People Just Like Us

The Man Who Was Born Twice

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants:

Home

Series Code: PJU

Program Code: PJU190003A


00:03 Were the people in the Bible any different to us today?
00:10 Or ordinary people like you and me?
00:22 What can we find out from their lives
00:24 that will help us?
00:29 Find out with Pastor Geoff Yuolden
00:31 and Rosemary Malkiewycz,
00:32 here on "People Just Like Us."
00:37 It's good to have you with us.
00:39 Today we will discuss another person in the Bible
00:42 and see what important lessons we can learn from his life.
00:46 So you have an intriguing title for this program, Geoff.
00:50 Who is the man that was born twice?
00:54 Well, it is an intriguing title.
00:55 But there was a man that was born twice,
00:58 his name was Nicodemus.
01:00 Actually the Nicodemus in the Bible,
01:01 now while the Bible doesn't tell us this.
01:04 Nevertheless, it's interesting that there are many thinkers
01:08 who feel that his original name
01:10 or his full name was Nicodemus Ben Guryon.
01:15 And that he was the brother-in-law
01:18 of Josephus, the historian.
01:21 All right.
01:22 Now, as I said, we can't be dogmatic about that
01:25 because the Bible doesn't say it.
01:28 However, if that is true,
01:31 then that would make him
01:32 about the third richest person in Israel.
01:37 Now we know, he was rich. Yes.
01:39 But the third richest,
01:41 that really puts him up, up the ladder.
01:45 In fact, Nicodemus himself
01:47 was very, very very religious, highly religious.
01:53 And the Bible says he was a ruler of the Jews.
01:57 And unfortunately being a Pharisee,
02:02 in our thinking today Pharisees don't get good marks.
02:06 No, they don't. They have a bad reputation.
02:08 Because we associate Pharisees with hypocrites.
02:13 Now I can assure you
02:14 that Nicodemus was not a hypocrite,
02:17 he was a very sincere man.
02:19 In fact, we know he fasted twice in the week.
02:24 He even tithed of his mint.
02:27 Mint and cumin. Yes.
02:29 When they would go out to the garden,
02:30 he kind of retains leaf.
02:32 So it means that how particular he was.
02:35 And he knew much of the Bible by heart.
02:38 I mean that's...
02:41 That would have taken some effort
02:44 to memorize much of the Bible.
02:46 And he prayed a lot in private and, of course, in public.
02:50 And no doubt he had heard about Jesus the Young Preacher
02:53 from up north, you know, Galilee.
02:56 And that Young Preacher
02:58 who had taken the whole of Israel
03:00 really by storm.
03:02 And no doubt he had gone to listen to Him.
03:06 But one of the events that would have stood out
03:08 in his mind was the time when Jesus went to the temple.
03:13 And there they were trading
03:15 and they were carrying on selling things
03:17 and Jesus upset the whole...
03:20 Applecart. Applecart, absolutely.
03:22 Uprooted the tables and money went everywhere.
03:26 Because what was happening
03:27 is that the Sadducees would buy the animals
03:31 at a fairly cheap rate.
03:34 Then they would sell them
03:36 at an exorbitant price in the temple.
03:39 And get richly.
03:40 And they were making a lot of money on the side.
03:43 And so when Jesus came along and upset the whole thing,
03:47 they were very, very angry
03:49 and they were plotting to kill Him,
03:50 and you can understand why.
03:52 And, but Nicodemus,
03:55 as we read the record
03:57 obviously was very impressed with Jesus.
04:00 And he planned to meet Him privately.
04:03 He must have seen something special
04:04 in this Young Man and when he listen to Him,
04:07 his heart would have burned in him
04:09 with the truth that was being spoken.
04:11 Yeah, well, we like to think so.
04:12 I mean, something must have happened,
04:13 because he was this man
04:16 who was doctor of the law probably.
04:19 Once again, probably the preeminent preacher
04:22 or teacher in Israel.
04:24 Oh, he was the part of the Sanhedrin.
04:26 Yes, a part of parliament, and the 70 in parliament.
04:31 And he came to Jesus by night.
04:33 In John 3:2, it says,
04:37 "This man came to Jesus by night
04:39 and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know
04:42 that You are a teacher come from God,
04:44 for no one can do these signs
04:46 that You do unless God is with him."
