Sermon Tone Analysis
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Exegetical Point: To have eternal life, one must be born again by the Spirit and believe in Jesus Christ.
Homiletic Point: To have eternal life you must be Born again by the Spirit, Behold Jesus, and Believe on Jesus the Only Son of God.
If not, you are condemned.
Intro
Kids memory verse?
How many of you can recite for me John 3:16?
Very memorable.
Very simple call of the Gospel.
The trap, to equate my belief with spiritual rebirth - the birth comes from God, and then we can believe!
Christianity 101 - Very familiar to many of you, laying some groundwork for others.
Hard words!
Hard to hear the condemnation of those outside Jesus, and hard to hear the utter inability you have.
Keep it all together as one section, despite the way it is densely packed.
Let God’s word do the talking!
This passage answers the question: How can I have eternal life?
It will tell us To have eternal life you must be Born again by the Spirit, Behold Jesus, and Believe on Jesus the Only Son of God.
If not, you are condemned.
So lets look at those three things as Jesus unpacks them in this passage.
Birth, Behold and Believe.
If you’re keeping note, go ahead and prepare for three points around these ideas.
You need Birth by the Spirit (v1-8)
We’ve been working our way through John’s gospel as John writes to help us believe in Jesus.
Jesus went up to clear the temple and do other signs.
Link from v2:25.
Still at Jerusalem.
Meets a guy who has that surface level belief, but is an enquirer
Pharisee - serious about doctrine and life.
Like Puritans but without Jesus.
NIV incorrect - A “ruler of the Jews” which means he is likely part of the Sanhedrin ruling council.
So like a member of parliament.
A leader.
A learned man.
Came at night, probably to protect his reputation.
Nico… is mentioned in three places in John, and each time it is mentioned that he came to Jesus.
It was a signifying feature of his approach to Jesus, one that moved him from secret enquirer to open supporter!
What does he say?
He has been seeing the signs, and he has a burgeoning faith!
You must be from God!
But Jesus cuts to the chase - it is not enough to believe that Jesus was “a” prophet or “a” messenger, in order to enter God’s kingdom a person must be born again.
“see” the kingdom, a turn of phrase - like I would like to “see” Scotland, or see my Mum and Dad again.
Not just behold their faces, but enter into a sweet fellowship.
Unless - This is a mandatory step!
There is not alternate paths to God’s kingdom.
Nico.
confused.
What do you mean Jesus?
Jesus fleshes it out:
Jesus is teaching Nico.
about a heavenly birth.
Literally a “birth from above” which in context also mean born again.
So a little pun here.
You are born into the physical earthly life, and you need to be born into spiritual life in order to be part of God’s kingdom.
Born of Water and Spirit.
Spirit makes sense to us, we understand that God is spirit and we are spiritual beings that need to be aligned with him.
But why reference to water?
Baptism?
Yes, but no.
Only indirectly.
It points back to the OT prophetic hope of cleansing as expressed in Ezekiel:
God had promised to cleanse his people from their impurities, revive their hearts and actually put His Spirit in them.
Jesus is teaching Nico.
that what was prophesied back then is a pre-requisite to coming into God’s kingdom.
It was anticipated, but now it needs to take place!
God needs to spiritually reanimate his people so that they can serve God properly and faithfully.
Naturally we are spiritually dead!
Jesus goes on to explain something about the operation of the HS.
It’s mysterious.
Take of your meteorology hat, and put on your earthly experiences hat - the wind seems like it comes out of nowhere.
You can hear it’s effects and you can see the effects, but you cant capture the wind and you can’t see it.
Wind & spirit are the same word.
The spirit blows where it wishes.
Hard truth, that the spirit goes where he wants, not where we want.
The spirit mysteriously comes to do the work of regeneration in our hearts.
To makes us born again!
You can’t see Him come or go, but you will hear him on the toungues of people bursting into new spiritual life and confessing that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God come in the flesh!
You will know that someone is born again by the evidence of the Spirit’s presence in their life!
In some sense we should understand ourselves as Nico. in this story.
Even though we are far removed by time and space, we too must come to Christ and be instructed by him.
That’s what we’re doing here now!
We come to hear what Jesus says to us so that we can respond well.
But, we’re taught here that is order to respond, God must first do a work in us - make us alive!
Birth is passive - You cannot choose your earthly birth and neither can you choose your heavenly birth.
It is from outside influences that brings life.
The spirit blows where he wishes to bring the spiritual birth.
Like dead people, we cannot make ourselves alive!
The spirit must do it’s work in us.
God must cleanse and regenerate us so that we can take up faith!
(some implications of that that need to be worked out! we can talk more...)
To have eternal life you must be Born again by the Spirit, Behold Jesus, and Believe on Jesus the Only Son of God.
If not, you are condemned.
You need to Behold the Son (v9-15)
Nico.
stunned by this teaching.
As are many people when they come face to face with these marvelous truths of scripture.
Our minds are blown wide open while we try to come to grips with what we’re learning.
Jesus responds to the lack of understanding:
Nico. is a bible-college graduate and civil/religious leader.
But his understanding is clouded.
Of all people he should be most ready to see.
Jesus speaks truth to Nico.
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