanted answers to.

Now think about it.

He's an old man with grey hair coming to a young man, Jesus.

That's something, isn't it?

Here is an aristocrat going to a commoner.

Here is a man of position going to One who has no standing at all.

The only way that can be accomplished is if you have an open mind.

The aristocrat who thinks himself above the commoner is not going to go to the commoner for answers to questions.

The scholar who thinks himself above the uneducated would not go to the uneducated for an answer to questions, and yet we see that Nicodemus does just that.

He went to Him.

He went to Jesus because he had an open mind.

It's like when Phillip went to Nathaniel; we studied this just a few weeks ago, if you were with us.

He goes to Nathaniel, and he says, /"We have found the Messiah.

We have found the King of Israel, and His name is Jesus of Nazareth."/

And Nathaniel says, "Can anything good come from Podunk, I mean Nazareth?"

Nathaniel is saying, "Can anything good come from this one-horse town?"

So Phillip responds and says, "Well, come and see.

Check it out for yourself."

And Nathaniel goes.

He goes to see.

You see, Nathaniel had an open mind.

If he had allowed his prejudice against the residents of Nazareth, his superiority to those of that second-rate country village of Nazareth to control his mind, he would have never thought, much less gotten up and gone to check and inquire about Jesus, but he had an open mind, and his open mind led him to discover the truth about Jesus for himself, that in fact yes, He was the Messiah.

He was the Son of God, and his prejudices and his presuppositions had to be set aside and he began to trust Him.

Nicodemus goes because he has an open mind.

If you're to learn the things of God, if you're to find the answers to the questions that are just circling through your head, you're going to have to have a willingness to listen, a willingness to have an open mind to gain and understand new truths.

But there's a second thing about Nicodemus.

Not only was he a man with an open mind, but also he was one who was sincere.

He was earnest.

He comes to Jesus not facetiously, but he comes as an earnest seeker of the truth.

You know a lot of people display sincerity, but they're not genuinely sincere.

You know the person who says, "Now what I'm telling you now, that's the truth."

And immediately you begin to question, "So what you just told me a minute ago wasn't the truth?"

Some people want to just emphasize certain things to try to play like they're really being sincere about something and really showing that they're just insincere most of the time.

But here comes a man who is earnest, a man who is without guile himself, a sincere man.

Sometimes I think we approach God in an insincere manner.

In fact, I think sometimes we get caught up in being too flippant about God, too flippant about the things of God, too casual about holy things.

It particularly happens to church people, to deacon people, to Sunday night people.

We begin to talk about God and say a lot of funny things about God, and take God very casually.

We want to just have a little talk with Jesus, when my friends, you can't have a little talk with Jesus, not the King of Israel, not the Holy Creator of the universe.

He is holy and unapproachable but through the blood of Christ.

I think sometimes we who have been believers or around religious things for a long time, we begin to take it too casually, and oh how the world thinks nothing of making fun of Christ, making jokes about Christianity, being very flippant about the things of God.

But here is Nicodemus and I want you to notice the one characteristic of him that's going to allow him to discover the truth is that he's sincere.

He is earnest.

He's not there to mock Jesus as so many of the Pharisees were.

He's not there to try to trap Jesus, try to trick Him as so many had tried to do, but he sincerely wants to know the truth.

He is a sincere man.

He is a man with an open mind.

Thirdly, he's also a man of courage…a man of courage.