04:50 You know, he was battering Jesus up
04:53 and trying to impress Him
04:55 with what he was saying.
04:58 But little that he know
05:00 that in a very short amount of time,
05:02 his very belief structure
05:04 was going to be shaken to the very core.
05:07 Because Jesus said to him in verse 3, his reply was,
05:11 "Jesus answered and said to him,
05:13 'Most assuredly, I say to you,
05:16 unless one is born again,
05:20 he cannot see the kingdom of God.'"
05:24 And Jesus didn't use
05:25 any extravagant language here, did He?
05:27 No.
05:29 Because Nicodemus opens
05:31 with a certain thing that he's saying,
05:33 you know, You've obviously come from God.
05:35 But Jesus got right to the core of Nicodemus's questions.
05:39 Jesus would have known where Nicodemus's mind was
05:42 and his heart and his understanding level.
05:45 So He goes right into a really deep theological discussion
05:51 which Nicodemus wasn't expecting.
05:53 Now what Nicodemus was, putting a jam on we say,
05:56 you know, lot of palaver here in that verse, verse 2.
05:59 But Jesus didn't reply to any of that palaver.
06:03 And we must remember that Nicodemus
06:06 did many, many, many good things.
06:08 He was a good man, he lived a good life.
06:11 You know, sometimes we, because of the fact
06:14 that he was a Pharisee, we discount him.
06:15 Enrich.
06:17 But yes, and enrich, you know,
06:18 that makes sometimes people feel envious
06:22 or whatever it is and so he gets bad mark.
06:23 He got his riches of other people.
06:25 Well, there's no record of that is true
06:28 but he may have.
06:30 And his reply, of course, Nicodemus's that is,
06:34 his reply in verse 4 when he said,
06:36 "Nicodemus said to Him,
06:38 'How can a man be born when he is old?
06:42 Can he enter a second time
06:44 into his mother's womb and be born?'"
06:48 Now what I find very interesting
06:50 about this, Rosemary, is the fact
06:53 that Nicodemus didn't ask why,
06:58 he said, "How?"
07:01 Because I believe that he was deeply convicted,
07:03 I mean he sensed within him his own life,
07:07 some of the failures or the rituals
07:10 that he was involved
07:11 with all the punctilious points about tithing
07:16 and all the rest that he was doing,
07:18 which were not wrong in themselves,
07:19 but he recognized that
07:21 these things left him still cold.
07:23 No, they were shallow. Yes.
07:25 And, of course, as we know we don't get to heaven
07:28 by doing things like that.
07:30 So he was aware of sin in his life
07:34 and so that's why he's saying here,
07:38 "How can a man be born when he is old?"
07:40 And then he says...
07:42 Jesus answered him in verse 5, when he says, "Jesus answered,
07:45 'Most assuredly, I say to you,
07:47 unless one is born of water and the Spirit,
07:51 he cannot enter the kingdom of God.'"
07:54 Now, there's no doubt that Nicodemus's mind
07:57 would have been taken back to John the Baptist.
08:01 Because this matter of water and the spirit,
08:03 that was the message
08:04 that John the Baptist was preaching.
08:06 That's right.
08:09 And he began to think
08:10 and Jesus was pointing out here
08:13 that unless you are born again,
08:19 then you will never be able to receive the Holy Spirit.
08:22 And if you don't have the Holy Spirit
08:23 in your life then,
08:25 obviously there's no such thing as repentance and regeneration.
08:29 We'll see, Nicodemus in verse 4
08:31 is asking about a physical birth.
08:34 But in verse 5,
08:35 Jesus is pointing out it's not physical,
08:38 it's a spiritual birth.
08:40 Yes, yes.
08:41 Look, I think we could understand
08:43 how hard the saying was for poor old Nicodemus.
08:47 I mean here he is probably the preeminent teacher,
08:50 I mean he was associated with Gamaliel,
08:54 the Pharisee who taught Phoebe.
09:00 And no doubt they probably went
09:02 to what we would term university together
09:05 or to the school of the rabbis together
09:09 and he knew him well.
09:10 So you can imagine
09:12 this Young Preacher from the north,
09:13 he comes down and says,
09:15 now, listen Nicodemus, you gotta be born again.
