Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Jesus' Prophetic Statement
Nov 18th, 2007
Weekly Bible StudyHugh Davidson
Categories: Commentary;Book Study;Inspirational

John 3:1-7 “There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”

The scripture tells us Nicodemas came to see Jesus at night and we aren’t sure why he did but maybe it was because that was when the rabbi’s studied the law or maybe because Jesus was surrounded by people all day long or simply because a man of his social standing might have been concerned about his soul but he was also concerned about his reputation and he certainly didn’t want any of his friends in the Sanhedrin jumping to conclusions.

So, considering both his social and intellectual background and Jesus’ lack of credentials it’s rather surprising that he came to see Jesus at all. I mean, Jesus had no formal training and He certainly had no accreditation from the Sanhedrin but when Nicodemas had approached Him he said two things, first, he called Jesus a teacher and then second, he said it was obvious that He had come from God because of the miracles He had performed. In essence, he was saying, I believe what I hear and it’s confirmed by what I see. So, I think we can assume that he heard Jesus teach about the kingdom of God, he saw Him perform miracles and then watched as He had cleansed the temple with a whip and now he was saying, I can’t help but be impressed by everything I saw and now I want to ask your opinion about the kingdom of God.

And what we have to understand here: this is like the head of the religion department at a well known university asking a pastor with limited education for spiritual advice. So, it’s surprising that he came to Jesus at all. And then, I want you to see how Jesus responds to him because this is the pattern we see several times in John’s gospel. The enquirer asks a question then Jesus responds in a way that’s hard to understand and then He adds a more difficult saying and then explains what He means. The purpose of His response is to get the one asking the question to think through Jesus’ answers and come to the proper conclusion.

Jesus says, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” To see the kingdom is to participate in it. In Luke 16:23 we see that part of the suffering of those in hell is that they can see the kingdom of heaven but they can’t enjoy it. And by His statements both here and in the book of Luke Jesus divides the human race into two categories. There are those who are born again and those who are not. There’s the saved and the lost. There’s no waiting room and no purgatory. It has nothing to do with your denomination or doctrinal position but whether or not we have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

The idea of a spiritual rebirth runs all the way through the New Testament. Peter speaks of being born anew by God’s great mercy in I Peter 1:3 and down in verses 22 and 23 he talks about being born anew not of perishable seed but of imperishable. James speaks of God bringing us forth by the word of truth in 1:18 and in Titus 3:5 we have the washing of regeneration. And then Paul speaks of the believer dying with Christ and being raised anew in Romans 6 and in Galatians 6:15 we’re told that in Christ we are a new creation. So, being born again was a common term as far as the scriptures were concerned. And it simply means we have to repent or turn from our sin and accept God’s forgiveness based on the work of Jesus Christ on Calvary’s cross.

And yet, people make so many flimsy excuses to exempt themselves from being born again. They say things like, I did my best and now God is just going to have to accept it. Or my parents weren’t believers so I never had any spiritual background or encouragement. Or they even blame their spiritual condition on someone else like the man who said, the pastor of my church was unfaithful to his wife so I had such a poor example. There are probably as many excuses as there are people but Jesus said, “You must be born again.” It’s like telling a drowning man, you must breathe. The word, ‘must’ is an imperative, there’s no choice and no other option.

It must have been difficult for Nicodemas to hear that for all his success in the religious world, his attempts at pleasing God were a waste of time but even though he had done his best, his best was not good enough. You see Isaiah 64:6 reminds us, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” In other words, in our unsaved state there is absolutely nothing that makes us acceptable or attractive to God.

I heard a story about a young Arab who was riding his donkey down a road when he saw a sparrow lying on its back with its feet up in the air. At first he thought the bird was dead but as he looked a little closer he noticed he was very much alive. He bent over and asked, “Are you alright?” And the bird said, “I’m fine, thank you.” The Arab said, “Well, what are you doing lying on your back with your feet pointing toward the sky?” And the bird said, “Haven’t you heard the rumor? The sky is going to fall on our heads.” So, if it does the boy asked, “Do you really think you can hold it up with those two scrawny legs?” And the bird said, “One does the best one can.”

Well, in spite of doing the best he could, Jesus was telling Nicodemas as He tells the rest of us doing your best is a waste of time because we all need to be born again.