09:17 And unless you're born of water and the spirit,
09:21 there's no future life.
09:22 And He's telling me and I'm the teacher.
09:24 I'm the doctor of the law.
09:26 He's uneducated, but I'm the doctor of the law.
09:30 So it would have been,
09:31 I would think a very, very hard thing
09:33 for Nicodemus really to accept what Jesus was saying.
09:37 I mean his pride...
09:39 Oh, yes.
09:41 Would have immediately affected him.
09:45 But...
09:47 It was really his pride
09:48 that brought him to Jesus at nighttime.
09:50 He didn't want other people to see him with Jesus.
09:52 That's correct. It could affect his career.
09:54 Exactly.
09:56 And Jesus was emphasizing something
09:57 that we all need to understand
09:59 that it's not just a matter of being born again,
10:05 that's the foundation.
10:07 But it's what being born again means,
10:09 it means not only forgiveness for my sin
10:12 but also regeneration.
10:16 Because unless my life is changed,
10:19 I mean, if God can forgive me for my sins,
10:21 but there's something more to it than just that,
10:25 important, and vital, and glorious,
10:27 and wonderful as that he it.
10:29 But there's another step, too and that is regeneration.
10:33 For example, Rosemary,
10:36 you can imagine if my heart is not changed,
10:39 I might be forgiven.
10:40 But if my heart is not changed, what's gonna happen
10:43 when we go to heaven and we see the golden streets?
10:46 I mean, I can just imagine
10:48 if people's hearts weren't regenerated and changed,
10:51 the very first thing that they would want to do.
10:53 They start digging up the streets.
10:54 Is digging up the golden streets,
10:56 because that's what we would do here.
10:58 And so Nicodemus is being told
11:01 when the Holy Spirit comes into your heart,
11:03 not only do you receive forgiveness
11:04 but also regeneration.
11:06 You do it,
11:07 a complete turnaround in your life.
11:08 You have new attitudes, you have new motives,
11:13 you have a new direction to go.
11:16 You don't wanna do bad things anymore etc.
11:21 Like you've turned 180 degrees around
11:23 and walking in at the other direction.
11:25 That's what we mean by regeneration.
11:27 Because one of the things that I guess
11:31 that Nicodemus struggle with,
11:32 maybe we all struggle with this,
11:34 is the fact that religion itself can't save us.
11:38 Having your name on the roll of a church doesn't save you
11:43 or any religion doesn't save you.
11:45 It's only repentance and regeneration that saves us.
11:51 In fact, here in verse 9,
11:53 when Nicodemus is confronted with this,
11:58 what I would think as an unforcomfortable truth for him.
12:01 "Nicodemus answered and said to Him,
12:02 'How can these things be?'"
12:06 In other words, how is all, listen it.
12:10 In all his doctoral trainings and all his education,
12:15 this simple truth that Jesus was outlining to him,
12:18 he had never understood it.
12:20 And that's why he says, "How can these things be."
12:23 And as I said he studied with Gamaliel
12:25 and he was up to the very, very top
12:28 as far as academic achievements were concerned.
12:30 And, but it was like the blind leading the blind.
12:33 Yeah.
12:34 Well, Jesus said to him in verse 7,
12:36 "Do not marvel that I said, 'You must be born again.'"
12:40 So Jesus is saying,
12:41 "It's not hard for you to understand,
12:42 you should know this."
12:44 Yes. Well, it's a...
12:46 It was a confrontational message.
12:48 And because we have read this thing so often,
12:52 we don't always sense the confrontational point
12:56 that Nicodemus was up against here.
12:59 He didn't come for this.
13:00 No, no.
13:01 He wanted to ask Jesus a few questions.
13:03 Yes, he was wanting to have an intellectual discussion,
13:06 like he was used to.
13:07 But Jesus wasn't interested in that type of discussion.
13:10 It's a bit like, I was running some meetings once
13:12 and a man came down to the front seat, and I said,
13:15 "Oh are you a Christian?"
13:17 And I think he was very offended
13:19 that I would even ask that question.
13:20 He said, "Of course, I was.
13:22 I was born here in Australia."
13:24 Yes.
13:25 Meaning that, you know,
13:27 because I'm born here that makes me a Christian.
13:30 That would be absurd of saying that
13:32 because I was born in a shed,
13:36 that makes me a car.
13:39 I mean... Or a cow.
13:41 Or a cow, yes.
13:43 It's ridiculous and yet there are many
13:45 who are being brought up to believe that
13:47 because my parents were of such and such religion,
13:50 that makes me religious and that makes me saved.
13:53 Yeah.
13:54 But Nicodemus needed to come to an understanding
13:57 that was not true.
13:59 Just because he was a Pharisee and part of the Sanhedrin,
14:02 didn't mean that he had a relationship with God.
14:04 Correct, and that's what he didn't have.
14:07 One of the wonderful things about the Gospel of John
14:10 is that John actually explains all about this new birth.
14:15 In probably the closest thing
14:17 that I think that the Bible gives
14:19 is to a formula of salvation.
14:23 Its back here in the first Chapter of John
14:26 and verse 11,
14:30 John 1:11, it says,
14:32 "He came to His own,
14:35 and His own did not receive Him.
14:38 But as many as received Him,
14:41 to them He gave the right to become children of God,
14:45 to those who believe in His name."
14:49 Now, then what we might like to refer to as a formula,
14:55 if we could put it down to that.
14:57 Verse 13, where it says,
14:58 "Who were born, not of blood,
15:04 nor of the will of the flesh,"
15:05 that's a second point, blood is the first.
15:08 Second the will of the flesh, "Nor of the will of man."
15:12 Now this matter of blood,
15:14 it's saying that Christianity or a relationship to God
15:19 does not run in our bloodline.
15:24 No matter what my parents were that may help to influence me,
15:28 but it's not a guarantee of getting me into heaven.
15:31 No, that's right. Or salvation.
15:33 Because I have to born again
15:36 and that's why John is emphasizing not of blood.
15:40 You see the Jews struggled with this,
15:42 because they felt that if they were
15:44 the sons and daughters of Abraham
15:47 that guaranteed them eternal life.
15:49 And Jesus is pointing at him of that stuff.
15:51 Yeah, they got it through genealogy.
15:53 Yes, that's right.
15:55 They knew all their fathers
15:56 going right back for a long time.
15:59 Now, but genealogies were very important to them.
16:02 And then the second point here that Jesus is emphasizing is,
16:08 "Nor of the will of the flesh,"
16:10 meaning that salvation
16:11 is got nothing to do with human desire.
16:15 Because how often many of us feel
16:17 that if we have a feeling about things
16:20 and the further that we have
16:22 and those feelings would drive us.
16:24 That means that I must be a Christian,
16:26 if I had the right feelings.
16:30 But when you think about feelings
16:32 and far as Christianity concern,
16:33 I mean there are many people
16:35 who have very hard, very strong feelings.
16:37 And they kill in the name of Jesus.
16:38 Yes.
16:40 They blow themselves up in the name of Jesus.
16:42 So, you can't say that those people are sincere
16:45 and they have a great fervor,
16:47 but we would think it's terribly misplaced.
16:51 There's a saying, it says,
16:53 "You can be sincere,
16:55 you can also be sincerely wrong."
16:57 That's right, yes.
16:59 Then the third point that John makes here,
17:01 "Nor of the will of man."
17:05 So this new birth
17:07 has nothing to do with the will of man.
17:10 So it got nothing to do with our human desires,
17:14 it's got nothing to do with our human creeds,
17:17 it's got nothing to do with our human pilgrimages,
17:20 nothing like that at all.
17:21 Nothing to do with having your name on the book.
17:23 No.
17:24 It's got nothing to do with of human will.
17:27 That's why John is saying here,
17:29 "Nor the will of man, but of God."
17:35 And then if we come back to John 3,
17:38 where Jesus was still talking here to Nicodemus,
17:42 and Jesus no doubt was teaching these very points to Nicodemus.
17:47 He then alludes to a very interesting part
17:50 of Israel's history in verse 14,
17:53 when He says,
17:54 "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
17:58 even so must the son of man be lifted up."
18:02 And you will remember,
18:03 I'm sure many of our listeners will remember
18:06 that the Jews were complaining, and whining,
18:10 and criticizing poor Moses.
18:13 And even God lost patience with them
18:18 and allowed some snakes, the serpents...
18:20 Yes.
18:22 To come out and these were deadly serpents.
18:25 Like in Australia we would say that death adders,
18:27 in America they'll probably have the rattlesnakes.
18:30 And in India, in places like that they have the cobras,
18:33 I mean they're deadly. Yes.
18:35 And you can't even run away 'cause they'll chase you.
18:38 Yes, so.
18:40 And 20, the Bible says
18:42 22,000 Jews died, of Israel died
18:47 as a result of the snakes biting them and, of course,
18:50 there was wailing and everyone was upset
18:53 because so many people were dying.
18:55 And they came to Moses again
18:58 and God in His mercy provided a remedy
19:02 because there was no human remedy
19:03 for this at all.
19:05 And you remember the story
19:10 how that they were to place a pole
19:13 in the middle of a camp, where everybody,
19:15 no matter where they were in the camp could see it.
19:18 And then they put a brass serpent
19:22 twined on the pole.
19:24 And we use that same symbol today
19:26 for the medical protection.
19:27 That's correct, that's where they get it from.
19:30 You know, much of our life is entwined in the Bible.
19:34 I mean many people don't recognize it,
19:35 but that's where it comes from.
19:38 And so they were told then to look and to live.
19:44 If they looked at that brass serpent,
19:46 now admittedly, Rosemary,
19:48 you have to say that
19:50 that was the most ridiculous thing, really.
19:53 How would looking at a brass serpent
19:56 on a pole help my snakebite?
20:00 Exactly.
20:01 I mean it seems ridiculous.
20:03 There's only one way it works.
20:06 Yes, because it was a symbol, it was a type,
20:08 it was an illustration to those people of the fact
20:11 that Jesus Himself was going to provide the antidote.
20:14 And He was going to be placed on the cross.
20:18 It was all the matter of faith. Yes.
20:20 Those who didn't have faith refused to look.
20:23 But those who believed what God said
20:26 and knew that that was only remedy
20:28 to be healed and not die.
20:30 Yes.
20:31 They looked and they were healed.
20:33 It's amazing how many, how so many refused to look
20:37 when others were looked and lived.
20:39 Yeah, that's the perverseness of human nature, isn't it?
20:44 And the great illustration and the reason
20:46 why Jesus here is alluding to the story again
20:49 in talking to Nicodemus.
20:50 Remember this is...
20:52 He's still having a discussion with Nicodemus
20:53 what He's talking here.
20:54 Yes.
20:56 And He's saying to Nicodemus,
20:57 who would have been very, very familiar,
20:59 very familiar with the history of this.
21:03 He knew instantly as soon as Jesus talked
21:05 about as the serpent
21:07 was lifted up in the wilderness.
21:08 He knew the story.
21:09 He knew the story, absolutely.
21:11 And He now was bringing the lesson
21:15 that Nicodemus had overlooked and hadn't understood.
21:20 That it wasn't just a history lesson
21:22 as to something that happened way, way back,
21:24 a 1,000 or so years ago.
21:26 But rather this was a great lesson to teach us
21:29 that Jesus was to be lifted up.
21:31 And the venom of sin was to be taken away
21:36 by us looking by faith at what Jesus had done.
21:41 Because I think it's in Corinthians,
21:45 where it says that Christ was made to be sinned for us.
21:51 In other words,
21:52 He took upon Himself our guilt and our sin,
21:59 and if we accept Him, His life instead of mine,
22:05 then I gain eternal life.
22:08 You see, when it says here that when,
22:11 as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
22:13 even Son of man be lifted up that whosoever believes in Him.
22:18 Right.
22:19 And that's pointing
22:20 to the serpent in the wilderness,
22:23 it was all about faith,
22:24 believe in what God was giving us as an antidote.
22:30 But when Nicodemus saw Jesus lifted up on the cross,
22:34 this would have all come back to him.
22:37 Even so must the Son of man be lifted up on a cross,
22:41 like that serpent.
22:43 And his faith, he would have just said,
22:45 "I get it, I understand."
22:48 Because our next confrontation with Nicodemus
22:52 is probably at the cross.
22:54 Now, I recognize that the Bible doesn't actually tell us
22:58 that Nicodemus was at the cross,
23:00 but you cannot have that event take place in Jerusalem
23:04 as it did without Nicodemus being aware of it.
23:07 Well, Nicodemus was there
23:09 and he bought expensive spices and alloys
23:15 to anoint Jesus body with Joseph of Arimathea,
23:19 so that's in John Chapter 19.
23:22 So obviously he must have been there at the cross
23:25 and seen this and helped to take Jesus body down
23:29 and anoint His body for burial.
23:30 Well, I think for the first time in his mind,
23:33 he really now understood what the Sanhedrin was up to.
23:39 He realize what they are about,
23:41 because when he went to Joseph of Arimathea,
23:45 he had heard that the plan was
23:49 that the Jews were going to through the body of Jesus
23:52 on the Gehenna, the heap of the...
23:55 The rubbish tip of Gehenna.
23:58 And so he went to Joseph of Arimathea and said,
24:00 "Joseph, what can we do?"
24:02 And Joseph said,
24:04 "Well, I've got a beautiful tomb
24:05 and I'm gonna give that to Him."
24:06 And Nicodemus said,
24:08 "Well, I've got all these beautiful spices.
24:10 And..." Expensive.
24:12 A very expensive,
24:13 "and I'm going to anoint the body of Jesus."
24:15 And so it was the cross really
24:18 that finally helped Nicodemus
24:22 to fully understand what Christ came to do.
24:26 That's right.
24:27 And that's why from this point onwards
24:29 he became one of His most loyal servants.
24:33 In fact, tradition tells us too,
24:35 Rosemary, that Nicodemus became very poor
24:40 and his daughter, we're told
24:43 was actually talking barley seeds
24:46 from the hooves of horses to eat.
24:49 That's how poor they became.
24:51 So he gave everything... Everything.
24:53 To the cause of Christ,
24:55 and it was men like Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus
25:00 who helped to with their wealth and so forth
25:02 was propelled the message of God.
25:04 And God uses men, that's why riches,
25:08 nothing wrong with riches but...
25:10 How do we use them?
25:11 It's the way we use.
25:12 And that's why I just love that hymn, you know,
25:16 well, that verse that Isaac Watts,
25:19 the great hymn writer wrote when he said,
25:25 "When I survey the wondrous cross
25:30 on which the Prince of glory died,
25:35 my richest gain I count but loss,
25:41 and pour contempt on all my pride."
25:47 And then the other verse he writes,"
25:49 Were the whole realm of nature mine,
25:53 that were a present far too small,
25:57 love so amazing, so divine,
26:02 demands my soul, my life, my all."
26:09 What a wonderful hymn that is, that man Isaac Watts
26:13 encapsulated the very truth of the gospel
26:17 and the love that Christ has for us
26:20 in giving us the opportunity of eternal life
26:22 that Christ took my place.
26:26 And as I look to him today and as I confess my sins
26:30 and I'm born again.
26:32 And I have forgiveness of sin
26:34 and then on top of forgiveness of sin,
26:36 God wants to change my life.
26:39 So that I want to do that which God wants me to do.
26:43 And that's where he demands our soul, our life out, all.
26:48 Nicodemus gave everything in the long run for Jesus.
26:51 Yes.
26:52 Because he came to see Him lifted up on that cross
26:55 and believed that He was who He said He was.
26:58 Yes.
26:59 And as we read the Word of God
27:01 and especially as we read about Jesus on the cross
27:04 and His death and His resurrection,
27:07 we also can come to believe.
27:09 Yes.
27:10 Well I would like to encourage all our listeners today,
27:13 Rosemary, to offer a silent prayer to God,
27:18 to thank Him again for the cross of Christ.
27:21 Because without the cross we are hopeless,
27:27 and as He said to Nicodemus as Christ,
27:29 as Moses lifted up a serpent, so he was to be lifted up.
27:33 That's right.
27:34 And the challenge for us is that we do this every day.
27:38 Our take home message is,
27:40 "You must be born again," Jesus said.
27:43 And read the Bible, find out who Jesus is
27:47 and let Him come into your heart
27:49 so that He can remake you.
27:51 Thank you for joining us and we will see you next time.


Home

Revised 2019-10-14